Why do we question?

 

I am very thankful to say that this verse is very alive in my life right now.  Being aware of His presence in my daily life helps me to accomplish more than I could every hope or imagine.

Recently a prayer was answered for me in a big way.  My reaction?  I questioned why and only thought of my inadequacy to accept what was being given so freely to me.  Why did I do that, I was being given what I had been praying for months for and abundantly more!  God is probably looking at me and thinking, “Just say thank you, be blessed and give me all the glory!”

Sometimes we are just silly sheep who are lost without our shepherd.

I accept this wonderful blessing that has been given to me and I will bless others socks off with what will happen through me!

 

Trying to be ready for anything!

Life is full of beautiful busyness right now.  I am so enjoying where my life is heading.  Which is really incredible because a month ago I thought I was going in a completely different direction.  I guess you need to be ready for anything.  I am meeting wonderful couples who are planning weddings and I am meeting great people who offer wonderful unique ideas for weddings.  Yesterday I was featured in our local paper!  You can read the article HERE.

Beyond all of the new job stuff, my daughters are home this week from school.  We are having a blast!  My oldest just turned 10 on Sunday and it has been great celebrating her birth and the wonderful young lady that she is becoming.  Both my daughters are in swimming lessons this week so that is helping to break up the day, I am enjoying my 90 minutes to make a few notes and send some emails.  We even had a chance to get hair cuts!

Acacia went drastic and cut her hair short!  She is so brave!

Nevaeh had a couple of inches taken off and then her hair done is a special braid.

They were so cute I wanted to get a picture of them together and this is the best that I could get, what a pair!

This past year I have been co-teaching the Grades 7-8 Sunday School class.  I am really enjoying it.  It is always interesting to see where the conversations go and the questions they ask.  I also appreciate the prep time.  Getting into the scriptures and digging for answers. 

If you have followed this blog through the years you know that I have done a lot of study on the book of Esther.  I love researching people of the Bible and looking at things from a different perspective.  In the spring of 2011 I attended a women’s retreat where the speakers taught on several women in the Bible.  On Saturday morning I knew they were sharing about Tamar.  I had a few minutes between breakfast and the session so I thought I would read through the story and refresh my memory.  Wow, I was not prepared for what happened.  I saw the story of Tamar come to life in a different perspective than I have ever heard in my life.

I really want to share it with you but I need you do to something first.  Please study Genesis 38.  Pray that God will open up the scriptures to your heart and mind.  I will be doing the same before I write my next post within the next week.  I am interested in hearing what you learn as well.  Please leave me a comment or send me an email to let me know how your eyes are being opened to the words and lessons through the life of Tamar.

Ever made a Bad Choice? Me neither!

I wrote this article for a teen magazine but I think we can all learn something from it.

“Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tender-hearted, and keep a humble attitude. Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will bless you for it.           1 Peter 3:8-9 (NLT)

How you react in situations says a lot about who you are and what makes you different from the rest of the crowd.

How do you react when your friend decides that you’re not so cool anymore? How do you react when that rumour going around about you is the furthest thing from the truth? How do you react when asked what you are doing Friday night and you reply, “Going to youth” and you get the “your one of those people” looks?

I have experienced and lived through each of those scenarios, and I didn’t always react in a way that portrayed who I was striving to be: a follower of Jesus Christ. In some cases I made the situation worse and in others I made myself look like a fool. But hey, that is a part of developing character and figuring out who God created us to be. Right?

I can admit that I didn’t always make the best choices and honestly, I don’t expect you to either. Sometimes wrong is how we get to right. There is always a learning curve. Don’t get me wrong, I am not giving you permission to go out and make stupid choices. (1 Cor. 10:23)

But if by some small chance, at some point in your life you make a bad choice, please know that it is okay. You need to understand that you must learn from your mistakes and continue to blossom into the awesome woman of God that you have been created to be!

1 Peter is a letter written by Peter, a disciple of Jesus Christ to Christians who were being persecuted and suffering because they chose to be followers of Jesus Christ. Through this letter Peter encouraged believers to live lives of integrity--to be examples of Jesus Christ.

