We need to create a mental sanctuary. Don't let the enemy whisper suggestive garbage into your thoughts. Hold each one captive to Christ! Sometimes this looks like purging the thoughts from our mind before bedtime and trusting, in faith, that God will work all of it out for our good. Any thought that we can’t let go of we bring before the Lord and give it to him. In fact, every thought is captured and then forced into obedience to Christ.  In order to do this we must know what is true.  We must have a proper understanding of who God is and what He has said.  We cannot separate God’s will from His character.

When I think, “Man, that was stupid,” and I truly think I must be dumber than a box of rocks and worthless in my own eyes. I must stop and hold the thought in view of scripture. God says I am “fearfully and wonderfully made.” His word reminds me over, and over, that I am weak, and frail, and fallible, and STILL God is willing and powerful, present in my time of need. He is for me in a way that is staggering given my track record of failure.

So while I may feel inept and unable to do what is being asked of me, I know that God is helping me and will help me to accomplish all he has called me to do.  I am not stupid, just human, and cherished beyond measure. How dare I talk about myself, one of God’s children, in this way. Things may be hard, and I may not be able to accomplish much in my ow strength, but God sees me and will help me in my time of need. I step down from this very important soapbox….But please, stop speaking ill of yourself!

The Sabbath is there for us to connect with God our Father. He is the only sustaining source of peace and rest in our lives and we need, in greater measure….(that is, at least once a week) the time to engage with Him in a focused way.  The Sabbath is meant to be a needed blessing to us!

The Sabbath rest, though FOR us, is not about resting in a way that is ABOUT us.

“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Isaiah 58:13-14

We must learn to bring our messy, erratic, or missing emotions to God. We need to learn to process our emotions in the proper way. An emotional rant on social media does not qualify as processing your emotions-no matter how therapeutic it feels in the moment. Processing emotions involves discovering why you feel the way you feel and being able to pinpoint where that feeling originated from.

Emotional rest is the cessation of (not sensation, but cessation-the bringing an end to) emotional striving. A lot of us are emotionally in knots and don’t even realize it. Is there conflict at work? Are you asked to deal with difficult people? Do you have a teenager, young adult, or grown child whose decisions are constantly weighing on you? Are you grieving the loss of a dream or adjusting to new, difficult circumstances? For something to count as an emotional stressor all there needs to be is a striving, a heart felt desire, an ache, a passion, a tension or pressure, and you may even find that you feel it physically before you are able to identify it emotionally.

Repentance can take some work. This might mean ACTUALLY apologizing to the one you hurt, making restitution where it is needed, or pay the person back of whom you owe.
These actions can be difficult but if you neglect them you will miss the full measure of relief and rest forgiveness offers. If you refuse to take action or pay any cost, your inaction may very well prove that you are not truly repentant.

Repentance opens the door for God to provide us spiritual rest from our sins of commission but what do we do with the fall out from sins that are of no fault of our own?

The truth is that some of us have trauma that was forced upon us. Pain often comes from personal loss or abuse we had no say in……..

Bringing a little light into a dark world does not mean the darkness will cease to be, only that your little corner in it will be that much brighter. Without faith we are fearful of the future. Without faith we are unable to endure. Without hope we are stuck in old patterns and destructive thinking. Without love we are like specters, shadows of what could be. Every time we try to protect our own selfish interests, we loose out on the benefit and blessing that following God’s will provides. We will all have some level of sorrow in our lives, but to accept God’s plan for YOUR life and live in faith will always lead to a good and happy existence.

So, let us not believe in tomorrow for tomorrow’s sake, alone. But trust the one who will ultimately turn all deserts into gardens (Isaiah 35). Plant in the deep and dusty furrows of life today and wait for the roots of God’s promises to take hold.

Education is vast! Where in the world are you supposed to begin? There are a lot of programs, different curriculums, styles of teaching, and even various philosophies when it comes to educating your children. We are blessed to have so many options and helps available to us today! With so much at stake and the characteristic parental zeal homeschoolers are known for, things can tend to get complicated fast.

So let us start, as we would any great teaching lesson for our children, with some definitions. Welcome to the science and art of teaching! But first, we must answer this:

What is teaching?

When I got married I thought I could cook. I could, with some effort, follow almost any traditional recipe with success. I found out from my husband, after the honeymoon period begin to wear off, that I was, in fact, blissfully ignorant when it came to the science and the mechanics of HOW to cook.

The goal was not just to see or replicate technique or trade but to be able to explain why or why not something was a success.

I had worked in the food industry. I had learned to julienne fruits and veggies, prep and dismember raw chicken, and knew the proper lingo for a steak’s doneness. I had not been taught how to cook those individual elements or how to manipulate them for various recipes. That would have to come later. No one told me I should have worn gloves the first time I cut fresh jalapeños for guacamole.  Spoiler alert: I had one eye swell shut after rubbing it.

With the holidays, fast approaching, most of us are, in some way, focused on…

The trimmings of the season; what we will cook, how we might decorate, and what gifts we will give. I also know that with the rising cost of living having the discretionary income to handle the ‘extras’ can be tricky.

