A debt Free Christmas -- February

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Christmas is ten months away.   Why think about it in February?  Right?  WRONG!  If you want to have a debt free Christmas then the best way to do so is think about it every year.  This is the second in my series of having a debt free Christmas.

This month, let's make some lists.  Make a list of all the people you want to send Christmas cards to.   This next month, plan on getting the cards and stamps.  It's sometimes cheaper to buy your own Christmas cards and add a photo inside.  Check out the fantastic prices of these cards at Family Christian.   They even have some as low as 16 for $1.  So if you haven't purchased Christmas cards yet, figure out how many you need and purchase them now!  You certainly won't find deals like this in November or December.

Also, plan for stamps.  Did you know you can order holiday stamps at any time of the year through the usps.com site?  So order your Christmas cards and order your stamps.  That way you will have them come Christmas.

If you don't send cards, then just set the money you would have spent on cards back for expenses as they come up IN ADDITION to what you are already saving for gifts.  If you aren't sure how much that would be, just set back $50.  Put it in a "Christmas" envelope because you'll be spending it before a bank Christmas club account would come due.

A shopping trip that cost me nothing!

Yesterday, I stopped at a store a little out of my area.  I had won $45 in gift cards and had been waiting until I could stop at a store of this chain to use them.  I was disappointed at how many items I picked up off the shelf that were already past their best by date, and that prevented me from getting some stuff I was hoping to get, but here is how my shopping trip played out.

Using sales and coupons, I saved $13.  Using my gift cards I won that took my total to zero.  Then I made a point of purchasing items where I would receive $8 back in a mail in refund.  So, technically I made money on this shopping trip.

I have a Facebook friend who says I paid $44 for it all because I used gift cards, but since I got the gift cards for free, I don't consider that I paid for it.  It's a store I would not have gone to if I had not had the gift cards.

A nice shopping trip for certain.

Becoming a Spiritually Healthy Family by Michelle Anthony

FTC disclaimer:  I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.  All opinions are my own.

Have you ever read a book that parts just don't seem to apply to you?  Have you ever read a book that you feel like the author is speaking right to you?  This is one of those books.  In a very creative style of addressing parenting style, Michelle Anthony speaks to nearly every type of parent.  This book has a twist, though.  Instead of telling you to change, she gives suggestions on how to give yourself and your fears to the Lord so that you will eventually change as your trust in Him grows.

As a single (but soon to be married) person, this book interested me because if I can start working on my imperfections now, I won't be Super Mom someday, but I will hopefully have worked on some issues that will allow my children to be raised in a healthier spiritual environment.  (I say healthier because I'll never be perfect.)

Oh, but perfection is something that I always have strived for.  I remember when I was in high school I had a chart that I could check off and see how good of a Christian I was that week.  I thought of that as I was reading the chapter "Beyond Good Behavior and chore Charts".   I had the good behavior, but unfortunately those around me hadn't encouraged me in faith formation, but left me drowning in moral education.  There's a difference, and the approach could mean your child staying with your faith or abandoning it once they are on their own.

Book review of Fallen by Annie Lobert

FTC disclaimer:  I received a copy of this book for review purposes, all opinions are my own.  There are affiliate links in this post.  Thank you for starting your shopping here at Books, Bargains, Blessings.


Fallen is a difficult book to read, but one that was just as hard to put down.    It details how Annie Lobert became a sex worker, her life in the sex industry, and her escape from her pimp.  While this is a Christian book, it has some very adult situations in it but please don't let that stop you from reading it.   She handles them with as much class as possible, but it's hard to be classy when telling about how she was abused by multiple men.

This book makes it easy to see how girls and women become prostitutes.  As Ms. Lobert states, no one dreams of being a call girl when they grow up -- something happens.  Also, one thing I didn't realize was that if a prostitute has a pimp, she is considered sex trafficked because she is not able to leave on her own and the pimp will require her to give him all her money.

While the author made some bad choices, I felt so much compassion for her through the book.  She fell in love with her pimp and had to endure things she never thought possible.  Her escort service tried to keep her into bondage debt, saying she owed them $65,000 for when she couldn't work when she was getting treatment from cancer.

This is a glimpse inside the unthinkable.  Ms. Lobert was one of the lucky ones.  She was able to escape.  She fell deeply in love with Jesus.  She wanted to make use of her past, and she's back on the strip trying to help others who have been sex trafficked to escape.

