Are you wondering how to have a consistent Quiet Time?

Yep, me too. I have grappled with this very question for years. Personally, the idea of a perfect daily time with God is incredibly appealing. I think it is so attractive because there is a suggestion that if I do things just right, a consistent and satisfying time with God is always achievable! Yet it never happens.

For years, 40 years to be exact, I have scoured mountains of resources, listened to hundreds of sermons, and picked other Christian brothers and sister’s brains for tips and techniques on the best practices for this daily event. Don’t get me wrong, I have gleaned tons of valuable information from these sources, but there are five things none of my sources ever told me about daily devotions and I want to share them with you because I am pretty sure you haven’t heard them either.

I wish I had been told is this simple truth –

Your Quiet Time Will Be Inconsistent.

The Downward Spiral of Inconsistent Quiet Time

There is nothing quite like a new Bible study. The sheer potential this blank book contains stretches out in front of us. Crisp white pages waiting to contain the fresh insights and discoveries we will make during our daily time in the Word. The first week goes well. We set the alarm and get up every day and meet with the Lord, the second week the reality of the schedule is starting to set in and a day or two is missed. By week three, we are losing your steam and miss a few more days. Failed again.

In our minds, we start to beat ourselves up with accusations like this…

“Why can’t I follow through with anything?”

“What is wrong with me?”

“Maybe I am lazy…”

And the harder we try, the more we miss our target of consistent daily time with God in the Word.

My Inconsistent Quiet Time Experience

My mom knew me inside and out. After all, I was her long-awaited girl and she knew me from my first breath until her last. She watched me, actually studied me, and knew me longer than all my friends. One time, while having one of our conversations about my desire to have a schedule, she gave me some very important feedback. She stated, “The only consistent thing in your life is your inconsistency.”

Well, thanks a lot Mom. But, after pondering this stinging comment, I determined it was true. This is my nature. I like and have always liked variety! After all, “Variety is the spice of life!” Having a consistent Quiet Time or at least what I thought it was, went against my nature because I am naturally inconsistent.

Reframing Consistency in Quiet Time

“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1). This psalm speaks volumes and helps explain the paradox we are discussing. Our daily devotions might be inconsistent,  yet we steadfastly long for time alone with Him. Daily, we crave those holy moments when we catch a glimpse of His character and He meets us where we are and loves us just the same. This hunger for time with Him never changes…but how we acquire these moments do. See, no one ever mentions there will be a daily fight to obtain an unwavering, unchanging, time with God each morning.

Most of us have yet to reach perfect constancy with quiet time, and if we have (and you are a variety lover like me) it probably won’t last very long because our days on this earth, no matter how hard we try to control them, are in a constant state of ebb and flow. Seasons change, situations alter, new health issues arise, children are born, children leave home, new schedules are recreated and our time in the Word shifts slightly or drops off entirely and we become discouraged.

We Are Inconsistent but He Is Not

Here is some good news. Paul reminds us, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot disown Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13) Our myopic focus on our inconsistencies can trip us up when we fixate on what is “wrong” with us rather than what is “right” with Him. God, the One Who doesn’t change (Malachi 3:6) is always active, and faithfully working in our lives.

Are you are inconsistent?

Turn your heart’s gaze off of your failure to His unfailing character.

When I beat myself up for being inconsistent and want to hide from His presence, I remember one of my favorite verses “My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.” Song of Solomon 2:14.

He loves us and wants to meet with us even if we struggle with a regular time in the Word.

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“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” – Ellen Parr

In this introductory post, my goal is to introduce you to several ways to overcome the monotony of Quiet Time.

Admitting that you are bored while reading the Bible is practically considered, by some, a sin. My name is Shelley (Hi Shelley) and I have a confession to make. Sometimes, when I read the Bible, I get bored. Recently, my church has been traveling through the book of Genesis. Each week a group of women and I are doing the Selah Method over the passages that will be preached on Sunday.  Can I just say, by the time Sunday comes, we can hardly wait because we have spent five days immersed in the passage! Our curiosity is piqued and we can’t wait to learn more.

