Tools, inspiration, and encouragement to craft a gospel centered home.
I know how overwhelming hospitality can be. I felt really overwhelmed as a new wife inviting people into my home. I didn't feel confident in my homemaking skills. And I certainly didn't feel confident in my cooking skills.
One of my biggest concerns was knowing what to cook for other people! And I know this is a big concern for many. But Summer is the perfect time to start diving into hospitality, or invite someone new over. So today we are going to be sharing a few tips for summer hospitality!
Listen to the Podcast:
We also recorded this blog post as an audio podcast. If you want to listen in instead of reading, click play below or do a combination of both
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Here's a question I got from a reader recently that sparked the idea for this episode:
"For now, I was wondering if you could perhaps share via podcast or blog post some practical menu plans for hospitality. A lot of the time I feel like I'm hesitant to have people over just because I don't know exactly what to fix. Planning menus for my own family isn't a huge challenge to me, but I feel like a lot of the meals I normally make for just us aren't really good "company meals." Either they can't be prepared ahead of time or I don't know what to have with them or they don't work with the season or they're just a little too unusual to have for company. I love doing soup/bread/salad, but with the warmer weather that doesn't work very well (I'm serving that tonight for company in 85 degree weather . . . oops!). Could you share some super practical suggestions for planning hospitality menus that are simple and frugal? And then maybe share some of your tips on how to pull it all together so you're not stressed out like crazy and exhausted by the time company comes (I've been there too many times!!)? With babies and their unpredictable schedules (as you know!) plus a super tight budget, I'm needing a better way to do hospitality so that I'm able to do it more frequently and actually look forward to it! :)" - Catherine
So today hopefully I've got some good ideas for you when extending hospitality (and how to make it easy during the Summer)!
Remember the REASON for your hospitality
I think a REALLY important thing (at least for me) is to again and again remember my REASON for hospitality. When I get too focused on the food, or the decor, or the activities...it's so easy for my heart to be in the WRONG place when extending hospitality.
When it comes down to it, hospitality is about your HEART and the service you are providing. Because hospitality is about serving others, not empty entertaining for the sake of showing off your cooking or decorating skills.
“First Peter 4:9 builds on the instructions to practice hospitality and reminds me that my attitude is of utmost important – I am to practice hospitality without complaining! This verse challenges me to conduct a heart search to discern what my attitude is and whether I am approaching this opportunity to minister enthusiastically (Colossians 3:23).” ~ Practicing Hospitality, Pg 23
So what's the purpose of hospitality?
The ultimate purpose of hospitality is to minister to those around us – both believers and unbelievers. Our hospitality is a form of ministry and is a way that we show love, care, and concern, and how we can serve others!
“Hospitality from a Biblical perspective is to recognize that God is more interested in caring relationships than the mold behind the shower curtain…It need not matter if we live in a single-room apartment or a split-level ranch, the only real requirement is allowing God to use our lives and our possessions…Our homes and our lives are indeed the most powerful combination of ministry to our world.” ~ Hospitality with Confidence, Pg 9
Most of us know that we should be reading God's Word. We want to work it into our schedule, but some days it just feels so overwhelming.
Maybe you don't even know where to start. Or maybe you are asking "does my Bible reading time reallllllly need to be first thing in the morning?" Someone else had that same question as well. Today on the podcast I'll be covering that - as well as other tips for your Bible reading time.
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A couple of weeks ago I got this question from a reader. As I started writing her back, I was thinking about how much I can resonate with her feelings on this topic. And I realized that I am probably NOT alone (and neither is she) in this. So I decided to address it here on the blog and podcast. Here's what she asked:
"Hello! I am a mother to a one year old and currently pregnant again. I was 27 before I had my 1st child so I had many years of working and time prior to around the clock responsibility (children). So I had many years with morning quiet time with God almost daily and of course I walk with him through my day. I just have this perfectionist gene in me that says I must have 1st thing in the morning quiet time with God before all else. I just do not know if I should be attempting to get up before my son to have quiet time or continue to do it during his nap time.
