Pictures of the Munchkins

I couldnt resist sharing these pictures with all of you, I may be biased but I KNOW that they're pretty cute kids!!!

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Bethany and Gabriel being cute.

 

Ben and Beth driving the upside down wagon: "It's a race car, Sissy!" (I get a roll of the eyes that says "Dont you know these things!?!")

A Change of Blogginess

My parents and I have decided to change my blog a little bit to include the everyday redneck things that come with living in a rural town in the panhandle of North Idaho.
I suppose I can be considered a redneck since I own a gun, can harvest a deer, and, well, let’s just say I am a redneck. But I believe that God has blessed us as women with a special femininity, and it is our duty to be feminine in a way that pleases God. I love to walk, talk, dress, act, and live, like a woman is supposed to, in a ladylike, womanly way. However I also believe that we as women need to be adequate to attend to the hard things that we will face in life, the things that will require getting our hands dirty. And that’s what I want this blog to be about.

So this is my story of living a feminine, redneck life. I hope you will enjoy it.

Ruth: The Proverbs 31 Woman

I was reading the book of Ruth the other morning, and I noticed something in the study footnotes in my Bible. I thought it was pretty cool, and decided to share it with all of you.

Did you know that Ruth and the Proverbs 31 woman share at least eight character qualities? They are amazingly parallel! This "Virtuous" woman Ruth personifies the "Virtuous" woman in Proverbs 31, and ironically enough the same greek word "Virtuous" is used to describe both women.
Each Woman was:

1.) Devoted to her family. (Ruth 1:15-18-- Proverbs 31: 10, 12, 23)

2.) Delighting in her work. (Ruth 2:2-- Proverbs 31:13)

3.) Diligent in her labor. ( Ruth 2:7, 17, 23--Proverbs 31:14-18, 19-21, 24, 27)

4.) Dedicated to Godly speech. (Ruth 2:10, 13-- Proverbs 31:26)

5.) Dependant on God. (Ruth 2:12-- Proverbs 31:25b, 30)

6.) Dressed with care. (Ruth 3:3-- Proverbs 31:22,25a)

7.) Discreet with men. (Ruth 3:6-13-- Proverbs 31:11, 12, 23)

8.) Delivering Blessings. (Ruth 4:14,15-- Proverbs 31:28, 29, 31)

I have marked all these verses, along with their attributes down in my Bible so that I can easily be reminded to strive to follow in their footsteps.

So Long Self

The Song
The band “Mercy Me” has a song titled “So Long Self” the song goes like this:
…
“Well if I come across a little bit distant, It’s just because I am, things just seem to feel a little bit different, you understand. Believe it or not but life is not, apparently about me anyways, but I have met the one who really is worthy so let me say… So long self, well it’s been fun but I have found somebody else. So long self, there’s just no room for two, so you are gonna have to move. So long self, don’t take this wrong but you are wrong for me, farewell. Oh well, goodbye, don’t cry, so long self.
Stop right there, because I know what you’re thinking, but no we can’t be friends. And even though I know your heart is a breaking, this has to end. And come to think of it the blame for all of this, simply falls on me, for wanting something more in life than all of this Oh can’t you see… So long self, well it’s been fun but I have found somebody else. So long self, there’s just no room for two, so you are gonna have to move. So long self, don’t take this wrong but you are wrong for me, farewell. Oh well, goodbye, don’t cry, so long. Don’t feel so bad (Don’t feel so bad), there’ll be better days (there’ll be better days) Don’t go away mad (but by all means), just go away, go away… So long self, well it’s been fun but I have found somebody else. So long self, there’s just no room for two, so you are gonna have to move. So long self, don’t take this wrong but you are wrong for me, farewell. Oh well, goodbye, don’t cry, so long.
…
The theme of this song is saying goodbye to self, in other words saying goodbye to your flesh, the worldly part of you.

What Gods Word Says:
Paul talks about putting our flesh to death in Romans 8:13: “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” What Paul is talking about is going to war against your flesh, your worldly desires and lusts. This is a spiritual battle in which we must, by the grace of God alone, strive every day of our lives to battle our own flesh. This will be an ongoing battle, one that will last until we see Jesus in Heaven. However, we are human and far from perfect, we will fall into sin over and over again until the battle is won. In Romans 7: 24 we see Paul’s struggle with this: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Paul, as a believer, laments his sin and longs to be free of his flesh.

More Talking
This reminds me of a line in the song “In Christ Alone.” Where it states: “And as He stands in victory, sins curse has lost its grip on me, for I am His and He is mine, bought with the precious blood of Christ!!!”
Won’t that be a great day!?!