Having the assurance of God’s love means I am able to take correction positively. I can see failure as a learning opportunity because my relationship with God is secure, and I am loved even when I experience or choose failure. Having a strong relationship with the Lord also helps us to take responsibility of our sin because there is no fear of judgement. As a Christian we have an amazing opportunity, thanks to Christ’s sacrifice, to confess our sins and restore lost fellowship with God and others. (1 John 4:18, Romans 8:1) Our identity, our strength, our circumstances, and all our resources come from God. This is not self-efficacy but a God-directed, God-efficacy. Faith and trust in God will never disappoint. They will produce a harvest of hope, and not one of hope alone, but one of courage and freedom. (Romans 5:3-5, Gal. 5:1) Only christians have a guarantee of success(in their faith) because that guarantee rests in Jesus, Himself.

I think a lot of us are suffering from spiritual motion sickness.

  We are busy and focusing too much on all the things around us.  We are inundated with so many details and so much information we aren’t able to grasp or process it all.  We strive to keep up with others and stay current with their daily posts. We are obsessed with the latest trends or following our favorite influencers. If I’m not careful I will spend hours scrolling through short videos on my media feed and making plans for way more than I’m capable of doing in my lifespan. Maybe we’re just distracted, tending to the very real responsibilities of our families, friends, and churches. These obligations can stack up fast and neglecting to count the cost even once can bring the whole house of cards crashing down with schedule-altering clarity. Sprinkle in old wounds, past failures, and other spiritual warfare and you, like me, will begin to look just about everywhere but ahead to the distant horizon.

Auxano

7 common ways we error in our desire to do ministry well.

1. When your sense of security relies on the ministry’s success.

2. When your identity gets wrapped up in the success of your ministry.
3. When it has to happen your way and you can no longer be flexible.

4. When your service to God eats away at your one-on-one time with God.

5. When the predominant desire is to be seen and heard by others.

6. When you’re unable to take correction.

7. When you fear man more than God or live for any other reason than God’s Glory.

What places are familiar to you? What things do you allow in your life, not because they are “good,” but because they are comfortable? How are you afraid to step out in faith?

Sometimes we may find ourselves wanting to minimize the difficulty of where we’ve been and sugarcoat our past. We may find ourselves exaggerating our current trials, focusing on the wrong things, and making mountains out of molehills. We remember the past with rose-colored glasses, diminishing the severity of it’s consequences, and even neglect to appreciate the new, God given, blessings in our life.

Perhaps writing letters is not your thing, it’s ok if, to you, it seems antiquated or laborious. Maybe you can’t help but hear the words of Little Women, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, or your bosom buddy, Anne from Green Gables as you write. Whatever the case is for you, let us love each other well, in word and deed, and seek to do {well} all that God has ordained for us, making much of God in our worship as well as the everyday ways we live our lives. 

A heaping pile of pancakes just wouldn’t be the same without the sweet taste of maple syrup to help it go down. It takes approximately 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup from a sugar maple tree and upwards of 60 gallons from other varieties. The making of real maple syrup is a somewhat arduous process that can take days to complete. Why would one go through so much trouble?! Well,….because syrup is yummy and pancakes just aren’t the same without it.

Let’s look at the steps we need to properly apply biblical truth to our lives. I give you the Syrup Method!

Step One: Collect the sap, gather all the truth you can in one place.

In case you have ever wondered, just WHAT exactly was in all of those biblical reference books, here is your guide in laymen’s terms.

Parenting is the training ground and crucible where you grow into the person that your child needs. It’s an apprenticeship of sorts with God as the Master Carpenter.

Becoming a parent won’t automatically make you a better person. But parenting under the submission of Christ will produce a greater selflessness than you can imagine. So, if your desire is to have children, but you feel as though there is a long list of prerequisites before you can proceed, be encouraged. That’s not how parenting works.

When you look at your child now, they might not be your mini-me, you might be so different you have trouble relating, or so similar you repel. But it’s all in the parenting curriculum. It’s all wrapped up in relationship, the working through of each difficulty, the discipline and transfer of values, the cultivation of a soul.

Regardless of their age, if wisdom rings true; for as much as you teach them, they will have grown you.

Philippians 2:14 says. “Do everything without grumbling or arguing.”

Affectionately dubbed the, “Suck It up cupcake” verse by my childhood youth leader, this verse became the mantra for our immature hearts to do all things that seemed hard with patience and endurance.

Maybe you have a literal pile of socks in your home or maybe your socks are proverbial. Surely, you can relate even if your clutter is of a different variety. What are you avoiding because it’s difficult to manage or hard to have discernment about? It’s likely your procrastination is causing you additional grief as mine was. It’s ok to allow things to be left undone for a season, particularly a strained one. In such cases it’s only natural that what’s important come to the fore-front, but it should only last for a season, and therein lies the rub. When our slow-of-heart procrastination comes from laziness or indecision it will wreak havoc on our lives. So, what can we do to bring about change?

Dwelling on Scripture in this way helps us to understand the ideas and concepts of character and virtue found in the Bible and cements God’s Truth within our heart. Until the words are hidden in the heart, they will likely be unable to be used by the mouth. The Church today, too often, lacks power because it lacks USABLE WORDS. We are Scripturally illiterate–babies who are being spoon fed milk because the effort of feeding ourselves seems too strenuous. If you have not yet discovered the delight of God’s own words to us, pray and ask that it be made known to you, open your Bible, and read.