Just spent a wonderful evening devoted to solitude and listened to a great sermon that I want to share. Definitely worth a listen to if you can find the time :) Hope it encourages, challenges and blesses you as it did me.

Solitude and Silence by Matt Clark

Getting Ready for Simplicty :)

Hey there!
I'm getting ready for February, my month of simplicity and stewardship. I'll be reading 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker. I'm looking forward to being challenged by all the stuff that surrounds me that I can become quite numb to. I'm hoping to be challenged to live even more simply than we do already... and to-- gasp!-- be sacrificial about it. In addition to physical simplicity, I want to work on social media and technological simplicity.
So, I think I'm going to do this challenge: http://www.thedarksidechallenge.org/

If any of you would like to be my fellow travelers to the dark side, I'd love that! :)

How was January for you guys? What's February looking like?

Last month I focused on Study. Once again, I did well the first couple weeks and then in the busyness of  getting the flu, getting a job, and Christmas, my discipline went out the window. Pushing on though. This month I'm focusing on solitude and I think it's the perfect time to do it since last month saw a big decrease in my personal quiet time with going back to work full-time and visiting many family and friends during the holidays. I'm excited to make a serious intentional effort at increasing and maintaining alone time with God. Praying for you all my sisters as we fail, learn, and grow through pursuing spiritual disciplines :)

New Year...Fresh start?

So...I failed in my attempts to keep up my spiritual disciplines for the month of November and December. Placement, sickness, depression, busyness, complacency all weighed in and at times I found my eyes were shifting their gaze and I was loosing focus. At the end of the month of December I had the blessing of going on vacation and resting. And now I'm ready for a fresh start! This month I will be focusing on Simplicity and Stewardship.
Praying God clears my life of all unwanted clutter and fills it with more of Him!

“We Christians must simplify our lives or lose untold treasures on earth and in eternity.” The Pursuit of God, 103

December: Study // January: Confession

I spent the month of December focusing on studying the Bible. I've always had pretty consistent devotional time simply reading the Bible and praying. I've attended Bible studies or have purchased my own, but have rarely taken the time to study a book of the Bible on my own. And so I set out to read How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. I highly recommend this book... what an easy-to-read and practical book! I think all Christians should read it and I can almost guarantee that it will change the way you read your Bible :)

I was challenged to not simply read the Bible to see what I could learn from it and what it would add to my devotions, but to see what God intended the original audience to hear. What was the point for them? And how should that change the point for me?

I want to continue reading through and studying a book of the Bible and making sure that I'm consistently applying healthy hermeneutical principles when reading.

As for January, I'm diving into a month of confession. I hope to get shocked by the sin in my life and refuse to be complacent. I hope to learn tons of humility as I confess it to other humans and I'm ready to experience God's grace in big ways.

Love you, ladies!