As Christians we must pick up our spiritual sword, God’s love letter to us, and fight this spiritual battle with the strength that God provides. We must beat down our flesh, instead of submitting to it’s every whim, we must let it be known that we will put up a fight instead of listening to the lies of our culture like “Obey your thirst.” And “Just do it.”

Still More Talking
Living in our culture today, those of us who aren’t submitting to the lusts of the world WILL be looked down upon as “Bible Thumpers,” “Wimps,” and “Honk if you love Jesus” kind of people, in fact I have been called those names, but we should be proud to be known as “Jesus Freaks.” However, we need to be very careful that we don’t judge, or label unbelievers the way that they judge and label us, lest we become known as hypocrites. Instead we must show them the love and mercy that Jesus Christ showed to us. Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” And we can do the same: John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

Cool Slogan
The “Youth Family” in our church (we don’t do the whole youth group thing, we’re just a family) dubbed ourselves the “Eternal Warriors” with the slogan “At War With Sin in Ourselves Rom. 8:13” and that is our goal and purpose. I want to encourage you to be an “Eternal Warrior” and fight against sin in your own life!

In Christ’s Service, Anna Primer.

What God has Done in Me

I have only ever dated one guy, and I am still dating him today, and that is my Daddy. Some of you might think that’s kind of weird but I have given my heart to my Daddy. So naturally I date the man that I have given my heart to. Not many girls are blessed with a Daddy like mine. His love for me is unconditional, I can tell him anything, and I can always ask him to deal with any flirting boys!!!

Physical Purity
Anyway, Mommy asked me to share with all of you my decision to keep myself pure. The biggest thing that made me want to do this was simply that God commands it in His word, and big part of loving God is obeying Him.
We find this in 1 Thessalonians4:3: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;” It’s as simple as that.
Song of Solomon 2:4 says: “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field, do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases.”
And again, in the same book, chapter 8, verse 4: “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases.” These verses should wave big red flags in our faces: Don’t Awaken Love. God clearly shows us what happens when we don’t obey Him, as it tells us in the Bible.
Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is DEATH, but the gift of God is eternal life, in Jesus Christ Our Lord.”
I have seen first hand the consequences of adultery in the lives of some of my closest friends. So I made my choice, I decided that I would make the commitment to keep my body pure.

Emotional Purity
But it wasn’t long before God got a hold of me again, and he showed me that there were some other areas that I needed to keep clean and pure.

God used scripture and godly people to teach me to guard my heart and emotions as well as my body. Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”
If you give away your heart, an emotional attachment is formed, and that is how you get attached to people. It’s easy to become emotionally attached to someone; all it takes is trusting that person with all of your deepest Secrets and emotions, all of your struggles, hopes, dreams, and prayers. This is what we call giving away your heart!!! And once you have given away your heart and emotions, you are well on your way to giving away your body too.

Defining Relationships
As always, God still wasn’t done with me.
I have a lot of good friends who are guys, and I love talking to them and hanging out with them (in a group setting) I mean sometimes I just need to get away from the catfights, fashion shows and giggle fits that teenaged girls are prone to.
But those friendships can get a little weird when there are no boundaries, so something that I have learned is that I need to define all of my relationships with members of the opposite sex. Here is an example:

Let’s say I have a really close guy “friend” and we talk to each other a lot, we call each other when we’re down, we hang out with each other ALL the time and he gave me a nickname that only he uses. I think he is my friend, kind of, but neither of us has ever said anything about being “just friends.”
But…I start to wonder… what if he doesn’t just like me as a friend, what if he has a huge crush on me and that’s why we hang out so much, what if he’s too nervous to just ask me out??? It’s easy to go on and on from there. So, I call my best friend and I share with her all of my questions. She says, “Girl you’ve just now started to notice how much he likes you?” “But how do you now that he likes me?” I want to know, “All the signs are there,” she tells me. “I mean, doesn’t he treat you differently than any other girl, didn’t he give you a nickname, and doesn’t he tease you incessantly about everything?” and I have to say “Yes” to each one. Obviously, it’s not long before I am absolutely convinced that he has a ginourmous crush on me, and I begin to form deep feelings for him as well.
About a week later, he introduces me to his new girlfriend. I am hurt and angry, and he doesn’t understand. We will NEVER be as close as we were, we will be lucky if our friendship survives this misfortune.

