Reams of Rereads Blog Event // How did I do?

Well, my friends, the Reams of Rereads blog event has come to a close. How did I do on my reading? Well, here was my original list:

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- Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

- Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter

- By the Great Horn Spoon! by Sid Fleishman

- Heidi by Johanna Spyri

- Toliver's Secret by Esther Wood Brady

- Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate Dicamillo

- Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

- The American Girl Kirsten book series by Janet Shaw

- Nim's Island by Wendy Orr

- 12 Empowerment Truths about Two Sons in Want by Terry Tripp

- More Than Conquerors by Terry Mize
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So.

Out of all of these wonderful books, how many of them did I actually end up reading?

Yep. Just two. Well... okay so, I guess if you want to be really technical about it, it was more like I read part of two books....

Sooo..... I actually didn't end up reading all the way through any of the books listed above. I reread part of Understood Betsy and Nim's Island, and that's all I got to. (Oh yeah, and I just remembered that I did read a little bit of More Than Conquerors one day as well, so I guess that's technically three that I read some of.) But yeah, I know. It's kinda sad.

HOWEVER, there actually was one reread that I did read all of again this month though (so I didn't entirely fail, you see!) I reread the classic, The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner which was fun. :) (But.... that wasn't even one of the ones I had on my list up there, so I guess that didn't really even count...)

So, in short... I didn't do so well.

I suppose I could make up a bunch of excuses as to why I didn't get very far into this list. Like life happening and stuff. But, I actually don't have a very valid excuse honestly. It's true, I've been pretty busy this past month, but I've also had quite a bit of free time as well. The problem was that I ended up using that free time doing other things besides rereading the books on this list. I didn't make reading them a priority.

And isn't it like that with so many other things in life? Take spending time reading the Bible and praying, for instance.

(So apparently I just decided now that I'm going to turn this over into a spiritual lesson, how about it?? ;D)

I'm sure all of us at one point or another have tried to make excuses for not spending enough time with God, listening to what He has to say to us and wants us to do. We look back over the past week or month or however long it's been and realize how much we haven't spent time in God's Word and with Him. We scrounge for excuses like, "Well, I was just so busy with work/school/everything..." "I was too tired..." "I just haven't been 'feeling' God lately..." and on and on we go, trying to justify ourselves for putting off doing the right thing.

But instead of making excuses, why don't we just fess up? We messed up. It wasn't anyone else's fault but ours that we didn't get to spend more time with God. The reason we didn't get to it wasn't because of all this other stuff going on in our life... it's because we didn't make spending time with God a priority. We didn't make time for it.

We need to look back, realize what we've done wrong, and ask God to forgive us. Then we need to move on and make a better effort. We shouldn't go back and wallow in our past mistakes, regretting not doing better at life before. Trust me, it isn't worth it. I've done this WAY too many times. Like I said a while back in my No Condemnation post, we need to let ourselves be convicted, but not condemned. We need to learn from our past mistakes, but not focus on them. Learn from them and then use that knowledge to make better choices in the future.

We make time for a lot of things. We make time for reading, watching movies and shows, sports, birthday parties, hanging out with friends, etc. etc... So this really goes to show that we indeed CAN make time for things. We DO have extra time. Or if we don't, we MAKE extra time to do these things, because they're important to us. We don't want to miss out on doing them.

Well then, as God's very own children, we don't want to miss out spending time with our loving Father, do we??

If you really want to do something, you've got to make it a priority. It needs to be first above other things in life. And that's how our relationship with our Heavenly Father should be. He needs to be number one in our lives. We need to make our relationship with Him our very, very top priority! Think about it... God has done SO MUCH for us. He's the very one who created us and the entire world, and is the very reason why we're living and breathing right here and now!!! We have SUCH a privilege -- we can come BOLDLY to the Creator of the universe's throne of grace to talk to our Father and receive help ANYTIME we want or need to! (Hebrews 4:16) How amazing is that?! How terrible would it be to ignore such a privilege? To put off spending time with such an amazingly loving Father as we have?

