Category: write 31

The Power of Your Influence- #31Days2021

Posted on by Mary
Influence

Hello everyone and welcome to October and The Power of Your Influence series.

If You are New Here

WELCOME!!! I’m Mary I have been blogging since January of 2007-Yikes that’s a long time! And a lot has happened in those 14 years!!!! Feel free to poke around and get to know the place! I am a pastor’s wife (though we are in the middle of a church search right now) . We have four kiddos – 3 boys and a girl- ages 16-11. We are currently homeschooling all 4 and loving it. We are also a special needs home as one child has Autism and another has Central Auditory Processing Disorder and Dyslexia. We also have 2 Dogs (Nugget and Rosie) and 3 cats (Mia, Tia, and Daisy). My hubby and I have been married for 18 1/2 years and we are best friends!

Why I write

The Short answer is to GROW! I want to be on this journey with fellow believers who seriously want to grow in their walk with Jesus- NOT stay where they are at So here is my purpose satement:

Hebrews 10:24 NLT

24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.

And that is my hope and prayer that we as a community can work together to motivate each other to acts and love and good works. It’s that simple! But it also means we can deal with some hard stuff too! This walk-journey is full of good and bad, mountains and valleys and the only way we can get through them is together.

This isn’t My first rodeo

Back in 2018 I started the Write 31 days challenge with the same topic on influence- I made it 18 days. I have no idea why I stopped with only 13 days left- but I did. Looking back over the topics I had left in the scheduled posts that I had planned out I realize now that I needed to experience some things. I needed to get a little closer to Jesus in some areas and in the middle of all that 18 more posts came from that- So here I am .

Influence is something I am EXTREMELY passionate about. Because as much as some people hate the word and as much as some declare that they aren’t an influence, THEY. ARE. DEAD. WRONG. WE don’t get a choice in the matter. We are all influencers whether we like it or not. Our only choice is what kind of influence we are!

(You can check out the first 18 posts from 2018 here)

So I’m doing this thing

So If you have checked out this blog and you took notice that there are a lot of mentions of Choosing Courage 100 day writing project and you ask your self “Is this girl NUTS?” the short answer is yes. But let me explain.

Before the summer I knew I wanted to get back into the swing of writing again but there was this thing standing in the way. FEAR I was afraid because of some extremely harsh and rude criticism I have experienced over the last 7-ish years surrounding blog and social media posts and because of that I had become paralyzed. I was just writing the easy stuff and that was few and far between

Back in August hubby and I attended The Global Leadership Summit, where I had heard Michelle Poler speak. In that she challenged us to face our fears and do something for 100 days- BAM and just like that I knew that was my challenge. So in the middle of August I started this journey I have now called Choosing Courage.

When I stepped out

When I stepped out on this Journey of writing for 100 days I knew that October would fall into the end of this journey. I didn’t know if the write 31 days challenge would happen BUT I did know I wanted to finish what I started back in 2018 and so I decided that whether or not it happened the whole month of October would be devoted to the topic of Influence!

Low and behold a few weeks ago I started getting emails for write 31 days! Yippee!! And so I knew that I would just add the link at the end of posts !

I am so excited to get started and to get to know each one of you through this journey!

Feel Free to Check out my Choosing Courage 100 day writing project (Today is Day 47)

And Don’t forget to check out the Write 31 Days Challenge here.

And please introduce Yourselves in the comments below. I am so glad you have decided to Join me on this crazy journey!

Write 31- Day 2 Jeremiah 17:7-8

Posted on by Mary

Jeremiah

So yeah did you see that Day two thing in the title GRRRRR!  It has been a rough two weeks.  We have been crazy Busy a snap shot of exactly what that looks like will be in tomorrows post, but for today we are going to talk all about Jeremiah.

Jeremiah has some passages that in my own personal life have brought great peace in moments of great trial.  But whenever dealing with an Old Testament book we MUST MUST MUST remember that these promises, we so often like to claim, are written for the Israelites.  We have a different set of promises mapped out in the New Testament and we must be VERY careful not to try to take what was promised to Israel and claim it as out own. That is replacement theology and dangerous territory.  Now that my disclaimer is over, I want you to understand that I am not addressing a promise from Jeremiah BUT it is a description.   More specifically it is the  description of the person who has confidence in the Lord.

A Visit with Jeremiah

Let’s talk just a minute about the book of Jeremiah.  Jeremiah is a major prophet.  This does not mean he is more important than the minor prophets. it just means that the book itself is bigger than the minor prophet books. Jeremiah was often times referred to as a prophet of doom relating to the prophecies he told about the impending exile.    He is also referred to as the “weeping prophet.”  we have the most detail about this prophet because of his transparency through his writings.  He often shares his innermost thoughts about God, his enemies and his own thoughts of himself.

