Book Study

Looking to the Better Half

March 8, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

There is need of only one thing, Mary has chosen the better part which will not be taken away from her.

Luke 10:42.

I’ve been feeling in need of a change in my life lately, a break from the endless doctor visits with no solutions, a break from feeling like all I can do is sit down so I feel less miserable, a break from people asking “are you sure it isn’t all stress dear?”, a break from writing (though I love to write and would LOVE a weekend away where I could just write and read and write some more) and a break from thinking about what I need to get rid of before we move, a break from .. well.. everything really. I’m feeling my patience slipping away from me.

I don’t like that.

So I came to my study today in “Having a Mary heart in a Martha world” with a heart that feels heavy. I want something different to happen. I need a change and I’m just feeling battered.

This chapter called me back, back to the heart of God. Reminding me that God needs to be the centre of everything in my life. So how do I do that? How do I make needed changes in my life to show God as being at the centre? I’m thinking show is the wrong would… as I don’t want it to just LOOK like God is centre to my life, but that he actually IS centre to my life. It’s been good for me to have the accountability of having a daily moment of faith on my blog. It helps to keep me centred and thinking on God you know?

As I read Joanna Weaver’s words I’m wondering if part of my batteredness (is that even a word?) is that my prayer life is ….. not as strong as I like it to be. Yes I pray, and when someone mentions a need I’ll lift up a quick prayer for them, or when I see them on the homeschool forum or their name flit back on facebook or Instagram I’ll pray for them but do I pray continually and with meaning? NOT.

Do I sit down and just talk with God about my thoughts and what not? (I don’t mean literally sit down but figuratively) Honestly, not as often as I should.. generally more in the “I’m not doing so well moments”. I need to break out of that… to reach harder for the better part of knowing the Lord and wanting to spend time in his presence.

The question then is how to cultivate that? How do I cultivate a more consistent prayer life? A more consistent time of centring myself in the Lord?

Consistency

When my lad was young I had a little book of scriptures that I read with him. We’d do one passage per week and basically memorize them. We used them as a start to a night time prayer. I am recalled back to that and how often I don’t pray as I should because honestly… my life isn’t that scintillating.. what would I talk about all the time. But as I get more consistent in study of God’s word life… I can use that scripture reading, or that spiritual book reading as a basis for talking with God? Wouldn’t that be awesome? A daily build in right there!

Creativity

Prayers don’t always have to be the same eh? Prayers can be sung, whispered, written. Prayers can scripture based, need based, thanksgiving based, or just a mish mosh. They can be “hey we have food and people! Thanks for it all”. They can be rote or they can be spontaneous. Changing it up means you don’t just pray just to pray, but you pray because it’s GOOD to talk with the Lord and to listen to him talk back as he recalls scriptures and biblical truths to mind.

Conversation

Prayer is just that you know? Prayer is meant to be a conversation between you and God. It’s talking and listening from both sides. God listens to us, we talk to him. God talks to us, and we listen to God. This is a skill that needs to be cultivated just as you do when you make a new friend, or are maintaining an older friendship.

What say you?

Is there something in your life … like in mine…that needs to change so you have a better centre? A better way to make the rest of your life revolve better?

Will you pray for me as I learn to pray for you all the more? Feel free to contact me privately if you have a prayer concern, or mention it in the comments. I’ll try to connect with you to see how you are doing. Accountability is a good thing you know?

Building Intimacy with God

February 15, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Today as I browsed facebook for a bit I saw a short video that compared all the different faith systems of the world with “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. How every faith system has that law written into it’s code in some format. I tried finding it on youtube so I could link it for you but failed to find it. Anyways, it struck me at the time that… everyone has that spark of God in them…. so it’s only natural that every man-made faith would have this truth as part of it.

As I was reading through “Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World” a similar idea was pointed out. How all of us desire to know God. That we all are designed to be close to him.

The question before us then is this:

How DO we get to know him? To be close to him… to have intimacy with him?

And within that intimacy…. how do we let God have intimacy with us… to get to know us well to?

I know, part of writes those words and I’m wondering at myself. God already knows me.. he knows my every thought and deed. So why should that ever be a consideration? But the thing that God wants with us a relationship. For us to know him, for him to know us, and through that relationship…show forth his glory. When you think of intimacy with God as a relationship, it only makes sense that you share of yourself with him. He will also share of himself with you.

Where do we get this knowledge of him?

