I really do LOVE His Word.....don't you?

We are finally pushing past the hump I do believe! When I completed this journey last year, I remembered quickly how hard this time of year was for me. My family is deep into spring sports.....America's game....baseball. We love it so very much and it consumes more days and nights than not. However....I am learning with time, age, and nearly 16 years of parenting, that NOTHING will come between me and my personal growth with the Lord. NOTHING. I don't say that with pride. I can say that after more times of failure than success. There are some disciplines, however, that I am finally getting right. :)

I am in love with scripture memory and seeing the fruit of knowing His Word and how to apply it, can literally stop me dead in my tracks. His Word is truly life bearing and something I find myself desperate to know.....really know. Thank you Jesus for taking this prodigal daughter nearly 15 years ago and loving me with such patience and grace. I'm YOURS!! And you are mine. There is nothing sweeter than that right there.

The verse I picked this time is Isaiah 26:4. It is simple, short, but I love a little nugget with one of the words. Here is the verse....and then I will explain.

"Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal." 

 The very first word, trust, actually means to "attach" in the original Hebrew language. YES!! I want to attach myself to Him...through it all....I want to be attached to Him. When I'm feeling overwhelmed or worried or afraid or insecure or prideful or walking in any sin, I hope to recall this scripture and visualize my desperate self in need of holding onto my Savior. I'm holding on Lord. I'm attached to the One who knew me before the foundation of the world and sent His son to die so I may live.

Alrighty.....share away sweet friends!!! I'm so very proud of you!

Confession and a new memory verse!!

Y'all...seriously...I think it's still February or something. IT'S APRIL!!! It's mid-April! May will be here in two days. ;) Goodness gracious the time is flying. I must be old. That's what happens right?

Before I share my memory verse I have a couple of confessions. Ok.....here we go : I didn't memorize my last verse at all. AT ALL. I will go ahead and tell you that I moved my spiral from my dashboard in my car to my purse thinking I would go over my verses more when in reality the spiral never ever ever left my purse. Ugh. Big fat hang my head low. And while I'm at it...I had to go back to my previous blog post and look what I even selected as my verse. GOOD GRIEF people. But...this is life and I got slightly off track. However, this I know....we are full of grace and love and encouragement around here and there is absolutely no condemnation when we fail or drop the ball. Thank you Jesus for showing us how to do that. I will grab my spiral out of my purse now...write down TWO verses and start fresh.

 I picked this next verse because it is just all up in my business for many different reasons and it has deep meaning to me right now. This verse reminds me of how quickly we can lose ground in certain areas of our life...family, friends, work, activities, anything that brings glory to God if we don't guard or protect what we have worked for. Anything we work for can be lost. Satan can't have the people and the things that mean so much to me. He just can't.

Fran, Jackson TN "Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be fully rewarded." 2 John 8 NIV

Ok...let me hear your verse girls!! And if you are willing...why did you pick that verse? I just love y'all. .

Love it!!! Let me hear those scriptures!!

This is definitely the time of  year when I tend to slowly fade out of scripture memory. Why? Because spring has sprung, my kids are so busy with spring/summer sports, and I just get a little too lazy with the warmer weather. It is just a struggle for me to push past this busy time of year and then through the lazy days of summer.

However...Satan won't win this battle with me. I may pick out shorter scriptures, but I'm still memorizing! So there Satan. Take that!

I want to provide you the context of the single verse I chose so here goes...

Fran, Jackson TN
   "I thank my God every time I remember you.  In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy  because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,  being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philipians 1:6

I want to be obedient in ALL things. I want to walk this walk with great humility and integrity and authenticity. Jesus...I thank you that you WILL see the good all the way through. No matter where I turn or go or fall of the path...you WILL see it through.

Amen? Amen!!

Ok girls...fire away!!!  I can't wait to read what you have chosen!

His Word has truly been life this week

What a couple of weeks this has been....in one week, a mom to one of youngest son's lost her battle with cancer and she was buried. These 11 year old children handled this loss with such love for their classmate.  This past weekend, one of my dearest friends son was killed tragically in a car wreck. Needless to say....these last 5 days have been extremely difficult. However, I watched one of the most Godly women I know carry herself through unspeakable devastation with Jesus and her faith in such a way that you stood back and in a weird sort of way wanted to watch. I have learned so much from my friend Cindy that I wish I could tell you all I saw and heard that was a blessing to others as this momma dealt with the death of her firstborn son at the tender age of 18.

Cindy taught me to pray and seek the Lord in all I do. She showed me to live life authentically and I cherish our friendship in the deepest places of my heart.

My memory verse comes out of her son's funeral and it seemed fitting to really know and remember the power of this verse as I process these last few days.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28 NIV

Oh girls....life is such a gift. Love your children well. Live for Jesus. Be as real as you can. Cindy taught me how to do these things. It matters......it matters when we can't manage to find the air to breathe. His Word is life.

Can you believe it?? Memory verse #3 is here!

Y'all...seriously...time is flying and every time I read a scripture that just grabs me I think "thats my next memory verse!"  I know I'm up to probably 10 favorites. ;)  However, I've chosen just one that I have read and known and seen time and time again, but it has new meaning for me right now. I meet with a beautiful group of ladies once a week and we talk about the challenges of being a mom and we pray for the pressing needs of our families every time we meet. It has become such a sweet time for us all. I can't imagine NOT doing this.  We have talked recently about the courage it takes to be a mom. We must be watchful. We must be wide-eyed and alert. A Proverbs 31 woman is no wimp.

