Bible Study

met a woman named jolie. she knows His word. I SO want to know and devour His word like she does. why? because its vital. I think 1 Corinthians truly could have been writted straight to me.

They are called Fleshy.
They are believers, they know His power, they have experienced His holy spirit. Yet they-
boast in themselves, and each other, and the newest apostles..speakers..preachers
they think they know something.
they are pretty sure they are living this thing..Christianity correctly.
my favorite part is where Paul says the following and kind of starts playing with them..

1 Corinthians 4:
8You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us; and indeed, I wish that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you.

oh katie have you already arrived at this thing..gosh i wish i could be a king of the faith like you are, you worship so well...i can hear the apostles of old and my King even now.

9For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.
10We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor.
11To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless;
12and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure;
13when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.

this..this is what the women and the men of the faith that have gone before me endured. they did this all for His GLORY alone.
yep..I am just beginning on this road and need repentance, humility and grace more and more.

14I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

father as your child. I need your dicipline. I treasure it, help me treasure it. I want to desire your precepts more and more. I want to walk in obedience for each moment, knowing that the mystery of your word- the cross, will do its work as I do mine.

Bible Study. A new adventure.

Emo..

Aghh..Emotions. They are hilarious. I say hilarious for those of you who don't know me when I actually hate something. I didn't know this about myself and figured it out from a friend awhile back.
But really I am hoping most women feel. Maybe not so frequently or fiercely as me but at least feel the world and not just observe it.
I have matured slowly in the area of emotions.
~ blog interrupted as husband comes in carrying flowers, a paper for coupon cutting and Starbucks~

Before this I was going to say. Does anyone else in any given hour want to say. I am worthless, the worst mom ever- wife ever- and I never want to blog again. Or, baby is screaming kids wont go to bed you have been dreaming of 7:30.2 and they are not following your agenda and within five min. you hate your life, you are too poor, dumb and incapable of leading a godly life. So that is me.
When left to my "feelings" I either love the Lord, want to change the world, feel blessed- redeemed, rescued. Or..I feel- forgotten, lonely, worthless and broken. This all happens on any given Tuesday and multiple times between breakfast and lunch.

So in my SLOW maturing this is what I stand on.

Genesis 8:21 (New International Version)
21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though [a] every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

I am not abnormal, I am man..I am woman.

1 Corinthians 1:
4 for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus,
5that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge,
6even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you,
7so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
8who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This grace. this call. Did not come from my own emotions, lack of or hell bent flesh. This is from He. This is for Him. He will not give up. So I can learn to break and die and come.

So now, I "feel" in love. Ready to take on the week, ready to take on couch time with the hubby. I "feel" like a super loved wife, undeserving of all the blessings I have- that all came from a cup of coffee and some flowers.
What will the holy spirit, coupled with the inherit word of God, along with time on my face before the King, plus Resurrection power bring about...(Any and all things good or lovely, that's what. That is real.)

Video Blogging

just a quick update between running around babes and legos!

Re:enacting

wow, so i guess a word for me is passionate.
I have come to learn that I get very easily and quickly "moved" by a number of things.
But then I learned from that strength finders that I have an "activator" gene that really just wants to do at the end of the day, not star gaze or think about or even ponder for a moment but just do.

So today I felt crafty. I feel truly like a homemaker, whatever that is, more everyday. I know this bc I: A- love my home and actually wanna be there, B- clean it often and C- want people to come sit and stay awhile in it. So today I in a homemaker mode I felt extra crafty, then went to etsy..(not a good place when you feel that way w/ no money bc you decide)..

oh I could so do that..all I need is
So here I am at home with glue gun and buttons? from walmart. They were not on the list. Im thinking about getting a sewing machine with my bday money. So, I research online for about an hour, "how to sew" -googled.
I read this sweet ladies blog for 1 hr.& 30 min. getting all her tips and discarding when she kept calling me a reenactor. I thought this might be some cute way to say..taking it back ol school.
Till I found this picture of her, and many many others of all the dresses she was teaching how to make.

