My Review of 12mm Golden Teak Handscraped Laminate

Originally submitted at Lumber Liquidators

Handscraped appearance and texture... Just like Hardwood flooring!Kensington Manor by Dream Home - 12mm Golden Teak Laminate Flooring - 30 Year WarrantyKensington Manor is a premium 12mmlaminate + 3mm pre-glued underlaymentproduct line. What is unique is that most of the line has a handscraped fini...

12mm Golden Teak Handscraped Laminate

Alternative to the expensive

By Brian and Nicole from Suburban Houston on 4/28/2012

 

5out of 5

Pros: Attractive Finish, Easy To Install, Beautiful Color, Easy To Clean

Best Uses: Kitchen, Office, Family Room, Living Room, Bedroom, Dining Room

Describe Yourself: Avid Do-It-Yourselfer

We debated between this product, the only laminate I liked, and the more expensive solid handscraped version that I fell in love with. This will eventually be installed in our entire upstairs. For this project, it was installed in a bedroom over our garage that has multiple closets and it's own bathroom and is currently being used by a teenager. It was installed in one of three closets, the span of the room, a bathroom and a landing. While it's not recommended for bathrooms, we have had laminate in two upstairs bathrooms, with each seam glued, and we have never had a problem as long as the room is properly vented during showers and dried out after each use.

We are avid-do-it-yourselfers. My husband actually did the entire job alone using two different saws, a flooring installation kit, and a bottle of a particular glue for the joints in the bathroom to keep moisture out. The entire install was about 260 sq ft, and he finished it in 5 hours. He said it was extremely easy to work with and was raving about it through the install. This was not the first time he has installed a laminate floor, and this went together so easily by any standard, but definitely by commparison to the other. Also, because it had an attached 2mm pad, this saved time. It was one of the reasons we ended up chosing this floor as well. There was very little waste. I bought an extra box because I was sure that we were going to run out, and we ended up with that box and almost another one! So while they said 5% waste on these floors, it had to have been closer to 1%.

It looks great. My husband said that he never saw two identical pieces. It feels nice when you walk on it. It's quiet since it's a 10 mm + 2 mm pad. It's not difficult to clean, and it's much better in quality than the cheap laminate that first came out and is still sold in the store. Laminate has come a very long way in a decade. I also love that LL carries this line all the time, so I know that I could go back in a year and pick up more. That was a huge factor in making this decision as well.

Our sales guy gave us another $0.20 off per sq ft for coming back and buying from them rather than buying the solid hardwood from Floor & Decor. F&D also had a similar product to this one, but you had to buy the pad separately, and by the time you were done with that, it was within a penny per foot in price, so there was not only no reason not to go back to LL, with the pad attached and the courtesy discount, we saved money and time. They have the BEST sales team. We must have been in more than half a dozen times looking and asking questions and getting samples, and they were always so helpful. The quality of the products, both the laminate that has the 2mm pad on the back (like this does) and the engineered hardwood and the solid hardwood is so far above anything else we saw on the market and their prices are extremely competitive. I spent about 5 weeks looking to make this decision. We will be back, and the overall experience both with the products offered, products purchased and customer service was outstanding. No one else even came close in any category. Buy with confidence from LL.

Finished room

Tags: Picture of Product

End of the install

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(legalese)

We are having (praise the Lord) another stunningly beautiful day here in Houston today. It's the kind of day when I can sit on my driveway while my children bother our neighbor :) and get a tan on my shoulders and legs and not sneeze the entire time. LOL My kids are not shy about talking to our neighbors. They assume that you love them because we live next to each other and are happy to keep them company. Oh, thank You, Lord, for days like today! We so appreciate the temperate ones here with the ridiculously hot, humid summers we get that make it extraordinarily unpleasant to be outside. I don't even need air conditioning on today! I have fans on and am loving it.

I have gotten Graysen's passport all taken care of. We are still in prayer about this, but proceeding as if things are green lights all the way: our youth (middle and high schoolers) are going to El Salvador in very late July-August this summer to serve at Potter's Field Ministry Orphanage and some other places locally for 8 days. I would love to go with her, but it's not my season in life yet to do it. She saved up the last month or so and got her passport money together. I am nervous about her being in a foreign country without us, however, I cannot think of four adults more equipped to take the kids down or that I trust more. The Lord will have to help take care of the money with most of it due before the middle of June. I know that if you are reading this and are family, in lieu of a birthday gift, Graysen would rather have a contribution to help go than anything else. Or if you just want to contribute because of the mission and love Jesus, that is welcome as well! I pray that the Lord fully prepares all who are going spiritually and physically for their time and am thankful that each one of these people going is already sharing the Gospel as a part of their life, encouraging other believers, are prayer warriors, and such a blessing in the body of Christ to the Lord and others. Our kids are amazing. They always outnumber adults for community Gospel outreach by a lot, they are bold, and they know God's Word. Poverty in El Salvador is exponentially worse than what we see here. I think we forget how blessed we are in America with just basic things alone. They don't wan to be like us, they just are hungry for Jesus, and praise the Lord for open doors for the Word to go out and ministry to happen!!! They will stay on the orphanage compound, but there is no hot water there, and they will be working their tails off! I heard at the meeting Sunday that they may just want to throw away their clothes and shoes when they are done! LOL Maybe we can say goodbye to those Converse in her closet..........

