Living as a Victorious Christian Woman

Starting tomorrow, millions of people will set their New Year's resolutions and face them head-on. For a day, maybe a week, hopefully longer... Has this ever happened to you: you start the new year with a handful of resolutions that will make you healthier, smarter, prettier, and more spiritual. You're motivated and ready to go, and you do pretty well for a while. But then your schedule stops you, your relationships hold you back, your plans fall apart, and soon you've decided it's easier to just go back to the way you lived before your resolutions. Sound familiar? For most of us, this is what the first few weeks (ok, days) of the year look like. There's no lasting motivation to keep going with that exercise plan, Bible study, or house cleaning schedule, so it falls by the wayside. Unfortunately, this also means that our spirits take a beating. Our best intentions turn into something we stick in the back of a closet, only to be pulled out again next January. Suddenl...

Cookies are amazing. Cookies with frosting are even better. Cookie sandwiches with frosting and candy inside knock dessert out of the park! And being so simple to put together is the icing on the cake ... or cookie in this case. You can use store-bought cookies or make your own. Just make sure they're as flat as possible. Then all you need are frosting, candies, sprinkles, sanding sugar, and something to cut a circle. Use your circle cutter to cut the middle out of a third of the cookies. Use something with a sharp edge like a cookie cutter or small glass. Then frost one cookie. Layer the cut cookie on top, pressing it down in the frosting to hold it in place. Add the candies to fill the cookie hole. Then frost the entire top of the cookie to hold the candies in place. Top that cookie with another cookie and frost the whole thing. Fancy it up with a little sanding sugar for that New Year's Eve look. Now when you cut it open, you'll find the candy surprise inside! How cute w...

Lord, I read Your word, and I find myself praying to You using Your own words. The new year is coming so quickly, and I want to live the way You would have so I can serve You the way You desire. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all  men .  v14  I hate to pray for patience, Lord, because I know You will put me in situations where I need patience. But I know this is how I grow, though, and I pray that You will move me, change me, and help me be more compassionate. See that none render evil for evil unto any  man ;  but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all  men. v15 Show me how to be a positive spiritual influence on everyone in my sphere. Help me to follow hard after Your good things, both to be an example and to strengthen my faith every day. Rejoice evermore. v16 In You, my joy is full. I pray that You will show me the moments of joy in the year...

What better way to spend New Year's Eve than in riotous laughter? There is no better way, I promise.  As part of our New Year's Eve Sunday School lesson, we're going to do a good, old-fashioned Mad Lib! These were the staple of all entertainment when I was a teenager, and our youth group loves them, too. (We just have to teach them what adjectives, verbs, and nouns are, which I assumed they would learn in school, but apparently haven't.) To make my own Mad Lib, I started a letter template in Canva. You could use any word processing program or design software that you're comfortable with, but I use these pre-designed templates so I don't have to start from scratch. I'm just lazy like that... As I wrote the form, I left out certain words that would completely change the sentence with different random words. For example: One of my (________) memories of the year was when (________) (________). The first blank is an adjective - "favorite" would be the ...

What could be more fun than looking forward to the New Year? It's a special day in our house, and I found a fun way to celebrate all day long! These countdown gift bags are perfect for marking each hour of New Year's Eve, culminating with a midnight kiss. To make these bags, you only need a few supplies: some clock faces, paper bags, ribbon, and a little embellishment. Decide on a color scheme or theme and coordinate all your supplies. I found my clock faces on a teacher's website and printed all 12 hours on card stock. You can print more or fewer, depending on how long you want to celebrate - or how many gifts you'd like to give! I folded the top of each bag over twice and punched holes for the ribbon. Remember that your gift has to fit inside after the bag's been folded and tied, so plan accordingly. A little double stick tape keeps in the times in place. After tucking the gift inside, I folded the top down and ran the ribbon through.  Then I tied the glittered fl...

It's the first day of fall, and I hope I'm not the only one excited about it! This is my season - the colors, the crisp air, the smells, the flavors, and the need for sweaters and fuzzy socks. Throw in a fluffy blanket and some apple cider and you've just designed my perfect time of year. Whether you're totally on board with the change of seasons or you're gripping the last moments of summer with all your strength, let's make a plan for the fall. A bucket list, if you will, with everything you'd like to tackle between now and the end of November. I've put together a fun graphic for you with just a few ideas to start your creative flow. You can make one of your own - on your phone, on a pretty piece of paper, printed off the computer or tacked to corkboard on the kitchen wall. Or use a clipboard so it's portable and you can take it in the car. Not sure what to put on your fall bucket list? Check out your local tourism office's website. If the conv...

One of my least favorite things in the entire world is dry chicken. This recipe makes that essentially impossible. And that's a very good thing. I wish this was more difficult so it would look like I'm an expert in the kitchen. But it's not. And I'm not.  But I also like that it is so simple that prep time is only a couple of minutes - about as long as it takes the oven to heat up. And a four-ingredient marinade for the chicken doesn't hurt either. Ingredients: 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed 1/2 cup ketchup 1/4 cup water 1 pkg dry onion soup mix 1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray the bottom of a medium-sized baking dish with nonstick spray. 2. Combine the four remaining ingredients in a small bowl. Pour over the chicken. 3. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour, when chicken juices run clear and the sauce has thickened.

Oh, perfection. If only we had the perfect life: the perfect husband, the perfect family, the perfect home, the perfect job, the perfect circle of friends, the perfect church family. Then we'd really have it made. Life would be great if we could just figure out how to be perfect. The problem with this line of thinking is that nothing is perfect. In this life, in this world, nothing will never and can never be perfect. Sin creates that truth for us. There is no possible way to never make a mistake, never lose a loved one, never let somebody down. Things break. Bodies wear out. People die. Liars lie. Cheaters cheat. Thieves steal.  Killers kill. Lazy people stay lazy. Then why on earth would Scripture tell us to be perfect? If perfection is impossible because of sin, why does Genesis 17:1 say: And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. Didn't we just say that we can't...

