All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the prophets.
Matthew 7:12
I self-identify as something of a country girl. I grew up on a river and I definitely ran around barefoot for 90% of my childhood. I didn’t grow up on a farm though. After growing up pretty much in the middle of nowhere, I am much more comfortable on a dirt road with no cell signal than I am in a busy city. It’s just not me.
You can imagine the culture shock then, when my husband and I moved to the city as newlyweds. There was on-street parking (I cannot parallel park to save my life!), all the noises of a city—the police and fire sirens (we lived one street over from the fire department), the traffic, and all the hustle and bustle. And there were the homeless people.
Growing up in a rural area, I knew a lot of people who did not have much—some hardly had anything, but everyone had some type of shelter, albeit a shack-like structure, trailer, or house. No one stood on street corners holding signs asking for money or food. No one slept on park benches. (To be fair there weren’t many parks, much less benches where I grew up.) I knew there were homeless people in the city, of course, and it’s not like I had never been to Pittsburgh before we moved there as newlyweds! Still, there is something about seeing homeless people as I drove from the city to my rural home versus seeing them day in and day out and not necessarily on the same street corner.
It bothered me. I would sit at the stop light in my car waiting for the light to change, trying to keep my eyes off the poor soul holding the sign in front of me. Should I give him some money? What if he spent it on booze or drugs? Should I give him food? Or, was he just a scammer who didn’t need food and just wanted the money?
I was contemplating this one night on my way home from work. I was stopped at the infamous light and there he was—holding a sign saying he was homeless and anything would help. Anything would help. I didn’t have any cash on me but out of the corner of my eye on the seat beside me I saw the granola bar and the untouched apple from my lunch. I told myself that he wouldn’t want it, he would think I was stupid giving him food—who did I think I was offering my leftovers like I was some generous benefactor? A still small voice seemed to whisper in my ear, “This isn’t about how much he needs it; are you willing to give it.”
I put my window down part way and offered him the granola bar and apple. He was very grateful!
I don’t know what is the right thing to do. I’m sure there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. I only know what I was shown that day—that a lot of times helping others is not necessarily about them. Oftentimes it is about us. How we help and treat others shows the condition of our hearts more than anything else. Jesus told us to help the least of these. And He didn’t follow it with a list of qualifiers. He didn’t say give to the poor but only if they are trying really hard and still can’t make ends meet. He didn’t say to help the poor but only if they are poor because of reasons outside of their control. He said to help them. Do we listen to this command?
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I know you are sick of hearing me say how much I love historical fiction, so I won’t say it again! But I will say, I also love non-fiction history books that read like fiction! Below are a few of my favorites that I have recently read and enjoyed
George Washington’s Secret 6 by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger
This book is engaging from the start—but even if it wasn’t—hearing about the first spy ring during America’s fight for independence will keep you enthralled! The authors start by introducing each of the individuals associated with the spy ring. We hear about how the ring came into existence and the British plots that were overthrown, thanks to the knowledge gained by the spy ring. There is a great chance America would not have won the Revolution without the individuals in the spy ring.
The First Conspiracy by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch
This is a little known passage from history, but an important one. It is the early years of the Revolutionary War, and America’s position in the war is shaky. As if things were not bad enough for the fledgling country, a plot is hatched to destroy America’s currency in a large-scale counterfeit operation. America’s currency was already much weaker than Britain’s and an operation of this scale would destroy any chance of America gaining her independence—but can they catch all the culprits in time?
Killer Angels by Michael Sharrah
This one has been on my TBR (To Be Read) list for years—probably close to a decade—but I never picked it up because I thought it would be boring. Boy was I wrong! Not only was it good, it was so good that I paused another novel I was reading to read this one first! Mr. Sharrah depicts the battle of Gettysburg through the rotating points of view of Lee, Longstreet, Buford, and Chamberlin. Mr. Sharrah does a great job of getting into the mind of each character in a way that is both authentic and engaging. I highly recommend this one! Be forewarned this books takes place on a battlefield with soldiers and there is a fair amount of swearing involved though nothing terribly egregious.
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
I read this one a while ago but was reminded of it when we went to the Outer Banks on vacation and decided to visit the Wright Brothers Museum, which is also site of the first flight. Mr. McCullough is a great storyteller and really brings to life the personalities of Wilbur and Orville on their quest to do what had never before been done—getting man to fly! They came so close to giving up entirely but their perseverance was rewarded!
Killing The Mob by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard
Growing up I loved reading books about the 1920s, ‘30s, and ‘40s. Old Hollywood and the glitz and glamor of it all. I too lived vicariously through the old time actors just like the women did generations before me. There was a dark side to the glitz and glamor though. This was an age of great corruption and crime. Crime ran rampant in an era where law enforcement in different states didn’t communicate with each other and running from the law was as easy as crossing the nearest state line. The authors of this book go into detail into how the crime of the ‘30s and ‘40s created the perfect environment for the mob to begin and flourish for decades. This book kept me turning pages! Be forewarned, however, as may be expected of a book that has the word ‘killing’ in the title, there are some gory parts that you may want to skip through. If you are a highly sensitive person you may want to simply skip this one.
