You could, right this minute, help change an orphan’s life forever…keep reading to find out how.

Our friends, who have adopted three African/African-American children, have, as a result, had a whole new world open up for them as they care for children, with no expectations, in their path, for as short or as long a time as they are needed…a simple, organic, caring for the fatherless. Their simple obedience inspires.

The Wintons recently released the wonderful movie, Rescued, a heart-warming, convicting documentary that challenges believers to really put their faith in action. Go watch the trailer now!

“Not everyone is called to adopt”, Valenti said, “but everyone is called to care, in some way, for the fatherless.”

It is not difficult to find such opportunities. As more and more families seek to rescue an orphan into God’s marvelous light, demonstrating the most basic story of the cross and redemption, many of them desperately need our help. If we aren’t adopting, couldn’t we at least help someone adopt?

Right after I previewed the movie, Rescued, which I recommend everyone see, I “met” Angel Daniels. Her family is trying to reach their adoption goal to rescue a little boy or girl and, spreading the word on the Internet, they are hoping to reach their goal. If everyone gave as little as $5.–.so little to us and so big to them–it could mean the difference in a child’s life for eternity.

You can read here about why the Daniels are adopting and then pray and ask the Lord is He would have you help this family.

“Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” James 1:27

Help the Daniels now!

Kathy, Robin and I have talked about hosting a blog conference for the last few years but the timing never worked out…until now! Will you make plans to join us?

As Christian women our purpose is to live a life that will bring glory to God and pass that legacy on to the next generation. We are seeing a new awareness of the importance of home in the church and society , the return of women to build that home, kindled by a passion for loving Christ and transmitting that love to the next generation, and we are thrilled to join in that reformation!

We want to hold up the arms of women everywhere, encourage them in the trenches of ”my-life-for-yours” living, and give them a renewed commitment to forsake what the world esteems and embrace a life-work that will last for eternity!

• The conference will include eight sessions, complete with question and answer time on  Saturday.

• Come be encouraged and equipped to pass on a lasting legacy for God’s glory.

• There will be wonderful legacy-building resources given away all day long and lots of ‘girlie treats’!

• Lunch and supper are included in the registration fee.

• You won’t want to miss the vendor area, featuring different home industries, books and products. If you would like to be a vendor email me for more information!

• We are honored to have a very special guest speaker, Sherry Lee, the widow of Tom Lee, and the mother of 13 children.  Sherry is well known for her kind and gentle spirit, and  is truly a mother whose children rise up and call her blessed.  The Lord took Tom’s life and their home during the Alabama Tornado in April of 2011. Sherry and the children are truly living out Tom’s legacy to the glory of God.

• Four of our daughters will share how they are carrying on their family’s legacy for God’s glory.

Conference Topics

The Heart of Hospitality -  How to Disciple the Nations One Home at a Time, Kathy Brodock

The Industrious Home – How to Teach a Good Work Ethic Through Daily Chores and Home Business, Kathy Brodock

You Can’t Afford Not to Come Home -How to Make the Most of Your Money on One Income, Kelly Crawford

God’s Heart Toward Children- The Counter-Culture Truth That Changes Our Parenting, Kelly Crawford

Children Who Impact the Culture -How to Train Your Children Thoughtfully and Intentionally for the Glory of God, Robin White

Celebrating Motherhood through Adoption, Reversals and Foster Care, Robin White

Daughters of Legacy-  Four of our daughters will share how they are living out their legacy for God’s glory as they serve and work from home.

”Leegacy” -  Sherry Lee, mother of 13, will share about the loss of her husband and home during the April 2011 tornado and how she is pressing forward with the family’s legacy.

There will be a question and answer time after each session.

Conference Speakers

Conference Registration

Conference Vendors

Conference Location

Conference Topics

I would be such a delight to get to meet you! Come if you can and spread the word!

Grab a badge!

<a href=”http://livingalegacyconference.com/”><img src=”https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-aDPP1KtgoM8/Ty2cGDIcz4I/AAAAAAAADuA/4OKO4eR_UGM/s150/ll-badgd.jpg”

“Should the Lord give you the good gift of a husband or wife, and I hope He does, there are a few things I want you to know. Things that you may not hear from anyone else, and certainly not on TV or other media. Sadly, your church may not even tell you.”  Read the rest.

A man approaching retirement called the retirement office to inquire about his pension. Afterward, he was asked if his wife worked.

