Good News, Bad News



I've been itching to write but haven't had the time.  I honestly don't know where all of my time goes.  I do know that if I don't get enough sleep I am extremely cranky.

Good news: Thanksgiving was truly a season of giving thanks for our family.

Bad news: I spend Monday through Wednesday of Thanksgiving week in the hospital with a bowel obstruction.

Good news: I didn't have to have surgery.

Bad news: I had an NG tube ~ I hate those things.

Good news: The doctors finally sprung me the night before Thanksgiving.

Bad news: I didn't get to eat very much turkey dinner as I was supposed to be on a mostly liquid with some soft foods diet.

Good news: Our family was together.

More good news: We had yummy mashed potatoes that I got to eat.

Even more good news: I got a jump start on my diet and I won't have to worry about gaining weight over the holidays.

Better news than that: Hubby has been by my side the entire time, cheering me on, kicking me in the tail when I overdo, and holding my hand.  I love that man of mine!!

The Best News:  I am getting my energy and stamina back AND have had some great quality family time.  I say this every year, but I love the age my kids are at.  Hubby chose our advent devotionals this year, they are written by Billy Graham.  Princess and Prince are truly getting their little hearts ready for Christmas and pondering what the birth of baby Jesus means for their lives. 

Walking on Water Book Review

"Walking on Water When You Feel Like You're Drowning: Finding Hope in Life's Darkest Moments" by Tommy Nelson and Steve Leavitt



We have all had times in our lives when we have felt as if we were drowning.  At least, I know I have.  The title of this book interested me and so I chose to review it.  This book offers hope for people who suffer with symptoms from anxiety, obsessions, fear and depression.  The book is divided into three parts:
Part One ~ The Dark Descent, Part Two ~ Questions from the Depths of Despair, and Part Three ~ Keys to Recovery.  Nelson and Leavitt use personal experiences with anxiety disorder, panic attacks and depression to discuss symptoms, causes and how to recover.  They also use examples from counseling sessions with others. 
The authors offer hope and answers for how to overcome these symptoms and truly debilitating conditions.  "Remember this: Anything that feels like the end of the world is not what it appears to be.  Have hope.  God is the God of hope.  He is not a God of fear, worry, and stress.  Grab onto His hope like a lifeline, and cling to it."  They use many passages of scripture to show God's hope and that He is in control and has plans for His people.  One of the things I thought would be helpful for people struggling is the list of Lies and Truths: Lies the world tells us and Biblical Truths, a listing of Scriptures, which can help alleviate our belief in those lies. 
As someone who suffered from anxiety attacks in college, I could relate to those feelings of fear and panic as well as the greatest fear being, when might I have another one?  While I haven't had issues with this for many years, I remembered those feelings of helplesness as I read this book.  I also recognize these issues in other people that are in my life.  "We also know that God desires to use our trials for His glory and for others.  We should be willing to see how our suffering prepares us to minister to others who suffer."  Because of the experiences I have had in my own life, I can use those times to empathize with and help others who need it. 
This book is a good resource for anyone.  People who suffer from anxiety, depression and symptoms of stress will find comfort in the fact that they aren't going through this alone, as well as ways to cope with those symptoms.  If you do not suffer from it, you could still benefit from being able to support and help and understand others who are going through what is a terrible and debilitating time in their lives. 

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Tyndale Publishing in exchange for my honest review.

A Word In Due Season



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It's been a discouraging day.  Actually one event this morning set the tone and I've been in a funk since.  The kids and I walked out to get in the car this morning to find that I apparently left it unlocked last night and someone went all through it.  They emptied out the glovebox and went through everything that was in the car.  They didn't take the change and few dollars I had in my ashtray, but they did take my i-pod.  With the discovery that my tunes were gone, the song disappeared from my heart too.  I'm mad at myself for leaving the car unlocked and even madder that someone violated my space and stuff.  It's only stuff and it's only an i-pod, but it didn't belong to them, it belonged to me.  I let that one thing cloud my day and I'm not happy about it because now, not only did they steal my tunes, they stole my joy. 

