When I sat down and opened my Bible and journal this afternoon to continue to study this portion of verse 3 of 1st Thessalonians, I cringed. Just the topic- loving deeds, was enough to hit rewind on my day and I saw how I'd spent most of the morning and early afternoon doing everything but loving deeds. I suppose I should have done this study in the morning. It probably would have changed the course of my morning. BUT, that's the cool thing about grace. I asked for forgiveness for my chaos this morning and it's over with now. So, anyways, back to the study...
I started the same way this time as I did yesterday- with the definitions of the two words- Loving- adj., feeling or showing love, warmly affectionate, fond. Deeds- noun, an act or gesture, especially as illustrative of intentions, one's character, or the like. So, loving deeds are affectionate acts or gestures that illustrate my intentions and character. Ok, so honestly, once I came up with that definition I thought... Oh, great. I get a little tense when the words character and intention are thrown around. I mean, those aren't words to take lightly. My next question was what are my daily intentions? What do I hope to accomplish (from an eternal perspective) on a daily basis. This was my list: 1. To instruct my children with biblical wisdom and point them to Jesus. 2. To live a life that points anyone I come in contact with to Jesus. 3. To display grace and live in obedience to scripture. After all this I decided that I was feeling like a lot of this was just words on a page. I wasn't really feel like God was revealing his true application for my life through just the lists I was making. I stopped what I was doing and started praying again, in honesty, that I felt muddled. And because God is faithful, it didn't take long and this is what He gave me. Loving deeds are the practical steps to faithful work. Faithful work is the sign on the building, the loving deeds run the business. I can't have successful faithful work without loving deeds. Once I got that down I asked myself- What does this look like in my life? - By knowing what love looks like- learning God's character. The more I study something, the better I know it. The better I know it, the easier it is to emulate it. The more I emulate it the easier it becomes to do it naturally. - By training/exercising love in my own life. Everything takes work. I mean seriously, everything. If it doesn't take work it's probably too good to be true. And loving deeds are no different. You just have to keep doing it. Keep working at it. Keep doing it. Keep working at it. The more you do it, the easier it will become. - By searching out opportunities to exercise love. In the literal sense of the word exercise, it normally doesn't happen naturally. You have to make time to run, to go to the gym, to do zumba. Same thing with loving deeds. Always be looking for a way to show Christ's love to someone. -Listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. And this is where I scored a big fat zero this morning. In the middle of being all bent out of shape with my kids, I was hearing the Holy Spirit say... Jessica, there's a better way to handle this. Jessica, Jessica, Jessica. But, I was frustrated enough, upset enough, mad enough that I brushed it aside and justified my anger. DON'T DO THAT. Listen for that prompting. AND OBEY IT! - Setting myself aside. This should actually be #1. Because this is the root of the problem. I can't have truely loving deeds towards others when I'm focused on myself. Are you loving deeds setting up shop under your Faithful Work sign or is there and empty building that needs a business running inside it? The last and final phrase from verse 3 that stuck out to me was "Enduring Hope". I believe that Faithful Work is the business name, Loving Deeds is the work, and Enduring Hope is the outcome. But, you can't have one without the others. I'll touch on enduring hope next, but until then, I'm going to make a point to get my business of loving deeds running smoothly under may faithful works sign! Happy Thursday!
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So I'm in that time between book Bible studies. Our Ladies Bible study finished 2 weeks ago and right now, nothing is on the calendar until the first of the year. I thought about starting another book study on my own and decided instead that I'd choose a book of the Bible to study. Just me, God, my Bible, a pen, and my journal. I felt a tad overwhelmed to begin with, because I didn't want to play Bible roulette, so I decided to pray about what book God wanted me to go through. After a minute of just listening, I was positive of the fact that God was giving me 1 Thessalonians. Now, I've read through this book probably 30 times. But I've never sat down with pen in hand and waited for God to bring the words to life. Well, wouldn't you know, I got about 3 verses in and here it came...
