What is your status?

Ok, I am a Facebook junkie!  I don't get out much so I love how I can stay connected through facebook.  I love the encouragement I receive and how I can encourage others through this social network.  I have a lot of young people on my friends list and as I was scanning through all the posts this morning I once again was disturbed at how many of them had changed their status from "in a relationship" to "single".  I see more and more teenage girls jump from one "relationship" to another!  They seem to always be searching for that someone who will make the feel worthy.  I have used a LOT of restraint!!!  I have wanted, so many times, just tell them to WAKE UP!!!!  There is only ONE relationship that will ever fill that void.  That if they would only commit to a relationship with Jesus, all others would be more meaningful and fulfilling because of The One living inside of them! 

When we foster and grow in our relationship with Jesus, we see others in a different light!  We are drawn to those who are allowing the light of Jesus to shine through them!  The Light attracts the Light!    I want these young girls to know that Jesus loves them and they are ALREADY worthy in His eyes so they do not have to seek that from others!   If you want the PERFECT boy, just go to Daddy God because He has created THE ONE just for YOU!!!  You will find him through HIM! 

Be the kind of girl whose facebook status says..... _____is in a relationship with JESUS!!!   Let those boys know that they have to go through your Daddy GOD to get to you!!!!!  You deserve nothing less than the very BEST so do not settle for anything else!!! 

The Lotus

I am a lover of flowers.  I cannt grow them but I do love to receive them!  Of all the flowers, the Lotus is my favorite.  

The lotus is an Asian water lily known for the delicate beauty of its water flowers. It possesses an amazing ability to flourish in a variety of environments ranging from clear ponds to muddy marshes. It is also known for its exceptionally hearty seedpods, which often plant themselves far from its source, bringing the beauty of the lotus blossoms everywhere.  The stem is very long and goes deep into the soil under the water.  As the lotus reaches the top of the water it blooms towards the sun!  I just love that!

Like the lotus, when we look upon the face of the Son, it doesn't matter that we have been in the muddy marsh, He makes us bloom beautiful!  Because our root is deep in the good soil, and our seedpods are hearty, we can plant the seed of Daddy God's blessings near and far!!!  We have the ability to be a part of producing other lotus flowers. 

I know there is a lot of information out there about these beautiful flowers.  I do not agree with all of it.  I do, however, think they are a symbol of how Daddy God brings beauty from ashes.  It doesn't matter how we start, or what we have been through, if we look upon the face of the Son and trust in Him, He will make us perfect in His eyes =)   

Who is to blame?

I have been  working on a couple of new projects, one of which is a devotional book!  In my devotional book I use some of my blogs, so I have been reading through some old blogs.  I came across this one and felt the need to re-post it today.  I trust it will encourage someone =) 

 

 

One of the issues as a rape survivor is, who's to blame?  For years I blamed myself.  Did the decisions I made lead to my attack?  Did I ask for it?  Was I just to stupid to see it coming?  And the big one; was God trying to get my attention or teach me a lesson?  I struggled with these questions (and many more) for years.  I settled, for a time, on blaming God, but not in a bad way!  I was scared to be mad at God so I just figured He had His reasons and I would just be gracious and accept it and move on.  I even thanked God for choosing me to be sexually assaulted!!! 

 WOW!  I blow my own mind sometimes at the things I believe!  I find it very interesting that I never placed the blame where it belonged.  I never blamed the rapist.  Don't get me wrong, I knew what he did was wrong, and I was hurt on a level that I cannot even express in words, but the emotion that I reserved for the rapist was, wait for it.......sadness!  Yes, I felt sorry for him!  Even before I knew why, I felt sorry for him.  I just could not for the life of me wrap my head around how he could have been so evil.  Why was he so evil?

  It was only after God reveled some TRUTH to me that the blame was to rest on the one responsible for all that evil.  It was Satan!  The ruler of the darkness.  See, God is LIGHT and there is NO darkness in Him!  It is the enemy who comes to kill, steal, and destroy.  God comes to give LIFE and give it in abundance!!!  I was giving God credit for something the devil was responsible for!  My Daddy God is a life GIVER!!!  Satan is a life killer!  I also came to the understanding that my rapist made choices, out of his free will, he allowed himself to be so influenced by the enemy that he was capable of  caring out the unspeakable acts that day.  God didn't give him the ability or instruction to rape me! 