We find God in his Holy Word. It makes sense to spend some time in it doesn’t it? Having a time of setting down and reading his word, let those words soak into us as we study them.

We can find a good devotional plan to follow, as well as finding a church family to be part of. Reading good Christian based literature that will draw our minds to him. Listening to sermons on-line or in person. All good ways to grow in the knowledge of the Lord.

As we grow in that knowledge we mustn’t neglect talking with him. Just as you would talk to your best friend, or a neighbour over coffee, sharing with them the details of your life and learning the details of theirs. So we can talk with God. The bible gives us details about him and his care for his people.

How do we build relationship with God?

Through prayer (talking with God) we can share our lives with him. Letting him know what’s important to us, and as we get to know him more, his spirit will guide us to seeing what’s important to God as well. Caring for others he brings into our lives.

One of the amazing things is… we often don’t truly know how much we need to be with God until we start spending time with him. Blows me away every single time. 🙂

You know how it’s a delight to chat with a friend? Now, imagine the delight that comes with building a relationship with someone who knows everything about you… and loves you none-the-less? Imagine it. He loves each of us so deeply we can’t even truly fathom it. And he wants to have a relationship with us. To spend time with us talking, and learning, and growing and becoming. Talking with him, living by his call upon our lives, this is building a relationship that broadens our knowledge and love of him.

I made up a small printable of copywork to share with your children (or for you to practice yourself). You can find that HERE.

The Cure to Feeling Overwhelmed

February 9, 2018 By Annette1 2 Comments

You know how I’m reading through Ezra? I was thinking the other day, you know how they had this huge party after they built up the temple wall? I was wondering today as I was working in the basement…. I wonder if the women got a bit overwhelmed? Having too much to do in too little of time.. all these celebrations that happened. Then I was reading tonight in Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World and guess what the topic was? The cure to feeling overwhelmed… Kismet eh? 🙂

Remember in the story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10)… anyways, here’s the story: 38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” Do you remember that Martha was getting all hot and bothered? All this work to do and no one available to help her? Overwhelmed? Want the cure?

Here she was living in a society where men’s work and women’s work was distinctly different. How they were able to worship was distinctly different. Men could enter the synagogue, women had the women’s court. Men were expected to know the Law of Moses and understand the tenets of God, women were expected to show their faith in action. They were to get jobs done. All these duties women had for cooking meals, getting the laundry done, keeping the house tidy and so forth. Much work to do.

Which means when Mary didn’t help her, she had no where to turn to. Men couldn’t be expected to help serve. Mary knew Jesus well enough to talk to him though, to say “Jesus, get Mary to help me!” Jesus simply told Martha, that Mary had chosen the good portion and he wouldn’t take that away from her.

Do you see it?

Do you see the answer to being overwhelmed?

It is choosing a different portion, a different focus. It’s choosing the good portion of focusing on Jesus first. Not getting all caught up in the work that needs to be done, or can be done, or_ or _ or…. you know what I mean!. It’s choosing the good portion.

What is the good portion?

Intimacy with God. He wants to walk and talk with us. To be involved in our every moments. He wants so much to just have fellowship with us, his children. Learning to love him and be like him.

How does one choose the good portion?

Dedicating your day to the Lord. When you get out of bed invite the Lord to come first in what you do. To guide all your paths throughout the day.
As you go through your day, remember to do the next thing through asking the Lord what it is that needs doing. Do you see what this does? It keeps you talking with the Lord all day long.
As you talk with the Lord about the events you need to accomplish during the day, with that you need to trust that he will get you through what NEEDS doing and leave the rest in his capable hands.
Be open to his leading, for the opportunities he gives you through the day. A neighbour to chat with, a meal to drop off, a child’s heart to hear, be open to it. Listen to it well. But remember.. don’t get caught up in the doing for doing’s sake… follow his leading for what you should be focusing on.

If you want to work through how to feel less overwhelmed, I’ve done up a small worksheet to help you. Click here or on the image below..

Would you like to follow along in Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World? I’d be happy to have you along for the journey. 🙂

Turn Worry To Peace

January 26, 2018 By Annette1 6 Comments

Recently I was reading in “Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World” and Ms Weaver brought up the topic of worry. This got me thinking you know..how worry creeps into our lives. My frequent health issues lately have people keep asking me if I am worried about our future. They wonder aloud to me that stress may play a role. Worry is a known quantity in poor health. Stress can play a significant role in one’s health.

