God Moves Monday: Let God do His Work

I've always struggled with trying to control everything.  Everything from my husband, to my house, to just EVERYTHING! I can't tell you how difficult it is for me to let someone else drive a car I'm riding in! This same attitude is reflected in my relationship with God.  I'm always wanting to be the one to cause change in my life.  God has taught me so much about my attitude, and allowing Him to do the work in me.

To first get the proper perspective, we have to start with the attitude that we are in bondage to our sin.  In the fact that Jesus came to save us from our sin, we can see that we are unable of being freed from sin on our own.  I've always been down on myself because I can never seem to stop doing the sins I'm trapped in.  I am saved of course, and am forgiven of my sins, but there are areas of my life that I struggle with.  For me the primary area is the sin of gluttony.  I've struggled for years with having an ungodly perspective of food.  It's been my idol.  I've tried for years to quit being gluttonous to no avail.  

I've learned through working through the Lord's Table Bible study that I've never been able to break those chains, because that's God's work.  How freeing! Yes, I have to have a repentant heart, but I can not just turn 180 and stay that way without the help of God.  I had to realize that it takes a humble heart for God to be able to work.  I have to have the attitude that I'm unable to do anything outside of His power.  I have to rely on Him completely to free me of my bondage to sin.

This requires that I walk in the Spirit.  This means that I have the eyes of my heart opened, and walk with a humble, repentant heart.  It is impossible to walk in the spirit if you are living in sin.  Living in sin doesn't mean we are not forgiven, or not saved, it means that we are allowing Satan to enslave us, and not having a repentant heart in any given area.  When we are walking in the Spirit, we allow God to talk to us whenever he needs to and we need to be obedient.  This is how He does His work!

When we are walking in the Spirit, we will be able to hear His voice.  He will reveal to us areas that need to be changed, and will root out any weeds of sin in our lives.  We have to be listening, open hearted, and ready to obey.  He may reveal that you need to forgive someone, or he may reveal an area of sin that you have no clue that was there.  He may have something very drastic to do in your life.  You have to walk in the Spirit with a humble, repentant heart, ready to obey what God has called you to do.  

If the church today would walk ready to allow God to do the work, instead of trying to do the work in their own power, or world would be a totally different place! 

Think Lilly Bunns Thursday

What a great week for my shop!! I'm so blessed to have received 4 orders this week! I'm so very grateful to those who ordered!

I absolutely love selling on Etsy.  I'm honored to be a part of the handmade community.  Now, let me tell you a few reasons I absolutely LOVE handmade!  So I got an order friday, told the customer I would ship it Monday, only to come down with the flu.  I messaged her via Etsy's convo system that I wouldn't be able to ship it until the end of the week when I felt better.  Now, get this, not only did she say no problem, she asked about upgrading her order! How freaking amazing is that!?

Then I have another person ask what colors I can make binky clips out of.  I basically say any colors you want, cause I'm always wanting new ribbon.  She orders 5! Problem is, I only have 4 suspender clips, but I do have some plastic paci clips so asked if I can use one of those.  Well, she doesn't like the plastic ones, but said she has some suspender clips she's never going to use and sent them to me so I could make her clips!  ONLY in the handmade community could that happen.  And ONLY in the handmade community could you be able to not ship something cause you're sick.

I'm so incredibly blessed and appreciative of those who have been so patient with me through my battle with the flu! This one has been a real doozy!

On another note, my hubby has gone to Hawaii for the week to be the best man at his BFF's wedding, which means, I get to shut myself in and sew for the next week!! I got some pinking shears to make some cloth nursing pads.  And I'll be making a few new outfits for summer!  

What Ya Wanna Know Wednesday: Getting Fabulous Photos #1

So you see all these people with the most fantastic pics of their kids, and well, yours kinda suck.  Welcome to the very first What Ya Wanna Know Wednesday Series, Getting Fabulous Photos.  I'll have you taking the photos everyone will be envious of!  And, no, you don't have to have a super-de-dooper expensive camera to get some great results!

First off we are going to discuss getting to know your camera.  So here's some steps to turn your camera into your best friend!

1. Read your Manual!!! Seriously, by the time that you're done with this step, you probably won't need to continue reading!

