Prayer for a New School Year

Happy Tuesday friends! We hope that you had a wonderful long weekend! At the start of a new school year we wanted to share a prayer that is the heartbeat of our community and that we pray for each of you. We pray that this reminds you that as you embark on this new school year and season that you are not alone. God is with you in each and every class, every hallway, and every situation that you encounter this year. May you fall more in love with Him and who He is in the days, weeks, and months to come. You can do this!! Let us make this year the best one yet!

God, we ask for your help as we start this new school year. Give us grace for the days before us and strength for the school year as we take one day at at time. In the midst of the schoolwork, the requirements, the after-school activities, the work that is before us we ask that you show yourself in new and mighty ways this year. Show us the purpose that you have for us this year. Show us how we can have an impact on our worlds for you. Let us see the joys and challenges that we will experience as unique opportunities to fall more in love with you and to have an opportunity to share your love with others. Give us strength for our studies and the wisdom on how to do our best. Give us an open heart to see those who are broken and hurting around us so that we may show your grace and love to each person. Give us your eyes and a vision for this year that goes above and beyond anything we can think or imagine. We love you our precious Savior. Thank you that you promise to go before us, never leave us, and strengthen and equip us for the journey before us this year. Amen.

Happy Easter!

Dearest Friends, as we head into this precious weekend of remembering Christ's extravagant work on the cross to save us, may you be blessed with the knowledge that Christ is risen, draw comfort in the truth that our sufferings are temporary, and rejoice in the miraculous hope of a risen Lord! 

Happy Easter sweet friends!

Monthly Scripture Memory Program: March (Hebrews 13:9)

As we shared in September, one of the heartbeats of Grace Engaged is the scripture memory program that we hope y'all will join in with each month! Each school year we will be picking one "theme" to look at in scripture and for the 2015-2016 school year we have chosen "grace" as our theme. For the month of September we memorized a portion of 2 Corinthians 8:7 and for October we memorized a portion of Ephesians 2:8. For November we memorized Hebrews 4:16 and for December we memorized John 1:14 and in January we memorized I Peter 4:10. For the month of March we are memorizing a portion of Hebrews 13:9 that states; "Your strength comes from God's Grace". 

One of the things that we are passionate about here at Grace Engaged is encouraging ladies to know that we have a Savior who not only loves us big and beautifully but one who is fully involved and present in our lives and pours out His lavish love on us each day.

These past two months things have been quiet around the website and here on the blog. We appreciate your patience as several of our team members (and myself included) have been dealt some difficult life circumstances, including deaths in the family, illness, difficult relationship issues, and several other personal issues. In the midst of all of these circumstances we are seeing more than ever the wonderful blessing of grace in our lives. We see how our strength for the daily battles and issues that we face are able to be faced because of the Lord's strength. In our brokenness we are driven to the Lord and to His faithful and loving grace. 

As we celebrate Easter this month we are beyond grateful for the Lord's grace in our lives. We are praying for you dear friends and we appreciate the way that you have lovingly understood our struggles these past two months.

Happy March friends! May you be encouraged as you memorize this verse and may we all see the beautiful grace of God in our lives in fresh ways in the days ahead!

Welcome Back! (And our Scripture Memory Verse for January!)

Welcome back friends! We hope that you had a wonderful holiday season with your friends, family, and loved ones! It was such a delight for our team to spend time away with those closest to us and also spending time in God's word! We are excited to be back and to connect with you throughout this semester! Don't forget to check out our website for exciting news and things that are going on in our ministry! You can find the website by clicking HERE!

We are also excited to share our scripture memory verse for January! You may have already seen in on Instagram (are we connected with you on IG? We would love to if we aren't!) As a little background, one of the heartbeats of Grace Engaged is the scripture memory program that we hope y'all will join in with each month! Each school year we will be picking one "theme" to look at in scripture and for the 2015-2016 school year we have chosen "grace" as our theme. For the month of September we memorized a portion of 2 Corinthians 8:7 and for October we memorized a portion of Ephesians 2:8. For November we memorized Hebrews 4:16 and for December we memorized John 1:14. For the month of January we are memorizing I Peter 4:10 which states: "As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." We would love to have you join in on memorizing this scripture with us this month!

One of the things that we are passionate about here at Grace Engaged is encouraging ladies to know that we have a Savior who not only loves us big and beautifully but one who is fully involved and present in our lives. In understanding this big and beautiful grace we then can serve one another as good stewards of that grace. Isn't it a beautiful thing when we understand the love and grace of the Lord and can encourage other ladies? Truly it is a beautiful thing to see and a beautiful way to share the love of God!

