Two of my favorite bloggers (Emily P. Freeman and Modern Mrs. Darcy) do something toward the end of each month that I always look
forward to, so I’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon.

I know, it sounds silly, but it’s been a big deal for me. I
don’t consume a lot of peanut butter, even though I love it. Most people who
make the switch to “healthier nut butters” go straight to almond butter. For
the past couple of years, I’ve use almond butter and I like it. I just don’t
love it. But cashew butter? Yumminess. 

I think there might be a larger lesson
here. Something about not trying to force yourself to love something just
because everyone else does? Or maybe about how it’s better to keep trying new
things instead of assuming they are all basically the same? Come to think of
it, that seems to be a theme for the entire month. Read on. 

I gave up coffee in January. After 7 straight days of
headaches, I finally broke free of the caffeine addiction. The coffee
addiction, however, seems to be here to stay. I love a great cup of coffee in
the morning, or with friends, but now I’m drinking decaf. Even at 6 a.m.

Ok – that’s it for now. I actually have five more things,
but this post is already too long. 

I’d love for you to leave a comment and share
one, two, or twenty things you’ve learned so far this year.

The post What I Learned in January and February appeared first on Lynn H. Blackburn.

We all make art in A Million Little Ways.

Yes, you do, too.

Even if you don’t think of yourself as artistic or creative, after reading Emily P. Freeman’s latest offering, you’ll view everything you do in a new light. Because “art is what happens when you dare to be who you really are.” (p. 21)

While I have no trouble saying that I’m a writer, I’ve never considered myself to be an artist. Art is painting, drawing, sculpture, design. Art it musicals, opera, plays, and concerts.

Or is it?

What if art is so much more and what if all of us make art in a million little ways?

Making beds, writing books, cooking meals, designing clothes, playing with Legos, decorating interiors, and hosting dinner parties, all can be ways you express yourself, ways you create, ways you make art.

The most beautiful thing? God uses us as “we make art with our lives” to reveal different aspects of Himself to a world that desperately needs Him.

A Million Little Ways is divided into three parts:

In Part 1, we see a beautiful picture of God as the Artist and us, as His image-bearers, placed in the world to live art.
In Part 2, we uncover the art we were born to make by looking within, back, up, around, and beneath.
In Part 3, we release the art we were made to live when we show up, wait, offer, wonder, and create.

Emily P. Freeman writes with a transparency and honesty that always leaves me surprised to discover that someone else struggles with the same things I do. Each chapter feels like a conversation with a friend who sees beauty in you. Beauty you may be unable to see in yourself, not because of anything you can do in your own strength, but because you are an image-bearer of The Artist.

There was so much in these pages to digest, to ponder, to consider, to breathe in and live out, that I don’t feel one read-through was sufficient so I’m starting over and reading it again.

Lucky for you, when I attended Allume a few weeks ago, I got to hear Emily speak and the fine folks at Revell gave all the attendees a copy of A Million Little Ways. But I already had my review copy from Revell, so I’m going to share the art with you. Subscribe to the blog through email or leave me a comment here on the blog, on Facebook, or Twitter. I’ll put the names in the random number generator and whoever it picks will win their own copy. Contest ends Sunday, November 24th.

A Million Little Ways is available November 2013 at your local bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing.

The super fine print: I received a copy of A Million Little Ways in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

The post a million little ways – uncover the art you were made to live appeared first on Lynn H. Blackburn.

Thanks for stopping by today. If you’ve landed here for the first time, we are on Day 4 of a series I’m calling 31 Days of Renewing.

Yesterday, we talked about how we do not, in ourselves, have the power to renew our minds, but that change is possible through the power of the Holy Spirit.

It sounds simple enough.

But we all know it isn’t.

We know what we should do.

But we don’t do it.

We’re in good company. The Apostle Paul (the very same guy who has exhorted us to renew our minds) had the same problem. In Romans 7, he tells us that he doesn’t understand his own actions – he doesn’t do what he wants to do, and does the very things he hates (verse 17).

Why? Why is this so hard?

There are a lot of reasons. But here’s one that I’ve found to be true in my own life.

Forgetfulness.

In her book, Grace for the Good Girl, Emily Freeman makes this statement.

Satan’s biggest, most effective weapon against good girls may not be lust or slander or adultery or addiction. It is forgetfulness (p. 170).

What do I forget?

• I forget what I was.
• I forget Who saved me and at what price.
• I forget why I’m here.

But remembering is the first step to renewing.

What about you? What do you think is your biggest obstacle to a renewed mind? Tell us about it in the comments and come back tomorrow as we wade deeper into what renewing our minds looks like.

The post Day 4 ~ Why is this so hard? appeared first on Lynn H. Blackburn.

Last week, I posted a review of Grace for the Good Girl by Emily P. Freeman. Emily blogs at Chatting at the Sky and she issued an invitation to join her in blogging for 31 days straight on the topic of our choice.

Last year, she blogged on 31 Days of Grace (how appropriate) and this year, she’s taking October to share with us 31 Days to Change the World (she aims high)!

When I finished reading her post, I had a mental conversation that went something like this…

Crazy Me: Wow! That sounds like fun!
Responsible Me: Fun? Are you crazy? It sounds like a lot of work.

Crazy Me: But it would be a great way to flex my writing muscles.
Responsible Me: It would be a great way to lose my mind.

Crazy Me: I wonder what I could write about?
Responsible Me: Good question. I have a hard time blogging twice a week. No way I can pull off 31 days straight.

