Coffee Break with Deb (6/13)

I’m so glad you could join me out here on the patio. I wanted to come out and clip a few roses to bring indoors, but the garden’s abuzz with bees and butterflies at the moment, and I’d rather not disturb them. Besides, I’m enjoying this little break in the day with an afternoon coffee and the cool, gentle breeze that called me out to my favorite comfy spot.

You know, I’ve been thinking of something lately…imagine that! As I reflect on this past year, in particular, I realize just how close God has been to me. How much I’ve relied on His strength and guidance in every situation. He’s such an awesome God and I just have to praise Him!

He’s taught me something very valuable, and I’d like to share it with you:

If you want God to reign OVER everything,

you have to put Him ABOVE everything!

Makes sense, doesn't it?

Rain doesn't begin falling at eye level and if we keep God only at eye level, we limit our thinking in what He can accomplish in us and through us. Look up, my friend. Up to the mountains, to the clouds that pass overhead and absolutely know that our God is bigger and greater than all we can fathom. He is to be the most valued King of kings and Lord of lords.

So, let me ask you this:

Where Do You Place God in Your Life?

Is He locked away in that dusty Bible? Do you only pull Him out when you want something and you decide to “pray real hard” until He gives you what you want?

Is He your “seasonal” God?

The One you run to on your terms, not His?

Is He the voice you try to silence behind your busy life? The one you put off until Sunday rolls around?

OR is He first in line ahead of every joy, every dilemma, every fear and worry?

I pray you trust in Him today, my friend. Draw near to Him. Listen for His voice and rest in the comfort of His embrace. His blessings and mercies never cease.

“…one God and Father of all, who is over all and

through all and in all.”

Ephesians 4:6

Happy SONday!

Let the glorious light of Jesus shine through you today!

It's All Come to This...

I promised him I wouldn't cry.

I lied.

What’s a mom to do when it’s her boy now a man heading out to fulfill a dream?

All the years of school band concerts and me straining to see the little spiky-haired boy behind the music stand; the shortest but loudest trumpet of all and never missing a note…it’s all come down to this.

Cody in high school marching band 2009

All the solos, the starched white shirts and black pants, the Christmas concerts, spring concerts, jazz concerts, playing Sundays in church, for parades, funerals, rest  homes and Veteran’s Day…all right next to his dad, the best teacher of all; the one who’s nurtured the love of music that now burns a passion all its own.

It’s come to this.

Cody and his Louis Armstrong Award, 2010

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6) ESV

His bags are packed. The air is thick with anticipation.

The tarnished yard-sale trumpet will remain in its case for now, though it’s served him well over the years – the years that mattered most when all the learning, growing, building and becoming quietly occurred.

It will be a newer, shinier horn that accompanies him for the summer tour; one that will better reflect the stadium lights when he takes the field….one that will reflect the tears of joy and love from the proudest parents in the stands.

We love you, Cody and we're so proud of you!

Woo-Hoo!!!! Look out, drum corps! Here comes another Dillon!!!

Hiding Behind the Gate

The

 garden isn’t quite what I want it be just yet, but there’s potential just beyond the gate. All it needs is nurturing, time, water, sunlight…that special touch from the Creator.

Much like the blessings of a garden not yet awake, there are many gifts locked away in all of us just waiting to bloom and bring glory to God… but it takes effort, doesn’t it? It takes a stepping away from ourselves to step out in faith. Sometimes, we just don’t feel like putting forth the work it takes to “bloom,” to BE more, to DO more than what life already demands. So our gifts and our talents and our blessings to others remain locked away behind that gate. Their colors never seen or appreciated.

God’s glory never given.

“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.”

1 Corinthians 12:4-6 (ESV)

I encourage you to step out today, my friend. God has designed you to bloom. Be firmly rooted in His presence, His Word and His power that they may be the support you need to grow and produce blessings abundant.

“All who are skilled among you are to come and make everything the Lord has commanded.” Exodus 35:10 (NIV)

You weren’t created to be unproductive and left to whither on the vine. Don't keep your potential locked away behind the gate - allow God to nurture His gifts in you and bloom today!

Wishing you 

Many Blessings,

Debbie

Regular Deadheading

It’s been such an emotional couple of days for the folks in the path of the deadly Oklahoma tornado. The images and the stories are almost too much to comprehend.

Reluctantly, I pulled myself away from the television this afternoon and with a heavy heart, I ventured out to the back garden to water and to collect my thoughts. I opened the gate giving thanks for the very luxury of doing so; of going out to check on my special space with hose in hand and not knowing the kind of fear some of the poor parents are suffering tonight as search and rescue crews switch focus to recovery efforts instead. I shook my head once again and whispered another prayer.

