tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post4877306440240704555..comments2009-07-19T13:52:58.979-05:00God's Not Finished With Us Yethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521680021323003843noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post-16573472416456701252009-07-19T13:52:58.979-05:002009-07-19T13:52:58.979-05:00Thank you all for your wonderful encouraging words, unlighting comments, suggestions, ideas, input and more importantly your prayers. You are all such amazing friends and I love you all so much through Jesus!<br /><br />~Your friend in Christ,<br />SarahGod's Not Finished With Us Yet...http://www.blogger.com/profile/17521680021323003843noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post-91222375002848286552009-07-16T16:25:58.109-05:002009-07-16T16:25:58.109-05:00I don&#39;t have time to read all the other comments, but girl I&#39;ve been there. This heat is getting to all of us!<br />Do your family a favor and take the kids to mother&#39;s day out or something and enjoy a day on the town. You&#39;ll be a better wife and mother if you do.<br />And as far as you and hubby missing prayer time--that happens. But it doesn&#39;t have to be the end of you. You keep on praying even if you have to do it with the kids or by yourself. Pray for hubby while you&#39;re at it. Maybe he needs some vacation time away from his daily grind too.<br />I&#39;ll say a prayer for you to get some time away from the grind and you can pray for me &amp; my hubby. We&#39;ve been on a LONG &quot;vacation&quot; and need to be going back to work--so pray God provide the job for us to do. Thanks little sis. Hang in there.Talkin' Texanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00537591041005129720noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post-34282420835396929102009-07-14T21:01:03.545-05:002009-07-14T21:01:03.545-05:00Oh, it&#39;s ok to say no to helping at church and playing the part of Mary over Martha. :)Ediehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11154092288646304188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post-61210463518205438422009-07-14T21:00:06.179-05:002009-07-14T21:00:06.179-05:00Just prayed for you Sarah. Focus on Christ and then your husband. God will pull it all together. Blogging can wait and your bloggy friends aren&#39;t going away. We&#39;ll still be here. Your relationship with Jesus and your family is far more important than blogging.<br /><br />Much love to you!Ediehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11154092288646304188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post-58011080487281501342009-07-14T19:18:32.873-05:002009-07-14T19:18:32.873-05:00I felt like I was reading something I wrote. I have so been there, many a time. Please, please, please say no to helping with the kids. You need to be in the service hearing what God wants to tell you right now. I know it&#39;s hard to say no, I have a REALLY HARD TIME telling people no, but you must when you know it is what God would have you to do. God needs us to be spiritually feed, and the best way to do that is by reading His word, and hearing it preached. I go to church 3 times a week, and if I miss one service, I can tell a change in my attitude and outlook on life. Just tell them you are sorry, but you need to be in the service for a while. At our church, we finally cut the nursery down to just Sunday morning, the rest of the time kids are in the service with mom and dad no matter what the age. If they start to get disruptive, one of the parents takes them out for a while to calm them down and then brings them back in. I thought this was insane at first, but I have 4 kids from 2 to 9, and we deal just fine, and I don&#39;t miss a single service, and no one misses one while watching my kids in the nursery.<br /><br />I went through a time like that with my husband, and I hate to say it, but I found it was majorily my fault. Although he had his own fault in it, a lot of it was a reaction to my attitude and things I said. You have to let him be the leader in the discipline or you are doing your children and your family a huge injustice. Just pray for God to give him wisdom in how to discipline, and NEVER undermine him in front of the kids. I promise you, it would be better for him to call them names, and you tell him about your disapointment later, then it would be for you to undermine him in front of them. I know, it&#39;s hard, I&#39;ve gone through the same thing, but I can tell you from our own family, that my children behave much better now, and my hubby is getting better at his descision making every day.<br /><br />Oh, I feel for you. There&#39;s so much I want to say, but this is just supposed to be a comment. If you ever feel led to talk, just e-mail me...please! kristilea2982@yahoo.com<br />I&#39;ll be praying for you and your family.kristileahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04496862944227818273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post-13724626934056954312009-07-14T12:34:48.833-05:002009-07-14T12:34:48.833-05:00Hopefully, you will be checking back and see this, Sarah. My post for today (Tuesday, July 14th) speaks to this issue so much.