Colossians 3: 1-17 And so this is what I want to focus on this month. I have already been put to the test and failed! It's been rough making the adjustment of beginning the new schoolyear. It didn't help that we went to Tennessee (though worth it) and got behind on co-op work. The kids have had a heavy load putting almost 2 weeks of co-op work into one week. It has me stressed. We have had some "storms" in the house and I have felt discouraged. :( But it does show me my desperate need for the Lord and I am crying out to Him for help as a mama and a wife. I want to keep focusing on not saying anything negative to or about my spouse because, well, that is just priceless. I want to put off anger and some of the "talk" I've heard coming out of my mouth. I want to put on kindness, patience, a compassionate heart, bear with these others in my home, and forgive continually. I also want to look back at my August commitments for pursuing love and apply them.
I was interrupted with a couple of moments to apply these things even as I wrote this post- one a fussy toddler+ and a grumpy bigger kid.I'm going to try and see these trying times as "opportunities." These are opportunities to put God's word into practice. I am praying for God to use these to grow me and to grow the ones in my home too. It is here that I believe we should love the best, to be authentic in this home, so that we can then go and show Christ's love to others outside of it. There is nowhere to hide here. These people see all our flaws, our ideosyncracies, our failures... But may this place be a place where kindness, compassion, love, forgiveness, long suffering, understanding grows more and more. May we learn to reflect and imitate Him well...someway, somehow. By His doing.
Put On the New Self
3 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christwho is your[a] life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you:[b] sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming.[c] 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice,slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self[d] with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave,[e] free; but Christ is all, and in all.
12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved,compassionate hearts, kindness,humility, meekness, and patience,13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
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