What Will You Choose?

My heart is heavy. It's sorrowful. And I think God's heart might be that way too. When He sees His people living lives that aren't His best for them. Sees them making choices that have eternal consequences and it's as if they don't even care. Don't care about the destination of their souls. Don't care that they are shutting out His goodness, His love. Choosing to put the things of this world above the things of Heaven. I'm guilty of all of this. Guilty of wanting my own way, of being relentlessly selfish and worldly. Of thinking I know best. How His heart must break. 

His people choosing to ignore His Word, not even feed on the Words of life that He so freely and perfectly gave us. To let them soak into the core of who we are, so this world and all of it's filth just ricochets off of us. Seeing His people needlessly suffer and stress and worry and live in turmoil, when we're the ones who stand in our own fickle pride and act as though we can make it on our own. Are we serious? Do we really think that we can survive this life without drawing from the Author of Life? 

He puts before us life and death; His plea? 

Choose life! Choose Me! Forget this world with it's quickly passing standards, with it's quick fixes and worthless solutions and just CHOOSE ME! I'm everything. I hold everything. I've made everything. I know everything. I know you. Children of mine, be mine. Live as mine. Breathe as mine. Stand out, stand up, speak out. Let your life be a mirror image of me. 

And it's not about methods, or routines, or formula's, or schedules. It's not about any of this. It's about whether we want it enough. All the methods in the world won't change a thing if you simply don't want to. If you simply don't want to pray, don't want to pour over His word, don't want to thank Him for every blessing, don't want to take every horrible, hard, seemingly impossible situation to Him and leave it there for Him to work out in His perfect way. It's about choices. 

He's given us every answer to every dilemma. He's suffered through every single thing known to man when He hung on that Cross. And yet the walls of the box go up and He is placed so safely and comfortably inside of it, having access to only what we let Him. It's not about anything other than our choices. Are we going to choose Him or not? Choose Him fully or not? Are we going to listen to the world or not? Follow the way of death, or life? It's not complicated. His ways are easy. His ways are perfect. His ways are more than enough.

(Photo Credit)

The Quiet Time Basket

So many things have been changing and happening around here lately, that I haven't found the time to be able to sit down and write a single thing! I've missed you all and missed writing here in this little space! With that being said, I would like to share with you a little something practical that has given me a 'boost' in my times with the Lord. 

My husband and I enjoyed a lengthy conversation the other night about habits. We talked about healthy ones, unhealthy ones and new ones that we would like to create. We realised that we're all creating habits each and every day, whether we notice them or not, and whether we intentionally choose to or not.

So, if habits are formed regardless, isn't is much wiser to choose healthy ones in the first place? 

To focus on what we spend our time on, what we read, listen to etc, and make sure that we are choosing that which is good? Time is being spent every second of every day; time that is irreplaceable. Habits are formed each day, and unhealthy ones are hard to break.

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live. Duet 30:19

I want to choose life. We must choose life!

In my day to day life I want to deliberately choose the healthy habit of spending time with the Lord. Of praying, giving thanks, reading His word, journaling, keeping a thankful list and so on. Putting all the materials together for these activities makes it so much easier for me to keep this healthy habit. Anything to make habit forming easier, right?

Enter the Quiet Time Basket.

What is that you ask? It's very simple. It's a basket that I picked up from a local garage sale (for 50c) that I have filled with all my essential quiet time materials so that it's really easy to grab it in the morning (with my cup of coffee of course) and head outside for some time with my precious Saviour.

Here's what's in my Quiet Time Basket ...

• My Bible
• Highlighters
• Pens
• Lead Pencils and colouring pencils
• My journal
• My thankful journal
• a small tin of solid watercolour paints and brushes
• rubber and sharpener
• fine tip coloured felt pens
• the book that I'm currently reading

What I really enjoy about this is that it's something that's so simple, but it's effects are so good for the soul! And if I have a spare few minutes throughout the day, I can just grab it again and off I go! How easy is that?!

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. Phil 4:8.

I pray you all have a beautiful week choosing to spend time with the Lord!