2. Know just a few terms.  Ok, maybe this would be better as the first step cause it may help you understand your manual better.  Every camera operates in essentially the same way.  You can find out how to adjust your settings in your manual.

Fontanaknowledge Has an amazing series of Tutorials on knowing your camera

Now that you know the basics of your camera, experiment! Get in every light source you can imagine and snap away! Figure out what settings work best with your camera!

I could literally write a whole series just on how your camera works, but I'll limit it to this, cause I really just want ya to get some good pics! If you have any questions, feel free to ask away!

          
      

How-To Tuesday: How to work "The Twitter"

Twitter is so hugely popular, and is actually a great little social media platform.  Who'da thunk that posting short little blurbs would have taken off so much?  I've been on it for a while, but still have so much to learn when it comes to what all the darn symbols mean. Sometimes it looks like someone is speaking gibberish on their posts.  So I've decided to finally learn the lingo, and let you all in on it!  

Before we really get started with all the info, you'll need to set up your account.  It's so simple I'm not even gonna walk you through it.  Just follow the steps and you'll be great!  But if you just can't figure it out, here's a great tutorial on YouTube

Now that your account is all set up, it's time to change the appearance of your profile. You'll get to a page that looks something like this.  Just follow the links on the right to set up your avatar, and change your profile appearance.

Now your all ready to send out your first tweet!

The Jargon (click the term to see Twitter's definitions):

Tweet: The little 140 word message you send out.  

Hash tags: A hash tag will have the # symbol followed by a word.  For example #etsytreasuries might be one. it's a way for twitterers to post things according to a topic.  Popular hash tags, get moved up to "trending topics."

Mentions and Replies: Just like on facebook, you can mention someone in your post by putting the @ symbol in front of their username.  You can also reply to a tweet by doing the same. Twitter keeps up with replies and mentions under the mention tab on your account home page.

ReTweet: Shown in the tweet with an RT in the message.  

Following: Following is pretty straight forward.  It simply means that you choose someone who you'd like to see their tweets!  Don't forget to follow @lillybunns!

To get noticed in Twitter, it's a good idea to follow lots, retweet, and mention lots, and do hash tags on the trending topics.  

I hope that clears up a few things for you.  Twitter can be such a great way to communicate with others, and publicize yourself to the world!

God Moves Monday

Welcome to the first day of my new posting schedule! God Moves Monday is all about the way God is moving in the world, my life, and just about re-focusing on Him.  I may write about something from church or something God has shown me in my quiet time.

One thing that God has really laid on my heart is missions.  No, I'm not talking about international missions, though that certainly is important.  I'm talking about a local mission field.  The one all Christians have.  Your mission field is everyone you come into contact with: your neighbors, the cashier at the grocery store, your family, etc.  We are all called to take the gospel into all the world.  It's sad that we often forget about our local mission field.

Why is my mission field everyone I come into contact with? So glad you asked.  We are to shine Christ everywhere we go.  The Bible tells us to be the light that shines to all the world.  That doesn't leave ANYONE out!  If we walk around with a bad attitude and a frown, then how does that show people that we have joy?  I really wouldn't want Christianity if that means being as unhappy as some who claim to be Christians walk around! We may not share the gospel with every interaction, but we need to show others we are different.

We need to be prepared to give the gospel when the time comes!  There are so many different "tools" one can use to share the gospel with someone.  There's the Roman's Road and countless others.  We need to remember that the goal is not to get someone to just say a prayer, the goal is true repentance.  A few weeks ago our pastor told about a preacher friend of his who said they'd led countless souls to Christ (it was like 30 or more) over the course of the year.  How great! until he said "3 of them even got baptized."  Now, baptism certainly isn't a requirement for salvation, but in my mind, if you truly are repentant of your sins, you'll want to be baptized to show everyone your commitment in Christ.  

Don't rely on your church to be the key to win souls.  I've heard several people say something like "I wish they'd just come to church, then they'd see God."  The reality is that people have aversions to church.  I can't remember the exact statistics but something like 90% of the US population believe in a God, but only 20% of the population go to church, and that doesn't mean it's a good Bible believing church!  Jesus did not sit at the temple and wait for people to come to see the priests so they would believe, he went to where the people were! He went into the streets and their homes.  We need to be helping the homeless and looking for opportunities to serve others so that we might have to opportunity to share the gospel.  Jesus was always serving others.  

