Tag-Archive for » God «

Trudging On.

25 May 2010 by sypace

Wow.  I went to my blog this morning just to visit an old friend and realized that I have been silent for almost six weeks.  I want to share with you, where my heart is.  I had to confront a major issue in my life just before I stopped writing.  It flat knocked me on my tail and sent me for a loop.  It has also had the effect of making the words dry up.  I have sort of just tucked my head down, put on my work boots and trudged through the daily busy-ness and stumbled on.  But my heart has been so heavy and all the busy-ness taken it’s toll.  Not only have the words dried up, but I’ve had a hard time hearing my Redeemer.  Satan is not whispering in my ear but shouting words of hate, anger and despair.  I would like to say that I have just been taking some time to regroup and refocus but I wouldn’t be telling the truth.  I decided today that it’s time to slam the door on Satan’s voice and let God reveal His comfort for me.  Hopefully along the way, by sharing my struggles, someone else will be able to take comfort from a fellow believer staggering along and give him/her the strength to reach for God’s hand and let Him walk with you.

One of the verses in my devotional scripture from today was Psalm 119: 2 Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart. If you are like me and have been struggling under the weight of a burden, let’s seek Him with all our heart.  He treasures our willingness to seek Him.  He longs to be our Comforter, Sustainer and Friend.  I don’t know about you, but I need that right now.  Join me in seeking Him?

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God Made Me Cry This Morning.

24 Mar 2010 by sypace

Today has the potential to be the hardest day of my life. Today I am having to confront a very difficult situation and I do not want to have anything to do with it. It is painful. It is scary and has had way too much impact in my life for a long time. But today is the day to face the beast instead of running and hiding. I’m committed, but have been anxious about whether I am doing the right thing and for the right reasons. My answer came this morning in my quiet time and God blessed me to my very core.

This morning as Barry and I were reading through the word I was re-reading the story of David and Goliath (I will share in a later blog post why this scripture, this morning. *smile*). After reading that I wanted to go read the 23rd Psalm (another blog post. . .) As I finished the 23rd Psalm I just kept reading and there in Psalm 25 I found verses 4 and 5: “Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” These words alone were enough to make me realize that God is my Savior and that as I take action today it is a process by which He is teaching me to better follow Him. The added benefit is that as this day goes along He goes with me; and if I have moments of anxiety and a desire not to proceed He is going to guide my path. I have hope in Him “all day long.” God didn’t just leave it at that though. I had decided to pray through and journal this scripture this morning. But felt that I still wanted to do my short devo book reading too. Hello, God speaking through Charles Swindoll this morning. Can I get an AMEN! Here’s what I read in his book, “Five Meaningful Minutes a Day”:

Job did not say, “When He has tried me, I will make a million!” Or, “When He has tried me, I’ll get everything back that I lost.” Or, “When he has tried me, my wife will say she’s sorry and will make things right.” No, it’s not the externals that are promised, it’s the internals. The Lord promised Job, “When the process is finished, you’ll come forth as gold. Then, you’ll be ready to serve me where I choose.”

So, after reading this I stopped. I thought long and hard about this. Man, Job had it rough, but God was there the whole time. Not only that, but after all the yucky stuff, Job was ready to serve and be used. I decided I liked the sound of that. Then I went on to read the scripture that went with the devotion. And I was blown away.

“He knows the way I take; when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” Job 23:10

I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.” Jeremiah 32:40

“For He is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under His care. . .” Psalm 95:7

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6

The bottom line for me is that 1: God adores all of us, yes, even me. He is our shepherd and he watches over us, disciplining where needed, guiding where necessary and loving us always. 2: Life is hard and painful and sometimes scary, but He is there. Always. Nothing is going to happen to us that He cannot use to shape us into the people that He wants us to be, so that we can serve Him best. 3: Our external circumstances are but that: circumstances. Our internal Spiritual DNA is what truly matters.

So, I sat in my living room this morning with tears rolling down my cheeks. Tears of joy, because I know that God has asked me to undertake a very difficult task today that is intended for His glory. It is for my refinement and my healing. I cannot do this alone. It is too scary; but not so with God as my Shepherd. As you read this, please pray for me. Pray that as Satan tries to distract me from these truths today that he will be unsuccessful and that my “hope” will be in my Savior “all day long.” Blessings my friends. Blessings.

