Devotion · family · sunday devotion

Start building your trust #SundayDevotion

Start building your trust in God day by day!

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Form New Habits

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17

God’s Word teaches us that when we receive Christ as our Savior and Lord, He gives us a new nature. He gives us His nature. He also gives us a spirit of discipline and self-control, which is vital in allowing us to choose the ways of our new nature. He gives us a sound mind (see 2 Timothy 1:7), and that means we can think about things properly without being controlled by emotion. The way we once were passes away, and we have all the equipment we need for a brand-new way of behaving. God gives us the ability and offers to help us, but we are not puppets and God will not manipulate us. We must choose spirit over flesh and right over wrong. Our renewed spirits will then control our souls and bodies or, to say it another way, the inner person will control the outer person.

Without God’s help we have difficulty doing things in moderation. We frequently eat too much, spend too much money, have too much entertainment, and talk too much. We are excessive in our actions because we behave emotionally. And after the thing is done and cannot be undone, we regret doing it. But we can choose to form new habits, not doing something just because we feel like it, but instead doing what will produce the best result in the end.

We do not have to live in regret. God gives us His Spirit to enable us to make right and wise choices. He urges us, guides and leads us, but we still have to cast the deciding vote. If you have been casting the wrong vote, all you need to do is change your vote. Forming new habits will require making a decision to not do what you feel like doing unless it agrees with God’s will.

Trust in Him
God wants you to live out of your new nature, not your old one. Every time you put your trust in Him and cast the deciding vote to obey, His Spirit transforms you and makes you more like Him.

From the book Trusting God Day by Day by Joyce Meyer. Copyright © 2012 by Joyce Meyer. 

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coupons · dad · family · Review

Monday #Review of the @DollaShaveClub

I wanted to give this time. Try it out before I wrote anything bad or good about it. 
The first day we got the shaver from @DollarShaveClub we were very excited couldn’t wait to try it out. 

It looked very appealing in the pictures, the website promotes

A GREAT SHAVE FOR A FEW BUCKS. No commitment. No fees. No BS.

As for me being a frugal stay at home mom I liked the idea of the price.

Yes, it’s cheaper than the other brands.
When you stop to think about it using coupons with other brands you can get it for the same price maybe even cheaper. Even though we realized that we still wanted to try it out.

The website is easy to choose and start getting what you are looking for as it states on the website.

HOW IT WORKS Dollar Shave Club couldn’t be simpler. Select one of our great blades, pay only for the cost of your blades, and we send ’em right to your door every month.

We selected to have the most expensive one $9 month +shipping because I thought

” Hey this will be perfect. The website describes the blades as follow.

THE FINAL FRONTIER THE EXECUTIVE $9 EVERY MONTH SHIPS FREE SELECT 6
stainless steel blade
4 cartridges per month
Special trimmer edge built in for the professional
This blade comes from the future and lives in outer space
Full 90-degree pivot head Wide-open back for a fast, easy rinse Aloe, Vitamin E, and lavender lubricating strip calms sensitive skin.
What do you get the bathroom sink that has everything? The Executive. This blade is my successful. Muy sexy. Weighty, substantial handle delivers the ultimate compliment to the man who understands. And the shave is so buttery, it feels like you’re carving turns through a virgin Wyoming snowfall.

It took about a week for the delivery, and we had our brand-new shavers and a free sample of the aftershave in our hands.

It’s a nice-looking shaver and the Special trimmer was cool.

So, my husband tested it first, he used the shaver 2x and had to move on to a new one.
I told him maybe it was because I used it once and he said ” well the one we get at the store lasts 3weeks before changing blades.

He tried using another one by himself, I never touched it (I promise LOL) again after 2 shaves the blades were dull and it looked horrible.

Yes, we got disappointed. I had so much expectation for this product, and it failed. 😦

Still haven’t decided what I want to do next, but since the one we got is the best they can offer I think we will need to cancel.

(I bought this product, and this is my honest opinion, don’t forget everyone is different and the product might work great for you. It didn’t for us, and this is why I’m doing my review.)
Review

Never Said By Carol Lynch Williams #Review

Never Said

By Carol Lynch Williams
Published by Zondervan

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Why I Choose this Book

I liked the fact that it was a story about sisters, and it was a short read.

What I thought about the book 

 It’s a story about twin teenagers named Sarah and Annie. Sarah has an anxiety disorder and Annie has gained weight, and had a personality change. She holds a deep secret Their parents are in denial that the twins need serious help.

