Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching and what better why to celebrate than speaking your spouse’s or your loved one’s love language. If you aren’t familiar with the 5 love languages, pick up a copy of Gary Chapman’s book The 5 Love Languages
The 5 Love Languages® is a valuable resource that can help individuals strengthen their connections and experience greater joy and harmony in their relationships. By understanding and expressing love in the language most meaningful to their loved ones, individuals can overcome feelings of disconnection and loneliness, fostering deeper and more fulfilling connections with the people they care about.
Speaking words of affirmation is a powerful way to build confidence and strengthen the bond in relationships. By expressing appreciation, encouragement, and compliments, individuals can uplift their loved ones, boost their self-esteem, and create a positive and supportive environment. This practice fosters a deeper sense of connection and fosters a strong foundation built on love and mutual respect.
This video focuses on words of affirmation and how you can wrap up words as a tangible gift.
I hope these videos provide inspiration for creating personalized gifts. Please leave your ideas in the comments I’d love to hear to hear them. And please like, subscribe and follow on social media. A heart felt thanks! : )
How does it make you feel when you have worked so hard for something only to not achieve it or just fail at it. Perhaps you were working hard for a promotion at work. You stayed late when you had to without complaint, went above and beyond to prove your abilities, you were honest and loyal and someone else who was far less experienced and than you got the promotion. Hardly seems fair.
Maybe all your friends are getting married and having babies and you are having a hard time finding the right guy or girl or experiencing miscarriage after miscarriage. You take care of yourself, eat healthy, exercise, and still no baby. Or maybe it’s your marriage. Your friend’s marriage crumbled but now, they are back together but your marriage seems like there is no hope that any reconciliation is possible. How is this fair? But it happens and God allows it. It seems like the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer. Life just isn’t turning out how you had planned. Sometimes God’s actions clash with what we expect.
Habakkuk saw injustices happening and what appeared to be the evil ones succeeding. Read the book of Habakkuk, it’s only four chapters. In this book, God offers hope, as He always does.
Habakkuk makes no bones about complaining to God and asking questions like, why and how long. Habakkuk had to posture himself before God. Be it on your knees or not, the most important the posture of your heart – humility. Philippians 2:3-8 offers some insight into the posture Jesus had. Habakkuk also had to be patient and wait on God – Psalm 46:10 – this can be hard but so necessary. I sometimes wonder if “being still” means not frantically worrying and worshipping the problem we face, but instead frantically worshipping our Father. How many times does a solution comes to us when we aren’t thinking about it. For me I could be cooking dinner, driving, reading a book, in the middle of writing a blog post or serving Him and God will hit me with the answer to my problem. Most times, that’s how God speaks to me, when I’m not solely thinking about my problem.
God replies to Habakkuk in 1:5; “Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told …”. Then in Chapter 2, verse 2 God tell Habakkuk to write down His answer to warn others. God is telling Habakkuk in verse 3 to wait, wait for what He is going to do. God will make everything right, but we have to wait. We need to continue to have the right posture and be patient.
God’s ways are not our way- Isaiah 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.” “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.” – Psalm 115:3. God is sovereign, He sees the big picture. What appears to be unfair to us now, God is delivering us grace. That can be a hard pill to swallow. Through all the injustices we see now, God sees, He knows what He is doing. We need to have faith and trust Him.
Here’s something to think about, what is the difference between grace and fairness? Leave a comment below, what are your thoughts?
Memorize Monday – free coloring page – Isaiah 54:10 “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
Download the image to your phone or electronic device as wallpaper or print it out to keep in front of you to help you memorize scripture.
To download, click on the image, click file, click save. Save anywhere on your device and go into your wallpaper settings on your device it’s that easy. : )
Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.
Psalm 119:36.
Download the image to your phone or electronic device as wallpaper or print it out to keep in front of you to help you memorize scripture.
To download, click on the image, click file, click save. Save anywhere on your device and go into your wallpaper settings on your device it’s that easy. : )
And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
Hewbrews 13:16
Download the image to your phone or electronic device as wallpaper or print it out to keep in front of you to help you memorize scripture.
To download, click on the image, click file, click save. Save anywhere on your device and go into your wallpaper settings on your device it’s that easy. : )
Why do we find it hard to share our faith? We readily share our passion for our hobbies, TV shows, or sports but when it comes to our faith, we shy away. Why? Perhaps we are afraid we may offend someone and they won’t like us anymore. Or maybe we just don’t feel like we are adequately well versed to share what we know about God and His Word. Perhaps we fear we may get a question we can’t or don’t know how to answer.
We are commanded to share the Gospel: “And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.’” – Matthew 16:15. (NKJV) When God says “Go”, GO! It may feel uncomfortable, it may feel weird, but we can trust God to give us the words we need at the right time when we have His Words in our minds and in our hearts. “The Lord God has given Me The tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak A word in season to him who is weary.” (NIV) – Isaiah 50:4.
Yet there are a few benefits for sharing what we know. We don’t know everything there is about God and the Bible and that’s ok. When we share what we know, we are increasing our own knowledge. Repeating what we know helps us learn and helps us to remember. Our learning and our memories benefit from active involvement. Hearing ourselves repeat what we know helps us retain that information. Thus, why here at the Kedge Anchor, Memorize Mondays is offered to help anyone who wants to memorize scripture. And having scripture stored in your memory you will be more confident to recall God’s Words when you are sharing. And more importantly sharing our faith, can lead others to God and salvation. The Holy Spirit will help you recall what you have learned and in the process of sharing don’t be surprised if God reveals something to you whilst you are sharing. It can happen. I’m not just talking about sharing just the Gospel, I’m talking about sharing our experiences, our walk with God, His promises. God will use anything to lead you to share the Gospel.
