Full of Thanks!!

Thankful!  So thankful.  Did you know it's impossible to be Thankful and Miserable at the very same time?  Seriously.  Think about it.  If you are Thankful..at least for that 2 or 3 seconds you choose to be Thankful for something, miserable has to take a back seat.  Did you know that you are the only one that gets to decide if you are Thankful or not?  It's totally your choice.  Quite frankly, if I knew I had a choice between miserable and Thankful...I'd choose thankful any day of the week!!


I'm just so thankful to God, that He nudges us, reminds us, and gives us the ability to be thankful!
My daughter and I went for a walk the other night...and something happened.  I found myself being overwhelmed with thankfulness.  As we were walking, and mind you this is before dinner, and we were hungry! We began to smell some of the most beautiful aromas!   As we passed one house, we could tell that they were grilling out.   Oh, the wonderful smell of something cooking on the grill.   How pleasant that was as we passed by.  For a moment I did consider knocking on the door and inviting ourselves to dinner! :)  We continued walking, and before long  I smelled another wonderful aroma!  It was definitely someone who had just ordered from the local Italian Restaurant.  The smell of the spices, and the marinara, and even imagining the cheese....Beautiful!  We continued walking and then another wonderful smell...we both looked at each other and at the same time said..."Someone's doing laundry!"  The smell of fresh laundry, of the fabric softener was so clear in the air and so nice....it almost inspired us to do laundry when we got back to the house......almost. :)  As I inhaled the wonderful smells, I looked up at the sky, and we saw the most beautiful clouds in the sky, with the most beautiful colors of the setting sun reflecting off of the clouds.  I could feel the crisp fall evening air, and the slight breeze blowing around us.
I'm telling you something happened.  I suddenly was so thankful that I could smell.  What a privilege to smell such wonderful aromas!  I was so thankful that I could see!  I could see the leaves turning, and the beautiful clouds and sunsets!  Then I was just so thankful for Fall, and the cool evenings.  Then I was reminded what an incredible blessing it is to be able to walk!  I thought of how many times I couldn't walk as far, and I thought of people too old to walk, or those in the hospital who would love to get up and walk around.  I was thankful we had a home to walk back to, and food to make for dinner.  I was just simply overwhelmed with thankfulness to God for things I rarely take the time to thank Him for.

It was a wonderful night!  I must tell you too, that during that time of thankfulness, I could feel God so near!  I wasn't thinking of stresses in my life.  For those beautiful moments, I was simply thankful enjoying the precious gifts I've been given and enjoying time with God and my daughter.


Thankful!  Have you tried it lately?  It's wonderful!

Time to Rearrange some things!

Everything Fits!

The Power of Rearranging!

Today I cried out to God to rearrange me.  It has become so apparent that many things in my life are just out of order.   I am continually reminded that I have in me all that I need, however sometimes it just doesn't seem to work. Sometimes even though there are a lot of good things going on, I just have not seemed to be able to manage everything.  

I love tangible examples, so here goes.... I have this little make-up case that someone along the way handed down to me.  I keep the same basics in that case every day.

Don't judge me by my make-up variety! :)

Above you will see how nicely my makeup bag closes.  Nice and neat, compact, everything inside.  That's how it's supposed to be!  However, I cannot tell you how many times I have been so frustrated, because I can't get the dumb bag to snap shut! I'm in a hurry, and end up just having to drop it into my purse without snapping it, and then later all of the contents end up dumping out in my purse!  Fun.  So why is it that this happens when I know good and well that everything will easily fit into this bag and this bag will easily snap shut with everything in it?  Answer:  It's all in the arrangement of things!  There's a basic arrangement of these items, that truly does make it easy to close this bag.  However, even though each time I have the exact same items, how I arrange them changes everything.  Truth be told, I'm not arranging them at all.  I'm simply tossing them in haphazardly.  When I take the time to simply create order, and actually arrange them properly, everything goes smoothly, no stress, no pressure, just everything nice and tidy and secure in the bag.

