Life is Full of Twists and Turns

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die...a time to weep and a time to laugh...a time to mourn and a time to dance...a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing...a time to be silent and a time to speak...Ecclesiastes 3:1-2a, 4, 5b, & 7b NIV

These past months have been a time of remembrance. I searched through old photo albums to find just the right pictures to tell the story of our past 25 years. My husband and I just celebrated 25 years of marriage this past week. Taking the trip back down memory lane was enjoyable. It amazed me how quickly these 25 years have flown by.

In the midst of our celebrating though, some friends of ours are mourning. Mourning the loss of a husband, father, grandfather.

Right before we left we heard the unexpected news of the passing of one man. He attended our church and all summer he spent in the hospital fighting for his life. A few weeks ago he was able to come home and was well on his way to recovery. He was driving on his motorcycle when someone ran a stop sign. We were in shock.

How could this happen? He wasn't much older than us. His wife and him have been together just about as long. We'd only just begun to know him.

We began our cruise with them on our mind. We were able to relax and have a good time. We celebrated as a family our 25 years of marriage. We were disconnected from the world and Facebook. It was nice to talk face to face rather than send a text. Even though when someone was lost on the ship it would have been a lot less steps to send a text asking where they were rather than searching for him/her. The search though let me walk more steps and my Fitbit was proud of me.

The day we arrived home, we were excited to reconnect. We saw how a friend was back in the hospital. We prayed, we'd hoped it would be like his other stays in the hospital. I contacted his wife but she didn't sound very hopeful. Still I prayed for healing, God could work a miracle, right?

We were busy with unpacking and preparing for our anniversary celebration with friends and family. Our friend was never far from my mind. I prayed and still hoped. My husband stopped by and visited, but he wasn't very encouraged. The next morning our friend went home to be with Jesus.

He left behind a wife and two young sons. Our hearts broke once again. This couple would have celebrated 25 years this spring. Instead of looking ahead to the future, both of these woman are dealing with the loss of someone they've loved for a long time.

I know God has good plans for each of them. I know that death is a part of living. It just can be so hard to go through it. Hopefully one day they will feel like dancing again. One day the laughter will return. Life can be tough sometimes, the road you were on takes a new turn and a new journey has begun. Reach out to God, He can see you through.

Get Out of the Way

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Hebrews 12:1 NIV

"Where is it? Why can't I find it when I want it? It appears whenever I'm not looking for it, but as soon as I want it. It's gone." Looking in the Tupperware cabinet for a lid can be challenging. I thought I out smarted the lids by putting them in a bowl, but no one still slips away and hides.

Sometimes I purposely avoid using one of my bowls because I can never find the lid when I want it. Today though I had no choice, all the other containers the right size already have food in them so I have to use this one. I looked and looked through the lids, not there. Of course not, it's never around when I want it.

Finally, I lifted the bowl containing the lids out of the cabinet and sure enough there it was hiding behind all the others.

A few weeks back I had a very stressful week. Each day seemed to be more stressful than the day before. If it wasn't one thing going wrong it was another. The children in my care were the worse they'd been in awhile. Finally, I lost it I sat there crying. I was at my wits end. I had been praying specifically for each child and the problem I was having with him/her. The more I prayed the worse they became.

This weekend I was reminded that I need to get rid of all that entangles me. I need to free myself from things that get in my way of being in His glory. Finally, I prayed and left it all with Him. His goodness finally was found underneath all the frustration and stress.

Hurricane Grace

From his fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. John 1:16 NIV

"Another storm in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Grace," came the meteorologist's report.

"Did I just hear that right? A storm named Grace?" I questioned myself.

Grace what a name for a storm, I mean if it turned into a hurricane what kind of destruction and devastation could it leave behind. Not exactly the idea I have for grace. Luckily, Tropical Storm Grace dissipated in the Caribbean.

Grace, God's amazing grace-God's Riches At Christ Expense.

God's grace has always been there. It's been there since before He created the world. God's grace has been there from the moment you were conceived. He has always loved you and cared for you and He always will. He woos you to Him, calling you, caring for you, being there for you even before you recognize that it's Him.