It's been a difficult adjustment for me because I do feel like it has to be done 1st thing in the morning. I can't seem to feel like I ever have enough time with Him now though and it's always interrupted or while strolling a baby etc. It's been such a hard adjustment. I'm terrified of what it will be like when I have the next baby. My one year old just started sleeping. I don't know if I need to make different efforts or need to stop being a perfectionist but I don't want to not grow in my faith and knowledge of God or be stunted by the motherhood season as I need him even more during it. Any advice??? I'm a horrible multitasker!"
Most of us have a picture of what the "ideal" Bible reading time and place is. We might picture first thing in the morning with a cup of coffee and an hour and a half devoted to deep study. Others might picture the ideal place being out in nature, hearing the birds chirp as you dig in. For me, it would be in a huge leather chair by the fire in my own personal library with hours of time to dig in, study, and take notes. Aaah - that sounds so lovely.
While we may every once in a while get time like these "ideal" situations, it doesn't happen often. In fact, I've been no where near any of these ideals since having kids. So what's a busy mom to do? What does our Bible reading time need to look like?
What Does God's Word Say About Reading God's Word?
I know you might be tempted to skip over these verses - especially if you've read them before. But I encourage you to keep reading through them because they are going to establish our basis for our conversation today. (PLUS this talk today is about how to get in God's Word more - so here you go!!).
"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success." - Joshua 1:8
"But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” - Matthew 4:4
"For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Today is a little big different. Instead of talking about a homemaking topic, I've got Jason with me today and we are going to share a little update about our family and our ministry.
About 18 months ago we shared a ministry update in episode #26. This was our announcement that Jason had left his full time job in sales to run our ministry full time. So that was a fun announcement but a LOT has happened in the last 18 months. So we wanted to do a NEW update on what's going on.
Listen to the Podcast:
We also recorded this blog post as an audio podcast. If you want to listen in instead of reading, click play below or do a combination of both
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Listen to the full interview above with Jason and I and then skim through what we talked about below.
Family & Ministry Update
We had a busy 2016! We started off the year with a bang and went right into our kickstarter campaign for our online training academy, My Homemaking Mentor. The kickstarter campaign was a giant success and in July of 2016, My Homemaking Mentor was released to the public.
Psst: My Homemaking Mentor is currently closed down for enrollment, but will open up again in the Fall of 2017. You can sign up here to get notified when enrollment opens.
Then in August we rolled right into our Homeschooling Conference and got right into preparing for our 2016 Homemaking Ministries Online Conference. This was our third annual online conference and it was amazing! Then this carried us through the end of October and into Christmas.
We had a great full year of business and running it full time. It was a really exciting and full year. But for our family, we also had some exciting things happening.
Our Growing Family
In the first week of May 2016, we got a very special surprise blessing. Malachi & Micah were 3 years old and Remington & Ryder were only 9 months old...and we found out we were expecting!
We later came to find out that we were expecting a single girl due in January 2017. She is now 4 months old and doing so well!
We were not expecting to be pregnant in our first full year of business but we are so thankful now that God's plans are not our own plans. It made 2016 a little tricky in certain ways, but we are loving our family with five kids four and under.
2017 and Beyond
It's June now and I feel like each day is getting easier and easier. Malachi and Micah are almost 4 and a half. Remington & Ryder turn 2 in about 2 weeks. And Magnolia is nearly 5 months old. We are all setting into our new normal and picking our routines back up.
On the business front, we have some exciting plans for 2017!! Here's a sneak peek of what we have coming up:
Homemaking Ministries Store
This is kind of my baby project this year that I am pouring a lot of love and time into. We are working on building up our store with physical products!! Right now we have Christian t-shirts and Scripture memory cards. But we are slowly working on building our store up into 15-20 items by the end of 2017.
In fact, we have a shipment of new products on our way to our house right now! It's been so fun play with mailing out these amazing goodies! Jason and I have some really incredible plans and ideas for this store for this year.
Homemaking Ministries Online Conference 2017
TICKETS are coming SOON for our 4th annual online homemaking conference! Sign up here to get notified when tickets go on sale!!
