August 16- Morning

There is definitely something about the morning: the freshness, the stillness, the haziness we are still coming out of. The morning represents everything about the day's potential. As our eyes open and we prepare our minds and bodies to face another day, we still have before us limitless possibilities- some of which we can control and others we can't. In many ways, morning should ideallly mean a clean slate, a refreshed mind, a rested body and mercies fresh from God. So as I read today's entry (not in the morning, ooops!) I was reminded of why it changes the whole day when we start it with God. I think our first thoughts of the day set the tone for the remainder of our waking hours, because it is then that we are both fresh and vulnerable: a perfect place for God to fill our hearts.

So let's commit to thinking first thing in the morning about whatever is pure, noble, true, right, lovely and admirable. Plenty of things that do no fit these adjectives will come at us all day long, and I think guarding our first waking moments and thinking about the beauty of the One who sustains us through the night might be one of the best ways to let his Kingdom come here on earth.

I Am Yours For All Eternity

Eternity : infinite or unending time, a state to which time has NO application; timelessness, a period of time that seems very long, especially on account of being tedious or annoying.

I start to think about eternity.....and like Sarah says, I think my brain just goes into shock. It can not comprehend time having NO application.

Our lives are a ticking clock in motion, and the world reminds us everyday of it. I'm going to use an example and give a little shout out to us ladies here - the aging process puts a lot of pressure on us! Creams, makeup, lotion potions, firming under garments ( i believe they're referred to as "spanks"), botox, plastic surgery.....I could definately keep going, but what i'm trying to say is, we have this UNENDING amount of "stuff" to prevent the clock from ticking when actually this aging process is part of God's plan to prepare us to spend ETERNITY with him....our age is beautiful, gorgeous, and magnificent to Him!

That of course is just a small example of our life changes. There are by far more serious things( or at least i hope there are because you are all beautiful women!). Just like Katie stated earlier this week, the Lord is unchanging, he will ALWAYS be the same, he will always be near and be a solid foundation, and he will ALWAYS love us. He is there reminding us that he is OUR eternal life, our beginning and end!

Revelation 1:8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."

I can never say it enough.....LOVE ALL YOU BEAUTIFUL LADIES!

-Aubs

ps...sorry i've been M.I.A.....and it won't let me add a pic :(

August 13- Learn to Enjoy Life More

I absolutely loved this entry. (Thanks Jaym- you made me excited to read it this morning.)

Childlike delight is going to be a new goal of mine. We all know those people who walk through this life with sour faces and hardened hearts. But nope, that's not for me. I think of my sister being here this past week and all the childlike delight that comes out when you're with someone like a sister. One of my favorite parts of the entire week was blasting worship songs from my kitchen speakers and dancing around. We spinned and we twirled and we worked up a sweat- me in the kitchen, Katie in the living room- just worshiping our Maker.

That, to me, is enjoying it. We squeezed the sweet juices out of that night's potential. Instead of being entertained by things of this world, we entertained the ONE who will ever 100% approve.

This entry has inspired me to think of the simple, and yet so succulently-pure joys that encompass my every move. A good hair day, a child's laughter from too much tickling, Arizona sunsets, pure chocolates from Coffee Bean (check! got one of THOSE today), an unexpected note or text from a friend, summer breezes, the middle of vacations, conquering a fear, remembering your favorite verse RIGHT when you needed it, creating something beautiful, and just loving the way Christ created us to love.

That's how I enjoy this precious miracle called life. And if we were all out to dinner tonight, catching up and laughing, I would take in the sounds that compete with the most beautiful orchestra, breathe in a deep, restoring breath and raise my glass to all of you... here's to my girls. The women I would go to battle for and sing in the rain with... thanks for inspiring this LIFE to be...

Lived In Fearless Excitement


THANKS GOD!

AMEN !!

August 11th- Come to Me

Come to me. Come to me.

Coming close to Me requires no great effort on your part; it's more like ceasing to resist the magnetic pull of My Love.

I want you to experience how wide and long and high and deep is My Love for you, so that you can know My Love that surpasses knowledge.

This vast ocean of Love cannot be measured or explained, but it can be experienced.

These were the lines that really stood out to me in this entry because this is something God has been teaching me this last month. To Come to Him. I am a planner and I love to know exactly what's going to happen in my life. I'm always looking forward to the weekend or the next trip I'm taking. However I miss little blessings or surprises along the way because I'm not living in the moment and learning to come to Jesus, sit in His presence, and rely on Him for my next move.

This passage from Forgotten God challenged me:

"There are very few people in the scriptures who receive their life plan from God in advance. Consider Abraham, who was told to pick up his family and start walking. He didn't know where he was going. He didn't know if he would ever be back. He didn't know any of the details we consider vital (e.g. his destination, how long the venture would take, what the cost/rewards would be, whether he'd receive a 401 k or health insurance). God said go and he went, and that's pretty much all he knew.

