Moxie Memorizers :: A Guest Post

Sarah was one of the first people to pop into my brain when I decided to do these awesome guest posts. She has embraced scripture memory in fantastic ways and I'm so glad you all get to hear about some of her journey! 

Sarah is kind, merciful, creative, skillful, artistic, musical, beautiful, compassionate, and much much more. When I first met Sarah, I struggled a little with my own insecurity because she was so fashionable and didn't really talk which I perceived was her extreme sophistication. Well, she is, in fact, very fashionable. And, when you first meet her she doesn't talk a lot because she's observing, taking in information, and a little on the shy side. Her genuine humility encourages and challenges me. Sarah is in a season of deep spiritual growth and it has been my pleasure to see how pliable she is in God's hands. He is molding her into a deep woman of faith who desires to lead out and be used by him in great ways! 

To admire some of Sarah's creativity, please check out her creative blog. To read more of her heart, please check out this blog. I'm sure you will enjoy both of her spots on the internet. Did I mention she's in a band? I could go on and on. She's just cool.  

I want to address two things today.

I'm going to start with the practical: 

"How I figured this whole memorizing thing out" side of it-

and end with the:

"This is how it's affected my heart" side of it.

Memorizing scripture has come to mean so much to me over the last year and a half.

When Angel first posted the idea for Moxie Memorizers last January- 

I didn't really know what to think of it.

I wasn't expecting to be able to memorize anything.

I thought I'd tried it in the past and failed miserably.

I'm not good at memorizing, period.

I can't remember specifics and I just didn't think it would happen.

But I thought it would be challenging...

And I needed a challenge!

Well...

I was wrong about the memorizing thing.

I can memorize scripture.

And over time, I realized I could memorize a lot of it!

If I can do it, you can do it...

Trust me.

I haven't always kept up with memorizing them within the two week time-

And I didn't always have them very memorized... 

But I did keep up with picking a bi-monthly verse.

And in time- 

(honestly, probably after the first year)

I finally figured out how to be consistent with it.

_____________________________

When I look back on the verses I chose, I recall the times God has spoken truth to me and seen me through my circumstances:

Because I knew the challenge would mean some discipline I started there:

"For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteous by those who are trained by it. Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather healed."  -Hebrews 12:11-13

When I lost my job and felt like an unemployed failure, I sought hope in these verses:

"And I am convinced that nothing can separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today or our worries about tomorrow--not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below--indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." -Romans 8:37-39

"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, those who he has redeemed from trouble." -Psalm 107:1-2 

"I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear for I am with you; do not be dismayed for I am your God." -Isaiah 41:9-10

When I was blessed with a job, I will never forget how joyful that time was:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

"The LORD is my portion," says my soul,

"therefore I will hope in him."

-Lamentations 3:22-24

Over and over, 

In the times I've learned about

love, fear, freedom, honesty, justice, hope, worship, stress, peace, accountability... 

I can recall how God worked in my heart through scripture. 

One of the best journals I could ever have, really.

I have seen how impactful it is to have God's word hidden in your heart... 

And I fully intent to keep storing it up.

_____________________________

Right now, I feel like I'm in the middle of learning a lot...

A LOT.

And in the midst of all this stuff I'm learning I sometimes feel like I'm drowning in it.

So, here's my second verse for July:

"And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. -Philippians 1:6 NLT

Thanks, Sarah!

Friends, as you post your verse today (or later for many of you) please pray for Sarah. Ask God to continue to open her heart to His great love, to great and unsearchable things that she does not yet know, and any other specific prayer the Spirit lays on your heart for her. 

Thanks for continuing to come back twice a month to share what you are memorizing. It is such a great tool of encouragement to many of us. Please type out all the words so we can read each verse along with you.  


My verse is John 14:26 ESV


But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all that I have said to you. 

Marriage and Grace

Seventeen years.

I've been married to my best friend on a crazy adventure for 17 years.

During our first year of marriage I taught seventh grade language arts and social studies while he finished school.

Second and third year we spent overseas studying a new language and developing friendships with locals.

Fourth year we were back in our home town of Las Cruces, NM to work with youth at the church we so loved.

