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We are overcomers!  The book of Revelation tells us that to him who overcomes there are incredible rewards waiting.  We resonate with this idea, not just in the church, but in our culture.  We love a story of an overcomer, and I have a great story of one for you.

A few weeks ago two of my boys were asking for something.  They really wanted this thing and mentioned it a couple of times.  I said to them, and included Sophie, that I would get it for them if they memorized the book of Titus.  Sophie, being so quick witted, said she didn’t want that thing so she wasn’t going to memorize Titus.  I made a different offer to her, and she said she still wouldn’t do it.  She was intimidated by the task.

Sophie has dyslexia.  It is a challenge for her to read, so memorizing that much is a huge challenge.  Jill and I encouraged her, told her she could use her Kindle, which reads to her.  We told her that we would help her and give her some tips on memorizing.  She began to get excited.  She began to believe  that she could do it.  She was on her way.  She also refused to use her Kindle because no one else was using one.

Today Sophie completed the task!  She not only memorized the book of Titus, but she also beat everyone, including me.  Sophie is beaming, knowing she overcame a huge obstacle to accomplish this task.  She is ready to move on to the next book.  An appetite has been created, and we intend to feed it!

I tell you this story not to brag about my daughter, but to encourage everyone in two things.  First, if you are looking at a seemingly insurmountable task, push on.  Sophie gave up before she even started this task.  After a little encouragement and the promise of a little help, she gave it a shot.  She found some success early and discovered that she was capable of doing something she was sure that she could not.  But she overcame!

Second, I tell you this story so that you too can be encouraged to memorize God’s word.  We don’t do this just for the sake of memorization, we do it to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:2)  and so that we hide God’s word in our hear that we might not sin against Him (Psalm 119:11).  I hear people all the time tell me that they can’t memorize.  People tell me that their mind just can’t do what it used to do.  I say those are excuses and you are to be an overcomer!

January is “Sanctity of Life” month.  Focus on the family has an entire month of testimonies and messages that are inspiring and healing.  This month they are airing the Fortune Family’s testimony of finding forgiveness after having an abortion.  The testimony is 28 minutes long on Focus on the Family’s website.  Although it is airing live on the 26th via radio broadcast, you can listen online any day or any time.  Click the link below to hear words of great encouragement.  Please pass it along to anyone you know who has struggled with this in their past, you will be giving them a precious gift.

Fortune Family Testimony

Because there are days when it seems extra necessary to get your daily dose of antioxidants through the two most beloved foods…. chocolate and berries.

Dark Chocolate Mini Cakes (makes 18)

1)   Mix together:

1 box brownie mix (19oz)

2 eggs

2 sticks melted butter

1/3 cup very hot water

3 TBSP instant coffee (or use 1/3 c very strong brew coffee- HOT)

2)   Bake in lined muffin tin at 350 for 10 minutes.  Makes 18 mini cakes if filled a little past half way.

They will be slightly soft in the middle.  Once cooled, this makes for a semi-molten center.

DARK CHOCOLATE ICING

3)   Mix together with electric mixer:

1/2 stick butter, melted

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp vanilla

enough powdered sugar to make a thick icing that will hold it’s shape.

4)   Place in icing bag with wide tip (or ziplock sandwich bag and cut small corner off). Squeeze out icing in a spiral(like a snake) ending in the center.  

5)   TOP with raspberries stuffed with chocolate chips (stick one or two chocolate chips in the hole of the raspberry).  

We can remember all the thoughts that would rush to our minds when we thought of Christmas each year.  Traditions, cookies, family, more cookies, stockings on the mantle, carols, candles being passed at Christmas Eve services, etc.  All those things are still wonderful and we love them, but God saw fit to change our perspective over the years.

Christmas 1999- That fall God gave us Jacob, our first baby, and that Christmas on of Jill’s Grandfathers died.  That Christmas we were all sitting around the room with thoughts of loosing Tom, yet holding new life. Families were changing. THAT Christmas God began to show us that all life is much more precious than we had ever known.

Christmas 2001- Now with two beautiful children, this year God called us to begin the process of adoption with Project Star in Pittsburgh, PA. THAT Christmas we began to think beyond ourselves and take seriously God’s call to care for orphans.

Christmas 2002- God had just given us twins through adoption in August, but He saw fit to multiply that blessing the very week of Christmas (Dec 20) that we might bring home Joel as well.  THAT Christmas our hearts went beyond caring for orphans, to being BROKEN hearted for those left behind by the world.

