a thanksgiving pearl ...

Thanksgiving is essential to the life of a believer.  It is the key to a full and abundant life.  It unlocks Joy within the heart.  What one thing encompasses respect, maners, love, relief, and thoughtfulness but giving thanks?

I became a believer when I was 5 but in 2003 with a job loss I knew I needed a restart.  Meloncholy was my draft setting.  I was slumped at the window of life watching the world go by without me.  It was a good time to try thanksgiving for a change.  It was a small step that got bigger and bigger with each passing year.

Thanksgiving is like a pearl.  It takes an irrantant wrapped and wrapped with praise to be something of great worth.   It puts the focus on the Heavenly Father's Mighty Arms than the pungy pesky problems.  To sum up Psalms 107 from wastelands, darkness, rebellious ways, lost at sea to thanksgiving ... the upright SEE and Rejoice but all the wicked are shut up.(v. 42).

I SAW God come through when we had major storm&nbsp on July 1st. There was massive cleanup to do at my parents' place. The house, garage, and fishing boats escaped structural damage but the winds shredded the ancient trees. There was so much damage that at lunchtime I noticed how defeated my Dad was. I called the brother to come help. While Dad and the brother got the chainsaws up and chewing, my 10 year old nephew and I pulled and hauled big branches to the road. From this hardship I found out my nephew was a talker!

See, the men in my life are quiet and when there are problems afoot they hunker down to process. I never want to be the cause of their silence so I have been seeking God in understanding the inner-workings of man. Having this moment of time with a little man with a fresh divorce in his childhood was God-Given and is a keeper for a lifetime. I hope my nephew felt valued from having my ears as an audience.

God wasn't done with my lesson.  I had a longstanding question for my Heavenly Father. Men grow men. What if there are no Godly men to come along side and mentor your man?  Can a God-seeking girl be a healing presence and God's instrument in her man's life?  Bob and Cheryl Moeller were sharing their book "How to Get Your Husband to Talk" on a podcast. I had done three things right. During a shared activity, I listened and asked clarifying questions. God is so Good.  His Arms are Mighty in every storm.  I am so thankful to have the summer afternoon to be at the feet of Jesus listening to a little man!

This story seems a bit glossed over so let me fill you in with some of the not so glamorous parts.  It was a hot day and hard work.  We were a freak show as people drove by real slow to see the massive damage.  There was no electricity for a week.  Mom and Dad had to come use my guest bathroom.  The stress spurred on the shingles for Dad in the months following.  This was a hard blow.

This is NOT easy and some irritants get by us to take us out.  Sometimes the vision gets blurry before we realize we need a time out  -- a declaration that this day is a day of Thanksgiving to God and whisper not  a need or care.  What a difference it makes.  God doesn't need the Praise for Himself but rather the puny human is in need of praising the Heavenly Father.  We are forgetful -- oh so forgetful.  The world loudly and noisily lies to us and we easily believe the lies and promptly forget the Truth.  Thanksgiving gives you SIGHT to see and to boldly Rejoice in God's Sovereignty.  He never stops protecting or providing for our every need.

I must stay this again - I never want to forget that summer afternoon that my ears were in the presence of my nephew drinking in his every word. Thank You, Heavenly Father, for such a wonderful gift!

choose life or death ...

Last weekend two women who were battling cancer made a choice.  One decided to take matters in her own hands and end her life before cancer could.  The other young woman choose to make a goal and met it before cancer could.  

My purpose here is to record my observation and also to encourage faith when challenged by pain and suffering.  I'm far from being callous.  Every single human would never choose pain or suffering and every single human wants to be in control.  I've had dark days and I've had days when I've cried out to my Heavenly Father asking what my purpose is on this earth.  Ok, I've not had to walk the shadow of death or bore the pain of Job.  So maybe I should not speak ever so boldly or maybe I should...

As the news of these two women where annouced on Monday, it was so blantently obvious.  My heart sunk and I turned away in disgust as I heard the one woman ended her life because she didn't want her live her life in a deteriorated  state.  Too easy.  Too cowardly.  Then the news turned to the young woman who is battling brain cancer.  She too knows her days are numbered and her biggest wish was to play in her first college basketball game.  She can't really practice like the other girls anymore and she cannot run the court to make the basket but her fighting spirit is contagious.  Her school as well as the opposing school decided to move up the first game so she could play.  As they set up for her to make the first basket and the last basket of the game, every heart of the fans and of that of the whole nation were bursting with deep emotion welling up in the eyes.  Very courageous.  Very moving.

It seems very ironic that both women where in the news at the same time.  Seems a very obvious contrast and answer to a very tough question.  No, I do not know the spiritual condition of their hearts but I could not help to be moved and put down a peg or two.  Are you willing to let the Creator of Life decide how and when it is your time to die?  Are you going to face the end with His Light on your face or are you going to turn away?   Pain and suffering can darken our faith.  Will you let it?

