Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Intentionally Focused week 3 AND week 4 sum up

Whew!! So who would've thought that I would forget to do the week 3 sum up? lol! Mama's been busy with the kids and thoroughly enjoying the study, on top of that early contractions with swiss miss in the oven.

So one thing I can definitely say about week 3 is Paul delivers instruction and encouragement well. Much of what we read about being intentionally focused in our mind was written by Paul. And I enjoyed it. It was and still is a great reminder to keep our minds focused on Christ. In today's world it is so easy to get caught up in everything else, from TV to computers/smartphones. Our goals tend to get caught up in the things of this world (jobs, material possessions, relationships). And we need to take the time to get caught up in Jesus and what is important to HIM. This starts with being focused not only in our minds but also in our hearts. This is a day and age of busyness and loads of stimuli. Much more than our grandparents dealt with. Two passages that really spoke to me are: 

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5)

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8)


What I love about these verses is the simplicity. They are easy to understand and require us to do something on our part. It requires me to do more than read or pray but to take hold of my mind.


Then there is week 4, being intentionally focused in our marriages! I know some of you are not married and so I say to you look at week 4 as preparation for the future. You may have a married friend come to you for advice. You may get married. It's best to be prepared beforehand then to have to wing it & learn as you go. I had to wing it, which is why I study so much  on marriage & family life because its what I live and a very integral part of my life. We often times do not realize just how applicable the bible really is. The Fall (Genesis 3) explains SO much of what we go through and the challenges we face. Especially as women because many of us have major control issues and guess what it was one of the curses pronounced over Eve. Men sometimes complain about having to work so hard but guess what that was one of the curse pronounced over Adam. It's not to brush it off but to say understand that this is apart of the flesh's many issues and thus we must work overtime against it.

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. (Genesis 3:6)

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine,but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. (Titus 2:3-5)

These passages remind me of the influence we have as women, as wives. It is not something to be taken lightly as what we do influences what our husbands do, it influences what younger women/wives do. We MUST be mindful of the choices we make as they will affect more than just us. Eve reminds me of this as her choice to disregard God's command prompted Adam to do the same thing (in the back of my head, I always wonder why didn't Adam stop her?). In Titus, Paul reminds us that we are examples to others. How we live our lives is a example to someone else on what they should do and thus we need to live as such.


So this is my wrap up!! If you're following along or would like to follow along, leave me a comment. This week we are studying being focused in our friendships.

~Kris

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