Wednesday SHINE....
Today's Reading: Hebrews 3:7-4:13
Happy Worship Wednesday, sweet SHINE girls!
Get your worship on today, friends. In all you do, worship your King! While you are getting dressed, driving, sitting in traffic, pouring your coffee, at the grocery store. Wherever your are, worship Him!
If we can truly get in the habit of continual worship to our Savior, imagine how our lives would be changed. Wow!
Speaking of change, Erin Davis is posting today about how scripture has changed her life.
Be blessed, be inspired, and be encouraged by sweet Erin. Love on this girl and pray for her. She is constantly praying for all of you. She is one of our dear precious SHINE prayer girls. You can check out more of her story from last May if you would like. Her post is found here.
Eva’s Verse
by Erin Davis
"The Joy of the Lord is my strength!" Nehemiah 8:10
This is the first verse that Eva (my 5 year old daughter) and I memorized together! We took on the challenge from Jill to memorize scripture! On Monday mornings we can’t wait to get our verse. We start looking for it around 6:30am so we can write it on her bathroom mirror before we leave the house!
What is meant to be a fun, simple exercise for my daughter has turned out to be a life changing exercise for me! I have ALWAYS heard that God speaks to us through His word. And many of us have experienced this. However, I was not expecting Him to teach me SO VERY much about my life through such a short, simple verse.
OH BUT HE DID!
"The Joy of the Lord is my strength"
It is no simple task to get a 5 year old to memorize something. We wake up and repeat the verse...and go over it while she brushes her teeth. We repeat it in the car in the mornings and again on the way home. I find myself repeating it at work as well. It is now a part of our everyday!
I then found myself wondering what this particular verse meant.
"The Joy of the Lord is my strength!"
Hmmmm.....it sounds nice ...but I don't really "get it".
That first Friday rolled around and Eva and I memorized our verse. We treated ourselves to a piece of candy or two (or in Eva's case 3 or 4) and went on our way. Life went on and more verses came.
Then the week before Christmas, our Pastor called and asked me to share my testimony in church as part of his sermon. He said that Chad (my sweet hubby) and I have been through a tough few years and he wanted me to share how God was getting us through. I told him that I would...hung up the phone...and started to think...
I took a few days to reflect on my life. I guess we have been through a lot in 24 months time:
So, I guess on paper all of that looks pretty rough.
But the reality is... It has not been.
You see, the day my mother died is the day I surrendered myself to Jesus. I decided to give my ENTIRE SELF to Him because the way I was living before just was not working for me. He woke me up and called my name! It was time!
I decided to follow Jesus on April 7th, 2011.
It has been 1 year, 9 months, and 29 days
...and friends ...life has NEVER.BEEN.BETTER
Please understand that I did not say that life has been easier because clearly it has not been easy.
However, circumstances that should have shattered my world and thrown me into darkness and despair did not and have not.
Instead I am OK, in fact, I am JOYFUL and STRONG and HAPPY!
Realizing this brings me back to that sweet, simple verse.
"The Joy of the Lord is my strength"
WOW! I understand! I get this verse now! This verse is my life.
So the next time a friend ask "how do you handle it all so well" or when someone says "I could never go through all of that!" I will simply say: "The JOY of the Lord is my strength". This verse is my life and it can be yours too!
With JESUS there is NO better way to live.
I encourage you to memorize the weekly bible verse and store it in your sweet little hearts…you never know what God might do with it!
I pray that each of you sweet girls surrender every aspect of your life to Jesus. Ask Him to show you how! And be on guard...because He most certainly will!
Happy Worship Wednesday, sweet SHINE girls!
Get your worship on today, friends. In all you do, worship your King! While you are getting dressed, driving, sitting in traffic, pouring your coffee, at the grocery store. Wherever your are, worship Him!
If we can truly get in the habit of continual worship to our Savior, imagine how our lives would be changed. Wow!
Speaking of change, Erin Davis is posting today about how scripture has changed her life.
Be blessed, be inspired, and be encouraged by sweet Erin. Love on this girl and pray for her. She is constantly praying for all of you. She is one of our dear precious SHINE prayer girls. You can check out more of her story from last May if you would like. Her post is found here.
Eva’s Verse
by Erin Davis
"The Joy of the Lord is my strength!" Nehemiah 8:10
This is the first verse that Eva (my 5 year old daughter) and I memorized together! We took on the challenge from Jill to memorize scripture! On Monday mornings we can’t wait to get our verse. We start looking for it around 6:30am so we can write it on her bathroom mirror before we leave the house!
What is meant to be a fun, simple exercise for my daughter has turned out to be a life changing exercise for me! I have ALWAYS heard that God speaks to us through His word. And many of us have experienced this. However, I was not expecting Him to teach me SO VERY much about my life through such a short, simple verse.
OH BUT HE DID!
"The Joy of the Lord is my strength"
It is no simple task to get a 5 year old to memorize something. We wake up and repeat the verse...and go over it while she brushes her teeth. We repeat it in the car in the mornings and again on the way home. I find myself repeating it at work as well. It is now a part of our everyday!
I then found myself wondering what this particular verse meant.
"The Joy of the Lord is my strength!"
Hmmmm.....it sounds nice ...but I don't really "get it".
That first Friday rolled around and Eva and I memorized our verse. We treated ourselves to a piece of candy or two (or in Eva's case 3 or 4) and went on our way. Life went on and more verses came.
Then the week before Christmas, our Pastor called and asked me to share my testimony in church as part of his sermon. He said that Chad (my sweet hubby) and I have been through a tough few years and he wanted me to share how God was getting us through. I told him that I would...hung up the phone...and started to think...
I took a few days to reflect on my life. I guess we have been through a lot in 24 months time:
- - I lost my mom to cancer. She was my best friend and biggest fan!
- - Chad has been fighting a "mystery illness" for almost a year...which we still don't understand. We have heard terms such as rocky mountain spotted fever, pneumonia, pulmonary lesions, lupus, and wegners granulomatosis. (google it!)
- - Then a few short weeks after Chad got out of the hospital he lost his job. This was a job he was so excited about...a job that he worked hard for...a chance for financial freedom! It was a HUGE blow to his self-esteem and a MAJOR blow to our finances.
So, I guess on paper all of that looks pretty rough.
But the reality is... It has not been.
You see, the day my mother died is the day I surrendered myself to Jesus. I decided to give my ENTIRE SELF to Him because the way I was living before just was not working for me. He woke me up and called my name! It was time!
I decided to follow Jesus on April 7th, 2011.
It has been 1 year, 9 months, and 29 days
...and friends ...life has NEVER.BEEN.BETTER
Please understand that I did not say that life has been easier because clearly it has not been easy.
However, circumstances that should have shattered my world and thrown me into darkness and despair did not and have not.
Instead I am OK, in fact, I am JOYFUL and STRONG and HAPPY!
Realizing this brings me back to that sweet, simple verse.
"The Joy of the Lord is my strength"
WOW! I understand! I get this verse now! This verse is my life.
So the next time a friend ask "how do you handle it all so well" or when someone says "I could never go through all of that!" I will simply say: "The JOY of the Lord is my strength". This verse is my life and it can be yours too!
With JESUS there is NO better way to live.
I encourage you to memorize the weekly bible verse and store it in your sweet little hearts…you never know what God might do with it!
I pray that each of you sweet girls surrender every aspect of your life to Jesus. Ask Him to show you how! And be on guard...because He most certainly will!
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| Our little Eva |
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| Our family |