Have you experienced something tough that initially would never have chosen but when you  gotten through you would never go back to change it?  Those 'throughs' are the perfecting of our character. It is usable silver minus the dross for the Silversmith. 

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know!  I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on the account of me. Philippians 1:21–26

give it right back …

You know that advise given for those cantankerous people you have to deal  with?  "You have to give it right back.  Don't let them get you."  I heard this said today from a coworker whose boss told her how to deal with a less than nice fellow employee.  So I began to think about that advise.

So I am to dish it back like I was given?  Wouldn't I take on the nastiness?  Wouldn't that fester and erode my Joy and genthle quiet spirit?  It is not Biblical to dish back what I have received.  It sounds to much like exacting judgement and harboring evil --  No-Nos straight from the Great Book.

No, you don't let them get you but you don't let them drag you into retaliation no matter how deserving they are.  Do it God's Way and keep your head low for "whosoever digs a hole & scoops it out falls into his own pit. The trouble he causes recoils upon himself…" Psalms 7:-5-16  So instead of scooping out, pour kindness over them.  You are beyond the pit lifestyle.

expectation ...

You know there are some words that we use that if we were really honest we really don't know the meaning.  Sometimes I ask God to help me with a word so I can be more deliberate with my definition.  So what is the word?  expectation.

Live long enough and you realize that having expectations of people is really you trying to control them and when they fail, you're heart breaks by your own hand as you blame them.  Then you swear you won't ever trust another human being.  Yet, I believe you should have expectation in life but it must be directed towards God and it has to be empty of your own directives.

It is being that wide eyed child expecting only that God is Good and Sovereign.  The only two questions allowed to utter is what good will God provide me today? and how will God transform me today? then sit back and wait on Him to surprize you. The answers will at times involve pain but He is very trustworthy and loves us greatly.  Your answer back to your Heavenly Father is Joy and Thanksgiving...  by doing so you avoid a lot of disappointment.

I long for simple black and white child like faith in my grey adult world.  Keeping my expectations hidden in His Capable Hands allows my inner child to come out to play and enjoy life fully and feel pain deeper yet without drowning.  

As I lay my head on my pillow tonight, I will delightfully recount my many blessings and take notice of His Touch on my life as He makes me more like Him... 

Great is Thy Faithfulness 

moment by moment 

new mercies I see

all that I have need of 

Thy Hand hasth provided 

Great is Thy Faithfulness 

small world ...

My world is a small one and I am a deep soul.  Get too many people in my sphere, I heat up and my battery drains just like an iPhone hitting a glitch.  I like people when they get annimated and I feel deeply when they bare their souls.  When they feel safe in my presence, I'm good but when they have their hand out or just blantly take like it is owned to them, I shrink away.

Even though I have been having some good work days of late, I have a definate week cycle.  It gets more pronouced when the heat is on like the past couple of days.  I work all week to have a calm quiet Friday and it seems everyone else crams all the work on Fridays.  I came home so defeated that all I want to do is roll into a ball and hide in some dark place where no one can find me.  I could never go out on the town on a Friday night.  I think it would be a deadly combination.  

Anyways I am just no good after a normal day's work.  I'm worse than no good after a hard week.  I can't do all things.  I can't be all things to all people.  I am a very simple person on top of being too deep for my own good.  I'm not like anyone else you've met.  

In plain words don't make me feel guilty for having a small world... it makes my worse day worst.  

{Sigh} Two rants in one week!  The guilt has overshadowed my whole week and when I look ahead, I dread more guilt.  If the swelling balloon, can't have a slow leak, it will pop in fragmented fly away pieces.  I need to find some fun or dive into a passion and get lost in it for awhile.

Good Night!  Off to roll into a ball and be out like a light!  Sweet dreams be true...

an introvert rant...

I could scream on the top of my lungs and sadly that would not be very introvert like... and at this point I would almost do anything to stop the high octive continuous rant that is blowing part my mind space.  

There are two things that fires me up to meltdown mode.  One is trying to set me up on a date and the other is to shame my introvertive ways.  Guilt me and I will relentlously resist.  So stop already.

Let me say it again and let me be very clear.  Being an introvert is not about being unfriendly or antisocial rather it is how one charges it batteries.  It is about how one is filled, how one is exhausted, how one is energized, and how one is depleated.  

I am gladly an introvert.  I am friendly but in a quiet manor.  I cannot deal with huge groups nor the small group.  I work best one on one.  I am a great listnener and have a huge reserve of empathy.  I am an observer.  I am active but more behind the scene.  Not only am I socially an introvert but I am scholarly an introvert which means I am a self learner or self taught.  I don't like to learn in groups.  If I need to express, it has to be one on one of here on my blog or in prayer with God.  

I know that God wants us gather together and to love one another but I never felt good about youth groups or sunday schools or singles groups or even Bible studies.  I am tired of coming home more agitated than peaceful.  {huge sigh} 

Are you saying I have to go to sunday school to perfer one another?  Do I serve in the nursery to care for one another?  Do I need to serve as a finacial secretary even though I hate money to love one another?  Please stop making me feel bad.  I beg for mercy.... or do I relent....

two fish stories & a thought ...

