Stick with God, He's the best!

Bet you've heard the saying "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade"?? Well, sometimes I feel like taking those lemons and making the sourest lemonade I can possibly make. And then give it to someone. And I realize these thoughts are a lot like attitudes... Sometimes we feel like when we're grumpy, or feel crappy; the people around us should know about and share our pain. People should feel and experience what you are feeling. It’s in our make-up as humans, to not only want what everyone else has but to want other people to feel what you are feeling as well... If you are happy, you would want people around you to be happy; if you’re sad, people should feel sad...

Why is it that we want to be the same as everyone else? We just want to blend in, and want other people to blend in with us. We would much rather blend in with the crowd then stand out. Sometimes we try to blend in so hard we forget about Jesus. We want to blend in and try to be someone else that sometimes we might forget about God. Sometimes we care about the world’s opinion above Gods. Matthew 10:32 says, ”Stand up for me against world opinion and I'll stand up for you before my Father in heaven. If you turn tail and run, do you think I'll cover for you?” If we turn away and just be who the world wants us to be, and not who God wants us to be God will turn from us. And that is not a life that we want. Jesus says that he is the way, the truth and the life. Anyone who comes to him will have eternal life. That’s the life we want. Who cares what everyone thinks or sees us as. All we should be thinking about is what God think of us, and how we can follow him in a better way. And at the end of it all, we will have eternal life with him in heaven. That is an amazing truth! So when I sometimes feel like making that super sour lemonade and then giving it to someone, maybe I’ll put some sugar in it... it will probably go better for everyone. :)

God Bless♥♥

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

The title says it all...as Mary Poppins says... "So when the cat has got your tongue
There's no need for dismay, just summon up this word, and then you've got a lot to say!" But I was thinking the other day and though people don't use the word "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", we use other words, which can sum up our feelings, in one word... swears are just some of those words... Taken from a personal experience, when I hurt myself, the area that got hurt always feels so, so much better if I let out a cuss... the pain doesn't really change if I just go "ouch"... But, see its all in the mind! We don't need to swear to make things better or seem better; we just need to look to God! Yes, I agree that when you've slammed your finger in your car door and its throbbing in pain, tears are streaming down your face, and as you walk away you slip on the ice and fall down hard, with your hand with the throbbing finger breaking your fall, it would feel so much better to let a cuss ring out, then looking to God... But yes, that cuss may make everything feel better for the brief moment but in the long run...you're still going to have a throbbing finger, a sore behind, and an angry heart. Calling out to God calms that angry heart and in the long run, its much better to have a hurting finger, a sore behind and a peaceful heart; then a hurting finger, a sore behind and an angry, conflicting heart... God does what no cuss can ever, ever do, he calms us. He speaks to our hearts and even in matters that seem trivial, he is still there looking out for us and loving us! And if you've called out to God and you still feel like you need to yell something other the "ouch", try "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", when you can't say anything else, that word pretty much sums it up for you! :)

God Bless! ♥♥

God leads... We rest!

Sometimes I get down...I feel like with God running my life, everything seems to go wrong, or he lets me down or I, just plain and simple...don't like not having complete control over my life. I want to be the one making the shots, running the show…but you see, whenever I get into that mind set, something happens... my life suddenly feels worse then before, and I feel like crap...

Why?? That's the big question! Why do I feel this way? Why does God let this happen?? Why do all the struggles in my life feel that much worse when I'm not leaning on God?? Well, the answers in the question...I'm not leaning on God. My youth pastor, Norm, is a very wise man, and just the other day, I was talking to him about this... And he said something that stuck like glue on your hair. He was talking about Joshua and the Israelites’, and the promise land. Now the Israelites’ had to got through a lot of struggles to even get to the promise land and when they got there, the struggles didn't just stop. They had demons among them and those didn't go away either... they stayed too. Why… because God wanted to train the next generation how to fight. So God let those struggles stick with them, so the next generation could learn how to fight. In my case, I'm the next generation and I'm getting trained. We all know physical training is hard...push ups, sit ups, curl ups...all that good stuff. It can be painful, long and exhausting. It’s the same with Spiritual training. It can be painful, long and exhausting. But the end result in both is joy, pride, a sense of accomplishment, and yearning for more. I'm still in the training process and ya, its long but at the end of each day I know who my coach is and he never gives up on me! :) Not even when I feel like I want control over my life, when I want to be the one making the plans.