As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ.- 1 Thes 1:3. Now, maybe you think that's a random verse to stick out to me, but I grabbed my journal immediately and wrote these 3 phrases down... Faithful Work Loving Deeds Enduring Hope I decided to take these each one by one and do a little digging. So, here's parts of what I recorded in my journal about Faithful Work. I decided to start with the actual definitions of the words... Faith- Noun, confidence or trust in a person or thing Work- Noun, exertion or effort directed to produce or accomplish something; labor; toil. So, confidence in God motivates us. It motivates us to exert effort to accomplish something. My next question was- What confidences do we have in God? I know the list is extensive, but I'm just going to add what I wrote down in my journal. He will never leave us. He will never forsake us. We have hope. We have a future. He will always lead us. He will always love us. He is for us. He wastes nothing. Having these assurances, how are we motivated to work towards accomplishing eternal goals? A few of my personal observations were... 1. He will be with us and provide for us when we are serving Him. 2. We can move with courage knowing we will be successful in our work for Him.( Now let me add a little to this one- Am I saying everything we do will be successful? No. Back to the He wastes nothing. If God calls us to do/try something and we don't succed, does that mean all is lost? Absolutey not. That means God is doing something we can't see behind the scenes. Hold tight, there's a plan we don't see. ) 3. If God leads us to something we can keep walking knowing he brought us there no matter how dark or unclear the path. 4. Searching out the things of God is never a waste of our time and energy. So, once I had all those written down, I asked myself... What does this mean for me? Here's a few of the things I concluded... - I need to to seek out God's will even if it doesn't seem like He's leading me to the right thing. (what I want) - Everything means something. Every step has had a purpose. God won't discard that purpose and it will all be used for His good. (Amen to that!) Perhaps this seems a little disjointed, mostly personal to me, a little more studyish, and lots of information compared to usual, but this is what I've deducted from this..... My faithful work is this- Being assured of God's promises and using them as motivation to do what God has called me to do. Right now, my calling is to be the best wife and mother I can be. To love my husband, to be his helper, and to point him towards the cross. To love my children, to instruct them with biblical instruction, to teach them grace and humility, and to lead them to the cross every day. To show them who Jesus is. Knowing that God is for me, that he has a plan for me, and that he wastes nothing is motivation to live day in and day out knowing that folding laundry, doing dishes, breaking up sister fights, praying for graceful responses to my husband, though they seem mundane and unimportant- they are not. Because it is my faithful work. What are you doing today, this week, this month, in this season of your life that is your faithful work? Are you like me- loving your husband, raising your children, keeping your home? Perhaps it's opposite of that. Whatever it is, I encourage you to figure out what your faithful work is, and do it well. If there is one thing I've learned in a major way over the last 6 years is that I'm selfish. Extremely selfish. Like, sickeningly selfish. I'm sure if you asked anyone in my life to to tell you the absolute worst thing about me, this is what they would say. I seek to be happy, fulfilled, to have purpose, to be complete. However I can accomplish that for myself, that's what I do. Knowing how this impacts my life on a daily basis, how it impacts my family and my friends, majority of the time I pray this prayer about 23984203984 times a day...
Lord, empty me of myself. I was doing that same thing again today and I got a funny picture in my head. It was like I was a God's little doll but I was filled with water and there was a small plug on the bottom of my foot. This mental picture kind of made me laugh for a minute, but then these words impressed themselves on my heart. Here's what I wrote in my journal... When I lay myself down at the foot of the cross, God opens the plug and I drain out. For a minute I grieve the loss of those things that keep me selfish. The things that make "me". Then I realize that God is beginning to pour new life into me. I am still me. He created me after all, but his life inside of me, I am better. I see with his eyes. I use his hands for the things I do and I use his feet for the places I go. I smile his smile and I love with his love. Before I know it, I can't see me. All I see is who I became after I was emptied of myself and filled with him. And I am happy. I am fulfilled. I have purpose. I am complete. Man how I want that to be true in my life. I want my happiness and fulfillment to come from being filled with him and being like him instead of being like me. I've chased, grabbed, scratched at, and practically stolen things that I thought would bring me happiness and fulfillment. I've turned dead end corners to find purpose. I've made hurtful dangerous decisions to feel complete. Lord, empty me of myself. Fill me with you. Well, would you believe I'm creating my menu as I type this. This weekend was a bit crazy so this is the first time I've had to sit down and figure the week out. This is our pantry week, money is tight, so I'll be making as much as I can with what we've got in our pantry and freezer. Thankfully, we've got a ton of stocked up meat! We really have almost nothing going this week, so meals should be easy to get prepared. Monday- Chick fil A. Tonight our church is getting together for a fundraiser at our local Chick fil A. Yay for good food, church family, and not having to cook! Tuesday- Ranch Pork with mashed potatoes. Wednesday- Cowboy Meatloaf Thursday- Chili Friday- Date Night! Aaron and I will be eating out to celebrate my birthday a little late and the girls will probably have pizza with the babysitter. Verse of the Week I've said it before and I'll say it again- "Follow Your Heart" is the worst advice you can give anyone.
