Wake up my Heart!

Scripture of the Day: Colossians 3:15 Let the peace of Christ  rule in your hearts, since as members of one body  you were called to peace.  And be thankful. As I get ready for a week of babysitting I found myself yearning for an easy, peaceful week, yet was certain that this is impossible! But this morning, thanks to a peaceful heart and the awesome words of Sarah Young, " I designed you to dwell in Peace all day, every day," I feel pretty good! God's goal for us is peace. His peace, which is all consuming and takes over in all the places that the world tells us we should worry. His peace takes over the parenting woes and the financial struggles and the relationship confusion and, and, and!  The only way we have a shot at this peace is if we let it rule our hearts. To read about it and let it live in your head is not enough. To quote a line from frozen, "the head can be changed." The heart takes a little more work to divert once things get in there.  ...

Scripture of the Day: Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, 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. Had a rough "mommy" day yesterday...as this is by far the toughest stage we have through in terms of parenting. As I contemplate future decisions I was really praying for God to come through with something that would make me feel better - and he didn't disappoint! My shower "ah-ha" moment was thinking of the verse above.  Much along the lines of yesterdays post, you can choose to think about negative things, or think about positive things. God would like us to choose the positive. It is pretty impossible to think about only  good things, but when your head starts to make a list of good and bad about whatever situation (person), keep going until the good outweighs the bad. Obviously if it is a bad situation, ge...

Scripture of the Day: Proverbs 17:22 A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones I was attempting to write this post last night before bed, but I was feeling more like I had a crushed spirit (out of exhaustion) and couldn't find the words. The reason for my exhaustion is that while we are visiting family my son is sharing a bed with me and he moves and makes so many noises I just don't sleep well at all! I was dreading going to bed. But I woke up in the middle of the night and watched him for a while and felt so blessed! One day soon he won't want to share a bed with me, ever, and these precious moments I now get to witness will be over. During the wee hours of the morning my heart turned joyful and it was good medicine indeed.  Lesson learned: your heart can be joyful or your spirit crushed just by how you choose to view a situation. You can make a decision to have a negative view or a positive one and that choice can make all the differe...

Scripture of the Day: Matthew 6:25-27 25  “Therefore I tell you, do not worry  about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?   26  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?   27  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? Those verses are pretty much my life verses! Oh man...did I used to worry (and my husband will tell you I still worry to much, but it really has gotten better)! And I still catch myself feeling like I should  worry about things that I really know God has under control. Remember yesterday I typed about trusting God more? Well, today I found out insurance has denied a claim from one of my hospital stays in January. I feel strangely calm about it (and have made the calls to both the hospital an...

Scripture of the Day: Philippians 4:4-7 4  Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!   5  Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.   6  Do not be anxious about anything,  but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.   7  And the peace of God,  which transcends all understanding,  will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. I am currently attempting to read the Jesus Calling devotional daily (and not succeeding I will admit), but for the past few days her topic has been one of thankfulness and trust. Sarah Young, the author, goes so far as to ask us to have a paradigm shift; from planning and evaluating to practice trusting and thanking God continually. This concept seems fantastic and in theory it seems easy to apply to our lives, but I in practice it will be more complicated. Paradigm shifts are typically big changes! The reason I feel t...

Scripture of the Day: Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. As I was going through my busy day I was listening to needtobreathe and the song "Garden" came on. The lyrics hit me like a ton of bricks, " Won't you take this cup from me, c ause fear has stolen all my sleep..." I think that describes my inability to sleep without prescription medicine! I keep reliving certain things that occurred in the hospital and because of that I have no closure. God hasn't taken this cup from me because I haven't let it go...and because I haven't let it go I can't sleep. I am not letting myself feel the rest that God has promised. And oh, how I would like to!  Today I wonder how rested you feel? If the answer is "not very," I encourage you to pray about it. Let God take your cup and ease your fears. Let it go and rest your hearts and minds! 

Scripture of the Day (2)! 1 John 4:7-9 Dear friends, let us love one another,  for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God  and knows God.   8  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.   9  This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son  into the world that we might live through him. I am beginning to see how God is working in my life during this Lenten season and let me tell you, it isn't going how I planned. But I love it! Instead of getting closer to Jesus through daily biblical devotions, I am getting closer to Jesus through loving my son. I think I needed the lesson of just how much God loved us as I go through this trying time with my son. God sent his one and only Son because he IS love. He took on my most horrible sin and took me in...and never once did he make me feel bad about it.  So instead of my reaction being to scream, while my 3 year old screams for ten minutes...

