Sunday, April 21, 2013

Upcoming Posts

Hello!  Wow, it's almost May already!  I know it's not quite over yet, but this month has been going by like a snap of the fingers.  I'm here to post a line-up of things I hope to discuss next month.  Also, I want to start presenting a particular topic for each month and then planning the posts for that month according to that topic.  For May, my theme is found in John 3:30.  "He must increase, but I must decrease."  I think of this verse as: He must increase, so that I can decrease.  Similarly, I must decrease so that He can increase.  Now, I decided to do this monthly topic thing after I had planned out all the posts for this month, so all of them might not be exactly along the lines of this verse, but since it has been on my mind a lot lately, I figure that most of the posts will have this theme.  Okay, here's the rundown.

  • Laying Down Our Will – (excerpts from Set-Apart Femininity)
  • Character Close-Up – Meekness
  •  Letting Go – Letting God power our responses
  • How Bible Study and Prayer Can Transform Your Day
  • Pray Unceasingly – (excerpts from Set-Apart Femininity)
  • Practicing His Presence – (the book)
  • Think On These Things – Discussing Philippians 4:8
  • Hero Focus – Esther's heart

Phew!  I'm laughing at myself right now because I know this list will be very difficult to complete before the end of May.  However, I am going to try to do better about that!

I also received that book about prayer in the mail, so hopefully I can give a little overview about it.  xo, Ella

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Remember Me?

Hello!  Ahh... it's good to be back.  It's been over a month since I've blogged, but it doesn't seem that long.  I've been so busy lately and I have a feeling it won't be slowing down any time soon.  Last week I had a writing class in Indy and then we headed to Cincy for the home schooling convention.  Since then it's been school, school, school.  Uggh.

Anyway, I'm super excited to be blogging again!  I have lots of ideas for posts floating around in my head that I've been meaning to put down on paper.  Since I started AA, the posts have basically just been whatever I feel like writing, but I want to start being more structured.  I haven't quite figured out how I plan to do that, but I'll be thinking about it.

So, back to the home schooling convention.  I found a few really neat books there that I'm going to be sharing about here on the blog as I read them.  The first one is called Set-Apart Femininity by Leslie Ludy.  I've already read it and it was awesome.  In it, she talks about several Christian women of the past and a couple of the present who were set-apart for God.  She talks about how beautiful they are – not by the world's standards, but by God's standards.  They radiate Him and live for Him.  She explains how they do this and what it means to be set-apart.  It's a phenomenal book that is written at a crucial time.

The second one I found is called TrueFaced.  I haven't read it yet, but it sounded really interesting.  The following is from the back cover: "TrueFaced draws a clear distinction between two very different underlying motives: my determination to please God or to trust him.  The resulting difference from these two starting points could not be more profound.  One results in a striving that never feels it has done enough to please him.  The other results in a trust that experiences his full pleasure.  Our motives as followers of Christ will either keep us in unresolved sin and immaturity or free us into God's astonishing dream for our life."

The last book I picked up is about prayer.  They didn't have it in stock; it's being mailed.  Thus, I forget what it's called.  Sorry.  I do know that J. I. Packer recommended it, and that pushed me over the edge.  I'll talk about it when we get it.  ;)

Also, Leslie Ludy has a website called Set-Apart Girl and it's as good as the book.  She has lots of other books that you can check out there too.  On her website, she has an online magazine that I looked through last night.  It's amazing and has lots of good articles.  There are tons of resources on there like devotionals and stuff.  You can sign up for her email newsletter too.

Okay, that's all for now!  I'll be back soon to post a run-down of posts that I hope to do this month and next (if I don't drown in school first).  Have a great day!  xo, Ella