So....my next memory verse surfaced this past week two different times and I thought...YES....this is the next verse for me. And...since I'm not one to memorize long verses (wink) I may break this one up into one month to make sure I really get it. I'm going to try though.

Grab your spirals girls....It's time to write down another Truth!

Fran, Jackson TN
  ^5" Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." Deuteronomy 6:5-9

Ok...let me hear them!!!  I can't wait to see where your heart is! There is nothing like the power of His Word! I'm so very proud of y'all!  Don't forget to always go over the other verses.

Love y'all!

Scripture memory....verse #2

Well girls....we are now up to two scriptures!!!! I love when its time to flip the card over in the spiral!!!  I don't know about you, but this past memory verse has been spoken out loud over situations and NOT just for the sake of memorizing. Don't you just LOVE that???  There is absolute life in the scriptures when you begin to speak them out over a person or situation!!!

I knew my scripture would be focused around the theme "courage."  Courage was a word that kept coming up for me about being a momma. It surfaced in my prayer group. It surfaced in some one on one conversations. It surfaced in my mind at a funeral last week. I just knew that courage would be my focus. It was hard to find the scripture that I was looking for though.....the word courage didn't necessarily need to be in the scripture just the theme.

Well...after much thought and prayer....God took me to the place in Proverbs 31:27 where it started for me a week ago. I was watching a parenting teaching for moms from Beth Moore out of her "Wising Up" series and she spent time on this verse. It takes courage to be alert to the things of our homes. It's not easy being a mom. There are seasons that require us to be bold and brave to do the hard thing.  So.....here is my verse...lets stick with our format...

Fran Thomas, Jackson TN
"She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness." Proverbs 31:27 NIV

I can't wait to see what you have chosen!!!  It is ministering to this soul to read through each scripture as you post them.

Love y'all so very much!!!   

February 1st!!! Scripture Memory is here!!!

Well, girls......here we are!!! IT'S TIME!!!!!!!!! (jumping up and down!!!!)

Let me just say that I am like a kid at Christmas over this one....I am so excited to see February 1st finally get here! We are going to have us some fun memorizing scripture this year, girls, so get yourself ready!!

This is what I know about scripture memory from last year. One of our beloved bible teachers, Beth Moore, challenged us to memorize 24 scriptures during 2011. That means only two scriptures a month. TWO A MONTH!!! That's it. Since we are starting February 1st, we will be memorizing 22 scriptures. Of course if you have been steady going since January 1...then that is AWESOME!!! But, I will be learning 22. I don't know if 22 scares you or excites you, but I can promise you, we will get it done! I need all the encouragement I can get too. 11 months won't come quickly. It's a marathon....not a sprint.

I highly suggest posting your scriptures here each time. I learned that when someone is expecting to see a scripture from me, then I'm being held accountable in a way. I will always post on the 1st and the 15th about scripture memory. You will find yourself knowing those dates and thinking about scripture before you know it. It will be 2nd nature to you. :)

I also know this.....the 1st year that Beth started scripture memory, I failed big time over the summer. Just flat out quit. My brain got lazy and I just didn't even try. Maybe I was overwhelmed or afraid....I'm not sure. But...I can clearly look back over last year's verses and see that I picked very short verses that spoke directly into our season of rest, peace, joy, and family. I joked over and over that I would pick John 3:16 or "Jesus wept" this past summer so I could keep at it! I DID NOT WANT TO QUIT AND BLAME IT ON SUMMER.  I fell off  the structured band wagon once and I was determined to not do it again. So, keep it simple over the summer if you think it will be a challenge for ya. 

Finally...if you don't have note cards that are bound by a spiral or ring, grab one quick. It's so much easier to have all your scriptures right there together. I would keep mine in my car, in my purse, somewhere quick and handy and always in front of me! I got my current spiral from Office Max.

Before I share  my scripture, some of you have heard me share this, but I want you to personally know what scripture memory meant for me last year. 2011 started out in a very difficult place with some things happening outside of our home, but very dear to my heart. As I looked back over that spiral and memorized and memorized, I could see God's faithfulness in all its beauty. I could see Him take me from dark to light. I could watch a movie of my life called "2011 in Scripture...the Fran Thomas story" unfold and I would just sit and stare by the time December rolled around. In my 42 years of life, I have documented record of my life through His Word that I wouldn't trade for all the money in the world. As I rattled off each scripture to my dear friend, Robyn, in Houston....I would say with just about every one a story of why that scripture was picked. It was a trip down memory lane, but most of all, a trip with God. He was so faithful to me this past year. I grew in ways I could never articulate. I just want you to know Him and experience Him as I did in 2011. Once you have that....you won't ever want to stop memorizing scripture.

Let's keep with Beth's format so we can see where we are all from as well as the translation chosen for your verse. You will love reading other girls verses and knowing what translation they are from. Ok, here is  my scripture for February 1, 2011....

I chose this verse because it was the very first verse in my bible study, Duty or Delight. My goodness...how awesome this study is. Find some friends and dig into this too if you can!

Fran, Jackson, TN  "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight."  Ephesians 1:4 NIV

Ok....let's hear it!!!  Chime in! I can't wait to read the verses you have chosen.

I sure do love y'all~