Dwell On These Things…Sharing a New Resource

As you know, my purpose in writing here in this space is to bring words that inspire you to have a heart for God...to be captivated by His grace, to be inspired by His Word to live a life that brings Him honor and glory. And sometimes I love to bring resources to your attention that can help you in your walk with God. 

So I'd like to share a new product with you today. 

I was blessed with this beautiful box-set of daily inspiration cards from Ink & Willow.  I love the line of gift products that this retail division of Waterbrook Multnomah curates, because each gift product is based in biblical truth with the intent to spark a reminder of how God reveals beauty in the midst of our ordinary. I even love the symbolism in the name of this product line. Here is what has to say about it's name: 

Throughout literary history, willow trees have been symbols of growth, balance, learning, healing, and harmony. Since willows often grow near streams or rivers, the name Ink and Willow was inspired by the verse in Psalm 1 about the person who delights in God and therefore is deeply planted and able to thrive, bearing fruit and prospering through every season. 

I love this! Don't you? How can you not love products that have their whole purpose in helping us delight in God? This set of inspirational cards can help you to align your heart with God's Truth. Each card is printed on a very heavy card stock and has a one sentence message on one side. 

 On the other side it has a correlating longer message that reinforces the message with biblical insight and truths. (It also comes with its own stand).

Here's another example:

Front side: You can trust God's timing to be perfect.

Back side: We all have goals, desires, ambitions, and a set time in mind for each of them. But God may have planse for our lives that differ from our personal goals. His timeline might be drastically different from what we're anticipating. This isn't a cause for disappointment. Rather, we can use this season of waiting on God as another gracious opportunity to grow in faith. 

This kind of biblical wisdom can be propped up on your desk or nightstand...or wherever you will see it daily...to encourage you and help you grow in your faith and trust that God's ways are best and that there is hope no matter the current mess or bless(ing) the days may bring. There is so much value in filling our minds with biblical truths. It prepares us to ignore the lies of the enemy that seem to come to us daily. 

My only 'if only' about these cards: 

The messages are definitely biblically based, but I would have loved them even more if they had included an actual scripture quote, or, at the very least, a scripture reference on each card that supported the message on the card. 

I also wish they had developed a more femine looking set of cards for us girly girls. These are very nice and are not ugly by any means...just in neutral tones of salmony/orange, greens, greys, and blues. I love the simple lines...just would love them even more in more feminine colors. 

There is so much value in dwelling on truth and beauty as it is found in the Word of God. We are told in Philippians 4:8 to 'think on these things' or as this set of cards puts it...dwell on these things. I especially love how it is stated in the Amplified Bible: 

Finally, believers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God's Word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things [center your mind on them, and implant them in your heart. 

If you are looking for something simple to bring you encouragement each day to 'think on these things', then I would recommend this card set.  

            About Dwell on These Things Inspiration Cards...from the publisher

Your daily inspiration is never far from reach with this unique set of cards that encourage you to see yourself through God's eyes, featuring messages that are biblical and beneficial, all designed to be displayed with the included stand.

Countless messages enter our hearts and minds each day. Some of these messages are true and helpful. Others are hurtful, destructive, and out of line with the message God wants us to understand and embrace. 

What messages are you choosing to believe and repeat to yourself? When you first saw your reflection in the mirror this morning, what did your internal conversation sound like? Did you speak a message of hope to your heart or a diatribe of defeat?

Based on the book Dwell on These Things by John Stange, this thirty-one-day inspirational card set will encourage you to change the message that enters your mind into a positive, biblical one. On the front of each beautifully designed card is a short message to remind you of how God views you and everyday situations. The back of the card reinforces that message with time-tested wisdom.

Let this be your first step in a great journey toward self-love and self-acceptance! Change your life by changing the messages that enter your mind.

Available at these retailers:

Amazon 

Books A Million 

Waterbrook Multnomah  

ChristianBook.com

About the Author

John Stange is the lead pastor of Core Creek Community Church in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, as well as an adjunct professor at Cairn University, where he teaches courses on counseling, theology, and church planting. John is a certified speaker, trainer, and coach with the John Maxwell Team, as well as a podcast host and the director of the National Mission Board, a ministry focused on church planting and church health. He and his wife, Andrea, have four kids.

Ink & Willow

Ink & Willow encompasses a line of interactive products that infuse contemplation and inspiration into the regular spiritual practice of creative-minded Christians, wherever they are in their faith journey. Each thoughtfully curated gift product is based in biblical truth and sparks a reminder of how God reveals beauty in the midst of our ordinary.

 

*I was gifted this product to review from the publisher. I was not required to offer a positive review. This is my honest opinion of the product. 

Daily Question For You & Your Child | More Than A Review

I don't usually do straight up book reviews here on the blog. However, I do love to post an occasional Interview With The Author article. I work with some publishing companies and authors to help promote books and movies from time to time. I can assure you that I only recommend those products, whether movies or books, that I can honestly get behind. My heart in sharing these things with you is to give you resources to help you to grow and continue to pursue all that you were created to be. I will only promote products that I personally use and/or that I believe will add value to you, my readers, and will further the Kingdom-building message and purpose of my site.

