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I am a sinner... "1 John 1:8"

I would like to ask a couple different questions and I would like everyone to answer them honestly.
The questions I will ask need 4 answers:
3 areas in which you are doing well
1 area in which growth is needed

This isn't a game or anything, it's just something that we can use to take a look inside ourselves to see the good things and the things we could be better in. Try to answer these honestly, no one will judge you nor is their any wrong way to answer!

Questions:

- List 3 areas you are setting a good example and 1 area you will target for growth.

- List 3 areas you are already growing toward oneness in Jesus Christ and 1 area you will target for continued growth.

- List 3 ways you take responsibility in relationships and 1 area you will target for continued growth

- List 3 amazing experiences or miracles that you can share with someone who is new in faith to encourage them.

... Saved by God's grace "Acts 15:11"

- List 3 areas you are setting a good example and 1 area you will target for growth.
- being open and vulnerable
- seeking God's guidance
- not taking the Lord's name in vein
my target area for growth is to be more humble.

- List 3 areas you are already growing toward oneness in Jesus Christ and 1 area you will target for continued growth.
- showing mercy and compassion to others
- abiding in Jesus
- trusting in Jesus
my target area for continued growth is letting go of the things I am going through now and letting Him heal me

- List 3 ways you take responsibility in relationships and 1 area you will target for continued growth
- I admit when I am wrong and apologize
- I serve my friends and family without wanting things in return
- I am open and honest
my target area for continued growth is to listen more to the people around me

- List 3 amazing experiences or miracles that you can share with someone who is new in faith to encourage them.
- my back was broken and I can still walk when 9/10 people never walk again with the injury I had
- my relationship with people has changed for the better
- my life has changed for the better despite the bad things because Jesus will never leave me



I must say that I found this really hard to complete but it is a good exercise to do.

- List 3 areas you are setting a good example and 1 area you will target for growth.

1. Controlling my language - steering away from cursing and saying the Lord's name in vain.

2. Doing my best to be kind to others and not resort to anger - even if they do make me angry.

3. Helping others when they need it - even if it's the smallest little thing like showing them where the bathroom is. The smallest help to us could be the biggest help ever to somebody else. A little kindness goes a long way!

Target: It's hard to choose just one target because there are so many things I can work on including self-control as a general aspect. In this category, I want to continue to be nice to others even when they do make me angry and keep working on aspects of self-control so when it comes down to a tough situation where I would love to just explode at somebody, I hold my tongue, and show them kindness instead of the anger that they want. While building this self-control, I would love to focus on witnessing for Christ.

- List 3 areas you are already growing toward oneness in Jesus Christ and 1 area you will target for continued growth.

1. Reading my Bible more - before I got married (now almost 2 years ago), I never read my Bible even though I grew up going to church - it just never appealed to me and I ignored it. Now I wish I wouldn't have because The Holy Bible is an amazing book. I've started from the beginning and I'm on 2nd Samuel - almost to 1 Kings. It's a lot of info to swallow after not recognize it being there, but I'm growing every day.

2. Prayer - nothing to me feels more close God than prayer. I have prayed most of my life and in fact, sometimes I'm afraid not to pray - I always have the urge to pray about something and it's awesome to know that isn't a bad thing and that there's nothing wrong with that.

3. Studying historical Biblical context - I never knew that people researched the culture of the time, original meanings of words from the first languages the Bible was translated to in order to gain a better understanding, and looking at the writing structure of the time to gain a better understanding on what the Bible it telling us. I am glad to have the opportunity to study on my own time and truly try to understand what God's word is telling us. I feel that with this knowledge that I can apply that and turn it into wisdom in order to help others whenever I can and to grasp an understanding on the word.

Target: To continue my growth in God and His word, I can't just choose one area I'll target because without studying the historical context I can't understand the Bible to it's fullest and without prayer in the mix - it feels incomplete. I will continue to target all these areas to grow in my walk with Christ.

