Take My Hand....

God works in all our lives so differently. As I read an email from one of my bff's, she reminded me that even though we aren't seeing each other as much, for right now life and the Lord are moving us in different ways, our love and friendship is still there. It hasn't gone anywhere and for us it isn't going to move that easy. Satan tries so hard to put ideas in our minds when we are moving and serving God. He puts all this clutter and temptations infront of us to try to jar us, to move us farther away from where Christ is sending us. He can make us feel as though no one likes us, no one loves us, and we are not important. He can try to change what we are doing for Christ into personal achievements. We can lose sight of where we are headed for Christ. We at times get so blinded by the world, satan knows just what are weakness' are. We stop listening to Christ and we begin to listen to what the world is telling us and we hear satans voice also. Just as Christ is calling us daily, satan has his own agenda. He wants to destroy everything good, our walk, our friendships, and the dreams that God has instilled in us. We must be on guard against him, and his ways. We must walk with our eyes open and allow our hearts to be lead by Christ. We can be walking and fall and trip so easily in our daily battles if we are not totally focused on what is right and true, what God has planned for each day. Satan can even get us into thinking, I can never accomplish that, I can never do those things, my life is such a mess, I am struggling, I am jealous, I am not good enough, I want more, I want a different scene today. Do you notice all the "I"s in those phrases? We must remove the "I"s, and replace them with "Him". "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Phil. 4:13 We can accomplish any tast at hand, infront of us, any dream God has for us to fulfill, with Jesus Christ taking our hand and leading us. We must let those fears go. We have nothing to fear with Christ in us. "The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?" Psalm 27:1 We have nothing to fear from anyone or anything that enters our path. Go for those dreams that God is giving. Listen to Him speak to you. Be still knowing God is with us always never letting anything touch us that as not first touched Him. There is learning is all that crosses our paths. Today as you wake, don't let those fears, any fears you have get in your way. No that with Christ taking our hand, He will lead us into the greatness He has planned for us to bring glory and honor to Him...

Living in the Show Me State

Here in Missouri we are the Show Me state. Show us and we can do anything. We all learn in different ways. For me I am a show me learner. It is much easier for me to accomplish something if you show me how step by step,then I can do it with ease. As I pray, I often say,"Show me God, show me your mercy,your forgiveness, your will, your might and power." God can show us anything. He can reveal anything to us. We must ask Him. "Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me. For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day." Psalm 25:4-5 When we ask He will show us. He can fill us with His glory and show us His wonders. "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." Matt. 7:7-8 "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." Matt.6:33 We never have to walk blindly, we can walk with our faith in Christ, and He will show us the way when we are troubled, when we are walking in trials, when we are finding our way through temptations, and when we are trying to walk closer to Him. To know Him more and to hear His sweet voice of direction, we can overcome anything to come our way. He has given us all we need right here in the pages of His word. Nothing can guide us through this life better than His word and His love. In us He has created masterpieces of art. His fingerprints are upon us. Show me, and I can do anything through Christ. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13 Do you need directions? Do you need to see Him for yourself? You can find Him and His directions in His Word. Go to His Word, and read each page, and as you read each page His wonders will be shown to you. His glory and His power, His forgiveness, and His will for your life are all written on His love letter to us. Will you read it today? Find your way through His word. As a Missourian I may say,"Show Me", but as a christian, I will say, "Show me and I can do all things through His name."

I dont just want to fly, I want to soar...

"But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength;They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:31With our faith in Christ we can overcome anything we face. We don't have to hide, we can stand, with our heads held high,knowing He is with us all the way. Remember when your children could hold their head up? Then they could roll over, then came sitting up,then came crawling, then came walking, and then they could run like the wind. After running, does anyone really want to crawl again? Remember being a kid and feeling how free it felt to run in a field? What about flying a kite with your dad? Remember the joy,the laughter you shared? I can, flying kites is something I do remember, and after the kite got up and began to take off, you had to hold tight to the string so it did not get away. That kite was soon soaring in the wind, above the trees. It was a beautiful sight to see. Where I live now, we sometimes see the big hot air balloons. They are amazing to watch. They go higher and higher,over the trees, the clouds and they soar through the air. We can be like those balloons, kites and eagles soaring overhead if we walk with our faith. If we live for Christ, if we give Him all we have, the lighter the load,and the more we can soar. The more we keep hold of, the less we are going to fly. So, today I say, just let go. Let go of all you are carrying deep inside, give it to Christ and get ready to fly with wings like eagles...

