I decide everyday this year I want to choose something I was most thankful for that day. I'm hoping by focusing on something I am thankful for each day, I will become more grateful and appreciative towards all the blessings I receive from The Lord and His provision in my life.
I have had this mind frame for a while that the more I know, the more I will be on the same page as other believers but the more I love and use my gifts to further the gospel the more unity there is with other believers. As Paul said to the Philippians, "complete my joy by being of the SAME mind, having the SAME love, being in full accord and of ONE mind." In the ESV Study Bible, the notes suggest Paul was not speaking of "intellectual uniformity" but speaking of using "their diverse gifts in an agreeable, cooperative spirit, with a focus on the glory of God." I'm so used to being the smart one and I am struggling with that in my walk with Christ. In school, sure fine I can be smart but in Christ I need to love Christ and to love others more than loving the knowledge of Him. I pray and use the Word to pursue God and know Him but the very fire of me pursuing him is out of love for my Creator. And ultimately, "We love because he first loved us." 1 John 4:19
Here is my thankful list:
1. The Gospel
2. Relax
3. Church home
4. Life
5. Breath
6. Food
7. Wisdom
I decide everyday this year I want to choose something I was most thankful for that day. I'm hoping by focusing on something I am thankful for each day, I will become more grateful and appreciative towards all the blessings I receive from The Lord and His provision in my life.
This week has been a very challenging week for me physically, emotionally and spiritually. It was quite hard to keep up with my thankful list and some days I struggled with even being thankful for anything. I got through the week though and intend to reflect on this past week on areas I need to grow in the Lord.
Therefore, instead of my normal ranting I would really love to hear from you guys. How has God encouraged you this week?
Here is my list for this past week:
1. Date night
2. Intense fellowship with my husband
3. Breath
4. Insurance
5. Love
6. Church Camp
7. My sister
What is your thankful list? How do you deal with challenging weeks or days?
Earlier this week, my husband saw a trailer on the television to Hansel & Gretel and told me we should go see it. "Sure," I responded without much thought to what he just said, sadly. Today, I was thinking how long it has been since we have gone on a date. We use to do date night weekly and when money was tight, we watched movies at home or played the Wii as a date night. So date night was pretty frequently, sometimes twice a week with a random dinner date night thrown in the middle of the week. However, I can not remember the last day night we have had. I decided after we had dinner with my grandmother tonight, my husband and I should go on a movie date night. I asked him if he still wanted to see Hansel & Gretel, which he did. I searched a movie time at the closest movie theatre and found one at 9:20pm. Once, we bought the tickets I realized the movie was rated R and asked my husband if he realized that or not (we try to stay away from rated R movies) and he said no, he didn't. The thing that caught his attention of the movie was the action. We talked and decided we would still watch the movie but would be cautious to possible nudity scenes.
The movie was overall a great action movie. Within the first five minutes, the f bomb was already dropped, however. My husband and I looked at each other wondering if we should even stay. We decided we would if the movie did not go over board on using vulgar language. I believe overall, I counted four f bombs and that was it. One scene I found appealing to sexual perversion was when a young man was cleaning Gretel's face of dirt and soon after looked at her breast (they were not exposed fully, only cleavage) and began wiping down her breast from dirt for a few seconds before she woke up to ask what he was doing. There was also one nudity scene that the movie could have done without. While in the healing pond, a woman begins taking off her dress slowly (at least this scene gave notice of what was to happen) and her bottom was exposed and shortly after entering the water she turned and her breast was exposed as well. The scene was short but unnecessary. Other than these few things, the movie is a great movie for adults. If I had children, I would not take them to see this movie even if it's based off a child's tale due to the above comments and for the gruesome fighting scenes as well.
