Digging Deeper....

I'm just curious how many people besides myself do this. I'm ashamed to admit it but it's true that even after being a Christian for more than 20 years, I still take what people say about Gods word and let it go in one ear and out the other without really thinking it through. I often hear non-Christians and Christians alike quote scripture to someone who is struggling etc. Of course we all want to know the word and be ready and armed so that when not if God calls us to minister to someone we are ready. This  year I have made it my mission, my hearts desire to be in the word every single morning. To not get lazy or discouraged when things go south for us or someone close to us. But instead to train my heart to crave the word and run to it when chaos ensues. In that quest to go deeper with the Lord great things are taking place. He is making me sensitive to those around me. Quickening my heart to people who are hurting, struggling in their marriages or with just life in general. Restoring my soul to a place that is not about me but the BIGGER picture. My prayer life has changed. My attitude is changing. I wrote on the top of my journal GOD USE ME! I DESIRE TO BE A PEACEMAKER! TO LOVE OTHERS LIKE YOU! This brings me to my point about scripture. My entire life I have heard people say,"Don't worry God won't give you more than you can handle." Heck, there is even a Christian band on the radio who sings,"I won't give you more, more than you can stand." I have always just taken that for fact. OK. Great. Sounds good to me. But the other day someone said it in reference to someone being overwhelmed and busy with life. The Holy Spirit quickened my heart about it for some reason. I got to thinking about it, turning it over and over in my head and heart. God won't give me more than I can handle? I'm not sure what planet others live on but the one I'm spinning on IS daily more than I can handle. Isn't that the whole point? So I looked up the verse. It's 1 Corinthians 10:13-No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you be able to endure it. The things is if you back up a few verses this section is talking about sexual sin. Idolatry to be exact. I don't think my husband appreciated me waking him up early in the morning and exclaiming,"Honey, it's about sexual sin! Sexual sin!" Ya' he was mildly confused. Anyways, it just really brought the fact front and center to my heart that we need to be in the word daily. Checking things, looking back and investigating what our pastors say or people in passing. It's just good common sense as believers to be diligent and steadfast in the truth. Sometimes life does get away from us and we want the scripture to work a certain way to fit into our lives but God laid it all out there the way he did for a reason. Now I just get to spend my lifetime trying to get it all in. Be blessed!

UB4ME.....

Hello! Happy almost Friday! Whew-hoo!
Almost done with school for the week.

Stealing my husband away for a lunch date and massage.

Having dinner and game night with friends.

The kids will run around barefoot outside playing with squirt guns until well after 7pm because its warm and light outside and did I mention warm?

I was listening to a pastor on the radio in the car today and he said love could be defined like this;
Love: UB4ME
This is the kind of love we should have for our spouse if we want to see Christ there. This is the kind of love we should have for our kids, neighbors, friends, the homeless. UB4ME is how Jesus loved and loves today. I took a vote (well really it was just me) and decided to make this our new family moto.

The pastor also said,"Do something crazy and stay married. Be a trophy for God." I love that!
I'm prone to getting sad and overwhelmed when our friends marriages are struggling. When I hear friends have split up or are heading that direction my heart hurts and I feel panic set in. A lot of our friends for obvious reasons are firefighters so it hits close to home when their families fall apart. I cry out to God,"God, that's so close to home. We live that crazy life. What else can we do to be solid?"
I can easily let my eyes get downcast. Feel hopeless. But then I wake up in the morning, put my feet on the floor and sneak over to my quiet time chair in the corner by the window. I curl up with my devotional, my bible, pen and paper and allow Gods word to soak in. To prepare me for the day. To use me. To restore me. To encourage others. I love how when you are in the word daily God gives you scripture for people. You become sensitive to others needs and to people who are hurting. Sometimes those people respond to you reaching out and sometimes they don't. But when God places those people on your heart it's so good.

Obedience to Christ's commands always brings fulfillment.
                                                     Experiencing God Day By Day

This week I'm praying God would remove my doubt. Remind me that he is bigger than marriages in distress. His desire is to restore. His desire is for us to obey even when we don't feel like it. On the top of my journal I have written TO BE A PEACE MAKER. My hearts desire. To love UB4ME even when I don't feel like it, don't know how or don't get it in return. To not make it about me.
Pray for the marriages in your church.......be blessed.

What IS wrong with this picture?

What's wrong is that I have not blogged in the month of March yet! Man o' man where does the time go? Not to much exciting going on in our home. We had one of our computers crash (not good when you do on line home schooling) my car broke down ($800 later) and then our garage door broke (that one were gonna ignore for the moment ha!) I just kept gritting my teeth and whispering to myself,"It's just material stuff. God will provide. Find joy in ALL things." At the same time, sickness took over our house. Yup' it finally caught up to us. Ugh! But then the clouds parted, the sun came out (literally) and we got our taxes back......enough that it paid off our upcoming trip in full. Thank you Jesus! I love when God does things like that. Gifts we don't deserve or expect. 

Morgan is old enough now to serve in children's ministry at church. It has blessed me to watch her love on the 2 & 3 year olds and do it with such kindness and joy. She's growing up fast and doing a pretty good job of it. ;) 

Dan is reading a book called Surfing For God. We heard a guy on Air1 mention how good it was so we looked into it. We had no idea what it was about. Turns out its this amazing book about being addicted to pornography. Ya' I know, nobody wants to talk about the ugly stuff. But really, if you know anyone struggling with any kind of addiction, buy this book for them. It really gets to the heart of the issue. The thing is, we all sin. This is just another pitfall that satan uses to destroy families. We are all searching for something and some of us find the "right" answer. Gods saving grace. Look up e book, it's worth the time.

In the meantime we are enjoying the sunshine and playing outside as much as possible. All the while trying to cram in extra school work before our trip so I can lay by the pool guilt free. Ha! Just life stuff. Getting ready for Easter which is my very favorite holiday by the way. I had lots of pictures but my computers being dumb so I'm updating you on my iPad. 

If you think about it could you pray for me? Really struggling with something I did. The problem is, it was the right thing. It was done prayerfully, with love, kindness and with the other persons best intention at heart. I was honest. GASP! I reached out. NO! I shared my own story. But now this person is not responding to me. In any way. I have peace about being honest when I was talked too.....but loosing a friend or so it seems kinda sucks. Thanks for praying. Pray for their heart. Pray for peace for me. 

My quiet time has been so good lately. Just working through the word every morning and praying for needs around me. Just this morning I was being challenged to call out,"God use me." Now believe you me, you never say that unless you mean it. Because God is just waiting to pour into your life to bless and minister to others. I was reminded of Jeramiah 33:3 a verse that I have clung to for many years. Trusting, knowing that if I call on him he IS going to answer me. That freagin' blows my mind even after being a believer for almost 25 years. So that's where I am today. Asking God to use me in marriages that are hurting, in the lives of wives who feel distressed. And then the hard part; trusting God did NOT make a mistake when he brought them into my lives. Trusting that he wants me to speak truth and love into their hearts just like a sister in Christ did for me 7 years ago when I was hurting.

Be blessed today.