Bible verses – mamasbrush

Telling Myself No – A lesson in restraint

Restraint and self control are two of my big struggles right now. Though my struggle with them shows itself in several areas of my life, the main one is in the area of eating.

A woman with her arms crossed at the wrist and a face that says, "mmm, no." Text above says, "Telling myself 'no'" A challenge in restraint and self-control | mamasbrush

This past November, our pastor preached on this very thing and it caught my attention!

He called restraint a skill and self-control a fruit of the spirit. He reminded us that just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should. (Galatians 5:13) He said we need to tell ourselves NO more often. At least these are the things I heard. (Sometimes the Holy Spirit speaks to us through a sermon in a way unintended by the pastors. I love when He does this!)

A plate of salad beside a pad of paper and pencil. A cloth tape messure is unraveled around it all. The words, "Restraint and Self Control: If you Practice these..." is written at the top. "2 Peter 1:10" is written on the pad of paper. A challenge in restraint and self-control | mamasbrush

I needed to hear all these things, though. If restraint is a skill, that means that it is something that can be learned and grown. This takes work, but is possible! Second Peter 1:10 tells us that if we “practice these things (verse 6 lists self-control as one of the things), you will never fall.” Self-control is listed as a fruit of the Spirit, but this verse tells us we can also practice it to get better! And that we should!

Spiritual Worship

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual worship. ”
Romans 12:1

To present my body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God as my spiritual worship. Sacrifice implies that I’m giving something up. Holy and acceptable to God implies that I’m living the way God would want me to. And it would all be something I’m presenting to God as worship.

Each time I tell myself no, I’m saying YES to God.

Do you need to tell yourself no in some area so that you can say yes to God?

Will you pin one of these images so you can share this message with others?

Gathering here.

Mountain Lodge Prints are Customizable!

Customizable Mountain Lodge Printables for your home, event, retreat or church activity!

For those of you who have been with me for a while, these might look familiar. They are. I first created these for a women’s retreat my church held back in 2019. For some time now, I’ve wanted to list them in my Etsy shop, but there are copyright rules when you use modern versions of the Bible, so I delayed.

Recently, one of you contacted me about purchasing a KJV version of one of these prints, and that was just what I needed to come up with a way to do it! Several months ago I signed up for Corjl… a website that helps sellers like me give potential buyers like you a way to customize a digital product yourselves! (More to come on that front!)

With this new tool in my belt I set out to do what I’ve been wanting to do, but didn’t know how to accomplish. I remastered each of the prints (I was using older software and super novice skills when I digitized these the first time) for quality and to remove the words I wanted to make customizable. Then I brought them into corjl to finish them up. Hop over to my shop to learn more about them and to test it out with a free demo link!

Pin for later!

The Importance of Bible Journaling

As Christians, most of us would agree that Bible reading is important…even if we don’t do it as often as we know we should. But for years, I didn’t understand the importance of Bible journaling.

This whole idea of Bible journaling has become popular in recent years and has come to mean different things. For some it’s art added to the margins of your Bibles, for others it’s a full page written about what you read each day. To be honest, I don’t have time for either of those and the weight of either leaves me doing nothing.

Years ago, my husband and I learned how to use “Reading Highlights” from Navigator’s 2:7 Bible discipleship course. With this system, we are encouraged to underline any verses in our daily reading (even just a chapter a day). Once the reading is done, we go back and look over anything we have marked, respond to them prayerfully, and pick one to write down.

But this post is supposed to be about the importance of Bible journaling, right? So why is it important?

I read a chapter in my Bible and talk to the Lord. I learn and I’m encouraged, but nothing sticks. It’s done until tomorrow when I do it all again. But when I take the time to choose a verse or two from my reading and to formulate my thoughts, even into a couple sentences, and put them on paper, I carry the lesson or encouragement further into my day. And when I want to remember during dinner to share with my family, it is easy to refer to my notes and pass that encouragement to others. Sometimes I end up choosing to memorize a verse or passage because of the time spent journaling, truly letting the “…Word of Christ dwell in [me] richly,” as Colossians 3:16 says!

Bible journaling is important because it is a tool to take the Word of God deeper into your heart and life. I had fallen out of this practice, but wanted to get back into it again. In doing so, I decided to make pretty journal pages for myself.

I’ve also listed them in my Etsy shop for any of you that are interested. Use them individually or print them front to back and bind them to make your own journal. I think I’ll put mine into a 3 ring binder, but you could take yours to a printer like Staples and have them bound. Perhaps I’ll do that someday, but I don’t get out much. 🙂

As always, I want you to have an opportunity to have them at a discount during their first week in my shop. Enter BIBLEJOURNAL33 as the coupon code for 33% off through the 22nd or use this link to have it taken automatically.

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You can find me gathering here.