So, Defining Relationships, you don’t have to sit down and discuss friendship with every person of the opposite sex that you know. When you’re talking to one of these friends it’s easy just to say, “You know, you’re a really great friend.” That is a simple, natural way to tell them that you think of them as a friend. It’s another way to protect and guard the heart that God has given you. Just like we’ve already learned in Proverbs:
Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”

Dating
Ever since I was old enough to understand what dating was, I was convinced that it was something I would never take part in, I had seen many hearts wounded and broken after the dating scene.
In our world today, many Christians think that dating is the only way they can ever meet Mr./Ms. Right. But what many people don’t realize is that it is much SAFER not to mention easier to hand it over to God.
Don’t you think that if he can move mountains, he can make a way for you to meet the person you will marry???
If he cares about every sparrow that falls, don’t you think that he cares enough to make it happen for you??? But first you need to trust him with your rekationships.
TRUST, that’s a hard thing for us to do, but its something that God commands:

Proverbs 3:5 says: “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.”

Isaiah 12:2: “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid.”

Matthew 6:26: “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”
Do not worry, you are worth a lot to God, and He will take care of you.
And then God rebukes us for not trusting:

Matthew 6:30: “Now if God clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”

And Mark 4:40: “Why are you so fearful? Why is it that you have no faith?”

Matthew 10:29-31: “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”


Being humans we did not trust Gods plan, instead we have thought up this brilliant system called dating. Dating is an easy way to get your heart broken, because we readily give pieces of our hearts away, until we get married it is then that the real owner gets the leftovers.
How would you feel if you were invited to somebody’s house as their guest of honor for dinner, but when you sat down to eat, your hosts brought out half eaten leftovers? Three day old meatloaf perhaps, at any rate I’m sure you would no longer feel as if you were an honored guest.

People don’t seem to realize that after the dating scene, that is what many hearts look like.

For myself I have decided to leave the matter up to God, and so I don’t date. I realize that waiting for Gods timing will be extremely difficult, but I know that it will be worth it in the end.


Helping Each Other Out
The next thing God worked on me with, is the mission he has set before me as a daughter of God. In many different ways he showed me that I have an opportunity, and an obligation to help my brothers in Christ. I learned that men are visual creatures, they just are, and that the way that I dress can help them to keep their minds pure. Yes, it’s their responsibility to guard their eyes, but… I can help them, or I can cause them to stumble, simply by the way that I dress. This mindset has changed my way of thinking a great deal.
The world is constantly sending us messages. The greater portion of these messages is negative. There are a lot of things out there that none of us ever need to see, hear, or think about. Keeping our minds pure is a huge task, but we can always help each other out. God created men to be protectors, warriors. I think we would see a drastic change in our churches, if the young men would be determined to watch over and protect the hearts and minds of their sisters in Christ, being careful how they treat them. And what a great change we would see, if the young women thought about protecting their brothers mind and heart by dressing modestly. In Josh Harris’s “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” series, he said that he wanted to be the kind of man who stood as a protector over the hearts of his Christian sisters, he wanted to help to keep her pure for the man that would become her husband, he said he wanted her husband to be able to thank him for the part he played in her life. Girls can do the same thing, simply by considering the things that might cause her brother to stumble and then avoiding those things. But why should we bother going to all this trouble? We shouldn’t do it because its something a Christian would do; it should be something that we want to do:
1) To set an example. As Paul instructs Timothy to do in his first letter to him:
1 Timothy 4:12 “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”

2) Out of love and respect for each other. Which Paul and Peter, and many others tell us is important.
Romans 12:10: “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another.”
1 Peter 3:8 “Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tender hearted be courteous.”

Conclusion
I know that I am still a work in progress, and God is still working on me. And he will be working on me for the rest of my life.
I pray that God will use my testimony to get you thinking about trusting him with your relationships. I know that just that thought scares some of you to death. But I want to encourage you to let God handle it. It will be well worth it in the end.

New Year Resolutions

How many of You made New Year Resolutions? A lot of people just don't make resolutions because they know they will break them, and then a lot of people just "make-um-and-break-um" and some people make them and strive to keep them. I am in the latter camp! :-)

So, just in case you're curious, I only made one this year, here it is:
That I would spend this next year focused on God and serving Him with everything that I have, instead of chasing after the attractions of this world.

That's my goal this next year; I want to be able to look back at the end of the year and know that I did my best to reject the world and choose Christ instead.

I know that this year will NOT be perfect. And that I will succumb to my flesh at times. And that it will be one of the hardest things I've ever done.

