Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Love the difficult ones too


This isn't a " maybe when" or "if" statement. 
This is a continual, all the time statement! 
Our Christian friends and family, those closest to us will be hard to deal with. They will disappoint, hurt and straight up aggregate us! We are all sinful people! It is going to happen. And probably happen a lot. 
The wonderful, always sweet and thoughtful "ideal" Christians in our life will be so easy and rewarding to live around and love. And when those people come in our life whose burdens are too much for us we will find it easy to not love on then and bear with them as we blame
It on their sin, and not our responsibility. But we have to bear and love the difficult ones as well. 
Our focus needs to be on continually bearing each other,  giving freely of love and  forgiveness.

Just as God did for us

Monday, September 14, 2015

When we have no strength


None of us are equipped to handle life on our own. 
We are meant to rely on God and need Him.  
No matter what is overcoming you today or taking your strength, remember to go to God! 
He wants to be your strength and refuge!

Friday, September 4, 2015

God time? Spiritual life? Help for the busy woman!

We hear it all: read your bible everyday, pray, read those uplifting books, and don't forget the Bible studies, and service opportunities at church!
 We know in our hearts we want more time with God and serving God, but reality strikes and the whirlwind of life doesn't seem to let us even sit down!

So how do we do it through all of this?

This has been on my heart lately as I've talked to woman after woman who struggles with this, and knowing how much I struggle as well ! Now with my husband and I trying to have kids my mind has been in mommy mode and This daunting task looms before me - How am I going to get God time when this happens?

So I decided to ask! I have pooled together some of my past ways I have helped keep my time with God during busy schedules as well as wisdom from Godly woman I know who all have busy crazy lives- kids and no kids!

Here is a summery of what I gathered:

1) Make it  a priority first thing.
  Multiple resources and woman mentioned the importance of talking to God first thing!
 You may not be a morning Bible reading person, but taking the time first thing in the morning as you wake up to say a short prayer to God for your day helps you to get into the gear you need to be. say thank you to God for a new opportunity, thank Him for your blessings and pray over your day that it be focused on Him. Ask God for help finding opportunities for Him. This has helped me so many days when I know it will be busy. I ask God to reveal to me time for Him and He does!
This is also a great to time quickly overview your day and to plan when you want to sit down with God.

2) Get creative with your busy!
God time doesn't have to just look like sitting down for half and hour and reading and highlighting your bible and writing out life changing thoughts every time! While I love when my schedule works out that I can soak in Gods word and devote time to studying Him, time with God that enhances your relationship with Him involves much more! Think of ways where you can feed off of God WHILE in the midst of your busy day! Some wonderful ideas from friends and family include keeping Christian praise music playing in the house and on drives and at work. Having audio Bible either from CD's or from a Bible app, or devotional Cd's playing to you while you drive or work on household chores. Check out radio stations websites and you can find internet sermons and multiple sources. Look up sermons online and listen to them. You can even re-listen to your churches sermons. Read the Bible out loud to your kids. I love one friends story of how she incorporated more prayer time into her life by praying over her child as she put her to sleep. She used the time to pray out loud to God and let her child listen to her as she fell asleep.

3) Use the small moments
I know I like to hold lofty goal for myself that I consistently fail to keep. When I set too high goals I end up worse then if I had set smaller goals I could keep because all I end up doing is failing! Throughout the day be looking at your day and seeing where you can reasonably squeeze in a few minutes to sit and pray or read your Bible. Be willing to sacrifice a little bit of cleaning if you know that the time you are using may be the only quite moments in the house.

4) Allow for Grace

God gives us so much grace, why is it so hard for us to accept grace? Remember that those things that bog us down a lot, the laundry, the cooking, the groceries, taking care of the husband and kids, they are beautiful callings from God that are acts of love and service too.  I am my worst enemy when it comes to that. I am the one who tells myself I am a bad christian, or not doing enough for God if I am not achieving "such and such" in "specific amount" of time "so often." God's word is only filled with His love and grace for us! He never lays out a specific time amount we need to study or pray, or read uplifting and nurturing devotionals, or how clean our house needs to be, or a set number of people we should help and encourage each day. All He asks is that we seek Him, talk with Him, love Him and worship Him. He asks for a relationship with us and for us to serve others! Don't get caught up in labeling yourself and meeting a set list of criteria, instead focus on loving God and those around you. And when you fall entrapped to the busy schedule of the world and all its distractions, allow for Gods grace and fall back into His comforting loving arms.



Thank you to the wonderful woman in my life - friends and family who helped me with this!!