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Are You Ready for Some Joy?

09 Mar 2010 by sypace

Birthday Party!

Joy. What a sweet word.  So short, and yet, full of impact.  I got to experience pure and unadulterated joy this weekend.  It was our Mia’s Eighth birthday.  She wanted to have some friends go ice skating with her.  She had never been, but ever since the Olympics, that is what she plays constantly at our house.  She wears slick socks and fancy costumes and choreographs elaborate routines to “skate” around our kitchen and family room.  So, to get to go ice skating for real was her hearts desire for her birthday.  Now you know me. You know that things that are foreign to me make me anxious.  You know that when I am in a situation that is beyond the parameters of my control my palms sweat, my heart pounds and I really just want to throw up.  Yep, it’s that bad.  So you can imagine how things were going as we arrived with 4 girls ranging from 7 – 10 years old and then two 3 year olds to go skating.  It was not pretty to say the least.  I had not planned on skating.  My plan was to sit back and supervise.  But then I quickly realized that my husband just cannot ice skate.  Watching him weeble and wobble a couple of feet and hearing him tell Selah(our 3 year old) that Daddy really just couldn’t help her, gave me hives.  I could just see split skulls, broken arms and bloody lips.  So of course I had to march myself back down to the ticket window and rent myself some bee-you-tee-full hockey skates.  I got back up to the rink and proceeded to step out on the ice to try and keep chaos at bay.  Luckily, my sister was there to help the kids too.  We quickly realized that there were too few of us, who could actually stand up to be able to help our, shall we say, less graceful family members.  Luckily those smart people running the place provide these little red ice skating walkers that can be rented for an extra $5 and my Mom and Dad procured some of these broken-bone saving devices.  Those who needed the extra help got the extra help.  Those who wanted to try it on their own did.  And in the process of being on that rink in the gorgeous weather, (so hot we stripped off our coats and just wore our shirts) watching those girls skate and fall, get up and go again, making friends with those around them and the whole time laughing their fool heads off, I let go.  I let my big girl skate as fast as she could go and wipe out with a thud that made my Mama’s heart shudder.  I let my husband just be himself having fun with those kids.  I let my baby girl talk me into holding onto her and the walker and push her around that rink so fast our hair was blowing in the wind and she was yelling “Go faster, Mama, go faster” in between bursts of gut-wrenching giggles!  At the end of the session I even let that little bundle of joy take off on her own while I stood back and held her Daddy’s hand and we made fools of ourselves skating together. And along the way I felt joy rising inside of me and spilling out of my mouth.  It caught me off guard.  Finding that joy there on the ice was exhilarating and liberating and scary.

Joy is a word, that for me, usually conjures up a sense of sadness and loss.  I know that is the antithesis of the meaning of joy and yet, for me the connotations of the word are not so joyful most of the time.  I, like so many of you, am weathering some stormy times right now.   I’ve been taking some time to dig deep; ask myself difficult questions and pray for God’s answers to come.  God’s been after me for a while to just give it all up to Him.  I saw this weekend that He can give me a joy that is totally foreign to me if I will just let Him. My bible says this: “He will fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.” I found this verse in Job of all places. Job, who had every right to be angry, sad, defeated, you name it and he had the source for all those negative emotions and yet in Job 8:21 the Word tells us in no uncertain terms that God will give us joy.  We all go through times of trial and struggle but I am clinging to the above verse and holding onto Psalm 30:5 “. . . weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” It’s time for me to let God give me some joy in my life.  I have robbed Him of that by “controlling” my life.  I’m ready for some joy.  Are you?

Heading out all by herself!

Going all by herself!!

Letting her go!

Letting Her Go!

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“Give Me Your Eyes.”

11 Feb 2010 by sypace

Today is my last day working at the tax office.  In a way it’s a big relief.  It’s been hard on my kids to get up and go stay with someone else during the day.  Getting up so early is not generally in our daily routine. Lol.  But we have survived and along the way my heart has been touched tremendously and I hope my attitude changed forever.  I just have to share my experience with you and hope that you are blessed.

