scriptures open

45. 3 Tips to Increase Your Connection with God – and a wonderful resource!

If you are on my newsletter – you got the invitation to a webinar for 5 steps for meaningful time with God. 

I really enjoyed joining in on that webinar by, Arabah Joy & Jen Evangelista of Sojo Academy. 

I want to share 3 things that jumped out at me!   

God has a To Do List for me

– reading the word of God equips me for these good works!

Prayer Acronym – IOUS

  • Incline my heart to God’s Word – Psalms 119:36
  • Open my eyes to see the wonder – Psalms 119:18
  • Unite my heart to God’s – Psalms 86:11
  • Satisfy me – nourish me – Psalms 90:14

The Power of Journaling

Webinar was a jumping off point of introducing the Ultimate Christian Bundle

This webinar was a jumping off point of the first Christian Bundle by Ultimate Bundles.

I have been getting Ultimate Bundles for years now. 

I love to learn new things, read books, take classes, etc. and these Ulitmate Bundles have made it affordable for me to do so.

It is a bundle of 30-50 different digital resources that they sell at a very discounted price as a bundle. 

Each bundle has a theme: from health to business to gardening and crafting. 

When I saw they were doing a Christian one, it actually motivated me to become an affiliate for them.  Because I have always loved the bundles, but hadn’t thought of sharing them with my  followers before. This bundle was the tipping point.

Because I am an affiliate, I was able to buy the bundle early so I could check it out and share my favorite things with you guys.

3 Bonuses I tried

First let me tell you about 3 bonuses I got.  I think there are 5, but I just got the ones I was interested in, because they tend to be physical products that you pay shipping for.  So I got the 3 that I was excited about.

A one month membership to SoJo Academy,

which is run by the women who did the webinar.  So I am excited about that!

Fresh Start Prayer Journal –

Feel like you want to pray more but find yourself too distracted in this noisy world? Val Marie Paper designs prompted prayer journals that are organized and beautiful. With your journal in hand, make the most of even limited quiet time and ultimately, finally cultivate a deeper prayer life.

This is fascinating – It has room in the front to write out the people and things you want to pray for – which makes me think of my prayer cheat sheet.  Then it has 31 days of inspiration and prayer challenges – so a scripture, some thoughts and then a challenge. 

This part makes me think of my book – Power up Your Prayers, which is a 40-day challenge, set up in a very similar way. 

It actually makes me want to change my book up a bit and add in room to write your prayer cheat sheet and prayers in it…. Make it a bit more interactive with a journal feel!  So maybe I will do that.

But for now I am excited to use this book as I pray each morning and just get that little extra inspiration to stay focused and have something new to add to my routine. 

While I do have my daily spiritual MPoWeR routine (you can get a free class about this when you sign up for my newsletter) Meditation, prayer, writing and reading… I do like to mix it up sometimes, by changing the way I meditate, or pray or what I read, etc… So my framework stays the same, but what I do within it is flexible.

The other bonus I got I am super excited about. 

FREE BEESILK LOTION BAR & NATURAL LIP BALM

from MadeOn Skincare a family-run company that specializes in simple, effective, safe skincare. Their flagship product, the Beesilk Hard Lotion Bar, has brought relief to dry, cracked skin to tens of thousands of men, women and children. Jonathan (raised on the mission field in France) and Renee have nine children, ages 5-23, and live in Northern California with five of them.

Since moving to Utah, my hands have gotten really dry and my skin keeps cracking especially on my right thumb.  I have tried a lot of things.  But with a year with extra handwashing, it has been challenging. 

I put it on and my hands definitely feel smooth.  What I love is I can easily carry it in my purse without worrying it will get squirted out everywhere, which has happened to me before.  Because it is a bar… so it looks like a bar of soap, but it is lotion!  I will definitely be updating how it is helping in my newsletter later this week.  So far I have only used it one day when recording this.  But I like it.  I am excited to see if it is finally the thing that helps my poor thumb heal.

So those are some bouses you get… now let me tell you about some of the digital products  I have checked out. 

50 Digital Products Included in the Bundle

There are 50, so I am just going to share one from each category.  I have only looked through about 10 of them so far.  They are all so good, but I am going to give you a tip if this sounds overwhelming to sort through 50 resources. 

They are divided into 4 categories – Family, Hope and Encouragement, Prayer and Devotionals and Scripture/Bible Study

Family –

How to Apply 7 Key Teaching of Jesus to Live Your Best Marriage – haven’t done this one yet, because it is a class with videos

So let me tell you about an ebook – Don’t bury your child’s talents

I was super excited to read this book, because I have 3 boys and each has unique talents. 

My youngest 2 have very obvious talents with performing and I was excited to delve deeper into how I can support them in developing them.

Here is a quote from the book – “By the end of reading this book, you will realize how much this Parable of the Talents has the power to reshape your mind to be strong and consistent with your children when discussing the need to develop their unique talents and assets.” 

It was a helpful 38 page ebook, which means it didn’t take too long to read… horray!  The thoughts in it were helpful and actually helped me to think about talents in a different way and to really see that my oldest son, Devon has talents that actually I have tried to bury.  He is an adventurer, he has no fear, he is brave.  This has led to specific trials that have been challenging for me as a mom.  But seeing this from new eyes is helpful!    

I think I will do a whole podcast episode on talents at some point! 

Hope and Encouragement –

Fruit of the Yoga Series – my kind of yoga…. Simple, gentle and mindful.  7 differnet classes, each focusing on the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, etc…  Also she has some additional meditations you can download and they are lovely too.  Focusing on scriptures and connecting to God!  ?

Prayer –

Intentional Living through Prayer: A Prayer Prompt for Every Day of the Year – this is a cool pdf you can print and fill out, or even fill out digitally.  Each day has a prompt for the day as well as an area to add who specifically you want to pray for.

I am super excited to check out – Use Music to Grow in Your Faith: Fifteen Different Ways to Use Music to Grow Closer to God, because I keep getting the message from God I need to use Music more to worship Him when I do my MPoWeR’s each morning.  I keep trying to incorporate it in different ways, so I am excited to delve into this course and learn and try new ways to use music to grow my faith.

Scriptures –

They have a scripture memory toolkit – I looked through that and saw some helpful tips to memorize scriptures.  They have Scripture journals, bible study planners and so much more.

When you get the bundle, you have 6 months to download the products.  Which are valued at over $1000, but you can buy for $29! 

The Cheat Sheets are Really Useful!

It can feel a little overwhelming to see how many resources you get, but if you get the cheat sheets OK – which do cost an extra $10.  But I have found them to be REALLY helpful.  

I opened the cheat sheets to the resources I wanted to check out for this podcast and then read through them.  They really give you a good outline of what is included.  Then I was able to focus in on the few I wanted to make sure I downloaded and went through so I could share them with you.

I also have downloaded or signed up for all the other ones I want to do.  But I save them in a folder labeled – Christian Ultimate Bundles, so I know right where they are when I am ready to move onto the next one.

Then in my gmail for the classes I have a label Christian Ultimate Bundles, so it is easy to find them when I am ready.

Only $29!

At only $29 even if you only used 2 or 3 you have spent your money wisely.  But I honestly have over 20 that I have downloaded or signed up for.  Definitely enough to keep me engaged in learning new things for all of 2021, but because of how I have set it up, it won’t be overwhelming.  (after this week of speed learning so I could share with you!)

If you want to see all the resources in this bundle – look in the shownotes or go to sheridanripley.com to todays podcast episode and I will link to it in there. 

I love sharing tips and tools with you each week and the Ultimate Christian Bundle is a tool with hundreds of tips!  ? So I had to share.