Therefore, I have to admit.. there are times I wonder, because of the concerned folks in my life, that perhaps I am worried about our future. Sometimes I wonder that perhaps I am just deluding myself, but honestly, I don’t feel it. The stress of the future bearing down on us, is something I don’t feel. I DO get stressed about what my body is doing…because it bothers me greatly. But does being bothered about something necessarily turn into stress? What a person does when something bothers them, determines if they will be stressed about it, don’t you?

It brings me back to the question of worry and how it affects us and how it creeps into our lives.

In God’s word, we are told this “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” Phil.4:6-7

How do we get to the point of not worrying?

Prayer

Easy enough eh? Just pray. Talk to God about everything.

So when I’m in out in the rabbitry and getting vexed because someone I’ve been talking with for more than six months about a trio of rabbits who YET AGAIN has cancelled on me… I have a choice, I can continue to be vexed (and with that worry) OR I can talk to God about it. And then options pop into my head, I’m aware that for today..I can handle three extra rabbits and I get a reminder that patience is a good thing to have.

When I’m having a shower and realizing the heat of the shower is making me feel icky so I get out and wonder if I’ll have feel normal again, or more likely… starting to fret that I’ll NEVER feel okay again and will become a burden on my family, I have a choice… will I continue to fret and worry and fear…. or will I say God? Can you get me through THIS MOMENT? Just this moment, not the future, just right now… hold my hand and get me through this moment. You know what happens? He Does. EVERY SINGLE TIME.

When hubby isn’t sleeping well, and I know some of it is lack of job-related, I have a choice. My options are to sit and fret about it or I can … bet you can guess… I can talk to God about it. I choose to talk to hubby about it, and rub his back, and remind him that he does have a calling, but that sometimes, just as in the days of Ezra, that calling needs to be set off to the side for a while. It doesn’t always provide him with immediate relief, but it’s good to talk together and it’s good to talk to God eh?

Prayer is Constant

I once counselled a friend, for whom worry and regret were a huge part of her life, bigger than it was for me AT THAT TIME, and she said: “but I talk to God but it changes nothing I just start worrying again”. My response was to say … so talk to God some more, even if you talk to him 50 million times a day about every little fear and concern you have… just keep talking. God tells us to pray constantly.. so this is just a part of it. Don’t grab your worry back from him, take it to him, leave it with him and if another worry immediately replaces it.. give that over to him too. Talk to him about it.

Thankfulness

Now, this is a part that I often forget and need to be more deliberate about… THANKFULNESS. As I talk to God about my worries, my frets and also need to thank him.

I read a blog post a while back (and sorry I don’t remember whose it was) about a gal who dealt with worry. Her approach as she talked to God was to turn that worry into an opportunity to say thanks to God. For instance, when she worried that they didn’t have enough food for supper she turned that into thankfulness for help given in the past. Isn’t that awesome?

I need to do this more often. I need to make it a point of my living day to day. It is so good to see how God has worked in the past. It’s even better to how he continues to work in the present and how he does have my future covered.

I have learned that it is so true that when I talk with God more, and the more I am thankful to him, the more that God’s peace, which exceeds anything I can understand, will guard my heart and mind as I live in Christ Jesus. This truth becomes more real to me the more I live it out.

So let worry slide away my readers… talk to God, thank him for everything that he has done, thank him in the moment that you are in… and for all the moments he will take you through. Talk to him, praise him, and let his peace become a real part of you.

A Gift for You

A copy-work printable for you. Click on the image, please.

Writing Tools: Order Words for Emphasis with Printable

January 11, 2018 By Annette1 8 Comments

The last time I used this book, Writing Tools, I talked about how you should begin sentences with Subjects and Verbs. Today we’ll be talking about how you organize your words. One should order words for emphasis.

Why is this important?

In any sentence, the final punctuation acts as a stop. The slight pause in reading adds emphasis to the final word in the sentence, so minding where you place words in a sentence adds additional emphasis. For instance, let’s say there was a bombing at the school. Which would be better: Parents arrived at the school dressed in housecoats and business suits. OR Parents hurried to the school, arriving in their business suits and housecoats. Being left with the image of housecoats imparts the sense of urgency those parents would feel wouldn’t it?

When you start and end a sentence with stronger words, it allows you hide weaker or supportive words in the middle. This is especially useful when quoting someone, allowing you to list the attribution in the middle of the quote “I have having the flu,” said the lad, “it makes my throat sore.”