Christmas 2003- we received our adoption court date for the finalization of adopting all three boys at once! January 8th we stood before the visiting Juvenile Detention Judge as he spoke on and on and on about what he saw God doing through the lives of our little ones. Oh how grateful he was to see children NOT get left behind and end up knowing him in a different way.  He blessed us greatly by openly sharing his heart. THAT Christmas we began to see that EVERYTHING you do matters to even people you might never think. THAT Christmas we really saw that God’s plans are WAY bigger than ours!

Christmas 2006- On Christmas eve we received a call about a little girl born in Montana who, as our case worker put it, “was a Martin”.  The day after Christmas we scheduled plane tickets, emailed and faxed papers. In March she came home.  We named her “Beautiful Oath to God” because THAT Christmas God reminded us of what He had taught us years before and what He had asked us to do with our family and lives.

Christmas 2008- We went into Christmas anticipating to joyfully celebrate our new daughter, Sarah, which we did do, but God had additional plans. That advent we almost lost Sam to lung failure. On breathing tubes and lots of medications to keep his life going, we struggled weekly, daily. Would we even have him for Christmas? The week before Christmas they tried to remove the breathing tube to see if his lungs could make it, they could not.  We watched face to face as our son fought for life, turning blue and gasping, doctors rushing to open his airways once again.  The tube was back in, and we made plans to learn about having a trach placed in his neck to breath.  MIRACULOUSLY we brought Sam home on Christmas Eve in almost perfect health.  THAT Christmas God showed us that HIS plans are bigger than doctors and the importance of knowing that God is THE Creator and Sustainer of life at all moments. And it would be 3 years later we would see one of the great reasons why Sam needed to be in that place at that time…but that’s 2011.

Christmas 2009- We now had TWO beautiful daughters to celebrate, Sarah AND Joanna. Completely surprised by God that year when our case worker called to say “We have a Martin again!”  We also began homeschooling all of our children that year before.  THAT Christmas God gave us new perspective on family, loving your children for who God made them to be (no matter how hard that is some days), and what it really means to go the second mile and give of yourself to the children God has blessed you with.

Christmas 2010- Heading into Christmas with great joy and anticipation for the soon coming birth of our daughter Jocelyn, we were about to really learn what God had been teaching us all year.  For months God had been challenging our belief in His COMPLETE SOVERIEGNTY over all of life. So much that Sean had planned to study God’s Soveriegnty for the first three months of the year with the whole church.  When Jocelyn went home to glory on her birthday, we knew within moments that THIS was a whole new level of trusting God’s soveriegnty in our lives. THAT Christmas we learned that God’s plans are beyond our feeble minds and plans and are much, much greater than all we could ask or imagine. THAT Christmas we learned that you do not have to be immensely learned to be an amazing missionary. That weighing in at a mighty 5lb 3oz, Jocelyn was quickly becoming the littlest, yet mightiest, missionary we had ever known. How humbling.

Christmas 2011- A full year of “AHHHHHH so that’s one of the reasons God did that” kind of years.  Every time we turned around God was showing us how HE was using past challenges, struggles, hurts, and more ALL for HIS glory that would go much farther beyond our own little lives. Sean was asked by the head brain surgeon at the Children’s hospital to be on the hospital’s Ethics Committee. WOW how humbling. That God would use Sam being in the hospital years before in this way. Added on the many follow up visits for Sam and other regular appointments for our other kids with medical needs, and in God’s mathematical equation that equals “opportunity to teach God’s truth for God’s glory”.  THIS Christmas we got defend the “quality of life” argument that lies with in hospitals every day and influence the top surgeons at the Children’s Hospital. THIS Christmas we had couples come to us for help with past sin in their life, and they were led to us because of the way God used Jocelyn in our life. THIS Christmas we have seen a whole year behind us, proving to us, that God used to show us that the salvation of souls and bringing people to “get right with God” is of UTMOST importance beyond anything else on our calendars.

THIS year and all the other Christmas Seasons before it God gave us an amazing gift.

PERSPECTIVE

We still LOVE cookies, pie, carols, and stockings hung just so……but now our memory floods with different traditions.  The traditions that God set in our lives of using Christmas Season to give us PERSPECTIVE on so much more than we could ever ask or imagine.

Now THAT’S a great Christmas gift.

