Monday, January 30, 2012

Prepare for the Battle

One of the things that I have discovered (and some of you may just read this and go "duh!") is that the battles of this life are more than just physical, they are spiritual too.  I know, that's deep isn't it?  But we are told throughout scripture that we are battling spiritually.  (Ephesians 6:10-12).  When I look at things through those eyes, I see that there is so much more at stake.

I had a clear realization of just how this works on Friday.  I told you in my One Word 2012 post that I am participating in the Made to Crave Bible study (You can get the book here or you can do the 21 day challenge for free here) which not only focuses on God but on weight loss as well.  Friday was my weigh in day.  After losing almost 6 lbs the first 2 weeks my scale showed no weight loss on Friday.  I began to get frustrated and a little voice started to tell me that this really wasn't worth it.  (You can read about it on my SparkPeople blog here)  This was my first spiritual battle on this new journey I was on.

I had felt peace until the scale didn't show me anything different.  I was letting those numbers and that little niggling voice rob me of my peace.  So I turned to scripture.  After all, Ephesians 6:15-18 tells us to use scripture and faith to defend ourselves, not to mention that little reminder about being ready with the gospel of peace.  And I found this little nugget of truth:

Photo taken by Jose Carlos Norte licensed under the Creative Commons license

I felt like I had fallen, that I had failed at this new journey.  We have all had moments when we felt like we just didn't quite measure up and in those moments it is so easy to give ourselves over to the negative thoughts that plague us in those times.  That my friends is the spiritual battle.  We need to remember that even though we may have fallen, we have the strength to rise again (Philippians 4:13)!  We are never alone in our struggle.  God provides a way if we will just look to Him to lead.


Until next time,

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

hearts!

My hooks and needles were getting a little dusty lately.  When I was changing out my shelf decorations in my hallway I realized I didn't have anything Valentine-y to replace what had been hanging on the wall.  So I turned to Ravelry and searced for some heart patterns.  First I made this one:


This is one of the hearts from the Granny Heart Bunting designed by Sandra Paul.  If you get confused with any aspect of the pattern, she has created a great step by step photo tutorial here.  While I love this heart, it blends in a little to much with my white walls so rather than redo the entire heart I decided to add another heart on top of this one.


Much better if I do say so myself.   I like the small pattern so much that I am considering making several of them in thread and sticking them on some small cards as valentine's presents.  What do you think?  You can find the pattern for the small heart designed by Addy here

Are you valentine crafting?  What are you making?  Looking for another heart pattern?  Check out my heart bookmark pattern, it's free!
Until next time,

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

One Word 2012

I have seen this idea floating around the internet and have been really thinking about what word I would chose as my goal or resolution this year.  Haven't heard about it?  The basic concept is this, rather than coming up with a new year's resolution, or a list of things to do this year, chose one word that encompasses everything.  You can read about this here.

So I have spent a lot of time thinking about it and finally chose my word:

I have been holding on to a lot of hurts in my life, a lot of anger over postponed plans and dreams.  I have been so busy looking backwards or forwards that I have lost the pleasures of the moment.  I don't want to do that anymore.  John 14:27 tells us "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid"  Peace is a gift to us, but like all gifts it must be something we accept.  I have decided it is time to accept this gift.  I no longer want a troubled heart, I don't want to worry about the future.


"in ME (Jesus) you may have peace, in the world you will have tribulation, but take heart; I have overcome the world" John 16:33

The first thing I need to do is to focus on the one who gives peace.  As the verse above tells us, it is in Jesus that we have peace, even when things get hard we can still find peace.  (This was a huge ah-ha moment for me sitting in church listening to this sermon.)  So that is what I am focusing on right now.

Since I so often turn to food as a comforter when I don't feel peaceful, I joined an online Bible study based upon Lysa Terkeurst's book Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God, Not Food.  In it I have learned so many truths that are helping me to reach my goal of peace in 2012.

So throughout the year, I will be bringing back the scripture cards every week to share scriptures that can help us to either attain the peace God has offered to us, or to help us create a peaceful environment in our homes.  And since accountability is a biggie in the Made to Crave study, I plan to keep you all posted during my journey to reach peace with my physical self as well.  If you are interested in how I am achieving this you can find me on SparkPeople as Sunflowers4Me.  I would love to be friends with you there.

How about you?  Have you chosen a word for 2012?  I would love it if you shared it with me!

Until next time,

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Knit Pray Love

Anyone else out there joining in on this?  It is a partnership between KLove, Air1 and CURE that is striving to get hand knit hats for children ages newborn to 12.  They will be given to children being treated in Cure hospitals in Afghanistan primarily and if enough are recieved around the world. 



All hats must be postmarked by Feb. 15th.  Are your needles clicking?
Until next time,