A Category 5 Storm

The Weaver

My life is but a weaving
Between my Lord and me,
I cannot choose the colors
He worketh steadily.

Oft times He weaveth sorrow,
And I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper
And I, the underside.

Not till the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly
Shall God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful
In the Weaver's skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.

-Grant Colfax Tuller

John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled.

This picture was taken in Savannah, Georgia when we visited in March 2013.

Reflecting God's Love!

Let's LOVE Him and LOVE others because of the LOVE He has for us.

I Corinthians 13:13 tells us that LOVE echoes into eternity. It's the only thing that we do that will last for eternity. “Three things will continue forever: faith, hope, and LOVE. And the greatest of these is LOVE.”

People will forget all our work, our wealth, our hobbies, our trophies, our awards, etc. The only thing that will last forever is the LOVE we show for Him and for others. 

After work, pop pop still takes time to play! January 2014

People Problems

Exodus 2:14-15 Then he said, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us?" So Moses feared and said "Surely this thing is known!" When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well.

Moses had killed an Egyptian to protect a Hebrew and now they were turning on him. How many times do the people we invest ourselves in turn on us?

When Moses fled from Egypt he met his wife and began his family. God used a bad circumstance for good and Moses became more spiritually prepared to lead the Hebrew people. When we find ourselves in a situation where we are rejected or let down by people we need to let God be the one to make it right for our life. I personally believe that God is able to use the pain and hurting emotions to fuel us to do something that will benefit others.

Remember God didn't put us here to fulfill the purpose of others but instead His own purpose for our life!

This is a picture taken of the view from my mom's house in Spain, 2006

Handling Fear

I Kings 19:2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.”

Jezebel was letting Elijah know she was going to kill him. She was furious that he had conquered her pagan prophets and wanted revenge. Elijah had just won a great victory and was on the mountain top of life until he heard this threat. He ran for his life and found himself in the midst of despair going from faith to fear. 

Elijah was a great and righteous prophet of God who ended up deep in despair and depression because of fear. He was so overwhelmed with fear that he asked God to kill him. His emotions were more focused on his fears than on the victories God had given him just days before. Fear came while he was on the mountain top of life and immediately he was in the valley of despair.

Fear is a struggle that we all face in life and we need to encourage each other as God did Elijah.

Dear Lord, please send me in my times of fear those who will help me more in my faith and not those who will only crush me in my weakness. Let me know how to encourage those in my life who may be struggling with their own fear.

This picture was taken as I was traveling through Arkansas with my mom in January 2010.

God Changes Things

And He changes the times and the seasons; Daniel 2:21a

The story of Joseph is such an encouragement to me when life doesn't make sense. I think about when his brothers threw him into a pit to kill him and then sold him into slavery. Then his encounter with Potiphar's wife and getting thrown into prison. There were so many things that happened to Joseph that were so terribly wrong and yet he never  let the circumstances change his trust in God. Joseph trusted that God's hand was upon him and moved forward every day doing what ever needed to be done. Many years later God blessed him by making him 2nd in command to the great nation of Egypt. He was reunited with his brothers and everything changed.

There are many stories in the Bible that show us that God uses the good and the bad for his purpose. We can't always trust in the circumstances of our life but we can always trust God. It should give us hope that no matter what difficulty we may have that God has His purpose and His plan for us too. We can trust Him to make everything right no matter how impossible it may seem and no matter how much we have messed it up.

God can take our hopeless circumstance that we are facing today and make it  our blessing for tomorrow, next week, next month or next year. He brought us life from death 2000 years ago....

 This picture was taken at the Historical Fernandina Beach on January 2014.

Feeling Safe

Nevertheless I am continually with You;

You hold me by my right hand. Psalm 73:23 

When I was a little girl I would hold my dad's hands and it made me feel safe. At night I would wake up from having nightmares and crawl in bed next to my mom, again feeling safe. As a child our parents help to calm our fears and insecurities. Then I became a mom and it became my responsibility to do the same with my own children.

At my age you would think I would have worked through all my fears by now but I find each day brings on something new to stress over. It is so important for me to be reminded each day that God is in control and help to calm my anxieties, worries and fears for today. If it is a day with additional problems that seem too overwhelming to handle then I reach out to my praying warriors to pray for me.

God is in control always but especially when I hand over my control! 

This picture was taken of me with my parents in 1958 Tangier, Morocco.

Critical In Nature

"Judge not, that ye be not judged." Matthew 7:1

It is so easy to be critical of others and when I begin to go down that trail I have to ask myself: "When did I get to be so superior?" Am I so perfect that even though I have so much to work on myself personally I need instead to take time and thought to what others are doing wrong? I instead need to begin praying for those individuals and realizing they are in God's hands and take responsibility for myself. I think it is easier to see the faults of others than our own faults. We are fools if we believe we have it right and others have it wrong.

We need to stop believing we have the power to change others when we cannot even change ourselves. Let's work on encouraging others instead of tearing them down. Let's learn to take our focus off what others do and say so we can focus more on what we do and say instead.

Criticism has never accomplished anything but instead has brought pain to others. 

Criticism is a lot like cruelty, it leaves similar scars.

This picture was taken of the flowers in my yard!