Living without Fear

How can we live in a society where 6 year olds are being killed? In the wake of the tragedy in Connecticut, now is the time to turn our eyes to Jesus.

Psalm 23:4
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

We need to remember in these times of Crisis that the Lord is with us and will walk beside us all the way.  We got a phone call last night from our daughters high school that said they wanted to reassure the parents that the bomb threat that they received was not valid and that this morning the police were going to sweep the school and check for bombs.

My husband and I prayed that God would protect our daughter and sent her to school this morning. Our faith and trust needs to be in God. A friend of mine once told me something that rings as true today as it did when she told me. Our Children are not really our children, they are only on loan to us from God and we need to do our best to take care of them until God calls them home.

Lord,

I ask that you be with the community in Connecticut and wrap your loving arms around our nation and give us your peace Father and let us put our hopes and fears in You.

We love you Lord.

Love Your Servant 

Mary

Ungluded

^"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:2

Lately I have been reading a book called Unglued by Lysa Terkeurst.  It talked about how as women we are emotional and how we should use our emotions to Honor God.

I know for myself I am a emotional person, I am normally pretty calm, but every now and then I just blow up.  The other night I was cooking dinner, we were having steak and potatoes and I was doing the one thing I hate to do.  Cook in a dirty kitchen. Tim and the kids were getting underfoot and I knew I was about to loose it so I told my husband I want to be a Proverbs 31 woman and I went outside to calm down and pray to God about why my kitchen was dirty.

I have to admit in the pass I would have just blown up at Tim and the kids and then felt horrible the rest of the night.  I am very thankful God lead me to this book to remind me that I am not the only woman who struggles with my emotions.  

I know that as a human being that I am going to fail, but I just have to remember that God is bigger than anything and can handle all of needs and emotions :)

The Joy of the Lord

I was driving my kids to school this morning, feeling a little down. I am now on crutches again until my surgery and every now and then I get into my little pity party.

There was a song that came on the radio the joy of the Lord is my strength. I have not heard this song in a long time. The lyrics are The Joy of the Lord is my strength. He will uphold me all of my days. I am surrounded by mercy and love.

The joy of the Lord is my strength. In Psalm 28:7 is says,
 “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.”

God reminded me that in my pain He is my strength and my shield and I get my joy from Him. Even though I am struggling with pain, my strength comes from the Lord. He is my all in all. He is the Lord of all. All of our hopes and dreams. All of our pain and sorrow. Just know that you can trust in the Lord and He will take care of all your needs.

Blessings

My husband preaches at a nursing home once a month and during his sermon he referenced the song Blessings. As he mentioned it I did not think much of it until later. The songs chorus is, "Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops. What if Your healing comes through tears. What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near. What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise." Yesterday I was at church and I was in severe pain, I have a herniated disk pushing into my nerve sack and there are nights that I don't sleep because I am in so much pain and Tuesday night was one of those nights. There was a shortage in the nursery so I was working with the kids and there was this one little one that I was rocking and all of the sudden the song blessings popped into my mind. I started to sing it to the little one and I thought about the line in the song what if your healing comes through tears. I thought to myself that there are more than one way that God heals. God might not choose to heal my body but He can sure heal the soul. I was reminded and refreshed by this thought this week, that even though I am in pain I know he is carrying me all the way. He is the balm to my soul. In Psalm 23:3, it says, "He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for His name’s sake." He refreshes our should for His name sake. He is the one who guides us in our life and even though we might not know the why or the where we need to trust in Him and realize like the song says that what if the trials that we go through are our mercies in disguise.

Courageous

"Lord make us Courageous" Casting Crowns.

There is a song called Courageous by Casting Crowns that says Lord Make us Courageous. Courage is defined as having characteristics of Bravery. There are people that God puts in our lives that exemplifies courage. For me at the moment it is my 12 year old son.

My son has a Chairi Malformation and suffers with headaches daily. Very debilitating headaches that cause him to shake and be dizzy and miss a lot of school. Through it all he stays positive and always has a smile on his face. There are times in my life that the pain from my artritis gets to be so bad and I will think of David and think that if he can get through what he is facing then I can too.

God calls us to be Courageous in all that we do, wither we are dealing with physical or mental pain. Sometimes we may never understand why we are going through a particular season in our life's, but through it we need to give God the glory and honor. His ways are not our ways.

In Psalms 40:12 -13 it says, "For troubles without number have surrounded me; my sins have overtaken me; I am unable to see.
They are more than the hairs of my head,and my courage leaves me. LORD, be pleased to deliver me; hurry to help me, LORD."

When Courage leaves us we know that God will never leave or abandon us, he is faithful and constant and we can always count on Him.

Grief

Rev 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will no longer exist; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer,
because the previous things have passed away.

Grief as defined by Merriam Webster is defined as deep and poignant distress caused by or as if by bereavement.

People grieve in many different ways and form and there are many types of grief. You can grief over a loss of a parent or a spouse. You can grieve over the child that you have not yet been able to conceive. You can grieve over a job that you lost or over a job that you wanted but was not the right timing.

God knows about our grief. When we grieve God will grieve with us. In Matthew it says blessed are those who mourn because they will be comforted. God is our comforter and deliver. It is in Him that we need to put our trust.

My heart grieves at times over my son, who suffers from a Chari Malformation and has headaches everyday, several times a day. As a mother my heart is in distress and wants to take all his pain away from him. As a follower of our Loving God I know that when I grieve my Lord grieves too, because David is not only my child but is a child of our Lord.

When you are grieving, give it to the Lord and you will find peace in Him.

The Crucifiction

"Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them,because they do not know what they are doing.” and they divided His clothes and cast lots." Luke 23:34

What Love Jesus showed on the cross. People were persecuting Him and beating Him and they nailed Him to a cross and He asked for the Lord to forgive them.

There have been times in my life where I have struggled with forgiveness. When I was 2 months old my parents divorced because my father told my mother if she did not abort me he would divorce her. My entire life I struggled with forgiving Him because of never being there, he signed away custody and I never saw him until I was seventeen and by then I had so much anger in my heart for him, I could not even look at him.

As I grew closer to the Lord, this passage came to me in Luke that His own people Jews, beat Him and hung Him on a cross and He said Father forgive them. What love Jesus showed to the people who were persecuting Him.

It made me think that if Jesus could forgive these people who were beating Him, how could I not forgive my father for abandoning me. When I finally forgave I felt a big weight come off my shoulders.

Lord, I thank You for dying on the cross for Me!!