Category: Scripture Memory

Posted in Scripture Memory

5 Psalms to Read When You Need Guidance

Posted on by 3toddlermom

Guidance. When I need guidance….. oh you mean EVERY. SINGLE. MOMENT. Of my entire life!?

Where do I send my 5 year old to kindergarten? How do I potty train my toddler? How do I get through dinner with no temper tantrums?!? Not to mention getting someone to help me with the dishes. How do I get my husband to tell me about his day? And then ask about my day!

Well, I found myself a guide through this mom life. His name is Jesus and He’s pretty amazing. Have you met Him? He sent His spirit (the Bible refers to Him as the Holy Spirit) to live with me and you so He could guide us through this life. EVERY. SINGLE. MOMENT.

The cool thing about a guide is that they’ve been there, done that. They climbed the mountain. They walked on the trail before it was a trail. They mapped out all the cool things to see, all the traumatic things to avoid, and will take you on a really fun adventure.  That is, if you follow them.

My husband is from Michigan so we vacationed with his siblings and parents in the UP (Upper Peninsula) a couple years ago.  We found some cool sights like Lake Superior, a delicious Mexican restaurant, and an amazing bear rescue/educational facility where we got to feed bears and see them up close and personal.  It was an incredible vacation.  You know why we had such great experiences?  We had a guide.  My sister-in-laws had been there, done that.  They knew where to go to have amazing experiences and what wear and whether or not to pack lunch.  So we just listened to them and followed their lead.

We also got ourselves lost while on this trip.  You know why?  We decided we could figure it out on our own and stopped following our guide.  Only, it turns out, our cell phones don’t get great reception in the UP and we realized we had no clue where we were, no one seemed to be driving by, no towns for miles, and no GPS!  Well the good news is, we eventually figured out how to get back to our cabin but not without a lot of stress, some tears, and some heated emotions.

The moral of the story?  Life is better with a guide.  You’ll experience the cool parts of your journey and find hidden gems that you probably wouldn’t have simply stumbled upon on your own.

These verses in the Psalms have helped me remember to depend on my guide, the Holy Spirit, to show me where to turn, when to stop and enjoy the view, and when to steer clear of a dangerous or stressful situation.

Alright.  Time to start filling out registration forms for kindergarten.

Posted in Scripture Memory

Failure Is Not Fatal, Unless I Quit

Posted on by 3toddlermom

Failure is not fatal! Such good news after the week I’ve had with my current Scripture Memory Challenge. I’ve been failing BIG TIME! It was going so well for the first 15 days! And then I hit a wall. One failed day led to another and to another and to another. Have you ever opened your Bible and been like…..blahhhhhh?! It’s a terrible feeling but it happened to me several times last week. I don’t blame God. He’s always ready to talk to me. I don’t blame the Bible. It’s always got the same amazing content. Must have been just one of those days for me. Or I guess several of those days!

So have I failed? I think I’ve memorized 18 scriptures in the past 25 days, which is 18 more than I memorized in January. 🙂 But I still am 6 scriptures short of fulfilling my February Mom Challenge. I guess it was called a “challenge” for a reason. It’s not supposed to be easy!

I definitely won’t call myself a failure. Have I kept up with the challenge? No. Should I throw in the towel because I missed a couple days? Heck, no! I’m doing these monthly challenges to stretch myself and failing every once in a while is expected. Getting back up and pushing forward is what a challenge is all about. I’m only a failure if I quit. So I’ll keep working on memorizing scripture every day for these last few days of February.

Failure is only fatal if I quit. So I’m pushing on to complete the last 3 days of this challenge! This failure will not be fatal!

Have you been doing this challenge with me? How’s it going?

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Scripture Memory Challenge Day 19 – Psalm 101:3

Posted on by 3toddlermom

Wow! How often do I do this?!

I let my decisions be swayed by what I think other people think about me. It’s insane -worthless!

I let trendy things and expressions guide me – worthless!

I let my emotions, fears and impatience guide me – worthless!

Man….I need to be more aware of what/who I’m allowing to guide me. The more aware I am that the Holy Spirit is with me all the time, the more I’ll rely on His guiding rather than everything around me (or my emotions inside me).

Posted in Scripture Memory

Scripture Memory Challenge Day 17 – Psalm 84:2

Posted on by 3toddlermom

I was hesitant to use a picture of a church for this scripture because I don’t want you to think that yearning for the “courts of the Lord” only means longing to go to a building. I long and yearn to be in God’s presence. Going to a local church is an amazing way to get in God’s presence! BUT it’s not the only way nor should it be your primary way to get in His presence.

