Joy: February Link-Up

It seems like yesterday the ball dropped and we issued in 2017; however, here we are welcoming in February.  This month's link-up theme is JOY.

"You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of JOY; At your right hand are pleasures forevermore."
- Psalm 16:11

Joy is described as a feeling of great pleasure or happiness.  The fullness of JOY is only found in total surrender to Christ.  This means giving up control, yielding to the Lord's will, submitting to his Lordship; and in the process, receiving and experiencing the ultimate joy of freedom.

It's no surprise to anyone that life changes quicker than the seasons.  Sometimes those changes are expected, and sometimes they aren't.  Regardless, life continues and we must adapt.  This past month our second child, Piper Joy, was born.  For as much as you can prepare your home, heart, routine, and attitude for a new addition to your family, you never are prepared until you get thrown into it first hand.  We can read all the books, get all the advice, go to all the prenatal classes, and even practice taking care of little ones; but it in no way compares to living out the daily grind of a changed life.

If there is one thing I have learned in the past two weeks since Piper's arrival, is I have to actively choose joy.  I have to actively seek joy.  I have to commit to patience. I have to demonstrate patience.  I have to call upon the Lord.  I have to rely fully on the Lord.

"The meek shall obtain fresh JOY in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel."
- Isaiah 29:19

My husband is such a thoughtful, gentle, and strong man.  He knows how difficult it is for me to be content in my sacrifice to be a stay-at-home-mom, but he also knows it is a daily struggle for me to rest in the peace of Christ, exhibit joy in my attitude, and deal patiently in my speech.  He's seen the tears and he's heard the cries.  When Piper was born, he presented me with a homemade prayer project.  He created a guide with a bible verse each day for me to prayer over for Piper, Ezra, and myself.  Each verse has to do with JOY since that is Piper's middle name.  After praying over these verses the last couple days, it has been amazing to see Christ provide strength in care-taking, soften my speech, and definitely provide JOY despite the thunderous cries, shotty routines, cranky toddler and milk-guzzling newborn, and a blown out diaper.

Our daughter Piper Joy has brought a fresh perspective of what it means to have JOY in our lives and what it means to rely on Christ for strength, joy, and patience.  I am grateful for this change in our lives.  It has truly brought great pleasure and happiness, but I only get to experience this joy to the fullest extent because my life belongs to Christ Jesus.

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Are you linking up this month?

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Day 6 Serve + Day 7 Prayer and Journaling

Serving is the definition of humility; however, if we are not careful we can get in the habit of serving for the wrong reasons or to solely make ourselves feel better.  Christ, God in flesh and eternal king, came to serve others.  This is completely opposite of what you would expect of a king (and what we see in culture).  He is a holy God, if anything we should be the ones serving him; yet, he came not to be serve, but to humble himself and serve others.  As Christ-followers, we are called to reflect his glory.  One surefire way of doing this is to serve others with a heart made righteous by Christ.

Humbling ourselves doesn't come naturally, or even comfortably.  Maybe it does to you, but having teeth pulled feels easier some days.

Today's passages:

Philippians 2:1-11
Ephesians 5:15-21
Galatians 5:16-26
Romans 12:9-21
Matthew 20:26-28

If I am honest with myself and honest before the King of kings, I would have to say my lifestyle tend to disagree more than agree with the following:

• I go out of my way to serve others
• I want to know Jesus more
• I submit to authority/others easily
• I believe others are worth my time
• I have the mind of Jesus
• Spiritually, I use my time wisely
• I demonstrate great self-control

And my heart tends more to agree with the following:

• I have a prideful spirit
• I get jealous easily

Now I don't know what number you gave yourself in the self-evaluation, but humbling ourselves starts with a right picture of who were without Christ and who we have been made to be in Christ.

Ephesians 2 tells us that without Christ we were dead and considered children of Wrath.  To quote Landon Dowden from a BSU sermon at Mississippi State, "When you're dead, you can't get deader than dead. "  Without Christ, we are dead.  A dead person can't do anything, but be dead.  There is no life within.  We were children of wrath, completely isolated from the great redeeming love of Christ.  As children, our father was not Christ, it was Satan.