So ive decided (in my passion) in the last month I have tried to take on these things.

-cooking (gourmet style of course)

-couponing (getting all my groceries for "free" like they all say)

-sewing..? truly I did put on a button which felt beautiful, then tried to make a shirt with a fabric initial my sis gave me one time...that was terrible:)

-cleaning my house (like a crazy person..laura broch actually that is a professional ocd cleaner, she actually has me cleaning my showers with a magic eraser..what??those things are So valuable and def. for the paint on the walls!!!)

-bike riding, fully equipped- basket, bell, child rear seat, except I actually cannot pull both the girls except down the street and back bc I am that out of shape)

-be the worlds best scripture/ bible lesson teacher to my girls having them color scripture cards and with lots of fruitless (for now) conversation.

So here is where Im going.

Im about to be a reenactor. Meaning I'm going to reenact, not acting- so quickly. After all I do not want to end up looking like this woman, all kinds of passionate about maybe some...fruitless and silly looking endeavors.

Also here me say I dont want any women harmed in the making of this post, if thats your passion- its your passion. Somedays mine are jalapenos and oreos, there is no judgement here. Im just saying, I dont wanna be you, and a couple more hours blog scrolling..it could happen.

5 Things I love.

5 Things I love.

1. Being a stay at home mom. I love that this is my day job. Im not even close to professional at it yet but I am so trainable and I have the vision..

2. Baby Powder and Curlers and the wavy trendy look (kelly and jess taught me)

These things are all needed bc I shower only every other day- if I do well and my hair is FAR less than desirable..so I need product and heat- for sure.

3. Blogs. Really I do love love seeing my sweet friends/families updates and pics and teachings and lessons. Its like reading really great writing from authors you know and Love.

4. So you think you can dance. I LOVE it. I Love it. We dont even watch TV during the week anymore and still J and I will go on Abc.com and watch it on a weekend. Im going with my sweet friend Laura in Oct. to see it Live and really I wake up everyday thinking about it.

5. My church. I cant begin to express what its like to be in this place/ season of life. It really is a deep core down peace I know is only from Him the author of peace. But in this season to be learning and serving in a healthy church with people we want to model our lives after it is truly a joy. I remember coming home in college after getting this experience and saying to my mom run..run if your church is not teaching and training you in the word. Little did I know how hard that was, when the world and life can just choke out a lot and make you feel stuck. She did run and was blessed with a faith that ran for her and my sister to follow. Im praying that He will continue to seal this truth in me so that never again will I settle for less than His good, pleasing or perfect will.

Theme Dressing

Before I start this post I just need us to look real quick at this dress.

Yes, I wore this. Why? because I am def. a theme dresser, my theme is-and always has been trendy without the creativity and money to really know how to look good and way to much of a risk taker. This leaves you and your sister constantly looking back on your outfits laughing..that has nothing to do with this post but really just had to show this!

Onto Theme Dressing:
So there have been many women I have been blessed to watch and be challenged by in my years as a momma. Most of the time I leave each of them consistently feeling less than capable of this thing called being a godly woman. I know part of the reason is because I am really drawn to those who are very diff. from me, leaving them always equating diff. with better.


The other reason is because these women actually are a lot more capable than me and have learned to live within their strengths and let Christ use those areas for His glory. So last night after taking the strengths finder test I was left again with a nagging feeling that I would make a great cult leader or perhaps high school cheerleader but godly mom/wife, maybe not so much. I had a full on cheerleader like break down with J after getting my strengths test back and making a vulgar joke about it saying I was sexy and him looking at me like he should with eyes that said, um...not cute. So after the breakdown this is the starting point of conclusions I came to.


The book works under the premis that there are only 130 some people in the world with your top 5 strengths and your weaknesses can be improved on but never as much as your top God given strengths so you should spend more time on your strengths.

My top 5 strengths were: Wooing, Communicating, Including, Positivity and Activating
Here is my new post-fit processing.

