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!

 

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: 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCgLu20uRIE

In the video, I talk about how I like to use The Message paraphrase to dig deeper into the Word. This evening, after I made the video, I was thinking on the verse and the one before it while I made my family dinner and the Lord gave me the best insight. I asked in the video for everyone to think about how God is transforming you from the inside out, changing the way you think.

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 

 

 
Happy NEW Year!!!
Yesterday (LAST YEAR) 🙂 we focused on #REMEMBERING what God had done in our lives in 2016.

Today (THIS YEAR) we continue on in Isaiah 43:18 , starting with the words:

“FORGET all that”, “REMEMBER NOT the former things.”  

Think about those miraculous things God has done in your life, not just last year, but the past. Think of the most momumental experience in your spiritual life. That experience that still brings chill bumps to your arms and the back of your neck. 

 For me, it was in 2014, when our family was adopting our daughter from Uganda, a small beautiful country in East Africa. Everything about her adoption was a miracle. It brings tears to my eyes now thinking of every mountain God moved, time after time, to bring her home to America, to have a family, a home. 

 But God tells Israel:

“But forget all that–it is nothing compared to what I am going to do.”

NOTHING.

WOW.

Again we are reminded how BIG our God is.

Ya’ll this makes me excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But wait, he goes further:

“For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? ”

Something NEW.

“I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”

In the study, I asked you to envision yourself in one of these landscapes when you think ahead about the new year. 
Immediately when I read this passage, my heart and mind went back to the wilderness of Africa. One of our most difficult days there, we drove several hours away from the capital city to a remote area to meet some of my daughter’s relatives, whom she had never met either.

Finally we turned off the main paved road, onto a dirt road. Then the dirt road became just a grass trail that led through heavy bush and vegetation. The giant leaves and bushes started to engulf us until finally, the guide that was with us said, “This is as far as we can drive, we are going to have to walk from here.” There was no more path to drive on.

This was un-charted territory.

WILDERNESS  

All we could do was trust that the guide whom we had hired was not taking us out to be killed by lions so he could run off with our backpacks. The guide knew where we were going. And his intentions were pure. We walked about a mile to the home where our daughter’s relative lived. And the experience there that day is something we will treasure forever.

But what if we would have told the Guide:

NO. We aren’t getting out of this van to walk through the wilderness. We don’t want to experience #NEWTHINGS. We are good. We would have missed out on so much incredibleness!!!

So this is my story. I want to see and hear about yours! Happy New Year! I’m praying we all walk with the only GUIDE who is worthy of our trust. I can’t wait to see what #NEWTHINGS He has in store!

 
 

Only 3 days until GO TIME, so I’m offering a downloadable, printable version of the study! Yay!

The study starts on December 31st!

Just click below to purchase the printable study in the edition you need, and upon checkout you will be taken to the page to download the study. 🙂

PRINTABLE! Married With Children Edition (4 weeks) $8.00

PRINTABLE! Single Mom Edition (3 Weeks) $7.00 

PRINTABLE! Married Woman Edition (3 Weeks- for women with grown kids or no kids) $7.00

PRINTABLE! Single Girl Edition (1 Week) $5.00 

For more info about this coloring book devotional study, click here: Order Refocused Bible Study & join our online group! 

My daughter, Sharon has been loving coloring these pages! Here is the first one in the study…and SURPRISE! it’s FREE to you! If you aren’t sure about the study, or can’t purchase one right now, enjoy the first day of the study, downloadable below:

 

>>>Download Refocused Day 1 FREE!

 

 

 



Refocused Bible Study starts right here Dec 31st! 

Before we get started, I have some tips to help us be consistent in any bible study and prayer in 2017! 

“Commit your actions to the Lord and your plans will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3

COMMIT- to carry out an action deliberately. 

Let’s be deliberate about growing with the Lord this year. Girls, there is no better commitment you can make! 

 Here’s a checklist I put together to help us all start out on the right foot in bible study & prayer for the New Year: 

_Prepared: Our bible is handy & we have our study book ready to make beautiful with our colored pencils! For me, part of this step includes having my coffee pot ready to hit the button in the morning!!!

_Time set: Think about your schedule & decide when you will do your study. I love getting up before everyone in the house to spend time with Jesus. But before bed may work better for you. 

But –#Refocus on God’s grace when these plans don’t make it to reality. 

Stay deliberate by committing to engage in God’s Word before you look at social media for the day. Download the bible app on your phone. Don’t look anything else until you read some of His Word. 

Look through the study & see what the few verses are for the day and click a pic of them to refer to throughout the day. 

Consistent in prayer- Don’t call anyone on the phone until you’ve spoken to God yet. This is great for car time! Unless you have talkative babies in the backseat 🙂 

These are just a few tips that have helped me stay focused on the Lord. Feel free to share any great ones you have. He is worth the focus!!! 

Even if you don’t purchase the study, we’d love for you to join us as I blog through the material and we Refocus on God & me 

Marriage 

Motherhood & 

Home 

The first four weeks of the brand new year!!!

My goal is always that you will be encouraged on this journey with Jesus!  Join us New Year’s Eve as we fix our eyes on Jesus for the year ahead. ❤

You can purchase the study God wrote on my heart below, I pray it blesses you!

Amy

Here is a link for a more in depth view of it: A Peak inside Refocused Bible Study

Married with Children
$15.99

Married Edition
$12.99

Single Mom Edition
$12.99

Single Woman Edition
$6.99