One year, my dishwasher broke on Christmas Eve. Through the holiday my sink was full to the brim of used dishes waiting to be washed. What if I invited you over for coffee, and handed you one of the mugs right out of the dirty sink? Would you use it? No! You would wash it or grab a one out of the cabinet. Yesterday we envisioned ourselves as the  beautiful vessel God created us to be. He fills us with his Spirit in these fragile containers that we are, and we spill out on those closest to us, those beautiful containers on our “blessing table.” But we are still sinners. And we always will be until he takes us home. The good news, is that we don’t have to go find an animal to slaughter on our behalf anymore like the people in the Old testament.  Instead, we believe that’s what Jesus did for us on the cross. We know his blood is like the dish soap to dirty dishes. When we bring our hearts to him to confess and ask forgiveness, it’s like we are sparkling clean, ready to be used by Him for all the good work ahead of us this day and this year.

  “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”‭‭1 John‬ 1:9

Everyday y’all. Our hearts get misguided everyday. Use this passage as your prayer for Him to show you where your heart needs a scrubbing: Psalm 139:23-24“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  Point  out anything in me that offends you,and lead me along the path of everlasting life. He will show us, making our hearts pure so that His love can freely flow through us. We can #Refocus our hearts on Jesus anytime because of what he did for us on the cross.  If you have never entered into a relationship with Jesus, never made a deliberate decision to Focus on him,  to get  to know Him, now is the time! A new year, a new you, the you that you were created to be can start right now. “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.” Romans 10:9-10 Tell Him, and then tell someone you know that loves Him. Your new life with Him is going to be amazing! It won’t always be easy, but it will always be worth knowing Him. So we #Focus on Him for the first time ever, or we #Refocus on Him again & again & again…Everyday. Everyday this year, we come back to the Cleanser to be washed sparkling clean. We know we will receive mercy as he washes all the dirty, yucky, grime away from our hearts. And we will be ready to receive and pour out His goodness again and again and again this year. Our husbands, our children, those who enter our homes, and those we encounter as we go about our lives  will be blessed through us. We will be these honorable vessels:

“Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”

 ‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭2:20-21‬ ‭ESV‬‬

I really have enjoyed washing my dishes by hand the past week.  It has been a time for me to pray & ask The Cleanser to reveal the dirty specks in my heart and wash my sins down the drain with the soapy water. Maybe dish time can be a good time for Him to search your soul & wash you clean as well.  Anytime, anyplace will work. Just do it sisters! Praying for you as you #Refocus on our heart Cleanser today and all year long! You are worthy, qualified, and ready for the good work He has for you to do this year. Glory to Jesus.

New Here? See what’s going on

below!

New Year Bible Challenge 

I’ll be honest, I get sidetracked in life, how about you, friend? A few years ago, I was tired of spinning on a hamster wheel, feeling like I was making no progress in areas of my life. I prayed and God told me that this was not the way He desired for me to live. He showed me through His word that I AM His daughter, and that there is a better way. A refocused, narrower way.

We can ask God to make our vision clearer for our lives, more effective to know Him better and see Him more clearly right where we are. To have more peace and fulfillment in our relationship with Him, our marriages, our mothering, and our homes. He will flood those areas of our lives with new clarity and breath and life and beauty when we ask Him and meditate on His Word towards those areas in our lives. His Word brings beauty to the most mundane parts of our lives! By the end of January, if you join us, you will be folding laundry, or reading to your children, or having a conversation with a friend, realizing you are standing on Holy Ground with Jesus, doing exactly what He created you to do, communing with Him and doing good work for His glory, right where He has placed you! Join us here at Refocused Bible Study to REFOCUS through His Word! It started New Year’s Eve, but jump in anytime!

You can buy the study here: Buy Refocused Bible Study

The Downloadable Study is FREE HERE

Praying for you,

Amy

Today we focus in on Psalm 139:14. It is powerful to remember that God made each of us “fearfully and wonderfully.”
Does your soul really know this truth very well?

Take time today to be still & know the unique characteristics Your Maker’s hand designed you with. Write them down. Own them confidently. They are not by mistake. Even your weaknesses were planned by him to keep you closely dependent on his grace, and for His power to be displayed through them.

You are a vessel for God’s love to be poured through this beautiful creation that you are. For the sake of #Refocus color your “blessing table”- which is your home base mission field. My kids had fun coloring their little teacups afterwards & we talked about how they are all uniquely created fearfully & wonderfully by God. Get your kids involved in this one, they will love it. We had to do ours in the car while we waited for our Chinese food. I praise God because He created the perfect time to include them, I had put my phone away & prayed to focus in on my little blessing table. We had some sweet moments.