I've got something to say

When Christ came into my life,He changed me. He came into my life with so much love,strength and compassion. He loved me, He molded me,and He is still teaching me daily. He gives me all I need,and all that is important in His time. He knows each step we will take, and where those steps will take us. If we move away from Him, He doesn't give up,He keeps calling and whispering His love to us. It is us that moves away from Him. He is the love letter that you keep close to your heart. He is that Rock you hold on to in those storms. He is there to fill me with His spirit. He is the cool drink of water when I am thirsty. He is that warm blanket that keeps comforting me when I am afraid. He is the sunshine between the clouds. He is the story I want hear before I slip into sleep. He is the air I want to breath. He is the rainbow after the rain. He is my Shelter,my Refuge, my Strong,and Mighty Tower. He is the beauty before my eyes. He is there on the mountain tops and throughout the valleys. He walks with me everywhere I go. He speaks to me through His love. He the forgiveness I do not deserve. He is the everlasting life. He is the neverending story. He is the Grace in my life. He is the Mercy that shines before me. He is the Glory of each day. He is the Wonder in our creation. He is Justice and He is Praise. He is my Listener to every story I tell. He is my Understanding in troubled times. He is my healer. He is my Everything, and without Him I would be nothing. I want to stand and shout how glorious and wonderful our God is. I want to be the one He wants me to be each and every moment. I want to share all He has done for me and all He will do for me. He is All. There is none stronger, there is none righteous, there is no god that comes before Him. He is Heaven, He is our Future,He is our Compass to lead us home. He is the song we forever want to sing. He is the book we never want to put down. He is the best of all the best days we have ever had. "For it is written: As I live, says the Lord, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God."Romans 14:11 You are my life, my love and my joy. What is the Lord to you?

Being Still

Remember when your children were small, and you could say,"Please be still." It wouldn't be two minutes and my children would skirm all over. When we are waiting on that phone to ring to let us know our children got there safe, when we are waiting on the call from the doctor with the news, we wait nine months for our babies to finally come, waiting on that friend or family member to come to know Christ, waiting for healing, waiting for love, waiting to hear if we made the team or not. There are so many things that we wait for daily, and we let this time take over our lives with worry. We have to wait at the doctor's office, we wait at the post office, and even longer at the store. We wait on a package to arrive with presents. It seems like we do alot of waiting. But God doesn't want us to skirm as our children do, He wants us to come to Him, and He will help us during that time that seems to take forever. "Be still, and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10 We can know that Christ is there for us, we can feel Him, we can have peace knowing that He is there. No matter what we are waiting for, or how long we are waiting,whatever the outcome, He is there. Being still, is not worrying, it is trusting. When we are still, we can hear, we can learn, we can grow. Being still, we can pray,and find peace and comfort knowing God is with us. He doesn't have to run around worrying, He isn't pacing back and forth as we do. He has all under control. And that waiting, can help us grow with Him. Being still and not making a desperate move out of anger,or frustration,or worry changes us to look more like Him. As we hold our babies, cuddling them, and singing soft whispers as they calm, and rest, we too can do the same with Christ. He can wrap His loving arms around us, and whisper,"Be still and know that I am God." As our moms place their hands upon ours and tell us all will work out, as our dads place their hand upon our shoulder and let us know they love us. God places so much love around us, all we can feel is His presence and His peace,if we will allow ourselves to be quiet and be still. As each day we face many different things, we can face them knowing God is with us, and we can find that stillness and peace from Him..

Is He in our conversations?

"She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness." Proverbs 31:26 "Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles." Proverbs 21:23 When we are having conversations what are we speaking of? Is it of the weather, the grandkids, the children, sports, our pets, our chores, family, friends, gossip, or about ourselves? We have many conversations in a day, about all sorts of things. We speak while we are at home,at work, at the gym, at church, at Walmart, we are always in conversations. Today I began to think upon my conversations, and just how much of my speech is about Christ. I have to admit, there are times when I can't even speak a sentence without praising Christ, or praising what I have learned about Him. But are all my conversations pleasing to His ears? Although they may be pleasing to mine,they most likely are not blessing Him. Today on and early show, I saw a process in where college age kids were sticking their hands into ice water, and seeing how long they could keep their hands in without pain,and taking them out. There was a catch to this. When they started feeling pain, they had to use curse words, and say as many as they needed to get through the pain. Throughout this experiment, they found that more people can keep their hand in the ice water longer just by saying curse words. They were saying that using the curse words it was helping to take the pain away. I sat there speechless. On national television, this was an actual test, an experiment on cursing, and relieving pain. I wish I could say I have never said a curse word. I know men who haven't, one is my father in law who is in his seventies. I have so much respect for him. When I do curse I know right then and there that I shouldn't have said what I did. I grew up with cursing, so it for me, or so I thought was just part of our speech. Now I know that is not the way to speak. I know that it does not bring glory and honor to God. I had someone tell me a few weeks ago,not to speak about God to them, that I could have Him in my life,but not to share with them. That really hurt, for I love this person dearly, and it was as though they were making me choose,them or God. My answer to that is God. Where I go, He goes, and where He goes I am following. I cannot be myself without God in my life. He has been there now for seventeen years, its like He has always been there, and I didn't have a past without Him,for I cannot imagine life without Him now. Our lives should show Christ, our speech should show Christ in our lives. Our conversations should be about Him, our lives with Him in the middle. When I hear someone say something great that happened to them, I automatically say,"Praise the Lord." If someone is in need, I will tell them I will be praying. Every facet of my life is about Christ. I am in no way saying I do not mess up, because I do, I know I do,for Christ is the one speaking to my heart. As christians we have to make a choice sometimes, and that choice is hard. Many times our friends and family do not want to hear about Christ. For me, if they don't they can cover their ears, because as my Savior, I want to share Him, I want to tell about the good things He is doing in my life. I want to share just how much He has changed my life. We should have Godly speech, and our conversations should be about our great and mighty God...