I reached for the clippers off my potting bench and snipped a few roses and zinnias with blooms now past their prime. Also among them are lavender, foxgloves, viburnum, more roses, vines and anything else that “spoke” to me at my favorite nursery (smiles). I’ve planted pretty much all I can plant in my little garden – now and throughout the summer, it will be a constant game of watering, weeding, waiting, clipping, watering, weeding, waiting, clipping, etc. But I don’t mind. Tending my garden is what keeps me sparking on all 8 cylinders (LOL). It’s where the Lord meets me. It’s where my own thoughts rise above the chaos of the day to somehow make sense. I garden with sea gulls overhead and a little fat lizard that’s taken up residence beneath my erysimum shrub. It’s where little finches and sparrows dart in and out through the lavatera while blue jays and robins drink from my fountain and splash in the bird bath.

Perspective is gained in the simplest of moments, don’t you think?

This deadheading – the cutting away of that which is spent and of no value to the garden sort of mirrors how I hope to live my life. A rose that has turned brown and lost its petals is no longer God glorifying. That’s why we clip it off to allow the new buds to form. As gardeners, we don’t want to see a plant continue to give energy to branches full of dead flowers – we clip them off to promote new God-glorifying growth.

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. (John 15:2 NIV)

Do you have some deadheading to do in your life? Are there “things,” relationships, activities, choices or attitudes that are far from God glorifying?

Yes, there is much to learn in the garden.

Be blessed, my friend,

Debbie

Moved to Pray

It’s another situation,

Yet another conversation,

The need too great to handle alone,

And I’m moved to pray.

It’s one more soul,

Lost and desperately searching

But the struggle will always be,

And I’m moved to pray.

Another young life helpless,

Walking a tight rope between life and death,

Fighting for the very air I breathe so freely,

And I’m moved to pray.

Pray without ceasing ~ 1 Thess. 5:17

If I’m “moved” to pray, that insinuates that I’m not already doing so; that I’m someplace other than within hearing distance of my Jesus. It implies that I’ve moved out of range and that I need to return to what should come very naturally if we’re to reap the blessings God has in store for us all.

We’re to pray without ceasing, that life should be a continuing conversation with God, a constant giving of thanks and praise and falling at His feet.

Yes, life at the very feet of Him.

Life spent in His will.

Life with Him.

Life to the full.

Be blessed sweet friend,

Debbie

Coffee Break with Deb

Hello and thank you for stopping by!

Gosh, have your ever considered starting a conversation with, “Hi! Let me tell you what the Lord has done!”

Well, that’s what I’m doing today. I want to share what the Lord reminded me of recently.

About a week ago, I found myself really down and discouraged, feeling like everything I did led me straight to a dead end – nothing I was doing seemed to be working. And once again, I found myself in that familiar mindset, an inner turmoil that sends me grasping for solutions that will never work.

I let negative thoughts seep into my mind. I let myself “go back” to my old habits and my old way of thinking; that I was the one who had to fix the problem and emotionally pull myself out of the muck and mire.

But one afternoon, I grabbed a cup of coffee and my Bible and walked out to my favorite comfy spot on the patio. And there, with the soothing sounds of my fountain and my little doves and finches content in the dappled sunlight, the Lord met me.

I love that He knows where I’ve been and

where I’m going.

He knows that I made a decision on that warm summer night at the age of 17 to confess my sins and make Him Lord and Savior over my life, but then fell away from my faith for many years.

He knows that “confusion” best describes my childhood and He knows how I’ve broken free from the bonds of it…. but have endured deep pain as a result.

He knows all about my dreams, goals and aspirations because He created them.

And He knew, better than anyone else, the weight I carried on my shoulders that day on the patio as He led me to the perfect passage:

Remember those earlier days after you had

received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For,

“In just a little while,
    he who is coming will come
    and will not delay.” And,

“But my righteous one will live by faith.
    And I take no pleasure
    in the one who shrinks back.”  But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith

and are saved.

(Hebrews 10:32-39)

These perfect and beautiful words were accompanied by an almost audible whisper to my heart: “What have I told you to do? Do what I have said.”

So, why do I over-complicate things? Why do I always muddy the waters when my gracious and merciful God lays it right out there in front of me? Too easily, I think I have to help a situation by diverting down the left or to the right when I just need to venture straight ahead and DO what He has told me to???

Uggh!

He is SO good and SO patient with me!

So, what I want to share is this: anything that distracts, diverts attention from or inhibits you from carrying out the dream God has given you is work of the enemy. Stay focused, my friend. Don’t muddy the waters of God’s plan by over-thinking or over-complicating it with human nature.

Simply do the will of the Father.

Be blessed,

Debbie