Making My Home A Haven is important to me. Sharing homemaking skills. Recipes and food. Bible Studies. This is a treasure chest of goodies. So take a seat. Have a glass of tea and enjoy. You will learn all about who I am.
Today’s memory verse Today is the third day of Making Your Home A Haven Bible study. My gratitude and prayer list. There are so many verses to pick for my SOAK today.I particularly liked this verse, Psalm 37:3 Trust in the Lord , and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily […]
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Philippians 4:4
{Cue the Confetti!!!}
It’s time to begin the 11th Annual Making Your Home a Haven Bible Study! This week’s spiritual focus is to Delight in the Lord! Join me for Week 1’s video as we discuss How to Delight in the Lord —then pull out your journals and begin!
When our schedules are full and our to-do lists are overwhelming, it’s hard to stop and enjoy life to the fullest. Because of Jesus’ death on the cross and the forgiveness of our sins, we have a personal relationship with God. Not only should we delight in God as our savior and friend, but God is also a giver of good gifts, that he wants us to delight in!
So how do we delight in the Lord and the good gifts he has given us?
We must stop.
We must stop and open our eyes to the generosity of our God. When we sit still in his presence and simply enjoy the Lord, we find that our souls can be satisfied in him. He is a delight to know!
Once we are still in God’s presence and delighting in him, the fullness and richness of all God has given us, comes to life. Suddenly we see God’s hand in everything. We see God’s love in the chirping birds, a crispy apple, a hot cup of coffee, a bouquet of flowers, a hug from a friend, a beautiful sunset, a powerful storm and the changing leaves on the trees.
People who work too much, don’t delight in life. Instead of experiencing freedom in Christ, they lack the self-control and faith to simply stop, rest and delight.
Every evening the sun sets, signaling it is time to rest. And on the seventh day of creation, God rested. Rest and delight are God given, built-in needs for our souls.
So, it’s time! It’s time to take 15 minutes a day to stop and be grateful, pray, meditate and delight in the Lord and then go forward with the day, delighting in the good gifts God has given us to enjoy. Let’s get started.
Go buy an extra large candle and light a candle everyday in your home. Each time the glimmer of the candle catches your eye, let it remind you to say a prayer of thanksgiving and a prayer for peace in your home.
I will be starting mine in the morning but you can start yours at dinner time or whenever is convenient for you. I will be placing mine in the kitchen – the main hub of my home. Let’s make our homes feel like a warm hug and a sweet haven all month long!
You see when we do not take the time to tend to our own souls – we have nothing left to give to others. So many times I have found myself busy and running on empty and then I snap – in a moment of frustration and weariness I say or do things that I would never do if I was more rested and connected with the Lord.
And so this month – let’s be intentional!
Begin your gratitude list now.
Pull out a pen and paper and begin. As you set your pen to the paper – wait on the Lord. Seek God and ask him to show you all the ways he has shown himself to you lately.
Give thanks to God for both the big and small blessings in your life.
They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)
Introducing the 11th Annual Making Your Home a Haven Bible Study
From Sarah:
FROM SARAH I WILL BE STARTING WEEK ONE TOMORROW : MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2020
This study started last week for everyone else. I had to delay starting it due to being sick. Truly sorry about that. The first part was posted early October. It Introduced The Making Your Home A Haven Study For The 11TH Year. The following are the posts that followed. Women Living Well /Good Morning Girls Check Out The Printable Book Mark And The Coloring Book For Children In The 2nd Post.
“Welcome to the 11th Annual Making Your Home a Haven Bible Study! 11 years ago, we began this series and never could I have imagined how much it would resonate with so many women around the world!
Our souls desperately need a deeper connection with God.
So many times we try to mask our struggles, pain, confusion or emptiness by keeping busy and distracted, eating food, going on vacations, seeking success or elevating certain relationships. While many of these things are blessings from God, they are not good substitutes FOR God.
This Bible Study is going to help you slow down.
It is going to force you to pause every day and enter into the presence of our Almighty God.
God’s pace is much slower than this world’s pace.
We must slow down to catch up with God.
We must create calm moments in our day because it’s in the unhurried moments, that we can clearly see and hear the voice of God.”
“Self-care is a very popular concept these days, but I believe that soul care IS self-care.
So, let’s take care of our souls by intentionally creating a physical environment, as well as a spiritual environment, in our homes that brings us closer to God. As a result, we will experience peace and a sense of calmness inside our souls, no matter what we are facing.
Each week, I will provide for you a practical challenge of something I do in my home that makes it more of a haven. I hope you will take the challenges. They do make a difference!
Each weekday, we will pause, give thanks, pray and meditate on God’s Word through SOAKing in the daily scripture reading for the day.
Also, you will find 4 videos, one per week, that correspond with the scriptures we are studying.”