Scripture of the Day: Psalm 118:24 This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Do you ever wake up feeling strangely hopeful...and strangely nervous at the same time? This is one of those mornings. It brings to mind one of lines from my now-favorite movie, Frozen, "Don't know if I'm elated or gassy, but I'm somewhere in that zone."  That is me! Excited/hopeful and nervous all at the same time! So instead of deciding to base my thoughts (and thus my day) on either one of those feelings, this verse popped in my head and won't leave! It doesn't matter what I was feeling in bed as I woke up - today is the day the Lord has made and so we must rejoice and be glad about it!  The sun is shining for the moment. My son is still asleep at 8:00. I  slept in my bed all night without a middle of the night movie session for the seventh night in a row (thanks to sleeping pills and medicine for restless legs). I get to see a goo...

Scripture of the Day: Matthew 22:37-40 37 ... Jesus replied:  “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38  This is the first and greatest commandment.   39  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” In our house right now we are working on the "love your neighbor as yourself" commandment. The "Golden rule" is hard to teach to an almost 4 year old! Almost daily we have to have a talk that goes something like this: "if you want us to be nice to you, you have to be nice to us." I am not sure this is fantastic parenting, but the bottom line is that if our son whines and cries and is mean, not only does he NOT get what he wants...but he gets one (or two) crabby parents and some time in his room. Whereas, if he is nice and pleasant and obeys we are much happier as a family!  I think conceptually, this is one of the hardest ...

Scripture of the moment 2: Ephesians 3:18-19 And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. These  verses have come alive for me through the song lyrics of Jason Gray: “God put a million, million doors in the world for his love to walk through. One of those doors is you.” Contemplate that for a second. God created a door so that he could walk right through to your heart so that you can be filled with a love the surpasses knowledge…a love that fills you up from the fullness of God. And why do these doors exist? So that you can get a glimpse of how wide and long and high and deep Christ’s love (and thus God’s as well) is for you. When you try to comprehend that kind of love it is a little overwhelming. I try to picture a box and w...

Double post today...had a slight computer glitch that I should have known how to fix, but did not - so 2 posts bright and early!  Scripture of the moment: Psalm 46:10 Be still and know that I am God. Do you ever take time to do that? Actually be still enough to realize that God is in control and that makes everything else okay? It is hard to do! In today’s day and age I feel like when I actually have five minutes to myself rather than take time to enjoy the stillness, I have to quick check my facebook or email. There is always something that takes precedence over actually being still and taking time to relish the fact that God is God! Even as I write this, I am sitting on my son’s floor because he asked me to stay here until he fell asleep. This is not a typical request…but my first thought was “no…this is my blog time!!” But as I listen to him rustle about attempting to fall asleep I am filled with more peace than I have felt for most of the day. I got to hear h...

Scripture of the day: 1 Corinthians 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ,  and each one of you is a part of it. Over the past couple of months, this verse has taken on immeasurable meaning for me. In one way I know that we are all part of the body of Christ...but I seldom see that body in action. I know that doesn't mean that nothing is happening, it means that I am sadly, blinded to it.  I now see the body of Christ every day through the people that are in my life. Every person who has helped us out is serving, and loving, the way that Jesus wanted us to do. Each person who has demonstrated how to live out being part of that body of Christ has made me want to make sure I am an active member of that body as well.  You cannot be part of that body without action. James tells us you cannot have faith without deeds. Although I have always believed this, I seldom actually do the "deed" part of faith. I write. But I don't always act out what I write and if you looke...

Scripture of the Day: Ecclesiastes 8:6 For there is a time and a way for everything, although man's trouble lies heavy on him. As I was recapping my hospital stays with my doctor this morning, it hit me again that God's timing is perfect. During the craziness of January, I was supposed to have surgery to remove ovarian cysts here in Bloomington. I feel very confident that had that surgery taken place, something would have gone very wrong. Yes, the bleeding was trouble, but because of it, God took me to a place where He knew I would be taken care of. At this time, I cannot help but be grateful for His protection. God's time and His way are planned. No matter how much our troubles may lie on our hearts, or feel like the end of the world (or our lives), God has it figured out. And thankfully, in hindsight, we sometimes get a better understanding of exactly that. We don't have to know where our road is going or where our life is leading. God knows. Thank goodness! 