This book was fascinating.  I can't say it was enjoyable because of the subject matter, but it's one I highly recommend.  It was an intense book and one I could not read straight through as I am sometimes apt to do.  I would read about what she endured and then have to put it down for a little while.  It was absolutely amazing how much pain and abuse she endured as well as how much she was able to tell in 208 pages.  Annie's life story is one that needs to be told so that hopefully her life can help prevent others from making the same mistakes she did, make others more aware of the sex industry so they can spot victims, and hopefully inspire people to help those who are escaping, be it by donating to the charity that Annie has started or volunteering.  

You can purchase Fallen at Family Christian.

You canfollow Annie on twitter at @HookersForJesus @destinyhouse and on Facebook HookersForJesus

Faith that Sticks Sticker review and #Giveaway ends 3/2

FTC disclaimer:  I received samples of the product for review and crafting purposes.  

I have always loved stickers.  I can remember in the 1970s, before sticker collecting became popular,  I stapled some paper together and wrote on the front sheet "My Sticker Book".  My grandmother was working at a Christian bookstore and brought me some stickers one day, and I said, "I need to get my sticker book."  She said stickers were not for books.  Well, we both are right.  It's fun to save stickers and look at them (I still have my sticker collection from the 1980s) but it's also fun to make some crafts with them and share them with others.

Recently Faith that Sticks sent me an amazing collection of stickers to review.  

There were so many fun packages of stickers.  What could I make with them?  

The package of stickers of children praying made me think how I have at times wished I would have kept more of a record of what I prayed for and then later be able to look back and see how God answered.  This would be a great and simple craft for a time of new beginnings -- spring, a new school year, January 1, a birthday.  Just write what you pray for on slips of paper and drop in there.  The next year open it and see how many were answered!

There was no doubt what I would do with the God's Armor stickers.  This would make a great Sunday School craft for when teaching on the armor of God.  An inexpensive photo frame and you'll have a great take home reminder to help the Sunday School lesson "stick".

I always loved scratch and sniff stickers when I was little.   Tyndale House doesn't make scratch and sniff, but they do have "Stick and Sniff" where the scent is infused into the sticker and you can smell it without scratching it.  They have three different types -- roses, flowers, and jellybeans.  I remember in first grade my teacher made a card for all of us to sign for a boy who had his tonsils out.  We loved to sniff stickers so much that she had to tell us to stop because there wouldn't be any scent left for him.  So, I decided to make a simple craft with these because of how well loved scented stickers are.  I used the verse about us being the aroma of Christ and children could write ways they can be that aroma to others.

The set of Mom and Me stickers seemed to lend themselves great to a Mother's Day card.  But folded card are just so conventional, so this would be a great keepsake card.  I know I sometimes look at tracings of my hand from when I was little and it amazes me I was that small.

I started memorizing Bible verses because of VBS.  Over the years I have memorized huge sections of Scripture.  One thing I wish would have been started with me when I was a child was any verse I memorized being written down on an index card so I could review it.  At first there wouldn't be many but after years there would have been hundreds, and with me possibly thousands.  I thought about a way to incorporate stickers into Scripture memory at least for a younger child.  I came up with the idea to have a box where a sticker would be place when the verse can be quoted.  An added bonus if you are homeschooling you could teach alphabetical order using Scripture memory cards.  Or you could ask the child to file them away in order they are in the Bible.

One thing that my church always did when I was growing up was all VBS offerings were for missions.  Also, there was always a competition.  Not to see how much money was brought in, but to see if the boys or the girls would win on how much the offering would weigh.  That meant pennies were the thing everyone wanted to bring in.  But every year, no one ever thought about saving pennies before that week.  So why not make a missions penny bank?  Even if your VBS doesn't weigh the offering, it is a great way to remember that what doesn't seem like a lot to us can mean so much to others.

There are so many fun stickers that are made by Faith that Sticks.  I noticed they have some that say "Happy Birthday, Jesus".  That is the theme of my church's VBS this summer, so I'll have to order some of those.  Remember those stickers I told you about my grandmother getting me in the 1970s?  Do you know how surprised I was to see they still utilize some of the same designs in their Inspirational Motto package.   

At an average retail price of $2.49 for usually either five or six sheets, these stickers are a bargain.  They are also acid free so you can use them in scrapbooking.

And now for the Giveaway.  Open to the USA 18 and older.  Winner has 48 hours to respond to the winning e-mail or another winner will be chosen.

