Pet Peeves & Passions: April 2009

Thursday, April 16, 2009

I felt "God bumps" tonight.

I joined the choir tonight at the church we are attending now. God was there, I felt the "God bumps." You know those bumps you get when you feel the Holy Spirit? It felt so good to be serving the Lord in choir again. It's been a long time and I love to sing to the Lord. I also went to the ladies Bible study last night. We are doing a study of David. It was great last night and will only get better! On May 1 & 2 I am going to a women's retreat "Women Under Construction" with 3 friends!!! I can't wait. One night and a day and a half away, plus the blessings of God. I know He will be there. I am feeling God again.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Pray grace.

Iwould ask my friend to "pray grace" for me. I need to have grace to deal with Stephen. He's a good kid, he just thinks he knows it all and I do notdeal well with that attitude and Satan knows it. Just when I make two steps forward, Satan uses Stephen to send me three steps back!!! Just when I have started to feel God again and to know that He is still here, for me to start a closer walk again.... Along comes Satan and I do not seem to have the strength do overcome. I would ask my sisters and brothers to "pray grace" for me.

Monday, April 6, 2009

This is real grace.

An eye witness account from New York City, on a cold day in Decenber, some years ago: A little boy, about 10-years old, was standing before a shoe store on the roadway, barefotted, peering through the window, and shivering with cold.

A lady approached the young boy and said, 'My, but you're in such deep thought staring in that window!'

'I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes,' was the boy's reply.

The lady took him by the hand, went into the store, and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a tower. He quickly brought them to her. She took the little fellow to the back part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet, and dried them with the towel.

By this time, the clerk had returned with the socks... Placing a pair upon the boy's feet, she purchased him a pair of shoes...

She tied up the remaining pairs of socks and gave them to him.. She patted him on the head and said, 'No doubt, you will be comfortable now.'

As she turned to go, the astonished kid caught her by the hand, and looking up into her face, with tears in his eyes, asked her... "ARE YOU GOD'S WIFE?"

Yes, this is a cute little story, but we can be "God's wife" every day. We do not have to wait to find someone on the street who is cold and hungry. Who needs shoes or a good meal. There are people who live next door or in our neighborhoods, who are spiritually needy. People who just need someone to acknowledge that they are alive. I am going to commit today to look for those people. To pray that God reveal them to me. I am not going to wait.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Get thee behind me satan!!

Just when I start to feel God again for the first time in a long time, "satan buffets." Oh, how I need to learn how to overcome. Actually I already know this, it is not me who can overcome but Jesus, and I need to give things to him. I am so bad though, I keep taking things back. We have been checking out a different church these last two Sundays and I feel a freedom in worship that I haven't felt since leaving Rose Creek Village. Today the message was so powerful, God spoke to me. Between that and a few other things that are happening, I am beginning to feel God again. But as soon as we got home, boom!!! Stuff happens and you'd never know I am any part of God. I am seeking to serve Him in whatever way I can. I am seeking to really know him again, but old satan really doesn't want me to. He is fighting me so badly. Please my friends, pray for me. I have a heart for Him and I want others to see Him in me.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Courage comes from clinging to a hand infinitely larger than your own.
I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand. Isaiah 41:13

God is so good and He does care for us. He is leading to a new place of worship and a reconnecting with old friends and acquaintances. We checked out the local Baptist Church this past Sunday. Stephen goes to their youth group and really likes the Pastor and his wife. They are new to the church and I sure hope the church asks them to stay (it's an ABC church and they will have to give the ok). I felt the freedom to worship in the "praise and worship" part of the service that I haven't felt since leaving Rose Creek Village. It was so wonderful. We like the Pastor, he is a teacher vs. a preacher, but he is a lively one. He doesn't stand still!!!
Today Ginger came over and we started out little Bible study. It was so awesome!! I have longed for a friend that I can trust and study the work with and God is working this out. Ginger is so sweet and has a sweet spirit. I think that is what has kept us friends over the many years we havn't seen eachother. As soon as we meet, we feel the Holy Spirit. She and her husband Brad are a little younger than Dale and I but we all get along real well. Finally, someone who I can talk to, be with, study the word with.
DJ is getting along well at Job Corps. I have to take his birth certificate down to him tomorrow so he can take drivers ed. They need originals!!! He is going to spend the weekend with his biological mom and her boyfriend. I am glad he can finally have a relationship with her. He is at the place where he needs questions answered and he needs to know her. They really haven't been together since he was 6.
I'm off to counseling tomorrow and looking forward to it. I seem to be able to "dump." And it feels so good.
My 5th term at Kaplan online college started last Wed. and I am taking three classes this term. I have Grammar and Editing, Introduction to Business and College Mathematics!!! Pray for me that I will keep up and do well. I really want to get my Bachelors Degree with a good GPA. Right now it's a 3.7!!! I have a hard time believe it sometimes. I am a member of the National Society of Collegete Scholars and they are having a convention in Washington, D. C. in August. I am praying about going. It involves a little bit of money. Lately though Dale has been talking about driving down with me, so I need to look into that possibility. That would be neat. I have also just applied to be on their National Leadership Council. I was just invited to join the Association of Women in Communications also. I am going to spread my wings and try new things out. I never felt I had much to offer and was afraid to go for it, but not any more. I am going to "go for it."
It's been a great day.