Our Work at Home Life
Jason's big project for this year is our brand new website: Our Work at Home Life. We have been working hard for about a year on this new venture and we are so excited.
Jason and I both have a passion for helping families build up their own online businesses.
It's June! And that means the beginning of Summer. And that means it's the perfect time to set some fun summer reading goals!
Do you want to set some reading goals this summer? Or pick up your first book(s) of the year? Nows the perfect time!
Listen to the Podcast:
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And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.
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Taking the Time to Invest in YOURSELF
I'm starting to prepare to homeschool our 4 year old twins. And as I've been diving into all the different philosophies and styles of planning out your homeschooling, I keep coming across the Charlotte Mason method. I'm not sure I will do full Charlotte Mason homeschooling, but I do LOVE a lot of her philosophies.
One such idea is that as mothers, we should heavily be investing in ourselves. When we can invest in ourselves, and fill up our own cup, then we can then turn around and pour into our family. We can't pour into our family and build them up if we are utterly on empty ourself. Charlotte Mason calls this concept "mother culture".
Mother Culture: "Mothers should cultivate their souls so that in turn they may cultivate the souls of their children."
One idea for investing in yourself: Her idea is that you should always be in the middle of an easy book, a moderate book, and a stiff book and just pick up whichever one sounds the best to you at the moment. I've heard others recommend you always have a biography, a novel, and something to learn going on at once.
So if you need another reason to dive into some good books this Summer then just remember...it's ultimately for the good of your kids ;)
Two ways to approach your summer reading
Set a goal for each week/month
Jason and I have taken on the insane challenge of reading 104 books in 2017 which equals TWO books a week. Yes, I know it's crazy. But we are just crazy like that ;)
As I expected, I am behind on my reading challenge (I really have no idea if I'll meet by goal by December 31st). But I have read 31 books so far this year which isn't nearly as behind as I thought I would be by this point, so I'm happy with that.
So for me, my goal this summer is to get back on track with 2 books a week. Our family has been so busy that relaxing with a book has had to be really limited in my time lately. But I want to make it more of a commitment this summer.
So one easy way to read more: set a few goals in your day for reading. Let's say you want to read 6 books this summer. Set that goal and start trying to read 2 books a month! Even if you only end up reading 3 books, that's probably more than if you didn't set any goals!
Be in the middle of 3 books
This is the Charlotte Mason idea and I love it! If you have been really struggling to get back into the regular habit of reading, then this might be the relaxed, fun idea you've been waiting for!
Pick three books: an easy book, a moderate book, and a harder book. Or pick a novel, a biography, and a book to learn from. Or pick a book in three different categories. Stick them all in a basket.
Then when you sit down to read, pick up whichever book sounds the best to you at the moment. Don't think about it, just grab it and READ.
I love this easy and relaxed approach!
Start a Bible study for the summer:
I am ALL for creating reading plans and reading goals for your summer, I think it can be the perfect time for it. However, if you are really struggling to even spend a few minutes a day in Scripture, then the summer might be the perfect time to dig into God's Word!
You can do this on your own, enlist an accountability partner, or even get a group of other ladies together to do it (or wrang...
Growing in our faith and learning to love the Lord more, all starts with knowing God more. If we can grow in our knowledge of God, then we can come to love him more and more with each passing day.
And that's a big part of why we study theology. But I know that studying theology can also be overwhelming and daunting. Which is why we are going through this series on Practical Theology for Homemakers. You can find part 1 in case you missed it: Why Theology Maters for Homemakers.
Listen to the Podcast:
We also recorded this blog post as an audio podcast. If you want to listen in instead of reading, click play below or do a combination of both
And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.
Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.
Last week we started discussing the importance of the attributes of God and took a look at three of them. Today we are going to look at a few more and then find out why this is so important to our daily lives. Let's jump in!
God is Self-Sufficient & Eternal
As finite human beings, we can't just keep going on and on. We need to stop and rest, and eat, and store up energy to keep going. God is different. He can keep going on forever, he is self-sufficient and eternally preserving.
"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything." - Acts 17:24-25
God is not dependent on anyone or anything. We however, are dependent on God with each breathe that we take and the entire world depends on Him sustaining it minute by minute, second by second.
