A Prayer For Today

Heavenly Father,

Please speak to my heart today as well as the hearts of those who may read this post. Help us to clearly hear your voice through the clutter, the confusion, the demands, the appointments and all obligations that we may recognize and act upon your will over ours.

Thank you for granting us this brand new day.  Order our steps and help us to make the necessary time to meditate on your word that we may apply it to our lives.  Help us all to be open, willing vessels ready to receive your calling.  Give us each a hunger for your word and your direction.

Speak to those with inhibitions and self doubt.  Strengthen and lift weak arms.  Give sight to those who have lost their way.  Provide clarity of thought and direction as you are the well spring in a dry, parched land. 

I thank you that we can call upon you to restore, replenish and refresh us as your people.  Thank you for loving your children.

“O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man…” (Nehemiah 1:11)

Prove It!

It’s driving me crazy.  For the past two weeks or more, I’ve had a blog title buzzing in my head.  Only 2 words.  Nothing more.

“Prove it!”  Yep, that’s it.  That’s the title and I have no clue what to do with it. 

OK….Prove it….so, now what?

Actually, I do find it sort of ironic that today of all days, my pond water has finally cleared up!  Thank you, God!   In a blog post back in July titled “Murky Waters,” I mentioned a pond/aquatic expert who told me that the best way to clear up my ugly, green pond water was to just leave the whole thing alone and let the little eco system form.  He promised that one day I would walk out to my pond and all would be crystal clear. 

Hmm.   Really?  No bleach?  No scrub brush?  I was pretty skeptical and frustrated at first by his suggestion to simply do nothing while my poor fish played bumper cars in pea soup.  But I listened and resisted the urge to scrub it down.  With reluctance, I took his advice…and waited.

I think that God brought this clearing of the water about to illustrate to me that if we’re to call ourselves “Christian,” we need to “prove it” by resisting our human impulse and by living out the Christian response.  We talk about giving it all to God, to put our faith in what is unseen and to rest in the peace of knowing He has it all under control.  But it can be uncomfortable to step out in that faith and release ourselves from the problem.  We want to intervene and fix stuff all by ourselves; to help God out just like I wanted to step in and mess with the natural progression of things when the problem didn’t require my intervention at all.  If we profess it, then we need to speak it and mean it from a sincere heart - more importantly, live it by faith. 

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and

certain of what we do not see."  (Hebrews 11:1)

Ladies Fellowship

Hello there!  I’m so glad to see you.  Please, have a seat and join me.  I’ve had a busy day already, and I could really use this second cup of coffee.

You know, in an email I received the other day from a dear, long-time friend, she reminded me that God gives us what we need WHEN we need it, and I saw for myself this week how true that really is.

Last Monday night, I found myself sitting alone in a restaurant and waiting for ladies to show up for our monthly fellowship time.  Luckily, I’d brought a writer’s magazine along just in case.

I settled in a corner booth, happy for the opportunity to end the day on a happy note chatting with lady friends.  The day had been a long one with an early morning 45-minute drive round trip to drop my son off at the community college.  I hurried back home to do a favor for one of his friends which required sitting through 1 ½ hours of a Cutco Knife presentation! (Urgh!)  Then, there were errands to run, a laundry pile to tackle, a house to clean and dinner to make.  Yep, I was more than ready for some good ol’ fashioned hang-out time with the ladies.

So, there I sat…waiting….and waiting…reading my magazine…..and waiting.

After about 25 minutes of sipping iced tea and staring out the window toward the parking lot, I realized that no one was going to show up.  That’s when the words from Tami’s email came through loud and clear:  “God knows what we need WHEN we need it.”

I had to smile, feeling sort of set up!  God knew the kind of day I’d had, and He was going to make sure I took time out for myself!  He knew that I'd sacrificed out of my day off to help a young man just starting out in his new job.  He knew how I started fretting and worrying about the going-away party in the works for this weekend.  He knew that I’d been eating my meals standing at the kitchen counter instead of taking time to sit and relax.  He knew how long I sat at the station waiting for my car to endure its annual smog test.  He knew my frustration when I didn’t have time to get to all the details of my housecleaning; especially knocking down the cob webs hanging like Christmas garland in the bathroom.  He knows and sees it all, and I’m so glad He does!

God wanted me to schedule our fellowship time – but what He really did was make an open space on the calendar for me to sit, catch up on some great articles and enjoy a ridiculously large slab of chocolate pie!  Woo-Hoo!

