Gulland Family Update

Hey everyone! In an effort to simplify my life, I have not been posting on my blog. When I feel the need to share, I post on my Facebook page. I have the settings set to private, so you are not able to find me using the search function. If you are on Facebook and interested in having access to my profile, please send me an email at gullandfamily@q.com. In the email, please let me know the name you have your profile listed under.

The Gulland family had an AWESOME Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve at our home just the three of us. We traveled to Ed's mom's home on Christmas Day and spent the weekend there. It was so nice and relaxing. New Year's Eve was rung in with a Mary Kay friend of mine as well as friends from The River, our church in Faribault. The new year has been shaping up quite nicely.

David has been enjoying his Christmas break. I don't know if he realizes that he has to go back to school tomorrow. He had several play dates over break. He has been playing his didj and enjoying his other new toys from Christmas. We haven't done any baking like I was planning to, but we have definitely been keeping ourselves busy and enjoying all the time together. David is now in 1st grade, but his skills are mostly at a second grade level. I cannot believe how smart the boy is!!! God really blessed him and gifted him with intelligence. It is going to be neat to see how David uses the gifts He has been given by God. At this point in time, David says he wants to be a teacher when he grows up. Neat, huh?

Ed is enjoying his job as a project manager. Right now things have been a bit slow, but hopefully it will start to pick up again now that we are through the holidays. We haven't had any more trips to the ER with Ed, so we are very thankful. We are also thankful that the chainsaw didn't do more damage than it did. For those of you that don't know, Ed cut his leg with a chainsaw in September. There will be no more cutting wood for him without safety gear.

I am still a Mary Kay consultant, but I have decided to pull back on the parties that I was doing. I am going to focus on reorders and individual or double makeovers. I personally like more one on one time with my customers. I also started subbing in the Faribault school district in December. I am ABSOLUTELY loving it! I have enjoyed myself so much that I am thinking about going back to school so I can become an elementary school teacher and have a classroom of my own.

Blessings to you all in this new year!!!

Looking forward to reconnecting with you on Facebook! Lots of love to you all!!! Ed, Steph, & David

Why?

Why am I feeling the way I do right now? All of a sudden I feel totally bummed out. I have no reason to be sad. I have accomplished more in my business in the last month than I have in most of my career as a consultant. I am preparing to go on vacation to visit my family, and I will get to spend a month with them. I get to go to my local awards program on Thursday to celebrate a job well done in Mary Kay this year. I am not sure why I am feeling this way. I think that I am going to go finish folding some clothes and then sit in the presence of the Lord. That is all I know to do!

Love to you all!

Summer Fun With Debra Frasier

David & Me With Our Paper, Scissors, & Glue

Madelyn, Evie, & David Proudly Displaying Their Creations

This past Friday David and I met up with some of his classmates from Lincoln and went to an activity that was sponsored by our local library. Debra Frasier was there to help us with an art and craft idea. She is an author and illustrator. When she creates her illustrations, she only uses three things: paper, scissors, and glue. Absolutely NO pencils!

Monthly Column

Hey everyone!

I now have a published monthly column online on Positively Feminine. Here is a link to my very first column: http://www.positivelyfeminine.org/professional/sg/summerwork.htm. Check it out and let me know what you think.

I hope that this finds you all doing well and enjoying the summer!

Love to you all! Stephanie

Me! Me! Me!

By Dave Boehi

If you went through premarriage counseling, you may recall some of the subjects you discussed with your pastor or counselor—things like communication, personality differences, finances, and resolving conflict. But you probably didn’t hear your counselor say anything like this:


“Barbara, I want you to look at Dennis. Do you realize he’s a wretch? He’s selfish, and he’s potentially an adulterer and liar.”

“Dennis, look Barbara in the eyes. Do you realize who you are about to marry? Another wretch."


These words obviously had an impact on Dennis Rainey, who tells this story about his own premarriage counseling in a recent FamilyLife Today broadcast. And from my experience in marriage I have concluded that an honest discussion of our sinfulness ought to be part of any basic premarriage curriculum.

In recent years I’ve become more aware than ever that I face a never-ending battle against my natural sinfulness and selfishness. As I go through each day, my thoughts are often focused on what I want and what I need. I think about how I look … what I’m about to do … what I wish I was doing … what I will do after work … what I want to say and eat and watch and read. Life is all about Me! Me! Me!


And that makes marriage a challenge, because I married a woman who, for some strange reason, doesn’t always agree with what I want. She has Me! issues of her own. We all do.

Some may think these words are a bit harsh. What good does it do to dwell on the fact that we are sinners?

I would agree—if that’s where I stopped. But there are a number of practical benefits to acknowledging that we are sinners. For one thing, only when we acknowledge our sin will we truly understand grace.

In his book, When Sinners Say ‘I Do,’ Dave Harvey writes:


To say “I am a sinner” is to stare boldly at a fundamental reality that many people don’t even want to glance at. But when we acknowledge that painful reality in our lives, several great things become clear. We find ourselves in good company—the heroes of our faith, from Old Testament times to the present, who experienced the battle with sin on the front lines. We also acknowledge what everybody around us already knows—particularly our spouses. But, by far the greatest benefit of acknowledging our sinfulness is that it makes Christ and his work precious to us. Like Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:31-32).” Only sinners need a savior.

Acknowledging my sin helps me view myself honestly and without pretense. I know what I am and what I am capable of doing. And that makes Christ’s work on the cross all the sweeter.

