Trista Laborn's Blog, page 21

P052: Family bible study

My heart is that my children experience God for themselves and live a life that is devoted to doing what God has called them to do and that they thrive and do great and mighty things for the kingdom.

The scripture that inspires me and that holds a special place in my heart is John 17:20-21 (ESV)- “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” This is just a little bit of the scripture that talks about Jesus and the father being one, I encourage you to read the whole chapter.

This is by the same company that has the FREE daily bread devotionals (I have these too and I keep these in my car). Daily Bread for kids is packed full of great, FREE resources you can use for the whole family.

You can sign up for the FREE 60 day devotional for the kids by email or you can by the 365 days devotional book for kids here on amazon (affiliate link). This book as blessed our family and I pray it does the same for you guys.

There is an app for kids as well called: “Bible for Kids” and this is what I give to my two-year old, while we are doing our family devotional.

I LOVE that this app and the devotional book is helping my children have a heart for God.

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P051: The Benefits of being in the King’s presence

During the holiday season we can get into the hustle and bustle of trying to make sure everything is “perfect” but I want to encourage you to first get in the presence of God and receive the blessings He has for you. I was blessed and encouraged by this devotional I read every morning and I wanted to share this inspiration with you. The devotional I read every morning is “Jesus Calling”

**The benefits of being in God’s (The King of all Kings) presence is limitless**

1- Emotional and physical healing are enhanced by being in the God’s presence.

2-Being in God’s presence strengthens your faith and fills you with peace.

3- Lastly, being in God’s presence opens yourself up to receive the many blessings that God has prepared for you.

** These are just some of the benefits of being still in God’s presence.**

~Ecclesiastes 8:3- “Do not be in a hurry to leave the king’s presence.”

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Dove Channel and Roku Review & Giveaway

The family and I not only LOVE to do Bible study and read books but we also watch movies as well as a family. Every Friday is out “Wind-down family time” for the whole family. My husband works long hours, the kids and I hustle and bustle from school and church during the week. Friday, family, movie night gives us something to look forward to to relax together. I want to introduce to you: The Dove Channel.

The Dove Channel is a digital network that allows families to have direct access to safe, wholesome, value- and faith-based, family entertainment. I have twins the age of 11 and a toddler the age of 2 and its very hard as parents to find family safe movies and television shows to watch for my wide age ranges for my children. As parents having a network that is geared toward safe viewing, faith-based and wholesome value as a family is what my husband and I love and can get behind on.

My children are very sensitive to curse words, certain violent scenes they do not like, so having a network that is geared toward it is very helpful, not only that, you can change the settings of the shows you would like your children to see, which is super helpful. Not only that the shows tell you the kind or type of violence, sexuality or language that is in the movie before its shown, the kids and I loved that part, it brought good discussions as well. To experience this for you and your family, you can check out the website and subscribe: www.dovechannel.com, for $4.99/month it is very inexpensive for the family.

Social Media sites:

Facebook

Twitter

Now the giveaway:

One person will recevice one Roku stick and one year subscription to the dove channel. Just sign up below… Today, December 21st to December 26th, winner will be picked by random and will be annonced on the 26th.

Entry-Form

disclaimer: I received a complementary dove channel subscription and Roku for review, All opinions expressed are my own.

 

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Bible Belles: Hannah the belle of prayer book review

I am always on the lookout for biblical stories, bible studies to do with my children. The kids and I had a chance to do bible study BEFORE going off to school (we normally have bible study after dinner, before bedtime), this was a MOMENTOUS occasion, I had to take a picture, we’re usually running around yelling (mostly me) in the morning trying to get out the house and in school on time… It’s always nice to slow down and take time to read God’s word and pray.

Bible Belles is a new series designed to give little girls female heroes to look up to. It tells the stories of Women in the Bible through the lens of a modern little girl named Roony Cruz.

This is a wonderful story book about bullying, prayer and examples from the word of God that relates to everyday life that children go through. My twins, both turned 11 years old, LOVE the colorful pages, reading it to each other and learning about How good our God is.

This is what I love about the times we share during our bible studies as a family we talk about the word of God, it brings up great discussions with the kids and they have a wonderful view of the bible and how it can relate to them.