On a light note, since I did title my blog "The Misadventures of a Sububan Mom", I thought I would share a post office misadventure from this morning. I pullled in and there was a car there, windows down, engine on, no one in it at all, and music playing. The music was actually pleasant. It was not blasting. And I thought to myself how wonderful to be at a country post office where someone can just do that! While I am waiting in line, a lady comes in who looks exactly like Minnie Pearl on Hee Haw, same hat and everything, comes in and says, "Whichever one of you has left their ugly music blasting and their car on with their windows down is disrupting life out here for everyone and you are going to cause us to pay higher insurance rates." This sweet little man who was being helped apologized to her and everyone in the office, ran out to turn off his music, car, roll up his windows and lock his car and was incredibly gracious to her. When he returned, I told him what I had thought pulling up and that he wasn't bothering me (which was echoed by the other two customers in line and the lady helping said the woman comes in all the time and has issues). We all looked at each other---a bunch of Christians we were---and agreed she needed some prayer! Love the one who reviles you! So, now you know why I called it "misadventures". Nothing much going on down here!!
Today has been a day of good news and difficult news. Brian and I received some very good news this morning, and I thanked the Lord and was even amazed at what the Lord did. I wonder how many times I have prayed over this thing, asking and asking the Lord to help, and committing ourselves to whatever the Lord has for us, including nothing!!!, and here the Lord did something this morning very specifically in answer and in a manner that was especially pleasing. But, my heart is stayed on the difficult news instead. Why? Because the difficult news is what actually matters: news about people whom I am praying for who are suffering. They have cancer, and I have a broken heart as I have considered news about each. We don't say who cares to the good since it's all from the Lord and it would be wrong for me not to give Him thanks, but in light of the needs and condition of the situations of others, I am impressed with my own tendency towards selfishness and desiring to be more like the Lord, I cannot help but put my mind on someone else. He says we are blessed to bless others. I am so thankful for the way the Lord has blessed us, so thankful, but I also know He will take care of what is happening so that I am free to keep my mind on others and their needs and is working out everything for our good. So, my heart and mind are back on these precious ones. People are what matter. We can know that is what matters to the Lord simply by considering John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He sent His Only Begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life." God cares that much. We might not all believe him, but Jesus was sent to pay for all sin. Sin is paid in full, the question that remains for each of us is whether we want His blood applied to our account.
Sheri is the wife of a friend of Brian's at work. She is battling breast cancer and it's been extremely difficult for her since she received her diagnosis. I have a cyst in one of my breasts and I have gone through a biopsy last year, and it's extremely scary to wait just for that. To receive news of cancer and then go through treatment is incredible to consider. I know too many women who have breast cancer and had breast cancer. We ran into her husband yesterday, and it broke my heart to hear what he had to share about what is going on. After losing Kelli, I have a very tender heart towards women suffering from it from watching all that she went through, especially the last 7 months. I have another friend Julie from our church family, battling it right now as well who is older than Sheri, but her prognosis has been better than Sheri's though she is exhausted, in pain and worn down as well. Cancer is no respecter of persons. Its content to ravage any woman's body. Sadly, the younger you are when you get breast cancer, the more aggressive it usually is. It's amazing to me what we each go through in our lives, the difficulties!! I pray for Sheri to be healed, and I pray for her to allow the Lord to be at work in her life and to trust in Jesus alone. Julie's faith in Jesus blows me away and she is such an inspiration, so giving of her time, such a loving and compassionate woman. When I miscarried a few years ago, it was Jesus who ministered to me and cared for my soul, no one else can do what Jesus does. As close as we can be to people in this life, it's the Lord Who never leaves us, Who can be with us when we go into surgery or an MRI, or just in our thoughts when we cannot speak what we think and feel. I am so comforted and grateful knowing this not just for myself, but for others. Ever feel like you don't have the right words? I do all the time. The Lord does!  I pray that both of these women I cherish and pray over are abiding in the presence of the Lord.
The youngest I pray over is not even two, home with hospice care to go home to be with Jesus soon. His name is Brennan. Sadly, I am praying for three other young kids as well: Izzy, Clayton and Wyatt, and they are not having an easy time of things lately either. I read a comment posted on Brennan's site that no mother should have to bear what his mother is. I have to disagree after much thought about it. It is because we are mothers that we have the unique privelege to bear so much when it comes to our children. It's the job the Lord gave us. This precious family are believers, and I cannot begin to imagine the grief in their hearts and the overflow of love for Brennan as the remnant of his days are lived out in their arms, and they wait for Jesus to call Brennan home. How do you go on afterwards? I have read his mother post this question. I can remember this coming up with Kelli. Is it cruel that life keeps going or is that a tremendous blessing from the Lord?? It almost seems wrong that our hearts could keep beating after we lose someone we love so much, doesn't it? But life beckons us to continue, and Jesus is right there ready to lead us through not only the valley of the shadow of death but to dwell in His house forever, if we will just humble ourselves as sinners, repent and give Him our lives.

In thinking about this precious one and his mother, since I am a mother of four plus one who is with Jesus and one of those four is a prodigal, I want to ask when was the last time that you personally thought about the great and precious promises to those who believe in Jesus and have His blood applied to their account of sin, wiping it out? We are not just eternally saved, we are also provided with abundant life today, even in the middle of the worst trials imagineable and we are promised that He works all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. One of the most difficult things to mature in as a believer is childlike faith. Sounds like some kind of phrasalistic oxymoron, but that is what it is. The longer you walk with the Lord, the more you just know that He is trustworthy and really deserves that name, the Rock of our salvation. We can't see how it's being worked for our good, but praise Him, He can. We just need to trust Him, even through our tears and heartache.
1 Corinthians 1:18 Paul writes, "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." The finished work of the cross took away my sins as far as the east from the west, Isaiah tells me. How amazing to consider! My work was faith. I think I had the easy part!! I had the unique privilege to have at least three years of time with Kelli before she ever passed away to listen, study God's Word alone and with her, and talk with her about dying before she ever spoke to anyone else about it. I learned a lot from this time with her. The Lord prepared me to be that person because I had read His Word and His Spirt brought to mind those passages that we needed to talk about to prepare her heart as well to meet the Lord. I was hungry and He fed me the Bread of Life. I think about that all the time when I reflect back. She saved an email I wrote about her and salvation after spending the day with her while she was in hospice care at home. When it was read at her memorial service, it just about ripped my heart out to hear my own words as I had quoted God's Word in that email. I had to believe the Lord. That day, I had the privilege of the Lord reminding me of His faithfulness, that this not the home of the believer in Christ, and our body is called a tent in the Bible, by more than one New Testament writer! Praise the Lord for this precious knowlege and how it frees us up to look at things from the Lord's perspective instead of the world's and to live full out for Jesus and praise the Lord we are free from being a slave to sin any longer.
So I pray over these children, totally in awe of all they go through, and thankful that their parents know the Lord, as He comforts them and gives them peace in the middle of an all-out war on the bodies of their children and one where they have to choose to believe Him about promises for the temporal and the eternal and wait on Him to work things out for their good. It's hard to pray sometimes. They are not particularly eloquent either, but the Lord knows my heart, those things that are beyond words that are about them. I am so grateful about that with the Lord!

