Letting go, and letting God...

This week I was insulted and it really bothered me. If fact, I've thought about it a lot over the last few days. This morning I woke up early, wanting to spend some time with the Lord. Guess where he ended up taking me in his word? To a scripture that says, "The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me." I started out in Proverbs and ended up over in Romans, and in His gentleness, God said to me, "Give them to me, let me have those insults, you don't have to carry that around with you today!" So, I did. I pictured myself with a cloth bag, taking those insults and placing them in the bag and laying them at the feet of Jesus, thanking him for bearing my burdens, watching him pick them up and throw them over his shoulder.

Thank you, Lord, for carrying my burdens today...

Beautiful in the eyes of the Lord
Loved unconditionally
Eternally secure in Christ
Saved by the grace of God
Sanctified by the blood of the Lamb
Endless joy in Jesus
Delivered from my sin

Monday Madness...

Running out the door, trying to beat the traffic, I looked down to see that a few of my toenails needed a touch up so, I grabbed the polish and hit the road. Once at work, I went to the restroom, opened the bottle and began to paint. One toe, two toes, three toes...OH NO...the bottle hits the floor, flops like a fish (back and forth, back and forth - "stop! please!!!" I pray.), spraying the walls, splattering ALL OVER the floor and making the biggest mess I've ever seen. "This has to be a nightmare!" I tell myself. Nope, not a nightmare, it's real! "Do I leave it? I can't! Others might...I can't!" I think those same thoughts over and over, very quickly...then I make a very embarassing call to the office maintenance, telling them what happened and that I am headed to the store to get polish remover to clean it up...all the way wishing I could just hit the rewind button and go back to bed! After 45 minutes of cleaning, it looks pretty good! Still wishing I could go back to bed though!!

(If you didn't notice already, it only took me two days to write this...haha!)

My Husband, the Great White Hunter

My husband is going on his "dream" hunt to Wyoming!

He'll carry a 60 pound backpack up a 10,000 ft. mountain, where he'll hunt for his "dream" buck! Everything he will need for 10 days is in this backpack (hopefully, anyways!), including his tent, sleeping bag, food, clothes, camera (video and snapshot), range finder (hope it works and he doesn't get lost in the wilderness!), gun and whatever else he could get in there. He is so excited!!

I hope he has time of his life!

Need prayer?

We all have times when we need someone to pray for us! Maybe you're one who doesn't share the difficulties in your life with others, but sometimes wish you could just open up...Let me pray for you! Send a comment with your prayer concerns and I'll pray for you! If you want others to pray as well, let me know and I'll publish the comment.

Update on Divine (Lunch) Appointment

The lady I asked to eat lunch with me a few days ago came to our church today!!! I was busy getting things ready for our service so I didn't notice her come in, but as we were singing the first song I looked to the back and there she was. I had prayed earlier in the morning that God would speak to her heart and she would not fear coming. She told me later that she wasn't going to come because her son was sick, but her son told her she should go. Before she left she told me she wanted her son to come with her next week! "Yes! Next week...that means she wants to come again!" was running through my mind as she walked out the church doors. Praise the Lord! What a blessing it is to see God at work in her life...

In Honor of a Great Man

My husband turned 38 today and I just wanted to tell the world that he is a wonderful man! He's the love of my life, and my VERY best friend in the whole wide world. I can't imagine my life without him! He brings great joy to my life and makes every day special!
There is no one else quite like him...

He's an awesome husband, father to four beautiful and wonderful children, friend, son, son-in-law (the only one my parents will ever have since I'm the only girl in the family!), pastor, preacher, teacher, and man of God! (I guess I should add hunter and fisherman too...haha) The world is a better place because he is in it!

He is a mighty man of God, and my hero! I know there are very few men who truly walk the walk so I know how blessed I am to have him as the spiritual leader of our household!

God, bless his birthday today. I ask that you would give him a long life here on earth and that you would watch over him every minute of every day. Guide his steps and bless him for his faithfulness to you and to me. Put people in his life that encourage him, and give him strength for the things that you call him to do. Thank you for such a wonderful husband and life-long friend. Amen.