First the Cursed- Jeremiah 17:5-6

Actually verses 7 and 8 are the second part of a comparison God is making.Verses 5 and 6 start the comparison by saying:

5 This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
    who draws strength from mere flesh
    and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
    they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
    in a salt land where no one lives.

The Lord lays out what exactly is considered cursed.

  • the one who trusts in man,
  • who draws strength from mere flesh
  • whose heart turns away from the Lord.

Those all come from verse 5. so then in verse 6 we see what will happen to such cursed people:

  • That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
  • They will not see prosperity when it comes.
  • They will dwell in the parched places of the desert in a salt land where no one lives.

We know from both history and the Bible that the Israelites lived in a wonderful promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey. and yet they were about to be kicked out because of their continued disobedience to God.

Then the Blessed- Jeremiah 17:7-8

7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
    whose confidence is in him.
8 They will be like a tree planted by the water
    that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
    its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
    and never fails to bear fruit.”

In contrast, God goes on to show us who the blessed one is:  This in’t a promise of blessing.  This isn’t a “if you do the right thing you are going to be rich” sort of thing.

So what does this blessed one  look like?

  • They trust in the Lord
  • Their confidence is in Him

The analogy of a tree planted by water is not a new concept.  David talks about a similar type tree in Psalm 1.  This blessed person is saturated like a tree planted by the water.  Saturated in the relationship with God.  Their heart fully trusts Him for all of their needs. Because heat will come.  Notice it does not say in the verse “if heat comes” but rather it says “when heat comes.”  It is expected. And it does NOT fear the heat!   It has NO worries in the year of a drought.  And yet in the midst of the heat and the drought it still never fails to bear fruit.

YIKES….Ouch!!!!

So many times when we struggle we sit back and throw ourselves a pity party of sorts (I am so guilty of this myself).

A  “woe is me” sort of attitude.

Look at how awful this is.  To quote one of my favorite movies “we can’t see past the nose on our own face.” we don’t look to God and acknowledge our trust that he has this!  he knows the outcome and whatever it is it’s ok with us.  Instead we have to “figure things out.”  “we have to find the answers.” ” we have to talk to the right people.”

So how does this apply to little ole me?

I am a fixer by nature.

  • I want to fix things.
  • I want to fix circumstances
  • I want to fix people

But here is the thing, and I know it’s gonna shock you all…..Ready for it….

I’M NOT GOD!! Go figure!  So here is the thing.

If I give all of my junk over to God.  All of the control.  All of my fears. All of my worries.  All of my stress.  and I drink deeply from the stream of His word and I work to have this amazing relationship with Him.  I will be blessed.  Not because I have self-confidence, because that has fears and worries. But instead I have God-fidence which gives all of my fears and worries to Him and I live blessed, like Jeremiah, in a relationship with God.

Write 31-Day 1 – Why Confidence?

Posted on by Mary

ConfidenceI know I know, it’s day 2 and I am already behind.  That’s because I have been wrestling with….you guessed it a lack of confidence.  It has been something that I have wrestled with since I was very young.  And I must confess right here and right now that some of this has to do with my personality and then some of that REALLY has to do with circumstances that have happened as well.

And that leads me to tonight’s topic, WHY CONFIDENCE?

Well last year at this time I was beginning to really contemplate my word for the following year.  But life was about to get CRAZY!  We went from a household of 6 to a household of ten.  The circumstances of that change is not something to be discussed on the internet, but it was something both hubby and I felt very strongly that hubby and I were called to do.  And to this day we will stand by that decision and we are glad we did!  But in all of this I came to become glaringly aware that I doubted almost all that I did.  But as I prayed about this new found fear that gripped my life I began to pray….HARD! And you know what I realized?  It has ALWAYS been there.

Fear of doing the wrong things ruled my life.

Fear of making people angry.

Fear of disappointing people.

Fear of failure.

Fear of Failure to make the wrong choice.

Fear of ruining someone else’s life.

FEAR ran my life.

Fear is the antithesis of confidence.  Fear gives control to someone else. HMMMM.

I cannot pin down the moment that confidence became my word in January of this year but I knew it two or three weeks into January when the lightbulb finally went on.  Then came the study, searching out the verse that would become my verse for the year and I landed in the book of Jeremiah

Jeremiah 17:7-8 NIV

7.  “But blessed is the one who trusts the Lord,

whose confidence is in Him

8.  They will be like a tree  planted by the water

that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes;

its leaves are always green.

