I know that you will be as blessed as I have been to have this lovely resource in my home! Now I know that many of you might be a little discouraged that you did not win this giveaway; but fret not! Mrs. Ross has generously extended a 25% discount to my readers! If you'd like to purchase this DVD, please click on the picture below and use coupon code 25off at checkout!
Many thanks to Mrs. Ross for making this Giveaway possible and for creating such a helpful Christ-centered tool for Christian women of all ages!
***Shonda, please contact Mrs. Ross at info (at) familyvisionfilms (dot) com and let her know that you are the winner of the Serving God and Family Giveaway for the Homemaking 101 DVD***
Serving God and My Family,
Crystal <><
(Winner was chosen via a random generator at random.org)
Mrs. Jennifer Ross has created an invaluable resource for Christian women in her encouraging teaching series Homemaking 101: Vision Encouragement and Instruction for Young, Christian Wives DVD. I first learned of this teaching series through one of my favorite blogs, “A Wise Woman”. Just within the past week that I’ve had the DVD in my possession I (and my girls) have viewed it at least 4 or 5 times. I’ve already begun to implement some of the “Homemaking” that Mrs. Ross suggests throughout Homemaking 101 and the stress level in my home has drastically decreased. Her practical and of course Biblical approach to Homemaking truly makes this teaching series unique and timeless.
Mrs. Ross is a lovely hostess as she graciously opens her home and life to Christian women in the hopes that Christ may be glorified as she challenges and encourages us to joyfully serve our husbands and children. In the very beginning of the DVD, after Mrs. Ross so lovingly opens her front door to welcome us into her home, she makes this poignant statement that still resonates with me –
“We were created to joyfully serve our husbands”
I couldn’t have said it better! It truly is a sad thing when Christian wives forget this basic Biblical truth – “woman was created for the man” (1 Corinthians 11:9). We all know (and possibly even wince at reading it) that God created Eve to be Adam’s “helpmeet” (Genesis 2:18). Post Modern Feminism has sold a very sour product that sadly, even within Christendom, has been bought at a great price – the family. In a world where the modern culture of family has been perverted and broken, Mrs. Ross seems to revive the Biblical role of women within the words “We were created to joyfully serve our husbands”. It is like a fresh breath of air!
All throughout Homemaking 101, Mrs. Ross shares some excellent and practical tips for managing the home well and joyfully and one is the wearing of an apron each day. I love the idea of wearing an apron each day to symbolize the “homemaker’s uniform”. I have already begun to make this part of my morning routine – it really does jump start my day with the understanding that I do have work to do.
Finding time to spend time with the Lord and study His word can be difficult when you have small children; however, Mrs. Ross makes a timely observation:
“Solitude and quiet are not a prerequisite for spending time with the Lord, especially if you’re a mother of small children.”
So often I think Christian mothers become discouraged with this particular area of the Christian life. I tend to wait until my children are in bed for the evening to read my Bible – and even then I need to remember it is also the time that I have uninterrupted time with my husband. Understanding that we are not entitled to uninterrupted scheduled time to sit and spend time with the Lord is of great encouragement. You will find that this concept is touched on by an older Titus 2 woman in the DVD, where she points out that Jesus was constantly interrupted and He never grumbled or even expected solitude – He just served joyfully and was in constant communion with the Father. I think it a far better thing to have our children witness their mothers praying or reading scripture even in spite of a busy or hectic day. I have found it so beneficial in my own home, over the past several days, to sit and read my Bible while the girls are playing quietly – they inevitably ask me “Momma, what are you reading?” and the Lord gives me such a sweet opportunity to minister to my children this way.
There is no more important ministry that a Christian wife and mother has than to those within her home. This was one of the resounding messages throughout the DVD –
“Motherhood…homemaking…IS a ministry. Your greatest mission is your home. There are lives to be saved in your own home.”
