Day 5

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MY HOUSE TURNED INTO A HOME

Dear Heavenly Daddy,

Today I want to thank you for the rain. It’s cleansing and purifying and it is bringing in the colder weather with it. As the seasons transition, I think back to how my own house has transitioned with my marriage over the years. This place was once a hostile battle ground with children held hostage between their selfish parents wants. Now God has purified this place into a holy temple that welcomes in the Holy Spirit every minute of every day. You pour out peace and tranquility on my home every morning before my children wake from their restful sleep. My cup overflows with your love. This house has seen many battles, both spiritual and mental, inside these walls. With Your constant guidance and strength, we have taken back territory from the enemy’s hands. You reached right into enemy territory and snatched my family and I right out; and for that I am eternally grateful. Place a hedge of protection around my house and place your angels on guard around it. Touch my children’s hearts with your loving hand so they feel safe and secure always. Protect their minds from any attacks of the enemy. Fill them with Your Word so they do not sin against you.

Lord, I pray that you do this exact same thing for the families of the world. Pour out your peace on their households. Protect little children from selfish acts of parents who haven’t yet witnessed your love. Help us to be examples to our neighbors of how a godly household should look and feel. Give us discernment to what the spiritual and physical needs of our friends and families are. Teach us to be a shining lighthouse to draw more of the world to the cross.

In Jesus name I pray, amen

With All of God’s Blessings,

Stephanie Smith

“I Wish I Never Got Diabetes”

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Says my son. I hear this statement most days of the week. Sometimes multiple times a day. It breaks my momma heart, even though I do agree with him. I also wish he had never gotten diabetes, however I refuse to let any of us walk around with a victim mentality. So I turn it around with positivity and an extra low carb snack to ease his pain. He is beginning to be burned out with this season of life, and I don’t blame him. It’s just plain hard.

One day Wyatt asked me why he had gotten diabetes and why God hasn’t healed him yet. Talk about a hit in an already sore spot in my heart. I had asked God these exact questions already. Sometimes in frustration, sometimes just with a sheer curiosity that is common with us humans. But God had never given me an answer…..so i sighed, took a deep breath, said a silent prayer for God to speak through me to my sensitive child then spoke what came to my heart. It was in that instant that God answered my prayer through me. He spoke to my son’s tender heart and it warmed mine right up. Its reminded me that God never leaves us or forsakes us. This disease wasn’t a form of punishment or proof that God wasn’t paying attention to my family. It’s my son’s testimony. Whether God miraculously heals him or it is His will that Wyatt walk out his life with Type one, we dont know. But we do know that God is still good and He still loves us. He has been here with us comforting us the entire time.

So if you find yourself walking through a battle that seems endless, just know that God is with you. He will never forsake you. He loves you and He will walk through the fire beside you. The anchor holds, in spite of the storm!

With All of God’s Blessings,

Stephanie Smith

Day 4

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Today is a special day of prayer for me personally. Maybe it’ll be special for you to! On day 4 of this prayer journey, we are going to be praying about marriage. Mainly about over coming struggles in marriage! My husband and I did not know the Lord when we got married, so the first four years of our relationship were incredibly unstable. Our life was littered with selfishness, infidelity, anger, lust, frustration, and the constant threat of divorce. Once Holy Spirit pulled us into the Lord’s embrace, I wish I could say things calmed down immediately; but we all know that wasn’t true. It took time, persistence, prayer, and lots of time spent gleaning from God’s Word. So, here we go, giving God all the glory for His never ending love of us!

What God Has Joined Together

Dear Heavenly Daddy,

Thank You for this day spent with many children. It has been enlightening to watch them as I learn to have faith as a child. Thank You for the help-mate you have gifted me. He is an amazing man and we are blessed to have him as the leader of our home. Thank You for the obstacles we had to overcome that shaped us and our marriage into a living testimony of Your love and grace. Lord, and thank you for sending us Holy Spirit to comfort us and guide us. His presence in my life has shaped many bad situations into spiritual transformations.