 I do not have ALL the answers but I do know what the Lord has reveled to me and shown me.  Everything else is on a need-to-know basis and when I hit that point I replace my questions with TRUST and FAITH that God is the ultimate winner and I will be delivered to my place at His feet when HE sees fit, NOT when the devil says so!  See, if it were up to Satan, I believe he would have taken me out that day.  BUT GOD!  God was with me then and He has been with me everyday since, and He still has work for me to do in HIS Name! 

 When I share this belief, some have asked me why I think God "allowed" this to happen to me.  Why do bad things happen to good people???  In case you haven't noticed, we live in a fallen world!  All I know is that God is GOD and I trust Him.  He is ABOVE Satan and his demons that roam this earth!  And a day is coming when HE will stand and even the demons will bow down!  I am on HIS side, no matter what!  I have had this vision of the demons bowing and all evil bowing like cowards, and all of GOD'S CHILDREN are standing behind Him peeking around His robe, safe behind DADDY!!!!  At that time we will no longer have to exist in a world filled with evil.  BUT, until that day comes, it is up to us (as Christians) to speak TRUTH into as many lives as we can!  Greater is HE that is living inside of me!  We have the Holy Spirit as our helper, and we are to be a witness to the LOVE and SALVATION of Jesus Christ!  Let's live our lives like we have been changed, and be LIFE CHANGERS!!!!!

Praying Parent

I always knew I wanted to be a mommy.  As a young girl I would play house and I always had lots of babies!  After I got married I had a lot of female issues and was told I would not be able to get pregnant.  I never really believed it but it took us almost 5 years to get pregnant with my son.  I was so excited I could hardly stand myself!  The day I found out, I was only 7 weeks and I went to the store and bought maternity clothes!   hahaha


I loved being pregnant!  After Hunter was born I experienced a level of love that I never knew existed!  I wanted him to always have the very best of everything.  When he was a toddler Max and I started praying for Hunter's future wife!  It seemed a little strange at first but we knew that God would honor our prayers for our son.  We have prayed for Hunter to always make wise decisions when it came to relationships.  We have prayed for him to resist temptation and trust that Daddy God was growing and preparing his mate for just the right time.  We also prayed for Hunter's future mate.  We have prayed for her to grow strong in the Lord and resist temptation.  We have prayed for her protection. 

When Hunter was old enough we began to encourage him to pray for his future mate as well.  Max and I have tried to live out our marriage as an example to Hunter.  When it came to dating, we talked to him about how the world views dating vs. how God intended it.  I do not believe you have to "try out" different people until you find the one that bests fits!  There is nothing wrong with going out and enjoying friends, but as for as relationships, we believe the Lord will make it clear if we are searching HIM! 

Max and I did NOT go about relationships the way we should have!  As we both look back we can see how, with each relationship, we gave a piece of ourselves that were intended for each other!  I gave pieces of myself away that I should have been more protective over.  God's way is ALWAYS the best way!!! 

So, I shared all of this to encourage other parents.  I believe Daddy God has heard our prayers and is now honoring His promise!  Hunter is in love with the girl his daddy and I have prayed for all of these years!  It is never too early to start praying for your children's future!  We spoke love over Hunter.   Danille, Hunter's girlfriend, who we like to call the GOD-SEND, loves our baby boy!  I trust her with his heart and we love her with all of our hearts!  God is faithful and He is so good =)  By the way, Danille's parents prayed the same prayers over her throughout her life as well.  I am so thankful that as much as love my son, his heavenly Father loves him beyond and has nothing but the absolute best for him! 

I'm sharing a few photos of my baby boy and the very best God has blessed him with!   If you do not know Hunter and Danille, let me tell you that they are such a blessing!!!  There were destined to change their world =) 