The important lesson for us: We are not self-sufficient. We may go through seasons or periods where we feel proud of ourselves and that we are working hard and making things happen. Other times we are depressed and living in survival mode. In either case, God should be the one getting the glory.
He is the one that enables us to achieve anything and he's the one sustaining us in the rough and hard seasons. We are fully depending on God and we would do good to remember that!
Unmasking Self-Sufficiency
What are the marks of self-sufficiency in the life of the believer? How can we know when we have stopped replying on God and others? When we deny our need for God, self-sufficiency reveals itself in the following ways:
Prayerlessness. Our self-reliance causes us to cease approaching God with petition, praise, confession, or thanksgiving. Because we credit ourselves as the ultimate provider, we cease conversation with our true provider.
Forgetfullness. Like Israel in the Old Testament, we forget the past undeniable provision of God. Like Israel, we trust our current and future needs to the idol of self, which we have adopted from the surrounding culture.
Anger in trial. When difficulties force us to come face-t0-face with our limits, we feel anger at our exposed need. We are unable to count our trails as joy (James 1:2), seeing them as a verdict on our weakness instead of opportunity to learn reliance on God.
Lack of conviction of personal sin. We grow increasingly unable to acknowledge our personal need for forgiveness. When we hear a sermon or read a passage of Scripture, we hear it as a general admonition instead of a personal one." - None Like Him, pages 63-64
God is Ever-Present
God is all around us, in every corner of the world at every second. He is omnipresent which simply means he is present everywhere. God is always watching.
He's watching and he's there when we suffer, when we walk through a trial, and he is present for each and every sin we commit. Nothing can escape his gaze which becomes important as we get to our last point today.
God is all Knowing
Throughout my blog and ministry, we chat a lot about being intentional in your home and with how you raise your kids. We put a huge emphasis on Gospel-centered parenting and homemaking.
And because of that, I get a ton of questions homeschooling. But this is certainly not my area of expertise since my oldest twins are only 4! But we do plan on homeschooling so it's an area I'm personally very curious about as well.
So I am excited to share that this week on the podcast I have MacKenzie Monroe from the Cultivating the Lovely Podcast and we are chatting about planning for your homeschool year.
Listen to the Podcast:
We also recorded this blog post as an audio podcast. If you want to listen in instead of reading, click play below or do a combination of both
And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.
Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.
The Lovely Homeschool Course!
Guess what? That super awesome course that MacKenzie kept mentioning in this episode, is finally HERE!! I've already starting going through it and it's incredible. It's called The Lovely Homeschool Course.
MacKenzie has blended together a very practical course with hands on tutorials with inspiration and encouragement for your homeschool journey. One thing I LOVE that she has incorporated into the course is the aspect of family memory keeping. And spoiler alert: MacKenzie has weaved this idea of recording your family memories INTO your yearly homeschool planning and it's such a fun idea. I can't wait to start implementing it.
If you sign up for her course by Wednesday June 28th, you can snag it for just $19.99! Sign up here.
Planning for Your Year
You can jump into better planning for your homeschool day at any point during the year. But the summer time is an especially helpful time to get planned! This works well for any curriculum but especially for those mamas who like to put together their own curriculum or bits and pieces of it. (Make sure to head up and listen to the full interview with MacKenzie!)
MacKenzie shares the following tips for getting prepared during the summer:
Evaluate the curriculum you are using to make sure it aligns with your family's values and mission
Grab an accountability partner to help you out in your planning this summer
Pull together all your material for next year NOW (put baggies together for science projects, etc.)
How to put your kids FIRST in homeschooling (interview with MacKenzie)
#1 Tip for being intentional
Create a mission statement for your homeschooling! I (Jami) encourage families to create a family mission statement and the idea of creating a mission statement for your homeschooling is brilliant!
Here's a handy guide on creating a family mission statement. You can take these principles to create a homeschool curriculum!
In creating a homeschool mission statement you want to pull everyone into the process. Talk to your kids, your husband and ask: what is it that they want out of their homeschool. Think through your goals, your values, and how you want your homeschool year to go.
