I met Amanda when she was a teenager. About six families would meet on Friday nights and we would play sports, eat and fellowship together. Her family came for a few months and I thought of Amanda as the shy, quiet, and beautiful girl. I had no clue what her family was actually going through. I hope you enjoy, Inspiring Women: Life With Amanda.

Inspiring Women: Life With Amanda

I am so excited to share a little of my life with you all, it is a privilege to share His story in my journey. And once you get to know me you’ll learn that the quiet moments in life are best enjoyed with a perfectly brewed cup of coffee, so grab a cuppa and join me!

A Little About Me

I didn’t begin in a Christian home, my mother came to Christ when I was four years old. She was sitting in the living room one night listening to Billy Graham after I had gone to bed. My dad was in the basement drinking. While the invitation played, Mom quietly prayed. “Lord, my life is a mess, but if you’ll take me, I’m yours.” He did, and some of my most treasured memories of my mom are how she would get on her knees when life got sticky and leave it in His hands. Her faith was so real, I just knew that whenever she spoke God was listening.

At 8 years of age, my parents decided to have more children. Within the next 6 years, 5 more kids joined our family. But during that time my dad lost his job and bitterness seemed to take root in his soul. We had many turbulent years, times we thought Dad had left for good. I came to question God’s existence, it seemed such a mockery to me.

By 13, I was a seething cauldron of resentment and bitterness.

I begged God to prove to me if He was real. A year later He answered, through Kent Hovind coming to a town nearby with his Creation Science seminar. I never doubted His reality again, but I strongly doubted His ability and willingness to save me. It became a torturous battle in my mind that would haunt me for the next 15 years of my life.

Despite it all, there was something that kept me safe during the turbulence.

I believe the “Fear of the Lord” preserved me, it also was the beginning of wisdom in my teen years. This is when I made a firm decision to stay pure. I gave up romance novels and replaced them with Godly books, preaching, and missionary stories. A copy of “Created to Be His Help Meet” by Debi Pearl transformed my thinking and prepared me for wifehood in a way that was life-changing.

I wrote a poem carefully outlining what I wanted in a future husband, learned to be wise with my money and to love my siblings. At 22, I believe God honoured the cry of my heart. I married the man who surpassed my dreams and showed me what true love and true manhood looks like.

We were blessed with a baby girl, and then a sweet baby boy, 17 months later. My health began to take nosedive. I began to struggle deeply with incredible fatigue and tired, achy muscles, horrible anxiety. My mind grew foggy, and I felt unwell most of the time. The joy in life was lost and groaned when I woke up to a new day of taking care of little ones.

I didn’t have the energy to be the mom I always dreamed that I would be and I knew something had to change.

This is when I began to take my health seriously and learn about nutritious eating and exercise. Some testing was done. I swallowed hard as the Doctor explained to me that my results were not good for someone so young and I had better get serious, and I did! Slowly it began to make a difference, and I had two more baby girls over the next few years. I knew I was still missing some puzzle pieces and I researched every chance I got. I wanted so badly to be present for my husband and my kids!

Finally one day a friend introduced me to some products she was taking, full of herbs, enzymes, pre-biotics, and probiotics. I was amazed by her story and decided to bring Plexus into my life. I got discouraged that I didn’t feel like a miracle overnight, and then along came another baby girl! But I stayed consistent. And finally 18 months later, I sat on the couch with tears running down my cheeks as I stared at my test results and saw how much progress I had made.

I realized my mind was so much stronger and I was no longer crashing as hard or as long. It was an unspeakable gift. And I had an incredible tool in my hands to offer to others! I also realized that the business offered through the company was amazing and could open up so many doors for our family in the future. Here I was not only waking in the morning excited to start my day, but I also had an even bigger purpose: to share hope with other exhausted mama friends.

*Check out Amanda’s Plexus site: HERE. If you have any questions email Amanda at plexusmomma4@gmail.com

A Typical Day

We live on a small hobby farm and since I now enjoy all things crunchy and organic, and raise as much of our own food as we have time for. Each season (and each baby!) changes the days a little, but during this end of summer stretch, mornings start fairly early with a hearty breakfast, thanks in part to our happy barnyard hens and ducks, and of course a hot cup of coffee fresh from my nifty little Aeropress!

Teamwork is important around here, so everyone works together after breakfast to clean up the house. Chore charts pinned on the walls make that easier, and extra jobs above and beyond the teamwork jobs can earn them “mombucks” – a currency that buys them a treasure out of the “mombucks box” or can be exchanged with real money at 10 to 1.