Fifth through eighth God allowed us to lead a college ministry in Emporia, KS where we met some of our life long friends.

Ninth year we hung out in Lincoln, NE because we were running from God because starting a church seemed terrifying. Thankfully, even in our running, God brought good friendship into our lives and reunited us with highly influential people from our past.

Then we moved to Tucson, and here we remain, prayerfully, to live out our days working for His glory in this city and sending out people to wherever He asks them to go.

Through all the adventure of moving to experience the training God had for us in different types of ministry our marriage has remained strong. Don't get me wrong. We aren't perfect. In fact, both of us are selfish sinners and can be quite obnoxious. But our heart's desire through the last 17 years has been to love, cherish, communicate, defend, lift up, and depend on one another. We intentionally work on our relationship through deep conversation on how to communicate more clearly, we read books about marriage together, we laugh a lot, we listen, we strive to fight fairly. We love each other deeply. We work on our relationship. It is worth it because the work often doesn't seem like work.

Seventeen years. It has flown by. I'm looking forward to many more years with this man. He's a good one.

P.S. Braggy posts about how great life is has come to paralyze me in blogging. I have no desire whatsoever to set my life up as one the that is superior to anyone else's. ONLY by God's grace is my marriage thriving. ONLY by God's grace have I learned some things about parenting. ONLY by God's grace do I lead a women's ministry. But do you know when I am more aware of God's grace? When I fail in selfishness as a wife by being too lazy to meet my husband's needs. When I yell at my kids and have to ask for forgiveness. When I overlook a woman's needs because I'm afraid of what may be required of me to minister to her. Let me be clear, friends. My life is not perfect. I so desire to live out the truths of scripture through the power of the Holy Spirit by Jesus working in my life. I want to throw off everything that hinders and run with perseverance. But lots and lots of times I don't. I am a wounded soul that weeps at the base of the cross because I need him and know His grace enables me to do anything that I do. His grace alone. His grace alone. I'm thankful for my 17 year marriage that His great, free, redeeming, glorious grace has allowed me to experience.  

More thoughts on this to come....  

Linking up with Jami

Moxie Memorizers :: A Guest Post

Meet my friend, Jenna. She recently graduated from the University of Arizona. She is a talented artist, the lovely fiancé of Curtis, a trusted friend to many, and a devoted follower of Jesus. Jenna and Curtis will be offering their gifts and time to invest in college students through Second Mile starting. They love Jesus and long to see university students know Him. It will be awesome to watch God grow and use their leadership in our church. 

When Angel announced that she would like others to share their experiences with memorizing scripture, I knew I needed to share what God has been doing and continues to do with His word in my life. While He has refined my character in other ways, He has been focusing on my insecurities since Moxie Memorizers started. I am going to start from the beginning, and hopefully not be too long winded, but I think the detail is important because He has brought me out of some dark places, and scripture has been key to my healing as well as my fight to believe the truth.

Due to unstable family situations and just old junk, I was pretty messy coming to college. I struggled with body image issues, perfectionist issues, and not-knowing-my-own-worth issues. In my journey of healing, I distinctly remember telling Him, “This is what I believe about myself. Can You prove me wrong?” Faithfully, He did. He told me that I am precious and honored in His sight, loved and not traded for anything or anyone else (Isaiah 43:1-4). He also told me that He bestows glory on me (Psalm 3:3), is a wall of fire around me (Zechariah 2:5), and that I can trust and steady myself in Him (Psalm 112:7-8). In struggling to choose to believe those truths, He commanded that I don’t throw away my confidence- it’s the key to endurance and has a reward (Hebrews 10:35-39).

While I can list off verses that God has told me, it only shows the beauty of God answering me. I think the gift of memorizing scripture is that He allows us to cling to Him and to fight to believe Him, no matter where we are. We can repeat verses to ourselves over and over, scribble them on papers, let them change us, and give it to others when they need truth too. 

Since we’re fans of questions: Have you sat in front of God, asking Him to answer you? If He has, do you cling to what He said or throw it away? What rewards are you missing out on by not believing what He said? Have you considered how blessed you are to have the truth, when many people don’t have that opportunity?