But because of God's great mercy and incredible love, he rescued us out of darkness and became our Father.  We are now children of the Light.  If you are in Christ, you have no reason to boast because there is absolutely nothing that you did to deserve Christ's love.  You didn't jump high enough or have a good enough voice. You didn't give enough money or say enough kind words.  You didn't serve enough or make good enough grade on every test.  You can't do anything enough.  If you have submitted to the Lordship of Christ, it is because Christ so graciously opened your eyes to his majesty.  You did nothing to win his grace.  He bestowed that grace on you freely.  And because of his great redeeming work in your life, we are to demonstrate Christ's love to others by serving them.

I don't want to disagree with the points above.  I don't want to agree with the points above.  I have done an awful job at serving others and reflecting the salvation that Christ provides.

Tomorrow is Day 7 of the New Bloom devotional.  It is designed for you to have a quality prayer and journaling time.  If any specific thing resonanted with you and the season you may be in right now, I encourage you to go back to that scripture and write it down.  Commit it to memory. Mediate on it. Use it as a guide to pray.  Whatever you use Day 7 to do, the Lord is patiently waiting for you to call on him.  He has so much to say to you.


Love,

Will you join me in committing to serving others with a right heart?

How did you evaluate yourself?

How did these scriptures challenge you today?


Here is Sovereign Grace's "Behold Our God."  Find more great songs on your suggested song list in the New Bloom devotional.



For a recap of New Bloom week 1:

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5

LINKUP Word of the Year 2017: Flexible

A lot of people make new years resolutions to get in shape, have a weekly date night, send a card to someone each month, start eating better.  You know the sorts.  Eat less! Go green! Run this much! Make more money! BLAH BLAH BLAH.  While those things are all great in and of themselves, February quickly comes and the resolutions are quicker to go.  We might think back to our well-intentioned resolutions as summer returns in realization that the year is half-over.  But if you're anything like me, by that time, you can't even remember what you pledged your allegiance to at the turn of the year.  Resolutions are hard to keep, mostly, because we don't keep them at the forefront of our minds daily.

This year I am jumping on the "one word" train.  If you are not familiar, instead of writing down a handful of resolutions you are bound to forget by January 10th, you chose one word to set the tone of your new year.  I might not be able to DO a bunch of hocus pocus junk in a year, but surely I can take one word and APPLY it to my life in such a way that I find myself better able to serve others, care for myself, and grow spiritually.

This year I am choosing the word:

FLEXIBLE

What a terrible word for a control-freak, uptight mom of two.  However, *sigh* I am putting my foot down and FLEXIBLE I will become.

I think the reason I want to chose this word, is because I truly want to embody the word in its fullest.  I know, like I really do know, that life doesn't play out in a cookie-cutter fashion how I have planned it to do.  Life happens, the cookies burn, I run out of icing, the sprinkles fall on the floor, I forgot to add sugar.  Whatever.  I am not flexible, and the more I try to hold on, the worse it is.

FLEXIBLE (adjective):
1. capable of bending easily without breaking (yeah, no not me)
2. able to be easily modified of to respond to altered circumstances or conditions (I'd like to pretend I can, but freak-out mode ensues)
3. ready and able to change so as to adapt to different circumstances (laughable, no)


Just because I yearn to be flexible, doesn't make me weak.  Plastics, rubber, graphene, bamboo: these are all extremely flexible yet extremely strong materials.  Their usefulness can increase with the degree of flexibility.  Likewise, the more I am flexible, the more useful I can be in the lives of my kids, husband, friends, and total strangers.

So where do I start?

