It's early on a cold and cloudy gray fall morning. The hubs had a very early start to work today and I get to sit here in my sweatpants, slippers, and hoodie for a bit before I head to work. I'm on day two of another deep cellular cleanse and I can hear my coffee brewing as I type. Coffee and fat burning sea salt caramel chocolates are my favorite things on cleanse days. Well, aside from how good I feel. That's my favorite thing.

But I digress.

​I've been thinking and praying a lot about spiritual warfare. It's a very real thing and not just down in the jungles of Africa. It's very real in our own daily lives. I honestly (and ashamedly) never really thought much about it until recently. But it has become very real in my own mind and heart.

Over the past few months, I have been living more intentionally and striving to better every area of my life for the glory of God, the furtherance of His kingdom, and the blessing of those around me (one small, unsteady baby step at a time!).

And the devil hates it.

He knows where and when I'm weak and attacks with a vengeance. I don't feel the need to share every detail publicly but it's intense and overwhelming and paralyzing.

BUT.

MY GOD IS STRONGER AND MIGHTIER AND HE WINS.

EVERY. TIME.

It is my responsibility to fill my mind with truths from His Word to combat the lies of the enemy. It is my responsibility to take every thought captive to obey Christ. It is my responsibility to control how I respond when the attacks strike. It is my responsibility to put on the whole armor of God.
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I'm so grateful for the Word of God, the loving steadiness of my husband, the wisdom from my counselor, and the prayer support of those close to me.
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When I am weak, He is strong.

It's a gorgeous evening, the last Saturday in September, and I'm sitting out on the deck in the chilly breeze. It's feeling more and more like fall and I'm so incredibly happy. My favorite time of year is upon us.

Earlier this month, Justin and I looked over our calendar and decided to leave this weekend blank. We declined invites and didn't make plans. Not making a plan was the best plan we could have made!

Life has been crazy busy and insane and nuts and overwhelming and we've had no time to breathe. This weekend, we have watched Netflix, slept in, spent time in the Word while we consumed coffee and jumbo pumpkin banana muffins on the deck, gone to Hobby Lobby and Menards and gotten things for home projects, shared a late lunch and intimate conversation at Panera, started a home project, gone bow hunting (him), made dill bread and chili (me), chatted on the phone with sisters, and now I'm actually sitting down to write (finally). My kitchen is a disaster from all the cooking and baking over the past couple days but who cares. (Just kidding. I care. A lot. It'll be clean before bedtime.)

Oh, and I got an amazing new fall apple cinnamon candle. It brings me much joy.

It is good to stay active and work hard and give and grow. But our souls need rest and respite and rejuvenation. Sometime it's hard to squeeze that in, and I often fail to, but that does make weekends like this even more sweet.

My heart is overwhelmed with gratitude once again at the goodness of our God. If there were no other reason than that my gratitude level skyrockets during weekends like this, that would be reason enough to have weekends like this. They're necessary to keep our hearts right and our homes right and our marriages right.

Happy weekend.