I am humbled and amazed. I am SO unworthy of God's love and grace. His mercy on me never ceases to amaze me.....I don't deserve it. I am thankful that God doesn't think of me the way that I think of myself. I am thankful that God loves me for who I am, and for who I will one day become. I am thankful that He sees "My Bigger Picture". I am thankful for every single thing He gives me. I am thankful for what I know He does for me and for those things I have not seen, and never will. I am thankful for peace. I am thankful for deliverance from myself. I am thankful for the seasons in my life. I am thankful for His faithfulness to me. I am thankful for healing-spiritual, physical, and mental. I am thankful that You give me the smallest idea of just how big You are. I will never get it...just how big You are. I am thankful that my biggest problem, is nothing compared to you. You are Bigger.
Thank you God. And on these days, I pray that You will accept my gratitude, my songs of praise. And on the days that I "forget" just how good You are to me, I ask for Your forgiveness and mercy. More mercy. And let me be reminded just how bad things could be without you looking after me....every. single. minute. of. every. single. day. I want more of You. I want to be constantly "waiting for you". Constantly wanting more of You.
I love you Lord, and I pray that people see You in me. Thank You. Thank. You.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
Not So Fast: Slow-Down Solutions…
~ Make Gold: Speak a love language today: words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service, physical touch
~ See Silver: Accept a little creative mess today so dreams can be made
~ Touch Gold: Kneel in Prayer for 10 minutes
~ Line it Silver: tickle someone, laugh long, tell a joke
~ Gather Gold: Memorize one verse of Scripture today…. carry His treasured words with you today
~ Make Gold: Speak a love language today: words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service, physical touch
~ See Silver: Accept a little creative mess today so dreams can be made
~ Touch Gold: Kneel in Prayer for 10 minutes
~ Line it Silver: tickle someone, laugh long, tell a joke
~ Gather Gold: Memorize one verse of Scripture today…. carry His treasured words with you today
From 'One Thousand Gifts'....my prayer
I am no longer my own blogger, but Thine, O Lord.
Refine me with each post how You will, rank me how You will.
Put me to service, or put me to suffering.
Let me post for Thee or be put aside for Thee,
Lifted high, only for Thee, or brought low, all for Thee.
Do with me and each post whatever you will, because You alone know best.
Let me not strive but submit Let me not compete but care
Let me not desire hits but holiness
Let me be a follower, instead of seeking followers.
Let my blog be full of Thee, and let it be empty of me.
Let me crave all things of Thee, let me care nothing of this world.
Let my words be worthy of the greatest of audiences: You.
And You are enough.
May I write not for subscribers… but only for Thy smile.
May my daily affirmation be in the surety of my atonement,
not the size of my audience.
May my identity be in the innumerable graces of Christ,
never, God forbid, the numbers of my comments.
May the only words that matter in my life not be the ones I write on a screen ---
but the ones I live with my skin.
I freely and heartily yield every sentence, every title, every post, every comment… or no comments… all to Thine pleasure and perfect will.
My only fame is that I bear Your name
My only glory is the gift of Your Grace
My only readership, Your eyes that seek to and fro to find a heart hard after You.
Make this so, oh Lord…
Yahweh, You alone are my God, not Google
Jesus, You alone are my Savior, not site meters
And Holy Spirit, You alone are my Comforter, not comments
So be it, today, yesterday, and every post to come.
This is my prayer I have made on earth and over this keyboard… let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Oh, Pam......
I feel the need to share this with you. The following is a completely true story. NO exaggerations! If anything, I am underplaying this. It went down a little something like this......
A friend of mine, we'll call her "Pam", went into a local establishment to take care of some business. She walks into this establishment and sees an old "friend" who she used to go to church with and this woman also taught her years ago in a Bible study. They haven't seen each other in quite a while. They have both moved onto different churches, and "Pam" felt like she didn't really have the "qualities" the other woman was looking for when they did attend church together. "Pam" didn't have one of the biggest houses in the church, she didn't have a lot of "bling", she didn't brag about all they had and how much money they made, you get the point.
So, "Pam" walks in and is immediately met by this other woman who is now working at this establishment. "Pam" is actually shocked at how "friendly" and "loving" and "nice" this woman now was. "Pam" is thinking 'WOW, she really has changed. What a nice person she has become.' This woman was "Pam's" new BFF. This woman is going on and on about how they have since left the church they once attended together. She proceeded to bash the pastor of their old church, the people in the church,and talk about how bad the church was. She began to talk about people that "Pam" and her were mutual friends with. She was talking about how warm and fussy she is and how much she just loves all people and people's children, and how other people were cold and heartless and stupid and she just didn't get it. So, here "Pam" is thinking, 'gosh, we were obviously closer than I thought we were, she wouldn't sit here and tell just anyone this stuff'.
