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Book Review: Take The Day Off

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I am extremely excited to share this book with you today. God works in mysterious ways, this book is proof of that. Over the last several months, I have really felt like I need to be better about observing a Sabbath day each week. One weekend in particular about a month ago, it was a bit chaotic. We were gone on Saturday, then Sunday rolled around and I ended up having to catch up on everything I missed doing earlier in the weekend; cleaning, dishes, washing a mountain range of laundry. The end of the weekend came and rather than being refreshed and ready for my week, I was frustrated and exhausted. The thought of the next day being Monday and back to the grind, was daunting. My attitude was not the best that week.

Then enter this book.

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The timing of getting this book in the mail could not have been more perfect. Two days after that insane weekend, this showed up in my mailbox (mind you, I didn’t know this one was coming, somehow missed that email). This book has changed my perspective the last couple of weeks.

I am a big Robert Morris fan. Our church just got done doing his teaching on The Blessed Life and I also listen to a podcast of his church (Gateway Church) on an almost weekly basis. I love the way he makes the truths of the Bible extremely practical and applicable. Take The Day Off is no exception to that. This book walks through the need for us to take a day off, not in a vacation sense, although those are good too, but in a Sabbath rest sense. Morris starts by walking through the commandment that we are given by God to take a Sabbath rest (see the 4th commandment in Exodus 20).

I want to encourage every single person who is reading this post to check this book out. This has been an amazing perspective shifting book for me. I have had a pretty stressful school year this year for some reason. It may be the combination of teaching more students that I have ever taught before, more of those students being English Language learners, or possible changes in testing that are causing me stress. Or it could be the fact that my girls are older now and have homework and more things going on at their school that has been wearing me out. It may be a little of all the above, but I know that my Sabbath rest has been out of whack this year. Reading this book has been a game changer for me. I am learning how to get myself more organized to be able to rest. I have learned that in order to truly take a day off, it must be a priority. I have also learned that with God, we can do more in 6 days than we can do without Him in 7.

If you want to pick up your own copy you can enter to win a copy here. If you can’t wait for the results of the giveaway, you order them here. You can also save 25% by entering the code TAKEOFF.

If you ever wondered about all of these book, video, and game reviews that I have done and wanted to possibly do some of your own, now is your chance. One of the companies that I work with is looking for more people to do reviews. You can find out more about the FaithWords Book Club here and join for free.

Take the Challenge

/ bekoepke / 1 Comment

November is often the time of year that people start gearing up for the holidays. Social media often blows up with daily posts of things you are thankful for or countdowns to Thanksgiving or Christmas. It is the time of year that often gets pretty busy. Between school programs, church activities, and family get togethers, we can find ourselves overwhelmed and exhausted. It is also the time of year that things that should bring us joy, often bog us down, cause frustration, or even depression. You find that you can’t please everyone, so your attitude may not be great toward the very people you love enough to try to please.

Maybe this blog post is just for me, however, I have a sneaking suspicion that there are many of you that deal with the same thing I do. There are several of us who find that the magic and joy of the holiday season can sometimes be snuffed out when there are too many things demanded of us. Sure, we love the joy of the holidays and the smiles on our kids’ faces, but we also think about the amount of energy required to clean up that house, shop for the groceries, cook all the needed food, and travel to all the destinations. We also think about the mess after all the fun happens. It can be overwhelming for a busy mom. It can steal our gratitude and joy.

I absolutely don’t have the answers today. Instead, I have a challenge. One of the recurring themes in my current life has been Sabbath rest. I wrote a blog a little while ago dealing with what that means (you can read it here). I have been challenging myself to be better about taking true Sabbath rest. However, I want to add a little bit to that challenge for all of us from now until the New year. Let’s make a goal of focusing on what we are grateful for during that Sabbath time. Maybe that means writing things down, or maybe sending a note to someone. Possibly being grateful could just be making a conscience decision to not complain. Whatever it is, commit to doing that thing for the next month and a half.

There are so many scientific studies that have proven the health benefits of gratitude and positivity. Some of these include better sleep, lower anxiety, increased mood, less feeling of burnout, just to name of few (here is a great article about health benefits). There is also a lot of brain research that shows that when we are grateful, our brain gets a flood of dopamine, that feel good hormone that so many of us nursing moms would experience when we had newborns.

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So, what’s your plan? How are you going to attack this gratitude thing? I think I am going to do a combination of writing down things I am grateful for, along with maybe writing a few well overdue thank you notes. If you have other amazing ideas I would love to hear them! Maybe I will try those out too!