    It has been a couple of weeks since I heard these stories so I had better put them down to the best of my memoriy real quick like!

first story:

Cod fisheries were trying to raise cod in a control setting but when they brought them to the resturants the taste quality was like day old and not fresh.  They began to realize that they needed to assimulate the drive upstream by putting in natural predators that they were use to.  So enter the cat fish into the tanks.  The cod needed to be on their fins to have that great fresh resturant quality taste.  The moral of the story?  You need affliction to stay fresh!

second story:

The kids were begging for a pet but there are so many possible headaches, the dad wasn't keen of the idea that is until he saw the no questions asked return policy! He bought the goldfish!  The kids were so excited and what better way to celebrate than having a swimming party!  Well, ok... Dad puts the goldfish in a glass by the pool while all the litlle humans jumped into the pool. Squeals of delight filled the air that is until one looked over to the glass and there was no goldfish!  The goldfish wanted to get into the big water.  Wasn't this party for him anyways?  

Well, dad scooped up the lifeless goldfish from the bottom of the pool and headed back to the store.  Wouldn't you know, the lady that sold the goldfish to him was still there!   She forgot and asked what happened.  His reply was that the goldsifh drowned.  She didn't bat an eye.  (I have to step in here and say that I would have asked more questions or at least dropped my jaw with nothing but bug eyes!)  Moral of the story?  Don't believe all the world's splish splash.  Stay in your cup.  Believing lies could very well end your life.

third point:

Stephen Davey puts it right by descibing sin as drinking salt water.  Why?  Why?  Why?  When Living Water is so crystal clear, tastes good, and never thirst again.  Stop drinking salt water.  It will never cure your thirst.

tease me again ...

I find it hard to wake up on a Saturday and go into work but is especially hard to find waiting in my work's email inbox a message about the ever popular CFO finding out a massive tumor at the base of his neck effecting the left side of his body.  Dread evaded my heart.  The air got real thin.  He was fine just the day before.  He is very personable and finds away to tease every individual working for him in such a way that you feel important and noticed.

What do you do?

I printed out the email requesting for prayer and started to jot down requests and hopes to ask my Heavenly Father.  It helps me keep my mind focused and not sunk down in fear and frozen....

• Salvation – always God's Will

• healing here

• eyes to see the Great I AM & His Mighty Works

• journey welll this assignment

• heavily lean into Him / TRUST Him / mind stayed on Him

• run well – finish well

• Resurection Day –

Hope built on nothing less than Jesus's Blood & Righteousness

I was listening to a suffering saint a couple of weeks ago and instead of refering to Job as a source of comfort, he brought to light John 11.  Now I too seek out the eleventh chapter of John.  

v3  "Lord, the one You love is sick."

v4  When He heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will NOT end in death.  No , it is for God's Glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it."

v40  Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the Glory of God?"

Come Monday when everyone finds the company wide email, I'm sure the mood will have a heavy somber to it.   Yet as long as he pestering the nurses, we back at the company will feel much better but longing to have him back teasing us all again...

✝ Resurrection Hope ✝

Blessed is the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5:3). I heard this in a new way. It made me stop. I don't know for sure what to think but it is a promise to hold onto. If stuff is too much for me or to big for me and I am too weak or too small than all of Heaven's Kingdom is mine.... What a resource!

I've been thinking of how wounded our Lamb of God was for us … emotionally and physically … isolated from His Heavenly Father, the Burden Bearer. Jesus bore the weight of it. Then to think that He spent 3 days in hell... real hell... So that He could be worthy to bear our wounds and let us walk upright and free! I still have a long way to go to make this hope sink into my inner heart and soul.

I just heard a story of a father who just found out he had leukemia. After telling his son who was heading off to college and his wife of 30 some years, found himself that night in the dark pouring out his heart to God. "Are you going to be there to carry me through?" -was the question that gripped him. God gave him a word picture. It was Jesus picking him up and carrying him to the in zone - into victory. That was such a blessing to me and I hope for you too.  We had such a blessed hope in the Resurrection of Christ. Such promises to hold and to keep us. ✝

Bobby Socks

It is Valentines and my heart is breaking.  Fourteen years ago two little furry rat terriers came into our lives after the loss of our dear Sammy.  Fourteen months ago Bobby's brother Andy died and now Bobby.

The brown in Bobby's face was swiftly becoming white.  He was getting a bit blind.  He couldn't twirl anymore on bare flooring.  On carpet it was getting slower.  With this winter's blistering cold, he struggle to keep warm so we thought up a coat out of sweatpants legs.  Bobby was always hungry but eating seems too much.  We prayed that he could wait for spring.  I thought he was doing much better but last night I got word that he died of a heart attack.  Tink and Bobby went out to go to the bathroom.  Bobby was at the door and then he wasn't.  That quick he was gone.