- List 3 ways you take responsibility in relationships and 1 area you will target for continued growth

1. Forgiveness/Apologizing - this is something that I continue to work on and something I have gotten better at over the years. In relationships, it's easier to forgive right away then sit, let the thought rot in your mind, and have your heart become hard without even considering the thought of forgiveness. It's best to just be the first one to forgive when someone else does a wrong. Sometimes it's hard, but also for our physical, mental, emotional and most important of all - spiritual health, forgiveness can help us in the long run and help us feel that we did the right thing and it can be easier to let it go.

2. Help the other person when/if needed - in a relationship, it's great to be able to help others whether they are believers or not. Helping people is a good thing as long as we don't wear ourselves out and sometimes it's nice to offer to help even when the other person doesn't ask for it. Sometimes people need help with something, but they feel they'll be a burden so they won't say it. So sometimes if we offer they say, "Oh! That would be great! I appreciate that! Thank you!" because they didn't have to feel they were a burden by asking because you offered.

3. Be the listening ear - I've usually been the quiet type to listen when someone else is having trouble. If you listen, people are more likely to open open and get help about issues in their life and we can always pray for them. Some days, people just need to let out their emotions. Even though Jesus also listens to their problems, it helps others when there is someone on the physical realm that can listen and provide feedback or not say anything at all depending on what the situation is. Sometimes people need a listening ear and want to be heard and if we allow people to express what they feel instead of making them feel like they'll hold back - it may even help them grow if they can talk out issues in their lives or areas they need help in. When we can offer a prayer - it's all the better.

Target: I will definitely continue to target all these things for continued growth. However, the one I need to work on most is forgiveness because helping others and being a listening ears are things that come more naturally to me. After being hurt many times in life, forgiveness became something that was hard to do and a hard grasp to get a hold of. I would go years without forgiving others and after so many years - the person wouldn't be in my life, but I held onto those grudges. I realized after a while that the person wasn't in my life anymore and I couldn't tell them face-to-face that I was sorry. I had to pray to God and forgive those that had hurt me that I can't physically tell that to. So, I try to make it more of a habit to forgive people before they exit out of my life and continue on.

- List 3 amazing experiences or miracles that you can share with someone who is new in faith to encourage them.

1. Extra contacts - I don't have the best vision in the world and at the time I wore contacts with a back up pair of glasses that weren't a good prescription, but they were old and I hadn't gotten a new pair for a while. My husband and I aren't rich and don't have insurance and we were paying bills and all that and I needed to get in to see an eye doctor because my contacts were about to run out. One day, I looked in the container and sighed and said to my husband and showed him the container, "See, I only have one more pair of contacts and that's it. Only two months worth including the ones I just took out." The next month rolled around and I had to throw that pair away. I grabbed the box of contacts and sighed before opening it and said, "Okay, I will only have one more month to go and I need to make an eye appointment and hopefully we can afford it." I opened the box and there were 2 pairs of contacts. Now, you would think just anyone could slip that in there, but I have bad astigmatism and they have to be specially ordered. Plus, the contacts come in smaller packages with each contact connected to each other and you just tear one off that you need from the rest so it appeared as if I had miscounted because it wasn't torn off from the other one. I told my husband, "I have two more pairs of contacts!" This was for both eyes, too! It was truly a miracle because I could wait one more month. Contacts are expensive and I was so excited and grateful! After that, when I ran out, I went to the eye doctor and was able to get glasses and quit wearing the contacts for personal reasons. We were able to afford the glasses and everything is going smoothly. God completely took care of me and that one more month was all that was needed. We were both grateful smile

