I chose to end the stress series by addressing the physical effects it can have on us.  You would think that these effects would be obvious, but all too often they are written off as other things.  Indeed, since one of the ways that stress shows itself physically is to lower our immune system’s defenses to the point where we even find ourselves ill with a cold or the flu (etc.), we don’t immediately chalk it up to stress!

HIstorically, I have also been prone to headaches and muscle aches (clenching my jaw is my problem, other people experience problems with different muscle groups) among other things.  There are even more physical symptoms though that many others experience: backache, weight gain or loss (eating or not eating is a common reaction to stress), irritable bowel (yup, I was known for this one too when I was younger especially!), nausea, dizziness, hives or eczema, not sleeping (insomnia), fast heartrate (often triggering panic attacks).

Again, these things are often all too easy to overlook.  I almost wonder how many times I have had to go to the doctor for one problem or another that could very well have been stress induced.  Don’t get me wrong! I have a wonderful MD and I do recommend that anyone with serious physical symptoms be seen and treated by one, but I also have THE Physician readily available to me.  If I go to Him, he can help me find and deal with the non-physical issues in my life that are contributing to or causing the physical ones.

I particularly enjoy Malachi 4:2 “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.”  Getting to the bottom of the stress in our lives can take faith, prayer and diligence, but getting to a place where we can find balance, hope and peace is such a wonderful reward!

I think that 2 Timothy 1:7 truly is the best verse to wrap up this entire subject:

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (KJV)

I recently had the wonderful opportunity to get to know Karma, one of the co-owners of Faith Sisters and I loved the site so much that I asked her if she would allow me to let all of you know about them!  She graciously said yes and responded so completely to the questions I asked her that most of what you will read in this post is directly from her! Faith Sisters is even offering a giveaway for all of you!!!

In September 2007, Faith Sisters began “Helping You Leave A Legacy Of Faith”.  The site is designed to provide inspiration, support, and a feeling of community among the artists that visit there. They offer 2 weekly faithbooking challenges, tutorials, exclusive designs, an online shop with lots of faithbooking freebies, downloadable Word Art, inspiring layouts and artwork in the inspiration gallery, and many other useful resources.

The Faith Sisters Shop has pre-made digital designs for sale, you can find educational assistance at the Online Classroom, and members can post their own layout creations in the Inspiration Gallery and chat with other Faith Sisters in the forums.

Faith Sisters is the brainstorm of three creative women who befriended one another while working in the scrapbooking industry back in 2002. Karma, Sunny and Michelle, the co-owners of Faith Sisters, live many states from one another but they are proof that the internet can be used for good. Their goal was to create a website that would give like minded women who are followers of Christ a forum to meet and share their art and inspiration, while also introducing others to this idea of leaving a legacy of faith.

Here’s what the three co-owners say about Faith Sisters!

“We wanted to start Faith Sisters to provide an organized, fun, and helpful website for others to learn how to leave a legacy of faith in their scrapbooks,” says Michelle, a co-owner of Faith Sisters. “We envision it as a place for all to feel welcome; a place that nurtures those new to the idea of faithbooking and scrapping while allowing the more experienced artists to inspire and shine. Faith Sisters provides all of its members with a place to feel at home, surrounded by friends, sharing something that we love.”

Karma, the Faith Sisters administrator, webmaster and co-owner, says,”We expected the site to be popular, but we were shocked to see the forum grow so quickly! The traffic numbers on the site have been higher than we could have ever imagined. For the month of September we had over twelve thousand unique visitors. Proof that Faithbooking and Leaving A Legacy of Faith is growing quickly and has been much needed in the industry!”

Sunny, another Faith Sisters co-owner, adds, “As faithbooking is growing and developing within the scrapbooking industry, we see a huge potential for product lines both paper and digital. This large faithbooking market is new and untouched and deserves to have high quality products specific to this new form of art and worship.”

Want to know a little more about scrapbooking and faithbooking?

The art of paper scrapbooking has seen tremendous growth in the past few years. The Hobby Industry Association estimates the number of scrapbookers in the U.S. to over 62 million, 57% of U.S. households participating in scrapbooking. Digital scrapbooking is a unique alternative to the traditional craft of scrapbooking by incorporating the computer to create artwork. Faithbooking is adding your faith into your scrapbooks, documenting God’s fingerprints in your life. “TELL the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord.” (Psalm 78:4).

In that sense, faithbooking is just the same as scrapbooking, but faithbooking is more about leaving a legacy of faith to future generations. You can read more about faithbooking in their Resource Forum!

Want to know more about the challenges?

Anyone can participate in our challenges. We have 2 challenges that are posted every week. One challenge is to do a full page on a certain topic that we talk about that helps you leave your legacy. These challenges are posted on Wednesdays and we choose a layout to feature from those who complete the challenge and post it on Tuesday! The second challenge we offer is a Scripture Card challenge. It is like a mini bible study every week and is a great way to really dive into the Word! These scripture challenges are posted on Sundays.

