Pursuit of God 10 years later.

Time is flying, if you can believe it, I started to write in this blog about 10 years ago or so, and looking back, I was reading my old post about pursuing God which is still powerful to me today. God is so good. He is everlasting, He is never changing. Even now as I write these words about our amazing God, tears well up in my eyes, because He has done so much, so much in my life in these 10 years. The only thing that remains the same is the goodness of God, of constant ache for Him, a constant need of Him, because He is the one who remains faithful and forgiving, and loving and never changes. God is everything in our life, from our marriage, to our children, to the weather, to our house that He provides, to the food we eat, and the health we have, everything is through Him alone, we are nothing without Him.

As I look back, I realize how much God has helped me, how much He carried me through all the pregnancies, through childbirth, through babies, and into teenagers. Now my 22 month old is a sassy 11 year old, and I have 3 more children after her. Having 6 children is still unbelievable to me. Wow. Really? Yes, they are all mine, and I wont change it for the world. Even having my 2 last babies, later in life, I am already 41, but I have a 5 month old, I still feel such love for the little babies, such blessings from their little kisses and hugs. God is good. He has blessed me extremely, He is faithful.

In conclusion I want to point out that it is not me who is pursuing God, but God is the one who is pursuing me un relentlessly, every time I forget and go side tracking, He guides me back, back to Himself. God is good. Did I already mention that? He is.

Happy marriage is made by God.

Marriage is a long road to happiness. It can start with many hurdles and obstacles, but eventually it spreads to greener pastures of enjoyment and contentment.  Life is unpredictable and when we fall in love with this specific person, it is good if both of you have the same values, same morals, and same religious background. Life has too many issues as is, without having more issues with the basics of marriage. 

I was lucky to have fallen in love with a guy who was raised in a similar religion as I, and with same out look on life, like me. Looking back, I am grateful for this and acknowledge that God was very much in my life and took care of me, when I was young and lacked wisdom. 

On my 18th birthday I prayed to God to give me a gift. He did, I met my future husband then. What drew me to him was that he was so serious about life and about relationships, he was 4 years older, and to an 18 year old that is incredible. The guys I knew were flirtatious and not serious to have a relationship. 

We got married when I was 21, and we started our marriage with a clean slate of trust and love. God was good to us, now 20 years later, I am amazed at His provision in our life. His constant care for us, and our love that grew with the years. 

If you are still single and are looking for your other half, remember to include God in your love life, He is the one who can write a beautiful love story that can last through all the obstacles, through all the problems and issues of marriage.

How to stay sane in a crazy world we live in right now.

We all know how crazy life gets sometimes, but lately, especially in 2020, it's been very stressful and scary at times. Knowing that life gets hectic, and very unpredictable we need to have a stable foundation in our life to stay strong no matter what happens. 

Jesus is that foundation. He is our strong hold, he is our saneness, He is our light when it's dark around. He is our everything. I love it, that I can turn to Him in any situation, in any need, with any question. He is my answer. 

He can be your answer too. He can be your guiding Light, and  your loving Friend. Come to Him, and just asking Him to help you in any situation. I know He will come through for you. He loves you, that's why. 

Autumn in California.

 Fall comes late to California, the leaves slowly change color as the weather turns colder with each day. By late November we get to enjoy the beauty of changing leaves, crisp air, perfect weather- not too hot, and not too cold. I am blessed to be able to live here and enjoy the beauty of the season.

I really enjoy the red, orange and yellow colors of the autumn leaves. There is just something amazing about all of nature changing, evolving into something beautiful, before it all just falls off and gets ready for cold bare winter.

Our road to health.

When I married my husband and started to make all kinds of yummy recipes in the kitchen, I did not know much about healthy eating, or the good fats, and eating more vegetables. All we knew was how to eat a lot of white pasta, potatoes, breads, cookies, pizza and lots of delicious Ukrainian/Russian dishes. So slowly and surely we started to gain weight. We joined a gym, but did not like to go there and the membership expired. We did not like vegetable or fruits much, the only things we ate were corn, cucumbers, apples and bananas. We had four children and the weight just got more cumbersome, until one day my husband started to have spells of double vision, dizziness and struggling to breathe normally. He got checked and realized that his blood pressure was very high, he had high cholesterol and was overweight. I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, with abnormal lab results and was overweight myself, feeling very sluggish and with constant tiredness. It was a wake up call for us.

