“For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you.” 2 Corinthians 1:12
I like simple.
Simple pleasures, simple foods, simple days. A flower in an unexpected place. A hearty bowl of stew on a cold wintry day, meandering down a country road or an evening with the family gathered in the living room sharing laughs and love … all of these things bring a smile to my face and peace to my soul.
Ironically simplicity requires difficult choices, an iron will, and nerves of steel. The world, your work, and even your own heart will try to sneak in and wreak havoc with a simple life.
Jesus led a simple life. He had one goal: to do His Father’s will. How simple is that? Without a smart phone or iPad (my two mainstays), He managed to turn the world upside down. In order to live a simple life, we must simplify our priorities.
Simple Life Focus:
One command: Love the Lord with all your heart
One commission: Tell the world
One goal: Bring Him Glory
Empty your heart. Fill up with God.
It’s simple.
To learn more about the simple life, simply scroll through the Sway. Have a blessed Lent.
Here is our TalkShoe chat on Simplicity:
Have a simply blessed Lent.
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The Simple Life: Week 4
The Freedom of Abandonment and The Sacred Present
” Teach us how short our life is, so that we may become wise.” Psalm 90:12
Can you believe that we are more than half way through our Bible study? Jane and I pray that your life is beginning to change for the Simple! We are very excited to continue this journey with you. This week we are focusing on abandoning ourselves in God and living in the present. May you continue to answer God’s call God to leave the complicated and embrace the simple.
If you missed the Week 4 Community Call, here it is. In this call, we discussed Chapters 5 and 6.
Weekly Homework
Remember to check your email every Tuesday evening for your new password for the week. Below you will find homework for each level of study. Feel free to change from Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3 as your schedule allows! Remember, there is no pressure to complete every activity. These are just options for your growth. They can be accessed at any time, even after the study ends.
Level 1, Study: Weekly Goals
For Week 4, do chapters 7 and 8 in Becoming A Woman of Simplicity.
Remember to focus on Jesus.
Feel free to do any of the other activities from Levels 2 and 3 as your time allows.
Level 2, Community: Weekly Goals
For Week 4, do chapters 7 and 8 of Becoming A Woman of Simplicity.
Answer the question on the Speak Your Mind commentsection at the bottom of this post.
Join the Community Call, Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. EST on Talk Shoe (Information on TalkShoe is in your weekly email.)
Listen to the Podcast for information on casting your burdens on the Lord . Simply click on the link below.
Level 3, Opportunity: Weekly Goals
For Week 4, do chapters 7 and 8 of Becoming A Woman of Simplicity.
Answer the question on the Speak Your Mind commentsection at the bottom of this post, join the Community Call on Wednesday night on TalkShoe, and listen to the Podcast at the link provided up above.
Don’t forget to check out our private Facebook page. Leave your comments about this week’s study, post your prayer requests, or share any insights/questions you may have. Only members of our Bible study group will see these posts.
Your Simple Challenge activity for this week is Submission. “Submission: Not asserting ourselves in order to come under the authority, wisdom, and power of Jesus Christ as our Lord, King, and Master.” Click on the link below for an excellent resource and ideas on how to practice submission.
For your listening and worshiping pleasure, please abandon yourself and enjoy this breath taking video and music by Paul Cardall–simply beautiful!:
Questions of the Week (Please respond in the Speak Your Mind section at the very bottom of this page).
1. What activity did you choose to do this week for the discipline of submission? If you are comfortable, you may share what you learned from the experience.
When my children were little, I would often find their little sticky handprints all around the house, especially on the windows and sliding glass door in the kitchen. I could see the perfect outline of their tiny hands and noses where they had leaned in to the window pressing against it to eagerly watch snowflakes falling or a hungry bird at the feeder. Those little prints said, “I lingered here. This was important.”
Last Wednesday, Mary and I launched our first online Bible study, The Simple Life (still plenty of time for you to join us if you would like). In the first week’s lesson, author Cynthia Heald asks a question on page 16 of Becoming a Woman of Simplicity: “What do you sense the Lord is saying to you about what a life lived in single-minded devotion to Him would look like?”