Genesis- A Book of First

Genesis is chock full of exciting firsts! The first man and woman, animals, stars, sin, floods, marriage, plural marriages, children, death, murder, lies, annihilation, redemption, mercy, and covenants. Each of these initial or first incidents gives us an insightful glimpse into God’s Character.

However, one first I was not too thrilled about was genealogies. Genealogy is defined as the line of descent traced continuously from ancestor to ancestor. If you are like me, this could potentially be a bit tedious. In the initial 11 chapters of Genesis, I stumbled (almost tripped over) four genealogies. Each list became a potential roadblock containing numerous unpronounceable and seemingly disembodied names followed by a series of begets that could lull the most earnest Bible student to sleep.

What I Learned from Psalm 119

I was tempted to fly over the names quickly and just keep moving, but then I remembered several lessons I learned when I did a Selah study with a small group of women on Psalm 119. The sheer vastness of this psalm almost caused me to lose my momentum even before I began. Psalm 119 is a HUGE chapter containing a whopping 176 verses. At first glance, each of the 22 stanzas of 8 verses seems to say the same thing in several different ways each pointing to the beauty, value, and preciousness of God’s Word.

However, in my study time, I found this beautiful truth evasive to grasp. Each of the glistening nuances of God’s Word the psalmist was describing slipped through my fingers like water. Truth be told, the similarities of each stanza seemed to my dulled spirit like it was the same song, twenty-second verse. But boy, was I wrong!

After some time, I noticed that certain practices in Selah actually morphed the heaviness of duty into delight. Chewing on the specific words and phrases during the day became a way of meditating. And as I meditated, I found God whispering to me about my view of His eternal Word and how it applied to my life.  (Take a look at some of the treasures I mined in this article.)

Don’t Beat Yourself Up

Sometimes, we start to self-flagellate because boredom overtakes us like a cozy warm blanket while reading through scripture. I even hate to admit it…we get disinterested. (I mean, can we even say this?) But, please, please remember this simple truth about Quiet Time; feeling bored about Bible study happens to the best of us. Instead of rolling over and accepting a passage of scripture as tedious, and taking a nap, our assignment is to figure out how to dispel the gloom of apathy.

During the next four blog posts, I will outline four different ways to help you regain the wonder of scripture. Essentially, I want to help you journey from Boredom to Curiosity!

Go to the first in this series: 4 Ways to Cultivate Curiosity (#1 Investigate)

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“Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;”

John Keats

October is the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” on our farm. This year marks my 36th September as my beloved Farmer’s wife and allows me to look at the topic of fruitfulness with at least a bit of authority. Each fall I look forward in anticipation to what the crops we planted in spring will yield. It has become a habit to also look at the fruit (or lack of it) in my spiritual walk as well.

One painful lesson I have learned is sometimes a field will appear like it is a bumper crop, but turn out to be an utter and abysmal failure.

One season we planted seed corn and had the best-looking crop you would ever want to see…but that was from a distance.  The corn was tall, lush green, and thriving from the road, but as I did a bit of crop scouting by walking through the field, I saw the real story. Very few, tiny kernels on the ears of corn. This happened because of a short drought and intensely hot weather during pollination. Due to the heat, the pollen was killed, and there was hardly any fruit hiding behind the leaves.

Something similar is described in Mark 11:12-14, Jesus was terribly disappointed to find just leaves and no fruit!

It is the same way in our lives. Just because we look good on the outside, “do” the right things, “say” the perfect words doesn’t mean we are authentically fruitful. We hide behind the leaves.

Girl, maybe, just maybe your life looks impressive from the road, but if someone could really get to the middle of your field, they would see the seed was stunted and there is little fruit in your life. Just so you know, Galatians 2:22-23 describes spiritual fruitfulness as qualities like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Remember: this is a description of fruit, not leaves.

