Ok sister friend, I’m going to pass some wisdom on to you.  I do it with the upmost love & concern for your sanity, your marriage, and your family. If your house is in a perpetual mess and you can’t ever get around to cleaning, it may be because

you are too BUSY.

Yes, I said the “B” word. I used to be the queen of busy. Always on the go, doing good, beneficial, fun things for my kids and myself. But last December, I finally decided I couldn’t have  it ALL.

Through a lot of prayer and studying God’s word, Jesus confirmed:

There are not enough hours in each week to run around to all these activities AND make my home the haven I want it to be.

He especially used this passage to gently convict and encourage me to cut BUSY out of my life:

“Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children,to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.” Titus 2:5 NIV

How fitting is it that  the NIV translation reads to be “BUSY at home.” It’s the only place I used to not be busy at, because I was so busy running around everywhere else. To dig deeper, let’s check the concordance to see what the author, Paul, was really trying to convey to this group of believers.

Strong’s definition of the original Greek word used by Paul for “to be busy at home” is:  a stayer at home, i.e. domestically inclined (a “good housekeeper”):—keeper at home.

Ouch.  All spelled out for us, now in plain English; a  stayer at home.  Now, I want to be clear, I do not not think this means women should not work.  If working outside the home is what the Lord has planned for you, you are contributing to your home by doing so.  I think it is safe to say what Paul was trying to get across here is for women to make their homes one of their top priorities.

The world has twisted this high calling and made it seem more like a restrictive burden.

The enemy has tried to take beauty out of homemaking and leave an ugly, quick to-do list  where a masterpiece was supposed to hang.

Instead of focusing on the never-ending ugly to do list, I started focusing on the beautiful masterpiece I knew God meant for me to create at home. My thoughts shifted from all that HAD to get done to all the goodness waiting to be cultivated.  I decided it was time to carve out time for my home first, and see if there was room left for the rest later.

Here are the activities I ended up cutting out:

~Spontaneous weekly playdates became more like monthly playdates. (Except for my sister who keeps her weekly spot 🙂

~My Wednesday morning zumba/bible study at the YMCA had to stop.  I miss it but I am so happy with the peace being at home has created!

~Trips to Target had to be cut back to about once a month.  (I do live 3o minutes from the nearest Target, keep in mind).

Do I miss these fun social activities? Yes, at times, but the peace in my home has far out-weighed the benefits these outings used to bring.

When I look back on my life, I want the most abundant, beautiful fruit to be the fruit that grew at home.  It takes time to till, sow good seed, pull weeds, fertilize, and prune.  But in the end, I know I will look back and see it was worth all the eternal beauty that will be harvested.

Spring cleaning challenge:  Look at your schedule for the month of March.  Consider what you could take off for the sake of working on a masterpiece–your home.  I will be here to cheer you on, leading you to the feet of Jesus at the turn of every corner in your house.

I had my sister join in on the fun and make this funny video for us. Dead bugs on your windows? Toy boxes that won’t close all the way?  Dust on your ceiling fan?  Join the club ladies.  Don’t keep throwing your hands up in defeat.  Just stay home and join us in spring cleaning.  PLUS- Pray over your entire family and submerse yourself in God’s cleansing word.  It’s going to be a very refreshing journey!!!

I have still not “arrived” in keeping house!  That is why I am dedicating the month of April to SPRING CLEANING!  I hope you will consider joining us here at Refocused Bible Study.  The link to the bible study is below.  I start blogging through it Monday, March 2nd!

Click Here>>> http://www.amazon.com/Spring-Cleaning-Your-Heart-Home/dp/1530583446/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459376468&sr=8-1&keywords=spring+cleaning+bible+study >>>

 

This year, I’ll be blogging through my Spring Cleaning Bible Study with a focus on MINIMALISM! If you are interested in finding more freedom from STUFF and more LIFE in JESUS, we would love for you to join us!

God is so good, in His sovereignty He led me to this verse this morning:

“Less is more, and more is less.” Psalm 37:16 MSG

I’m thrilled to encourage us through some amazing bloggers who will bring the practical and biblical goodness of minimalism to our spring Cleaning journey this year!

I hope you’re in!!!!!!!!

Spring has sprung, and not only are there bunnies hopping around in the green grass, there are dust bunnies on my furniture. The animals are popping their heads back up from their underground burrows and living life again, but the piles of stuff under the beds in my house haven’t seen the light of day since long before winter started. My heart sinks when I think about all that needs to get done in my house. It’s time for a

~~Spring Cleaning!~~

But why spend so many hours mindlessly going through our houses when we can pray scripture that will bring a powerful cleansing of our Spirit and our family’s spirits as we bag up, scrub, and shine our way to a clean house and clean hearts!

Here at Refocused Bible Study, starting March 2nd, I will be blogging bi-weekly through this journey to a clean heart and home!  I wrote a 4 week bible study available on amazon, titled, “Spring Cleaning for your heart and home: Praying your way to a clean house.” Get it here:>>>>>>>>

<<<<(Click pic to go to amazon and check it out!)>>>>

Click here:>>> http://www.amazon.com/Spring-Cleaning-Your-Heart-Home/dp/1530583446/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458414920&sr=8-1&keywords=spring+cleaning+your+heart+and+home<<&lt;

The study is based on the this amazing passage:

“Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” ~Jesus Matthew 11:29-30 MSG

We will be walking with Jesus through our homes, cleansing our spirits and our houses.  We will be praying powerful faith-filled prayers for our families as we clean their spaces.  We are going to feel so free and light and our houses will look so wonderful we are done!

I’ll be posting prayer podcasts every week to listen to as we work.

I’ll also post a free passage reading plan/cleaning schedule for anyone who does not buy the study.

