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 draw 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.

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

 

 

 

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 “Write it Outs!” Praying for you, sweet Refocusing sisters!!!

 

 

Happy NEW  Year!!!  I am amazed, shocked, and a bit overwhelmed to be honest at the interest and popularity of this bible study.  It just leaves me awe struck of Jesus blows me away with his unpredictable plans time after time.  Oh, how I love this about Him!  And this is so perfect for this passage today.  

Yesterday (LAST YEAR) 🙂  we focused on #REMEMBERING what God had done in our lives in 2015.

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, drawing it out.

I had fun with this!  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, and below, on Instagram you can see pictures of 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!

 

 

 

It’s New Year’s Eve!!! Tonight (or any time today)  is the ultimate time to reflect back on your journey the past year.  I am so excited this year to be looking back through the lens of what God has done, along with all of you!

The passage to focus on today is Isaiah 43:14-17:

14This is what the LORD says—your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“For your sakes I will send an army against Babylon,
forcing the Babylonians to flee in those ships they are so proud of.
15I am the LORD, your Holy One,
Israel’s Creator and King.
16I am the LORD, who opened a way through the waters,
making a dry path through the sea.
17I called forth the mighty army of Egypt
with all its chariots and horses.
I drew them beneath the waves, and they drowned,
their lives snuffed out like a smoldering candlewick.”

When going through the study guide for today, you are asked a few questions to help you focus on How mighty Our Holy One of Israel, Our Creator and King really is. Even the greatest world powers of the age are no comparison to his infinite strength.

But yet we doubt.  (I am guilty of this).  We look at our problems and not on our God.  And he knows this.  And since he’s good he tells us:

Remember 

Remember what I’ve done. Remember that time when the Israelites were trapped with no where to run, with the Egyptians behind them and the Red Sea in front of them? I was their God then, and I’m the same God now.

Remember

Remember at the beginning of last year when you were having post-adoption blues and I surrounded you with people who cared and helped you?  I was your God then, and I’m the same God now.

Remember

Remember in April when you had worked so hard training for your first triathlon and you almost backed out because you thought you were going to literally drown from anxiety and the only thing that got you through the swim was repeating my word in your head over and over? I was your God then, and I’m the same God now.

Remember

Remember last summer how I began transforming your mothering to a kinder,  gentler tone  and you found great joy in parenting again?  I was your God then, and I’m the same God now.

Remember 

Remember when I used your marriage, though imperfect, as all are, to be a platform to give others hope for theirs?  I’m the same God then, and I’m the same God now.

Yes, God, my Holy One of Israel, my Creator and King, I am #Refocused on who YOU ARE and I what you can do in and through my life.  I pray all my sisters reading this will be as well.  Part the waters, Lord, show us the dry path….

I want to hear about what all of you are

Remembering 

today!

I want to see your #Write It Outs!!!

Mine is below.  One of my daughters traced over my pencil with marker.

I want to hear about how God is speaking to you through the study!!!

Then I want to sing that New Year’s song at midnight and kiss my husband!!! ( but he will be sleeping.)

 

 

 

 

  #Refocused starts tomorrow right here on the blog and on the Facebook group! I am so excited to see what God is going to do! 

Before we get started, I have some tips to help us be consistent in any bible study and prayer in 2016!!! 

“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! Starting tomorrow for this study. Here’s our checklist: 

_Prepared: Our study is printed out and ready to make beautiful with our pens, pencils, and markers.  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!!!