Come to think of it…we women have been hiding behind leaves for a long time!  Genesis 3:7-8  Poor Eve. When will we learn we can’t hide from God?

Let me encourage you to do some crop scouting

1.    How does your crop look from inside the field?
2.    What are the leaves of your life?
3.    What is the fruit of your life?

Just like the disappointing seed corn field I mentioned, spiritual fruit is challenging to cultivate during seasons of disappointment and stress- but not impossible.  

^{Ephesians 3:20}

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…”

Photo by Caroline Veronez on Unsplash (9/24/2018)

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Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful,’

 and sitting in the shade.

— Rudyard Kipling

I know a certain someone, who shall remain nameless, who was an avid gardener…in her head.  Every spring we receive seed catalogs from Gurneys, and this little person poured over them during the relentlessly gray months of a Nebraska spring and plan. There would be multiple garden diagrams with different configurations to get the most out of the space she had.  Meticulously, she would analyze the different seeds available for each species and then make an accurate decision on which to purchase. After consulting the Farmer’s Almanac, she would create a detailed calendar that would be most gardener’s dream schedule which detailed when each vegetable seed and flower would be planted while notating the expected harvest.

In April, the garden was a masterpiece on paper, but come the dog days of August it grew into an unruly jungle that didn’t bear fruit up to its potential. Why? Because somewhere between the planting and the harvest the garden wasn’t cultivated.

Diligent attention and work are necessary to produce fruitfulness in the soul as well as the garden.

Let’s be honest, sometimes we get so carried away with the planning of our spiritual garden with just the right Bible studies, the perfect pen, the most exact translation of a Bible, even the science of when the best time to have Quiet Time is that we don’t get around to actually doing it. Sadly, our hands never get dirty with the day-in-day-out soul gardening of soil preparation (your heart), seed choice (the Word), weeding out sin and drawing water from the Well that never runs dry.

Today, I want you to consider four major components to cultivating fruitfulness in the garden of your soul. But Honey, you are going to have to dig. I could do it for you…but it’s time for you to get a bit of spiritual dirt under your manicured nails.

Read and meditate on the following verses and note how you can apply them to your cultivation practices:

Soil Prep – Read Matthew 13:1-9

• What type of soil are you?
• What needs to happen for your dirt to be plowed up and ready to plant?

Seed – Read Matthew 13:1-9 again.

• How many different types of “seed” are used?
• What does the seed represent?
• How are you choosing what you are planting?

Weed – Read Matthew 13:1-9 another time.

• What do the weeds represent?
• What happens to the fruitfulness of the plants?
• Name the weeds in your garden.

Water – Read Isaiah 44:3-4

• Who is the water?
• Are you thirsty?
• What does Water promise to do for your soul garden?

Now, take a good hard look at your hands and make sure you are cultivating spiritual fruitfulness! If you are looking for a way to cultivate a daily quiet time, check out our Selah Series here.

P.S. The want-to-be gardener I mentioned, the one who shall not be named, has grown into a masterful gardener. Each year she plants and harvests several abundant crops of herbs, vegetables, and fruits she cultivates for her Texas family in a well thought out and tended a garden of her own.  I think her hands are one of her most beautiful features because they love my grandsons, feeds her family and cultivates beauty wherever she goes.

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We reap what we sow. Choose what you nourish carefully.     

Anonymous

Agriculture is a business. And with any business, there are a variety of insurance policies to choose from to ensure the farmer gets some return from his crop in case of a catastrophic event.

I wish we would have applied some sort of “insurance” to an apple tree in our orchard last year that was overladen with fruit. Surprisingly, the year before it was barren but had somehow managed to store all its creative energy for the next year’s harvest. The harvest was going to be tremendous! It seemed as if each and every branch carried an obscene amount of fruit on it and consequently the boughs began to dip near the ground with the weight.  Visions of apple butter, apple pie, dried apples, baked apples, and apple crisp danced through my head in late August.

