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#14- Hard Things of the Heart

Hard things can be actions you do, decisions you make, initiative you take or they can be hard heart things. Hard heart things is looking at your heart, going ‘no that is not right’ then changing. I had one of those hard heart moments recently. It was about contentment. I have always loved farming, the outdoors and gardening. Sometimes I wish that I could live on a farm out in the middle of nowhere, instead of on a 1/2 acre in a small town. That is not good. That is not being content. Discontentment can easily be turned into jealousy. So this weekend I looked at my heart and changed my attitude. Instead of looking at what I didn’t have I looked at what I did have. I have a 1/2 acre to live on in a small, small town neighborhood! That is much more than some people who have tiny little backyards in developments. I am a part of 4H and have many opportunities to participate with those in the agricultural community. I have good friends who live on lots of acreage and I have plenty of memories of romping in the woods, fishing, feeding their goats and chickens, helping in their big garden and more! I have lots of opportunity to farm on 1/2 an acre. We already have a pretty nice garden and we are going to get chickens soon. I am looking into starting a mini farm which is basically using your space wisely and harvesting much more in your garden, to the point of selling fruits and vegetables to others and making a profit off of it. I have so much! And I was discontent?!? God has been working a lot in my heart recently on this matter. This is where God has me now, why not make the most of it?

Priscilla

“Keep your life free from love of money and be content with whatever you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear, what can man do to me?”

Hebrews 13:5-6

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#13- Started Taking Sermon Notes

For the longest time I didn’t take notes. It was too much of a hassle getting a notebook and a pen that actually worked! Much easier to just sit and listen and take home a phrase that stuck out to me. No. That’s not good. How about actually writing the information down and reviewing it later in the week. Taking notes, a rather simple thing can be quite helpful in your Christian walk. It helps you glean from others wisdom and be able to take home their wisdom and live it out in your daily life. Sermon notes are not just for old people or little children who are bored, so they color in the service. When we were young, our parents would have us sit in the service with them and also draw a picture about what we were hearing. If the sermon was on Abraham then we would draw a picture of Abraham. When we are older we can start taking notes about what we were learning. My hard thing was starting back up on this habit of taking notes in Sunday service. Oh how much we can learn by doing simple things like this!

Priscilla

“Hear, my son, your father’s instruction and forsake not your mother’s teachings, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.”

Proverbs 1:8-9

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#11- Started Playing More Worship Music on the Piano

I have been playing the piano about 5 years. My skills are far from perfected but I have in the past few years started playing more complex pieces. I enjoy the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit music and I played that music last year and started playing music from the Narnia movies this year. I did play some worship songs, even performing at one of our community group Christmas parties. However, after attending a bible study (and worship time) with some friends I felt compelled to buy a piano book with worshipful songs in it and start playing worship music even more. I purchased the ‘Best of Hillsong’ piano book which has over 25 worship songs. I really enjoy Hillsong music and it would be a good challenge for me to start learning how to play and have people sing along. I just received the book I ordered today and started playing the song ‘Came to my rescue’. I loved that I could play songs that glorified God. I still enjoy playing my other music too but now I am grateful that I can start playing music that could be used for broader purposes (ex. family worship time, playing at nursing homes, etc.). Music is a really beautiful thing, there are all sorts of styles and music can be uplifting and joyful to show glory to God. The first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism is:

Q. What is mans primary purpose?
A. Mans primary purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

One way we can glorify and enjoy God is by praising him through our music. We hear about Miriam, David and others who sang praise songs to their God! In fact the entire book of Psalms is a lot of praise songs. The Song of Ascent psalms are songs that the people of God would sing when on their way to the temple (church). Many times now, music is focused on the singers voice and looks instead of praise to God. So let us glorify God by the music we play, sing and listen too. Here are the lyrics to the Hillsong song I am playing now:

“Came To My Rescue”

Falling on my knees in worship
Giving all I am to seek your face
Lord all I am is yours

My whole life
I place in your hands
God of Mercy
Humbled I bow down
In your presence at your throne

I called you answered
And you came to my rescue and I
I wanna be where you are

My whole life
I place in your hands
God of Mercy
Humbled I bow down
In your presence at your throne

I called you answered
And you came to my rescue and I
I wanna be where you are
[x2]

In my life be lifted high
In our world be lifted high
In our love be lifted high
[x3]

I called you answered
And you came to my rescue and I
I wanna be where you are

Praise be to the Lord!

Priscilla

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#10-Talked to my Dad about our family/social media balance

We got an ipad last summer mainly for Jace’s schooling. Now, we really do not have a ton of other electronics, only an ancient computer, the phones and the ipad. However, the ipad has slowly over the past months taken away from our family time. Social media can be dangerous like that. My sister and I noticed that the ipad was starting to control our evenings in some respect. We decided to talk to our dad and maybe start turning the ipad off in the evenings and using that time for something else. We talked to him and we are going to start using our evenings to have a family Bible time. Social media is something that can steal things more precious than facebook, twitter, instagram, etc. It steals your time. Time that can be spent to deepen your relationships with both people and God. People with phones need to stop using so much time looking down at their screen and look up, toward God. I think that sometimes we need to go back to the good old days where entertainment is self made and not on a screen. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that social media can be a tool. With tools like computers we can do lots of great things, it helps make writing books, staying in touch with people and communicating thoughts and ideas so much easier than handwriting long books, sending letters and telegrams that take forever to get to their destinations and getting groups of people together to hear your ideas. I believe that modern day technology is a tool, not a toy. Time can easily be lost when you are on social media. Lets not waste our time. Let us be good stewards of what God has given us.

Priscilla

“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.”

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#9- Weeded Garden

Ok, you may look at the list of what I have done so far and go, “Hmm, she has done an awful lot of housework.” I understand that. God has recently been teaching me to be faithful in the little things during this challenge. I’m a go getter, I have big plans and ideas and though I don’t mind doing little things, I felt like I wasn’t doing “hard enough” things. After talking to my mom, I believe the Lord was telling me that it is ok to do “small hard things” and wait for chances to do big hard things. So my hard thing (for Saturday actually) is weeding the garden. We have a pretty large garden and I have been taking care of it this year. A couple weeks back I took Drivers Ed in the mornings and was unable to weed it, so this week our bean plot was full of weeds. This Saturday, I weeded, mowed and trimmed the whole garden, in the morning, and I still had time to help with other projects. I don’t know about you but Saturday’s at the Bowers are a whole lot of work. But hard work is good for you. As my mom always says, ‘work is the best fun’. I have grown up doing household tasks, yard work and more, plus any other projects that I am doing (clubhouse, 4H projects and soon to come chicken coop and chickens!). If you want something, you work toward it. So even though weeding the garden isn’t the hardest of things to do, it speaks of hard work and doing the simple small hard things to glorify God!

Priscilla