I think about my own oldest son and the war going on for his soul, who is in control of his life, and it brings me to my knees before the Lord that I might have peace from Him simply because I know Him and want that same thing for not just my son or my family members, but like the Lord, for all men! I walked with out the Lord many years. It's not a good place to be. When we do it, there is a part of us that knows this. He says He gave us a conscience and He certainly gave us a need to worship. Sadly, both are usually seared and misplaced. Oh, how we need Jesus! Our children, gifts to us from the Lord, how easy that is to forget when we are distracted or they are being onry!! My kids have to be the most content kids to just be loved on and also the onriest kids on the planet! I am so blessed, and they have such a beautiful relationship with my husband. Growing up without a father, this is one of the things that I am most grateful every day to the Lord for! And I am blessed with a Father in Heaven, mine by adoption, thanks to Jesus.

On the driveway today, I had the blessing of the Lord reassuring me in something I was reading that He was freeing me up from all the things that could burden my heart so that I could put my mind on others. I even wanted to write today and did it! I write because I love to, but really, my heart is to encourage fellow believers and to prayerfully remind those who are not in right relationship with Jesus that He is still there waiting on them and ready to receive them with open arms bearing love and forgiveness and living hope.

The last thing that I want to say because the Lord was so good to show me something today in His word and I want to share it is that Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote in probably my favorite book of the Bible, Romans 12:20, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."  In the days of Paul, if your fire went out, you were in trouble!! Paul is talking about rekindling your enemy's fire, and not doing it with just one coal to get it going, but a huge heap, which would be considered an extremely generous blessing! I love this about the Lord. This is one of our commands as His followers. What I am finding with the Lord is that the more I give the more He gives. You cannot out-give The Giver. He is the supplier of all good things and all blessings, and that includes the blessing of having a right heart toward Him and other people--I am dependent on Him to give me that as well, and He delights in me asking Him for it!! I have spent a lifetime in fear of giving and being without, and really more the latter, and the Lord has spent my life trying to eleviate this and to show me something about Him. How long-suffering He is with us when we are slow to learn what He is trying to show us!

If I have nothing, I still have Jesus. If I still have Jesus, I have everything and I still have Jesus to give. Today, don't be afraid to heap some hot coals on someone and reflect the character of the One who is molding us into His image. Our nation so badly needs revival, and it starts with the person reflected back in the mirror seeking the Lord first. Ask Him to help you, to give you a clean spirit and a heart that wants to please Him, a heart that heaps hot coals on the needs of others! We are to be salt and light in a dark world. We want revival? Let's start with heaping some hot coals into fires that have gone out and get them restarted. That is the God we serve!! One Who promises He will not break a bruised reed and a smoldering wick He will not put out!! Isn't Jesus awesome??!!

²³ But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. ²⁴ Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. ²⁵ He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶ If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor." John 12:23-27

I am so thankful for the word of the Lord beckoning me to come to Him when I am weary. He gives rest like no other. This is a tired day for us and we desperately need Him. There is a song about being desperate for the Lord that I used to hate when I was unsaved and would hear it. Oh, how the Lord has show me as I have walked with Him the truth of that beautiful song!

This is an update on what is going on with Alex and our family. Yesterday, we took him to a place where he can be alone with the Lord, His Word and be ministered to and away from all the distractions here that have kept him from being honest with himself and getting things right with the Lord and how he is living his life. He is not happy to be there right now, but the Lord prepared him for this, and we had the privilege of seeing the mighty hand of the Lord ourselves do this. I wanted to share how Jesus is taking care of our son and how good the Lord is.

Before I start, I want to thank anyone reading who has kept us in prayer. We are close to the 2 year mark when Alex's Pandora's box of drug use got opened, and it's been a rough road. There are so many people who have either walked in Alex's shoes or ours who know the power of the Lord to deliever who have ministered to us. We are so especially grateful for you who have shared your testimony and for the unwaivering support and very sound, Biblical advise, if any has been offered.

Last July-August, Alex hit a new low, which included leaving our home. The Lord has been so good to watch over our son while he has been out in the world, running from the Lord, living his life doing what seems right in his eyes with support from "friends" and their parents to continue in drug abuse and a life headed for the gutter and finding no rest in sin. Praise the Lord that He is so faithful to show us, if we have the eyes to see, that sin is a cruel master and there is no rest in it.

He wore out his welcome with the latest parent harboring him this weekend and begged us to come back home but refused to stop using drugs. Prayerfully, Brian and I decided we would take him where he needed to go, warned him this was what had been decided and told him to come home, and he did.  Living under our roof as a drug addict is not a choice or a compromise that we will ever make. We love Alex too much to not set boundaries that will protect him and then honor them with our actions. We love our other children too much not to protect them from his choices and to show them that we are serious, and it's very ugly up close in ways that I will not be writing about today, but it's the right thing to do. The first moment of peace I have felt in almost two years was when Pastor Jeff from U-Turn prayed over Alex and our family over the phone on Monday when we called to find out if they had room for him. That is the Lord---I felt His presence in a way that I have not through this time in our lives, confirming what He wants to do and His plans for Alex, to give him a future and a hope, if Alex will let go of drugs and hang onto Jesus.

