Tulip Girl

Therefore, I say to you brothers and sisters in view of Gods mercy, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. So no longer conform to the pattern of this age but instead be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may be able to discern the good pleasing perfect will of God. With the grace given me and my responsibility to you I tell everyone among you to not think more highly of yourselves than you should think but instead think with sober judgement in proportion to the faith God gives everyone. Just as each person has one body with many members and each member does not serve the same function, so it is in Christ that we who are many form one body and each one belongs to the other. We all have gift by the grace given us. If a man's gift is to prophesy then let him prophesy in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve and if it is teach then let him teach. Romans 12:1-7 Well that is where I a...

Rather than conform to what this world wants from me, I rather be transformed by the continuous renewal of mind spirit and heart in my relationship with God. As I work to transform random beads and pearls into beautiful works of art, God is doing the same in me. While I clean the funk out of my kitchen, scrub out the gunk, God is doing the same in me. While I sit on the play room floor teaching Miss Wiggles new things, God is doing the same for me. That I had the words to simply explain, to easily explain the freedom I know in Jesus. I once chased after the illusion that I could ever be good enough to always please those around me. What a fruitless tiring waste of energy that was. The more I gave, the more was demanded and none of it was for what was best for me. Oh that I could make this make sense. On my walk this morning God opened my eyes to a fresh perspective of how he sees us when we are carried away in sin, in a lie Satan or the world has told us that we have believed like beli...

Therefore I urge you brothers [and sisters] in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living Sacrifice holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual worship. So do not conform any longer to the pattern of this age but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you be able to discern the good, pleasing, perfect will of God. By the grace given me, I tell everyone among you to not thing more highly of himself than he out but instead think sensibly as God has given a measure of faith to all. Just as we each have our own body with many members but each member does not serve the same function, in Christ we are many people who form one body all belonging to each other verse 5 in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. I want God to challenge me to welcome people into my life that are outside my comfort zone whether that be a friend from another culture, ethnicity, religious view point, single, older, younger, different in any way ...

Recap: Therefore, I urge you brothers [and sisters] in view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing, to God - this is your spiritual worship. Romans 12:1 I learned through studying this verse that in Romans 11, Paul talks reveals to the Roman church body that their worship was based on ritual. This applies to us because we think if we go to church on Sunday and occasionally help in the nursery that, that is our worship and the rest of our life the rest of the time is ours. Paul explains that this is not so. As Establishing Footsteps explains, their worship became wooden, mechanical. Instead, Romans 12 goes on to explain how every single thing we do is an act of worship; doing my family's laundry, being hospitable to friend and foe, cleaning toilets, respecting bosses, raising your hands in song and lowering them to work along side a friend. Everything is to be done for the Lord. I've realized that God doesn't want this just for Hi...

I'm thinkin ' Satan doesn't want me memorizing verses 'cause these last couple of weeks have been near torture... well not last weekend, that was awesome. I've become a compassionless , angry anxious bear and I can't blame it on you know what though you bet I've tried. I've been pinging on just about everything. I'm not ready for the Poquoson Seafood Festival. Hubby can't do anything right. Poor guy doesn't sit with me on the couch 'cause he said I bite. I've got good friends this weekend and I'm bound and determined to chill a bit. On another note I realize there are different kinds of commenter's . There are the noncommenters and then the commenter's . The commenter's break up into those who will comment about your post and those who will go on about themselves in relation to your post. I'm the latter. I'm always going on about myself. Self focused you could say. I guess I should work on that. Thank you t...

Update: corrections in bold letters Therefore, I urge you brothers [and sisters] in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing, to God - this is your spiritual worship. So do not conform any longer to the pattern of this age but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you can discern the good, pleasing and perfect will of God. By the grace given my I tell everyone among you to not think more highly of yourself than you should think. Instead think sensibly as God has given a measure of faith to every one. Romans 12:1-3 I realize you can't comment at the moment to tell me if I totally biffed that one up but I'll check it in the morning and let you know. :) This morning I read the weekly devotion from Established Footsteps . It wasn't pretty. "You see before Paul became a follower of Jesus he was a man definitely cut from the same pattern of this world. He was focused on self. His self focus was cloaked in a religious ...

