Melting

I love having the kids around to talk to and act silly with or just listening to them talk about their dreams, their hopes, their world. The world they are going up in is so much different than the one I grew up in. They are adjusting well and growing rapidly. I know God has great plans for and everyone of them.

The other morning was the first warm (enough) day to wear a dress. As I was loosing my patience as I was loosing the battle in trying to get S(4) ready for school. She was fighting every inch of the way until I brought one of her new dresses out of the closet. She jumped up and started getting undressed because she couldn't WAIT to wear this little sun dress I had picked out for her. I fixed her hair so she could wear it down with just clips in it. As I cleaned the dried tooth paste off her sweet face I couldn't help up smily at this little four year old standing on a step stool beaming at her reflection in the mirror. She said sometime that I hope I never forget. She looked me right in the eyes and said...


"Mommy Tthank you for always making me feel like a Princess. I love you!"

My prayer is that every day she feels like the princess that GOD created her to be. Father, I pray that her self esteem will be rooted and grounded in YOU and what YOU have created her to be. I pray that she will accept Jesus as her Lord and learn to hear YOUR voice at an early age. May her joy continue to overflow as she is filled with the joy that only the Holy Spirit can give. Thank you Father for this gift of your children being in our home. Please help me to grow and change by these experiences.

Hey Pot...

Has God ever looked at you and said...Hey POT!! This is Kettle YOU'RE BLACK!!!

Don't you hate it when you get frustrated with something or someone and just when you think you are justified in your frustration and have it all planned out what you are going to say when asked what's wrong...God points out how you do that exact frustrating thing to Him each day but He still chooses to love you.

That's what happened to me last night.

My husband has been struggling with something’s lately and having difficulty expressing those feelings into words. I felt as though I had given him grace and was ready to put my foot down with what he did last night. He chooses a work dinner over going to a prayer meeting at church with me! I know what you’re thinking...he's a sinner!

Well I was ticked when he called and told me that he was going to a dinner meeting for work. So I acted like a "loving mature" wife and told him have fun and hung up the phone on him and ignored his phone calls when he tried to call me back.

Throughout the evening I was trying to figure out why that bothered me so bad. He's gone to dinner meetings all the time. He's missed church functions to go out on dinner meetings with work before. All that I felt were justified...then it hit me. He CHOOSES feeding himself physically over feeding himself spiritually. In my mind he chooses the world over God.

In my self righteousness I was so frustrated and angry how could he do that! LOOK at all God has done for him and he'd choose DINNER with work people over GOD??? That has to be something wrong with him. I admit so many things that went through my mind were extremely hypocritical.

Then God, my sweet & loving Father, so softly reminded me...You do that to me all the time...except "your work" is at a church. So many times you are too busy "doing" instead of just "being". I made you a human being NOT a human doing. How many times have you chosen work over time with me...just TODAY?

Before I worked in the ministry I use to be perfectly content to be a Mary...How, when, why have I changed in to a Martha?

Why have I become worried and distracted by so many things?
Why have do I feel like I am doing all the work?
Why do I wonder if Jesus even really hears me?
Why do I find myself talking AT God instead of listening to Him?
Why am I making excuses for what God's asking me to do?
Why am I still in the kitchen while others are lavishing worship on God?

Those are questions that I need to continually ask myself to make sure I am where I need to be. When you read them...what are your answers?

Father, please forgive me for being too distracted by “my work” to hear or love on you. Father forgive for my self-righteous attitude towards my husband. Thank you for loving whether I am a Martha or a Mary. Thank you Father so gently and lovingly pointing out areas in which you want me to grow & change. Thank you for your grace & mercy. Please help me to show others, especially my husband, that same grace & mercy when I feel hurt or wounded. You are an amazing loving Father & I am so thankful to be called your daughter!

It's HOT in here!

"If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." Daniel 3:17-18

I've been hot before but never this hot! This past week God has laid on my heart many different ways to read up on Daniel's three buddies...You know Shady Mady and Bennie? It continues to amaze me that all three had the faith to stand up and say "I don't know what God is doing BUT I know HE has my best interest at heart."

Try to imagine standing there looking into your own fiery pit and having someone say to you "IF you don't do what I say you will be thrown in there." Can you feel the heat? I can. There are so many times in my life when I can feel the heat of the fire or hear the roar of the lions. I feel it sometimes when I am looking at my own issues of trust. Whether it's IF, my husband, or my job...wondering "God do you REALLY know what you are doing?"

Am I REALLY ready to jump in to the blazing furnace with both feet? or am I hanging on to the edge with both hands saying, "Let me think about this!"

My desire is to be like Daniel & his friends...Whether it be a lion's den or a fire pit. God I KNOW I am in your hands. In saying that this is NOT an invitation for evil to throw Lions or Fiery Pits at me it is a declaration of knowing that even if God doesn't change my circumstances I serve a God who is MIGHT TO SAVE!!!

What is something that you have had to stand on the edge of the blazing fire pit and feel the heat from and just trust God with?

Grace & Love

I was just speaking of God's grace this morning and how amazing it is to be loved so unconditionally.

God has shown me a great deal throughout that past couple days of how difficult it is for us to extend that kind of love and grace to each other. Although that is exactly what we are called to do. I as a wife, daughter, sister, friend, am called to be a face to God's love and grace to those whom He places in my path.

I don't do it effectively enough at times but am constantly striving to understand HIS love and grace so I can be more like Him!

*before playing this video please mute the side bar music*


Watch the video again...and ask God to show you...

What sign would I be holding?

"Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." Hebrews 1:2