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The Importance of the Lost Art of Sacrificial Giving
Is sacrificial giving something that weighs on your heart like it does mine? I find myself torn because so many causes seem worthwhile, but giving sacrificially is so much more than just donating. It’s having the right heart in the process. Sacrificial giving is a lost art in our culture built on abundance and wealth. Too often, we’ll give out of the overflow of our closets rather than the overflow of our hearts. Or we pay all our bills and then see what’s left for the Lord and charity. Or give away items we’ve loved just a bit too long. (Heaven not Harvard is as a participant in affiliate programs…
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Free Yourself from all the Christmas Expectations this Year
Do you need to free yourself from all the Christmas expectations this year? Are you starting to feel like December slides into January in a miserable haze of rushing around and the “not enough” voices echoing in your head? Where does all this pressure come from? Often times, we invite it in! We scan Pinterest for ideas, but end up feeling like our homes are less than. We watch holiday movies with perfect homes and magical decor. And we compare with our friends and family, especially over social media. We end up feeling driven to create the perfect, spectacularly magical Christmas, and bind ourselves to unreasonable Christmas expectations. (Heaven not…
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My Cyber Monday Gift Guide
Cyber Monday is here! This is MY shopping day! You can keep Black Friday and all the bickering crowds and busyness. I want to shop from my couch in my jammies and have Christmas delivered to my house! Whether you’re a homeschooler, grandparent, spouse, or just want a few things for yourself, this list covers it all. (Heaven not Harvard is as a participant in affiliate programs including the Amazon Associates Program. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.) Some of these are not my referral links but are great deals that I have found for my own shopping use today! Mindware is one of my favorite shops for…
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Ways You Can Support a Family with a Premature Baby
I wasn’t prepared for a premature baby when my daughter was born 6 weeks early. Since we were adopting, some of the normal concerns of pregnancy just weren’t on my radar. And because we were matched so late into the pregnancy, we’d only had a few weeks to prepare at all before being thrust into parenthood with the emergency of premature birth. Today, November 17 is National Prematurity Day. According to WHO, each year more than 15 million babies are born prematurely, that’s more than one in ten. And these numbers are increasing! Chances are someone you know will have a premature baby. They will need help & might not…
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How God Can Use Suffering to Transform your Marriage
Transform your marriage through suffering? That doesn’t sound like the romantic vision of marriage most of us have when we walk down the aisle. But sometimes, God’s plan for your life is so much better, even when it involves suffering in order to transform your marriage. My marriage didn’t turn out to be the perfect romance I expected. I’ll admit, after my proposal, I had pretty high expectations! But, my marriage definitely didn’t fit the Hallmark movie ideal. At least, not at first. God used some hard things to take us from the brink of disaster to happily celebrating our 11th anniversary! (And two years more since I originally wrote…