Alex came home Sunday evening with the two tubs we packed his belongings in months ago and a laundry basket. He has sold both of his guitars, his half-stack amp, his i-Pod, anything he had of value, to support his drug habbit. He had applied for food stamps in the last few months, which he received, all while refusing to get a job and work. I would not want anyone to think he spent the money he received from selling his things to feed himself or to pay room and board to the parent of the child who was harboring him. He doesn't hide his drug use and is very open about it with us and what's been going on. He firmly believes marajuana isn't bad for you, is not a drug, should be legalized, that he has no problem, that his life situation is not his fault or the result of his choices, that he is not an addict, but cannot explain why, unless, we helped him, he would not be a homeless, drug addict on the street. And he has said the same about other things he has done. Pray the Lord is able to crack the nut on that for him very quickly. It's very difficult to have that conversation again and again. It's not one that is open for compromise, unless you want to prolong, support and enable an addict. If you are from a family of alcoholism or drug abuse, you are probably very familiar with much of what I am saying and know the destruction it causes. It is not worse to turn the addict over to their choices and turn them out from your home and family. It is the only way they may actually have their life saved and for the Lord to reach them and give them a new life free from it. If you enable, you are part of the problem and the addiction. Enabling can also be called compromising.

Sadly, that story is the same for each of us when it comes to sin. Some of us are just in more comfortable cirumstances than others when it comes to our sin, easier to hide what spiritual condition we are really in. The Lord loves to strip away those things that keep us from Him, and praise the Lord when He does this. It's very painful and it's not very pretty in the fleshly sense, but to our spirit, it's a necessity. I have been through this myself, my husband as well, and our oldest daughter in coming to know the Lord. Prayerfully, folks who do not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, come to know this truth with less pain than we have, but usually this does not seem to be the case. Just like the Bible says, we like sheep have gone astray and none of us think of the Lord or seek Him. He comes after us and those who are His, they hear His voice and follow Him and will not follow another. There is no contentment following someone or something other than Jesus.

So Monday evening, Alex had made himself a cup of hot tea and was using his cell phone, supplied by his girlfriend's mother, and he dropped it into his tea. My husband regularly fixes cellphones damaged by liquids for people. Alex knows this. But in his anger, Alex destroyed the phone, despite my husband intervening to let him know that he could dry it out and restore the electronics before he destroyed it. That phone has kept him together with this girlfriend. There is no way for me to begin to express the feelings I have about parents who dishonor us by enabling Alex to continue doing to himself what he has been doing. Sigh. The Lord put that phone in his tea and then moved him to destroy it. It was going to be an issue for Alex, a source of stumbling, and the Lord took care of it. Someone who doesn't know the Lord or who doesn't understand Alex and the need for Alex to be stripped completely probably can't see the Lord's hand, but it was all Him. We have been through this before. We were the only ones who knew we were taking him Tuesday morning other than our pastor and the pastors there until we woke the kids up Tuesday and told them what we were doing. But the Lord knew and He took care of it. We did absolutely nothing and my husband could and was willing to fix the phone for him. Alex with his own hands, destroyed it. I guess this seems very dramatic to us, maybe not so much as I retell it. But the Lord is good to get rid of those things that keep us from Him.

Isn't the Lord amazing?

So the ranch is in the middle of no where. The grounds and accomodations are very basic and humble. There are chickens and goats to care for, cows come and go. There was a dog. They live a life for 2 months or longer if needed, soley around making disciples of these men who come with wrecked lives where they pray, study the Lord's Word, are taught, work doing all kinds of things to serve others, and when they are ready, move into another phase where they work off the ranch in a job they get themselves while still living there on a different part of the ranch, still being discipled, and eventually off into whatever the Lord has planned for them next.  Many go onto Bible college and then into ministry or missions. All the things that we have been trying to teach Alex they will be teaching him. Alex is very much like the 12 year old that started using drugs and has never matured and cannot right now. That is what addiction does to a person.

I am so exhausted mentally and emotionally to express as I would like to about this, but I wanted to get my thoughts down today, even if a bit raw and disjointed, to point to the Lord Jesus and how good He is and just get some basics out on what happened. I have a very sore throat, probably from the change in weather where we were yesterday, and being in the car, so talking is difficult today and we have church this evening, so I am trying to get my throat back to even be able to have a conversation with someone outside my family out of necessity. :) Please forgive me for a lack of phone calls for a few days and desire to talk while I wait on the Lord to take care of my throat.

The Bible tells us that we are not good, only God is. The goodness available to us to have is from the Lord and belongs to Him alone, avaiable to be imparted to us by His grace and credit given only to Him. This was something that came up yesterday. We are not righteous, He is. Oh, how we fool ourselves into thinking that we alone are good or not that bad, etc. We are fallen and spiritually dead apart from Jesus Christ, and how sad it is when we delude ourselves when we think we actually have life or that our salvation is secure in what we do or that going to a great college or having a perfect home, or whatever we are taking pride in does something for us in the eyes of the Lord. He says His standard is His Son and nothing else will do. I love this. I fell in love with the Lamb of God, Who was willing to go to the cross and pay for my sins when I could not, and it's not a burden on me to do something other than believe Him and follow Him and let Him do the perfecting. How beautiful that the work is done. He did it. It's not a bad or unfortunate thing that Alex is where he is because of the Lord's guiding hand. Life is more than what we wear, eating and drinking, our jobs, our homes, even our families. Read Job if that seems strange to think I would say our families and see what the Lord did in the life of this man who loved Him. So important to know the difference between the Blesser and the blessings. The work that matters to the Lord is believing in Jesus Christ. We don't even know the Father without the Son, the Bible tells us. How much needs to be stripped from a life to know this truth? The Lord tells us He is the narrow way and few find it (Him). How do you feel, whoever is reading this, about the Lord stripping away anything that is in the way of you finding Him and walking with Him so that you might not only have eternal life but be a new creation in Him and have an abundant life right now? An abundant life in Christ Jesus will more than likely not involve a huge house and a luxury car but a life of serving others, of humility. We are talking about a God who washed His disciples stinky feet as an example for those who want to be great in His kingdom and then He went to the cross and laid His life down to pay for our sins. Don't think that is only for a drug addict or a adulterer or a murderer. It's for everyone. Jesus died for the sins of all of us. The question that remains is who will believe our report??