Lord, there has been many attacks from the enemy lately in our marriage. I pray that you would protect my husband and my children from any assaults. You are the greatest protector and I have full faith that You will use these attacks to shape our faith and bring us to a new level of intimacy with You. I pray for peace in the storm and I thank You for these unsteady times so I can prove my faith to You. Your Word says Your grace is sufficient for each day, so I will stand firm against all forms of negativity with full assurance that You have supplied my arsenal with plenty of ammunition. I can block all attacks with my shield of faith.

Lord, I do know sometimes negativity in my marriage isn’t an attack from the enemy, but just plain old sinful selfishness from either I or my partner. So I pray for us to be emptied of self and fully filled with Holy Spirit. Pour out the fruits of the Spirit on us and into our lives. Teach us to be more like you and less like the world. Let my marriage be a true and holy representation of Your relationship with me. I fully submit to You and Your Will for my life and for my family. You are holy and righteous Lord and You are worthy of all our praise and admiration!

In Jesus name I pray, Amen

With All of God’s Blessings,

Stephanie Smith

Day 3

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Welcome to day 3 of our 30 Day Prayer journey! This has truly already blessed my life in more ways than I can count. God sure is good to us! So since today is Sunday, and I just finished prepping for homeschool tomorrow, let say a prayer about school!

CO-PARENTING WITH GOD

Dear Heavenly Daddy,

Thank You for this day. Thank You for sending the shepherd to take care of your flocks. Thank You for leaving the ninety-nine to come and find me. Thank You for these children You have put under my care to train up for Your Kingdom. Without Your wisdom and guidance, I would be lost daily. Your presence in my house is what keeps me sane. Lord, I know that my children are truly Yours and that You have just entrusted their care to me. Thank you for co-parenting them with me. Your love and Your example is what teaches me how to love them. Thank You for showing me the way.

TRAIN UP A CHILD

Lord, tomorrow is a new day of me trying to put more of You into our children. Your word says to train up a child in the way that they should go, and when they are older they will not depart from it. Jesus, I am standing on that word and proclaiming it over my children. This world is a very scary place and schools are no longer safe for children. So we are entrusting them into your care. Protect and nurture them when they are away from us. Thank you for giving me the means to teach my children from the safety of my home. Your generosity is overwhelming! Give me the wisdom and patience to teach them in a language they are capable of understanding. Speak through me into their lives. Speak life into them. Fill in all the gaps I miss in their education. Fill them with Your Holy Spirit and the fruits of Your Spirit. Help me to equip them to be kind and gentle and loving while the world is cold, cruel and scary. Lets raise up a generation of believers that are not afraid to stand on Your Word!

In Jesus name I pray, Amen

With All of God’s Blessings,

Stephanie Smith

Day 2

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Yesterdays prayer was so refreshing that I absolutely cannot wait to put up todays! This time we are going to be praying about health, mainly because my son’s sugar has been super high all morning. I need this prayer at this moment and hopefully you’ll find something valuable from it as well.

By His Stripes We Are Healed

Dear Heavenly Daddy,

Thank you for this beautiful but slightly flooded day in Louisiana. We appreciate Your kindness and love so much! Your grace and mercy far exceeds our limited way of thinking. Lord, I pray for divine healing today. We have been struggling to be a makeshift pancreas for my son lately. His blood sugar continues to be untamable and its frustrating to say the least. I pray that you step in and take control. I proclaim healing in his body and for all of his organs. I proclaim healing over every family that comes across this post. I pray for peace during sickness and for comfort. Relieve pain in joints and nerves. I rebuke cancer and all diseases that attack your children.

I pray for peace for the families that have sick children. Wrap these people in your loving embrace. Lord, for people that are hearing diagnosis’s for the first time, relieve their stress and fear. Your perfect love cast out all fear and we are standing on that promise right now. Send them people to support them and help hold their arms up like Aaron and Hur did for Moses. Teach them how to praise you in the storms of life. Don’t allow the enemy to use these devastating diseases to draw them away from Your love and comfort. I am standing in the gap today for families that are so overwhelmed that they cannot reach out to You. Lord protect them and wrap them in Your love.

