JEN SEVERN'S BLOG

  “ Jesus Calling: July 22nd freedom through seeking to please Me above all else. You can have only one Master. When you let others' expectations drive you, you scatter your energy to the winds. Your own desire to look good can also drain your energy. I am your Master, and I do not drive you to be what you are not. Your pretense displeases Me, especially when it is in My "service." Concentrate on staying close to Me at all times. It is impossible to be inauthentic while you are focusing on My Presence.”  Sarah Young's daily devotional book, "Jesus Calling". Define MASTER-  What tries to master you? Who or what do you try to please? Draw other’s expectations of you & your energy… Draw what you do to look good & your energy… Do NOT desire YOU to be what you are NOT. Pretense = No Pleasure “my service” How do you see pretense show up in your life? Can you repent of it? How do you stay close to God and focus on HIS presence? ...

  This weekend we had dinner with the Scott's family to connect while his sister is in town. Don't stop having dinner together. It was simple and wonderful! Three hours and it was good for the soul! Don't stop meeting together! If I'm honest I was feeling disconnected before this event… for a bunch of reasons. I asked Scott if that was valid. Get the stories in your head out and fact check them. Scott assured me we are all just busy and carrying a lot. After, we were all full of joy! #worthit

  Just wondering if you did something this summer that required you to tap into God’s strength, His perspective, to rely on Him… an effort that that might have tugged on you to depend on Him? Could be something small or big… This was the first verse I memorized. I was in college and I had already decided Jesus was my savior, but this was the first time I started considering Him being my LORD. I learned it in the NIV… let us throw off every sin that so easily entangles. I imagined sin like a vine growing around my legs tripping me up in my attempt to run. With this, I cut off a sin in my life. I was in a relationship with someone I loved and we were having sex outside of marriage. He was curious about God but in a phase of unbelief. My first cut was I ended that relationship. I decided I’d like to run after God without being tripped up by sin. Soon after I hit another road block. Would I spend my life serving God or money? Finally, I hit one more, I did not believe Jesus’ blood coul...

  Did you know that lions have more cones in their eyes so the see better than we do. All lions have white under their eyes too, it brings light into their eyes! It's epic!    Red Rocks this week had one of my favorite authors speak, Levi Lusko. He's talking about light, grief, perspective…  Seeing through the eyes of a lion … It's good.   I've really been thinking about Abram lately. God used this story early in my faith as a prayer of purpose to dream of and pray for. It starts here when God ask Abhram to GO, leave home and… He does it… You can read it here in  Genesis 12:1-5 . God takes responsibility, He says go to the land I will show you, and I will bless you… lots of “I will” from God. We work WITH God… Abram WENT and GOD showed the way and blessed him. GOD was WITH him. Abhram and Sari have some wild experiences… There was a famine, they went to Egypt, people wanted to get with Abram's wife, they were scared, they lied. They were getting super old a...

I absolutely loved this resource from Jennie Allen's Untangle Your Emotions Study Guide. I dressed it up a little and made a worksheet of it for my own reference so I could do it again and again. I highly recommend her book and study guide Untangle Your Emotions. My small group and I have been working through it and I appreciate the way she's bringing together modern research and work on EQ and how it's all part of God's good plan for us for health, healing, wholeness, and community. This Mad Lib Jennie created helps me, a fairly disconnected emotional person put words into my emotions and understand them more deeply. I am not a therapist, but I go to one! Remember to alway seek professional help when working through difficult emotions! This is just a tool I like!  

  Light reads last month! The top row were my faves. First lie wins is a great thriller, I love all things Maas! Abby writes great beach reads! Coyote is written for a younger audience, but well written. We met Elin Hilderbrand at a book signing this month! Super fun!! 

  🎉 CHEERS TO THE WEEKEND   📖  What we are studying:   Untangle Your Emotions by Jennie Allen   🙏🏽  What we are praying: Jen & Scott:  Armor of God ,  Lectio 365   👀  What we are watching: Fam: Whole Story ( Red Rocks Church ),  Rockies 💜⚾️ Fireworks on Coors Field A Quite Place: Day One  NYT   🎧  What we are listening to: Jen:  Mailee's WERSH playlist  Nate Smith  Listen, Listen, Listen: How to build Deep Connections  Stanford GSB Podcast   📚  What we are reading: Jen:  Untangle Your Emotions by Jennie Allen  (faith) Stories For Work by Dolan  (work) Primed To Perform: How to Build the Highest Performing Cultured Through the Science of Total Motivation by Neel Doshi and Lindsay McGregor  (work) First Lie Wins by Ashley Elson  (thriller, fun) Just For The Summer by Abby Jimenez  (beach read)   🚗  Where we are going: Jen & Scott:...