2. Injury - One time I was running over to a friends house to drop something off and I didn't tell my Mom. My friend and I used to write in our own made up language and drop off notes in secret spots at each others house without being noticed so that we could get a note later in our secret spot and read it. It was a lot of fun! I thought, "Oh, I won't tell my Mom - I will only be a minute." My friend lived right across the street. So, I hurried. I ran across the street. I was almost across and then I fell down on the pavement. I was shocked because I couldn't believe I was stupid enough to fall and I can't remember how I even fell. I wasn't completely out of the road. Above my hip and up, I was on the sidewalk. On my hip and below, I smacked the asphalt. I thought I broke my leg and I was hurting a lot. I'm not sure if it was punishment for not telling my Mom where I was at or what, but I needed help and there were no cars going up and down that street. Usually there's at least one car that goes by once in a while. However, this was not the case. I was crying aloud in pain and used my arms to pull myself up onto the sidewalk. I could not move my legs and I lay on the sidewalk and there weren't even any people walking outside. No one was around. I had to make a choice, though. I could either lie down and wait for help and worry my Mom half to death when she can't find me and risk getting hit because I'm so close to the street or I can take myself back across the street. For such a short distance, it was painful. I told myself, "You gotta get up onto your legs and walk. That's the only way this is gonna happen." I was crying and in disbelief this had happened and no one was around to help. However, the strength that came together could not have been my own. I was laying on the pavement unable to move my legs and somehow the strength came over me to get up to my feet. I had a terrible limp and looked both ways and still - no cars. I walked across the street slowly trying not to fall again and walked up to my front door and on the porch - just collapsed. I didn't have anymore strength after that. Once I got to that door, it was all gone. I knocked on the door with the little strength I had left and my Mom freaked out, picked me up, sat me on the bathroom counter, and I took off my pants and blood started running down my hip. The blood was held in by my tight jeans and once they were off, the blood started to run. My knees were badly bruised and all sorts of purples and reds and there was some blood there, too. It took me weeks to recover, but I did make a full recovery. I should have gotten checked out by a doctor, but never did. I am incredibly thankful that God allowed my body to heal properly even though I went to school and walked around all day anyway when I could walk a little bit. I knew that bit of strength wasn't my own - the strength that I had to get up and walk to the porch of my house. It was a lot of strength and it only lasted so long, but God allowed enough strength to get me to safety and then have someone else help along with the rest. I am incredibly thankful that I did not get hit by a car as well and I had enough time to cross the street because there were not any cars. Many people would call this burst of strength one of those "adrenaline rushes" where the body uses the last bits of it's strength only for a few seconds to keep going. However, I knew this was God.

3. Nearly drowned - I remember once I was at my friend's house. I went over there after church on Sunday (we both went to the same church). We hung out all day and they were going to go back to church during the evening service and then I could be picked up by parents. It was getting a bit boring because my friend turned on the TV to a show I thought was boring, but she thought was funny. She was also a little older than I, so perhaps she understood the humor of the show better than I could. I was bored and told her I was going in the backyard to play fetch with the dog. Well, her mom was on the computer near the back door and I walked out the back door and grabbed a tennis ball and threw it. The dog grabbed it and fetched a few times. One of the times I accidentally threw it in the pool and kinda laughed because the dog hopped in and chased after it and once the dog got the ball, she hopped out and shook off. As I was watching the dog, I didn't know what happened, but suddenly I was down in the pool. I honestly didn't even know I was so close to the edge of the pool, but didn't think anyone pushed me in because no one was around. I panicked immediately since I didn't know how to swim. My small black shoes were hitting the bottom of the pool on the shallow end and I was flailing trying to pull myself up. I was trying to get to the top and I breathed in a little water because I got a clear opening of the surface for a second and due to panic, went right back down. I honestly don't know how I got back to the top, but I did and I was only like 8 and grabbed the side of the pool and pulled myself up and over in a heavy, soaking wet dress. After I got out I was thinking, "Oh no! What do I do? What do I do?! I can't tell her mom! She'll see me walking in soaked! I can't just walk in without making a mess!" So I went to the back door and told my friend's mom I fell in the pool, and she didn't know I had and said, "Thank God you knew how to get out of there!" and rushed off to get a towel. The funny thing is, I didn't know how to get out because the ladder to get out was on the deep end and I was in the shallow end and not sure where the strength came from to pull myself out of the pool after all the flailing I did in the water. Once I had a towel, my friend came out back and said, "Are you okay?" and I was cold and scared and said, "Y...yeah, but I don't want my Mom to find out!" because I thought I might get in trouble. Of course my friend's mom told my parents, but I was okay so it was fine. I just felt embarrassed that I fell in the pool and didn't know how it happened.

I truly considered that a miracle because I could've definitely drowned. God spared my life that day!