Home Educator Mom Blog
I would like to let everyone know that due to my busy summer schedule that’s ahead, I will have to put the Thursday link up on hold temporarily. The site will still be active, and I will periodically continue to post. I wanted to take a minute to thank all my bloggy friends who have faithfully linked up with me on my Thursday Be Inspired By Others Blog Hop.
Last weekend we spent a few days with our friends in Gearhart, a lovely, quiet town three miles north of Seaside at the Oregon coast. Gearhart is located 10 miles from the northwest tip of Oregon and about 80 miles from Portland. View map of Oregon Coast.
What appealed to us is the quiet, slow-paced atmosphere of Gearhart. Once you entered city limits, there are no street lights. Wide streets made it a great place for biking. To learn an easy way to teach children to bike, read my post Teach Your Child to Ride a Bike.
With the unusually warm Mother’s Day weekend, it made it a perfect time for a walk down to the unspoiled sandy Gearhart Beach which is situated right in town. Just bring some shovels and buckets and the kids will entertain themselves for hours. One thing Buddy, my big boy, discovered was jumping waves. Standing in the water hand in hand with his friends and taking a big jump on the waves as it crashed in. He had the biggest smile of satisfaction! See picture below.
I had fun shell hunting on the beach. Together with our friends we must have collected ten sand dollars. At low tide, some of us even found some live sand dollars, and yes, we did return them to the sea. I found this sand dollar poem and thought you might enjoy it too (see picture below). There’re other versions of the Legend of the Sand Dollar. If you’re interested, there’s also Legend of the Sand Dollar children’s book.
When night falls, we enjoyed a fun game of Two Truths and a Lie around this outdoor fire with marshmallows and yummy smores. We were told that bonfires on the beach is permitted.
If you’re a golfer, Gearhart is home to Gearhart Gold Links, the oldest golf course in the northwest, beautiful and well kept. Other activities include tennis, clamming and flying kites. Visit City of Gearhart for more information. We definitely enjoyed ourselves in Gearhart. I hope you enjoyed all those fun pictures! Now on with our Thursday blog hop.
Welcome to Be Inspired By Others Thursday Blog Hop.
Now let’s link up in community.
If you don’t have a blog, I invite you to visit some great posts from bloggers around the web. Thank you to those of you who linked up with me last week. I loved reading all of your great posts.
Come inspire us by linking up your wonderful posts here so we all can be inspired. All family-friendly posts such as, marriage, motherhood, crafts, recipes, homeschooling, organization, and more are welcome. If you decide to join the fun by linking up with us, I request that you add Home Educator Mom’s button to your posts or site so others can join us as well. You can find the html code in the sidebar, or “save as” copy, and paste the button below on your blog.
If you have a Giveaway, check out my big list of Sites to List Your Giveaways. I personally use this list myself so the links should work.
Hop on over here to see my list of Blog Hops / Link-up Parties to add your link and join others.
No matter what you’ve done in the past, God wants you to worship Him wholeheartedly today and enjoy life to the full. It’s possible!
When I stand on a sandy beach looking out over the watery expanse of the ocean, hearing the thunder of the waves, I am awed. Every time, I think, “What a magnificent creation! What a marvelous Creator who holds these waters in the palm of His hand!”
Instinctively, I begin to sing “How Great Thou Art.” No one hears me as the wind rushes my words to the Lord alone.
One otherwise beautiful spring day, however, it was not thoughts of God’s grandeur that filled my mind as I surveyed the mighty waters stretching to the horizon. My own sin had my attention this time.
I thought of one particular sin that I knew had grieved my Creator. And there I sat with Bible in hand and the ocean before me, trying to come back into His presence.
That week I had been memorizing Micah 7:18-20. Verse 19 came back like a song: “You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea” (NIV).
As I confessed my sin to the Lord, in faith I believed that it had sunk to the deepest depths. I then remembered what Corrie ten Boom used to say, that after God hurls our sins into the ocean, He puts up a sign that reads, “No fishing.”
A sin I could have allowed to haunt me was gone altogether. What freedom, what peace, what joy!
My faith in God’s total forgiveness was tested only a few weeks later. I was traveling with some friends to a weekend conference. When we neared the seaside town where I’d been the previous month, I panicked. I realized, This is where I had left my sin!
But the fear passed quickly as I realized my sin was nowhere to be found—it was gone for good. Not buried at sea with the grim possibility of being someday washed ashore, but totally forgotten by God through the blood of Jesus Christ.
Since that experience, I often think of the promise of Micah 7:19 and thank God for the joy of being cleansed completely, being made pure and new.
 About Renée SanfordRenée has been married to her high school sweetheart, David, for 30 years. They are the parents of three grown and married children and two teens and blessed with six grandkids. Renée has a passion for encouraging mothers at every stage—in an article, at a conference, or over a cup of coffee or tea. Renée is the co-author (with David) of How to Read Your Bible and the notes for the Living Faith Bible. |
Welcome to Be Inspired By Others Thursday Blog Hop.
Now let’s link up in community.
If you don’t have a blog, I invite you to visit some great posts from bloggers around the web. As always, I’m thankful for those of you who linked up here last week. I loved reading all of your posts. Thank you for taking the time to say hello.
