I am on the verge of a new season. It is exciting. I look forward to what God is going to do in and with my life. There are some people who get sad and lost at this time in their life. But as I was listening to Beth Moore with Priscilla and Lisa last week, it reinforced the idea that if God is the center of your of life, everything else will fall into place. It is not a good thing to make your children your idols because when they leave you are lost.
Some women fall apart when their kids move off to college. But God has been planting seeds in me that are waiting to burst forth at the proper time, when I have finished this task. I am helping her pack and praying that my next mission has a beach involved.
God has a plan for all of our lives and I want to open all of the treasure boxes. I am spending this month with Isaiah 42 and reading chapters from Francis Chan’s Crazy Love. The verse I am embracing is Isaiah 42: 16. I will turn darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. I believe it and receive it.
Like this rose beginning to bud, there is something beautiful coming. It is surrounded by lots of sticky stuff now, but it is coming. I told my daughter, even though it looks rough, you have to trust God’s plan. He said he would make it smooth.
I love it when God starts a new thing. It is like a brand new day dawning.
One of the things I love about music is that it can take you places you have been before. It stirs up memories and feelings. I am on the cusp of taking my daughter to university, and am reminded of my own college days. When this song came out, most Christian artists didn’t sound like this.
This month marks the 25th anniversary that this song went number 1. I love Amy Grant. It reminds me of my Christian roots. This week we celebrate with her.
It was the stuff dreams were made of: nightmares. Claire fought with pirates, local and federal authorities chasing the truth and learning that she was much stronger than she thought. Would it be enough?
Privateers
A single young woman is tricked by modern day pirates losing everything she owned. As she tries to figure out what happened to her belongings, her world crashes around her as government and private agencies treat her as a suspect. Determined to find the man who did this to her, she stumbles onto a government top secret. Finding this modern day pirate turns into a race against lethal forces.
because it is building up your faith. Like a caterpillar struggles to get out of the cocoon, you are building up your faith muscles. If the caterpillar didn’t struggle to get out, its wings would not be strong enough to fly. Change the perspective on how you face the struggle. Whatever you are going through is helping you get to where God wants you to be. Instead of “Lord, why me?” ask “Lord, what do you want me to do here?”
Today as I found myself in a situation I did not like, I had to keep telling myself, that there is something God wants me to get from this. There is something He wants me to do. Change my perspective.
There was this man who a few days ago caused me a great deal of struggle. It was not his intention, he was just doing his job, but it interfered with mine. Needless to say, he did not fare very well in my book.
So today, here he was again. Oh brother. He had no clue of the trouble he had caused or so I thought. I had a choice to make. I could light him up and let him know how much trouble he caused me. I could let him know that he was not wanted near me today. or I could greet him as if we were old friends.
Yeah, I chose the latter. Let me tell you, he was the most helpful person on the floor the rest of the day. He went out of his way to be helpful and did things I had not ever seen him do. By the end of the day, I was like “Wow.” I changed my mind about this person.
Whatever type of situation God has placed you in, look around you. What is He trying to tell you? He has already told us that His ways are not our ways (which means He is not going to make everything easy). He will do things to strengthen our faith. He is going to get some glory from your situation.
Anger drove her to find the ones who invaded her life, but Claire was sure that was not going to be able to sustain her when she finally caught up with the pirates. As she chased the pirates, she found the only help she had came from a local cop and a federal agent, but would that be enough?
Privateers is the story of a single young woman who is tricked by modern day pirates losing everything she owned. As she tries to figure out what happened to her belongings, her world crashes around her as government and private agencies treat her as a suspect. Determined to find the man who did this to her, she stumbles onto a government top secret. Finding this modern day pirate turns into a race against lethal forces.
The final section for this series is Emotional. It speaks to making social and meaningful connections with others. These are the people you encounter and who influence your life. Sometimes is it family, sometimes it is friends, sometimes it is strangers on the street.
Do I think I can walk out of the house in my pajama pants to run some errands? My sisters and daughter would kill me.
Do you ever really leave BSF leadership? I have friends who still taunt me with “We sure miss you in the mornings.”
The other day I encountered a woman who tried to hold it together while she told me how her life was falling apart. I could not put words together to console her. After she had walked away, the Holy Spirit gave me instructions and I followed His wisdom.
