nov 12

Proverbs 3:1-8
1My child, never forget the things I have taught you. Store my commands in your heart.
2 If you do this, you will live many years, and your life will be satisfying.
3 Never let loyalty and kindness leave you! Tie them around your neck as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart.
4 Then you will find favor with both God and people, and you will earn a good reputation.
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.
6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.
7 Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the LORD and turn away from evil.
8 Then you will have healing for your body and strength for your bones.

You know what a slam book is, right? It's a notebook in which kids jot down messages to each other-usually messages that "slam" or insult someone else. They're passed around a lot in some schools. A kinder, gentler version of the slam book is a notebook in which friends and classmates are encouraged to answer questions about their favorite things. One page, for example, might be headed "Favorite Sport," and the entries below might include "Baseball-Joel Wannamaker" and "Synchronized swimming-Jan Tzen." Let's try our own version. Try listing your favorite . . . Song, Singer or group. TV show Season of the year, Book of the Bible.Now let's try the opposite approach. List your least favorite ... Food, School subject, TV commercial, Day of the week. Thing your parents say. Believe it or not, God has a similar list. He's even written it down. According to his list, one of his favorite things in the world is faithfulness. He thinks faithfulness is totally cool. He loves being faithful, and he loves it when people are faithful-to him and to each other. Think about this. Are there some foods and school subjects you absolutely hate-like maybe broccoli, cottage cheese, lima beans? P. E., math, English? Well, there are some things God hates, too. And one of the things he hates is unfaithfulness. That's why God commands us to be faithful. Because he values faithfulness. For that matter, we should, too.

REFLECT: A "value" is something that a person considers important. Do you value faithfulness in your friends? in your family members? in yourself?

ACT: Create your own "favorites" book to pass among your friends, making each page a different list of the things your friends like most. Which of your "favorites" are also God's?

PRAY: "God, help me to value faithfulness just like you do.'

Wow, I start alot of devos with "I think."

Ok, it's going to be different from now on. Change is good.
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A very prominent theme that should be carried over from Praise Team into our every day lives is questioning God's will for our future. This is something that I can strongly connect to, since other than Praise Team, most of the time, I'll see God as just somebody who's there and a virtuous person. I never really take his will for me into consideration. Recently, I was invited by my friends to go to the mall, to hang out and whatnot, during the weekend. This was a moment when I realized that it's actually ridiculously hard to find ourselves prioritizing God's will over our own selfish desires. Choosing little things like leaving homework until the last second, to bigger things such as doing something to a close friend that was really uncalled for.

As humans, we have the very instinctive desires to act upon our instincts and settle for reflecting upon our past, instead of having foresight for our futures. This is something I like to keep in mind so that I can actually have God hold an active role upon my life, rather than doing things my way, and taking a gamble that presents pointless risk.

3 Never let loyalty and kindness leave you! Tie them around your neck as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart.
i have always thought that loyalty and kindness are really strong traits that everyone should have so this verse really stood out to me. our foundation of the relationship we have with God is our faith. what layers on top of our faith is everything else like loyalty and kindess because there are just so many things that make up our faith in God. i think that many people do not have the firm foundation that holds up the relationship with God and i admit that mine isnt the strongest either. people tend to think that because God isnt a visable being nor a being that we see everyday to keep ourselves reminded of him. i find that the more i see people, the more loyal and attached i become to them. i made good friends in high school for the past 3 months of school and i do show my loyalty to them and i am kind to them because i treaure the relationship i have with them and want the relationship to stay strong. we should put God in the shoes of our friend except in such a higher perspective. our small groups have talked about having a set "date" with God and spending five to ten minutes with him just talking to him like a normal person to build the relationship we have with him. this will allow us to think more about God and to become more faithful to him. the more someone is in our minds, the more we think about them and if they are positive thoughts then our relationship grows.

What i got from this was that faithfullness is #1 on GOd's list. He values Faith as we value air.
6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

in our time on earth, we live life according to God's will. By doing so we are being guided by God and he is showing us the path. While on the other hand, if we take life into our own hands and do what we please and have no faith whatsoever, than we are not being moved by God but being moved by things that wil not last forever.

Weallhv some sort of desire and priority. But what are they? ik most of us procrastinate and we proritize incorrectly.WE an do this as wel but with God. We see something better to do and get distracted from God resulting in us moving further away from God.
All i got gnite

No idea what the story had to do with anything, this devo seemed almost unrelated to anything.. LOL

But I guess it was on the topic of our values. Values that God has instilled in us include our faith and our family and our own well-being but what about all the other stuff? We have busy lives. School and friends, among other things, are also important in our lives, but we have to learn to prioritize values. We have to hold our faith above everything else. Our other commitments should always come after God. That doesn't mean that we should be making God the only thing in our lives as other things are also important, but keep in mind what the focus of your life is.

Lately my friends haven't been getting the ideal grades that they strive for.
Although I do try to enlighten them with the fact that we're still in grade 11, it doesn't seem to help the situation.
Their confidence in their school work has been lacking, but I have complete faith in them that they'll stay on track and stop doing the things they shouldn't be doing.
Not much more.

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.

Lately, life hasn't been the best. Lots of things have been going on, and I don't like to share my thoughts with others. I feel like, if I tell people my problems, they'll see me as some complaining, spoiled brat who only worries about my own issues. So what I've been doing is trapping all my emotions and trying to ignore them, but that didn't help me at all. When my friends asked me if something was going on, I just told them I was tired and put on a fake smile.
I also keep thinking, I don't have to trust or depend on anyone except myself.
Now I realize, it has been affecting my relationship with God. I didn't want to trust God anymore, because I was pissed about all these stupid things that were happening. I was wondering why God was letting this stuff happen and why he wasn't doing anything to fix it.
But literally while I was reading that verse, I had a weird and sudden change of mind.
I absolutely must depend on God. Sure, life may have its ups and downs but eventually everything will get better! God isn't going anywhere, so all I can do is stay faithful and try my best.

Sorry this sorta sounds like some moody diary entry!

Troubles arise as we go through life. but god doesn't want that to come in between our precious relationship with god.
The verses that were given today made me think about how much we need god. God wants to to always keep god's word in your heart. He will speak to you when you are willing to listen. Have that with you all the time and you will be on the right path.
Priorities do change throughout time but we should always put our relationship with god at the front of everything.
Do not forget his word.

Sorry, I should have said yesterday.
I didn't post because I really had no idea what to make of the devo.

SORRY ive been so absent
But im done my major tests

7 Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the LORD and turn away from evil.

oo i like this. DONT Ever be satisfied with your wisdom simply bc theres always room for more growth
If you think your faith in God is strong, well, it could be stronger.
If you think you're ready for a test, well, study harder just in case, as i learned the hard way.
Only when you FEEL like you need to improve, will you actually do so.
If we all thought we were good enough, how could we improve?

I value my faith, my family's, and my friends faith. Without faith I believe that there's nothing to live for. We should all be living for God. If you don't have faith in God, then there's no point.
My faith with God is strong but when I think about my non-christian friends and see how their faith is small or nothing at all, I get worried when I think about how my friends will go in the wrong direction or those with great faith will fall..
Stay strong in faith and try to keep others with their faith as well.