90 Day Bible Reading Challenge

I love reading nonfiction books. I don't read as many nonfiction books as I do fiction books, but I am always in a fiction and nonfiction book. I usually read my nonfiction books during my morning Bible Study time, after reading my Bible. Last year I read 38 nonfiction books, which I think might have been less than the year before. I am always looking for new (to me) nonfiction books to add to my to be read shelf. 

Thursday encouragment-The Lord is near

I started a new Bible Study this week. It has been a while since I have participated in an Online Bible Study through Proverbs 31 Ministries.

Courageous Joy (in)courage

 Title: Courageous Joy: Celebrating God's Goodness in Every Season

Author: (in)courage

Publisher: Revell

Genre: Bible Study/Devotional

Synopsis:

Discover how to delight in the Lord through every season

"Rejoice in the Lord always."

This familiar Bible verse is a command and an invitation, but we don't always see it that way. Often this encouragement to rejoice--to be joyful always--becomes just one more thing on our "be a good Christian" checklist. But what if it's actually a gift from God?

Hope

  

  I don't know if you choose a word for the year, but it is something that I have started doing. Last year (2019) my word was intentional. For me I wanted to be more intentional with being present, with my family, in my devotions, in my prayer life, with whoever I was with, I wanted to be intentional. My focus was on prayer and reading books on prayer. 

    This year (2020) my word is hope. I don't know that there could have been a more suitable word for this year. I have needed hope, the world has needed hope. So, what is hope?     

    According to the dictionary, hope is "a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. A feeling of trust. A person or thing that my help or save someone. Grounds for believing that something good may happen."

    Other words often used in place of hope:  

anticipation, belief, expectation, faith, expectancy, gain, 

hopefulness, and security.

    My verse for the year is Isaiah 40:31-"But those who HOPE in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint."

   So, how does this work? What do I do with my word? How do I get my word?

I pray about my word for the year until I feel like God has pressed it upon me. Once I have my word I write it down in a notebook. Then I look the word up and define it, because I want to be clear on the meaning. Then I look up synonyms for that word and write them too. If I have a particular verse that I feel is "my" verse, I write that with it. Once I have done all this I am ready to do more.

In my morning quiet time, I will spend part of my quiet time each morning looking up the Scriptures with my word in it and will write it out. I use the concordance at the back of my Bible for this. It usually takes a couple of months to get all the words written in the notebook with its variations (like hopes). I also make notes of when I see that word in books that I read, on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as well. It's not necessarily the most effective way of doing it, but it is how I have done it the past two years (it will be different in 2021). 

However, somewhere along the way I seemed to have forgotten my word and stopped looking for it in places once I had all the Scripture written out. What do you think happened? I started to feel hopeless. Had my circumstances changed? Not really. Had a catastrophe happened? Well, kind of with the coronavirus, but really we were safe and we were getting a lot of time together. The problem was I had shifted my focus. I was no longer looking for hope, so I wasn't finding it. I was letting the circumstances around me dictate what I was looking for (as I studied headlines, newsfeeds etc) and I started to see more chaos and hatred. This left me feeling despair and hopeless. 

The thing is, nothing had truly changed except my focus. So, what to do about it? Realizing you have a problem is the first step to solving it. I had a focus problem and I needed to refocus. I don't know if it happens to you, but we often find ourselves focusing on things that we don't want to focus on, and then don't seem to have the time or energy to put our focus where we want it. For me, setting this word, helps me to know where to keep my focus. When I set my goals for the year, I keep that word in mind. I have found my focus again, and I know what I need to do in order to keep that focus. It doesn't mean it's going to be easy, but I want to live a hope-filled life, not a hopeless life. My hope is in Christ, not this world, not my circumstances, not my family, not our money, not my church, not the government, I find my HOPE in Jesus Christ.

Do you set a focus word? How do you go about getting your word? Do you already have your word? I feel like the Lord has led me to my word for 2021, but I am going to keep praying to be sure. It is going to be challenging, which is how I am pretty sure it is my word!! I would love to hear whether you chose a word or not.

Fabulous Friday 11/6/20

 Happy Friday to you!!!

