Day 9...The Bible

I LOVE MY BIBLES. That is right it was plural don't look back... you just did didn't you?

I have several bibles that I have acquired over the years. I like different versions and I enjoy reading the bible. I don't do it nearly enough and certainly not as much as I should.

However I do love it. I love the stories it tells me. The encouragement it includes. I love applying a verse to my life or a current situation that is affecting myself or my family. I enjoy (when we sit down and do it) reading to the kids.

I have a couple different ones that I especially love.

I have a Mom's Devotion Bible. It is awesome. I love that it has life application for being a momma. It is a hard job. I wasn't raised in the church or in a religious family so sometimes it is hard for me to figure out how to make the bible important. Church we have. Prayer we got it. But God's word and application and study. Yeah I am slacking a little bit in figuring it all out. This bible is really fun and easy to read and navigate. I actually have given it out as a baby shower gift a few times now. I love it that much!




Then a good friend of mine Ms. Joyce from the ladies group study I attend on Wednesday nights (while my little people are being taught by someone else!) gifted me with this awesome and amazing bible. It has 4 versions in one bible. It is so awesome to see the different translations. This one stays at home mostly cause it is soooo heavy!

Then one day I got a package in the mail. I have no idea (still to this day) where it came from or from who. So someone has kept a very very good secret or God decided I needed to have it. It was a Busy Mom's Bible. It is so cute it is pink and brown and the perfect size to fit in my purse. I love that I can carry it everywhere with me. I can pull it out at doctor's appointments (there are lots of those) or even while at the park and pushing Nolan in the swing while Hudson runs out some excess energy.

I love to read God's word. I am thankful for the opportunity that I have to have so many in my possession. So many do not have the sort of freedoms that I do for that. I am thankful. Now I just need to get better at not taking it for granted and doing it more often!

Momma to 3
*Shay B*

You must

"You must do the things you think you cannot do." - Eleanor Roosevelt

I feel like lately that is all I have been doing.

They say that God won't give you more than you can handle. There is a bible verse even about it.

I am having a hard time believing that lately. I am struggling this month, heck to be honest this year. It isn't happening the way it was supposed to. They way I thought it was supposed to happen. My plans have been changed and destroyed and altered and I am having trouble seeing it His way. I know that it is never for me to control. I know that it isn't MINE. I know this. In my head and my heart and everywhere I am supposed to. So why is it so HARD?

Man I know I said I was trying to lighten things up a little but.. this is a journal of all things good and bad. Lord knows it hasn't been a well kept one lately. I am trying to fix that too. I want to remember the struggles as much as I want to remember that greatness and the awesome sauce that our lives are. I do. So I am trying to find time to "do the things I think I cannot do". The stuff I am always running out of time, patience, energy to do take care of handle facilitate. There are a million and one words I could fill that sentence with.

Kick in the face?

The chapter I am doing on the bible study this month...

The lies we believe about PRIORITIES... yeah that has been soooo much fun. Okay God I am getting it... Slowly, stubbornly... I am getting it. Getting it is COMPLETELY different from figuring it all out though. That I am beginning to fear I may never do.

*Shay B*

God, Ladies and a Good Book

So God was kinda smacking me in the head over the past year to start a bible study with the Ladies at church.

At our home church there is a Women's Tues. am bible study, a Men's Group, Prayer Warriors, a Wednesday night program, a decent children's ministry (we are working on it)and a pretty awesome YAC (Young Adult Class) on Sunday Mornings. However, there really wasn't anything for Young Women. You know young moms, wives, friends and us working ladies that can't make it to the Tuesday group.

So I mentioned it before we found out I was pregnant and about 3 people said they were interested.....and I ignored God telling me to start it.

So I mentioned it when I was about 6 months pregnant and about 3 people said they were interested.....and I ignored God yet again.

Then I had complications and was put on bedrest for awhile and I thought about it some more.

After our little guy arrived I decided okay this is it. I asked Mark (our minister) to order the books (I had already known the book I wanted to do the study with the first time I mentioned doing it). I put a date down in my calendar and I started planning and planning and planning. I would mention it and again I got about the same 3 people saying they were totally up for it.

Our first meeting was in November. I passed out the book (The Lies Women Believe and the Truth that Sets Them Free) to anyone who asked for it. I figured that night I would see the same three who were up for it. Nope.

To be honest with you. I was scared to start it. If I am completely honest and state it in black and white. I was terrified to head something like this. What in the world can I teach any of these ladies? Why would they want to listen to me? What do I know about God and His love or what He wants for us?

God had other plans and thoughts I guess... because not three but...

TEN ladies. It was amazing I never thought God would allow me to teach a group of ladies so amazing. I was so nervous that night.

We had such a great night! It has been such a blessing to me to have to sit and focus on the book and dig deeper and really hash it out. I had already read the book once and loved it. To actually sit down and focus and put it into a lesson plan and explain it to others to discuss it and hash it all out? It is totally something I needed.

I have since passed out the remaining books I had left out of the 15 that were ordered.

December is Chapter 2 : Lies Women Believe About God. It is a great chapter. It is one I am struggling with to get right. To explain it to "teach" it. Most importantly for me to learn it.

God may be using me somehow but really? I feel like God is using this book and these ladies to teach me something.

*Shay B*