Today rather than attempt to write a devotion and fall horribly short, I am going to ask for prayers! I am exhausted. For going on three weeks I have been a partial insomniac. I fall asleep, but wake up after a couple of hours and am then up for 2-3 hours. I don't nap during the day because that seems to make it worse. But during the early morning and then during the evening I am exhausted!! So exhausted I cannot find the words to write, nor do I have the concentration needed to actually study the verses I would like to write about! I have tried OTC medicine with no success, so am going to the Dr. tomorrow. If you could pray for a solution...or just great SLEEP, that would be fantastic! Thank you friends!

Scripture of the Day: Matthew 6:19-21 19  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,  where moths and vermin destroy,  and where thieves break in and steal.   20  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,  where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.   21  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Tonight I heard a children's song with the verses above and they are resonating with me in ways they have not before.  I typically think about investing in Jesus as the way to increase your treasures in heaven...but when it comes to practical application I find myself investing in Jesus through an alternative source. My days are spent with my son. Soon they will hopefully filled with more children (child care - not my own!) I have been looking at watching other children as a great way for my son to have other entertainment sources during the day and as nice supplemental in...

Scripture of the Day: 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. Ahh parenting! We are in a trying time with that these days. It seems the older my son gets, the more defiant he becomes and darn it - he knows more words every day so the defiance seems to grow with them! This week we have discovered a secret. In the midst of tantrums the trick to calming us all down is singing "Amazing Grace." It helps me be less angry and seems to help bring the little man back down to a rational train of thought. It helps me focus on God and see past the situation. I think the words of that song calm me down because just as God granted me glorious grace when I didn't deserve it (and still does so every day) my husband and I need to grant our son grace as well. Not s...

Scripture of the Day: Matthew 6:9-13 “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Most often when I pray it is "freestyle" as we call it in my house. This means we don't pray written prayers, or even Scripture, but spout off whatever is in our heart at the time. Although I love that type of prayer, there is also great comfort and wisdom to come from praying Scripture, or other prayers written by others.  In fact, that is how Jesus taught us to pray. Simple words to the Father - and they contain so much. Dependence on God. The desire for His will to overshadow all others. Forgiveness. Safety. Protection from Satan.  When we have a day where we can't find the words to pray, let...

Lent: Day 2 Scripture of the Day: 2 Corinthians 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day. Since last night I have had a song we sang at our Wednesday service in my head. The song is "Beautiful Things." The refrain: "You make beautiful things, You make beautiful things out of the dust. You make beautiful things, You make beautiful things out of us." The bridge: "You make me new, You are making me new." (note, I apologize for the grammar nightmare that probably lives in that paragraph!) I tend to forget that concept. Every day, we can be new. God gives us a fresh start every day - if we take it. No matter how poorly we did the today, tomorrow is a chance to align our actions a little more closely with His will. Tomorrow is a chance to start over and become the beautiful thing God intended us to be. Tomorrow we can be renewed. And if we fail tomorrow, there is always the day af...

Scripture of the Day: Mark 1:15 Repent and believe in the gospel. Tonight at our Ash Wednesday service I found myself paying closer attention than usual.  I was really pondering lent and as I was deciding yet again that giving up something for 40 days wouldn't really bring me closer to Jesus (note, if you give something up for lent I think that is wonderful! It just doesn't work for me  because I give up things up for the wrong reason). I felt convicted that rather than give anything up, I need to really take these days and get closer to God and learn more about His Son. To do that, I am going to write a post every day through Easter. I am sure some will be long and some short and some will post bright and early in the morning and others at 11:59 pm...but they will be there! I would love it if you would join me on this journey (but also promise not to be offended if you don't read every day)! Each time my pastor placed the sign of the cross in ashes on foreheads tonig...

Scripture of the Day: Hebrews 12:1-2a Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run  with perseverance  the race marked out for us,   2  fixing our eyes on Jesus,  the pioneer  and perfecter of faith.  These verses were on our church program this past Sunday...and they were what I needed to see to get my behind in gear! This life we are in is a race - one we are in for the long haul. Sometimes we feel like the tortoise and sometimes we feel like the hare. There are nice straight hills and then you find hills that are hard to climb and valleys you think you may never get out of. BUT the race of our lives has been marked out for us by God, who knows just a little bit more than we do! :) It is our job to run our race with perseverance - no matter how cruel we think our lot may be!  The only way I know of to do that is to do as ...