What a beautiful thing to ponder as we return to our school routines for this second semester. Who in your life needs to experience the manifold grace of God? Who can you serve in this way? Happy January friends! May you be encouraged as you memorize and live out this verse!

Monthly Scripture Memory Program: November (Hebrews 4:16)

As we shared in September, one of the heartbeats of Grace Engaged is the scripture memory program that we hope y'all will join in with each month! Each school year we will be picking one "theme" to look at in scripture and for the 2015-2016 school year we have chosen "grace" as our theme. For the month of September we memorized a portion of 2 Corinthians 8:7 and for October we memorized a portion of Ephesians 2:8. For November we are memorizing Hebrews 4:16 which states: "So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most."

One of the things that we are passionate about here at Grace Engaged is encouraging ladies to know that we have a Savior who not only loves us big and beautifully but that we can come to at any time, especially in our hour of need. He is always ready to meet us with grace and mercy. 

What I love about this verse is that there is great promise and hope that we can come just as we are. So many of our humanly relationships that we have are based off of what we have to offer someone. Lots of time in high school it always seems that we have to be "popular" enough to fit in with a certain group of people. The beautiful thing about the gospel is that we can come BOLDLY to our Heavenly Father and Savior knowing that we are approaching the King of Kings and that we will receive His mercy when we come and that we already completely belong. We don't have to do anything but come. 

Joni Eareckson Tada once said: "Scripture calls everyone of s to the throne of grace, but doesn't tell us how to get there. Maybe it doesn't matter. Run, walk, or crawl on your stomach through the muck. Come in your tears, come in your rage, come in your perplexity, come in your anguish of soul, just come and mercy awaits you."

What a beautiful thing to be thankful for in this month where thanksgiving and gratitude are the focus. Happy November friends! May you be encouraged as you memorize this verse!

Meditating On and Memorizing Scripture- Journal Ideas

Today I (Rebecca) wanted to share a subject that is precious to my heart- spending time meditating on scripture. Over the years I have studied scripture in different ways. In college Theology was my major and became the deepest study of my life. After college I felt incredibly blessed to have had the foundation of theology so that the relationship that I cultivated with the Lord grew more and more and was beyond just being based on emotion. I loved having the opportunity to study and understand the Bible and memorize scripture. The truth is I still  love getting into God's word everyday - and I see how "living" His word is in so many ways.

But one area that I used to struggle with is on memorizing scripture. Do any of you struggle with this to?  Honestly I would try so hard in my quiet time with the Lord but I just struggled. Memorization has not always come easy to me and I would marvel at those who seemed to be able to quote entire books of the Bible with no problem! 

Several years ago I came across Psalm 119:11 which states, "your word I have treasured in my heart" and immediately I was convicted as I wanted to memorize and treasure God's word in my heart. I started to pray about how I could memorize scripture better. I started thinking about how I am "wired" and how I could meditate on scripture so that it truly went deep into my heart. I bought a new Bible (I will share more about this in the future) and since I am a "journal writer/drawer/alterer" I knew that for me I needed to do something artistic with scripture.  I have found by writing, drawing, paining, and scrapbooking into a journal I have been able to truly mediate and memorize scripture. Here are a few examples:

One of my favorite projects I have done is to cut up strips of paper and then write down all of my fears, worries, or concerns. I then paint over them and then write scripture truths on top of that. I have done this many times and it is a beautiful way to treasure God's word in my heart.

{the picture below was an attempt at making a flower out of all of that *smiles*}

Sometimes I like to decorate certain words that are really speaking to me and things that are going on in my life!

I love cute stickers so sometimes I like to use them to write out the words of the scripture verse I am memorizing or meditating on. 

A couple of years ago I was on a precious trip with a senior class and I came across a precious and simple verse from Ezekiel. It was perfect for the time as I was struck by the hope, promise, and security that the verse promised.  At the time I had no idea that in the upcoming year I would be diagnosed with Advanced Late Stage Lyme Disease and Cancer but the Lord was already writing this precious truth on my heart for the future! I spent time journaling it but I also "paper sewed" it into my journal. To this day it is still one of my favorite verses I have ever memorized!!

Last year I wanted to write down scriptures that I am praying for a dear friend of mine. I have also been working on memorizing these scriptures so this was a fun project I found the perfect picture frame to do this with and I love how it turned out!

These are just a few of the small ways that I meditate and memorize scripture through journaling. Some other ways I will show you in the upcoming weeks but in the meantime I would love to know if y'all use journaling to help meditate on scripture and memorize it?