Crazy Me: I think I want to try it.
Responsible Me: No.

So, I tabled the discussion and went on about my day, trying to ignore the bickering. I decided to be quite spiritual and – novel idea – pray about it. Because Responsible Me is right – it’s no small thing to commit to blogging for 31 days straight. And what would I blog about anyway?

Then I ran across a blog post from Seth Godin. Guess what he recommends? Blogging every day.

Then I started getting ideas. Turns out I have quite a few topics to choose from.

Then I heard a powerful sermon, ran across a spot-on blog, read a phrase that resonated – and to my surprise – I had a topic.

Crazy Me did a happy dance as Responsible Me started to have a change of heart.

Responsible Me: I’d have to plan it out. Write a few days in advance in case of emergency.
Crazy Me: ((giggles with glee))

Resonsible Me: Maybe I could do it – for 31 days.
Crazy Me: Yes!

Responsible Me: This is crazy.
Crazy Me: I know!

Crazy Me is a bit full of herself this morning. Responsible Me has had concordances, Bibles, books, Greek dictionaries and two notebooks going all week. She’s still not sure how this will go. But she’s committed to seeing where God leads in the days ahead.

I’d love it if you would join me in October for 31 Days of Renewing.

Side Note: I always post my blogs on Facebook (Lynn Huggins Blackburn) and Twitter (@LynnHBlackburn), but if you want to be sure you receive a notice whenever there’s a new post, it’s easy to subscribe. If you check out the sidebar to the right, you’ll find several options. You can follow by email (enter your email and you’ll receive an email each time I update) or subscribe through an RSS feed.

The post 31 Days of . . . appeared first on Lynn H. Blackburn.

I would have made an awesome Pharisee.

Except for the fact that I’m not Jewish. And I’m a girl.

But still . . .

I love rules. I love following the rules.

I’m such a “good girl.” My list of “nevers” is long and impressive . . . if you care about that sort of thing.

And for a very long time, I thought God cared. A lot.

It came as a rather rude awakening that God really didn’t care about my never haves. He didn’t care if I had my quiet time before breakfast or at midnight . . . or, hold on tight now . . . AT ALL.

Heresy!

God cares about our relationship. God longs to meet with me, to talk to me, but He’s not sitting around checking His celestial sundial and shaking his head back and forth in dismay as He watches me race around trying to get three kids in the van by 7:40 a.m. He doesn’t click His glorious tongue and sigh as He makes eye contact with Michael. “She should have gotten up earlier.”

Not a chance. He knows that I was up. At 3:00 a.m. And at 3:30 a.m. And at 4:00 a.m. And at 5:20 a.m. And at 6:15 a.m. (I wish that was a joke, but seriously, that’s what happened last night).

He knows. And He longs to carry me through the day. So when I finally get home and have the choice to empty the dishwasher or spend time with Him, He smiles as I choose Him.

And I choose Him, not because I think He’ll be disappointed if I don’t. But because I want to spend time with Him. Because this “good girl” knows that she can’t do it on her own. And that her only hope is found in the One who gives her strength.

But still . . .

I find myself questioning my own motives. Did I do it because I wanted to? Or was it really because deep down, I knew I was “supposed to” and didn’t want to mess up.

‘Cause if there’s one thing this good girl doesn’t want to do, it’s mess up.

If you haven’t figured this out yet . . . I’m a mess.

Which is why I jumped at the chance to review the book Grace for the Good Girl – letting go of the try-hard life by Emily P. Freeman.

While I have never met Emily, I think there’s a chance that we were twins separated at birth. How else would she have access to my thoughts and fears? Take this paragraph as an example:

“He does not think as we do. He does not see our relationship measured by ticking clocks, marked with a time to start and stop. I long to have morning times of uninterrupted quiet. From alarm clock chime to the bottom of my first hot cup, I want quiet and stillness and Jesus. But when I don’t get that, I am amazed at how quickly I shift from a woman of good and holy intentions to crazy monster mommy who just wants a few minutes alone to pray. Is that too much to ask? Is it?
     And then I cuss on the inside.
     And stomp off to make their lunches.
     And miss the point entirely.” (Page 145)

Ouch.

But this isn’t a book about quiet times at all. This is just one example of where “good girls” struggle to live in the freedom Christ has called us to.

The first section of the book talks about the different types of masks we wear. Masks of responsibility, strength, spiritual disciplines, acts of service and good performance. The second section of the book delves into what it looks like to find ourselves in Christ – when we take off our masks and rest in Him. The third section talks about the freedom of being found in Christ. Of being safe in His arms, even when life hurts.

And it was this third section that brought me to tears, more than once.

I discovered (after I’d read the entire book) that there’s a small group study guide at the back. So I plan to re-read and work through the study questions. Giving the lessons and insights time to seep into my being.

Because, as she points out on Page 170, “Satan’s biggest, most effective weapon against good girls may not be lust or slander or adultery or addiction. It is forgetfulness.”

It’s so easy to slip back behind the mask. To try harder instead of resting in Him.

So whether you’ve been a good girl forever, or you think you have to be a good girl to make up for your past, there is wisdom to be found in these pages.

I highly recommend Grace for the Good Girl.

The fine print: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The post Thoughtful Thursdays ~ Book Review: Grace for the Good Girl~letting go of the try-hard life by Emily P. Freeman appeared first on Lynn H. Blackburn.