The last couple of years of my life has focused on the connections that influence who I am. One of the things I learned was that the only thing that last forever is your relationship with God. All of our other relationships on earth come to an end but everything else builds on that relationship with God. If you want to have peace, allow God to have the most influence in your life.
If God takes someone from your life, trust Him. He knows what is best for both of you. I had too many influences or the wrong influences. God showed me through a series of trials that things that I thought were true of people was not. People who I did not like, He taught me to love and cherish. People who I loved, He cut from my life.
When I was younger, I had a good friend who I met in college. She had a great deal of influence in my life because we were friends. She was intelligent and well connected. She had a lot going for her. She also had some things going on in her life that God’s word did not approve of. At that point in time, God did not have the influence in MY life to counter the influence she had. God removed her from my friends list and began to teach me His ways. Looking back over my life, He was right.
So today when He starts removing people from my friends and family list, I roll with Him. When He adds people, I roll with Him. I know it is not about me. My influeners list is short. All of the people on this list KNOW God and LOVE Him.
Take a serious look at the people you are connected to. This area of your life can take all your energy and drain you if you allow the wrong people to have influence. I look at the stop signs God has placed in my life and I know He was right.
I remember one time He gave me a “go” sign and I thought He was tripping. I was doing a small group study through my church. I remember sitting at the little table for sign ups. I had one person from church interested in joining my group. Then I watched God surround this Ph.D student with a bunch of seasoned social workers. I remember thinking, “Wow, God that is soo cool.” We have all been praying for each other ever since. Trust Him. My small group is better than your small group.
The only thing better than my small group (and yes my sisters are part of my small group) are my sisters, Pooh and cousin Kisha. I am going to send a shout out to the travel group, WWC because I do not want anyone smothering me with a pillow on our next trip.
I spend time with these people and share life together. We don’t always agree, but we do lots of laughing. Make sure the people who influence your life can make you laugh, support you when you cry and point you to the Most High God all the time.
These are the people who influence my life. They say “That’s stupid, don’t do that.” Or as my younger sister says, “I have friends in this city and do not want to see you on a episode of Cops.” We are family.
This mess had turned into a hot mess and she needed time to figure out how to get out of it. Everyday things got worse.
CONNECTIONS, a christian novel
She and her best friend found missing relatives, spied on cheating spouses and caught a few bail jumpers. This private investigator never imagined the bad guys would chase her.
Running for her life, Sandy Herrick discovered that God was the only one with her who wasn’t talking smack, trying to kill her or get into her pants. As she and her friends try to figure out who framed them, they all discover that there was more to each other than they thought they knew.
As evil forces closed in on them, they have to determine who they trust and what they believe about each other. Would this be enough to save them?
My habits are not true to form of the Seven Habits because over time I have tweeked them to match my needs. The next area is Spiritual. This is your soul, spirit and the things that make you you.
When I think of spiritual, I think of my relationship with God. He created us in His image and I believe our spirit is what connects us. The more time I spend with God, the better I understand me. The more time I spend with God, the more I love Him.
I mean when you move in with someone you like to get to know them. If you are going to spend an eternity with someone, you want to know something about them. So I spend my spiritual time getting to know God better through bible study and prayer.
I was not one of those kids raised in church so the process was foreign to me. I was in my late 20’s before I understood that God still communicates with his people. Once I discovered that, it was game on. I began to understand how He speaks to me and what He wants me to do. It all started with a wonderful bible study titled, Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby. Changed. My. Life.
The most important thing I learned was all I have to be is who He made me. Not everyone likes or agrees with who I am, but the One I have to answer to does. We get off center when we try to be other people or what other people want us to be. But if you are close to God, He will keep you centered. You ought to stay with Him just for that.
He has a plan for each of our lives. We have to trust His plan. When the children of Israel were in the desert, the Lord reminded them that they were His people. He reminded them that He was with them. As long as He is with us, there is no drought that can over take us or enemy that can over come us.
I praise Him because He taught me that He fights my battles for me. He runs my enemies out of business. He destroys them in ways I can’t imagine. As I learned in the study of Revelation this week, it is to bring them to repentance.
Spending time with God builds up your spiritual muscles, strengthens your faith and teaches you a praise dance.
I am a big fan of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey. One of the main principles is to put first things first. For more than 20 years I have been putting into practice some form of the idea of figuring out what is most important to me. When I set goals, I think about how I want to be remembered and what purpose God has given me in this life.
