If You Are Like Me...

Then you like to have a little extra spending money.

Or, you do things to help make ends meet from time to time...
Like sell on eBay. Or Etsy.

Maybe you sell your children's outgrown clothing through a consignment shop.
Or perhaps you make homemade items for children (baby blankets, bibs, toys, dresses...) and sell them online or locally.

If you are like me, you absolutely MUST read THIS.

The implications of CPSIA are enormous and far-reaching:

Whether you run a small, mom & pop retail store, a consignment shop, a children's toy shop or bookstore, or even if you just make cute, homemade items (like baby blankets, or dolls, or pacifiers!) to sell or give away, this affects you.

You can no longer make & sell or distribute ANY items for children (even items made before this legislation takes affect) without first testing EACH and EVERY batch for lead and phthalates!
If you own a bookstore or toy store, each and every batch of each item must be tested.

"According to the actual scope and wording of this bill (H.R.4040), as of Feb. 10, 2009, all products made and/or marketed to children under the age of 12 will have to comply with mandatory lead and phthalates testing for each component of each product they sell or face felony charges and hefty fines."

Look, I am wanting tougher laws and safety standards
to protect our children, too.
But let's face it, it's not the "mom & pop" stores
that are poisoning our children!
And it's not the corner children's bookshop or
that granny knitting blankets, either.
It's IMPORTED, CHEAP, Poorly-made goods from countries like
CHINA
that are causing the alarm and this subsequent (and extreme!) backlash.

Maybe you think I am just being a "Chicken Little," but if we do not stand up and fight this -- make our voices heard -- we stand to lose a lot. Many small businesses will disappear from the American landscape. What happened to freedom and independence??

Our country is already in an economic crisis and they want to further LIMIT the average American's ability to make money and pay bills? Does that make any sense to you?

Our landfills are already overflowing and have become a serious problem, and they want to DUMP all this perfectly good clothing and books and toys into the ground to rot? What a waste.

If even charitable organizations are held liable for the items they GIVE AWAY, will charity as we know it, cease to exist???

What will happen to stores like Salvation Army and Goodwill and America's Thrift -- where MOST of the clothing of lower income family children is purchased?

These are important questions & if you are like me, you want answers NOW.

Go HERE to read more.
And HERE.

Voice of Truth

God has been teaching me a lot about listening lately.

For so much of my life, I have listened to the wrong things, the wrong people... I have allowed negative people to speak failure over my life and to criticize me on multiple levels, whether or not the criticism was justified.
He has taught me to stop listening to the voices of ridicule, fear and worry and to start trusting Him more, my own strength, less.

This is not something I have learned overnight; His good grace has been patiently teaching it to me (or trying to!) for some time now.

I will openly admit, I'm kind of a control freak.
I'm also a perfectionist.
If things are not going the way I want them to go -- or how I expect them to unfold -- then I become stressed.
If I don't have a clear plan of action to escape any potential problem, I start to worry.
And when people don't respond to my genuine attempts to do the right thing, I become very upset.

Obviously, this has caused me more than a little grief in my life. It has also made me somewhat guarded.
I guess, in a way, we are all kind of like this -- putting on our protective shells so that people can't get too close and hurt us (again).
But when our fear of failure immobilizes us from realizing our full purpose and potential, it really becomes a tool of the enemy, used to keep us unfruitful.

I am learning to limit the influences of negative people in my life; some I have cut out of my life, entirely. When I do become hurt or feel betrayed by someone who I thought was my friend, I try to give it to God and stop obsessing over the why's and what-for's. After all, it's really their problem, not mine. Offense is totally counter-productive to the life I want to lead.

Listening to the right voice involves a good deal of trust.
Just as Jesus asked Peter to do the unthinkable and step out onto the waves, so too, we will be called upon to take steps that make us squirm...
And it's interesting to me, how Jesus just patiently keeps on reassuring us... and lifting us back up when we do begin to sink.

A dear friend and her husband are about to travel half-way around the world to pick up their newly-adopted son. When they first began this journey, there was NO logical reason to believe it would happen.
The adoption process for this country costs a minimum of $18,000! This is not something that she had. What she DID have was the absolute belief that this was what God was telling her to do. And because she was listening to Him, instead of all the nay-sayers in her life, she was confident that He would provide the funds.
And He did.

For me, the fear of failure or ridicule has stopped me in my tracks at some of the most opportune moments of my life. I am so glad that God didn't get tired of waiting on me. Every day now, it seems, He is showing me more and more ways to rest in Him.
Stop worrying.
Don't take it personally.
Trust ME.
And a little more each day, I do.
I gotta tell you, faith tastes a whole lot better than worry and regret.
You should try it sometime.

What Defies All Logic...

I borrowed this from a friend's blog.
I thought it was truly beautiful.

Once upon a time, twin boys were conceived in the same womb. Weeks passed and the twins developed. As their awareness grew, they laughed for joy,
“Isn’t it great that we were conceived?
Isn’t it great to be alive?”

Together the twins explored their world. When they found their mother’s cord that gave them life, they sang for joy, “how great is our Mother’s love, that she shares her own life with us!”

As weeks stretched into months, the twins noticed how much each was changing. “what does it mean?” asked the one. “It means that our stay in this world is drawing to an end, said the other.
“But I don’t want to go”, said the other,
“but maybe there is life after birth.”

But how can there be?” responded the other one. “We will shed our life cord, and how is life possible without it? Besides, we have seen evidence that
others were here before us
and none of them have returned to tell us that there is life after birth.
No, this is the end.”

And so the one fell into deep despair, saying,
“If conception ends in birth, what is the purpose of life in the womb?
It is meaningless!
Maybe there is no mother after all?”

“But there has to be,” protested the other. “How else did we get here? How do we remain alive?”
Have you ever seen our mother?” said one. “Maybe she lives only in our minds.
Maybe we made her up because the idea made us feel good?”

And so the last days in the womb were filled with deep questioning and fear.
Finally, the moment of birth arrived.
When the twins had passed from their world, they opened their eyes and cried for joy.
For what they saw exceeded their fondest dreams.

Author Unknown

"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools..."
-- Romans 1:22 KJV