Welcome Friends!

I'm so glad you decided to visit my site. It really is an honor to have you here. I hope you find something that encourages and inspires you. And you might even laugh a little. I hope you'll come back every once in awhile and see what's new. I have a blog at momorsteph.blogspot.com focusing on motherhood and ways to get through the economic crisis of late. And you can also read more of my devotionals and articles at bukisa.com and enter stephwrites in the search box.

Summer's here........

and I am nowhere near ready for it! Wasn't it just January and we were hating the rain and praying for relief from the mudslides. And yes, we did have a slide on our street which blocked my driveway for about 36 hours! Okay, I guess I am glad that's over.....

But my oldest son is graduating in less than two weeks. My 16 year old daughter doesn't seem to care that she's flunking her language arts class and will be grounded for most of the summer. And my 13 year old is begging me for an airsoft rifle that I think is too strong and might shoot somebody's eye out. aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh life! We never know what it's going to bring.

But didn't Jesus warn us about that? Life will be hard and full of trials.............but I am with you! It sounds great but do we really appreciate Him like we should? Do we think about Him sitting next to us when we argue with the kids and try to talk to them rationally and not rant and rave like we want to? Do we feel His arms around us when we finally sit down and have a good cry?

Truthfully, I don't usually. (And  I hope it's okay to talk candidly here cause I think that's what we need to hear and what God wants me to do.) I had a good cry last night but didn't think about how much God cared about that or why I was crying. And now that I've thought about it more, I realize that it's okay to cry and vent our frustrations. We're human. It's the way God made us. Wasn't Jesus human when he chased those greedy men out of the temple? And when he comforted the woman who might have been stoned by her accusers? And sympathetic to those who needed healing?

We are not going to be perfect all the time, no matter how hard we try (and I know some of you perfectionists try pretty hard!) So vent and cry and call out to God with your frustrations...................He'll listen............and love you. 

A TV devotional???

Have you ever seen the commercial for Campbell’s soup where the snowman comes in the door and turns into a little boy after he eats some soup? We all say, "aaawwww…" cause it’s really cute. But I noticed some things the last time I watched it. Lies....

1. The most obvious one is that a snowman could never become a boy. And why would we want him to? He would melt all over the carpet and make a mess! And what fun is it to hug a snowman anyway?!

2. Soup is not the way to melt little boys. By melting, I mean slow them down enough to sit still and eat at the table with good manners. I don’t know about your kids but soup is one of the last things they like to eat. Give them a pepperoni pizza or some tacos and they scarf it down. But put a bowl of warm soup with veggies and some noodles, forget it! Let’s just pray that they will take after us when they are adults and learn to like soup!!

3. The last time I watched the commercial I noticed a few new things:

A. After the snowman opens the front door of the house, he closes it! Now, I don’t know how many millions of times you’ve yelled at the kids to close the door after they’ve opened or closed it but I’ve probably said it 2 million!! (That’s cause I have 5 kids, sometimes 7 or 8 kids because of the neighbors coming and going, and compared to some, but not all of you, I do things twice as many times as you!) Now, where was I? Oh, the door. If that snowman was truly a boy in disguise, he would not have closed the door after him.

B. After the snowman closes the door, he hangs his scarf up on a hook! Can you believe it?! One thing I’ve said almost as much as "close the door!" is "hang up your stuff!!" My husband even made a beautiful mirror with hooks so they would have a place to hang their coats and backpacks on, but they only use it half the time they come in the door.

Would the commercial have been better if the snowman had left the door open and thrown his scarf and the boots, of course, on the floor? I think so. It would still be cute, even if he did eat the soup, and it would also be more true to life. What’s the lesson to learn from this? Don’t insert lies or falsity into your life. Lies won’t make it cuter or better. In fact, lies will not please God and will fill your life with more guilt and sin. We surely don’t need more of that!!

Proverbs 19:9 says, "A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he who breathes forth lies shall perish." I surely don’t want to die early, do you? Even I have hidden purchases from my husband or used half truths when talking to the kids or solicitors or tweaking your taxes. These are little white lies. So let’s try to live as honestly and close to God as we can and show our families and friends how to make their lives better by example.

A Life Lesson from the kids....