This book has some deep thoughts coming from Annie
She puts herself down and has really low self-esteem
Made me think of a lot of times when you see teens acting the way she does.

Another eye opener for parents.

I recommend parents to read it and kids especially girls would love it.

Back Cover 

From bestselling author Carol Lynch Williams (The Chosen One), a contemporary YA novel about a family that has been caught up in what doesn’t matter and how two sisters realize that their relationship—no matter how different the two of them are—is most important.
In this contemporary YA novel by bestselling author Carol Lynch Williams (The Chosen One), fifteen-year-old fraternal twins Annie and Sarah are sisters, but that is where their interaction ends. Then Annie begins to withdraw from the family, forcing Sarah to investigate why-and the secret she uncovers changes their relationship forever.
Never Said explores not only the effects of abuse but also our world’s reliance on self, beauty, and other people’s perceptions. With themes of forgiveness, love, sacrifice, and hope woven throughout the story, teens and other fans of young adult fiction will be drawn to this story of two sisters who must find a way to come together and find the healing they both need.

I received this book from BookLook in exchange for a review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Devotion · Family Share · kids · reeding · Review

Protecting Your #Child from • Soul Poison •  #Parenting 

Protecting Your Child from “Soul Poison”
There are some decent, even values-oriented things on television for children these days. But, as you know very well, there’s a lot of garbage, too. And in between those two extremes, there are shows that are mostly good but have some words scattered in them that little ears shouldn’t be hearing – or big ears, for that matter. Along comes a service called TV Guardian – which automatically replaces a naughty word with a nice word, thus removing what could be bad for your child. Occasionally, the replacements are actually a little amusing. Like the word “sex,” for example. The replacement word is “hugs.” Which gets a little interesting when someone asks, “So what will be the hugs of your baby?” But I do think TV Guardian is a pretty good idea.

Something like TV Guardian was invented for parents who realize a very important assignment that they have; to protect their children from anything that could harm them. Of course, a parent is going to protect their son or daughter from physical harm – like getting too close to the edge of a cliff or running onto the Interstate. But Mom and Dad have no less a responsibility for protecting their kids from things that can hurt their soul. And there’s a lot of soul poison out there.

There is a ten-word challenge that underscores where the front lines of the battle are for any life – including that of your children. Proverbs 4:23 begins with these attention-getting words, “Above all else…” Then these ten words – “Guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” In other words, be careful about what gets into your heart – or into your child’s heart – because it is the reservoir from which everything else flows.

Yes, one front in the battle for a child’s pure heart is related to what they listen to and watch. It’s amazing how we will allow someone to portray right in our living room, on TV, DVD, or Netflix, things we would never, ever allow to be done in our living room – sexually, for example. We allow comedy into our home and into their heart that trivializes sin that ruins lives; not realizing that our kids are learning to laugh about things that are eternally serious. No matter what the parental peer pressure of what other parents are allowing and what the culture says is “must see” stuff, we’ve got to stand our ground on not allowing our kids to mentally eat out of the garbage can.

 
But guarding their heart is so much bigger than TV or movies or music. It’s about the poison that comes from us. The bitterness they’re learning by listening to us, the anger, the self-centeredness, the putdowns of other people, the names they hear us call people, the prejudice they hear in the way we talk about others, the disrespect they hear us expressing toward people at work, at church – or even toward their Mother or Father. That’s more deadly poison than anything the media can pump out. Our precious children need “Parent Guardian” – to protect them from the poison that they see modeled in living color by a Mom or Dad.

The DVR in your son’s or daughter’s heart is always recording. It’s always capturing what it hears, and the impressions are shaping who they’re becoming. You are the guardian, assigned to your child by God, to protect that young heart from poison and infection – even if (especially if) it’s coming from you.

Going Deeper

One undesirable trait I see in my child that reminds me of myself is… One thing I could do to help them and me grow in that area is…

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

Proverbs‬ ‭4:23‬ ‭NIV‬‬ Tweet: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs‬ ‭4:23‬ ‭NIV‬‬ - Via- @4Guys_1Girl

“I will sing of your love and justice; to you, Lord, I will sing praise. I will be careful to lead a blameless life— when will you come to me? I will conduct the affairs of my house with a blameless heart. I will not look with approval on anything that is vile. I hate what faithless people do; I will have no part in it. The perverse of heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with what is evil. Whoever slanders their neighbor in secret, I will put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not tolerate. My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; the one whose walk is blameless will minister to me. No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence. Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked in the land; I will cut off every evildoer from the city of the Lord.”

