Have you ever looked at someones life and thought, if only I could be them for just one day? Which of course leads to an entire list of "if onlys"....
Women especially are so good at this! If only I had their hair, if only I had their clothes, if only I had their confidence and talents. And the "if onlys" only get more serious the further you go..... if only I had their children, if only I had their spouse......if only I had their life.
Before we know it we've compared ourselves to believe we could never be as amazing as this other person and we've buried our self esteem 6 feet under in the dirt.
Why do we do this to ourselves?
Galatians 6:4 says, “Each of you should test your own actions. Then you can take pride in yourself, without comparing yourself to somebody else.”
I know God has a specific lane for me and a race for me to run within that lane. When I start trying to dip into someone else's lane, not only do I mess up my race, but I mess up their race as well! The thing we must remember is God has made us all in His image to use our lives to glorify Him. He has made us all to run our own race with the talents and giftings He has placed within us. And the most incredible thing about that is this; the talents and giftings you have, I may not have and what I have, you may not have so we work together as a big team to see Gods will accomplished here on the earth!!
Funny how God knows exactly what He's doing isn't it?! ;)
Choose today to be uniquely you....exactly who God created you to be, doing exactly what God created you to do.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Friday, May 18, 2012
I did it my way....
I'm sure you have heard the song "I did it my way" by Frank Sinatra.
Yes there were times, I'm sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt
I chewed it up and spit it out,
I faced it all and I stood tall,
and did it my way.
Man, growing up that could have been my theme song! I did things the way I wanted, when I wanted and no one could tell me it wasn't right. After all I knew everything! :)
After many wrong turns and learning multiple things the hard way I learned a valuable lesson....its not about doing it my way at all.
"Abba, Father, He cried out, everything is possible for You. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine." Mark 14:36
Jesus prays this prayer to His Father right before He is arrested and put on the cross to die for us. Obviously He is struggling but, what I LOVE is His heart to do the will of His Father. He realizes it's not about Him at all, but about what His Father has asked of Him knowing there is a greater good. Knowing there is a light at the end of this dark tunnel....knowing if His Father is asking Him to do it, everything He goes through in the process will be worth it.
This verse has changed me to my core...changed everything about how I think through things and live my life every day.
When we live with the mind set that its not about us, it makes doing His will a whole lot easier.
Of course there have been times in my life where I have struggled with this and wrestled with fear and anxiety over what I wanted to do up against what God was asking me to do. I've struggled with what people think or say up against what God has asked me to do. But the thing I have come back to every single time is Gods way is better. I've settled it in my heart, His way is ALWAYS better. We may not understand why He does what He does or how He does it, but the thing we can trust is its for GOOD.
<3
Yes there were times, I'm sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt
I chewed it up and spit it out,
I faced it all and I stood tall,
and did it my way.
Man, growing up that could have been my theme song! I did things the way I wanted, when I wanted and no one could tell me it wasn't right. After all I knew everything! :)
After many wrong turns and learning multiple things the hard way I learned a valuable lesson....its not about doing it my way at all.
"Abba, Father, He cried out, everything is possible for You. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine." Mark 14:36
Jesus prays this prayer to His Father right before He is arrested and put on the cross to die for us. Obviously He is struggling but, what I LOVE is His heart to do the will of His Father. He realizes it's not about Him at all, but about what His Father has asked of Him knowing there is a greater good. Knowing there is a light at the end of this dark tunnel....knowing if His Father is asking Him to do it, everything He goes through in the process will be worth it.
This verse has changed me to my core...changed everything about how I think through things and live my life every day.
When we live with the mind set that its not about us, it makes doing His will a whole lot easier.
Of course there have been times in my life where I have struggled with this and wrestled with fear and anxiety over what I wanted to do up against what God was asking me to do. I've struggled with what people think or say up against what God has asked me to do. But the thing I have come back to every single time is Gods way is better. I've settled it in my heart, His way is ALWAYS better. We may not understand why He does what He does or how He does it, but the thing we can trust is its for GOOD.
<3
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Be Still
Psalm 46:10 is one of my most favorite verses and funny enough, the one I can't seem to get through my thick skull the majority of the time.
"Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world."
