Choosing life, joy and thankfulness!

My heart feels alive today! Realizing it is something I have to choose each day is...life and life abundantly, I have to choose joy, and I have to choose thankfulness. This isn't always easy for me, I have always struggled with being negative and kind a down, still asking the Lord where this all stems from. I've received a lot of break through in this area in the last months with praying and asking the Lord to help me in this area and having my husband and others stand in agreement with me in prayer and calling me on it when I start speaking negative etc. So I've been trying to not focus on everything that sucks or that is hard in my life but focus on all the blessing the Lord has given me in the natural and spiritual, when I want to say how hard something is instead finding something good about that situation.

Here's some verses to ponder...
Psalm 100:4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name
Psalm 16:11 You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

I pray the Lord will encounter you all with his love and joy today! Be blessed today!
~Hilary

Hi

Well Hello! Sorry it has been so long, haven't been keeping up with the blogging much these days. Just thought I'd say a quick hi, the kids are starting to wake up from their naps. The girls share a room and it so sweet when the wake up the talk and giggle, it makes my heart happy! Samuel has a big boy bed now and he loves it and plays in his room as well, thank you Lord! Things are going well, getting into a routine here. Spring has arrived so that sure helps. We can go for walks, go to the park, let the kids run outside, what a blessing! Trinity turned 2 this week, and Esther will be one next month, and no we are not pregnant yet. Yes we still want a lot of children! It has been kind of nice for my body to have a little break and I'm sure it's been nice for Tom too(I'm a little emotional, to say the least, when I'm pregnant). Hmmm... what else, hearts a good, God has been sifting through a lot but it is only making me stronger and causing me to Trust Him and love Him even more. So that's the quick version of what is going on and here's some pics, was trying to post more but having issues, oh well her ya go!

Say Momma

Here's Esther after her bath, she was saying Momma until I started recording. As you can hear in the back the kids are still taking there bath while Daddy is making music!

Hello again!

The Lord has been providing so much for us! Since we moved here we've had our fridge and cupboards full which has been such a major blessing. I've been wanting some things for our kitchen like matching plates and some extra utensils and the Lord provided that this last month, this sounds little but this was huge to me and really made my heart happy! We are learning "the big system" as we call it. Coming from a small House of Prayer to a big House of Prayer has been an adjustment and it has taken some time to learn how they do things here but we are getting use to it and we are enjoying it! Tom is working in the media department now. He is really liking this, he works 36 hours there and then 12 hours he is praying in the prayer room. He also has been waking up early in the mornings to pray before he goes to work in the Media Department. I have secretly peeked in on him a couple times and I love seeing my Hubby get in the word, praying and being an excellent one! Since I see him praying at home and not only at the prayer room it provokes me to have my quiet time with the Lord also. I've been really enjoying sitting in silence before the Lord, this has been keeping my heart alive these days! I meet with a group once a week and we pray/sit in silence for an hour together and it is my favorite day of the week. I also have been meeting with other Mom's once a week which is another one of my favorite times. We encourage one another, talk and laugh and it is so good for my heart! Tom has been staying home with the children so that I can attend some of the nightly services as well as be in the prayer room which has been very refreshing. So there's our quick update, have to get back to the little ones! Here's some pics for you. Bless you all ~Hilary

building a family altar

I know it has been a while since I've blogged it up! This is what has been on my heart lately is building a family altar. Before we moved out to KC, MO there was a day where we knew we needed to seek the Lord for some answers on what this new season was going to look like. So Tom got his guitar out started worshipping, I gave the kids there bibles, Trinity was dancing and Samuel was sitting next to Tom. Then Samuel kept pointing at the bible like he wanted us to read something. We look and it is Genesis 35:1 Then God said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother." Gen 35:2 And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments. Gen 35:3 "Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone.

I love this because He says to go there, dwell there, make an altar. Bethel was a place where Jacob had encountered the Lord, for us KC is a place where we had encounters with the Lord. Then it says in vs. 3 he tells his household to arise and go to Bethel. It was so clear to us that the Lord was saying go to KC, dwell there, and make a family altar. So we are here, we are dwelling, now to build a family altar. So I am pondering what does that mean, what does a family altar look like etc. Some things I've come up with this morning is an altar is a place of communion, it is a place to bring gifts of worship and sacrifice, it is a common place to meet with God. That out of a heart of thanksgiving we build and altar and worship God. I was looking in the Bible at some of the men that built altars. First there is Noah, Moses, and Jacob. I feel like Noah represents grace, Moses the law, and Jacob is a wrestler and represents prayer.

So this is just the beginning of my study on this but babies are crying and it is time to start the day, just needed to share some thoughts, we will update ya soon. Bless you all!
~Hilary