Kindness is Contagious!

Our smallest acts of kindness can have a large impact on people's lives and most likely we will never know but our actions and words can be used to either build someone up and help them or tear them down and harm them.

Don't you wish there were more kind people in the world? If only we would smile at people more, give more compliments and encouragement to people we know or even those we don't. If only we would give a helping hand when you see someone needs it or even offer to help in some way! If only we would reach out to those that are hurting, those that are in pain, lonely or grieving. If only we would  truly care enough to just be there in whatever way we could. What a difference this would make in the lives of others!

There are so many kind things we could do that don't take a lot of time. My challenge this week for you and myself is to try and do at least one act of kindness a day for someone. God wants us to be kind to everyone...Let's do what he says! Let's be kind! It's contagious!

Here are a few simple ways you could show kindness to those you come in contact with this week...

1.) Send a note/card or gift to someone for no reason just to say thank you, your thinking about them or you are there for them.

2.) Give someone a genuine compliment-If you think someone looks pretty tell them, if they are doing a great thing tell them etc.

3.) Offer to help someone with something-everyone is so busy we could all use the help! And remember not to refuse the help if someone wants to help you. You may be robbing them of the blessing they will get from being able to help you!

4.) Call or text someone at least once a week to check in on them, especially those you know who are struggling with their health, marriages, loss, or finances. Maybe they just need a listening ear and prayer from you and just knowing you care enough to check on them could help them because they know someone cares.

5.) Look for ways you could help a stranger, for example help the elderly get their groceries in their car, help them reach something they can't reach etc.

6.) Talk and smile at people-Yes even strangers! Most of the time we are to busy to even see the hurting/lonely  people around us.

7.) Talk to and notice the children that are around you. Keep in mind many children are suffering with the high rate of divorce, abuse, neglect or parents who are simply self absorbed or to busy for them.

8.) Send an encouraging letter/ thank you to your teacher or child's teacher. They are rarely appreciated except maybe on teacher appreciation day.

9.) Tell a co-worker how Amazing they are and tell them why you think that.

10.) Spend quality time with your family, snuggle them, have a special day individually with your children, just you and them, give your children lots of praise this week, often times we just point out what their doing wrong and rarely focus on all they do right. Go visit your grandma or grandpa out of the blue.  Write a appreciation letter to your mom or dad and tell them how much you love them, your sorry for the mistakes you made when you were growing up and ask them if they need any help. Sometimes we do these things only on birthdays and or special occasions such as Mother's Day and Father's Day only! Surprise them!

11.) Offer to watch your friends children so they can rejuvenate and relax a bit. Hint! Hint! Just kidding!!!

There are so many ways to be kind to each other! Don't you love it when others are kind to you? Will you obey God when he gives you an opportunity to be kind to someone? Let's change the world around you and be kind to one another!
 
May God bless your week,
Angie Goucher
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I am so EXCITED I'm getting baptised tomorrow with some of my friends at Twin Lakes by my daddy! 
Mariah Goucher

                                            Ephesians 4:32
Be kind and compassionate to each other, forgiving each other, just as Jesus forgave you!  

Let's Persevere to be Patient People!

All my life I have struggled with patience. This week I was able to examine my heart and look into God's word on why He thinks its so important to be patient. I had to ask myself the question...Am I loving, respectful, compassionate, slow to anger and patient like God wants me to be or am I resentful, intolerant, irritable, angry, rude and impatient. I did not like the answer I came up with unfortunately. I have come to realize that I really need to cover this area in my life in prayer.

 Even as I write this my patience is being tested!  As my son is having a meltdown, fighting with his brother, getting into things etc. How will I react? Well, I need God's help because left to myself, my reaction is not always the best! So I pray! Lord help me be patient!

We need to learn to trust God with our situations, our trials and our tribulations. We need to make a conscience effort to be patient people and  ask God to help us in this area because this world is filled with impatient people and trying circumstances and don't you want to be different from the world?

We tend to be temperamental, lose our cool and overact when things don't go our way or prayers aren't answered quick enough. Others are watching us and how we handle situations is very important, we need to set an example for our children and those around us.

This week I challenge you to take a look at yourself and be more aware of whether or not you need to pray about this area in your life. I definately need to pray for myself to have patience I've realized! Romans 8:25 says -If we look forward to something we don't yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently! May God richly bless your week!

Angie Goucher

Corinthians 13:4
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through EVERY circumstance.

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God has the most amazing plan for you for your life, we just have to be patient for the amazing plan to come. I know it is hard for alot of people to have patience, and sometimes I am impatient too. God has perfect timing; never early, never late. It takes patience and alot of faith, but its worth the wait. So when you start to lose patience with someone, remember how PATIENT the Lord is with you!

God bless,
Mariah Goucher
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An update from last weeks challenge of living a peaceful life....The week went fairly well, there were a couple days where I did not pray about peace in my life and found myself living once again in a unpeaceful situation. My dear friend Maria reminded me to start each day telling God how thankful I am for all I have and that will help me find peace for the day. She also offered to pray for me which I know has helped. The lesson I learned is if you surround yourself with uplifting, encouraging people that will invest in your life and pray for your needs and if you will also pray for peace daily you will find yourself becoming more of a peacemaker! Thank you Maria -Christina for being such a great and Godly friend to me!

Blessed are the PEACEMAKERS!

The Lord talks about how we can obtain true Peace, the kind that passes all understanding. Honestly, I struggle with Peace... and there is one reason and one reason only I believe... I need to ask for it, pray about it and seek it with all my heart DAILY and Jesus will help me obtain it.

