sevenchicks

based in the blood

by bossychick~ I wasn't going to blog this yet, but after reading Sassy's last blog, I decided to go ahead, since it touches on something she said.

This is from a devotion I recently read: To Him Who ever loves us and has once loosed and freed us from our sins by His own blood. - Revelations 1:5

We need to get to the place where we are secure enough in who we are in Christ that we will not allow our sense of self worth to be based on the opinions and actions of others.

Don't try to find your worth in how you look. Don't try to find your worth in what you do. Don't try to find your worth in how other people treat you. You are worth something because Jesus shed His blood for you.

You may have faults, and there may be things about you that need to be changed, but God is working on you the same as He is on everybody else. Don't let somebody dump their problems off on you. Don't allow someone else to make you feel worthless or useless just because they don't know how to treat you right and love you as you deserve to be loved as a blood-bought child of God.

Don't spend all your life trying to win somebody else's acceptance or approval. Remember that you have already been accepted and approved by God. Make sure your affirmation, your validation , and your sense of self-worth come from Him...

This really spoke to me, because its something I can relate to, having once been that person, seeking approval, but I went through a time in my life when I realized nobody else's opinion matters but God's.

This may be something you want, but don't know how to achieve.

Let me tell you first that it is such FREEDOM not to be bound by what others think of me. I used to be the person that sought approval and let others opinions sway me, but several years back I was delivered. I say all the time 'I don't care what other people think of me, or if people like me'. I think sometimes others take that as, I don't care about other people, or that I'm mean. When really that's not it at all. I just know that at the end of the day, what Whatser-face thought doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, all that matters is the opinion of my God, so back to achieving it...

Pray. Ask God to show you His love for you, He's always showing us His love, sometimes we overlook it or don't give Him the credit, so maybe ask Him to reveal to you His love in your life.

Also, ask Him to give you His wisdom and discernment in recognizing your "pattern". We all have one, I call it the ' song and dance', its when a situation presents itself ( over and over, through different people and different circumstances, but its the same), and we react the same way every time. This might be God trying to teach us to respond instead of react. If we learn to respond instead of react, then the situation is more likely to end in success (which would be, conquering the "pattern"). If we continue to react the same old way then we will stay stuck doing our same 'song and dance', until one day it clicks in us and we yield and God then teaches us what He wants us to know.

Once you recognize your 'song' ( on a side note, I think I overuse quotation marks, but I like them) and you catch yourself taking the familiar steps of your 'dance', STOP yourself and say- Will this person's opinion, actions, acceptance be the list that God measures me against when I get to heaven? It doesn't matter who it is standing before you, the answer will be NO. This may sound silly but it helps me keep things in perspective when insecurity tries to creep up. I realize that there isn't always a person standing in front of us when we deal with insecurity, but it usually stems from something that person may have said, that we've remembered, and can't let go of, so it still applies.

Next say this out loud everyday (my mom used to have us repeat this after her every morning when I was a kid and I hated doing it, but now I'm so glad she did) so anyway here it is, and this is all from the Bible btw...

I am the head, and not the tail, I am on top and not beneath, I'm blessed going in and I'm blessed going out, I HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST, I can do all things through Christ Jesus, who strengthens me, no evil shall befall me nor plague come nigh my dwelling, no weapon formed against me shall prosper, I have favor with man and favor with my authority, my God did not give me a spirit of fear but He gave me power, love and a sound mind, and I will walk in that power, love and sound mind, Father let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be in line with Your word and acceptable to You today, in Jesus name, Amen.

When you say these words over yourself everyday, your spirit man will get a boost and your flesh will line up with the word of God. Quit taking it so personally when you falter, remind yourself of these things and keep going. Don't look at it as an inadequacy in YOU, because its not. Look at it as a step in a growing progress. Think of this, when a baby is around 1 and begins learning to walk, do you spank them every time they fall down?, or do you encourage them to try again? You encourage them. So don't beat yourself up, encourage yourself with God's word.

Satan will try everything he can to deceive us and keep us rockin' to our same 'song and dance'. So I encourage you to run a new song through your head, and get a new dance.

I used to teach this to 4 year olds, and it speaks volumes-

I am fearfully and wonderfully made...Psalms 139: 14

He made us the way He wanted us to look and be, so don't let satan play on your insecurities. Know your worthy, because you are HIS!

That is all, you do what I say- Bossy

samson and that one girl

by sassychick ~ My son and I just sat down to read a book which had the story of Samson and Delilah.  Of course Ive read this unique and extremely interesting story ALL MY LIFE.  I’m aware that there is a lesson in every story, but revelatory word, in this story?  I think God knows how to teach me.  Im simple and I love lessons to be illustrated.  So what does God often do, teach me through something intended for a child.  Go figure.  I had one particular crying episode during a veggietales episode called Snoodles Tale, I highly recommend it, it’s a lesson in self-worth –I apparently needed.  No kidding broke down, crying.  And I finally got it.  What my worth was.  And how it was not a measurement I could grasp.  It was heavenly mathematics.  I finally got it.  Through a 15 minute cartoon.