In the first part of September, a terrible storm punished our farm with wild winds.  The tree branches that were so heavy with fruit, they just broke off. The storm left most of the unripened apples on the ground as well as a split apple tree trunk. Sadly, the result was we lost most of the fruit from that year’s harvest, and we lost the future harvests from that tree because of the devastating damage.

Pruning and Harvest Insurance

With a little Harvest Insurance called pruning.

Webster says pruning is “to lop or cut off the superfluous branches of trees and fruit, to make them bear better fruit or grow higher.”

Seriously, pruning is never pleasant and always painful, but for our spiritual health, it is entirely necessary. According to John 15:2, this is precisely what the Lord does with the Believer—He prunes us. “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”

Let me share with you a bit of pruning that was done to me last week. After a prayer time with friends in my Selah group, I was discussing my brother who had been ill for several weeks, and said the Lord will not give me more than I can handle this week.  

Unfruitfulness of the Soul

Can I just say, it had already been a week? It was only Wednesday, and I had the privilege of taking care of my elderly loved one’s needs (his Will, banking, batteries for watches, groceries, and bill paying) and all I really needed to do, at least I thought, was write. But, there wasn’t time.

My unfruitful attitude was starting to flourish, damaging my spiritual health, and God the Gardener knew. My oldest brother passed away late last week, and so the pruning of sorrow begins on the superfluous areas of my soul.

As you go through this week walking with Christ, try looking at the trials you are facing as a time of pruning and receive them with humble gratitude knowing that they lead to deeper intimacy with God and greater spiritual health. Try to picture them as Harvest Insurance.

God, the perfect gardener, loves you and wants you to bear a fruit that lasts. Romans 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.”

The post Spiritual Fruitfulness: Pruning for Health appeared first on Shelley Noonan.

First, I want to explain what kind of time I am talking about. If I were to put a formal name on this intentional time, it would be called Mentoring. My personal definition of mentoring is “to teach WITH PURPOSE ON PURPOSE the correct morals, standards, values, and ideals.” Simply put, mentoring is a pattern of sharing life with your daughter to guide her. While this purposeful teaching happens in the everyday rhythm of our lives, it is vital to plan intentional, specific times when you can purposefully teach the particulars.

Yes, mentoring involves time, but what do we do in those mentoring moments? Our T-I-M-E with our daughters should include the following:

 T- Transparency

With all mentoring, the sharing begins at the heart level and involves an appropriate degree of transparency on your part. If you feel the Lord nudging you to share a specific situation, make certain it:

1. Contains a relevant lesson.
2. Do not share too much or inappropriate information. 
3. Present the experience and then shines the Light of God’s mercy and grace through it. Show her and tell her how God has used this situation in your life to bring you closer to Him. Psalm 78:4

I-Intimacy 

True intimacy is birthed from (appropriate) transparency. It seems to me that at a certain age, girls struggle with it being all about them! While this is a natural stage of development for our girls, it is important to draw those in-grown eyeballs of theirs to an outward gaze.

Your goal Mama is to enlighten your daughter on the role of a give-and-take relationship. While you are making sure you are a student of your daughter and meeting her needs, you can gently train her on how to develop a healthy, godly interest in others.

M-Meaningful

On one level, we could teach our girls meaningful things during this time, such as never wearing white after Labor Day, never wearing black to a wedding, and always wearing clean underwear. (Have I dated myself with this comment?) 

Or we can teach her things that have eternal value such as acquainting her to her savior Jesus, how to develop a quiet time, and how to pray. The concept here is to make your moments count!