That was more that a year ago, when we bought our fancy blender and started to drink green smoothies every morning, started to eat more fruits and vegetables and learning about healthy eating and living.  By incorporating more fruits and greens into our daily routine, has made us crave a more healthier lifestyle.

I started to read a lot about plant based diets and raw vegan living. It is very interesting and has opened my eyes to a lot of problems with our food pyramid. We are told to eat more grains and meat, while fruits and vegetables fall off our plates and we don't think them very important. But truly where are the most vitamins and nutrients hidden? Mostly in fruits, vegetables, greens, seeds and nuts. That should be our main source of nourishment. Grains and meat should be a small portion of it.
We started to eat more healthy, more natural, less chemicals and are still striving more every day to enjoy more fresh produce and eat less foods that have the calories but hardly any nutrition. We started to exercise more, especially my husband who is lifting weights and doing a lot of cardio. He lost 30lbs so far! I lost 10lbs. Isn't it amazing! Our health improved, thanks be to God.

I am so trilled to share this with you and hope that you will find this helpful and that your health will improve as well.

Living a pure life.

Reading this post this morning, I started to think about my own childhood, how we were raised. My parents had a large family and our dad read the bible every day to us, we prayed every morning and before going to sleep. My dad always spoke about living for Jesus and being holy. I remember how he told us to save our self for marriage and to stay pure. I always had this fear of God in my heart that He was watching me, and I was shy to even think about kissing anyone outside of marriage. In high school I was supper shy, and had no problems in keeping my self pure and saved for someone special. When I turned 19 years old, I prayed to God to give me a present for my birth day. And He did. I met my husband on my birthday, well I actually invited him, a new boy at church to my birthday celebration. That's when we started to get to know each other, through phone calls, visits, and lots of wonderful trips. Then he had to move to CA and we kept in touch, kept the long distance romance going. It was wonderful when we finally decided to get married and after a 3 year romance-dating we got married. We talked about keeping ourselves pure for marriage, we were both raised that sex outside of marriage was a big "No-No". I am glad God kept us both to our promise and we entered our marriage as pure and untarnished virgins.

Now we have been married for almost 14 years, and God has blessed our, and our marriage is strong and loving, and I am thankful that God has given me such a wonderful gift when I turned 19.

Stop and listen.

It’s funny how the everyday of life gets so busy that we can’t hear anything around us, everything turns into a big loud foggy noise.

 

Especially when we live in a big city, it’s so common for everyone to tune out all the unpleasant noises that surround us. I even know that people who live by the railroad train tracks get so immune to the loud noise of screaming, roaring train that they sleep through it, and don’t even notice them. Amazing what we tune out. We can tune our little kids as they yell and complain, while we play on the computer or watch TV.

 

We tune out the everyday of every minute that sometimes we tune out the every beautiful sound, like birds singing, wind whispering through the trees, rain beating on our window, or taking a walk through the dry fallen leaves and they crunch under our heavy feet. I noticed that the sounds of nature always seem to calm us down, while the manmade sounds are a bit nerve grindering and tend to make us tense and cranky.

Lets stop and listen next time you are outside, and hear nature speaking to your tired, rushed soul.

 

Prickly life.

Life can be prickly sometimes. Like a desert prickly cactus. Since they grow in the hot, waterless places, they have long deep roots to be able to reach the deep water underground. I believe this is one of the Joshua Trees, that we passed driving in hot, windy Arizona. Sometime we walk through death of a loved one in our life, but there is always life around a corner.

When life is prickly, windy and dry... don't worry, there is always hope, an oasis of green, peace and water in the near future, where our feet can find rest and refreshment.

How to make a baby stop crying.

I was holding my super cranky 2 month old in my arms, as he kept fussing, crying, flapping his arms and legs all over. The only way he would take his nap if I was breastfeeding him and rocking him to sleep, as soon as I scooted away to do other 'normal mom duties', he would wake up to fuss again. So I was holding him, trying to calm him down, when my 5 year old came up, and asked why he was crying. I told her that possibly his tummy was upset. So in childish faith, she puts her hand on his tummy and in her clear voice she tells him, “May the Lord heal your tummy! Don’t worry baby, Jesus will heal you soon.” To my surprise the little one stopped crying and soon enough he fell into a quiet sleep. I was amazed! Truly only a child’s faith can do that. Try it; it may work for you as well.