~Mrs. Janet Crowl
This is something that is of the utmost importance for Christian homemakers to understand – Our ministry is at home - to our husband and children. If we find ourselves searching for or finding more fulfillment in some other ministry outside of our own homes, then we must reevaluate, repent, and turn our hearts back to our homes. Our number one priority and ministry is in our homes. We should be very careful and wise about the activities for which we commit ourselves to that take place outside of our homes.
All throughout Homemaking 101 are very practical tips for managing your time and your home well; for the glory of the Lord. Mrs. Ross generously shares a few recipes and mealtime tips; time management tips, organization tips, and tips for incorporating your little ones into the daily chores and activities that need to be accomplished within the home. She is the mother to 11 children, and to see such grace and joy as she cares for her home, her husband and children is truly inspiring and humbling.
I am thankful that the Lord has inspired Mrs. Ross to create such a lovely teaching series that is sure to inspire you as you seek to obey and honor the Lord. Homemaking 101 is a resource that is sure to only benefit and bless you and your family. This DVD would make a perfect gift idea for a “bride to be”, or a young mother who may be in need of some encouragement and guidance. It is also an excellent resource for those who are like me, and never really got any training in the art of “Homemaking”. No matter the season you find yourself in now, Homemaking 101 is bound to bless and encourage you in some way!
Now for the best part of this review – a GIVEAWAY! I would like to show my appreciation and gratitude to Mrs. Ross by hosting a Giveaway of the Homemaking 101 DVD! If you would like to win Homemaking 101 please leave a comment below. For a second entry, please head over and “like” Mrs. Ross’ Facebook page – Renewing Housewives – then come back here and leave me a comment indicating that you have done so.
I will announce the winner on Monday, December 12th!
Also, be sure to head over and check out Mrs. Ross’ website Renewing Housewives, and all of the other wholesome Christian resources at Family Vision Films.
I apologize for taking so long to announce the winners of the giveaway. My husband had the day off so we took advantage and visited the zoo with the children. So, without further ado the winners are Julie N. for the "Keepers At Home" CD and Jessica P. for the Baby Conference on an MP3 CD!
Please contact me with your mailing address and I will get the CDs mailed out this week!
In honor of making it to 14 weeks of pregnancy, I have decided it is time for another giveaway! This giveaway will be a bit different, as I will be giving three separate itemsaway. This means you have to indicate which items you are entering the giveaway for!
The first item I will be giving away is another copy of Vision Forum’s Baby Conference on an MP3 CD. This conference has continued to bless me and my husband, and I have gotten word that it is blessing all of those who have won the conference through my giveaways! So, if you’d like a chance to win a free copy of Vision Forum’s Baby Conference MP3 CD, let me know by submitting your first name with the initial of your last name and the words “BABY CONFERNCE”.
The second item I will be giving away is Mrs. Susan Bradrick’s teaching on “Home is Where the Heart Is: Teaching Your Daughters to Cherish Being Keepers At Home” on CD. I have listened to this session over and over, and it continues to bless and encourage me. I blogged about this particular series awhile back, and think this is a great time to give one part of the series away! If you would like to enter to win this item, submit a separate entry with your first name with the initial of your last name with the words “Keepers At Home”.
The third, and last item, I will be giving away is a copy of Doug Phillips “The History of the Sunday School Movement”. This is my personal copy, and I found the information Mr. Phillips reveals as paramount for turning the tide of modern day church structure back into the Biblical model.
“In the history of Christianity, Sunday schools, youth groups and children’s church are a relatively recent phenomena. All of these programs find their origin in well-intentioned, sometimes helpful, but often pragmatic approaches to discipleship.
In this message, the evolution of the Sunday School Movement (SSM) is traced from its early days as a well-intentioned “Social Gospel” outreach to children without Christian parents, through its nineteenth century response to the feminization of Christianity, and ultimately to its various twentieth century manifestations – often as a spiritual band-aid for male abdication of responsibility within the home. Careful distinctions are drawn between age-segregated, peer-based, discipleship models, with their origins in evolutionary social theory on the one hand, and discipleship models which find their origins in biblical principles of local church-trained, family-based, parent-directed discipleship on the other hand.”
