The Importance of Being Your Spouse’s Prayer Warrior (and a free printable prayer calendar)

It was just over one year ago that the Lord began working in my heart about praying earnestly for my husband.  Our life had begun to seemingly crumble around us as we learned of a major unexpected ministry change that would be taking place. Hard times were ahead- we could just feel it. As my husband came home each day and shared his burdens with me, the Lord seemed to impress on my heart that I could do more to support my husband. I could do the one thing that mattered the most- one that would have a lasting impact. I could pray.

You may be thinking, “Didn't you pray for your husband before last year?!”  Yes, I did. But not earnestly. And not specifically. And not consistently.

I needed to make a big change.

One day I came across a prayer calendar online. I don't even remember what site I found it on, but I knew immediately that I was looking at the perfect prompting to my prayers for my husband.  The calendar was not month-specific, so I could use it over each month. Every day's box had a different topic of prayer and a few verse references to go along with each topic. I printed it off onto red paper and presented it to my husband as a gift. He was very appreciative and I could tell that it meant a lot to him that I was taking this step and then making it known to him. After he looked it over, I carried it to the kitchen and taped it above my sink.

It's one of the best things I've ever done.

Every day for the past year (plus) I have prayed for my husband as I washed the dishes. (Yes, I've missed a few when we were traveling, but my point is that it became a habit.)  I even started knowing what the prayer prompt topic was before I got to the sink!

As the days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months, I began to reap the rewards of my prayer time.

My husband would come home and recount the events of the day, telling me his joys and struggles, and of his own answers to prayer.

I was often amazed to find that the very things He encountered that day were specific to the topic I had prayed about! I shared those things with him, many times saying “I prayed about that for you today!”  These instances strengthened our faith together, and motivated me to pray even more consistently and more often as the Lord brought things to mind. Furthermore, as time went by, I found that God was changing me through my prayers for my husband. As I prayed about areas of character and Godliness for him, I realized that my own life needed God's stirring in some of the same areas.  Only God can give double blessings like that through prayer!

This year, I have designed my own prayer calendar. I've changed up the topics from last year and have added new Scripture references. It's time to begin a new cycle of prayer, and I'm looking forward to seeing how God is going to use it in my husband's life to encourage him.

I'd like to make this calendar available to you and encourage you to pray earnestly and specifically for your spouse this year! Give the  gift of the blessings of prayer. My calendar is available as a free printable on my website. At the moment, it is an excel document that I hope will open for you! Click here to download your daily prayer calendar.

Expect God to do great things as you intercede for your beloved!

DIY: Scripture Conversation Hearts!

Those of you that have read my blog in past years know that I am no fan of Valentines day. I know, ba humbug, right? It is just not my favorite holiday! But while I mutter things under my breath like “February is the Monday of months,” this time of year usually finds me doing Valentines Day-related projects, anyway. {go figure!}

I normally try to do a little project to include in the decor for our church’s Valentines banquet. (You can see past projects here) This year is no exception…I created some of my very own conversation hearts to fit the theme of the evening!

This was a super easy project, but I am excited about the color it will bring to the banquet tables, plus the truths of the scripture messages as a reminder of the Love of God!

I just picked up a package of scalloped foam hearts from our local dollar store.

I got the scalloped ones because they had the brightest colors, and I was looking to make these similar to the real thing.

Then I got to work punching out the middles of the scallops. Random side note: if they went to the trouble to punch those, why couldn’t they have just poked them out at the same time???

I found lots of verses that talked about the love of God for us, our love for God, and a few about our love for each other. I also tried to use verses that could be shortened easily, without losing the message of God’s love that I was trying to get across.

Here are the verses I used:

Deuteronomy 6:5 …thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart…
Deuteronomy 11:1 Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God…
Joshua 22:5 ..take diligent heed… to love the Lord your God…
Psalm 18:1 I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.
Psalm 31:23 O love the Lord, all ye his saints….
Psalm 146:8 …the Lord loveth the righteous.
Jeremiah 31:3 …I have loved thee with an everlasting love…
Matthew 22:39 …love thy neighbor as thyself.
Mark 12:33 And to love him with all the heart…
John 3:16 God so loved the world…
John 15:9 …continue ye in my love.
Romans 5:5 …the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts…
I Corinthians 13:4 Charity…is kind…
I Corinthians 13:8 Charity never faileth…
II Corinthians 13:14 …the love of God…be with you all…
I Peter 1:22 …see that ye love one another…
I John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God…
I John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another…
I John 4:11 …God so loved us…
I John 4:16 …God is love…
I John 4:19 We love Him, because He first loved us.
Jude 21 Keep yourselves in the love of God…

It was a bit time consuming, but not nearly as bad as it could have been if I had chosen to cut out paper hearts! (which is normally what I end up doing to myself, haha!) I just used a Sharpie to write the words, and it worked great. The foam was very easy to write on, and doesn't bleed through, so these could be used again on the other side!

I don't have the prettiest handwriting, but I just did my best and tried to make each one look nice. I also used a tone-on-tone approach so the writing would be readable, but subtle enough to let the color of the heart stand out.

