Yesterday Denise gave us great decorating ideas. Today we read the last of her decorating tips.

3. Experiment with color. In God’s gracious creativity He gave us all a favorite color. Whatever yours is, put something that color in each of the rooms you use the most. Don’t worry if it doesn’t “match” the rooms color scheme (you can choose the most compatible shade of your favorite to make this experiment less frightening). If you like red, add a pillow to a chair or sofa; or paint a picture frame orange for your bedroom or buy a sky blue lampshade. That one thing in the room will catch your eye when you walk in and can actually lift your spirits.

My favorite color is purple (remember the eccentric part) and although I don’t use purple in my family room I do have hanging in a prominent place a painting of a French field of lavender. It’s by a good friend of mine who is an artist in the primitive style. It doesn’t match the room’s colors or even the style of any other thing. But when I see it I can’t help but smile. After all, it is purple, and so very ME.

What is your favorite color and how do you decorate with it?

By Denise Marks

Like lots of women, I really like to feel good about my house. I know its just four walls and the things inside are merely “stuff”, but somehow God seems to have wired us to take a certain pride in this place where our family life revolves and our hospitality is practiced. And we would all like for people to enter our house and be, well, maybe not impressed but at least pleased and definitely not appalled!

One of my favorite things to hear when someone enters my home is that it looks like ME. Now granted, a few of my friends tease me for being eccentric, so that might not sound like a compliment, but to me it is the highest praise. I want my home to reflect the people who live in it. Fortunately, home design trends in recent years favor a look that isn’t perfectly matched and coordinated…good news for those of us who can’t afford to buy the whole furniture showroom. Even if you feel like your style is “neo-clutter” and your home looks too much like you, there are ways to let your personality shine through.

Here are a couple of tips that may get you started.

1. Don’t get too hung-up on your home furnishings’ style. If you have certain items of furniture, or a picture or some other keepsake that you love, by all means use it! Grandmother’s treasured antique table can still look great with a more modern décor. Concentrate more on coordinating fabrics and colors rather than woods or furniture styles. Mix styles a little at a time if the whole concept feels like a leap of faith to you. Go with what you like and remember that only in catalogues does everything in a room match.
2. Decorate a room with the little things that typify you. Frame your kid’s artwork. If you or a family member collects something (even if you don’t want to show the whole collection) put out a couple of things on your coffee table. Do you love books? Stack a few favorites under a lamp or table top picture frame. Don’t over do it with the knick-knacks, but place things around that will pique someone’s curiosity when they walk in or stir a memory for you when you see it.

Tomorrow we’ll read the last of Denise’s decorating tips!

I am a social studies teacher at a public middle school, and I love it.  My seventh graders truly bring joy to my life.  Don’t get me wrong, I do have those days, and more honestly, those students, but on the whole, I love my job. 

As you may imagine, God has taught me a lot about patience and self-control in working with 12-13 year olds, but something that He has impressed upon me even more is that in all things, He is in control. 

I struggled with my students a lot last year, and I was in a morning prayer group with some other teachers, when God reminded me that He was in control of even my class roles.  This was such basic truth that I had overlooked.  I became in awe of God’s presence over all things, and was humbled to know that I had the students I did for a reason.  The students who I struggled with, those that seemingly despised me, those that didn’t care about my class at all, and those that loved and respected me.  This changed the way I thought about each child and the way that I interacted with them.  Knowing that every last one of them was in my room for a reason made me suddenly aware of the great opportunity and responsibility I had to serve them well.  

Let this be an encouragement to you that wherever you spend your days, not only is God with you through it all, but He intentionally has you where you are.

This week we’re writing about different ways that our work is leading us and others to Christ. Like each of you reading this blog, I have a number of different jobs/roles in my life (wife, mom, Nurse Practitioner, family accountant, house cleaner, cook, etc.), but I’ll just focus on a couple today.

I can’t even begin to tell you how much being a wife and mother has taught me about the Lord, my sin, my relationship with God, my need for His help. My love for my husband and children (and their love for me) continues to teach me so much about God’s love for me as His bride and his daughter. My children’s uninhibited love for the Lord and His reality in their lives is such an example to me.

The last 5 months I’ve been working as a Nurse Practitioner in a clinic located in Walgreens. It has been a privilege to be able to treat some of our church members, as well as encourage other believers who have come to see me. I have also been struck by how lost and hurting people are without the Lord, and have been really challenged to let Christ’s love shine through me. But how does that look - does it mean inviting those who are receptive to church activities, does it mean treating my patients with dignity and care, does it mean genuinely caring about my co-workers and speaking freely but not in a pushy way about my relationship with the Lord and fellow believers? These are some of the questions I’ve been thinking of as I try to figure out what it really means to live as salt and light.

I’m really thankful for the privilege of serving in these 2 roles, and have definatly been challenged as I really try to figure out what it looks like to live as a genuine Christian in my personal and work life.

I have an “answered prayer” story to share with you. It’s very much a story that could have – and almost did – turn out very sad, but instead ended very happily, and I believe the Lord orchestrated this into my life to teach me many things, one of which was the importance of persistent prayer. I suppose I’m sharing it to reinforce the concept that nothing is too big or small to pray about, and to keep praying about. God is a generous Father who loves to give good gifts to His children. He cares about all aspects of your life - your feelings, your hopes, your dreams. He created you, after all. It’s the story of how my husband and I came to be engaged.

Matt and I had been very good friends throughout my college years. We endured endless questions from others who wanted some definition of our relationship, and we maintained the line that we were indeed just friends. That was the truth – the sad, sad truth, in my opinion. Matt insisted he thought I was a wonderful person in many ways, but that he simply didn’t have romantic interest in me. And that was the truth, too. He’ll tell you to this day. So, what could I do but pray? It’s not that he didn’t notice me, it’s not that he didn’t like me, it’s not that he just needed to spend more time with me so I could woo him with my feminine charm. No, it was a heart issue, and there’s only one Person in charge of heart issues, so I went to Him regularly to plead that He would change Matt’s heart on the matter.

After 3 ½ years of close friendship, I began to sense that the relationship was going nowhere and since I’d graduated from college 9 months hence, I realized – very much through the prompting of the Holy Spirit – that I needed to get on with my life by breaking off my friendship with Matt, which I did. It was immensely painful, but through it all I felt joy and peace because I had a very strong sense of assurance that I’d been obedient to what the Lord was calling me to do in that situation. Believe me, the easier thing would have been to stay “just friends” forever – at least then I would have had something, right?

As I’ve mentioned, throughout the 3 ½ years before this quasi-breakup I prayed regularly for God to change Matt’s heart. The Lord brought me to a place of realization that even if He didn’t change Matt’s heart, it was going to be okay, and after I surrendered to this, he went ahead and did it anyway. The coolest part of the story – to me, at least – is that Matt had been praying the same thing all along – that God would change his heart - using this same language, and you have to understand that Matt and I don’t normally speak like this. We usually think in terms of our minds and thoughts, and not so much our hearts and feelings, so the fact that not only were we praying the same thing without knowing it, we were using the same rarely-used terminology.

So, there you go. God answered my prayer, finally. Most of our friends had given up after almost 4 years but the Lord knew what He was doing. Would He have brought me and Matt together had I not prayed? I guess there’s no way to know. I do know that through prayer, God involves us in His doings, and that’s no small thing. This story of answered prayer in my life is one that I look to time and again to remind me of the importance and privilege of prayer. I have a tangible reminder of it everyday – my sweet husband.