I'm finding that this is the way it is in life.  I have asked God to rearrange me.  I've got a good variety of things that I know fit within His purpose and plan for my life, and yet sometimes, I just feel like I'm falling out all over the place.  The house is a wreck, I hate for anyone to look inside the car, I'm behind on some bills, I have ridiculous hair because I've had to do it myself, and I'm not moving forward on some goals because I'm constantly trying to play "catch up" with everything that's been "falling" all over the place.  This is not an orderly life, arranged properly so that everything fits.  Now I know life is messy and not always will everything fit.  Don't go too deep on me. :)   I just know that now is the time for me to put some things in order, and because that is not a "natural" gift of mine, I have elicited some "supernatural" help. :) 

 I have two different organizations calling for prayer and fasting.  How wonderful to be challenged to do this at the exact same time by both of these organizations that are completely separate from one another.   I'm going to be asking God for some wisdom and receiving His help in the accurate arranging of my life.  I know that He is already answering my prayer and rearranging things in my life, so that I will be more effective while experiencing more peace and rest.  That sounds good to me.  I don't have a final outcome to share with you, just a challenge to you. If you've just been haphazardly tossing some things into your bag of life, and if you constantly have to keep cleaning up the mess....join me in the challenge of purposefully choosing with wisdom the accurate arrangement of things.   His Supernatural help is just as available to you as it is to me. ....to be continued.....   

Road Trip - Part 1

Road Trip.........If you only knew all of the "faith" that went into leaving Virginia on this road trip.  At this point (since the journey is almost over) I don't mind telling you, the last time I left Virginia, I was dealing with some issues that had me in an ER in Ohio, and that when we left Virginia, the only money we had for this trip was $150 given to us by two different women of God. 

Let me start from the very beginning...You see in January my friend invited me to her company party.  I was so needing a miracle that I began to look at this party as an opportunity to see who I might meet....who would either be able to bless me, or connect me to someone who could bless me...while I was getting ready for this party, God literally showed me how I was all about me and how I needed to be blessed and who could bless me.
Rather shocked to find out that I was all about me :), I sincerely repented..., but then I became righteously angry and  I immediately said, "God I hate Poverty!"  I became very aware that it was my "lack" that made me look for who could bless me...surely if God says "Give and it will be given unto you good measure, pressed down and shaken together, will God cause men to give to you."  Well I knew God's promise was true, so I was looking for who God would use to give to me what I just couldn't do for myself as a single mom.
Can I just tell you now, that you will never ever succeed at life, if all you think about is you.  The sad thing is sometimes you don't even realize that you've stopped thinking of others and only think about you.  It's a major revelation to yourself, when you realize it.  Anyway, when I said "God I hate Poverty!!!"  He said, well  what if money was no problem?  What would you be doing differently tonight?"  and I answered, "Well instead of going to see who might be a blessing to me, if all of my needs were met and I had excess, then I would be going tonight to see who I might be able to bless."  I literally felt God say, "If you truly believe that Poverty is broken off of your life, even before you see it, then you need to start behaving as if it has already happened."  Well from that moment on, I became very excited about this party and went to see who I could be a blessing to in some way.
Would you believe that when we arrived at the party, we were looking for a table and found one that had one lady seated there.  As we approached she lifted her head and we saw that she had been crying....we also noticed that she was from our church.  She shared that she had been praying, her father had been admitted to ICU and death was certain.  She prayed no one would sit with her until she could get herself together, and as she lifted her head from prayer, there we were.  I was able to share comfort with her regarding loss I had experienced, and revelation I had from going through that, that encouraged her.  We were laughing by the end of the night, but before the night ended, God sent 4 other people to our table, who all were there by His appointment. God used my friend and I to encourage, challenge, comfort, and befriend those around us.
I had learned that I could go and be a blessing, even without money, and that Poverty was broken off of my life.  It starts in the mind....then it will manifest in the natural.  We are half way there now! :)
I say all of that, to explain why I decided to take this trip....I knew I needed to spend some time with my daughter.  We needed to get away, and we both had a desire to bless people all along the way on this trip. I felt so strongly to take this trip that I did this completely in faith...natural wisdom would say don't go if you don't have the money to go....but I knew what I was hearing....Go.  You'll never know the challenge that this was to my faith and my "common sense", but I also can tell you now, that with all we have experienced...I know I heard Him correctly.   Tomorrow I will post a few of the AMAZING things that God has allowed us to be a part of on this trip....I cannot wait to share them with you...
If you've read this, and will also read tomorrow's post, please comment below or send me a message by facebook.