 Please show me some pics of how they turn out! Praying for you ladies! You are beautiful vessels of His love. Here’s mine: 

You were MADE for whatever plans He has for you this year!

More of Refocused Day 1 below! I found this video & blog & wanted to share it with you: 

Here’s how He’s transforming me:
He’s helping me turn my everyday, mundane tasks of serving my family into offerings, acts of worship, while I thank him.

Like tonight, I was thinking of Romans 12:1-2 (the whole chapter is great by the way) while I made my family grilled chicken salads for dinner.

I mean, let’s keep it real, cooking, serving, cleaning is hard work. It is an everyday life task that we can easily leave God out of. But God wants to be all up in it ya’ll. 

 Listen to Romans 12:1 MSG:

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. ”

Do you know what I really LOVE? That the first thing mentioned is SLEEPING. Seriously, God wants us to get enough rest as an offering to him. EATING- God wants us to eat and serve our family healthy food as an offering to him. Everything we do, it is an offering, an act of worship as we FOCUS in on this truth, that we are fulfilling God’s perfect, good, pleasing, will for our life at the moment when we are doing it FOR THE LORD.

More Romans 12:1-2 MSG:

“Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

So I asked God to change the way I think about the things that are mundane, like cooking a healthy meal for my family, and he did. And He will continue to help us all do this if we ask him. Jesus is an everyday life God who loves to be welcomed into all that we do, not matter how small. So, change those dirty diapers, clean that house, go to that job, and let God transform you from the inside out as you let him change the way you think.

I want to hear how God is transforming you today! I’d love to see your coloring pages! Praying for you, sweet Refocusing sisters!!!

Amy

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world,

but let God transform you into a

NEW person

by changing the way you think.

Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭12:2‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Happy NEW Year!

There is no better way to start a NEW Year than by believing God wants to do NEW things in your life. Is this biblical? YES! Yesterday we looked at Isaiah 43 and remembered Who God is… Today, we look at who YOU are in this NEW life Jesus has given you, continuing to transform you through HIS infinite grace. This NEW year you can continue to be transformed by Grace Himself through His living word.

Challenge: Take at least 15 minutes today, asking the Lord to give you verses from His Word to transform the way you think. Google verses that relate to the struggles you are facing if you don’t know the scripture references. Write them down, post them where you will see them frequently. Screenshot them on your phone. Commit to thinking on them and praying them over yourself and loved ones.

JESUS is the WORD made flesh. Inviting more of the Word into your life and mind is inviting Him there as well. He loves you so much and wants to continue to transform your heart to know Him more, love Him more, and love others more.

Take it another step! Google free printables for your verses and put them in frames in your home for the NEW year. Ask God to saturate your life, mind, and heart with NEWNESS through His living, active word. Nothing will transform you from the inside out like He can!

Narrow your focus: Select one verse for each of these areas that pertain to your life:

* Your relationship with Jesus

* Your marriage

* Your mothering

* Your home

Post them (in real life surrounding you)

Pray them Speak them Believe them!

“Every word of God proves true. He is a shield to all who come to him for protection.” Proverbs 30:5

I’d love to hear your verses!

Praying for you!

Amy

New Here? See what’s going on below!

New Year Bible Challenge 

I’ll be honest, I get sidetracked in life, how about you, friend? A few years ago, I was tired of spinning on a hamster wheel, feeling like I was making no progress in areas of my life. I prayed and God told me that this was not the way He desired for me to live. He showed me through His word that I AM His daughter, and that there is a better way. A refocused, narrower way. We can ask God to make our vision clearer for our lives, more effective to know Him better and see Him more clearly right where we are. To have more peace and fulfillment in our relationship with Him, our marriages, our mothering, and our homes. He will flood those areas of our lives with new clarity and breath and life and beauty when we ask Him and meditate on His Word towards those areas in our lives. His Word brings beauty to the most mundane parts of our lives! By the end of January, if you join us, you will be folding laundry, or reading to your children, or having a conversation with a friend, realizing you are standing on Holy Ground with Jesus, doing exactly what He created you to do, communing with Him and doing good work for His glory, right where He has placed you! Join us here at Refocused Bible Study to REFOCUS through His Word!

Study started New Year’s Eve, but jump in anytime!

The Downloadable Study is FREE HERE

You can buy the study here: Buy Refocused

CHALLENGE: Monday through Friday, before looking at social media,

1. Engage in God’s Word using the study or reading plan and prayer.
2. Then, comment on this blog, the FB page, or Instagram and answer the question I pose. If you don’t have time to say much, just say, “I did it!” And we will cheer you on! Interact and be held accountable by myself and others to start this year out remembering WHO GOD IS, that YOU ARE HIS DAUGHTER, and the GOOD WORK HE HAS FOR YOU on the road ahead!

