Finally… Friday & a FREEBIE

It’s finally Friday!!!!

This week has been never ending. As much as it has been fun serving in our Vacation Bible School every night, it is exhausting and makes for very little time spent together during the week. Combined with the fact that my love and I will be separated for a week this month due to a business trip, and with all the craziness of offer-making this week, I can say I am sooo looking forward to this weekend to sleep, relax, and just enjoy some quiet time with my husband!

Speaking of offer making, we learned a lot this week. God is always in control and worked things out differently than we thought they would; in other words, we are still on the house hunt. The blessing through it all is that we made the right decision to not over-stretch our budget for gratification now, but monthly burdening of our financials later. We realized what was most important- and we stuck to it. Even though it was disappointing now, I know we will be thankful for it later! Another blessing is that we are under no time pressure to move out of the apartment, so if nothing comes up this month we will just wait until next spring to look again (there are literally no houses on the market in the late fall-winter, nobody wants to move in the artic season up here).

I woke up a little grumpy this morning: I miss having the evenings with my love and am really missing my family back home now that it has been a few weeks without a visit. I was still disappointed about the dashed hopes of putting on offer on the house and being rejected- and it’s been gray skies and gloomy weather today. I knew my attitude and mood needed to be redirected to something constructive and positive or else my heart would start to breed discontentment and selfish pity! So I turned to my devotional book that goes through different chapters in the Psalms (my favorite book of the Bible) and had some quiet time with Jesus. I could immediately feel my attitude being lifted as I poured out prayer and praise for all the promises and provisions my Savior has made for me. Today I studied Psalm 34 (go read it for encouragement!) and was reminded of the fact that when I “magnify the Lord” (v3) with praise and devotion, my problems, disappointments, and frustrations begin to pale in comparison to the greatness of the God I serve. Verses 9 and 10 stood out to me today; “O fear the Lord, ye His saints: for there is no want to them that fear Him. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing”.

As I thought about it I realized that I am not lacking in anything; my God has provided all my needs and many of my wants, exceeding many of my expectations; why then do I still complain?

This week I struggled with discontentment. This little design project helped me place my focus back on the King of kings and all He has mercifully and bountifully done for me.

In light of all God has given me, especially this week, I want to give a little something too: it’s Freebie Friday! I wanted to make something that I could use in doing devotions without the aid of a devotional book for a guide. Though I sometimes journal as I do my Bible reading, I usually get distracted and then walk away forgetting the important lessons or insight I gained. This guide provides a prompt and a space to summarize one thought to meditate on the rest of the day, whether that be a verse, a promise, or a command.

(Here you can download and size it how you want)

Or you can download the Word doc which includes 4 cut-out cards per page:

FREE Devotional Guide for Bible Journaling |newlyweddedwurl.wordpress.com

I use this size because I write super small and the cards more conveniently can be kept in my Bible. Once I get a good stack going, I can punch-hole the top corners and ribbon through to make a little journal book. I’ve found I always am encouraged to go back and read through what God has revealed to me through my quiet times with Him!

Have you had days that completely turned around after time spent in the Scriptures with the Savior? How do you get the most out of your devotional time? I would love to hear about it in the comments?