My son is stripped down to nothing. The Lord has been faithful in taking care of him so that he can be worked with in His hands. Alex has no where else to go. Thankfully, the Lord has prevented other parents from having the desire to harbor him. The only thing he would have had to get ahold of or connect him to all the destructive friends in his life was destroyed in his own hands; he has the potential to leave there at some point completely free of the old man and old life if he will receive that. There is no computer there (kept at their offices in town), no phone except the cell phones on the pastors, they are close to nothing but one another and the Lord, and the only book allowed is God's Word. It was beautiful. That is beauty that could only be seen through eyes of faith in the Lord, understanding what He is doing in the lives of those who were there. I wonder who is saying to themselves, "Wow, Nicole, that seems so extreme." And I guess that my answer to that question is, "Do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior personally?" Sometimes the Lord needs a radical situation to perform a radical work, apart from distraction and the world, separated to Himself alone. What does He need to do in each of our lives, even those of us who belong to Him, so that we can hear Him?

Larry, one of the guys running things, explained to my son and I as we were walking to the bunk house, that this is not a rehab. It's a place of restoration and they do not rehab the flesh, they crucify it, exactly as the Bible commands us to do. When guys have trouble with breaking rules, one of the disciplines is digging a hole. It's symbolic for the idea of where the old man needs to go---- crucified and in need of burying. The ground there is hard. But this is the reason for the verse on my heart today above. I pray that Alex puts the old man on the cross and in the grave that he may be resurrected into the newness of life in Jesus Christ for what He has for Him, free of the bondage of sin, and able to produce much for the Lord. What a beautiful thing the Lord shows us first in what He did and that we are to follow Him in it.

If you would like to keep Alex and us in prayer, please pray for the Lord to put the desire in Alex's heart to be exactly where he is, to seek the Lord earnestly with all his heart, and for the Lord to answer and work mightily. Pray for us to have continued peace and strength from the Lord and for His provision for our family and to protect the hearts and minds of the other kids. Please pray for the Lord to fill the men who are ministering to Alex overflowing with His Spirit and for the Lord to be glorified in all this.

I pray that anyone who does not know Jesus Christ as their Savior and their Lord might know Him and not allow the things of this life, and there are so many, hinder them from surrendering to Him. I am thanking the Lord today that He sees, hears and knows. What an incredible comfort. Amen.
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Rejoice in all things

One day, the Lord is coming for His Bride, the Church. In the meantime, while I was vacuuming today, I had an entire bag of popcorn seeds fall out over everything in our pantry and the floor, the Cheerios were about to do the same, and the cheesecake spices had not been put away. The Lord spoke to my heart Psalm 46:10, " Be still, and know that I am God..." I continued to vacuum and waited for Him to speak to me again from His Word, and He brought this portion of Scripture to my mind:

1 Thessalonians 5

1 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 3 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. 5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. 11 Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.

12 And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves. 14 Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. 15 See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies. 21 Test all things; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.

23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. 25 Brethren, pray for us. 26 Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. 27 I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the holy brethren. 28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

I thought long and hard over what normally would have made me very angry and would have created a response of grumbling and complaining and thought about what the Lord was saying to me. Today is not going to be a day of anger or complaining. The Lord has other plans for me today. Today, He chiseled away a piece of me that looked nothing like His Son. Today, He reminded me that He is coming and time is short---I am of the day and have spent more than four years of my life studying His Word and should be sensitive to this everyday. Some days, I am not. Time is short for each of us anyway. Do you know how many days He has given you?

Beyond the expectation of His soon return and the gift of His face to face presence all the time, He pointed me to the portion starting at v12 and let me sit there, thinking on a Christ-like response rather than one from the flesh. I pray that I do not attempt to put that chisled piece back. Looks better without it for sure.

These things are not a tragedy. I have a Dyson Animal and time to clean it up. Praise the Lord. I got to thinking on the passage as I kept at the popcorn and Betsy ten Boom came to mind: a Christian, in a concentration camp for helping to hide Jews in her home in Holland during WWII, and she praised the Lord for the fleas. FOR THE FLEAS. The last time there were fleas in my home, they were not on me but a pet, and I was not rejoicing at all! These were ON HER and the other women there! Can we all not learn from her Christ-like response to something so horrible and ugly, knowing that God is incapable of doing anything but love us, works all things for the good of the believer, and says that He showed us His love when His Son hung on the cross and died for our sins, rather than looking at our circumstances? Can I learn this? Can I learn this while it is only popcorn seeds on my floor? When I look at the cross and at my Jesus, do I not see that ALL things work for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose? If Betsy ten Boom rejoiced in thanksgiving for fleas, surely the Lord would like me to thank Him for the popcorn seeds all over the floor and provide a better perspective.

