We have a little secret..

Numbers 6:24-26 The Lord bless you and keep you;

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the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;

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the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

We have a little secret that has been on our hearts to share with all you!

Back in February, my husband and I made the choice to turn in my notice at my job of five years as food service director at my church.  I was plenty busy with my home business, None of Your Beeswax, LLC...plus all that mom life holds!  We had no idea where that choice would lead...

A few weeks later, I went to the Florida Herbal Conference...

I finished my season at work, literally the next week "social distancing" was implemented and life came crashing down in many ways for our family....all our favorite destinations closed, my business skyrocketed....what we knew as life suddenly and drastically changed...

But in the middle of that...one thing changed for the better...

In all the changes of leaving work, before COVID-19 was on everyone's lips...

A new life was started...

I miraculously got pregnant...

Don't feel bad...I didn't even tell Daniel for almost two weeks...

Then social distancing started a few days after my last day, and then lockdown shortly thereafter...I didn't see anyone...no one saw me....very easy to hide my growing baby belly/COVID chunk <3

But we had some rocky moments - I had bleeding around 9/10 weeks that scared me half to death...

And as time went on, more of the grief and trauma from Laban's death sorta hit me...so I wanted to wait till we had an ultrasound showing a live, healthy, on target baby...

And we do <3

I'll be 20 weeks on Sunday and we seriously couldn't be happier.  My kids are super cute and super goofy - enjoy!  (Samuel is 6.5 and Emilia is 3.5 and they are VERY close as far as siblings go!)
Here's some pictures of me and the kids we took at the local botanical gardens...it was 86% humidity and zero breeze...lol...there's definitely an attitude of sweat in many photos...


Here's when I told Emilia that I will be having a baby...don't worry, she gets happier later that day:

And here's today's garden photos:

Their shirts say: Big Brother Again and Conquered: Little Sister Status Next Voyage: Big Sister Status and Now Embarking Big Sister

Trumplican Christians - yes, I'm calling you out.

This is not to talk to the Christians who say, "I like Trump I guess, he is good enough...Clinton would have been a worse choice"...This is talking to the Christians, who - hook-line-and-sinker, adore the man.  Yes, there's a lot of you - many of whom are friends and family that I respect and love.  You justify his every action, you say he is "kind of a jerk, but that's okay, he is getting the job done!"  Literally, the man can do no actual wrong in your eyes - and it's okay....I'm talking to you.

Disclaimer: because I feel as though I will be personally attacked, please get one thing straight: I do not expect perfect Christianity.  I am FAR from perfect in all areas of my life, I wouldn't want to be president, and I don't think I could "do better", etc.  This isn't about me, this isn't about you, this is about examining the Bible and the undying support of the evangelical community for a man who is far from ideal.

God gave us the Bible - you believe it right?  He gave us MANY lists of what to look for in leaders, as well as many examples of good leaders.
Deuteronomy 17:14-20 has a list about what to look for in a king, obviously, some are not applicable...but bear with me.

1) Not a foreigner (Israelite - both in genetics and religion)

2) Not acquire lots of horses - or return to Egypt to get them. (Building up a great military?)

3) Must not take many wives

4) Must not accumulate lots of wealth - silver and gold.

5) Reads the Law(Bible) regularly so as to carefully follow God's ways and not manipulate them.

6) Must not consider himself better than his fellow people - humility.

For 1) - He isn't a Christian, doesn't attend any church regularly, or do anything resembling Christian behavior.  One of the key parts of becoming a Christian is asking God for forgiveness - Trump claims he has not.  The woman that "led Trump to Christ" - Paula White - is a known heretic among conservative Christian communities.  Please take a moment to pause and think about your faith in Trump's faith...  Another key passage(Galatians 5) to keep in mind, is the Fruit of the Spirit - "is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;"  And prior to that specific verse is the Works of the Flesh passage - "sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these."  Please tell me, Devoted One, which of these two descriptions suits him?  Please.  Look into yourself and into his actual actions - forget all the anti-mainstream, Clinton/Obama hatred...and actually read his Twitter, watch how he treats people in press conferences, watch what he has bragged about and his ACTIONS...and tell me, which profile does he fit?  The fruit or the works?

