A New Year Resolution

Oh for holiness!
Oh for more of God in my soul!
Oh this pleasing pain!
It makes my soul press after God.
-David Brainerd

I have been blessed, we have been blessed with a new year, a new year to glorify our God, to be a living sacrafice for Him. What a gift. I pray that this new year will be a year of consecration, of holiness. I seek joy on a daily basis, but what I should be seeking is holiness, is more of Him and less of me and in that there I will find joy, a joy that can be found no where else.

"To pursue holiness is to move toward joy-joy infinitely greater than any earthly delights can offer.

To resist holiness or to be halfhearted about its pursuit is to forfeit true joy and to settle ofr something less than that God intoxication for which we were created." *

I have been resisting holiness, had a halfheart in my pursuit and therefore forfeiting true joy... daily settling for less. I am tired of holding on to my sin and unholiness and long to give it all to Him no matter how painful, uncomfortable or radical it may be... He is not only worth it but deserving of ALL of me.

But as he who called you is holy,
you also be holy in all your conduct,
since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."
1 Peter 1:15-16

A prayer* for the new year...

Oh, God,
show me more of Your holiness.
Show me more of my sinfulness.
Help me to hate sin and to love righteousness as You do.
Grant me a deeper conviction of sin
and a more thorough spirit of repentence.
And make me holy as You are holy.

*Holiness, Nancy Leigh Demoss

JOYfully in Him,

The Benifits of Excercises

Sometime soon, I encourage you to take some time to dissapear in some amazing thoughts by Ann Voskamp at Holy Experience, you will be drawn in closer in your personal walk with your holy Father as you experience the joy and love in just knowing Him through her words .

JOYfully in Him,

Seek the LORD

Oh give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name;
make known His deeds among the peoples!

Sing to him, sing praises to Him;
tell of all His wonderous works!

Glory in His holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice!

Seek the LORD and his strength;
seek His presence continually!

Psalm 105:1-4

Memory Verse with thoughts

Romans 11:34-36

"For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

I read through Romans yesterday and it was such an amazing journey for me. I think it was the first time that I have read through a book so quickly, sad but true. I found it to be very benificial. Instead of just taking bits and pieces of the letter and applying it to my life I read it as it was, in complete context, a letter to the Roman church from Paul. The concern and love that Paul poured into this letter just soaked through the words. The letter still very much applied to me but I was able for once to see the whole picture... from beginning to the end. His concern was for Gentiles and Jew alike to understand God's plan of salvation, that righteousness comes from God through Jesus Christ, not by works but by grace.

Our memory verse for this week makes me stand in awe of our Mighty God, overflow with gratitude for His gift and brings me to praise! To Him be the glory forever! Amen.

Visit Sarah today for more encouragement in memorizing His word.

~Memory Verse~

Romans 11:34-36 "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Previous Verses:

Deuteronomy 7:9 "Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations."

Deuteronomy 19:12-13 "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord you God, to walk im all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statures of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?"

Take the word of God with you everywhere, join us, visit In Light of Truth.

Weekly Memory Verse

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all youir soul, and to keep the commandments and statures of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good.?"

Last Weeks Verse...

Deuteronomy 7:9 "Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations."

I started again with my weekly memory verses again... I have been out of it lately and have been able to tell spiritually. These are our family verses that we memorize at each meal. Walk In the Light of Truth this morning to join and be encouraged.

Each Day's Journey

Have you seen this? I have been sadly ignoring it for weeks and now after finally taken a moment to read what it is all about am going to join!! The Heart of the Matter is hosting this little Friday meme which is going to be very encouraging and fun. I am coming in a little late, as usual.

This last Friday the theme was A Day in the Life. I must admit that we have not had very many typical days lately due to just a lot of rush. I have however made a new schedule that I very roughly followed this last week when we were able to. My devotion to the mornings went fairly well, I got up each morning earlier than I have been so + for me and I have been really enjoying my alone time with the Lord.

At last here is our Daily Schedule:

Each Day's Journey...