All the resources are free for this study but there is an optional Study Guide available on Amazon titled: Delight in the Lord
The Study Guide is optional, as I will provide for you the daily Bible Reading Plan and many free resources each week here on the blog. BUT I highly recommend the Study Guide. It provides space for your daily gratitude list and daily prayer requests, plus a place to keep all of your Bible study reflections/SOAKs and video notes.“ https://womenlivingwell.org/2020/10/resources-for-the-delight-in-the-lord-bible-study/
Here’s the topic schedule:
Week 1: Delight
Start a daily gratitude list and delight in the Lord, the giver of good gifts.
Go buy an extra-large candle and light a candle everyday in your home. Each time the glimmer of the candle catches your eye, stop, pray and give thanks.
Rejoice in the Lord always; I will say it again, rejoice. (Philippians 4:4)
Week 2: Draw Near
Slow down, be still, listen, pray and commune with the God of the universe. He is near.
Keep your candle going and add to it soft music everyday in your home. Choose worship, classical or another form of peaceful music that helps you focus on the Lord.
The Lord is near. (Philippians 4:5)
Week 3: Desires
Take your desires to the Lord in prayer this week.
Keep your candle burning, the music playing and purchase a small bouquet of flowers for yourself. Let that bouquet be a daily reminder of God’s love and presence with you.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (Philippians 4:6)
Week 4: Dependence
It takes faith to rest in the Lord and depend solely on him but he is trustworthy. Delight, draw near, and exchange his desires for yours and depend on God. He loves you so!
Rest is a need not a want. Rest is not optional and it is a blessing from the Lord. So, seek out a place of solitude to rest and pray. Get alone with God outside or in your home. Be still with God and take a much needed bubble bath, nap or still time with the Lord.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7)”
Candles are an important part of the Making Your Home A Haven Fall Challenge. Do you have to have a candle lit in your home to take the challenge? Of Course not. Why wouldn’t you want to have one lit? I do understand there might be those of you out there that for some reason, […]
From Sarah : I will write about THIS PAST WEEK IN OUR NECK OF THE WOODS later on in this post. I held off starting this week even though I posted Week 1 last week.
“Welcome to week two of Quieting Your Heart for the Holidays. Here are the resources for this week…
In the guide (find link below), you’ll find that I have selected scripture to read on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. On the alternate days it’s my hope that you’ll dig a bit deeper. For example, you could… look scripture up in your favorite commentary, read it in the interlinear Bible, look up words you want to gain a deeper understanding of, and watch sermons on the topic.
WEEK AT A GLANCE – FREE Printable Below Week at a glance is a synopsis of the study guide. It can be used as a book mark for your Bible, or you might want to put it up on your fridge as a reminder of each week’s focus. I printed mine out on card stock, and I’ll be keeping it in my Bible.
WEEKLY QUESTIONS – For those who want questions for reflection or group study, I’ll have new ones each week.
BIBLE VERSE CARDS – FREE Printable Below
Each week I’ll give you seven cards. There are 30 in total. I cut mine out, hole punched them, and put them on a little binder ring so I can meditate on one scripture/day. They’re so cute. I love them! These cards are a keepsake you can use for years to come. I picked Bible verses that remind me of the REASON for the season.
PRAYER JOURNAL
You don’t need to pick up a copy of my prayer journal to do this study with us. That’s totally optional. You can use any journal you have. In fact you could use a simple piece of paper. What I encourage you to do is to use your journal to journalize daily prayers, and to give thanks for a few things each day.
You might also use the journal to diarize the holiday season, making it a keepsake you’ll want to hang on to.
THE BLOG
I’ll be posting on the topics each week on Tuesdays and Fridays. Come here to glean encouragement and share in my thoughts.”
From Sarah : I am starting this wonderful study today. I wasn’t prepared for it when Advent started last week. I could blame it on the fact we were in Plant City until Tuesday of the first week. I had plenty of time to get ready for it here. I could have shared the first week on time but I chose family (In my case , Danny) and held off. Lighting Advent candles at a B & B could have been done. We had the whole house to ourselves. I still chose not to. I wasn’t ready (in my heart ) to begin. My HEART WASN’T QUIET. I am beginning Quieting Your Heart For The Holidays today, Sunday, December 8, 2019. I will continue the 4th week after Christmas. That will work for me because I celebrate Advent / Christmas through January. I always have. I haven’t begun to get ready for Christmas this year. I still have my few Thanksgiving Knick Knacks out. Not really wanting Thanksgiving to be over. I am Still waiting for MY HEART TO QUIET.
MY HEART hasn’t been QUIET in a very long time. I was praying that our mini- vacation would bring us closer and in a way it did. Yet, NOT IN THE WAYS I NEEDED IT TO.