Thank you to everyone who reads these blogs! I pray that the message will be received on fertile soil and that we can all grow in this area together! Let me know what you plan on doing to increase your gratitude.

In every situation [no matter what the circumstances] be thankful and continually give thanks to God; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 Amplified Bible (AMP)

Book Review: How Great Is Our God

/ bekoepke / Leave a comment

 

If you have read much at all of my blog posts, you will know that I have 3 little girls. At the current moment my oldest is 7 1/2, middle is 5, and youngest is 3 1/2. Now that 2 out of the 3 are in school (and number 3 will start preschool next fall!!!), I feel like there have been a lot of changes as far as my role as mom. Fortunately, my girls typically all sleep through the night, say for a bad dream or tummy ache every now and then. We are also not in diapers any longer (praise the Lord!!!). We sure are full of questions though. My 2nd grader is a very smart girl and always wanting to know about the world. My younger two also follow suit. I even had to try my hardest to help my 3 year old understand what caused the electricity to go out so that her lamp wouldn’t work the other day when it was particularly windy, that was a challenge.

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That’s why I am particularly excited to introduce you to this new kids book by Louie Giglio called How Great is our God. This book is such an amazing resource for those questioning minds! There are 100 short devotions that all teach scientific information from a Biblical viewpoint. There are devotionals about nature, such as why is the sky blue and how do seeds work. There are some about the human body like how do you smell a rose and why do we hiccup. There seems to be a devotional about just about everything a young mind could come up with including space, time, Earth, weather, animals, plants, and the human body (just to name a few). img_20191112_073915_8

The best thing for us parents is that if we aren’t sure, there is even an index to look up the information we need.

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I really hope that if you have young kids, or even grandkids with curious minds, that you will check out this book. If you would like to enter to win a copy go here.

Please also take a look at this video:

How Great is our God

Time For A Break!!!

/ bekoepke / 1 Comment

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We live in a crazy world. Our lives in the United States are lived at a fast pace and sometimes we just can’t keep up. As a mom, I struggle with this. I struggle balancing our fast-paced lives with slowing down enough to enjoy the moments. When I am stressed out I often find it easy to snap at my husband or my kids. I also find it easy to wish that my kids were just a little older, or wish it was a different phase of life. When I find myself doing that, it is an obvious sign that things are out of balance.

I recently heard someone say that marriage teaches you how selfish you are, while having kids teaches you how angry you can be. Such a true statement. Those selfish, angry parts often come out during those stressed out times of life.  When your emotional tank is empty and you are exhausted from a full day of working or keeping a household going, it’s easy to fall into frustration and take that frustration out on the people closest to you.

There has been a theme lately in the teachings I have been listening to and the books I have been reading, about the importance of rest in our lives. Specifically the importance of Sabbath rest. The 4th commandment is the one that addresses the Sabbath:

8 “Remember the Sabbath (seventh) day to keep it holy (set apart, dedicated to God). 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath [a day of rest dedicated] to the Lord your God; on that day you shall not do any work, you or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock or the temporary resident (foreigner) who stays within your [city] gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and He rested (ceased) on the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy [that is, set it apart for His purposes]. Exodus 20:8-11 Amplified Version.

The ironic thing about the 10 Commandments is that we, as Christians, tend to follow a 90% rule. We have no problem agreeing with the fact that we should not murder or lie or steal our neighbor’s wife. However, when it comes to the whole Sabbath thing, we tend to think that it is an “old covenant” concept and isn’t for today or we simply don’t realize how important it is to God. Do you realize that this commandment is the longest of all ten and goes into the most detail about how exactly to follow it? It is also one of only 4 of the 10 commandments that carried the option of the death penalty if it was violated (the others being murder, adultery, and chronic child rebellion). Now, before I go any further, I want to make it clear that legalism is 100% not the answer. Even Jesus himself rebuked legalism when it comes to the Sabbath (see Mark 2:23-27).

The idea of Sabbath is made for us. It is for our benefit. God saw such importance in the concept of the Sabbath that he started the whole thing at the creation (see Genesis 2). He is God, He didn’t need to rest, but He chose to rest. He chose to pause and just enjoy His creation. The same is true of us. He could have created us not to need rest, however, our bodies require rest. We are not created to operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is incredibly hard to even hear from God if we do not have real rest on a regular basis. I know even in my own life, digging into scripture is exceptionally hard to do when I am physically or mentally exhausted. I’m sure you are probably the same way.

