August is here!

In a Bible study that some dear friends and I have been doing, I learned several things about myself. One, I have to forgive myself for the things that I can't change and to let my children live their own lives even if I see hurt in their future. Two, new Christians tend to get bogged down in the old testament and get confused about the laws. My advice, (learned by experience), is to study the new testament, learn about this God and Jesus that we are professing to follow.....we have to get to know who Jesus is before we can become more like Him. Once we come to know Him personally, then we can study the old testament and pull everything together. The old testament teaches us about all the things man cannot do for himself and why we needed Jesus to come and sacrifice Himself for our salvation. Man couldn't keep all God's laws by himself. Man cannot do enough "good things" to enter into heaven for we have sinful natures since Adam and Eve. We serve a great and loving God who cannot abide sin. The blood of Jesus cleansed us and continues to cleanse us every second that we are alive once we accept Him as the Son of God and ask Him to forgive us of our sins. If you haven't done so, please study the new testament starting in the book of John and learn about this awesome God who created us to have fellowship with us. Then when you know Him, accept Him as your Savior, ask Him to forgive your sins, and then start living your new life patterned after Jesus. We will never be like Him but we can do the best we can. He is always there in the form of the Holy Spirit that dwells in each of us when we follow Christ. Since He only wants what is best for us, when we give up control of our lives to Him, our lives become a testament to Him. We can talk all we want about being Christians but if we don't live the talk our lives are ineffective and not pleasing to God. When we live the life that God meant for us to live and follow Him, peace that you have never known becomes yours even through the tough times we all have.
On another note, I am crocheting like crazy lately....Christmas will be here before I know it and as usual I will be behind. But at least I am getting started earlier than I usually do...LOL There is a really cute crocheted hoodie that I found that I want to share with you. It is on the bernat yarn site where I found lots of new cute patterns. Enjoy!