Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, Friends!  I'm linking up with Andrea from Momfessionals, and her friend, for this Friday blog post. 

I thought I'd share some favorite things and moments from the past week or so. 

Who else loves these best nine things everyone posted on Instagram?!  I love pictures and seeing what everyone's year looked like, so it was right up my alley.  All these little snippets you see are some of my favorite parts of 2018.  The year involved reminder after reminder of God's unending faithfulness, the power of praying family and friends and seeing miracles, my middlest boy graduating high school, my oldest boy graduating from the academy he attended for four months in order to work with the sheriff's department, a best friend trip, opportunities to display hospitality and to serve others, date nights with my lobster, a sisters and mom 50th birthday trip to Nashville that was EPIC, and the cutest little girls I ever did see, as family was here to celebrate the wedding of my nephew and his beautiful bride. 

I don't say these things lightly, I promise, because I know for so many of you that the year was not great, and you were glad to see it go.  Though there were some rough parts of 2018 for my family, overall, I'm just thankful to God.  He got us through every moment, and guided our every step.  He always will, regardless of times that are good or bad. 

I promise, I don't say that lightly.  One thing I read in His word that stood out to me this week is that He is always with us.  His name - Jesus (Immanuel) - literally means, "God with us". 

That was in Matthew one. 

Speaking of Matthew one, this journal is one of my newest favorite things.  Our church sold them for a small amount of money, for us all to read through the new testament this year as a church family.  Being a perfectionist, and because we are doing one chapter a day for five days a week, I started on Monday, even though it was still December of 2018.  I know.  I'm rolling my eyes at my own self.  I can't help it, really, it's just how the Lord saw fit to make me.

I'm also doing scripture writing through Psalms, on all the "I will" statements that Shannon from Sweet Blessings puts out each month. 

This verse is one of my favorites, and I wrote it out so that I could memorize it.  I love the reminder to only boast on God, and nothing else. 

This is not a picture of it, but one of my new favorite things from Christmas and my birthday was the bible my dad and stepmom bought for me.  It's a keyword bible, meaning that there are underlined words all throughout the text.  Beside the underlined words are numbers, and in the back is a dictionary of what those words mean in their original language. 

For example, this morning, I read in Matthew 5:1 that after Jesus sat, His disciples came to Him.  That word "came" (proserchomai in the Greek) means to draw near to, to visit, to worship.  I do not say this to brag, because the desire to learn more about God and His word only could come from Him, but He continually blows my mind.  If not for my own pastor and a friend of mine (Amy), I don't know if I would have known about this bible.  Once I saw hers, though, I knew that I wanted one similar to it, so I just asked for it for my birthday and Christmas.  (It's not cheap, but they did get it on a black Friday sale, for half off.)  I'm glad I have this, because these types of things I'm learning, like what I mentioned about that one word, help me to better understand His word.

Moving on.

Last night my in-love's came over and it was my favorite night of the week so far.  I made a new recipe that was delicious, and then we played our favorite game.

I don't know why we don't play cards more often.  I love playing games like this, and if Phyllis hadn't asked if we could do this, I wouldn't have thought about it.  I'm so glad she mentioned it, though, because we had a blast and they were here way later than they ever are.  (It was close to ten when they left!)  But it was a fun night.  I was kidding about Noah's column, by the way, I only wrote that because he wouldn't come play.  Jonah never likes games, but Noah does!  We couldn't convince him, though. 

I hope you had a great week!  Thanks for reading my blog.  Love to all!