If you would like to enter to win my copy of Doug Phillips “The History of the Sunday School Movement”, submit a separate entry with your first name, last initial and the words “Sunday School”.
I will choose the winners Monday, September 6, 2010 (Labor Day). Get your entry/entries submitted by Monday at 12pm CST and I will announce the winner at 1pm CST!
I greatly enjoy these giveaways because it allows me to share the resources that daily encourage and bless me in this journey and work as a Christian wife and stay-at-home mother. I think we all know that the job is not always glamorous and we fail at it every day, but the Lord is faithful to finish the work HE began in us. Remember that all that you do is for the glory of the Lord alone! Soli Deo Gloria!
Well, it appears that we only have 4 entries, so Loly B., Sonya B., Marie A., and Tanya B.YOU WON! Please contact me at servinggodandfamily@gmail.com with your mailing addresses and I will get your very own copy of Vision Forum’s Baby Conference out to you ASAP!
I have been so giddy the past few days because we have been able to hear our little baby’s heartbeat every day! It is such an amazing sound that my ears will never tire of hearing.
In honor of my giddiness, I am doing another giveaway of the Vision Forum’s Baby Conference on an MP3 CD! This time will be a bit different because instead of just picking one winner, I am will be picking FOUR winners! See, the giddiness rubs off doesn’t it?
The same methods of entering the giveaway still apply.
First Entry: Leave a comment here on my blog with your first name and last initial.
Second Entry: Leave me a comment on my personal facebook pagein reference to this giveaway.
I will announce the winner of this giveaway on Monday, August 9, 2010 at 1pm CST. All those participating in the giveaway have until 12pm CST to get all their entries in.
We’ve been listening to this conference and it has been such a blessing! I was listening to one of the session where Kevin Swanson spoke and he made a very sad but true observation about how even the Church views children; “We love drywall more than we love babies”. Also, during the conference it was cited that the fertility rate within the Church these days is only 1.7 children per mother. This means that even Christians, who have been called to be “fruitful and multiply” and believe that “children are a blessing from the Lord” are not even meeting the replacement ratio of 2.1 children per mother. I knew that the fertility rates worldwide are at a record low, a dangerous low in many demographers’ opinions. I did a research paper on the subject of Human Population over a year ago, and learned that people as a whole, regardless of nationality are refusing to have children. This in turn dramatically harms the nation’s economy and places a burden on the younger generation that they will not be able to carry in regards to fueling the economy and supporting the increasing aging population.
Russia has been frantically trying to pay their citizens the equivalent of nearly $10K per child to encourage their citizens to have more babies. China is also in the process of taking steps to reverse their “one child per family” policy and encouraging families to have daughters because they have a huge aging population and not enough young people to support it, and they do not have enough girls being born to marry the increased population of boys in the country. Some countries have sponsored speed dating to encourage busy young working couples to marry and have children to increase their fertility rates. Sadly, this problem is not limited to the pagans; this has become a problem for the Church as well. Thomas Malthus is one of the men who fathered the lies about how the human population was growing at a higher rate than the resources needed to support the population. People like Charles Darwin and Margret Sanger only furthered Mathus’ errors with their racist ideas and encouraging birth control, abortion and euthanasia. All of which are very much present in our nation and within our church walls.