 2) Building up military - Trump has spent more on the military than any president before him.  And if you want to say "buht ma guns!" As a Christian, you should know full well that our safety rests in Christ alone 
Ps 27:1 - "The Lord is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?"
and the Bible says "do not fear" roughly 365 times...

3) One wife - this is such a tough one - Trump has had 3 wives and multiple affairs, bragged about "grabbing pu$$y", and a variety of other foul, sexually illicit issues.  Please do not think for a moment, that a man who cannot be faithful to a wife, will suddenly be faithful to the American people, the Constitution, or any other of his exploits...This was a struggle of King David and King Solomon and was ultimately their undoing and the downfall of their country!

4) Silver and Gold - He's a billionaire.  I think that says enough about his wealth accumulation.  He is not "one of us" and has zero grasp on reality for the average person, also grew up as the son of a millionaire who commited tax fraud for him, and D. Trump used kids cancer money for his children...and he misused campaign money to pay business debts...You said you wanted a business man...you got one.

5)  To our knowledge, there is no record of Trump reading the Bible, cannot quote a Bible verse, and in his recent photo op outside St. John's, he was asked if he was holding his Bible, he said it is "A Bible"...  If we go by the most limited view of God's laws - the 10 Commandments, let's see how he compares:
  A. No other gods  - we know God is not his God...who is?  probably himself? or the many dictators he has praised.
 
  B. Shall not make idols...this isn't super culturally appropriate, but I'd say few things he values more than Trump Tower...
 
C. Shall not take the Lord's name in vain - He has done it casually with political leaders, I'm sure it wasn't the first time...

  D. Keep the Sabbath Holy - We already discussed he doesn't go to church or live a Christian lifestyle...

  E. Honor parents - We know he thought highly of his father, but he has almost nothing to say about his mother.

  F. Shall not murder - Obviously, there's no way to know if he has or hasn't murdered anyone...but under his presidency, his civilian casualties are extremely high...and has not stopped Roe V. Wade as he promised he would do...He hasn't stopped any kind of funding to Planned Parenthood either, as he has said in his speeches, but continues to sign budgets fully funding them.
 G. Shall not commit adultery (see point 3) above)
  H. Shall not steal (see point 4) above)
  I. Shall not bear false witness against a neighbor - Even as recently this week, he bore false witness against General Mattis...

He loves people one minute, and hates them the next...Early in his administration, he even claimed that you needed ID to buy groceries, Sarah Sanders stood by that lie in front of the nation in a press conference as well....Something you and I do, every week or more, evidently, we've done it wrong all this time, never needing ID to do it...he also claimed he would share his taxes if he got elected, and has yet to do so 3.5 years later, and says they are too complicated for us to understand...
 
J. Shall not covet - you do your own research here...it is extremely clear to me that he is materialistic in nature, as well as self-serving....coveting is a matter of the heart-and we do not know his heart, but it isn't a stretch to assume it is a part of his nature - as it is of everyone's...I know it is something I struggle to keep in check.  

Pvbs 16:18 "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."

6) and this is my biggest qualm...humility.  He is far from humble.  He praises himself left and right for literally everything from handling the corona virus perfectly, to being a smarter than everyone, to knowing more about ISIS than the generals (while having never served in the military ever)...and the list goes on and on of his MANY areas he simply is more, better, smarter than everyone else...