If you are not much of a nonfiction reader and you find yourself wanting to make a foray into the non-fiction world, I hope you will give one of the above titles a chance. Let me know what you think—and if you know anyone else who is a history lover, feel free to share this post with them!
I aspire to keep a tidy home and, while I don’t aspire to minimalism in its purest sense, I do love the thought of being a minimalist. I have been in homes of people who are minimalists and there is definitely something freeing about not being encumbered by lots of “stuff.” I love seeing the surfaces uncluttered by paraphernalia. The openness is restful. I say this, but in my heart I still like having my stuff. I like knowing that I have a few extras of things on hand and not just what I absolutely need. I had plenty of toilet paper on hand at the outbreak of COVID19!
Somewhere along the line though, I took this to a little bit of an extreme. While acknowledging that I would never be a total minimalist I still started to act like I was. Let me explain—I would go through rooms decluttering and purging items, but not quite as ruthlessly as if I was all-in on the minimalism idea. I started feeling guilty that I had more things than a minimalist—even though being a minimalist wasn’t my goal!
This came to light when I was going through some of my grandmother’s jewelry. She didn’t need or want much jewelry so she gave a lot of pieces to me. I’m not talking pure gold and silver jewelry but costume jewelry—hardly worth anything monetarily, but a lot of the pieces could be considered vintage and are becoming current; they could be cute paired with the right outfit! That is the keyword—could. I might not wear them. I don’t wear much jewelry, but then again, I might. And they were grandma’s. . . I don’t want to be hampered by stuff and she was never sentimental. She would not want me to keep it if I didn’t really want it. I felt like I should get rid of some of the pieces, but I was afraid I might regret it.
There was a lot of energy going into the decision of whether to keep or get rid of some of the items that take up no more room than a Ziploc baggie. Finally it dawned on me—I didn’t have to get rid of it. It was okay to keep a few pieces that didn’t bring me joy if it made me feel lighter over the decision of keeping them than I did about getting rid of them just to be freed of “stuff.” It was almost like I heard someone whisper in my ear, “Who told you that you had to be a minimalist?” I realize this is a rather silly example, and a first world problem at best but it led to an important realization for me.
Where have we heard those words before, “Who told you?” In the third chapter Genesis in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve are hiding their nakedness and trying to hide from God, God asks them why they are hiding. They reply that it is because they are naked. God then asks who it was that told them they were naked. It was Satan who had lured them to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and it was through eating of the fruit that they discovered they were naked. Whose voice did they listen to?
Whose voice have you listened to saying you needed to be thinner, smarter, faster—or you needed to do this or that—fill in the blank! Many things in life are neutral and having stuff is neutral—neither good nor bad as long as we do not place undo worth in the things themselves. Taking care of our bodies is important and certain things we do need to do but we must be careful to discern whose voice we listen to. Yes we should always be reaching, stretching and learning and we should be praying and doing the things that God’s Word commands us to do. If we are doing what God wants us to do, does the other stuff really matter? In the grand scheme of things very little from this earth will matter and none of our stuff can we take with us when we leave this earth. It is not what we hear from this world that is important—it is what we learn from God’s Word that is most important. It is what God says that matters. We are to look to Him, lean on Him and trust Him.
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I have previously talked about How to Create a Cohesive Color Palette for Your Home, (see that post here). Once you have your color palette, how do you actually apply it to your house? I’m so glad you asked!
First the Basics
The point of having a color palette is to give your house a cohesive feel. It should not feel like a ball and chain around your neck that you are forever stuck with and can never deviate from, but rather it is a guide to help inform your decorating decisions. You pick three to five colors—the furniture and most of the decor will be chosen from this color palette. For example, my walls are painted a warm tannish-gray color called greige and that is my main color. A lot of my furniture is gray. My accent colors are mustard yellow, faded sage green, and a deep teal tinted navy—like a pair of jeans. I also have white, black, and wood tones in my decor. I consider my main colors in my color palette to be the greige, teal/navy, sage green, and mustard yellow. The white, black, and wood tones I don’t really classify as true colors in my house because I use them as neutrals. If I was going for a super-tight color palette or a monochromatic color pallet then I would count them and limit my color palette accordingly.
Using a Cohesive Color Palette in Your Home
Now that you have an idea of what comprises a cohesive color palette, how do you make it work for you? Do you have to use the same amount of each in your room? Can you ever bring in any little bit of other colors? The short answer is yes to both, but let’s go for the long answer too!