E-Enjoyable 

Mary Poppins gave some pretty great advice when she said “A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.”  And it also applies to mentoring your daughter!  Moreover, while sugar can help many bitter things taste better, sometimes it takes more than a spoonful to make life’s medicine go down. Mom, you know your daughter better than anyone. You know what makes her excited, what gives her joy, what drives her. Our challenge is to incorporate FUN into the mentoring time. With a little thought, you can make it something she wants to experience more and more!

The next step after planning a TIME is planning WHAT TO STUDY

Would you like more information on my Mother/Daughter Bible studies?

The Companion Guide to Beautiful Girlhood and Beautiful Girlhood is for girls ages 9-14. Pumpkin Seed Press publishes The Companion Guide to Beautiful Girlhood to accompany Beautiful Girlhood. You can purchase both books on  Amazon.

Beyond Beautiful Girlhood Plus Companion guide is for daughters ages 13-18. More information on both can be found on my website by clicking on the books.

The post 4 Ways to Spend T-I-M-E with Your Daughter appeared first on Shelley Noonan.

The often-used term Quiet Time has long been used by Christians to describe a specific time set aside to read the Bible and commune with God. For most of us, the literal term Quiet Time is a misnomer because these precious moments of silence are scarce. When I mention what I do, which is to create Bible studies for Quiet Time, I often hear a forlorn cry, “I just don’t have time for Quiet Time.”

Well, I am here to say — I hear ya sister!

Been there, done that, and felt the exact same way. We know that as believers we should be having a Quiet Time but as we scan the minutes, hours, and days of our lives there appears to be little margin to perform this daily ritual correctly! Let’s take a deep breath and pause a moment to look at three strategies to simplify Quiet Time.

Throw Away Misconceptions
So many of us have bought into and subscribed to the imaginary rules of Quiet Time. They tend to sound like, I have to do Quiet Time in this particular way in order for it to be a success. (Please, fill in the blanks because I don’t want to give any roadblocks you haven’t been thought of before.) But seriously, I am not sure where your personal fictitious guidelines came from but my collection came from comparing myself to godly women whom I admired. I tried to use their pattern to create my own moments in the Word. After a while, I gathered so many that didn’t work for me I too thought, “I just don’t have time for Quiet Time.”  This technique produced fallacies and cultivated outright lies from the enemy which prevents me from developing a Quiet Time of my own. I discovered “One Size” does not fit all!

Maybe it is the same for you?

I hate to admit it but my #1 misconception was that Quiet Time had to be, well, quiet. It goes without saying, quiet is one of the most difficult things to accomplish in a busy home! While the sweetness of silence isn’t always available, moments can still be snatched here or there to read the Word. Often, I would have a few minutes while my children were down for naps to glance at a chapter. Or last thing at night, right before sleep. One technique that helped was to have my Bible above little hands reach but easily accessible and open to where I was reading so I could easily devour it when the opportunity presented itself.

There is an old adage about food and sleep while one travels, “Get it when you can.” This same principle applies to us. Rest and feast on the Word when you can! Consume it when you can throughout your day and sleep on it at night. “For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.” Psalm 107:9

Craft a Plan

How often, I wonder, have I resolved to be in the Word more, be faithful, not be lazy, and get up in the morning, to study the Bible? My clothes would be laid out, coffee ready, alarm set, and I would wake up to create a Quiet Time before the kids got up, and yet, often as I approached the Bible, I felt as if I was still foggy about what to do. Because I didn’t have a concrete plan for being in the Word. Benjamin Franklin said it all when he stated, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

Plans are a funny thing. On one hand, when executed properly, they help us accomplish our goals. Yet, on the other hand, when we place too much emphasis on the plan it can become a rigid structure, we feel claustrophobic, bored, and trapped. My suggestion is simply to create a plan, ask the Lord to show you, start walking in it, but hold it loosely. And girl, give yourself grace when the days don’t go the way you thought. “In their hearts, humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” Proverbs 16:9

If you have a longer stretch or would like to do a more in-depth study try one of my Selah studies. The Selah Method concentrates on one portion of Scripture each week. Every day, for five days, you will be taking the passage apart to understand it better in a journal format and learn how to apply it to your life.