And unfortunately, I'm one of those people who loses sight of that very easily. I've come to understand that because I'm a sinful fallen person, I believe the "thorn in my side" is that my emotional being will always struggle to submit to my spiritual being. I'll forever have an internal war. I tend to lead with what I feel instead of what I know God's truth is. And that has always and will always lead me into the wrong things as long as I allow it to. I saw something yesterday and seriously, it was like a snap back into reality. I saw a facebook status that said- " Just because you feel it doesn't mean it's real". HELLO! That snapped me right out of the emotionally lead path I was walking down. So, I chose this as the verse of the week as a reminder to myself! Don't let your heart lead you this week! Lead with God's truth and your heart will follow! Happy Monday! Our Women's Bible Study at church is going through the book Stronger by Angela Thomas. Again, it's right what I needed when I needed it. God is good like that. Anyways, today, I wanted to share with you a few key things out of the book that really struck me. The specific week theme is God is stronger than my overwhelming life. The day subject is Unrealistic Expectations- Mine and Theirs. She starts out by describing her perfect picture of life then asks "Do you have a magazine dream?" I almost laughed at that question. It took me about .5 seconds to answer it and describe in detail my answer. Then, she asks "Does any of this resemble dreams you have or still hold onto?" Of course, my answer was yes. Here's her response... If we take all our dreamy, unrealistic expectations and add the unrealistic expectations from the people we love, we create a dangerous concoction: a recipe for an overwhelming, disappointing life. After all, burnout comes not from work, but from not achieving expectations. (pg 102) Ouch. Double Ouch. And basically the last year of my life in 2 sentences. Aaron and I are about to enter our 6th year of marriage. I can honestly say that I spent year 1-5.2 expecting my magazine life. I held (and still do) hold Aaron to an expectation of creating my happiness. Because of that, I let bitterness and discouragement destroy my marriage. I have set a standard for my kids that's unrealistic and because of that, I have been a hard and angry mother. Angela goes onto to say... Have you expected too much of yourself- to be the best mom, best daughter, best wife, best student, best friend, best employee, best follower of Christ? Amen to that! Romans 12:2 tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. We have to renew our expectations and our standards with the fact that- Only God is perfect. No other person or myself can be or do what we need God to do in our life. And the truth of this is... God has already done what we need. When he died on the cross, he offered us salvation. Grace that covered our shortcomings, our faults, our unrealistic expectations. If we allow that truth to renew our mind, we will be set free of living a life measured by our expectations. Angela challenges us with this... Who needs to be let off the hook today? Your husband? A wayward child? You and your high expectations? Make a list of the names. Now make this declaration for each name you have written: Man, making that list for me was mentally and emotionally exhausting. Not because I had to come up with names for the list, but because my list ended up being a lot longer than I thought it would be. Once I started thinking, I came up with quite a few people that I've held to a higher standard that I should have been. And the truth is, it's easy to recite that declaration. It's easy to say those words- It's the action behind those words that is hard.
For me, that's a declaration I will have to make a few times a day, every day, until my mind is renewed in the truth that only God is perfect and no other person on this planet, including myself, will live up to my perfect expectation. And what does that mean for my life? It means this... When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.- Luke 12:48b We are given grace freely, which means that we need to extend grace in return. Obviously, God does not need our grace, but others do. If you've followed my blog for a time, you know that over the last 10 months, God has revealed more to me about His grace than ever before. And the more I realize how God's grace applies to my life, I realize that if I'm going to live Christlike, I have to live out grace to others. Today, let's make a point to let others off the hook. Let's let ourselves off the hook. And let's let our minds be transformed. Only God is perfect. And because He's extended undeserved grace to us, we need to live a life of extended grace to others! Well, I figured it was time resurrect Weigh In Wednesday. The last time I did a WIW post was on May 15th. At the time I was doing a boot camp class and working out 4 or 5 days a week at the YMCA. Once Emmy got out of school later on that month, I pretty much stopped doing everything. 5 months later and I'd gained 11 lbs and just felt really bad overall. I felt sluggish and my body just felt blah. So, I decided it was time to start calorie counting again. For financial reason we had to cancel our membership at the Y, which makes me sad because I loved it there. But, I'm not going to let that stop me. I've successfully lost weight not having a gym membership and I can do it again!
