Missing the garden from my YouBible devotions by lysa terkheurst

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Sigh. 💛

Feels like nostalgic wistful longing.

Mental shake of myself.  

Ok. This is reality.  Jesus has made a way, and I’m gonna find it.  

We soldier on.

Ok what was the question?  Oh.  What things are not living up to my expectations?

Ummm.  I need you guys here.  The Church.  💛

A shorter list would be What HAS lived up to my expectations.  My relationship with God.  No blowing sunshine here.  

I was once given some good advice: 

Never pin your hope to something that can be taken away.

I really try to follow that.

Aha!

That might be why I am struggling with my feelings about my parenting stuff!  

Hmmm.

I think it’s easy to get confused, because they came out of MY body and hold a piece of MY heart.  So I think I should be able to make THAT work.   But once they hit puberty and start to separate…all bets are off 💔🌻😌

“Hold me Jesus, cause I’m shaking like a leaf.  You have been king of my glory. Won’t you be my Prince of peace? ” Rich Mullins song

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Letting a marriage grow

So let’s agree to use all our energy in getting along with each other. Help others with encouraging words; don’t drag them down by finding fault. You’re certainly not going to permit an argument over what is served or not served at supper to wreck God’s work among you, are you? I said it before and I’ll say it again: All food is good, but it can turn bad if you use it badly, if you use it to trip others up and send them sprawling. When you sit down to a meal, your primary concern should not be to feed your own face but to share the life of Jesus. So be sensitive and courteous to the others who are eating. Don’t eat or say or do things that might interfere with the free exchange of love.
Romans 14:19‭-‬21 MSG

https://bible.com/bible/97/rom.14.19-21.MSG

Friends

Friends

I want to be Your friend God. 

I love You too. 💛
https://bible.com/bible/97/jhn.15.11-15.MSG

Priorities

The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ— God’s righteousness.
Philippians 3:7‭-‬9 MSG

https://bible.com/bible/97/php.3.7-9.MSG

Girl power

https://bible.com/bible/431/1pe.3.1-6.GNBDK
I Peter 3 – submission.

Another difficult teaching.
I find this strangely comforting.

I’ve had to give up many of my beauties to this illness.  Hair and tooth falling out.  No balance, so that I cannot walk.

This has been difficult for me.

But my attitude toward my husband I have TOTAL control over.  It CANNOT be taken away from me.  

I can be my husband’s staunchest and most loyal supporter.

  I can call to mind the things I love about him.  

I can be positive.

This is how I make myself beautiful to him:  I maintain my adoration of him.  I tell others how great he is. I Let my respect show in my gaze.  I remind him of his good qualities.  

This takes constant discipline.  I do not allow myself to dwell on his negative qualities.  (Except with one friend, occasionally. But I know she will not encourage me to give way to my fears)

There is a place in my man’s heart where he was hurt by his dear mother’s cynical patronizing disparaging attitude toward men, by his well-meaning dad’s disrespect for himself.

I have access to that place and i can do him poignant and lasting GOOD.  I must not underestimate that power.

I often feel discouraged because I cannot do a lot nowadays.  I must remember and cherish this power for good that God has given me.

1 Peter 3:1‭, ‬3‭-‬6 GNBDKIn the same way you wives must submit to your husbands, so that if any of them do not believe God’s word, your conduct will win them over to believe. It will not be necessary for you to say a word, You should not use outward aids to make yourselves beautiful, such as the way you do your hair, or the jewellery you put on, or the dresses you wear. Instead, your beauty should consist of your true inner self, the ageless beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of the greatest value in God’s sight. For the devout women of the past who placed their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful by submitting to their husbands. Sarah was like that; she obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are now her daughters if you do good and are not afraid of anything.

1 Peter 3:1‭, ‬3‭-‬6 GNBDK

What anger is for

My son was freaking out about global warming. He saw a Bill Nye thing on YouTube, and it disturbed him.

I told him:

1. It’s better than when I was a kid so… progress.  He may not know that 

2.  Jesus chose for him to be born in 2001 and has as plan.

3. The Holy Spirit cares about global warming.  It’s His planet after all.  He is talking to moms and car mechanics and garbage men and scientists all over our planet about it.  

4.  It’s important to do something. That is what that feeling is for.  So we’re working on that.

Is there a way we can start recycling\reducing\reusing more?

Couldn’t have

God ’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up. They’re created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over). He’s all I’ve got left.
Lamentations 3:22‭-‬24 MSG

https://bible.com/bible/97/lam.3.22-24.MSG