Last Week of Summer

The Bible has a way of just blowing you completely away when you least expect it. The other night I was in a little ball on the couch, wrapped in my favorite living room blanket, reading in Romans, and every single word was just so profound and beautiful. 

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through

the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." 

 I came away with two points: 

Number One: I am justified, and no one can take that away from me.

Number Two: Suffering - Perseverance - Character - Hope.

Something about accepting that fact that I am justified completely inspired me, and this whole week has been made beautiful by remembering that. We are justified in Christ, so we don't have anything left to prove to Him or anyone else. We are justified in Christ, and no one can erase that fact. Wow, you guys. There's so much pressure out there to align yourself to this or that, to accept this idea or that idea, to be a certain way or think certain things, and it gets exhausting. BUT we're justified through our faith, and that washes away all that pressure. We don't have to prove anything to the world, and we can't prove anything to God (He did it all on the cross - there's nothing left for us to prove!). We're justified, and as long as our hearts are living for God, that's all we need to worry about. 

I also recognized the cycle that my Number Two point showed. You hear a lot about the "cycle" the Israelites lived in: righteousness, sin, calls for help, salvation, righteousness, etc. But I think the real cycle that we're designed to live in is the one described here. I think I lost the card I used to take notes that night, but I'll do my best: 

Suffering: 

Living life means that hard times come. But choosing joy and hope, even when life is dark, means that you grow in perseverance. 

Perseverance:

Every time you choose to hope that God's in control and He's using your circumstances for the best, you gain more and more perseverance. As perseverance grows, so does character.

Character:

Having perseverance in choosing hope means that you have the strength to choose self-control, joy, gentleness, peace, and other character traits instead of lashing out in your flesh. So then you have...

Hope:

Growing in character means you grow closer to God. And the closer you grow to Him, the more joy and love and hope you have in Him, because you realize over and over how much He sacrificed to save you and how much He loves you. And as you grow in hope...

You're ready for the next time of suffering, which will be harder than the last time. But you're prepared for it, because you have an even stronger hope.

Just those few verses brought such a light into my week :). And honestly, they were just a few of many great things that have made me smile lately! First of all, you guysss...the WEATHER. I know I sound like I don't have anything better to share than the weather, but honestly it makes me so happy!! I've been loving the sunshine and the couple cool days we got, it's made my week brighter. I also discovered Poshmark, which was awesome, haha! And so many great little videos and podcasts encouraged and challenged me in areas where I can grow. This is the last weekend of our summer, and I think the season ended well. A few months ago, my family and I got to spend an afternoon at the lake...it was amazing, and so refreshing. Here are just a few of the couple hundred pictures I took, ha! I think they describe our summer well. Bright, busy, lots of little feet going everywhere, but beautiful in the end.