With that in mind,  I want to introduce you to a book I have had the privilege to preview. I believe this little book is a precious opportunity for parents to create lasting memories with their children. The Daily Question For You And Your Child: A 3-Year Spiritual Journey. 

Publisher's Synopsis:

A fun, thought-provoking 365-question guided journal and keepsake that sparks daily interaction with your child to create a memory book capturing your child's life, personality, and faith journey.

This interactive prompted journey allows a parent to create a keepsake of three years of their child's life. By answering each of the 365 questions together on the same date each year, readers will get a unique and precious picture into their child's feelings, development, and personality. Some of the questions focus
on spirituality and the child's heart, while some are meant to capture their creativity, spirit, and sense of humor. All questions spark conversations and memories that span well beyond the pages of this book.

My thoughts:

As a woman who has two grown children, I can tell you that I wish I had something like this book when they were little to prompt me to write down some of their precious thoughts on...well...so many things. 

We all think we will remember the cute, funny or sometimes profound words that spring forth from our children's mouths but as time passes so do those memories. Our recall becomes questionable...how did they say that again? Oh...it was sooo cute! Or perhaps their words revealed just who God created them to be...their creativity or industriousness, or their tender heart. By the time they reach their teens we sometimes have to dig to find that tender heart again. 

As an adult, I wish that my mother had written down more to recapture the essence of who I was as a child. I believe that when we are very young before the world has had a chance to tell us who it thinks we should be, we are who God created us to be, even though getting fully there is a process yet to have taken place. All of those inclinations, tendencies, dreams are there...until someone comes along and tells us how childish, silly and impractical we are being. And begins to extinguish the dreams our Creator placed in our heart and spirit.  Or as one author put it,

Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person. 

~Ann Tyler, Back When We Were Grownups

Now I don't necessarily believe I have turned into someone I was not meant to be...but I can see how the obstacles along the way have put roadblocks in my way to feeling completely secure in who I was created to be.  And perhaps have kept me from fully realizing all that God created me to be. I'm still on that quest.

Getting back to the book at hand. I believe that this is a great tool to create a beautiful keepsake not only for the parent's but for the child as he/she grows into adulthood. One that will be treasured.  

This is a quality little hardback book with a pocket on the front cover of the book where you can place a photo of your child, and even change it out with each year. I would recommend getting one book for each of your children. You can record their words when they are young and as they are able they can write down their own answers. 

I love the questions! They are thoughtful and have the potential to prompt great conversations. Some questions are just fun and silly, while others are thought-provoking and have the potential to reveal your child's heart as you listen to their answer. The questions could be read at the dinner table each day or at bedtime each night.  Or whenever it works best for you. They are so simple that if you miss a few days it would be easy to just ask a few questions at one time to get caught back up. 

Take a look at this photo of a two-page spread from the book. 

There are 365 Questions, here is just a handful:

• Who do you think needs a hug today?
• If you could spend an hour as any animal, what animal would you pick? 
• Do you prefer to build snowmen or have snowball fights?
• If you could ask Jesus a question, what would you ask him?
• What makes you sad?
• What is something you'd like to know how to make?
• What do you wish I did more of?
• What do you wish you could spend less time doing?
• If you could meet someone from the Bible, who would it be?
• What is the first memory you can think of?
• What is hard for you right now? How can I help you with it?

Some who have reviewed this book have stated that the drawback, like so many other things begun with good intentions, is that it has the potential to be just one more thing on our already too long list of to-dos.  But I think it is something so precious it is well worth the effort to get this book and begin making memories with your child.   

It's time to slow down in this crazy media driven world. Take time to sit down at the dinner table with your family, put the phones away, and talk to one another. Ask questions and listen...really listen to your loved ones as they answer. Don't tell them what or how to think, but listen to their hearts. You might just begin to understand why you have been given the privilege of having this child pass through you into this world. You did not create their destiny even though they share your DNA. Listening to the way they process these questions just might give you an idea of the inclinations of their heart.  

Parents, we are not the ones who created these precious ones who have been given into our care. No, they are the offspring of our heavenly Father, their spiritual Creator...just as you and I are. So listen and learn, so that you can be a part of the legacy that HE wants to leave with this world through the lives of our children. Be the guide in their lives to help steer the inclinations of their heart toward their Creator so they will grow fully into the man or woman God created them to be. 

God has given us an awesome responsibility.  Let's use all we can to help us accomplish His purposes for our children. 

I'm not saying this book is the end all to good parenting...not at all. I just think that it might be another small tool (and a fun one) to help us along the parenting journey. 

My plans for this book? I'll be ordering a second book to give as gifts to my grandsons, Judah and Eli, for Christmas.

You can order your copy here: The Daily Question for You and Your Child: A Three-Year Spiritual Journal

I hope that this book helps to create some very special memories for you and your child! 





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*Affiliate links in this post: As an Amazon Affiliate I earn a small percentage from qualifying purchases. This helps me to update and improve my site and keep it running.  Regardless, I will only promote products that I personally use and that I believe will add value to my readers and further the Kingdom building message and purpose of my site. Thank you!