Get ready for the extraordinary!

You just have to get excited when you read this...I know I do.  Let God shake  you out of your complacency, let him stir you up!!! Read this and be encouraged!!


"David was kid in the midst of warriors, and yet he was on his way to being a king…I must prepare you , because God is getting ready to take you out of your element out of your comfort zone, He’s getting ready to take you into an idiom of thinking that makes you intimidated and insecure, He’s getting ready to take you into a place where you don’t fit, where you don’t fit in with the crowd He’s going to take you in. Have you ever been out of your element, over your head, out of your circle, and said, Lord I haven’t been trained for this, I didn’t go to school for this, I don’t have the background for this..but when God calls you, He calls you according to His own divine purpose, He calls you according to His own destiny, and if you stay with the familiar, you’re gonna miss the spectacular. If you stay with the ordinary, you are going to miss the extraordinary. ….The Lord sent me to shake somebody, shake you out of your complacency, shake you out of your ordinariness, shake you out of your hum drum, routine, know what you’re going to do everyday life, God wanted me to stir you up, because something is about to happen in your life!"  TD Jakes 10/3/11

On the Verge, About to Emerge...Greater!

This is such a powerful word for anyone feeling on the verge of transition.  This blog is simply a transcription of a message I heard it, and  felt like it was for me and for me only...yet I know when God does that it's often for many of us!!  So if it resounds with you too....take it!!



 From T.D. Jakes October 3,2011 AND I QUOTE!!
"Many of you are in a transition; you are at a turning point in your life. You are standing right on the edge, on the verge, of a new idiom of thinking and being and doing and becoming, and you sense it in your spirit, yet you have a certain degree of uncertainty about the particulars. Because whenever God does a thing, He never describes what He does, He just does it because He’s sovereign. He does it because He is God all by himself. He doesn’t give you details, He just tells you to step off the boat and walk on the water. He doesn’t give you details, He just says, Go to a place that I’ll show you when you get there. He doesn’t give you details, He just says build me a house. He doesn’t give you a lot of details about circumstances and situations, He just is…and somebody in this room, God has been nudging you towards something and you can’t even explain what it is…it’s beyond your sphere of reference, it does not fit in with your resume, it does not tie in to a natural progression of thoughts, it is not an ordinary like A, B, C, D, it’s like A, B, Q it’s just all out of alignment with everything you thought was about to happen, but you are on the verge of a mighty transition and the Lord has sent me all the way from Dallas Texas to prepare you because something is about to happen in your life!"

I'm so excited right now I can hardly stand it!! Do you understand?  A, B, Q  God redeems the time that we think it's going to take to get from point A to point Q, but with God, you can just skip the grades or the natural progression of things and He can elevate you and promote you outside of the normal progression!  A new idiom of thinking and being and doing and becoming.....nothing changes until you change your mind...renew your  mind on His word...There's so much in there that helps, that tells you who He is, so you can understand more of who you are.  The more you know Him, the more time you spend with Him, the more you realize you are like Him, and the more you realize what things must change for you to be even more like Him.  He's your father, and if He's your father, then you have the same DNA.  

DNA...Doubt?NotAnymore!  I know I'm His, and He's preparing me for what He's transitioning me into...I can't explain it but I can feel it, and I know He hasn't brought me this far to leave me!  

Be encouraged!

Belly Laugh

 
You know the kind I'm talking about....when a kid just laughs from deep down and it just seems to come up from their belly!  It's one of the most beautiful sounds ever!