Remembering 9/11

It is hard for me to believe it has been ten years!  Ten years since things were forever changed in this country.  I remember that day very clearly.  Along with two friends of mine, the three of us had just started a small preschool through our church.  We had converted the church parsonage into a place to care for children.  My son was in the third grade and was at school.  The kids in our preschool were playing and I got a phone call from my mom, telling me there had been a plane crash into a building in New York and to turn on the TV.  We turned on the news and as we were watching the news the second plane crashed into the other tower!!  RIGHT BEFORE OUR EYES!!!  I heard the news person say something about it being a terror attack and all I wanted to do was go get my son from school and have him with ME!  We watched the news coverage all day in disbelief in all that was going on.  When the towers fell we were speechless!!!  It just all seemed to be a dream, or like a movie.  At the end of the day when I was home safe with my family I knew that things were going to be different.  Over the next few days there were gatherings and church services and people seemed to be seeking God like never before!  My husband and I had many talks about how we, as Christians, were in a position to bring TRUTH to desperate people!  We prayed for the church to rise up and recognize her place and responsibility!  I believe there were a lot of good that followed this tragedy.  There has also been some damage that only God can repair.  I pray that as we remember all that happened on that day and all the days that followed, we can look to Daddy God like never before!  Seek His Wisdom and guidance.  Do you remember how we all reached out to our fellow HUMANS!  We were not looking at rich/poor, black/white, lost/saved,  ect......we saw each other has humans living in a scary time, and we helped one another.  My prayer today is that we don't just look back at how we WERE, but strive to regain some of that love and concern we had for others.  God is LOVE, and LOVE trumps everything else!!!!! 

I want to encourage you to share your stories from 9/11.  Share your thoughts.  Share your dreams of the future.  Share your prayers!!!  This blog is open to anyone who wants to share.

LOVE, not time, heals all wounds....LET LOVE DO ITS JOB! 

In His Arms

There are days that all I need is to just climb into the arms of my Daddy God!  Just let Him love on me.  I love that He can fill me up to go out and be His child with a passion and energy.  How He can give me a WORD to share with someone that moves them in a way only He can.  I am thankful for all the opportunities He gives me to be a part of change.  But there are those times that all I need is His arms around me, His love flooding my spirit and knowing that He has all the time in the world just for ME!  I can access this at any time.  Sometimes we get so busy that I think we forget that we have access to this!  The best part is HE desires is more than we do!!! 

Hunter is 18 now and I don't get a lot of snuggy time these days!  haha  But, when he was little, snuggy time was my absolute favorite!!!  We didn't have to even talk to each other.  Just having him crawl up in my lap and let me put my arms all the way around him and just snuggy!!!  Most of the time I didn't even have to ask him to snuggy, he just came all on his own because he desired to snuggy with his mommy.   As amazing as that feeling was to me, I know Daddy God loves it even more when His children snuggy with Him =) 

If you haven't been there in a while, I encourage you to go and spend some time in Daddy God's arms, just let Him love on you!!!   Snuggy with your Heavenly Father =) 

Everyday Joy

Have you ever rolled out of bed with kids yelling, hubby grumpy and you only had about 4 hours of sleep?  Well, I have and my first thought was NOT about how much JOY I felt in my heart!!  hahaha  It is easy on the days when you wake from a good, full nights sleep, obedient children and a pleasant hubby......sorry, I just went into a daydream!  My point is that we usually base joy on how we feel.  We base our joy on our circumstances!  Oh the lessons I have learned (and am still learning) from Paul!  Paul wrote about JOY from PRISON!!!   He knew where the source of his joy came from.  In his letters he made it very clear that his joy, strength, hope and peace came from the Lord!  Phil. 4:13  I can do all things through Christ Who gives me strength!


When my Papaw died (15 years ago), I thought my world as I knew it was over.  It hit me so hard.  It was like one minute he was here and then he was just gone!  I could hardly wrap my head around it.  Even though it has been 15 years, I still think about him all the time.  I have wonderful memories that I can play over in my mind and I can tell stories to my son about how amazing this man was to me.  I am sad because I miss him, but my heart cannot hold all the JOY I am flooded with when I picture him walking and hanging out with Jesus!!!  I can see his face light up as he looks at his Heavenly Father face to face!  My eyes are as full of tears as my heart full of JOY!   See my circumstance, living without my Papaw does not over-ride my ability to contain joy.  I choose to have EVERYDAY JOY!   I hope you are encouraged today to not allow your present circumstance to steal your joy.  No matter what the enemy throws at you, put on JOY and deny him the opportunity to knock you down!!!  Stand STRONG in the source of all JOY, PEACE, HOPE and LOVE!!! 



 No matter what our misfortune or difficulty, God reigns supreme and sovereign. He can — and will — see us through anything the enemy throws at us!