#191 - Keeping the WORD at the Forefront

Good morning! I pray you are having a blessed day so far as I am! Finished Day #2, back writing/editing first thing when I wake up.... it feels so productive! Praise God for counsel from others. :) OK... let's get going this morning....

Proverbs 7:1-3 - MY SON, keep my words; lay up within you my commandments [for use when needed] and treasure them. ²Keep my commandments and live, and keep my law and teaching as the apple (the pupil) of your eye. ³Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.

Deut. 6:5, 7 - ...love the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being and with all your might.... teach and impress them diligently upon the [minds and] hearts of your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up.

Proverbs 31:14 - She is like the merchant ships loaded with foodstuffs; she brings her household's food from a far [country].

Keep my commandments & live. I am on a bit of a time schedule this morning, but the Holy Spirit assured me that He had a Word for today. I was impressed, as I often am, that the Holy Spirit did quickly pull together His Word from God's Word. Often in the Bible, like in Matthew 4, the Word of God is compared to food. In Matthew 4, Jesus is being tempted by Satan to turn rocks into loaves of bread to eat. Jesus uses the Word in His defense and tells Satan that the WORD of God IS His food. Proverbs 7 this morning begins with keeping and observing the Word, God's commandments, for doing this we will live. Further, if we flip back to Deut 6, we are told to even impress and continually teach our children the Word. To impress upon their minds, daily, consistently, upon waking and upon going to sleep, we are to remind our children AND in doing so, we remind ourselves that we, "Love the Lord with all our heart, soul & might." By saying it outloud, we remind our MIND, and as we continue in the Word, those words we tell our children begin to take ROOT in our hearts. As we do this, we are "raising up a child in the way they shall go, and when they are old, they will not depart from it." Verbalizing our love for the Lord, our commitment to love and be obedient to him, plants something powerful in our hearts, plants something powerful in the pliable hearts of our children. Pliable: easily bent, flexible, easily influenced, adaptable, adjusting readily to change. As our children grow older and older, the world will want more of a say in how they believe. As parents, we have a responsibility, like it talks about in Deuteronomy 6, to TEACH them early on, to raise them up in the Word of God, to instruct them of God's commandments, to abide & follow them. We are raising up a godly generation that this world so desperately needs!

I looked at Proverbs 31:14 in a new way this morning, thanks to the Holy Spirit. "She is like the merchant ships loaded with foodstuffs." The Bible often refers or likens "food" to the "Word of God," in this situation, I could see how it may be doing the very same thing! Our Proverbs 31 mother, is LOADED with the Word of God! "She brings her household FOOD from afar." Our Proverbs 31 woman acts with a purpose. She is purposeful. She is planting the WORD of God into her children and anyone who is in her household! She comes, DAILY, bearing the Word, just like it commands us to do in Deuteronomy 6. Upon rising and upon going to bed, planting the Word, setting reminders of the Word, remembering the Promises of the Word.

I'm reminded of how important is the REMEMBER the Word. In Proverbs 7, it talks about binding the Word on your fingers, placing them upon the tablets of your heart. Setting out reminders! Remembering the Word. Today.... what does that mean to us? For Tyler and I, it often means setting reminders on our cell phone. Our cell phone rings often throughout the day to remind us of one of God's promises, to remind us of a Word that we are standing on for our life. For you, it may mean, writing the Word on your bathroom mirror, putting a scripture on the door as you leave for work, putting a scripture on the dash of your car so you see it as you drive. Setting out those IMPORTANT reminders, keeping the Word at the forefront of our minds.

What is going to be YOUR reminder today of God's promises in YOUR life?? Hold on to them! They are hope! They are true yesterday, today & forever!

Have a blessed day! :)

#47 - The Principle of the Ants

Good Morning! It's definitely nice when I wake up earlier! I get to do more fun things before getting the boy up. Yesterday we enjoyed a fun day of blueberry picking. Aside from getting stung by a wasp, we had a great time and picked lots of blueberries! It was the last day the farm was open, so we were all glad that we went yesterday! Here's a few of the pictures from the days events: 

Ok... well, let's roll...

Proverbs 31:14 - She is like the merchant ships loaded with foodstuffs; she brings her household's food from a far [country].

Proverbs 6:6-8 - Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways and be wise!-- Which, having no chief, overseer, or ruler, Provides her food in the summer and gathers her supplies in the harvest.

So... as I sit here, snacking on some blueberries from my "posed" blueberry photo shoot... I was pretty interested in the verses for today. Quite appropriate actually. May or may not be real life shattering stuff for people.... but it is another piece of the puzzle in regards to becoming a Proverbs 31 woman. 


We are exhorted to look at the ant and aspire to do the same things, to learn from, to apply what the ant does in natural life. The ant doesn't even have a leader, but goes about providing food during the summer and harvest season to last through the winter months. This reminds me of the story of Joseph. We look at the life of Joseph, you probably remember the story (Genesis 37-41), but let's review the highlights: Joseph- the fair-haired favorite of his father Jacob gets a colorful special coat, Joseph has a dream that his brothers and parents will bow down to him- blabs the dream off to his brothers, Joseph's brothers annoyed with him selling him into slavery, Joseph being elevated to the right hand of Potiphar, Potiphar's wife wrongfully accusing Joseph of trying to make a pass at her, Joseph being thrown into prison, called out to interpret Pharaoh's dream, Joseph interpreting well the dream of Pharaoh and being elevated to 2nd in charge of the WHOLE Kingdom of Egypt. That brings us to what I find very interesting. As Joseph correctly interpreted the dream of Pharaoh, there would be 7 years of plenty & then 7 great years of famine. During the 7 years of plenty, the harvests were great! People were pulling in more than they could imagine! They were eating off the fat of the land. I imagine during that time when part of the harvest was sold, since it was so plentiful, you could purchase grain or produce at significantly low prices because there was such a great quantity of it to go around. More than they could even use. In laymen's terms, they were selling stuff for CHEAP! They could've used the Wal-Mart slogan, Rollin back, rollin back, rollin back the prices! SALE SALE SALE! Basically they were living in plenty. 