I took a breath, closed my office door for a minute, pulled out my trusty friend, "Jesus Calling" and read today's Word.  It's as if it were written just for me:
     "People tend to think their circumstances determine the quality of their lives.  So they pour their energy into trying to control those situations.  Thy feel happy when things are going well, and sad or frustrated when things don't turn out as they had hoped.  They rarely question this correlation between circumstances and feelings.  Yet it is possible to be content in any and every situation." 

Guilty.

Then the next part, "Put more energy into trusting Me and enjoying My Presence.  Don't let your well-being depend on your circumstances.  Instead, connect your joy to My precious promises: I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go.  I will meet all your needs according to My glorious riches.  Nothing in all creation will be able to separate you from My Love."

A Word of encouragement when I needed it.  Thank you, God for the encouragement and Sarah Young, for being His instrument.

We're Christians So Deal With It

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God reveals so much about my own heart through the things my kids say.  I love that they are honest about what is going on in their little heads and hearts and there isn't a filter there yet to try to be politically correct or spiritually righteous. 

This morning Princess was telling me about a girl in her grade that rubs her the wrong way.  "She just thinks she's better than everyone else, Mom.  I want to get along with her, but I just don't want to be around her."  I told Princess that she should pray about it.  "OK but I'm gonna pray that God will make her not act that way."  I chuckled, thinking of the number of times I've prayed for people to act a certain way and the realization that I should be praying for my own attitudes and heart.  I explained to Princess that she needed to pray for this girl, but mostly she needed to pray for her own heart, that God would help her to love this girl like He loves her and that God would change her heart.  "But Mom, that's hard.  I don't want to change, she's the one who is acting that way."  How many times have I thought the same thing and uttered those words to God? 

In the car on the way to school, I asked Princess to pray, as we all take turns praying on the way to school in the mornings.  After we all prayed, Princess said, "I didn't want to pray for her but I did and it better work.  If she doesn't change I'll know my prayers didn't work and I wasted those words on her."  Before I could respond, Prince says, "Look, we're Christians so deal with it." 

That wasn't as eloquent as what I was going to say, but it was to the point.  We are called to pray for others and to love others unconditionally.  I went on the explain that lifting someone up to God is never a waste of words and as many words as Princess uses in a day, I doubt she'll miss those few.  I also told her that she may not see the difference right away, that she needed to keep praying until.  Pray until something happens. 

Princess sighed.  I know she wasn't happy with that answer.  I know the right answer and I'm not always happy with it.  There are people and relationships in my own life that I pray about and I don't want to be the one to have to change.  It seems to me that if they are the problem, they should be the ones to have to make the change.  That's not how God sees it. 

Prince and Princess's memory verse this week is: This I command you to love one another.  John 15:17

And then I came across this verse, 1 John 4:12 "No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."

He is the Vine, We are the Branches

Earlier this summer I mentioned that I had been traveling on church business quite a bit.  What I didn't say was that I have accepted a new role in our Florida United Methodist Conference.  I am the Associate Lay Leader for Reaching Next Generations.  When I said I would do this, I wasn't sure what exactly it involved, and I didn't feel equipped, but I prayed about it and felt God had led me to this place and was asking for me to serve.  I still don't necessarily feel equipped, but I do know that if God calls you to something, He will equip you for it so I depend on Him for words, plans, ideas and guidance. 

Monday morning I attended a meeting with pastors from a district in our Conference.  Our new Bishop is meeting with each district and I have been invited to attend as I can.  Our Lay Leader spoke, I said a few words and then our Bishop told about his life, preached, and answered questions.  At the end our our time together, I was asked to help the Bishop serve communion to this group of pastors.  Among them were two pastors that were once at my home church.  What an honor it was to serve communion alongside our Bishop to those who serve their congregations. 





Bishop Carter preached from John 15, which has been on my mind for a couple of weeks now.  It's amazing how God can bring a passage to your mind, you meditate on it, and then a while later, you hear someone speak to it.  These are the pieces I've been thinking about:

John 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." 

