Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Resources in Review

Since I have been so sporatic in posting due to our church relocating to a much larger facility, I will post all of my resouces here in one post to make it easy. I had intended to post them back to back but that did not happen so I kind of need this.

1. The pure Word of God. A daily intake.

2. Write in my Gratitude Journal. This is easy. I simply list 3 things a day. I'm also in the process of making a Gratitude Wall (in the thinking stages of exactly how I want to do it).

3. iChoose 2 Love my Life: 52 Week Guide to intentional/purposeful living.

4. Luke Bible Study with Good Morning Girls (current Bible Study, this will change several time this year). I love GMG because I can dig deep and you can allow God to give me revelation. To me this is a HUGE plus. I am passionate about people learning to APPLY the Word to their lives and this study does just that.

5. Siesta 2013: I will be memorizing 2 Scriptures a month using my handy little notecard holder. This is a big part of our homeschool already so this is sort of a continuation of that. I am posting my Scripture every 2 weeks for accountability on the website I ordered my notecards from.

6. I will read numerous books this year. I will be starting Desperate by Sarah Mae and Sally Clarkson. I will be starting that at the end of January. I am not EXACTLY sure what other books I will read this year. I will post some of those as well.

7. I am in a Bible Study on Friday mornings and I am not sure what we will be doing this year. I have missed the last 2 weeks due to church relocation, but will be there this week. Excited to get started back with this great group of ladies.

***I thought I put this to post Tuesday morning, but did not...so it's running a day late and I did find out that our Bible study group will be doing iChoose 2 Love my Life. YAH!

Monday, January 14, 2013

2013 Continues

I said that I would share with you what I would doing in 2013 so...here's a few other resources I will be using.

I will be reading Desperate: Hope for the Mom Who Needs to Breathe by Sarah Mae & Sally Clarkson. I will be joining the group at the end of January. Click here to find out more information and you can also click to order your book. I got mine in the mail 2 weeks ago and can't wait to get started.

 I love to read and I make it a daily discipline to read a little each day after I have read the Word of course. Nothing could ever replace the Word of God. I challenge you to read something of worth each day. I have found that God often uses books to help me step up in what God has called my family to.

I will also be memorizing 2 Scriptures a month using my Siesta 2013. For your own Siesta 2013 click here. This is a part of Beth Moore's ministry. I am super excited to do this. You have to post on the 1st and 15th what Scripture you will be memorizing. I purchased the spiral notebook that is super cute to write my verses in. You carry it with you with the verse(s) you are memorizing. I am a huge advocate for Scripture memorization and we focus a lot on this at home and at church.

I decided a few weeks ago to choose One Word for the year of 2013. I pondered this for weeks. I LOVED Ann Voskamp's word "IN." I was tempted to "copy" and use that BUT I knew God needed to speak to me. As I sought God, He said "CHOOSE." So choose will be my word. I am not exactly sure what all that entails, but I feel like God will continue to reveal Himself to me on this word. I do know that I have so many things going on and there are so many great things my family could get involved in, but we must CHOOSE the best that God has and not settle for less than the best. I can't wait to gain further revelation.



I am super excited about what God has in store for 2013! I know it will be good! I am excited about all the new people I have met through blogging these few months. I am blessed to be apart of the iBloom team and love having that group to share with and get great ideas from. I have been blessed since joining them in November.

Again, it is not too late to order your iChoose 2 Love my Life book. I have enjoyed my first 2 weeks! But of course I am passionate about intentional/purposeful living. This pretty much sums up this 52 week guide!








Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Child Training Bible (CTB)

OK I am a little behind in posting on the CTB, but we did have a 2 week break for Christmas for those who are studying the CTB as a group.

I know I have said this before, but I love reading through the Scripture each week because it is helping me to more effectively use the Bible in the way it is tabbed. At first, it felt so foreign to me in this method, but now it is very easy to use. I encourage you to read through your tabs and become familiar with them so that you can easily use it. The more familiar you are with the format, the more easily you can use it as a tool in talking with your children. I have found that I am more at ease and can allow the Holy Spirit to prompt me on what to say once I have studied that tab. I also know what is at my fingertips, so I know exactly where to go. I would encourage you to become familiar with the information on the back of the card as well.

