On Saturday afternoon, I was walking through an infirmary in Jamaica when a sweet soul in a bright orange dress laid in her bed smiling widely and waving at me. I drew closer, shook her hand and introduced myself to her. Beside her bed was a wheelchair and a small bedside table.

On her table, a bible was laid open to the book of John. I talked to her for a few minutes and then I waved some of my friends over to meet this happy spirit. We circle around her bed as she shared passages of the bible from memory with us. We were humbled by her joy and her faith. Then she started handing out presents to us.

“I want to give you something,” she said as she looked at me. She grabbed a braided bracelet from her bedside table and tied it around my wrist.

She tied it so tightly I could hardly get it off to sleep that night. The three pieces of thread, in native colors of the Jamaican flag, were weaved so strongly together, with no gaps so that it looked like one piece of continuous yarn with three colors. Of course, I KNOW this is an illustration God has given me through this sweet angel of his for this verse:

For me, this bracelet represents God in the gold, me in the green, my husband, Nick in the black. With the Lord holding us together, we will stay connected, strong and steady and without any gaps for others to enter in to this sacred covenant we entered into eleven years ago.

This verse and illustration is now used in wedding ceremonies. My sister in law included it in hers. And I can see why.

We can trust God with our marriages.

We can trust him and call out to him when we have anxiety and worry about the current state of our relationship.

We can trust him and call out to him to protect our bond and keep it strong when others around us are unraveling.

We can trust and call out to him when we are at the end of our own rope in our marriage.

When we don’t think we can hold it together anymore, we can trust and call out to him and know HE CAN.

I don’t know about you, but I find so much freedom knowing God is able to hold this beautiful, but complicated thing called marriage together, making it strong, unified, and better with every twist and turn as long as we trust Him and follow his pattern for it.

My daughter colored today’s illustration for me and then braided my hair like she does every night. 🙂 

The other passage, Philippians 2:1-11, in the Day 2 study guide is my favorite, because it has been one of the most heart-altering passages in my wifehood. Studying the attitude and heart of how our Jesus lived is powerful.

Praying for you ladies and all the marriages represented in reading these words! Keep digging in and applying his Word to your lives.

 

 

“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!

Amy 

“He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.” Ephesians 2:10 MSG

I closed the door of my minivan and turned around to make sure my girls had buckled up. My eyes fell to the mess all over the floor of the car and my mind shifted back to the verse we had just studied a few minutes earlier. What was the work God had gotten ready for me to do, and was I doing it? I definitely wasn’t keeping my van clean, and I wondered if that was on God’s list of jobs for me! Duh, right?

Well, if it was on God’s list, why was I having so much trouble getting around to it? Why was I struggling day in and day out at this mom gig and feeling like I was spinning on a hamster’s wheel, never moving forward? I was never getting around to the dreams God had planted in my heart, or the passions that made me feel alive, and I was sad about it.

Part of the bible study that day included drawing the garden you wanted your life to grow into. At the moment I felt like I was scattering seeds everyday at the last minute all over the place, hoping none of the crops I was growing would starve. Then I was watering a big spray all over the place, trusting God to grow all the things I was working on, because I was overwhelmed. Sometimes, I would yell at the crops (kids) for not growing (maturing) on their own. I was super frustrated. So I asked God to help.

He helped me envision the life I want to look back on one day: a beautiful, abundant garden that He had planned, which I would simply be obedient to help nourish. I saw a few rows of crops to tend to, and I saw myself smiling, spreading seed and watering those rows and those rows only. I was no longer scattering seed (my time, energy, love, and attention) all over the place on a whim. I was confident in this vision that I was doing the work God had prepared in advance for me, which he speaks about in Ephesians 2:10.

How did this look in real life?

 This looked like the word NO. I just said no. That’s right, the same phrase we learned in the DARE to keep a kid off drugs program can be applied here! My certain rows of crops needed attention first, and if I couldn’t get nourished by my Father and pour out his nourishment onto my rows of crops (my husband, kids, and home) then I wasn’t coming to what you were inviting me to.

