So, how are you? Are you sleepy or exhausted?
Life's challenges can wear us out and through them, we can feel exhausted and tired. So, what do you do to help yourself better?
How can you ensure that you are not exhausted? What can you do?
- Stacy Duplease
- Stacy Duplease
Journal your thoughts.
How has God surprised you?
What surprises do you think He may have in store for you? How will you handle them?
- Stacy Duplease
Grab your journal and address each of the questions below.
What are you waiting for?
Are you living this moment as best as you can for God?
Are you right smack-dab in the middle of His purpose—or yours?
Are you remembering your present and living this moment as best as you can—for God?
Is your today better than your yesterday?
Are you living today like you could die tomorrow?
When you see God that first time in heaven, will He ask you why you didn’t……(fill in the blank)?
Are you living like Christ could return today?
Have you made sure everyone around you knows Christ and the Gospel?
Do you know God’s purpose for you and your life?
Today is too short.
Are you doing what you need to be doing for the Lord?
Are you having your daily quiet time? For at least a couple of hours every day?
Are you praying without ceasing?
Are you studying His Word, not just reading it, and applying it to your life—repeatedly and noit just this week sicne that was what you studied?
Are you too busy to do what’s right by God and live His purpose?
What are you waiting for?
~ Stacy Duplease
Remembering Your Present, LLC and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)
Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals
Email: Pj4life1@gmail.com
Blogs:
A pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life) blog post:
There is one place I go to without fail when I am tired, upset, confused, frustrated, angry, sad, and any other strong emotion you can think of. I also turn to the psalms when I am neutral, dead inside, listless, lifeless, numb, and dull. They are where I go to when I need refuge and when I want to experience a real connection with God.
Why do I go there of all places in the Bible?
The psalms are David’s prayer journal.
If you want to know how to pray, turn to the Book of Psalms.
If you want to know how to prayer journal, dive into the Book of Psalms.
It’s there David pours everything out to God and declares the glory of God—both—and all at once. He talks to God in a very real way. He doesn’t hold back. He uses his writing as a way to purge himself of everything and as he does it, he connects to the one Most High.
~ Stacy Duplease
Remembering Your Present, LLC and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)
Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals
Email: Pj4life1@gmail.com
Blogs:
Not since the release of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” have I been so excited for a release date.
Christopher Paolini’s Book 4 of the Inheritance Cycle series was just announced that it will be released on 08 November 2011. It’s titled, “Inheritance.”
Check out these links:
http://www.alagaesia.com/#/home
~ Stacy Duplease
My prayers go out to Japan—the people, the government, the nuclear plant, the rescue workers, the military, the economy, and all of the loss they’ve experienced because of the earthquake and tsunami at the end of last week.
Lord, be with them. Bring them comfort. Protect them.
~ Stacy Duplease
For anyone who loves science fiction, check this out!
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/16/atom-smasher-used-time-machine/?test=faces
~ Stacy Duplease
I guess I need to confess that I am a woman of addictions… (I use the term loosely.)
I really like and am addicted to:
Coffee.
Starbucks Chai Tea (or Tazo Chai Tea I can make at home and save on the calories)
Reading
Writing
The Amazon Kindle
Journaling
Bible Study
A certain Beagle
A certain Orange Tabby
2 turtles
A baby boy
My friends and family
NCIS
NCIS Los Angeles
Castle
Bones
Criminal Minds
Fringe
House
Rick Riordan
Donita Paul
~ Stacy Duplease
In this blog post, I want us to take stock about our present state of being. Let’s answer the question in a very deep way regarding, ‘How are you?’
Take out your prayer journal and journal your answers to every question listed in this blog post. Make sure to be thorough and to take your time. In fact, you may want to repeat this exercise every day for the next three days, again in another week, and again in a month. You will get the most thorough answers that way and you’ll have something to measure your future state of being with. This will be your starting point. There are no wrong answers here. Just be honest and write more than you think is necessary.
Are you tired?
Do you feel exhausted? Can you think straight? Or are you so worn out that you wish you could take a week for yourself and do nothing?
I don’t know about you, but I think this is an epidemic of society. We are too busy for our own good and are barely functioning.
When was the last time you took a day of rest in a week?
So, when was your last Sabbath (day of rest)?
When was the last time you had 2 Sabbaths in a row? 3 in a row? 4?
When was your last vacation?
When was your last 5+ day vacation? How long was it and what did you do?