So, out comes the paperwork that needs to be completed by this woman for "Pam" to have her transaction complete. (Now, I just want to go ahead, and tell you who are reading this....sit down.....and hold onto something, get something to keep your mouth shut as it will drop open) The woman gets her pen, has the paperwork in front of her, nice and neat, and then, the other woman says, "Now, what was your last name again?" "Pam" tells her and thinks, 'well, anyone could forget a last name....it's ok.' Then it happens....the next question is totally true....the other woman says..."and what was your first name again?" Oh yes....totally true story......The other woman then says, 'hhhmmm, I was thinking your name was Pam for some reason.'
Now, this story was funny, at first. As "Pam" told me this story, we laughed at all of the things that this woman was saying, some things very personal about other people. And then to say, "what was your first name again?" Really?????
It hit me....sure, we could sit and laugh at this because "Pam" is a well adjusted individual who knows Christ as her Savior, who has a family and a church family that she loves. However, what if "Pam" was one of the many women who have been hurt so deeply by one of the "other women" of the church. What if "Pam" was someone who so desperately needed a friend at that moment, and thought for a brief moment that this was going to be her day...the day that friend had been put on her doorstep....only to be asked..."what's your name again?"
Girls we need to be so careful of what we say, who we say it to, and when we say it. This story is the exact reason people aren't involved in church. This story is the exact reason people say "church" people are hypocrites. I feel pretty confident that most of us out there have had a "bad church experience." But, you know what....we don't need to tell everyone about it. If we had a bad experience, it is OUR GOD who brought us to that season in our life. To teach us lessons that will so much better prepare us for our next season. Let's do this...let's keep our mouths shut. Let's be thankful we aren't in that same season of "bad experience" and let's be thankful to OUR GOD for yet another chance to learn to see and appreciate all of the good things that are in our current season!
A friend of mine, we'll call her "Pam", went into a local establishment to take care of some business. She walks into this establishment and sees an old "friend" who she used to go to church with and this woman also taught her years ago in a Bible study. They haven't seen each other in quite a while. They have both moved onto different churches, and "Pam" felt like she didn't really have the "qualities" the other woman was looking for when they did attend church together. "Pam" didn't have one of the biggest houses in the church, she didn't have a lot of "bling", she didn't brag about all they had and how much money they made, you get the point.
So, "Pam" walks in and is immediately met by this other woman who is now working at this establishment. "Pam" is actually shocked at how "friendly" and "loving" and "nice" this woman now was. "Pam" is thinking 'WOW, she really has changed. What a nice person she has become.' This woman was "Pam's" new BFF. This woman is going on and on about how they have since left the church they once attended together. She proceeded to bash the pastor of their old church, the people in the church,and talk about how bad the church was. She began to talk about people that "Pam" and her were mutual friends with. She was talking about how warm and fussy she is and how much she just loves all people and people's children, and how other people were cold and heartless and stupid and she just didn't get it. So, here "Pam" is thinking, 'gosh, we were obviously closer than I thought we were, she wouldn't sit here and tell just anyone this stuff'.
So, out comes the paperwork that needs to be completed by this woman for "Pam" to have her transaction complete. (Now, I just want to go ahead, and tell you who are reading this....sit down.....and hold onto something, get something to keep your mouth shut as it will drop open) The woman gets her pen, has the paperwork in front of her, nice and neat, and then, the other woman says, "Now, what was your last name again?" "Pam" tells her and thinks, 'well, anyone could forget a last name....it's ok.' Then it happens....the next question is totally true....the other woman says..."and what was your first name again?" Oh yes....totally true story......The other woman then says, 'hhhmmm, I was thinking your name was Pam for some reason.'
Now, this story was funny, at first. As "Pam" told me this story, we laughed at all of the things that this woman was saying, some things very personal about other people. And then to say, "what was your first name again?" Really?????
It hit me....sure, we could sit and laugh at this because "Pam" is a well adjusted individual who knows Christ as her Savior, who has a family and a church family that she loves. However, what if "Pam" was one of the many women who have been hurt so deeply by one of the "other women" of the church. What if "Pam" was someone who so desperately needed a friend at that moment, and thought for a brief moment that this was going to be her day...the day that friend had been put on her doorstep....only to be asked..."what's your name again?"
Girls we need to be so careful of what we say, who we say it to, and when we say it. This story is the exact reason people aren't involved in church. This story is the exact reason people say "church" people are hypocrites. I feel pretty confident that most of us out there have had a "bad church experience." But, you know what....we don't need to tell everyone about it. If we had a bad experience, it is OUR GOD who brought us to that season in our life. To teach us lessons that will so much better prepare us for our next season. Let's do this...let's keep our mouths shut. Let's be thankful we aren't in that same season of "bad experience" and let's be thankful to OUR GOD for yet another chance to learn to see and appreciate all of the good things that are in our current season!
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
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