1 Peter 5

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."

John MacArthur study bible- "'Casting means to throw something on something,' as to throw a blanket on a donkey. Christians are to cast all of their discontent, discouragement, despair, and suffering on the Lord, and trust Him for knowing what He's doing with their lives. Along with submission and humility, trust in God is the third attitude necessary for victorious Christian living."

How wonderful that we can trust Him with our lives and we can just continually come to Him with our burdens, sorrows, worries, circumstances, trials...knowing that He knows far more than we do, knows what is best for us, and will work all things for good. And in the future..."And after you have suffered a little while, the God of grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you."

A Very Good Question

"100 years from now, from heaven's perspective, what will we have wished we had done?"

~God Places the Lonely in Families: Adopting Through the Foster System by Adam and Jamie Clark

Less is More

This struck me:

"The words rolled off my tongue with ease. It wasn't the first time I'd said them, and it wouldn't be the last. They were on repeat, one of a bevy of phrases I often used to carry my fears and plop them in my husband's lap when I was feeling particularly anxious. As I spoke this time, he just looked at me with sad eyes … silent. When he finally spoke, his words resonated deeply, 'Maybe our life is more about how we spend, than what we store.'"

http://www.hopewithfeathers.com/home/2016/5/20/a-life-that-consumes

How I do want our lives in this home and family we've built (the Lord has blessed us with) to be about how we spend it together rather than what we store here. It is a constant thing to give away things (I have give away bags going out frequently) so that we can spend more time with each other than cleaning and organizing all the stuff. It is my hope that we get even better at having less to manage and more time to enjoy each other. I also hope we can free up more and more time to be a blessing to others.

http://lexiscleankitchen.com/2015/03/27/3-ingredient-breakfast-skillet/

Pursuing Love~November

Oh no! I almost missed November! It just got away from me. I don't know where November has gone. I didn't do so great on my October focus but it really ties in with what I want to focus on now so I'll continue there... Nonetheless, this is where I'm going to try to focus and pray about:

Pursuing passionate love

I was listening to a Sally Clarkson podcast when I was inspired to focus on this. Just today, Derrick randomly texted me this verse:

"Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins." 1 Peter 4:8

After I read that, I continued my reading for the morning and it happened to fall on:

"Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God."  1 Peter 1:22

Those words: LOVE ONE ANOTHER EARNESTLY

So awesome that the Lord put that on both our hearts on the same day!

In my John MacArthur study Bible, John MacArthur writes, "It is the nature of true spiritual love, whether from God to man or Christian to Christian,  to cover sins...It means specifically that a Christian should overlook sins against him if possible, and always be ready to forgive insults and unkindnesses."

http://www.russellmoore.com/2016/10/25/can-religious-right-saved/

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/the-religious-right-a-eulogy/