Intentional Living: Week One

i started teaching a ladies sunday school class this week.
i thought that i would do a re-cap for those of you who live too far away to come!
i am breaking the class into 6 weeks...
being an intentional:
                            woman
                            friend
                            wife
                            mother
                            pray-er
                            witness

i first wanted to establish a few things before we even got started.

1. Who we are and whose we are
   *Psalms 139:17, Jeremiah 29:11, Psalms 40:5
     amazing to think that God has more thoughts about little-old-me than i can even count!
and they are GOOD thoughts! that can change your attitude for the day, that's for sure!

2. Our responsibility
  *James 1:14-15.
    we are definitely surrounded by people today who have come up with an excuse for every sin we could ever commit. it usually comes from a bad childhood, a bad relationship with our father, a bad circumstance that happened in our life, and a plethora of other things. while i am not minimizing difficulties, i am acknowledging the fact that according to James 1, we are tempted and drawn away of our own lust! we are responsible for our own sin. own up to it..don't use it as an excuse to sin!

3. Where our power comes from
   *Psalms 19:7-9
  you know that this is where my passion is. God's Word is sufficient!
 according to this passage, God's Word does the following:
*converts the soul
*makes the simple wise
*rejoices your heart
*enlightens your eyes
what we typically do is this.
step 1. make our standards.
step 2. find verses that fit with our standards.
step 3. live accordingly.

instead we should to this.
step 1. search God's Word to find out what our standards should look like
step 2. make our standards
step 3. live accordingly.

HUGE difference!!

i told the story about how riley is having a really hard time falling asleep at night.
i decided to find something that could help me with that in the Bible.
did you know that king ahasueras had insomnia?
he had someone come in and read to him at night.
i decided to try it with ry. i read a couple chapters of a book after i tucked him at night.
it has made a huge difference!

today aj was doing testing for the end of the school year, and one of the vocab words he needed to identify was dismayed. he quoted out loud one of his memory verses that says to not be discouraged or dismayed.
discouraged was one of the choices for the meaning!

God's word is real. and it is relevant for every situation in life!

um. that was my introduction! ha!! a little long winded??

i brought up the story of lot's wife.
she was living near a wicked city. one where the people did not love, or live for God. she was raising her kids there. when God decided to destroy sodom, he took lot, his wife and their 2 daughters away so they would be safe.
what did lot's wife do? she looked back.
i don't think that it was necessarily rebellious and defiant.
it doesn't say she pulled away and ran back.
she just looked back.
as if she was thinking...aww..i hate to give that up.
and what happened? she turned into a pillar of salt!!
it seems as if she was just unintentional. not really thinking that she had to take a stand with anything.
and that's the danger.


if you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything


3 ways to help in choosing to be an intentional woman:

1. prepare your heart
*I chronicles 22:19, 2 chronicles 19:3
what rules in your heart will influence your actions and behavior.

please don't follow your heart! 
according to jeremiah 17:9, your heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked!!

prepare your heart by filling it with truth from God's Word.
prepare it by choosing NOT to fill it with gossip, negativity, and garbage.
that will equal an unprepared heart!

2. choose your friends
*Proverbs 20:18
the counsel we are getting from friends is determining how we act!
don't think you are able to do it alone..choose a friend that will keep you accountable!
according to Hebrews, we are commanded to exhort each other every single day so that we won't be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin!
tell a close girl friend you want to stop talking bad about other people. so the next time you start to in front of her, she will stop you!

3. get up and be doing!
*I chronicles 22:16b
the main point i wanted to bring out here is this.

how many steps are you from turning away from God?

i gave the story about when one of my sons was about 3 years old.
i don't remember all the details, but i remember that i told him not to touch the piano.
he didn't.
BUT...he stood as close to it as he possibly could!
so i looked him in the eyes and said.thank you for obeying. but i need you to know, that
if someone comes by and bumps you, and you accidentally fall into the piano, you will still get disciplined.
he RAN to the other side of the room!
he wanted to make sure that it would take a LOT of steps for him to get into trouble.

that is where we should be.
i want to be so close to God that it would take weeks and months of NOT doing the things that i am already doing:
church attendance,
reading my Bible every day
praying every day
serving every day

to fall away from God.
don't you?

my challenge was this.

choose ONE thing that you are going to start doing this week to be an intentional woman.

i hope you can find encouragement in this, and join me each week as i try to do a better job of being intentional in every area of my life!