Apart from me you can do nothing.  How many times do I try to rely on my own strength, my own capabilities.  God tells me right here that without Him, I can't do it. 

Then v. 16-17  "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.  This is my command: Love each other."

What a thought that God would choose me...that He would appoint me to anything, let alone to Kingdom work.  To work that really matters.  That's exactly what He did.  He appointed me so that I might go and bear fruit that will last.  This isn't some little menial task He is appointing me to, this is important work to bear good fruit that will last.  I'm not qualified for this.  I don't know what to say or how to say it.  I don't know what to do or how to do it.  This is where the Apart from me you can do nothing comes in.  If God is the power and brains behind all of it, and I am an empty vessel, waiting and willing for Him to use me, it can be done. 

Then that command to Love each other.  Some people are easy to love.  I have a feeling that isn't who God is talking about.  If it were, He wouldn't have to say it 'cause I already love them.  It's those people who get under my skin, those people who rub me the wrong way, those are the people God was talking about.  Ouch!  Do I really have to?  See v. 16 "You did not choose me, but I chose you..."  That's not the easy answer, but God says that with Him all things are possible.  So I'm praying that God will help me to see others through His eyes, help me to love those that are hard to love and that I will remain in Him, because apart from Him I can't do anything. 

I don't know what is in store for me, but I do know that because God has led me to this place in this time, I will trust in Him to equip me to do His work.  My prayer is that together God and I will bear fruit that will last. 

Grace: More Than We Deserve Greater Than We Imagine



What is grace?  We sing about it in the hymn Amazing Grace.  We talk about it in our churches, but do we understand it?  Describing Grace in a way only Lucado can, "This book asks a deeper question: Have you been changed by grace?  Shaped by grace?  Strengthened by grace?  Emboldened by grace?  Softened by grace?  Snatched by the nape of your neck and shaken to your senses by grace?  God's grace has a drenching about it.  A wildness about it.  A white-water, riptide, turn-you-upside-downess about it.  Grace comes after you.  It rewires you.  From insecure to God secure.  From regret-riddles to better-because-of-it.  From afraid-to-do to ready-to-fly.  Grace is the voice that calls us to change and then gives us the power to pull it off.  When grace happens, we receive not a nice compliment from God but a new heart...You might call it a spiritual heart transplant."

I always come away from Max Lucado's books wanting more.  Grace was no different.  I sat down to read this book and didn't want to put it down.  Lucado gives example after example of ways God has showered His grace upon people from the harlot who would be stoned to modern day ordinary people just like you and me.  He uses examples from his own life, brave confessions of his weaknesses, and his need for grace.  We all need God's grace.  If we didn't, Jesus wouldn't have borne our sin and taken our place on the cross.  Ephesians 2:8 "You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God."

"This is a gift that God gives.  A grace that grants us first the power to receive love and then the power to give it.  A grace that changes us, shapes us, and leads us to a life that is eternally altered." (Lucado page 150)

This book was a blessing to me and I highly recommend it as I know it will bless your life as well.  We all stand in need of God's life changing, life saving grace.  May we be open to accept that grace and ask for God to use us as an instrument to show others grace as well.

I received a complimentary copy of this book, courtesy of BookSneeze and Thomas Nelson, for the purpose of review on this blog. All opinions expressed are my own, and I have not been compensated in any other manner

Today

Today began as an ordinary day.  It was a hectic day.  It was also a wonderful day.  Today a man approached me after preschool chapel and told me that he is on a spiritual journey.  He told me he felt empty inside and that he needed to find his way back to Jesus.  Today I was able to share Jesus.  I told him all about what Jesus has done in my life and how I wished the same for him.  Today I opened myself up and allowed God to use me as His instrument.  In those precious moments, it wasn't about me or anything I could have done or said.  Today it was about Jesus and what He has done in my life.  Today I saw a hunger for Jesus.  Today I prayed that Jesus would do the same for this man and his family.  Today was about Jesus softening and preparing the heart of one of his children and I was privileged to be a part of it.  Today was a special day.  It was an amazing day.  I pray that God will give me more days like today.