Archive | November 2019

Den blagodareniye, 2019

День благодарение, 2019

В этом году Бог «усовершенствовал» несколько огромных проектов / дел / желаний, и я хочу снова сделать паузу, чтобы поблагодарить и выразить свою уверенность в Его делах, Его руководстве, Его сердце, Его совершенстве.

Во первых, Он сделал «Зеленую карту» Виталия и ускоренный процесс гражданства США. Это включало очень много факторов и заняло больше года.

Во-вторых, строительство / ремонт этой квартиры и покупка новую машину. Мои родители и фандрайзинг, через который Бог усмотрел эти средства… Просто удивительно.

В-третьих, крещение Скайлы и то, как она и Виктория расцветают в этом году. Они оба начали играть на инструментах для групп (гитара, барабаны, пианино), помогают в AWANA и иметь собственную небольшую заработанную работу вне дома.

Также стали легче путешествовать всей семьей и просто наслаждались семейной жизнью. Дети замечательные и удивительные.

Thanksgiving, 2019

This year God ‘perfected’ several large projects/deeds/desires, and I want to pause again to give thanks and express my confidence in His deeds, His leading, His heart, His perfection.

First, He completed Vitaliy’s Green Card and expedited American citizenship. This involved so many factors, and took over a year.

Second, the construction/renovation of this apartment and buying a new van. My parents and the fundraiser through which God supplied these funds …. simply amazing.

Third, Skyla’s baptism and the way she and Victoria are blooming this year. They’ve both started playing instruments for groups (guitar, drums, piano), helping in AWANA, and having their own small money-earning jobs outside home.

We’ve also started traveling as a family more easily and just enjoying our family life even more. Kids are rewarding and amazing.

Sozdana dlya svoye zhizni

Создана для своей жизни

Бог напомнил мне сегодня, что Он создал меня для своей жизни, для работы (дома с детьми), которую Он мне дал.

Я слушала проповед об осуждении и уверености, а затем читала несколько книг о материнстве.

И Бог напомнил мне, что быть мамой – роль, которую я чувствую больше всего в моих неудачах, некомпетентности, неподготовленности и т. д. – что это то, для чего Он меня создал. Он точно создал меня быть мамой. Он подготовил меня к этому.

То же самое с домашним обучением детей. Это работа, от которой я не смогла «сбежать»; Бог заставил меня сделать это. Это не значит, что я идеален для этого, но Он – мое обеспечение – Ему достаточно, чтобы выполнить эту работу. Он усмотрить все, что нам нужно для обучения, воспитания и подготовки наших детей к служению в Его Царстве. На самом деле, Он очень в это вложен – даже больше, чем я!

Прекрасное напоминание!

made for my life

God reminded me today that He made me for my life, for the work He’s given me to do.

I was listening to a talk about condemnation versus confidence, then I was reading some books about motherhood.

And God reminded me that being a mom– the role I feel most my failures, incompetence, unprepared for, etc.– it’s what He created me for. He exactly created me to be a mom. He prepared me to do this.

The same with home schooling. It’s something I’ve not been able to “escape;” God made me to do this. It doesn’t mean I’m perfect for it, but He is my provision– He is enough to do this job. He will supply everything we need to educate, disciple, and prepare our children to be His kingdom workers. In fact, He’s very invested in this– even more than I!

Goals 2020, spiritual disciplines

So, I sense God leading me to practice some new spiritual disciplines. I was thinking how it’s kind of different– not making goals that have accomplish-able ends, but rather, making my goals the establishment of habitual practices.

It feels more like … work.

But maybe it’s exactly what should be.

Here’s the reading list I’ve started in my bullet journal (disclaimer: I read widely and with discernment 😉 ):

I’ve started my reading and study and practice, though I don’t have any type of plan laid out yet.

I’ve been trying the practice of Silence during prayer. It’s hard to be silent, to turn the many thoughts and conversations of my mind off, and simply sit before God and ask Him to speak to me if and when He wants. And I’ve found that the times of silence themselves, I don’t get a lot. But then later, I’ll have a major breakthrough or insight into some long-standing issue. 

I wanted to share a fabulous quote from this Jay E. Adams pamphlet, “Godliness Through Discipline.”

Structure alone brings freedom. Discipline brings liberty. Our whole age has been brainwashed into thinking the opposite. Today we are told that we can get freedom and liberty only by throwing over structure and discipline…. The order is–first, structured discipline, then freedom; there is no other.

pp.14-15

I have more books coming in the mail. And here’s what I have already, from digging through the library I have collected here already.

return to birth work

A month or two back, a pregnant mom contacted me and wanted me to be her doula. It’s been a few years since I’d been a doula, especially for a birth house birth, but I thought it over and talked with Vitaliy, and then said OK.

So, nine days after her birth, I must say, I’m so very, very glad I took that break for a few years! I’ve been able to forgive, to make better emotional, physical, and mental boundaries for myself, and to come back to this (after my own births and pregnancies and breastfeeding are over) and just serve a woman.

Whom did I forgive? I learned to forgive medical personnel for the shocking, abusive way they conduct births and treat couples. I give them grace, that they are also abused people basically doing what they’re taught and being who the culture forms them into.

I’ve forgiven women for going to birth in these places. I have grace for them, that they are doing what they think is best, doing what they have the confidence to do.

By God’s help, I am with these people in the power of Christ, walking in His love and forgiveness and help, as He did on the earth.

God gave me a powerful way to help myself put boundaries around my mind. When I remember their treatment and how the birth went, when the video tape of memory plays in my head, I pause the tape, everyone in the room freezes, and I walk to each one (in my mind), and I bless them and pray for them to know the love of Jesus. Then I don’t start the tape again. If it comes back, I just do the same exercise. It transforms me, to be a life-giving person and not become hard and rude, nor crushed and sad and helpless.

I also stepped out of the room after the baby was born, to not witness the after-birth abuse. That boundary helped.

So another lady has contacted me, too, and God seems to say “let’s do it!”