The verse is so simple but requires greatness from us. I say that because if we're honest its difficult for us to be still. As difficult as a child with a new toy they want to play with on Christmas morning! In this day and age we want what we want when we want it and all that equals out to NOW. We and by we I really mean I, don't want to wait and especially don't want to be still in the process of that waiting. We want to be hands on and when we don't see things happening fast enough for our liking we have a tendency to get in there and try to MAKE things happen!
This reminds me of Sarah (Sarai) in the Bible. She wanted a child so badly and even though God promised her and Abraham (Abram) they would be parents, it just wasn't happening fast enough for her. So what did she do?
She got involved.
She told her husband to sleep with her servant to produce a child for her. Did it work? Yes, but did it cause more damage than good...YES IT DID!
That's what always happens when we take matters into our own hands. When will we get that Gods ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts?! :) He doesn't think like us nor does He do things the way we would do them, but the thing we can BE STILL in knowing is He is God and He will ALWAYS do them in a greater way than we ever could do on our own or even imagine in our minds.
Still = devoid of or abstaining from motion.
It all comes down to trust. The ability to be still before Him is all about trusting He doesn't need our meddling or negative speech about our situation. All He wants us to do is read His Word, do what it says and trust He knows what is best.
BE STILL........
"Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world."
The verse is so simple but requires greatness from us. I say that because if we're honest its difficult for us to be still. As difficult as a child with a new toy they want to play with on Christmas morning! In this day and age we want what we want when we want it and all that equals out to NOW. We and by we I really mean I, don't want to wait and especially don't want to be still in the process of that waiting. We want to be hands on and when we don't see things happening fast enough for our liking we have a tendency to get in there and try to MAKE things happen!
This reminds me of Sarah (Sarai) in the Bible. She wanted a child so badly and even though God promised her and Abraham (Abram) they would be parents, it just wasn't happening fast enough for her. So what did she do?
She got involved.
She told her husband to sleep with her servant to produce a child for her. Did it work? Yes, but did it cause more damage than good...YES IT DID!
That's what always happens when we take matters into our own hands. When will we get that Gods ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts?! :) He doesn't think like us nor does He do things the way we would do them, but the thing we can BE STILL in knowing is He is God and He will ALWAYS do them in a greater way than we ever could do on our own or even imagine in our minds.
Still = devoid of or abstaining from motion.
It all comes down to trust. The ability to be still before Him is all about trusting He doesn't need our meddling or negative speech about our situation. All He wants us to do is read His Word, do what it says and trust He knows what is best.
BE STILL........
Friday, May 4, 2012
In love with the local church
I absolutely love the local church....there I said it!
It was in the local church that I found my relationship with Jesus, that I figured out what I wanted to do with my life. It's where I met and married my husband and where I stepped into the calling God has for my life. Its where I've met the most amazing people that I get to do life with every single day, and dream about the future with them. Its where I've met and had the privilege to lead the most amazing teenagers who I know will continue to go on and change the world we live in.
I LOVE THE LOCAL CHURCH!!
Is it perfect? Absolutely not, but why should we expect it to be? The local church is meant to be a hospital for the broken, a place where we grow up and grow THROUGH our growing pains. Is there the possibility of getting beat up a bit along the way...absolutely! But how foolish are we, if we allow that to get in the way of all God wants and purposed for the local church to do!
I LOVE Psalm 92:12-13 "The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green." These verses tell me that those who are PLANTED in the house of God WILL flourish and we will continue to bear good fruit into our old age! How foolish to read that and still think we know better and think we don't need to be rooted in our local church!
One final thought: being planted doesn't mean we come in late each week and fill a seat either. It means we are sold out to the cause, active in the pursuit of winning the lost and serving/loving those who come through our doors each week. We never stop growing, never stop learning and choose to look past the things we may not like and remember there is a greater cause....the cause of Christ!
It was in the local church that I found my relationship with Jesus, that I figured out what I wanted to do with my life. It's where I met and married my husband and where I stepped into the calling God has for my life. Its where I've met the most amazing people that I get to do life with every single day, and dream about the future with them. Its where I've met and had the privilege to lead the most amazing teenagers who I know will continue to go on and change the world we live in.
I LOVE THE LOCAL CHURCH!!
Is it perfect? Absolutely not, but why should we expect it to be? The local church is meant to be a hospital for the broken, a place where we grow up and grow THROUGH our growing pains. Is there the possibility of getting beat up a bit along the way...absolutely! But how foolish are we, if we allow that to get in the way of all God wants and purposed for the local church to do!