Serving God isn't that hard, but rejecting the world, with all it's attractions, pleasures, and seductions, is. I'm going to have to fight my flesh hard to keep focused on God. But you know, I'm really looking forward to it. God has given me a servant's heart and I would much rather fight hard to serve him with it than to give up and serve the whims of the world!!!
As a woman, every fiber of my being longs for approval, and it's hard for me to reject the approval of this world, but that's when I have to remind myself that God's approval means WAY more to me than the worlds EVER could.

I want to encourage all of you to commit to your New Year Resolutions, even when its hard, and even when you slip, you can get back on track!!! I would LOVE to hear thoughts on this post, so please pepper me with comments!!!

In Christ's Service, Anna.

Tis the Season...

"Tis the season to be greedy, falalalala lalalala" this is what my mom often sings about the way Christmas is viewed in our culture today. Our family got to the point where the ONLY reason we celebrated Christmas at all was because it is the time of our Savior's birth. But for several years now we have celebrated something called Advent with is twenty five days of focusing on, and celebrating Jesus's birth and what he was born to do.

Every night during Advent the whole family gathers in the living room and we read one days' worth of an Advent story book, each day has a lesson, or a thought on the real meaning of Christmas and what it should mean to us. Then comes the Advent Book, each day one child opens a door in the book to reveal the next portion of the story of Jesus's birth. The doors are numbered according to the days of Advent and we open one new door per day along with all the previous doors, this way the anticipation builds up until Christmas day when we open the last door and the whole Christmas story is revealed. We rotate every day so that everyone gets several turns opening doors, even us older ones :-).

The little ones LOVE reading the Advent Book, which comes straight out of scripture. They now have almost the whole book memorized by heart, thus they have almost memorized the entire Christmas story in scripture, and they often quote each doors' verse along with Daddy as he reads.

Another thing we have changed in our house is the fact that we don't give presents on Christmas, because we want that day to be focused on God, and not ourselves. And we have found that presents bring our focus onto us and what we get or deserve. So our family doesn't give presents on Christmas, we do however give presents on Epiphany, 12 days after Christmas which we also celebrate. I believe I will be posting about that in the near future as well!

This is the way we celebrate the Savior's birth, we love the way that it puts our focus on God and the mercy he showed us by sending His Son, we love that our little ones, and the rest of us, are memorizing the scriptures, and we love how Advent really teaches our little ones what Christmas is about, because the last thing we want is a Christmas focused on presents, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus, and all the other things that the world has tried to make Christmas about.

I would love to hear what YOU think about Christmas, please comment!

In Christ's Service, Anna Primer.

Growing Up Too Fast

Gabriel helpin' Daddy haul firewood!

Gabriel doesnt play with toys hardly at all, it's not that he doesnt have any, it's that he doent like toys. Give him a honey dipper, cardboard box, plastic cup, or toothbrush, and he's set to go!

Rosie taught herself to play the guitar over this last summer, she has a ton of fun playing songs for the kids or just teaching them to strum.

Here are some pictures of Bethany's playhouse. She is SO CUTE when she washes her play dishes:
She insists on decorating even the countertop.

She loves to cook pretend meals for her brother Ben on her cardboard stove. Then she proceeds to clean up:

Her favorite pastime is diligently practicing her dishwashing skills.

Table and chairs, complete with cups from her very cute tea set!

"Hello, is this you? This is me."Bethany never ceases to provide us with a good laugh, she is just too cute!!!

Gabriel insists that he is old enough to feed himself, and indeed he is growing at an astonishing rate. He has been toddeling around the house for well over a week, and has amost ceased crawling.

And he's very happy about it!

Just wanted to share some pictures of how fast our little ones are growing. They make us smile every day, and we consistantly say that they are better entertainment than tv. Hope they made you smile too.

Love to you all, Anna Primer.