Scripture reminds me in Proverbs 29:11 that a fool always loses his temper, but a wise man holds it back.  Well, then I need to be flexible with things are outside my control or don't go as planned.  And Galatians 5 tells me that a fruit of the spirit is self-control.  So when my type-A planner mode goes haywire because a child won't nap or I have an undocumented appointment, I must display self-control internally and externally.  All of this because 1 Peter 5 tells me that my enemy, my adversary the devil is seeking too devour me.  Every mishap, every freak out, every blood-boiling moment that doesn't go my way, is an opportunity for the enemy to convince me of hopelessness.

But I have hope, no matter what circumstances come my way.  Christ is my hope because he died on the cross and rose from the dead; he has replaced my stone cold heart with a heart of flesh.  He did this, in his perfect holiness, so that my stubbornness, my inflexibility, my ugly words, my lust, my umpteen more sins that happen day in and day out, so that my relationship with the Father would be restored and my sins forgiven.  God sees me the way he sees Jesus, perfect, holy, blameless.   Romans 5:8 promises me that despite knowing how insane and sinful and inflexible I am, Jesus still died for me.  

• What is your word of the year?
• Have you done a "Word of the Year" before?

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dear renee: circle link-up

dear renee in 2004,

your relationship with your mom isn't great right now, but you will be glued at the hip despite hundreds of miles of separation.

you feel isolated from your dad in every way except running, but he has always been your biggest supporter and will support and fight for you til the very end.  you will realize how much your dad loves you, you just wait.  he will be your best friend, and your role model.

you and your sister, continue to protect her.  ask her hard questions.  your relationship will be stronger than ever in the near future.  your time with her will run out, keep her closer than you are now.  the time goes away fast.

you adore running, you always have.  running is going to play a significant role in your life, so don't give up on it.  follow your dreams with running.  you have a goal, keep striving because it helps you make one of the best decisions in your life.

right now, you want to be loved, you want to be needed.  you are searching for acceptance, and i know it is hard to find.  girls are mean, and you are bitter.  you have just been cheated on, by your first boyfriend, who you thought loved you. you can let yourself feel the hurt, but move forward.  i know  what you really want is a man who loves jesus and will lead you, in fact, i know that you have a list of ideal qualities you want in a mate in the top draw of your nightstand.  but, renee, you are going to forget all of those qualities.  i wish you wouldn't.  you are going to abandoned those ideals and you will settle for satisfying your immediate needs without thinking about the future.  you will experience unmatched heartache at your own expense.  you will find yourself in so many situations you will later regret with so much pain, and more tears than i wish to watch you bear.

renee, listen. there are so many people in your life that want the best for you, and they are trying to get through.  mom and dad, they love you and that is why you will get grounded for an entire summer (without your car by the way).  you are very stubborn, but i wish you would open up your eyes.  you pretend to be perfect, you pretend to have it all together, you mask your hurt with athletics and academics.  i wish i could get a hold of you, renee. i don't want you to have to go through some of the things you will in the next 10 years, but it's who you are and it has shaped you.

one day you will wake up, about 10 years from now, and you will find yourself wanting to give up on everyone, including yourself.  you won't want to go on anymore, but you have to.  you've been through a lot: eating disorders, broken relationships, failed promises, injuries after injuries, unfulfilled dreams, heartache, bitterness, family problems, more heartache, and just discontentment at an all time high. in this unknown time, you will surrender your life to christ and you will forever be changed.

here, renee, is where the freedom begins.  i wish i could tell you to wake up and surrender now, it's 2004, but i know you won't listen.  you have to go through these years, figuring it out yourself.  you are prideful, i know.  you want to do it on your own, but renee, jesus is there, and in 10 years, he will still be there waiting for you and he will pick you up and make you brand new.  you know a lot about who jesus is now, but you will know who jesus is in 10 years.  you will be known by God.

renee, i don't want to tell you much more, you will find out soon enough.  you are made into a stronger person for the things you had to endure.  these things, though you think they are the worst thing in the world while you are going through them, will be used for your own good and the benefit of others.  i know it might sound strange now, but everything that is going to happen, is going to bring glory to God and demonstrate his faithfulness in your life.

don't give up tall one (you will eventually be called "noodle").  i love you.

love,
renee in 2015

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