Haven- Day 2

I'm enjoying focusing on making my home a haven this week, thanks to Monica!

I started off my day with quiet time:
Read in Romans 4 today. Verses 18-24 were a great encouragement to me today. " Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be. " Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as  dead-- since he was about a hundred years old-- and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness." The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness-- for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

I've highlighted in bold the phrases that really stood out to me.  Here's what I wrote down:

1) Be fully persuaded that God has the power to keep His promises. 
2) Do not allow discouragement and doubt to set in.
3) Allow my faith to grow and give glory to God in the middle of it all.

God also led me to Psalm 30 and I read it and then meditated on it throughout the day. Powerful!

The rest of my day:

As I mentioned yesterday, one of my goals for this week is to begin getting back into a workable routine. So I was diligent with that again today, especially this morning. I'm still working on late afternoons!

After breakfast, and while Baby Girl napped, I cleaned up the breakfast dishes, put a chuck roast in the crockpot for supper, and then cleaned the kitchen which was my weekly cleaning chore for the day. As a part of the haven challenge, we were to pick an area to tidy. I chose to tackle a few small areas-- all some sort of paper clutter that needed to be dealt with. By the time I was done with this, Baby Girl was awake and ready to go with me to run some errands!

We went to the bank, paid the rent and made a couple other quick stops, including my favorite thrift store. I try to be very selective with my purchases but I did find a few nice things today- a nice piece of fabric, a sewing pattern that was so cute and some brand-new Brita filters!

 Blooming tree. I think this is a dogwood?

I wandered into our backyard this afternoon to take a few pictures of beauty around me.  Having a better camera this spring encourages me to capture the beauty of God's creation! Never thought I would enjoy taking pictures so much!

 Forsythia.

Another pleasant day; looking forward to tomorrow's challenge!