All day long I sit and do data entry.  What that means is that for every person, couple or family group that comes in I put all their documentation into the tax program we use at the office to calculate the tax refunds that are eligible or what is owed to the IRS.  In the past when those papers would come rolling in I would groan and moan when someone would come in with several W2’s or Unemployment, 1099R’s, Social Security benefits because it meant more work for me.  All I wanted was a single, simple w2 that was neat and efficient and I could be done with their file quickly and move on to the next one.  I also have to admit when people would come in with several W2’s and unemployment my thoughts about them were not the kindest.  And heaven forbid if you only came in with unemployment.  Just could not fathom how anyone could not be more productive.  My heart aches at the sinfulness of those thoughts.

All those papers coming through my hands were/are people’s lives.  Lives that are messy and complicated and difficult.  Lives of single Moms trying to get by.  Lives of men struggling to provide for their families in a tough economy.  Lives of Grandmothers who have grown sons and daughter’s and their children who’ve lost their homes and are now living with Grandma while she works three jobs trying to help them all.  Lives of a  Mom and Dad who both have a W2 and unemployment slips, doing the best they can to hold on to the means to provide for their family.  These are the people who’s lives come through my hands with so much messy paperwork.  God loves them immensely.   God sees them and His heart aches for the trials that they are facing.  I saw that this time.  I felt that this time.   Initially, Brandon Heath’s song, “Give Me Your Eyes.” began to play over and over in my mind as I entered all the data into the computer.  This year, as those files have come into my hands and then on to the preparers hands my heart has ached and my voice has begun to lift them up to a God who sees their needs and loves them.

I am so thankful that God opened my eyes and allowed me the privilege of praying for His children these few weeks.  I am so blessed.  His words command us to “love one another.”  John 13: 34 – 35: 34“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”  I so hope that in a small way I have loved these people who have come through the doors of the office and that I have honored Him in doing so.



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Sunrise with the Storm Rolling In.

20 Jan 2010 by sypace

This morning as we were getting ready to eat, my daughter Mia, was looking out our back door and asked my husband and I to come look outside.  She asked me to take a picture and the picture to the right was what we saw.  The sunlight was just barely touching the tops of the trees and storm clouds were blowing in behind the mountains.  It reminded me that often in our lives even as the storm approaches God’s goes before the storm and prepares the way.  He tells us in Deuteronomy 3:18 “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” How awesome is it to know that even when life is nasty and and our lives are blown about, He is there.  Is there a storm approaching in your life?  Take the time today to bask in His light.

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My Big Girl’s Big Struggle and God’s BIG Answer.

08 Jan 2010 by sypace

Ya’ll, I have the smartest, coolest kid in the world! (I’m not partial, I promise. LOL)  But sometimes she wears me out with questions that I just can’t answer.  So yesterday I broke down and took her to our children’s pastor.  Her question was, “Mama, how do I know God’s real?”  I had answered with every spiritual answer I knew how to give.  I gave her examples of things in our world that show God’s majesty, power and to my way of thinking evidence that he exists and loves us.  In our homeschooling studies yesterday, the story of Noah was our Bible reading for the day.  My response to her was, “See God promised he would never flood the earth completely again and gave us the rainbow as physical proof.”  Her response was, “Well, scientists say that the sun and rain make rainbows.”  After a short phone call to the children’s minister, Josh, Mia and I discussed the fact that yes, sun and rain make rainbows, but God made the sun and the rain and the ability of those two things to make a rainbow.  But my little detail driven progeny said, “But how do I KNOW that GOD made the rain and the sun.”  Holy cow.  This is some deep stuff.  So we made the appointment to see Josh.

We spent almost an hour with Josh talking about what doubt is.  Discussing the ways that we are able to see God.  We looked at verse after verse about faith and trusting God.  We discussed Billy Graham’s faith that God’s word is truth and God blessed Mr. Graham’s faithfulness by speaking through him to reach millions.  Josh gave a specific example of a prayer request that God had answered for He and his wife Carrie.  But in the end we told her that it really is about a choice to have faith.