There has never been an economic boom with lowering fertility rates, it has only happened the other way around. I also highly recommend the DVD documentaries “Demographic Winter” and “Demographic Bomb”. I had a personal email interview with Mr. Phillip Longman, a secular, atheist demographer who works with a secular think tank in Washington, D.C., who appears in the documentaries several times. He wrote a book entitled “The Empty Cradle” that we purchased during the time I was writing my research paper. He addresses the dangerous fertility decline throughout the world and how it affects our economies and mankind. He said in an email to me;
“…in day to day life most people experience the world as becoming ever more crowded: traffic gets worse, jobs lines grow, college admissions become more competitive, etc. From this experience, people find themselves thinking, oh, wouldn’t be nice if there just fewer people getting in my way all the time, forgetting that is those other people who collectively provide the goods, services, ideas and company without which we would be hopelessly lonely, materially and spiritually impoverished, and ultimately abandoned. Even people in countries that are already in absolute population decline are susceptible to this feeling, often because, even when number of people fall, the number cars, for examples, grows while jobs become more scarce” (P. Longman, personal communication, September 15, 2009).
He went on to say that
“Finally, the over-population meme strengthens social causes to which many are attached, specifically, feminism, gay rights, environmentalism and personal liberation generally. It does so by weakening the social pressures that have long coerced people into traditional marriage and family formation. The fear is that in a world of declining human population, society would become much more socially and religiously conservative and intolerant of “non-breeders.”This is why they push back” (P. Longman, personal communication, September 15, 2009).
Today is the day when I announce the winner of the 2nd Baby Conference MP3 Giveaway!
And the winner is….Amy Shelby! Amy all you have to do is contact and I’ll get this CD to you ASAP!
Now, if any of you are wondering how the winner is chosen, I thought I would let you all in on the high tech method I use…
First I write all the names on a piece of paper and then cut them out, fold them up and place them all in a bowl from my kitchen. Then I have the lovely Sofia pick one piece of folded up paper out of the bowl and viola, we have a winner! I know you all are left speechless with fascination from the highly technological manner in which a winner is chosen!
Not to fear for those who did not win this time, I plan to do another giveaway of Vision Forum’s Baby Conference on MP3 CD soon!
Jennifer S. from East Texas is the winner of Serving God and Family’s2nd giveaway of Vision Forum’s Baby Conference on an MP3 CD! Jennifer S. all you need to do is contact me via email with your mailing address and I will mail out the CD to you on Wednesday!
To those who did not win this time I have great news for you! I will be giving another copy of Vision Forum’s Baby Conference on MP3 CD away thisFRIDAY!
To enter just leave a comment with your first name and last initial. For a second entry, leave me a comment on my facebook page (if you are on my friend’s list) letting me know that you are posting a second entry. For a 3rd entry, leave me a message on the Serving God and Family facebook fan page!
Here is a list of topics covered at the Baby Conference:
The Long War Against Babies
The Reward of the Fruitful Womb: Real Families Discuss the Rewards of Raising a Large Family for the Glory of God
Suffer the Children to Come: How to Love Those Children Who are Rejected by the Culture of Death
How to End Abortion in America: A Look at the Spiritual, Practical, and Constitutional Realities
How the Local Church Builds a Thriving Culture of Life
Surviving the First 50 Years of the Pill
Naming Babies
Symposium on Manhood and Babies
Symposium on Top Legal Issues Facing Parents
Fundamental Principles for Reforming Health
Ladies' Tea with Michelle Duggar
What the Bible Says About Birth Control
Ladies' Symposium: An Interview with Michelle Duggar
Children As Pets
Symposium on Biomedical Ethics for Birth
Ladies' Symposium: Why We Must Be Ladies Against Feminism
The Indispensible Role of Grandparents in the Life of Children
The Demographics of Family Life
Michelle Duggar: Mother of the Year
Haiti's Message of Hope to the Children of America
Symposium on the Hope of Adoption: Lessons for the Future of Adoption from the Great 2010 Crisis in Haiti
Ladies' Symposium on Managing the Logistics of a Large Family
Symposium on the Future of Healthcare in America: How Must the Church and Parents Respond to Socialized Medicine, Medical Ethical Chaos and the Widespread Abdication of the Professing Church
Child Training: A Biblical Template
The Hopeful Theology of Miscarriage
The Myth of Overpopulation and the Coming Demographic Bomb
Symposium on Biblical Biomedical Ethics for the Infirm and Aging in the 21st Century: Brain Death, Organ Transplants, Euthanasia, and Care for the Elderly
Ladies' Symposium on Preserving and Promoting the Highest Ideals of Christian Motherhood
I will announce the winner on Friday, July 30th at 1pm CST!!! I am so excited to wrap up the month of July with two giveaways! So, do not fret, if you didn’t win this time, you have another chance for this Friday!!!