So we've messed up, we've done things we hope nobody will ever find out. God has a cure for that. It is through His son's sacrifice that we are saved. This is where Christ Expense comes in. He came to earth for one purpose, to become the unblemished lamb to take on all the sins of men/women. He took these on himself even before we were born. The only way to receive this grace is to accept this free gift Christ has given you. He will bear your faults, sins, secrets...don't worry He can take it.

Maybe if Tropical Storm Grace had become a strong Hurricane we could have seen all of our messes and mistakes spinning around the center, the eye. God is like the eye, the calmness of the storm watching us all spin out of control. Each of us creating our own havoc, with Him just sitting there wondering when we will come to Him and His calmness. Then once we do He will calm the winds and dissipate the storm.

God's grace will bring you many blessings, blessings that only He can bring.

Emptiness

"For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ a lamb without blemish or defect." 1 Peter 1:18-19 NIV

Have you ever felt empty? Like somethings missing? You can't quite figure out what it is, but you desire to fill it.

You've tried lots of things to take the emptiness away. You thought love from others would fill it. Soon though you learn of the heartbreak loving others brings. Maybe the person hurt you physically or mentally. Maybe the person left or died. Sure there's a natural emptiness when you lose somebody you love, but how long has the emptiness consumed you?

Maybe the love of others wasn't enough or didn't work, the emptiness only grew larger. Soon you were trying to dull the emptiness with alcohol or drugs. The emptiness stays away just for a short while, but soon it comes back and one drink or one pill doesn't fill it enough. After awhile it takes more drinks or more drugs to get to a happy fulfilling place.

Instead of these things maybe you've tried exercise to immerse yourself in. You workout until you hit the max of what your body can handle and then you push it more just so you don't have to think about this void in your life. Maybe it's books, movies, social media, video games...still in all you've done nothing has taken away this longing, this missing link that has a hold on your life.

No worries, I have felt the emptiness too. Fortunately, I found what fills it. Sure my life isn't perfect, it isn't without troubles. People I love still suffer from illness or die. I still have a longing, but it's different. Now it's a longing to know Jesus more.

My emptiness has been filled. You see I believed others when they said I needed Jesus. At the age of twelve I asked him to forgive me and come live in my heart. It was superficial, but it was enough to keep praying to him daily. "Now I lay me down to sleep...God bless my mom, my dad, my brother..." I might have cracked open the Bible on occasion, but mostly it sat on my shelf. You might say I didn't trust God enough to make Him my pilot, He was OK just sitting in the passenger seat.

One day though when all was falling apart around me, I cried out to Him, the one who saves, the one who can completely fill my emptiness. I surrendered that day, I asked Him to become Lord of my life and I would do whatever He asked me to do. I never have regretted a minute of it.

You see nothing can fill the void in your life except the love, trust and faith in Christ. No matter how many friends, lovers, drinks, drugs, exercises, books, movies, social media sites, video games...it will never be enough. Only HE can satisfy.

Distractions Abound

But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" Luke 10:40 NIV

Some of you may be thinking I've heard that verse before. Why is it when someone's distracted this the verse that comes up? Maybe because when looking through the Bible this is the only one with the word distracted in it.

Distracted is exactly what I've been. Yesterday I sat down to write my blog and I became distracted with other thoughts. I couldn't figure out which way I was supposed to go, so I put the computer aside thinking I would come back to work on it later. Later never happened because of distractions.

The entire summer break became a distraction with all the obstacles that came my way. I'm not quite sure how many fights I broke up or how many times we were late leaving on a field trip because I would get distracted while trying to prepare our lunch and things we needed to bring. One big distraction came when my husband was hospitalized. Funny how life has a way of distracting you from what you desire to do.

Ideally my summer should have been filled with time to finish my fourth book and time to work on editing the second one, so I could possibly publish it this fall. Usually, I have extra time during the kids rest time to work on things like that. I also had plans to work on some of the extra cleaning that needs to be done, but none of those things happened.

Even as I sit here trying to write this blog, I'm distracted. Distracted by the little ones I care for, distracted by the pest control company, distracted by the peaches I put on the stove and completely forgot about because of the distraction of getting the laundry done.

Distractions are a part of life. We even have an extra distraction when our phones go off because of someone texting us, a Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, or email update. Funny how sometimes we think we need to drop everything just to respond.