God cares more about our response to His Spirit's leading today, in this moment, than about what we intend to do next year. In fact, the decisions we make next year will be profoundly affected by the degree to which we submit to the Spirit right now, in today's decisions. "

So I guess the big thing that I'm learning right now in my life is to Come to Him in EVERYTHING.

Sorry this entry is a little scatterbrained, I hope everyone is able to kinda follow my crazy trail of thought!

Love you all!

Kac

PS don't worry Annie will be back, I think we are going to switch off or something like that :)

August 8 - I Speak to You

from deepest heaven.

This was a short entry - especially compared the the day before. I think it got to the point rather quickly and wonderfully, however. *God speaks to us from deepest heaven - we hear Him in the depths of ourselves - we needn't never forget how great of a privilege that is.

Here, Jesus tells us that the best response to realizing how great of a gift it is that we can hear Him directly is a thankful heart. Our heart, our soul, our being that thanks God continuously for the gift of hearing His voice. Sarah also writes that He's training us to have a thankful mindset. How wonderful would that mindset be? In every situation we face, we are thankful. We trust in our Father so much that we don't have a reason not to be.

Having a thankful mindset is like Matthew 7 when we can either choose to build our house on rock which will withstand a storm, or we could build our house on sand which will crumble when a storm hits. We can put all of our faith and trust in the one true Rock that will help us against any storm or we can trust in our own understanding and build our home on sand. I don't know about you guys but I'd gladly take the sturdy house!

We love you, Lord! Help us to trust in you all the time, not just when it's easy. Thank you! Amen

Love you girls!!

-Katie

August 6- Our Shepherd

"When things seem to be going all wrong, stop and affirm your trust in me."

While I was reading through this entry, I couldn't help but think of the mighty shepherd we call our God. When my mind is wandering, spinning, and is far from God and His sovereignty I think of Matthew and the beautiful parable Jesus told about the kind of Shepherd He is:

Matthew 18:12-14

“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth: he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.”

He will stop and look for us when we're trying to handle life on our own. He will search for our hearts and not give up until the day that we come home. Even if we're wandering only for half a day, our Shepherd will leave the rest of the flock to gather us up in His arms, in His absolute security. And better yet- He's happy to do it.

So often I wrap my faith up in the efforts of me. If I didn't take the time to intentionally be quiet before the Lord today- I must work extra hard to find Him throughout this swirling busyness. No way... I must give my Shepherd more credit than that. He is actively seeking me today and will gladly leave the rest of His sheep time and time again to bring me back in the midst of His peaceful, perfect presence. All I need to do is acknowledge Him.

"Jehovah-Rohi"- The Lord is My Shepherd.

Bring me back, Jesus. Take me back. I once was lost. But now I'm found. I was blind. But now I see.

August 2- Fathom

As I read this short and simple entry today, I am actually having a hard time narrowing down something to write about because about five things have come to mind! The idea of our time as a sacrifice for one, and the idea of the world we live in being action-addicted is another. But to be honest, the thing that is sticking out the most to me about this entry is one word: fathom.

I have only recently learned what the word fathom means. A fathom is a measurement, and it originally comes from the length that a man could outstretch his arms—from one hand to the other (hold on to that imagery, we’ll come back to it!) Fathom was used typically to measure the depths of water, and I just googled it and apparently one fathom is about six feet. So, that means the ocean is a whole lot of fathoms deep.

I’ve always thought the word fathom meant to understand, but it is much more than that. Job 11:7 asks us, “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the almighty?” And Isaiah says, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom” (40:28). So when the Bible tells us over and over again that we cannot fathom God, we cannot fathom how smart he is, we cannot fathom his goodness or his love… it is much stronger than saying we can’t understand it—we can’t even being to measure it!

Our reading today tells us that God is blessed by our time together, a mystery that we should not try to fathom. God actually wants to be with the children who daily pick everything else in our lives but him, and we cannot possibly figure out why. There is no appropriate analogy for God’s grace. It frustrates the most intellectual among us and transcends everything we believe about human behavior. But personally, I am loving the idea and smiling at the fact that my God is so big I can’t even begin to get it!

God wants us, our love, our lives, our time. And we cannot fathom this. We cannot stretch our arms wide and wrap them around the idea. Because once you have fathomed something, that means it has been measure and probably you won’t need to measure it again. I don’t think God ever wants us to stop stretching our arms as wide as possible in anxious expectation for him to come grab us.

Think of the cross, and the arms stretched wide and bearing a pain so great… all that is left to do is fall into those arms in gratitude, thankful that we don’t have to understand, we can just be.