Welcome....Here's a glimpse of our happenings!

The verses that have REALLY spoken to me (Sarah) lately....



"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock." Matthew 7:24-25



Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. I Peter 5:8-9



From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' Acts 17:26-28



May the words of my mouth and the mediation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock, and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14



So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. Walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess. Deuteronomy 5:32-33



God, our God, will take care of the hidden things but the revealed things are our business. It's up to us and our children to attend to all the terms in this Revelation. Deuteronomy 29:29 (The Message)

About the Friesen's....

We are Marc, Sarah, Luke, and Kate Friesen. We were married June 5, 2004. We have one son, born July 21, 2008, named Luke Andrew -- now 4 years old. We also have a daughter named Kate Christine -- born June 6, 2012. Marc is working at Cessna as a Senior Accountant, and Sarah stays home full-time with Luke. Sarah also gets to work very part-time at home for Graber Backhoe -- an excavation company AND VERY part-time at our church. We LOVE being a part of Grace Community Church here in Newton, KS. We lead a Community Life Group of other wonderful couples. Marc thoroughly enjoys long-distance running and Taekwondo. Sarah thoroughly enjoys walking -- especially when the weather is nice to take Luke and/or out in the stroller. Thanks for reading our blog!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Grocery Bags and Medal Mania....

Do any of you have a drawer, shelf, or cubby hole that perhaps looks like this?

You know, full of plastic grocery bags?

Well, I got tired of it. Even though both Wal-Mart and our local grocery store recycle them, we still had too many.

So, I purchased a bunch of these. Yep, the reuseable bags.

Then, I had my drawer looking like this....Much better! We still need a few bags to use for small trash can liners in our home, but we certainly didn't need as many as we had.

So, I stored them in the trunk of our car so I'd have them whenever I went to the store.
Then, last week, I went to Wal-Mart. I had a VERY LARGE list of things needed. In Wal-Mart, about 1/2 way through my shopping list, I realized I left them all in the car.
Well, I was all by myself. It was VERY cold outside that day. I didn't really feel like parking my cart with the front door attendant to run out and get my bags. So, I just bit the bullet and took home many more plastic grocery bags.
I'm slowly working on reusing all of the plastic grocery bags to one day have a semi-empty drawer again.
Fortunately, since then, I have always remembered to take in the reuseable grocery bags with me to the store.
Now, Marc and I certainly are not "swayed" by the big Green Movement (and I know some of you may disagree with us on that one). In fact, we laugh when we hear about the "Green Movement." We feel it's a big hoax. HOWEVER, we do think that we could all be better stewards of the resources on this Earth that God has provided to us. We don't want to be wasteful. But no, the world will not come to an end if we don't recycle once -- as sometimes people try to make us believe on TV.
That's our other reason (and most important reason) for using the reuseable shopping bags -- the fact that we could be better stewards of what has been provided to us by God.
**I was trying to find a good Bible verse illustrating what I am trying to say, but I didn't have much luck finding one. Do any of you have any suggestions? I know there's a good one somewhere in the Great Book.
On to another topic -- Most of you know that Marc has done and continues to do a great deal of running. Well, when we were cleaning out our house recently (see a previous post on this blog), Marc gathered all of his medals in one location -- that location would be on the second level of our outbuilding (what we also refer to as the "Servants' Quarters).
He's working on getting some shelving for them, but here's a photo in the meantime.
Pretty amazing, isn't it? My athleticism isn't quite where Marc's is. Therefore, my medal collection is MUCH smaller.

3 comments:

The Sieberts said...

i would probably ALWAYS forget to take the bags in with me, so i don't think i'm even going to try...hehe
plus-i don't think i would every fit everything in those tiny bags. why don't they make them bigger? :)

Aaron and Shannon said...

We use the plastic bags as "yucky" diaper bags! So, I guess they're not getting recycled, but they are getting re-used!!!

Raising Koehns said...

Genesis 2:15
Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.

I'm sure there are other "better" scriptures on stewardship, but I think it goes well with your post. Don't let Joel see what you bought...

Here's a Stewardship Prayer I got from one of my Sunday school classes a few years ago...

0 God, I resolve to put You first in my life.

I recognize that You have blessed me with all that I have and all that I am.

As your steward, I resolve to sacrifice when necessary but always to do so out of a spirit of sincere love, just as your Son, Jesus, did for me.

I humbly accept the challenge to share from my means rather than from my excess.

I recognize that being a good steward is nothing more than being truly Christian.

Dear God, I resolve, to be generous with my time, talent and treasure, giving in proportion to the gifts I have been given.

I commit myself to taking care of my body and all of creation.

I know there will be times when I will fall to be a good steward, but I pledge to keep on trying.

I will confidently live each day with a spirit of true peace and joy in knowing that I am doing your will.

Amen.

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