I challenge you, as well as myself today to take special time out to express to your Daddy how much you love and appreciate Him and His goodness toward you!

So, there you go. There was my little spiritual turn-around to that reading predicament I had up there. ;) I basically didn't get to reading very much of the books on my list because I didn't make reading them a priority.

But, on another note, *enter Faith's ramble about reading* even if I DID make reading them a priority, I'm not really sure that I actually could have gotten to reading every book on my list. Maybe if I was some sort of reading ninja I could have. But I've heard that many people have indeed read that many books and more in a month, so... I guess there are a lot of reading ninjas out there.

I'd like to think of myself as a bookish person, but to be honest, I've gone back and forth between reading lows and highs many times. One month I'll be all like, "AWW YEAH LET'S READ ALL THE BOOKS!" and then the next month like, "Yeah....... I have time to read that, buuut... I'd rather do this other thing right now." But even in my times of reading like the wind, I might read only about five books in a month or something. That's what really amazes me. You reading ninjas. How all you other bookish people out there can read so many books at one time. I applaud you. For instance, I just recently saw that my blogging friend, Faith read fifteen books this past October... and that's not counting the six short stories she also read......

HOW.

HOW DOES ONE DO THIS?

I need to up my game, I guess.

But really, depending on the story, I usually don't want to finish a book in just a couple days. I guess I like to drag it out more and be able to spend more time in the story and with the characters.

"When she finished [the book], she felt happy and sad at the same time, because the ending was warm and smiley but she didn't want to say good-bye to the people in the book." ~Nim's Island

^^ Yep. :)

But then, of course, there are those long drawn out stories that you just want to be able to get through and finish as quickly as possible before you get to the point where you're just like...

Anywho. Sorry, now I'm just rambling.

I think that's really all for now. Wow, this post was all over the place... :P Did it even make sense all together? Well, however it turned out, I hope it wasn't too rambly and that you enjoyed it and all the random gifs and such anyway! ;)

Did you participate in the Reams of Rereads event? If so, how did you do? Did anyone out there not get to reading any of the books on their list either? Did you read ALL the ones on your list? What do you plan on reading this month? I'd love to hear how your reading has gone and is going lately! :D

I hope all of you are having a lovely day! Write to ya later, and God bless! :)
~Faith

3rd Blogiversary!!! // Q & A?!

On this day, three years ago... I started this blog!!!!!!

It's just amazing. How did it get to be three years already?!? I was just doing a post for my 2nd blogiversary, wasn't I?

Getting to meet and talk with so many of you lovely people has been one of the biggest blessings of blogging. Thank you all SO MUCH for reading and following this here blog of mine! You all are awesome, you really are. :) I want you to know how much I love and appreciate each and every one of you guys! And more importantly, never forget how much God loves and appreciates you, too!! It's been such a fun journey so far, and I look forward to what God has in store for me and this blog in the next year!

So. I think that's all I wanted to say...

...........

........

I think....

Alright, well................

So, I have been trying to figure out something special to do for this here blogiversary. I mean, it's a special one; three is an important number! I wanted to post SOMETHING on my actual blogiversary day though, so... this is what I finally came up with.

I've thought and thought and thought about doing this, and so....... I just decided this very moment I'm typing this right now that.... why not just go for it??

*Cue epic drumroll*

I'm going to do a what bloggery people call... a Q & A!

In a special post I shall answer any questions you guys may have about me and/or my blog here! (Well, except for really personal questions like my full name or what street I live on or something equally creepy... :P). So, if you have any questions you would like to ask me, ask them in the comments below of THIS POST, and sometime (hopefully) this month I'll get to answering them! 