Just because you have a color palette doesn’t mean you cannot vary how much of each color you use from room-to-room. For example, greige is my main color; blue is approximately 60% of my accent color, the green about 30%, and the yellow about 10%. However, this can vary from room to room.
We have one small living area, and then a second slightly larger living room. The second and larger room I have painted the walls sage green. Some say you should never paint walls green and I rebuke this! I love green and I use it!! Since I am using green to such a large degree in that room I have no other green accents in that room (unless you want to count plants). Instead, I lean on my blue for most of my accents and a tiny bit of the yellow—keeping both these color accents pretty light. My furniture in this room is all neutral colors. However, by adding touches of blue and yellow to this room, it keeps color bouncing around the house and feeling cohesive.
What About Introducing Other Colors to Your House?
What about adding small touches of color, outside of your color palette to your home? I say you can do it but keep a few things in mind:
(1) The more colors you add to your home the trickier it is to style it well.
(2) The more color that is not repeated throughout your house, the more disjointed your home will feel.
I do allow a few touches of oranges and purple in very small doses in my kitchen. I have a trivet made from dried botanicals that is very pretty so I display it all the time in a corner of my kitchen. I also use it all the time so it is nice to have it within an easy reach!
Can You Use Different Shade of Colors from Your Color Palette in Your Home?
By doing this, you will end up weakening the integrity of your color palette. Remember the color palette is a guide, but it is also a tool. Having this framework is what allows you to be able to move items from room-to-room interchangeably. It is also what creates flow in your house. I think it is best for the sake of cohesiveness to keep the same color flowing in all the main areas of your house. If you want to branch out into different colors, the bedrooms and bathrooms are the best places to do this.
If you are craving a color that you use nowhere else in your house, a bedroom is a great way to satisfy that craving. However, if you are using, for example, a lighter or darker shade of a color that you are already using somewhere else in your house, then a lot of your other colors will still play nicely with this color, enabling you to play musical chairs with your other decor pieces!
I hope this helps to give you more ideas for how you can use a cohesive color palette in your home to make your decorating easier and more fun. As always, if you are enjoying these posts please share them with a friend—it helps me so much! Until next time—happy decorating!
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And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
Ezekiel 36:27 NIV
I grew up attending that kind of little church in the middle of nowhere. You know the one . . . it’s the type of church that is in every book about a small town which no one really thinks exists. It was a great church but the congregation was very, very small! So small in fact that we would have one service in the morning and would combine with a sister church for a second service in the evening.
The church we went to in the evening was still small by most standards but seemed considerably larger to me than our “morning church”. I think this church would be a bit of a culture shock for anyone used to today’s contemporary services without hymnals, and where the services clipps along at a predetermined pace. Not at this church. We would grab hymnals and sing, not to a fancy worship band but to the sound of the piano, a guitar or two, a violin, a couple of mandolins, and perhaps a flute—whatever instrument anyone could play would sound forth from the front pews of the church!
After singing there was prayer—and this is not the staid prayer of many churches. No, this was a vast chorus of many different voices praying out loud until the prayer leader said amen. Sometimes there was no time for preaching as people would be at the altar praying as burdens were heavy. (This is when the service timeline might go off the rails.) Oftentimes we would be invited to testify—to share what God was doing in their lives. People would testify how money for a bill had miraculously appeared; about a medical threat could no longer be found; how this prayer or that prayer had been answered. One person would finish and another would pop up—not every week—some weeks were quiet with one or two people sharing and other weeks the preaching part of the service would be skipped entirely as everyone had so much praise to offer! You simply cannot cut people off who are praising God and sharing what He is doing in their life! On those occasions our Pastor would say he simply could not top that! I don’t know why churches don’t do this today.
There were some saintly elderly people in the congregation and they are the ones I remember and miss the most. We might be in the testifying part of the service, if they felt the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they didn’t hold back! They would stand and shout, “Glory to God!” One of the older gentlemen would run a lap or two around the church shouting, “Praise and Glory to God, well I say Hallelujah!” These people were filled with the Holy Spirit!
I know these things might sound a little odd when compared to most church services these days—and if you don’t currently attend church and this sounds a little fanatical, please don’t let this dissuade you—most churches are not like this. I share this to say let us not become so attached to our schedules and what is expected that we don’t leave room for the Holy Spirit to work.
This is not just for church and the church services. What other times in your life does the Holy Spirit prompt you to do something? Do you need to share a hard time that you went through with another Christian to encourage them? Do you need to step out and invite someone to church for the first time? These things can be scary and uncomfortable but sharing the faith is what Christian life is all about. It doesn’t have to be something big, but the next time you feel an overwhelming impulse to share something with someone and you don’t feel like the thought came from you—do it! You never know how it could change someone’s life and impact them for years to come!
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