heartache

Our daughters have so much potential.

Sometimes when I look at them my heartaches with the potential that I see in them and how little they see in themselves.   This is a picture of a time when she was not having a good moment.  Why did I take a picture to remember this?  Because too often I feel this way as well.

Today at soccer I sat in the stands and shed a few tears as I watched my oldest practicing her drills.  As parents we try to do what we can to give opportunities to our children to try new things and develop different skills.  The footwork that soccer players are capable of blow my mind.  The skills that she has developed over the past two years is incredible.  I am so proud of her.  As I sat in the stands today all I could see is the vastness of everything that she can accomplish and all the possibilities her life holds.  My heart ached with excitement for her.

Then I thought that my understanding is only a portion of what God sees.  Not only for her but for me as well.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

                                 ~ Jeremiah 29:11

Each morning when I wake up I will choose to live for my potential, as I make this choice I know that my daughters are watching and I pray that they will make the same choice each day as well. 

Maybe you need to make that choice as well?  Don’t let a day pass you by that you are not choosing to live up to your never-ending potential!

 

Crazy Glue is really sticky

This is a post I wrote for the Godly Girls Series over at Mel’s World.  But I woke up thinking about it so I thought I would share it here.

"Be still and know that I am God."

Has that verse ever lain heavily on your heart? For me it is like that verse has crazy glue on it and it is stuck to my forehead and it is never coming off. At first I tried to peel it off, but that was too painful, then I tried nail polish remover and that made my eyes water. Then I just hoped that if I ignored it, it would eventually wear off. Nothing worked, it is still there in bold letters across my forehead staring at me every time I look in the mirror.

One day I paused and stared at my image in the mirror. I had been so used to seeing these words on my forehead that I forgot what they said. "Be still", that was a hard one for me. I have so much on the go, so much I want to do for God. Stillness equals laziness and no one is going to accuse me of that. I have my family and house to take care of, a ministry, my husband's business, I teach Sunday School, volunteer at my daughters school, oh my, the list could go on and on. Why am I doing all of this? Be still. Be still. Well, no time to think about that.  "Know that I am God". Of course I know God, I accepted Him in my heart, got baptized, I even have a few T-shirts that will tell you about it. I remember something from the "Experiencing God" stuff that I am teaching at the church. There is a difference between just knowing and experiencing God. Am I really experiencing a living God actively in my life right now? Am I cultivating a growing and lasting relationship with Him? Maybe these words on my forehead are there for a reason?

Maybe God is trying to tell me something? I am going to promise myself that I will read these words each time I look in the mirror. (Then hopefully they will come off.)
As time goes by I pause to read the words -- first frequently and then not so much -- I feel like I have read them enough that I don't have to take the time to stop and look at them anymore.

Then one day a headache knocks me out, I'm bedridden---incapable of doing anything. Sound is too loud, light is too bright. I snuggle myself down under my covers, hiding myself from the world around me. My husband comes to check on me, as he lovingly wisps the hair off my face to look in my eyes he asks me what is on my forehead. What I thought only I could see it. He says he sees something so faint.
I have enough to deal with! Now other people are going to see it. What does it say again? Be...still. Well, at this point I have no choice my head is killing me. Be still and know that I am God. Hey, that is in the Bible somewhere, maybe that will help me figure this out. I ask my husband to bring me my Bible. It takes him a few minutes to find it, frankly I can't remember where I put it the last time I read it. When was the last time I read it?

There it is Psalm 46:10. It feels good to open my Bible, to search through it. I think I will read through the chapter to learn more about this verse. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. --I need to hear that. I feel so at peace as I spend time in the word. I close my Bible, hug it to my chest and thank God for who He is and is words to me. Now I understand, Be still and know that I am God.

This is a parody about what I have gone through over the last few years. This verse has laid heavily on me and I continually pushed it away and ignored it. I bought a mug and wall art with the verse on it. But I never took the time to understand it and why it laid heavily on me until my health deteriorated so far that I lost my job and I could barely function in my home.

Finally I had no choice but to be still and trust that He is God. That is a hard thing for us as women to acknowledge and respond to. But it has been very rewarding. I made myself so busy doing things for God that I forgot to include Him in His plan. Now I am choosing to do things differently and by giving Him the lead things that I would have never dreamed, hoped or dared to ask for are beginning to happen.

May you learn from my experience to slow down and let God be the God of your life.

Is Jesus an E.M.T. or Surgeon?

I was listening to a podcast the other day that said Jesus is not an EMT, He is more like a surgeon.  I have been thinking about it ever since.  He doesn’t show up in an ambulance after the accident when you are bruised and broken and try to put you back together.

He is a surgeon, He cuts you open- He causes the wound.  He reaches inside of you to the part that needs fixing, makes some adjustments and then sews you up.  You then need to take care of yourself in order to heal properly.

Doesn’t that give you a wake up call like it did for me?  The better I take care of myself the faster the healing process.  If I neglect what I need to do the longer it will take for healing.  So if God is trying to teach me something about an area in my life that needs to improve and develop and I am ignoring Him I’m not moving forward in the direction that I am being led.  It’s like going around and around a mountain and never reaching the top.

He didn’t cut me open to hurt me, but to heal me and help me grow.  WOW!!!

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

Why are you asking me?

There is so much to learn from the woman who encountered Jesus at the well. What a day she experienced when she went to draw water and found Jesus instead.

As she approaches Jesus sitting by the well; he asks her for a drink of water. She does one of the most outrageous things mentioned in the Bible. She asks Him why? She boldly wants to know, "Why are you talking to me?” Good for her!

Why don’t we ask more questions? There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking questions; the disciples were full of questions. Asking questions is how we can grow deeper in the understanding of our faith.

The Samaritan woman had made many interesting life choices. Now she finds herself being asked for something from yet another man. No wonder she is full of questions. We don’t know the particulars concerning the 5 husbands, deaths, divorces, we honestly do not know and it is not our place to judge. She is obviously confused with who she is. Like so many of us today she is so desperate for love, a relationship, for acceptance that she welcomed anyone who would have her. Jesus knows and understands her need.

Jesus does not tell the woman to repent or change her ways, she already knows that she needs to make changes. He gives her truth and hope. AMEN!

Jesus tells her that He is the Messiah, she then leaves her water bottle and runs to the village and tells all the people that had made her an outcast about her experience at the well. Then the villagers came to see Jesus and he stayed for two days to share his message of truth and hope with anyone who would listen and believe.

Jesus accepted this woman who was an outcast in her community and the village whose race was despised by the Jews. They all found something that we all long for; acceptance.