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭101:1-8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Study by Ron Hutchcraft
Health

{ The Truth } my experience

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So, you all know I’ve been sick for a little while now. In and out of the hospital and with doctor’s appointments almost daily. Yes, it all sucks, and I get very stressed by it all. I wanted to share a little about my experience at this hospital I always go to. And yes, I know most of you (or all of you) will ask me why do I keep going back to the same hospital?

Well, it’s not that I don’t like the hospital.
Compared to all the other hospitals around it looks very good, and well maintained. Yes, I’ve been to the other ones.

This place has all my records since I was a teen. Well, if they keep their record that long they should have it. This is one main reason I come back here all the time to keep all the files in one place I believe to be important.

They keep the hospital very clean, the cleaning crew is constantly around sweeping and picking up trash, making sure everything is clean and well taken care of. My point of view is another important thing. The Hygiene of the place needs to be kept at a good standard always. Unless you want the patients getting sicker instead of better.

When I went to South Shore Hospital the outside, main entrance, and all the other floors looked awesome, but the ER room was disturbing to even look at. They had no private rooms all the rooms were just divided by curtains, there were numerous people just hanging in the hallways and being treated right there it wasn’t nice at all.

Brockton Hospital took me in fast and treaded me fast, I had no wait at all, and the nurses were nice. The doctor was an Ass and didn’t even care to listen to me. The room they put me in was a supply room filled with junk and not the right room to have a patient in. I wasn’t happy.

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Good Samaritan Medical Center 

is the place where it all starts, we had many experiences here.

My Husband had surgery here back in 2006 -2008 not sure when and everything was fine he was sent home. A couple of weeks later he came back to the hospital with internal bleeding because of the surgery. I guess something was wrong and he started to bleed. he was hospitalized again for 7 days. They didn’t do anything besides keep him on antibiotics and monitor him, but the bleeding did stop, and he was good after that.

I came to the ER back in March of 2013 with pain in my right calf. I waited for about 4 hours to be seen. After waiting for all those hours, I was told by the nurse I didn’t need to see a doctor because I was young and strong and all I had was a pinched nerve on my back.
Because I love to read and be very informed at all times, I had already read all about my pain and what it could be, and what test should be done to find out what it was. So, I told her very patiently that I wanted an ultrasound of my legs and she argued with me that I didn’t need one.
At this point I was very angry and told her, I had all rights to get one. I demanded one and she finally asked the ultrasound people to come.  This nurse then disappeared I didn’t see that nurse again for the rest of the time I was there.

When the ultrasound tech got to my ER room, they asked why I demanded an ultrasound I said because I educated myself and all the symptoms were pointing to a Blood Clot and not a pinched nerve. So, they did the Ultrasound, and Bam. There it was I had a DVT (deep vein thrombosis) behind my knees. If I had listened to that nurse, I could have died that night. Thank God I didn’t. I was admitted immediately. That same day I found out I was a factor 2 carrier. The doctor that took care of me when I was admitted she was the worst doctor ever, she was so rude. 2 days after being treated for a DVT she sent me home, and even though I complained I couldn’t breathe and had chest pain she didn’t even care to check if I had a pulmonary embolism.

When I left the hospital and got home, I was back the next day because I almost died of a PE (Pulmonary Embolism) Thanks to the lovely doctor that discharged me before I was ready to go home. Besides the ER wait, the nurse at the ER and the Rude Doctor that took care of me. Everything else was great, the people, the food, the beds, the cleanliness, everything. With this experience, I was scared to ever come back to Good Samaritan Medical Center ever again. I always do though because if you compare all the hospitals around Good Sam is still the best one. Plus, they have all my records. So, this year once again I needed to visit the ER and be hospitalized. My experience was much different. Still had the bad times but I also had my good times. 🙂

I was sent to the Hospital by my doctor. My PCP. She had requested me to be admitted. I sat at the ER from 7pm till 7am the next day waiting all that time, they finally called me in and when they did the doctor comes in and tells me there’s nothing, he can do for me, and he was sending me home. LOL a joke, right?

