{Valentine} T' Time Challenge {#59} ...Meet Amy

I'm so thankful for these wonderful woman who are helping me with the {Valentine} Take the Time to challenges. 


My guest today is such an encouragement and inspiration to me.  She is probably the one who inspired me to start down the blogging journey.  

This is the daughter of my recent Tuesday guest, Mrs. Bosje.  If you want a lady who is very down to earth and real, this is your girl.  She's someone who you can sit outside with and talk....really talk.  NOT just "I don't really know you, so we're making polite conversation"...I felt like she was one of my sisters and have loved her since the first time we met.  


Here she is...meet Amy!

"Hello, everyone!  I'm Amy, and I am happily married to my childhood sweetheart and am a busy homeschooling mommy to twelve amazing children, ages one to eighteen.  I love to read, write, doodle, sew, cook, and create in general.  I enjoy the simple pleasures that God pours into our lives every day. I am so excited to be a part of Maria's sweet blog today.  Don't you just love this girl's heart?  She continually inspires me.  

The challenge I would like to present you is to Take the Time to… 

      BUILD YOUR MAN.

“Every wise woman buildeth her house: but thefoolish plucketh it down with her hands.”  (Proverbs 14:1)

I am married to an exceptional man and we have a wonderful relationship, but I am just as human as the next wife, and frankly, he isn’t perfect either.  I just like to pretend he is.  ☺

And I practice pretending until some days – most days – I almost believe it.  Funny, thing is, my children DO.  I decided many years ago that someday our kids would figure out their Daddy has faults and makes mistakes, but they wouldn’t learn it from me.  Instead, they would hear things like this:

While cooking dinner:  “Daddy’s gonna love this.  Your Daddy’s such a good man.”

While folding his laundry (or picking up his dirty socks and turning them right side out):  “Your Daddy is so strong.  He works really hard for us.”

While watching at the window for him to come home:  “Daddy’s coming soon.  Won’t it be fun to have him home with us tonight?  Your Daddy loves you so much.”

Across the foyer at church: “Look at that handsome man over there.  Is that YOUR Daddy?”

While riding in the car together: “I love your Daddy so much.  You have the best Daddy in the whole world.”

Building blocks. 

One by one by one, we mommies place those thoughts in our children’s minds. Building, building our homes, stronger and higher and more beautiful.

Years ago, I was discouraged by one of the ways my husband spent some of his time.  It wasn’t anything sinful; it just wasn’t my choice.  I began to pray that God would help him to change it.  While I was at it, I began to ask God regularly to change some of his other “faults.”  One day as I was praying, with a rather discouraged and negative outlook towards my man and the lack of change in him, God clearly impressed on my mind to be quiet.  To love my man just the way he was and to let God take care of his faults.  It wasn’t my job to be the discerner or the corrector. It was my job to build.

And so I stopped thinking about all of those petty things, and instead, I began to praise him - in myheart, and out loud, both to him and to our children.  And I discovered that the more I praised my man, the less I noticed what was wrong. In fact, looking back now, I can’t even remember the things I had on that prayer list! 

Fast forward a few years.  This year we will celebrate our 20^thanniversary and we will have five teenagers in our home.  My little ones still believe the sun rises and sets on their Daddy, but the older ones are developing opinions of their own (strong ones – and often opinions with little logic to back them up, but that’s another story, lol), and I realize that this is the time in life when that respect and love for their Dad that we have spent years in building up, one word and action at a time, is crucial in their lives right now.  Within the next few years, they have many decisions to make that will determine their happiness for the future.  My pastor refers to it as “falling insurance”when your love and respect for a person will constrain you to choose right in the face of temptation.    Eighteen years ago, when I began to practice the habit of building up Daddy, I hadn’t thought this far ahead.  Today, I pray that those invisible walls of love and respect and praise we have built over the years will be strong enough to protect them.

And the funny thing is, once you begin that habit, you quickly realize that there is little room for criticism.  And no room to voice it.   Why would I tear down my own "house" that I have spent so much time in building?

So I encourage you to start today.  When you wake in the morning and stop to gather up his dirty dishes left in the living room after his bedtime snack, be thankful that he was home last night, and not off partying with friends, and take a moment to brag on him a bit.  Even if you’re the only one to hear it.  If you keep it up throughout the day, I guarantee your husband will come home tonight to a smiling, loving woman.  And what kind of man can resist that?"

Have a lovely day, 

You can visit Amy's blog see her latest creations and interests at  

 

Also, I wanted to mention that she sells some lovely Scripture prints available at