Rocky Balboa Inspiration

Rocky has quickly become a staple in our household since my husband introduced him to my kids three weeks ago.  At first I was opposed to it thinking that it was an adult movie.  But then again I remember watching Rocky with my dad when I was around the same age as my oldest.  Either way my kids loved Rocky and have pronounced him as the greatest hero ever.

I have to admit that I love to see the kids play boxing matches taking turns losing. I mean there is a winner but they seem to enjoy being the one on the floor. There is something about this older movie that has inspired my kids. That has inspired me.  Inspiration is great, especially if we grab it, throw it over our shoulders and get up! I think we could call inspiration Faith. Have faith today that you can do anything. Grab that promise, hold that promise, attack with that promise and get moving…..

SOOO with that here are some quotes that hopefully inspire you today:

Psalm 19:14

This verse has been rolling, tumbling, stirring in my heart....

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. (NIV)

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.  (NASB)

These are the words in my mouth; these are what I chew on and pray. Accept them when I place them on the morning altar, O God, my Altar-Rock, God, Priest-of-My-Altar. (MSG)

What we may think is acceptable for us to say to ourselves is not acceptable to God.  It may seem like a new concept and how do we encourage ourselves with God's word. But this is the beauty of learning that God is our strengthen and source of our self talk.

He is walking with us turning on  the light in our closet and showing us how to live by His word....even in our thought life.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. 

Psalm 119:105 (NIV)

This is me meditating (To reflect on; contemplate.) out loud....

Friday Favorites: Me, Myself and Lies

A dear friend of mine told me about this study she was working through.  I loved the description of the study:

In the Bible Study, Me, Myself and Lies, Jennifer shares practically and helpfully from her own life and from Scripture to show how every woman can turn her words—and her life—around for good.

This six-week Bible study for women encourages them to clean out the junk in their thoughts and replace these hidden negative thoughts and failures with positive truths from God’s word. Rather than struggling with self-esteem, body image, stress and other unhealthy thoughts and emotions learn to replace the lies you may have been telling yourself with the truth from God’s word.

It took several months to finally purchase the study, which was exactly a year ago.  I not only ordered the workbook but also the first 4 videos online for download….however I only went through the introduction and first week.  To my delight, since I was not able to complete the 6 weeks on my own effort, there was a connect group of women going through this very same study!

I wanted to I say all that to share that today, a year later, I was touched to see that connecting with other women brings support as we glean from each other.  I was originally excited for this study so I could grow in my own thought closet but now I am thrilled to be part of a group of women with whom I will learn.

Here are a few of my favorite nuggets:

- God is the source and strengthen of our self-talk. 

- It is not acceptable to call ourselves stupid. 

- Every wrong word and every lie that is spoken can be

          redeemed by God.

This was a favorite time of my week....what was yours?

  

Wordless Wednesday

Ross Parsley's new book "Messy Church" is available for free download this week! 

Get your copy today!

Visit http://dccebooks.com/  to receive your free download.

A God Outing

We have enjoyed our family all weekend long.  My mother in law came last Thursday to bring Noah home and to spend some days with us.  My mother in law has had some real family, in your face hard days this summer.  We have some usual spots and restaurants that we usually do during her visit however this time around we wanted to distract her so that she could feel some rest in her heart.


So Saturday we ventured out to sight see our beautiful city.  When I was younger my parents would take us Zilker Botanical Gardens.  Zilker Botanical Garden is located on 30 acres in Austin, Texas.  Theme gardens such as rose, herb and Japanese garden are interconnected with streams, waterfalls and Koi-filled ponds.  I loved it then and loved it all over again with the kids.  

From the gardens we could see beautiful downtown peeking through the skies.  This reminded of how God created everything and in Him we find our joy.

My mother in law is a strong women who has put all her trust in God.  She does not doubt where her help comes from.  She was also reminded that God is the one that brings strength to us when 

we are weak.

All things were created by him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together.  

Colossians 1:16-17

The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is 

declaring the work of His hands.

Psalm 19:1

What a great day of being together in God's nature.  You cannot help to know that God is on our side!

I thank God for his goodness in our lives!

What an interesting concept of impatience!

What an interesting concept of impatience!  I just heard a presentation on Spiritual Discipline for my Christian Counseling class I am taking….I had to stop video to just take 5 minutes to write what sunken into my heart!

The couple in this video is discussing Spiritual Discipline: as a certain practice that enables me to receive power from God to become who He has called me to be.  Picture training for something vs. trying to do something.  Training is where you arrange your life to accommodate practices to enable you to do what you cannot.   Let say you want to enter in a pie eating contestant; you would eat pie every day.  In the Bible Paul tells Timothy, “train yourself unto Godliness”.   So now that I laid some of the background discussion here is where my thinking, my idea, my perception of gaining patience just expanded….

Dr. Nancy Ortberg, goes on to share how she had 3 kids in 3 ½ years…wait, what another person like me!! That as you could imagine caught my full attention as two out of my three kids are demanding my attention!  She is telling of how she would never have listed impatience as an area she needed to work on. Of course as many know that all changes and changed when she had three kids.  She began to say that she noticed her impatience by the look in her children’s eyes when she would rush them out of frustration.  How many times…no wait let me say…yes, many times I have done this and had this look from the kids that I understand now as hurt.   

After accepting that she had impatience and that it was sin, Dr. Ortberg put disciplines and practices to slow her down.  She took steps to slow down so she would not feel rushed and therefore get frustrated.  SLOW DOWN…how does that seem to fit, it seems backwards but I get it.  So what if I accomplish this long list of to do’s and feel accomplished if at the end of the night there is this hurtful look in my kids eyes? Or in my husband’s eyes?   

I pray for patience all time but it does take the courage to identify it and pray for solutions. Having discipline invites God off the list and into our hearts!  As much as I am trying to explain what just happened in my heart I can’t seem to write it out.   I just know that in putting this to practice I will accomplish growth in me.  

Slow Down… I get it!

My older son

I came across this picture of Alex and me....

 The moment I saw this picture I quickly felt my heart swell with gratitude. God healed my body during pregnancy so that I could have this miracle baby.  

He is very analytical which is great because finds new angles to what we are saying or how to do something.   He is always creating and thinking....although it sometimes makes it hard for him  to pretend with Noah, who is very imaginative! 

Alex is a constant reminder of God's power in our life! 

He is constant reminder of God's love for us!

The Gift of Love

All of us need to do a job on our thoughts. If the mind is filled with grudges, if it's bogged down with hate or selfishness or impurity or dishonesty, the clean light of joy cannot filter through.  Fill your heart and mind instead with God's words, search for the good in those you meet, get rid of impurity and negativity.  Ask forgiveness for your wrongs and replace them with the great truths of the Bible, the words of Jesus, and the great affirmations in the Psalms, Proverbs, and the Epistles. Simply accept God's gift of joy as you would accept a present from a friend.  Take joy, believe joy, live joy, and you will become happy. 

  

One thing you notice about happy people is this: it isn't how much they have or who they are that makes them joyful.  What determines their happiness is the state of their mind. Remember, the greatest way to live that will produce the best possible state of mind is found in the following words from the writer James Barric, "Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves

                          Action steps

  

1). Accept God's gift of joy by bringing happiness to others. 

2). Your life serves a great purpose. Believe it and live with that purpose always in view. 

3). Refuse to say anything that is mean, dishonest or depressing, no matter what thoughts enter your head.  

 

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