In our North American society we do not see the persecution that Peter saw and experienced in his life. But at times we do suffer.

We can suffer by being mistreated by friends or acquaintances at school. By being different and choosing not to do what everyone else is doing. Or by being judged because of our “Christian” label.

How should we choose to react when these types of suffering enter our lives? Peter tells us not to retaliate with actions or words. Then look at what Peter instructs us to do when someone says something unkind to you. Pay them back with---- a blessing! WHAT!!! Are you serious?

If you have been on the receiving end of having unkind words thrown in your direction this could seem like an impossible task. A blessing is what they need and this is what scripture is instructing us to do and what God wants us to do.

When I was 16 I spent my summer working as kitchen staff at a camp. One evening while everyone at the camp was sleeping, we were robbed. They broke in the kitchen and stole whatever they could take out the window. Tons of food, my stereo I had left there that night, they threw the knives in the walls and just made a mess. It felt like such an invasion and a personal attack. We scrubbed the kitchen with bleach from top to bottom and it still felt dirty. It wasn’t until I gave up my anger and prayed for the people responsible for the break in that I could feel at peace and comfortable once again.

1 Peter 3:14-15 says, “But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don’t worry or be afraid of their threats. Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it.”

Have these verses written on your heart. Peter wrote these words about 2000 years ago so that when you or I struggle with feelings of suffering that these words were there to encourage, strengthen and give us hope. Suffering produces character; there is no one in the past, present or future like you. You are unique! Your character is unique! You have been created for a unique purpose!

Worship Christ with your life and if someone compliments you by asking, “What’s different about you?” Be prepared to share with them where your hope comes from.

To see how to do that let’s read what Peter has to say in verses 16 and 17, “But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ. Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong!”

Thank you Peter! What an encouragement to live a good life!

Take time to apply it to your life: (grab your journal and spend a few minutes thinking about these questions) What do your reactions say about your character? Take time and evaluate what you can learn from good or bad choices that you have made? Do you know how unique you are? What Makes You Unique?

What’s Your Problem!

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 2 Timothy 3:16 (NLT)

I love my Bible. I love to just sit and hug it sometimes. Does that sound a little strange to you? Try it. Go and grab your Bible, dust it off if you have to and give it a tight squeeze. I love to sit in a quiet place, close my eyes, hug my Bible, take a few deep breaths inhale…..….exhale……… and just be still. Can you feel it? That overwhelming sense that you are not alone. That the One who created you, the One who loves you and needs you is eagerly waiting to spend time with you.

I have to be honest with you, I stopped reading my Bible years ago. Reading it was doing nothing for me. One day while I was visiting with a friend I told her my problem with my Bible. She told me what I was doing wrong, the problem was not my Bible, it was me. You’re not supposed to read your Bible you are supposed to study your Bible. Oh, I get it. If I am serious about my faith and understanding what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ I need to study God’s word.

As I began to study amazing things began to happen. I saw passages in the Bible in ways that I never understood before. Things I had learned over and over again in Sunday school and youth now took on new meaning and I began to understand how these things that happened so long ago are applicable to my life right now.

Are you up for a little Bible trivia? What is the longest chapter in the Bible? Psalms 119. What is the shortest chapter in the Bible? Psalms 117. Do you know what the middle verse of the entire Bible is? Psalms 118:8 which reads, “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in people.” (NLT)

Wow, did that verse ever speak to me. It is better to take refuge in the Lord—it is better to escape, find cover, shelter or sanctuary in the Lord. Then to put your trust, confidence, hope or faith in people.

How often I found myself dealing with something and the first thing I would do, is to run to one of my friends. But what does that verse tell us? The best place to go would be where we can find shelter, at the feet of our Lord. It’s a hard thing to do. People are tangible, they are right there in front of you, you can ask them questions and you can clearly hear their response. You know what? That can happen in your relationship with Christ as well!

As you begin to study His word (Joshua 1:8) and hide it in your heart (Psalm 119:11), you are developing your relationship with Him (2 John 1:9). As that relationship blossoms you will be able to understand scripture more clearly (Matthew 13:12) and be able to hear His “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12).

