I also started my stimulation shots yesterday - thank you, Mom, for injecting them for me. My poor skin is so confused by the needles - it bruised up yesterday. It looks terrible, but doesn't hurt at all. It's on my stomach, so no one can see it, for which I am grateful.
- White chocolate mocha Starbucks (breakfast) and guacamole (dinner)
- Incredible StayCation with the most Godly women
- Singing in praise of God
- Act justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly. - Micah 6:8 (our verse from StayCation)
- Time with my bestie, Mary, and her sweet kids, Halle, Carlie, Abby, and Cade, and her husband, Brian. Brian very sweetly installed my parents new receiver for them. Thanks B!
:::
StayCation. How can I even adequately describe how awesome it was? Friday night was filled with fun games, fellowship, food, praise & worship, and even square dancing! It was God's divine timing that placed me there and WOW - is He awesome or what?
Saturday morning. We started off with breakfast and singing praise to God. Jourdan Burks, our praise and worship leader for the weekend, is just awesome!
My very own LG leader, Sheila, started off our speaker series with Remembering God's Faithfulness. Our LG has been doing this, however, I didn't truly "get it" until I heard Sheila speak - because I am a slow learner. She did an amazing job and has a gift for explaining things in a way that I (or anyone) can understand. Remembering how God has been (and continues to be) faithful in our lives helps us to walk in faith, knowing that He will provide. God commands us to remember - as seen in I Chronicles 16:11-12, Psalm 77:11-12 and I Corinthians 11:23-24.
Why remember?
- So we can experience joy and peace.
- To allow us to face our fears and remain faithful. This is seen in two examples in the Bible found in Deuteronomy 7:17-19 and Psalm 106:7 and Joshua 4.
How do we remember? As Sheila said, in the Bible, people built monuments of rocks. That would be a little crazy. The way now is easy - with a journal that you keep handy or something else. It needs to be:
- easy
- accessible
- able to endure
What do we remember? This doesn't mean going from age zero and writing down everything to the present moment. Sheila gave us some ideas to help us get started. What we write down doesn't need to be complete sentences or have perfect grammar. It can be a few words, a picture, whatever helps us.
- Unearned blessings - people God has placed in our lives, provisions (encouragement, tangible items, etc.), revealed truth (through whatever way God does that for you - a sermon, a song, something someone says)
- Valuable adversity - God carrying us through a tough time and us coming out stronger on the other side. It's NOT about things, it's about depending on God.
- Amazing rescues - healing, rescues from a tough situation, finding something)
- Holy attraction (being able to NOT watch that TV show, to NOT look at that ad, to stay on the pure path)
- Faith heroes (people in our lives whose faith we admire)
Sheila mentioned a quote that can be found in The God Moment Principle by Alan Wright. "Satan cannot keep God from blessing you, but He can keep you so distracted that you don't remember it." That touched me. It made me also realize that God brought the 365 days of blessings project to my attention for a specific reason. I will journal to remember past blessings, however, I can use the project to remember blessings each day. God cares about me - and that includes my love for guacamole.
Sheila ended with this. Make remembering a PRIORITY!
- Keep a journal by your bed
- Write just one thing a day - this may/will lead you to remember other things as well!
- Start anywhere - you have permission to be RANDOM
- John 14:26 - pray for God to reveal what you need to remember
Thank you, Sheila! You did an incredible job and I am so blessed by God's faithfulness to place you as my LG leader!
Okay - this post is getting long, so I will write about the other speakers later... They were amazing as well!!
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