Then we fast forward to the years of famine. Because the people did not heed the principle of the ants, storing away food, it eventually enslaved them to Pharaoh. As people ran out of their supply of food, their crops not pulling in enough to survive on, they began to buy from Pharaoh. NO SALE TODAY! It's all about economics, supply & demand. When the supply is great, prices are low. When the supply is low, prices are high. They bought grain and it wasn't cheap! As money ran out, they traded their livestock (aka: their business') for grain. As their livestock ran out, they traded their land (aka: their inheritance) for grain. As their land ran out, they traded their LIVES for grain. In order to eat, they traded all they had, their life. They were now slaves, ownership of Pharaoh, ruler of the Kingdom of Egypt. Because Joseph applied the PRINCIPLE OF THE ANT it brought EXPONENTIAL WEALTH to Pharaoh's purse. People came from all over the world to get grain from Pharaoh! In the end, Pharaoh owned it all! He had all the money, he had all the land, and he owned all the people. From a "fiscal" perspective, you don't get wealthier than that! (Yes, i know solomon was the wealthiest and wisest... but go with me on this one) I mean think about it. Even the great POWER of fast food today, my dad's favorite place to eat, McDonald's. What are they in business to do? You say, sell hamburgers? Wrong. They are the greatest REAL ESTATE OWNER in the United States, maybe world. 30,000+ McDonald's throughout the world x all the real estate they own for each location.... = $$$$$$$!!!!! 


With all of that said, where does that bring us? How does this apply to us? Great! Joseph applied the "Principle of the Ants", got Pharaoh loaded... AND in the END even saw his DREAM come to pass, his brothers bowing down to him.  Where does that put us? Well.... we can take the same principle and apply it today. We may feel like we are taking a bit of a step back in time, but it is the art of canning or preserving or vacuum-sealing. Whatever you want to do, but it is the art of collecting during the harvest, storing up for the winter. Like what we did yesterday, blueberry picking. You can do it at whatever level you want. Blueberry season, here, came to an end yesterday.... peach season is about to come to an end.... that walks us into apples, maybe pears... and I'm not sure what else. Some options? COLLECT WHEN IT'S CHEAP! Then, learn the art of canning, preserving, or spend $25 on a vacuum-seal machine and put away all your purchases for the winter. We got blueberries yesterday for $1.00/POUND!!! Not sure if you can conceptualize that.... but the picture of all the jars with blueberries... (I got them for free since I got stung, wasn't that nice!).... but ALL those would have been about $2.00!!! So... store away. Take one day a week during the harvest season and cut, cook, puree, freeze, whatever, but take what you've purchased and store it away! Apply the "PRINCIPLE OF THE ANTS"!! Visit your local Farmer's Market. If you really want to be adventurous, plant a garden (I planted 4 things this year! Whoa! Didn't want to get in over my head!). 


I would anticipate that the Proverbs 31 woman collected in the harvest and stored her food away for the winter months. We know her family was prepared with clothing for the winter months and had no fear of cold. I anticipate she also had food ready for them too. 


Just a thought. And, it all comes down to planning. If you don't plan, it most likely won't get done. I need to get better at this, and CONSISTENCY of it. Planning. Seeking God about what should be on my agenda, and having one day a week have a project. IE: Monday's work on my book, Tuesday's can fruit & veggies, Wednesday DOR, Thursday work on a sewing project, Friday work on taxes for the next year & wealth creation, Saturday ??, Sunday??. You get the idea. It's all about planning. 


Per my sister Kimmi's great idea.... let's close this devotion in prayer today: 

Heavenly Father... we come to you in the name of your son Jesus. Father, we ask you to help us weed out things from our lives that are not yielding the fruit that YOU want in our lives. Help us not to get overwhelmed about our journey to becoming this Proverbs 31 woman... our journey to becoming ALL that you would have us to be. Help us to choose what areas to work on at what time so that we would not get overwhelmed. Father we pray in Jesus Name that you would mold us and make us into world changers. That we would not only just be an impact to our immediate family, but that you would use us to fulfill the Great Commission, that we would GO and make disciples of all the nations. That our lives would be pleasing to you, that our IMPACT would go FAR beyond the walls our our individual homes. Lead us to live out our dreams, lead us to be wise, lead us to have MORE than enough to meet our needs and then to be able to pour out and meet the needs of others. Lord... and if now is the time... lead us to even, maybe plant a garden. LOL. We love you Lord. We know you have perfect timing. Thank you for helping us to work on EXACTLY what you want us to work on right now! Like, how to eat an elephant, one bite at a time. With your help, we are working on becoming the BEST woman of God, and man of God that we can be, one positive habit at a time. Thank you Lord! Bless our day, expand our territories, and we claim Psalm 91 protection over us, our families, friends & co-workers. We pray all this in the mighty name of Jesus, AMEN!

Reflection Question: 

• Ask God, "What area would you have ME work on? Is there something I can do to apply the Principle of the Ants?"
• Now, STOP TALKING and LISTEN!

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XOXO, Amy Jo