Well I was at the Doctor's office the other day, and this Adorable little girl came into the waiting room.  She was literally all over the place, full of energy and volume. :)  She had this beautiful infectious laugh though that kept her from being bothersome, although she was so high energy.  As I listened to her, I had the thought...Wow, I wonder when we lose the ability to just laugh like that...at anything and everything.  I smile and chuckle occasionally but it takes a lot, more than it should, to really make me laugh (God's working on that with me)  To hear this little girl's laughter was so lovely.  It just made me smile. I imagined asking this question to many people, about when we lose the ability to just laugh at the simple, and simply find such joy in the little things of life...and I could hear many say, "Just wait until she experiences life...it won't take long, life is tough, and a few rough things and she won't be quite so quick to laugh and have so much joy.  Right now all is right in her world, and it's the laughter of innocence.  Life has a way of taking that away from you...."  I might have been inclined to believe this theory....might have.

The little girl found a little white feather that had come out of one of the pillows on the couch in the waiting room.  She was touching the face of the lady she was with, repeatedly.  Each time the little girl touched the woman's face, the woman would draw back quickly in an over exaggerated sort of way, and the little girl would belly laugh, like it was the first time every time.  I could not help but comment aloud, "Isn't that one of the most beautiful sounds in the world?!"  The woman smiled, I believe happy to know that the little girl wasn't causing aggravation or irritation.  

After a few minutes, the woman said to the little girl, "You better go ahead and eat your bagel."  At this the little girl just kept flitting about and said, "I'm saving it for Grandma."  She kept on playing, and the lady said, "No, it's o.k., you go ahead and eat it."  This made the little girl stop and look at the lady and say, "No.  Grandma was up all night long and the she said she thought she was gonna die she was so hungry, cause the doctors wouldn't let her eat.  Cause of the blood work you know.  She's hungry, so I'm saving it for her."  Well she could see that clearly the lady and I were impressed with her knowledge, and she just looked at us, and shrugged her shoulders and said matter-of-factly, "I'm smart."  At which I had to chuckle and say, "You sure are smart!"

I told the lady, "I think it's so sweet that she wants to save that for her Grandmother."  Then the little girl said, "There's one for Grandma and Grandpa."  So I replied, "You must really love your Grandma and Grandpa", and she said, "I do!  and I never want to leave!"  I wasn't quite sure how to respond, so I simply said, "Well good!  I think that's nice!"

At this point the lady was trying to mouth something to me that I couldn't understand...and then turned to the little girl, and said, "Why don't you tell her why you are living with your Grandma and Grandpa."  The little girl covered her face at this point and said, "No.  It will make Grandma cry."  The lady said, "It's o.k.  She's in the back, she won't hear you."  At this the little girl said, "Oh yes she will hear me and she will cry."  She said this like even if her Grandmother were on the other side of the world, and she spoke, that her Grandmother would still hear and cry.

At this point I thought I now understood what the lady had tried to mouth to me, so I spoke to the little girl and I said, "You know what?....My husband is in heaven."   Her head jerked up in surprise, and she so quickly responded in such a surprised tone, "That's where my mommy is!"   I said, "Really!?  Well maybe your mommy and my husband know each other.  What was your mommy's name?"  and she said, "Joe-Lynn."  I said, "Well my husband's name was John."  At this point the lady told me that the little girl's grandfather's name was John.  I looked at the little girl and I said, "Isn't that neat!  I bet they do know each other.  I bet Jesus said, Joe-Lynn, this is John.  John, I would like you to meet Joe-Lynn."  The little girl was just looking at me with such big eyes, so I said, "All I know is heaven is very beautiful and is a wonderful place."  and then.....the nurse called my name to come back.

Will this little girl ever know how much her laughter touched me?  Was her Grandma pleased to see the bagel?  I may never know.

As I was leaving the Dr's office, the last one to leave the place by the way, I told part of this story to the ladies in the office, and they too had been touched by this little girl.  They filled in a little more of her story.  They shared with me that this little girl had watched her mommy die.  Evidently her mother had also given her one last gift.  All I can imagine is this mother knew she was dying, possibly from cancer or some other issue.