“She’s worked all her life making me happy”, he replied. “Yes sir, but has she earned money to receive her pension?” “When we got married we agreed on an arrangement”, he said. “I would earn the living, and she would make the living worthwhile”.

“Make the living worthwhile”…have we forgotten the very essence of that?  Have we forgotten to live for someone else, that doing so IS what makes a living worthwhile?

The Lord has really been working in my heart a lot lately about my role as a wife.  If I could sum up what I believe makes a happy, time-proof marriage, it would be this:

Live to make your spouse’s life better.

Our natural response may be…“why should I do that when he doesn’t do that for me?”

And we are so unwilling to take our eyes off of his faults, look at our own shortcomings, and realize we may be a large part of the reason he doesn’t respond to us the way we think he should.

My duty as a wife, and more importantly as a Christian is to be a “living sacrifice”, not as concerned with what I’m getting, than what I can give.

Do you want a joyful home?  Be joyful.

Do you want a tender husband?  Be tender.

Work on becoming the woman with whom your husband feels MOST secure–even with his greatest weaknesses (boy that’s a hard one!)

He has the whole world to make him feel inadequate, tired, unaccomplished or weak.

If he has one place to go, one person who will guard his reputation, his feelings, his manhood, one person who will make his living worthwhile, that man will run to that place…to that person…he will cherish it and will never leave.

Jenny @ A Mother’s Heritage, a delightful, encouraging spot for wives and mothers, is offering a huge giveaway in celebration of her one-year blog anniversary! Jump over right now to enter to win a number of great prizes and receive special discounts from her sponsors…but hurry, the giveaway ends tonight (Saturday)!

There are 9 great prizes to be won, including a $50 gift certificate from Fruitful Vine Creations, a custom, vinyl lettering company.

It is a blessing to me that all of us, as an on-line community, can help encourage and build the Lord’s kingdom, simply by sharing with other women the counsel, inspiration and practical advice we have found to be helpful. Join me in spreading the word…you never know how another woman’s life could be changed.

“I want to be like Him.”

That is what a Christian is, right? A “follower of Christ”…one who has devoted his life to “becoming like Him”?

All the while we seek the easier virtues, the more visible ones.

Joy: we can be joyful. Bold: we can be bold. Different: we can be different. Zealous: oh yes.

And while Christ was all these things, they did not define Him. What defined Him was the one crowning virtue from which all others spring forth….

Humility.

(Am I like Him?)

But not humility as in some posture before the throne, some temporary form during prayer and worship…

“True humility is to be made of no reputation…it is in our most unguarded moments that we truly show who we are and what we are made of. To know a truly humble person, you must follow that one in the common course of daily life.” -Andrew Murray, Humility

I am pierced to the heart as I measure my love for Him.

“It is a solemn thought that our love for God is measured by our everyday relationships with others. Except as its validity is proven in standing the test of daily life with our fellowmen, our love for God may be found to be a delusion.” -Andrew Murray, Humility

I am broken as I recount yesterday’s harsh words…an “invitation” to wrath, a lack of longsuffering with these little, gangling sheep in my care.

(Am I like Him?)

“It is in our relationships with one another, in our treatment of each other, that true lowliness of mind and a heart of humility are seen.” -Andrew Murray, Humility

If I am a Christian–one desiring to follow Christ–I must make it my FIRST aim to become “nothing”, empty, so that He can fill me with His spirit…a spirit of meekness and humility. It is only when I know that I am nothing, that I can esteem others better than myself.

“Let this mind be in you…”

If I strive for anything in this life, it must be a giving up of my own will to be conformed to His image. It is the only true mark of a disciple.

“Humility is the only soil in which virtue takes root; a lack of humility is the explanation of every defect and failure. Humility is not so much a virtue along with the others, but is the root of all, because it alone takes the right attitude before God and allows Him, as God, to do all.” -Andrew Murray, Humility

“That the Lord desires to rule in the hearts of His children because it brings them LIFE is a fact to be reckoned with.  But He will not barge in and take control.  He wants submission to the authority of His lordship.  And those who refuse that submission will self-destruct by the very nature of God and the laws He set forth from Creation.”

(Photo by Bria, courtesy of Robin @ Celebrating Motherhood)

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” (John Lennon)

Is it possible, in this noisiest-of-ever-century, that we hardly ever hear, hardly ever see anything much?

Have you ever noticed your world when the power goes off? It’s not just that you can’t check you  email…it’s a deafening silence that might drive some crazy if it lasted long enough. All the hums and quiet roars are dead, and we are left with much less–or is it more?