Adjust Your Attitude

Over the years, my mentor would gently correct me when I said, “I have to do…” She would remind me of my joy depended upon my attitude and encouraged me to morph the phrase from “I have to” into “I get to”.

The way in which we look at a situation has so much to do with how it will turn out. While I am sure you know this when it comes to performing a job, nurturing children, loving husbands, or even helping a friend out, it also applies to the time spent with the Lord in His Word.

Ladies, our brief stint as Mama’s with children under one roof is so incredibly short and so incredibly draining. We are constantly giving, nurturing, tending, watching, and loving those in our care and it can drain our joy tanks dry. But in light of a lifetime, these days are brief. That is why during these dry, depleting days of Motherhood we desperately need to draw deeply from a Well of Joy and I have found only one place to obtain it. Psalm 119:162 TPT puts it this way, “Your promises are the source of my bubbling joy; the revelation of your word thrills me like one who has discovered hidden treasure.”

Time in the Word yields eternal rewards and endless refreshment! Let me leave one final thought by Henry Drummond, “Ten minutes spent in the presence of Christ every day, aye, two minutes, will make the whole day different.”

Takeaways-

Throw Away Misconceptions

Consider your idea of Quiet Time. Is it your own? Is it scriptural? Is it working for you?
Contemplate your own personal ideal Quiet Time. What would it consist of? How would you feel after you completed it? When would work to have a Quiet Time?

Craft a Plan

Plan what will you do during this time. Here are some ideas for you to consider.
Read a Psalm or a Proverb a day
Daily read a chapter in James and dwell on God’s steadfast love
Do one of our Selah Studies and learn how to linger with God

Adjust Your Attitude

If time in the Word is a “have to” rather than a “get to” ask the Lord to create a holy hunger in your soul that only time with Him can satisfy. (Psalm 107:9)

The post 3 Ways to Simplify Your Quiet Time appeared first on Shelley Noonan.

January makes me reflective. I distinctly remember glancing at my then twelve-year-old girl’s face and, I caught a fleeting glimpse of who she would be when grown into a woman.  That was 20 plus years ago, but this memory of the-future-her is etched into my mind. It was not only in the way I could envision her soft round face would transform as she grew, but I also imagined the kind of woman she would become.

I have to admit, those years found me at a loss. I just didn’t have a clue on how to raise a godly daughter. My own mom was not a believer when I was under her care. There were no tangible role models in my life. This is when I first turned to Classic Christian literature for help.  Beautiful Girlhood written by Mable Hale was my go-to book. It was written in the 1940s but had so much to say to me and my girl in the 1990s.  In 2000 a friend and I wrote a Companion Guide to Beautiful Girlhood to create the scriptural framework for this fine book. We added a discussion guide, topical Bible study relating to the chapter, and journaling section to help our girl connect with the concepts learned. Later, I added a blog to help moms who felt like they were struggling with teaching their daughters called BtwixtandBtweenBlog.com.

A few years later, that little girl was a young woman and headed off to college. It was when I created Beyond Beautiful Girlhood as a way to ‘love her just a little more’ and prepare her for the world. We did long-distance mentoring over the phone. She helped me work through the manuscript every Tuesday night of her first year at college by doing the study with me.

Here is what I used with my own girl.