To me it looks like a handprint ~ God’s handprints.
I like looking for God’s handprints in His world, particularly in the little, simple, often-overlooked things in nature. They’re there, all around us, but it takes time and intent to see His handprints in the small things. And in a typical over-scheduled day in my life, I don’t leave myself much time to slow down and savor things.
I wonder how much I’m missing.
What small gifts has God put right under my nose that I’m missing because I’m not looking for them? Instead, I have my eyes firmly fixed on my schedule, complete with my check-off-the-next-thing-on-my-list glaze in my eyes.
I love that this study makes me reevaluate what I’m doing. And one thing I want to do is to put my eyes on God so that I don’t miss His handprints that say “I lingered here. This is important.” Each one is a gift. Sometimes the gift is purely for my enjoyment, as when I bask in the radiance of a creamsicle-orange sunset. Or when I see the smooth, mahogany acorn nestled among the rocks and leaves in the woods. Other times these small gifts hold a lesson for me to discover, like the methodical persistence I see in the caterpillars I captured in the amazing video below. I almost missed that, but fortunately, God got my attention.
I want God’s sacred and my everyday to meet in a holy collision of life lived in single-minded devotion to Him. I want to see His sticky handprints wherever I go. That’s my answer.
Pray on!
photo credit: Duncan Brown (Cradlehall) via photopincc (Changes added in PicMonkey)
The Simple Life: Week Three
One Thing and Living
“For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him Crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:1-2
Jane and I welcome you back to Week Three of The Simple Life! We are very excited to continue this journey with you into the simple. We pray that you are learning to find simpleness and peace in your life by focusing on one thing–Jesus. May you continue to answer God’s call God to leave the complicated and embrace the simple.
Here’s our short introduction to the week 4 study:
If you missed the Week 3 Community Call Week, here it is. Lots of good things were discussed, so be sure to listen if you have time!
Weekly Homework
Remember to check your email every Tuesday evening for your new password for the week. Below you will find homework for each level of study. Feel free to change from Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3 as your schedule allows! Remember, there is no pressure to complete every activity. These are just options for your growth. They can be accessed at any time, even after the study ends.
Level 1, Study: Weekly Goals
For Week 3, do chapters 5 and 6 in Becoming A Woman of Simplicity.
Remember to focus on Jesus.
Feel free to do any of the other activities from Levels 2 and 3 as your time allows.
Level 2, Community: Weekly Goals
For Week 3, do chapters 5 and 6 of Becoming A Woman of Simplicity.
Answer the question on the Speak Your Mind commentsection at the bottom of this post.
Join the Community Call, Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. EST on Talk Shoe (Information on TalkShoe is in your weekly email.)
Listen to the Podcast for information on casting your burdens on the Lord . Simply click on the link below.
Level 3, Opportunity: Weekly Goals
For Week 3, do chapters 5 and 6 of Becoming A Woman of Simplicity.
Answer the question on the Speak Your Mind commentsection at the bottom of this post, join the Community Call on Wednesday night on TalkShoe, and listen to the Podcast at the link provided up above.
Don’t forget to check out our private Facebook page. Leave your comments about this week’s study, post your prayer requests, or share any insights/questions you may have. Only members of our Bible study group will see these posts.
Your Simple Challenge activity for this week is Sabbath. “To keep a Sabbath is to set aside a 24-hour day in which you do no work to rest in God’s person and provision. Sabbath is a time to refrain from your normal responsibilities in order to pray and play with God and others.” For ideas on how to go about planning your Sabbath, click on the link below.
As Mary and I are preparing to kick off our first ever online Bible study offered by Only By Prayer called The Simple Life, I’ve naturally been doing some reflection on what I think the simple life looks like. I’ve come to the conclusion that I definitely know what the simple life doesn’t look like based on past and current experience. I can tell you that it doesn’t look like any of the following things, all of which I’ve done at some point in my life.
It doesn’t look like working until 9:30 p.m. every weeknight grading students’ English papers.
It doesn’t look like staying up until 10:30 p.m. or 11 p.m. every night writing an e-book.
It doesn’t look like doing household chores all day Sunday to try and prepare for the next week.