Sometimes people call this the 2-3-1 tool of emphasis (here’s an interesting article on that). The most important sentence comes at the end, the second most at the beginning, and the least important in the middle. Or simply put the best first and last, the rest in the middle. Follow this for sentences and for paragraphs, it will make your writing better overall.

Printable:

To download click here.

Practice your skills at using this principle.

If you would like to follow along in writing tools, you can find it here on Amazon.

Linked up at Encouraging hearts. Homeschool review crew.

How to Write a Poem: Finding Your Joy

January 4, 2018 By Annette1 2 Comments

This book has been on my wish list on Amazon ever since the writer’s conference in the fall. My dear hubby picked it up for me for Christmas and I thought this week I would dive into it. This first chapter is called “Find the Poems Inside”.

In this chapter we are introduced to the idea of doing freewrites.

I admittedly am not unfamiliar with this term. The five-minute-Friday challenges I take part in are five minute freewrites. Where you just write for five minutes. Unlike these free writes though where we don’t edit, we just write and share, this first chapter encourages us to freewrite for 5-15 minutes, a given time frame, and then use that freewrite in order to frame out a better poem.

The author also gives a bunch of freewrite starters like a tour of your home town, being at the hospital, a time you got lost and more.

But you don’t do it immediately. Do your freewrite and then walk away from it. Have a cup of coffee or go for a walk or something. Just give yourself a break. Once you have done that, go back, read your poem over. Make no changes, just read it. Then read it again with a pen in hand marking those parts that you really like. The lines that speak to your heart cause that’s what poetry is…your heart speaking to the world.

Take those heart lines and write those out, and then use those lines to help you write a better poem, a poem with some flesh on it, without answering all the questions your poem raises, because heart answers are seldom complete. Write and refine, but first find your heart in a topic.

That’s what the joy of freewrites are.. finding your joy.

Accept the Mess

December 28, 2017 By Annette1 6 Comments

Remember how I had this list of books I wanted to read and go through? My mom-in-law added to that list over Christmas (and hubby’s promised one as well) so the list just keeps growing. It’s good to learn eh? Anyways, I was pondering what book to pick up for today’s post and Pep Talks came to mind so here I am.

I was browsing through the table of contents when “accept the mess” caught my eye. So.. shall we, accept the mess?

Oh.. this chapter made me laugh. Oh my, it did. 🙂 I am just grinning as I write these words ACCEPT THE MESS!

But seriously …. it’s good to clean the house.. it is. I was raised that way. Unfortunately my mother NOR my mother-in-law live with me. They don’t.. and guess what.. THEY DON’T WANT TO. Bet you can’t guess the reason. 🙂 AND … it’s not because they don’t love me or care about me.. but MY style of living and THEIR style of living is well.. not quite a polar opposites.. but frankly I would rather write or do art or talk with my boy, or play a game or .. almost anything… then to get my house spotless. There is far too many interesting things in the world that get my attention than the cleanliness of my floors.. or the cobwebs in the corners.

So reading this post made me grin.

The author’s point is this NO ONE ever from their deathbed said “I wish I had cleaned my house more”. BUT there are lots of people who wish they had spent their times differently.. written that novel, gone on the cruise, played with their kids more…. or almost anything… but cleaning the house.. not even near that list.

If you want to be a writer, you need to think to yourself.. can I do that “housework” later? Can I let the mess around me inspire my brain synapses and just write? Can I just take that five minutes or hour and just spend that time writing and creating and let the mess take care of itself? Can I do that? Can YOU do that?

Just so you know.. YOU CAN.

Have you ever noticed that seriously creative people tend to have a less than tidy home? Did you know that messiness.. or helter-skelter room arrangements tend to foster creative and novel thoughts? Tidy rooms tend to foster tidy conventional minds. You are called therefore to let that messiness flourish when needed.

Mind.. you need to be concerned about others living with you and their sensitivities (ergo today I cleaned some stuff up in the bookroom) and tonight I sat and wrote. It’s good yes? But there are afternoons that I sit and write because well.. writing is something I love to do… and then rush through the dishes in the evening (so glad we have a dishwasher now.. like seriously).

“Give yourself a break and accept the mess — because you are immersed in a deep act of creation.” Realize your goals of creation. Decide when to make it important… it’s a good thing to do. 🙂

Learn more about this book through Raincoast.

or if you want to follow along, Amazon Link.

Book Study