Bobby was a baby always wanting to be babied.  We didn't mind.  He wanted to be petted always.  He would give you those baby eyes.  He was a worrier.  He didn't want you to forget to feed him or to give him cookies.  He always wanted to be near you.  If you were making the actions of leaving, he would take your socks and gnaw on them.  He may have sad eyes but he always had a smile.  When excited, he would twirl and twirl.

I guess him leaving right before Valentine's Day of a heart attack seems very fitting for a very loving pup.  By him always wanting your love, you could forget about the world.  You were wanted and needed.  Pretty nice.

We knew he was winding down and we were holding our breath.  Andy had a cancer inside and his leaving was very hard.  We didn't think we could go through it again.  Andy had an enduring personality.  Bobby wouldn't be able to do it nor would we be able to handle it.  God was good in taking him so quickly even with the snow being so thick.  Dad and brother was able to lay him to rest.

Mom texted me this evening saying she was missing her couch buddy and my tears welled up again.  I know like with Andy the tears will flow less and the ache mellow and the sadness is laced with happy memories and yes, you want to hold him again and to have him twirl again.... but you quiet your emotions that the God of good gifts has a grander plan than I can know.

Just maybe after all the big end of the world things happen, that when I walk out into the Heaven's grand garden and pause... there Andy will be.  One moment he is looking at me with his handsome masked face and the next he will be jumping in my arms with his kisses.  My hands will catch a firm smooth tank body with no lumps and bumps to remind me of sin's curse.  Of course there will be Bobby finally enjoying the no allergy air twirling and smiling and wanting to get on the action.  I will get down on the ground and have a good pupinator tussle getting my fill of kisses and love... continuing my rejoicing of good gifts given and taken away...

little bird, big storm ...

Bravely the little bird clung there out in the storm;

torn by each blast that was flung there,

chirped to keep himself warm;

ruffled his feathers and clung there,

till frozen and stiff it hung there,

spring came and still it swung there,

    all that was left of the storm.

by Ruth Graham Bell's Collected Poems

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I do not like this poem because it is so sad.  It is not a pretty picture.  On a normal day I would turn the page in search of a happier place but today it is exactly the words I needed to hear.

I am that bird.  I clung to my little perch.  I chirped.  I ruffled my feathers.  That storm did not care.  It took me out.  It does not matter if the storm was wrong or petty.  It does not matter if the storm is full of it's own power.  It does not matter if the storm is controlling.  It does not matter if the storm is all-consuming. I am little.  Storm is big.  Blasted, frozen, dead stiff are all consequences for thinking this was a silly little matter.  

To ultimately honor my Heavenly Father I must honor and obey my boss no matter even if she says not to sneeze.  If I cannot honor her in the littlest of matters, how can I honor her in the big matters.  How can God give me a job that I would love much better if I cannot do my currant mundane job with God-given JoY.  {sign}

I still do not like this poem but I will carry it in my heart as I go back to work tomorrow a bit more wiser, a bit more quiet, a bit more focused on my Heavenly Father.  Spring is to be full of new life not death.  I need to make it to Spring.  I choose life not death.....

I must be the bird under His Wing not the frozen bird in a winter storm.

fav quotes of 2013

•"There is no such thing as an 'unknown' to God"
~ Chuck Swindoll / his study in Daniel

•  “Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air…”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

• "When it is the darkest, men see the stars."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

• “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

• "Passion is in the risk. "
~ When in Rome

• "If you're going to be a bear, be grizzly."

• “All that is gold does not glitter,
not all those who wander are lost.
The old that is strong does not wither,
deep roots are not reached by the frost”
J.R.R. Tolkien

• "FAITH is like a pair of night vision glasses; FAITH helps you see in the dark. "
~ Pas Steven Davies on Hall of Faith passage

• He wants us to be, not hothouse plants, but storm-beaten oaks; not sand dunes driven with every gust of wind, but granite rocks withstanding the fiercest storms.   Better the storm with Christ than smooth waters without Him.
~ Streams in the Desert  I / Feb 28

• "Fear is like sand in machinery where faith is like oil. Faith lubricates life."
~ Pastor Adrian Rogers

• "FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real"
~ Zig Ziggler

• "If you are simply obeying the LORD, all the responsibility will rest on Him, not on you!"   ~ Hudson Taylor

• “Fruit-bearing involves cross-bearing.”
~ Hudson Taylor

• “All God’s giants have been weak men, who did great things for God because they reckoned on His being with them.”
~ Hudson Taylor

•  “God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supplies.”
~ Hudson Taylor

• "STRESS = amt of demands > amt of my strength".
~ Pastor Adrian Rogers

• "Nothing, without first a dream."
- Carl Sandburg

• “I still find each day too short for the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see.”
~ John Burroughs

• “As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over. So in a series of kindnesses there is, at last, one which makes the heart one over.”
~ James Boswell

•  "darkness canNOT chase away the Light!"

