Memory Scripture Puzzle-John 10:27-29

When I was home recovering from my ankle injury, my friend Sue brought me a Bible Word Search Puzzle Book to work on while I was immobile on the couch. I loved it. It really helped me remember God's Words so I could put them into practice throughout my day. 

Word search puzzles are a great way to help learn scripture because memorizing word groupings help us remember entire sentences, paragraphs, and so on. 

So I thought it would be fun to share a scripture with you that I'm learning that I made through the free word search maker from A to Z Teacher Stuff.com.

John 10:27-29

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.

I love this scripture because it reminds me we don't have to listen to the false messages of the world, only His truth. I recognize whose voice is His because I read my Bible. It gives me great comfort to know that nobody can steal us from His love and protection.

To print it out you need to be connected to a printer, then click on download and you can send it to your printer. If you get stuck, let me know and I'll provide you with the answers next week.

I'm Writing a Book! I will keep you posted on my progress!

     I'm writing a book! I will keep you posted here on my progress! It's twelve chapters long and I'm working on chapter three now. The synopsis is below. It's challenging to keep my timelines, and the weekly schedule I have in place, but I keep at it because I am so EXCITED about learning, growing, and deepening my convictions about following Jesus, and how He handled His relationships and His spiritual view of life!

Update: 11/8/22-Currently I'm working on chapter eight.

As a Christian, have you ever felt as if God was working in everyone else’s life but your own? Or had the gnawing feeling that your life is not being lived to the full because you’re not experiencing the peace and power God promised you in your walk with Jesus?

Insecurity bombards us, making us question our work, relationships, and who we are.  We get burned out striving to conform to the patterns of the world and forget the peace we have in remembering who we are in Jesus and the power we have in following Him. 

 

We find it difficult to wait for the events of our lives to unfold so we take matters into our own hands and wonder why things didn’t work out. We don’t trust God because we don’t spend time with Him in prayer listening to Him in His Word, or trust Him with the plans He has for our lives. 

What if instead, we learned how to rest in His love and believe in His promises? What if we took the gifts and talents that God has given us, and started going after our dreams?

Come along with me on a faith journey in The Art of Believing: Living Out Your Faith with Peace and Power in the Promises of God. This book will have word searches, and coloring pages to help with scripture memory in addition to personal stories, lessons, questions, and reflection prompts. We will dig deeper than ever before as we apply the Word of God to our relationships, experiences, and life callings. We will become more passionate and fulfilled in our relationship with Him and others as we live our lives according to the plans He has for us now and for eternity. 

Let the Adventure Begin!

Lessons Learned from a Broken Ankle

Two weeks into my summer vacation I went for my morning jog, landed wrong after crossing over a grassy road verge, and fractured my fibula and probably a few ribs. While stuck on the couch, here's what I learned so far.

Slow Down

After my hectic school year ended in June, I planned to slow way down. Why? Because I felt restless, even during the first few days of my summer break. Although I had no plans and nothing on my schedule, I was still not at rest yet I didn't know what to do to get into that state of heart and mind.

Before my fall I ran at two speeds: 0 and 100 and nothing in between. I was constantly on the go. I found my worth in doing things as if "being" was not enough. If there wasn't anything to do, I'd find something. It made me feel productive. 

When I broke my ankle, I had no choice but to slow down and just be. It required so much of my energy to wash and dress that there was little left to do much anything else.

Accept Help From Others

Allowing others to help me was by far the toughest of all for me to do. I was so used to doing things for myself. I had to learn to accept help from others. 

I wanted to go to our Saturday morning Breakfast Club meeting at my friend's house but I didn't know how I was going to get there. So instead of asking for a ride, I mustered up enough courage to tell her I couldn't drive. This way, if nobody offered I would just not go. Thankfully she texted our group; Can anyone pick up Mare on the way to our meeting this week?

At first, my response was completely prideful, I was aghast with humiliation. You don't understand, I'm the one who likes to help others. I don't like to be the one being helped.

When I confessed my attitude to my friend, she kindly said, "You're allowing others to serve you." Then I realized this was true. Where did I get the idea I was an inconvenience? Hmmmmmm. Where did that come from? Breaking old thought patterns sure was difficult.

Listen to Your Body

While jogging on the day of my accident, I was completely exhilarated! I pushed myself hard on my run and it felt good! My body was strong as I moved down the road, headphones on, listening to a favorite song. 

Making movement and strength training a part of my day has been a process. I didn't always want to do it. However, I learned to love exercising. In fact, my body even craved it. I tried to limit it to six days a week so I could take a day off but realized I enjoyed it so much that I didn't need to; I wanted to do it every day.

The tough part after my ankle break, I could not exercise at all. My doctor told me to wear the boot and come back in three weeks. THREE WEEKS! Praise God. This was so good for me. I learned to surrender to God and submitted to His plans because I knew they were GOOD. Better than my own.

I'm moving as tolerated these days but my body is not ready to go jogging yet. Until then, I will listen to my doctor and care for it. I'm planning to text my friend on Friday to see if she can pick me up for this Saturday's meeting. I'm waiting on God for the direction of my days and it's all good. Very good.

Reflection Questions:

Are you experiencing a setback in life right now? In what ways has this setback been helpful to you? What scriptures speak truth to you regarding your setback?

Resources: 

Ephesians 5:29-After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church

Gen 1:27-So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

John 13:8-"No," said Peter, "you shall never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me." "Then, Lord," Simon Peter replied, "not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!" Jesus answered, "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. (I love this line, Jesus is so practical here :).

Balancing Being and Doing by John Warden

Slow Down and Smell the Sunflowers!

I transferred my blog from artofbelieving.com to maryannkasper.com. So now when you google either domain name they both will load my blog pages. But the official name from now on is maryannkasper.com. 

I thought it would be a simple process. But apparently, I clicked a few wrong buttons upon registration and it failed to load. For five days!

Now that it's back up and running, I hope to continue blogging content about adventure, family, renewal, work, resources, my sticker shoppe, and the progress I'm making on my book.

If you're tuning in now, thanks so much for your patience.

Oh, and did I mention I broke my ankle while jogging a few days ago? So now I will have plenty of time to slow down and smell the sunflowers. They're from my friend, Elise.

Happy summer everyone!