Maybe it's just me, but I love turning our usual crafting techniques on their ear. Or, in this case, on its side. I'll think outside the box ... and off the edge of the card. Honestly, I had planned to make this a straight-lined card with two background layers and a square of decorator paper on the right side. Then the sentiment could be written in three parts and adhered to the left side, overlapping the square. Unfortunately, my 12-panel piece of paper wouldn't fit top-to-bottom the way I wanted. Instead, I had to turn it a little and let three of the four corners drift off the page.  And that's how you get a fun design by accident! In honor of the kids in our community returning to school this week, let's turn today's sketch into a new teacher card!  Start by choosing a decorator paper for the focal point, then match two colors of card stock with it. These two colors will be the background and mat to build the card on. Cut the decorator paper in a square larg...

We had an absolutely fabulous time in South Dakota over my birthday weekend. So a fabulous trip needs an equally fabulous scrapbook, right? I'm glad you agree. It's in the works! One of my biggest challenges is having enough journaling space on each page. I want to tell the stories I wrote in my actual journal by the pictures, but there's not always room. That's where creative, hidden journaling blocks come in. For this page, I started with a torn background and side border. This is the first page of pictures in the album, so it's going to set the tone and theme for the entire book. I purposely chose the kraft book for that outdoorsy feel, and there's so much paper in my stash that will go with this. I wanted all four pictures to have a hidden journal block behind them, so I just started at the top and worked my way down. Here's the method for all of them: start with the picture in the bottom left corner with the top of the photo on the right side. This will...

Our church family is amazing at sharing of their bounty. This summer we've had all kinds of fruits and vegetables brought in for sharing, and it's definitely been a blessing to our hearts ... and our stomachs! Last week it was tiny peaches, and they were sweeter and juicier than any regular-sized peach I've ever had. Since I had a container of fresh-picked blackberries in the refrigerator, I knew I had to make a cobbler with them. What I love about this recipe is that you don't have to peel anything, just combine the dry ingredients and toss the fruit in. In just a few steps you'll have a bright, fresh, warm dessert that only needs ice cream to make it perfect. Filling Ingredients: 10 small peaches 4 cups blackberries 1/3 cup sugar 1/3 cup brown sugar 3 Tbsp lemon juice 3 Tbsp flour 2 Tbsp cinnamon Topping Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups flour 1/3 cup sugar 1/3 cup brown sugar 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 1/2 cup butter 1/3 cup water 2 Tbsp cinnamon 2 Tbsp sugar 1. Pr...

You're going to be so proud of us. We spent several hours this week sorting and organizing our books, to get the piles and stacks in the office under control. The result is a beautiful library with books in categories, and all the ones I've read have bookmarks in them so I can easily recognize them. And for clarification, sorting means putting them on shelves, not sorting them out to be sold or donated. I'm just not comfortable with that concept. I love to read with all my heart. Reading has always been my love, my escape, my knowledge-maker, my fun, and my comfort. Danny gave me the best T-shirt ever for my birthday - it's purple and says "I closed my book to be here." That's how seriously I take our books. Many of the books in my TBR pile (to be read) are commentaries and studies of the Bible. There is one shelf in the book nook (ok, it's the closet) that is just studies on certain parts or books of Scripture. And now the study books are in biblical ...

In honor of all those kids who have to go back to school in August, I pulled out one of my favorite School Days cards. I'm a huge fan of layers - it just makes the card look more intentional and finished - and this is a great example. I make my cards by starting with an 8.5x11-inch piece of card stock and trimming it down to 6.25x9 inches. After folding it in half, I covered it with a sheet of decorator paper so that one of the pre-printed phrases was in the bottom corner as my sentiment. Then I cut two more pieces of card stock to the right width and tore them across the long edge. This created three distinct layers of pattern from top to bottom. My large embellishment is a coordinating 3D die cut matted on a piece of decorator paper, matted on the same grey paper that I used for the background. The small embellishment next to the wording is pre-printed as well.  Ready to make this card your own? Start with a plain piece of card stock, folded to fit your envelope, and cover it wit...

It will be a full week at work starting today, with meetings, writing, photography, and lots of financial calculations. The work our office does impacts the visitors who come into the community and supports our local businesses and organizations. This is incredibly important to me, and I want everything that comes out of our office to be at its best. With this much responsibility comes the great need for prayer. I can't do anything in my job without the blessings of the Lord. I can't be creative, helpful, interesting, or even efficient unless I'm in close, personal relationship with God. One of the best ways I've found to do this is to start the day with a prayer walk of my office. From the front door to our reception area to the motivations behind our work, I want to bathe all of it with the presence of the Lord. If you've never prayer-walked your workspace before, here are 13 places and prayers to include. 1. Your building - Lord, please place a hedge of protectio...

After a week together traveling and celebrating my birthday, Danny and I came back rested and relaxed. It was the first time he had been on a vacation that didn't have a schedule or event to attend, so it was a full week but not stressful in any way. In tribute to that week of spending time together, I found this beautiful card to use for this week's sketch.  After covering the card with solid card stock, I cut a piece of decorator paper slightly smaller to make a mat. This card features one of my favorite love verses, This is my beloved, and this is my friend. Song of Solomon 5:16, printed on card stock from my computer. The two paper flowers are attached with a metal flower brad, and two of the corners are embellished with tiny pink gems.  Ready to make this card your own? Start with a piece of card stock cut to 6.25x9 inches and fold it in half. Then cover the card with a colored card stock, and cut a piece of coordinating decorator paper slightly smaller to make a mat. Pri...