5:00 – Quickly obey the call of the alarm, slip into the bath, get dressed with makeup, grab a cup of coffee, throw in laundry and then be STILL as I come into the presence of the Lord in worship, praise, prayer and in His word.
6:30 - Switch laundry and straighten and prepare as the sun rises before my Littles arise from their sweet slumber, fold laundry with Revive Our Hearts.
7:00 – Get the boys up and dressed, begin breakfast as family reunites from their separation.
7:30 – Breakfast devotional, catechism, memory work and goals for the day. Quick kitchen clean up, brush teeth, chores and anything else left in preparation.
8:30 – Begin our school day with prayer. During this time T-Rex is playing in his room with various toy and Butterfly is just waking up. I will get her dressed and feed her during:
 First Language Lessons/Copywork
 Horizons Math
 Spelling Workout
9:30 – Break!! Enjoying Books together and a quick clean up *vacuum and put clothes away*
10:00 – Come together for 2nd half of school:
 Science
 History
 Read-Aloud
11:30 – Finish any extras and then enjoy some free time before Lunch!!
12:30- Just enjoy the gift of time in relaxation(not cleaning!)
1:30 - Classical Reading time together, grab some books and sit on couch as we independently enjoy a good book or 2 or 3
2:00- Exercise/Play time
3:00- Prepare dinner and Daily Chores
4:00- Mandatory Outside playtime if not to cold otherwise inside play
5:00- Begin dinner, eat and then clean up as a family and then have some Family Time!
6:45- Start calm music as we all prepare for bed with quick clean ups, pjs, teeth brushed, get water.
7:15- Begin bedtime routine: poetry, songs of worship,prayer and kisses (lots of kisses) goodnight
After the littles are all in bed my evening begins:
Detailed straightening of each abandoned room, preperations for tomorrow, time with hubby, some computer time, reading time, study time and then prayer and lights out by: 10:00 or 10:30.

That is it! This is my hopes for each day's journey but they very rarely walk directly down this path, they are often detoured and sometimes even dead end but the main hope is that while we all walk in our day's journey we will do it in a manner worthy of the LORD, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. (1 Corinthians 1:10-11)

Living Intentionally in 2008

And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Ephesians 5:2

My hearts most yearning desire is to not just simply walk through each moment of 2008but to walk intentionally in love and not just any love but the same love that was displayed for me on the cross through our Savior. That love... self sacraficing... a fragant offering to God. I did not make any "resolutions" per say but here are 8 things that I want to change for the better, that I plan of commiting to in 2008...

1. I want to KNOW God, I want Him to be an extreme reality in my life, in my thoughts and deep in my heart. I want His reality to be with me everywhere, I don't just want to continue to walk through each day with an inconsistent and unrealistic and distorted view on God, I want to walk radically in love and in the knowledge of the One who made the universe and breathed life into Adam and me. This will be conceived through a disciplined and consistent time with Him each morning, I am devoting my early mornings to the Lord... completely giving Him my first hour in each new day to dwell with Him in the word, through prayer and in adoration and praise. My first steps will be taken with Him, this is not negotiable...

2. To crucify my fleshly desire to be over my husband and to disrepect him when we disagree or clash in thoughts. To grow with him, to daily find ways to encourage him, support him, show him undivided attention and affection, to love him more than myself and give all of my energy to him.

3. Oh to be a fun loving mother! I just want to play with them more... and enjoy them where they are. Set up 1 day each week for me to have some alone time with them seperately.

4. Make it a consistent habit of sending cards to family to let them know that we are thinking of them and that we love them even though we live miles away.

5. Set up a childrens bible study for our neighborhood kids at our house every week or every 2 weeks.

6. Surrender to the Spirit's leading in showing hospitality and being in peoples lives through prayer and daily thoughts and actions.

7. To prayer for God to lead me in earning a little extra income.

8. Find a daily cleaning and exercise routine that will work for me and my family and to drink more water with my coffee.

Lord, please enable me to commit to these and glorify you through them. Lord, I have attempted at these almost weekly and failed, Lord I can not do anything with out you... walk with me, stay with me, don't let me go anywhere with out you by my side, continually give me the strength that I so need.

Visit Extravagrant Grace, an inspiring santuary I stumbled upon the other day, for more Living Intentionally in 2008.

Living Diligently with our Time

Here, then, is the real problem of our negligence. We fail in our duty to study God's Word not so much because it is difficult to understand, not so much because it is dull and boring, but because it is work. Our problem is not a lack of intelligence or a lack of passion. Our problem is that we are lazy.

R. C. Sproul

We each have been given the gift of time, a jar representing each God given day if you will, to fill, what is in your jar? Diligently live, seek Him in your day and glorify His name as you labor in love.