We need to humble ourselves.  There's this attitude in the church in general that we are better than everyone else.  I've got news for you people! We are no better than anyone else, we just happened to have had an encounter with the Holy Spirit! If it wasn't for that, we could just as easily be as mixed up in sin as they are!  Being judgmental is perhaps one of the biggest turn offs to Christianity today.  We need to be ready to admit that we are wrong.  No, we don't need to go around showing off our sins, but we do need to be ready to seek forgiveness of those we have wronged, and admit that we are not perfect.  The lost are always looking for us to slip up, but if we are ready to admit when we have, we will be able to show God's grace and mercy to them. 

Lastly, we need to be on our knees.  Prayer is perhaps the most powerful thing we can do as Christians.  We need to pray for God to provide instances for us to share the gospel.  Pray for hearts to be softened to the Gospel, and for the Holy Spirit to move in the lives of the lost around the world.  We also need to pray for revival in the church.  We need to also pray that God keeps our hearts burdened with a heart for missions.  

Celesa

Gotta Get better at this

So I only say that like every few month right? lol I'm SO bad about keeping up with my blog! I'll get inspired, and forget to write it down and then sit to write and can't think of anything remotely interesting to write about.  Not to mention my HOURS of work on the SAHM of Etsy blog.  But those are just excuses, there's really no reason I can't keep up with this blog better!

I'm one of those people who is obsessed with being on the computer.  It doesn't matter what it is, I just feel like I need to be on.  Well, I've been spending more time in the blogosphere reading some really terrific blogs and have come to realize I'm missing something.  That is besides the hundreds of followers.  Nearly everyone of my favorites has a regular posting schedule, so by george, I'm going to too!

So, for now at least, my schedule will be

Monday: God Moves Monday.  Coming out of being in church on Sunday I'll share how God has been working in my life, and things that have come to mind.

Tuesdays: Tutorials! ALL of my Favorites have tutorials on their blogs, and tuesday seems to be the day to do them!

Wednesday: Series.  I'll do a series on a variety of things.  First up, using your camera for some FANTASTIC photos!

Thursday: All about my shop! See the new items and previews of things to come!

Friday: Feature Friday!  All about great shops I've seen, blogs I've visited, and wonderful products I love!

So here's to hoping I can keep up with this! Obviously sickness, and such might just interrupt my regular programming, but I think it's do-able!

The Flu

YUCK! I hate the flu, but alas, it seems like I get it almost every year.  Of course this year would be no exception.  Just when I was thinking, "yeah! I didn't get sick this year!" my little angel came down with the flu, and I knew it would just be a matter of time before I got it.  Sure enough, I start showing symptoms last night.  I've got the cough, fever, headache, weakness, and aches and pains.  Oddest flu I've ever had! I've never, ever not been stuffy with the flu! All, in all, It's actually not been so bad.  I can already see the light at the end of the tunnel. Lilly is completely well again, other than some residual weakness.  She keeps saying she can't walk anywhere.  This is her first time with the flu.  I'm quite certain she's not used to the weakness.

Now the odd part.  Just about a month ago, I got the noravirus, rotovirus or whatever they are calling it, stomach bug.  The one where you're not just nauseated and in the restroom, the one where you think you're dying from the crazy amount of pain.  Anyways, being sick slowed up 2 orders I got around the same time.  Now, wouldn't you know I get 3 orders, one a fairly large order, all around the time I have the flu?  One might wonder if it's a sign I should shut down, but I KNOW God wants me home, behind my sewing machine or with a glue gun or crochet hook in my hand.

Speaking of God, my youngest brother's girlfriend got saved today! He said he's been witnessing to her over the last few weeks, and tonight she went to talk to my preacher grandfather about it.  Praise the Lord!   Please keep her and him in your prayers, as she will be under attack heavily by the enemy, and he will need to be able to support her through it.  Also pray for her family, I don't believe they are Christian.