Thorns

THORNS
Sandra felt as low as the heels of her shoes when she pulled open the florist shop door, against a November gust of wind. Her life had been as sweet as a spring breeze and then, in the fourth month of her second pregnancy, a "minor" automobile accident stole her joy. This was Thanksgiving week and the time she should have delivered their infant son. She grieved over their loss. Troubles had multiplied. Her husband's company "threatened" to transfer his job to a new location. Her sister had called to say that she could not come for her long awaited holiday visit. What's worse, Sandra's friend suggested that Sandra's grief was a God-given path to maturity that would allow her to empathize with others who suffer. "She has no idea what I'm feeling," thought Sandra with a shudder "Thanksgiving? Thankful for what?" she wondered. "For a careless driver whose truck was hardly scratched when he rear-ended me? For an airbag that saved my life, but took my child's?" "Good afternoon, can I help you?" Sandra was startled by the approach of the shop clerk. "I . . ... I need an arrangement," stammered Sandra. "For Thanksgiving? I'm convinced that flowers tell stories," she continued. "Are you looking for something that conveys 'gratitude' this Thanksgiving?" "Not exactly!" Sandra blurted out. "In the last five months, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong." Sandra regretted her outburst, and was surprised when the clerk said, "I have the perfect arrangement for you." Then the bell on the door rang, and the clerk greeted the new customer... "Hi, Barbara, let me get your order." She excused herself and walked back to a small workroom, then quickly reappeared, carrying an arrangement of greenery, bows, and what appeared to be long-stemmed thorny roses. Except the ends of the rose stems were neatly s nipped: there were no flowers. "Do you want these in a box?" asked the clerk.. Sandra watched - was this a joke? Who would want rose stems with no flowers! She waited for laughter, but neither woman laughed. "Yes, please," Barbara replied with an appreciative smile. "You'd think after three years of getting the special, I wouldn't be so moved by its significance, but I can feel it right here, all over again," she said, as she gently tapped her chest. Sandra stammered, "Ah, that lady just left with .. . . uh . . ... she left with no flowers!""That's right," said the clerk. "I cut off the flowers. That's the 'Special'. I call it the Thanksgiving Thorns Bouquet. Barbara came into the shop three years ago, feeling much as you do today," explained the clerk. "She thought she had very little to be thankful for. She had just lost her father to cancer; the family business was failing; her son had gotten into drugs; and she was facing major surgery. That same year I had lost my husband," continued the clerk... "For the first time in my life, I had to spend the holidays alone. I had no children, no husband, no family nearby, and too much debt to allow any travel." "So what did you do?" asked Sandra. "I learned to be thankful for thorns," answered the clerk quietly... "I've always thanked God for the good things in my life and I never questioned Him why those good things happened to me, but when the bad stuff hit, I cried out, 'Why? Why me?!' It took time for me to learn that the dark times are important to our faith! I have always enjoyed the 'flowers' of my life, but it took the thorns to show me the beauty of God's comfort! You know, the Bible says that God comforts us when we're afflicted, and from His consolation we learn to comfort others." Sandra sucked in her breath, as she thought about what her friend had tried to tell her. "I guess the truth is I don't want comfort. I've lost a baby and I'm angry with God..." Just then someone else walked in the shop. "Hey, Phil!" the clerk greeted the balding, rotund man. "My wife sent me in to get our usual Thanksgiving arrangement ... . Twelve thorny, long-stemmed stems!" laughed Phil as the clerk handed him a tissue wrapped arrangement from the refrigerator. "Those are for your wife?" asked Sandra incredulously. "Do you mind telling me why she wants a bouquet that looks like that?" "Four years ago, my wife and I nearly divorced," Phil replied. "After forty years, we were in a real mess, but with the Lord's grace and guidance, we trudged through problem after problem, the Lord rescued our marriage. Jenny here (the clerk) told me she kept a vase of rose stems to remind her of what she had learned from "thorny" times. That was good enough for me. I took home some of those stems.. My wife and I decided to label each one for a specific "problem" and give thanks for what that problem taught us." As Phil paid the clerk, he said to Sandra, "I highly recommend the Special!""I don't know if I can be thankful for the thorns in my life" Sandra said to the clerk. "It's all too . . fresh." "Well," the clerk replied carefully, "my experience has shown me that the thorns make the roses more precious. We treasure God's providential care more during trouble than at any other time. Remember that it was a crown of thorns that Jesus wore so we might know His love....Don't resent the thorns." Tears rolled down Sandra's cheeks. For the first time since the accident, she loosened her grip on her resentment. "I'll take those twelve long-stemmed thorns, please," she managed to choke out. "I hoped you would," said the clerk gently. "I'll have them ready in a minute." "Thank you. What do I owe you?" "Nothing. Nothing but a promise to allow God to heal your heart...The first year's arrangement is always on me." The clerk smiled and handed a card to Sandra. "I'll attach this card to your arrangement, but maybe you would like to read it first." It read: "My God, I have never thanked You for my thorns. I have thanked You a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorns. Teach me the glory of the cross I bear; teach me the value of my thorns. Show me that I have climbed closer to You along the path of pain. Show me that, through my tears, the colors of Your rainbow look much more brilliant." Praise Him for the roses; thank Him for the thorns. God Bless all of you. Be thankful for all that the Lord does for you. "Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, and leave the rest to God." We often try to fix problems with WD-40 and Duct tape. God did it with nails.

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