Eyes & Ears

     I'm a visual and auditory learner - seeing and hearing at the same time is the best way for me to learn and remember stuff. When I was in school, I memorized facts and formulas through music; when I need to remember something at work, I write it down and put the sticky note somewhere I can see it.

     Why am I telling you this? How do we apply this to growing in the Lord? Visuals speak more than words do. "A picture is worth a thousands words" right? A lot of times, I remember Bible verses by hearing or reading them, then writing them down. I have Scriptures all over the place - the walls of my room, my desk at home, my desk at work, hanging in my car, my phone background, the fridge in our kitchen, etc. Seeing them repeatedly reminds me of them and what I see and hear is what I remember. Seeing something and then hearing it is better, so when I see one of the Scriptures, I read it out loud. It's what stays in my head.

"Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.

- Deuteronomy 11:18-21

     God knew a good way for the children of Israel to remember things. He told them to literally put the law in and on their houses, on their clothes and skin, and to talk about them constantly. Does that mean that the Israelites talked about the law of the Lord and nothing else? No... they were humans so I'm pretty sure they talked about other things too. But it was meant to become such an integral part of them, like an essential part of their daily lives.

     So what is in front of your eyes and streaming into your ears? What's influencing you and you might not even realize it? What goes in, comes out. If light and joy and peace and the love of God and the Scriptures are pouring into you, that's what is going to come out of you

~ Abby

Allowing Change

   What makes someone a "great Christian?" Think of someone you would consider a great example of Christ. Do they have any combination of the following characteristics:

loving

wise

patient

gentle

open-hearted

willing

humble

caring

dependable

kind

discrete

truthful

available

sincere

gentle

generous

   Do you think that the person you're thinking of achieved all or some of those characteristics overnight? Absolutely not. We receive Christ in a moment when we accept His forgiveness. He begins to immediately work on those things in our hearts that do not reflect Him, but it requires a little effort on our part. We do not become a "great Christian" without sacrificing things in our lives and striving for that Christ-centered life.

   In Romans 12, we are called to "present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." (v. 1, NKJV) which includes our minds and our hearts, not just our physical bodies. Christ works in our minds and hearts, making them holy and acceptable like Himself. If the Creator of the universe sent His Son to save this group of dirty, sinful people, shouldn't we give our lives back to Him? God is waiting for us to turn to Him and say "Take what is holding me back from giving You my all. Change me completely." Jesus has a beautiful and fulfilling gift of a life with Him, but we have to accept it and the changes it will make in us.

   So... change scares me to a certain extent. I like having a plan, being organized, knowing what's coming up next so when one day (fairly recently, by the way), I felt the Lord telling me that He was changing me, I kind of freaked out a little bit. He wanted to redo me to become more and more like Him but I would have to allow Him to have that control, not knowing what was coming up next. It terrified me, but... I knew I had to: there was a deep, burning desire within me. I was scared, almost petrified. But I realized that if I wanted to be a "great" Christian, it would take a great sacrifice. So I told the Lord "Yes, change me. Go ahead. Take control and begin to change me to be more like You."

Best. Decision. Ever. 

   Yes, it's terrifying. Yes, it seems uncertain. Yes, I don't understand. Yes, I still struggle. But it's fine... God's got me, my family, my friends, my future, etc. Sure the change is still scary and different, but in so many good ways. I'm still me, but I am becoming a more Christ-like version of me. He has placed within me this incredible desire for more of Himself within my soul. When I first began to notice a difference, it almost blew me away. There is a satisfaction and peace in Him that I am finding. I want to read my Bible more. I want to pray for people daily. I want to encourage others and spread His love more than ever. Any opportunities He gives, I want to take, even if they scare the living daylights out of me.

   Nothing in this world can compare to the incredible life in Jesus. Anything this world offers cannot compare to that moment when you realize Christ is all you ever want. You may still love those things and talk about them, but they don't hold a piece of your heart anymore... that's where only Jesus resides. "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Romans 12:2 (NKJV).

   But......

   It would be so easy to let this all slip away. God is never going to let me go, but I could easily let go of Him. There are so many opportunities daily to turn away from this Christian walk and follow the world. I'm not talking about just the larger things, like turning away from our faith and denying Christ. This includes even the small things: role models, types of music, movies/TV shows, daily conversations, things we read, etc. The littlest things make the greatest impacts and those are the things that the devil uses to turn us slowly away from our walks with Christ.

   I'm not telling you to become a hermit and live in silence away from the world, but we have to work at this - if we neglect this gift of life in Christ, it will disappear. Our "Jesus-ness" will fade from our lives. It's like when you spend a lot of time with someone, you begin to pick up on their characteristics. I have a few friends like this: after talking with my one friend who lives down south, I always start to say "ya'll" and everyone knows who I was talking to recently. It's the same with Christ. We ask Him to change us and make our lives more pleasing to Him, but if we don't work at it, it will not last. It requires a sacrifice of time and energy on our parts. It takes work. The reward is worth every moment of effort.