• "No victory without a battle. No character without a conflict. No understanding without suffering."
~ Elizabeth Elliott

•  "A life that is too easy is not good for the soul."  
~ Archibald Hart

• "it's much easier for friends to become lovers than for lovers to become friends."

• "Scriptures forecast storm warnings for all believers."
"Storms reveal your root systems."
~ Dennis  Rainey / are you ready?/ Storms of Life

• "It's what you sow that multiples, not what you keep in the barn."
~ Pastor Adrian Rogers

• "God always gives His Best to those who leave the choice with Him."
~ Hudson Taylor

• "Submission is an attitude not an action. It isn't what you do but WHY you do it."
~ Pastor Ken Ford

• "satan canNOT create. He can only twist & distort what God created as good."
~ Randy Alcorn

• "Stand at the intersection of your affections and successes and find your uniqueness."
~ Max Lucado / Cure for the Common Life

•  "Stress is focusing on the storm instead of on God."
~ Pastor Adrian Rogers

• "The grass is greener where it's watered." 🌱

• "My mind can be a factory of fear or a fountain of faith. What will it be?"
~ Patsy Claremont

• "The oak indwells the acorn."
~ Max Lucado

• "to make honey a young bee needs a young flower.
~ karate kid I

• "Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought it was only one.'"
~ CS Lewis
• "the wisest person in church? the one who is most submissive to the Scriptures."
~ Pastor Steven Davey / study of Proverbs

• "Because man cannot kill God, they kill the image of God."
~ Pastor Steven Davey

• "Where God does not rule, God overrules."
~Pastor Adrain Rogers/ on God-Given PEACE in storms

• "If love is blind then sex is a blindfold."
~ Ron Deal / don't be deceived - wait for marriage.

• "We are into microwaving. God is into marinating."
~ Brady Boyd

• You will "discover that when you lie close to the heart of someone or someplace for a long time, you hear and see what others don't. The secrets taught by holding on & hanging in there turn out to be exactly what you were looking for."  ~ Marlee Ledai

• "is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?"
~ Corrie Ten Boom

• "Let God's Promises shine on your problems."
~ Corrie Ten Boom

• "Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear."
~ Corrie Ten Boom

• “Let them miss you.
Sometimes when you’re always available,
they take you for granted because they think you’ll always stay."

• "It is the shelter of each other that people live."
~ Irish Proverb

• "Let your mess become His Message."

• "Heroes are born in war time."

• "Trials are proof of God's Love."
~ Dr.James MacDonald

• "the greatest submission of our will to God's Authority is when He says NO not when He says yes." ~ Stephen Davey
• "If you can find humor in anything, you can survive it."
~ Bill Cosby

• "Laugh out loud. It helps flush out the nervous system."
– Chuck Swindoll

• "worry is pulling tomorrow's clouds over today's sunshine."

• "disappointment should be spelled 'God's appointment'".

• "when love is FELT, the message is heard."

• "Show them what you love. "

• "It is difficult to make a man miserable when he feels he is worthy of himself & claims kindred to the great God who made him."
~ Abraham Lincoln

•  “True friendship resists time, distance and silence.”
 —  Isabel Allende

• "I fall in love with people’s passion. The way their eyes light up when they talk about the thing they love and the way they fill with light.”
~Unknown

• "The secret to the filling a man lies in learning to express love THROUGH YOUR FEELINGS, not necessarily through your actions."
~ John Gray

• The sky is the daily bread of the eyes. 
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

•  “My God…I have thanked you 1000 times for my roses…teach me the value of my thorns…Show me that my tears have made my rainbow.”
~George Matheson

• "God's delight is received upon surrender, not awarded upon conquest."
~ Max Lucado

• "Faith is the refusal to panic."

•  "Do you have a relationship with the Word to cause a revolution in your world?"
~ Stephen Davy / Wisdom of the Heart

• "Whatever the sin issue there is an idolatry at the heart of it."
~ Phil Ryken

• "God designed you to think of one thought at a time so if you are thinking on what is right, you cannot think on what is wrong."
~ paraphrase of Adrian Rogers's Right Thinking

• “Every happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message.”
― Malcolm Muggeridge

• “Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream.”
― Malcolm Muggeridge

• "Storms are not an option but fear is."
 ~Max Lucado's Fear Not

• "only a pure clean heart can see the activity of a Holy God."
~ Stephen Davy

• "Discipline isn't to change behavior but to remind the child that the ways of death is destruction."
~ Dr Dan Allender

• "Since it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage."
CS Lewis

• "You never have to worry because with God you will never get lost in the crowd no matter who you are."
~ Pastor Stephen Davey

• "God's answer to any & all of our questions is the revelation of Himself."~ Elizabeth Elliot

• "You can choose your sin. You canNOT choose your consequences."
~ Pastor Stephen Davey

• “If more of us valued food and cheer and song over hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”  ~J.R.R. Tolkien

• "God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him."
~ John Piper

• "Our Christianity must have sound AND picture."
~ Pastor Stephen Davey on James 1:22-27

• "Our example OUTLIVES our achievements."
~ Pastor Swindoll

• "Submission is the highest form of respect."

