For His Service

If you want to start being more creative, if you wish to sew, if you want to see my friend's blog, click below. Her name is Lesli. Check her out. You will be amazed. She makes the prettiest children's clothes you have ever seen! http://creative-christmas.blogspot.com/2009/06/more-pillowcase-love.html If you haven't seen my creative outlet, check out my website at.. http://www.scripturepainting.com/

We are enjoying many things these days: watching children dance in the rain, play baseball in the rain, ask silly questions. I am so grateful for just the everyday moments. That is a gift. NF rears its ugly head and reminds me that he is there. When John-Michael tells me his head hurts, I immediately think "Lord, is it a optic glioma ?" When John-Michael tells me his knees hurt, I say, "Does he have a fibroma in his knees?" When I hear of another child going to heaven in their teens due to NF, I ask myself if that is God's plan for John-Michael. That's when I make myself focus on what is true today! ( Philippians 4:8-Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things). Today, he was dancing in the rain. Today, he gave me a surprise gift of 2 pennies. Today, he can walk. Today, he can see. Today, he has a tum...

Losing Control -( A reflection on a chapter from Love Walked Among U s by Paul Miller). This is one of my on-going life issues; I don’t like the fact that I am really in control of nothing. I want to trust in my own abilities to fix things and control things, but what a foolish place to be. When we hear someone say, “I’m losing control” we usually know that this isn’t considered a good thing. We know the person saying it feels as if life is out of his/her hands and out of his/her capabilities to handle and it is. If we heard someone say, “I do nothing on my own. I can only do what I see my dad doing” and we asked people to tell us about the character of the person speaking, we would say: he is girly , weak, codependent, not mentally stable, etc. If we asked believers to describe Jesus, we would get words like: the good shepherd, savior, King, lion of Judah, sinless, powerful, kind, etc. Now we might be amazed to look at Christ words: John 5:19, 30 19J...

Trusting God with our If Onlys and What Ifs? Trust? Whom do I trust? This has been an ongoing question/ problem in my life. “ What if ” looks to the future and worries about what God might allow. “ If Only ” looks to the past and grumbles about what God has given. The first leads to anxiety and the second leads to anger. Those who know me well understand that I struggle with both. Instead of giving my anxious heart to God, I handle the uncertainty of the What Ifs of life by employing one of my control tactics (my strategies, my intelligence, and my manipulation of the situation). I am learning to resist the temptation to “help God out”. Waiting is often too hard, too painful, and God just works way too slow for my liking. But when I try to help Him out, I get disaster. My focus is too often on what I can do to get what I want rather than on how I can trust God with those issues. We can only trust God when our focus is on Him and not on our circumstances. Psalm 141:8 tells us to fix ...

Since September we have been meeting with couples in our home, studying God's word and especially looking at what HE says about marriage. You know, HE says a lot . So, today I want to write a little encouragement to myself and to you. Why? Consider how widely encouragement is urged and reported in scripture: -God to Moses : Encourage Joshua , because he will lead Israel (Deuteronomy 1:38) -Soldiers in the midst of battle" The men of Israel encouraged one another (Judges 20:22). - Joab to Saul before battle- Now go out and encourage your men (2 Samuel 19:7) Josiah to the priests: Josiah appointed the priests to their duties and encouraged them in the service of the LORD's temple (2 Chronicles 35:2) -Paul and Silas to the early church-After Paul and Silas come out of the prison, they went to Lydia's house , where they met with the brothers and encouraged them (Acts 16:40). -Paul to the disciples" When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and , afte...

My 4 year old comes in to my bathroom this morning while I am getting a shower to inform me that he didn't make it to the toilet in time. I tell him to get undressed while I get out and I will put him in the shower. I wrap a towel around myself and stick him in the shower and hose him down. I lather and rinse him and …and I start to dry him, while I am still wrapped in a towel. He sees a little cleavage and tells me that he likes my chest. I just laugh and tell him thank you. Next he says, “But it is kind of siwwy” (translation/silly). Oh, the joys of children.