Want to know more about their products?

Faith Sisters didn’t start out offering products, we have always been all about helping other leave a legacy of faith and about fellowship with other ladies online. We soon felt that there were so many talented ladies who really enjoyed digital scrapbooking. We then began to offer free downloads to print out for your pages as well as items for digital scrapbooking pages. Now we have 35 talented digital designers who are offering their products through our store! You can still find almost 100 items that are free to download from our store as well as many amazing digital kits, papers, elements and more! We have a specials every month and make it very affordable for people to scrapbooking the digital way. If you are a paper scrapbooker we are affiliated with a few paper scrapbooking places and links to those can be found at our shop also.

The design team at FaithSisters.com encourages everyone to come – be inspired to Leave A Legacy Of Faith.

They have so very generously offered their brand new collaborative Autumn Harvest kit (pictured right) that they JUST released!!!!  You could create so many wonderful pages with this great kit!!!  If you want to enter to win, visit www.FaithSisters.com and look through the blog and shop.  Come back here and leave a comment telling me what you love most about the idea of faithbooking and/or your favorite product/artist from the shop.

Update: I have this kit myself and it is absolutely HUGE!!!!  I was shocked at how much was packed into this kit!

This contest is open to everyone (it is a downloadable product NOT physical kit).  Be sure to enter by October 13th!

I hit the wall today, I lost it emotionally, I broke down and cried …. more like sobbed actually.  The weight of my responsibilities and a feeling of failure had taken hold and I had nothing left to fight it.

Have you ever felt this way???  All too often it isn’t something big that does it either.  It’s as if we are teetering on that proverbial cliff’s edge as our cares and problems surround us and it’s that teensy little pebble of an issue that pushes us over the edge.

Thankfully God’s careful and close hand is ever-present to catch us when we fall … if we let Him!

Emotional signs of stress show themselves in many different ways, sure there’s the simple break-down-and-cry routine that I had, but there are so many other ways: moodiness, short temper, restlessness or can’t relax, feeling lonely and isolated, depression, being irritable and impatient, feeling overwhelmed and feeling tense or edgy.

I’ll be the first to admit that my hormones aren’t always nice to me!  They are often responsible for some serious issues emotionally, but they aren’t always the cause of a bad mood or a bad day!

Now, if I could only remember in the moment like I had this morning to call on God and ask for His help!  Why is that always an afterthought?  You would think I would get it by now, I mean seriously how long will it take for me to figure it out?  As I sit there suffering needlessly while He waits to comfort and support me.

Faith!  Did you know that the Bible has two scriptures that reference the amazing things that can happen if we have the faith of a tiny little mustard seed (Matthew 17:20 & Luke 17:6)?  I thought there was only one, but not only can we move mountains, but we can move a mulberry tree into the sea … amazing!

Matthew 10:29 and Luke 12:6 tells us that God takes care of the sparrows (”Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies ? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.” - Luke 12:6) a tiny little bird. Then reminds us in Matthew 10:31 and Luke 12:7 that we are worth far more than that sparrow (”So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” - Matt 10:31), so why should He let us fall?

If you’re experiencing a situation where you feel overwhelmed, depressed or any number of the other symptoms I mentioned today, I encourage you to take it to God.  I’m not saying that further action won’t be necessary, just that He will give you the wisdom and comfort you need to get where you need to be to be healthy .

In our culture most of us don’t understand what it is like to want for anything.  Sure, there are people in our country that don’t have a roof over their head or know where their next meal is coming from, but odds are if you’re reading this, you aren’t one of them! 

Many more of us have experienced seasons of little income or wondering how to pay all the bills, but the reality is that for the most part any financial stress we experience is due to our own mis-management or overspending money issues.

I can attest to the fact that financial strain is possibly one of the biggest stress factors for American families, things are tight for us right now and we’re cutting down on many of the “extras” to try and loosen it up a bit.  Truth be told though, many of us still have many “extras” … more than basic phone service, cable or sattelite service, a cell phone or two and maybe even a gym membership. 

While all those things are great, you can see that there are definitely areas that aren’t essential.  I’m not telling everyone to go out and cut off all their services, simply pointing out that what many of us consider necessary really isn’t. 

I’m not here to tell you all the ways to cut down or give up things to “make it” financially.  Living frugally is a great thing, but it isn’t my job to tell you where you need to scrimp.  I am here to tell you though that with God’s help you can succeed! 

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. (Psalm 68:19 NIV)

Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall. (Psalm 55:22)

I could continue, but I think you get the point.  I’m not saying that you’ll get rich, just that if you take your cares … even the financial ones … to God, and leave them at His feet, He will give you instruction and wisdom to know what to do with them. 

