Good Morning,

I am sitting in my favorite chair enjoying a lazy morning. My “to-do” list is running through my head and yet I sit……and am okay with that..for now!

I was recalling a conversation I recently had with my mom in which we were talking about graciousness. I got to wondering what the dictionary has to say about grace. I know what the Bible says but wanted to know how the world recognize grace. I took this from the site, “The Free Dictionary.Com”. 

Idioms: (sayings)

Good Afternoon!

I was out with a friend last night and as we were sipping our delicious drinks I noticed a firefly floating around our table. Fireflies are definitely a southern thing and I love to watch them light up and then slowly fade into the darkening sky. Many a moments have been spent watching these intriguing insects from my porch.

I’m sure there is a scientific reason why they light up and biological reasons why they fade but it got me to thinking about my light.

The Bible says we are to be lights..visible to be seen by all we interact with on a daily basis. I wonder if I was to speak to those who know me well, and those who see me on a regular basis if they see a firefly in me..all lite up. Just as the firefly, I know my light fades and some days depending on how I’m choosing to react in the face of my emotions I know I’ve snuffed my own light out. 

So my question to you is, when do you realize your light has faded?

Luke 11:33 (The Message)

Journey On

Good Afternoon,

In light of Father’s Day being celebrated this weekend and it is Donut Friday a tradition that was started by my dad, it only seems perfect to write about him.

I found this verse and I can hear my dad saying these words to me.

John 15:9 (The Message)

Good Afternoon,

 I read something a while back that stated that God is a God of process. Got me to thinking about process, the advantages and challenges that are inherent in process. The trouble is the way I would “do” process is very different then how the Lord seems to work us through his Heavenly processes.  What I appreciate about the human, man made processes is that there is a definite start and finish. The finish line is seen right from the beginning. In life, goals are decided on, actions taken, road maps and directions are all based on those goals. When the task is begun the deadline is understood. 

Funny how working through the Lords processes of our lives we have very little insight,  generally enough to get us to the next step. The conclusion to the process is often unseen. We move often in darkness. And the Lords timing well, He is never in a hurry so His heavenly clock does not tick neary as fast as I want. Waiting is calculated in human processes and yet in the Lords process’s we ultimately have very little control of timing.   And lastly being detailed deficient, God in his infinite wisdom is kind of picky. He knows what is best for me as his child and will persevere with me until I chose to learn the lesson and graduate from one process and very often move on to the next. The processes we go through are our biography of transformation. It is hard, it is time consuming and detail specific. Through the struggle this is what I know to be true. In my weaknesses, His strength is evident.  In my aversions to a life of transformation He loves me through it and at the end, I have yet another experience in which I can say without a doubt, that my God is faithful..have you experienced that with Him?

Good Morning,

We have been walking around outside looking at the after math of a storm that hit us last night. Thankfully we are all fine, our home is still standing but some of our trees have taken a beating. Our umbrella ended up pretty much in our covered porch which was a sight to see, but all in all no damage was done. 

As I looked at our inside out, upside down umbrella sitting at my door I thought back to Monday where I discovered around 5:00pm that I had been walking around all day with my shirt inside out. Yup, rather embarrassing as we had been to the dentist and then to get a wonderfully sweet treat after the dentist..I know not the best timing but it was HOT!

When I realized my top was inside out I tried to recall how that would have happened. I was not especially rushed that day, however after ironing my shirt I don’t remember looking in the mirror.

How many times do we not want to look into the mirror and see the reflection that is staring back at us. Can anyone relate?

I’m not talking about bad hair days, or those days where those pants just are not fitting the way they use too, I’m talking about intentionally avoiding looking at ones self to examine what is going on with our attitudes.

When we were starting at our umbrella out of its intended environment, it dawned on me that the Lord offers us so many opportunities through the storms of life to shake us up and cause us to think about what indeed is inside out, upside down and out of context. He has clearly outlined for us how we are to behave, treat others and respond to challenges in life and yet often times I ignore those instructions and find myself with self inflicted inside up and upside down attitudes.

Thankfully in those moments when the reflection is less then perfect, my God is willing and able to forgive and help me move past that moment. I am learning that avoiding those reflections dishonors my Father in Heaven as He is always waiting, willing and able to untangle the inside out and upside down twists and turns of the choices I make.