Dannyreally has no clue how unhappy I have been . Yes, I have tried multiple times to tell him. He shuts me down every time. He believes I should forgive him . That I should have been able to get past what happened last February. What happened long before that. He doesn’t believe he betrayed me when he was TEXTING OTHER WOMEN. SEX-TEXTING EVEN. That is wrong no matter how you look at it. He has never once said he was sorry. Even if he wasn’t wrong. That it wasn’t cheating. That it wasn’t a betrayal. Danny hurt me and continued to hurt me and THAT WAS WRONG. WORSE IT WAS CRUEL. There was no hiding it. I was confronted every day. Every time he was on his phone. All day and night. He isn’t texting ANY OF THEM NOW. NOT BECAUSE HE BELIEVES HE WAS WRONG BUT BECAUSE HE LOST INTEREST. Dannyhas women that he texts every day. He’s not SEX-TESTING them or doing anything really wrong, EXCEPT THAT IT BOTHERS ME. He texted the WHOLE TIME WE WERE IN PLANT CITY. THE WHOLE TIME WE WERE IN OUR ROOM AT THE STRAWBERRY HOUSE. I REALLY DON’T CARE THAT HE TEXTS CERTAIN WOMEN. HE HAS A LOT OF FRIENDS ONLINE. Whatbothers me is when he texts them 24/7. ESPECIALLY DURING OUR TIME TOGETHER.
We were there for 4 days. The last photo shown was at lunch our first day. We had only been in PLANT CITY an HOUR. We were unloading the car or rather I was unloading the car at the B&B when I walked in on him texting . I admit that I didn’t handle that well.it brought back TO MANY MEMORIES OF OUR LAST VISIT TO THE STRAWBERRY HOUSE WHEN HE WAS SEX-TEXTING. GRANTEDthis time the texting was a rail fan and there wasn’t anything wrong with it EXCEPT THAT HE DID IT THE WHOLE TIME WE WERE THERE. The person that he mainly texted all weekend WAS ANOTHER RAIL FAN. SHE IS ALSO IN HER 60’S. SO , IT’S NOT JEALOUSY . THERE IS NOTHING THERE. THEY HAVE BEEN “FRIENDS” ON YOUTUBE FOR A YEAR OR SO. Other than a few comments they had never really texted. Kathy was feeling sorry for herself over the HOLIDAYS. She was lonely. I get that. I WAS LONELY! I AM ALWAY LONELY WHEN DANNY IS HERE. THE ONLY THING I ASKED DANNY TO DO WHEN WE WERE ON OUR TRIP WAS NOT TEST THE WHOLE TIME. WELL, I DID ASK ONE OTHER THING……I WANTED SEX BUT MOST OF ALL I WANTED TO BE CUDDLED AT NIGHT. I WANTED US TO DO THINGS TOGETHER. I WANTED THE CLOSENESS. I NEEDED THE TOUCHING. I WANTED TO COME FIRST.
This past week IN OUR NECK OF THE WOODS was NORMAL. Meaning Danny went to work. The rest of the time, EXCEPT FOR A FEW MINUTES IN THE MORNING AND MAYBE 20 MINUTES WHEN DANNY GOT HOME HE WAS IN HIS COMPUTER ROOM.
For those of You that are late getting started WITH THE HOLIDAYS this year here is :
“I don’t want to overwhelm you today, but I have a lot of resources to offer you for this study. You’ll find all of the links below the descriptions. I hope you enjoy them!
THE STUDY GUIDE – FREE Printable Below
We officially begin our study today. However, today is only the introduction. We don’t start in on the study guides or the prayer journals until Monday. I wanted to give you the resources early so you were ready to go on Monday morning.
In the guide (find link below), you’ll find that I have selected scripture to read on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. On the alternate days it’s my hope that you’ll dig a bit deeper. For example, you could… look scripture up in your favorite commentary, read it in the interlinear Bible, look up words you want to gain a deeper understanding of, and watch sermons on the topic.WEEK AT A GLANCE – FREE Printable BelowWeek at a glance is a synopsis of the study guide. It can be used as a book mark for your Bible, or you might want to put it up on your fridge as a reminder of each week’s focus. I printed mine out on card stock, and I’ll be keeping it in my Bible.
WEEKLY QUESTIONS
For those who want questions for reflection or group study, I’ll have new ones each week.
BIBLE VERSE CARDS – FREE Printable Below
Each week I’ll give you seven cards. There are 30 in total. I cut mine out, hole punched them, and put them on a little binder ring so I can meditate on one scripture/day. They’re so cute. I love them! These cards are a keepsake you can use for years to come. I picked Bible verses that remind me of the REASON for the season.