We have continued to discuss faith and read scripture and God is so amazing.  On Mia’s bible cover is Proverbs 3:5.  ”Trust in the Lord with all your heart. . .”  We then talked about the rest of verse 5 and 6 “and lean not on your own understand.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight.”  I explained to her that as humans we make mistakes and we often can’t trust just the things that we understand.  We talked about the fact that God understands everything.  We also read Psalm 139.  I told her that God knew her and loved her even before she was formed.

The best part happened this morning though.  This whole issue of hers has made me really look at my own beliefs and things that have happened in my own life that have shown me that He is real, He is awesome and that unbelievably . . . He loves me.  Me.  I have been reminded through my daughter’s questions how strong His love is for each one of us.  What a blessing.  This morning Mia and I were reading in Matthew 7:  7 – 8.  The scripture there says, ” Ask, and it will be given to you.  Search, and you will find.  Knock, and the door will be opened to you.  Everyone who asks will receive.  He who searches will find.  The door will be opened to the one who knocks.” (NIrV)  I explained to Mia that God was very aware of her searching to know Him and that as long as her prayers were for things that God wanted for her, He would provide those things.  We talked about the fact that she was searching for Him and the way to do that was through prayer and reading His word.  I told her I fully expected Him to give her answers and she should too.

Here is the cool part.  Her Dad has been on a business trip and hasn’t had the best of trips.  He locked his keys in his truck, left his lights on and the battery died and then last night left the one crucial piece of equipment he needed to do his job in a restaurant. (The power cord for his computer.)  So he called last night to tell me all of this.  He wasn’t too happy to say the least.  His plan was to try and find a computer store locally and buy a new power cord.  So after reading the scripture in Matthew this morning, Mia and I decided to pray specifically that Barry would be able to find a store open early enough to buy a cord, that they would have one, and that he could make his last meeting on time. About twenty  minutes after our prayer, Barry called.  He found a store about 3 miles from his hotel room that had the cord and was open.

I wanted to shout!!!  Mia and I talked about the fact that we had been praying for her Dad this entire trip.  When he locked his keys in his truck there was someone there to open it (at no charge), when his battery was dead there was someone there to jump-start the truck and last, when he needed the power cord someone was open and had what he needed.  After I had shown her, her Daddy’s struggles and God’s provisions for him, I asked her if she thought it might be possible that God was letting Daddy struggle a little so that SHE could see that God is real and that when we pray He hears and provides what we need.  Her eyes got huge and began to sparkle and I could feel my heart begin to just fill up almost to bursting at seeing God’s Awesomeness revealed in her seeking answers about Him.

You know, I haven’t up to this point in my life, really struggled with doubt that God is real.  My struggles have been with acknowledging His sovereignty over my life and giving Him the credit for my blessings and letting Him guide my life.  It was so powerful to see my girl looking and really searching to find God and for me to see how in control He really is.  If you are struggling with doubt email me.  I don’t have all the answers but I have THE word and can point you to some scripture that might help.

Love My God and Love His Big Answers to our Big questions!

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The Voice of God.

30 Oct 2009 by sypace

Just recently my daughter, Mia, said to me, “Mom, I wish God was human.”  I asked her why. She said, “well, I know he’s my best friend and I know he loves me, but it’s hard when you talk to Him and you can’t really hear what he says.”  Her response had the honestly that most of us feel but seldom express.  We want a God who’s almighty, but really one just like us so we are “comfortable.”  Two days ago, I found out first hand, that God doesn’t need to be human for us to be able to hear his voice, we just have to be quiet and listen.

I coach the local volleyball team and God put together an awesome group of young ladies.  I have struggled for the last almost eighteen months with family issues, health issues and have had to deal with some pretty tough stuff.  God knew that I needed to coach these girls to give me a place to serve and honor Him while getting my balance back.  Two mornings ago I was reading in my quiet time from a book titled, “When God Speaks to My Heart,” by Rosalie Willis, and there I read the following,

“Dear One,
Can you hear My voice?  Are you walking in My way? My way shines as a beacon of light.  Are you tottering on the borderline? Follow Me and hear My words of love. Lean on Me and My Word, and keep your heart full to overflowing.  Let your life become a beacon of light drawing others to Me.

