Godly Woman: The 5 R's of Godly Womanhood Product Review Part 1

Welcome to Part one of a two part product review!  This review is for Eternal Encouragement's "Godly Woman: The 5r's of Godly Womanhood".  This set is 5 MP3's and 5 e-books for each of the "R's".

We are women.  God made us from Adam, who was created in His Image.  So as a woman we are to reflect the Image of God.  Not just when we leave the house to go somewhere, but at home in our every day activities.

As a woman we have many roles in life.  We are wife, mom, teacher, friend, daughter, & sister.  It can be quite hard to keep up with these roles.  We multi-task as much as we can but in the end, unless we have God first in our lives this proves to be an impossibility.  Of course we may make it several days, weeks or months without God, but then we crash and burn when we realize we simply can not do it all without His help.

In the 5 R's, Lorrie takes on the things that we need as women to help us thrive.  So what are the 5 R's?

#1 Refresh
#2 Rekindle
#3 Refine
#4 Rejuvinate
#5 Rest

When do you feel refreshed?  Is it after a long walk?  How about after reading scripture and doing your Bible study?  Does that leave you refreshed?  Well I tell you what.  After listening to and reading about being refreshed, it is definitely something I want to be more of!

In this first "R", Lorrie talks about putting God first in our lives every day.  When we first wake up.  I must say that I was convicted as this has been a very weak point in my every day life.  The tagline for this first "R" is very appropriate.  A Woman Who Kneels Before God Can Stand Before Anyone.  This is so true and can be applied to every aspect of our life!  Often I tend to rush through my morning activities and put aside my daily devotion time.  I make sure I do devotions with my kids so they get what they need, but neglect myself.  Well after listening/reading this, no more!  I need to take care of myself so I can take care of my family!  They deserve the best from me and by putting God first I can do that!

Lorrie gives such wonderful, yet simple ideas to help us feel refreshed.  You will think of BB's and M&M's completely differently now!  She even offers the suggestion of sharing your devotion time if your little one comes and finds you while you.  What a better way for your children to learn about the importance of time with God than to see it from you!

Psalm 119:11 (TNIV)

¹¹ I have hidden your word in my heart
   that I might not sin against you.

The next session was Rekindle.  Now what do you think you are supposed to work on Rekindling?  That's right!  Your marriage!  Lorrie was such an inspiration in the session on rekindling your marriage.  I loved the idea of treating your spouse the way you did before you got married.  :)  Flirting with your husband, taking the time to talk to him about things going on, having a date night, and many more ideas.

Today we see more than 50% of all marriages fail.  That is such a sad statistic!  I have been fortunate to see my parents marriage go 34 years and I can't wait to see the next 30 or more!  My husband and I just celebrated our 10 year anniversary.  And I will tell you, society has it wrong when they paint the picture of marriages being all blissful and happy, no problems.  Marriage requires both parties to give not just 50% like a lot of people think but 100% effort to make it work.

I know I plan on implementing several suggestions that Lorrie gave in this session.  It is so important to keep the flame kindled and to never let it go out.  It is our job to build up our house, our husband and our marriage.  The Bible makes this very clear in Proverbs 14:1 (as Lorrie talks about).  "The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down." (NIV)

It is very important that we take time for ourselves and our marriages.  Always keep God in the center and rekindle the flame!

If you've enjoyed what you've read here about these 2 sessions, you will love the other 3!  My review for them will be out in August.  The 5 R's of Godly Womanhood is a MUST have.  It's timing for me to review was impeccable and I am so glad I got to share my thoughts on the first 2 sessions with you.  This is a product that I would definitely buy myself if someone suggested it to me.

Feel free to stop by The Gabby Moms page to see the other reviews for this wonderful product.  Also, if you are interested in becoming a Gabby Mom there is exciting news!  They are accepting applications for the upcoming 2012 year!!  YAY!! So if you think this is something you would like to do, then click here.  An application will load for you to apply to the program.

I wanted to share about my time with the Gabby Moms.  I have read many books, listened to many audio files and never felt as refreshed and able to tackle my day as I have with Lorrie's books and audio's.  They are wonderful and you can tell how much she cares about what she is talking about.  She has a passion to help women as mothers, wives, and teachers.  These products have been such a blessing to me and I am so glad to have found the Gabby Moms group.

Disclaimer: I received The 5 R’s to Godly Womanhood as an official member of The Gabby Moms blogging program for Eternal Encouragement Magazine. I did not receive compensation for this post and all opinions are solely my own.