A couple of summers ago my middle son, now 12, screamed at me from the living room. it was one of those screams that you don't ignore. It was a "Mom something really bad happened" scream.  He had stepped on a tooth pick and it stuck a 1/2 inch or so into the bottom of his foot. He limped around the house for a week, but then I had to call the doctor’s office because it looked infected. First, the doctor took an x-ray to be sure part of the toothpick wasn’t still in his foot. He couldn’t see anything in the x-ray but decided to "find out for himself" what was causing the infection. You know whatever comes next is gonna be painful!

My son began to cry even before he saw the needle. In the car he had asked me if he would get a shot. Mothers are supposed to be trustworthy, I couldn’t lie to him. I said I wasn’t sure but he might. The doctor held the injured foot, and the nurse held both legs down. While they stuck him with the needle, he was screaming and crying. I held his hand as I tried to give him comfort and pray for him, but I was crying too. There’s nothing worse than seeing your child hurting.

As the doctor used a long pair of tweezers to dig around in the hole in my son’s foot, he screamed louder than ever. The shot was supposed to numb his foot but he must have felt something because he began to yell embarrassingly loudly, "This is the worse day of my life! This is the worse day of my life!" Now I was crying because I was trying so hard not to laugh. Both the doctor and the nurse are smiling and I’m sure they were trying just as hard as me not to laugh.

Putting it in perspective later, I know it was only an eight year old’s version of "the worst day of my life." But isn’t that how we think too? A snarl in traffic, a ruined vacation or bad day at the office become the worst day of our lives. Let’s rethink these ‘worst’ scenarios for a minute. If you’re caught in traffic, be thankful you have a car. Some people can’t afford a car and most of those in Africa walk miles just to get to the nearest store, or even to school. It rained five out of seven days of your vacation at Disneyland? As a family of seven on a $45,000 per year income, we probably will never go to Disneyland, usually we just go camping. And some people work two jobs 60-80 hours per week, but will never get a vacation. You had a bad day at the office? Think about the thousands of people who don’t have jobs, or a home for that matter. Or what about the really 'worst' scenarios: you house is flooded, or burned to the ground, a loved one dies, a child is terminally ill. It seems like the end of the world for real.

You’ve heard the saying "life happens". It means that we all have things in our lives that are not pleasant, things we would rather not deal with. I live by the motto "someone else has it worse". I try to think of a scenario that would make the situation I'm in worse and be thankful it’s not as bad as it could be. Isn’t that how God tells us to think? Philippians 2:14 says, "Do everything without complaining or arguing." God doesn’t make every bad thing happen to us but He says He will never leave us or forsake us. That means He will be walking with us the whole way through if we let Him. Sometimes it’s circumstances beyond our control, or another person’s actions that make "life happen". Or it could even be our own sin that brings us down. Whatever it is, that "worst day" can make us or break us. My son got over the pain and limped some more but lived to run in the house another day and so can we.

     My name is Steph Mounier and I am from a small town in Washington state. First, I am a child of God and I hope to serve Him to the best of my ability. Of course, we are only human and fall short of God's glory, but all He asks is that we try. He has asked me to serve Him by writing. Lately I've written devotionals (scroll down and you'll find some examples) and fiction (see some samples on the 'Fiction' page). He also has given me the gift of speaking to women to encourage and inspire them. I started speaking to MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) groups in 2002. I am also available to speak to other women's groups in the Southwest Washington and Northwest Oregon area. Topics include "Depression to Stardom" which is about my struggle with depression and how God has helped me have victory over it, "Serving and Swerving to God", about how to make action of your life and serve God and not man, "Family Unity" which gives practical advice and daily examples on how to make your family stronger and better and "Just Do It", this is a summary of the Fruit of the Spirit with an emphasis on self-control.

I am also a wife and mother of five. Yes, I said five. Whew! That even makes me cringe some days!! The kids range in age between 18 and 10. We are a very busy and noisy family. God and family are my first love. My second love is making crafts, jewelry, scrapbooking and other papercrafts. Lately, I have been making art for my walls.....

I hope this word of encouragement helps you to grow closer to God and enrich your life. If you have questions, comments or need a shoulder to cry on, and if you want to be on a mailing list to be notified when I have posted something new, you can reach me at artistmomof5@gmail.com

Love and hugs, Steph