The Bible Belles, have other series that I am interested in getting for my kids. I have a boy and girl twins and both LOVE it. My son, every though it’s geared towards girls, he still loves the stories about God. I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to teach their children about the word of God. You can learn about the series on their website and here on Youtube

For more information you can check them out here:

Website: https://www.biblebelles.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BibleBelles

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/biblebelles/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/biblebelles/

Disclaimer: I was given a complementary copy of this book for my honest review

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Crash the Chatterbox book review

When I read this book: Crash the Chatterbox (Hearing God’s voice above all others) I was super excited to learn really how to listen to God’s voice and not constantly listen to negative thoughts or the people I come across. I’m an entrepreneur and I quickly discovered that not everyone else will be as excited as you about your million dollar idea. You HAVE to have tools in your belt to cancel out those thoughts and negative naysayers. Pastor Steven Furtick does an excellent idea of explaining how to do this, what to do and encouraging you to not be insecurity, fear, condemnation and discouragement.

(From the book): In “Crash the Chatterbox, Pastor Steven Furtick focuses on four key areas in which negative thoughts are most debilitating: insecurity, fear, condemnation and discouragement. He asks, “What great deeds are in danger of remaining undone in your life because of lies that were planted in your past or fears that are looming in your future?” With personal stories, inspiring examples and practical strategies, Pastor Furtick will show you how to silence the lies and embrace the freeing affirmation of God. Learn how to live out God’s truth no matter what is going on in your life or thoughts. Learn how to crash the chatterbox…and hear God’s voice above all others.

One of the things he stated in his book that was very interesting to me was that… The average person has more than sixty thousand thoughts per day and over 80 percent of these thoughts are negative. This is CRAZY!!!

He also mentioned another great point as well… What guidance was God trying to give to you today that you didn’t hear because it was buried by negative noise? what wisdom did God want to share about your future that you missed because the negative thoughts was too loud in the background?

These are very convicting questions and questions that makes you think. I LOVE it because as an entrepreneur driven my the CEO of my business its important that I’m in a mind-set to receive all that god has for me and the business, so that I’m a blessing to everyone else.

He doesn’t stop there…He gives tools to arm you with the word of God to fight off those negative thoughts, examples and inspiring stories as well to motivate you to continue doing all that God has called you to do.

Tools Such as:

-The Chatterbox says: I am worthless and rejected

– God says: “I am His beloved child through Christ.”

-The Chatterbox says: The future is full of danger

-God says: “He will preserve and protect me.”

-The Chatterbox says: My mistakes disqualify me from God’s love.

-God says: “I am His beloved child through Christ.”

I recommend this book for any entrepreneur out there, looking for encouragement, and most importantly, tools to help you fight aganist “The Chatterbox” so you can Thrive in 2016.

Disclaimer: I was provided with a complimentary copy from”Blogging for books” of “The chatterbox” in exchange for my honest review.

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P050: Being driven in business hurt my marriage

In today’s episode, I’m talking about the meat and potatoes or essence of what this podcast is about. I have a passion for marriage and business and being a mom of 3 it can be difficult to “balance” everything and be successful in all areas.

I wrote a post about military marriage; being driven in business hurt my marriage and it is a testimony from my brand new book: S.M.A.R.T. Goals for the Christian Entrepreneur: Achieving success in every area of your life, It was during a hurtful season in my life and telling my story brings me so much Joy. I wrote what I’ve done to really get my husbands trust again and the steps I took to get my marriage back together.

1- I sought God’s face, read His word and prayed (I talk about this in my blog post).

2- I began to learn and do my husband’s love language, which is Acts of Service.

3- I ask for God to help me, in ways that is hurting my marriage and to give me the strength to do what’s right. My flesh wants to take over ALL the TIME, but I had to ask myself is it helping my marriage? No, it wasn’t, so what am I willingly to do, to have a successful marriage?

Last point:

Being submissive helped my marriage. I know that it gets a nasty wrap for the kind of word it brings but I’ve learned that the true meaning behind the word of being submissive is ducking low enough so God can smack some since into your spouse. I will talk more about this in a later post.

The true meaning behind the word of being submissive is ducking low enough so God can smack some…
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P049: Don’t worry, your father knows

At times as entrepreneurs we tend to worry about making enough money to take care of ourselves or saving money for something. In this episode I want to encourage you to Don’t worry about your circumstances God knows what you need. In my past podcasts and blogs I’ve shared the phase all God to be God in your business, marriage, personal, etc. In this scripture I’m about to share with you talks about that VERY CLEARLY.