Tears...Breaking the Dam of Hardened Hearts

Broken...

 She reached down into the depths of her heart stirring up the tears that had lain dormant far too long. As the hardness began to break in to pieces, the tears ran in streams down her cheeks. The floodgates burst open, releasing the pain and hurt of the deception she had been carrying. 

The very thing that had caused the hardening of her heart, the wall of her emotions to hold fast, was now gone. Washed away...flowing away with the turbulent river of tears of a repentant heart.   

            Broken.

                                                At last, she was free!

The previous paragraphs? An excerpt from a book that is yet to be written.  I won't expound on the story at this time because it is really just a seed that God planted in my heart...it will take much prayer, research, and the hard work of getting it on the page before it will come to fruition. It sort of just burst forth from my fingertips after contemplating something I had read in my devotional time one morning last week. It was most definitely one of those God whispering moments...and my heart...and fingers responded.  

What I had read was from Elmer Towns book, How To Pray: When You Don't Know What to Say. If you are looking for a good book on how to pray or just ways to refresh and reinvigorate your prayer life I highly recommend this book.  However, since this post is not a 'book review', I will leave it for you to check it out and discover the treasures therein. 

As I read the chapter in Towns' book on repentance and deliverance, I was reminded of the importance of tears in our prayer life...more specifically, my prayer life. Towns writes: "to be an effective intercessor, we must have a 'weeping heart' before God. If our eyes are always dry, it means that our soul is also probably dry. And a dry heart eventually becomes a hardened heart." He goes on to tell us that tears and brokenness is the avenue to a softened heart before God. Tears and brokenness can push aside the pride long enough to expose our hearts for what they have become, hard and dry. Those very tears are a good sign that we are broken and ready to deal with our sin. We are ready to repent. 

This has me asking myself...how soft is my heart before God? How many times have I cried over the sins I, myself, have committed. How many times have I wept over the very things that break the heart of God?  And surely our personal sins, among many other things, break His heart. 

How many times have I cried for other's, whose hearts are hardened by the harsh realities of the sin-soaked society in which we live...cried for those who have chosen to walk in defiance to the plan God has for their life. Do I cry over those who cannot even see that they are spiritually sick and have the cure to their sickness within their grasp, yet fail to latch on? Like a man in a swiftly swirling whirlpool getting weaker and weaker as he fights against the current, yet he refuses the lifeline that has been thrown to him.  

I pray that God will soften my heart so that I may weep for those who don't even realize there is a reason to weep.  To weep for those who are living broken lives and don't know how to fix what is broken.  May the tears break down the wall of pride in my own heart so that I can see ever clearer the sins that are present in my life, so that I may repent and walk in obedience to the Word of God. I pray that the Lord will soften my own heart so that He can use me to reach out to others with open arms and open heart. May they see the love of Christ in my words, in my actions, and within my heart.

Lord help us to weep tears of repentance...to accept your forgiveness...so that times of refreshing may come.

I could use a bit of refreshing...

                                                 How about you?

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Morning Musings From My Patio…Another lesson

It is a gloriously beautiful morning!  I am sitting out on my back patio listening to the birds singing their little hearts away.  The promise of spring is in the air today. 

I can feel the anticipation of new growth and new beginnings as I sit here, taking it all in...the gentle cool breeze, the warmth of the intense Nevada sun, the trilling of the birds, and the sound of the water cascading down over the rocks of the waterfall in my backyard pond.

 As my eyes seek out each stump of dried old flowers and the still bare limbs of the trees and bushes, my mind begins the mental checklist of things that still need to be done to ready the gardens.Things like cleaning out the dead brush and sticks...it's so much easier to cut back the old growth that was left for winter protection before the new growth gets tangled up with it. 

My mind continues down the list...thinking of those things that will need to be done to make room for the new growth that has been laying dormant all winter and now is just waiting to burst forth with new tender shoots reaching up toward the sun.  I even think of the spring blooming Lilacs, whose buds actually formed late summer or fall and lie dormant until they are ready to burst open...it is important to prune  the flowers directly after they flower, if you wait too long you risk cutting off the already growing buds for next year. 

What a picture of spiritual renewal the Lord gives us through the season of Spring!  I think that I love that this is not a one-time occurence, but an event that needs to take place year after year in order for the plants to remain healthy. 

It's important to know exactly the best time for the pruning of each type of plant if you want to make room for healthy growth.  The plants are always ready to grow and flourish through the seasons, but the right conditions must be met in order for this to happen. When those conditions are not met, the plant can remain stunted and unhealthy; some won't produce the fruit they are meant to produce and some will even shrivel up and die off completely. 

The same is true in our own lives.  We need to allow God to cut back those things in our lives that are keeping us from producing the fruit of the Spirit.  Sometimes we need to choose to let go of things in our lives that we have been so desperately holding on to. We need to let go because they are  keeping us from growing and flourishing in our journey with God.

Yep! Spring is in the air! There are still so many things I  need to do in order to prepare the garden of my heart for the work that the Master Gardener has planned for me.  How about you?