Entry-Form

Is Lent Biblical? A (very brief) History of my Lenton Observations.

I was about 23 when I asked the pastor of a church I was attending, "Is Lent Biblical?"   I'd never been in a church that observed it.  He looked pained, said it was Biblical, and that was that.

Photo courtesy of FreDigitalPhotos.net

One year a number of my friends were giving up something for Lent.   I said I would give up eating pie.  (Never mind the fact that I don't like pie.  Everyone was giving up something and it sounded holy, so it worked, right?)  Well, not exactly.  During spring break to Daytona Beach, we visited a place that sold Reese's Pie.  One of the few kinds of pie I like.  So I got a slice.  No one was the wiser, right?  That might have been the same year a co-worker of my mother's gave up sweets.  I heard all the complaints about not getting to have anything sweet, and how she ate pancakes constantly so she could have syrup. 

Two years ago, I visited a Catholic Church on Ash Wednesday.  It was my first visit to a Roman Catholic Church. 

For the last several years, I have seen people post on Facebook they are giving up Facebook for Lent.  Most of these people have likely never given up anything for Lent before in their lives.  I thought part of the point of Lent was to not tell everyone what you are giving up, but it's there sometimes in profile photos for all the world to see.

Of course, I'm no expert of Lent.  Other than my asking my boyfriend how burger night went each week since burger night is on Fridays and he had to order fish, I have no experience with this Christian tradition.

So are you giving up anything for Lent?

Runaway Radical Book Review

FTC disclaimer: I received an advance reader's copy of this book from Family Christian in order to do a review as well as compensation for running a giveaway.

The index card in my hand felt so obvious.  I folded it so no one saw I still had it as the buckets went down the row to collect these cards from other students.  I was at a conference and nearly everyone filled out a card saying they pledged one year of their life to full time Christian work.  I didn't know if I could do that.  Rather than lie and sign my name to something, I didn't return it.  I still have that card, unfilled out, and stuck in the Bible I took to that conference.  It's stayed in there for seventeen years as a reminder.  First a reminder of guilt.  Now a reminder of I'm free to be a Christian without the promises and works.

In Runaway Radical, Jonathan Hollingsworth reminded me so much of myself at his age.  I recently tweeted to him that his book showed me where I went wrong in college.  Yet, in some ways, like the author, I'm still trying to get it right.  I grew up in a legalistic church.  No movies.  No dancing.  I became legalistic in relationships with men and gave up dating for God's standard.  Yet, the husband I felt God was going to lead to me didn't appear.  (As I write this, I am 41 and getting ready to be married for the first time.  What would it have done to my faith at age 20 to know I would have to wait another two decades for marriage?)  Over time, I began to see the rules as legalism.  I began to shed the don't, but in the process, I picked up the "do"s.  Go on mission trips.  Care for the least of these.  I remember feeling called by God to go on a missions trip in college.  I remember a few nights before I left I got on my knees to beg God to consider I was willing to do that for Him, and wouldn't it please be enough, did I really have to go?   I had to.  And it was a very difficult time.  These are the missions trips you don't hear about in church.  I had a lot of financial support.  I returned and spoke in churches of the good parts of the trip, the difficulties swept under the rug.  This is why this book resonated so much with me.

One of the lines in the book says something to the effect of he learned to be sold out and extreme for Christ, but what about teaching us to be average Christians?  I'm sorry to say, I'm still learning that.  I'm twice the age of the author, but I'm still figuring out it's okay to be a normal person and a Christian.  It doesn't make us any less of one if we have jobs where we work for secular employers.  It might FEEL wrong, but I learned years ago that we are to serve God where we are going, not go and serve.  Yet, I still heard little about that.  Go. What if we stay?  Not all missions organizations are the same.  Some, like the author of Runaway Radical, would be better if we stayed away from them rather than partnering with them.  Not everyone is cut out to be an overseas missionary.   You could be allergic to a key ingredient in food of a certain country.  What happens when you feel God calling you to something and you fail?  Does it mean He failed you?  Did you not hear Him?  This book wrestles with these questions and more.

I can't tell you how highly I recommend this book.  It is one of the books that I believe will stand the test of time and become a classic, and hopefully even required reading for future missionaries.  God does call some people.  I have several friends who are foreign missionaries.  But make sure the "Go" is from God and not from guilt because we as Americans have so much and there are millions in this world without the luxuries that we have because we were born into this country.  

Before you go, read this book.