Matthew 6:24-34(NASB)

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing? For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Don’t worry about tomorrow, Each day has enough trouble of its own. #adrvienwife
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Isaiah 48:17(NIV)

“This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.”

How are you allowing God to be God in your business?

 

 

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Military Marriage: You are not in this alone

You know I’ve been married going on almost 10 years now and I’ve known my husband over 10+ years. I’m still getting to know him after so many years. Knowing what works and what doesn’t work in a marriage takes a whole lifetime of getting to know each other. Each person is evolving into a better person than before and your spouse has to get used to that, this also takes time. In a recent post, I shared how being so driven in business hurt my marriage. At this time in my life, my mindset was more focused on making money to help my family and build my business, I was very much driven to “succeed”.

During this time my husband was not feeling loved, there was a lot of things going on with my kids, my whole household was in chaos. I eventually sought the face of God to really help me get out of the mess I was feeling. I started doing what He showed me I needed to do to get my marriage together. After a while of seeking God’s face, getting into His word and doing it, being obedient to what He was showing me and telling me to do, I started to see change in our marriage, my kids and household.

After walking out what I needed to do to have the kind of marriage I was asking God for, I started to notice and feel like I was the only one putting in the most work in making the marriage work. I felt alone, I felt like I was the only one that cared. Being married to someone in the military, it can sometimes feel lonely. In most of those years he was either gone on deployment or working 12 to 16 hours at his job and it SUCKS! Getting married and living single sucks, doing life by yourself, having to figure out how to mow the lawn (I’m a city girl, I don’t mow lawns), take out the garbage, paying all the bills yourself, fix the tire, figure out why the ‘Check Engine’ light is on and the Honey-do lists goes on.

I had to decide what am I willing to do to make my marriage work, because at the time, nothing I was doing was working. Being so driven in business, and doing things to get by in my marriage was not working for me. I want to experience what God intended for marriage, the peace, the love, the joy, etc. what am I willing to do to get that? Because what I was doing before wasn’t working…

I want to experience what God intended for marriage. #adrivenwife
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#1- I had to lean on what God says in His word…

In proverbs 3:5(NASB)- “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.” Leaning on God and trusting that He has a better way, instead of my own understanding of what I should be doing in marriage is a step forward in having a great marriage. I want to experience having a great, fun and loving marriage everyday. So, then I have to ask myself, what is the first step? Trust God.

#2- I needed to communicate with my spouse how I’m feeling…

My spouse shared with me how he was feeling, when he noticed how driven I was in business. He shared with me, he felt like I didn’t care. When he told me that, I had to take a step back and look at the situation, is what he saying true? If so, how can I change. I prayed to God asking for His help. In order for me to have a successful marriage, where God is first, I need to do things His way.

In order for me to have a successful marriage, where God is first, I need to do things His way….
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#3- We formed an action plan…

After my husband and I talked about how He was feeling, we discussed an action plan, of how we can cultivate our relationship, working on things that would help our marriage. Date night was one of them, we wasn’t doing it at all, we decided to have 2 date nights a month, to help with our marriage and so far it has worked wonders for us.

In Conclusion… You are not alone in this. The enemy wants to leave you feeling like you’re alone in the marriage, the word of God says that He will NEVER leave us or forsake (abandon) (Deu. 31:6,8, Hebrew 13:5). God is not going to leave you feeling alone in your marriage when he created marriage and both individual people to become one (Ephesians 5:31). You are not in this alone.

What steps can you take to a better marriage?

 

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P048: Freedom as an Entrepreneur

Definition: FREEDOM– the power or right to act, think or speak without restraint or hindrance. Sometimes I come across people who like the idea of being an entrepreneur but don’t know the amount of work that goes with it. A few days ago I wrote a post about Freedom as an Entrepreneur, What does that mean for a Christian Entrepreneur? Being free in business is more than making money and spending time the way you want or see fit, it’s even more than spending time with family or even your favorite hobbies. I’ve learned walking this out as an entrepreneur passionate about business is that I truly get to walk out my destiny, my passion and thrive in the gifts God has given me.

I’ve learned that even while I was in business and before I discovered what it truly meant to be free, I would try my best to be at every business event, every networking group, trying to take any and every class that would be business related to help my business be successful. What I found, Even though I had the time and freedom to do what I wanted, I wasn’t spending the time needed for my children, the time needed for self-care and it eventually hurt my marriage.