The amazing thing is that although you are often likely to not see more money coming in, you will suddenly find yourself in a position where maybe the finances are stretched a little further, you may see a definite expense that can be easily eliminated, or you just feel more at peace about it.  So, just trust and lay your burdens down … see what happens .

On my morning blog rounds I was elated to read the most recent update on baby Ethan. If you haven’t visited in a while, make sure you do so today: http://ethankrawiec.blogspot.com.

Updated:  The link is now correct and active!

As all of you know I have been blessed with 6 boys. I also have two brothers who are still teenagers. At 18 years and 15 years old, they’re not that much older than my own boys so as you can imagine, getting them all together can be an interesting adventure.

I could go on and on about all of the ins and outs of having sons and brothers so close in age, but I’ll save that for another day.  This weekend we went to my parents’ house to celebrate the oldest brother’s 18th birthday and as I was playing inside with the twins I spotted a book laying on one of the tables.  The title of this book caught my eye and DEFINITELY my interest; Do Hard Things!

Just three little words were the title for a book written by Alex and Brett Harris for young men.  I have not read this book, nor have I been asked to review it.  But I have taken a few minutes to visit the website and it intrugued me even more!  You can find them at www.TheRebelution.com! 

You see, these two young men began their blog The Rebelution when they were 16 years old (they are now 19).  It is based on 1Timothy 4:12 (”Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” ).  Here’s a small explanation of their purpose taken from the site.

The official definition of the ‘rebelution’ is “a teenage rebellion against the low expectations of an ungodly culture.” When you look around today, in terms of godly character and practical competence, our culture does not expect much of us young people. We are not only expected to do very little that is wise or good, but we’re expected to do the opposite. Our media-saturated youth culture is constantly reinforcing lower and lower standards and expectations.

They have a fascinating survey on their blog! As the mom of so many boys I am instinctively drawn toward things that might be beneficial to my sons so I want to share them with you … cuz I know you’re just like me . They surveyed over 1500 Christian young men …. it’s called the Modesty Survey and the results will confirm beliefs for some and astound others. That many boys from that many different walks of life has to prove something. When you go to the page, just click on “Survey Results”, select a category, then a question and view the results in the frame below. Just some food for thought.

Besides this though, you will find information on their book, upcoming conferences, speaking engagements and you can look through their blog and more.

I told all of you about Ethan recently and just wanted to let all of you know that today is THE day for him!!!

Over the last week Ethan has been undergoing tons of treatments to prepare him for today’s transplant!!!

The results of that treatment have been rather miraculous so far in that he hasn’t been bothered by the usual side effects.

If you think of it, please be praying for this little boy today and especially for the rest of the week as the cells begin regenerating and creating a new atmosphere in his little body.

Just wanted to report that Lion appears to be doing amazingly well!  We were told that despite the antibiotics there was a possibility that he would get worse before he got better, but it seems to be going better than expected. 

He started the antibiotics late Friday night ….. VERY late considering we had to go in search of the pharmacy AFTER we left the ER.  But he didn’t mind.  He had fallen asleep about an hour before we left the ER and woke up as we were dropping off the prescription at the pharmacy (yes we FINALLY found one).  He was happy though because while we waited for the prescription to be filled he finally got his promised ice cream (shake actually, but he didn’t care).  He hadn’t eaten since about 2pm earlier that day, so he was very hungry.

I was amazed when out of the blue he walked over to me on Sunday afternoon and said “Look Mom” as he looked up to the ceiling fast and easy.  He hadn’t been able to look up AT ALL!!!!!!!  Then he follows that little feat with “and it doesn’t hurt anymore Mom!”.  As a Mom this was a HUGE DEAL!

I know I’m using caps A LOT, but I HAVE to under the circumstances!!!!!!  This is really and truly a BIG THING!  I’m sure you understand! 

So as we pray for this wonderful improvement to continue, I’ll be offering up a Mommy Reality a little later today

Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. (Romans 13:14 NIV)

How many times do I find myself wishing that I could have a nicer *insert item here* ….. Shows, hairstyle, clothes, house, etc. You get the idea. Instead of being happy with what I have, praising and thanking God for all of the wonderful provisions he’s given me, I’m often wishing I had more.

Then I read a verse like this one specifically speaking to this type of … well … sin. Telling us to “clothe yourself in the Lord Jesus Christ”. A rather pointed calling for us, especially as women when we find ourselves searching the closet and saying we have absolutely nothing to wear. Simply not the case for most of us.

So I had to stop and ponder what would it mean to clothe myself in the Lord Jesus Christ? I honestly think that to some extent this would look different for each of us so I’m not speaking for everyone here.

For me, it would start with daily spending time in the word, not just reading it, but truly applying it to my life and trying to walk it out each and every day. It would also require an attitude of praise and thankfulness.

Learning how Christ lived and striving to be like him, in the way I treat my family and those I come in contact with especially.

What does “clothing yourself in the Lord Jesus Christ” look like for you??