It was a fun project, that I think will make a big impact at our banquet! Anyone else doing any Valentines Day crafting lately?

Valentine’s Day fun for Everyone!

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My Valentine’s Day Wreath

I made this winter wreath back in January, but I made a quick update to turn it into something for Valentine's Day.

First I'll tell you how I made the winter wreath, then I'll tell you how I turned it into a Valentines wreath.

*The best part was that this wreath cost me nothing to make.  It was all junk I had stuffed stashed neatly up in the attic.

1. First I took a wreath form and traced it onto a piece of cardboard.  Then I cut it out and wrapped it in strips of white fabric.

2. Then I started on my flowers.  I took tissue paper and cut it into lots and lots of  squares.  Then I stacked 4 squares together.

3.  I folded the whole stack accordion-style.

4.  Then I folded my “accordion” in half and stapled it in the middle.

5.  Next, I snipped off the ends to form a point.  (I figured out later that this step is optional.  It makes your flowers look slightly different, but really it's just a matter of preference.  Try it with and without snipping and see which way you like it better.)

6.  All I had left to do was fluff up the tissue paper to turn it into a flower!  I carefully peeled apart each layer of tissue paper and fluffed it until it looked like a flower.

I kept making flowers until I thought I had enough to cover the wreath form, but unfortunately I do not have pictures of the rest of the process.

I got distracted by a minor emergency:

Snot, peanut butter, and marker.  It was time for me to turn my focus to my kids who had done so well occupying themselves at the table.

The rest of the wreath should be pretty self-explanatory anyway.  I hot glued the flowers onto the cardboard wreath form until it was completely covered.  Then I took some pieces of lace, rolled them up and glued them on, and added another piece of lace to hang the wreath.

When February arrived, I printed up the word LOVE on red scrapbook paper, cut it out, and taped it to some twine.  I taped the twine onto the back of the wreath, and I was done!

I've never done any sort of Valentine's Day decor before, and I had fun cheering up my door with a free Valentines Wreath!

Did you do anything special to your house for Valentine's Day?

15 Minute Tasks for the Week

If you're just joining us this week, this program is set up so that you can jump in right where you are!

Last week we worked on disinfecting the remaining bedrooms.  I hope you didn't find any bed bugs!  This infographic from Moxie Pest Control tells you exactly how to look for them and how you can get rid of them.

This week we’re going to focus on organizing any of the bedrooms that you didn't work on a couple weeks ago.  I’ll be focusing specifically on the master bedroom, but do whatever works for you.

Be thinking ahead how to best organize your bedrooms so that you can be gathering the necessary supplies.  Andrea posted a very inexpensive way to make matching organizational bins, and Nicole shared some great tips for organizing small spaces.

Monday

Head into the room with a trash bag and three boxes.  Set the timer for 15 minutes and begin a purge of the room.  Work your way around the room clockwise and go through every closet, drawer, nook, and cranny.  Throw away any trash, add anything you do not need to one box to be donated or sold.  Add anything that belongs in another room to the other box to be put away.  In the third box, place items on which you are undecided.  You may think you can’t bear to part with something, but by the end of the week you may realize it’s time to let it go.  (Don’t focus too much on cleaning out the clothes unless you readily see something you know you need to get rid of.  We’ll be spending a couple days dedicated to just clothing later on.)

Tuesday

Continue with another 15 minutes of purging.  If you finished one bedroom on Monday, work in another bedroom.

Wednesday

Set the timer for 15 minutes and work on organizing one closet shelf or drawer.  Place like items together in bins or baskets.  Over-the-door shoe holders work well for holding small items such as small toys, scarves and accessories, or hey, even…shoes!  If you’re working in a child’s room, organize the room in such a way that is easy for children to keep organized themselves.  Label dresser drawers or toy bins (use pictures if they can’t read) so that children can put their items away in the correct places all by themselves.   If you're an adult, don't be embarrassed to label bins for yourself too.  We all forget sometimes what we decided belongs where.

Thursday

Work for another 15 minutes on organizing another area of the room.

Friday

You guessed it!  Another 15 minute organizing session in the bedroom!

Saturday

Take 15 minutes to wrap up loose ends in the bedroom.  If you have boxes of things that you haven’t decided what to do with, now is the time to make a decision.  Decide where the items belong and put them away, or put them in your donate box.

How did you do last week?  Did you get those bedrooms disinfected?  It makes you feel wonderful when you walk into the room, doesn’t it?

If you’re just joining us, you’ll probably want to subscribe to email updates or follow along on Facebook so you can keep up with each week’s new tasks.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post.

Organized Homeschooling: How to Keep Those Records Straight! (Part 2)

The following is a guest post from my sister-in-law Lauren.

In the previous post, we looked at where to find all the papers you need to organize your home school.

Now, we must look at how to get all those mounds of papers organized into the filing cabinet in a functional and effective way! I also want to include in this organizational project, my own personal three ring binder that I keep out of the cabinet and on my “school shelf”.

I have moved all of my homeschooling posts to christianhomeschoolfamily.com.

You can go here to read this post at the new site.