key ingredient to beating anxiety... three

...to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. Isaiah 61:3

crown of beauty...

oil of joy...

garment of praise...

Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name.

The next key ingredient to beating anxiety is praise! Praising the Lord is a unique and powerful way that can bring about happiness and peace. Praising God is something that King David always did; Paul also wrote to the churches and encouraged believers to give thanks or pray for the the Lord always.

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Philippians 4:6

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Colossians 3:17

We see Paul exhort believers to rejoice, give thanks, praise and sing songs to God. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 we see Paul repeat himself to rejoice. Other verses where Paul tells us to rejoice include (and are not limited to) Ephesians 5:19-20, 2 Corinthians 13:12, and Philippians 4:8.

First and foremost we are to praise God because it is showing our love and service to Him. We are able to let Him know how amazing He is and how thankful we are for His compassion, kindness and love for us. But I also believe that praising God chases away all of our worries. When we praise God our minds are focused on praise and not worry. In fact the enemy and evil flee at the sound of rejoicing. It is a way to resist the evil one and pursue God wholeheartedly. (James 4:7)

God can also speak to us during praise. How amazing is it that God chooses to speak to us while we are praising Him!

So remember to praise God; even when our natural inclination is to grumble or complain, choose instead to praise. If you replace praising God every time you feel like complaining or worrying then only good things can come. It's not always easy and it may seem to have no effect at first; but its more effective than we can fathom! It's a way to give our thanks to Father God.

May God bless you all!
~Gretchen

Visionary Womanhood: E-book review

I recently had the privilege of reading Natalie Klejwa’s e-book “Visionary Womanhood Gatherings A Family Strengthening Mentorship Tool for Women and Maidens” and was so excited with the vision she writes about!

Mrs. Klejwa runs Visionary Womanhood website over at VisionaryWomanhood.com. This website is full of visionary articles, resources, and information on how to see life from God’s perspective and what women can do to live a life with vision!

Her e-book could not have come soon enough because as Mrs. Klejwa explains, our culture suffers from nearsightedness and can’t see past the cultural norm that is not in line with God’s vision. This is a book that really helps women get a view of what we can do for not only ourselves, but how to help the future generations become better Christians. It helps us to become people who live selfless lives and give love, joy and help to those who need it. It also helped me to look at my own perspective and if there were any changes I needed to make.

I know people who wear glasses when they need to see far away because they are nearsighted. I too am nearsighted. Because of nearsighted vision I have to drive with my glasses on and read signs with my glasses on. Without them my vision is a little blurry when trying to see things far away. I run the risk of not seeing a very important sign on the road when driving if I don’t wear my glasses. So whenever I drive to new places I make sure to put them on, however I have gotten kind of lazy when I’m driving to places that I know how to get to. But being lazy and not seeing things clearly can cause wrong turns, failure to see a stop sign, or even a crash. This type of blurred vision is not just something that I suffer from, but something that our culture currently suffers from. We need to do something different, we need a vision! Mrs. Klejwa makes this very clear in her book.

In the book I loved the references to the Wemmicks: little wooden people who live in Wemmickville and were created by the Woodcarver. (The author Max Lucado created these wooden Wemmicks to help create a vision of what our world could possibly look like to God.) We like the Wemmicks live in our own little world without ever thinking about God, or the Woodcarver. How many times do we stop and get a perspective that is in line with our Creator? Unfortunately in today’s culture we don’t stop often enough to see His perspective.

Visionary Womanhood teaches women how to take back the vision from our near sighted culture and spread this vision through fellowship, love, and getting in tune with the Creator, God!

I too have suffered from a lack of God’s vision and this book was such a blessing to me that I knew I could no longer be lazy and not put on my glasses while driving. There are pot holes, traffic jams, and faulty stop lights in this world and if we rely on our own faulty vision we will end up crashing.

Thankfully though, Mrs. Klejwa has put together an amazing book to get us back on track with how God sees things. God is much bigger, wiser, and clear sighted, than any of us can ever be. And if we take the time to stop, consider His perspective, and listen to His Words then He can and will prevent us from going down a one way street, running through a stop sign and in the end stop a crash that can hurt us.

Visionary Womanhood has all the resources we need to see clearly, to see the Creators perspective. I encourage you to head on over to Visionary Womanhood and pick up Natalie Klejwa’s book.

I want to thank Mrs. Klejwa for taking the time to help us all get our vision back on track with our heavenly Father’s! I also wanted to personally thank her for letting me review her book; I was so blessed by the book and I pray that she continues to pursue and understand God’s vision. It certainly is something we need today and something that will benefit the generations to come.

Let’s be real women of God, women who love others, give back and pray for the future; let’s be women with a vision!

I am able to give one book as a free give away thanks to Mrs. Klejwa! The first one to leave a comment will be able to receive a copy for free. Please send me your email address and I will be sure to give it to Mrs. Klejwa. You will receive the book soon!

Note: For this week only Natalie Klejwa’s e-book is on sale! From the Sept 19-23 anyone can purchase her book for $2.99; just remember to enter the code LAUNCHWEEK at the checkout. Head on over to the link below to purchase your copy of Visionary Womanhood.You can also download the first chapter for free at the link below (or you can click the icon below) and if you share a tweet or facebook status update about the book.

Click here to order Visionary Womanhood

Don’t forget that the first commenter will be able to get a free copy thanks to Natalie Klejwa! And thank you again Mrs. Klejwa for your amazing book and for sharing your vision from God!




May God bless you all!
~Gretchen

An Amazing Man of God

I apologize for my lack of updates recently. Classes are back in session and things were a little busy. But now I have settled in and the posts should be back to the way they were.

Until then I wanted to share with you a clip of an amazing man of God, his ministry and God's amazing power and love displayed through Nick Vujicic.



May God bless you all!
~Gretchen