Scripture Sunday

Tonight I would like to share with you one of my very favorite verses.  It's a blessing, actually, that the priests were given to give to the people.  The important words here are "LORD" which is the translation of "YHWH" (what we know as Yahweh), the name God gives Himself in Exodus 3:13-15 -- meaning "I AM."  Anytime you see LORD capitalized in the Bible, it refers to YHWH. This was the name of God that was the most holy -- so holy, the Jews would not pronounce it aloud.  

The other portion of this blessing I'd like to point out is the very last word -- peace.  This is the Hebrew word "SHALOM" which, translated, means much more than our English version of "peace." Hebrew words go beyond their spoken pronunciation. Each Hebrew word conveys feeling, intent and emotion. Shalom is more then just simply peace; it is a complete peace. It is a feeling of contentment, completeness, wholeness, well being and harmony. According to Strong's Concordance 7965 Shalom means completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord.

How wonderful is this God, YHWH, the God who created all and put everything in its place, the great I AM, wants for us not just "peace," but quite literally "perfect peace."  HIS peace.  I'm needing that tonight, as I'm a little sad and lost.  And so I share His blessing with you, hoping that you are blessed as well.  

Numbers 6:24-26 (NIV)

24 “‘“The LORD bless you

and keep you;

25 the LORD make his face shine on you

and be gracious to you;

26 the LORD turn his face toward you

and give you peace.”’

Until next time,

Scripture Sunday

Matthew 6:5-7

New International Version (NIV)

5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

This spoke to me today, because one of the habits I want to change this year is how much and how often I spend with the Lord.  This is a good reminder that I need to take the time to make time to spend one on one with Him.  My plan is to set aside about a half an hour in the mornings, to start, to study Scripture and pray.  I have a little prayer journal I made, that I can put photos in of the people I currently pray for, and write notes in the margins.  My days always go better when I start them off with God!

Happy Sunday!  Until next time,

Scripture Sunday

Revelation 21

Today, Revelation 21:3-5 is the Scripture on my mind and in my heart.  It is one of my favorites, and I thought it went well with the "new"year.  We need to remember that because God gave his only Son to save us from our sins, that each day, each hour, each moment, we have a clean slate.  Christ died on the cross for our sins.  We are saved by the grace of God.  He loves us that much.  How can we not love Him in return? 

 ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” ⁵ He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”   NIV

  

How excited I am for the day that the old order passes away -- when there is no more death, or mourning or crying or pain.  What a day that will be!!  Happy Sunday to you, my friends!  

Until next time,

 

Habits, not Resolutions!

Ah, welcome, my friends, to 2012!!  I hope that you all had a blessed Christmas and a fun and happy New Year celebration!  I've been somewhat MIA on my blog, as I started the Christmas week with strep, which quickly moved into a rather nasty sinus infection.  We postponed our trip for Christmas by one day, and so have just arrived back home and are getting settled back in.  Our "girls," who were at the doggie spa for a week, were happy to see us, and have needed a little extra attention these past few days as they felt neglected over the holidays!

So, it seems that the blog topic for the week is New Years Resolutions.  Do you make them?  I have for years, and have just as consistently failed at most of them!!  Anyone know what I mean?  I resolve to lose weight.  Mmmmm, not so successful.  I resolve to exercise more.  Does shopping count?  I resolve to quit (fill in the blank.)  I'll say "chewing my nails."  (Nervous habit I've had since I was young.)  Never happened.  And each year, I feel a little worse about myself.  Anyone else feel this way?  Ever?  Well, I've decided to change my thinking this year, and do things a little differently.  Instead of making resolutions, I'm going to change habits.  Yep.  You heard me.  Big difference.

For one thing, when you set resolutions, they are often arbitrary, and so you are spending all your effort working towards something that is (basically) meaningless -- IE. "I'm going to 'get fit' in 2012." And then if you don’t achieve it, you feel like you failed, even though you didn't define what "get fit" meant.  Did it mean exercising more?  Eating better?  Changing habits is different, if you approach it with an attitude of “this is one little change I can make and I will enjoy the change as I do it."  Another thing we do to set ourselves up for New Year's failure is trying to do too much at once.  Ten resolutions.  I'm going to eat better, exercise more, get up an hour earlier, blah blah blah.  And when we fall off the wagon with one, more often than not we fall of the entire track, because why bother?  You can make a list of habits you want to change.  That's fine.  But don't change more than one habit at once.  Why?  Because it takes about 30 days to create a new habit.  So, if you plan just one little change a month, in a year you'll have formed 12 new habits!  

To start myself off for 2012, the habit I want to change is how often I post to my blog.  So I've created the following schedule to follow, to make myself accountable, and to hopefully keep you all coming back for more!

Blog planner 2012:

Weekly:

• Project Life – Weekly on Tuesday
• 52 Photos – Weekly on Wednesday
• Gratitude Journal – Weekly on Saturday
• Sunday Scriptures – Weekly on Sunday

Monthly: 

• One Little Word – Monthly on the 2^nd Monday
• Scrapbook*Life* Journal Class – monthly on the 2^nd Thursday 
• Close to My Heart 
• Layout/Playgroup – Monthly on the 4^th Monday 
• Stamp of the Month Card – Monthly on the 4^th Thursday 
• Studio J Layout – Monthly on the 4^th Friday

As needed:

·         CTMH Special Projects

·         CTMH Constant Campaigns

·         Art Journaling & Sketching

There may be a few things added or taken off of this list as I fine tune my year, but I hope that you'll follow the posts that interest you, and encourage your friends to, as well.  

I'll be back tomorrow with a NEW Close to My Heart Special, and later this week with a "Special Project" that relates to my "changing habits" goal for 2012.  Check back soon!  You won't want to miss it!  Until next time,