I love being with my husband and it would be tragic if I decided we could only spend time together one day a week, at a certain location for an hour and a half. Yikes!! It would be hard to get to know him like this. Sure, I’d learn a little bit about him but I wouldn’t KNOW him. I’m with him as often as possible and when he’s at work or we’re not together we text often. I’m learning what makes him tick, what he finds funny, how to listen to him well and get him to tell me things that are going on in his head.

There’s no way I’d learn all this if I only had 1.5 hours out of 168 hours in a week. I did the math. That’s less than 1% of my week. Wow!

But we do it to God sometimes. We think, I put in my time for the week. I went to church. But I doubt the psalmist that wrote this was thinking “I long for 1.5 hours with you God.” I bet he was constantly desiring time with God. Consistently craving a relationship with Him. Wanting to know what makes Him tick. What makes Him laugh. What He’s thinking. We only get this kind of relationship by spending time. Not just <1% of our time.

I keep this simple. Just like time with my husband, I don’t have a scripted list of questions or topics to discuss. I just hang out with him. Ask him for advice. Relax with him. Do fun stuff with him.

I try to do this with God too. In my mothering, I ask Him for help. “How do I discipline this strong-willed 3 year old?” In my marriage, I ask him for patience. “Help me love him even though I’m picking up yet another pair of his smelly socks out from between the couch cushions.”

Because God’s not physically with me, I also take time to read the Bible. It helps me get to know Him even better. It’s not something I do to check it off my “list of holy duties.” It’s something I long for and desire so I can know my loving and gentle Father better.

I’m excited for us both to continue to long for Him more and more each day!!

Posted in Scripture Memory

Scripture Memory Challenge Day 15 – Psalm 73:25

Posted on by 3toddlermom

This is tough! To honestly say I desire NOTHING on earth but God. That’s pretty extreme. I want to say that but it’s much easier said than done.

My natural tendency is to desire other things more than I desire God. I desire food more than God. I desire sleep more than God. I desire love from my husband more than God. I desire acceptance from people more than God. Wow!

How do I start to desire Him more than anything else?! I think it starts with simply being intentional about spending time with Him. This doesn’t have to be intimidating. Currently, I intentionally wake up at least an hour before my kids wake up so that I can spend some quiet time reading my Bible in the mornings-without my phone. I like this because it’s the one time of my day that there are no distractions (other than my own thoughts). The sun’s not even up yet usually! My hubby is still asleep. My kids are (hopefully) still asleep. And I can read without interruptions. It’s beautiful.

I totally get that we’re all in different seasons of parenting right now. When Sweet Love was first born, I slept every morning until one of my kids woke me up. Getting up before them was inconceivable because I had just been up every 2-3 hours nursing my new baby. I was exhausted, to put it lightly. So my “quiet time” looked much different. Spending long amounts of time reading the Bible just didn’t happen. I chose instead to rest in God’s presence while nursing or driving or cooking dinner. I tried to quiet my crazy, endless and (most of the time) anxious thoughts and focus my thoughts on God. His goodness. How much He loves me. And just rest my mind from all the anxiety and exhaustion and focus on God.

So just do what works in the season you’re in. But make time to focus your thoughts on God. And soon, both of us will start to desire God above everything else on earth! It’s a process but I believe it will be worth it.

Posted in Scripture Memory

Scripture Memory Challenge Day 11 – Psalm 62:10

Posted on by 3toddlermom

I love that God doesn’t desire for us to be poor. He wants us to have more then enough so we can meet our needs and help others. But it’s so important to remember that if we do acquire wealth, we aren’t to set our heart on it and let it become the center of our lives!

That’s why tithing and giving to the church are so important. It keeps us humble and reminds us that everything we have is a gift from God in the first place.

Posted in Scripture Memory

Scripture Memory Challenge Day 10 – Psalm 55:22

Posted on by 3toddlermom

I hate feeling burdened, stressed out, overwhelmed, anxious….it makes it hard to focus on anything that’s actually happening around me. I’m so consumed by that fear or worry that I can’t just enjoy playing with my kids or eating dinner with my family. And my burdens usually surface out of trying to control the outcome of everything in life. Or I think my life is going to fall apart and I keep rehearsing that fear in my head.

It’s just not worth it – but I still do it……a lot! I need to remember that the Lord will sustain me. He’s holding me and won’t let my life crumble into a heap.