• "Submission is ducking so that God can hit your husband."
~ Lysa TerKeurst

• "examine everything for the fingerprints of God" / family mo

•  "God uses broken sticks to make straight lines."
~ Dr. Carl Wiener

• Praise is the language of Heaven better get fluent here on earth.

• "Men TRUST a God by RISKING. Women TRUST God by WAITING."
~ Karen McCully

• "Hardships often prepare ordinary people for extrodanary destiny."
C S Lewis

• "If God sends us on strong paths, we are provided strong shoes."
—Corrie ten Boom

• "So I decided not to give my life to that Character (God), I was going to run it myself and of course anyone who makes that decision  is actually worshiping themselves and has a fool for a deity." ~ Douglas Gresham stepson of CS Lewis

• "God uses a word that doesn't talk about falling in love, He uses a word about choosing to love. Biblical love isn't about attraction; it's about determination.   It isn't about working it up rather it is about willing it out. "
~ Stephen Davey

• "No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care."

• "God designed us to be EMPTY without Him."
~ Pastor Chuck Swindoll

• "Only Christ can allow you to take a disadvantage & make it into an advantage for the Glory of God."
~ Ravi Zacherias Jesus Among Other gods

• "You can tell a lot about a man by what makes him sad, mad, & glad."
~ Pastor Adrian Rogers

• The Christmas season highlights the stunning reminder that God keeps His promises. And not only are His ways amazing, they’re also surprising; He chooses to use common people and everyday events to work the miraculous. But any time that God interrupts our lives in a supernatural way . . . it’s a lot to take in. 
~ Pastor Chuck Swindoll

• "Are you the kind of woman that a man would die for?" ~ J Vernon McGee

•  "God is using all of your experiences, both good & bad, to develop your character to match your calling." 
~ Lysa TerKeurst

• "every story whispers His Name"~Sally Lloyd-Jones

• “If they miss you, they’ll call. If they want you, they’ll say it. If they care, they’ll show it. And if not, they aren’t worth your time.”

• Moonlight drowns out all but the brightest stars. 
~ JRR Tolkin

• “Life is mostly froth and bubble, Two things stand like stone, Kindness in another's trouble, Courage in your own”
~Adam Lindsay Gordon

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Boy, do I love to collect quotes.  I am such a thinker and I love to listen to some favorite Bible teachers and Bible podcasts.  How my brain whirls!!!!

fav reads of 2013

• "The Five  Love Languages of Children" by Gary Chapman and Ross canceled, M.D.

takeaway: teach your children to be fluent in all five love languages & teach them to manage anger and the rest of the emotions. One of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control and this book helps you as a parent or adult to pass this on to the next generation.

• "Cure for the Common Life"

~ Max Lucado  

living your sweet spot : 

use your uniqueness (what you do)

to make a big deal out of God (why you do it)

every day of your life(where you do it)

I love living your dreams and encouraging them.  My job and it isn't my sweet spot. I really don't know how to change it except to do my spot at home and surround myself and my day with creativity and creative thought. 

• "The Vow" by Kim & Krickett Carpenter 

I found this book in Mom's library and with all the hype I read it (I might read before?). You have to read the true story of how God can keep a marriage even when the memories are gone. The movie had the human drama but sadly kept God out of it. 

• "Danger in the Shadows" (prequel)& "The Negotiator" (book one) by Dee Henderson

