Better Sleep GIVEAWAY!

Update: This contest is now CLOSED! After eliminating the comments that accidentally double posted or did not follow the rules, we have a winner from Random.Org. eyeslikesugar said... I just started working from 11pm - 6am so my sleeping schedule is all thrown off and i have trouble sleeping when I need to; I'd love to win this book to learn how to better my sleep. :) Thank you so much for offering this giveaway! Congrats! I will be contacting you for your address so I may get this sent out this week.

Do you wake up fatigued? Do you have insomnia?

If these or other issues pursue you when you want a good night's sleep, then I have just the book for you! Dr. Michael Breus is a clinical psychologist and Diplomate of the American Board of Sleep Medicine. He has written a book entitled GOOD NIGHT: The Sleep Doctor's 4-Week Program to Better Sleep and Better Health.

As a woman/wife/mother with fibromyalgia I can tell you how essential it is to get quality sleep for enough hours each night. Sleep is a gift from God to help your body recover from the daily wear and tear. When you neglect sleep you rob your body of one of its basic needs and pay with painful consequences.

However, some of us don't intentionally neglect getting a good night's sleep, it simply seems impossible no matter how hard we try. How can you successfully meet this basic need?

Dr. Breus will teach you how to determine what you need to do to accomplish this body recovery technique. What Dr. Breus did not solve for our family is my need for absolute quiet to properly rest and a very quiet alarm clock to keep from waking up to a racing heart. On the other hand, my husband must watch a blaring TV (he must be going deaf) until he falls to sleep and wants a screaming alarm clock that he will hit the snooze button on for an hour straight.

Yet Dr. Breus did cover the important topics such as how to overcome the three most troublesome culprits in disordered sleep, the three people who steal your sleep and how to manage them, how to lose weight by getting enough sleep, etc.

Dr. Breus does have some great video clips that might be a help to you until you can get your own copy of this amazing book. Dr. Breus on TV.

If you would like to win a new, hardcover copy of this informative book (ARV $24.95), please leave a comment relating to this post (more than "I want it" or "Pick me" type of comments) on either the Family Blueprint or Bachar Chayah blogs. Be sure to leave your email address either on your blogger profile or on your post in a careful manner so robots will not spam you (such as: familyblueprint {at} yahoo {dot} com). Winner will be chosen in a random drawing and I will contact the winner with three days to respond or I will choose a different winner.

Must be 13+ years old and have a US or Canadian postal address. You may gain extra entries by leaving a comment on both blogs, and/or blogging about this contest. Please leave a comment below with the hyperlink to your blog if you write about it. This contest will end on March 7th, 2009 at 11:59 PM PST. Good luck to all!

A Bad Dude Named Fret!

I never cease to be amazed at how God weaves His truth into my day and corrects my faulty human thinking.

Recently, I have been sharing often with those trapped in or recently escaped from "Christian" cults. I actually was working for a cult unaware, which I find ironic considering I used to serve in the leadership of a ministry that witnessed to cults. This cult was in a different country and from all appearances was just run of the mill Christianity. I could not find out much about them at the time.

Time has a way of revealing truth. I watched this cult DESTROY families by tearing them apart if they would not come under their complete control. My boss was one of the head elders of this movement and they even destroyed his family. He is like a second father to me, as was his wife like a second mother and one of his sons was like my younger brother. They were such a kind and loving family. Now I watch the shambles of pain this organization has brought upon a family that showed some signs of independent thinking. They robbed my boss, in his old age, of everything he owned in order to restore his family and then did not follow through. They took the money and did not give him back his family. Nothing is off limits to those who seek to have absolute control over others.

I began to fret about why evil men prosper. I realized how many in Christianity have ended up in the way of prosperity teachings. I have seen men that started out "good" end up tainted because of their hunger of power or love of money, even in the group of churches I attend. I have seen men bent on passing on their "pastoral throne" to their sons instead of those God had already raised up in the church with the gifts for that calling. I have seen pastors who insist their families run everything in the ministry. All of these things are not of the Lord, they are the ways of man.

