Tug o' War (2nd&3rd)

I'm worried that I might be overstepping my bounds of control.

I really feel that the changes I'm posting about have been prompted by God and that we're simply moving in obedience to Him but I can't help but wonder if this is being motivated by my selfish desire for change.

What's prompted me to write this little diddy here at the beginning of this post is an article written by Jon Acuff on Stuff Christians Like - "Finishing what we didn't start."

Here's a quote to give you a taste of what I've been wrestling with,

"When we feel stressed or confused about the wandering God introduces into our lives, it’s so easy to try to fix it ourselves. In big ways and small ways, we take steps away from the plan God has for us in our desire to solve it or finish it or complete it." - Jon Acuff

This is the tug o' war I'm referencing in the title -

How many of these changes are God's prompting and my obedience verses our family trying to fix itself [or me trying to fix my family]?

(photo credit)

Anyway, here are numbers 2 and 3.

2nd:  Time
Have you noticed how the years are flying by?
Lately, our time has been spent watching tv, stuffing our faces and watching more tv.

We're not being very intentional with the lives God has blessed us with and this HAS to change.
In an effort to be more intentional,
I am not going to force my family to change their ways.
I hope to influence them by the change in my own.

I really must start waking up early.
I'm talking EARLY early - 5 or 5:30am.
I have to have time with the Lord and the butt-crack-of-dawn is the only time I have to work out.
Once I get all that done then I can move on and make breakfast for my men, get them ready and out the door and then get myself ready and out the door for the day.

Once I get home it's clean up, homework and dinner makin' time.
After that it's dinner eatin' time and Bible readin' time.
When that's said and done, then Ethan runs off to play, get a bath and/or go to bed time.
That's when I get to do the dishes and other chores while David tucks Ethan in and reads him a story.

Sounds perfect, huh?  You know how life is - FAR from perfect - we'll see how this goes.

3rd:  Finances
This is probably the most exciting area we've seen God move .
He's provided all of our needs and has given us both a strong urge to tithe despite our lack of money.

In the spirit of honesty, I will confess that David and I have never been in the position to give tithes regularly so we haven't - opting to volunteer and support our church in any other way possible.
We know that with that mindset we were simply justifying our sinful position.

Now that David is out of a job we are even more thankful for what God has blessed us with and that thankfulness has spurred us on to obedience.  I cannot wait to see how God moves in our lives as we become more obedient.

We have also started pinching pennies, budgeting better and couponing.

I am AMAZED by the change He's bringing forth in our lives.
Who knew that losing a job would do this kind of work?!

"He’s God. I’m [Amanda]. When I remember that simple arrangement, life goes so much better."
-quote by Jon Acuff, adapted for me