Prayers and Love over your year,

Amy

As this year ends, and a new one begins,

REMEMBER.

Who God IS
“I am the LORD, who opened a way through the waters, making a dry path through the sea. ” Isaiah 43:16 NLT 

Who You ARE

“Because YOU are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you.” Isaiah 43:4 NLT

What HE created YOU for

“I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for MY GLORY.” Isaiah 43:6-7

REFLECT

What has God done for you, His daughter, created for His glory, whom He loves this past year?

Give him thanks.

He is so good. Our faith grows by recognizing how active God really is in our lives. He is always working on our behalf. The Word says that Jesus is always interceding for us in front of the Father. If you have started a relationship with Jesus, he has given you his Holy Spirit who is teaching you, guiding you, and never leaving you.

There are things on this side of heaven that He has done for us this past year which we will never know about until we see Him face to face THAT DAY!

So even if this year has been your hardest yet, cling to the verse above that says

“I Love You.”

You are loved by the Creator of the universe, the God who formed you. He has your eternal good in mind at all times.

New Year Bible Challenge 

I’ll be honest, I get sidetracked in life, how about you, friend? A few years ago, I was tired of spinning on a hamster wheel, feeling like I was making no progress in areas of my life. I prayed and God told me that this was not the way He desired for me to live. He showed me through His word that I AM His daughter, and that there is a better way. A refocused, narrower way.

We can ask God to make our vision clearer for our lives, more effective to know Him better and see Him more clearly right where we are. To have more peace and fulfillment in our relationship with Him, our marriages, our mothering, and our homes. He will flood those areas of our lives with new clarity and breath and life and beauty when we ask Him and meditate on His Word towards those areas in our lives.

His Word brings beauty to the most mundane parts of our lives! By the end of January, if you join us, you will be folding laundry, or reading to your children, or having a conversation with a friend, realizing you are standing on Holy Ground with Jesus, doing exactly what He created you to do, communing with Him and doing good work for His glory, right where He has placed you!

Join us here at Refocused Bible Study to REFOCUS through His Word! Starting today, New Year’s Eve!

You can buy the study here: Buy Refocused Bible Study

If you can’t buy the study, no worries, download a print the study for FREE HERE.

CHALLENGE: Monday through Friday, before looking at social media,

1. Engage in God’s Word using the study or reading plan and prayer.
2. Then, comment on this blog, or Instagram and answer the question I pose. If you don’t have time to say much, just say, “I did it!” And we will cheer you on!  Interact and be held accountable by myself and others to start this year out remembering WHO GOD IS, that YOU ARE HIS DAUGHTER, and the GOOD WORK HE HAS FOR YOU on the road ahead!

Praying for you!

Amy

2025 is close upon us! At the turn of the calendar, The Lord often gives us a WORD from HIS WORD to focus on and hold on to for the year ahead.

I’ve put together a guide below to help you lean in and listen for your WORD for 2025 based on the acronym, WORD.

1) Want to know

Do you really desire to know what God wants you to focus on for 2025? Sure, we have our own great ideas for resolutions but do we really want to know what God would have us hone in on for the next 365 days? Ask God to give you a heart to hear His heart for you. Then ask Him to give you a WORD from HIS WORD. Then…

2) Open your eyes and ears

God speaks to us through His Word. Often, a passage or verse will seem to come to me FROM ALL DIRECTIONS. I will hear it on a podcast. Then, I will see it pop up in my email. Then my husband will mention it, and so on. This is when I pay close attention and know The Lord wants me to take note. So, I do in fact take note…

3) Respond to His Guidance

Do a word study using a concordance on the WORD you hear Him speak to you. Write down relating scriptures containing the Word. Memorize and meditate on the number one verse that speaks to you. This will help you to….

4) Declare the WORD over the next year

Speak YOUR WORD inside of YOUR VERSE aloud to God. Pray it back to Him. Everyday, declare who He is and what He’s doing through the Word and who you are and what He wants you to do through the Word. This year, my word is PRAYER and my verse is

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” Colossians‬ ‭4‬:‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So, friends, what is your WORD? I’d love to hear below!

Happy New Year! Cheers to a closer walk with Jesus in 2025!

Have you ordered a copy of Refocused Bible Study yet? It’s an illustrated Bible Study to help you prayerfully focus on Jesus in the most important areas of your life for the road ahead. Grab a copy on Amazon ✨here or print weeks that are applicable to your season of life for ✨FREE HERE.

Know a friend who needs encouragement for the new year? Send them this post and invite them to join as we Refocus on Jesus for the road ahead (Hebrews 12:2).

With prayers and love 💕

Amy