When the littlest one goes down for a mid-morning nap that is my chance to head out to barn and milk our little Dexter cow, Daisy. Having a Bible app that reads out loud makes this time extra productive!

Early afternoons are for quiet time, and this is my opportunity to work my Plexus business. It has become a real joy to me to deepen my relationships while helping others get healthier and wealthier!

In the nooks and crannies, I work on my goal of minimalism and dream up new ideas. I add more farmhouse touches to our home, plan for homeschooling and fun, and hands-on ways to teach my kids.  Finding healthy meals and treats that are nourishing and delicious, are enjoyable to me and also taking tons of pictures of my kids!

My Daily Struggles

My everyday struggle used to be not enjoying my days because I was such an anxious, exhausted mess, now I think my biggest struggle is trying to manage too much and forgetting that I am not superwoman!

Falling into this trap brings with it the temptation to become frustrated when the kiddos act up – instead of grabbing that golden opportunity to help them become stronger little people.

It has always been important to me to be proactive rather than reactive in my child training so realizing my impatience stops me short, knowing I was not the mama that day that they needed me to be.

I can lose the excitement of spending time with my husband because I simply packed too much in.

My quiet time gets set on the shelf, and I do not get the nourishment my soul needs!! When I find myself in this place I usually sit down with a cup of hot tea and a big piece of blank paper. This is so my thoughts can organize themselves and I can write out what I am prioritizing. It’s a process of saying no to things I really don’t need to be doing. But saying YES to the vitally important people and priorities in my life. I am slowly growing and getting a little better at this each time! It is always my goal to make the graph go upwards!

My Joys!

Ah, my joys! So many! Beautiful sunshine, most definitely my husband, garden dirt, bare feet, children’s laughter, coffee brewed at 200*, babies of any sort, friends, Jesus who is my lifeline, fresh cream, pioneer woman cookbooks, Christmas, flowers, good books, time spent together, shopping online, and German shepherd dogs!

Life brings me such joy, and I am grateful to LIVE it!

My Dreams

I am a dreamer. It’s what sets the everyday scenes of my life to music.

My husband kindly brings my feet to the ground and reminds me that I need to pick just a few dreams! Together we dream of moving to a piece of farmland where we could design and build our own home.

We would also love to travel with our children, maybe even in a six-door truck pulling a travel trailer that could be used the rest of the time to overnight missionaries and travelling friends whose stories our children could glean from!

I want to become a Diamond in my Plexus business. So that we can make a bigger difference for hurting people that come out of horrible circumstances. Like underground sex trafficking and fighting for the unborn. And I have little dreams, like one day owning a German Shepherd dog.

Our life is richer for our dreams. We work hard and pray and strive to be faithful stewards right now.

Moments With God

“Feelings come, and feelings go, and feelings are deceiving, my warrant is the Word of God, none else is worth believing.” A quote one of my dearest friends sent to me as a struggling teen and I clung to it fiercely.

A couple years ago I sat at the table of my friend Shoshanna. I shared my doubts and fears toward God. She grabbed a bottle of maple syrup and set it in the middle of the table. “See,” she said, “This maple syrup represents Christ. And this -“tracing her finger directly toward the bottle, “is you, when your thoughts are focused toward Him, who he is, what he has done for you. And this-“quickly stretching her hand away from the bottle, “is when you are focusing on your doubt. Focusing on fear, not believing what He says he can do. All those thoughts are taking you away from your goal, which is Christ. I want you to take those thoughts as soon as they come and begin THANKING Him for who he is, thanking him for his gift of salvation, thanking him for loving you.”

Tracing her hand back to the bottle as she spoke those words I felt truth blossom in my heart like a crocus in springtime. “It will take time, but there will be no more room for doubt when faith fills your heart.”I felt terrified to let go of the strangling rope I’d been clinging too, but for the first time, I UNDERSTOOD what faith really was!

 

That the choice to let go of my fear and choose Christ WAS faith!

Somehow I was so sure I had to keep wrestling until I got it all figured out. But He had already done that, he was waiting for me to say, ok, I’m letting go, I know that you will catch me.” And He has, it is not a perfect journey. I spent a lot of years ingraining doubt and fear into the deepest places of my heart. But my little mustard seed of faith is sprouting. In my little daily moments…listening to scripture while I milk the cow, words of thankfulness as I gaze at the wonder of creation, wise words from a godly friend, a book by one of my faith heroes…causes faith to take deeper root.

And I am so, so eternally grateful!

 

I hope you enjoyed, Inspiring Women: Life With Amanda. Would you like to read about another woman who’s fear was crippling her and keeping her from doing what God asked of her? Click HERE to read: Do One Thing Every day That Scares You.

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