Putting It To Death

My morning read the other day was from James Bryan Smith in his book Hidden In Christ.  It was about putting sin to death. To mortify it. He gave the example of the swimsuit addition from a very popular sports magazine.  Guessing you all know that one.  He talked about his guilty conscience with it as a young kid before he knew Christ.  Then as he gave his life to Christ, the struggle became greater.  He struggled for years whether to look or just throw it away.  Finally he put the temptation to look away and walked straight to the trash bin and put that sin to death.  

He also gave another example of a teacher and her struggles with gossip in the teacher’s lounge. She worked to mortify that sin by redirecting the conversations if it turned to gossip.  If the redirecting didn’t work, she would leave the lounge.  She was fleeing from her temptation thus putting sin’s temptation to death. 

So I got to thinking about my sin as I like to self reflect and challenge myself with Jesus during my morning devotion.  Quickly anger came to mind.  If you know me, I’m pretty chill but every once in a while I explode and it’s usually my kids and their fighting that cause the volcano to erupt.  But when they are fighting I can’t exactly throw them in the trash, I can try redirecting which rarely works and then I can’t just walk away while it escalates into something bigger.   So I was stumped for a while on how to put this sin of anger to death.

Then He brought Ephesians  4:2 to mind. Humble, gentle, patient.  I can flee this sin and put anger to death in this situation by putting on the armor of God - His word. By simple training myself to say a quick “breath prayer” it will slow my heart enough, fix my eyes on Jesus, and see the situation as a teaching moment to mold their hearts a little more. And you know what, most of the time this works.  

Not all the time... then in those instances, I just throw them in the trash.

I kid…

But think about this. We all struggle with sin in our life. But it’s how we deal with our sinful desires that form us into who we are. Do we tempt the waters? Sin a little and then ask for forgiveness and just rely on the grace of God? Or do we flee from these moments, the temptations and shift our focus and heart to God.

My challenge to you is to be honest with yourself. We are a work in progress. But we need willing hearts for the change to happen.

Much Love Inspiration

“I tell you, her sins-and they are many-have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love…” – Luke 7:47

Much love. 

Can we connect with a love so deep? 

Can we humble our hearts and see ourselves as this woman-a great sinner in need of a Savior? 

We are all sinful to the core.  We are broken.  We are dirty.  But Jesus washes us clean and makes us new.  This woman got it.  She knew she needed Jesus so she bravely enters into a Pharisee’s home, and overcome with raw emotion and love, she anoints her Savior with a perfume so precious to her.  But she anoints His feet because she knows how unworthy she is before her Redeemer.  Her heart explodes and her tears stream down onto his feet.  She gently takes her hair and wipes away those forever grateful tears.  Her love is pure. Her love it big.  Her love is felt by Jesus. 

I pray that when we wear this necklace, it is a great reminder of how deep our love should be for the One who makes us whole.

Family Changes: Awesome for us, Super Duper amazing for you.

Life has been anything but quiet these last 2 weeks.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s been wonderful and amazing and God has abundantly more than provided for us.  But it has been crazy.

Let me explain…

Just about 2 weeks ago we met with friends of ours to go to a play for Christmas.  Just a few days before Steve and I found an interesting house that we wanted to take a look at.  We’ve been on and off looking “online” at houses for quite some time now and a few in person, but we were in no hurry, nor did we think we would find what we wanted in our budget.  Basically, we just want a little more land.  These friends that we are going to the play with just happen to be realtors and own a successful property management company. So we asked if they could show us this place. Well, we went, saw potential in it, slowly started to love it, and decided after a week to put in an offer. With that meant we had to put up our house for sale contingent upon us buying.  So the mad frenzy began. 

Now, I keep a clean house.  And I’m super organized.  But when your realtor comes not even 24 hours to take photos after you decide to list your house, which wasn’t even on our radar to list a house, you begin the mad frenzy of cleaning and chucking junk you haven’t needed in years.  (don’t worry we donated and didn’t throw)  The very next day after listing we had three people come, then more the next.  Basically the kids and I didn’t live at the house for those 48 hours. (I’m maximizing a little.)  Then just 3 days after listing we accepted an offer and our offer was accepted. 

It’s been a whirlwind.  My brain can’t keep up.

Like I stated right away though, God has abundantly provided for us.  We dreamed this would happen but never really thought it would be a reality.  Our soon-to-be house has lots of cosmetic work but it’s a solid house on a 1.25 acre lot just outside where we live now.  And this process has been amazing.  Yes, busy but He has certainly provided us with amazing people we can trust to help us along the way.

So three things.  First, happy update on my life!  Glad I could catch you up ;) Second, don’t forget to dream those dreams.  I’ve been constantly reminded that as I remain in Him, He will remain in me and when he remains in me, I’ll be more confident in knowing whether this is a selfish desire or a desire God is leading us to.

Third,  we will be moving.  So I need to ease all this moving which means we need a MAJOR SALE on all Six Notes items!!! 

What’s awesome and amazing for my family is super duper amazing for you too ;)

So basically until I start packing away which I have no idea when that will be, we will be having a SITE WIDE 40% OFF SALE.  Just use code: MOVINGSALE  We’d love your help in promoting this.  So share this blog, our facebook page, instagram, newsletter, whatever you wish and help us get the word out.  We’d greatly appreciate your help in this.

And be sure to be praying for my family.  We are excited but it will be hard to leave our neighbors.  We’ve been greatly blessed over the last nine years in this home.  We love it here and it will be hard on us emotionally to leave the first house we purchased just 6 months into our marriage and brought 3 babies home to.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.  Amen. - Ephesians 3:20-21