Thank You Lord. Thank You for doctors with Your wisdom and for counselors that are willing to hear us out when we feel buried under our emotions. Thank You for supplying all of our needs before we even realize we are lacking. You are Jehovah Jireh! We love you so much!

In Jesus Name I pray, Amen.

With All of God’s Blessings,

Stephanie Smith

The Highs and the Lows

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For the last few weeks, we have really been struggling to keep my sons sugar in a “good” zone. First we struggled at night. He would drop 6-7 times a night, every night. Talk about me being a zombie for days on end. I was EXHAUSTED! Now that we have it almost under control at night, it is unsteady during the day! Meals that he has ate the entire time he has been diagnosed now send him to a shockingly high number. When just last week that exact same meal to insulin ratio sent him plummeting to an all time low. Let me just say that type 1 diabetes is frustrating and exhausting and just defeating sometimes.

#HONEYMOON PHASE

My son is currently in the honeymoon phase of T1D. Now, don’t get confused here, there is nothing fun about this honeymoon. It means that his pancreas still sometimes produces insulin. So he eats, we dose his insulin for the food, and BAM his pancreas works right and also gives him insulin. So we find him plummeting very quickly and having him shot gun apple juice…..insane right?! Then there are times that his pancreas doesn’t work at all, like today. So he ate the same breakfast that he has ate all week, but today, his insulin does nothing for him. He skyrockets to a very scary number and all we can do is dose him again and wait the two hour window for his medicine to take affect. Type one diabetes is stupid.

ITS ALL A WAITING GAME TO THE COMPLETE DEATH…

of his pancreas, that is. So, we sit and wait on his pancreas to fully die out. Hoping the day comes sooner rather than later. Living in this Russian roulette of insulin or not is really hard for his little 8 year old body to take. And it breaks my momma heart to pieces to watch him suffer like he does. Plus living with the stress of unknown long term effects of his sugar roller coasters. I’m not saying it will get better once that day comes, but I can hope that maybe, just maybe, it’ll be a little smoother.

If you know someone with T1D or have any tips or tricks of the trade, please send some my way! I’ll take all the help God brings to me!

With All of God’s Blessings,

Stephanie Smith

Day 1

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Today is the first day of our 30 days of prayer series! I am so excited to start this prayer journey with you! So to start this month long conversation with Jesus, we will be praying for God’s favor.

God’s Favor

Dear Heavenly Daddy,

Thank you for placing the dream of this blog into my heart. Thank you for all that you have done to bring me to this place in my life. Thank you for each and every person you bring to this blog to follow along with me. I pray for your Devine favor on each person that reads these words. I pray for blessings and peace that surpasses all understanding to surround them. Pour out Your Holy Spirit on them and their family and friends. Lord, establish the work of our hands and let your favor rest on us. Your Word says that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, so we proclaim your favor into our lives. We have faith that You will see us through and bless us. As we actively seek and live by Your wisdom; we will be highly favored and esteemed in the sight of You and men. Our enemies cannot overpower us because Your favor surrounds us. We love you Lord and we lift Your Name forever in gratitude and worship.

In Jesus Name we pray, Amen.

I hope these words bring you peace! With all of God’s Blessings,

Stephanie Smith

30 Days of Prayer

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So to kickstart my own prayer life, I’ve decided to do a 30 days of prayer series for anything and everything going on in life. This series will cover health, children, marriage, homeschool, work, finances, spirituality, and deepening our relationship with Jesus.

What is prayer? Prayer is acknowledging and experiencing the presence of God AND inviting His presence into our lives and circumstances. It’s seeking the presence of God and releasing the power of God which gives us the means to overcome ANY problem. Prayer is our greatest gift from God himself. He desires communication with us, He wants to be included in our everyday life and struggles. He created us with companionship in mind. To do life with us. We are spiritual beings in a physical world. Most of our fights are in the unseen. Use that in prayer. Remember that in battles. Hold on to that in storms.