It is yet again time for another giveaway! What am I giving away? Vision Forum’s Baby Conference on an MP3 CD!
All you have to do is leave a comment with your first name and last initial. For a second entry, leave me a comment on my facebook page (if you are on my friend’s list) letting me know that you are posting a second entry. For a 3rd entry, leave me a message on the Serving God and Family facebook fan page!
We have begun listening to the Baby Conference and so far it is superb! We have heard all kinds of great things about this conference, and we are praising the Lord that Vision Forum and all the speakers at the conference have stepped up and challenged the current culture’s ideologies on children and family.
Here is a list of topics covered at the Baby Conference:
The Long War Against Babies
The Reward of the Fruitful Womb: Real Families Discuss the Rewards of Raising a Large Family for the Glory of God
Suffer the Children to Come: How to Love Those Children Who are Rejected by the Culture of Death
How to End Abortion in America: A Look at the Spiritual, Practical, and Constitutional Realities
How the Local Church Builds a Thriving Culture of Life
Surviving the First 50 Years of the Pill
Naming Babies
Symposium on Manhood and Babies
Symposium on Top Legal Issues Facing Parents
Fundamental Principles for Reforming Health
Ladies' Tea with Michelle Duggar
What the Bible Says About Birth Control
Ladies' Symposium: An Interview with Michelle Duggar
Children As Pets
Symposium on Biomedical Ethics for Birth
Ladies' Symposium: Why We Must Be Ladies Against Feminism
The Indispensible Role of Grandparents in the Life of Children
The Demographics of Family Life
Michelle Duggar: Mother of the Year
Haiti's Message of Hope to the Children of America
Symposium on the Hope of Adoption: Lessons for the Future of Adoption from the Great 2010 Crisis in Haiti
Ladies' Symposium on Managing the Logistics of a Large Family
Symposium on the Future of Healthcare in America: How Must the Church and Parents Respond to Socialized Medicine, Medical Ethical Chaos and the Widespread Abdication of the Professing Church
Child Training: A Biblical Template
The Hopeful Theology of Miscarriage
The Myth of Overpopulation and the Coming Demographic Bomb
Symposium on Biblical Biomedical Ethics for the Infirm and Aging in the 21st Century: Brain Death, Organ Transplants, Euthanasia, and Care for the Elderly
Ladies' Symposium on Preserving and Promoting the Highest Ideals of Christian Motherhood
Everyone has until Monday at 12pm CST to submit their entries, so if you’d like to be a part of this giveaway submit your entry by Monday at noon. I will announce the winner around 1pm CST. I am so excited to be able to do this giveaway! Soli Deo Gloria!
Laura S. is the winner of Serving God and Family’s first giveaway of “Evenings with Victoria Botkin”!Laura S. all you need to do is contact me via email and I will give you all the info you need to log into the sessions beginning Monday!
It is not too late to get a chance to win a free registration for “Evenings with Victoria Botkin”; Generation Cedar and Life in a Shoe deadlines are Monday.
This was a fun giveaway and you can all rest assured I will do more giveaway’s in the future! Soli Deo Gloria!
I am a Christian wife and mother who seeks to honor the Lord by being the keeper of my home. I enjoy sharing my journey in the hopes that it will encourage others and bring glory to the Lord. Soli Deo Gloria!
