Think On These Things

"Think on These Things"

I made this journal for myself to remind me of the importance of keeping my thoughts focused on Godly things. I have a tendency to fall into negative self-talk, and if I'm not careful, the negative self-talk will take root & start to overshadow the Godly thoughts. That's when I start to slide onto depression & apathy - two places that I find it unbelievably difficult to recover from.

The time I spend in God's Word gives me an infinite number of true, honest, just, pure, lovely, virtuous, praise-worthy and good things to fill my thoughts with. These thoughts will always chase away the negative self-talk for me.

So how about you? Are you hurting yourself with your self-talk? Are the tapes that play over and over in your thoughts negatively effecting the way you spend your days?

If so, try overcoming the negative with the Godly & think on these things instead.

Brave Enough to Seek Beauty

If we spend our time looking for the beautiful in people & situations,

we won't have time to dwell on their faults. 

Grace & Mercy 

are such powerful gifts 

when you can offer them to others,

but are you always willing to receive them? 

It is important for us to do our best to see in ourselves what God sees:

beauty

He has already offered the gifts of

Grace & Mercy

to each and every one of us. 

My question to you is this:

have you truly accepted them 

or are you still trying to work hard enough

so you feel you deserve them?

I hate to burst your bubble,

but you'll never be able to work hard or long enough

to deserve these precious gifts. 

But...

because He loves us so much,

God offers them freely to us.

So friends, my question to you now is this:

Do you have the courage to accept them?

Notes on Marriage: It's Not About The Nail

Male vs. Female Communication:

Merry Christmas!

Awesome Book Recommendation: "Body Image Lies Women Believe and The Truth of Christ That Sets Them Free"

I wanted to share a book with all of you that touches on a subject near and dear to my heart: body image untruths and how they effect women of all ages. The book is:

If you are a Kindle reader, the book is FREE - yes I said FREE - through the end of the day on Amazon (click on the photo above & it will take you to the site).

Here's what the publisher has to say about the book:

- Are you insecure about your looks?

- Have you ever compared yourself to someone else and found yourself wanting?

- Do complements or put downs determine the image you have of your beauty?

Real Stories of Overcoming Body Image Lies Women Believe with God’s Truth

Throughout this book, Christian women share their stories of how they have struggled with body image lies and a distorted view of themselves. However, each of their stories also contains hope – the hope of replacing these lies with God’s truth. Our prayer for you is that you find encouragement within these pages and allow Christ to transform you with His truth.

We Are Each Created Unique

God has created each one of us with unique abilities, unique talents and a unique personality. As women we are influencers and God has given us that role and our beauty to share with others. Yet so often we settle for a counterfeit. The enemy has counterfeited our idea of beauty, convincing us to share our beauty with the world in a distorted way. Today that often means that we see our beauty as what we look like on the outside.

What Lies Have You Been Believing?

Join us for the journey of replacing body image lies with truth from God’s Word.

I have been receiving a daily devotional from the author of this book that is absolutely right-on as far as teaching from the Truth of God's Word, and I promise you that this book will give you a whole new perspective on who you are and Whose you are.

You are beautifully and wonderfully made, and you have a Creator who absolutely loves you the way you are!

So check out the book and the website:

Body & Soul Publishing

Happy Easter!

Living He loved me

Dying He saved me

Buried He carried my sins far away

Rising He justified

Freed me forever

One day He's coming

O glorious day!

What I Learned This Weekend: Ordinary Miracles

In the midst of the chaos of Christmas, we get so caught up in the preparations for celebrating the day & sometimes overlook the miracles that happened the day Christ was born.

What are miracles? They are situations that happen by divine or supernatural intervention. In other words, when God reaches down and does great work in our lives. 

The miraculous is done:

• without discrimination - who did the angels come to first? The shepherds - the 'unclean' in their society. They weren't able to worship in the temple, weren't trustworthy in the other people's eyes, and therefore weren't worthy of consideration. At the other end of the status spectrum, God told the wise men - important kings, revered by all. Throw in Mary and Joseph and you see every level of society participating in this miracle.
• according to God's plan, not ours. God did not fulfill the prophecies in the way the Jewish people expected. Jesus came in, not like the ferocious lion, but like a quiet lamb in a barn. Because He did not arrive on the scene the way they expected, He was written off as a false prophet, when in fact He saved all of mankind, miraculously taking away the barrier of sin between God and man. Clearly God's plan is so much bigger than we can imagine, and He loves us more than we can ever know. But because we don't have His vision, we tend to write off what we don't plan or understand.
• in ordinary circumstances.  When the shepherds are just going about their daily business, the angels appear to them. In the middle of a tax census - in the middle of a normal work day, Jesus was born. If we open our eyes, we will see that, in the middle of our ordinary days, God works miracles all the time.
• through ordinary people.  God doesn't need us to work His miracles, but He chooses to use us anyway. We must make ourselves available for Him to use us.

The miracle of Christmas is that God chooses to use the ordinary - circumstances and people - to create miraculous situations in people's lives.   Be available - be open - be willing - and God will use you. In the meantime, open your eyes to the ordinary miracles occurring all around you every day.

"For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son. 

That whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life."

John 3:16