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November has been a very eventful month for me. I’ve been finishing up one writing project, starting another writing project and getting the house in order. I’ve also noticed that with all this activity, I’ve been lagging in my personal time with God and not reading the Bible and praying as often as I would like. Whenever this happens, I take silent note of it but then I keep blazing forward thinking to myself ‘I’ll get to it tomorrow’ but then another day passes.

So, after getting frustrated with this cycle, I dedicated time in my day to fit in more time with God. It’s been a slow ramp up, but I’m learning to not be so hard on myself in this area and just do what I can. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that I have to contend daily with the tendency to be a perfectionist about things, even grace-filled things like my relationship with Christ, but I’m working on getting better at it.

With that said, I’m also thinking about 2013 and where I’d like to take this blog in the new (and maybe subsequent?) years. I’m leaning towards doing a One Year Bible online. Actually, this has been something on my heart for a few years now, but I’m still trying to work out the logistics in my brain. I’ve been reading the One Year Bible on my own, and it’s been a great way for me to read the Word in small snippets and not get overwhelmed by the idea of reading THE BIBLE (lol). So, I thought I’d take the journey with you in 2013. Still trying to think about the frequency of the posts, etc. If you have any thoughts, feel free to share them with me.

Till next time…

“I’m doing the very best I can, and I’m doing it at home, where it counts.” Psalm 101:2b (Message)

This verse jumped out at me today, and I thought I’d share it with you. I’m a list person. I love to make lists and cross things off as I accomplish them. Recently, a lot of things on my list haven’t been completed. They’ve been left by the wayside as I tended to things at home. This can be a source of disappointment, but reading this verse, I see  what I do at home counts.

My home, my family needs me. Not a babysitter. Not a teacher. But Mama.

What I do at home counts. When I take  the time to sit with my two year old on the floor and chat with him. When I take the time to look in my three week old’s eyes and smile. When I figure out another creative way to pay off the mortgage faster. When I fold the laundry and put it away. When I freeze food in advance for the nights when I won’t feel like making anything. It all counts.

Sometimes it won’t feel like what we do counts because the world doesn’t notice. I love this quote from G.K. Chesterton’s “The Emancipation of Domesticity”:

“To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labors and holidays; to be Whiteley within a certain area, providing toys, boots, sheets cakes. and books, to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene; I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it.

How can it be a large career to tell other people’s children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman’s function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness.”

Perhaps you feel like the things you do within the walls of your house don’t count. But they do. They’re essential. G.K. Chesterton also wrote that “children don’t need to be taught a trade, but introduced  to a world.” Mamas everywhere have a huge undertaking before them, and it’s a valuable one.

She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness

(Proverbs 31:27)

I’ve been on a Proverbs 31 kick for the past week or so. This verse came to mind as I sat down to write this post. While I am by no means a superwoman (I’m guilty of eating the bread of idleness!), it’s important to have our finger on the pulse of all that occurs in our homes: our spouse, our children, day to day affairs, financial affairs, and even food (I provided a link last Monday to the Heavenly Homemakers blog which gives good recipes.)

But it’s easy to get distracted.

Our fast paced lives often keep us from focusing on the meaningful things in life: our families, our homes, the specific vocation God has called us to. If we let these meaningful things slip, years can pass and we’ll find ourselves restless, unsatisfied and unfulfilled. And our homes and families could be in disarray.

So today, I encourage you to take some time out and carefully assess the state of your household and your life. Ask yourselves these questions:

*Do you wake up in the morning knowing you are doing what God has called you to do in this season of life?

*Do you feel overburdened, hectic or rushed in any area of your life? If so, can you pinpoint the cause?

*If you’re a wife, how’s your husband doing emotionally? Does he seem content?

*If you’re a mom, how are your children? For their age/stage in life, are they displaying a settlednesss or peace in their souls or are they anxious a lot? (If you’re a parent of small children, try not to confuse anxiety with natural childlikeness.)

I hope these questions help you take account of your household, and your life.

Happy Wednesday!

“And the priest shall write these curses in a book,and he shall blot them out with the bitter water. And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causes the curse: and the water that causes the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter” (Numbers 5:23-25)

Words have power.

In this passage we see the negative effect of the words of a curse. A curse is an empowerment to fail. It’s the inability to fully carry out God’s plans for your life. Curses can originate in words. In this particular instance, those words are written in a book, the words are then diluted with bitter water and then the water in consumed by a person. The person has consumed the curse and an empowerment to fail has now embodied the individual.

Words are ingested.

Whether these are the words we tell ourself (aka thoughts), the words we speak aloud or the words we hear others speak to us, once released, those words are “digested” into the heart of the recipient. They have the power to build up or tear down. They have the power to release life or death.

