Remembering--Memorial Day

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends"  John 15:13

As I go into this 3 day weekend I stop to reflect and remember all the men & women that gave their lives that we may have our freedom. 

Having a father & father-in-law (plus a few other relatives and friends) that either have been or are in the military I just have great respect for what they have done and still do.  I just want to stop and honor our fallen this weekend. 

It is easy to see a 3 day weekend and think of fun and parties but forget why we have this holiday.  I have been to Arlington National Cemetery and it is overwhelming to see all those headstones.

The above were taken by me several years back.

So I just ask that as you go about this weekend and enjoy fun and time with family remember that it is because of these men & women that we are able to enjoy the freedom we have and will continue to have.

God bless the United States of America!!!

Are you Unbalanced?

Do you feel like you have to many things going on?  Do you feel rushed a lot or frazzled with all of life's demands?  Well I do, at least at times.

This past week I would have a good day then I would feel frazzled about a lot of little things and then a good day then the next frazzled again.  I have been working to balance my life.  This is not easy since there are so many unknowns that come up.  When you are married and have kids it is very hard to stay balanced but not impossible.

I am learning a lot of how to balance my life and part of that is saying NO to things.  This is not easy when I feel pulled in different directions.  I am learning what my priorities are.  I have always known the order--or what I thought was the order:  God, Husband, Kids, Others  That makes sense--right?  Well there seems to be something...or someone missing in that list.  ME!!  It may sound a bit selfish but it is not.  I (we) have to take care of ourselves to be able to take care of others.  I don't mean I am putting ME at the top of others in all circumstances but I have to put me in there somewhere.

Let see where I should put ME......Me, God--no that can't work.  I think it would have to be...God, me, Husband, Kids, Others!!  Yep that works.  Notice that the ME in that list is a little ME.  That is because I feel that we have to put ourselves up there as a priority but for our basic needs (time with God, food, sleep, self care, etc...) not to put ourselves up there so that we are off doing things all the time without thinking of others.  I know when I am well rested, eating good and taking care of myself I have time & energy for just about anything that comes up.  Makes my husband happy to see me taking care of myself and I like to see my husband happy.

Do I think as woman, mothers, wives that we should take time out for ourselves for fun--absolutely!!!  The key here is BALANCE! 

As long as we are spending time with God, taking care of our husbands, kids and ourselves it seems to all fall into place.  I don't know about you but I want to be Supermom but I tried that and my cape burned up in flight.  We can't do it all and we have to make time for ourselves.

For me I think this may be a life long challenge but we will see.  God has really been doing a lot of work in me and I like where He is taking me.  I just have to remember to surrender to Him daily and stay in His will and I will have a joy-filled life.  Will I get frazzled--most likely but I am hoping that those days will become less and less the closer I walk with my Lord.

One of "Those" days.....

It has been just "one of those days" for me.  After a pretty good nights sleep I awake ready to start a good day.  It just went downhill from there...at least for a bit.  I didn't have my normal morning quiet time with God, not a good start.  So what did I do with all the "little" things that happened today--COMPLAIN!  You know what happened...everything has worked out just fine.  I was reminded that when I take my eyes off Jesus and put them on my problems my little problems appear very BIG.  But God is bigger and I am so thankful for that.  Even when I am looking the other way He still has his eye on me.  So as I finish this day I am now fixing my eyes on Jesus and I know that tomorrow is a new day.  Praise the Lord!!

"Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always." 

Psalm 105:4

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."  Hebrews 12:2

Ready for a GREAT day tomorrow!!!

Being Prepared

I really didn't know how to title this entry but wanted to share a recent experience.  I have been asking God to use me and the gifts that He has given me.  I completely surrendered to His will for my life.  With time on my hands I have been looking for ways to serve (serving is one of my gifts). 

I have been volunteering at a Children's hospital for a couple years and love it but felt like there was more for me.  I am not always patient waiting for God, this is something he is teaching me.  I recently excepted a job but was told I would not be able to start until the middle of June.  OK, I thought this will give me time to prepare for long work days since I have been mostly on "my" schedule for years, now I need to be prepared for a work schedule. 

This past week is where I feel God has really grown me and showed me WHY I had to wait to start this job and a lot of other things.  God has blessed me with the gifts of mercy, serving and encouragement.  I am not always good at following through with them but when I do I am blessed and know I am in His will.  So taking care of others comes easy for me (most of the time--I can be lazy about it).

