Tag: top ten

Top Ten Personal Summer Missions

Top Ten {Tuesday} Summer is finally here! Time to set some goals for myself. 

1. Execute Mission: Summer Education! I have a comprehensive plan to help Nathan maintain the reading and writing skills he has developed in Kindergarten, but that’s a whole post itself.  Stay tuned!

2. Paint a room.  Even if it’s just the tiny power room. Not a single wall in this house nor the last house we bought has ever been painted.  I know I can do this!

3. Start a new blog.  Don’t worry, this one isn’t going anywhere.  The new blog is a super secret project I’m starting with a friend of mine that will have a very niche purpose.

4. Hang some shelves.  In both kids rooms and my bedroom.  Because there aren’t any and I think they look nice, especially with frame photos sitting on them. 

5. Read a book.  A whole novel, start to finish.  I don’t read books anymore, and especially not fiction ones, but I’m inspired to try one this summer.  Maybe Katherine Center’s Get Lucky?

6. Organize my office.  This mostly means filing the stacks of important papers like bills and paystubs that have been laying around for months.  Getting rid of books, since my bookshelves are jammed full.  Possibly buying a whole new desk, since mine is falling apart.

7. Optimize the desktop computer.  I’ve been avoiding doing anything with it, nobody uses is anymore except the kids.  But it’s essentially unusable.  It needs RAM and probably a new operating system.  This is a pretty ambitious project actually.

8. Lose a dress size.  Shouldn’t be hard, right? 🙂

9. Volunteer at our local crisis pregnancy center.  I donate money there but I want to give them some time as well.  They help a ton of teen moms, single moms, and dads too with counseling, diapers and clothes and other physical needs.

10. Write music. I’d be happy with one decent song.  This goal also involves improving my languishing piano skills.  I want to inspire Nathan to want to play the  piano as well. 

Wow, that’s a lot of stuff to get accomplished in a few short months.  It’ll be fun to see what I can cross off the list on Labor Day weekend! 

What are some of your personal missions for this summer?

Top Ten Bible Verses that Impact Daily Life

Now that I’m 30-something, my memory ain’t what it used to be.  In school I had a mind like a steel trap.  A nearly photographic memory.  Beginning in second grade I had to memorize scripture verses, usually a different one every single week.  All the way through 12th grade.  That’s a huge chunk of God’s word.  But now I’m hard pressed to remember the references and exact words of the vast majority of those.  I know what the Bible does and does not say, and I can find the verses I need, but most of it is not on the tip of my tongue any more.  With a few exceptions.  There are a few verses that I have called on so frequently that they stick in my head.  They have such impact on my daily living, my sense of peace, my decision-making, my priorities.  Here are ten of them. (More Top Ten posts here.)

1. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not die, but will have everlasting life.”  (I’m teaching my 5 yr old to memorize this one.)

2. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

3. John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (Jesus said this to his disciples)

4.  2 Timothy 3: 16-17   “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

5. Psalm 51: 10-12  “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”

6. Ephesians 1:4  “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.”

7. Romans 12:2  “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

8.  Joshua 24:15  “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

9. Psalm 139:13-14  “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

10. 1 Corinthians 13: 4-6  “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

What scriptures are your favorites? Please, do share in the comments, I’m sure it will bless and encourage me and those reading! 🙂