Words create.

Everything starts with a word. God created the universe in Genesis through His spoken Word. Jesus is called the Word made flesh in Genesis. Our words also create blessings or curses. The words we decide to believe can create a life or destroy a life.

When I grasped this concept in 2004, I started examining the words I told myself. They were mostly negative. I also paid keener attention to the words I exposed myself to either through the media, literature or other people. They too were mostly negative. I realized that if I continued down this negative trend, my life won’t look too good 5,10, 20, 30, 40 years from now. I needed to make a course correction.

So I gradually started telling myself the truth as shown in God’s Word. I also started consciously choosing what and who I would listen to. After a year, I noticed marked changes in many different aspects of my life. But since we live in a fallen, negative world, I have to constantly infuse my mind with God’s Word regularly and consistently…sometimes even moment by moment. From this side of eternity, renewing the mind involves diligent, conscious action. You can do this too.

Just remember, words create or destroy. They can bless or they can curse.

“And the priest shall write these curses in a book,and he shall blot them out with th bitter water. And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causes the curse: and the water that causes the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter” (Numbers 5:23-25)

Psalm 126

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.

Restore our fortunes, Lord, like streams in the Negev. Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.

I love this psalm. Many of us carry dreams in our heart, dreams for the future. And we wonder if those dreams will ever come to pass. Here, the Lord says those who go out weeping, carrying seed in their hand, will return with joy, carrying shaves with them. The Bible says God’s Word is incorruptible seed (1 Peter 1:23). If we carry His Word, His promises, in our hearts we are guaranteed a harvest of joy, a harvest of blessing, a harvest of peace. 

Hello all! How are you doing with reading those Bibles? It’s been quite challenging for me to do so these past few weeks. We’ve been traveling and travels always throw me off track. I wanted to read the Bible many days, but I just didn’t get around to it. Whenever this happens, it’s easy for condemnation to rear its ugly head. But now I know there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). So, when I got back home, I just picked up my reading from where I left off and kept moving forward.

I finished reading John, but I’m still going through Exodus. Not bad. Not bad.

My new goals for Bible reading this week are: to read halfway through Acts and to finish Exodus (Can it be done this week? Let’s see!)

What are your Bible reading goals?

Last week, I took an impromptu blogging break 😉 I’ve been pretty busy getting my new ebook, Mind Scrubs for Moms, edited and ready for you. It will be available by September 30th in PDF. I’m pretty excited about it!

Despite all of my busyness, I have been able to read the Word. As you already know, I don’t have long stretches of time during the day, and so I get my spiritual food in 5-10 minute bites.

PAST GOAL: Read through Luke and Exodus.

MY PROGRESS: I read through Luke and right now I’m on Exodus 29.

NEW GOAL: Complete Exodus and read through John 17 by next Monday, 9/3

One tip for better digestion of God’s Word:

Take a verse or two that leaps out at you and pray it back to God. 

When a particular verse or verses attract your attention, it’s the Holy Spirit who wants to show you something. When that happens to me I slow down and ponder/pray the verse. This happened to me recently when I read John 8:31-32 (KJV). Jesus told His disciples if you continue in My Word, you will be my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

I’ve heard this verse often misquoted as: “The truth will set you free.” But according to Jesus’s words, the truth will not set me free if I fail to continue in His Word. That is, I need to make it a lifestyle habit to regularly meditate in His Word, aka “continue in it.”  Knowledge of a truth won’t set me free if I neglect this important point. 

For example, I know that it’s important to drink 8 glasses of water a day, but just because I have head knowledge doesn’t mean that I will become healthier. I have to drink water over and over and over again in order to become healthier.

So I prayed: “Holy Spirit, help be to be a true disciple of Jesus. Help me to continue in the words of Jesus for the rest of my life despite the distractions and obstacles which try to keep me from His Word.”

How are you continuing in the Word?

I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people and I will be their God. (Ezekiel 11:19-20)

As believers in Christ, we have a new, recreated spirit. The Holy Spirit is joined with our own human spirit, making us new creatures in Christ. 

However, while we live in this body, we will engage in a battle. The battle with the flesh. Galatians 5:17 says: “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” 

The deception often arises when we are confronted with temptation and we believe that we are somehow weak and inadequate. The truth is, we aren’t. The real man, the new creature in Christ Jesus, isn’t weak or inadequate. It’s the fleshly man that wars against the real us.

That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. (Eph 4:22-24)

When I found this out in the scriptures, it removed a lot of guilt and condemnation I felt whenever I succumbed to sin. As I build up the real me by feeding on the Word of God, I’ll grow stronger in my spirit. Eventually, I will be able to keep the fleshly man, the carnal man in subjection.

But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. (I Cor 9:27)

It’s a freeing thought.