Dee is a favorite author because there is a bit of intrigue in her love stores.  She is a Christian author and her focus is on the relationship we have in Christ and with each other.  I have been collecting the O'Malley series from my favorite op shop and have all but book two which I am ready to start reading.  I have recently gotten the tapes but I have started another series so I'll have to wait till next year!!  I need to make a family tree of the O'Malleys to keep them organized in my visual brain.  

~~~~~~~

Hmm, I wish my list was longer!  I do read several books at a time because they are informational where I read one story at a time.  So I have some reads that aren't finished to make this list cut off.   I have to admit that I have bad op shop addiction that feeds my book fetish!!  My library is brimming with unread books that I am looking forward to reading.  So until next year, stick your head in a book and take the best vacation ever!

griefs of the lilac …

Part of being strong willed is having super solid thoughts of how things should be and how things should be done. These thoughts are not random. These thoughts are logical.  These thoughts are connected to the very fiber and essence of who I am. 

Maybe it is being a girl in a man's world that makes me second guess my thoughts when it contradicts a man's thoughts. Maybe it is because I'm a strange contradiction of tenderness and strictness. Maybe it is because I am most happy when submissive but when my thoughts are swept aside, a violent torrential storm erupts. 

A current event has just played out and I am red hot livid. I am here trying to put my words down to get these ugly emotions out of my body and my heart. Spilt milk is spilt milk. You can't do anything but except it, right?  But wait, there is clean up to do…

My split milk is the tree trimmers that whacked the lilac tree to the ground where it was living conjoined with the lilac bush. I should have pinked flagged like my gut said so they would not touch it. I voiced my concern about the lilacs along with the new small bushes I have bought. 'Oh, they will be fine.' I had so much unrest in my heart that when the trimmers finally arrived I asked God to guide them. When I got home I rushed to the backyard to see if they spared my lilac tree and my unspoken wishes. I want to be silent and sweet no more. I want to rail against the one who made me second guess myself.  Oh wait, I was the one that second guessed. 

an angry American & an Ancient Path ...

I am an angry American.  Here I stand on the cliff of time where looking forward, all I can see is destruction of a country I was born and bred in and harbor a love and patriotism for.  When I look behind, I see an ancient old path straight, strong and true that built this nation on a very formidable foundation.  An ancient pathway that holds true to piety and self control along with freedom from government dictating personal religion.  The Bible was our founding fathers' guide to create a country that would serve God.  An ancient pathway long overgrown and barely visual today.

The dissenting voices have become like bombs and clanging cymbals drowning out God's Ancient Still Voice.  Many have recanted their so called beliefs to be like everyone else so as to be politically correct and socially relevant.  They  have forgotten what there parents had told them.  Something about 'would you jump off a cliff if everyone else is doing so?' It is like a gay parade cloaking themselves in rainbow loud colors to hide a tarnish and blackish meshed hazy soul where freedom means no self restraint or self control.  This parade is so clamorous and so narcissistic they do not see the cliff they are marching off of and into the pit.  Do not think that I am insensitive as I tried to understand coworkers who have taken on this alternative lifestyle.  They can be super nice but my love and loyalty lies with God the Father who is a jealous God and wants our selfless love no matter how frail and human it is.   Sadly, as I look at all the gays that have surfaced, I no longer see them as male or female but rather as an it deprived of the great differences and characteristics that make males strong and females beautiful.  It is a very grey murky world.

What gets me most as an American is the taking God out of every thread that make us great and dragging our founding fathers through the mud.  Last week US Supreme Court decision to make gay marriage legal made me ill.  It is most difficult when the other side seems to winning at destroying our moral fabric and you know that once the salt is taken from this world, Sodom and Gomorra destruction will rain down once again.  Even though the world is heavy in labor pains, I have a sure foundation.  I have an ancient path to trace to my present time ... to pull back the weeds and clear the path.

Let me tell you about US Supreme Court member, James Wilson who came from Scotland in 1765 to study law and obvious stayed!  He was appointed to the US Supreme Court by President George Washington in 1789.  James Wilson holds the distinction of being one of the six Founding Fathers to sign both the Declaration of Independence AND the Constitution.  Benjamin Rush, a physician, fellow signer of the Declaration of Independence, father of the public schools and I could go on, described James Wilson's mind as a "blaze of light ... He rendered great and essential services to his country in every stage of the Revolution."  Here is a quote from James Wilson on the law of God being the 'supreme law.'  "Having thus stated the question -- what is the efficient cause of the moral obligation? -- I give this answer -- the will of God.  This is the supreme law.  His just and full right of imposing laws, and our duty in obeying them, are the sources of our moral obligations." (The Laws of Nature, 1790)  Oh how my heart began to soar again.  This my heritage.  This is my America.  This is my US Supreme Court that I can cheer on... to shout an Amen.

The US Supreme Court of 1885 (144 US 15,45) "Certainly no legislation can be be supposed more wholesome and necessary in the founding of a free, self-governing commonwealth ... then that which seeks to establish it on the basis of the idea of the family, as consisting in and springing from the union for life of one man and one woman in the holy estate of matrimony; [the family is] the sure foundation of all that is stable and noble in our civilization; the best guarantee of that reverent morality which is the source of all beneficent progress in social and political improvement."

I know I shouldn't be an angry American since I'm just as pass'in through.  I am a citizen of Heaven.  I am in God's Kingdom.  I know Who wins.  America will not be in Heaven.  True.  But our founding father's dreamed a very huge dream.  They wanted to be a beacon to rest of the world.  I want to keep that dream alive.  I look to this ancient path, this ancient bloodline to not give up and to reach out in God's Grace and His Everlasting Love to my fellow American citizens, to be God's ambassador.....