So if you want your baby to stop crying, pray to God, who hears every whisper, and He will help you.

~~~Call to me and I will answer you. Jer 33:3~~~

5 weeks.

My little boy is 5 weeks today. Wow, time sure flies! It seems just yesterday I was waddling around, with aching hips, and a big pregnant belly. Now he is here in my life, a beautiful addition to our family. I just love little infants, their hungry cry, their little fist flying, as they try to suck on anything that comes close to their mouths. I am finally getting the hang of nursing this little guy. He is finally learning to latch on perfectly, after many attempts and after many painful tries. But a lot of babies go through that so I know its perfectly normal to have nursing issues at first. He is sleeping up to 3 hrs in a row now, and I am finally coming out of fog of sleep deprivation. All in all, I am finally feeling a bit like myself, and getting my routine back, or as far as possible with having a new little baby in our life.

A new day.

Every day we open our eyes its a new day! We can start fresh every morning. I opened my eyes today, the weather was beautiful, blue skies, sunshine, birds chirping, such  a good day to be born. Yes, I am hoping my baby will be born today. I am getting contractions off and on, so we will see.

I was reading this book, and there was a saying in it that I really liked. Maybe you will like it too?

~~ Every day has its own gift.~~

Isn't that just so true. Sometimes the gifts we receive are not as fun, or make us happy, but I believe every gift could be for our good, for us to learn to be better, more generous, more kind, happy instead of sad. That every gift could be hiding a special something inside, that we will understand over a period of time.

Like every season has its reason. Cold air, wind, rain, snow in the winter. Sunshine, flowers, rain, green grass in the spring. Hot air, mosquitoes, gardening, swimming in the summer. And in the fall we have colorful leaves, browns, getting cold, some rain. See every season has its reason and there is a reason for each thing that happens. That is how it is with us too. Every day we can learn, or suffer. We can choose to be happy, or complain. We always have a choice. Even the bible has a saying that I love.

~~
Deu 30:19I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live.~~

So you see we have the power to choose life or death everyday. Every day we make that choice. And every day there is a book that is written in heaven about our life, so that one day we will come before the Lord and Savior and he will see what he have chosen here on earth, that is what we will have in heaven too. By choosing love, kindness, generosity, soft sweet words, we automatically choose heaven and all its blessings, but when we choose to be grouchy and mean, and selfish, well then its the opposite. Its all in our choices. Lets make good, wise choices every day, so we wont be ashamed to come before God on the first day when we close our eyes here forever.

Beautiful prayer.

Psalm 16 (One of my favorite psalms...)

1 Keep me safe, O God,
for in you I take refuge.

2 I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing."


3 As for the saints who are in the land,
they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.

4 The sorrows of those will increase
who run after other gods.
I will not pour out their libations of blood
or take up their names on my lips.


5 LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.


6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.


7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.


8 I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.


9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,


10 because you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor will you let your Holy One see decay.


11 You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Here are some pleasures that I enjoy... my children, the flowers... lovely hot summer days.

Blessings.

Blessings are found only when I look for them. When my eyes are heavy with the troubles of today, I easily go through life not seeing the blessings, but only the hardships and struggles.

Like seeing the golden sunshine and blue forever sky.

Like seeing my almost 3 year old, playing on the swing, as she sings a made up song at the top of her lungs.

Like seeing pretty lilac bows in my girls hair.

Like seeing brown curls on my youngest baby girl.

Like seeing her sweet little face, turned to me in love.

Like seeing flowers that soon will be blooming, and the bird song that tell us that spring is almost here.

Seeing the blessing, when my heart is open to see.

Winter gifts.

To see a world in a grain of sand

And heaven in a wild flower

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand

And eternity in an hour.

 

 

A new year is a new book. What will this year bring me, a lot of blessings or a lot of tears? All I know is that even through tears I can still feel Gods blessing in my life.

Today I would like to thank my Lord and Savior for:

1. Gray, overcast skies.

2. For waking up with my little one, who is almost 1 year old.

3. Gods promises found in his book.

4. For having a chest cold, which makes me stay home off work, and lets me enjoy my children more.

5. Over the weekend we went to this beautiful park we have, and we got to see the beautiful gentle-eyed deer.

 

Isnt she lovely? Beauty is all around us, if only we would look around.

Thank you Lord for your blessings that surround us, for the beautiful world you created, and for giving us eyes to see it.