The beautiful city I live in. It takes my breath away every day.
My loving family. I miss them all so much. My heart is heavy thinking of them all so far away.
My wonderful husband who fills my life with blessings daily. I cannot imagine life without him. He is my number one blessing for sure.
The #SheReadsTruth community. These devotionals have encouraged me and helped so much to keep me accountable in reading God's Word daily.
Coffee. I'm not thankful for it in the dependent on caffeine sort of way, but in the way that is simply thankful for the joy it brings into my life. I love the taste of coffee.
For our amazing church family and the opportunity to be a part of what God is doing in Delray Beach.
The fact that Christmas is coming soon.
My kitchen that I can cook, bake, and wash dishes in.
The opportunity I have had over the past (almost) year to write and express myself creatively through this blog.
The wonderful network and community of bloggers that I am beginning to be a part of.
The opportunity to share my passion for crochet and design with all of you through my Etsy shop.
The fact that my sister arrives in Florida to visit me, soon! Very soon!
I am thankful for delicious sweets and treats like pumpkin pie for breakfast.
But most of all, I am thankful for the One to whom I give thanks. I am thankful for grace, for not only a clean slate, but for the righteousness of Jesus credited to my account. I am thankful for the hope of heaven someday. Truly, I am blessed.
Sometimes its so easy to live life believing lies even after you've been shown the truth.
It's easy.
It doesn't require the pain of change.
It's simple.
So what truth is throwing me off balance right now?
This truth that was spoken by my pastor this past Thursday.
The text was Matthew 13:53-58
These words from His sermon are sticking with me this week.
His "if/then" statement really hit me.
IF I can trust God with this, THEN why can't I trust God with that?
Truth.
Matthew 13:58 - "And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief."
If I believe the above statement and if I know that He says, "Trust me. Have faith. Love me first."
Then why don't I?
Because I am not capable in my own strength.
Jesus, fill me with Your Spirit.
Give me the faith to believe in You and to trust You.
Give me the grace to love You before anything else.
Do you every pray for something, and then it happens immediately?
And you are blown away and in awe of God?
{Even though you know He's totally big enough to do that and more.}
And then you're a bit overwhelmed?
And then you wonder if you were really ready for the answer?
Tutoring Business Cards
That was me. Last Monday, I prayed with my women's bible study for 8-10 hours worth of tutoring jobs a week. And BAM!
Now I have 10+ hours of tutoring a week! God is so good!
But now I'm having to figure out all over again how to balance...
grocery shopping
cleaning
blogging {!!!}
spending time with my hubby
church
bible study {#shereadstruth}
cooking
and...life
In some of those areas, I feel like this past week was an epic fail. =(
But God is good, He give grace and He love me no matter what. I am so glad that I serve such a gracious and loving Father!
And even though some of those areas might have felt like total failures, others were great! Like spending time with my hubby. Now, I'm recharged and ready to tackle life with even more vigor than before! Are you ready? I am!
Diptic collage I made for my lock screen
I am ready...
to live
to love
to serve
to give
to be still
to exercise
to work
to be in the presence of my Maker
to be filled
to pour out
to give all the glory to Jesus {He alone is worthy}
So here are just a few random snippets of my life, snapped with my iPhone {seriously...I am so blessed}. Enjoy!
She booked her ticket!!!
More babysitting.
His shoes are the cutest!
Look at that face! Haha! <3
"The Band" playing a show at spOt Coffee
AJ being weird
My Love! <3 He plays and sings so well!
Just me in a favorite outfit. Why did I not put the bag down for the picture?
And a favorite pair of shoes!
So this is my life. I hope that in some random way, it blesses you.
Keep in contact dear friends!
Be blessed
<3
P.S. Follow me on Instagram! Username - alesha_blessed
I generally consider myself a gospel-centered person. All-in-all, I feel like I have a pretty decent understanding of grace.
...maybe that in and of itself is the problem.
Either way, when's sat down to the (yesterday's and today's) #shereadstruth study this afternoon, grace smacked me in the face!