   Sometimes we need to remove ourselves temporarily from the hustle of our lives to re-center ourselves on what is really important. Jesus did it all the time. He spent so much of his time ministering that sometimes he would just remove himself and go off to pray. How many of us do that? For so many of us, even our vacations have an agenda. We feel like we are lazy or wasting time if we don’t have every second of our lives filled. Whether it is our jobs, our kids’ activities, or even things like ministry, we fill every moment. Maybe we all need to step back and just rest. Jesus himself told us to come to him when we are burdened and heavy laden, and he will give us rest (Matthew 11:28-30).

    For God to have put the Sabbath into the 10 commandments, He knew that we desperately needed it. He knew that giving it as a suggestion was not going to work. It had to be a part of His top 10. Sadly, even the Israelites who received these laws after watching Moses on the mountain top had a hard time with this one. For the Israelites, and for us, it often is due to a lack of faith that everything will be okay if we just take a break.

   I am just going to be honest and say that sometimes for me it is a combination of a lack of preparedness or even a lack of proper boundaries. For instance, If I don’t get everything done I wanted to on Saturday, it often flows into Sunday. Or I sometimes find myself doing my school work on a Sunday afternoon or responding to work related emails because I have not established those boundaries in my own life. We feel awkward if we tell someone to not expect a response on a Sunday. 

   Now, back to legalism; I DO NOT think we need to be legalistic about this. If that was the case, I would say that we need to honor the traditional Jewish Sabbath that starts at sundown Friday and ends at sundown Saturday. Honestly I don’t think that the day of the week matters as long as we honor 1 day out of 7. Maybe you have a job where you do work on Sunday but have days off at other points of the week. Have a Tuesday Sabbath! We live under grace, but I do believe that the closer we are following what God has ordained, the more of a full life we will live.

I hope that this coming week you will have the opportunity to take a true Sabbath and really enjoy the blessing of a day of rest!

Book Review: Night Night Devotionals

/ bekoepke / Leave a comment

“Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6

That verse sounds so easy when your kids are little enough that they aren’t influenced by the world around them yet. However, it starts to get a little harder as they grow and become more independent. As a mom of 3 little girls, I am always wondering if I am doing this motherhood thing right. I want nothing more than to see my girls grow up and walk a godly path. I also want them to be able to live in this world without feeling like I need to keep them hidden away from it.This 90 day devotional has so many easy to understand topics to help kids learn Biblical truths in a fun way. Some of the devotionals are set up to cover a topic, such as God’s plans or how he protects us, while others talk about stories from the Bible like Mary or Jesus walking on water.My girls are like sponges right now. I look forward to using this devotional to walk them through Biblical truths in a fun way. My oldest has become a wonderful reader and I think that she will also enjoy reading these quick devotionals when she goes to bed at night.

If you are interested in entering to win your own copy go here  and I hope you are the lucky winner!!!!!

It’s Different For Girls

/ bekoepke / Leave a comment

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It’s been a while since I wrote a more personal blog specifically about my own experiences with motherhood, but after a conversation I had with my husband a while back, I thought it was time.

This particular conversation happened on a date night that, until about the last six months, has been a pretty rare thing. (When you live a ways away from family and have young children, dates are rare luxuries. Fortunately our girls are finally old enough it’s easier to get away for a few hours now). I was explaining to him some of the struggles I have from time to time with feeling lonely in my role as a mom. Now, this loneliness is not because he doesn’t help or isn’t around. Rather, it is more due to the lack of close, intimate, female friendships that I have at this stage of life. I explained that women, especially once we become mothers, have very different life experiences than our male counterparts when it comes to how we relate to each other and even how friendships look. I thought I would share some of the differences I see, in hopes that other mommas out there might find a little relief knowing we are all in this together. As a disclaimer, this is in no means intended to bash on women or children, but rather to explain some of the differences in hopes of shining light in dark areas of our human experience.

Freedom

As a mom, especially when children are very little, we often find ourselves not having freedom to just pick up and do whatever we want. When you have a newborn and are nursing a baby, you can’t be away from the baby (or the pump) for more than a couple of hours at a time. You are tethered to that child and no matter how helpful dad is, it isn’t the same as what you as a mom experience. Even after nursing ends, kids have a special bond with their mom, that can make it difficult to have the freedom to get time to yourself or get time to spend with friends. When my girls were really little I couldn’t do anything, including hauling trash outside, without someone tagging along, or having a meltdown if they couldn’t. I have actually had to sneak out of my own house on occasion when I did have to leave the house without my girls. My husband, on the other hand, can come and go as he pleases without inciting a major meltdown.

It’s different for girls.

