Fervent

Over the summer, I watched the movie, War Room, and read this book, Fervent, with my ladies' Bible study at church. Wow, they were both so good! The biggest thing I took away from the movie was the WAY the main character prayed. She wrote down her prayers, word-for-word, and taped them to her closet walls. She wrote a couple pages at a time, even, and committed to reading through and praying through these written-out prayers! And that's what stuck with me. Reading the book only fueled my desire to pray, reminding me how powerful and essential prayer is and giving me a never-before-known-to-me desire to begin praying fervently for my husband, my children, myself, my family, my friends, my church family, and beyond.

I started writing out long prayers and taping them to my bedroom wall. When my prayers drifted over to Darrell's side of the room, I decided to make a crafty prayer journals instead. It has been working out great because now, when I want to pray, I can grab my journal and pray through my prayers easily instead of squinting and getting lost in my prayers from across the room. Haha! I am still working on my consistency, but I am praying and growing in my faith a heck of a lot more since I started this fervent prayer journey than I would be if I had never watched this movie and read the book and applied some of the principles. So I am stoked to continue growing in fervent prayer.

I highly recommend reading this book and finding the prayer method that works best for you. Writing and crafting my prayers has taken my prayer life to a whole new level. I'm so grateful for the motivation and inspiration and revelation this journey has and continues to give me!

Battlefield of the Mind

It's a miracle - I finished another book!!!!  My mother-in-law, Jan, gave me Battlefield of the Mind for Christmas in 2014.  I started reading it in April of last year.  I finished it about a month ago.  Yeah.  Haha!  I'm not the best reader around.  But I do have an almost 15-month-old, two part-time jobs, and a life to live.  Haha!  I'm working at becoming more of a reader, that's for sure!

I've decided to write about every book I read from now on ... to remember what I read and to, hopefully, encourage others to read some good stuff ... assuming that everything I read is good. ;)  I usually think it is.

I've heard lots of debate about Joyce Meyer.  I used to be pretty skeptical about her, myself, because I saw her as a female pastor, and I've been taught that female pastors are not biblical.  Yes, it's true that 1 Timothy 2:11-15 talks about how women should not authority over men.  And I believe that is God's Truth.  It's in the Bible; therefore, I believe it.  I do wholeheartedly believe that God gives women the ability to teach His Truth, and He has called them to do so.  I'll say I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable if a woman pastor one day took over for Pastor Roger.  But to me, the "women should have no authority over men" is a gray area in the Bible because it is not specific enough.  I'm still not totally sure what I believe about this issue is what I'm really trying to say.
I don't know if Joyce would call herself a pastor anyway.   And honestly, I don't know if it really matters.  I do know that men listen to her preaching and sit in on her seminars (I've seen them on her teaching DVD that I bought).  But isn't that their choice?  Joyce believes she has been called to teach God's Truth, and so she is.  She shares what God is teaching her, and she can't help who decides to listen or not listen.  All I know is that I have been pretty blessed and challenged to a closer walk with Christ because of what I've read and listened to by Joyce Meyer.  Her ministry is also flourishing.  I think God blesses people and ministries that honor Him, so I'm gonna believe that Joyce is good to go.  Just throwing my two cents in there ...

Either way, I read Joyce Meyer's book, Battlefield of the Mind, and got a lot out of it.  I took away four powerful points ...
#1 - We must PRACTICE taking every thought captive in order to obey and glorify Christ.  It is a daily (even moment-by-moment) battle that goes on in our thoughts.  See 2 Corinthians 10:4-6.
#2 - This battle in our minds for a positive, uplifting, Christ-honoring thought life is a war against Satan and his minions, not against flesh and blood.  I must believe the Truth about WHO I'm really fighting so that I can win!  Again, see 2 Corinthians 10:4-6.
#3 - I have control over what I think about!  I don't have to wallow in self-pity, self-condemnation, self-mutilating thoughts, or any other negative thought.  I can SPEAK God's Truth out loud to combat Satan's lies.
#4 - Sometimes, our "thorns in the flesh" are there because God wants to use them to grow us closer to Himself.  See 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.  No matter how far we get in this sanctification process, there will always be something that we struggle with - perhaps it's our "thorn in the flesh" - and maybe God gives it to us, or allows it to continue in our lives, so that we will be continually dependent on Him.  So let's thank God for our progress and expect more change.  Let's thank God that we are totally dependent on Him!