Come inspire us by linking up your wonderful posts here so we all can be inspired. All family-friendly posts such as, marriage, motherhood, crafts, recipes, homeschooling, organization, and more are welcome. If you decide to join the fun by linking up with us, I request that you add Home Educator Mom’s button to your posts or site so others can join us as well. You can find the html code in the sidebar, or “save as” copy, and paste the button below on your blog.
If you have a Giveaway, check out my big list of Sites to List Your Giveaways. I personally use this list myself so the links should work.
Hop on over here to see my list of Blog Hops / Link-up Parties to add your link and join others.
This side of heaven, life often doesn’t make sense. The best thing to do is stop and listen.
Sometimes our family will be sitting at the dinner table discussing plans for the upcoming weekend. “No one told me about that!” someone will protest.
“Where have you been?” we reply. “We’ve been talking about that event all week!”
On many occasions, I’ve asked my oldest son to complete a task or have given him directions on where to find a missing item. Although I speak the words aloud, his channel finder is tuned elsewhere and he often doesn’t hear a thing I’m saying.
Before we left for a week away from our children, my husband and I looked our then 16-month-old baby in the eyes and told him we were leaving, but we would be back soon. His young brain couldn’t translate the words into usable meanings. So, in spite of my warnings, he woke up confused and irritated to find someone besides Mommy or Daddy looking over his crib. But you can’t say I didn’t warn him!
Jesus told the disciples all about His coming suffering, death, and resurrection, but they didn’t get it. But you can’t say He didn’t warn them.
Hours after His resurrection, Jesus walked along the road to Emmaus with two friends and explained the Scriptures in a way they had never comprehended before. The suffering, death, and resurrection of the Messiah shone from every passage and fell into place like an intricately planned pattern. God had not been silent before that day—they simply had not understood the words before.
The disciples had more than the Scriptures, which came into sharp focus on hindsight. They had Jesus with them—the One who revealed the glory and will of God daily. They heard with their own ears His very direct and pointed explanation of what was to come, but their hearts could not absorb it.
We beg God to explain His plan, but many times, He already has. Perhaps our minds are distracted with the worries of the world. Perhaps we don’t know the Scripture and thus don’t know the heart of God—a knowledge we need in order to comprehend and trust His ways. Perhaps we haven’t come to spiritual maturity—just as our baby boy was too young to comprehend what our older children readily understand. Or perhaps the understanding is beyond our reach. God could tell us plainly, but our ears would hear only the foreign language of heaven; our hearts and minds would not understand its meaning.
When uncertainty rocks your world or your cries to God seem unanswered—stop to listen. Listen with the ears of your spirit to the voice of the Holy Spirit in His Word. Perhaps He has answered you plainly already. If not, remember our limited understanding is only temporary. Like the disciples, the day will come when we will all exclaim, “Of course! Why didn’t I understand it before?”
| About Renée Sanford Renée has been married to her high school sweetheart, David, for 30 years. They are the parents of three grown and married children and two teens and blessed with six grandkids. Renée has a passion for encouraging mothers at every stage—in an article, at a conference, or over a cup of coffee or tea. Renée is the co-author (with David) of How to Read Your Bible and the notes for the Living Faith Bible. |
Now let’s link up in community:
If you don’t have a blog, I invite you to visit some great posts from bloggers around the web. As always, I really appreciate those of you who linked up here last week. I loved reading all of your posts. Thank you for taking the time to say hello.
Come inspire us by linking up your wonderful posts here so we all can be inspired. All family-friendly posts such as, marriage, motherhood, crafts, recipes, homeschooling, organization, and more are welcome. If you decide to join the fun by linking up with us, I request that you add Home Educator Mom’s button to your posts or site so others can join us as well. You can find the html code in the sidebar, or “save as” copy, and paste the button below on your blog.
If you have a Giveaway, check out my big list of Sites to List Your Giveaways. I personally use this list myself so the links should work.
Hop on over here to see my list of Blog Hops / Link-up Parties to add your link and join others.
This week marks the milestone of our 100th post. In celebration, we’re giving away a $25.00 amazon.com gift card. One winner will receive an electronic gift card code. Simply fill in the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win. Winner will be announced right here on the Rafflecopter. If you’re here for the Blog Hop, scroll passed the Giveaway to the bottom of this post.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Welcome to another week of Be Inspired By Others Thursday Blog Hop.
If you don’t have a blog, I invite you to visit some great posts from bloggers around the web. As always, I really appreciate those of you who linked up here last week. I loved reading all of your posts. Thank you for taking the time to say hello.
Come inspire us by linking up your wonderful posts here so we all can be inspired. All family-friendly posts such as, marriage, motherhood, crafts, recipes, homeschooling, organization, and more are welcome. If you decide to join the fun by linking up with us, I request that you add Home Educator Mom’s button to your posts or site so others can join us as well. You can find the html code in the sidebar, or “save as” copy, and paste the button below on your blog.
If you have a Giveaway, check out my big list of Sites to List Your Giveaways. I personally use this list myself so the links should work.
Hop on over here to see my list of Blog Hops / Link-up Parties to add your link and join others.
Hi, I'm Betty and welcome to Home Educator Mom. Whether you are a homeschooling family or not, we’re all called to be our kids’ first teachers. Our desire here is to encourage moms as we walk this path of training and equipping our children. We hope you will stay a while and join us on this journey: learning and sharing life together. Meet our contributors and view their bios.