PRAYER JOURNAL
You don’t need to pick up a copy of my prayer journal to do this study with us. That’s totally optional. You can use any journal you have. In fact you could use a simple piece of paper. What I encourage you to do is to use your journal to journalize daily prayers, and to give thanks for a few things each day.
You might also use the journal to diarize the holiday season, making it a keepsake you’ll want to hang on to.
THE BLOG
I’ll be posting on the topics each week on Tuesdays and Fridays. Come here to glean encouragement and share in my thoughts.
FIND ME ON THE WEB
Look for my daily journal entries on Instagram. Here’s my URL: @timewarpwife
I don’t even think you need an Instagram account if you’re just looking. If you do have an account, then you’ll know what I mean when I say, use the hashtag #quietingyourheart
Find us in our Facebook group: Bible Journaling. I’m sure that many of the readers including myself will be sharing their journal entries.
Follow me on Facebook. Click the like button in the header. And if you’re not getting my notifications on your homepage, click the “like” button and choose “get notifications.” Facebook changed their algorithm about a year ago and started hiding the pages we like. Argh!”
From Sarah: BEFORE I CAN REALLY START ADVENT AND THIS BIBLE STUDY, I NEED TO FIND MY ADVENT CANDLES. Have a wonderful week. Happy Sunday, Love and Hugs, Sarah
I ran across a study over at Time Warp Wife called Quieting Your Heart for the Holidays. My time is limited and I am already doing a different Bible Study but I decided to do a sketchnote in my bullet journal for day one. Hopefully I will get time to participate more
As we enter this holiday season, I want to invite you to quiet you heart with me. I thought and I prayed about the best way to enter this holiday season, and as I reading the Word, I kept going back to the book of Luke. I couldn’t help but feel that the best way to prepare for the King was to get to know Him on a deeper level, and to drink from the well of His wisdom.
And so our study begins this Monday, November 21st and runs for four consecutive weeks, ending December 17th.
There are 24 chapters in Luke. Therefore, I suggest reading one chapter per day/six days a week bringing you to a complete four-week study.
Quieting Your Heart For The Holidays – A Study of Luke 12:22-34 – Time-Warp Wife | We have just started this exciting Series this week. Please Join us In Quieting Our Hearts For The Holidays.…read more →Source: Quieting Your Heart for the Holidays – A Study of Luke 12:22-34 – Time-Warp Wife | Time-Warp Wife
As we enter this holiday season, I want to invite you to quiet you heart with me. I thought and I prayed about the best way to enter this holiday season, and as I reading the Word, I kept going back to the book of Luke. I couldn’t help but feel that the best way to prepare for the King was to get to know Him on a deeper level, and to drink from the well of His wisdom.
And so our study begins this Monday, November 21st and runs for four consecutive weeks, ending December 17th. From Sarah : 2019
Advent Started on December 1st this year. I am a little late getting started. I will be doing this Bible Study this month.
There are 24 chapters in Luke. Therefore, I suggest reading one chapter per day/six days a week bringing you to a complete four-week study.
If we’re going too fast for you—slow down. Go at your own pace. If it takes you two months to complete the study, so be it. This isn’t homework, this is an opportunity to fellowship with God, to quiet your heart during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, and to find rest in His presence.
There’s a FREE study guide below in which I have provided you with a list of questions for each chapter. This doesn’t mean that you have to tackle every single question. You might want to answer two or three of them each day, and some days you may prefer to answer them all. The questions are simply a method to get you thinking, cross referencing, and rightly dividing the Word. For many of the questions, our answers could be different as God is speaking to each of us in a unique way.
Please note: The study guide is 85 pages. If that is too much for you to print, simply read it on your computer, and record your thoughts in a journal.
As we enter this holiday season, I want to invite you to quiet you heart with me. I thought and I prayed about the best way to enter this holiday season, and as I reading the Word, I kept going back to the book of Luke. I couldn’t help but feel that the best way to prepare for the King was to get to know Him on a deeper level, and to drink from the well of His wisdom.
And so our study begins this Monday, November 21st and runs for four consecutive weeks, ending December 17th.
There are 24 chapters in Luke. Therefore, I suggest reading one chapter per day/six days a week bringing you to a complete four-week study.
If we’re going too fast for you—slow down. Go at your own pace. If it takes you two months to complete the study, so be it. This isn’t homework, this is an opportunity to fellowship with God, to quiet your heart during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, and to find rest in His presence.
There’s a FREE study guide below in which I have provided you with a list of questions for each chapter. This doesn’t mean that you have to tackle every single question. You might want to answer two or three of them each day, and some days you may prefer to answer them all. The questions are simply a method to get you thinking, cross referencing, and rightly dividing the Word. For many of the questions, our answers could be different as God is speaking to each of us in a unique way.
Please note: The study guide is 85 pages. If that is too much for you to print, simply read it on your computer, and record your thoughts in a journal.