Proverbs 20:27 (The Message)

Journey On

Good Morning!

Happy Friday to you! I hope you are planning on some sweetness today. It is the beginning of another weekend, and I so enjoy the anticipation that Friday’s hold!

In my excitement this morning I threw open the drapes to find my beautiful blooming garden to have been eaten down to the bare stems last night. Ahhh, I could have cried. My children stared in disbelief as all our hard work in planting, watering, fertilizing and weeding is staring back at us without the beauty of the flowers we were admiring only yesterday. The kicker…it was stormy last night. Those deer they have a lot of nerve. In the midst of a storm decided they needed a quick snack and decided on “Garden A La Croft”. 

We are headed over to the nursery to find out if there is anything we can do to salvage what use to be a bright blooming garden. I even put out human hair to keep the deer at bay. Can I tell you I felt a little creepy doing so but it seemed to work…for awhile. 

Got me to thinking how my bare, ugly garden is a visual reminder that my heart and mind can become ugly and scarce when I choose to let the business of life take over and chose to not make the time to water and feed my spirit. Reading the words that my precious Jesus wants me to hear has been challenging when my youngest gets up before the birds, my schedule is thrown off and I am feeling the result of not watering and feeding my spirit, my mind, my heart. Without a doubt, my mind was becoming overrun with the weeds of the world. 

 As I look out from my porch I know my flowers will bloom again because of the magnificents of how the Lord created nature, and in that thought I am reminded through the gentle nudging of the Holy Spirit that my heat and mind can continually be renewed through His power. I do my part…..He is waiting to rejevenate.

I love this verse in these two different translations. The reminder is perfect for today! 

Philippians 4:8 (The Message)

Good Morning!

Donut Friday friends….. I hope you allow yourself to experience some sweetness today!

My honey is a very smart man and yesterday he sent me a very encouraging email first thing in the morning, and the bonus, I was actually able to read it and enjoy the moment before the morning breakfast rush started. Ahhhh, just what this mommy needed!

He reminded me in that the joy of God is my strength. It’s found in Nehemiah 8.

 ¹⁰ He continued, “Go home and prepare a feast, holiday food and drink; and share it with those who don’t have anything: This day is holy to God. Don’t feel bad. The joy of God is your strength!”

As I’ve written summer is full on here. Yesterday brought needles for two of my children. One who does not react well to needles and lets just say this mommy spent a lot of time cleaning up the van, doing laundry and reassuring him that everyones bodies reacts differently to needles.  Joy, not feeling it! Sleep did not come easily last night as my mind ran a muck with me and as my youngest child greeted me way too early this morning, my response did not come close to resembling joy! Can you relate?

As I thought about the verse my honey sent me, I turned on some praise music and deliberately began listening to the words of the music. As I focused on the God who holds the minutes of my day in His hands, I began to experience His joy. My fatigue was forgotten, my questions disappeared, for in those moments I was not focused on myself. As the verse says, the joy of the Lord is our strength.  Joy is fuel. However the fuel is only available when we ask for it, when we seek it, but it is so sweet when you experience the undeniable realization that the God of the Universe wants to pause in His sovereignty to spend time with you.

I challenge you in the moment where joy is absent, listen to praise music, or just talk to your God. A heavenly detour may result in a return to joy, not because your circumstances have changed but because you have spent time with the author and creator of joy. 

Journey On, 

Hey Friends,

Well I took a break from the bloggy world as last week was full of year end celebrations, graduations, parties and other fun activities to usher us into summer vacation. That’s right it’s that time again and today marks the first day of summer holidays. I am so not mentally prepared for the next 10 weeks of being home together with everyone. Routine is a good thing for this mommy, and well there is very little routine to the summer. Can anyone relate?

We were talking in our group this morning about grace. And how as humans we are conditioned to put limits, and conditions on everything and everyone we interact with. Through the life of David we are learning the the man who was called “a man after Gods own heart”, failed miserably, numerous times and yet God was gracious and forgave him..numerous times.

Grace is so hard to define and yet unless you know the character of God you can’t expect to understand if you have not experienced it. Would you agree?