See, I have been really, really struggling to get my quiet time in over the past few weeks. I maybe sit down with my journal once or twice a week to really dig in. I know that's not enough! But I have been allowing this slacking to cause me to feel guilty, to deny that there is any problem in my heart, and to actually keep me from drawing close to the Lord.
How messed up is that?
Well, I sat down and read the words pictured above, and the guilt washed away.
I needed this reminder.
God loves me at my worst.
He died for me when I hated Him.
He offered up His Son to take my punishment.
Then He took the righteousness of His perfect, sinless Son Jesus and gave it to ME!
Ladies, do we get this? If you have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and asked Him to save and forgive you, then...
When God looks at you He sees all the glory and perfection of Jesus Christ!
Ladies, I don't know about you, but I have such a hard time fathoming this sometimes. But it is glorious isn't it? There is nothing that we can do that will change our position before God. Jesus secured that for us on the cross.
Wow.
We serve a good God.
I was reminded today, that my understanding of grace is far from perfect. I was reminded that I need to allow myself to daily be washed in this truth. I need to pour this truth into my heart moment by moment and let it affect every area of my life.
How do you remind yourself of grace? Do you struggle to believe that God views you as He does? How can I pray for you in this?
A few weeks ago the pastor's wife started a women's bible study for Redemption Church. We are going through the book of James and God is speaking.
Doing...that's a tough word for me.
I am a perfectionist, an A-type personality, a proud personality, a legalist... God has broken me over and over again on the issue of legalism. It is God alone who judges and not me.
Thus, the thought of "doing" is one that scares me. How do I "do" without becoming proud and self-righteous?
Yet read these verse again. There is no room for question. If I am not acting on what I believe, then do I really believe it?
Over and over again, I go to God's Word and am convicted. God is speaking to me and I hear, then I walk away...and I forget. I don't take time to let God's Word settle into my heart.
This is something that God has been slowly, but steadily pushing and pushing into my life over the past several months. Sometimes He whispers, sometimes He nudges, and sometimes He shouts into my heart, "Slow down. Let this penetrate your heart. Open up to Me. Soften up. Listen."
Everyday is the same battle. A battle in my deepest heart. Will I take the time to open up and be vulnerable to a King who loves me unconditionally and only has my best at heart, or to look in the mirror of His perfect law and then to walk away.
One option is easy.
One option will never leave me the same.
I am praying that God will continue to pushing this on my heart and that I will learn to let His Word truly "sink in" and change me. That I will let His Word penetrate me and make me a doer, not a hearer only.
Do you have a hard time slowing down enough to let God's Word really sink into your heart? Do you, like me, struggle with letting God's Word change your life and lead you into action?
We've all heard of this song, right?
(Yes, true story. I had not actually heard this song till I sat down to write this. I decided I'd better listen to it if I was going to title my post after it. Thank you YouTube!)
I feel like this song describes my life sometimes...and I'm not proud of that!
Now, if you know me very much at all you might be saying,
"Alesha! You got a job as soon as you got your license and kept that same job for over five years.
Before that, you cleaned houses with your mom and did childcare at church to earn money.
You graduated with your Associate in Arts Degree at age 18.
You worked 25+ hours a week while pursuing a Bachelors degree.
You got married at 20.
You were a youth leader for 4 years.
You moved across the country with your husband to help start a church.
How in the world does this song describe you?"
And I would reply,
"What you don't see is the hours I spend on social media in a single day without once picking up my bible.
What you don't see are the games I play on my phone when my I have hardly had quality time with my husband...who is sitting right next to me.
What you don't see is all the blog posts I have thought about writing, that never come to fruition...because I don't take the time to simply sit and write.
What you don't see is how it takes me 40 minutes to put away 2 loads of laundry because I'm reading blogs between every piece of laundry I fold.
What you don't see is how I get distracted from praying by thinking my new Etsy shop products."
Are these things bad? No, not at all.
But they are throwing my life off balance. There is not the right balance between work and rest, between toil and fun.
Additionally my mind is not getting a chance to rest. I am struggling to take the time let my heart rest. It has become challenging for me to slow down enough to focus on relationships or to listen to God's voice. Day to day this is a constant battle. You know what?
