To end this month on health, why don’t you draw yourself a well-deserved warm bath. Go ahead and light some
candles, get our your bath salts,
Be generous with yourself.
prepare for a godly marriage | pursue relationship with Jesus | build a foundation for a Kingdom-advancing life
To end this month on health, why don’t you draw yourself a well-deserved warm bath. Go ahead and light some
candles, get our your bath salts,
Be generous with yourself.
Have you reserved your spot yet for the Beautiful Bricklayers 101 Class starting this Sunday night?!
If you are a unmarried woman (either totally single, dating, or engaged) this is a class for you! We’ll be talking about the principles of becoming “hot and holy” women. First, we’ll hit on purpose and what it means to know the “why” in your life. We all have to grapple with this question before we can truly build a foundation for anything meaningful moving forward.
Next, we’ll dig into the concept of prayer and what it means to be a woman who has it going on in this department. Do you want to get equipped to draw near to Jesus in an intimate relationship? Do you want to know how you can be praying for your future marriage and that most important man in your life? Our second class will target these areas very specifically.
You can’t do any of this on your own! In the third class, we’ll be covering partnership and what it means to link arms with your community of family and friends to set you up for a successful season of preparation.
Last, you’ll love the challenge to get an action plan together in order to take strategic steps of preparation during your singleness. In the fourth class, we’ll talk about ways you can get geared up to implement what you’ve learned to live out a “hot and holy” life both now and in the future.
So, are you coming or what?! Get your Bible, journal, and a few girlfriends together for this catalyst experience that will empower you to be even more intentional with this important season in your life!
Sign up on the Facebook event page or send an email to Laura Vencill, and be sure to invite your friends!!!
Class Dates: Sunday evenings: Oct. 19, 26, Nov. 3, 10)
Location: Woodbridge Community Church: 5000 Barranca Parkway, Irvine, CA 92604
Cost: $25 (includes materials) (partial scholarships available)
I failed to mention in the last post (and I’m SO sorry if I gave the wrong impression): Bricklayers is not going dormant!
I (Cristina) may be a bit off the radar right now as I focus on my own “bricklaying” but the Beautiful Bricklayers in Orange County are actively meeting and preparing for continued involvement of the Bricklayers community. Laura Vencill (pictured with her husband, Mike) and Cassie Robertson are leading these events. They are particularly focused on leading a monthly prayer meeting in Irvine and hope to start up a new Bricklayers class later this year as well. Keep an eye out for dates and times here on the blog and also on our Facebook page.
Eleven days ago my baby girl was born! My husband and I welcomed Grace Elisabeth on May 22nd at 8:05AM and we felt as though heaven rejoiced with us. This past week and a half has been the beginning of the most beautiful yet challenging thing I have ever done in my life… become a mommy.
I hope to elaborate
more on what I am thinking and feeling about this enormous life change, but for now I wanted to share with you, sweet Beautiful Bricklayers, that we have a new, little Bricklayer girl in our community now.
Thanks to all of you who have rejoiced with us and congratulated us and prayed for us. We would love your prayers as we continue to transition into being parents to this precious baby.
Gracie and I are still working on learning to breastfeed and my husband and I are trying to get some sleep whenever possible. Thankfully, my parents have been here to make all our meals, keep the endless laundry going, and encourage us (especially when I have been particularly hormonal with all the postpartum changes).
Ladies, I have entered into yet another season of more substantial “bricklaying” or foundation-building time for my family. I will do the best I can to post content, but most of my time and attention will be focused on learning the rhythms of parenting while continuing to invest in my relationship with God and my husband.
During your own seasons of “bricklaying” I pray that you would be able to focus on one step at a time, trusting God to guide you, asking the Lord to give you wisdom, and lovingly embrace the people around you. Always remember: Psalm 127:1
“Unless the Lord builds the house,
the builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the guards stand watch in vain.”
Let God be the builder of your house.
Wow. Have you heard the story of Ian and Larissa Murphy? These two demonstrate unconditional love in marriage. When Ian’s brain was damaged in a life-altering automobile accident, his then-girlfriend, Larissa, didn’t give up. Watch their update here:
[vimeo 88485530 w=500 h=281]
If you are interested to read their book or learn more about their story, visit their website here.
