Hearts of Flesh

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There have been so many things in this world that I’ve held on tightly to.  Things that inevitably held me back from all of the truly important things in this life.  Control, perfection, expectations – all things I would not let go of.  Joy, beauty, happiness – the things I could never seem to grasp.  My heart was immovable – heavy with burden…and yet it was also continually wandering...wandering continually further away from God.  It yearned for happiness, but only felt the sting of unmet expectations.  It searched for beauty, but only saw imperfection.  It longed for joy, but only felt a growing need to control.  Yes this was my heart - my heart apart from God - my heart that was stone.

Growing up in the world, I learned through multiple experiences that hurtful things can happen when you put your love and trust in people.   As a small child, I remember these hurtful situations in my life seeming so enormous…

Teaching Tuesday

 

Five Things I learned WE 7-6-13:

“Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.”
~Proverbs 23:12

1.      That remaining in God and resting in God are two different things, and I need to work on the resting part.

2.      That being open and honest with our fears and struggles and with what we don’t know and where we’re at encourages others and promotes growth in all.

3.      That even in the messy, imperfect moments of our lives, joy and happiness can be found…blog post on this coming soon…

4.      That life’s blessings lay hidden in the worn out things of our lives…blog post on this to come in the near future…

5.      That not seeing the beauty God created in ourselves, limits the beauty we are able to see in the world…post in the works for this also…

Can you tell God’s been speaking abundantly to me lately?!  There’s not enough time in my days or ink in my pens to keep up…

Deeper

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 Slowly drifting into consciousness, the sound of the birds gathering for their morning feast at the feeder outside my bedroom window reaches my ears – so serene.   The dawn, seeping through the slits of the blinds calls to my eyes, encouraging them to flutter open – so beautiful.  Morning has arrived.  With this realization reaching my slumbering brain, an eagerness to get up and meet with God begins to flow through me, awakening my heart and soul, along with my body. 

“What time is it anyway,” I wonder?  Propping myself up on my elbow, I turn my head to look across the room at the clock to find out, but instead of finding the time there, I am greeted with the most awful crunching noise.  Like fingernails on a chalk board awful.  The kind of noise that makes you cringe.  And this was followed by another noise – a scream – my scream, as I’m blinded by instant searing pain driving through my neck, into my right shoulder and arm.

In my mind a million thoughts begin to race: “No, no, no, no, no!  This can’t be happening…

Teaching Tuesdays: The Beginning

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Hello everyone!  As mentioned in my last post, today I want to introduce something new to the blog that I am hoping to incorporate here every Tuesday.  I’m calling it “Teaching Tuesday’s” because the plan is to share with you a list of up to five things I was taught, and up to five links to people, blogs, ministries, web pages etc. from which I was taught from during the previous week.  Then you will be given the opportunity join in by sharing too. 

What is the point of all of this, you might be wondering?  Well, here are a few reasons I felt this might be helpful:

1.      To  promote learning, which should be a continual life-long process.

2.      It’s difficult to teach anything, if you yourself are not continually being taught.

3.      Creating a list helps to recognize, summarize, and process what’s being learned.

4.      Sharing the list creates accountability to pursuing continual and consistent learning.

5.      Sharing the list teaches us to edify and praise those who are speaking into our lives.

Now that we’ve established the main what’s and why’s, let’s get started…

Woven

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This morning, upon turning to July 4th in "A Mother's Prayer" mini daily calendar, I read:

 

"In the midst of the praying, it is comforting to remember that God considers families important.  Before he called a nation, he created a family." ~Quin Sherrer

 

Of course I was first drawn to the word "nation" with today being Independence Day, but then when the quote ended on "family," so did my thoughts rest there. 

 

My family is currently on hold so to speak...at least temporarily.  With my extended family this is true as we've all been scattered about the different states of the nation, each one taking a little needed space to just breathe while we all individually deal with the losses and struggles we've had to face over the past few years.  For my immediate family, we feel on hold as we wait in prayer for the Lord to move and open the door to adding more children to our midst. 

 

With my world seeming on hold for so long, life had begun to feel stagnant, like I was being cut off from the deepest desires of my heart - my dreams of writing, of having more children, and of needing those deeper and more meaningful relationships in my life.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

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Hello everyone.  I’m coming to you a bit early this week because there are some things I’d like to share with you that go beyond my regular weekly posts.  I’ve been doing a lot of praying, seeking, searching, and reflection in regards to my blog page, my writing in general, and God’s plan and purpose for it all and it’s all been quite eye opening but also a bit mind boggling as well.  He has been speaking to me through so many little things lately that I can’t write fast enough.  My husband is absolutely astounded at the sheer number of pens I’ve ran out of ink over the past few months, as I’ve filled numerous notebooks full of the ideas that just keep flowing…I imagine this is only going to increase that much more when I attend She Speaks three weeks from now.  Wow!  Is it really only three weeks away already?  Scary!

When I first got started on this blogging journey, I had absolutely no clue what I was doing; especially on the technical side of things, but I didn’t want that to stop me from stepping out in faith, so I went ahead and got started anyway.  Now that I’m getting a bit more comfortable, I figured it’s high time to step out of my box again and start figuring out some of this techy stuff.  With that being said, while there are many changes that are continually being made to enhance the page and your experience when you visit here, there are a few changes that offer more to you the reader directly, so I want to share those with you directly.