Patching our lives together

I have come to realize that the only true happiness we can ever achieve is with God. He allows good and bad to cross our paths and also gives us enough slack in the line to choose the way we handle the things that are set before us. Something I heard yesterday hit pretty close to home...God can't do work for us unless He lives in us. Cliche I know, but think about it...how is He supposed to be in all aspects of our lives if we don't let Him. I know each of us has our Christian lives with our church home or our family, but some of us have another life that we sometimes forget to have God be apart of or pretend He just can't see it. Hard for most of us to admit, but it is the truth. If even more truth be told and we had to write out the pros and cons of each realm of our life the one without God's presence would be the obvious loser. Why? Because He is the light. He fills that empty hole in our soul that we have tried to fill with everything else in the world. He brings us comfort in times of need and quenches our thirst when we are thirsty. Don't you feel a bit dehydrated when you don't have God? Dehydrated meaning that our spirit is dry and needs to be fed and we become very thirsty for His love, wisdom, and peace. The problem is that most of us are too ashamed after a night out without our savior's armor to come pride less to Him and ask to be forgiven. For some reason we have a hard time spending time with God when we have done something bad. To be frank that is Lucifer. He is so sneaky that he knits this blanket of demise, shame, and guilt and wraps us up so carefully and snug in it that we don't even want to come out and speak to our Lord. So here comes this extravagant mess that just spirals more out of control because we try and clean it up. The Lord wants to help, we just have to ask Him. He can't do work in us if we do not submit to Him. He needs to be in all aspects of our lives. Let God in and let Him do the cleaning up. Seek Him and you shall receive. Spend time with Him and you shall gain. Surrender to Him and you shall be free. Serve Him and you shall have so much joy. What a loving, devoted, understanding, compassionate God we have. Let's strive everyday to be more like Him and never let Him out of our reach.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.-Matthew 11:28

For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory. -Deuteronomy 20:4

Lord help me to reach out my hand and invite you in to all parts of my life. Help me to wake up everyday and strive to make it a perfect day for you, and help me to remember that I can not do this alone... I need you.

Prayer Warriors

I usually am not the type to ask for prayer, but after a long 8 months of looking for a job I am going to ask for a little help on this one. I have given my resume to just about every medical office here in Rockwall hoping to get a shot and so far no good. I was beyond excited that my resume got pushed to the top (after a wonderful man went out on a limb and put in a good word for me) at the church. I was even more delighted after my interview went perfect, to me it did at least. After waiting a grueling 2 months for a response from them, I finally got the call that they had given the position to someone else. I think I was more let down by the fact that I missed out on a job that was going to be totally surrounded with God. I thought how great of a job is it when you pray together before every meal and your entire day is centered on serving the Lord. I also thought it was an amazing way for me to give back to my church since I am not equipped with the funds to give every week. I think that is why I was so let down. In a way me not having a job has been a blessing in all sorts of ways. The first blessing was that I have been able to repair my self from the previous damage I have done in the past few years. To wrap up years of self destruction in to only 8 months of healing is incredible to me. In no way am I saying I am complete and solid now, but I saw the light. That phrase and song mean more to me than you will ever know..."Praise the Lord I saw the light.." I saw the light of the Lord and I not only let it shine on me, I bathed in it. I soaked up every bit of that light and let it pour into the deepest parts of my soul. Apart from my spiritual growth I have had the time to work on the physical aspect of my life as well. I have lost a total of 8 pounds, 6 inches, and brought my body fat down 4 points. I feel better and I am beginning to smile at what I see when I look in the mirror. The last and probably my favorite blessing that the Lord has brought me through this would be that I have taken on the privilege and job of watching my precious niece during the week. Being apart of her life and watching her grow is a constant reminder of how great God is. She is beautiful. All of that being said I got called today to come in for an interview at a Physical Therapy office for a therapist tech position. I have had a similar job before and I loved it. I loved working with the patients..esp the elderly ones :). I am asking those of you who read this to please take time and say a little prayer for me. My interview is Tuesday and you better believe I will be spending my weeking refreshing my brain on terms and making sure I am going into that interview as prepared as I possibly can be. It is time, and I am ready to feel accomplished everyday and to have things to learn and duties to fulfill. The verse I chose today means an immense amount to me. My beautiful aunt Stacey, who is such a strong Christian woman and firm in her faith said to me one day"This is your verse". I was in such a transitional place in my life when she said that. This verse has appeared to me EVERYWHERE, I mean out of no where, random places, EVERYWHERE! I have adopted it as my official go to verse.

 But those who hope in the LORD
   will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
   they will run and not grow weary,
   they will walk and not be faint. -Isaiah 40:31

Lord thank you for letting me see the light. You are so good and your glory is so bright that I know everyday so many people see that light. If it is your will for me to have this job ease my nerve and help me to be confident in you by my side.

Link Up

Adding a little bit on from yesterday, after my shower last night I decided to gather up all of the things that were not being used or were extra and I came out on top. I filled a big basket with shampoo, conditioner, lotion, soap, hair ties, and dental floss. I also had about 7 big bright towels that no longer go with the bathroom decor, which this is where I started thinking how ridiculous that I have all of this EXTRA stuff. It kinda made me sick. Fortunately though Chad has lots of mens coats and jeans that needed a home and I did have some fun smell good stuff that some lucky ladies will get to use! I hope it is a treat for them. I would love to go across the world on a mission trip don't get me wrong, but I have decided that there are people right here in our community that need help first. There are families that need food and shelter, homeless that need a shower, and children that just need a little TLC.