How does that sound? Does it sound a little overwhelming? I know sometimes when I look at my Bible it just seems so big. I am not sure what I want to read or what God wants me to read. I get so overwhelmed that I just put it down and do something else. If you look at the last paragraph I listed five scriptures. That is a great place to start!

Take time to apply it to your life: Here is your challenge. Begin to study those five verses. How do you study? Let’s use Joshua 1:8 as our example. I begin by learning about the book. In my Bible it gives you a synopsis of each book. So I would learn who wrote it, when it was written and what the main theme of the book is. So now I know all about the book of Joshua. With that information in my head I would then read the whole chapter. So in this example I would read Joshua chapter one. I want to find out what is happening, why was this verse written and who is the author writing it to.

Why is this important or necessary? Let’s take for example that you found a note on the floor at school. You glace at the letter and half way through you see your name and it says, “Cj just makes me sick I am going to have to tell her I what I think.” Your first reaction? “Oh ya, I will tell you what I think!” You feel your body getting hot and you need somewhere to sit down. Your head is spinning with all kinds of thoughts, “Who would say that about me?” You look to see who wrote it- “What! I thought she was my friend!” Who did she write it to? Your friend in drama class? What is going on here? You begin to read the whole letter from the beginning; soon the understanding begins to unfold. Your friend began the letter by writing about this and that; then she began talking about your performance in the recent school play. The two girls were complimenting you on the great job that you did and that they should encourage you in your acting and singing abilities. Once you took the time to read the full letter, you understood that you made your friend sick with envy.

Do you see how your understanding can get confused if you don’t take the time to get the full story. The same goes with scripture. In order to understand what you believe in you have look at the big picture. Reading a verse here and there gives you very limited knowledge of scripture and who God is.

I want to leave you one more verse to study and meditate on:

2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.” (NLT)

Thankful Thursday~ the still small voice

I have been bound and determined to ignore that “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:22) for months now.  I thought if I ignored it then I wouldn’t have go through any character building exercises or be challenged in any way.  I could just go about life and be happy and free.  To put it bluntly, that idea sucked! 

I know I needed a break from all the “ministry” stuff I was involved in and I needed to spend some time growing as “me”.  But you can’t really grow and ignore His voice.  The two work against each other.  I finally gave in and started listening.  Actually I had no choice, it was almost like He was yelling at me to pay attention.  And I am so thankful that I did. 

“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.”

                                                                        Jeremiah 29:11

He plans aren’t to hurt me but to bring me to the place where I am being all that He has created me to be.  I am seeing that really clearly right now and I am so very thankful!

Back from Holidays

We just came home from a great trip to the lake.  We purchased a trailer this year, we found a great website that sells repossessed items.  It was a great find, now we have something to travel in as a family to visit family in other provinces and when we start demoing our house we have a place to sleep!

We travelled a couple hours east to Tobin Lake.  What a great time as a family.  The girls discovered they love the game UNO.  We read a lot, hung out in the boat and went fishing!

I have to brag for a moment about the huge fish that I caught!  This is my husband with my fish.  It is a 14lb Walleye, that was 32.5” long.  That is a big Walleye.  Most of the Walleye that we have caught have been under 4lbs.  So this was pretty exciting.  The girls couldn’t believe it.  I couldn’t believe my eyes when I pulled it up and this is what I saw.  A very memorable day for me!

We also spotted this bald eagle watching us as we fished.  So majestic as it sat in the top of the pine tree.  Beautiful.

 

 

 

A storm brewing on the other side of the lake got my attention.  It was awesome to see the strength of weather.  As I sat and watched it move closer to us I thought- no amount of money or power could change the fact that we would get wet.  How could anyone think that they in any way, shape or form could possibly be bigger or greater than God.

It was a great time to get away as a family for a time of rest.  One morning I spent time with each of my girls doing devotions.  Their knowledge and understanding of scripture is incredible.  I am a very proud Mom.

We still have a couple more camping/fishing trips this year.  I can’t wait for those experiences.  I am so thankful that we have found something to do as a family that we all enjoy!