What is the first thing you do to get ready for your shower? Well, you need to take off all your clothes. Ok, before you think I’m a crazy Californian wanting to talk about getting naked during a short devotional message, just bear with me. We’re actually going to talk about taking a spiritual shower. I felt so grateful to be asked to share this message a couple of months ago at a Ladies Luncheon at my church. The community here in Arkansas has welcomed my husband and me with such warmth and we’re glad to be here.
Regardless of where you are and at what life stage you are in right now, I hope this brief devotional refreshes and challenges you. Every time you take a shower, you can be reminded that our heart needs a good wash too!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljAa9e_WYi8&w=560&h=315]
Key Points to Remember:
“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your
salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”
“Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.“
At home:
Hopefully, you have enjoyed your 31 Day
Husband Prayer Journey! Please contact us to let us know how it went and if you have any ideas for ways to encourage other women who will do this in the future. Although the 31 days will be over on Sunday (Easter!) if you started with us on March 21st with Week One, we encourage you to carry on this wonderful gift of lifting up your future (or current) husband in prayer on a daily basis.
Let’s dive in to praying over the Social areas of Mr. Husband’s life!
“Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear;
in the end they will look in triumph on their foes.
They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor,
their righteousness endures forever;
their horn will be lifted high in honor.
The wicked will see and be vexed,
they will gnash their teeth and waste away;
the longings of the wicked will come to nothing.“
Instead of giving you several ideas for ways to pray this week, we’re offering just one. We’ll keep it simple. Most importantly, we hope you connect with the Lord in an intimate way!
Let’s link arms in uplifting these men in prayer for the Emotional area this week:
“Surely the righteous will never be shaken;
they will be remembered forever.
They will have no fear of bad news;
their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord...”
Keep persevering in prayer! Hopefully, you are finding ways to dig into prayer, but here are some more ideas for you to try:
Husband.
This week’s focus is on the Mental. Consider praying for these areas this week:
“Even in darkness light dawns for the upright,
for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous.
5 Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely,
who conduct their affairs with justice..”
Laura Vencill, a dear friend, spurs you on in her challenge to pray intentionally for Mr. Husband in the area of sexuality. Laura is leading up the Monthly Prayer Nights in Orange County starting in April!
Pray for his purity and protection from sexual temptation.
As you pray for Mr. Husband, a powerful subject for prayer is his mind, heart, and body in the area of sexuality. By the time you meet him, your future husband may have saved himself for you faithfully, or he may have given in to temptation and acquired some battle wounds along his journey. You may be in either of those camps, too. We can’t know what kind of story our future spouse will show up with, but we can pray for him early and often. Let’s do everything in our power to support our future lover toward a victorious, God-honoring and joyful sexuality.
Pray that God will guard and keep him from sexual sin. Start praying even now that your husband would be “self-controlled and alert,” that he would seek help if he is in bondage to an addiction.
We live in a day and age where it’s hard to find any guy who hasn’t been exposed at all to pornography. It’s less a question of, “will he encounter it?” and more of “when he encounters it, how old will he be and will he be ensnared by it or able to refuse its sway?” Ask that God will keep him from pornography, that his mind might be protected from storing up a playbook of sexual images and expectations. But, pray hard, Beautiful Bricklayer, that if he does encounter it, God will have the victory and he will quickly make wise choices about how to safeguard his mind from it.
Pray that the Lord will speak truth into Mr. Husband’s mind that speak louder than the devil’s lies that are disseminated by pornography and many movies and even magazines; lies that tell us that sex is all about performance; that it is about “getting” rather than “sharing” or loving; that you have to look or sound or behave in a certain way or else your spouse won’t think you’re sexy. Prayers like this can truly make a powerful impact.
Beautiful Bricklayers, whoever God says is clean is clean indeed.
If he has stumbled and fallen sexually in the past, that can cause a lot of pain and sorrow, but it does not have to be a red flag. The Lord has cleansed him of all unrighteousness if he has received the Lord’s forgiveness and turned from those old ways. So, if his life evidences change, and he does not pressure you physically but respects your boundaries, and if He has confessed and been freed from the hold it had on him, then I urge you to believe and trust that he is truly a new creation. Above all you are looking for a Godly man, so pray that if your Mr.Husband will pursue Godliness and passionate purity by the time you walk into his life.