This also looked like the word INTENTIONAL. This is a hard word for a self professed Jesus hippie to act out. How can you be Spirit led and intentional? Isn’t that irony at it’s best? I’ve learned, our Master Creator had a plan for everything, and that I can too. (My plan will not look typed out and Excel prepared, it is scribbled in my journal during quiet time and on a notepad and for me, that works)!

It looked like the word BOLD. I asked God what he wanted me to focus on, heard him, wrote it down, and walked in bold obedience. I didn’t ask anyone but him. (I did talk to my husband about things because the same God speaks to both of us and I knew he would confirm things through him, plus I am a firm believer God desires oneness in marriage). Once I had my husband’s support and encouragement, I didn’t ask for anyone else’s. I boldly walked forward with God.

One dream I wanted to pursue was writing. This year I finally had the time since I was focused. I wrote three bible studies and published over 100 blog posts in 2016! I give all credit to God. It was his work he had prepared in advance for me to do. After I got quiet and intentional before him, it became possible, because this was the season he ordained me to start down the path of writing. I had tried before, when my kids were younger, and I had quit very quickly, frustrated because I was rushing the process, running before Jesus and his timing.

Today in the Refocused Study, I revisited this verse, this time in the Amplified Bible:

“For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set], so that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us].” Ephesians 2:10 AMP

I wrote out my dreams again for the year ahead. (DREAM BIG)!
Then the Lord gave me this passage to focus on as I move on to make goals to walk down these paths with him – to “live the good life which he prearranged and made ready for me.”

Doing Your Best for God

 “So, my son, throw yourself into this work for Christ. Pass on what you heard from me—the whole congregation saying Amen!—to reliable leaders who are competent to teach others. When the going gets rough, take it on the chin with the rest of us, the way Jesus did. A soldier on duty doesn’t get caught up in making deals at the marketplace. He concentrates on carrying out orders. An athlete who refuses to play by the rules will never get anywhere. It’s the diligent farmer who gets the produce. Think it over. God will make it all plain.” 2 Timothy 2:1-7 MSG 

Look at that last part: It’s the diligent farmer who gets the produce. 

Question: At the end of this year, where do you want to see the most produce? The lush, big fruit God has produced through his work in your life? For me, it’s my relationship with the Lord, my marriage, motherhood, and writing; with writing coming after all of those.

Goals: Make your goals specific to these areas of your life. How will you invest time, love and care to the rows of crops in your garden which you want to become the most fruitful? How will this look in daily life? How will you be this diligent farmer?

Pray: As Paul wrote to Timothy, his words in the ESV state:

“7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.”

Think it over, God will make it all PLAIN. 

Sisters, cling to this word from His Word. Ask God to make PLAIN what he wants you to focus on this year. It is all his work. We are just joining him in it! We don’t want to miss the very best plans God prepared in advance for us before he breathed life into our lungs! His plans are the best plans. Pray and ask God and he will make plain the paths before us for the road ahead. We will obediently take one step after another with him to walk in these plans.

Lord, I pray over my sisters reading this post. I pray they will seek you and you will make it all PLAIN. Help them see your masterpiece when they look in the mirror. Help them hear your voice about dreams you’re stirring in their hearts. Help them make a plan that puts you first and keeps the most important parts of their lives blooming and beautiful as they walk forward to pursue any dreams with you. Above all else, make their relationship with you paramount over any desire in their hearts. We thank you for inviting us to work with you to advance your kingdom. We pray that through us, others will be reminded of the masterpieces they are. For your glory Jesus, Amen.
I wrote a blog post on Day 4 & 5 of Refocused Bible Study. 

I’d love to hear what you envision your abundant garden to look like at the end of this year, your dreams & or goals! 
-Amy 

 

My dishwasher broke on Christmas Eve. So lately my sink has looked a lot like this:

 Who wants to come over for coffee?! What if you came over & I handed you one of those white 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 drew 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 these dishes. When we bring our hearts to him to confess and ask forgiveness, it’s like we are these dishes

  “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

Our coloring page today: 

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!