My mom had been taking care of her oldest brother and he had been pretty sick for some time.  This past week it was evident that my uncle was not going to be around much longer.  I had been praying for him and my mom during this time.  I was on a walk with my husband Tues evening when we were talking about the situation.  My uncle was at a hospital close to me so why was I not going to visit.  I had not grown up with this uncle and he had upset me with the way he had treated my mom so I did kind of "step aside".  While talking with my husband I told him I wanted to be there FOR my mom and to let my uncle know that I loved him.  My husband knew that if I didn't follow my heart, which we both knew it was a prompting from God, that I would regret it.

The next day I go to visit my uncle and planned for a very short visit and again thought this was more to support my mom.  I ended up spending more time there and felt like that was where I needed to be. 

God prepared me and my heart for this time, I have no doubt about that.  I so much loved being there, talking with my uncle, helping him in any way I could and just doing what I know how to do.  He called me his favorite nurse.  No, I am not a nurse, I have a medical background but not a nursing degree.  Taking care of him was easy for me.  I had prayed for his salvation and on Wed. one of the pastors from my church came and talked with my uncle and he prayed and received Christ.  This brought us all a lot of joy.  We would talk about this off and on.  I could see the peace in his eyes.  My uncle went to be with the Lord on Friday 5/21 in the afternoon.  I held his hand as he passed from this life into the arms of Jesus. 

I got up this morning to have my quiet time and one of the devotionals I am using right now was so fitting.  I would have done this yest. but was at the hospital as we had spent the night Thurs. night when he took a turn for the worse.  The book is Praying for Purpose for Women by Katie Brazelton and is a 60 day devotional.  This is what I read this morning:  "Do you understand that he (God) delights in giving you tasks he designed you to love?".  After I read that I sat for awhile just thinking about how God used me & my gifts over the last few days and I was just in awe of the wonderful, mighty God that I serve.  He is so much bigger than my feeble mind can even comprehend. 

I realized that had I been able to start my job earlier I would have started it on the 20th--the day before my uncle passed and I would not have been able to be there and allow God to use me and I would have missed this blessing.  WOW!!!  I thought of how on Thurs I had gotten really tired and had a headache after lunch so I went home to take a nap.  I got a call just after 9 pm that he was not doing well and I headed to the hospital.  I was not tired, I had no headache.  God had prepared me for a long night.  WOW!!!  I had no worries about my family because I knew they were all doing fine and could take care of things at home.  I was right where I was suppose to be at the time.  WOW!!!

I guess I just wanted to try and share just a bit of what I am feeling and how God has been using me.  Words cannot even begin to express how I feel right now and how blessed I feel.  I am just so thankful that I serve a loving God.  I am so NOT perfect, I have so many flaws but God sees me as a clean, pure child of HIS that is willing to be used.  As Samuel said in 1 Samuel 3:10 "Speak, for your servant is listening.".  That is me, not that I always listen but I want to because when I do great things happen.  When I don't.........

So I start my weekend with sadness at the loss of my uncle and joy with how God has used me and the joy in my heart of what an AWESOME GOD WE SERVE!!

STRESS!!

I have been a bit stressed lately.  At first I didn't think it was stress but my body told me otherwise.  For me (as for many) stress tends to cause physical symptoms that we think are illnesses or worse but then come to find out we are just fine it is just STRESS.  Don't really like that word myself it feels like I can't handle life.  I know that is not true and everyone deals with stress at some point in their lives.

There is good stress and bad stress.  It can become very complicated and more detailed than I have time or room for here.  How we handle stress is very important.  Once I realized that is was stress and not some crazy disease I was able to take a step back and look at how to handle the stress and do it feeling good.  I go to the Truth--the Word of God!!

*Prayer--pray continually (1 Thess. 5:17)

*Eat healthy

*Get a good night sleep

*Say "NO" to things that can wait

*Don't put too much on my schedule

*Find time for myself

*Take one day at a time

*Exercise

*Laugh--A LOT!!

*Be kind to others

*SLOW DOWN!!

(I could go on and on but I think you get the point)

So to help with stress is to take care of myself.  The Bible is clear we are to take care of ourselves:

"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?"  1 Cor. 3:16

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."  1 Cor. 10:31

My body is important to God because the Holy Spirit lives in me.  I have to take care of it.

So whenever I start to feel stress build up I remember what the Word (truth) says:

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."  Matthew 11:28

I will ALWAYS find rest in Jesus.

 

Half-full OR Half-empty???

When you see this what do you think?

It is a common question. 

Most people either see it half-full (optimistic) or half-empty (pessimistic).

Pessimism is expecting the worst possible outcome.

Optimism is to anticipate the best possible outcome.

Which way do you lean?