So, the day started off with an unexpected kick in the teeth when I checked my email and found a rejection from the publisher to which I recently submitted my latest writing efforts.  Though they declined my little fiction story, they graciously referred me to their sister company…a SELF-publisher!  How nice….

I barely swallowed my first gulp of coffee when I read the well thought-out words of gentle let down.  That’s when the tiny hairs on the back of my neck bristled.  So, what part didn’t they like? I wondered.  The title?  The characters?  Writing style, genre, setting?  Perhaps the many sweat beads muddied the words a bit!

In the middle of all this, for some strange reason, I keep thinking of Yosemite.  I know…what?  Where did that come from?  Well, I’ll tell you. 

If you’ve never been there, let me just say that once you’ve witnessed the majestic El Capitan or Half Dome or the view from Glacier Point, you’re pretty much changed forever.  There’s no place like it on the planet.

The really cool thing?  The same God who created all THAT created ME and YOU too, and He didn’t do so expecting us to fail.  He’s God, and he breathed life into us expecting and equipping us to be nothing less than awesome.  He had our full potential in mind as he formed our very last details.  The God of all things magnificent and awe-inspiring would not create a bargain basement you or me. 

Then why do I still feel like the stuff you sweep into the dust pan and toss out with last week’s meatloaf?  Because I have my eyes focused on ME, of course; my disappointment, my hurt and my rejection instead of on HIM; His purpose, His timing, His plan. 

So, a little rejection, a little discouragement, a little bump and bruise is only skin deep.  As a writer, receiving such a response from a publisher cuts straight through to the heart, but it doesn’t pierce through the dream.  The vision and direction still remain, and my faith will always lie with the One who set the mountains in place.

Philippians 3:13-14 

No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.

A Praying Mom

“In Jesus’ name,” I said with a nod and rose from the bathroom rug.  Yes, once again I’d headed to the closest room with a locking door.  I’d been there a lot the past few months praying and asking for His protection upon my family.

What an awesome God we serve, I thought; a God who through all that clutters our air waves, all the chaos and all the chatter can hear the most inaudible sigh of our hearts.  When I feel like I’m holding onto a kite string with Jesus way up at the top circling high above my family, all the fears, worries and frustrations that come with being a mom become His concern.  How awesome that He hears the prayers of a mother who’s willing to hand over those she loves to His capable hands - a mother determined to keep Christ in her home and bind the hands of the enemy.

Lord, I thank you for the gift of my family.  Help me to trust in you for their care and protection.  Thank you for remaining Lord over my home and over my life.  I pray for your guidance as I strive to be the wife and mother you want me to be.  Amen.

“I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.  I have set the Lord always before me.  Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”  Psalm 16:7 & 8 (NIV)

Son In My Eyes Sundays

Good Morning to you. 

Is the Son in your eyes today?

Thank the Lord for another beautiful Sunday!  I am so excited to get to church and worship the Lord!  Whatever you’ve been through this week, and whatever you anticipate for the week ahead, bring it with you and leave it at the cross.  Nothing is too big for our God!

"Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy in his dwelling place. Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength, ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name. Bring an offering and come before him; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness".

I Chron 16:27-29

Sing praises to Him today: http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/hillsong-all-things-are-possible/6010d2c473944b5f71a76010d2c473944b5f71a7-165689623628?q=all%20things%20are%20possible%20hillsong&FORM=VIRE1

The Web

I awoke to the cool mist of morning and walked the little pathway to my garden with coffee cup in hand.  With sleepy eyes, I peered over the top of the gate, careful not to disturb the rare moment of quiet.

That’s when I saw it.  There, suspended between upper and lower branches of the Cecille Brunner rose, was the most magnificent spider web.  Now understand, I have zero tolerance for spiders and all things crawling and venom filled, but I do have a deep appreciation for the work that goes into the intricate weaving of a web.

I stood there staring for the longest time admiring the beauty in the little beads of dew that hung like crystals reflecting the first light of day.  Luckily, the spider was nowhere in sight, and I was OK with that, but what she left behind was stunning and profound.

As I turned to go, I realized how each one of us live and thrive at the center of our own web, affecting those around us one way or another as we interact from day to day.  Whether positively or not, our actions, our words, our attitude and the intent of our heart either reflect what lies within or deflect the work of God within us.  The spirit behind which we share in prayers and praises, grief and triumph, in fact weaves either an undeniable strength of faith as we witness to others OR represents a conquered, defeated soul who’s given in and given up.

What are you reflecting from the center of your web today?  Do your words reflect one of faith who is at peace and excited about your walk with the Lord?  Or have you surrendered the fight?

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus…” (Phil. 2:1-5)