That promise to work all things for good is Romans 8:28. It's a conditional promise to believers only. If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior, the One who bought you and paid for your sins, I encourage you to pray in faith asking Him to reveal Himself to you. He is the friend of sinners and is ready to receive ALL who call on Him in earnest. That is not a call to a building, to a denomination, to a priest or pastor, to works: He says, "Come to Me." Me is Jesus. He is waiting to receive you, sinner, if you will allow Him into your heart. He is a kind and loving master, and His plans are so much better than our own, even if they involve popcorn seeds or fleas.

Thank you, Lord, for the family that You have given me: a wonderful husband and four beautiful children and one in Heaven with Your Son waiting for us. A roof over our heads, food, a working car, that our home is warm. Thank You for my husband's job and that my job is caring for my family and our home--please help me to serve them as if I am serving You. Thank You for all the big and small ways that You care for us---they are too numerous to count. Let me remember to intercede in prayer for those who are lost, who are hurting, to do good to all and to rejoice in You at all times and to be thankful at all times for Your chisel. I know that I am a long-term project. Thank you for any opportunity to share the Good News found alone in Your Son Jesus. Amen.

Looking Like Jesus

Recently, one of my closest friends went home to be with the Lord after a 9+ year battle with metastatic breast cancer. She was a wondeful friend, a loving wife, a fantastic mom, total brainiac, redneck, and warrior for Jesus. One of the things that she most wanted was for me to continue my blog and to keep writing. I am not so sure about it, but she was. I am typing today to honor her. We will see how I will do. Kelli, I love you and miss you!

I spent a few days a month the last six months helping to care for Kelli along with her family. Cancer had really dramatically changed Kelli's appearance over the years, but everytime I looked at her, a funny thing would happen. I could always see her just as she was the first time we ever met, and the more the cancer took over her body, the more I could see Jesus Christ being formed in her. The closer you walk with Jesus, the more the Holy Spirit will do the transforming work to mold your image to look like Jesus. (Rom 8:29) It was never Kelli's desire to have cancer, but when she turned her life over to Him and told Him He could do with it what He wanted (Rom. 12:1), the cancer and a much closer walk with the Lord began. What makes sense to the Lord will not make sense to us (Is 55:8), but He is the one who can see the end from the beginning (Is. 46:10) and has plans for us that are good (Jer. 29:11), if we will only come to Him and let Him be what He has every right to be as our Creator: Sovereign Lord over us. He can do a better job living and directing our lives than we can. With as much pain and suffering as there is in this sin-filled world, you would think the offer from the Lord would be a no-brainer and sound great, but most people reject Jesus Christ. The Life of the Christian is one of passionate devotion to the One who saved them from perishing in hell in their sins and gave them a new life, one free to follow the Lord walking in holiness.

So the week my friend passed, my oldest son also got arrested. We have had a very difficult time with him through his teen years, behavioural things first and then drugs. My precious friend had spent time fasting last summer and praying for his salvation. To not eat during chemo is like shooting yourself in the foot! Kelli had a system down with as much treatment as she had been through and had learned that keeping something in her stomach and staying hydrated (and what worked best for both) kept the vomiting and nausea under control. To have spent time fasting (a disconnect from the world) and praying (connecting to God) at that time was a huge sacrifice for her to get closer to the Lord and to do some of it on behalf of someone else and not her own situation. Alex wanted a fire insurance policy last year and raised his hand when the Gospel was shared during that same weekend she was fasting and praying for him. Hell sounds bad, and it is bad, but Jesus even tells us that there will be those who call Him Lord and even use His name to do some things, but they never really repented of their sins and accepted Him in their heart. In the year to follow, Alex cleaned up his act on the outside and stayed clean for awhile, but he eventually returned to misfit friends and more drugs and now legal trouble. There is and has been a huge struggle for his soul for many years now, and while he raised his hand for the Lord and prayed the sinner's prayer, this is what I know from my own born-again experience: no change means no change.

2 Cor. 7:10 says, "For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death." When you accept Jesus as your Saviour to pay for the penalty of your sin debt, the person of the Holy Spirit comes to live inside you as a guarantee of your salvation (Eph. 4:13), to be redeemed by the Lord Himself. He is like an engagement ring, and the Church in the Bible is called the Bride of Christ. The rest of that is beyond the scope of what I am writing about today, but needless to say that the Holy Spirit also produces fruit in the life of the believer (Gal. 5:22-23) and as a really interesting aside for anyone who reads this and wants to study Leviticus, the Olivet Discourse and Revelation, the last three Levitical fall feasts are for the fruit harvest. Anyway, Alex never had any fruit but only the works of the flesh, sadly an indication of the true condition of his heart; he was not sincere. It was a sad and stressful year that has passed since my friend fasted and prayed for him. There has been a second arrest, both are for minor things, and two moves out, the last was permanent earlier this week, and the five of us are deeply hurt by Alex's choices. He is a loved and adored son and brother, but we cannot have a drug addict in the house, and he refuses to stop or accept the mind-blowing amount of help that has been available to him and continues to be. You would love to blame yourself, but the truth is that he never had that example at home, was counseled against all that he is doing, and when he did do the wrong thing, he was given abundant help to stop and make different chocies. We choose to sin, or we choose to follow the Lord, and when you choose to follow the Lord, He does not expect you do to it on your own: He puts His Spirit inside you and you submit to Him to live a godly life after Jesus. It's impossible to do on our own: the 10 commandments, the Torah, while they are holy, Paul also many times explains it is the covenant of death: it points to Jesus and our need for Him because we cannot comply with the list. We are unfaithful at heart, and it only takes breaking one commandment to break the whole thing! Anyone who has ever been through this knows how deeply painful it is to watch someone self-destruct and that you learn in the process that the best place for you is on your knees in prayer before the Lord and the best place for them is in the hands of the Lord, in both cases the only One who can see everythign, know everything, including how things are going to turn out when all you can see is a Cat 5 hurricanewhen you look at them. The Bible is clear that we are to be fruit checkers, and when it's someone you love, it's really hard when all you find are thistles. He is our oldest son, and there is no way to explain how much it hurts us as parents.

