July Scripture Writing Plan: Obedience {& a GIVEAWAY!}

Happy almost July friends!

The new topical plan for this month is over the topic of Obedience.

If you ever struggle with doing what God calls you to do- this plan is for you!

My prayer is that every verse will be a reminder of God's commands and promises to us.

I made the plan 31 days and plan to do that with

 all topical plans in the future so that they can be done any month-
not just the month I write them for.

You'll notice the plans got a little makeover this month. 

I added the check boxes to help you mark off as you complete the verses 

and decided it was time to make the look a little cleaner and simpler too!

You can find a copy of the plan in English and Spanish
in the folder HERE.

At the suggestion of a blog reader, I also decided to do
a fun iPhone lock screen with the plan on it.
You can download a copy of it HERE.

This is the plan for the month of  July from last year
which is topical plan on Patience and Perseverance.

You can download a copy in the folder HERE.


At the urging of some blog readers, I've also created a long version of the plan this month
and placed it in my ETSY store HERE.

It a 127 page printable digital file that includes:

-The 31 Day Scripture Writing Plan on the topic of Obedience

-A page for each day with the verse written out in NIV version with space for you to write the verse

-A page for each day with the verse written out in The Message with space for you to write the verse

-A page for each day to write observations, keywords, and takeaways from the verses

-A page to write next steps, prayers, and applications from the verses

-A page with six printable obedience verse cards

Here are a few sample sheets:

     

     

It's perfect to print and bind or put in a notebook.  

It would also be great to print and give someone as a gift! 

Giveaway: Leave a comment below of what topic you hope will be next month 

and I'll choose one winner to get a free copy of the long plan! 

Coupon Code: And to celebrate summer, use the coupon code HAPPYSUMMER 

for 20% off of your purchase in my ETSY store, Sweet Blessings, from now until July 7th! 

Love Shows UP

Love isn't easy y'all. 

It's a daily choice because sometimes we don't feel it. 

At all. 

But we show up for those we love. 

When they are being awesome and when they are being awful. 

When they say & do kind things and when they irritate the ever loving tar out of us. 

When they are being sweet and when they are being flat out ridiculous and dumb. 

When they say kind things and when they say things that truly wound & hurt us. 

When they ask us to be there and when they push us away.

When they are there for us and when they let us down. 

 It's what love does. 

Romans 12:9-10 in the Message says 

"Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply, practice playing second fiddle." 

So today that's my prayer. 

That we would all choose to love. Forgive. Make the call. Reach out. 

Show up. ❤️

Haven of Hope

Want to order a super cute shirt AND bless grieving mamas at the same time? 

Here's your chance! 

These shirts are a great reminder that Jesus loves you 

and all proceeds will benefit Haven of Hope Ministries.

What is Haven of Hope? 

Haven of Hope ministers to mothers that have suffered the loss of a child and point 

them to our HOPE in Jesus Christ. 

It was started by my precious friend Susan, 

who lost two of her children (Jennifer and Josh) 

as well as her father in a horrible accident in 2002. 

This ministry is a tremendous blessing to ladies 

who are walking the most difficult path imaginable.

Each year Haven of Hope hosts a retreat in the spring where these sweet mothers 

can spend time with others who truly understand their grief and pain. 

All proceeds from the sale of these shirts will go to help fund scholarships for ladies 

that would like attend the retreat but cannot afford to pay the registration fee.

You can find out more about the retreat HERE or join Haven of Hope on Facebook HERE. 

Shirts come in red, lapis, mint, and asphalt v-neck (NOT slim fit) 

and crew neck red and dark heather. 

All shirts can be ordered at the link below- 

and will be mailed directly to you a few weeks after the 

deadline of June 25th with proceeds going to Haven of Hope.

https://www.booster.com/haven-of-hope-retreat-2018

The Booster is also set up to allow you to make an additional donation or just a flat donation

if you'd like to donate without purchasing a shirt. 

Thank you for helping us to bless some precious mamas!

You are MORE

Do you ever feel like choices you have made make you beyond help? 

That your mistakes are too big and have made you unlovable?

That your failures make you less than others? 

I heard one of my favorite songs on the way to work today, 

You Are More by Tenth Avenue North which is such a beautiful 

reminder of God's redemption.