 Unfortunately, we live in a very unpeaceful world and we will probably not obtain Perfect Peace until we are in Heaven with Jesus... but I believe we can obtain peaceful relationships with our family, friends, co-workers and most importantly ourselves.... but we have to want it bad enough and be willing to humble ourselves and ask the "Prince of Peace" for it.

I am going to challenge myself this week to pray, read and seek peace. I want to be a peacemaker and I am not, I want to be a peaceful person and I am not and I want others that are around me to have a peaceful experience and they do not. I am wrestling with Peace in my life and I simply want that to change.

How about you? Are you wrestling with Peace in your life today? Are you a peaceful person? Are you peaceful at home, when your with your friends and family, at work? I am challenging you to examine your heart and if you feel God is leading you to pray for Peace in these areas, I pray that you will take the challenge with me and lets all seek to have peace in our lives once and for all.

I will update you next week and let you know how my week went. Feel free to comment on how yours goes.

I wanted to get quotes from my two dear friends that have battled Cancer this past year and I'm sure struggled with Peace throughout this terrible time in their lives. Both parents of special needs children both have gone through or are still going through many trials on top of the cancer and manage to still stay strong, independent and God fearing along the way. I hope this helps... Just knowing that we all are struggling together and we all have so many hardships to face in this world that it why it is so important to be searching and seeking God's Peace daily.

Peace be with you my friends,
Angie Goucher

"My Peace is that I thank the Lord for the learning experiences that I go through even if I don't like them. I do question why and what I did to get so many trials and tribulations and then I look to see who and what I have in my life and then I am grateful. The people and things usually outweigh what I go through.... and this is my Peace." Sheree Cooper

" Honestly I have not found true peace in my life. I still struggle with it everyday. I pray to God everyday to give me the strength I need to forgive and forget what I went through."  Carol Peck
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                                          John 14:27-28
I am leaving with you a gift-peace of mind and heart, And the peace I give isn't the peace the world gives. So don't be troubled or afraid. Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again.

Mariah Goucher

Lord Let Us Be Excellent Mothers!

In honor of Mother’s Day we will take a break this week from the Fruits of the Spirit and resume next week.

I believe that Mothers should be recognized more than one day out of the year. Amongst the huge list of things mothers have to accomplish throughout each day lies the most important task - truly investing in our children’s lives.

So many children are suffering because their parents are too busy for them. Children need to feel secure that their parents love them and are truly interested and invested in their lives. God has entrusted us to teach them, prepare them for all that’s to come their way, to truly listen to them, to ask them questions, to discipline them, to pray for them and their future and most importantly to teach them the Love of God so when they face the on-going struggles of this world they know that God  will help them through it.

Giving praise and compliments to your child is so important for their souls. It builds their self esteem in a  cruel world that will often tear it down. Children believe what is said about them so if you invest in your child’s life and make sure they feel secure, special and loved they have a much better chance of feeling confident and joyful as they go into adulthood. We are expected to set an example so they will know how to treat their own children someday.

It’s never too late to start investing in your children’s lives and if you are not  a mom yet I encourage you to start praying about being an “EXCELLENT” mother. We should ALL be praying for God to help us be more patient, loving, kind encouraging and attentive to our children. HE WILL HELP US ACCOMPLISH THIS!!!

For those that have lost their mamas I pray for comfort, strength and peace for you. Losing your mom is one of the hardest things we have to endure in life. Knowing my mom is in Heaven with Jesus is really the only thing that gives me Peace.

Children love and appreciate your mamas! We all just assume MOM will always be there and then one day we wake up and she’s gone.  I wish I would have done so many things different with my mom. I wish I would have spent more time with her, talked to her more about things, told her I loved her more often, hugged and kissed her more, but unfortunately I was self absorbed and didn’t really get to know my mom until I was an adult.

I do not want regret when it comes to my children so I pray for my relationship with them to be one that is pleasing to God and I am praying for all you moms to do the same.

To all you Mothers, I wish you many blessings and hope you have a wonderful day!

God Bless,

Angie Goucher

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My mom is the most wonderful person. She has three kids and 1 dog. She loves blogging and going to church. She is very outgoing. We all love her so much! She works with people who have special needs and boy does she have fun! She has a bold love for God and has a bible study that is great! My mom is smart and beautiful! Happy Mother’s Day may God bless your day!

Mariah Goucher

Fruits of the Spirit -Let us be Joyful!

 

I find it is hard to be joyful all the time especially when you have an endless list of "To Do's."   Our main focus in life seems to be how are we going to get everything done. We get up early, stay up late, avoid having any fun, keep our loved ones waiting and for what? To find that the list never ends! This is MY number one thing that steals my joy and if I am not grounded in the word and in prayer and asking God to help me have a  joyful day I can become quite the opposite!

What's your number one joybuster? I challenge you this week to try and identify what steals your joy and put it on your prayer list. I realize there is more than one thing that steals our joy but lets just try and focus this week on the thing that steals it most often.

My desire is to be joyful in all circumstances like Paul, he learned how to be content and joyful through his all his trials and tribulations. Paul was uncertain about his future, he was imprisioned, beaten, rejected, shipwrecked, amoungst so many other terrible things he had to endure and yet he learned to be joyful through all his unfortunate situations.

So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead. Even though you have to endure many trials for awhile. 1 Peter 1:6

God Bless,
Angie Goucher

                                              Psalm 37:4

     Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.             

     What makes me joyful is listening too Christan music. It can change my mood from Grummpy to happy :) If it hasen't been a good day, I would listen to Christan music ,or Pray!
     
                           Be a prayer warrior. Luke 21:36
                                      Mariah Goucher