5 Question Journal

What is God doing in my life right now?

 a little rain can be a good thing

A couple of years ago I was blessed to be in the company of three wonderful women in a small bible study each week where we would answer five questions. I miss answering those questions because they were such a great way to focus on God's work in my life; taking stock on a regular basis, gaining clarity and trajectory.

Here are the five questions:

1. How have I experienced God working in my life this week?
2. What is God teaching and showing me?
3. What is my response and how am I reacting to this?
4. What sins have I been convicted of this week?
5. Response to a bible passage ~ What did I get out of it?

For the purpose of keeping my bearings I want to answer these questions every week here, and invite you to keep your own log. 

These questions have been a reminder that He IS at work daily in my life.

When two grow into one another

My answers for this week:

1. How have I experienced God working in my life this week?
   I have been praying for a hunger for the Word. The dry spell has lasted too long, Holy words falling flat on a distracted mind. God has heard my prayer and lit a fire for his beautiful love story. I am grateful and excited to be feasting once again.
2. What is God teaching and showing me?
   This week I have been holding on so tight. My knuckles are white with it. Parenting, running a household, trying so hard to be creative, and really just trying too hard to control it all. My Roaster Husband demanded on Saturday night that I take a bath with the door locked as long as I needed. I love him. As I was lying there a song that I had been listening to earlier kept cycling through my head. From You Get What You Give by 
   Zac Brown Band, the song's title is “Let It Go.” Need I say more?
3. What is my response and how am I reacting to this?
   Letting go is so hard, and this is not a new lesson for me, but a beautiful reminder. My first response is always to try harder. I will try harder to let go. Oxymoron anyone? 
   Trust. 
   This is what I need to let go. More of my savior is what I need. 
   To be thankful for each moment, good and hard is what I need ~
   then to give them to the one who allows me to have them in the first place.
   
   

   

   Listening to creation singing His praises

   
   
4. What sins have I been convicted of this week?
   Having trust issues with God has been my milestone this week. He is unchanging, never failing, loving, and good. I am none of those things. It should be a no-brainier in whom I should place my trust. Expectations tell me that I should find this easy by now. I think I underestimate how sinful I really am. Praise the Lord for Jesus.
5. Response to a bible passage ~ What did I get out of it?
   I have been reading Amos this week 1-6. This text may seem dark with all the woes to the nations, but I found it also encouraging. God does not turn a “blind eye,” He sees everything and takes all into account. Justice belongs to the Lord, but is for ALL. I think a little self exploration is in order. Did these people even realize that what they were doing was wrong? Were they just following the status-quot? Am I? These questions bring to mind a book that we have been reading in our life group; RADICAL. What are the repercussions from the decisions that I make in my life? I want a life with purpose and not just to follow this world I live in.

The Weekend Wear Down

Why is it that some weekends wear me down more than build me up? Could it be expectations, and the onslaught of the reality in which I am immersed? 

 Getting out in Wyatt, Jeff's 1969 Volvo

All this as my husband and I received a gracious gift of an afternoon/evening without the children and had a wonderful time relishing in the ease of being with one another. I suppose that the screaming, emotional crying, and anger that met us when we left with our boys afterward wore out the peace that the afternoon brought. 

beauty in the almost spent

Parenting can be taxing on a soul that isn't focused on what is important. I'll face it, parenting is taxing even when I'm filled with Jesus and depending on him, but it is much more frustrating when I'm not. There is nothing more gratifying, and yet nothing that can empty me out so quickly. My babies (5 and 2, yet still my baby boys) need more than I have to give. They need Jesus, his love, his grace, his patience, and his total enjoyment of them as HE made them, not the picture I have in my head of who they should be.

The boys being uniquely real and hilarious

 

My pride keeps getting in the way, my idol of self, thinking that I can do it if I just keep trying harder on my own. I can just hear my Savior whisper to me through his word “Megan, you aren't supposed to do it on your own. I'm here, allow me to fill your inabilities and flow through you. Relax and trust in me. Your children are in my hands, today and forever.”   

(Eph 6:4, Matt 11:30, Psalm 139:13, 2Cor 12:10)

So, now I'm seeing that it's quite possible that I can't be self sufficient, and maybe I shouldn't want to be. Can I really embrace such a possibility? I like to think I'm honest with myself, but these sneaky little lies seem so benign until they eat up my weekend like cancer.

where do I look?

puddles praising him

It's Sunday night, the boys are playing in their room, dinner is cooling on the stove, and getting these words written down has left me with a smile. I think of one of my favorite books One Thousand Gifts by an extremely talented writer and blogger at A Holy Experience and I'm reminded. Reminded to be thankful for the sweet time with my husband, for my rowdy and emotional children, for the hard times that draw me closer to Jesus and illuminate just how big and precious my Messiah is.

To Begin Again, Again

Nonna Chic ~ what does this mean to me? After almost a year of creating my own handbags for my ETSY shop, I am beginning to see how this “grandma style” is threaded everywhere in my life, how I long to be a good mother to my children, a loving wife for my husband, and to live life intentionally in the fashion of love ~ just like my grandmother's did.

Maybe Nonna Chic is really about more than just sewing, but about life. Our grandmother's knew how to live a simple, blessed life; knew how to “up-cycle” before it was trendy terminology, mostly canned their own or local produce for the year, and made the most of everything they were blessed with. These are my yearnings, not to please our culture or neighbors, but to live a life that honors the giver of all good things and the one who restores my soul. 

An Amy Butler Pattern made for a friend.

Originally I intended this blog to be primarily about my sewing adventures making quality handbags, but this slipped off of my radar with parenting, cooking, preschool, marriage, faith, and wild family life. So, I still intend to blog about my ambitions to be a creator of arm candy and creating my own designs, etc, but I also need a place to leave a fingerprint of my life through these crazy, challenging and precious years raising a family. Blogging once a week is my elementary goal to begin... again, and hopefully will find this to be a therapeutic way to journal my strengths and weaknesses, my challenges and successes. 

 4th of July celebration

I hope that you can find encouragement here, knowing that struggles occur for everyone, everywhere. I am excited about posting new finds, ideas, and techniques for what works for us (at the moment) in our daily lives of raising children, cultivating marriage, running a home, creating art, and reaching for Christ.

The simplest things that glorify so greatly.

Finally Up For Sale

The Alma Handbag in dark Navy Floral Upholstery

Today has been a big day in the McArthur household.  I finally have my ETSY site up and open for business!  It's amazing how getting just a few bags up on line to sell is such an inspiration to get more done, and I haven't even sold any yet.  My husband was a gem and took fantastic photos for me this afternoon along with creating a smashing banner for my store.  Aaaah to have talent like that at my beck and call is a beautiful thing.  By the way, check out his photography here.  Shameless?  Maybe, but I swear, they're fantastic!

On to a new day, and new bags.

The Jean Clutch in Chocolate and Gold