LIFE Verses...

How I love the Living Word of God! So over the years I've taken scripture and called certain ones MINE. I love to give scripture in different ways to family and friends in small and big ways. I've found and purchased or created wall signs, T-shirts, mugs, embroidered, made up great posters from Costco like this one with pictures of my kids and Grands taking Ephesians 2:10 we're God's workmanship, created in Jesus to do good works that God prepared in advance for us to do. It's a super and inexpensive gift for the person (parents) who have everything.

My life verse that I want to live out is found in Micah 6:8 where NIV says: He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. I love that His Word tells me just what He expects me to do in this life! Have I wrestled with living it out? You betcha! But I can sing it (as it's been put to at least 3 tunes that I know) and remind myself how He calls me to live. This is a "primitive" sign that I made and hangs in our reading room.

When I began to homeschool 20 years ago, I placed this scripture in a few different places and we memorized it, quoting it as a heart check often. We call it our family verse: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. Mark 12:29-31

What a challenge to just live it out among the immediate family of 4 then adding more children, kids spouses, plus extended family... WOW - who is our neighbor? Can we love God even more than we do? It's been stenciled and moved it and last year I found a vinyl cutter to order "my" words, sayings and verses on Etsy at

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5746922

Some would say that a life verse should be something you're living out, not something that you try to walk out. I'm just thankful that these verses make us mindful how ALIVE His Living Word truly is!

So for our marriage, I tried to figure out the one that did speak our relationship. It feels one-sided, and that wouldn't be MY side. Dan has lived this one out in a HUGE way over our 28.5 years of marriage. We had a lovely sign made up by Nestlings on Etsy. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=23140 I ordered one of these as a gift for my parents' 50th anniversary with their "marriage verse" on it too. (It says the year established thru the name in a lighter font if you can't see it here.)
It is taken from Ephesians 5: 1 & 2 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Dan has been the sweet aroma when I've been absolutely foul rotten stench!

For years I have loved Colossians 1:9-12 for my sweetest of friends and Eugene Peterson in The Message put it into the perfect words:
Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven't stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you'll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.

To find the verses that you hope and pray to speak "your life" are a great way to begin 2009. I want to walk in the Living Word. I want to speak the Living Word. I want to live out the Living Word! It is LIFE!