What are you closer to?

Each day, with each decision we make, we are a little closer to Christ or a little farther away. Which direction are you moving in? Some days I can feel myself closer in my walk with Christ,and others, well, I can sure feel that I am farther away. How can I tell? By my actions, the words coming straight out of my mouth, how focused I am on my Savior. In reading the Heaven book by Randy Alcorn, he stated that our walk here on earth is either as close as we will get to heaven or as close as we will come to hell. That is a statement that can take much thought. When God made us, He gave us our own freewill. We are the ones responsible for our actions, our deeds, and our mistakes. We can not blame any other person for our walk. We are either going to obey and love Christ or we are not. God doesn't make us come to Him, although He wants all to come to know Him my name. With each word I speak I walk closer to Him or farther away. With each thought I have it is the same. The only thing we are not responsible for in this world is our salvation. That is all Jesus, it has nothing to do with us. We are simply saying yes to Him, when He calls. But all the rest, our actions and our way of life is all on us. The choices we make daily, are our own to make. We either accept God's wisdom and gain understanding, or we push Him out of the way to do our own thing. And when it is something we want to do so badly, we push Him out of the way, for we know in our deepest place it is wrong. Although choice is a six letter word, a small word, just with a big meaning. Within that meaning is where you and I stand each day, making choice after choice. Our Pastor always says,"Look at your life today, are you closer to Christ today than five years ago, or are you farther away?" Not only can we see this for ourselves, but others can see this through our walk. As each day our walk changes, may we be growing closer each moment instead of farther away

Bringing out the best...

Bringing out the best in others is what we should strive to do. As a wife, I should be striving to bring out the best in my husband, as a mother I should be striving to bring out the best in my children, as a friend I should be striving to bring out the best in my friends. We do this by lifting one another up,not bringing them down. Its all about thinking of others and putting yourself last. Its about giving and sharing, not taking and receiving. We should be praying for our husbands,children and friends daily, and without ceasing. As I have grown as a christian I know I do not pray for my wants, but for Christ's will in their lives. We don't want to cause a friend to stumble anymore than we want to hurt them. In bringing out the best in my husband,I have learned that he wants my time. Time shared is special to him, and lately I have not been the best companion. We can always sit and say to ourselves or others what we don't like about our husbands, but is that right? Is that a way for us to grow closer? All those ideas and feelings should be shared with our husband or wife. With my husband, the more time we share together,the more we are growing as a couple. When we took our vows, it just wasn't one sided, we became a whole together in a bond with Christ. We are no longer living just for us, we have a partner now that is part of all we do, just as when we become christians, we are no longer living for ourselves, we are living for Christ. As we lay ourselves down for Christ, we also lay ourselves down for our husbands also. I know if I make my husband a cup of hot tea,that is really special to him. If I make a dinner, he feels love. The more I seek to please my husband, the more he seeks to please me. Marriage can never be just one sided. Just as with our children, we need to bring the best out in them, not cause them to stumble over our sins. We need to praise our children when they have done good. Praise is something special that brings love together. We don't want to praise them when they do wrong,but we must disipline with love, not anger. If we disipline with love, they are still going to feel that amazing love that occurs only between a mother and her children. For our friends, we want to live them up with our words and actions also. Isn't nice when someone tells you that they have been thinking of you? When we make ourselves available to those we love, we are sharing a peice of Jesus with them. To bring out the best in others, we first must bring out the best in us, and to do that we must be growing in Christ daily, and cherishing our walk together. No one wants to be put down, no one wants to be forgotten when they are going through a trial in their lives. For us to walk with Christ, we must share our walk through our mouths and our actions to others. Even when Christ Himself disiplines us, He does it with love. So therefore we must follow in His example of loving others, sharing and giving our time. When they say,"We spell l-o-v-e, with the letters t-i-m-e", they are speaking sound wisdom. What are you giving your time to today?