I CAN'T DO IT!
And that is so freeing to say, because I know that Jesus is my strength. However, if I never take time to connect to the Source of my strength, then how will I continue on?
All that to say, I need a break. God recently convicted me of this when I listened to this message by Pastor Mark Driscoll.
I love how he shares, not from legalism, but from his own brokenness. He is speaking through what God taught him. He is preaching from what God had been teaching him.
I love that!
I know that this sermon is over an hour long, but I encourage you to turn it on while folding laundry or cooking dinner or washing dishes. You will be blessed. You will be challenged. You will be encouraged.
I didn't want to let God penetrate my heart through this sermon, but I knew that I needed to let Him.
So for now, Sundays will be my day of rest from Social Media.
No blogging.
No Twitter.
No Facebook.
No Instagram
...I may still post on Twitter or Instagram, but I won't spend hours searching through posts and catching up on all the gossip. Anything posted will be for the goal of preserving personal memories and connecting with the people closest to me (aka. my family). And I certainly won't be posting anything to do with my blog or shop.
Email may just have to wait.
Blogs I follow? Well, the posts just may not get read.
And that is okay!
Yes, as I write this I still struggle to say all this and believe it. But I know that my heart needs a break. I need a day to stop and be fully present. I need to create balance in my life between work and "fun".
By consciously setting a day aside where I disconnect from social media, I hope that through the rest of the week, I will continue to keep all things in balance.
Do I want to be legalistic about this?
No.
Do I want you to do this to?
Only if you feel God telling you so...this is about me being obedient to God; this is not about you. =)
I am sharing all this for a few reasons, but mainly because I want to share with you what God is doing in my life and heart. Honestly? I'm not looking forward to this. It will be hard for me to put my phone down and not check those notifications. But I know it is good and it is necessary.
It is especially necessary right now as I am about to start up my Etsy shop. (November 1st!!!) My "work" is becoming so integrated with my social life (online) that I need to create just a bit of separation. I need to make sure that I am living in the physical world too, not just the online one.
They are both good, but there must be balance.
So thanks for reading my heart. Please, keep me accountable. And I hope this messages blesses you as much as it did me.
So scroll back up right now and listen to it! ;-)
Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass. (Joshua 21:43-45 ESV)
During one of my four+ hour driving shifts during our trip, I was listening to this passage from the book of Joshua. (Listening to the bible being read aloud? I know!!! How cool, huh?)
The words seemed to jump out of the air and grab my attention. "Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass." NOT ONE WORD..."
Wow! This is the God that we serve. And this is hope. He gives hope, because He is faithful and true.
Reading and meditating on these words, I was filled with hope. I began to think of specific words God had spoken over our lives and that others had prayed over us. How wonderful to have the assurance that not one word of these promises would fail.
But these blessings did not just come to the Israelites. Connected to these promises of blessings were promises of trouble and punishment if the Israelites did not stay faithful to God.
"But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the Lord your God has given you, if you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you." (Joshua 23:15, 16 ESV)
I began to think of the many promises that are scattered throughout the Bible. They are almost always conditional. Why? Because God is a just God and He cannot do anything that is contrary to His nature. To leave sin unpunished would be contrary to His nature of perfect justice.
But I cannot always perfectly obey God.
I cannot be righteous.
I cannot love perfectly.
I cannot be unendingly faithful.
So that is why Jesus came.
HE is always perfectly obedient to the Father.
HE is righteous.
HE always loves perfectly.
HE is unendingly faithful.
And because He gave me His righteousness, if I choose to accept and live in His righteousness, all the promises and blessing that He has promised are mine. "Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord..." has made to me, His child, will fail.
Praise the Lord!
What better encouragement could there be as we are driving across the country to serve the Lord in what He has called us to do? All His promises...the hard ones where He has promised to make us like Jesus, and the wonderful ones where He has promised to keep us in perfect peace....are going to be fulfilled in us...are BEING fulfilled in us.
And the best promise is yet to be fulfilled...the promise of heaven. What a beautiful day that will be!