   Look again at the list of characteristics at the beginning of this post. Do you need help with one of the in particular? Do you need all of them? You're in good company. No one possesses every single one, but that's why we need God to continually remake us.

   Lord, change me. Make me more Christ-like. Show me the rewards of the sacrifice. Give a me a deep desire to strive after a life with You.

Blessings,
~Abby

Spirit of the Living God, 

Fall fresh on me. 

Spirit of the Living God, 

Fall fresh on me. 

Melt me, mold me, 

Fill me, use me.

Spirit of the Living God,

Fall fresh on me.

- D. Iverson & L. Alexander, 1997

PS - I apologize for the lack of updates. I was wrapping up a semester by the end of February, then March was ridiculous with work. I will try to update a bit in April. I cannot promise anything as I am starting a new semester tomorrow (actually today), but I will try! 

May!

           I can’t believe it’s May already and I haven’t posted a blog in over a month! Ah! April was, in a word, INSANE. I covered someone vacation at work so my hours doubled  for three weeks! I did not get any school or writing done! Grrr… But, not that I’m back to a normal schedule, I am trying to get back into the swing of things. Like blogging!

            We had a talent show at church at the end of April – that was awesome! Aside from everyone else in the church doing a fantastic job, my sister made her “debut” on the guitar! She received it for Christmas and has been teaching herself. She did a wonderful job!

I’ve learned something about myself the past couple of weeks. I am stronger than I think. A situation has been creeping up on me and I thought I would not be able to handle it. But I was! With a lot of leaning and trusting on God, I was able to face the situation. Sometimes, it takes TRUST more than anything else. You can pray until “you’re blue in the face,” but unless you really trust that the Lord is going to take care of it, it won’t happen.

Just a bit of encouragement to never stop trusting, no matter how hard it gets!

            Blessings!

            ~Abby

            PS – I have friend who is in the army. He left for bootcamp the end of April so please keep him in your prayers! His name is Dan. Thank you!

a lesson learned...

So a lot has been going on since my last post!

1) I have passed my Intro to World Religions test! YAY! (3 more credits!!!)
2) I have ended my college program that I was doing, not because I finished it with a degree but I felt like the Lord was leading me somewhere else. (I’ll elaborate on that more later on.)
3) Our Annual Homeschool Convention is in a week so we’ve been very busy with that but it’s going really well so far! Your prayers would be extremely appreciated!
4) I have sort of reconnected with one friend that I had lost touch with a few years ago.  I’m also trying to mend some other friendships that I have either lost, or I have drifted away from the other person. I feel like the Lord is leading me to try and reach out to these people so we’ll see how He leads.
5) I have been really using the last few weeks to grow in my spiritual walk. I’ll talk about that now and then go back to some of the other things.

I have been reading through different Psalms during the day. It’s been helping me stay calm, focused, and less stressed. I often would just get up and start my day, but now that I have been getting into the Bible more and just relying more on the promises of Jesus, I have a more gentle spirit within me. I know that it’s all due to His greatness and Holy Spirit. He has been showing me more and more how to become like Him.

When I am truly honest with myself, I know that I am not the person I should be. I know that God can make me into EXACTLY what He wants me to be. It’s very hard to surrender everything, and I mean everything to Him. I like to be in control, on top of everything, organized into binders and sections, calendars and appointments. But, I’ve been learning, slowly and painfully at times, that God doesn’t work that way. He needs to be in control of our lives. In His time, in His ways, He will do it all for good. For your good. That’s a lesson I’ve been struggling with for a long time, but it has been made so real to me that when God is in control, everything falls into place.

In regards to ending my college program, I felt that it was the right thing to do. It’s very closely related to my previous paragraphs. The organization I was working with are a wonderful group of people, first of all. They were right there to help me through things, answer all of my questions, give me great insight, etc. My personal coach was fabulous! She was always there to listen to me, help through failed tests, celebrate with me when I passed, etc. But most of all, she was there to pray with me and for me. I knew that I could trust her with a lot of my secrets and tell her many of my prayer requests. She would always make sure that I understood about my tests, everything about the program, etc. I was incredibly blessed to have her as my coach.

The main reason that I stopped that particular program before getting my degree, was that I felt that God wanted me somewhere else. I have a lot of college credits and now it’s going to be a waiting process. I have to see the options that are out there, see where God is going to lead me. It’s hard because, like I had said before, I have to entrust it ALL to Him. I am leaving my heart open to His leading, and my head open to suggestions! It will be a challenging couple of months to see how I can let Him lead, but I am very excited about what He will do with my life!

I think that’s all for now. If you made it all the way to the end, thank you for bearing with me! Please comment below!

Blessings through Jesus!
Abby