Great questions, Jenna! I've asked God a fair amount of direct questions in my life. Some He saw fit to answer quickly, some I'm still waiting for His reply but trust His timing in all things. He has a beautiful way of pointing us to Jesus, making Him the center of our lives and not ourselves. I'm thankful that His kindness has led me to repentance and truth time and time again. 

Jenna, thank you for sharing! Let's all pray for Jenna. Pray for her coming marriage, pray she will continue to know and believe that she is a valued daughter of God, pray that God will refine, sharpen, and use her for His glory. 

Post your verses, friends. I'm looking forward to the encouragement I find in reading the verses you are memorizing and praying for each of you as you stay the course.  I'm continuing on with Jeremiah 17:7-8. 

Create What You Crave

This summer several ladies from Moxie are reading and discussing Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them by John Ortberg. It is an interesting book about living in community with imperfect people which is all of us. We've enjoyed three meetings together and engaged in good conversation. I'm thankful for these friends who are willing to encourage, disagree, laugh, and cry with each other. I'm praying these women will be used to draw others into deeper friendships. 

The phrase I continue to challenge our group with is "create what you crave." I didn't come up with it, but read it somewhere and I can't remember where so I can't give credit to the right heart. But, it resonates with me in so many ways. 

When I crave cookies, I create them. When I crave time alone, I close the door and enjoy the silence. When I craved health, I created a plan and mental toughness get healthy. The list could go on. 

But relationships are different. We want to be pursued, loved, engaged with. Sadly, we often sit in our cravings unsure how to satisfy the need for conversation, depth, a reassuring smile. 

What would it look like to step out of just living in desire and begin to be the person to take initiative, to make the phone call, to take the first step in sharing the truth of our hearts? 

It looks like risk taking, dealing with the fear of rejection, being willing to make ten or more phone calls. It looks like hard work. To create one must put thought, action, time and consistency into a desired outcome to bring an idea or object into existence. Even friendship and community. Only God can create something out of nothing. For us it takes work. 

Today I won't give any ideas or answers to this thought. Let's think through some questions together. 

What do you crave in relationships? What do you value in a friendship? Do you have a circle of people on whom you can depend? Can they depend on you? What kinds of discussions do you have with the people in your life? Do your conversations revolve around people, events, or ideas? If there is one or two ways you would like to see your community grow, can you think of one or two ideas to begin to create that growth? 

What are your thoughts on creating what you crave?

Making Grandma Smile

Giving my mom creative gifts makes me happy. I told you about As Our Own in this post for Mother's Day. To give you an update, over $26,000 was donated to help this organization rescue children from enslavement and exploitation. If you haven't already, check out their website, read, and pray for As Our Own. Much to my surprise, I received a hand-written thank you note from the organization. Now that takes diligence and sincere gratitude! I wonder how many thank you cards they wrote? With $26,000 given it must have been a lot.

For my mom's birthday, I wanted to give her something sentimental. I saw this idea on Pinterest and decided it would be perfect for her. She loves to read and I knew she would enjoy these unique bookmarks.

The first step was to take photos of my kids in funny poses. This is real life, friends. Green carpet, old worn out red sofas, and laundry. Always lots of laundry. 

See that beagle in the background? Does anyone want him? I'll ship him to you immediately. Just kidding. My kids would freak. If you research dog breeds on the internet, you should believe what it says. Beagles are, in fact, loud, stubborn, and sheddy. 

I took a few poses from varying distances, but these shots were the ones we chose to print.  Next, I cut them out as close to their cute little bodies as possible.  I like this because the green carpet, worn out red couches, laundry, and beagle have disappeared.  

I laminated them at Kinkos. I like Kinkos laminating because it is thicker so it holds up better which is perfect for bookmarks. Then I cut around the bodies closely, but not so close as to cause the lamination to separate from itself.  I want them to last a long time. 

They aren't even finished in this photo and they already look super cute! 

For the finishing touch, I poked a small hole in the hands and used a needle to pull thread through for the bookmark tassel. 

Aren't they so cute? They turned out even better than I expected. My mom loves them and, like any good grandma, is planning on making them with her other grandkids. 