<br /><br />There is a sort of happy medium here, for there is a REAL need for adult communication and you DO deserve to be beside fellow worshippers!<br /><br />When Michael and I &#39;skip&#39; praying together, we feel it in our realtionship, so even some small prayers can help...God always reaches His Hand out to us, so we should be able to be the first to reach our hand out to a loved one to pray.<br /><br />Will be keeping you in prayer, Sarah!<br /><br />blessings and hugs,<br /><br />marcyBlessings each dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08253526265578804769noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post-3757894442716750292009-07-14T00:06:57.454-05:002009-07-14T00:06:57.454-05:00I love you sweet Sarah! I&#39;m glad that I poked my head in to see you. My prayers are being said for all that you have posted here dear one. You are a blessing to me. Take all the time that you need, be still and listen to Him. He will give you all of the answers precious one. He will.<br /><br />Love, Blessings, Peace &amp; ((((Big Hugs))),<br />AlleluiabelleAlleluiabellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15737663459139575676noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post-80977117672348406252009-07-13T03:35:48.741-05:002009-07-13T03:35:48.741-05:00Hi Sarah,<br />Was praying for your marriage relationship just this morning, so hang in there, my friend. And you know, if you had a dollar for every mother with small children who felt trapped in their house, by circumstances, you&#39;d be rich. I remember my wife saying the same kind of things. Extremely busy kids, hard to take them shopping because they want to buy everything they see, running crazily all over the shopping centre. And at home, &quot;They never listen to me!&quot; And always demanding your attention, etc.<br />These days feel eternal and never ending, but the days add up and the kids mature eventually. <br />Anyways, spend some time every day waiting on Jesus, not trying to achieve anything, just being with Him, soaking in His presence and love for you. <br />Don&#39;t hesitate to say &#39;no&#39; when you go to church. Tell them you need a rest, to be ministered to, they can&#39;t pressure you then.<br />As to a blogvacation - go for it. Spend some quality time with hubby. Watch TV or a movie together, make his and your fav TV snacks - have some snuggling time.<br />God blessPeter Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04896115247438514660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post-81499517796586430012009-07-12T17:26:08.218-05:002009-07-12T17:26:08.218-05:00Sigh. Been there, *hugs* and prayers xxxmummyof5monstershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11319693474438011698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post-50695983389782496832009-07-12T15:03:59.117-05:002009-07-12T15:03:59.117-05:00I agree with the others. You need to take some time and regroup. Spending time with God and let Him do the rest. He wants us to talk to Him, to let Him help us stay on track with Him, our family and our church. <br /><br />I am in an even different season of my life than the lady with children in college. I have grandchildren, I&#39;ve had to quit work because of health issues, quit driving because of the health issues, depend on my husband for everything. Doing the blogging has been great for me but even I get tired sometimes and just have to take some time away. For a while after my last surgery in 2007 my husband and I both quit going to church, but that&#39;s a whole different story. We are back now but I still can&#39;t do the things I use to do. I don&#39;t even cook. My husband does most of it. I do fix my breakfast and lunch. I am probably where you are right now and I don&#39;t have any particular obligations. Don&#39;t feel guilty in saying &quot;no&quot;, it&#39;s better to be in church. <br /><br />I have grown closer to God and my faith is stronger probably because of the things I&#39;ve been through.<br /><br />Will be praying for you. God has the answer for ALL your problems, let Him have control for a while.<br />God bless you and don&#39;t feel guilty for what your feeling. Truth be known we&#39;ve all been where you are.