"Prayers for a Woman's Soul" Bible Study Week 2 Reflection

I started an on line Bible study of the book Prayers for a Woman's Soul led by the author, Julie Giles.

This week the focus is attitude!! I know this is definitely a struggle for me. There were multiple areas of attitude that she spoke of that I find in my own attitude. Today I am focusing on how often I get caught up in comparing myself to others. It usually leads to one of 2 things - feeling like a failure or criticizing the other person so I can feel superior. Neither of these reactions reflect the attitude of humility God calls me to have.

Their is a wonderful list of verses at the end of the chapter. Today, I felt the need to reflect on

Philippians 2:5 - "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. 

I liked the Life Application Bible notes on this verse. They reminded me of several aspects of Christ's attitude 

    - "Jesus was humble"

    - "Like Christ we should have a servant's attitude, serving others out of love for God and others..."

    - "Remember, you can choose your attitude."

That last note hit hard. There are so many times I let circumstances or other people's attitudes determine. I have become a very reactive person. This week I want to really focus on choosing my attitude and having it be a reflection of Christ's humility. I know with the guidance of the Holy Spirit this change will be made!!

Thanks for stopping by!! Hope you week is off to a good start!

A few thoughts....

Nothing crafty for today, but I have been wanting to share a bit of my Faith Journey here on my blog. 

I set a goal at the beginning of the year that I would have quiet time EVERY morning with the Lord. It was not just going to be reading a devotional or a scripture verse but to write a reflection as well. I know that for me if I don't sit and write out the thoughts then I don't really think about it. For the most part, I have reached that goal. I am finding God is reaching out to me and teaching me so much during this time spent reading and studying His Word. However, He has also shown me that it's not just about reading and learning His Word but about living it. 

The other day this was the Bible verse in my Daily Devotional Reading - 

 Philippians 2:13

 "For it is God who works in you to will and act according to good purpose.

I use the Life Application NIV version of the Bible which has helped me to not only better understand scripture but to also put it in context. I read through the notes on this verse which basically stated that I need to submit completely to God and allow Him to work in me to make the changes that HE wants made.

Here was my reflection on this verse -

Many times in my life with many things(spiritual, physical, and mental) i have been good at reading and learning about what I should do and change. I have done that so often in my walk with God and still do. I have come to realize that I take in all these shoulds and try make all these changes at once. This of course leads me to being overwhelmed and then I give up and do nothing but find something new to read and learn about only making the situation ,worse. This morning God told me to work on one area and only one area at a time. For today He told me to be gentle and kind in my tone of voice and words that I say to others. So that's 

what I am going to do!!!

The best part of the whole day was at night, when I realized that God had been right there with me all day. He helped me to speak to others in my life with kind and gentle words all day. I know for some that may come naturally but I know one of my personal struggles is with being short-tempered. It is something I will continue to work on letting God create the change in me!!

Thanks for coming by!! I hope to find time to share more of my journey!!

Many Blessings and Hugs,

Another piece of my faith journey - Grace

I've been making my morning quiet time a priority with the Lord. It started with me focusing on verses about specific words - grace, strength, surrender, humility...  Now it's more about reading my devotionals, choosing one of the verses and reflecting on that verse. I still have so much to learn! 

Everyone once in a while, I skip reflecting on the devotional verse or a verse on my current word. I read the devotional and move on with my day.  Those days always seem the hardest for me. The worst part is that I know it and still do it. I am learning that for me to connect and build my relationship with the Lord I just can't read and think about it. I must actually write about it. 

I did do a couple of simple layouts about Grace and what I've learned about it. I used the Faith Goals kit from Faithfully Yours. I really love this kit and the papers because it allows you to combine layouts that focus on journaling as well as those that are more creative. (Hope that makes sense)

For the first layout I just simply used a page from the kit and wrote what I have learned about Grace so far.

Now this one I did in a more traditional scrapbook layout. I focused in on one part of my understanding of grace. Not sure if you can read the journaling so here's what I wrote, "In Grace, God loves me as I am, not as who I want to be, try to be, or hope others see me as and yet He loves me."

The paper is from the Faithfully Yours kit again. The butterfly image and swirls at the bottom of the page are from {ippity} which you can find on Aletha's sales blog.  I also just realized that I have a butterfly which means it meets the requirement of Get Hippity With Ippity Challenge #17 - "Things with Wings" We'd love to have you join us for the challenge!!