(And no, of course I didn't steal this Q&A idea from anywhere.... especially not from Olivia or anything......... Where would you get such a thought.......?? :P) Thanks so much, Olivia for inspiring me with this idea. ^_^

Well, I believe that's all I have to say for now. I hope all of you have an absolutely wonderful week, and I'll write to ya later! God bless you guys!! :)
~Faith

P.S.
Soooooo.... I was checking back to make sure that the day I actually started my blog was indeed today, November 5th. Well, it turns out that last year I posted on November 5th, but somewhere on my blog thing it says I joined November 6th....... so. I'm honestly not exactly sure. Maybe I messed up last year with the date. Oh well. It's somewhere around November 5th, so we're just going to go with it. ;P

**The picture used in the graphic at the beginning of the post is my own**

15 Autumny Things To Do in the Fall

Ahh, fall. It's snuck up on us again, hasn't it?

You know, I was thinking... there are always a lot of Autumny type things that I think about doing during this lovely season, but don't always get around to actually doing them. And I think part of the reason that I don't always get around to doing them is because I forget that I thought about doing them in the first place. So, I decided I should make a list of some things that I'm sure we all dream of doing during the fall that we don't want to forget to do. Of course, we'll probably not get around to all of these things, but we should at least try, right? ;) So... here we go!

1. Rake and jump in a pile of leaves. Preferably a giant pile of leaves if possible. :D It's a wonderfully fun fall thing to do that I believe everyone should experience the joy of when this lovely season rolls around.

2. Go on a hike. A fun way to get out and see God's beautiful creation while getting in some good exercise!

3. Do a fall family photo shoot. This of course requires cooperation with the rest of your family, but it probably shouldn't be too hard to convince them...

4. Take a picture each day or pretty regularly of a tree(s) during the fall so that afterward, you can put all the photos together and show how the leaves changed over the season. This would be really neat to do!

5. Knit/crochet a scarf and/or hat to wear yourself or to give someone else (maybe for Christmas). It's always so much fun to wear or give someone something you made yourself! :)

6. Wear Autumny outfits. Because... why not?? It's Autumn after all! Fall outfits are always fun. :D

7. Go shopping for Autumny outfits if you don't have any. I do have quite a few fall outfit things right now, so I probably won't need to do this much, but... you can never have too many clothes... okay, okay, yes you can... you definitely can. :P

8. Drink a cup of hot chocolate or tea whilst reading a book by a window or outside on a bench. Or just reading a book without a beverage (or vice versa) would be just as lovely I'm sure.

9. Read a fall-themed book. Cranberry Thanksgiving! That's actually the only fall-themed book I can think of at the moment. D: Don't worry, more will come to me, I'm sure.

10. Watch a fall-themed movie and/or show. I actually didn't think too much of this until one time (I think it was actually last fall) when I read someone else's blog post about movies/shows to watch in the fall time. I actually don't recall a lot of movies or shows that I've watched that have been exclusively set in autumn, but one that comes to mind is The Spy Next Door. This movie is set around/during Halloween. It's a sweet, funny, and overall clean movie. While our family doesn't celebrate Halloween as the holiday encourages fear, the movie's not totally centered around it; it's mostly just that the holiday is going on in the midst of the story. Anywho, to get to the point, it seems like just the right movie for this time of year, especially if you're in the mood for action, comedy, and Jackie Chan. ;)

But if you're in the mood for more of a classic, The Beverly Hillbillies: Turkey Day episode would also be a perfect one to watch in the fall, especially around Thanksgiving! You can't hardly go wrong with The Beverly Hillbillies, or almost any old classic show really. ;)

11. Make a pumpkin and/or apple pie. I really want to make one or the other this year for Thanksgiving... hopefully that will actually happen. :P

12. Make a new autumny dish/dessert. It's always fun to try out something new! (These apple snickerdoodle muffins look amazing... =O )

13. Visit a pumpkin patch. Because pumpkins + patch = fall in a nutshell.

14. Go on a hayride. I know, you could go on a hayride any other time of year as well, but there's just something so fall-like about hayrides it seems.