Having a night out

My husband is really good about being willing to take care of the girls so that I can do what I need to do. During the conversation I mentioned earlier, he even told me that anytime I need a girls’ night with friends, to go for it. However, I explained to him that the problem isn’t so much the freedom to go as it is having people to go with. At this phase of life we are all either in the same boat of chaotic schedules with kids and it’s impossible to get our schedules to line up, or they don’t have kids and are in a completely different realm of life where needing to be home at a decent time doesn’t yet exist. It’s funny watching all the movies with the moms going on a girls’ night out because I know so few moms that actually ever do that. Especially moms like me who moved into town after all the friendship groups were already created.

It’s different for girls.

Walls

Beyond any logistical issues that may arise with friendships in the throws of motherhood, is probably the most difficult barrier to overcome; the walls that we as females put up, and often tend to live behind. I remember when my husband was coaching football and how all the men formed a brotherhood. They were a tight group that could poke at each other and still be best friends. They were all pretty confident guys who, for the most part, never felt the need to impress anyone. They were real with each other. As a coach’s wife, all of us women were together an awful lot as well. Although I always got along with everyone, the dynamics among the women were completely different.

Women are so much more guarded with each other than men are. It is often so hard to get to know another woman on anything more than surface level without years of relationship to slowly tear down those walls. We also tend to feel a sense of competition among each other. As a coach’s wife I often felt like I was looked at as less than when my husband coached at the junior high level, but was more of the group when he moved up to the high school. I know that it was never intentional, but women can be cruel without ever realizing it. We as women also feel like we need to show only our best selves, which hinders real, authentic relationships. Social media has only amplified that problem over the last 10 years. Women like to hide their flaws, while men often make fun of themselves for their flaws

It’s different for girls.

So what can we do? Honestly, I really don’t have an answer for that. I don’t think there is an easy solution. However, I really want to challenge women like me (and including me) to try to let your guard down a little. I know that so many of us have been wounded by friends in the past when we got too real and vulnerable (myself included). Yet, we will never have an authentic relationship if we ourselves can’t be authentic. Get to know those other mommas! Be vulnerable about your struggles and shortcomings. And, for crying out loud, quit competing and comparing and lets start encouraging each other. Motherhood is the hardest, sweetest, most frustrating, rewarding thing I have ever experienced. Find someone to share your experiences with.

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Prepare the Soil

/ bekoepke / Leave a comment

I love my garden. Each year, throughout the summer, I plant a decent size garden and this year was no exception. I absolutely love seeing my hard work come to fruition…literally. My 3 girls love eating the carrots, cucumbers, watermelons, and cantaloupes that they helped to plant. That being said, this has been an off year for my garden.  Not all of my seeds germinated, I had to re-seed some of what I planted, and a few of my plants even died. There are several reasons that this year’s garden has struggled, but I think the main reason was a bad decision we made in the process of preparing to plant. Of course, at the time we thought it was a right decision, boy were we wrong.

In preparation for our garden last year, we put a massive amount of fertilizer in with our soil in the tilling process. Because of how much we put in last year, my garden was a producing machine. I could hardly keep up with the amount of jalapenos, squash, and carrots. I actually wound up freezing or canning a lot of it because we couldn’t consume it fast enough. Fast forward to this year. While we were preparing we decided that we had added so much fertilizer last year that we were going to skip that this year, assuming that the soil was still pretty well fertilized. Big mistake. Now, don’t get me wrong, it has not been a complete failure, but it has definitely not lived up to the plan I had when I was preparing to plant.  It’s amazing how vitally important properly preparing soil is before you plant. Ask any farmer, they never just toss seeds out hoping they will grow an abundant crop.

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This picture was from earlier this summer. Unfortunately, not all my seeds came up this year.

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We did get some pretty delicious melons!

It’s the same with us.  God will never put us in a position we are not properly prepared for. There are so many instances throughout the Bible where men or women were called to do something, but it took years for it to come to fruition. David was told as a teenager that he would be king, but it took decades to come to pass (see 1 Samuel 16). Joseph had dreamed of his future as a leader, and he had to go through the prison to get there (see Genesis 37). Or, like Esther, we may be positioned somewhere without even knowing God placed us there for “just such a time as this” (see Esther 4:14).  It is often puzzling to us how we may feel called somewhere, but a door either won’t open, or perhaps what seems like a strange door does open and we are too fearful to step inside. Little do we know that during these slow, uncomfortable, or scary times, we are being prepared. We are learning during the wait. Just like it takes time to get from a seed to the harvest, we won’t typically be called to something one day, and functioning in that calling the next. Actually, if we make that jump to soon, it likely won’t work out. Just like how some of my plants died for lack of proper fertilizer.