I so love these lines:

You are more than the choices that you've made,

You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,

You are more than the problems you create,

You've been remade.

'Cause this is not about what you've done,

But what's been done for you.

This is not about where you've been,

But where your brokenness brings you to

This is not about what you feel,

But what He felt to forgive you,

And what He felt to make you loved.

This song reminds us of God's undeserved incredible grace! 

I think so often we feel the things we've done are too much 

and we don't deserve love and forgiveness. 

But the truth is that no matter how what you have done, 

God is waiting for you. 

Always.

He is waiting with open arms, ready to offer you love & forgiveness. 

He doesn’t care what you’ve done, he doesn’t care who you are; 

He loves you regardless of your past choices, failures, and mistakes.

But because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we are washed completely clean! 

Even though we sin every single day and make mistake after mistake after mistake, 

God still loves us more than we can even know. Isn't that the BEST? 

 

2 Corinthians 5:17 says....

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:The old has gone, the new is here!

I try to comprehend that fact and it's almost impossible for my little mind to grasp. 

It is so hard to wrap my head around the fact that He loves me no matter what. 

NO MATTER WHAT.

It is not by my own works that I am saved (thank the Lord for that!).

It is only through His sacrifice that I am worth anything at all!

It is because of Him, I am MORE. 

I pray that today (and everyday) we all take the time to thank Him for the fact that He does not give us what we deserve, but that He died for us so we could live FOREVER in eternity with Him. 

I pray that we are reminded that if our worth was determined by our own actions, 

we would be counted as worthless. 

 But with and because of Jesus' ultimate act of love for us, 

we can live and know that with Him, 

we are worth more than our failures and mistakes. 

When Your Faith Gets Tired

Driving to work recently I heard this song and really listened to the words for the first time.

This part brought me to tears...

When my faith gets tired

And my hope seems lost

You spin me round and round

And remind me of that song

The one You wrote for me

And we dance

I hate to admit it but the truth is my faith has been tired before. 

Like.....I'm done God, tired and DONE. 

Have you ever prayed for something over and over and over again

 with what seems like no answer? 

When you feel like God is not hearing you or ignoring you or

 must have better things to do than answer? 

I have. 

For almost 10 years straight I prayed the same prayer.

In the beginning I prayed it every day. 

But as the years passed, I grew weary.

Like tuckered out (that's a Texas word y'all), exhausted, dragging WEARY. 

And to be honest, I'd get a little ticked off at waiting.

I'd get kinda irked at God.

So for a time I would stew about it and fuss at God 

regarding it and stop praying for it.

I'd kinda temporarily give up. 

But then my heart would be reminded that God 

sometimes answers with WAIT instead of yes or no. 

And I'd start praying again. 

For TEN long YEARS I repeated this cycle. 

{That's a long time to pray for something.}

God has lots to say in His word about faith and growing tired. 

One of my favorite verse about faith is:

He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Matthew 17:20

During that LONG season of waiting, I often felt like this verse in Psalm 22:

"Oh my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest" .
Psalm 22:2

Thankfully I was over and over again reminded that God is GOD, not me. 

And that his plans are always best and better than mine. 

This too is mentioned over and over and over again in His Word:

“Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”
1 Corinthians 13:12 NLT

Don’t be weary in prayer; keep at it; watch for God’s answers, and remember to be thankful when they come. Don’t forget to pray for us too, that God will give us many chances to preach the Good News of Christ for which I am here in jail. Pray that I will be bold enough to tell it freely and fully and make it plain, as, of course, I should.
Colossians 4: 2-4

“ ‘My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the LORD.
‘And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways,
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.’”
Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT

“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.”
James 1:2-4 MSG

Over those 10 years I finally realized is that sometimes....

1. God uses those struggles to get our attention. To draw us TO Him. 

2. It is through our weakness that He can show His strength in our lives. HE IS OUR STRENGTH.

3. The answer is yes, no (I have something better for you), or wait/not now. {I don't know about you but that Wait one is hard for me!}

So the hard part is....I don't get to decide the order in which 

what promises are given to me. 

It's not up to me, it's up to Him.  

God's promises for us are bigger than the promises we think He has for us.

 His promises are greater than we could ever imagine. 

My prayer was answered- after 10 long years-but not in a way 

I would ever have guessed or imagined. 

But it WAS answered. In God's time, not Shannon's time.