As an aside, there are other areas Christians should be taking care of things, specifically the environment.  Here's dozens of Bible verses pointing to the FACT we should be taking care of the environment.  We obviously cannot do this to perfection...as I type this on my plastic computer using my fluorescent lighting in my kitchen...but we can certainly make strides.  Here's a few instances where Trump has literally lessened major pollution/environmental restrictions through his policy.
-He picked an ex-coal lobbyist to be head of the EPA.
-Everything from the keystone pipeline to oil drilling to his selection of people in high places.
-He lifted VERY important restrictions on commercial fishing in New England.
-Even if you agree with GMO's, I think we all agree they should stay out of state wildlife refuges, except Trump does not.
-5g is hotly debated around the world at the moment - I stand in the category of "probably needs more testing before the entire nation gets involuntarily tested"...Trump protected 5g.
-Allows for more water pollution
100 ways he is rolling back environmental protections
and I'm sure you are capable of finding plenty more areas where he is not protecting our land or ultimately our health.  Yes, yes I know many countries have worse policies...should we not lead by example?  Should we just not even bother, cause India/China is worse?  The Bible commands us to be better than that.
All this to say...what's the point Becca?  He is already in office and I cannot in good conscience vote for Biden...
Perhaps take off the rose colored glasses and start looking at him a bit more objectively.   Do more research past Rush and Glen...Maybe talk to your friends that don't hold him in such high accord...
Consider voting third party even though they "have no chance at winning".  Jo Jorgensen is the Libertarian candidate...I think back to when David cut Saul's robe - he could have killed him and basically saved his own life.  Instead, he did the right thing - he left the killing to the Lord, and knew he would suffer those consequences.  I want to do the right thing, even if the consequences are less than ideal...this is part of my faith that God is going to work it out...I think both top runners are senile dinosaurs with major issues and non-viable choices...and I think if the evangelicals would actually stand for the right thing, we'd see big changes in our government and our country.

Start being honest, Christian.  God told us what to look for, how to have faith...let's start doing that...

Becca




 

"You're making a difference!"

"You're making a difference!  Please don't ever stop doing this!" she earnestly said as she walked to her car under the street light...

I stood there, on my side walk, and replied, "Well, I have to now ;)" ...the crickets chirped, she pulled out of the driveway to head home...

You see, I run a small business out of my home.  I have been doing this since 2014 -  I have learned a LOT over the years, especially the last year...but one thing rang true...this is my calling. 

I have been a chef at my church - their food service director - for nearly 5 years.  In the last several months, my home business - that has been steadily growing for years now - has grown exponentially in the last few months.  I work before sun up to long after sundown - cooking food at the church, or brewing/prepping elderberry.  it's been such a big blessing - my kids got their many kinds of checkups, groceries, fun trips, we got a small vacation, etc...all because of my little home business. 

Feeling tugged in two directions for some time now, it became evident I needed to pick a path.....I couldn't continue to walk two paths in an evermore uncomfortable straddle...Something was going to break...my mental or physical state most likely....

Which leads me to where I am now...After Spring Break, my five year anniversary, March 18 - First Baptist Church will have a new food service director, and I'll be officially my own boss - completely self employed.  I'll still try to be around WNS as much as I can be, Lord willing.  But my current schedule as it is right now is completely unmanageable for me. 

I have loved my job there...By God's grace, I took Wednesday Night Suppers that were barely over 100 people, and made them into a huge event: over 350 people on a regular basis.  They include a full amazing salad bar, 6 homemade delicious dressings, and my guests know they can count on a from-scratch dinner with all the fixings...and not leave hungry.  It has broadened and stretched me as a person, my skills as a chef have grown tremendously...it's been a privilege to work there and be their chef.  I've loved almost every minute of it...but something has to give...

I need to condense my life a lot...like, a LOT...those of you who know me more intimately know how stressed and overwhelmed I've been lately...Every minute is booked in my week...so I've opened up a few minutes now.  I'm trying not to fill them immediately :P  I purchased a berry press for my business, as well as a new fridge...trying to make life a little more fun and a little less constant work. 

Please pray for me as I transition out of WNS and for their new chef, whomever that may be.  Pray for my home business that is continues to thrive and I can hire on someone to help me a day or two a week.  Pray for my family as we all adjust to new roles and identity shifts...Pray that if it be prudent, we are able to get a location for a small herbal shop or a house that better suits our needs...I'm quickly outgrowing out cute little home and desperately need more space to store supplies, herbs, etc. 

I know I need to keep doing this...I know it is making a difference, and I'm not going to stop.  I'm fully embracing all that it is, and going to pursue becoming a professional herbalist. It'll take me years, no doubt...but it's coming for me, like it or not.  I covet all of your prayers and happy thoughts

To my WNS guests - thank you for filling a place in my heart I didn't know was empty...truly a blessing, each one of you...

To my None of Your Beeswax clients - thank you for sticking through with every little bump in the road, and the bumps to come...you guys are awesome and encourage me daily and what an honor to be included in your family in this way.  Thank YOU!

Onward to new adventures,
Becca H.