The way we think really does affect our lives!  Thinking and speaking God's Truths instead of complaining and wallowing in sinful thoughts really can transform our entire lives for the better!  For Christ-likeness!  And isn't that the goal???  I'm slowly but surely putting these Truths into practice and seeing the transformation first hand.  Hopefully, someday, y'all will see it in me too. ;)

Books to Read Before I Die

So these books WERE my reading goals for this year.  I have probably a gazillion books on my to-read list, but I am a terrible reader.  Sure, I don't retain or comprehend the best, but what I really mean is, my attention span and busy schedule make reading pretty difficult.  And in this season of my life, I am learning a whole, whole lot about grace ... and maybe a little about simplifying my life.  So I've decided to keep these books on my to-read list, but instead of reading all of them by the end of 2016, which was my original goal, I will make them my reading goal for some time before I die.  Yep, you heard me right.  Before I die.  Sounds like the perfect goal to me!  And perhaps I can tell you a little about each book I read from here on out just in case it peaks your interest and you wanna read it too.  I usually pick pretty good reads.  I did read the entire Twilight Saga ... so maybe you'll disagree with me.  Hahaha!  Silly.  Probably a huge waste of time.  But those books were pretty entertaining for a single, sappy young woman (yes, I was at the time!).  I'm still sappy ... just not single. ;)

Anyways ... here's the book I have finished most recently.

How to Argue so your Spouse will Listen by Sharon Morris May

I started going to counseling last July for myself ... for my issues with self-condemnation.  It was the catalyst to start me on an awesome journey of discovering what God's grace truly means.  And one area in which I desperately needed to grasp grace was in my marriage.  I wanted to please my husband so much, but I beat myself up about every little thing that I didn't do perfectly ... which, as you can imagine, was everything, because I'm not perfect.  Ahh!  So I started bringing Darrell along with me to counseling, and it has empowered our marriage so much!  I thought we had a good marriage before, but now, we have a great marriage that is getting better with time.

Okay, so that's the back story.  During some of our counseling sessions, our counseling pastor had us read this book.  Honestly, I don't have too much to share about it.  I did read the whole thing.  I think it's a great book for every married couple.  It helps us begin to understand the mechanics of arguing and what causes arguments.  For me, figuring out where arguments come from in the first place is what I took away from this book.  Chapter Three: Dragons and Vulnerabilities ... The Hidden Meanings that Fuel our Arguments.  This chapter throws a lot at readers ... pulling personalities, past experiences and relationships that cause vulnerabilities, and current relationship styles all together to help us understand why arguments happen in the first place.  Sharon Morris May calls our past experiences or vulnerabilities our "dragons."  She explains that "when experiences in [our] relationships today are similar to the hurtful experiences [we] had over the course of [our] life, they trigger the same hurts, fears, and responses.  When a current situation touches or raises [our] old hurts and sets in motion [our] automatic way of reacting to those hurts, [our] 'dragons have been raised'" (pages 44-45).  I just know for me and Darrell, remembering that our hurtful responses come from events and feelings in our pasts has really helped us communicate better.  You will find plenty of great principles for marriage in this book, but learning about dragons was what impacted me the most.

And by the way, if you and your spouse are not in counseling, even if you think your marriage is great, I would consider it!  We have our whole lives to improve and grow and become more like Jesus in our marriages.  Take the time to invest in your marriage no matter what the season ... you won't regret it! :)