Things I Learned In June

I learned something today.  The hard way.....gasp....who saw that coming?? I can't eat like I used to.  I began eating a new way completely almost 2 years ago....and it changed me on the inside.  The things that look appealing at the onset, when I ingest them.....uugghh.  Misery.  So as I lay sipping on my Sprite feeling like I have been run over by a truck, I remembered just a short time ago I tried to eat in a way that I knew wasn't good for me.  It made me pretty sick, but this time..OH.MY.LANTA....

It reminded me of my life in a way, how God is changing me from the inside.  I'm different than I was a year and a half ago.  The things I take in, they aren't the same as before and when I attempt to get out of step with that, I pay a price.  I can't live like I used to.  I don't see things the way I used to.  Things changed. 

Sitting in church, our Pastor spoke of doing it God's way.  Period.  It's the only option.  "Drama and dysfunction will be the norm until God and His way become the priority" - Josh Lispcomb.  Just like the chaos in my stomach, chaos will reign when I step outside of Him and His will.  It leaves me tired, feeling just awful and robs me of time better spent doing the things He has planned for me.  Put in the hard work.  Push away from the temptation.  He has a plan.  For my good.  Thankful.

Psalm 19: 7-11

⁷ The Eternal’s law is perfect,
turning lives around.
His words are reliable and true,
instilling wisdom to open minds.
⁸ The Eternal’s directions are correct,
giving satisfaction to the heart.
God’s commandments are clear,
lending clarity to the eyes.
⁹ The awe of the Eternal is clean,
sustaining for all of eternity.
The Eternal’s decisions are sound;
they are right through and through.
¹⁰ They are worth more than gold—
even more than abundant, pure gold.
They are sweeter to the tongue than honey
or the drippings of the honeycomb.

¹¹ In addition to all that has been said,
Your servant will find, hidden in Your commandments, both a strong warning
and a great reward for keeping them.

Faith and a Guest Post

Psalm 138:8

The Voice (VOICE)

⁸ The Eternal will finish what He started in me.
Your faithful love, O Eternal One, lasts forever;
do not give up on what Your hands have made.

God Is Faithful.  On March 20, 1995, I became a Christian.  I "got saved" as I say.  I am from the South :) I began journaling.  I have always had the love of writing.  Even when I was little.  I would write books and poems...expressing myself through words was natural for me.  God called me to writing when I became His.  I had No.Idea.  No idea that the first time He called me to really write, for a year in 2001...it was the beginning.  No idea, last year when He called me back to that again, filling page after page...that it was just part of what He has in store for me.  I fought very hard when He pushed me back to blogging again. " No", I said.  "Begin Again"....He said...and so I did..so, here I am...and if you were here with me and I could tell you the story of this journey, of this date..June 29th...you would not be able to walk away without saying He is faithful too.  And so when I saw my verses for today, I smiled.  Please join me at Blogs By Christian Women.  It's my first guest post.  Ever.  Excited....Thankful.


http://blogsbychristianwomen.blogspot.com/2013/06/by-faith-guest-post-by-kimberly.html

Psalm 27:14

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹⁴ Wait and hope for and expect the Lord; be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout and enduring. Yes, wait for and hope for and expect the Lord.

5 Minute Friday - In Between

Linking Up with Lisa Jo Baker for 5 Minute Friday.  No Edits, No Re-writes, 5 minutes....
Topic: In Between

Go....

When I saw those two words, in between, I started to cry.  Because those two words mean a lot to me.  Especially on this journey.  Its the place between glory to glory.  And I know that glory isn't always pretty.  Sometimes glory is the complete breaking of yourself and giving it over to God.  It was for me, but the in between, the hard work......so here I am, knowing that I am moving out of this place, on to the other side of it.  Into His glory once again.  Stronger, different, changed forever by a love that wrecked my life and then handed me back something amazing.

Stop.

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 NIV

Dear Weary Mom....

I'm joining Terry Lynne Underwood at her site today for Dear Weary Mom,.....

Dear Wear Mom,

I know you.  Seems like the older our little ones get the more people think our lives somehow become easier, a little less complicated....but you and I, we know better.  Sleepless nights aren't ever really gone.  It seems that their tears in the night time are replaced with our own.  That them coming into our rooms for comfort are replaced with us standing in the doorway of theirs, watching, praying...please Lord, just tell me we can get through this.  Tears over pig tails or pony tails are replaced by why am I not pretty enough, thin enough.....prayers that he will see the strength that is in him and will be encouraged. 

Sending them off to high school rivals the fear of standing with them that first day of preschool.  The tears aren't any less.....in fact, I believe they have been more.  But the one things I have seen and know to be true is that God loves them even more than you and I do.  Every prayer, every seed sown into their beautiful young lives, watered with our tears, He sees.  And watching them grow under the weight of that is amazing.  And He gives us strength too.  Especially on the hard days, when their mistakes are ones they can't take back and they too, learn a little bit about growing up, a little wiser from what not to do....each time we walk through these things with them hand and hand, we have the chance to help them grow closer to Him...and then we do the same. 

Keep going sweet friend.  We know the days of diapers, cheerios and naps vanish all too quickly.  They are replaced with phone calls and driving and first loves.....and there is beauty in all of it.  And I was reminded yet again of this scripture today, so I'll share it with you too..