I love you,
Your Father”

I sat there thinking about the team.  I had a dear friend also tell me recently that I had to let go of control of the team.  Our success couldn’t necessarily be measured by our wins and losses and I could neither take the blame nor the credit for that.  I also struggle with perfectionism and this friend shared with me that I needed to make sure I stepped aside and let God work and not try to do everything in my life, including coaching, my way.  The combination of the spoken and written words pierced my heart and made me want so desperately to hear God’s voice.  I opened my Bible, and I guess because I have been camped in Psalm 139 for almost two weeks now, thanks to our preacher, that’s where my Bible opened to.  There I read Psalm 139: 15 – 17 (NIV) My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.  How precious to me are your thoughts O God! How vast is the sum of them.  Mia was sitting beside me in our chair and we talked about how awesome it is that God loves us enough to have all of our days ordained for us, even before we are born and that he cares enough to write about us.  As one who loves to write, but knows how much time it takes and how involved I get in my subject, I am overwhelmed by how much God is really “into” each one of us.

I sat in that chair and prayed that God would fill me with His spirit and let His voice be so evident to me that day.  I prayed that he would guide my every thought, word and deed.  I prayed that he would help me by-pass myself to get to Him and that more than anything His voice would fill my ear that day and that I would let go of control to hear Him.

Mia and I went upstairs, where she was to start packing for a visit to her MeeMaw’s.  When I went into her room, I was not a happy camper.  She was having some issues with the messiness of her room, in particular clothes everywhere.  At that point, all thoughts of honoring God fled, trying to hear His voice was the last thing on my mind.  I was just MAD.  So, of course I started the usual parenting thing. . . I started to fuss.  Mia is one of those kids that if you say anything negative to her she feels like you are screaming at her and falls to pieces.  After 3 – 4 minutes of giving her clear instructions on getting her room clean I went to get a shower so we could leave for the kids visit.

I stepped into the shower, started shampooing my hair and it hit me.  I started praying.  I knew I hadn’t even tried to hear God’s voice in my parenting of Mia.  I had just let my own desires for her to have a clean room take over.  I was not patient with her. I was not kind with her.  I was demanding and bossy.  I stood there and the thought hit me.  You know, the solution to this could be very simple.  I give her a certain amount of clothing items that she has to keep put away for a week and if she follows through she gets to add to her collection.  If she doesn’t she is limited to what she has.  This will teach her responsibility.  It will keep me from losing my patience.  It will give her positive rewards for a job well done and natural consequences if she fails.  That’s when it smacked me square in the face.  I could feel the presence of God and knew that that idea was not my own.  God had answered my prayer to hear His voice in a very evident way.  I started to laugh out loud and then began to cry.  I hit my knees in the shower and begged for forgiveness for not listening and thanking Him for being loud and clear.

About 30 minutes later, I went downstairs and saw on my phone that I had a new email and saw that it was from a someone helping the volleyball team we were supposed to play that night.  It was a playoff game and the person was responsible for putting together our opposing team’s programs.  She needed the roster from our team and earlier that morning I had sent it to her.  She was at this point responding to my information.  At first I just assumed it was going to be your standard “thank you for the information” kind of email.  But then I read the first lines and she was telling me that she needed the email from me on a personal level.  I have a signature on my email that has Romans 12:2 on it.  I also have the blog address posted.  She told me she needed the scripture that was at the end of my email and on the blog.  I sat there totally overwhelmed by God’s timing.  Within an hour and a half of praying to hear His voice he had spoken to me not once, but twice.  That wonderful lady may never know how much I needed her email and how God used her to speak to my heart.  I knew that we hadn’t met that team in the playoffs for a win or a loss, but to share His love and to hear His voice

I wonder today, how often do I miss His voice simply because I fail to listen.  How often do you?

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What’s in a Name?