A of all, like all people these qualities REALLY suck and actually can be very deathly without Christ.

B of all with Him I best be start telling people about Him, because I know all people are made to be disciples and share Him but please its kinda my gift that I can either spend my life being a church greeter or I can tell some people about the greatest story.

C of all I need to find a woman mentor that can recognize these things and not make me leave her feeling like I am not an accountant, I want to be an accountant, a confrontational accountant, I am of no use..

D and most important- I better start doing these things and Theme Dressing each morning, I mean I have the attire apparently!
Wooing my husband.
Communicating openly & effectively about Jesus to my children.
Positively speaking encouragement and praise into J and my babes about who they are in Him.
Including those who don't feel includable in our family, through dinners and time and love.
Activating us to live missionaly and give up things and sin that are hindering our walk with Him.



So, I think that's a good start to developing these Themes.


Second, as it relates to mentoring. This is why I think when I read and understand a concept that is I believe a biblical understood.

(aka biblical understood= I think biblical understood is something that is assumed, godly women learn grow and are challenged by each other, its used to be a way of living when more than one set of families lived under the same roof. but always if without vision people perish, i think we need someone we are wanting to be like that is further down the road in a walk with Christ and is not just Heidi Clum...or the person offered to us when checking out groceries. so that's biblical understood- obviously needs to be another blog) So when I think something is a biblical understood and brings life, I want to bring everyone around the table and have them doing it and learning from each other about it. Thus, this blog..


But all that to say Second, I think it would be so wonderful if before entering into a mentoring relationship women had a good idea of what their strengths were and how they could build on those, perhaps substituting this with always coming up short or looking at another and thinking, well I can never be that. Perhaps not, perhaps that's the point.


So maybe we all could take the strengths finder test and this could be an important first step in finding your mentor woman or women to model after. Then we can know how we can best Theme Dress for this life lived better in submission to Him.


Here is a link to the signature themes/ descriptions and book to take the test.
http://www.strengthsfinder.com/

Seams and Stiches

It is my hope and would be my joy for this blog to serve as a sounding board for a mentoring experiement. I want to spend this next year living Titus 2. I am excited for the Lord to bring faces and stories into my life that can teach me the ways He has chosen. I believe this and His word will serve as a changing agent in my life and story, offering in the end Him more Glory and Praise.

But there is no place to begin than where it began. As I sat at a dinner with my nana on family vacation listening for the first time intently about her love story I realized again the strength of where I am from. I realized His desire above all to be realized in my daily life and the effect that will have on the generations. I cannot wait to begin, learning about my own apron strings and others; allowing Him to tie me up. May I become bound beautifully to His word, virtues and heart.
I am from Poem

I am from women who love women, from Tuna Noodle Casserole, consignment stores & cheese and crackers.
I am from the house that wants you to stay awhile, laugh a lot and sit around the table.
I am from the front yard flowers that I never stopped to smell.
I am from Thursday night treats and big booties, from Betty Jo and Deborah and Jessi who are strong enough to change the spelling or names all together.
I am from good intentions and people pleasing. I am from sisters who laughed and fought harder than anyone else.
From being called “Hollywood” & “Number One”. I am from believing those for way to long.
I am from a calling to surrender to Him that began generations ago and gets louder and stronger with time.
I am from city streets and country barns, from new family and familiar closeness.
I am from a woman who fell in love with a man who was way to fresh, who made a little girl who fell in love with a man who was way to free, who made a woman who fell in love with a man that was way to good.
I am from a woman who lost her life to find it by serving without complaint- one who didn’t deserve to be served. I am from a woman who lost her life to find it by sacrificing for girls who didn’t deserved to be sacrificed for.
I am from women who somehow always knew they were not serving or sacrificing for men or people but for Him.
I am from women who seek healing and a fathers love. I am from a woman who knows where to get her needs met.
I am from women that teach, encourage, rebuke & expect but who above all love their girls.
I am from women who are easy for me to love because they are where I am from.