In Psalm 51 David is asking for the Lord’s forgiveness after messing up big time. Not only was he going to have to deal with the consequences of his sinful choices but his family would also feel the pain of his wrong choices, and yet grace was available to them all. Whenever needed. Can you relate to needing, and experiencing God’s grace? If you have then you know its not a deserved favor nor is time sensitive or circumstantially based, all the limits we put on our human relationships and yet God does not.  God is good all the time, we cannot change his character no matter how badly we mess up, and yet we are assured that if our hearts desire is for true forgiveness and a desire to change grace is abundantly given. 

I stand in amazement!

Psalm 51 (The Message)

Journey On

Good Afternoon,

I just came in from a  a full out assault on a dandelion weed that is sitting smack dab in my front garden. I noticed it last week when it was small, I thought to myself I would get to it on the weekend. Weekend came and went and today the weed is now a monstrous size. And its prickly. I couldn’t pull it out. In fact I could do very little to rid my garden of its presence. My kids suggested I get out the hedge trimmer…that gives you an idea of how big this thing is. After tugging, pulling and watching my boys stare at their mom unable to move the weed, I walked away. I was tired and my arm was all scratched up from the prickly needles that were there to defend itself. I waved the white flag of defeat and came in.

As I was washing away the dirt that was the evidence of my fight it struck me how my struggles in life often look like this ugly stubborn weed. I’m talking about an attitude, an unwise choice, something that that may seem innocent enough but given time is turns and becomes entrenched much like my weed. The roots can grow deep and my hearts stubbornness to deal with the weed often produce a prickly exterior just as my garden foe has. The pulling is painful, my first few attempts at weeding my garden left me feeling defeated, and yet unlike the weed in my garden, I have the power and the promise of the Holy Spirit to help me in weeding my heart.

As I scratch the areas on my arm that the needles dug into, I realized the longer I leave my attitude, my behavior unattended it continues to take root. The roots can be hidden, others may not see them, and yet what is blooming, what will blossom will often be horny, defensive, not how a daughter of the King of Kings should behave. 

So friends, I challenge you to do some soul searching and start the process of weeding out that which you know should not be planted in your hearts garden. Take it from me if I had attended to my weed a few days ago I wouldn’t be pulling out the electric trimmer. Now I’m off to the power tool!

Galatians 6:7 (The Message)

Journey On,

Hey There,

I hope your weekend was full of fun and that you are rested and ready for another week!

For the past eight years I have had the privilege to experience the joy and pain of being a mommy. I realize now that pregnancy, the nine months of carrying my children gave me a taste of things yet to come. In the early weeks I was ill, I was tired and felt like my daily morphing body was not only taking away bits of who I thought I was,  but was ushering someone into my life who would require sacrifice emotionally, physically, mentally, financially and yet my spiritual life has grown leaps and bonds since becoming a mommy. Unconditional love became a choice. Being a mommy has reinforced my God given strengths and quickly pointed out my weaknesses, can anyone relate? 

As my kidlets are still young, the hand made cards are prized possessions, the tissue paper flowers and the hand printed poems are evidence to me that God is so good. He has entrusted three children in our care and as a Father who authored sacrifice He understands the joy and pain of parenting.

 In the future when the hand made cards are traded in for Hallmark, and tissue paper flowers arrive as bouquets I want my children to know there are no other people on this earth who loves them as deeply as their daddy and I do. I want my kids to know that we will fail them but their Heavenly Father never will. I want them to see a mommy who chooses to love others, when the circumstances are difficult, when my energy level is low and when I am completely out of my comfort zone. I want my children to strive to be excellent in all they do because they are children of the King of Kings. I want my children to be known as those who love and serve because they love the Lord.

So as this Mothers day comes to an end I am thankful I  have a mother who exemplified all these things. And to all the mommies out there who are striving to be and do the best they can because they have eyes and ears watching them I say to you” you go girls” One day you will know your efforts are not in vain, even on the days where your best seems not enough, on the days when crawling under the covers would be the easiest thing to do and when patience is lost. We get up, we face the day acknowledging the gaps we find ourselves in will be covered by our Father, because He knows and understands the desire of a mommies heart.

Proverbs 31:28 (New International Version)