Isaiah 40:29-31

²⁹ God strengthens the weary
and gives vitality to those worn down by age and care.
³⁰ Young people will get tired;
strapping young men will stumble and fall.
³¹ But those who trust in the Eternal One will regain their strength.
They will soar on wings as eagles.
They will run—never winded, never weary.
They will walk—never tired, never faint.

 

 

Thankful.

Psalm 73

Psalm 73

 

¹ Truly God is good to His people, Israel,
to those with pure hearts.
² Though I know this is true, I almost lost my footing;
yes, my steps were on slippery ground.
³ You see, there was a time when I envied arrogant men
and thought, “The wicked look pretty happy to me.”

When I read this yesterday it struck me.  The entire verse was pretty much the conversation I had been having with God.  I was letting comparisons, anger, bitterness, resentment all that, start to overshadow what I know and begin to take hold of me. 

¹¹ You will hear them say, “How can the True God possibly know anyway? He’s not even here.
So how can the Most High have any knowledge of what happens here?”
¹² Let me tell you what I know about the wicked:
they are comfortably at rest while their wealth is growing and growing.
¹³ Oh, let this not be me! It seems I have scrubbed my heart to keep it clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
And for what? Nothing.
¹⁴ For all day long, I am being punished,
each day awakening to stern chastisement.

I just could not wrap my mind around it.  Why Lord?  When Lord? How come Lord?

¹⁵ If I had said to others these kinds of things about the plight of God’s good people,
then I know I would have betrayed the next generation.
¹⁶ Trying to solve this mystery on my own exhausted me;
I couldn’t bear to look at it any further.
¹⁷ So I took my questions to the True God,
and in His sanctuary I realized something so chilling and final: their lives have a deadly end.
¹⁸ Because You have certainly set the wicked upon a slippery slope,
You’ve set them up to slide to their destruction.

It doesn't really matter why or how or when or what.  I know I can't live apart from Him again.  It's not in me.  And I am also beginning to notice something too.  He restores little by little.  Why? For me, I believe that if He heaped it all up on me all at once, I might be sorely tempted to forget, to settle, to take the easy road AGAIN.  And so on this beautiful foundation He has set in me, He brings up the structure of what will be my life, of what is to come.  I just have to take one day at a time, living in what I have now, taking each day, each blessing and letting it settle in, letting it become a part of this new place and then moving forward.

²² But I didn’t know the truth;
I have been acting like a stupid animal toward You.
²³ But look at this: You are still holding my right hand;
You have been all along.
²⁴ Even though I was angry and hard-hearted, You gave me good advice;
when it’s all over, You will receive me into Your glory.
²⁵ For all my wanting, I don’t have anyone but You in heaven.
There is nothing on earth that I desire other than You.
²⁶ I admit how broken I am in body and spirit,
but God is my strength, and He will be mine forever.

If what I have is apart from God, well then, it's never going to be worth it.  Because in the end, He's all we've got anyways.  What will matter truly is, did I do what He placed me here to do? Did I use His time and mine being jealous and greedy and envious and boastful about stuff instead of investing in those who needed to know who He is?  I'll admit I have wasted more time than I have actually obeyed....I've acted like a spoiled child...a stupid animal....to the God that loves me and wants so much for me, but also expects me to show that to those He has placed around me.  Yet in spite of it all, He loves me.  He holds my hand, waits patiently...says begin again :)  And so we do...together, He and I.  Thankful.

Behind The Scenes - 365 Days



 

Linking up with Crystal Stine today for Behind the Scenes.... 

 

There are 365 days in a year.  365 of them in 2012 that walked me through God calling me back to Him.  Days with memories that brought me to my knees.  And then this....2013...what I know is His year of restoration.  As I walked along the beach with my sister, not of my own blood, but of His blood, bought with a price and given to me to walk hand in hand for the rest of my days, I remember how I had prayed the year before, what memories that day had held.....and then this.  He gave me this beautiful reminder.  He doesn't remove something without giving us His best in return.  The funny part about this is that I'm 5'1 and she's 5'9 and we kinda don't look too much like the shadows we cast :) But He sees us...His girls in a different light than we see ourselves.  What we think we look like isn't at all how He see us I think.  And so this day brought peace, laughter, family, community, healing...all the things that just 364 days before were stripped away yet again.  He restored not in the way I imagined He would, quite differently in fact....but what I needed right then at that moment.  Thankful.

Still

Thessalonians 3:3-4 VOICE

Still, the Lord is true to His promises; He will hold you up and guard you against the evil one.     

 

Still.....that word catches me this morning.  I've been restless, wondering, fearing, panicking, crying, picking it all back up and then putting it back down....still, none of that changes Him.  Who He is, what He says....I can do all that, but nothing in His agenda will change.  He knows the plans He has for me.  I need to be still and realize that even though life is swirling at times around me, still, He's not changing.  He's not moving one inch.  He's still.  My strong tower, my place of refuge, my Deliver, my Fortress.  I can try to do all this in my own strength and end up two steps behind where He had me....

 

Still....

   



 ⁴ We do not doubt the Lord’s intentions for you; we are confident that you are carrying out, and will continue to carry out, the commands we are sending your way.

 

Thankful.