I am a day early...because with the snow on the ground I have some free time in the house...hehe I have determined that you can only wash so many clothes and dishes and dry the floor at the back door but so many times before you desperately need a distraction!
Ok...so it dawned on me while I was choosing my scripture for this post that this could be a bigger task than I intended! Last year there were times that I picked someone else's verse off the blog...and by going first I won't have that luxury! So God and I spent 45 minutes (yes I meant to type 45 minutes) debating over 4 verses. He won (as always) and I chose this one.
Mark 12:30 NIV
"Love the LORD your GOD with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."
The background for choosing this one is simple...I just finished reading Mark Batterson's book "Primal". I highly recommend it if your toes need to bleed...I can't stop the hemorrhaging and one night I even sat with my feet in the chair to try and protect them. The message of the book is souly based on this one scripture. And throughout it you are challenged as to whether you truly live life as though you love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And if that is not enough he challenges whether you love God in that order...heart first, soul second, mind third and strength last. He asks questions like: Do others see that you love God in those four ways? At the end of the day have you loved God with EVERYTHING you have? And very specifically since your heart goes first...does your heart break for the things that break the heart of God? I tell you the truth...I was ashamed at some of my answers. So this morning God told me to learn the verse and then apply it in my life. That committing it to memory was the first step in living it. So here we go! Feel free to use this one as your verse or pick another one.
One more thing...I forgot to tell you that you needed to get a spiral of some sort to keep your memory verses handy. If you get a small one you can carry it with you everywhere you go so that when you have downtime you can review them. I took a picture of a few examples. I am the Notecard Queen. So I use a $4 binder that holds pre-punched 3x5 notecards. That way I can mix them up when I am practicing. I like to shuffle mine like a deck of cards periodically to test myself. You can do whatever works well for you! And you can get anything you'd like...just make sure you keep them together.
I am so excited about this journey we are taking together!
So I'll shut up now...let's hear your verses! Name and verse and translation please!
Love you all!
Kristy
