I don’t know what happened last month 😳 – I missed the date to share my thoughts on Living Intentionally. But this month I made sure that I will not forget. My desktop calender has been reminding me since Saturday to write my update.
It is fun to review the goals that you might have/had for the year.
I know that I had mentioned in January that I would like to expand Laced with Grace. Although the Lord has graced us with wonderful new writers, for some reason I don’t seem to have the green light for the expansion – not yet anyway. I am holding fast on Jeremiah 29:11.
Yesterday I needed to scrap a faith-LO. Yes, I needed to. The funny thing is how fast it came together. Sometimes I need to doodle for hours to get all the elements in place, to have the right colors and photos. But that one came together in no time 🙂 . God has ways to make things clear in my head – even if it is only to create a scrapbook LO. Although “I” wanted to expand Laced with Grace, God is expanding Thankful Thursdays instead – just amazing. But why should I be surprised – God is God and His ways are much higher than my own.
The other two things I wanted to share in my up-date for this month are RAK (Random Acts of Kindness) and meeting with the Lord on a daily basis.
Meeting with the Lord every day is wonderful. Although I have read my Bible on a regular basis for years, the past six month I have been ‘tackling’ one book of the Bible each month. I am currently reading the Book of Acts. Wow – amazing what I am gleaning this time around. I had lead a study at my church on the book, but now it is ‘just’ the Lord and me. Last week I was blown away about the boldness the first century Christians had. The actually prayed for boldness (you can find it in Acts 4). Hey – maybe I should start praying for boldness?!? Today I read Saul’s conversion – just powerful 🙂 . Saul’s conversion only shows us that God can and will use anyone (even His enemies) to give feet to the Gospel.
My last point I want to share with you this month are RAK’s. You know that it is very simple to be kind to anyone around you? Although I still need to make a conscientious decision to be kind randomly (to strangers), it slowly is becoming a daily habit. Why not let someone in line at the register before you – even though you were there first? Why not let someone pull out of a driveway on a busy road, so they can get where they need to go…Just little things. It is fun – try is sometimes 🙂 .
Well, I better let you all go so you can read the other up-dates (head on over to Elisa’s Extravagant Grace) . I leave you with a passage from Paul’s letter to the Colossians.
“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience…” ~ Colossians 3:12 (ESV)
Thank you for stopping by today. Have a blessed, fabulous Tuesday, my dear friends…
Praying so much for you and your blog! It would be great to see the expansion but Praise Our Heavenly Father, He is perfect in His timing and in what He does.
I’ve always love reading Saul’s conversion…It’s very humbling because God could have picked anyone….absolutely anyone and the fact He chosed to use Saul instead…just shows so much He meant what He said in Romans 8:28,”And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Praying for you to meet all of your goals sweetie.
Iris, what a great reminder for me about random acts of kindness. Of course I try to do them “when I think about it,” but the key is to constantly be aware and conscious of that intention! Good words.
Hah! My spam word was GRACE. It just keeps following me no matter where I go!
I am so inspired by your post, and even more sure that Acts is for me next. I just finished Jeremiah today and asked the Lord, what next. This morning, in Bible Study, Henry Blackaby said something about Acts on the DVD, which got me to thinking that that will be next. And here, you mention it. Acts it is!
Thanks for participating, Iris, and for all your encouragement.
Blessings,
Elisa
How cool that you are in the book of Acts learning about boldness.
They truly had random acts of kinds ready to go by bringing willing to the church just in case they could help someone.
Very refreshing.
And I am glad that God is expanding TT–it is such a necessary reminder in our hectic lives.
Keep putting it out there girl–God is using your willing heart.
Really nice to read how you are doing on your goals and to read your thoughts…especially on the book of Acts…
Wonderful…
Helen
You are right that making Random Acts of Kindness a way of life is essential and served as such a reminder that I need to practice that more often in my daily life.
If everyone would make “Random Acts of Kindness” a way of life, just imagine what the world would be like. As Christians, we can set good examples for others to follow. Thanks so much for your writing! I love it! I really love the Thankful Thursday’s. You have so many now that I can not visit everyone! For a while I could comment to each one. I look forward to it every week. Thanks again, Iris! You are one very special person.
I love that layout you made! I only just recently discovered digital scrapping and am kind of looking into it.
I like your goal of reading through one book of the Bible each month. My goal of reading through the entire thing in one year was a little more ambitious than I can handle. It doesn’t take long to fall behind when you need to average 5 chapters a day!! I may have to switch to your method. I’ve been a Christian almost all my life, but I’ve discovered there are countless passages I’ve never actually read through before. Wonderful new discoveries!
Rak….I like that. This must be the message of the hour. I know that I have felt to do and have been doing some of the suggestions you mentioned. Yes, God does STILL speak to his people! 🙂
I just recently finished my study on Acts! I wrote about it a little in my 8 in 8 post. What a wonderful time it was! I learned so much! Thanks for sharing, and I will try to perform some RAK today!
What a blessing~when we leave the choices up to God…He just sends the best! I don’t know what God has in store for your Thankful Thursdays…but I am glad to be part of it. I know that when we were receiving hugs and sympathy from folks that came by to grieve with us over our loss of my sweet sister, a friend/distant cousin hugged my neck and her comment was a blessing … “there’s the Thankful Thursday Girl”….Iris, that let me know that our thankfulness in tough times is extremely important. So we are thankful….and we share it and show it!
Keep on doing what He has called and directed you to do!!!
I love you!!!
Drinking from my “special mug of truth”!!!!