But I make a terrible god, a lesson Brian and I have both learned with Alex's situation. One of the worst things those of us on the outside can do is attempt to save that person ourselves. There is more going on here than just drug addiction. There is a demonic element to drug and alcohol addiction---anything really that you allow to be an idol and put in the place that God made in us for Himself. Until they want the help and have bottomed out, the only thing you have to offer is sincere, heartfelt, unceasing prayer over them and to tell them about Jesus Christ, a one step plan! We have a lot of experience in the 12-step, AA plans from detoxing Alex last year, and it is amazing how much it muddies the waters for a person not to be told the absolute truth about Christ and His remedy for sin and instead be presented with continuing to believe in a god of your own making--you choose, anything is fine, including believing in yourself or a doorknob! You have no power over sin (drug and alcohol addiction is sin like lying or cheating on your spouse or murder), and the only way to gain power over sin is to accept Jesus, which means you crucify your flesh and live for Him (see Romans 6) as a new creation and with a renewed mind in His power by His Spirit. Sounds a bit crazy and amazing, but that's what the Bible says, and that has been my born-again experience, my husbands, everyone I have ever met. We are not perfect people, but we are a forgiven people and growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus, which means that the way is going to be narrow, difficult, and painful. A church didn't die on the cross, our pastors do not die on the cross, our spouses didn't: Jesus did. Is it really too much to live for Him if you call Him Lord and do as He says and turn from sin and your old life and person? I digress. We have been told many times in the last week that he is legally on his own and that we need to begin living our own life without him and his addiction and let the Lord take it from here. Our lives are soley in the hands of the Lord and so is Alex's.

So here is the question: Do I believe God and His Word? This is the constant question for the believer and the unbeliever alike. These are hard things to consider with a person you love imploding and with an unknown end because we want to do something and we think God is not working fast enough!! Do I believe God and His Word that I can trust Him and not get in His way? It's a big question, and the trial itself is a bitter one. Sometimes I think that I would have rather had cancer, but God is the one with the plan and knows exactly what we need to be conformed during this time to the image of His Son. We do not know best, and we acknowledge that by placing our trust in One whom we cannot see except with spiritual eyes of faith. He is the Potter and we are the clay, and it takes time to cut away and mold all that doesn't look like His Son. I am most grateful for all the times in the past that the Lord has already shown me exactly who He is and that He is faithful and that placing my trust in Him is the not just the only response, but it's also the most powerful and it's the most sensible! He can do it; I cannot!

The Christian life is one of humility before the Lord of our complete dependency on Him. I cannot imagine anything sweeter. Despite the tears and the heartache of the trial, there is joy. Romans 8:28-29 is the "mothership" of all promises made by the Lord to the believer: " And we know that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love God, and who are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son......" That whole section of Romans is an incredible study, but note that there are two conditions there for God to work everything, including really bad things, for someone's good. First, they have to love God. If you do not know Jesus, you do not know God. He is the visible image of the invisible God (Col 1:18), and He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one can get to the Father but by the Son. (Jn 14:6) And the Father's name is Abba to the Christian (it means "Daddy") and not Allah! The second condition is that they have to be called according to His purpose, which is to be conformed to the image of Jesus. If those two things do not apply to a person, that promise does not apply to them! Narrow is the way that leads to life, and that narrow way has a name: Jesus! So as difficult as our present trial is, to know that God is for us and will use even this for our good is a reason to thank Him, to praise Him, and to rejoice. It is also a reason to persevere in prayer as a family for our oldest son, our prodigal who has blown it at great expense to his family, and has found himself wallowing in the mud with pigs!

I read the most beautiful thing last week in the third book of The Shepherd Trilogy by Phillip Keller, and I will close with this. Every shepherd has a pet lamb that he takes everywhere with him and it follows the shepherd everywhere he goes. This lamb usually has a bell around it's neck and is called a "bellwether". It is the sole responsibility of the bellwether to go after the lost sheep of the shepherd's flock and bring them back home, this little pet lamb. Jesus is the Good Shepherd for those of us who know Him and believe, but for those who are lost, Jesus is a bellwether. Alex has the greatest Bellwether of all going out to find him and bring him home. May my family never cease to pray over Alex, may our eyes ever be on the Lord, and like Kelli, may we be conformed to His image, eventhough painful, until we are with Him face to face and finally a perfect reflection.

My Endless Headache

Apparently, I get migraines. I thought I was just sensitive to atmospheric pressure changes when rain is coming our way. Alas, that may be so, but I get these also! It looks like they may be hormonally triggered. I am in so much pain at this point, I am not sure I care what the cause is. I just want relief!

I am now into day three of this latest migraine. No pain reliever has worked, nor Sudafed to help relieve some of the pressure that I am feeling in my sinuses....I am pretty sure that the pressure is from my brain wanting to explode through my right eye. I have dabbed peppermint oil on my temples and the nape of my neck and eaten grapes---something natural that is said to help---to no avail. I was helped by a very kind woman at Lowes about 8 weeks ago during my last migraine who told me to pinch down on the inside of my skin between my first finger and thumb to find some relief---which does work very temporarily---and to increase my calcium intake, something I am guilty of skimping on because I am lactose sensitive/intolerant and have been working on since then. I am now eyeing my husband's vice grip in our garage as a possibility for relief.....