I LOVE Psalm 92:12-13 "The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green." These verses tell me that those who are PLANTED in the house of God WILL flourish and we will continue to bear good fruit into our old age! How foolish to read that and still think we know better and think we don't need to be rooted in our local church!
One final thought: being planted doesn't mean we come in late each week and fill a seat either. It means we are sold out to the cause, active in the pursuit of winning the lost and serving/loving those who come through our doors each week. We never stop growing, never stop learning and choose to look past the things we may not like and remember there is a greater cause....the cause of Christ!
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Supernatural...
Every morning I wake up I take time to say good morning to God. I take time to remind myself God already knows what is going to happen within the 16+ hours ahead of me and I let God know I want to go wherever He is going that day.
I do those things to remind myself God is so much bigger than me. God is bigger than anything I will face in my day, let alone face in life. God is the Name above all names!
Now I didn't always do this and believe me, just like anyone else there are times when my flesh fights doing this even now, but I have learned from past experiences there is simply no other way to live.
Romans 1:18-23 in the Message: What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn't treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.
There have been many times in my life where I have not reminded myself God is bigger. Many times where I have not believed God is bigger. When I look back to those times in my life they were times of crazy confusion and darkness. I know now I was lost because I wasn't treating God as He should be treated, just as this verse says. I was trading Him in for things I could understand, for things I could grasp with my own hands, rather than trusting His supernatural power. I was trying to make God "natural" just so I could, selfishly, get answers to my problems.
This can definitely be my greatest battle still to this day if I don't stay in my Word and constantly remind myself of who God is in my life. Things are going to happen that I don't understand. Things are going to happen that we will not have answers to, but I can assure you walking away from God and trading Him for worldly things is not going to bring those answers any faster.
When we take our eyes off of God, the God who holds our entire world in His great big hands, we
get lost. We get confused. We get wise in our own eyes. We begin to walk in darkness, when we are meant to walk in the light.
I challenge you to wake up every morning and remind yourself He is bigger! He created you and He knows what is best for you, whether it makes sense at the moment or not. He has your best interest in mind and as Jeremiah 29:11 states He has good plans for your life....for a hope and for a future.
I do those things to remind myself God is so much bigger than me. God is bigger than anything I will face in my day, let alone face in life. God is the Name above all names!
Now I didn't always do this and believe me, just like anyone else there are times when my flesh fights doing this even now, but I have learned from past experiences there is simply no other way to live.
Romans 1:18-23 in the Message: What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn't treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.
There have been many times in my life where I have not reminded myself God is bigger. Many times where I have not believed God is bigger. When I look back to those times in my life they were times of crazy confusion and darkness. I know now I was lost because I wasn't treating God as He should be treated, just as this verse says. I was trading Him in for things I could understand, for things I could grasp with my own hands, rather than trusting His supernatural power. I was trying to make God "natural" just so I could, selfishly, get answers to my problems.
This can definitely be my greatest battle still to this day if I don't stay in my Word and constantly remind myself of who God is in my life. Things are going to happen that I don't understand. Things are going to happen that we will not have answers to, but I can assure you walking away from God and trading Him for worldly things is not going to bring those answers any faster.
When we take our eyes off of God, the God who holds our entire world in His great big hands, we
get lost. We get confused. We get wise in our own eyes. We begin to walk in darkness, when we are meant to walk in the light.I challenge you to wake up every morning and remind yourself He is bigger! He created you and He knows what is best for you, whether it makes sense at the moment or not. He has your best interest in mind and as Jeremiah 29:11 states He has good plans for your life....for a hope and for a future.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Oh the favor!
I have not blogged in months and there has been so much blog worthy stuff going on in my world....so much to share that it may take me a while to catch up with myself!
However I'll begin with yesterday. :) I woke up early to have my quiet time with God before I left for the gym and during that time I talked to God about His favor on my life. I reminded myself, and Him (not that He needs it:)) that I am cloaked in His righteousness and I have His favor all over and around me every single day. I began to tell God I had a high expectancy to experience His favor and see Him all around me all thruout the day. Too often we just go thru our day not looking for God and expecting to see Him and its almost as if we're surprised when He shows up. But yesterday I made the decision to live intentionally, looking for Him and expecting to see Him.
