Well it is way past the New Year..almost february and I still haven't posted my Christmas Photos...I've been a little busy lately...trying to change it up a bit with our days and school. Rethinking our purpose and way we do things...I haven't felt much like posting a bunch but I have a lot churning on the inside. My main focus for the New Year was to focus on prayer. I am determined to be a "prayer warrior." I want to pray about all things, pray as a family, and pray for others more. I would say, just in the past 6-12 months have we really become a praying family on a regular basis...like the kids don't eat without prayers and they don't need reminding, they save up prayer requests for family prayer time, the like to pray out loud, etc. Another focus for me was to really teach them how to have a relationship and "quiet time" with God...what in the world made me think that once they became Christians that they would suddenly know and want to do this on a daily basis....when honestly I struggle with it. So we now do our quiet time together. My first thought was to use a devotion book but I decided to start with proverbs...mostly because John Daniel has been super interested in the wise words in proverbs and it just seemed like a great place to start.....so we sit down, read 1-5 verses from Proverbs, discuss it for a few moments, then each of us pray on our own...going through praise, confession, thanksgiving and supplication. My precious Emily has a notebook that she has used already...in which I love to look through and love that she wants me to see it where she has written her prayer requests and favorite verses.
We also have family Bible Time...John chose for us to read through the Bible starting in Genesis last year. We did fairly well last year, read most days but would skip if something got in the way...my third focus is to not let ANYTHING get in the way. Sometimes when we get rushed in the mornings, we would just leave it out...but starting in January, we have decided that the Bible is like food...we cannot leave home without taking God's word inside... We have really enjoyed this in the 25 days that we have been so consistent. The kids are all of the sudden becoming more and more interested...Molly's behavior is better during this time. They are asking questions, learning, and we are in JUDGES! I have always been embarrassed that I didn't know a simple Bible Timeline or know more history and I'm so enjoying learning it now. The kids tonight told me the names of the judges...Othiniel, Ehud, Deborah, and Gideon! How cool is that....they can see the pattern, how God would bring the israelites out of sin and disobedience using one of the Judges and then once again the israelites would fall right back into the sin and evil doings...And we are only in Judges 8. John makes us read most every word...which at times is difficult but I'm seeing the blessings...Somedays I get so stressed that it isn't going as "planned" but I have found in the past 25 days that if I just make God the priority...the education of my children falls in place...it is truly amazing.
We have had a fabulous "work" Bible Study starting the new year off right....the women I work with are amazing and so faithful...I'm truly giddy that I get to be a part of what is going on inside them...it is one of the best things I have ever done beside marry my husband and birth my children...After our last Bible Study where we very poignantly talked about life after death and how to be "sure" you will be in Heaven...one of the women got to work and had what I call a divine appointment...her patient was a 99 year old man...she asked him what had kept him alive so long and he said, "Jesus!" "Jesus says to love Him and love others...and that's what I've been doing!" He was a pastor and had been preaching for 80 YEARS!!! He and my friend got to know each other well while he was there in our clinic and she WILL NEVER forget him...he prayed with her and all! She came to me at work in tears, telling me how much he had meant to her...and felt like God was talking to her that day! I wish I had had the priviledge of shaking his hand.
I also got together with some of my precious women friends and prayed over specific topics...praying scripture for our walk with Christ, our marriages and our families and it was one of the coolest things I have done....I felt so refreshed and blessed to be able to pray scripture over the heads of my family. We are going to try to do it once a quarter. I'm finding, rather late in my spiritual life I guess, that there is an answer to everything in the Bible....verses are coming alive for me and I'm just happy to be here...able to have the Holy Spirit and walk this walk...My Pastor said something this past Sunday in his Last Sunday with us that struck me...
He said we always talk about getting to Heaven to meet the likes of Abraham, Moses, etc....and ask them about God and there faith...but he said, "I've always thought though that they may come to us, and say...What is it like to have the HOLY SPIRIT living inside you day in and day out...?" That struck a cord with me...deep! I've been thinking about that this week. I've got the LIVING God, in the Holy Spirit living right inside me...with me every step of the way...I'm talking to him more each day...I find myself closing my eyes during the day, praying about things I wouldn't normally have prayed for....realizing that I want to be a part of what God is doing around me...
No comments:
Post a Comment