Faith in Everyday Life

As Bailee mentioned in her blog post this Sunday, it’s sometimes hard to know what it looks like to apply biblical concepts to your everyday life. If I am being honest, it’s not always easy to be disciplined enough to write out what the Lord is doing in my heart, mind, and soul, but I feel called to do so; so, here is an inside look at what the Holy Spirit has been teaching me for quite some time now. It may not make perfect sense to you because we each have our own struggles and unique relationship with the Father, but I hope that what I am about to share resonates with you in some way!

The Holy Spirit

God speaks to me literally all the time. I hear Him whispering spiritual messages to my soul in the midst of everyday activities. It means me of a hymn called "In the Garden" which says:

"… I come to the garden alone While the dew is still on roses And the voice I hear falling on my ear The son of God discloses

… And he walks with me and he talks with me And he tells me I am his own And the joy we share as we tarry there None other has ever known"

This concept has several implications in my own life. For instance, when I hear the birds chirping, the Holy Spirit reminds me that God cares for me even more than He cares for the sparrows. When my dad tells me he loves me before he leaves for work in the wee hours of the morning, I am reminded of just how much my heavenly Father loves me and how blessed I am to have a good earthly father as well. When I think about the fact that Bailee and I were born together, I am reminded that God is a communal God, and twins have a unique opportunity to experience what it’s like to be in community with someone so similar to you since birth. When I desire a clean space and an organized life, I am reminded that God is a God of order, and my desire for organization comes straight from Him. Every aspect of life sings a song of His majesty, and we won’t understand it fully until we get to Heaven and can fully praise Him to the fullest extent that He deserves- forevermore.

Meditation & Mindfulness

Recently, I was reading a book called How to Hang Loose in an Uptight World by Elizabeth Baker, who is actually one of my mom’s customers. In her book, she discussed several practices for how to resist the everyday stressors of life. One such method was meditation. I have always heard that it's important to memorize scripture, and I have also been aware of the verse that discusses how a person who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night will be like a tree planted by streams of water (full scripture reference below), but it just recently clicked for me how valuable this practice is in everyday life.

Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,

2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.

3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.

We often have downtime throughout our day that could easily be filled with worrisome thoughts; however, God doesn't want us to live this way. Not only does it make us feel horrible mentally and emotionally, but it’s also bad for our health. Instead, we can use downtime to go over a piece of scripture very slowly. Focusing on each individual word and its meaning. Another thing I’ve been trying lately in the practice of mindfulness. If implemented correctly, it can be a great tool to help you hold your tongue, feel less anxious, and prevent yourself from going down a negative spiral. One way I practice mindfulness is by observing things that trigger negative emotions within me. Maybe somebody said something that made me mad, or maybe I am feeling down. Instead of giving into these emotions and letting my actions reflect them, I like to get curious about what I am feeling. I think through what it even means to be angry or upset or sad. How would I describe this feeling to someone who has never felt it before? What about their comment felt like it was a personal attack? What part of my identity was it attacking? Does scripture address this scenario? If so, how would Jesus like me to respond? It can seem hard to do this in the moment, and you will definitely slip up from time to time. If you aren't able to do this in the heat of the moment, don’t beat yourself up, as it may also be a good practice to do at the end of a particularly hard day. This mindfulness practice can also be used as a gratitude practice in order to fully experience positive emotions and experiences in life. This practice requires you to slow down (which is biblical), and it’s a great thing to practice on those slower days when you may be feeling particularly anxious, upset, etc.

Establishing what you believe.

In the book I mentioned earlier, the author encouraged the readers to pinpoint what it is they believe, figure out why they believe it, and then write it down.(1) This got me thinking how easy it is to say we’re a Christian and to say we believe in the Bible. However, if we’re being honest, do we actually live like we believe what it says? When you're comparing yourself to your past self or to someone else in your life, you’re not obeying the principles in 2 Corinthians 10:12 (“... when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding”). When you’re worrying about what you’re going to eat or drink or what you’re going to wear, you’re not obeying Matthew 6:25, “"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.” When you’re obsessing about your outward appearance, you’re not living by 1 Peter 3-4, which says “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.” It’s crazy how God speaks to literally any situation we face; we just have to choose to open up Scripture to find it. We get to choose whether to lean in and listen to the whisper of God or crumble under the loud lies of the enemy. You can say you’re a Christian all day long. We can say we’re living for an audience of One all we want. But if these things were really true, wouldn’t we already be satisfied? (2) We’ll never actually experience the fullness of life that Jesus died to give us if we don’t cling to scripture as our lifeline.

I want to make one thing clear before I wrap things up. There is always an abundance of grace for those who are in Christ Jesus. A relationship with God is not legalistic. It’s actually the opposite. I could write all day long about what the Lord is teaching me, but I believe He has something special He wants to teach you. So if you don’t know where to start, I encourage you to take one small step towards the Lord today. Then tomorrow, do the same thing. All you have to do is turn in His direction, and He’ll meet you with open arms.This can look like reading your Bible, saying a prayer, or researching a spiritual concept you are curious about.

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If you made it this far, you get to hear a fun little God story that happened just now!

I always include a picture with my blogs, and today I didn't know which picture to use. I literally prayed that God would show me which one to use, and I decided on this one. Once I decide on a picture, I then have to decide where in the blog it's going to go. Today, I hadn't decided where I wanted the photo to go yet, so I just randomly placed it somewhere on the page. Surprisingly, I thought it looked good there, so I decided to leave it there although I usually place it higher up in the blog. As I read what I had written in the text beside the picture, I realized the photo and text went together perfectly. I wrote this blog a few days ago, and the message of simply turning in God's direction is a word I got from one of Sadie Robertson's sermon. For some reason, it has stayed etched on my heart. Then, the Holy Spirit brought to my attention the fact that sunflowers actually turn to face the sun in order to maximize photosynthesis.(3) Photosynthesis, as we all learned in school, is responsible for creating glucose and oxygen, which are both essential for life. In the same way, when we turn to the Son of God, we have access to everything we need to live an abundant, joyful, and peaceful life.

I literally told Bailee yesterday that I had a vision for our little sunflower photo shoot, but I didn't know God had a vision for it too. Here's a reminder that God can use anything, even a silly little photoshoot, to remind you that He cares for you. Another fun fact, I actually bought a journal at the beginning of summer that says "look to the sunny side" on the cover. Sunflowers may have just become my new favorite flower 🌻.

27 “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! Luke 12: 27-28

I hope this encouraged you and that you have a great rest of the week!!

Love your friend,

Breanna

Works Cited

1. Baker E. How to Hang Loose in an Uptight World. Pelican Pub.; 2002.

2. Masters T. This Feels Very Personal. Tori and Chad Masters; 2023. Accessed July 5, 2023. https://youtu.be/ZaomhiJdNoM.

3. Solar tracking: sunflower plants. Phototropism - corn. Accessed July 5, 2023. https://plantsinmotion.bio.indiana.edu/plantmotion/movements/tropism/solartrack/solartrack.html#:~:text=Some%20plant%20species%20like%20the,as%20the%20movie%20below%20shows.