Affiliate

Devotion for the Week...

Affiliate marketing is a buzzword in the blogging business world, where people are seeking to make money through their blogs. It is less evident in the quilt blogging world, but it does exist.

For example, I am an affiliate for Craftsy, Make Modern and the Quilter's Planner (all affiliate links 😉) Affiliate marketing works because if I refer someone and they make a purchase, the company gets a sale and I get a small commission from that sale, without it costing the buyer anything extra. Affiliates help to promote a product by telling their audience about it and, in exchange, they share in the financial success of that product. It is called affiliate marketing because we are affiliating ourselves with the product we are promoting.

Of course, if you're buying something because I've recommended it, you would expect that I like that thing, right? And for Craftsy, Make Modern and the Quilter's Planner, you'd be absolutely right. Craftsy classes are the way I learned free motion quilting, Make Modern is a fabulous quilting magazine (and not only because they've published my designs, lol) and I've used and loved the Quilter's Planner since it first became available for 2016 and my 2018 edition should be arriving any day now. I am happy to have my name affiliated with those products.

In Bible times, religious teachers would travel from place to place, staying with local believers. Writing to a woman in the church, the apostle John wrote, "If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work" (2 John 11).

Anyone who welcomed a teacher into their home would have been helping to promote that teacher's message by helping to make it possible for him to stay in that town and teach. They were affiliating themselves with that teacher. John is saying that, by helping to promote that teacher's message, you share in the work with them. If they were teaching the truth about God, then you would share in the reward for that work. But if they were teaching falsely about God, you would also share in that.

Times have changed! With modern publishing and technology, there's no shortage of ways for people to share their insights about God without needing to travel around. Likewise, there are a lot of ways for us to promote the teachers we like without needing to have them as guests in our home. We can promote them by giving their book to a friend, sharing their posts on Facebook or Instagram, linking to them on our own blog, sharing their best quotes, telling everyone we know about their TV show/podcast/book/FB page/however they share their work.

What hasn't changed is the need for discernment. The need to pay close attention to what people are teaching and think for ourselves about whether or not that teaching lines up with the Bible. If it does, great! We can promote and share that teacher's work as much as we want, confident that we are sharing something good.

But if it doesn't line up with what the Bible says about God? Then it is, as John calls it, wicked work, and we shouldn't be affiliating ourselves with it. Because the simple fact it, if it doesn't line up with the Bible, it's not the truth.

More Quilt Delivery Pictures!

Some of the quilts were delayed in being delivered to the residents due to circumstances, but they have all been delivered now. That means I have a few more pictures to share 😊

Before I share the pictures, though, I have a little story to share too. One of the moms I babysit for is the granddaughter of two of the residents. Her name is Renee. Her grandmother died before we could deliver her quilt, but when her grandfather's quilt was delivered, Renee sent me a very excited message to say how much he loved the quilt. Not long after, he was placed in palliative care and Renee went to visit him with her 1 year old daughter, Ruby. He had his quilt over him in his hospital bed and little Ruby was fascinated by the dogs in some of the quilt blocks, so he told Renee he wanted Ruby to have his quilt after he was gone. When he died a few days later, Renee brought the quilt home for Ruby. While he didn't get to enjoy his quilt for long, I love knowing that it was a way for him to connect with his great-granddaughter, and that now Renee and Ruby have the quilt to remind them of that connection between them. 😊

And now, on to the pictures!

I've heard reports from various people connected to the residents about how much they love their quilts, which makes me so happy! It's fantastic to know that we have brought joy to others, isn't it?

Again, thank you a million times over to everyone who helped in any way with this gift project! There will be more pictures coming soon 😊

Walking

Devotion for the Week...

I would much prefer to walk somewhere than to drive. It's one of the many reasons I like living where I do because I can easily walk to the post office or the grocery store. I also go for a lot of walks just to go for a walk. And I try to walk every day with the kids I babysit, or we all start to go a little stir crazy, and they seem to enjoy the walks as much as I do.

This enjoyment of walking is definitely a family trait, and we often plan our vacations around being able to hike and geocache wherever we're going. Aiden and Zachary think nothing of walking home from school (about 30 minutes) or even walking to a friend's house (45 minutes) and they're more likely to walk to youth group at church than to ask for a drive. As for Nathan, he hardly drove with us to church all summer and fall, preferring to walk there and home each week.

We walk so much that when we first moved to town, there were people who thought we didn't own a vehicle because they only ever saw us walking!

It's possible the boys would have loved walking even if we didn't walk so often as a family. It's probably more likely, though, that they would have expected to drive everywhere. Kids learn from their parents, after all, so if we thought walking was too much bother then that would have probably been their attitude too.

The phrase 'Do as I say, not as I do' isn't an effective way of training children. Chuck Swindoll, of Insight for Living, uses the phrase "Better caught than taught" when referring to character traits that children are better able to pick up by seeing their parents model them than by simply being told. Telling the boys that walking is good for them wouldn't have been met with much enthusiasm if I hopped in the car every time I needed to check the mail.

I thought about this, and about our walking habit, when I read 1 Peter 1:15,16, which says, "But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: 'Be holy, because I am holy.'"

If you're anything like me, the command to be holy seems like an impossibly tall order. We know we're not perfect! God certainly knows we're not perfect. And yet, here He is, commanding us to be holy.

First off, God knows we're not perfect, but this command to 'be holy' is the goal for us to reach for. If my aim is to be holy in everything I do, maybe that will cause me to keep my mouth closed when tempted to share a bit of gossip. If my aim is to be holy, then maybe that means I will try even harder to be kind and patient when confronted with difficult people. And if my aim is to be holy, maybe that means I will not be so judgmental. We'll never get it perfectly right, but it's certainly better to be aiming for holy than for nothing at all.

Second, holiness is something we need to 'catch' from our Father, like the boys catching a love of walking from us. God is holy, so the more we spend time with Him (through Bible reading and prayer), the more likely that holiness will start to appear in our lives too. The less time we spend with Him, the harder it will be to be holy.

We aren't holy ourselves, but thankfully we can learn how to walk in holiness from God.