The Winner is...

....Hannah of Marilla Heights!!! Congratulations Hannah! Please email Jenna at femininefarmgirl(at)gmail(dot)com with your address, and the book will be sent to you shortly;D

Thank you all for participating in the giveaway! For anyone that is interested in "Making Brothers and Sisters your Best Friends", go to the Mally's website HERE! The book is on sale right now!!

Thank you Sarah, Stephen and Grace Mally, for writing this encouraging book, and thank you for donating a copy to this giveaway!! We look forward to discussing it!!!



We would love for you to get the book (try the library if you can't buy it) and discuss each chapter with us, starting on February 1.

Blessings!
Bethany and Jenna

Do Hard Things, the Gospel, and You.

Bethany:

This is the last chapter of Do Hard Things! Hard to believe it's done, it went so quickly! I hope you all were encouraged to do harder things for God, whether they be big or small. I know I was!

In the last chapter Alex describes the beauty and simplicity of one of many people's biggest, hardest and ultimately best decision in life.....accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior. One of the most well known verses in the Bible is;

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

While there are many more verses regarding the love of God and the death (and resurrection!) of Jesus Christ for our sins, this verse sums it all up beautifully. How I praise God for His love towards me and I thank Him for saving me from the firey pit of hell. If you are not saved by God's dear grace, consider joining us on the most exciting journey of your life! Loving and serving God all our days, can it get much better?

Jenna:

Going through Do Hard Things and discussing it, has been both a challenge and a delight for me!!I was of course, very encouraged to do the hard things, but more specifically the small hard things that tend to go un-noticed. I was convicted of not doing those hard things, yet I purposed to put a lot more effort into them because if I'm faithful in the little, I'll be faithful in much! I've been encouraged to do all for the glory of Jesus, and not for man.

Do Hard Things encouraged me to be a light in the darkness and to enjoy all of the hard things that I do...Easy? No! But a challenge? Yes, and one that I am going to take up!!!

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Thank you to everyone who read Do Hard Things with us!! We hope that it encouraged you as much as it did us, and if you are so inclined, we would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section. What encouraged you, inspired you or challenged you?

Also, don't forget to enter the giveaway for Making Brothers and Sisters your Best Friends in the post below. It is the next book that we will be discussing here, and we would love for each of you to join us. Both young and old will be challenged to not just "get along" with siblings, but to ENJOY, LOVE and NURTURE a blessed relationship with them. Of course you have to apply it to your own life, but this will give you a big start:D We look forward to starting it!!!

In Christ,

Bethany and Jenna

***Giveaway***

While we are finishing up our Do Hard Things discussion, we will be hosting a giveaway of the next book: Making Brothers and Sisters your Best Friends !!! Sarah, Stephen and Grace Mally (the authors of the book) were VERY kind, and agreed to donate a brand new copy of this wonderful book to whoever wins this giveaway!

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Below are the ways that you can enter for 4 entries total!!

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~ Comment on this post

~ Post about the giveaway on your blog and make sure to put a direct link to the post in a comment here!

~ Put a post on Facebook about the giveaway, and make sure to put a direct link to the post in a comment here!

~ If people come from your blog and mention your name, we will add an entry for you:)

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This giveaway will end on Thursday, January 21, 2010 and the winner will be announced on Friday morning. You don't have long to enter and spread the word, so do it quick!!

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Have fun!

Josh, Bethany and Jenna

A Thousand Young Hero's!

This chapter is full of amazing stories of how young teens start wonderful ministries for refugee's, orphans and widows all across america and in other countries as well. The Harris brothers pose a question at the end: "What's your story"?

That is a big question, and as we all ponder and seek out the Lord's will for our ministry, we need to remember that the mission field is right in front of us! It may be right in our family, right in our backyard or neighborhood, or in our own Church family. Don't limit yourself to only going to Africa or China (as wonderful as it sounds). Also, it's not "our" or "my" ministry that we're starting - it's GOD'S ministry that HE is using us to work through!! What an honor to do HIS work!!
I'm praying for the Lord's guidance as I wait for Him to show me exactly which mission location that He wants me to work in. As for now, I am in my parents home and my mission is to be a Christ-like example to my younger siblings (which I'm always working on improving). I also have a big passion for blessing young moms around the area that need an afternoon of help with meals, babysitting, cleaning and much more. What is the Lord's will for my life?? Where does He want me to be? When will He reveal His plans to me?
These are my unknowns, but wherever and whatever I'm doing I am going to be a LIGHT for Jesus Christ and I pray that I bless all the people that I come in contact with. Wherever you are, you have a mission - pray and ask the Lord to show you what it is!


What's YOUR mission? We'd love to hear your thoughts!!!

*A note to all of our readers! We apologize for not posting on our regular schedule this week...we will adjust the schedule accordingly and thank you for understanding! One quick announcement: Our next book will be "Making Brothers and Sisters your Best Friends" by Sarah, Stephen and Grace Mally. Please order it or find it now so that you can be ready to start with us! There will be more announcements in the next week:)*


~Jenna

Generation Rising

Bethany

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses it's saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be throw out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.Matthew 5:13-16"

We are the salt. We are the ones who need to get out into the world and help "preserve" it for God. There's no one thing that we must do, God needs "world changers" everywhere! Whether it be a school, work, or a mission field, God needs you. Use all the techniques we've gone over in this book, collaboration, going out of your comfort zone, doing the hard thing. It's time for us to change the world! Give God the glory!