God is good... ALL the time!

The day started out good.  Good for a 5am wake-up to meet my sister and return my niece back to her.  I dropped my hubby off at work in downtown Pittsburgh and headed on my 4.5 hour drive to Beckley, WV.  I have driven this route numerous times.  We used it just 3 weeks prior to visit family in NC and TN (where I am from).  So it is a very familiar route.  I am familiar with the turns, hills, popping of the ears and even the occasional animal on the road.

The day was going well.  We had just had a "pit" stop and Starbucks break.  (something Mommy definitely needed with 4 kids in the car)  We were on 79 South and going up the mountains when I saw the deer.  It was close but i thought I could avoid it.  So I swerved to the right to miss it.  Being in the right lane already and it being in the left, I figured this was the best option.  Well the deer must have sensed my move and went back toward the mountain on the right.  I braked...HARD... I am not sure if I screamed or not.  The kids had no clue what was going on.  SMACK, THUD, dragging noise, and another bump.  I hit the deer.

I was able to safely pull over to the side of the road about 1/4 -1/2 mile up the road.  I started to cry.  I cried that I hit a deer and it was dead, I cried because it was the 2nd accident in 7 months with the van, I cried because we were all still alive.  When you hit a deer doing between 50-70mph (though I was slowing down from a cruise position of 72 before I saw the deer) you know there is a good chance of your car flipping.  I knew my odds in the van but I prayed as I knew I was going to hit the deer that He would keep my car with all 4 kids and myself safe.  He listened!  He is GOOD!

It took several minutes for me to calm down and actually call my husband.  My wonderful husband.  He is just the way I needed him to be.  God must have known I needed a man who would not yell or scream or belittle me for something like this.  Instead, he kept asking if I was ok, if the kids were ok.  He didn't care that the front end of the car was completely gone.  He cared about what was most important, our lives.  Again, God is Good!

Trying to figure out what to do when you are stuck in another state and involved in an accident is very chaotic.  I do not like chaos...  I like PLANS & Directions!  Surprises do not do well with me.  (you are reading about the girl who kept asking about when we were getting engaged...lucky he proposed at all!)  So to hit a deer and have that to deal with and not be able to meet my sister was totally throwing me for a loop.

Finally, decided to call AAA and our insurance people.  We wound up having AAA tow my car back to N.E. Allegheny County were our wonderful repair shop is located.  Now, imagine this.  Woman, 4 kids and a tow truck driver in an extended cab flatbed tow truck.  But know what, God is good!  The kids were fairly well behaved.  A game of slapsies in the back by the 2 4-year olds had to be interrupted by me twice. But we survived.

I am so thankful to have a wonderful Mother-in-law and gracious sister-in-law who cancelled their plans for the day to help me and the kids.  Without them it would have been an interesting 2-3 mile walk from the shop to my house...not something else I would have liked to do.

In church Sunday, I knew my heart was just heavy from everything.  The car and some other personal issues were just weighing on my heart.

Earlier in the week, I had watched Facing the Giants (great movie if you want my recommendation).  It had a theme of giving it ALL to God.  Not just the good, but the disappointments too.  Trusting Him no matter what.  Even when that means the answer is No.

Well I am a control freak (remember me asking when we were getting engaged...) So for me to give Him control is something that I am not really good at doing.  Well as I said up above, we were in church on Sunday and I knew that I just had to let go.  It is not in my power to do everything or fix everything or protect everyone.  I would like to, but that's not my job.  It is His.  So I gave it to God.  I chose to give up something I never really had...control.  It is an illusion when we think we have it.  Trust me.  I wasn't in control of the deer.  If I had been, that deer would have been on 79 North and not South!  But God was in control.  Who knows what other circumstance was waiting for me and the kids had we not had that accident.  God uses EVERYTHING to HIS purpose and HIS glory!

So on Tuesday we got a blessing in disguise.  Did you know that when you hit a deer it falls under comprehensive and not collision?  (make sure you have both on your car people)  Well our deductible for comp is less than collision!  Again, GOD IS GOOD!!!  I was already fretting about finances with the extra for the towing (we do have AAA plus which covered 100 of the 154ish miles) but the extra was still quite a bit.  God knew our need.  He always does.

So that is my God is Good story!  I hit a deer.  God kept my car on the ground.  He kept the deer under my car rather than in my windshield or even in my car! (have heard of these happening)  He kept my children, niece and myself safe!  The car is a material thing and can be replaced.  Human life can not!  God is good in His protection, provision and love ALL the time!