So this little girl, just 5 years old, had already experienced this in her young life, and yet...still had her laughter and her joy!  What an example.  I pray that somehow a little part of her healed even more to imagine Jesus introducing her mom to people, and to just be able to share that her mom was in heaven, and to just say her mom's name again...Joe-Lynn.  She may never know how she blessed me.  I continue to be amazed at the beautiful divine appointments that God sets for us to see such beautiful examples of things he wants to teach us and blessings He wants us to offer others.  I'm so thankful to God for his tender care of this little girl, and the blessing of her beautiful laughter.  God is so good, and I am so thankful that he let me meet, Joe-Lynn's daughter!

Hey, Isn't this the wrong way?!

Have you ever been trying to get somewhere and you are not sure exactly how to get there, so you are going on the word of someone who said, "Oh yeah, go down 3 streets, take a right and then a left and you'll see it no problem". Only when he said go down 3 streets, he forgot to tell you that is was about 5 miles between each
street...and you start thinking, man this doesn't seem right, I thought it would be...... yeah. So many of us have been in this place.

Well for me, there are so many times that I'm trying to figure out where I'm going...in life. Sometimes, and I've said it many times, I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to be when I grow up. Other times, I have some vague idea of direction but nothing super clear. Anyone else ever felt like this? Listen I'm not going to lie, I am

still struggling with clear direction on several things in my life. This, however, is what I am learning, and it became so real to me today.

Today, I needed to go somewhere that was north of here. Northwest a little, but basically north. Well, for whatever reason, I became very aware of the "direction" light on my dash that, of

course, changes whenever you go around a curve or bend in the road. Well, most of the time I was heading north, just like I thought I should be, but then something happened. The road had a slight bend in it and I was suddenly going NW...no problem really, but then there was another

slight curve, and suddenly I am heading West. No North anywhere in the picture...just West. I travel this road all the time, so I did know where I was going, but I started thinking...how many times do we have part of the information...maybe just that our destination is north. So if we ever deviate from going North, we feel we are somehow off track. What I'm finding is that sometimes even though it may feel and look like we are going in the wrong direction, it is exactly the road we need to be taking and the road that really does ultimately lead to our destination.

Let's put it this way....if I had only headed north...I would have ended up hitting trees, driving through fences, fields, probably into ponds, wrecking my car and never actually ending up at my destination. It took heading West for awhile to actually end up where I needed to in North.

Then another example came to mind....the one way streets in Old Towne. If I am headed south on one street and am asking for directions to a certain place, and someone

says, well actually it's just one street over and back just a little ways heading north. Sounds pretty close, but because of the one way street...I still have to continue south until I find a street going the right way, that will allow me to cut over to the north bound street and start heading north.

If I insisted on going North immediately, I would head straight into oncoming traffic. Not only would I cause complete havoc and confusion for others, I could possibly harm myself and others by doing this. Does heading in the wrong direction (south) seem like it is what will ultimately get me to my shop on north street? Heck no! But if I trust the road signs, and realize that sometimes what doesn't look like it makes any sense, is actually the safest most intelligent way to get where I need to go.

So tonight, I ask you this...Have you felt like some things happening in your life are the opposite of what you have been promised? Seems like they are going the wrong way? Maybe like me, you have been saying...Hey! This doesn't look right?! Well sometimes that's true...sometimes it's time for you to see if you've been going the wrong way and make some changes.

Sometimes it's time for you to stop allowing certain things to happen in your life. Speak God's word and change those things, and put a stop to some things.....and then other times...when you've done all you know to do, and all you can say is, God, I'm trusting you....then do exactly that...Trust Him...it may seem a round about way to get to where you are going, but I'm learning, that it's exactly the way that gets you there safely, and who knows who you'll meet along the way that you can offer direction to.

Destination North? Don't get discouraged when it seems you are heading West....

sometimes, it's just part of the journey...and really what we learn on the journey sometimes, is what actually prepares us for the destination! Hold on. If He said we'll get to our destination, then by God we will!