Thoughtful, handmade gifts are the coolest. I always enjoy giving my mom stuff like this, and I'm pretty sure she loves it, too. 

Have you made anything "pinterest-ing" lately? 

Moxie Memorizers

Sorry. It's just me. The next Moxie Memorizers post has been reserved for a lovely guest. I'm excited to read her words. But for now, you're stuck with me.

A couple of weeks ago I was struck by my unbelief. And by struck, I mean, convicted by the Holy Spirit. You see, I believe God can do stuff. I believe He can heal. I believe He can save. I believe He can change lives. Where I stumble is I struggle to believe He will.  Ouch.

I have been praying for a friend for many years now. Her life has changed somewhat, but she is still no closer to knowing Jesus and living with freedom. I believe God can save her, but as I was praying for her a couple of weeks ago, I found myself confessing to him that I didn't believe that he will actually save her.

My solution to growing and changing this unbelief in my heart is scripture and prayer. I've picked out some passages to memorize about faith and I will be reading through Praying God's Word. I'm also asking God to help my unbelief and to increase my faith. Funny thing is I know He will. I'm all whacky and confused.

This is what I'm memorizing now:

Ephesians 3:12

In Him and through faith in Him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

Jeremiah 17:7-8 

But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drouth and never fails to bear fruit. 

I want to be a woman of deep faith and conviction, to live holy life that is pleasing to God, to know Him and trust Him.

Also, as per last year about this time, memorizers are falling off right and left. Jump back on, friends! If you know someone who has fallen off, reach out and help them back up! That's what we do. We help each other. We encourage each other. We hold each other accountable. You are disciplined to take showers even when you feel lazy and don't want to. You may skip a couple of days, but eventually you start to stink so you force yourself to bathe. Don't get spiritually stinky, friends. Be in His Word. Even in your weariness, stick with it. The benefits of a heart like Jesus' far outweigh the cost of self-discipline. Do it.

What are you memorizing?

Tested in My Kitchen

After this post I'm sticking to a few lighter topics. I'll be rolling out the not lighter blogs in the days to come. I know you're super excited about that.

Today it's all about cake and ice cream and Pinterest. Many of you have heard me say that I'm determined not to be a pin hoarder. It cracks me up when I see a pinner that has 18,000 pins. I think, "Really? You have plans for 18,000 projects?" I know. I'm so judgmental.

I shared with you that I've turned over a new leaf in eating and health. With that, I decided it was a good idea to find some safe recipes for the sweet tooth that attacks our family on occasion.

This cake is good AND easy. Double bonus.







Take one devils food cake mix, add one cup of greek yogurt and one cup of water. Mix it all up, and bake according to the box directions. We topped ours with strawberries that had been macerated in just a tiny bit of sugar. Dee-lish!




A couple of days ago I had some bananas that weren't quite ready for bread, but were also too ripe to eat. I'm a picky banana eater. I remembered this gem of a pin and decided to prep the bananas to make some "ice cream." Oh my goodness. Chad and I are amazed at how good this stuff is. You really should try it.

I'll just let you click on the picture to go straight to the blog where this recipe originated, but let me tell you, it is legit. I was only able to eat half of mine, but then I realized I was eating bananas and not real ice cream and that's why I was filling up so fast. In my chubbier days I could eat a gigantic bowl full of ice cream with chocolate and peanuts and not think twice. Good times.  Have I mentioned to you how much better I feel? 

I'll share one more pin of some awesome blue nail polish that my friend, Tia, gave me for my birthday. She is so smart because she snoops around on people's pin boards to discover gifts to give that people really want. She's a wonderful gift giver. I took a picture of my cool blue summer toes to post and then realized I don't really like feet photos. No feet pictures from me, friends. I'll just add the pinned picture. I'm not quite brave enough to show the world my crooked toes. 

Do you have any recipes or pins you could share with us? What is one project you hope to complete over the summer? Are you a Pinterest pin hoarder or are you using what you find? Let me encourage you to try something new this week. It's fun!

I would love to hear about your experiments...successful, funny, and not so delightful stories are welcome!

Linking up with Jami on this fine Tuesday afternoon.