MacKenzie's new course is coming out soon! Sign up to get notified when it releases. More resources from MacKenzie:
The Hard Parts of Homeschooling with Rebekah Sacran
How to Deal with Homeschooling Nay-Sayers
Listen to MacKenzie's podcast here: Cultivating the Lovely Podcast
Her brand new course is here!
I promised that I would update once MacKenzie's course was live! And it's here. The Lovely Homeschool Course is officially ready for you to go through (and it rocks)!! Not only do you get access to all 12 video sessions, you also get access to a private Facebook group where MacKenzie will be doing even more LIVE video training.
BUY NOW: The Lovely Homeschool Course - $24.99 (OR $19.
Do you wish you knew the Lord more? Do you ever feel confused when you read certain parts of the Bible and don't understand why God does the things he does? Do you yearn to love him more and more with each passing day?
That's the motivation behind this new series, Practical Theology for Homemakers. Hopefully as we move through this series, you will grow in some of those questions. So far we covered: Why Theology Matters for Homemakers, The Goal of Our Christian Life, and So What's the Big Deal About Studying God's Word?
Listen to the Podcast:
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And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.
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This next part we will be diving into is: The Attributes of God. If we want to come to love and worship the Lord more, we need to know Him more. Understanding the attributes of God is one great way to study God more - and thus come to love Him more!
When you first met your husband, you were not simply content to learn his name and a few random facts about him. No, you want to learn all there was about him, who he is, how his brain works, and how he looks the world. And in the process of learning more about him, you fell more in love with him.
I've been doing a lot of study on the book of Proverbs this year and one of the biggest take aways is that our faith starts with a healthy fear (or awe) of God.
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all those who practice it have a good understanding.
His praise endures forever!" - Psalm 111:10
When we were called to be a disciple of Christ, when we came to salvation, our knowledge of God shouldn't stop there. Yes, we should have a thorough understanding of the Gospel and to be able to preach it to our family and all we come into contact with. But our knowledge of the Lord should grow from there.
"My conception of God was that he was approachable and accessible, the God that the Lord's Prayer endearingly refers to as 'Our Father.' And he is that. He is mercifully and gloriously that Father. But what the fear of the Lord acknowledges is that he is not only that. He is also 'in heaven,' with a name that is hallowed above all others. He is both a God who is near to us and a God who transcends. The fear of the Lord comprehends the fact that the Father we are taught to call 'ours' is also the Lord of the universe, enthroned between the cherubim, doing as he pleases among the nations." - None Like Him, pages 11-12
So we see that the beginning of Wisdom is a healthy fear and awe of the Lord. The beginning of wisdom is to accurately understand who God is and we learn that from the pages of Scripture.
"When we fear God rightly, we recognize him for who he truly is: a God of no limits, and therefore, utterly unlike anyone or anything we know. This is the start of becoming wise."- None Like Him, page 13.
Accurately understanding God's attributes not only allows us to know him more, it also protects us. It protects us from idol worship, from worshipping false God's and things that look like God but are not. It helps us to be more discerning with what we read and listen to. It protects us by helping us to accurately discern and understand the difference between false doctrine and teaching and true teaching.
*Please note: For a deeper study into each of these attributes, I highly recommend you get a copy of None Like Him by Jen Wilkin.
God is Infinite
...and we are not.
"Any discussion of how God is not like us must begin with an acknowledgement that we are measurable and he is not. God is infinite, unbound by limits. He defies measurement of any kind. His limitlessness underlies all of his attributes; his power, knowledge, love,
Mother's Day was a few days ago. Maybe you got a small bouquet of flowers. Maybe you got a hand written card. Maybe you got a half-hearted "Happy Mother's Day" from your teen. Maybe your husband did the dishes for you.
Maybe. And maybe you are now feeling a little disappointed. Maybe you are feeling hurt that your husband didn't make a bigger deal out of the holiday on Sunday. Maybe you resent the fact that you still had to do all the cooking and the cleaning over the weekend. Maybe you are wishing that just for once, someone in your family would notice ALL that you do.