So this Fourth of July I put a spotlight on the Supreme Law that has made this country and holding to this Supreme Law will keep this country....

************

This is what the Lord says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. 

But you said, 'we will not walk in it.'

I appointed a watchmen over you and said, 'Listen to the sound of the trumpet!'

But you said, 'we will not listen.'

Therefore hear, you nations; you who are witnesses, observe what will happen to them.  Hear, you earth: I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because they have not listened to My Words and have rejected My Law."  

Jeremiah 6:16-19

with all that I am …

"I am the one winged bird for flying

Sinking quickly to the ground

See your faith in me subsiding

See you prime for giving in

I give you all that I am

I am the sound of love's arriving

Echoed softly on the sand

Lay your head upon my shoulder

Lay your hand within my hand

I give you all that I am

And I breathe where you breathe

Let me stand where you stand

With all that I am

I am the white dove for a soldier

Ever marching as to war

I would give my life to save you

I stand guarding at your door

I give you all that I am

I am the one winged bird for flying

Sinking quickly to the ground

I am the blind man for a watchdog

I am prime for giving in

I'll show you all that I am

And I breathe so you breathe

Let me stand so you'll stand

With all that I am"

Written by Rob Thomas

 I keep pressing play, listening over and over, ever absorbing, getting lost in the embrace of the words. Will we get to this place? I'm there … with all that I am.

boast? worry? same thing …

To not worry if your beautiful enough or smart enough or woman enough, to not worry if he is interested in you or if there is a spark between you or if he is in love with you is to not think so much about yourself.  When you worry, you are thinking highly of yourself. The job is to put into the relationship. The job is to bless, edify, share, touch, & enjoy. The job is to spur one another towards God.   You can fully love with abandonment from self because ultimately God loves you deeply and that is all you need. 

Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips. ~ Proverbs 27:2

bending God's ear about you…

Bet your window's rolled down and your hair's pulled back  

And I bet you got no idea you're going way too fast 

You're trying not to think about what went wrong 

Trying not to stop 'til you get where you goin' 

You're trying to stay awake so I bet you turn on the radio 

And the song goes

I can't live without you, I can't live without you, baby
I can't live without you, I can't live without you, baby, hm baby

The highway won't hold you tonight
The highway don't know you're alive
The highway don't care if you're all alone
But I do, I do.
The highway won't dry your tears
The highway don't need you here
The highway don't care if you're coming home
But I do, I do. 

 I bet you got a dead cell phone in your shotgun seat 

Yeah, I bet you're bending God's ear talking 'bout me. 

You're trying not to let the first tear fall out 

Trying not to think about turning around 

You're trying not to get lost in the sound but that song is always on 

So you sing along 

 I can't live without you, I can't live without you, baby
I can't live without I can't live without you baby, oh baby 

The highway won't hold you tonight
The highway don't know you're alive
The highway don't care if you're all alone
But I do, I do.
The highway won't dry your tears
The highway don't need you here
The highway don't care if you're coming home
But I do, I do. 

 I can't live without you, I can't live without you, baby
I can't live without I can't live without you, baby, oh baby

 The highway don't care
The highway don't care
The highway don't care
But I do, I do.

I can't live without you, I can't live without you, baby (The highway don't care)
I can't live without I can't live without you, baby, oh baby (But I do, I do)
I can't live without you (The highway don't care)
The highway don't care, the highway don't care
(The highway don't care) I can't live without you, I can't live without you, baby
But I do, I do
(The highway don't care) the highway don't care (The highway don't care) the highway don't care, 
I can't live without you, I can't live without you baby, oh baby (But I do, I do) 

 I can't live without you, I can't live without you, baby

♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪

This is a new song sung by Taylor Swift and Tim McGraw. Songs become loved and well worn when it hits real life and broken hearts - in my case a once broken heart.  I used to bend God's ear when he was away but still do now that my smile is back. I do go back to my heartbroken notes and thank my Heavenly Father for mending hearts and overflowing blessings of restoration …

seasons of man …

There is a time for intimacy. There is a time for strengthening.

There is a time for coming together. There is a time for filling one's soul.

There is a time for one another. There is a time for oneness with God.

There is a time for fullness. There is a time for hunger.

There is a time for blooming. There is a time for growing.

I asked God for a picture to help me understand man's way with a maiden. I asked for help as a man comes close but then moves away. It is Spring. Everything is growing. I realized that has a season of bloom and a season of growth. Same with a man. He needs intimacy and he needs his warrior strength. Like always God gave me a picture to hold.

juice in the grape …

Oh, how it feels like the last of the last days! Can it get any worse before my Lord and Master takes me out with a trumpet shout? He could come yet today but He could wait many more days for those who yet need to choose Him.

Summer 2012 was extremely hot and very dry. The woods thinned. Corn fields browned and crisped in the height of July making me sad and a bit worried as I drove to work and home in air condition each day. Pear trees had no pears for pear butter. Birds had daily pool parties at the bird bath that I kept filled for them. And the grapes? The sparse shriveled clusters on the vines had no promise left in them. Deep in the soul of today, it is hot dry summer with no juice left in the grape. Or is there a hint of that deep stain?

'In the later times many will abandon the faith' ( I Timothy 4:1). How disturbing! I look deep within. How do you keep the faith when all are forsaking? Then I found an interesting verse - a little something to quench the thirst: "As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapes…don't destroy it, there is yet some good in it." Isaiah 65:8.

It is that age old promise again. God promised to Abraham that He would not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if there where still believers left. He promises that still today. We are still here so there is still juice in the grape! There is Hope. This is my job! Be ready for the harvest is near and then wine season will begin. So until then, keep the juice in the grape!