Thank you God for giving us new memories.

Every year it is our family’s tradition to set goals for the upcoming year.  We sit down as a family, with a big pile of cinnamon rolls, a large tablet of paper, markers, and the day before us.  It is a wonderful tradition that we have built in our marriage and now our family.  We highly recommend it to you!!!

First, look over the past year as see what you are grateful for and WHY you are grateful for them.  THIS helps you prioritize ideas for the year to come.

Second, have everyone brainstorm dreams, visions, and plans they have for the year to come.  THey can be big or small, short term or long.  Just get them all down.  From reading that book you’ve intended or planning time to spend with friends- put it on the list.

Third, make some categories to organize your ideas.  We have categories for personal vs family, fellowship and ministry opportunities, educational goals and spiritual goals.

Fourth, we pray about everything on the list. Then, talk about it some more.  Are the goals realistic? Are they in line with our family’s vision for itself? Are the inline with God’s word?

Last, we set practical (daily or monthly) goals that help us accomplish these year long goals. We get the calendar and see what we can plot out, what needs to stay the same, and what needs to go.

We encourage you to involve you WHOLE family!  Everyone can be a part.  We’ve had little ones share GREAT ideas.  For example, one year we were talking about spending more time with people and one of our little ones said, “Lets have them over for a pizza party!”  That was a GREAT and TANGIBLE way for a little person to contribute to our bigger family vision of “Fellowship with other families”.

Each time we study a character quality with our Wisdom Books, we try to apply it to as many areas of our lives as possible. When our family studied the character quality of Responsibility, this monthly planner was “born”.  Feel free to print it out and use it how ever you see fit. In the little “scroll” on it we usually print scripture we are memorizing & in the “star burst” we put the character quality(s) we want to focus on.

Here it is:  calender  May this bless you as you plan out your year in 2012!

“A Vision without plans makes a visionary. 

Plans without a vision makes drudgery.

A vision WITH a plan makes a missionary!”

In addition, we have planners and journal pages to go along side the Wisdom Books listed to the right under “Recommended Resources”.  May these bless you as you plan out educating your children.

In gratitude for all GOd has blessed us with

The Martin Family

While we were at the Marriage Conference, Sean’s cell phone starting buzzing like mad!  What is going on he said (he was trying not to answer it and let it go) but it just kept buzzing.  Finally, he turned it on to see who was calling. TONS of people, all saying “Don’t come home!  There is no power, big storm, stay put!”

This was a big storm that droped 16″ of VERY WET snow all over the state of CT.  Now, 16″ is not abnormal, but 16″ of wet snow in October is a different story.  The trees still had leaves, the earth was soggy from fall rain. So as the snow piled on, the trees went DOWN. Whole trees, huge limbs, everywhere.  It truly looked like a tornado hit our state.

Workers from multiple states were here for days on end, serving our local families to regain power.  So many of people in CT on our well water, which is powered by an ELECTRIC pump.  So they were not only without power, heat, etc.  But they were without water. Our town was out for an average of 10 days. Some longer.

Needless to say, we didn’t come home.  There we stood in the parking lot of the conference center….hmmmmmm Lord, what do you want us to do with our time?  THERE WAS THE WHIDDON’S VAN RIGHT NEXT TO US……the kids were making plans before we could blink!  Hold, let the Dads talk it out! Well, it didn’t take long and we were on our way to the Whiddon’s house. We had already talked about “some day” we have to have a visit….. I mean it’s right on the way!!! ha ha- it’s the TOTALLY OPPOSITE direction But that didn’t matter, why not?!  When else our we going to have this opportunity?  So on we drove….south…south…south…passing “boiled peanuts” signs, “peach signs” , “Pecan signs”…..all the way to south GA.

What WONDERFUL HOSPITALITY.  Without a ruffle of a feather, the whole Whiddon clan rearranged their bedrooms, their plans, their meals, everything to double the number of people in their home for days. THANK YOU WHIDDONS!!!!!!  We are so grateful the Lord gave us this opportunity to get to know you better.  What a joy.

Everyone had a blast, from farm animals, to cooking, to lengthly- indepth conversations about Biblical eldership, whatever it was, the time was equally edifying.

Trying on “Big Girl Cowgirl Boots”, reading stories, shooting BB guns, and digging in dirt……good ‘ol fun!

THANK YOU AGAIN WHIDDON FAMILY!!!!!