I don't feel that people are all one way, some fall more on one side than the other but have at least a little of both in them.  I will tell you where I feel I fall.....a pessimist.  At least that is what I thought until I learned more about myself.  I am more pessimistic when it comes to myself but more optimistic when it comes to dealing with other people either in thought or when talking to them.  One of my spiritual gifts is encouragement, well you can't be a pessimist and still be an encourager--right. 

I am daily working toward growing in truth and that is the Word of God.  When I think on the truth all day it becomes more difficult to be pessimistic....this is good.  As I grow I am learning to think the truth about myself and I start to think of the positive and all the blessings in my life.

There is a saying "Hope for the best but expect the worst".  Once we put that "but" in there we just negated the hope that we should have.  I am guilty of this.  I had a wise young lady remind me that sometimes what we think is best is really not the best and sometimes what we think is the worst is really for our best.  Only God knows what is best for us.  So I now just hope for the best and know that the best is whatever God's will is for my life.

I am learning & growing; a work in progress.  I do feel that I am more of an optimist now about myself, others and life in general because I am growing in the Truth.

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true...think about such things." 

Philippians 4:8

I have this verse (the whole thing) posted on my mirror, computer and in my purse to remind me everyday to think on these things.

Living in the truth brings joy and peace!! 

That is exactly where I want to be.

Where do you want to be???

Fasting from Worry

About 2 months ago I found an article in the February addition of Journey which is a devotional for women.  The title is The Fast That Changed My Life by Cindi Wood.  In this devotional she tells how she "fasted from worry" and here I am going to tell you how I used her wisdom and ideas to do my own worry fast.

If you are like me you worry about everything:  kids, marriage, money, health, family, friends.....the list could go on and on, at least for me.  What has worrying done for me--NOTHING!!  It keeps me stuck and unable to move forward into a happy, joy-filled life.  In Matthew 6:27 it says "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" (NIV).  So there is no benefit to worry.  Also in Matthew 6:34 it says "Therefore don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own".  Well that is so true.  I worry about what is going to happen tomorrow when I have enough to deal with today.  This is not good.

So on March 19th, 2010 I started my "Fasting from Worry" Box

I decided to do this one week at a time.  So I sat down, wrote out one worry per little piece of paper, prayed over it and then just gave it to God.  I then put it in my box and it was no longer mine to worry about.

I placed my box on my dresser so that I would be reminded to NOT worry about things.  I have kept a journal and updated each week.  I will say the first week was rough.  I had a spiritual attack and it was NOT fun.  I even thought of giving up but was NOT going to let Satan win in this.  So I went on and have been doing this almost every week (now to every 2 weeks) since then and I have been blessed more than I could even imagine. 

I can't say that I don't worry, I do, I just find that when I start to worry about something I remind myself about my box and that I am to give all my worries to God and I am able to do that--most of the time.  I am not perfect, it is not always easy.  God has really grown me and taught me a lot about myself since I have been doing this.  I find that even things that are not in my box that pop up as a worry I am able to stop and give them over to God.

If you would like more information about this please let me know.  I would love to share.

This weeks (2 weeks) box

It is just awesome to see how God works when we place our worries in His hands!!  Free's me to not have to worry about things but I am able to move forward in life with a peace knowing God is in control.

It is ALL good!!

"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you."  1 Peter 5:7

Defining Truth

Since I titled this Daily Growing in Truth I thought I would start with defining truth.  Here is what I found:

Truth (noun)
Truthfulness, Honesty, Fact, Actuality, Loyalty, Trustworthiness, Sincerity, Genuineness, Reality, Integrity, Fidelity

These are just a few examples I found between Websters Dictionary and Your Dictionary.com

As I have found I have grown up with a lot of lies.  Lies about life, marriage, family, myself and even God.  These lies tend to take root in the brain and live there as though they are truth.  Many do not even realize how much of what they think or believe are lies (or at least not close to the truth).  We grow with tapes that are played over and over in our heads that make us think that what we "know" to be true is true but a lot of the time it is not.

Life is a journey from birth to death and we are all learning along the way.  Hopefully we grow day-by-day but for most of us we will have times when we take a step backwards or become "stuck" where we are at instead of growing.

I have found the only way to grow in the truth is to know the real Truth and that is with a relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Once we have that relationship then we can grow in His Word and learn daily more about what the truth really is.

Even as I follow Christ and surrender daily to live for him I still fall back into those old lies that are in my head.  As I continue to post I will tell you how I have been working to change those old tapes and replace them with new ones.

So join me as I grow in truth.

Welcome!!

This is my first blog. Wanted to share my growing in truth with you. Hope you come back to visit.