It has no worries a year of drought

and never fails to bear fruit.

WOW WOW WOW

Did you catch all that verse  said?  Well Have no fear, WE ARE GOING TO BREAK IT DOWN!

Because this is so important for ALL of us to understand.

So That is why confidence.  I needed confidence .   But not just confidence in myself either.  I have NOTHING to offer.  Despite all my friends thinking I am the strongest person they know, That is a direct quote people .  I stand back and I look at myself in the mirror and I see this weak, broken person who doubts every  little thing.  I needed a bigger answer.  I needed God-fidence .  It did me absolutely no earthly good to have confidence in me.  I had nothing to offer outside of what Christ has done in me.  I was fearful.

Now the thing is I am still fearful.  I am 9 months into this journey.  I have not arrived and I have to give that fearfulness over to God, and realize He is far bigger than me.

So even though I lack confidence when …

I am fearful, He is  all-knowing and all-powerful

I am weak, He is strong.

I fail, he ALWAYS succeeds.

I am not enough for whoever, He is always enough for everyone AT ALL TIMES!

I am imperfect, He is perfect.

And there is so much more.

I know this word places a high value on self-confidence.  Even the church does.  Because only the self-confident will stand up for themselves.  But I am here to tell you that standing up for yourself, tearing another person down to get your point across and voicing your pet peeves is NOT a biblical principle.( NOTE:: There  is a difference between  fighting for your  ” self imposed rights” versus  your physical safety.  If you find yourself in danger LEAVE!!). Fight for what God says is right not what you think should be right!  That is called entitlement.

Time and again we are told not to fight for ourselves but that God will fight for us.

Bible Knowledge .Com lists out 29 verses that Talks all about relying on God  to fight for us!

May I encourage you to look at the verses tonight and tomorrow.  Then tomorrow we will delve into my verse for the year and we will be discussing what God-fidence REALLY looks like.

And then hopefully later tomorrow I will get caught up with Day 3 and we will look at the differences between self confidence and God-fidence.

Have a GREAT NIGHT

Blessings

Mary

Write 31 Days-God-fidence- Writing Through My Word for the Year

Posted on by Mary

Hi All

I am Mary and I am new to this place, though I have been following this group for a couple of years , this year is my first  year!  I have jumped in with both feet and I will be writing along with all of the others within this group

So a little about myself.

I have been married to my pastor hubby for nearly 15 years!  I can’t believe it has been that long.  We have 4 kiddos, ages 12, 11,alomost 10 and 7 1/2. There are 3 boys and a girl.   One of our children has Autism Spectrum disorder in the mid-functioning range and another child has a learning disability known as  Central Auditory Processing Disorder.  We also have 3 cats and a dog.  Hubby has been pastoring at tour church for nearly 9 years.

I have been blogging for about 10 years now  and my goal is to reach my 1000th blog post by the end of this year..and I am so close I can taste it!I love being a pastor’s wife. I felt the call to be in full time ministry at the age of 16 or 17.  At the time I thought it was to be a missionary but over time God redirected my path and I met my hubby.  Today not only do I serve within my local church but also in our community through the local crisis pregnancy center as a mentor and also on the planning team for the Raising Generations Today Conference .

What I do for fun:

Write- I love to write!  it is one of a few creative outlets.

Paint-  I have been learning how to paint- watercolor

Paper crafts  qulling, scrapbooking, card-making

home decor-  I love my Cricut and I will beginning  a fun project creating a Christmas villageincorporating some paper antiquing and some paper houses.

Dance parties in the kitchen with my kiddos

Reading

Write 31 Topic- what I will be writing about-

When I was praying about this upcoming month of writing about a specific topic I meandered through many topics and finally landed on something I have been studying all year!  It’s my word for the year : CONFIDENCE.  Though I know that is not what the title says, but I am stealing a term that is coned by Renee Swope  called God-fidence.  I wanted to build my confidence in God, rather than myself.  and I’m not gonna lie, its been a testing year in that area.  I have grown a lot but when I write about it, it’s not about being an expert because quite frankly I am still very much learning!

A Few of the Topics

  • Confidence- what is it?  God-fidence? And what is the difference between the two?
  • Confidence put in it’s place
  • Confidence Broken to Bits
  •  when you have lost your confidence….and there is NONE to be found, what to do and how to do it!
  • What it feels like to be confident-less
  • what does God say on the subject
  • Even if ….I still will (Yes that has to do with Confidence)

And that is just to name a few.

I want this to be an opportunity to grow together.  So won’t you join me as we journey to gain a new understanding of what it REALLY means to have full confidence in God!