15. Do a corn maze. Mazes are always fun! If you can find one to do in your area, I'd totally recommend it. :D

Well, that's it for now! Are there any other autumny things that you like to do that I missed? What's your favorite(s) out of the ones I listed?

I hope all of you are having a fabulous fall so far! Write to ya later, and God bless! :)
~Faith

Reams of Rereads Blog Event // My list of books to read again!

GUYS, I found out about this neat blog event that will be going on this October -- it's called the Reams of Rereads blog event, and will be hosted over at Coffee, Classics, and Craziness!

But what IS the Reams of Rereads blog event, you may ask? Good question. I had that same question before I discovered the answer. So since I know the answer now, allow me to enlighten you. ;)

The basic idea of this event is to help encourage us bookish people to make some time to get to those wonderful books we enjoy so much that we've wanted to reread for so long, but just never have because of work/school/and just busyness in general. So, that's what the Reams of Rereads event is for -- to help motivate us to catch up on all these lovely books we want so much to visit again! :)

To read the official rules and find out more about this event, head on over to this post on Eva's blog! Eva is the lovely lady who will be hosting Reams of Rereads. :D Thank you so much, Eva for coming up with this fabulous idea!

So -- as you probably have guessed -- I'm planning to participate in this! :) I'm sure I definitely won't get to everything on my list, but it will be fun anyway seeing how many I can read through in one month!

Here's my own list of books that I'd like to reread!

- Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

- Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter

- By the Great Horn Spoon! by Sid Fleishman

- Heidi by Johanna Spyri

- Toliver's Secret by Esther Wood Brady

- Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate Dicamillo

- Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

- The American Girl Kirsten book series by Janet Shaw

- Nim's Island by Wendy Orr

- 12 Empowerment Truths about Two Sons in Want by Terry Tripp

- More Than Conquerors by Terry Mize  (So technically I hadn't fully finished this book, but I read through almost all of it at one point (I'm not sure why I never got to finishing it D: ...probably because of "Lack of Reading Time" as Eva puts it...) ... So anywho, I guess since I'll need to reread through the first part again since it's been so long, it can count as a reread? Yes, let's say it does. ;) )

I hope you'll consider participating in this blog event as well! It shall be lots of fun, I do believe. :)

God bless you all! Write to ya later!
~Faith

Hello September Tag

You know what I need to do better at? Keeping up with tags for one thing. There are several different ones that I've been tagged for that I've copied and pasted the questions/rules for in drafts in my blogger post editing thingy that have just been sitting there, collecting proverbial dust for months... or even as much as a year. So, I think it's about time I get down to business and catch up on all these lovely tags that you guys have so graciously awarded me with. But I've come to the conclusion that I probably shouldn't go about doing them all in one post... If I did, that post I'm sure would be so dreadfully long that the person who would actually read the entire thing in one sitting without obligation should be given a standing ovation.

But anywho.

I probably won't be posting a bunch of tags in a row, but I hope to get to doing most of the ones I've been tagged for this fall/winter.

So to start off with, I'm doing this fun fall tag that the lovely Brooklyne tagged me for over at her blog, Showers of Blessings! :) And since it's called "Hello September" I figured that I'd better get to doing this before September flies by! So -- here we go!

The tag rules:

1. Please copy these questions (below), answer them, and then write out new questions (or just copy these) for the people you nominate below your answered questions.
2. Please nominate at least 3 bloggers, but try to avoid ones that you know have already been nominated. 
3. Lastly, include these guidelines in your post, and use the tag picture (above)! 

Alright, let's answer some questions!

Windy or rainy autumn?

While I like a rainy day here and there, I think I'd much rather have a more windy autumn. I really enjoy sunny, windy days. :)

Do you like chai tea?

I don't believe I've ever tried it. So, I'm not sure!

Tea, coffee, hot chocolate, or apple cider?