If you just got your CTB, it can be a bit overwhelming, but I would say tab and study one section a week. I did mine in a couple of sittings, but you could break it down if you needed to AND if you would like to read and study the tabs, we are in the middle of studying 1 tab a week. You could join the facebook group to study them or you could do them on your own. I use the SOAP method for each Scripture.

I worked very hard over Christmas to make 2 for other people. It was a lot of work, but well worth the effort and time. Lives will be CHANGED because of the Word of God! I do not regret one minute I worked on those Bibles.

If you do not have your materials, I would encourage you to follow the link on my sidebar and get your today. This was a major part of our 2012 and will be a major part of our 2013. I desire "heart transformation" not "behaviour modificaiton" when I discipline my children and this resource does just that.

I will continue to share what resources I will be using in 2013, but my posts will continue be a little hit and miss for the next week or so. We are in the process of moving our church to a bigger facility so I have been swamped with that lately. Our first service will be this Sunday, so if you read this blog, PLEASE pray for us as we expand to impact the world for JESUS CHRIST!



Thursday, January 3, 2013

Gratitude

I am super excited about 2013 and all that it has in store. I just know that God is going to do great things despite the way things are in our world. We just have to trust and CHOOSE to look to Him.

For Christmas, I made everyone who got gifts, "Gratitude Journals" and some sort of devotion. I got this inspiration through Ann Voskamp's website, A Holy Experience. I just love her site. I love to look around and listen to the music playing in the background. It is so peaceful and calm.

I printed off her free printables and put them into each journal. I found the perfect journals at Hobby Lobby that said, "Be still and know that God." They did not have as many as I needed so some people got a different one. I made all the kids one as well. There's were a little more fun looking.

I chose to do this because everyone around me has everything they need or want. I wanted to give a gift that would change their lives and have eternal value.

This year, as I start 2013, I am going to list 1000 gifts as she challenges us to do. I am so excited to see what God has in store. It is a challenge when you think of 1000 gifts, but all you have to do is list 3 gifts a day. She even created a list to follow, such as, list 3 things with noise you are thankful for. I think that is pretty neat.

I do believe that it is easy to get caught up in life and forget how blessed we truly are. I CHOOSE to be grateful and full of joy that comes from Jesus.

Will you join me in 2013 by listing your 1000 gifts?

 All you have to do is grab any blank notebook and IF you want to, you can print out the free pages and tape them in your notebook AND go to work.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Starting 2013 with Purpose

I am very excited to start 2013 off with a new book I received in December, iChoose2 Love My Life.





It is a great book that is divided into 52 weeks. That means that you do ONE a week and they are NOT very long (most are 2 to 3 pages). I love the fact that it is short enough yet long enough to challenge you AND leads you to take action steps through questions and coaching. Each week focuses on a different area of your life. Some of the topics include: iChoose2 Live intentionally, manage my time, surrender, encourage, operate in my strengths. This is just a few! There's one thing you can do by going through this book: BECOME A BETTER YOU!

I "accidentally" found iBloom last year and signed up to get their emails. I liked what I saw on the website and sometimes I actually read them and sometimes I didn't. They have videos to go along with each week too. I watched some of those. But when I really got excited about iBloom was when I heard about the opportunity to become an Ambassador for them. I applied and got accepted. I was shocked and excited to be chosen. So, then I began finding out more and more about what this has to offer and LOVE it! You will too!

The book is KEY. If I would have ordered the book last year when I found the website, I would have actually read the iBloom emails and made progress with each of their challenges.

I desire to be a different person when I look back at my life this time in a year. That is a desire of mine each year. I can say that 2012 held lots of changes for me and I am pleased to say MOST were good. There is always room for improvement and we will never be ALL that we desire to be this side of heaven.

I have several tools I will be using in 2013 to make me a better Amanda. I desire to be who God created me to be and tap into my strengths and bring glory to Him in all I do. I will be sharing some of the tools I will be using in the next few days.

I would love to hear how you are cultivating your spiritual life and becoming a better you! Please share!

AND...if you would like to order your copy of  iChoose2 Love My Life please follow the link. You will be glad you did. There's a lot more this website has to offer.