22 Apr 2009 by sypace

So, I’m standing in the kitchen this morning listening to Matt and Carol in the morning, and Carol was talking about baby names on there.  She asked for people to call in with unique and unusual names.  Of course, as a mom, it made me think of the names of my own children.  Now, as is the case with most moms, I thought I was picking wonderfully unique and beautiful names for our girls.  But more importantly to me, I wanted strong names that gave credit to our God.  I would like to tell you a little about our girls names, how they got them and why they point to a Great Big Wonderful Daddy!!

Before I got pregnant with our oldest daughter, I was pregnant with another baby.  At first things seemed to be fine.  About Eight weeks into the pregnancy, I got violently ill and as many of you know me, you know this is the hallmark of my pregnancies.  I was put into the hospital over Valentine’s weekend for dehydration and to get the nausea under control.  Then miraculously around the fourteenth and fifteenth weeks my nausea started to subside and we began to rejoice.  Then we went for a checkup and the nurse was unable to find a heartbeat.  At first no one was worried.  They thought we might how miscalculated the dates, so we were taken back to a room to have an ultrasound.  At that point, we discovered that my precious baby hadn’t developed properly and there would be no rejoicing at the end of the pregnancy with a bundle of joy.  Anyone who has been througa miscarriage knows how devastating that is.  I can still remember and feel that pain.  But God is so good and so wise.  And we are so pitifully week and lacking in wisdom.  Our doctor informed us that after a D & C we could wait a few weeks and try again.  

About eight weeks after the miscarriage we were going on vacation with our extended family.  We always stayed at our Aunt’s house as a half-way point to the beach.  The morning that we woke up at her house I turned over in the bed and she has one of those devotional flip books on the night stand.  The verse that morning read, “I asked the Lord to give me this child, and He has given me my request.” 1 Samuel 1:27.  I KNEW I was pregnant again.  I had no doubts that God had answered my prayers and was giving me proof.  So, when we chose her name we knew that we wanted a variation of Mary, because there is a “Mary” in every generation of our family that goes back a long time.  We also knew that FAITH must be her middle name.  Therefore when our little girl came into the world on March 7, exactly 2 days shy of the one year anniversary of the loss of our first baby, we knew her name had to be Mia Faith, because God had been faithful in answering our prayers and we also had faith that He would do so.

Our second child came almost five years after Mia.  I could not face another pregnancy until Mia was older and could do more for herself.  Prior to this pregnancy Barry and I had been through some rough times in our marriage and a few times we weren’t sure we were going to make it.  But with the help of some wonderful counseling and a lot of support from our Lord we worked though the problems and decided we were ready to add another member to our family.  This pregancy was difficult from the start.  I had to be hospitalized for dehydration.  They implanted a port-a-cath to deliver fluids and anti-nausea medications with home health care.  I had blood clots and had to be hospitalized for a week with them around the sixth or seventh month and then our little girl was born almost seven weeks early.  As we discussed her name, early on, we knew that we wanted something special.  The word Selah’s definition is debated and no one really knows what it means but most theologians say that it is either to indicate a pause in worship to focus or it is used as an amen.  We also knew that our lives had been marked repeatedly by God’s grace.  So we wanted her name to mean “To pause and reflect on God’s grace, ” thus Selah Grace’s name was chosen.

Not long after we had Selah, our pastor, Jerry preached a sermon and a verse in that sermon really struck me and I know that God gives us what we need as we need it and this was the verse: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—” Ephesians 2:8.  This verse sort of sums up what I want the lives of our family to be about.  God’s grace is such a gift.  There is nothing that we can do to deserve it.  We don’t deserve His grace, but through our faith, he readily gives it.  Why does he give it?  He loves us.  We are His chosen children.  He has named us and called us His.  And I don’t know about you, but I am so grateful for His grace and His name.

 

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I Want to be Cracked Up.

