Matthewwwwwwwww

I'm so thankful that the Lord has allowed me to have children. I have learned so much from them about love and sacrifice--things I never really understood before they were in my life. It is a lot of work to take care of my babies but it has been beyond rewarding to see them grow and flourish. My new favorite thing A does is randomly sing praise songs loudly! She is not embaressed to be full of joy, or to loudly praise the Lord. It's such a good lesson for me. When I was reading Matthew today this verse struck me as true and appropriate for my life:

Matthew 21: 16b
"Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, You have perfected praise."

What a blessing to read His word.
What a joy to hear my girl praise His name and to know that my little one is praising His name with her coos and giggles.

Faithfully Believing

Today as I was studying the book of Ephesians along with my good pal Beth I was struck by characteristics of people who live with active faith:

* people with faith love others
* faith opened the door for the gift of salvation
* we have access to God through faith
* Christ dwells in the heart's of those who have faith
* only faith in the Lord is proper/true
* faith brings unity
* faith protects us
* without faith there is no love

Pretty vitale to the Christian walk, wouldn't you say? I've gone ahead and highlighted the truths that I need to work on especially. I've never really had a problem believing that there is a God and that the gift of His Son's death on the cross saved me from my sins (with the exception of one circumstance in my life which I will relate at a later time) but do I really love others and hunger for unity? So often it is much more "fun" to pick apart other people, to knock down and destroy--I have always used too much sarcasm (case in point, Most Sarcastic was my senior superlative...) and let's face it--it's fun to gossip and bond over how annoying other people/places/things can be. You know what's not fun? Hurting feelings or being hurt.

I pray that the Lord will give me the ability to love others without judgement and to hunger for unity among my believing sisters and brothers.

Will you pray with me?

p.s. I know a couple of you are doing/are interested in looking at this study again--I'd love to go through this with anyone who is =)

Spiritual Truth of the Day

I've just recently re-started the Beth Moore Bible Study entitled: Believing God. As I was watching the first video in the series today I was really struck by all of the amazing promises that God made the children of Israel and how, as the spiritual seed of Abraham, some of those promises apply to us as Christians.

Duet. 7:7-9
"The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples,

but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments;

Just as the Children of Israel were chosen, not by merit, but out of love; so too have I been chosen to be His child--even though I don't deserve it. Being chosen doesn't mean that you were chosen because you are better than anyone else or because you deserve it. This is an excellent reminder for me as I am way too big for my own britches most of the time.

Praise God that He stooped low enough to scoop me into the palm of His hand from the depths of the miry clay!