Running

Here is something that God has been working on me with, I hope that he can use it to encourage all of you too!
Going Through the Motions
As Christians it is easy for us to go through our lives, reading our Daily Bread every morning, singing hymns in church on Sunday, and praying at meals, even praying and reading our Bibles when things get tough. It’s easy for us to live spiritually lukewarm.
I have often times got all hyper after a camp, concert or conference. I was on a spiritual high. I would burn for Christ 24/7…. For about a day and a half.
Then suddenly the Jesus rush wore off. I was back to simply going through the motions without much thought. As I watched myself do this over, and over, and over, and over, and over again, I was convicted. What a shallow life I was living. This wasn’t what I wanted; I could be having a deeper, closer, LASTING, trusting, and loving relationship with my Savior.
I wanted to be on a never-ending spiritual high.
But it wasn’t long before I found out that my ambition was much more easily said than done.
It seemed that every time I got close-ish to where I wanted to be, I would slide back into the motions. Then I read a devotional that changed the way I thought about the time I was spending in Bible reading and prayer. The devotional was called “My Heart, Christ’s Home” it was a fictional story about a man’s heart. The heart was like a house, with all kinds of rooms, the study, the living room, dining room, recreation room, workshop, bedroom, and hall closet. The man invited God to come and live in his heart, when Jesus arrived; the man was excited and began to show Him about the house. One by one the man led Jesus to each room, and one by one, the man became ashamed of their sad state, and asked Jesus to help him clean them out. He did, one at a time, until the man declared that the house would belong to Jesus, and from now on he would be the guest, and Jesus, the master.
The part that really got me was the living room, where the man and Jesus would meet every day to dig deep into the words of the Bible, every morning they would take time to learn from God’s word. They would just spend time together. For a while the man arrived faithfully on time every day, but it wasn’t long before he started showing up late, and soon after that he skipped a day here or there, and before long he didn’t show up at all. One day as the man was rushing off to attend to important things he passed the door of the living room, and as he did he saw Jesus, just sitting there, waiting. The man gathered his courage and entered the room, he asked Jesus what he was doing, and Jesus replied that he was waiting for him. The man asked him if he had been here every morning, waiting for him. Of course Jesus answered yes. The man was ashamed that he had so easily drifted away. And still, Jesus had remained faithful.
When I think of Jesus sitting there every morninPsalms 139:23-24 says: “Search me O God and know my heart; try me and know my anxieties; and see if there is any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
g waiting to spend time with me, while I simply rush past to begin my “important” day, I have to admit that I am greatly ashamed. And it makes me want to change.
I like to get up early while most everyone is still asleep, so I set my alarm for the unbelievably early hour of 6:00 a. m. (I know I’m pathetic). But there are still many mornings when I fall into temptation and hit the “off” button on my alarm clock, because I am, of course, sinful human. In fact one of those mornings was this morning, after the previous day, which had been really busy, and a late night, I was pretty tired. When my alarm went off, I lay in my bed and debated with myself weather I could even open my eyes and be able to focus on the tiny print in my Bible. But determining that it didn’t make my Bible study any holier to do it at six a clock instead of later, so, I went back to sleep.
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Running
Here are some of my favorite verses,
1 Corinthians 9: 24-27:
“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight; not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”
“Run in such a way that you may obtain it.” That is the way I want to live my life, running for Jesus.
That is how we all should live our lives, running for the ultimate prize, the only prize that matters.
We should run long and hard not wearying, not slowing down. But that’s a hard thing to do. It’s hard to be diligent; it’s hard to run that hard, and we’re not strong enough to do it, but the cool thing is that God sustains us and gives us strength.
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”-Philippians 4:13
So that is what God has been teaching me, I hope it encouraged all of you.

Big Sister

As the oldest girl in a family of 8 kids, I am (quite obviously) a big sister. But What is a big sister's job?
I have found that being a big sister is a huge training tool that will prepare me for life, I will need many of the skills I am learning now, when I become a mother.

It is so easy to brush my younger siblings off as an annoyance, its so easy to tell them to "Just go away and leave me alone!" actually I've tried that, but... when you have six little brothers and sisters and you live in a three bedroom house: You Cant Get Away From Them!!!
So I faced a choice, I could either be driven nuts for as long as I live with them, OR, I could learn to live in grace with them. Naturally being miserable didn't sound fun, so... I gave in to what God was trying to teach me.

It has been a bit difficult, but it has brought me much joy in the long run.
I have learned that it's better to be merciful, than to be cranky and easily annoyed.

For Example:
the other day I was trying very hard to get some schoolwork done, and Bethany ran into the dining room and tearfully flung herself on me. "Anna the bad guys are going to get my Andre seal!" (From the movie Andre) Oh such tragedy!!! (she's picked up some of my drama queen talents :-p)!!!

"O Brother," I thought. But then I had to consider, will it help make my relationship with my three year old sister to be stronger if I tell her to leave me alone so that I can do my schoolwork? Or could I possibly stand to take 30 seconds to allay her fears and send her running back to the living room to give those naughty bad guys what for?

I decided to take a moment to talk to her, and in no time she was scolding the bad guys on TV. :-)

So I want to encourage all of you big sisters out there, It's alot more fun to be a fun, loving, nurturing, playful, big sister than it is to be a grouch! :-)

Love, In Christ, Anna Primer