10 Feb 2009 by sypace

Have you ever been in that place where just getting through each day was the goal; anything more just can’t be managed?  You feel like life is just one big treadmill that is set on the hill-climb mode mode and you just don’t make any progress.  That’s where I have been for months.  I haven’t felt like blogging.  I haven’t wanted to read my Bible.  I haven’t wanted to teach Bible Fellowship.  I haven’t really wanted to leave my house.  Thankfully God understands. (And if there really is anyone reading my blog they will too…)  The last few weeks I have seen some sunshine and felt it’s warmth on my heart as I have felt God’s presence.  There are two things I want to share today that have hit me hard.  I am currently attempting to do Beth Moore’s “Breaking Free” study and on page 14 she quotes Oswald Chambers and I want to share that with you here:

Our soul’s history with God is frequently the history of the “passing of the hero.”  Over and over again God has to remove our friends in order to bring Himself in their place, and that is whre we faint and fail and get discouraged.  Take it personally.  In the year that the one who stood to me for all that God was died–I gave up everything?  I became ill?  I got disheartened? OR — I saw the Lord?  

It must be God first, God second, and God third, until the life is faced steadily with God and no one else is of any accoung whatever.  ”In all the world there is none but thee, my God, there is none but thee.”

Keep paying the price.  Let God see that you are willing to live up to the vision.

Wow!  I think about how in my unrest and dissatisfaction I have turned to friends for consolation.  I have called, text-ed, emailed, visited, done anything but be quiet and put Him first, second, third or even 99th.  I have just slogged on in my unfaithfulness and my unbelief.  But God is so good and so patient.

The second thing that I want to share is the scripture that has helped me see the truth of God.  In my Beth Moore study-time this morning I found scripture that put this all in perspective for me.  First is 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.  How often do I wait patiently for the Lord to fix things?  How often do I want it now.  ALWAYS.  But God knows so much more than I could even imagine and sometimes he is just waiting for me to turn to Him.  The last few weeks as I have been homeschooling Mia we have really focused on reading the Bible and memorizing scripture and it hit me this morning as I was having my quiet time that it doesn’t do any good to memorize scripture if we don’t apply it.  We have memorized Psalm 40:1 I was patient while I waited for the Lord, He turned to me and heard my cry for help.  God hears our cries for help, but are we patiently waiting for Him to help.  The last scripture that I want to post today is 2 Corinthians 4:7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure.  This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.  While we are here on this earth we have all kinds of limitations on our bodies, minds, souls, etc.  All of these limitations allow us to shine with the power of God within us, but for that light to shine through there have to be cracks in the vessels.  The more cracks in the vessel, the more the light shines forth.

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Homeschooling… What a Blast!!!

25 Nov 2008 by sypace

A week ago this past Monday I started home-schooling my oldest daughter Mia.  Her first day was Great!!!  (She took a sick day.)  Bless her little heart.  She laid on the couch coughing up a storm and I had to laugh at us because we both had been so excited about her first day of home-school and she didn’t fell like doing a thing.  Tuesday morning, however, was a totally different story.  We used a kids cook book by Paula Deen for our lessons that morning.  It is amazing how many subjects can be taught by cooking!  We did several things last week, including visiting the PARI Institute in Rosman, NC for a cancelled field trip.  (Click the link to see what I mean by cancelled.) You can click here to see the pics… But I have to say that the best thing we’ve done since we started was having her memorize scripture and reading from the Bible.

We have focused on Psalm 89: 1 – 8.  Hearing her little voice recalling Psalm 89:2 “I will tell everyone that your love stands firm forever.  I will tell them that you are always faithful, even in heaven itself.”(NIrV) Having her read those verses and then tell me that they were all about praising God and how mighty and faithful He is was tremendously touching for me.  We looked up the word “faithful” and have had several conversations about what the word truly means and have talked about what the verses mean to her as a new believer.  

I know that there is much controversy about home-schooling and it’s impacts on kids, but from my perspective it is so sweet a connection to be able to sit down anytime of day and answer questions about God’s faithfulness and to know that God can be spoken about during ANY lesson makes it worth whatever the cost to have that privilege.  And having her tell my Mom that the best part of home-schooling is the time she gets to spend with me makes me want to do a little dance.

I know that we are going to have a huge learning curve this first year, but as my little one so eloquently told me after reading these verses.  ”He’s an awesome God, Mom and we have to praise Him.  We can trust Him to do anything.”  I am hanging on to that as we tackle each day together.

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