Self-control. My new chapter

      Hi there. Today's post is a pretty personal one. Not typical for this blog, however I hope that this is the beginning of the direction God is calling me to take his gifts bestowed upon me.

      Every morning I try to sit down with my cup of coffee and read God's word. This has brought me such encouragement in my everyday life as a stay at home mom and wife. Let me begin by saying that I think of myself as a "baby Christian". Reading the bible and studying it has stemmed from my bible journaling hobby. The Lord has used this "hobby" to grow me and with this growth, I crave His word! These past two weeks I been on 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Peter is talking about the Holy Spirit, our gifts given by the Spirit to us that manifest themselves in us when we are living in accordance to God's will. I hope you think of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. If you grew up in a Christian home, you might know these (i grew up in a Christian home and just learned these thanks to my 8 year old) by hard: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control. (Jump over to Galatians 5:22-23)

Today, I am focusing on self control. Seriously when I saw self control i thought, "SWEET! that means I won't feel the need to eat the entire bag of Oreo's in one sitting" or "I won't want that new SUV soooo bad" and my favorite "God will give me control over my entire life". Yeah, I was way off. As I walk with the Spirit and continue to seek Him, my first gift has been self control. 

When I made this poster (cool pic, eh? I took that!) I felt there needed to be some explanation. As a "baby Christian" I would of not understood this a few months ago. Our human wisdom doesn't allow us to understand this concept. Why?! Understanding the Spirit comes from God. (1 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 9-15).We gain understanding when we read and seek His word.  As I said, my first gift is self control and I understand and joyfully give the control to the Lord. In all aspects of my life,and I find joy in the fact that I do not have to worry about everything, because everything is in His control. When we know HE is in control we can do HIS will.

The Lord knows that I needed this gift to manifest it self first so I could let go of the worry and self deprecation. 

Do I still eat the entire package of Oreo's? Sometimes. Do I still want for that new SUV? Not really. Do I have control of my entire life? Absolutely not and I love it! 

The Lord spoke to me last night and said this to me. Self control doesn't mean you control everything, it means giving all control to me (joyfully), so you can follow my commands.

Thanks for stopping by today and reading what the Lord is calling me to say to you today. I encourage you to start a bible study or bible journaling, or bible doodling. The Lord will grow you!!

Crystal