Feedback Time!

Alright girls, it’s been about 6 months since I started this blog (which I cannot believe…My how time flies!) and it’s time for some feedback!

If you’re a regular reader of this blog (moms included!) I would love to know your thoughts on the following:

-Have you been helped/encouraged by the posts?
-What’s been the most helpful?
-What would you like to see more of? Feel free to give specific topics!

I’m asking this so I can better serve you, so please be honest!

Please take a few minutes to e-mail me your thoughts at: beautiful.adornment@gmail.com

Thank you!

Learn to Look Out

Here's some more incite from Elizabeth George...

"Do you know the story in the Bible of the shepherd who had 100 sheep and discovered that one was missing (Luke 15:1-7)? Well, what amazes me is that the shepherd dropped everything and went looking for that one sheep. And what amazes me even more is that that's the way God cares for you and me. And here's something else that's amazing-- God expects you and I to care for others in the same way! So here are a few tips on learning to look out!

- Develop a "bountiful eye"-- The Bible says that "Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed" (Proverbs 22:9). I think of a bountiful eye as being like the eyes of the Lord, which "run" and "range" throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him. So here's what I do. Whenever I go out in public, I intentionally look for wounded sheep. And believe me, they are everywhere! When you find someone in need...then what?

- Be direct-- I've had to learn (yes, learn!) to be direct and to reach out to hurting people. It's not always easy, but it's the right thing to do."

Have you had a "bountiful eye" lately? In what ways can you be on the look out for wounded sheep?

Learn to Reach Out

As we begin to talk about serving, here are a couple points shared by Elizabeth George:

Be a giver- The Bible says, “Do not withhold good from those whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it” (Proverbs 3:27).

Be bold- By this I mean, when God puts someone in your path who is suffering or hurting, don’t think, “I’ve got to go find someone to help her.” No, you be bold. Find out what the need is. Maybe all they need is a shoulder to cry on or someone to pray with! That person can be you!

Be generous- And by this I mean not only with money and praise, but with praise, encouragement, thanks, a greeting, kindness, and good deeds works. You and I can choose to give these tiny blessings that cost so little and mean so much others.


One great way we can serve others is through encouragement. Who do you know in need of encouragement today? Anyone can be encouraged! Share how you see your friend growing in their relationship with the Lord. How can you encourage your parents or siblings? Is there a mom in your church you admire for her example of biblical womanhood in your life? It can be as easy as sharing a scripture verse with someone. We should always be thinking of ways to encourage and uplift the souls of others!

Ephesians 4: 29- “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is building up, as it fits the occasions, that it may give grace to those who hear.”

A Heart That Serves

“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)

God has uniquely gifted us in various ways. We read in 2 Peter 1:3 that “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.” And in 1 Corinthians 12:7 we read about how God has gifted us spiritually to serve others in the church. God has given us everything we need in life and we are to use these gifts for His glory (1 Cor. 10:31).

Over the next few days we’re going to talk about various ways we can serve one another.

Forgiving for Jesus' Sake

“I say to the glory of God and in utter humility that whenever I see myself before God and realize even something of what my blessed Lord has done for me, I am ready to forgive anybody anything.” –D. Martyn Loyd Jones

“It is shallow nonsense to say that God forgives us because He is love…. The love of God means Calvary—nothing less; the love of God is spelt on the cross, and nowhere else. The only ground on which God can forgive me is the cross of my Lord.” –Oswald Chambers

Nancy Leigh DeMoss follows up by saying:

“We tend to forget that. We somehow have the idea that God has forgiven us purely out of His kindness, just because He wanted to. Forgiveness is sort of what we would expect from a God who wouldn’t mind going out of His way to be extra nice to us. But it makes a huge difference when we realize the ground on which our forgiveness was procured. If we are to forgive others as God has forgiven us. Calvary required and agony we cannot fully comprehend. On the cross, Jesus took our sin upon Himself, enduring the wrenching consequence of broken fellowship with the Father—the one He adored, the One from whom He had never experienced a moment of separation. That is impossible for us to fully grasp. We can at best only imagine what the Father and Son must have endured when, for the first time ever, the cost of our sin interrupted their eternal fellowship.”

-How well does your life reflect the forgiving heart of God toward sinners?
-Do non-believers see the gospel in you by the way you respond to those who wrong you?

The Promise of Forgiveness

“I know just enough about computers, as they say to be dangerous. But one thing I’ve learned the hard way is the meaning of that little button that’s spelled D-E-L. That’s right. The delete key. (I’m guessing you know about that one yourself.) Like you, I can think of times when I was working away at something on my computer and accidentally pressed the delete button, only to watch all my hard work vanish into thin air, leaving behind nothing but a blank screen of forgotten words. I wish the delete key was so easy to press in real life. In many ways, what happens when we trash a computer document is a picture of what takes place when we truly forgive someone who has wronged us. We clear their record. We wipe out their debt. Isn’t that the way God has forgiven us? All of our sin, deleted. Forever. All because of Christ’s death on the cross—in our place. Dept cancelled.” -Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Do you have a situation where forgiveness seems impossible? Perhaps you’re thinking, “I just can’t forgive this person for what he or she has done to me. It’s too painful to deal with? They’ve done it too many times?

I would never begin to deny the “deeply hurt” part, but we must remember the magnitude of our own sin and how many times God has forgiven us. Though we’ve sinned against Him countless times, He is still a God of compassion, love, kindness, meekness, and humility. His mercies are new every morning!

C.S. Lewis writes, “To be a Christians means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in us.”

Remeber that even when you don’t see the results of forgiveness, you can still know you’ve done what God requires of you!

Walking Wounded

“We talk glibly about forgiving when we have never been injured; when we are injured we know that it is not possible, apart from God’s grace, for one human being to forgive another.” -Oswald Chambers

In her book “Choosing Forgiveness” Nancy Leigh DeMoss states, “I’ve come to believe that, whether they realize it or not, unforgiveness is, in fact, a very real issue for most people. Almost everyone has someone (or ones) they haven’t forgiven. Whenever I have spoken on this subject, after defining and describing forgiveness from a biblical perspective, I have asked the audience the question: ‘ how many of you would be honest enough to admit that there is a root bitterness in your heart that there are one or more people in your life-past or present that you’ve never forgiven?’”

It is stated very clear in scripture that we are to forgive one another just as Christ forgave us of our sins and by dieing on the cross…

Colossians 3:12-13-“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”

Mark 11:25-“And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that you Father also who is in heaven may forgive your trespasses.”

“Anything against anyone.” That pretty much covers the bases. Doesn’t it? No offence is too great; no offender is beyond the boundary to which our forgiveness must extend. Our fellowship with God requires it and depends on it. So if we as believers persist in unforgiveness, our hearts are forced to wrestle with the fact that our actions amount to disobedience. The pathway of resentment and retaliation-God calls us to the pure, powerful, choice of forgiveness- and to pursue, wherever possible, the pathway of restoration and reconciliation. The outcome of our lives in not determined by what happens to us but by how we respond to what happens to us.”

When don’t choose to forgive others; sin will begin to well up in our hearts. Let’s remember that God sees our heart every second of our lives and He is the one we will be accountable to when He returns. Just as Christ forgave us, let us also forgive one another!

Here are a few questions that I've asked myself before and then apply to my own life…

1. Is there a person or circumstance you have blamed for the way your life has turned out?

2. Is there someone who has wronged you that you’re still trying to make pay for their offence?

3. Can you think of a situation where you retaliated or became resentful, rather than forgiving someone who hurt you?