I then stumbled on the blog of a Christian pastor whom my husband holds in the highest regard and found he had retired from being the lead pastor. I was so delighted to see that his own son did not automatically become the successor. Instead, a man from among the servants of that church, who had the gifts and callings from our Lord was chosen to lead.

As I read my daily devotional by A W Tozer and God spoke to me and gave me His peace. May I share it with you?

The Holy Spirit in Psalm 37:1 admonishes us to beware of irritation in our religious lives: "Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong."

The word "fret" comes to us from the Anglo-Saxon, and carries with it such a variety of meanings as bring a rather pained smile to our faces. Notice how they expose us and locate us behind our disguises. The primary meaning of the word is to eat, and from there it has been extended with rare honesty to cover most of the manifestations of an irritable disposition. "To eat away; to gnaw; to chafe; to gall; to vex; to worry; to agitate; to wear away"; so says Webster, and all who have felt the exhausting, corrosive effects of fretfulness know how accurately the description fits the facts.

Now, the grace of God in the human heart works to calm the agitation that normally accompanies life in such a world as ours. The Holy Spirit acts as a lubricant to reduce the friction to a minimum and to stop the fretting and chafing in their grosser phases. But for most of us the problem is not as simple as that. Fretfulness may be trimmed down to the ground and its roots remain alive deep within the soul, there growing and extending themselves all unsuspected, sending up their old poisonous shoots under other names and other appearances.

Prayer

Thank You, Lord, You are God, not me!

Scripture

Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong.
—Psalm 37:1

Thought

Fretfulness can rob us of the peace and joy of Christ. We are easy prey to fretfulness when our gaze is fixed on people and circumstances rather than upon God before whom we are to be still and wait patiently (Psm. 37:7).

Blessings to you in Christ Jesus,

Consuming Passion

I heard this song tonight on Air1 Radio and it really encouraged me as I go through my own struggles to put my priorities in order moment by moment, day by day. It is called The Motions by Matthew West. Matthew had to go through a surgery and a season of silence and this is his story:

This might hurt, it's not safe
But I know that I've gotta make a change
I don't care if I break,
At least I'll be feeling something
'Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead ofgoing through the motions?"

No regrets, not this time
I'm gonna let my heart defeat my mind
Let Your love make me whole
I think I'm finally feeling something
'Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of this life

'Cause I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

take me all the way (take me all the way)
take me all the way ('cause I don't wanna go through the motions)
take me all the way (I know I'm finally feeling something real)
take me all the way

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

take me all the way (take me all the way)
take me all the way (I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go)
take me all the way (through the motions)
take me all the way

I don't wanna go through the motions

Climbing the Ladder!

Yesterday, the wind was blowing swiftly, the acorn trees were swaying, and I was watching the cattle graze upon the luscious green hills of pasture land. I heard the birds chirping, it seemed some were twitterpated and I flashed a smile at my hubby across the way. The pond looked lovely, no sign of mosquitoes. As I peered back across the pond I viewed my husband and one of our sons putting up targets together. Over the last week they had built these targets together in our garage. My husband dug post holes while my eight year old gathered stones for support.

I realized that my son who just turned eight had grown so much into a young man over the last six months. Reflection on this made me acknowledge that this was a direct result of father and son spending one on one time together. They have been going shooting and riding bikes. My husband insists our son help him with yard work, taking out the trash and recyclables, work on our cars side by side, etc. My husband has learned when our son is afraid of some new venture or tool, to give him some space and explore what it would require to build his security.

My husband has become a GREAT father and the result is I have a son who is becoming a wonderful young man. My influence is his education, empathy skills, and spiritual life. However, I just cannot give him the rough and tough time he requires to become a little man.

Yesterday, my respect for my husband as a father climbed another rung on the ladder! Today, I feel a deeper desire for my husband as I appreciate his unique contributions to our family!