1. Beautiful Girlhood Bundle is a classic for relationship building for Moms and Daughters ages 9-14. Build precious memories during 32 weeks of study. Journey through beautiful girlhood with thought-provoking questions, pertinent Bible study and application, and inspiring quotations for discussion and journaling.
2. Beyond Beautiful Girlhood Bundle is for Moms and Daughters ages 13-18. As a 24-week study, this book’s focus is on developing skills to help your daughter manage three crucial areas: Home, Life, and Spirit. The topics explored include a girl’s need for private space, her choice of friends, pleasures (hobbies/activities), books, education, and her future occupation. This volume is for both mother and daughter to write in! The journal questions and Bible studies are divided between mother and daughter—so concerns, thoughts, and experiences are communicated during weekly meetings. Numerous project suggestions are included for home economics, life skills, and in-depth spiritual discipleship.
3. btwixtandbtweenblog.com It is hard to pin down exactly what you would call B’twixt & B’tween. It can be described as a part blog, part community, part Bible study, part activity guide, a part resource section for moms of ‘tweenage daughters going through Beautiful Girlhood , and The Companion Guide to Beautiful Girlhood.

As I write this, I just got off the phone from a 17-minute conversation with her. We talk almost every day, sometimes several times a day. My only girl lives too far away, a whole 10 hours away, is married to a wonderful man, and is a boy mom through and through. The phone keeps us a part of each other’s lives.  I never tire talking to her, sharing ideas, being challenged, and laughing about silly things. This connection began by taking time and making a plan to connect.

Connect with me on Facebook and, you and I can start our own conversation!

The post Ideas for One-On-One Time with Your Daughter appeared first on Shelley Noonan.

Galatians 6:9 TPT

For over three and a half decades, I have been observing our Nebraskan fields and yields, and I’ve noted some remarkable parallels between the physical and spiritual crops and the conditions which can inhibit fruitfulness. I have concluded that if we want to have physical and spiritual fruitfulness, there are two things we must have. Without them, there is little hope of a plentiful harvest. First, I’ll offer an illustration in the physical realm. 

Sudden Death Syndrome

Two years ago, my husband planted two different kinds of soybean seed in a field. One was resistant to a deadly varmint called cyst nematodes, the other was not.  Both of these crops looked lush and beautiful, until one day in early August when the nonresistant field began to turn, almost overnight to an unseasonal yellow that is the tell-tale sign of Sudden Death Syndrome.

Certainly, the name sounds scary, and it is terrifying to a soybean farmer because it’s a silent killer of crops. You see, the female cyst nematode—even the name is gross—stealthily attaches to the root and creates a cyst-like structure to live in.  She quietly hijacks the plant’s nutrition and creates an environment that is beneficial for her but not the plant. And in the meantime, the damage she does to the roots allows an opportunistic fungal disease to ravage the plant above ground, and it yields the Sudden Death Syndrome.

Here is the main thing I want you to remember from this agricultural illustration: According to one source, “Farmers may or may not see aboveground symptoms, however, yield losses can be significant even when no symptoms are visible.” So, track with me. It looks like death came swiftly to the soybean field. One day It seemed verdant and vigorous and the next it was turning yellow. The sobering fact is: the roots and the inside of the plant had been rotting for weeks.

Sudden Spiritual Death

We have all seen it in the lives of “professing” believers around us.  For a time, the foliage of their life appears to flourish! It seems that it will bear a bumper crop of good fruit in season but something happens below the surface of their lives and Sudden Spiritual Death occurs.

There are really only two solutions for preventing Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS) in soybeans, and I think we can apply this “folksy” wisdom to our spiritual lives.

Two Things Needed

Two things are necessary to thwart SSD—good Seed and good soil.  Jesus addressed this very issue as he explained to the disciples why some people have fruitful spiritual harvest and others. Read Matthew 13:1-13 and answer the following questions.

Good Seed

To prevent Sudden Spiritual Death in our fields, the most effective way to is to plant the good seed that has been treated to resist the invasion of the cyst nematodes.

o    What is the good Seed you can plant in your life?

o    How does this good Seed give you the power to resist the invasion of sin?

o    Name some ways you can “plant” this seed?

Good Soil

Unfortunately, the cyst nematode can live in the dirt for up to 10 years and reproduce up to five times a year, so prevention is the best way to stop it from affecting your harvest. Read the parable over again and answer the following questions:

o    According to the parable, what makes the soil good in your spiritual lives?

o    List some of the hardened areas of your life.

o    List some of the thorn-infested areas of your life.                                       

So, how can you work on getting good soil and good Seed?

