I wish I could remember how to link from my blog to another one but I can't so you will just have to look for it on my sidebar and click there. There is an absolutely wonderful posting today on the Internet Cafe from Chelsey at www.joyfullyliving.blogspot.com. She is really an inspiration for women to take up the "Battle Cry" and find out where we stand with God. She says it far better than I can so go on over and visit her at the Internet Cafe.

This is something I should have done a long time ago and really don't know why I haven't. Some time ago the president of our country stated that our country was not a Christian country but a secular country. I found that to be VERY offensive. So did some other people. My husband began a website http://www.jesusnation.us/ that hopefully will help turn this around. If you are interested in keeping our Nation a Christian nation, please go to this website and find out what you can do to help. This is not a plea for money just action. This is very important. When my family was in DC this past summer, Gary and Jessica handed out several hundred braclets that state the website on them. Here are some pictures of them doing this. We will be going to DC again soon with the petitions from the website to bring to our leaders and to hand out more braclets. What we thought would take a couple of hours only took 20 minutes. People were not reluctant to accept the braclets in the least.

Do you remember where you were or what you were doing on September 11, 2001? I was on my way to work when Gary called me and said a plane had flown into one of the Twin Towers. I thought how sad and how could that happen. When I got to work, we turned on the TV to see exactly what had happened and watched as a second plane flew into the other tower. That's when I realized our precious country was under attack. As a mother, I wanted to gather all of my little chicks together and make them come home. I had one working in Oklahoma, one an hour and a half away at college, one that just didn't live at home anymore and one still in high school. We sat and watched horrified as the two towers fell, as we found out the Pentagon had been hit and as we learned that a fourth plane had crashed. A quietness fell upon the entire country, a stillness even in the air as though we were all holding our breath waiting, praying and watching. We knew we would never be the same. It was hard not to constantly watch the news coverage even though most of it was just the same stuff over and over. How could this have happened to us, afterall we are Americans! How dare someone come and attack us on our soil. I pray for the families of those that died that day, I pray for our Nation, I pray for those of us who watched this chapter in our Nation's history play out. And today I remember.

Just a few more pictures of our vacation. One of my girls with Noah, the Serendipity house from Nights in Rodanthe with Josh, Jenny and me helping Noah walk on the sand that he didn't like and two of my boys on the deck solving the problems of the world. Well maybe not quite. What a great time we all had.

Just a few pictures of our family vacation. What a wonderful time we had. We spent part of it on the Outer Banks beaches and part of it in our Nation's great capital. The history in DC is simply amazing. Too much to see in just a few short days. We saw lighthouses, dolphins and the house from the Nicolas Sparks' movie at the Outer Banks. Don't know exactly why I am so drawn to that place but I am. I will have to go back in a couple of years or so. Sigh.

Girls, I have something today burning on my heart. This is not my usual posting about my family but it is about families. As I have grown older and been married longer, I feel I have learned so much about what God would have us as wives and mothers become. I have always wanted to be the best wife and mother I could be but when I was young I didn't know how. I'm FAR from perfect so don't get the idea that I think I have "arrived." I am still striving every day to accomplish what God would have me be and will until the day I die. But I feel I need to pass along the life lessons I have learned. Girls, we need to first and foremost be women of God devoting our lives to Him, loving Him, worshiping Him and getting to know Him better. Our next duty is to our husbands. This is one of the hardest things to do in this day and age. We as women have become so independent that sometimes we forget that we aren't the head of our families but that job is for our husbands. This is so important! But here's the catch. We have to ALLOW them to be the head of our families as God wants them to be, following them and trusting in their decisions for your family. Even sometimes if you don't fully agree with your husband in a decision he makes you still must follow his lead. If a mistake is made, your husband is responsible to God for it, not you. Girls, one of the worst things we can do is to nag our husbands into doing what we want. We must pray for them, love them, never talk negatively about them to others. We must make the home his retreat, a place he comes home to for rest and renewal of strength not a place he dreads coming home to because he knows when he gets home he is going to be constantly nagged into doing a "honey-do" list. Yes they do need to help around the house, especially if you are working outside the home. But nagging them NEVER works. It only brings friction to the home. Lovingly ask them for help and if they don't help you, don't go away mad or in a huff, just pray for God to intervene in them. Show them that you love them no matter what. Go about your chores and I guarantee you when your husband sees you working he will eventually begin to help. Love him into this DON'T NAG. All that does is make him rebel against you. It is up to us girls to make our homes peaceful, restful, joyful places for our husbands and children. We have a HUGE responsibility as women and this should never be taken without much prayer. If you are having friction in your marriage, don't give up. Never give up. Go to your pastor for help, begin praying together as a couple, just don't give up on each other. Go to the Word of God. When you show all of this love to your husbands, you are going to see wonderous changes in his attitude toward you and his life in general and he won't really even know why. Your husband may be the head of the family but we wives are the spines that hold him up. Go to Thirsty for Him for more on this subject.