When I decided it was time to start counting calories again I felt like I was really missing something. It took me a week or two of really struggling to realize that what I was missing was support. Last fall, when I was losing weight successfully, I was part of the online weight loss community, SparkPeople. I was part of a group of about 30 people that were in regular daily contact encouraging each other and supporting each other. I loved that. It was like there were finally people who understood what it felt like to want to eat a pan of brownies or knew exactly what to say to motivate me to run. But, there were circumstances that resulted in me leaving SparkPeople and, unfortunately, I won't be going back to it. But, I did decide that I wanted to create a page on Facebook where people could join and we could support each other. It's been pretty cool to have this resource available and the support is invaluable. I'd love it if you'd join our group if you need support. We're from all locations and walks of life. We just want to lift each other up and help each other meet our health and wellness goals. There are some who are part of the group who aren't looking to lose weight, just maintain a healthy lifestyle. There are some in the group who have lots of weight to lose and want that support also. The name of the group is At A Loss Weight Loss and Wellness Support Group. We'd love it if you joined! Here's the link- https://www.facebook.com/groups/300914140050499/ Just click on that link and join us on our journey. I've said it a hundred times- I don't think God intended for us to walk the road of life alone. He designed us to be community oriented people, and this is no exception! Support and accountability can be powerful in helping us reach our goals. Speaking of goals, here are a few of my October weight loss goals- 1. I want to eliminate the weight I've gained this summer and get back to my "ending" weight. That's about 6 pounds. If I can lose more, that would be great, but I'm aiming to take off the weight I've gained back. 2. Water, Water, Water. I feel like this is always a goal as I NEVER drink enough water. 3. More scripture memory. I want to make sure I've got Bible verses so ingrained in my head that I can use them to fight the temptation that comes with choosing a healthy lifestyle. 4. Plan and plan again. I would be so much more successful if I had ALL my meals planned in advance, not just our dinners. It takes the guess work out of calorie counting. Are you wanting to make a change for a healthier lifestyle? Do you know it's time to surrender the part of you that you've been holding back- your food life? I am! If you want support, head on over to the group and give us a shout! Happy Wednesday! So, perhaps I slacked off a little this summer, and my summer mantle stayed up until last week. It was patriotic themed and I figured... why not? I started thinking about my fall mantle a month or so ago and it took lots of thought, scouring other blogs and magazines for ideas, and eventually, LOTS AND LOTS of editing and styling. In fact, I took 3 sets of pictures for this post. I'd style the mantle the way I wanted, take pictures and edit them. Then later that day or night I'd be sitting there and think... no, I don't really like that there. Then I'd spend another day or two moving things around. Repeat that process 3 times. THEN, I came across the perfect pumpkin this last weekend and I just knew this was the finishing touch. Finally, I'm content with the outcome. So much work for it only being up there for a little bit. This mantle will stay until December, but I will take the jack-o-lantern tin down and find something more "Thanksgiving" to put up. Also, let me apologize in advance for these pictures. I couldn't get a clear picture to save my life. A nice camera is at the top of my Christmas list! Anyways, let's get to it... I wanted to try my hand at mixing textures. I love the way the Indian corn pops with a little color. The bundle of twigs wasn't originally an idea I had, but when I saw them I liked the look of them and worked it in. I got them at Joann's. The silver bark candle holder is from target, and the glass pumpkin is from Big Lots. I searched high and low for the indian corn and finally found it at a local grocery store. I knew I wanted to keep the frame on the mantle, but honestly I couldn't find any subway art I liked. And I didn't have time to make one. So, I decided to use a traditional Thanksgiving hymn. This is "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come". I made the print then added the leaves and "Give Thanks" and then had it printed at Sam's Club. The lantern I snagged at Ikea last month. That little owl started my whole vision for this mantle. I just thought he was so cute! I knew I wanted to include some fall leaves on the mantle, and originally I wasn't picturing this kind, but as soon as I saw these I was struck by the beautiful deep red color. It worked out well as it accents the color of one of the indian corn cobs. The little jack-o-lantern tin is from ages ago. I got it from my mom years ago and I love the old look of it. Plus, it adds a touch of halloween to and otherwise traditional harvest mantle. After Halloween I'll have to find something to replace it.
Well, there ya have it! I really like it. Finally. This was definitely a labor of love for me, but my persistence paid off! Happy Fall! Check back in tomorrow as I'm resurrecting Weigh In Wednesday! I'll be adding a link to a Health and Wellness support group I started on Facebook as well as listing some of my October goals! Happy Tuesday! |
HEY, I'M JESSICA!
Christian. Wife. Mommy. Daughter. Pastor. Friend. Saved.Redeemed. Beloved.
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