It doesn’t look like skipping my devotion time repeatedly because I’m too tired to get up in the morning.
It doesn’t look like watching the whole summer pass by with the realization that I’ve only sat down twice in the evening on my deck to relax and read a book.
It doesn’t look like my children and I only seeing my husband every other weekend for the duration of six months while he works across the country.
It doesn’t look like wading through a house filled with too much junk!
I’m pretty good at knowing what the simple life isn’t; it’s what it is that I need to figure out.
Now, I know that life has its seasons, and some seasons just have to be endured, but when you realize it’s gone from a life season to a life pattern, then it’s time for a life change!
So far, in my early prestudy ruminations, I’m beginning to see that simply doesn’t necessarily mean easily. Here is what I think I want the simple life to look like: To me, the simple life means 1) sitting at the feet of Jesus 2) undergirding everything with prayer 3) being intentional with my time and resources, and 4) pursuing and listening for God’s next thing for me.
Now I just need to learn how to do all that! How about you? What do you think the simple life looks life for you?
Would you like to join us in exploring The Simple Life ? There’s till time for you to sign up.
The Simple Life Week Two
Week Two:
The World and Unshakable Simplicity
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Jane and I welcome you back to Week Two of The Simple Life! We are very excited to continue this journey with you into the simple. We pray that you have begun to leave behind the tyranny of busyness and have turned toward becoming a slave of peace. May you continue to answer God’s call to leave the complicated and embrace the simple. Be sure to listen to the Michael W. Smith piece posted below (You will be on your knees by the end of this song … worthy is the Lamb.)
Community Call Week 2
For those of you who weren’t able to join the community call on TalkShoe, here is the Week 2 recording. Simply click on the sideways arrow to listen.
To kick off the second week, we have recorded a very short video for you to get you thinking about this week’s topic. We’ve embedded it right here so that you can watch it.
Weekly Homework
Remember to check your email every Tuesday evening for your new password for the week. Below you will find homework for each level of study. Feel free to change from Level 1, to Level 2, to Level 3 as your schedule allows! Remember, there is no pressure to complete every activity. These are just options for your growth. They can be accessed at any time, even after the study ends.
Level 1, Study: Weekly Goals
For Week 2, do chapters 3 and 4 in Becoming A Woman of Simplicity.
Remember to focus on Jesus.
Feel free to do any of the other activities from Levels 2 and 3 as your time allows.
Level 2, Community: Weekly Goals
For Week 2, do chapters 3 and 4 of Becoming A Woman of Simplicity.
Answer the question on the Speak Your Mind commentsection at the bottom of this post.
Join the Community Call, Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. EST on Talk Shoe (Information on TalkShoe is in your weekly email.)
Listen to the Podcast for information on casting your burdens on the Lord.We also left the link from last week. Simply click on the links below. We have kept this podcast the same from last week, because it applies to both weeks.
For Week 2, do chapters 3 and 4 of Becoming A Woman of Simplicity.
Answer the question on the Speak Your Mind commentsection at the bottom of this post, join the Community Call on Wednesday night on TalkShoe, and listen to the Podcast at the link provided up above.
Don’t forget to check out our private Facebook page. Leave your comments about this week’s study, post your prayer requests, or share any insights/questions you may have. Only members of our Bible study group will see these posts.
Your Simple Challenge activity for this week is Silence. Commit this week to adding more silence to your life. Turn off the radio while you are driving to work. Skip the morning news–you’ll be surprised how much more peaceful your heart will be. Add a time of silence at the end of your day. Resolve to listen today instead of talk. For more ideas on how to add silence to your life please visit the following link (Be sure to click on the Jesus Prayer link.): Silence
Take advantage of the Extra Simple resources by clicking on the links below:
For your listening and worshiping pleasure, please be blessed by the beautiful music of Michael W. Smith (make sure you listen all the way to the end–you’ll be simply blessed!):
Questions of the Week (Please respond in the Speak Your Mind section at the very bottom of this page).
1. How did you add more silence to your life this week? What did you feel how did it affect you and your family? What did God teach you through this silent time?
“For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you.” 2 Corinthians 1:12
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