January 15th Scripture Memory

I'm praying if you're along for this ride that God is already blessing you for thinking more purposefully on His words. I have several verses that I came across over the last 6 months that resonated with me, although I didn't choose to memorize them at the time I saw them. I feel like it is time for this one, however:

Revelation 12:11 TNIV

(She) triumphed over him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of (her) testimony;
(she) did not love (her) life so much
as to shrink from death.

I will be taking a trip very soon. It will be the longest time I have ever been away from my family. I will be in a dangerous place. I have felt no fear of going on this trip, only God's clear call for me to go. Until the last few days. The enemy is trying to feed me fear, but you know what? I don't have to eat it. I will fight the enemy and feast on God's words. A lesson from Esther...IF ________, THEN GOD. No matter what, He triumphs. Even when we don't understand...when earthquakes come and leave us filled with questions...when we get a diagnosis that leaves us speechless...when the enemy seems to be winning. He is still in control. He is still reigning from His throne. And if we'll let Him, He will continue reigning within each of us so we can be His hands and feet to a hurting world.

...love the most

If we make time for what we love the most, what does that say of how much we love God?

Thought Responsibility

"When the Pharisee who had invited Him (Jesus), he SAID TO HIMSELF, "This man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching Him--she's a sinner" Luke 7:39 (my emphasis added)

My quiet time today had this portion of scripture in it, but then went on to say, "Jesus holds us responsible for the things we say to ourselves." OUCH! It's so easy to think we're okay because we don't SAY mean things, or DO certain things, but what are we thinking? I don't know about you, but I've got plenty to work on. It feels like a good year to get started on it, too.

Robots, Gratefulness, and Cows

Ezekiel & Isaiah were invited to a friend's robot birthday party yesterday, which inspired their creativity today...





We didn't begin creating until this evening, so we will have to finish over the course of the next few days and I'll post the finished product. They're already talking about using them as Halloween costumes! Wow, I don't know that they'll be in very good shape by then, but we can sure try!

During bedtime we read out of either Ezekiel's "Adventure Bible for Early Readers" or Isaiah's "The Jesus Storybook Bible"--2 excellent children's Bibles we would highly recommend! They usually listen well, but tonight they both were asking for another story, then Ezekiel says, "I love reading the Bible! It is so exciting!!" Our job as parents is WAY far from over, but an excitement and love for God's Word is definitely something we want them to have and they are catching it! It's not every day we get reminders that we're on the right track, but thanks for the encouragement tonight, God!

One last thing...I guess there's two. Both boys' prayers are primarily thankful, but sometimes Ezekiel likes to get creative. He'll thank God for chickens, turkeys, pigs, cows, fish...any clue what those have in common?


All things we can eat! So tonight Ezekiel thanked God for the grass (not the first time he's done that, but...) because it feeds the cows and makes them fat so we can eat them. I had to chuckle!!!

Fabulous 2010

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are beginning a strong new year! I wanted to share something with you and offer up a challenge. Last January I began a scripture memory challenge that was issued by Beth Moore on the Living Proof Ministries blog (you can check out her post if you'd like). I've loved God for as long as I can remember, but agreed with Beth, I wanted a Jesus year! I want to learn and NEVER grow stagnant and comfortable with where I am in relation to Christ. I want to love Jesus more tomorrow than I do today. So I accepted the challenge and the accountability that was suggested. On the 1st and 15th of each month in 2009 we were to leave a comment on her post sharing the verse we chose, along with our name and where we were from. I do not know whether she will issue the challenge this year, but I believe God wanted me to see the immense blessing in treasuring His Words in my heart. I can't tell you how many dozens of times my verses would pop into my mind while I was doing something, strengthening me to keep going, or reminding me to keep my mouth shut, or to wait on the LORD, or to remember His greatness and mercy. I thought 24 verses was a small enough number to try to tackle for my first year of scripture memory. God gave me the mental power to put those verses to memory and I am ready to take on another year! God wants His Word to be in our hearts--you may already practice scripture memory--AWESOME! You may have learned powerful scriptures like John 3:16 over the course of your spiritual journey--AWESOME! You may have never memorized a word of scripture in your life--now's the perfect time to start! And to add to your arsenal of weapons to use against the enemy when he tries to knock you down.

