Have you ever had one of those days where you slept in a little too long, took a little too much time picking an outfit, forgot you needed gas, took the wrong freeway, needed to stop at the atm, forgot something & had to go back and my personal favorite....forgot to put on your shoes!??? Well, it happens to the best of us.... or shall I say the unprepared of us.
As a wife, mom, employee, daughter, friend ....I have plenty on my plate. My day goes like this:
5:00am - first alarm; 5:05am - second alarm; 5:15am - last alarm!!
5-6am - time with God & coffee
6-630am - get dressed
630-7am - pack lunches for triplets & make breakfast
7-730am - encourage (help) triplets get dressed, brush hair/teeth
730am-8am - breakfast, pray with kids, practice memory verse
810am- drop kids off at school
815am- drive to work and start my real day!
Tired? me too!!! And that's just the first 3 hours of my day! What you don't see is that the night before I have laid out ironed uniforms, signed notes, packed back packs, pre-set lunch options and prepared dinner for next day. Even God prepared us:
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Yeah, it's a lot but lets think about it. When you fail to prepare yourself then how will you ever be ready? When I'm busy ironing uniforms the night before I know that this is setting me up for the journey of tomorrow. It may only win me a few minutes but it gives me those extra minutes to talk to a friend, to be a listening ear, to prepare for that meeting, to take extra time to pray, to call a loved one, to solve a problem, to just be in the moment and allow that "tug" of the holy spirit into my life! We pray for ears to hear and eyes to see but if we're busy rushing from one place to the next..... how will you see? Will it just be a blurred vision as you rush on by? Proverbs 31:27 She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Preparing today for tomorrow may just buy you that extra few minutes that may just change your life.....and I don't want to be late for that appointment!
Now... go set your clocks!!!! Set three if you have to...I do!
Matthew 25:13
Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
Back pain
For the last 6 months I have been experiencing a severe back pain. The kind that you think you pulled something so you go for adjustments and countless massages and it keeps creeping back. I finally got so sick of it I went to the Dr and of course his solution was medication. Um, excuse me...I've been clean for 11 years and would like option #2 please! So I insisted on an XRay and he found a beginning case of early Arthritis and suggested steroid shots. Great! No thank you....let me fall flat on my face and ask for healing!
So here I have been for 6 months. Either flat on my face believing in a healing or flat on my back from pain. Today I finally got the revelation that through this God was speaking to me again....shock, I know!!!
I've been praying for a refreshed FAITH recently. Not that I've lost it but I want the flames to be fanned and for it to be burning hot in my life. Well, this morning I felt God telling me..... GET OFF YOUR BACK GIRL AND GO! Perhaps not the healing I was praying for but definitely a direction!! Yes, my back hurts but what do I gain from laying around here and what is it stopping me from doing? No longer gonna lay on my back but be on MY FACE or on my feet....walking towards that purpose! Walking in healing and with that refreshed faith that I am healed! The faith that I can walk past the pain and into the passion of life He has created for me!
Scripture to lean on:
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
So here I have been for 6 months. Either flat on my face believing in a healing or flat on my back from pain. Today I finally got the revelation that through this God was speaking to me again....shock, I know!!!
I've been praying for a refreshed FAITH recently. Not that I've lost it but I want the flames to be fanned and for it to be burning hot in my life. Well, this morning I felt God telling me..... GET OFF YOUR BACK GIRL AND GO! Perhaps not the healing I was praying for but definitely a direction!! Yes, my back hurts but what do I gain from laying around here and what is it stopping me from doing? No longer gonna lay on my back but be on MY FACE or on my feet....walking towards that purpose! Walking in healing and with that refreshed faith that I am healed! The faith that I can walk past the pain and into the passion of life He has created for me!
Scripture to lean on:
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
Façades
Growing up in my culture and time it was always important to keep up appearances. Even if you or your family was having a bad day it was your family responsibility to put on a good face. Façades of life...something I learned to carry on regardless of the pain I was in.
As a young adult my pendulum swung the complete opposite way. If I liked you then you knew it and if I didn't then you knew it too! Not much for tact, grace or manners. I felt as if I had not time to play "pretend" anymore as my childhood was spent in this way. Soon I realized this too was not serving me well. I had very few friends and felt like I was placing my hurt on others.
Now I live my life as if in a glass house. You do get what you see and there are no hidden intentions or agendas. I live my life for others to see that there is hope in Christ. That regardless of your past you can live through it and not just survive with a facade but live a full life. Walk through the rooms of my life and witness the miracles I have seen! Feel free to touch the doors, sit on the furniture and have a cup of coffee. If you have a minute I can tell you my story, my miracles and about God's love.
PS... I don't have decaf! (wink)
As a young adult my pendulum swung the complete opposite way. If I liked you then you knew it and if I didn't then you knew it too! Not much for tact, grace or manners. I felt as if I had not time to play "pretend" anymore as my childhood was spent in this way. Soon I realized this too was not serving me well. I had very few friends and felt like I was placing my hurt on others.
