Outdoor Rinks Preferred

I love an ice skate escape on a moonlit night

Skating tightly hand in hand with my husband

  

I love spring winter fall but Old Man Winter best

Freedom to walk on frozen water only cold brings

Walking across the iced-up lake instead of around it

I love saving all fall for a new pair of ice skates

Skating on vintage skates with wooden runners

I love shovels pushing snow off winter's lake

I love summer heat in our gigantic family thermos

Hearing grinding my skates being sharpened

I love homemade mittens for warm fashion

You won't skate long without long underwear on.

I love my kids in matching yellow puffy parkas

Pretending we're all in the rigid nutcracker march

I love everyone I know gathering at the ice rink

Chilling, Spilling, Swirling, Twirling, Curling

I love Warming House like a north woods cabin

Reminds me of a swimming pool locker room

I love stoneware mugs keeping hot chocolate hot

I love bonfires on the shore at night with no other lights on

by Cheryl Moeller

 

Ten Ways a Mom Knows Winter has Gone on Too Long

In the Midwest you are very excited when your see the first snow flurries of the season at the end of October.  You love having a white Christmas.  Then, there's a big blizzard New Year's Eve and finally you make it to MLK Day. But, what’s a Mom to do when she’s still trapped inside on Valentines' Day? Or, St. Patty's Day or Easter?????? Here are 10 sure signs our Midwest winter needs to mercifully end right now…

 
1. The clerk at Dairy Queen® asks if you’d like to order another
Blizzard®, and you immediately begin to weep and shake
uncontrollably.

2. The temperature finally reaches 34 degrees above zero, so you roll
out the backyard Slip ‘N Slide® and spend the afternoon gliding on
your stomach and honking like a Pacific seal (and your kids don’t
even get a turn).
3. You wear thermal underwear instead of nylons to formal occasions
— and so does everyone else.
4. You use the wrong end of the snow shovel to finish clearing the
driveway and still do it in less than 30 minutes.
5. You spend an hour a day reading by the 20-watt light bulb in the
freezer to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder (and don’t notice
your nose is frostbitten).
6. You demand to leave your fur-lined boots on during your pedicure
(and the pedicurist agrees it’s a good idea).
7. To save time shopping, you snowmobile through Walmart®, causing
prices to instantly roll back.
8. To lose weight, you take your goose-down coat in for liposuction
(and it works).
9. You cancel your plans to spend all day Saturday ice fishing. (You
haven’t figured out how to get the outboard motor through the hole
in the ice.)
10. You rush outside in a blizzard with a hand-held hair dryer to
prevent another “snow day.”

By Cheryl Moeller, Midwest native, who loves living in a winter wonderland.
Author of eight books, including Help! Mom's Stuck on Spin Cycle

Top 10 Reasons Why He's Not the One

by Cheryl Moeller

(This could be turned around also to why "She's Not the One".)

  

"Resolution One: I will live for God. Resolution Two: If no one else does, I still will."   --Jonathan Edwards 

I was a jerk so I have the credentials to write this article.

I can write this article because I dated a few jerks. I think that makes me a jerk, too. Many times I got down on my knees and prayed, "Oh Jesus, please save Billy and I'll come back to you. I promise I will be a super really great Christian for you and do whatever you ask of me."

From my years of being a jerk, I learned God doesn't make plea bargains. Billy was not influenced by me, but instead I was changed for the worse by him. I plummeted further down away from God's best for me until we broke up. I finally realized that neither one of us were happy. My challenge then was, "Do I go deeper into the world or get right with God? I chose God."

Top Ten Reasons Why He's Not the One

1. Your desire for going deeper with God is going to have to wait. He's not even a Believer; he sure doesn't want more of God when his life is all about him (and maybe you). And, you know going deeper with God requires not more of God, but God getting more of you.

2. You have made this guy an idol above God because you are willing to disobey God's Word for this person, even if you call it missionary dating. Just like the laws of physics, nature, and matter, most likely your future with this person will lead to further disobedience.

3. His best bet to become a Believer is not you. A relationship with you that you hope will win him to Christ is actually what might be keeping him from a relationship with Christ. He can't see the tree for the forest. It's confusing because everything is also attached to you. It's hard for him to focus on faith in Christ alone, when you are the distracting torchbearer.

4. Do you witness the Gospel of Christ to him, kissing him, between each Beatitude? You are not an example for him to follow because you are dating a non-Christian (him) and he knows you are not supposed to be doing that according to your Holy Scriptures. So, how can he take the rest of your faith seriously?

5. You are believing lies. Dating or courting is not about having fun or having a date to take you to the next social event. It's about ultimately finding the guy God has for you. God's Word says not to be in romantic relationship with unbelievers. Do you think Christ would send an unbeliever for you to marry? Absolutely not. So, this is not of or from Christ. It's a lie.

6. Do you want him to become a Believer because you truly care about his lostness, his soul? If it was his soul or you dating him, which would you choose? Obviously you chose him.

7. The question does come to bear on this situation: Are you yourself truly born again? Because what does a born again Christian have in common with a non-believer? Believers are known by their fruit and your fruit is kind of smelly at the moment. Are you walking close with the Lord? Are you hungering and thirsting after Christ and His righteousness? It's time to break up with him, take a step back, and do some soul searching of yourself? Have you ever gone past knowing and even believing the Gospel, to fully placing your trust in Christ? Give Christ an empty check with your name signed on the bottom line and letting Christ fill in all the blanks, the names, and the amount. It's time for business with Christ not your boyfriend. First confess your sin. Get to know God again by spending more time in the Word, prayer, with a mentor, attend a Bible believing church, and using your gifts for His service. Have you backslidden? Do you need to renew your relationship with Christ or maybe it's time to commit your life to Christ? Redial; reset your life.

8. Do you like him for what he could be instead of for who he is? Do you like to be in charge of another person? Instead you need to be interested in someone you can already look up to and respect, not someone you see potential in of what they could be IF they gave God their life. You want him to change. Only the Holy Spirit can convict and change a guy, not you. You are fired!

9. By openly defying God's Word, you have taken yourself out from underneath the umbrella of God's protection. You are not
doing God's B or C or D plan, instead of Plan A, you are not even
doing a God plan at all. As a Princess of the King, you deserve better, in fact you deserve God's best.

10. Pray some Christian men will come into his life that can witness to him. Pray that the Holy Spirit will bring conviction upon him for his need for a Savior. Not every need is your calling. If you really care about him, you will let go completely (let God work on you) and let God alone work on him.

"My son (or daughter), if sinners entice you do not consent...My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path, for their feet run to evil...They ambush their own lives." Proverbs 1:10,15,18 

by Cheryl Moeller
forkeepsministries.com

Remember, marriage is for better for worse for keeps.