Do you take this amount of time off at least three times a year? Why or why not?
Evening rest
Do you ever get a chance to rest for a couple of hours after work?
Spiritual Retreat
When was the last time you ran away and spent alone time with God for 2 days in a row? 3? 4? 5? 7+?
Sabbath Rest, Vacation, Evening Rest, Spiritual Retreat
Take out your planner and calendar for a year from now. Block out each of these increments on that calendar. That way, you can’t say that you didn’t have enough time to plan to do so. You have it scheduled a year out and blocked out so that nothing can get in the way of that time.
Here’s what to block out (these are all minimums) on your planner/schedule:
~ A day of rest every week
~ A two-day spiritual retreat every 3 months
~ A 3-day spiritual retreat once a year
~ A week’s vacation three times a year to play
~ A 5-day spiritual retreat once a year
How can you implement any of these soon?
So, how can you start to adjust your schedule to accommodate each of these immediately—or fairly soon?
~ For the weekly Sabbath, start with one hour a week (or 30 minutes) and increase it by that increment every week until you have 24 hours per week planned for time with God.
~ Start with a half day spiritual retreat every 3 months and increase it by half a day until you have 2 days every 3 months.
~ Plan a week off from work for vacation and play in 6 months
~ Any other ideas you can come up with
Journal Your Thoughts
Journal your thoughts of everything we’ve looked at today.
~ Stacy Duplease
Remembering Your Present, LLC and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)
Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals
Email: Pj4life1@gmail.com
I’ve had seven books published so far. Check them out on Amazon at the following link:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=stacy+duplease
~ Stacy Duplease
Remembering Your Present, LLC and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)
Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals
Email: Pj4life1@gmail.com
Prayer Journaling for Life (pj4life) is precisely what you think. It’s the practice of prayer journaling—for life. It’s a habit. It’s a way of life
How do you prayer journal?
You simply write your prayers into a journal—where you both talk to god and listen to what He has to say. It’s nothing more complicated than that.
What do you prayer journal?
~ Your prayers
~ The memories made today
~ The lessons learned today
~ Your hopes, dreams, goals
~ Your fears
~ Whatever bothers you
~ Your memory verses
~ Notes from the sermon on Sunday
~ Notes from your Bible study you do with a group
~ Notes on your daily quiet time
~ Verses which speak to you and why
~ It’s keeping track of your spiritual markers or monuments
~ Stacy Duplease
Remembering Your Present, LLC and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)
Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals
Email: Pj4life1@gmail.com
It is so easy to get caught up in life that we neglect the most important. Our priorities become skewed. The most nagging, or the priority that demands immediate attention, is what we focus on and that’s when this neglect occurs. We know we’re missing the mark, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Needless to say, we’re tired, busy, and don’t have the time for real rest.
How do we squeeze the 20 hours we need every day to get things done and still get 8 hours of sleep every night and have a day of rest every week? Is this even possible?
We are burned out, stressed, anxious, crabby, and/or let down because of everything just mentioned. Is it any surprise?
~ Stacy Duplease
Remembering Your Present, LLC and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)
Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals
Email: Pj4life1@gmail.com
Check out this link:
http://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/tips/11628150.html
It’s an article by John MacArthur about how to do a solid Bible study on your own. Check it out.
~ Stacy Duplease
Remembering Your Present, LLC and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)
Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals
Email: Pj4life1@gmail.com
Here’s a good Bible study on Rahab:
http://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/11632601.html
~ Stacy Duplease
Remembering Your Present, LLC and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)
Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals
Email: Pj4life1@gmail.com
The last few months have been a challenge at best. I keep looking for resources to help life my spirits and help me to limp along a while longer. (I’m being dramatic. It really isn’t that bad. But, I have definitely been struggling and still am.) Here’s one I thought I would share with you.
http://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/upwords/11646701/
~ Stacy Duplease
Remembering Your Present, LLC and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)
Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals
Email: Pj4life1@gmail.com
I am slowly but surely working on recapturing all of my lost information on my computer. It will take a while.
Ugh!
~ Stacy Duplease
Remembering Your Present, LLC and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)
Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals
Email: Pj4life1@gmail.com
Lord, please help me to recover everything. To You be the glory.
- Stacy Duplease
This is another email test. Sorry for the repeat.
Blessings,
Stacy Duplease
Remembering Your Present, LLC and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)
Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, & Devotionals