But as I sit here in pain, feeling a bit sorry for myself, I am humbled by friends who are going through far worse and without real solutions or true physical relief in site. A good friend continues her fight with breast cancer, more than 7 years since she found the lump in her breast, with two recurrences and no cure in site. Our pastor's wife battles stage 3A colorectal cancer, said to be in remission, but continuing to wade through 6 months of chemo with the hope that it won't come back, a hope that has failed my first friend, who had a better prognosis following her first round with her own battle. Two friends from Bible study are going through radiation for breast cancer right now, both ladies young and love the Lord. I am praying for three others I have never met who are battling breast cancer also. A sweet girl from my Bible study is in danger of miscarrying her precious second child after beginning to spot over the weekend. I just prayed with her two weeks ago over this little one. Another friend has MS and is close to my age. Another friend has a slue of symptoms that the doctors have not been able to diagnose and they are dibilitating her one day at a time. I have one Muslim friend. She is completely lost to the Lord and doesn't know it and I have no idea how to tell her who Jesus is---Muslim Jesus is not even close to who our Lord is---other than to stop at her home the day following the Ft Hood shooting and tell her that I love her and that Christ does also. She judges me on my witness--- our oldest son having a girl friend which they don't approve of---as being better than me and pities me. But I know that the Lord put me at her door in my humbleness, knowing that it's His love that matters, not anything about me or my family, that has the potential to make the difference in her ever knowing the truth. I cannot bear the thought of she and her family eternally lost. Puts that pesky migraine into perspective a bit for me, and makes me want to pray over them.

Father, I love you. Thank you for the sacrifice of Your only son for my life and for anyone who accepts the grace You extend through His life. Lord, all these women, some suffering greatly, one lost for the moment eternally, with You as our only Hope. Lord, it is my hearts desire for each of these women to know You and to experience Your presence through every moment of their lives. May each trial bring about a greater closeness with you. May every blessing bring praise to Your Holy Name. May the lost have their eyes and hearts opened to You and those that are Yours already feel the comfort only a Heavenly Father can provide. Thank you Lord for the blessing of this migraine that I may lean on You more, that I may see the needs of others who are far greater than myself as more important and spend my time in prayer over them instead. I find myself thankful for a trial that helps me to see You better and live out Your command and to understand it truly: to think of others as better than myself. In Jesus precious name.

One Poopy Diaper After Another

My nose has had an overload of ragweed this week at 15 miles an hour, so I am off my bike for the day today as I succumb to the tail end of my cold and my ever-present allergy to heal up by Sunday so that my allergy is the only thing I am contending with.

Our youngest is teething and caught my cold to boot. Our 3 year old is potty training and it's not going very well. My days have become one poopy diaper after another between the two of them, and I keep thinking how fortunate I am to live at a time when we have disposable diapers and pull-ups while I wade through cleaning all the poop--and there is a lot of it as anyone who has ever had a teething child or any child who is not yet fully potty-trained would know. And I also rest in the thought that somehow I managed to get our 12 and 16 year olds out of their diapers too.

So last time I mentioned James 4:14 that compares a human life to vapor in the wind:

How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.

The verse is not meant to make little of us. The Bible tells us that the Lord knows our hearts and our every thought, that He walks with us through every experience, and that He even stores our tears in a bottle and writes down what they were shed for. We are not little and insignificant to God. He made us in His image and loved us enough to humble himself to put on flesh in His son Jesus, and then offer Himself as a sinless sacrifice on the cross as payment for all sin. We are a big deal to Him. If you read the entire chapter of James 4 in context, James talks with us about drawing closer to God and then warns us against judging others, something the Lord Himself was only designed to do, and against self-confidence.

We live in a culture that teaches and preaches our nothingness without dependence on self only, polarization of the haves and have nots which is only becoming deeper with a socialist political agenda coming out of the White House, not to mention what is happening all over the world, the idea that what God says is sin we don't want to call sin anymore, or that one sin is not as bad as another, and that we place our confidence in our own plans without consulting God about His plans or what He might think of the plans we have---are they really what is best?

I planned to be a doctor and live in a mansion and drive a convertible and enjoy constant tropical vacations where I could regularly work on my tan. God planned for me to become a stay at home wife and mother of four and wipe poopy butts and snotty noses, amoung other humbling duties. God won. I started listening to Him, and His best is far better than what mine was, a lot less selfish and certainly less glamorous, lest anyone think that wiping a poopy bottom is going to land me on the cover of a magazine or create a buzz in Hollywood to film my life story.

My confidence is in the Lord. He can work best when I am weak and submitted to Him. It is easier for me to love Him and to find Him in a weakened state when I am broken in my circumstances and not depending on myself to fix the unfixable (2 Corinthians 12:9). I love that He cares for me and never leaves me that way, but invites me to rely on His strength and tells me that is my joy. I love that I can trust Him to judge and that all I have to do is look to Him and be confident that when He says He has good plans for me (Jeremiah 29:11), He means it, even if they are not the ones I would necessarily make for myself.

Now, I am not sure that I should characterize changing one poopy diaper after another as broken. Yesterday, our littlest managed to get one side of his diaper loose at the exact moment that he was having a very runny bowel movement that mostly ended up on the wood floor at his feet right as I was walking up to him. Never a dull moment in our home, I rushed to action with baby wipes, a clean diaper, Windex and paper towels, oh and Lysol. Not your idea of a typical action movie, but it was impressive how fast I cleaned it and was reminded in that split second of how I care for my little ones as the Lord cares for me--with slightly different tools---and I was humbled. Of course I am not going to leave this sweet little one whom I love with all my heart standing in a poopy, stinky mess. I am going to scoop him up in his tears and help restore him to a better state. He lies helpless, trying to fight the clean up at times because he still wants to go play, poopy or not, but I win this time, and he is like a new little man, ready to go again, until the next poopy diaper calls out my name.

And in the God inspired words of Paul in Romans 8:38-39, "...I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^a]">[a] neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. ³⁹ No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." We are no different than my little man, who needs my loving and compassionate care in the middle of a huge mess called life.