Walking in freedom as an entrepreneur is walking out the plans and the purposes God has for you. You don’t have to be at EVERY business event, EVERY networking event, try to take classes, you do whatever God is calling you to do… DO THAT! God has a plan for you, He wants you to be successful MORE than you do. His word says in Jeremiah 29:11, is that He has a plan for you, He wants to prosper you.

Reference:

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https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/...

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/...

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Military Marriage: Being driven in business hurt my marriage

I have a PASSION as an entrepreneur, doing business fulfills me. I LOVE everything about business, meeting people, hearing about their walk in business Journey, it excites me. I share my testimony in my book: S.M.A.R.T. Goals for Christian entrepreneurs, when I felt God whisper in my heart to tell what was going and what HE did to help me get back on track. This is a VERY sensitive part of my life but I believe by sharing my story, I don’t want you as an entrepreneur to go through the struggles I did, when you don’t have to.

My husband and I have known each other for over 10+ years. At this point in our lives, We just moved to a different duty station and I was excited about the new opportunities to start my business in this new area, meeting new people and learning new things. For months, which turned into years of me “working my business” like everyone else and meeting new people put a strain in my marriage which I didn’t notice. Until one day, as I was in a meeting via, phone, with a business coach, getting some “Juicy advice” and out of no where, my husband said to me: “Trista, You don’t love me.”

Now, to me, I was thinking to myself: WHAT?! I’m doing this business for you and the family, why would you even say that? Which is what I actually said to him. He felt like I didn’t care, I didn’t love him and at this pint we’ve been married for quite some time AND I just had our 3rd child. I was SHOCKED!

FOR MONTHS… We had argument, after argument, fights and getting NO WHERE. I FINALLY, went to God and asked HIM…”LORD, What is going on?” During this process He began to show me what was REALLY going on in my marriage, with my kids, and my whole household. In addition to my husband feeling unloved, My 2 oldest kids were having a rough time in school, one was about to get left back in the grade and the other was being bullied for wearing hearing aids and he began to show me my heart condition as to how cold and distant my heart was becoming. I felt like everything around me was falling apart, I felt like a piece of crap, like nothing (To be honest).

I asked God to help me out of this situation, I realize God doesn’t show us how crappy or crazy we’re acting just to rub it in our face but to help us. I REALLY began to get into God’s word and seek HIM DAY and NIGHT. I told God, I DO NOT want this happening again and God began to show me what I needed to do to get back on track with HIM. He showed me S.M.A.R.T. Goals and following this strategy to be successful in all areas of my life, I actually began to experience this.

God wanted me to be successful in not just BUSINESS but in EVERY area of my life #adrivenwife
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I started to believe and see how much God wanted me to be successful in not just BUSINESS but in EVERY area of my life. Jeremiah 29: 11, holds a special place in my heart because this was what God said to me after I received Christ as my LORD and Savior of my life. This was the FIRST time I EVER heard God speak to me and me knowing without a doubt that it was Him speaking to me. I didn’t know what that scripture meant at the time, but I had confidence that He spoke to me and I heard Him CLEARLY. This scripture popped up again. God had me meditating on this scripture for some time and I felt like…” Ok God, I get it you have a plan for me and EVERYONE knows this scripture, I was actually getting tired of seeing it EVERYWHERE, if you were to just type in Jeremiah in google, that scripture would come up, it’s crazy but as I kept reading it, the word prosper HIT me like a TON of bricks. It was this scripture that help me to realize that God REALLY wants me to be successful, thriving in not just business but in EVERY area of my life.

I actually began to experience His peace, love and TRUE JOY in just getting to know HIM and not having to worry about what the strategy is to be successful in business. I also learned that the money I made when operating in my business help me to put money in its right perspective. The money I get is to give glory to God, be a good steward of HIS money and knowing that it doesn’t belong to me but His. I talk more about this in my post success as a Money making mom.

I actually began to experience His peace, love and TRUE JOY in just getting to know HIM….
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Now, My husband and I are in LOVE like never before, it’s not perfect but we both know that God is number one in our lives and He is at the center of our marriage. A three cord strand is not easily broken (Ecc. 4:12). Both of my kids are also doing great, one did not get left back in their grade and my other child is more confident in wearing hearing aids and talking about it with other kids more joyfully then before and both have bright futures ahead of them.

I tell you this to say GOD is the one who has done it for me and can do it for you. All is not lost, it may feel like it but it’s not, there’s hope!

 

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