Things that are making my Friday fabulous this week: 

😀 My hope is found in Jesus

😀Gorgeous sunrise on the way to my appointment this morning, reminding me that God's mercies are new every morning 

😀I ordered new Bible study resources this morning (#booknerd #Jesuslover #noapologies)

😀 Hearing Give Me Jesus on the radio this morning, not only are the lyrics touching, I LOVE to hear Dolly Parton sing, she has an incredible voice

😀 Also hearing Trust in you by Lauren Daigle, reminding me to trust in Jesus no matter what is going on in the world (something we all need right now)

😂 Laughter with Elijah

😀 Getting lots of small projects done this week

🕮 Elijah asking for a different version of the Bible than the two he already has (he might also be a book nerd, lol, but he asked for the message version, which is a paraphrased version, and we kind of think of as the sarcastic/blunt version of the Bible (don't judge!))

😀 It's Friday (yes that makes Friday fabulous!!), meaning it's almost the end of the school week

😀 We are all healthy!!!

😀 It's been two weeks since the youth retreat and we are all healthy and no one got Covid, praise God!!!!

😀 I will pick up Kayla in 17 days (not that I am counting, but she is)

☕ Coffee

😀 Our new pastor and his family are here, and after a year and a half with no consistent pastor, this is a true blessing

🕕 Time to read this week

📚 Books read this week

 😀 Elijah's doctor's appointment went well this week

😀 Hearing from Kayla

😀 Seeing friends in unexpected places 

What is making your Friday/week fabulous?! I would love for you to comment below so I can praise God with you and so others can too, as they read the comments.

A promise

I am having one of those days. Again. You know the kind. The kid or kids get up too early. You get news you did not want to hear. You are drying your hair with a hairdryer, the same as you do every day, but, on this day, you nail yourself in the forehead, bruising on contact. By this time you realize you are tired, and getting grumpy. Then an alarm in the house starts beeping. Thankfully husband had only gotten to the ground floor and hadn't left the building yet, so he comes back up to fix the alarm. I knew it would put my right over the edge to have to listen to that incessant beeping all day. Then a child throws a small fit. You try to teach school, but you keep getting interrupted, making your already short patience, shorter. Before very much longer you are a huge bundle of frustration, knowing your head is going to explode any second. You feel like you just need a good cry, but the tears just won't come.

Well, as soon as I could I decided to go and spend a little time by in my room by myself. I came across something I had cut out of a magazine a long time ago. It said 30 days of Do Not Fear verses. Well, I wasn't fearful, just super frustrated and tired and cranky.... But, I decided to go through the verses. I got to the last one and found this promise:

"For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear: I will help you." Isaiah 41:13 (emphasis mine)

I tell you, I need help. On so many levels. As I am typing this my kids are playing Legoes, quite loudly, in their pretend voices and one of them is singing Christmas carols! I may not be the only one who needs help!!!

Looking in my study Bible, it says this in relation to the verse listed above: "To strengthen them and keep them from stumbling. Do not fear." I don't know if that resonates with you like it does with me. But, I circled this verse in my Bible. I am holding onto the promise that "I will help you." "Strengthen them." "Keep them from stumbling."

If you need a little encouragement today, no matter what you are going through, or how trivial (yes, I know most of what I listed above is trivial and there are people in the world who are facing serious crisis')know that God will help you. I also encourage you to open your Bible and read the few verses above it as well, Isaiah 41:10-13.

Thanksgiving

This has been a rough week. Each day started off rocky, but thankfully improving as the day went on. Instead of moaning and groaning about the week, I choose to be thankful.
Some of God's gifts and blessings this week, in no particular order:

• God's grace and mercy. The chorus from the hymn "God's grace" keeps going around my head "Grace, grace, God's grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse within; Grace, grace, God's grace, grace that is sufficient for all our sin!"
• Skype.
• Unexpected days off.
• Getting the kitchen floor swept. Seriously, it was bugging my type A personality self.
• My Wednesday night Bible Study group.
• Elijah not having a fever today.
• Matt coming home from his trip tonight.
• Surviving these last 2 weeks, which I could have not done without the help of my Lord and Savior.
• Peace.
• Home school PE, the kids love it, so I love it! What a gift to have someone else teaching them PE :) They don't complain with Ms. Donna!
• My mother in law.
• Two hours by myself, to run errands.
• Puzzles!
• A fireplace.
• Prayer.
• Books.
• Music.
• Friends.
• Family.
• Matt having a job and job security...I am continually thankful for this, especially when there are so many people who don't have a job, or not sure how long they will have their jobs.

"Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe." Philippians 2:14-15. (I am trying...not always easy...it's so much easier to grumble and complain!)

" Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power." Ephesians 6:10

^{14 "}Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. ¹⁹ Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should." Ephesians 6:14-20.