And then consider that the relationship of a man and woman in marriage is a picture of Christ and His church. When we demonstrate to our spouses the same grace that Christ demonstrated to us, we experience true oneness in marriage.

My wife loves me, forgives me, and remains committed to me in spite of all the times I’ve hurt her and failed her. And vice versa. As 1 John 4:19 tells us, “We love, because He first loved us.”
Marriage works when a husband and wife remember that they are two sinners living together in a state of grace. It stops working when either of them forgets.

© Copyright 2008 by FamilyLife. All rights reserved.

Happy Memorial Day!

Hello everyone! Our family is wishing you a safe and Happy Memorial Day! Do you know why Memorial Day was originally established? I did not until I received an email that was from the morning prayer meeting at Living Word Christian Center in Brooklyn Park, MN. The meeting was held on Friday, May 23rd. Here is what the email had to say:

"On so very many occasions since September 11, 2001, America has been called by our president to prayer. We prayed immediately following that day; we prayed on its anniversary, we prayed as our troops went off to war. And now, again, our president is calling our nation to prayer--in observance of a long national tradition.

Congress passed a law on May 11, 1950 that instituted Memorial Day, and it was intended to be a national day of prayer for peace. These words from the White House Memorial Day Proclamation make clear the intent:

Section 169g. Memorial Day as day of prayer for permanent peace --- 'The President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe each May 30, Memorial Day, by praying, each in accordance with his religious faith, for permanent peace; designating a period during such day in which all the people of the United States may unite in prayer for a permanent peace; calling upon all the people of the United States to unite in prayer at such time; and calling upon the newspapers, radio stations, and all other mediums of information to join in observing such day and period of prayer.'

Though the observance of the holiday has now been changed to accommodate a longer holiday weekend, the call for Americans to pray is just as urgent."

Will you join me in praying for this great country of ours? Pray as you are led by God to pray. A few things that I can think about praying for is as follows: our troops overseas (for their safety and protection), for the upcoming elections, and for the division in our country between different denominations, between different political parties, between different races. You name it, and I think that we are divided.

I still remember the day of or after September 11th when Congress was holding hands and singing "My Country Tis of Thee." I think that was the name of the song as well as the date. Even if it wasn't, the thing that stands out in my memory was how united we were as a country. What happened to that?

Be blessed this Memorial Day and know that we love you all and miss you!

"Rock Solid" by Dennis & Barbara Rainey

"He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm." Psalm 40:2 NIV

Yesterday I shared a poem that I use often when I'm speaking or talking with someone about divorce, especially about how it leaves children feeling "split in two," as Jen Abbas put it.
Actually, Jen experienced this twice--once at the age of 6 and again at the age of 18, when her mom and stepfather divorced. The second one caught her as she was leaving home for college, a time in life when she expected her family to be there for her, both to launch her and to provide that "solid patch of land" we all need when we feel unsupported or insecure. But I want you to see again--and be blown away by--the power of the gospel as it descends upon a person who is lost and alone.

When the land cracked under Jen's feet as a college freshman, she jumped--just hoping to land somewhere. She was wide open to any belief system that would win her hand. Islam. Judaism. Taoism. Buddhism. Questioning everything, she went in search of something--anything--that wouldn't prove fickle and fleeting, the way her parents' love had.

But in her quest for spiritual security, she found every path closed and incomplete. There was only one path that stood out--the one with the element of grace embedded in it, the one that wasn't about what she did but about what she could be given.

Divorce had taught this young woman that if you're not always alert, constantly scanning the horizon for warning signs, love could leave. But in the person of Jesus Christ, she discovered that she was loved regardless of her performance. He changed her life.

There's hope for children of divorce--who make up 40 percent of adults today. Hope in Jesus Christ. Hope in His grace to forgive and in His power to help you forgive as well.

Discuss: Share with one another how the love of Jesus Christ has helped you forgive another person.

Pray: Thank Him for His great salvation--He is the only rock any of us truly have to stand on.

Purchase their book Moments with You at local Christian bookstores.

Splitting Headache

"'For I hate divorce,' says the LORD, the God of Israel." Malachi 2:16, NIV

This poem was written by Jen Abbas, then an 18-year-old child of divorce. I've arranged it a little differently on this page than it appears in her book, Generation EX, to make it fit. Its message is too important to allow form to quiet its voice. Listen to "The Eruption."

Divorce is like a trembling earthquake,
The world shakes, rumbling with rage,
And all the anger, guilt, and frustrations
That have been festering for so long below the surface
Suddenly spew upward in an inferno of hate or apathy.
At times the earth calms and you think the turmoil is over,
Settled, stable, but then the cycle begins again,
Repeating, repeating, repeating.
You are weary, you want to rest,
And that is when you realize the shaking has stopped,
But there is an eerie feeling lurking in the air.
You are hesitant to believe anything anymore,
You are so tired after struggling for so long,
And so you rest on the one solid patch of land,
Only to watch it split in two,
Two separate, distinct parts that will never come together again.
Each new patch supports part of you,
And as you watch, they pull away.

This is the type of poem that breaks my heart because it represents so many children who are torn apart by divorce. No matter what you are experiencing in your marriage, and no matter how tough it is, just remember the impact that staying together will have on your children.

Discuss: Promise each other that this will never be the heart's cry of your children. Talk about who you should consider sending this poem to right now.

Pray: Pray for the children of divorce today, who are struggling to be loved and to belong. Pray for a friend who is moving toward a split.