<br />From my heart to yours,<br />AliceE.From the Hearthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06612517670775886165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post-5780882568120101412009-07-12T09:40:40.491-05:002009-07-12T09:40:40.491-05:00Sarah, You ae certainly in my prayers and God surely listens. I must say that I feel that you are very blessed with what you do have and the Lord has put many precious things into your life. Start by counting them and thanking God for them, then ask Him to use you. Show you His purposes and plans for you, and to bring the people and you together for those purposes. My wife experienced the same &quot;isolation&quot; as a young mother and desired the interaction of other adult women daily, as raising two small boys at home produced the same scenario that you describe. Talking with children all day long creates a longing to talk to an adult on the same level. This is natural. Never regrete your role as mother and wife because it is the &quot;most important&quot; job in the world. God designed it. Seek and find others young mothers or old girlfriends to talk to and interact with, to fill the void that you. I like your idea on the other young mothers at church getting together for prayer and fellowship. Seek other places and ways to meet up with women your age also. Please go to church though. We were created to worship and praise God in assembly of the fellow Believers. You need that. Don&#39;t fear the church babysitting requests ... just say &quot;no, you need to be in the worship service now&quot;. Know that the Lord is with you. He will hear your prayers and guide your steps. But you must align your life with Christ. Read John 10. Jesus is the Good Shepherd and came to give you life and have it to the full. Listen to his voice, hear His voice, know His voice in your life and follow Him who loves you and laid His life down for you. Verses 27-30 says: My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father&#39;s hand. I and the Father are one.&quot; Wow! God bless you. BrianBrian Ray Toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01242157834688837290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post-12741257352300300032009-07-12T08:44:30.713-05:002009-07-12T08:44:30.713-05:00Sarah-I am sorry to hear about the difficulty you are having. I think sometimes things steam roll-You need some adult interaction and a little break, so you can have more energy for the kids. It&#39;s necessary and as much as we all love being able to be with our kids, and I know wouldn&#39;t change that, we need adult time. I think it is perfectly ok to say to the children&#39;s ministry you would like to spend this one day with the adults, spirtually you need it. Perhaps you and your husband need a night out? Just time for the two of you. We all need that and it will probably be great for both of you. I know it can be hard being pulled in so many directions! I am thinking of you!<br /><br />On another note, can you give me the direct link to your toddlercraft entry? It is coming up as your main url, I want to be able to link directly so that people can see it? Your entry was for the 5-8 group? Right?Toddler Craft Onnahttp://toddlercraft.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post-29432011310528268262009-07-12T07:02:33.565-05:002009-07-12T07:02:33.565-05:00Sarah - first HUGS!<br /><br />Second, God will RESTORE your marriage, your joy, your laughter and all that is being robbed from your life! He is the GOD of resurrections! <br /><br />Just lay it all down at His feet and don&#39;t have any expectation of what your husband must do. <br /><br />We must come to Him alone and be what He wants us to be first in our marriage and how to raise our children!<br /><br />We must come to Him broken and ready to do His will and not with any idea of how it must be done or look like!<br /><br />We must come to Him wanting to be what our husband needs!<br /><br />This is a season - and with 8 children and so many little ones my job is to be here in this house almost 24/7 without any fellowship of those in the community. I have learned to rely on God and Him alone for this season. It is right where He wants me to be now. <br /><br />It will all change and one day I will be sitting side by side with others who are living their lives for Him too.<br /><br />This year we are joining a home school program called Classical Conversations. I HIGHLY recommend every one of your readers look into it! It is going to get me out with other Mom&#39;s once a week while helping me teach our children God&#39;s way for them in schooling and we can&#39;t wait!<br /><br />I&#39;m going to be writing about it on my homeschooling blog this week!<br /><br />Hugs and prayers - take a break and put what He wants in top priority first - listen to Him! You will NOT be sorry you did!<br /><br />JillBlessed Mom of 8http://www.blogger.com/profile/17247824698674815568noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post-9702250068664092392009-07-12T06:52:02.674-05:002009-07-12T06:52:02.674-05:00I know the feeling. There are seasons for everything. To say &quot;No&quot; is okay. It may be time for God to use you in a different area of ministry.<br /><br />I used to work with children and to be honest, it wasn&#39;t that thrilling. I think it was because I was with my child everyday and on Sunday I wanted to be in the service. Some may call that selfish, but I believe God wanted me to minister to women.<br /><br />Don&#39;t let the enemy keep you for church.<br /><br />Now I teach bible study on Sundays and Wednesdays (to women) and I love it. <br /><br />It use to upset me that my husband and I didn&#39;t pray together. It wasn&#39;t until I heard our former pastor say that his wife and him like having their time with God separate. Boy, did I need to hear that!