I think if we don’t live on purpose, we won’t live at all. If we don’t see through the daily whir, and hear through the daily buzz, we might just miss the life we were intended to live.

If you’ve lived very long, you know that life isn’t that long. Can we say as someone did,

“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.”

It’s not hard, really. It’s not “sky-diving and Rocky-mountain climbing”…

It’s another warm hug today.

It’s stopping, looking up, smiling, listening, being in the moment fully.

It’s choosing to cast a gentle glance in the direction of one you love, rather than a day-worn scowl.

A walk outside, closing your eyes, and raising your face to the warmth of an autumn sky.

Saying out loud to your children…”Isn’t this world glorious–the one our Lord created?”

Curling up to read Dr. Seuss again, ending with a tickle.

Noticing the forlorn look in your daughter’s eye and being willing to stop your day to draw it out.

Speaking words of life into someone’s heart, taking time to really hear what they are saying, instead of what you are going to say when they’re done.

All these smallish things, woven together over a lifetime…that makes a life well-lived.

Live deliberately if at all.

If we could pin point just one place where more erosion to our society has occurred, it is without a doubt the HOME. Broken marriages–the home. Troubled children–the home. Redefining of traditional family life–the home. Women broken and searching for their own worth–the home.

The home is a concentrated point of attack from an enemy who seeks to steal, kill and destroy.

In battle, a known point of attack would be heavily fortified and guarded. I find it no coincidence that “keeper” as in “teach them to be keepers at home” from Titus 2, is translated from a Greek word meaning “to guard”.

Sadly, our enemy has done a stellar job at offering all the right decoys, blinding us to the very NEED to defend home.

We are warriors in the greatest, spiritual sense. Fighting for our homes, our marriages, our children and our own integrity as women of God.

This isn’t about “well, good for you but I’m not made for that sort of thing…it’s not my calling”.

If we have homes, we are called. But we are not called to go at it alone! God has always called the weak and the incapable and then when they admitted, “I can’t do this!“, He replies, “I will go before you…my strength is made perfect in weakness”.

Part of the fighting will be against the battle that rages within us. We can’t give up. Here’s what we do:

• Prepare for the attacks, knowing they are an expected part of life, whatever form they may take.

• Stay mentally alert to the task. We guard, we fortify, we nurture, we restore, we prepare soldiers, we hold up the arms of our commander-in-chief…we do A LOT in a day. Throwing every ounce of energy into that is not wasted time. Anything less, and we won’t have enough resources to guard properly.

• Get up and do it again. Every single one of us has those days where the task feels too hard. Giving up is not an option. We divert the enemy. We change pace, change scenery, change tactics. Then we get on our knees and utilize the power God offers to us. We spend some time in God’s Word, meditate on truth and get ready to do it again the next day.

We ARE called. We are called to fight, defend, guard and build our homes. To build a legacy that will continue beyond us.

The question is, will we answer?

“His master said, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant’..”

Why is it so hard to find? “I’ll be happy when…”

Because contentment, the thing we’re really wanting, is NOT found in our circumstances. Happiness is not a better something, more of something, or a different something. We immerse ourselves in the search for that “something” that doesn’t exist to make us happy.

Happiness is finding peace wherever we are.

We tend to view hardship, loss and waiting as surprising elements of life. We avoid them at all cost (this is natural, of course) and maintain that we could never find happiness there.

The reality is that hardship, loss and waiting are every much a part of life as prosperity, gain and “arriving”.

Life is made up of all these things and contentment is found when we rest in His knowing, His love and His goodness in ordaining whatever comes to pass.

I’m writing this to myself, learning hard–in this place–what true contentment is. It feels like I could be really content when there is more quiet spaces in our home, more room to put our clothes, more shelves for organizing our things, more sleep, more security for my husband’s future work, more counter space on which to cook…

My storm really began after the tornado. The battle for inner calm amid chaos and uncertainty. It brews even now, in the daily challenges to keep this home, to solve the dilemmas waiting each morning, to find contentment in the world that defied my best efforts to keep it constant and unchanging.

And then we all lose perspective, don’t we? Our “problems” so petty compared to others’.

Life is changing. Life is sometimes good and sometimes not. God loves us all the same and promises, not to orchestrate each detail to make us more comfortable, but to be sufficient in every place.

Learning from a tubless bathroom shared by eleven people