So I go to the gym and then I stop at Starbucks. I pull up to the drive thru to see a semi-long line, but nothing out of the ordinary for 8am on a weekday. I order my drink and procede to sit in the line for about 5 minutes before I pull up to the window. As I get my card ready to pay, the cashier tells me my drink will be free today because they feel I waited in line too long. What?! Really?! Free Starbucks?! I don't know about ya'll but that is enough to make me sing! :) I proceeded to pull out of the drivethru and thank God for my free coffee!
You may look at that logically and say "well that was good customer service," and I would agree with you but to me I look at that and say "thats the favor of my God on my life!" That was an opportunity for Him to remind me how much He loves me! God delights in even the little areas of my life and desires of my heart. He knows that while yes, I love Starbucks....I also feel it is drastically over priced for some yummy coffee :) So He GAVE it to me yesterday! Just a little reminder of the prayer I prayed that morning....I was expecting His favor and He did not disapoint! I mean really...does He ever?!
Now while this is a little story about a free Starbucks coffee, I do hope it inspires you to expect to see God in your every day. I hope it helps you to remember He cares for you and loves you in ways you cannot imagine.....all the way down to the smallest things in your life! You are loved and taken care of by the King of Kings!
Now get out there and EXPECT to receive His favor and see how He knocks your socks off!
However I'll begin with yesterday. :) I woke up early to have my quiet time with God before I left for the gym and during that time I talked to God about His favor on my life. I reminded myself, and Him (not that He needs it:)) that I am cloaked in His righteousness and I have His favor all over and around me every single day. I began to tell God I had a high expectancy to experience His favor and see Him all around me all thruout the day. Too often we just go thru our day not looking for God and expecting to see Him and its almost as if we're surprised when He shows up. But yesterday I made the decision to live intentionally, looking for Him and expecting to see Him.
So I go to the gym and then I stop at Starbucks. I pull up to the drive thru to see a semi-long line, but nothing out of the ordinary for 8am on a weekday. I order my drink and procede to sit in the line for about 5 minutes before I pull up to the window. As I get my card ready to pay, the cashier tells me my drink will be free today because they feel I waited in line too long. What?! Really?! Free Starbucks?! I don't know about ya'll but that is enough to make me sing! :) I proceeded to pull out of the drivethru and thank God for my free coffee!
You may look at that logically and say "well that was good customer service," and I would agree with you but to me I look at that and say "thats the favor of my God on my life!" That was an opportunity for Him to remind me how much He loves me! God delights in even the little areas of my life and desires of my heart. He knows that while yes, I love Starbucks....I also feel it is drastically over priced for some yummy coffee :) So He GAVE it to me yesterday! Just a little reminder of the prayer I prayed that morning....I was expecting His favor and He did not disapoint! I mean really...does He ever?!
Now while this is a little story about a free Starbucks coffee, I do hope it inspires you to expect to see God in your every day. I hope it helps you to remember He cares for you and loves you in ways you cannot imagine.....all the way down to the smallest things in your life! You are loved and taken care of by the King of Kings!
Now get out there and EXPECT to receive His favor and see how He knocks your socks off!
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Take me out to the ballgame....
I realize its been a pretty long time since I blogged last...I gotta get better about that. :)
Anyhow, it hit me today how super close baseball season is to starting. Players report to Spring Training the end of next week!!
I know everyone says that baseball is no longer "Americas Sport" but to me it definitely still is. I absolutely LOVE everything about it! The excitement of driving to the ball park wearing all your gear, getting there early to watch warm ups and just hoping to get an autograph or picture with your favorite player. The standing for the National Anthem, hearing the umpire yell "Play ball!" getting all your favorite treats from the concession stand...or bringing your own cause they are way too expensive now! :) The 7th inning stretch, a tie going into the last inning, a really mean strikeout, sliding into home....oh man I could go on and on I just love it!
My love of baseball started at a really young age. I remember being just a little girl walking into old Busch Stadium in St. Louis holding the hands of my Dad and Brother. Every game I wore my Cardinals shirt and my Cardinals hat that was WAY too big for my head. Back then, even though I thought it was exciting, I looked forward to the cotton candy the most...can't lie about that. :) But I grew up with it and it grew up with me. Its in my blood! The sounds and smells, waiting for Fred Bird to come over to my section and hoping Ozzy Smith would do some back flips during the game. Pure excitement! I have high hopes for my Cardinals this season...as I do every season. Here's to believing they won't break my heart. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)