Now I live my life as if in a glass house. You do get what you see and there are no hidden intentions or agendas. I live my life for others to see that there is hope in Christ. That regardless of your past you can live through it and not just survive with a facade but live a full life. Walk through the rooms of my life and witness the miracles I have seen! Feel free to touch the doors, sit on the furniture and have a cup of coffee. If you have a minute I can tell you my story, my miracles and about God's love.
PS... I don't have decaf! (wink)
How do you think?
"The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is how they think." -John Maxwel
How do I think? I believe this has a lot of power and our chosen capacity. People always ask me how I do it. Full time job, wife, mom to 5 year old triplets, graduate student, friend, mentor, sister etc. Reality is that I wouldn't give any of these hats up. I prayed for every single one of them and to now turn around and say "I can't do it all" or "It's too much" what would that mean? Every single one of these roles fills me, inspires me and allows me to walk in my purpose. It's so easy to stand on a prayer:
"God bless me with a job, bless me with a loving husband, bless me with a family, bless me with great friends, bless me with purpose!!!"
Does any of that prayer sound familiar? Perhaps because it is a prayer we all pray at times. To now look at my life and let it overwhelm me would be thankless for the beautiful blessings I was on my knees for.
This world likes to make us forget that our blessings can become burdens and hold you back. I would like to remind you of the opposite....they are your miracles! It's all in the power of how you think...so think again my dear friend!
Scriptures to lean on:
Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
How do I think? I believe this has a lot of power and our chosen capacity. People always ask me how I do it. Full time job, wife, mom to 5 year old triplets, graduate student, friend, mentor, sister etc. Reality is that I wouldn't give any of these hats up. I prayed for every single one of them and to now turn around and say "I can't do it all" or "It's too much" what would that mean? Every single one of these roles fills me, inspires me and allows me to walk in my purpose. It's so easy to stand on a prayer:
"God bless me with a job, bless me with a loving husband, bless me with a family, bless me with great friends, bless me with purpose!!!"
Does any of that prayer sound familiar? Perhaps because it is a prayer we all pray at times. To now look at my life and let it overwhelm me would be thankless for the beautiful blessings I was on my knees for.
This world likes to make us forget that our blessings can become burdens and hold you back. I would like to remind you of the opposite....they are your miracles! It's all in the power of how you think...so think again my dear friend!
Scriptures to lean on:
Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
The sun is up SOMEWHERE!!
Sometimes we find ourselves going through difficult times and feel forgotten by God and struggle to hear Him in our lives. I would like to encourage you.
The sun may be down on your side of the world but guess what??? It's up somewhere in the world!!
The great thing is that they have discovered that the earth rotates....that the earth is round.....and soon it will be our turn to be in the sun....so hold on because Gods moving you and the sunrise is coming!
I guarantee you that this the moment it does, it will take your breath away!
Scripture to lean on:
Romans 8:24-25 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
The sun may be down on your side of the world but guess what??? It's up somewhere in the world!!
The great thing is that they have discovered that the earth rotates....that the earth is round.....and soon it will be our turn to be in the sun....so hold on because Gods moving you and the sunrise is coming!
I guarantee you that this the moment it does, it will take your breath away!
Scripture to lean on:
Romans 8:24-25 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Fathers
"Your earthly father may have failed you but your heavenly father will never leave you & He will fill the void." -Philip Wagner www.philipwagner.com
I had never heard a more healing statement. This was a man, my Pastor asking for forgiveness for the offenses another earthly man had committed in my life. This was a man standing in a gap that perhaps my own dad would not be able to stand upon in his lifetime. Not only did he allow me to begin to let go of the pain and sadness but he did a great favor to my earthly dad. The one that hurt me the most, the one I continue to pray for, the one that God cries for......as a lost son.
What my Pastor did was stand is gap that my earthly father has not been able stand in...on his own and perhaps one day my dad will start a relationship with God. There he will find forgiveness. Forgiveness that I have already granted in my own heart because of this man, this Pastor. And when he does, if he gets to meet my Pastor ...he can thank his brother for standing in that gap for him.
I now challenge myself...to stand in someone else's gap.
I had never heard a more healing statement. This was a man, my Pastor asking for forgiveness for the offenses another earthly man had committed in my life. This was a man standing in a gap that perhaps my own dad would not be able to stand upon in his lifetime. Not only did he allow me to begin to let go of the pain and sadness but he did a great favor to my earthly dad. The one that hurt me the most, the one I continue to pray for, the one that God cries for......as a lost son.
What my Pastor did was stand is gap that my earthly father has not been able stand in...on his own and perhaps one day my dad will start a relationship with God. There he will find forgiveness. Forgiveness that I have already granted in my own heart because of this man, this Pastor. And when he does, if he gets to meet my Pastor ...he can thank his brother for standing in that gap for him.
I now challenge myself...to stand in someone else's gap.
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