A Godly Marriage

I stumbled upon this video tonight and it really touched my heart. Often I find myself struggling with being rebellious towards my husband and this video was a blessing and I really think the Lord put this in my path for a reason. Please look below to link to it.

Also, please feel free to follow my family blog below. Sometimes I post on this blog a bit more.
Acker Family
I hope you are all doing wonderful and please message me any prayer requests and I pray that you pray for me and my road to being a virtuous woman. :)

Blessings!
-Melanie

Count Your Blessings....

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July. What a blessing it is to be in a country full of freedom. Today's blog is about the emotional day thatl led me here because I always feel better when I write things down or....nowadays...blog!
Today we went to visit my grandpa (my mom's dad) at the nursing home. He usually lives with my grandmother but due to some pretty rough health problems he is there for awhile. Grayson and Ella enjoyed seeing him and the nursing home he is at seems great. They had little glow sticks (for fireworks) and the elderly were singing along to a guest playing a guitar and they enjoyed hot dogs and root beer floats. Grandpa was overjoyed to see us but unfortunately some dementia is really stepping in which is causing a lot of confusion for him. My granny (my dad's mom) is also really dealing with this, as well. It really breaks my heart to see such important people in your life not too sure about who you are. In my grad school classes for counseling, we studied some mental health diseases in the elderly. Book wise and in my head, I understand it but when it's family members you love and that you have so many memories with, it's difficult. Well, being at the nursing home already had me emotional over my Grandpa and then thinking about my Granny, too, but then as I sat there watching the other residents of the nursing home, I teared up. So many people forget about the older population....about what they have been through, who they were and still are, and what they have lived. Many of them gazed at Grayson and Ella....I think for two reasons. One, they are just too darn cute (haha)...and two, they were probably thinking about when they were my age and had their little ones, probably reminiscing when they had all of their family and their home. Then, it made me realize that I need to count my blessings.....Joey and I are blessed by the Lord with a wonderful time in our lives. We are starting out and raising our precious family and these are times they we can never get back. It also made me realize how important it is to spend time with the elderly and not take grandparents for granted. I am just so thankful to God for putting this on my heart today and really opening my eyes. Please keep my Grandpa and Granny in your prayers and kiss your babies, husband, wife, mom, dad, or whoever is next to you and just be thankful for this time in your life~

Sweet Granny Clark-please keep her in your prayers! :) Isn't she too cute?

Grandpa Fabon-please also pray for his health!

I thank the Lord for tomorrow!

Tomorrow, June 24th is two special occasions all rolled into one! Tomorrow I have oodles to do with a haircut, shopping, taking our little guy to see Cars 2, preparing for Ella's party, and our anniversary date so I decided I will go ahead and blog this today!
Before I start, aren't you amazed at how frequently I have been blogging? I am...haha! Gotta' love summer break!

Five years ago, God blessed me with the most wonderful man. The Lord surpassed my prayers when I met Joey. He is everything I could have asked for and much more. Here are some things I just love about my husband....



-He is a man of God. He loves the Lord and devotes himself to being a Godly man and leader of our family.
- He is the best daddy to our two kiddos. He wakes up with them, gives them their bath, plays on the floor with them, comes to their rescue when they are upset, and leads them in the way of the Lord.
-He treats me like a lady and treasures me. He worries about me going places or if I feel sick. He takes care of me and always makes me feel special.

-He still tells me that he thinks I am beautiful. (after two kids, sometimes I need to hear that)
-We have fun together!
-I can always trust him and he is always there for me.

-He is such a gentleman and too darn CUTE!


So, Joey, here is to many more happy years to come with our family and maybe more babies (depending on what God thinks) and lots of love with each other and with the Lord! (oh and thanks to Joey's parents for raising such a wonderful son)! :)

Now for a HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY to our sweet Ella Grace. It does not seem like it can even be possible that she is already one. Time really does fly by. When we had Grayson, we thought that we could never love another child as much as we love him and then we had Ella and now know that you really can love two kiddos sooo much!
Ella is what we call our little fireball. She is very sassy but has a whole lot of sweetness to her. She is what we call our Scottish princess because she has reddish hair and big blue eyes.....and here I am half asian! Ella is a blessing to our lives and does a great job as a little sister to Grayson. She plays with him and gives him hugs and has also tackled driving him crazy! We look forward to all the future memories that are in store with our sweet family and thank God for our sweet little girl!

10lbs 5 oz

My Number One Ministry and Pudding Paint

I have always wanted to do mission work. I would love to go to Africa or a third world country to spread the gospel and humbly serve others. It has been on my heart for many years. Yet, I was reading Proverbs 31 where it discusses a woman's role, specifically a wife and a mother's role. God has truly touched my heart through this verse. My number one ministry is my husband and my children. Of course, I should still share my faith and spread the gospel but my first focus should be making sure I am a Godly wife by supporting my husband and a Godly mother by raising our children with God's word and the characteristics of being humble with servant's heart. I am just so thankful for God's word and the way the Holy Spirit convicts me when reading it. Praise the Lord! My husband and I hope to one day be able to home school our children, so prayers in that would be greatly appreciated. We are both elementary teachers right now and have the wonderful opportunity to be home with the kiddos in the summer, so that is really nice.