And then there’s today.  Samson and Delilah.  We all know the story.  The guy is strong.  The girl is relentless.  He fails.  She wins.  Strength gone.  Oh, but there’s so much more. 

We have all been granted gifts/talents/abilities.  These are God treasures for us and us alone.  They are one of the ways God makes us different.  Be it music, writing, singing, speaking, creating, on and on there are as many different ones as there are people.  One thing is certain.  We have all been given unique “strengths”.  Here is the problem.  Every day we will face Delilah.  She isn’t a person, necessarily.  Sometimes she is circumstance.  She is an event.  She is a job.  But she has a purpose.  She is relentless.  Her purpose is to discover our God given treasure “strength” and take it for her own benefit.  Rob us of God’s purpose.  Distract us from our intent here on earth.  She is satisfied even if she wins temporarily.  She is relentlessly pursuing a method of distraction of God’s people.  And for most of us, Delilah is accomplishing her mission.

I find it so interesting that some of our best accomplishments for God's kingdom can be so quickly overshadowed by distraction.  Be it in the form of conflict, offense, miscommunication, etc.   We tend to agonize over a man's opinion and miss God's loving words of what we are, can be, will be, were created to be.  We silence God's encouragement in an attempt to better hear man's rejection.

It wasn't about Samson losing his strength.  It was about him allowing himself to be derailed for God's unmistakable intent for his life.  Willingly.  What's ridiculous is there was NO mistaking what he had to do.  NOT CUT HIS HAIR.  It was also even more clear God's will for him.  Come on.  I'd give anything for it to be that cut and dry.

I do believe we all know our "strengths".  I don't believe God's intent is to keep that a secret from us.  So we know what we are working with, the next step is to identify what's robbing our "strength".  I don't believe God's intent is to keep THAT a secret either.  As with Samson, it was BLATANTLY obvious Delilah's scheme.  And he willingly submitted. 

Don't kid yourself, Delilahs are not always so easy to spot.  And they are even harder to resist.  The very reason God has set you apart will be used to make you question your effectiveness.  The unique way in which God created you to exist, your very personality, Delilah will twist into making you believe are liabilities.  Before long you will second guess you worth, the way in which you relate to others, and before long, you will indeed become ineffective.  Not because of who you are, but because you have willingly allowed the lie to rob your "strength".

I know I have, for too long, allowed this in my own life.  Perhaps my revelation can help you to get through your valley more quickly.

It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living. -Eph 1:11

ahhhh! it smells so good!

by bossychick~ Recently I went to the local consignment sale, and a friend of mine was there selling this stuff called Scentsy. Well, I had never really heard of it but she had some of it burning and it had the whole place smelling fantastic!

However, I'm a little hesitant to buy smell good stuff because I'm very sensitive to smell, but this stuff was so good I almost gave myself a nose bleed from sniffing it so much, lol. So, I sniffed and sniffed and sniffed some more, trying to decide what scent to buy, there were so many great scents. I ended up choosing a car freshener that is called "Beach".

Now every time I get in the car I want to put on a suit and head to beach. When I close my eyes its like I'm in the sun with the smell of suntan oil, hot sand, and a Margarita ( virgin or not, your choice, and being served by a scantily clad cabana boy or your husband, again, your choice..... if you don't think this is funny please send all hate mail to Sassy's site, [email protected])

Anyway I love love love the smell! And if your looking for something to make your home or car smell great you should check this out. I love for my home to smell good but don't always like burning candles. Scentsy flameless candles is the solution, it melts a cube of scented wax using the heat from a light bulb, so you don't have to worry about burning your house down if you forget to blow out the candle, and its NOT hot enough to burn little fingers, if they should discover it.

 

That is all, you do what I say- Bossy
 

breaking the silence...again

  by babychick~ I thought I would be the one to break the silence this time. I don't have a lot to say so I'll just give some randoms.

-I am now 25 weeks pregnant, over half way! This pregnancy has gone by faster than I expected. I am not in any way prepared. The only thing I've done is buy the material for the bedding and a few wall hangings for his room. See, we have a room that we call the computer room and this will be the new baby's room. This room is hubby's room, and a little bit of storage. I am really dreading clearing out this room because my husband does not throw anything away. And we have no where else to store anything. So the next few weeks are being dedicated to throwing away and getting ready for a yard sale.

-I gave super baby phase 1 of his 2nd real haircut this past weekend. Phase 2 hasn't come yet, and I'm not sure it will. That was the biggest fight and I'm not sure its worth it. As long as he doesn't have a mullet I think we will be fine.

-I'm pretty sure we have hit the terrible two's early. Throwing fits and body lunges to the floor, when the word no is said, are a big thing in our house right now.

-In other news, I love big hair. I don't like it when my hair is flat. And I always had a hard time getting the "poof" just right. Until I came across this video , her poof is quite large but she explains it oh so well. 

Alright, that's all everyone have a great weekend! 

yuck

by bossychick~ I hate how apple juice smells like pee when it gets spilled on something!