Listen to the Podcast:
We also recorded this blog post as an audio podcast. If you want to listen in instead of reading, click play below or do a combination of both
And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.
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Maybe it's two days after Mother's Day and you are already feeling like no one appreciates you.
I get it. I think all of us have been there at one moment or another. "Don't they see ALL that I do for this family day in and day out?" "Wow, I sure wish I could just throw my clothes all over the room and hope that someone else will deal with it later." "I don't ever stop working, I wish that just for one second that someone would notice that and recognize it!"
I know it's easy for these feelings to creep into our hearts. But at the end of the day, this is only going to lead us feeling frustration, overwhelmed, and with a lot less joy in our lives. These feelings and this line of thinking robs us of our contentment in the everyday.
When mother's day is over and we are feeling under-appreciated and overwhelmed, how do we being again to find joy?
Finding our Joy in the Lord
It can be so discouraging when we feel like we are not appreciated for all we do. We want to be recognized or even just given a small thank you every once in a while. But when we don't get these, or it doesn't look like how we think it should look...we are quickly robbed of our joy.
The problem is: We are placing our hope, our trust, and our joy in the things of this world. We are placing our joy - or our lack there of - in the hands of our toddlers who might wake up on the wrong side of the bed and scream all day or in the very angsty hands of our teenagers.
We are turning to our family to fulfill us and meet our needs. I did this a lot in the early days of our marriage. I looked to my husband to fulfill all of my needs. I looked to him for encouragement, for security, for complete and perfect love...and of course, when he would inevitably fail...my joy would go along with it.
I've learned through too many mistakes throughout the years that ultimately, my joy needs to be in the Lord. These sinful humans that we live with day in and day out WILL fail us at one point or another. Or everyday.
Yes, our children and our husband can bring us an immense amount of joy. But if our ultimate joy, peace, and life rests in how our family all responds to us then we have turned our family or our kids into an idol and at the end of the day, we will be sorely disappointed.
RELATED: Idols of the Heart and Keeping Our Eyes on Jesus - Hf #45
“Idols aren’t just stone statues. No, idols are the thoughts, desires, longings, and expectations that we worship in the place of the true God. Idols cause us to ignore the true God in search of what we think we need.” – Idols of the Heart, page 23
Instead of placing our trust and our hope in our family, we need to place that trust and that hope in Christ. We need to turn to him when life hurts, when we feel disappointed, when we are overwhelmed.
When we tie our identity, the worth of our motherhood, to the thanks or gratitude we get on Mother's Day, or our birthday, or any old day of the year, we will be sorely disappointed.
It's one thing to pay lip service to the importance of reading God's Word - it's another thing to actually cherish God's Word and to dig into it as often as we can. It's one thing to hear God's Word preached on Sunday and then move on with our week and forget about it - it's another thing to be daily savoring what God has revealed to us in His written Word.
Join me this week as we cover part 3 in our brand new series: Practical Theology for Homemakers. Part 1 we covered Why Theology Matters for Homemakers (HF #72) and part 2 we covered The Goal of Our Christian Life (Hf #74).
Listen to the Podcast:
We also recorded this blog post as an audio podcast. If you want to listen in instead of reading, click play below or do a combination of both
And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.
Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.
As we move deeper into this series, soon we will be covering the attributes of God, how to be more discerning with what we read and listen to, how and where we find our identity and more. We are about to move into some really good episodes.
But first, we need to establish a VERY firm foundation: Do we REALLY trust God's Word? The entire scope of our Christian life is based on this. If we can't trust God's Word to be accurate and true, then how can we base our life on it?
So we are going to briefly cover the inerrancy and sufficiency of God's Word and then move into some practical ideas for studying God's Word and how you can come to truly cherish God's Word.
Can we really trust God's Word?
First question we must ask, is what is the Bible good for? Why did God give us the Bible? The Westminster Shorter Catechism says,
Q. 3. What do the Scriptures principally teach?
A. The Scriptures principally teach, what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.
Essentially, the Bible teach us who God is and how humankind relates to God. The Bible is the story about God redeeming His people.