<br />So when there&#39;s a strong need to pray together, I will ask my husband to join me.Tammyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15204911845335416211noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post-39354108314359245272009-07-12T02:24:11.822-05:002009-07-12T02:24:11.822-05:00*hugs* Go ahead and cry. It will be ok hon. Don&#39;t be afraid to tell thos ewomen that you just need to spend some time in church and not watch the babies today. Good luck!JosiahsMommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09802757712246232732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post-38081982910908312722009-07-11T23:20:22.362-05:002009-07-11T23:20:22.362-05:00Been there, been there, been there!<br /><br />You are in the thick of it right now and need to be creative and find ways for you to have a breaks. Breaks with your freinds, breaks with your husband, breaks with your children and breaks to be by yourself and be still with God. I finally had to put my foot down as far as helping in the children&#39;s ministry when mine were younger at church. This was extremely hard since we attend such a small and needy church. I also joined a MOPS group and that was a wonderful outlet for me until I was pulled into being a small group leader, then craft leader and then one of the speakers. I finally just learned to say no and not feel guilty about it any more. My main job was daughter to my King, wife to my husband and mother of my children and if there is time for more then so be it. You have to learn to take care of you or there will end up being no you, no marriage and no family. Sounds like you are close to burn out. You need a friend to go out and have a cup of coffee with, see a movie with or just fellowship with. Once I learned how to take care of me everyone else around me became happy again. <br /><br />Blessings on ya =O)<br />My twins are now in college and I am in a whole new season of life teaching full time and helping set up the children&#39;s ministry at our church. It is important for us all to beware of the seasons in our lives.Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17096389196788427153noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post-31707677163413398262009-07-11T22:43:07.971-05:002009-07-11T22:43:07.971-05:00I can totally relate--since I had the twins, I&#39;m asked to work in the nursery more often than not, and I need to be in worship with grownups, not have to stop and wipe a snotty nose or keep another kid from throwing a toy! You need to take care of you and your need to worship, too. I&#39;m sure they will understand if you explain that--limit yourself to 2 services per month working with the kids in the back. <br /><br />Since I am a SAHM like you, if I don&#39;t watch myself, I&#39;ll resent my hubby for being able to leave on Monday morning....leave the crying and the poopy diapers and disobedience. Hubby and I started doing the Love Dare two weeks ago and taking it seriously, and it&#39;s been helping. I SO know where your feelings are coming from, and I&#39;m here if you need me!Jenniferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01154350786925948762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post-36012448812560077882009-07-11T21:29:02.964-05:002009-07-11T21:29:02.964-05:00Oh Sarah...I have been there. I will be praying for you.<br />Hugs,<br />MimiHe &amp; Me + 3http://www.blogger.com/profile/03692972824923390203noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post-11506923605653176292009-07-11T20:42:39.973-05:002009-07-11T20:42:39.973-05:00I&#39;m praying for you guys.<br /><br />Have you considered calling some of the other SAHMs at your church--even if you don&#39;t know them well--and asking if they would like to meet at a nearby park for a playdate? If you could arrange something like this even only once a month or so it might be helpful. <br /><br />Certainly I would not feel bad about saying no to the church nursery if you feel you need to be in the service. You have to take care of yourself before you can take care of others. <br /><br />I take blog-cations from time to time whenever I feel like I&#39;ve let my housework slip a little too much. Once I get caught up, I go back online, but staying off until I get some certain task accomplished helps me work faster. :)Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10742851668841481063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post-88813986306322156912009-07-11T20:24:26.182-05:002009-07-11T20:24:26.182-05:00Hey Sarah<br />Sorry you&#39;re so stressed and I will keep you in my prayers.<br />Love yaPttyannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16536523220241689933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4870708693431618625.post-55562920556001666452009-07-11T20:07:21.356-05:002009-07-11T20:07:21.356-05:00Prayers for you, Sarah. Everyone deserves a vacation every now and then.Billy Coffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08988347213957444145noreply@blogger.com