Seriously, I don't! Look at that amazing little person with her wrinkly nose grin. I didn't do anything to be this blessed for sure. That is how I know I am loved and not for me but despite me. God is good. My scripture memorization is highlighting some areas of chosen to simply ignore. Scratch that. I called on God and He showed up. God is highlighting some areas I was ignoring. The primary thing here is the comments. I admit I am human. In my desire for words of affirmation and want to be like everyone else, my simple words of affirmation love language has turned into more of a bit of a foothold verging on stronghold in my life. Please do not think I'm trying to be all religious or self righteous. I'm honest to goodness sharing with you the vulnerability of my spirit here. Plus, I love to share with you cool things like shoes or good finds at the thrift store. It is also my desire to share with you the cool things and good finds I have in God. I still adore you and de...

As my heart leaned into God yesterday, my Abba King impressed an analogy into my mind. I have pondered it since and thought about it as I've gone about my day today. Sometimes it seems the field of bitterness and anger seems so easy to work, ready at a moments notice to spring up a harvest of its dark and overpowering produce. At those times it seems as if the field of love, mercy, and grace is full of thistles and stones, to difficult to work and almost impossible to gain any harvest. This God has made clear is a lie straight from Satan himself. Even a hand full of harvest from the latter field is better than a truck load of harvest from the first. With God beside me, His hands deep in the soil with me, even the smallest of harvests feed thousands. The full and plentiful harvest from the field of bitterness and anger will leave even just one starving. Someone once said unforgiveness is like taking a poison and waiting for your enemy to die. Powerful words I will not soon forget. G...

I urge you brothers and sisters in view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. So, do not conform any longer to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may be able to discern what is the good, pleasing and perfect will of God. Romans 12:1-2 I promise not to look until tomorrow morning...or at least to change it if it is wrong until then. I encourage you to challenge me, look it up, hold me accountable. Currently Wiggles is teething her fourth molar. It breaks my heart to see her going through this. The other three didn't seem to be as bad. Well, the third gave her a blood blister. This one is keeping her up at night and seriously diminishing her appetite and giving her a fever. As she slept this morning completely spent from her sleepless night, I sought out God for direction for me as Wiggle's mommy. She was on my heart as I jumped into verse two this morning. ...

Update: Yup, I flubbed it. "this is your spiritual act of worship." Lets up I do better next week. ;) Therefore, I urge you, in view of God's mercy, offer yourself as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your physical act of worship. Romans 12:1 That's by heart so if its wrong you can point it out. Seriously, check it if its wrong and tell me if it is. I dare you. :) I promise I won't change it if it is. A little realism is refreshing. If its right, I'm sorry if this comes off as bragging. I swear it isn't. This last week I started my 12 week journey to memorizing Romans 12. You can read about it HERE . I'm going through Established Footsteps scripture memorization. I've made it through verse 1 and walked listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit as He has worked to etch these words into my heart. So, you probably don't know this about me but I was born 46 days before my due date. Honestly I shouldn't have even been ...

With the changing gears of summer, a little more lemonade and sweet tea as we take a break from chamomile and chili, other things take their own hiatus, primarily all the church Bible Studies and MOPS. I would love to go to church on Wed. nights for that Bible Study but as it stands, cranky teething baby on the verse of independent toddler...who am I kidding, at 16 months I've got a toddler on my hands. Oh, yeah, to finish that run on sentence, Wed. nights are not in our scope at the moment. So I've looked into some other options. Living Proof Ministries or more specifically, Beth Moore on her blog is leading her "Siesta Sisters" through Kelly Minter's Ruth; Loss, Love & Legacy . I'm super excited to be going through the book with her. Hopefully next year I can put my own group of girls together to go through it. In addition to the Ruth study, I am one week into memorizing Romans 12. Therefore, I urge you, in view of God's mercy, offer yourselves as a...