"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." - 2 Timothy 3:16-17
The study into this goes way beyond the scope of this podcast episode, but as protestants, we believe that God inspired all the human authors of the Bible to write it. The Holy Spirit prompted the writers of the Bible and because it's all God-breathed as 2 Timothy says, it is God's perfect and Holy Word and it is without error.
"For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." - 2 Peter 1:21
This is called the inerrancy of Scripture. That God inspired the human writers and each word contained in His Word is without error. We can fully trust what God's Word teaches us about God and our world. In fact, it's the only trustworthy source we have at our disposal. It's the sole place we can find truth in this world as we seek God.
"God’s Word is sufficient to meet every need of the human soul as David verifies frequently in his psalms. Psalm 19:7-14 is the most comprehensive statement regarding the sufficiency of Scripture. It is an inspired statement about Scripture as a qualified guide for every situation. Scripture is comprehensive, containing everything necessary for one’s spiritual life. Scripture is surer than a human experience that one may look to in proving God’s power and presence. Scripture contains divine principles that are the best guide for character and conduct. Scripture is lucid rather than mystifying so that it enlightens the eyes. Scripture is void of any flaws and therefore lasts forever. Scripture is true regarding all things that matter, making it capable of producing comprehensive righteousness.
I talk about reading a LOT. It's a hobby of mine but it's also an important tool I use in my Spiritual growth. Because I read a lot and talk about it a lot, I get a ton of questions about reading and the best ways to fit it into a busy homemaker's schedule.
I get it. It can be really hard to fit any reading time into your already too busy and too full schedule. But I want to encourage you to try and find a few minutes in your week to invest in a good book. Reading is so life giving and encouraging to me that I sorely miss it when I get out of the habit.
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This week, I got a question from someone inside my online training academy for homemakers. As I was thinking of how to respond, I decided I had too much to share on the topic and wanted to record an episode for you since I know others will have the same/similar questions. She said,
"Jami Reading question! How do you choose where to start? There are so many books and ebooks and audiobooks I want to read. I'm also the type who doesn't like to have more than 2 books at a time (one nonfiction and one fiction - although I never read fiction anymore). How do you decide what's most important to begin with? Pick an area of study (motherhood, parenting, hospitality, etc.) and focus down for a month at a time? Hop around?"
I'm honestly not sure I'm the right person to answer this question since my Goodreads account since my Goodreads account currently shows I'm in the middle of 12 books! I'm not good about staying in one book at a time...but maybe that's just my personality ;)
How to Choose Where to Start
Are you ready for my brilliant advice? Don't think - just grab a book and start reading! I think sometimes we make this far too complicated. We procrastinate and get overwhelmed when we think of all the books out there that we really want to read.
So walk over to your bookshelf - or open your Kindle app - and give yourself about 30 seconds to grab a book. Then start reading!!
Follow a reading plan:
I know sometimes if you are trying to expand your reading and want to read different things, it's easier to follow someone else's plans. So here are a few suggestions to breathe new life into your reading plans:
2017 Christian Reading Challenge for Women (my very own plan!)
Tim Challies' 2017 Reading Challenge (this is what inspired MY reading plan)
Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge
Set up Categories:
Another fun idea is to pick 4-6 categories for yourself and cycle between then. For example your categories might be 1) Christian Living/Theology 2) Biographies/History 3) Biblical Womanhood/Homemaking 4) Marriage 5) Parenting 6) Fiction
Then add 5-10 books to each category that you've always wanted to read. Start with category 1) Christian Living/Theology. Go to the your reading list for that category and pick the first book. Read that one, and then move on to category 2) Biographies/History. Read the first book on your list and then move on to category #3, etc.
This is pretty much what I do and it allows me to cycle through different kinds of books! I'm reading more fiction this year and I tend to get really sucked into fiction books so I make sure between series to read several other non-fiction books before jumping into my next fiction series.
Pros: The pros of this reading plan is that your reading is varied. You get your face in many different subjects and you are diversifying your reading.
Choose a focus of the month:
Another option is to choose a focus area (i.e. Theology) and all the books you read for that month or s...