SO PRAY

  • Pray, even if you think it’s impossible and will never happen. With God all things are possible.
  • Pray, even if you don’t know what to say. Just say Jesus. God knows your needs but He won’t step into a situation that He isn’t invited into.
  • Pray, even if you’re in a situation where you don’t think there is time to pray. God’s time is different than ours and He can change any situation in less than a second.
  • Just pray. Fervent prayer. Spirit filled prayer. Persistent prayer. Keep praying until you see the change you want to see. Pray with FAITH. Pray believing that God can and will do what you’re asking. Just pray.

Starting tomorrow I’ll put up the first post, so come back then to catch it!

With All of God’s Blessings

Stephanie Smith

3 Ingredient Shredded Chicken Tacos

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With homeschool, T1D, and a very rebellious 3 year old; spending a lot of time on dinner is very hard to do. That’s why this recipe is so awesome! Just take these 3 ingredients, throw them into a crockpot, cook while you’re doing whatever you do during the day, and BAM! An incredibly tasty dinner when you’re ready!

Recipe

  1. 3 Boneless skinless Chicken breast
  2. A packet of Taco seasoning
  3. 16 oz can of salsa

Throw all of this into a crockpot and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 6 hours. That’s it! All done.

Serve with tortillas or in chips for nachos! You can also mix cheese into this recipe and create a cheesy shredded chicken dip. I do this for all of our kids birthday parties!

With All of God’s Blessings

Stephanie Smith

Homeschooled or Unschooled

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Snapchat-1594775281

We recently began homeschooling, just this year actually. God laid it on my heart to begin homeschooling early in 2018, but I was so hesitant to take that on. Just the thought of it overwhelmed my head and heart. However, when God brings us to something, He doesn’t leave us there alone. So He surrounded me with many homeschool families to help support me during this new transition. And still I hesitated, that is until my son Wyatt, was diagnosed with T1D. Then I jumped on this new ministry like my life depended on it!

Homeschooling

We started homeschooling with my heart set on all of these curriculums that I had brought together for one big idea. I had this picture in my head of me reading aloud daily to happy children who never misbehaved or got frustrated. Then God popped that bubble of a very unreal idea of homeschool and set a much smaller plan in my heart. Since this is our first year, we only do the bare minimum with fun stuff thrown in the mix. So basically by homeschool is a mixture of school at home and unschooling.

Unschooling

When I first read about unschooling, I was repulsed! My organized teacher heart did a back flip and landed in slime with a disgusting PLOP! How could any child learn from the unschooling technique? That’s what I would ask as I read all of their ideas. Then when I started homeschooling and God started whispering to my heart to go “At the pace of the children,” I started to love the idea of unconventional teaching. We have stopped curriculums after 3 weeks and tossed them out the door if they tried pushing to hard or overwhelmed either of my older children. We spend a lot of our days letting God lead our school. We focus majorly on biblical principals and biblical history. We learn our math facts with God’s truths thrown in and we learn literature and handwriting from passages of Psalms and christian authors like C. S. Lewis.

At the Pace of the Children

God whispered this to my heart one evening when I was becoming increasingly concerned with the pace my youngest was learning the alphabet. He caught my attention very suddenly and said “Daughter, I never rush you to take steps you are unprepared for, so why are you rushing him? This ministry is for you and your children to grow more in love with Me, not the alphabet. Let him lead this while you lead him to Me. Trust me to fill any void that is left.” And that was it. I was hooked. We would go only as fast as the children were comfortable and the rest was left for God to fill. Trust, faith, and grace are all needed to homeschool, and thankfully God fills me every morning with each of these sufficient for the day.

If you have any homeschooling advice, or curriculums you love, please let me know! I love hearing from other homeschool families!

With All of God’s Blessings

Stephanie Smith