Weeding and cultivating the soul

These are the verses I've been reflecting on recently:

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.  It teaches us to say "No" to unglodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope- the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.  (from Titus, chapter 2, verses 11-14)

I love so much about that passage- the phrase "the grace of God that brings salvation"... which teaches us to say no... "while we wait for the blessed hope- the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ"... "to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good."

I want this so much in my own life-- to be *his very own*; purified for him, eager to do what is good.  To say no to ungodliness and worldy passions and to live a self-controlled, upright and godly life.  I wrote this passage down in my journal and then made some lists- where do I see ungodliness in me? (and goodness gracious that list was long!) and what are the worldly passions that I am most attracted to?  I intend to pray over those.

Then this morning I read a post by Sally Clarkson called What do you want to be when you grow up? in which she talks about how to cultivate the garden of our souls- what are the things we should plant and what weeds (sin, bad attitudes) need to be plucked so that we are continually growing more into His likeness?  She asks, "What five attributes do you want to characterize your life?"  These are such good things to ponder and I love the idea of being intentional about what we feed our souls (what am I watching, listening to, spending my time doing?) and what things we need to pray that God would weed out (sin)?  I'm going to be pondering my five in the days to come.  (Sally posted her five, but I haven't read hers yet because I want to come up with mine first.)

I hope you all have a wonderful day!  We were up late with the kids last night, getting their entries ready for the fair (art and LEGO creations, of course).  And then- at about 10:20, Mark and I started rearranging our bedroom (I had a hankering for a new look!) Audra is up now, so I'm off to keep her quiet until the other kids are up.

Blessings to you and yours...