From Our Home{s}To Yours!

December 22, 2008

welcome081 Welcome to My Christmas Tour of Homes! My name is Heather, and you can read more about me by clicking my picture in the left sidebar. Don’t forget to read mine and my daughters story by clicking the navigation buttons at the top of my blog. I am so glad that you have stopped by, but I must tell you that these pictures are not of my house, but of my mothers. Every Christmas my mom puts on such a marvelous display of Christmas, and this year I wanted to show case her (and her best friends) home. So grab a cup of hot chocolate and let’s get started!


Click to enlarge the photos.

  • Entry Way:

Front Door entry window

  • Living/Dining Room:


frontrm2 frontrm3 lvorn1 dinning room table Living Room Nativity Dinning Room Armoir Dinning Room Buffet Front Room Mirror lrorn1

  • Den:

Den Tree Den Tree (Close Up) Den Nativity Den Dads Chair Den Mirror

  • Lanai/Pool


Lanai Tree (& coal fireplace) Pool Ornaments hanging above the pool

Now for Ms. Bev’s House. She is my moms best friend and is moving to Tennessee sometime next year. She always does her house up so festively for Christmas. You will notice that she is very primitive country, and has a GI.NOR.MOUS collection of Santa Clauses:

front-door outside fireplace christmas-trees amazing-grace ironing-board nellie nativity-set santas hutch christmas-doll dining-room-hutch carolers christmas-hutch bowl-of-ornaments

And Ms. Bev’s Williraye Christmas Collection:
williraye-santa williraye-nativity willirayenav


I hope you enjoyed your visit! Thank you so much for stopping by!

merry-christmas1

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Spiritual Accountability

December 18, 2008

So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God. -Philippians 1:9-10 (The Message)

I was reading on accountability this morning, and this one line jumped out at me: Holy friendship – spiritual accountability – must begin with loving with the heart of Christ.

….With the heart of Christ.

Michelle and I were talking yesterday about holding each other accountable for our quiet times and daily relationship with Christ. She and I committed to each other that we would keep each other in check. In other words… we would ask each other those really tough questions about our daily walk/relationship with Christ & answer honestly and truthfully.

But what is true accountability? What model should we use?

  • Flourishing Love: We must have an open, honest, loving relationship with one another. Without it, we cannot fully trust that what we confess is going to stay with the person we confess it to.
  • Love much and Love well: We must love each other with the love of Christ, because without that love, true accountability is meaningless.
  • Love appropriately: This one is tough. We must be honest with each other, no matter how ugly the truth is.. and trust that the other person is going to remain loyal.
  • Use your head/test your feelings: We must balance our feelings with the word of God above anything else.
  • Live a life that Jesus would be proud of: This one is self explanatory.
  • Getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God: This is the one that is so meaningful. True accountability is caring about someone so much that your desire is to help them live a life that brings them & others closer to Christ.

Now lets take a look at what Spiritual accountability is not:

  • To gossip about others
  • To be judgmental of others

Those 2 things grieve the heart of Christ, and we need to be very very careful that we do not turn our spiritual accountability with someone into a spiritual “beating” of another person. Trust me, it is so very easy to do… sometimes without even knowing your doing it. It could be as simple as using someones behavior as an example and then it goes south from there, turning into something that it never was intended to become.

Christian life is hard enough… you need someone you can trust wholeheartedly with the good, bad and not so pretty.

So I encourage you, if you do not have one already, to get a spiritual accountability partner, whether it be your best friend or your spouse. If neither of those work for you, talk to your Pastor/Elder and ask him to hold you accountable.

Trust me.. It is a difficult process, but oh so very worth it in the end.

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