One of those purposes is to live a healthy life.
As a form of habit, I set goals for my physical body, after all it is my physical tool. If it doesn’t work, I won’t do the other tasks He has assigned. Getting older is not easy. I mean, I can’t read without my readers (glasses) but I don’t always put them on. Like my Aunt Maude use to say, getting old is not for the weak. (She didn’t use that term, but that is what she meant).
For the past decade, I have fought the weight gain problem and lost. When I got older, I did not lose weight as easy as I did when I was young. I am not a crazy dieter. I wouldn’t do the boiled egg diet, soup diet or the don’t eat anything diet. I have this problem with fried chicken and pie and soda. I like all of these things very much. (My fear is there won’t be fried chicken in heaven – but I am going anyway.)
Although I was drastically opposed to working out in the beginning, my view changed. I have several people in my life who encourage others to work out and live healthy. It is the best way to live. Regular exercise can save your life and make healing quicker. For example, I used to work out with this crazy instructor who loved making us do burpees and jump rope day. I hated jump rope day. One day, that fool sat in a F-150 (truck) and convinced us to push it around the block as our workout. (and I call him the fool. LOL)
Yet a year and a half later when I had surgery, I healed much quicker because of the strong core I developed working out with him. He has taught good principles and healthy eating habits. (Although I am never giving up fried chicken.) He has helped me make good lifestyle changes.
With my wee little human brain, I thought, God had me get healthy because He knew I would need it to heal faster.(Whenever you think you have God figured out, sit down and shut up) In 2015, I got to see what I could really do. I had some of the most grueling positions I have ever had. They required physical movement for 10 hours or more. There are moments I wanted to die because every inch of me hurt. I had no idea that something I liked to do could cause so much pain. I felt like an old lady.
As a result, I lost over 20 pounds and was able to reduce my high blood pressure medications. It was all God. As I was focused on other things, He took care of something I thought was a problem. All of the strength I had been building up over the years, the Lord used in an unexpected way and it blessed me.
Set some goals. Work towards them. Watch God bless you.
God brings amazing people into your life to bless you. Receive it.
I learned a lot spiritually in 2015 and I am sharing it with you. You can look back through my blog if you want the full version, but the cliff notes are below. I got to know God in a way, I have not known Him before. I look forward to what 2016 holds.
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Mourning is a process. You have good days and bad days. Own it, but don’t wallow in it. Ecclesiastes 7:2
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Sometime we wait because the Lord has to take the teeth out of the serpent that is waiting to bite you Psalm 61:4
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all of the struggles we are currently going through is God cultivating our hearts. He is taking hard dry ground and enabling it to grow something Ezekiel 11:19
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Sometimes our blessings are in the storm Ezekiel 34:26
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Remember who I am praying to. Revelation 4 tells me that I am not praying to a really good human being. He sits on the throne with flashes of lightning and peals of thunder. Four very scary creatures watch over him. He is mighty, all powerful and sovereign.
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We work better together. God put us in community to work together. I am so blessed to be among a group of women who love and serve Jesus. Hebrews 10:24-25
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He continually reveals himself to me. He tells me He loves me every day whether I hear it or not. Deuteronomy 29:29, 1 John 3:1, 1 John 4:10
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He trusts us with moments, don’t take any for granted. Some people you are never going to see again. Act like it. Isaiah 43:10
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When things I want are not in line with what God wants, Be Still. Trust Him. Psalm 46:10, Proverbs 3:5-6
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Prayer is an effective tool to communicate with Him. James 5:16
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Until you are dead, it is not too late to start anything. Remember the Sunday School class for women in their 80s.
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I think God listens to our crappy prayers and decides to teach us a lesson by teaching us we don’t know what we are talking about.
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Even though some things do not fit right now, I know that it will all come together because the one who made the plan completes everything. 1 Peter 2:7
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I need friends who will remind me of God’s faithfulness. Deuteronomy 7:9
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Fearing the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. There are lots of scary things on the planet earth, but there is none that I fear above the Lord. The study of Revelation has given me a grand picture of who it is I worship. It is not an accident that there are lots of thunderstorms and earthquakes in the area during the year we are studying Revelation. He is giving us an overview before the real thing happens. Deuteronomy 10: 12-13.
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