Today, Grayson (my 3 year old) seemed bored. We had made an earlier trip to the library and for pizza but he was wound up in the house. We didn't want him out because his asthma and the Texas 105 degree heat would be a yucky mix so I thought it would be fun to make pudding paint.

All you need is one box of vanilla pudding. Make according to the box. Then I got a couple of small glass bowls and poured pudding in each. I added food coloring to make the desired colors and I let the little rascals fingerpaint and lick their fingers. They L-O-V-E-D it!!! They were literally squealing as they painted and ate it. My almost one year old, Ella, did more eating than painting but it was a fun, cheap activity that they really enjoyed!
 What are some cheap things you do with your kids???

She ate most of her pudding paint!

After they were done painting, we crushed some fruity Cheerios and added them in for an after-painting dessert!

My first blog award!

I received my first blog award from Rachelle at Pink Ministries. So a big hug and thanks out to her! I am really trying to build my blog, followers, and blogs to follow...so it is so exciting!

How It Works:

-Thank the person who gave you the award by linking

back to them in your post.
-Tell us 7 things about yourself.
-Award 15 or 16 recently discovered bloggers (I don't know anyone yet but will be on the lookout to add more blogs)!

-Contact those bloggers and let them in on the

exciting news!

1. I love the Lord with all of my heart and enjoy blogging my struggles, convictions, and praises! I am a sinner who is saved by grace alone and am amazed at how by repenting from my sins and trusting in the Lord, he can wash away my sins!

2. I am a wife to the most amazing man who is pretty cute! We have been married for five years this Friday and he is a wonderful leader for our family who leads us closer to the Lord.

3. I am a mommy of two. Grayson is three and Ella will turn one this Saturday. I love being a mommy and thank the Lord for blessing us with these two sweethearts!

4. I am a teacher and have been a counselor. I have a bachelor's in education and a master's in counseling. I love both and am happy doing either! :) Oh and I am also half Filipino~

5. I love Starbucks. I enjoy their drinks and their atmosphere. That's where I spent a lot of time when my husband and I first met! You know how spinach is for Popeye? Well, that is how Starbucks is for me...haha!

6. I enjoy shopping.....I love accessories, shoes, dresses.....just shopping in general!

7. I love sushi and I love baking for family and friends. Okay, that was a strange mix!

A Virtuous Woman?

So my sister let me borrow a book called For Married Women Only.....it is by Tony Evans. I was a bit skeptical as I read it at first but as I read it I became more and more convicted that I have not been a submissive, Godly wife. The book discusses how women should be submissive to their husbands and how when a wife is not respecting and honoring their husband, they are not respecting and honoring God. That broke my heart and scared me because I have not at all been doing what I should or could. Joey has done an amazing job leading our family and I as I read the book, I felt like I have failed him. The book in no way condemned women or the fact that they have choices and a mind but it brought God's word to light in the matter and that's ALL I needed to hear. I am a person who has my own thoughts, ideas, and opinions. Thank the Lord I am married to a wonderful man who values those and gives me freedom to enjoy things independently, at times. Reading the book made me thankful for having Joey but God really used it to convict me of how I have been....stubborn, defiant, need I go on??? :( I really wanted to ask for prayer and also most importantly to pray for the Godly women who are submissive to husbands that are not saved and who may not be doing their job of leading their family. It also discussed how a woman should still be submissive to her husband even if he is not being favorable and I think those ladies need prayer for being obedient to God's word and prayer for their husbands. I also found a site tonight that is a pretty cool resource for being a virtuous woman.
http://avirtuouswoman.org/

Enjoy and please pray for these ladies and also for Christians persecuted around the world. God Bless!

Love, Mel

Voice of the Martyrs

Today I would like to share an organization that God has really put on my heart. It is called Voice of the Martyrs and it is an organization that reaches the persecuted Christians around the world. It is an ever humbling organization that makes you really think of what it means to take up the cross even if it means losing everything.

It has not only given me a heart to help others and to be a servant but it has truly humbled me and convicted me. There are days that I pray and read some verses on my iphone or browse my bible. But, as ashamed as I am of saying this, there are few times where I read in an in depth matter. My goal is to read as much as possible this summer and to start reading a chapter a day...now.

Many times we take our bibles for granted. Yet, being in His word is the most important thing we can do and unfortunately there are people in other countries that long for God's word in their language or have to keep their bibles in secret in fear of being harmed for it.

So I would just love if whoever is reading this to take some time out and visit: http://www.persecution.com/
Please keep these individuals and families in your prayers. Glory to God!

God Bless.
Love, Melanie