Loving Him on the Longstead

Welcome to the Longstead! We are so excited that you are here. At our house we believe in living for the Lord, loving our family and learning new things.

We are not experts, but we love to learn. We should never reach a point in our lives where we think we know it all. There is always something new to learn or a better way to do something that will make us that much better.

We want to share things we have learned and bring you along as we continue to learn and improve.

1. Living for God

The most important thing about us is that we love our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and we desire that all would come to know and love Him just as we do. In His Holy Word He tells us, “Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men.” Col. 3:23 and “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Cor. 10:31. Every day is a day full of opportunity to bring glory and praise to our Lord!

One of the greatest comforts in this life is that we do not belong to ourselves but belong body and soul to our Lord. Who paid our debt of sin on the cross and removed our guilt as far as the east is from the west. What joy we have! It is so sweet to be forgiven! It’s with that joy, that only He can give, that we work every day doing whatever tasks He has prepared for us to do. He is a good God, and all his ways are perfect. We must seek Him first like a servant reporting for duty to their Master. The day and all that it holds is His. How much nicer our days are when they are spent doing the Lord’s will and not our own.

2. Loving our Family

Now the greatest task He has charged us with is loving Him first and loving our neighbor as ourselves. Who is a closer neighbor than our family? We have four children whom we homeschool. So, we spend a lot of time together and we get lots of time to practice denying our selfishness and putting other’s needs before our own. We are most certainly not experts at that! In a culture that is constantly telling us to love ourselves and put ourselves first it’s hard to not fall into that, but our Lord has called us to a life of servanthood and not self-gratification.

Now I want to be clear, we are not saying you can never have a break! We are still human, and we were created for times of work and times of rest. Every day the sun rises, and the sun sets. Every day we work, then we sleep. Jesus spent time with the great crowds of people but would then seek a quiet place to rest. Now this “resting” was not a time of “self-care” but rather a time of prayer and communion with the Heavenly Father.

We can do nothing apart from Him. He is the source of all our strength and even our very breath. Jesus came and called us to enter His rest. Which is far more fulfilling than any self-care bubble bath. So, if you find yourself overwhelmed, over worked, or angry chances are it’s because you’ve gotten out of order and put yourself first rather than God.

So, take a break, return to Him and he will give you rest. When you are seeking Him first then you can have a better attitude toward the work that needs to be done that day.

3. Learning new Things

So, we have gotten things in order. We are resting in the Lord, loving Him first and loving those around us. Then what?

In Col. 3:23 and 1 Cor. 10:31 we see the phase “whatever you do”. What is the work we are to do? Answer, whatever. What do you like to do? In the Lord we have freedom. We can do whatever work we want to do. As long as we are not sinning against Him, we can do whatever seems best to us.

Zarick and I love working with our hands. We get a lot of satisfaction out of creating things and that tends to be the direction most of our activities take. We are not very skilled in many crafts, however, but we love to learn and improve in any and all crafts. It can be so humbling to try something new, but it is so exciting to accomplish and be able to say, “I did it!”

I hope you enjoy following us as we share what we are learning, and I hope you will be inspired to learn new things with us.