Just sittin' on the bed...

One of the things I miss most about my girls not being home any longer is those moments we just sat on the bed together. Those first moments when I would read to them, and then as they were older they would read to me. Brushing their hair while we talked about their dreams, and just chatting about what today was about or what they did with a friend. Its those moments as a mom and daughter that you bond. You share this awesome gift between the two of you. We use to sit on the bed and watch movies, do our hair, help with their studies, talk about love, Jesus, our fears and our dreams. This was a time we shared in the morning and at night. There were times where we just did our school in the bed with our p.j's on. It was a time when the barbies came to life, or with my son there too,the army would sure enough take over. So much was shared and said just sittin' on the bed. The "I love you's" and the "I am so mad at you's".We shared stories of crushes on boys, and playing games. Sittin' on the bed was a time for me to share my heart with them,and also a time for me to listen. Those days of putting in pig tails, reading a great story,or kneeling at the bed in prayer go by so very fast. But I hold each one of those moments so close to my heart. Today, I can go sit on their bed alone, read a book, be in prayer, or take a nap while thinking of them the whole time. I miss those days dearly, but as they grew those days got less often, and though I wish I had them back, I really hope that when they have daughters of their own,they will look back at those days we shared just sittin' on the bed,and have great memories that bonded us together.They will one day have their own time with their daughters making memories just sittin' on the bed, and I pray they are just as special as the ones we shared together..

My ways or His way is the question

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil." Proverbs 3:5-7 Okay, these verses are to be treasured by us who walk with Christ. They are telling us to love the Lord with all our hearts, to trust in Him, not our own ways. We shouldn't seek our hearts or feelings to lead us,that is foolishness. To fear the Lord is to respect Him, to love Him, and to understand His ways are so much higher than ours, and if we will follow Him, our lives will be better for it. I cannot begin to share with you how many times in my life as a christian I have not followed God's word here,but sought out my wisdom, what my heart desired and needed. I have tried to control the things in my life, people, circumstances, and trials that I have faced. I have tried to fix many things, and when I have chosen to step out on my own, I have failed miserably. We can learn from the past mistakes, we can choose to not make them again. We can choose to be more equipped,by knowing God's word, and trusting in Him all that we have. Why is it that we think we know so much? Why is it when things are falling apart we act so quickly,without regard for Christ and His wisdom? We see our family, a friend, a neighbor making a wrong turn, and we think somehow we can change that situation and make it better. Well, just what if God has a plan, and as soon as we step in to try to change things, His plan is destroyed by our selfishness. When we choose to follow our ways and turn from God's,the only word to describe it is selfishness. We want what we want now and we do not like to wait or see those we love fall. For me, someone in my family has given me the name Anne Frank. He gave me this name because I use to write letters to those I loved to try to help them see clearly. As my Pastor has taught me, letters never seem to help the situation. For me, I thought writing a letter I could express myself more. I could clearly lay out all that needed to be said. How selfish of me, and how wrong I was. When we write a letter, we think as we write,we can see our expression,we can place our feelings down clearly,but those who are reading,they cannot see our expression or our tone in which we are writing. They can only look at the words, and come to themselves a conclusion of how they can take it. I have learned the hard way not to write letters when we are hurt, or angry. It only leads to misunderstandings for those who are reading. When they receive the letter,they really don't know how to take it, and then the situation that we so wanted to fix is way out of control. Learning and growing comes from mistakes, from listening,humbling ourselves, not always talking, and from praying in all situations. I have failed many times thinking I knew what was best. All I was really trying to do was control the situation,and that isn't for me to do. I was taking that job away from Christ, the One who knows all and sees all. He knows the situation,and He knows what needs to be done. We have to sometimes just stand back,pray, and wait for God to move in those we love, and in ourselves to. It is humbling to go before God and ask for forgiveness for trying to do His job, to step in and think we can do it better. His ways are higher, and His ways are better. When we choose to leave His ways,and His wisdom, we soon fall, and sometimes we fall hard. Its those hard falls that wake us up and help us to see clearly. I pray I continue to grow and learn,keeping my eyes on Christ and staying with His wisdom,not my own...