Maybe the reason this verse is the only one that talks about distraction is because the answer to our distractions is in the following verse. "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are distracted about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken from her."

Choosing the better...to sit at the Lord's feet and listen to what He is teaching. So maybe it's time I get off of here and chill on my couch and devour the words the Lord has so graciously given to me.

Just Because You Say It's True

All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal. Psalm 119:160 NIV

Saturday I had the chance to hear different inspiring messages. One phrase that stuck with me was "Just because it's true for you, it doesn't make it true."

Right now we are living in times whenever someone thinks something is true, he/she then tries to push this truth on to others. If you don't get this truth right with certain groups they quickly make you out to look like a fool and demand you make an apology. Sometimes this truth isn't true at all, but it sounds good so then everyone is told to buy into it.

So how do we determine what is true. Do we trust our news media? Do we trust our family? Do we trust our friends? There are so many "truths" floating around where do we go?

For me I've found the only way to find out if something is true is to look to the source of all truth. Some may not like the source, in fact some may say "That was written by a lot of different authors and it was written so long ago that it doesn't pertain to today." It's true the source in which I go was written by different people and was written a long time ago, but I believe each author was God inspired.

As I have journeyed through this adventure called writing, I understand how each author could be God inspired. At times I sit down and think I'm going to write about one thing and by the time I've finished the message I've written has turned into something completely different than I thought. Most every time before I write I ask God to lead me into the message He wants, and you know what he does. So I am pretty certain that each author of the source I go to was led by God to write what He wanted them to.

Sure the source I go to was written a long time ago and some of the stories are a bit confusing to understand. I struggle through the names and who beget who. Still I am usually inspired by something I find in this source. To my amazement on several occasion I have been led to the same verse several times throughout the day. Every once in awhile I have been asked to share a certain verse with others and sometimes this particular verse is exactly what they needed to hear.

Some may say that God didn't mean it that way, He really meant it this way. If He only was around today, He would be alright with it. Not so, God is around today and He still means what He said. He doesn't change.

Sometimes when the source doesn't give me the message I need. God will point me to His truth in other ways through prayer, songs, and messages from others.

So even if a certain truth is right for you, I will check with the most reliable resource the Bible and God. If after consulting Him then maybe your truth will be true, but maybe it won't be. My truth comes from the LORD and I stand with Him.

So Much to Live Up To

I love the house where you live, O Lord, the place where your glory dwells. Psalm 26:8 NIV

As a wife, mother, daughter, sister...sometimes there is a lot of pressure to live up to some type of standard. A standard where everyone expects so much from you. At times I fail, at times I succeed, and other times I just barely get by.

To my surprise I realized this standard that I try to live up to isn't exactly the standard that God had planned for me. A lot of things change in the world and these changes soon become the norm, what we as women are expected to live up to.

One of these expectations we as women are to live up to is Susie Homemaker. A woman who has the perfect children, who are dressed in the finest clothes, and participates in all the extra circular activities they can. She makes sure her family eats the best food and always has more than enough for those friends that might stop by. Her home is always clean; no crumb, no dust, nothing out of place. She either home school's her children or participates at the school as class mom. She keeps her weight down. She always willing to help out.

Another expectation is Superwoman. We probably know her. She is at the top of career. Her children are also perfect and she balances home-life, career, hobbies, exercise, and volunteering. She soars at everything she does. She comes home from work and prepares her family the five course dinner. She never yells at her kids, and she makes sure to spend the quality time with each one of them. Her house is also clean and she makes sure her children's grades are perfect. She does everything well.

A Biblical example of a woman we feel we need to live up to is the Proverbs 31 woman. I am sure you've heard about her. She rises before the sun is up and prepares breakfast and has her day's tasks figured out. She's a wise business woman. She makes everyone's clothes and linens. She makes sure her husband is well known and respected. She has a great sense of humor and never worries. She is kind and well liked. She surpasses everyone in all she does.

So with all theses expectations just what are we to do? Whose standard should we live up to? Do we try to be the homemaker, superwoman, or the Proverbs 31 woman?

I believe we should live up to what God expects of us. I have tried to live up to other people's standards and you know what it doesn't work. I ended up frustrated, worried, and a failure. It's when I started seeking God that I finally found success. I live to please Him and that for me has made a difference.