Jenna

"Has God begun to place a passion inside you to take action on a larger scale - to do hard things that will launch you into the thick of the Christian counterculture we call the Rebelution? If so, you're in a very exciting place. Getting hold of that kind of personal passion for the first time is often one of the primary passages between childhood and adulthood. Think of your holy ambition as a world-sized passion placed under the lordship of Jesus Christ..." Pg. 182

This is a subject that we seem to talk about daily, here in our house. The Lord has blessed us with so much even though we'd be considered "poorer" here in the states. However, we have a full family of friends, and all of our needs our met! We have fresh clean water at our convenience, comfortable warm beds, nice clothes, bibles, books and more. WE ARE BLESSED, and we are also blessed in Jesus Christ. The Lord has given me and my twin a passion for orphans... and during my single years while preparing for getting married (if the Lord wills), I want to be helping these orphans...I want to share my blessing with them both spiritually and physically.

Be thinking about what God has given you and what you can do to bless others, especially those that don't have the comfort and faith that we have. Let's be inspired to bless others. We can do BIG things with Him!

In Christ,
Jenna and Bethany

Taking a Stand

Jenna~

"When we make decisions to obey God - even when it costs us something - and to live out our faith in our day-to-day life, it will be hard, but it will be good. And it will be good because God loves to bless us when we are faithful to stand for Him." Pg. 154

Sometimes it seems incredibly hard to stand up and walk away from ______ , because that means that you are going against what others think - you have to be set-apart! But friends, being set-apart is a good thing, and we should be seeking to be set-apart for Jesus Christ. When we ask Jesus to come into our hearts, and we BELIEVE in Him, then the "old man" (our fleshly desires) are dead, and we are no longer living by him. We are FREE from sin, free from gossip, free from all that bondage, all because Jesus Christ laid down His life for us!
Don't be afraid to stand up and say to yourself "that is wrong, and I'm not going to do it..." don't be afraid to go against the ways of this world and follow Jesus Christ, our Savior, our Immanuel, our King!

Bethany~

Taking a stand in your circles is not the easiest thing to do. Peer pressure is against you, possibly your social status. Yet God isn't concerned with your social status, He's concerned about you and me and whether or not we will make a stand for Him. There are times when you may have to stand up against something that you know is wrong. I'll admit, it's gotta be about the hardest thing for teens to do. We are so worried about what others think about us (which we totally just have to get over)! We need to stand up and show others the way to Christ.

I love it how the Harris brothers put it:

" Our ultimate goal is not just that those around us would stop joining the world's way but that they would learn to love and embrace God's way. We ca accomplish this by being passionate ambassadors, eager to proclaim the goodness of God and stand for Him before the watching world."

And as rebolutionaries, our stand for what is good and right today will have an even bigger impact than we may realize.


Do you stand up for good, and walk away from evil???
In Christ,
Jenna and Bethany:)

Small Hard Things

How to do Hard Things That Don't pay of Immediately

Top 5 reasons doing small hard things is so difficult:

#1. They don't usually go away after you do them.

(like dishes, laundry, etc.)

#2. They don't seem very important.

#3. They don't seem to make a difference.

#4.They don't seem very glamorous.

#5. No one is watching.

Top 5 ways we fail to do small hard things:

#1. Procrastination

#2. Inconsistency

#3. Compromise

#4. Begrudging

#5. Cheating

Bethany:

This chapter is one of my personal favorites as it nearly applies directly to me. My personality it more likely to do hard things but set those little things off to the side. I have no problem tackling two hours of chores three times a day, but have a hard getting with keeping my room clean. I think I'm a prime case of not doing small hard things. You'd think....it'd be so easy! This chapter really helped me prioritize and see how important even those little jobs are.

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men."

Colossians 3:23

"Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

1 Corinthians 10:31

Here's a great paragraph out of the book:

"Rebelutionaries have to think straight about this problem or we'll get ambushed on our way to doing big hard things for God. And what's more, we'll miss out on the genuine significance and hidden benefits of what we like to call "small hard things."

Jenna:

Ah yes, doing those small hard things don't normally appeal to me, or seem glamorous!! I completely understand how it feels to look at the dish pile that NEVER goes away...and, it seems like my little 4 year old sister (who shares my room) always forgets to pick up her clothes and put them away - extra job;)

However, we are reminded in Luke 25:21 that if "You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much."

I was very blessed by the quote below:

"Small hard things are the individual repetitions - like a single push-up. They are seemingly insignificant by themselves but guaranteed to get results over time." Pg. 138

As we go through our daily routines, let's all purpose to enjoy the little hard things, knowing that over time there will be a guaranteed reward/result!!

Josh:

"Small things most often occur behind the closed doors of our homes, schools, or churches. They are rarely new or exciting, and they are often repetitive-even tedious. Small things happen on the level at which we normally live our lives. In fact, in the most basic sense they are our lives- the 'stuff' that makes up everyday living." pg. 135

Like Jenna and Bethany, the small things are typically not glamorous and most times tedious. But, many of the challenges and the hard things that come our way and cause the most character growth, are just the things that happen everyday! Let's embrace the small hard things and do them to the glory of God...

What are 3 small hard things you have a hard time accomplishing?

~Bethany, Josh and Jenna~