Week one complete

I am proud to announce that my goal this week of 5 days of consistent quiet and study time with God each morning has been accomplished. Not everyday was easy, but through prayer I was encouraged to get myself up when the alarm clock went off and devote the first 30 minutes of my day to God. I would like to thank the ones of you who called or sent me emails of encouragement. The quick prayers that you sent up and the emails kept me motivated.

One thing that I noted earlier in the week was a weakness in sharing my faith. I focused on that during my prayer time this week. I am happy to say that God provided me with 3 different opportunities to talk with co-workers about Jesus. I will not say that I did a fantastic job of thoroughly getting my point across, but I do believe that a seed has been planted in those people. A couple of Sunday's ago my pastor made the comment that you should always plow the ground, you sometimes plant a seed, and eventually you will reap the harvest. I thought this was a great analogy for my week. Everyday I do the best I can to lead a Christan life and to show others that I am different. This week I had a few opportunities to plant some seeds. Even though I may or may not ever see those specific seeds being harvested, I know I have done my part to plant the seeds and I will have faith that those seeds will eventually be harvested.

Our lessons over the past week were based not only on your relationship with God, but your relationships with other believers and your involvement in ministry. One specific focus was defining your spiritual gifts. This was hard for me. I definitely can say that communication is one of my spiritual gifts. I love any type of outreach where I can be involved with people, but does that count as a spiritual gift? I'm not sure. I pray that throughout the next week God will really open my eyes to what spiritual gifts I possess and may not be aware of. I do feel that God has something special planned for me, but I need his guidance in figuring out what it is. My prayer request to you this week is that you keep me in your prayers and pray that God will help me find my spiritual gift to lead others to him. My challenge to you this week is that you will look at yourself and define what your spiritual gifts are then use those to help others. Let me know how it goes.

So far so good...

To give you an update on my progress, so far I am 2 for 2. As soon as my alarm went off Monday morning, I jumped right out of bed wide awake and went to the dining room where I had my bible and study materials out and ready. I poured myself a big glass of orange juice and started my morning time with a quick prayer to prepare my heart for change.

This morning I was not quite as bright eyed and bushy tailed. I must have been a little anxious about getting up on time today, because I woke up pretty much every hour last night to check the clock and make sure I hadn't overslept. When the alarm finally did go off, I honestly wanted to shut it off and go back to sleep. Instead, I asked the Lord to help me wake up and help me get through the day. By the time I made it into the dining room I was awake and ready to grow.

I have noticed that, thus far, my days have seemed a little more cheerful and a little less stressed. I am positive that is a direct result of my 2 days of accomplishments. There is so much more to say about what I am learning and reading about, but I have to get to bed tonight so I can be up and awake for my appointment with God tomorrow.

Activate!

As some of you may know I started a new bible study this week called Activate. This class is something that I have been looking forward to over the past couple of weeks and something that I think will greatly benefit me. The class is focused on making your relationship with God more personal, being able to pray more effectively and becoming comfortable with sharing your faith with nonbelievers. After the foundation (introduction) section of the book, the author gives you the honor of doing a self-evaluation. I know that everyone loves to honestly evaluate and critique where they are and to identify their weaknesses, right? I don't really love the word weaknesses. It seems a little negative. Let's use "areas of growth" instead. During my evaluation time, I realized that sharing my faith with others is a big area of growth for me. Thinking back on my almost 9 months in Ohio (geez, has it really been that long), I have only straight forwardly invited 3 people to church. To me, that is kind of sad. I see a lot of people on a daily basis. What is holding me back from sharing my faith with those people. Is part of it rules about appropriate behavior in the workplace? Absolutely, but that is an entirely different post.

Now that my self-evaluation is completed, I move on to the challenge of the first week. This week's challenge is to set aside a specific time (preferably in the mornings) to complete your reading and quiet time with God. Our leader in this class urged us to find an accountability partner. This person is someone you can check in with who will hold you accountable for your challenges. Hello accountability partners! Given that in the past I have tried similar things on my own and due to the lack of will power have not been consistent, I am now making myself accountable to the blogosphere and anyone interested enough to read this blog. I have chosen to do this for a couple of reasons: (1) I will feel pressure to complete all of my quiet times because I plan to update the blog everyday with my outstanding consistency and (2) this is one step I can take to share my faith with others. Granted only my family and some close friends read this blog, but I am making a stand and will try to befriend and invite nonbelievers to the blog.

My prayer for this week is that God will provide the opportunity to share my faith with someone and help me be faithful in my daily devotion time. I would greatly appreciate any prayers that you guys could get up for me.

If anyone is interested in completing the series with me or at another time, thus far I highly recommend the book. The title is Survival Kit: 5 Keys to Effective Spiritual Growth. It can be purchased at Lifeway Christian bookstores or at Amazon for under $10.

As soon as I spell check and click publish, I will be setting my alarm clock for 5:45 so I can do my quiet time in the morning. I will let you know how it goes. Good night!

Brittany