I am going to continue memorizing scripture this year because of how powerful it has been in my life in the past year...I'm wondering if you would be game, too? Single verses, sections or chapters broken down into bits. I know if I had not felt accountable to someone, I could have too easily dropped off. If you would like to journey with me this year, I encourage you to leave a comment here sharing your scripture verse with translation and your name. I'll update on the 1st and 15th with my verse and you can choose to memorize mine with me, pick one of your own, or see what others have chosen and pick one of theirs. I can't wait to see where God takes us in 2010!

For January 1st, I'm beginning the year with Psalm 27:4 from the NIV

"One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek Him in His temple."

May you be blessed in this journey!

Exciting News!!!!

So there's at least 20 things I could catch up on in bloggy land, but it's getting late, and this one's important, so I'm going to focus on just one :)

On Monday, September 28, 2009, Ezekiel decided to sing "Happy Day" by Fee. It goes a little like this...'O, happy day! Happy day! You washed my sins away! O, happy day! Happy day! I'll never be the same!..." So I asked Ezekiel, "What does it mean to have your sins washed away?"
Ezekiel: "You get baptized and ask Jesus into your heart."
Mommy: "Do you have Jesus in your heart?"
Ezekiel: "No, but Daddy hasn't..." (not sure I remember, but it's not important :)

I went on to let Ezekiel know that this was a very important decision that he needed to make, so we wanted to let him come to us to talk about it--we totally did not want to pressure him into anything. So I asked him if he wanted to talk to Daddy and I about it that day. Why, yes, he did :) So that night after our bedtime prayers, Ezekiel asked Jesus to come into his heart!

We had a wonderful family day together on Tuesday, then Wednesday morning we had a baptism service in our bathtub. The church baptistry seemed a little daunting (and deep!), so we had a holy, intimate moment right here, but I caught it on video because we wanted to share it with you!



Daddy and Mommy are so proud of your decision, Ezekiel!

I'm long overdue...

but we've gotta start somewhere. The garden pictured in the previous post looks much different today. Our corn, broccoli, sugar snap peas and lettuce did really well and are done growing so they all got uprooted this afternoon--who knew lettuce would be so easy and corn so hard to uproot??? I guess their size should have given me some clue, but I'm not always as smart as I look--haha! Our poor, poor watermelons had to be uprooted before we could harvest a single one. A wise word to any who would be looking to plant a garden/seedless watermelon next year--you must plant a seedless watermelon ALONG WITH a seeded variety. Something to do with pollination and how they have to alter the seeds to produce a seedless melon. I was so sad! Ezekiel requested watermelons and Isaiah requested strawberries and we got neither! Out of the 25 strawberry plants I planted, only 1 (no that was not a typo, that's ONE) plant grew. I tell you that was one expensive plant! Plus, strawberries don't tend to produce the first year they are planted, so we should have some next year, but no fruit for my boys right now. Bummer.

Life continues to move at lightning speed, although Craig is moving much faster than the boys and I this week. We had our first day of school on Wednesday (the same day the public schools began), then again today, so my Tuesday was spent lesson planning and reorganizing like a madwoman, but we got it done and now we get to rest tomorrow. The boys are already looking forward to the weekend.

Our ladies' small group study of Esther has been so much fun and so very insightful. God continues to teach me the importance of timing, waiting, and the value (and detriment) of our words. But that above all, He is working for our good, He loves us, He is totally prepared to fight for us, and He already proved His loyalty by dying for us. WOW! The LORD is an amazing God, so faithful and trustworthy. May I bring Him glory in my everyday actions and attitudes.

Have you learned anything worth remembering lately? Maybe we can learn from each other!