Well, I actually don't think I've ever had apple cider before, and I'm not really a coffee person. ("Yes, I can still be a writer even if I don’t drink coffee. I’ve tried it, I just don’t see what’s so good about it. *runs from all the coffee loving authors*" ~Brooklyne :P) So, I'd have to go with either hot chocolate or tea, depending on the mood. :) If I had to pick just one, probably hot chocolate. Chocolate's my fav! :D I actually am not a super-fan of hot tea honestly. I like a couple flavors, but I guess I just don't drink it that often. Now, ice tea... yes! I like the flavor of the ice tea we get (which I guess is technically just black tea) and sometimes I'll heat that kind up, and I like it a lot that way, too. I don't think that it's really the tea being hot that I don't like, maybe it's just most of the flavors of hot tea that I've had I don't like as much? Anyway, sorry, I'll stop rambling about my deal with tea and move on now... :P

If you could go to one state in the U.S.A just for the autumn scenery, where would you go?
Ooh, well, since traveling out to Colorado this summer, I think that it would be a lovely place to go for autumn scenery, with all the trees and mountains. So I'd probably choose Colorado! (Well, either there, or some state in New England... like maybe Vermont. :) )

Do you like soup in the autumn? If so, what kind is your favorite?
I do like soup! (especially my mom's! :) ) I don't know if I particularly have a favorite kind though. I like a lot of different ones! But if I had to choose... maybe vegetable... or potato... or chili... one of those! ;)

What color of leaves do you like best? 
I like them all really! But I especially enjoy orange and red leaves. Bright orange leaves are so pretty to me!

Okay, so I suppose one could argue that these are more yellow than orange... but they're still pretty, so. ;D

If you could go to another country just for autumn scenery, where would you go?
OH MY. So many choices! Well, (as Brooklyne said in her post) I'd want to go somewhere with a lot of trees with changing leaves of course. Probably a country in Europe... Maybe Switzerland! I'd really like to visit Europe some day, and I think Autumn would probably be a nice season to go. :)

Sweater or hoodie?
Can I say both? :P It really depends! I like sweaters... but hoodies are really nice, too, and they have convenient pockets as well, so... Both. Yeah, both.

A hazelnut or apple cinnamon candle?
Hmm... I'd probably go for an apple cinnamon candle. :)

Cookies, brownies, or both?
BOTH! But if I had to choose between the two, I might pick brownies over cookies. (I'm a chocolatey girl, what can I say? *makes note to self to not go overboard on chocolate this fall* :P) But I absolutely positively enjoy cookies as well! So yeah... since I can, I'd definitely choose both!

So apparently this picture I found on Pinterest is of "pumpkin cheesecake swirled brownies"! :O I think I shall have to try this sometime!

