Quick Intro and how God is working in my life....

I may or may not know all of you or most of you but here is a quick intro into me, Shannon or Shan or most of the time I'm called Mommy or Lady Jane (that's my husbands' nickname for me and have no idea why but it's cute and I'm rambling!). Like I said, most of the time I'm called Mommy. Being a mother has always been something that I longed for and I was blessed with four kids. Usually you say something like "I was blessed with four healthy, happy kids...well, I do have four very happy and very loving children. I do not have four healthy kids as much as I would love to say I do and health, being such a vital and important thing its a hard pill to swallow at times. My oldest child,"A" has Celiacs and she also has markers for an autoimmune disease. I am leaning towards Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis or Lupus. But Thankfully (Thank you GOD) she is able to function and behave like your typical tween. :) My second oldest (M) is healthy (Praise the Lord) and is 15 mos younger than his sister. My third child, my little guy, he unfortunately is not healthy but I'll get to that in just a bit, and rounding out the crew is my youngest and my last baby. She is healthy. In-utero it was discovered she had excess fluid in her kidneys. She will be getting what I hope is her last review of her kidneys and we will be released from the Nephrology Doctors. My 3rd child, W has a rare form of Childhood Epilepsy called ESES or Electrical Status Epilepticus of Sleep or also known as CSWS or LKS depending on which dr. you are talking to. He was a developmentally normal little boy when November 5th, 2012 occurred. That is when he had his first two seizures and we have been on this roller coaster ever since. Recently we were told medicine will no longer work, his seizures just aren't responding to medicine at this time. We are awaiting a new MRI and we are seeing the top specialist in the country in August (praying for this) to see where we may go from here. While we wait, he continues to decline developmentally. His gross/fine motor skills, language, and general cognitive abilities are beginning to evaporate right before my eyes. Now at this point, most people (myself included) would ask WHY? Why would GOD let this happen to a little boy. We know that GOD loves our children. He entrust us with the care of his most precious gifts.

• Psalm 139:13-16  For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you,when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
  
  source from:http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com

Instead of asking, "Why W? or Why our family?" how about Why not? God has proven time and time that he hears us and he will do what is best for us. Another way I try to look at our situation is: How honored I am to be W's mom and how honored I am for God to entrust such an amazing person to me, ME! Many people have said, "If I were you I would be falling apart", which I do mainly in the shower or while driving solo so I can get it all out or late at night but I also draw on God's strength and the fact that I know He will be there every step of the way.  I use NIV version for my bible and Isaiah 40:29: He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 

So what are some of your favorite verses about how God is always there for you?

Shan

Music that I love

Believe

Above All Else

How Great Thou Art

See You Again

God Gave Me You

Yours Forever

Almost anything by Chris Rice like... (and I'd suggest just listening and not watching the weird videos people put together to somehow go with the song?... haha!)

Deep Enough to Dream

Clumsy

Smellin' Coffee


And I'm sure there are so many more that I'm forgetting and don't even know of. :)

A few resources

Hello hello!

I thought it'd be helpful for some of you to know some resources I've found. A lot of you probably know a lot more & better resources, so feel free to jump in here please! (Once of course I have your email address and can add you as a contributing author... You can comment in the meantime, so please feel free!)

I love, love, love: biblegateway.com It's also great for those that do not have a Bible, or a version of the Bible they can understand, as it let's you choose which version you would like. I have a NIV Bible (New International Version) and can understand it easily, so I really like that version, but any version is better than none! :)

I have the Bible Gateway as an app on my phone, as well as: the Holy Bible app, Bible for Kids, Bible Songs (for kids), and Child's Bible (all apps)

I also love, love, love: crosspoint.tv and especially the pastor Pete Wilson - God definitely gave him a gift of speaking/preaching! Crosspoint is a church in Nashville and they tape & stream live their sermons on Sundays each week. If you missed a live stream- no biggie, just go under "media" and it's all there- or YouTube it! It's great if you haven't found a church you love yet, or just can't seem to get to church because you have multiple littles! :)

I also just Google a lot and try to look for legit resources.