Now the next part will make more sense if I tell you this...In Venice, Italy, there's gondoliers. They're the guys who steer the boats and they usually are singing as they do it. They’re the ones that lead the boat along the water streets of Venice. Okay so, I was reading this book the other day and part of it impacted me... The main character is Leah. Now at the beginning of the book, she feels like she needs top be in control...with relationships, family, and her life. But things change. At the end of the book God speaks to her and what he spoke, also spoke to me too. It starts with the verse from Zephaniah 3:17: "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." Then Leah said "I'm not the one supposed to sing." It’s like in her life she’s been the one in control, the one steering, even if she doesn't know which road to go down sometimes... But then she said "I'm not the one supposed to be singing, Jesus is." He's like the Gondoliers... He wants us to just rest in his pocket of grace. He will do all the steering and singing! We don't have to do anything to prove ourselves to him, we just rest and let him take the wheel and steer. He leads; we rest in his pocket of grace! It’s just amazing, we don't do the singing, and he’s the one singing over us!

So when I feel like I want to run my life and call the shots...I need to stop and let Jesus do the singing, I just have to rest. It’s the same with all of us, that’s the most amazing thing! His pocket of grace is never too small; it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Let God do the singing and he will lead you to things you could never imagine!

God Bless! ♥♥

The Glory of God!

I bet we have all seen a plane in the sky with a stream of smoke coming from behind. And it leaves a long trail as it passes through the sky... Sometimes its straight, sometimes it curvy, sometimes it’s colored, but it’s always pretty cool! I just saw one that was like perfect, it was like made for Google Images! But that wasn't what caught my eye, what caught my attention was thinking that that plane it carrying people where they need to go, safely and at the same time it leaving a stream of beauty in its wake. And then I thought, Christians are sort of like that!

We, as Christians are a safe place that people can talk to because of the love of God in us. Kind of like a plane, people aren't generally scared in planes because they know that they will be taken care of. People are generally not scared to be around Christians; sure they might not always feel the same way that we do but I’m sure they feel that level of safety with us. God doesn't hide. He doesn't just come into someone’s heart and then not let himself be shown... He wants people to see him! He wants people to feel safe! And like the plane shows that stream of smoke coming from behind, Christians show Gods love to the world in the same kind of way...it’s amazing, and God's love is shown through it! You can see that stream of smoke all throughout the sky and Christians have that influence with Gods power as well.

God Bless♥♥

Faith in Little Things.

I have always thought that faith is believing that God will do something huge! And like change your world! Well, that can be the case, but what about the small things; don't they require any faith as well??

It says in Matthew 17:20, He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." And, yes, that's saying that faith can move big things but I don't think Jesus said that to just lessen the faith for smaller things. What I think of that verse is that; with just a little bit of faith...we can do the impossible. And sometimes it seems like that impossible is moving the little things. I love how I can go to God and be like...take this burden, I give it to you, I have faith and trust in you!, and he will take it and help us! God is the God of the impossible and whatever is impossible for man, is possible with God. But that requires just a little faith! Sometimes we can let doubt creep in, and that doubt can slowly squish our faith. Because that doubt is not from God, and faith is from God...and we can't have something from God and something from the devil; and think that everything will work out...

I've had my fair share of faith...but also my fair share of doubt. And I know for a fact that that doubt won't improve your faith at all. But it’s starting with the little things, the things that may not seem important. In Luke 15:8-9 it says, "Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin." A coin, a little coin, not $100, not a miraculous healing, not even 2 coins... 1 coin! God cares about the small things; he cares about that woman finding her coin, or finding 1 lost soul, one forgotten son/daughter. In Matthew 18:13-14 (Parable of the lost sheep), "What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost." The man left the ninety nine other sheep to find that little lost sheep. The little ones, the forgotten ones; God cares!

1 coin, 1 sheep, God helped those people find them. They had faith, and God worked on it! They didn't need mountains and mountains of faith, just a small, little bit and God moved! Prayer requires faith as well, not heaps and heaps, but faith. I've been praying for a healing in my family since I could talk... and even though all my prayers had just a little bit of faith in each one, when you add them all up, I have mountains of faith! God moves on those little bits, and all those little bits add up... to great wonders, done for His glory and his glory alone!

God Bless♥♥