My husband often says, “sometimes you have to pay your dues”, meaning you need to serve at a lower capacity before getting promoted or that you need to experience difficult or frustrating times before you get to the good times. Boy, do I get that. Honestly, I actually appreciate that more now that I have paid some of those dues through life experiences. I am so much more thankful for what I have today because of the things I have experienced and as tough as it is, I am going to trust God during those times when he is “preparing the soil” for the next season in my life!

Book Review: Covenant Kids: Book 1 The Law

/ bekoepke / Leave a comment

As you know, I typically don’t review kid’s books on my blog. However, every once in a while I find one that peaks my interest. Covenant Kids is designed in comic book fashion and is a fun book that talks about the Bible from a unique perspective.

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The story starts with a decoded letter to a girl named Naomi who is going to become a member of an underground Christian organization, in a world where Christians meeting publically is illegal.  A group of kids, called the Covenant Keepers, are learning about the stories from creation through the exodus. All the while, they must meet in secret to avoid getting in trouble and put in jail.

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This is a great book written in such a fun way. If you would like to enter to win your own copy visit this site. You can also watch this video to learn more.

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App Review: Courage For Life Bible App

/ bekoepke / Leave a comment

It has finally been done! The very first female voiced audio Bible app has been released! It’s called Courage For Life Bible and it is available for free in both the itunes and google play stores.

appGrab.jpgThis app has been created by author, speaker, and Bible Teacher, Ann White to reach women in a new way. You can learn more about her story by watching this video. Right now the audio Bible is New Testament only, each book also recorded with an introduction. However, there is also a ton of resources on their website (which is linked in the app). There are devotions, blog posts, and Bible studies, to name a few of the resources. This app is free, but you are able to donate to the ministry if you decide to do that. I hope you will check it out!!

The creators of the app will also be giving away a copy of Ann White’s Devotional, She is Strong and Courageous. Click here to enter for your chance!

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Precise Placement

/ bekoepke / 1 Comment

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So you feel stuck in a miserable job with a bunch of gossiping coworkers? Maybe the work you are doing is completely unfulfilling and you dread Monday every single week. Possibly you love your job, but know it really isn’t what you are called to do, and you long to do something bigger with your life. No matter where in the spectrum you may fall, God has placed you precisely where you need to be.

There are times when I love my job as a math teacher at a public high school. However, there are also days where I wonder if I took the right path. If you know anything about my story, being a teacher was absolutely the furthest thing in my mind. I even remember walking the halls of my high school, as a high school student wondering why anyone would ever want to be a teacher. Life is funny like that. I have learned though, that no matter where you are in life, God has a plan exactly where you are.

This week I have been helping with our church’s VBS and we have been doing the story of the Israelites; their escape from slavery, some of the time spent in the wilderness, and crossing over into the promised land. As you well know, this story means a great deal to me (see my book Finding God in the Wilderness). Honestly, after the extensive time I spent pouring through this story during my time of writing that book, I thought I had probably exhausted that particular story of any new revelations, but God always finds a way to reveal something new.

As I have been thinking about Moses throughout the week, I thought a little further back in the story. I thought back to the fact that Moses had grown up in that very palace. He knew the ins and outs of royalty, the pharaoh, and leadership. He was specifically put in that place, I believe to help equip him for his future role as leader of an entire nation of Israelites. When he first found out that he was not an Egyptian, I am sure he was confused. He probably wondered why was he not serving as a slave like his relatives? I believe he felt guilty about it. You can tell because in the story he suddenly jumps to the defense of the Israelites and even ends up killing an Egyptian (see Exodus 2). Talk about an identity crisis. God knew the greater plan though.

In our own life, God also knows. I truly believe that He knows our exact circumstances. He places us with people who will help us grow, even if it is in unconventional ways. Sometimes our growth comes from a super supportive friend who walks the same path as us. More often, at least in my life, that growth comes from being around people who don’t think like me. I have had to grow through hurt feelings, frustrating circumstances, and let downs. Although I almost hate to admit it, that kind of growth sticks more. When I have had my feelings hurt or have been let down, it gives me a greater compassion for others going through similar situations. The idea of the golden rule (treating others how you want to be treated) becomes a higher priority when you have experienced not being treated well.

So, my challenge to all of us boils back down to trust. Can we trust that God really is in control? Can we trust that no matter how we feel, there is a greater plan? Can we also look to the people around us and find the the good, and overlook some of the bad? Can we believe, just like Moses, that we are specifically placed for a greater calling (even if that calling may not happen for another 40 years)? I am sure gonna try!

 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11

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