Link up-

Last night when I was laying in bed I started thinking about what is really important to me. Relationships seemed to be number one. Whether my relationship with the Lord, my relationship with my mother, my relationship with Chad, or my relationship with my cousin Cadie, they all are different relationships, but all equally as important. I don't really know anything as substantial as building the relationships in our lives. I know for most like me it is a hard concept to grasp that we can't take things with us from this life, but the connections we have made with people here and with the Lord we can. The knowledge we can get from an hour conversation with our grandparents, or even great grandparents for some of us that are lucky, is priceless. You can't find that kind of counsel in books or from class. Life lessons are the most valuable things we can learn and the only way to learn them is from the people who have already experienced life more than we have. We take for granted the fact that these people are always going to be there so we forget about them sometimes. We have to water these relationships as if they were plants to make them grow. Also while taking on my new job of babysitting my almost 2 year old niece I have realized that children are our very own angels among us and they are such a blessing and gift from the Lord. There are people I know in my life that desperately want children and for some reason they can't have them. I will never understand that, but I do know that children are a gift and are our only clear view of innocence in this sinful world. Ultimately this just struck a chord with me and we are put here on earth to do 2 things, serve & love the Lord our God with all of your heart, and love others as you love yourself and establish relationships with them.

So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. -John 13:34

Lord help me make the most out of my relationships. Help me to water and nurture them so they will grow. Do not let me forget those people in my life who I don't see often, but help me to make more of an effort to show them that I love them.

Who needs you?

Today I want to see the bigger picture. How fast do our lives pass us by and how many chances are we given in life to help others? I have come to realize that every task put in front of us by the good Lord is a choice. Maybe task isn't even the right word, opportunity. Yes, opportunity I like that one. We are faced everyday with hundreds of opportunities to make the right decision. How do we know which one is right? The one that probably puts another human beings needs before our own. This is hard for some of us because we live in a "dog-eat-dog" world where people put their own needs infront of others. Someone recently told me that we should live our lives every day with JOY, J-standing for Jesus first, O-standing for others second, and Y-standing for yourself last. How many times do you let someone who is walking to the grocery line at the same time as you go ahead of you? How many times do you let someone have the front parking space when you were there first? Just plain old fashioned courteousness seems fleeting. I woke up today feeling like I have been blessed so much in this life and I am not giving back as much as I should be. Yes I am involved in YoungLife, which is an incredible organization to help bring teens to Christ, but I could be doing more. Now I was on a mission to find where I could fit and I could better serve the Lord. Without a full time job I could be doing so much more. Guilt seems to settle in the cracks where I have so much spare time that is spent soli- on myself. So today I looked at the bigger picture. Today I thought who can I help and how. Today I signed up to provide towels and fresh clothes to the homeless after they get a hot shower. Today changed the way I look at life. I hope today I changed someone elses life.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. -Philippians 2:4

Lord help me live my life everyday with JOY and bless others as I have been blessed. Let me make the most of each day and turn every opportunity into a right choice.

Tranquil Quarters

So I read in a devotional on my phone the other day about how our bed is our own sacred sanctuary.  Now think about this...we can pretend to be who ever we want on a day to day basis, maybe a "big time" lawyer, when we really haven't had a case in 6 months or maybe the social butterfly of the town who seems to be everyones friend, but when at home there are really no friends at all. When we lay down at night in our beds there is no pretending with God. We are most vulnerable laying there with nothing to offer, but our thoughts and prayers. I think God enjoys that. Think about your bedroom...is it your hideaway from the world? Is it where you choose to have your quiet time with your Savior? Or is it cluttered with mess and maybe just somewhere that  provides a place for you to rest at night? Either way you look at it your bed is where you bring yourself  to have rest after your long day comes to an end. So in some way your bed is a safe place for you to go and be yourself. We don't have to be anyone special for God because to Him we are perfect. This is something I find great peace in. To my God I am perfect. He made me special and He has an unfailing love for me that will last forever. No matter where you sleep, on a California King or on a mat on the floor with no blanket, you have a sacred sanctuary where you can be vulnerable with God at night.

 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   your works are wonderful,
   I know that full well. 
My frame was not hidden from you
   when I was made in the secret place,
   when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
   all the days ordained for me were written in your book
   before one of them came to be. -Psalm 139 14-16

Lord help me to be thankful for my traquil quarters where I lay my head at night. Remind me that with all of the chaos in the world that I can relax and come to you as my self because you love me and made me perfect.

Finding your niche

As of late I have almost become quite obssesive about trying to find where I fit in my Christian walk. I am not your typical "cookie cutter" Christian. I am colorful, quirky at times, unkept a bit with flowers in my hair, music loud, a mouth that my foot is firmly planted in most of the time, and a past that haunts me.  I love the Lord with all of my heart and that is certain, but finding where I fit in among His children has been a daunting task. Filled with panic I try and keep my "cool" persona around folks who I find too intimidating to show my new lifestyle, but while doing that I could be keeping one of them from changing theirs. In retrospect, I wish I would have had someone shining that ever so bright light of a newly washed soul to me when I was in my darkest days. There is nothing brighter nor prettier than that effervescent, irrepressible joy that a new Christian gives off. I want that brilliance all the time. I have a desire to be different, but I feel like my body is like that of a bobber on the end of fishing pole. Just dancing around on the waters surface most of the time, but then in an instant gets sucked underneath into the dark.

Lord today I am praying for strength to break free of just dancing on the water. Help me to surrender fully to you and shine the light of loving the Lord to the world.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. -James 1:22