Thanks so much for stopping by and letting me share a bit of my journey with you!!

Blessings and Hugs,

Faith Goals 2012 - The Journey Starts...

As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of my major goals this year is to grow closer to our Lord. In my journey to accomplish that I have set up goals to keep me focused on doing that.  I purchased the beautiful Faith Goals kit from Dawn at Faithfully Yours store but wasn't quite sure how I wanted to use it. 

Then last weekend at a crop, a friend I hadn't seen in a long time and I spent much of our time scrapping and chatting mostly about our faith. As a result of those conversations, she suggested that I set up my journal in a monthly manner and I knew that was my answer.

My first instinct was to create all the monthly dividers right away so they were ready to go. I had already decided that instead of One Little Word for the whole year ala Ali Edwards; I would go month by month. I am letting the Lord show me the way on this. So my plan now is to create the month's divider and layouts the following month. (Hope that makes sense). I do my daily Bible Study on good old fashioned notebook paper so it works great to pop open my binder and put the month's study pages in there. Then I can look through them, pray, reflect and create LO's about the word of the month as lead by the Lord.

My word for January was Grace It was originally my One Little Word until God pointed me in a different direction for February hence my new approach.  Here is my divider I created yesterday for January.  I will keep reflecting and listening to the Lord about this word and add to the section throughout the year.

February's word came to me a little differently. I thought it would be surrender but then as I read through all the verses that the Lord had me study in February, I knew it was Strength - not in myself but from and in Him.  I'll be working on that divider next.

At this point my March word, appears to be humility but again I will wait and see how the Lord leads me!!

The Faith Goals kit has already helped me to document my faith journey for the year of 2012 in a very doable way. Not to mention the papers are gorgeous. It comes in a Kraft colored binder which I have still not decorated but that will come with time.  Dawn has also created all of the papers in digital format as well!! :-)

I am so excited to have reconnected with Dawn and Faithfully Yours which is much more than just a store. It is an incredible resource of ideas for including your faith in your daily scrapbooks, creating a faith book and wonderful devotional thoughts. You can also find some wonderful conversation and support taking place in the Facebook group and I invite you to join us there. 

I am really looking forward to my year of building my relationship with God and learning how to make sure my life focuses on "thy will be done" rather than my will be done!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope your week ahead is filled with many blessings!!

Blessings and Hugs,

My Faith Goals for 2012

As I mentioned last week, I am going to include my faith more in my creative projects.  This is a layout I did about my Faith Goals for 2012.  I attended a webinar at Faithfully Yours at the end of December and realized if I was truly going to include the Lord in my life I needed some goals for doing so. 

I created this layout using the new Faith Goals kit from Faithfully Yours and various other embellishments from my stash.  I was really excited that Dawn asked if she could feature it on the Faithfully Yours blog yesterday. If you visit the blog you can read a bit more about the story behind the layout.  They also have a wonderful Facebook group if you are interested in joining. 

It has been a rough 6 months but the one strong and steady has been the Lord. I do not fully understand His purpose for me and my life but trust that in his time I will. 

Romans 8:28 
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Thanks for coming by!! Blessings and Hugs!!

My Prayer Journal...

I've been on quite a faith journey the past 6 months or so. There has been A LOT of circumstances and events that have led me to knowing that all is according to God's plan and not mine. Just when I felt like life was going back to normal - bam something else came along and reminded me that it is all about God and glorifying Him.

I have started really working to grow my relationship with the Lord and to listen to Him rather than to the world. I am hoping to find time to start sharing some of His love and the grace he has shown me here on my blog. 

One thing I know I wanted to do was start a prayer journal. I read Patter Cross's post about using cards for prayers. You can find it here. I really liked the idea so then I set out to find a way to keep mine.  I was digging around looking for a container when I found this -

I made it awhile ago for just this purpose!! I am so excited to finally be using it!! I am pretty sure the template came from Papertrey Ink

I also wanted to let you know that if you already include your faith in your scrapbooks or are looking to start you should check out the Faithfully Yours store.  Dawn has started designing her own line of papers.  You'll find the main site has a lot of fabulous ideas and inspiration.  

Thank you so much for coming by!!

Blessings and Hugs!!