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
Psalm 119:11
The waterfall in the picture in this post, reminds me how powerful the God’s Word can be. The waterfall has tons of pressure and force behind it, yet it’s beauty is inviting, captivating and mesmerizing. When we are presenting God’s Word, be it the Gospel, or a promise, or just words of encouragement, when spoken in truth and grace, those words will be inviting, captivating and mesmerizing. God can use anyone, anything, any circumstance for your to share His Word.
So, you maybe asking, how? Practice. Practice just sharing your faith or what you have learned with another believer. Share your faith online. Be bold. If you lose a few friends, then pray for them. A seed has been planted and God will take care of it. Practice living your faith out day to day. Our actions speak louder than words and when others see our responses in certain situations they will wonder, “what do they have, that I don’t have?” Memorize scripture. Sometimes you may not learn a verse word for word, but knowing where it lives in the Bible you can pull it up on your phone. Here is one I find useful: thebible.com. If we are living out what we have learned that too is an active involvement. Start little by little. Be vulnerable when sharing. It’s hard, it’s not easy. We all want to be accepted but we need to live out the Gospel in BOLDNESS!
Dark, still waters. Light is limited, can’t see and not moving anywhere, need direction and light. Is this you right now? Read on.
Waiting on the Lord when you need an answer from Him, or direction, or a healing can be difficult. It’s those difficult times it seems like we are walking in a wilderness, or in still waters and we need to do some kedging (see the About page). We can’t see the light, we don’t know in what direction to turn, we search for answers to the point we become consumed with the problem. We need to consume ourselves with THE problem solver. Jesus.
So often we hear people tell us to “just give it to God”, “hand your problems to Him”, and, I like this one, “Try not to worry about it.” All given with good intent and probably for a lack of not knowing what to say. Even the Bible does tell us not to worry – Matthew 6:25-34, but God also gives us some instruction in verse 33, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness“. So when we read or hear those words, “Give it to God”, what does that look like? I believe that handing it over to God is going to vary slightly for everyone. But I do believe there are two important practices with which we can start. First, we need to pray and read God’s Word. (Those two go hand in hand) Obvious I know, but it’s how we pray; pray specifically. God knows our situation, after all He is in control and nothing surprises Him, – Hebrews 4:13, but He still waits and wants to hear from His children. So perhaps we can pray specifically for putting the right people in our paths to encourage, speak truth to us, and that our eyes and hearts are open to them. There’s a quote in a book by Ruth Chou Simons titled Gracelaced, an awesome devotional, beautifully illustrated in watercolors and photographs that takes you through the truths from God’s Word as you transition through seasons of life. There is one quote that really stood out to me. “God is more interested in your desperate need for His lamp-lit direction than your path-paving skills.” By praying and reading God’s Word, getting to know Him more, and growing closer to Him, we will begin to focus less on our current situation and more on Him and what He has to say to us. We also begin to see the light on His path, just enough for the next step. That’s all we need. Any more would overwhelm us and if we knew more than we needed, we would be relying on that knowledge and not trusting God and “His lamp-lit direction”. Besides we only have today, not yesterday, and tomorrow is history. Focus on scripture, write out a scripture verse for the day, carry it with you, memorize it, draw it, paint it, sing it, whatever is going to help you remember it. This needs to be a daily practice. And when we come out of this wilderness, hopefully we are still practicing this important step.
The second thing we can do is serve. Text a friend ask them “how can I pray for you today?” and pray for them. A handwritten note is always encouraging and who doesn’t like to get a nice surprise in the mail? Ask to serve at church, a local non-profit, look to your neighbors, ask a friend if you can babysit so they can have a date night, mow a lawn, etc. I know serving may look different in this current state of lockdown and limited mobility. But there are ways to get creative. It may be just serving your family at home. Serving others helps get our minds off ourselves and our problems.
“God is more interested in your desperate need for His lamp-lit direction than your path-paving skills.”
Ruth Chou Simons
This is not to say that worry isn’t going to creep in. If you’re like me, “ok God, not going to worry about this, this is yours to handle, Amen.” LOL right? Ten seconds later, I’m back where I started. That’s ok. We. Are. Human. And once again, God isn’t surprised. So we need to recognize our worry and hand it back over to God with a prayer of asking for forgiveness and moving forward. Pick up the verse you wrote down and read it again, this time from memory, if you can. This is also not to say we can’t do anything at all. If it’s a financial struggle, a health issue, a relationship issue, a spiritual battle, whatever it is we are trying to navigate, we can still do a part. For example, if it’s a health issue, we can research healthy ways to combat it or search for a doctor that specializes in the health issue, but what we can’t do is obsess over it. And we will, from time to time, find ourselves obsessing. That’s when we need to repent and release it back to God. Walk away from it, regain our focus. As it was said in Hope for the Future Part 2, “While it’s good to plan and prepare responsibly, it’s bad to dwell and worry about all the ways our planning could go wrong.”
So when we feel like we are wandering or sailing in uncharted waters, seeking God’s “lamp-lit direction” by “kedging” (spiritual kedging) or pulling closer to Him, seeking Him in His Word daily, we allow God to show us the light and lead us in the right direction.
The Kedge Anchor 
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