We have officially been at the Institute for over one month and I am overwhelmed with how much I have learned. I am blown away by the Lord’s goodness and guidance. The second week we were here we learned how important it is to have someone holding you accountable. While I truly believe that husbands and wives are called to hold one another accountable, I also believe that it is important to have another individual of your gender hold you accountable. The other week we were assigned accountability partners. I’m so blessed and so thankful for who I got paired with! She is such a stud and has already taught/encouraged me more than she knows. (I highly recommend that you start praying for the Lord to put someone in your life who will hold you accountable. Take the step and ask someone!) We set aside a few hours every week to go get coffee and be intentional about asking one another the hard questions- although I have to admit, not all of our time is spent just asking questions… we just have fun too! :)
One of the things that she has encouraged me to do since we have gotten here is to learn who God is. In order to learn more about Him she decided to start a journal that is made up of many of God’s attributes. The first page says “God” on top followed by a list of words that describe Him. On the following pages she takes each attribute and finds Bible verses that backs up that word. By doing this, not only is she becoming more acquainted with her Bible, but she is learning who her Heavenly Father is. She told me about this journal and instantly I wanted to start one! I am so excited to look back at the end of the year and realize just how awesome our God is! Feel free to join us in this search to understand our Father!!
Getting started!
Here are some of my favorite verses about accountability:
“Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
Proverbs 27:17
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”
James 5:16
“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work. If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!”
(New Living Translation: The man who is alone is in real trouble ).
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
More of God’s Word:
- Proverbs 11:14 “Where there is no guidance, the people fall, but in abundance of counselors there is victory.”
- Proverbs 9:8-9 “Reprove a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser, Teach a righteous man, and he will increase His learning.”
- Proverbs 12:1 “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.”
- Proverbs 27:6 “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.”
- Hebrews 3:13 “But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