I called my PCP right away and I said either you fight this one or I will, and things will not be pretty. So, he did, and I was admitted…..I came up to the Floor, the 1st doctor that saw me didn’t give too much attention to me and didn’t care much about my problems. The nurses were very nice. Late that night my roommate decided she wanted to kill me and said she was going to throw things at me, and she didn’t want to see or hear me. Hahahahah

So, the nurses had to move me immediately to a different room. The next morning, I had the best doctor his name is Dr. Spiegel what a nice Guy. Talked to me like I was a human I liked that. Even though he said there is nothing more he can do for me, and they are sending me home. He still said it and explained it so nicely that it made me understand it. It was calmed instead of freaking me out and making me nervous. The nurses I had on this side are just amazing as well, Heather the pregnant lady is such a sweetheart, Steph is great too, Ashley the girl they made her sit in my room with me, nice person to talk to I actually never talked to anyone that much kind of cool. I liked her from the start.  And all the other ones 🙂 I just wish I didn’t have to go home without a cure to my situation other than that I’m ok with this visit 🙂

Oh not to mention the Portuguese bread it’s so delicious yummy 🙂

Causes · Health · Review

{ PTSD } A Spouse’s Perspective How to Survive in A World of #PTSD _ By Erica David

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PTS D A Spouse’s Perspective How to Survive in A World of PTSD
By Erica David  
Published by West Bow Press

Has PTSD invaded your world?

Are you always walking on eggshells? Feel like nothing you do is right? Are you the victim of physical, emotional, or verbal abuse? Are you in a relationship with someone who suffers from PTSD? Then this book is a must-read for you. There is hope!

What is PTSD? It’s the aftermath of a traumatic event that happens during a person’s life no matter their age. The effect PTSD has on a family is very complicated why not say it’s very sad. I believe it affects everyone not only the person that has the PTSD but the spouse, their children, and anyone else that is around that person. 

In this book, the author tells her story, about her family, and how her husband came home from war and was a different man. After all that must have happened there, he had some difficult issues that took her some time to understand because he wouldn’t talk about it, like most people with PTSD. Him being like that made her depressed, and a secondary PTSD from her marriage. Not only that but she also suffered some childhood trauma that also caused her to have PTSD.  So, the book goes on to explain what PTSD is – It explains in detail the traumatic event that happens during her life. Even though the cause of PTSD can be when you’re a child you can still suffer as an adult. Some people never realize the impact that the event has on them until they start counseling sessions. When the therapist asks about the event, they have to recall all the traumatic events back. For some sleep is unpleasant, and a lot of people have panic attacks. In every chapter of the book, she gives you an answer and teaches you how to deal with some key points.  I guess I expected a little more I don’t know if it’s because I suffer from PTSD and wanted more details for myself and she’s more on the ” Veteran Spouse ” side of the story. But overall, I liked her book, and I would recommend it.

There is a quote in the book that I related to it, and I would like to quote it. 

Why does life have to hurt so bad? I am tired of the pain that is deep inside that I think I have learned to cope with only to have it mutate and return again. The people I hold dear don’t truly understand how I feel. They can’t. No one knows what I feel inside but me. The loneliness, the despair, the lack of accomplishment, the low self-esteem. if you have been successful there is no way you can understand my pain of rejection. Knowing that I am capable, but no one will give me a chance. One look at my resume says it all.
For 20 years, I devoted myself to my husband and my kids. Now I feel like I have nothing. Nothing but a persistent pain that keeps me from moving forward. But I don’t have anything to move forward to. Somewhere I lost myself, and I don’t know how to relate to this person that I have become. One minute I am fine and the next minute I am a bucket of tears. The seemingly happy moments are only a masquerade to cover the pain.
I keep treading water trying to stay afloat. But I am slowly sinking. Not able to decide what is best for me. Not wanting to make the wrong decision. I am indecisive. Wish I could live both lives to see which one I like better. Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way. You live with the choices you make. Good or bad.  I am someone who can be lonely in a crowded room. I sit quietly listening, thinking, but never contributing to the conversation. After all, what I have to say probably isn’t important or eventually, someone else will say what I was thinking. So why bother. Just stay in my own world. Nobody notices anyway.
What is peace? Is peace ever possible? I only wish I knew. I thought of suicide, but I don’t want to leave that scar on my children’s hearts for the remainder of their lives. I can’t even die in peace. Just please take the pain away. Let me find PEACE.

That is a killer quote/poem she wrote there it was so deep I was left speechless. To me, it was so me beside the suicide part. Having PTSD Sucks and although some people might think there’s a cure for it, I believe there isn’t. Unless you’ve ” Suffered from it ” don’t judge. That’s what I have to say 🙂

The reason why I say that is because You Might be able to FORGIVE but forgetting the past is something completely different and difficult to do trust me … Have a Blessed Day!!!!  

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers <http://booklookbloggers.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this by the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html>: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”