What's your favorite fall activity? (Like a fall photo shoot, knitting, crocheting, baking, reading, etc...)
Oh, there's so many fun ones! I really enjoy doing things with family and friends, like going to pumpkin patches, doing corn mazes, hayrides, picnics, hiking, and things like that! :)

~~~~~~~~~

This was a lot of fun! Thank you so much, Brooklyne for tagging me! :) I'm so excited that fall is now officially here! Though I'm kind of sad summer is over, autumn is such a lovely season as well, and I'm glad for it to be here again!

Now, I'll tag...
Christina @ Light Unto My Path
Olivia @ Meanwhile in Rivendell or Towards Indecisive and Palpitating Stars
Abby @ Novels, Dragons, and Wardrobe Doors

And here are your questions!

Windy or rainy autumn?

Do you like chai tea? 

Tea, coffee, hot chocolate, or apple cider? 

If you could go to one state in the U.S.A just for the autumn scenery, where would you go? 

Do you like soup in the autumn? If so, what kind is your favorite?

What color of leaves do you like best? 

If your could go to another country just for autumn scenery, where would you go?

Sweater or hoodie? 

A hazelnut or apple cinnamon candle?

Cookies, brownies, or both?

What's your favorite fall activity? (Like a fall photo shoot, knitting, crocheting, baking, reading, etc...)

Bonus questions!
Pumpkin or apple pie?

Have you ever had a pumpkin spice latte? If not, do you think you would like it/want to try one?
Would you rather go on a hayride or do a corn maze?

Have fun, gals! But if you'd rather not do this tag, than please don't feel obligated! It's totally up to you. :) And also, I realize that it's already nearing the end of September, so even though I'm pretty sure this is maybe possibly probably breaking the rules, I just made up a new rule that states  you can still fill out this tag after September if you can't get to it before then.
And ALSO -- if you are either wearing a sweater or drinking a hot beverage whilst reading this right now... then consider yourself tagged, too! ;D

I hope all of you are having a wonderful September! God bless, and I'll write to y'all later!
~Faith

Shout-outs and the like

I've been meaning to do this for a long time, and I'm FINALLY getting around to it! I wanted to give some family and friends' blogs and YouTube channels a shout-out because they're all such awesome people and have some great content! So, without further delay, here they are!

• First of all, my dear friends, Christina and Olivia! Christina started a blog a while back called, Light Unto My Path, which is a very encouraging, fun blog that you should definitely go read! And Olivia's blog, Meanwhile in Rivendell..., and her more recent second blog, Towards Indecisive and Palpitating Stars are wonderful as well! She does movie/book reviews, posts about life, and all sorts of great things over there! Get yourself on over there and give them a read!

• Now nextly, (I don't think that's actually a word, but... *looks up "nextly"* Oh. Okay, so that actually is a real word... Anywho, moving on...) I must mention the lovely Faith over at Chosen Vessels and Stories by Firefly! Last November, Faith was so kind as to invite me for a "Sisters in Christ chat" over at her blog (which I failed to mention anything about before unfortunately... *facepalm*) It was a lot of fun, and I just want to say thank you to her again for having me! You can read that conversation we had by clicking the picture below!

• Next, a little while back, I helped my lovely mother start her own blog! It's called So Good. She's still just getting started with it and doesn't have a lot up yet, but please go check it out and give her a follow! :)

And now, the bros!

• My oldest brother, Nathanael has a YouTube channel called ChickenTractorGuy, which --especially if you're into farming/chickens -- you should definitely go check out! (I actually helped him film/edit a couple of his videos, which was fun!)

• My other brother, Caleb also has a YouTube channel, It's The Real Deal! He makes encouraging videos focusing on the truth and integrity of God's Word! They're really good! He also has a blog that he puts his videos on as well that you can check out here.

• And last, but definitely not least -- my younger brother's channel, Zippy Productions! He does videos mostly on gaming and sometimes instruction-type videos. In his latest video he gave a shout-out to my blog here, so I thought I should return the favor! He does a lot of videos on the game Roblox, which I also play occasionally, so he took some clips of my game character (gloriousglittergirl9) and her misadventures and put them in this video of his down here. :P Hope you enjoy! ;)

So, I think that's all for now... I hope I got everyone I was thinking of. All these people are so awesome and I would totally recommend that you go and check out their blogs/channels and follow/subscribe to them!!

There are of course many more blogs and channels that I could mention as well, and I apologize to all the people around here who's blogs I haven't been catching up with and commenting on recently. I'm trying to do better on catching back up.

~~~~~

I've also had the idea in my head for a while now to maybe start my own YouTube channel sometime...... Especially seeing as how my brothers have their own channels now, of course I don't want to be left out! ;) Life's pretty busy right now though, and I don't think I could exactly work doing YouTube videos into my schedule yet, but it's something to think about for the future anyway. It would probably be a little bit of everything I'd guess, but maybe mostly vlogs?... Or skits maybe, who knows!? I'm not sure right now, but we'll see what happens. :)

I hope all of you are having a fabulous weekend! God bless!
~Faith

A much belated Bible Study Blog Party wrap-up post

Hello once again, friends!

So... WHERE HAVE I BEEN???