Blessings to you in Christ Jesus our Lord,

INPUT: CTRL VS GRACE

On the keyboard of a computer the CONTROL key AKA as CTRL is a very helpful key in many situations. Humans were made to have dominion over other things. However, when the Bible speaks of man's dominion over things, man is in reference to humans, not literally the male gender.

Unfortunately, often humans have this need to control other humans. I have watched this manifest itself over and over in not only relationships, marriages, and businesses, but even in a place where we should be free from such sin, churches. Currently my heart is broken to see so many people that I love in the midst of devastation from a branch of churches that have become corrupted with power.

I have been reflecting on the issue of control and from where it stems. It seems it is rooted in one of two issues or possibly both. When people fear losing others, they try to control them. Fear is a lack of the perfect love and trust in Christ working in a person's life. Anytime I fear anything, it is because at the very moment my eyes are off Christ and on my circumstance. But when I allow fear to turn into control, it means I have allowed that fear to consume me and have not put my eyes back on Christ. At the moment I exert control I am in sin. I am not trusting that Christ is BIG enough. It is possible that if this is my way of life to control another, that I have yet to even truly know Christ.

There is an exception. As parents we are called to exercise control of our children through training and discipline, but even that is done rooted in love for our Lord and our children. However, as adults, we are told there is only ONE mediator between God and man and that is Christ Jesus our Lord.

The second root of control seems to be a hunger not for the power of God to work in our lives, but rather to rule another or others with power equal to His. We often see this in husbands who seek to control their families by twisting Scriptures out of context, emotional or physical abuse, or wives who constantly employ a spirit of manipulation, etc. While this brings any of us to tears to know that another wants to take the place of the Holy Spirit, it is even more devastating when we see this on a large scale such as in a church.

God gave us offices in the church to SERVE and ENCROURAGE one another. However, many churches have allowed those offices to become agents of control in the lives of their congregation. They stumble in sin by their lack of trust that Christ can directly mediate between each human and God. They try to fill the role of the Holy Spirit instead of the office to which they claim to be called. In these churches women and children are often the first targets of manipulation. However, all the congregation are called to walk in obedience to the self-anointed prophets or whatever they choose to call themselves. The prophets seek to take the place of Christ and His Spirit in the lives of the congregation. They have become puffed up with a deceptive pride.

The control they employ to keep their congregation under their power is divisive and destructive. If a person dares to question this authority they are banished from the prophet's kingdom (the church) and their family is told to shun them, lest they be driven out too. This often leads the banished person to an entirely new set of issues, such as rejection, guilt, shame, despair, etc. If you are one of those people, let me tell you my dear friend...this is NOT the love of Jesus Christ. It is His kindness, His mercy, and His grace that leads us to repentance. Christ never abuses His power. He is the tender shepherd. He is sacrificial in His love for His sheep.

If you are in a relationship or church that is not showing you Christ's love through sacrifice, mercy, grace, and service then they are not under Christ. They are led by a different spirit, a counterfeit spirit. A counterfeit often looks amazingly close to the real thing and can be difficult to identify. But when you take an expert who knows the real thing, they can immediately recognize a counterfeit. Apart from Christ, you may talk the talk, but you cannot continue to walk the walk. Do not fear to give any church or teaching a litmus test to ascertain if it is the REAL THING! Are you spending the time to become an expert in the Christ of the Bible? Do you know His Word with the Holy Spirit as your teacher to lead you into understanding? Is Jesus your only Mediator?

I adjure each of you to seek to become experts in Christ and His Word that we would not be deceived by the counterfeit spirits among us. I implore each of you to seek to embrace our hurting siblings that have been devastated by control in their lives and have been left with a tainted view of who Christ is. Let them see the love, grace, and tender mercy of Christ shine through us that they might get a true view of the beauty of His grace!

Christ's Blessings to you and yours,