I can’t wait to walk through our houses with Freedom Himself together on this journey!

Setting our Housework on a FIRM FOUNDATION

I love all the rocks in this picture.  They lay on top of the concrete foundation of the house I had the honor to help construct a few years ago in Jamaica.  Like I wrote about in the study guide, the foundation had been laid before we started our work. This picture was taken after we framed the house.  We wrote scripture under what would hold up her flooring.  She is LITERALLY walking around on her firm foundation of Christ’s Word now in her new home!  THIS thought makes me want to do cartwheels!

Not only is this woman walking on his Word, she is walking IN his Word.  The lady who received this home is a daughter of God.  When we handed her the keys, we gathered around inside her home, and God released a flood of his Spirit through her as she blessed us with her heartfelt thanks and a charge to continue to love others with the love of Christ.  It was amazing!  It was a sacred moment that could only be captured in the hearts of those standing upon those freshly cut and hammered boards.  She laid her foundation that day for serving the Lord in the home she had been given.  We prayed over her and this shelter the Lord had so richly blessed her with.  We prayed for the physical elements of wind and rain that would no doubt be brought in by the Caribbean Sea that sets a beautiful backdrop outside her window.

Today I asked you to examine what your foundation was.  To revisit the reasons you work so hard in your homes for your families.  It is so easy to forget the solid Rock of Christ that we stand on as believers.

A wise woman builds her home, but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭14:1‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Today I ask you to examine what your foundation is for homemaking. To revisit the reasons you work so hard in your homes for your families.  It is so easy to forget the solid Rock of Christ that we stand on as believers.

I urge all of us to ask Jesus daily to refine our purpose for all this work it takes to make a house a home.  To throw off the reasons that will leave us frustrated and tired.  It’s not for our pride, for measuring up to others, for approval of our husbands, or for our obsessive compulsiveness that we are to tend to these temporary shelters.

It’s for Jesus.

It’s for his glory.

It’s through his Spirit, pouring out of us.

It’s going to bless our families.

I’m praying we will be WISE women who build their homes,

not foolish ones who tear them down, unsatisfied because we’ve built our homes on sand.

As your feet walk around your homes working today, remember the foundation of Christ they tread upon! Put his word into practice and your homes will stand firm. ❤️

New Here? See whats going on below!< strong>New Year Bible Challenge<<<<<
If I’m 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 <<<<<

OR

Download the Study FREE here & sign up for daily emails to lead you through the study! I hope you’ll join us and be encouraged this season.

Praying for you,

Amy

This week I have been quick to encourage my daughter as she serves our family by helping me cook and prepare meals.  She ALWAYS wants to pull a chair up to the stove and help me.  Two nights ago, she insisted on making us our salads. I knew this passage was coming up in our bible study, so I encouraged her using the word “serving” and telling her God had given her a special heart to serve others.  I lifted up some prayers asking God to continue to stir her heart to serve others through the love of Christ.  And I will continue to allow her to help me serve.

EVEN THOUGH IT IS MESSY!  EVEN THOUGH IT TAKES A LOT MORE TIME!

Why?

Because I see the radiant fulfillment and joy on her face when she hands her daddy his salad, with half the juice from the green olive jar mixed in with his salad dressing.

Because this is how God builds and encourages his church.  We were ALL given a special gift that makes all the parts of his body work together in perfect harmony.

Because God knows the plans he has for my daughter.  And you can be sure, he will not let this gift go to waste.  I don’t know how, or where, or when she will be serving others in the future, but He knows.

Here are 3 truths to encourage you to continue partnering with God to cultivate the gifts He has given them:

1) God has a plan for your child. (Jeremiah 29:11)

2) God has gifted your child to bring glory to Him and know Him through these plans. (Romans 12:6-8)

3)  You are a vessel to let God’s Spirit pour encouragement of these gifts to be cultivated and to point them to hold Jesus’s hand and let Jesus walk them step by step into these plans for good, for a future, and for a hope!

I enjoyed going through the passage in Romans 12 and reflecting on which of these gifts I see emerging in my children.  I hope you do too!

6 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7 If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8 If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

So we will keep praying, bringing the decisions that we make for them to the ONE who knows what their future holds.  I pray we all do this and trust the ONE who knows their future.

New Here? See whats 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

OR

Download the study for FREE and sign up for 21 emails to walk you through the study HERE!

Praying for you!

Amy

“This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife and the two are united into ONE.” Genesis 2:24

ONENESS

Being united and staying united as ONE in marriage does not happen passively. This world pulls us in a million directions, but God’s Word pulls you into a progressively closer relationship with Him, and into a progressively closer relationship with your husband.
Today in our study guides, we were asked to pray over and write out  the “road to ONENESS”

My husband and I have a morning rhythm that helps us have time with Jesus first AND a routine time together that creates ONENESS:
An undistracted cup of coffee with each other  in the morning.

UNDISTRACTED= FOCUSED=ONENESS
A cup of coffee represents focused time together. Sitting down and leaving the computer and phone behind to converse with the most important person on this earth to me, my husband.

This is our road to oneness. Yours may look different, especially if you don’t drink coffee. But one thing will be the same:

Marital oneness grows with a mindset and heartset of making your husband priority of all your relationships on this earth.

Our relationship with Jesus is in a league of its own. Way above all our earthly ones!!!

As we walk with Jesus, he will help us leave what needs to be left behind and will walk us down this road to greater oneness in our marriages.

Our coloring page in Refocused today:

 Praying for all of you as we walk down this beautiful road to greater Oneness!

New Here? See whats 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 for 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

OR

Download it HERE for FREE

>>> Sign up for 21 daily emails HERE to walk you through the study!

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

Engage in God’s Word using the study reading plan and prayer.

Praying for you!

Amy