What We Learned in June

I started off June by thinking about my 2015 Word of the Year. What was it??? How sad that I could not remember off the top of my head and I had to go look it up!  It's even more sad when I realized what the word was.

Intentional... my word of the year, my goal, was to be "intentional."

How can you be intentional if you don't remember to do so? 

I pulled out my trusty bullet journal and added a column on the side of my daily pages labeling it "WWL."  My aim was to jot down everything that struck me as worthy of thought as I went through my day.  Most days it worked really well. Other days, you can tell I didn't think about much!

Here is a sampling of what struck my fancy in June:

I listened to a recording of Beth Moore speaking at the Passion conference in 2014 and a couple of her quotes stood out to me:  "The prophetic word in scripture is now more and more relevant today than it meant to your grandparents." (So true! The news each day sounds more and more like the last days spoken of in scripture.) "(We're) One day closer to seeing a glimpse of Him!"

What a day that will be!

On another June day, I listened to Priscilla Shirer's 2013 RightNow Conference speech, "Abundantly Beyond What We Could Ask For." Powerful!  Here is what struck me:  

• "If only you had believed that exactly what He wrote is what He meant!"  
• "The key to battle is beginning with worship. (See the story of Gideon.)"
• "Wage war using divine strategy (not what makes sense to you)"
• "Your victory is on the other side of obedience."
  
  
  

In light of recent events, this scripture spoke to me:

The Lord gives righteousness and justice to all who are treated unfairly. Psalm 103:6 New Living Translation (NLT) 

In late June, I spent a lot of time wrapping my mind around the fact that a gunman would sit in a prayer meeting for an HOUR and then shoot and kill 9 people. 

But what was really mind-blowing, the families of those 9 people told the gunman they forgave him. That, my friends, demonstrates Christ better than anything!

The end of June brought the infamous SCOTUS ruling on marriage and social media exploded with everyone voicing their opinion.

What I learned was, although I might have strong feelings about the court's decision, I need to respond in love. I also need to remember that the church's message has always been, and shall forever more be, counter-cultural. We do not think the way the world does. We can not expect them to live by the teachings of Jesus when they don't even believe in Him. 

Believers need to remember to:

"... in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,"1 Peter 3:15 English Standard Version (ESV) 

I also read a thought-provoking post by Kristin Welch that encouraged me to "....spend less ... give more," and, "It’s easy to be right. It’s easy to ignore the needs of others." - See more at: http://wearethatfamily.com/#sthash.WQlsEwS6.dpuf" 

Ouch!

And lest you think June was nothing but solemn and serious, on the bright side, there were fun times and special celebrations. Our family celebrated Father's Day and Malia's 22nd birthday together. And there was a day spent celebrating that two very important people joined our family one year ago:

So... what about you?  Did you learn anything in June that you'd like to share with us? Leave a comment or link up at Emily Freeman's blog.