Quiz me...

There is a trend going around Facebook these days...quizzes! There is a quiz for everything. In the past few weeks I have learned some pretty earth shattering things about myself. The decade I belong in is the 80s, I should have been a professor, I should live in Tennessee, my accent is mid-western, the Hunger Games character I am in Peeta, the Grease character I am is Frenchie, the food I am is cheese, oh and there is so much more I have learned about myself.

These quizzes are fun, the questions they ask are random and bizarre and I sincerely hope nobody takes them seriously. I do not look to these quizzes for my identity, I am no different after I take them than I am before. However, seeing as how I'm Frenchie I do think I should never attempt to color my own hair!

For my identity I need only look one place, and this place does not require me to answer some random questions to find out the answer. My identity is laid out for me clear as can be. So where do I look and what is my identity?

I look to my favorite love letter. This is not a love letter from my husband...its from the One who loves me best...the One who loves me perfectly...this love letter is the Bible.

Here is what it tells me about myself...

I am a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5:17

I am His masterpiece. Ephesians 2:10

I am complete. Colossians 2:9-10

I am loved. 1 John 4:10

I am a child of the King. John 1:12

These are just some of my favorites. For a more complete list, pick up a Bible and discover your identity!

I did it!!!

Just over three months ago I attended a prayer retreat. It was an amazing weekend that I wrote about it in a post called God Showed Up. One of the things that I felt convicted of that weekend was to get into God's Word more. I was feeling stalled in my daily Bible reading and God put a crazy idea on my heart. This idea was to read through the Bible...but not in a year...in 90 days!! At first I pushed this idea aside, after all in 2012 my goal was just to read through the Old Testament and I stalled out on that one somewhere in the middle of Job. Then God showed me that for now I didn't have a lot of outside the house commitments, we were all unpacked and I had the time, so I took a leap and started this crazy 90 day journey. I needed accountability so I grabbed my Kindle and signed up for the 90 day reading plan on my YouVersion Bible. How odd it was for me to read in or some days listen to it on my Kindle vs in my actual Bible. I learned that for me that was needed to keep me reading through it and not camping on one section too long.  On February 2nd, I finished this intense Bible reading plan. I did it in 90 days!!!

So what did I learn from this experience? What did God teach me?

Bible reading is important. This book is a love letter that God wrote to all of us. The whole entire thing...all 66 books...1189 chapters...both Old and New Testament alike were written as a love letter! And in the past 90 days I fell in love with it all over again. I have always loved to read, I can spend hours reading. So why not spend hours in the best book ever written? Even if you don't have hours to spend reading it in 90 days...it is important to get into that book and read it.

Study in a way that works best for me. This experience taught me how I prefer to study the Bible. I needed this 90 days of reading it so fast for God to show me that I do better when I take my time and really dive into a book or even just a passage. I have a list of books that I really want to learn more about. So I am excited to get going on that, to dig out my highlighters and mark meaningful passages for me. So I encourage you to figure out what method of study works best for you and then go for it.

Sometimes it ok to switch translations.  I have been reading the same translation for as long as I can remember. It was comfortable for me...it is the translation I have memorized verses in...but it was time for a change. A new translation for me was like looking at the scripture with a fresh perspective. There are lots of good translations out there, its ok to check them out.

God's word is fresh every morning...just like his mercies. It seemed like everyday God's word would be new and fresh to me. I found verses almost daily that spoke to me in a new way. Sometimes it would be a verse I had read hundreds of times, but for some reason on that particular way it would convict me in a new way.

I come away from this experience refreshed and excited. God even gave me a new favorite verse. I think it fits my stage of life perfectly,  especially as my children are growing up and creating their own families and discovering all God want for their lives.

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. 1 John 1:4.

I also come away from this experience with a new Bible! My hubby let me get it...he's awesome like that. It is a massive study Bible, which is perfect for me right now, I have a lot of questions. Now all I have to do is get in there and make that first mark. Its so new and clean that it may take a few days for me to actually break it in!!

Isn't it pretty?!

Navigating Through Life...

I told my hubby today that I was having a brain freeze as far as an idea on what to blog about. So Brian offered to by my guest blogger today! Please make him feel welcome!

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Our family finally broke down and bought a navigational system for our car.  My cell phone has this technology: I used it on a trip to Washington DC once, but it costs $9.99 per month.  When our family has gone on trips we have borrowed from friends.  Finally we decided enough is enough, we need to know where we are going.  Brenda found a great deal on line and we bought one!

Photo Credit

I know it goes against everything a man stands for.  We aren’t supposed to ask for directions.  But these things are really amazing.  They tell you distances, speed, where rest stops are and of course the best of all, they calculate what time you will arrive at your destination.  Amazing!  Her name?  Bonnie.  That is what Brenda decided to name her.  So I need to tell you about Bonnie.  She isn’t perfect!  The first time Brenda used her she was going to a bridal shop to potentially pick out a wedding dress for our daughter Ashley.  Pretty important destination.  Well, Bonnie took Brenda to a residential neighborhood.  The coordinates or address or something was off.  Thankfully Brenda went the day before and was able to find the real location.

If only there were such a device to help me navigate through my life!  How do I make decisions.  Where should I work? Where should I live? There are so many questions I have in life that I need help answering.  I need direction!  Well, I do have a place we can turn for clear directions.  I do have a tested and approved way to navigate through the most difficult turns of life. 

I have the Bible.  I know it seems like the Bible is a difficult book to understand.  It does take some work to figure it out.  Well, so does any GPS device.  It takes time to figure out how they work.  How to put in the coordinates, how to understand the data that this GPS device is giving to me.   When we take the time to figure out how it works it truly can guide and direct us through life.

This is so much like the Bible.  There is great direction, teaching, instruction in the pages of the Bible.  We can learn from the mistakes people have made in the past.  We have the Bible, prayer and the Holy Spirit to help us navigate through this life.  We live in a time where we need direction.  We need a true North to help guide us.  The Bible is that book God has given us to guide and direct us through difficult times.  Most people have one or many Bibles in their house.  Pick it up, read it, you will be glad you did.  If for some reason you don’t have a Bible you can read it on the computer, go to Bible Gateway. We don’t have an excuse!

If you are tired of getting lost, losing direction?  Turn to the tested and true navigational system.  The bestselling book of all time that will never give you bad directions: The Bible.

Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light for my path. 

Psalm 119:105