Instead of taking it to the keyboard...

I am so excited for this new format!

Starting our first round of From Ashley’s on the first of each month! I’m so excited for this new format and I hope ya’ll are filled up and blessed by it too. (Expect a few more y’all’s comin’ outta me too). 🤭

This month’s devotional kinda sprung up last minute, I had something else planned but then was feeling this specific topic should be shared…

I was scrolling through stories last week, which I honestly don’t do much anymore, but there are a few people I like to catch up on. One in particular is a woman who shares world news and happenings in society. She just shares it straight, plain and simple and I like that. I’m not a huge news person and I personally don’t trust most outlets, so I appreciate someone just sharing what’s happening and that’s it. I’ve followed her for maybe a year now and it wasn’t hard to see that she isn’t walking with the Lord. However; this last week she shared that she was on a female conservative Christian’s podcast and was interviewed about her faith. She mentioned that more and more since she has been on the campaign trail surrounded by other believers, it’s peaked her interest and she’s curious. Now I didn’t watch or listen to her full podcast, but the following slides of her stories saddened me as I saw, what I see most often on this app. She had hundreds of Christian women bullying her and shaming her for not having all of the right answers. These women were unsupportive, harsh, critical, judgmental and just straight mean. The girl I follow said on one of her slides, “this is the reason why most people think what they think about your faith…”

This made me so sad and I just stopped and prayed for her. This isn’t love. This isn’t the way we should be handling our brothers and sisters in Christ and this is especially not the way of Jesus.

Thessalonians 5:11: "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing."

We should be actively seeking for ways to uplift and encourage one another. Even in our correction.

The world of social media has somehow given us a free pass to feel that we can rule and judge over all without any personal repercussions. But our actions and words cut so much deeper than we can imagine, especially online. We tend to take our personal convictions and use them to criticize what other people are doing, or not doing. Think about what I just said, because that one is something I personally deal with often. It’s usually a personal conviction or an insecurity and it’s twisted into a form of judgement.

But what if instead of writing a harsh comment or judgement, we stopped ourselves and prayed for that person instead? We discussed the power of prayer a few weeks ago. Prayer is powerfully impactful not just in our own circumstances but it has the power to transform the lives of those around us.

Why do we feel we need to be the judge over others, when that is the Lord’s job. Let’s go before Him and pray for the woman that’s seeking more in life but doesn’t know all the answers. Let’s pray for the woman we follow but we don’t agree with her parenting or the way she dresses or how she speaks to her husband. And let’s also not forget to remember to ask the Lord to search deep into our own hearts before we point a finger at the girl next door. I know I’m worthy of blame far worse than I could accuse someone else of, yet it seems so much easier to focus on someone else’s problems and not my own.

Instead of taking it to the keyboard, take it to the Lord. We have the opportunity to heavily impact those around us by simply praying for them and loving them.

Recipe for the month: Mama’s Artichoke Dip

This dip is so easy + will be gone immediate you put it down. It’s a great appetizer for a dinner party, the 4th of July or just a date night at home.

 This month’s ‘parenting highs’:

• We had an amazing talk with Gabe about being equally yoked with your spouse. He brought up how a friend was dating a non believer and it was a great opportunity to talk about what the Bible says about that and then to personally share our experiences doing that and the effect it had on us.

• What I’m working on: I said something in front of all the kids while we were driving that was just flat out mean about someone else. Gabe even called it out.🫣 I felt awful after and I apologized to all the kids. So I guess my low, turned into a good teaching moment of humility. But something I’m working on personally and we’re trying to help the kids with is watching our speech and making sure it’s for “building up”.

This month’s ‘marriage highs’:

• I’ve been trying to meditate on how thankful I am for Dino and our marriage. It’s so easy to dwell on negative aspects of life or your spouse, no matter how solid your marriage is. And I’ve found that controlling my thoughts more along with prayer has really helped me feel even closer to him, which I’m loving and he is noticing.

• What I’m working on: This will be our 19th year of marriage in September and even still I’m discovering things about him. I was reminded a few weeks ago how sometimes I place an expectation on what I think he would want, but in actuality it’s not what he would want at all. So what I’m working on is a form of selflessness. To serve him truly how he would want to be served, but not how I would want or I think he would want based off of who I am. 😜 does that make sense?!

The kids finished the last days of school last week. We now have an 11th grader, 9th grader, 7th grader and a Foxi…🥹

2 more days and we are outta here Florida! It’s all bitter sweet… but mostly sweet. I’m picking up the U-Haul right now and we’re loading it up today!

We said our goodbyes to the community this last weekend at The Fox Mercantile. While its doors aren’t closing and we still own it, we’re just moving on from it. It was emotional and sweet. I’m so thankful for all that the Lord has done through this time here.

See you in Tennessee!!🤭 🤠