Divine (Lunch) Appointment

Today for lunch the thought of going to the Black Eyed Pea came to mind so I went, not knowing that thought must have certainly come from God. As I was walking up to the door, I noticed a lady by herself, walking up to the door also, and the strangest thing happened - the thought came to mind that I should ask her to eat with me! I immediately thought, "no way, that is weird...ask a stranger to eat lunch with me? She'll think I'm crazy!" I walked through the door and again came the thought, "ask her if she'd like to eat with you!"

hmmm..."Okay, that is not me...God, is that you? She'll think I'm crazy, I can't do that!" Then the hostess asked, "how many?" and I said, "one", then he asked her, "how many?" and she said, "one", and before I knew it, I said to her, "unless you'd like to join me for lunch." To my surprise, she replied, "I'd love to!" And so began something I'll never forget. I can't explain it any other way then that God wanted me to reach out to this lady today. It's a long story, but we just talked like we had known each other for a long time, other than the get-to-know-you questions. We both have 17 year olds that are a day apart. Her son wants to go to college where my son just started to college. Weird, I know! Then after sharing with me that she made a really tough decision yesterday and was doing what she knew God wanted her to do years ago, she asked me, "where do you go to church?" I told her all about our church and she plans to come on Sunday. She said she's been out of church for years due to a falling out with her mom, and she would love to come and bring her son with her. I was so excited when I left there...actually I was so excited the whole time because I knew after just a few minutes that God had totally orchestrated the whole thing, and I was extremely blessed!

Creation calls out Your name, O Lord.

It speaks of Your beauty and majesty,

Your power and glory,

Your creativity and compassion,

Your ever-present love.

It whispers Your name in the wind,

and echos Your power in the storms.

It shouts "God's real!" in the lightening and thunder,

and shows Your mercy in the gentle rain.

Laura Burton

A day away from the office does the body good!

For two days this week the three men I work for are out of town, and last night I decided to email one of them to ask for the day off since they were away and I REALLY needed to give my home some attention. I was so thrilled when he replied, "Sure, have fun! :)" I must say, they are a joy to work for...always grateful for the things I do and doing nice things for me!

I decided not to tell my husband until he woke up and turned over to find that I was still there at 6:45 a.m., and it has been a wonderful day. I've been cleaning the house while listening to one of my favorite praise CD (Jari Kobe) and just praising the Lord all the while, I had lunch with a friend and my husband, and just stopped to write for a little while and read my bible. It's hard for me to take time for myself, it doesn't come real naturally for me, but over the last year or so I've realized it's important and good for me.

I love, even if it's just for a few hours, to just get some time to myself. It's sort of strange, but when I do I sense God more in those moments. I think more clearly, and am able to love people more. I think when we're tired we tend to forget what is important to us, and focus too much on ourselves and our wants...when the remedy might just be taking time for ourselves. I know it seems contradictory, but, think about it, Jesus was busy...busy loving on people, healing people, teaching people, and so much more...but he also took time to rest and spend time with the Father. We can learn from him even in that!

Thank you, Lord, for a special day!

Satan's Schemes

Every Sunday morning I arrive at the church by 8:00 a.m. to set up the powerpoint for our praise team practice. This morning I was so happy to have everything set, only needing to turn on the projector, but when I moved the mouse to bring the computer up nothing happened. After seeing that the monitor ON button was lite, I looked down under the desk to find that our computer was missing! I couldn't believe it! With all the expensive equipment in our church I have no idea why only that was taken. I know that Satan would have loved to get us in an uproar and mess up the worship service, but God was in control. We quickly pulled together to make other arrangements with my laptop and within 15 to 20 minutes we were up and running again. The strange thing is...I almost left my laptop at home since I didn't really need it, but something told me to take it (I'll give God the credit!), and when I walked into the worship center I immediately felt this anxious feeling and began to pray, telling the Lord, "I don't know why I feel this way all of a sudden, but please help me this morning," while I walked to the front to turn on the amp, then to the back to turn on the sound system and then over to where the computer sits. Little did I know what I was about to encounter!

As we prayed together before the service it hit me - There was a spiritual battle taking place this morning, and God was victorious! No, we didn't get our computer back (though we are praying whoever took it will return it!), but it didn't stop us for one minute from doing what the Lord called us to do today. In fact, it made us more aware of satan's schemes and his desire to try to distract us or keep us from worshipping God. But, you know what, satan lost that battle and God was worshipped today...not because we had powerpoint and a sound system and music, but because our hearts' desire was to worship the Lord today!

Thou art worthy,
Thou art worthy,
Thou art worthy, O Lord!
To receive glory, glory and honor,
glory and honor and power.
For Thou hast created, hast all things created,
Thou hast created all things.
And for Thy pleasure, they are created,
Thou art worthy, O Lord.

God created us for His pleasure! Worship Him...even when things don't go the way you plan.

My sweet twins boys!

BeforeWe're about to go get their hair cut here (their choice!)

After

They cut their long hair off today...