I also have a few devotionals I love... Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, Heart of my Heart by Kristin Armstrong and Work in Progress by Kristin Armstrong.

Please add to this list if any of you would like to! Thanks!

**A few more I remembered: thrivemoms.com , proverbs31.org , lysaterkeurst.com , shereadstruth.com , holyyoga.net , amazima.org

Some Facts About the Bible

• The Bible was written over a time frame of 1600 years (1500 BC to AD 100) by forty different men.
• ** The Bible does not go in chronological order! Always good to know this, as thinking it does, could create quite the confusion!
• The Old Testament was written before Jesus was born, and the New Testament was written after Jesus was born and is mainly about Him and His life.
• There are 66 books. Within each book there are chapters and then verses. Ex: Genesis (book) 1:2 (the 1 is stating the chapter and the 2 is stating the second verse within the chapter).
• Each of the books, except 5, are divided into chapters and verses. The 5 which aren’t divided by chapters are Obadiah, Philemon, 2 John, 3 John, and Jude. These are short books which only have verse divisions. Chapters were introduced to the Bible in 1238 by Cardinal Hugo de S. Caro. Verse divisions were not added until 1551 by Robertus Stephanus
• The longest chapter if the Bible is Psalm 119 with 176 verses. The shortest chapter is Psalm 117 with only 2 verses. Incidentally, the middle chapter of the Bible is also Psalm 117.
  The longest book of the Bible is Psalms with 150 chapters. It contains 43,743 words. The shortest book is 3 John with only 1 chapter and 299 words. The longest verse in the Bible is Esther 8:9 with 90 words. The shortest verse is John 11:35 with only 2 words, “Jesus wept.”
• It is one of the most read books in the world.
• It is historically accurate.
• The men who wrote it were inspired to write each and every word by the Holy Spirit, therefore the Bible is God's word, literally.
• There are more than 3,200 verses with fulfilled prophecy either within the Bible itself or since the Bible was written. But there are still more than 3,100 verses with unfulfilled prophecies. While there were at least 40 different people who wrote parts of the Bible, some were more prolific than others. The Apostle Paul wrote at least 13 books of the Bible. He may have also been the author of the book of Hebrews. Moses wrote the first 5 books.
• The Bible never contradicts itself. It seems that way, the information has been taken out of context.
  
  (The above information came from: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/10-amazing-bible-facts/#ixzz34G0je1jp )

** Please remember that we each have Bibles that are different versions, and therefore have different words. Please remember that the Bible has been translated numerous times and some translations were altered or lost in some versions. Also, some people have used the Bible and it's information OUT OF CONTEXT so that they can use it against the Bible itself and God and Jesus.
** "The Bible was written for us, but not to us," as quoted from Pete Wilson (crosspoint.tv pastor - GREAT resource, site, church, etc.). We have to remember the timeframe in which it was written and what was normal for them at the time; what their lives were like... whether it was farming, nomad living, etc; different cultures and customs that are far different than ours nowadays.


Most importantly, what I want you all to take away from this, and some of you already know this better than I, is that the Bible proves to us that Jesus and God love and completely know each and every one of us so thoroughly and greatly that us humans cannot even fathom. God wants what is best for us, even if it may not seem like it's the best thing in our opinion. He knows what He is doing and He does it out of complete, pure, unconditional love.

If I had to choose one word to describe God & Jesus, it would be: love.

What word would each of you choose?

Welcome! A post from Michelle

Hi all! I thought that maybe this could possibly be a simpler format for our Bible study and in this way we could all participate. We'll continue using the #SistersInChrist group page on Facebook as a way to communicate however. Sound okay? Hope so! :)

I am so happy to welcome you all! I truly hope this is successful and that we all make time for it. I think it's important to have good girlfriends in your life, and what better than to have Godly-girlfriends at that?! Fellowship is so important. Even in the Bible it says that we should never be alone...

The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone..." (Genesis 2:18a)

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. (1 John 4:11-13)

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them. (Matthew 18:20)