Here’s what I use: the Selah bible study method encourages spiritual fruitfulness. The Selah Bible Study process provides a structure to read the Word five days in a row…but actually, the Word is reading me. The Holy Spirit uses it to point out areas in my life where I sin, and I confess my sin.  Then, the Word is deeply implanted into the soil of my heart.

If you are interested in learning more about plowing up your fallow ground, planting good Seed, and reaping a spiritual harvest contact me at shelleynoonan@hotmail.com!

Photo by Ant Rozetsky on Unsplash (9/15/2018)

The post Spiritual Fruitfulness: Two Things Necessary appeared first on Shelley Noonan.

As you glance over the first chapters of Beautiful Girlhood and The Companion Guide to Beautiful Girlhood in preparation for your time with your daughter, you will notice several themes that will be developed over the next 32 weeks. 

Transitions

For our purposes today we are going to concentrate on the theme of your daughter’s transition from girlhood to womanhood. Warning: this is a topic that can make us moms a bit weepy!

My farmer husband has a green thumb and grows a variety of stunning plants that are both edible and ornamental. One of his prized possessions is a rose bush of his grandmother’s. Each year in early July, around his birthday, this old plant bears the most striking, peptobismolesque, pink roses. They start as a bud and within what seems like a blink of an eye the buds open to display their full glory.

The image of a rose is used in this chapter to illustrate the tender journey your daughter is making. Metaphorically speaking, your sweet girl is in the bud stage and will eventually unfold as she matures into a full-blown glorious blossom.

Girlhood is the opening flower of Womanhood

I encourage you to slow down this week; ponder for a moment your daughter’s amazing journey – not the destination. Many a rosebud becomes blighted and never reaches its full promise. Ask the Lord for ways to walk with and share your daughter’s passage. As you gaze upon the metamorphosis occurring before your very eyes, be aware that you are both a gardener and a guardian against the blight of sin for these few short years.  Commit to seek the Lord on this subject of transition and enjoy these glorious days of beautiful girlhood with your daughter.

Blessings, 

Activity

• Read Chapter One of Beautiful Girlhood aloud with your daughter and do the questions and Bible Study Activity in The Companion Guide to Beautiful Girlhood.
• Observe your daughter this week and write down some of the ways you see her exhibit cheerfulness. Notice how she promotes good cheer or induces pleasantness in others. Be ready to bless her socks off with these observations when you do the chapter together!

Memory Verse

Proverbs 15:13

“A happy heart makes the face cheerful;

heartache crushes the spirit.”

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Ponder and Post

• Go ahead, leave a comment below and share with others in the group ways you have been preparing your daughter for adulthood.
• Go to my FACEBOOK or Instagram Page and post a picture of you and your daughter for our group!
• Full disclosure time, how are really feeling about your daughter’s growing up? Post it in the comment section! (Go ahead, spill! Others are most likely feeling just like you!)

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Recommended Resources

Queen in a Home of Her Own Article

This is the FREEBIE of the week! How do you teach your daughter the skills she needs to know to be a ‘Queen in a Home of Her Own’? When do you begin? Learn the 9 basic lessons of training your daughter in domestic arts.

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Mentoring Your Daughter CD  

Little girls grow up so fast….if only there was a simple method to instill your values into your daughter. There is! It’s called mentoring. The main component to mentoring is T.I.M.E. Join Shelley Noonan as she encourages and motivates you to spend your T.I.M.E. mentoring your daughter by sharing her own brand of practical wisdom. Glean information on various ways to mentor and resources to make the time that you spend with your daughter unforgettable! I have retired this one but if you are interested…Let me know via PM on Facebook or Instagram.

The post A Rose Opens – Chapter 1 appeared first on Shelley Noonan.