Well, first off, I was a very unmotivated person a month or so ago. (Not that that's an acceptable excuse for my lack of blogging) But this honestly is most of the reason why I didn't do a Bible Study Blog Party wrap-up post before when I was supposed to. (A sad reason, I know..... I'm really sorry about that, you guys... D: Please forgive me.)

Whenever I thought I was going to sit down and write that post, I'd get restless, and just couldn't seem to come up with anything to write. I felt unmotivated and just... blah...

I kind of knew what I wanted to write, but I just didn't seem to have the attention span to think hard and long enough about how to write what I wanted to write. I realize now that it wasn't so much of a writer's block problem as a focusing problem. It was hard to just focus on writing. And it turned out to not only be with writing, but in other areas of my life as well, especially in spending time with God and reading my Bible. It was so hard to just be still and focus on Him.

One big reason I believe I got so unfocused was because I started filling up my life with other things. I let myself get distracted with earthly things that my flesh was pulling so hard on me to focus on. I was filling up my schedule and brain power with things that weren't necessarily bad, but just... temporal. I wasn't "fixing my eyes on eternal things" like Paul says in 2 Corinthians.

So that's what basically happened with the Bible Study Blog Party -- I didn't take the time to get myself to really focus on it after writing that first post for it. I'd just groan within myself, hiding under a shell of irresponsibility, declaring that I would get to it some other time when I actually felt like writing it. But that time when I actually felt like writing that blog post never seemed to come. So I just keep putting it off and off.... and off...... Yeah. Not a good life motto.


The part of Romans 8 that I really wanted to talk about during the blog party was in verses 9-12. And basically, these were the exact verses that I needed during that time of unfocused blahness. But instead of truly focusing and letting God speak to me through them and taking the time to write a post about them, I gave into my flesh and didn't really let these words sink in. Recently though, they've been making their way back into my heart.

Here's what these verses say:

"But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh." ~Romans 8:9-12

That last part there has really stuck with me recently. We're not debtors to our flesh. We don't owe our flesh -- ourselves and our feelings -- anything. Sometimes we say things like, "Well, I owe it to myself" or "I just can't help doing that", and we use this as an excuse for not doing the right thing or putting things off. The thing is though, if we have Christ living in us, we don't "owe it to ourselves" -- we owe ourselves to Christ. You CAN help doing certain things. How? THROUGH CHRIST living in you! You CAN do all things THROUGH CHRIST who strengthens you! (Phil. 4:13) This is what the Lord has really been working to get across to me recently. I have the Spirit of Christ dwelling on the inside of me. So now with Christ living in me, I can overcome my flesh and what it wants to do. With Christ in me, I can overcome my feelings and emotions. Feelings and emotions are very real, but the reality of them can't ever supersede the reality of what God says about our situations. He says that we are more than conquerors through Him! (Romans 8:37)

So that's just one of the things that the Lord has been teaching me in that passage recently. There is of course a whole lot more to get out of all of those verses. Hopefully I'll get into more of it in another post sometime soon. :)

But for now, let me FINALLY get to wrapping up this Bible Study Blog Party!

Thanks SO MUCH to all of you who read and participated in this -- you all are wonderful!! Be sure to go over and read Brooklyn's post and Emma's post that they did for the Bible Study Blog Party! They did such a great job, and it's so exciting to read what God put on their hearts to write! If you wrote a post for this that I missed, please link back to it in the comments! I would love to read it!

Again I greatly apologize for my laziness and extreme lateness with finishing up this wonderful study. I will probably end up doing another Bible Study Blog Party again sometime in the near future (and do a much better job at keeping up with it ;) ).

I hope all of you have a wonderful week! God bless!
~Faith

P.S.
It is true that most of the reason for my absence in the blogosphere here has been because of my lack of motivation... but for the past two weeks the main reason has been because I was away on vacation with my family. It was a grand twelve day Colorado adventure, in fact! I will most definitely elaborate on my adventures there in another post very soon, so be on the lookout for that! :D