Don't Give Up

When I say to you God is my everything, I am not tickling your ears with some beautiful compliment for my Creator. I literally mean He is my everything. When I say I understand what you are going through and I’ve been there, I am not just trying to empathize with you, although I do; I truly mean I’ve been there. I’ve battled depression, fought suicidal thoughts, I’ve been abused, I’ve been sexually assaulted, I’ve dealt with addiction in all forms, I’ve been betrayed and used. I’ve been lied to by those closest to me and put in situations where I was forced to take sides and resented being put there. I’ve been stolen from and I’ve even had family spread terrible rumors about me. I’ve had health issues, marital issues, parental issues...Issues about issues...I’ve been there. Is it weird that even though these people have hurt me to the depth of my core that I still feel a need to protect them? It is an odd place I find myself. Do you ever feel like that? Like you want to share your ...

As I sit here and contemplate all of the changes that are happening in my life right now I find myself reflecting on all of the things that have taken up my time over the years. How did I get here?

I'm going to write this now. Now when the creditors are knocking at the door. Now when the mess in my house is beyond my comprehension of how to fix. Now when every vehicle and boat is in need of work. Now when the legal issues are growing in a bad way instead of a good way. Now when I feel guilty when I wake up in the morning and realize that – on the surface – we look like bad Christians – not holding to our word in our finances – not looking like a family that is put together and has good strategies that work handling our kids and our situations. I am sick and tired of seeing people who live in million dollar mansions; who have good established marriages and families; who have overcome addictions and tragedies in their past and right now are doing well; I am sick and tired of those people telling me that God is going to do good things in my life – and all that I have to do is believe. Yeah, I am sure they have gone through some rough times. I do not know their lives and ...

Do you ever feel like you are doing everything you can and nothing seems to be falling into place? You work hard but there never seems to be enough money. You try to manage your time wisely but there never seems to be enough time to get everything done. You try to eat healthy but the drive thru is so much faster. I feel you. I have struggled with all of these things myself. I miss the commercial from back in the day that said, “Calgon take me away”. Sometimes I just want to get away and I do sometimes. However, I have found that getting away doesn’t make the issues of my life go away. I have also found that sometimes no matter how much scripture I read in a day, my problems don’t miraculously go away either. Sometimes we just have to go through. How depressing does that sound? I remember reading a book to my children when they were little. It was the story of a mama bear and her cub and they were on an adventure. Along the way they came up against some obstacles that they could not...

Has God ever told you to just be quiet? I’m sure He has told me plenty of times, but I don’t think I ever really listened. This time I did and I am so glad I did because I surely would have interfered with what He had planned next. I just got home from a 3 day mini vaca in Charlotte, NC. Mad props to that city. It was clean, beautiful and the people showed true southern hospitality. If you are ever that way I highly recommend eating at the Dish . It was amazing and apparently was visited by Guy Fieri on the Food Network’s Diner’s Drive Ins and Dives. I can see why. While preparing for our Joyce Meyer getaway I set aside time to pray for our trip like I always do. As I began to seek the Lord for His plan and then throw out there what I wanted from our time away, I heard Him say, “Just be quiet, you’re going to hinder my blessing for you”. It jolted me and I froze. Did I just hear what I thought I heard? Did God just tell me to shut up? Haha! What a scene it was. There I stood, ...

I have no words. Okay I have lots of words, but not sure how to put them all down and have them make sense. This has been one crazy week. All I can say is, “Jesus is my everything”. If I had not had my Jesus to call on every single second of every day I would be running away at the moment instead of currently writing down everything that happened this week. Seriously, an impromptu mini vaca at the beach, or even in the mountains, where I could hide and not be found for oh..let’s say...a month! Still sounds nice. Alas, I have to adult. So here is the breakdown of how my week went. Then you can tell me about yours, because the bible says God is not a respecter of persons, so I know I’m not the only one who learned some stuff this week.  A new lesson every day, and I learned a lot...I mean A LOT! Some were new, some were reminders, but I’m passing on my wisdom to you, because surely I did not go through this week for naught, or for just me...or did I? Last Saturday I attended a...

I have come to a point in my life where I am choosing not to say that life is busy. Busy reminds me of Mary and Martha in the story where Jesus came to visit their home and Martha was accused of being foolish because she didn’t take time to sit at Jesus’ feet and she got tagged as a busy body. I don’t want to be a busy body. I want to be fruitful. So even though my days are filled to the brim; I choose to say I am not busy. I am living my life and producing fruit. I have also discovered that while living my life I have choices to make every day. I get to choose what I spend my precious time doing. One thing I have not been doing, is writing. I miss it. I miss blogging, working on my book and sharing God’s love through script with others. So, I made a choice, to write today. I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to write about, but then I decided it didn’t matter, I just wanted to write. So here I sit, at my computer, my tasty coffee in hand, and sharing my heart with you. Do yo...

Have you ever felt angry, sad, guilty, confused and happy all at once? I know I have felt a mix of emotions before, but I’m not sure I’ve ever drank from this particular cocktail until now. It definitely leaves you with a hangover like none other, but Jesus is still in the healing business and I am claiming my thoughts will line up with Him and I can put this cup down. I know that it is not on the same level by any means, but I’m sure you can relate too; when Jesus said “let this cup pass from me”, when He was faced with the cross. We all go through seasons in life that we wish we didn’t have to go through. Sunday after church we brought my grandmother home from a lengthy stay at a rehabilitation center. She has been back and forth from the hospital to rehab since July 1st. It has made our summer challenging to say the least. Our goal has always been to get her back home, but we had no idea what we were going to be facing once we got her here. She has missed our family and her kit...

2 HOPE or not 2 HOPE In my previous “blog,” I talked about Hope.    And how important it is to our Christian walk to have this Hope that our God is a good God and we have every right to trust in His goodness.    You see, hope is the emotional energy behind our faith.    As Christians, we have often been told not to trust our emotions.    True - our emotions are easily misguided and circumstantial at best – and not straight logical facts – but they are a major part of our life and, I believe, they are given to us by God for our use. If you have ever experienced a joyful godly hope (and I sure  hope  that you have) you can probably remember that moment.    You can feel it bubbling up from inside you, exciting you, refreshing you.    It is what propels our faith into action.    When we have hope, we can reach for the stars, because our spirits have been given the energy that it needs to go forward.   ...

      Do you struggle with knowing what you can trust and what you can believe? Even as a Christian of many years, I wrestle with this.    I do believe that the Word of God is true; and that this truth will set the prisoner free and bring hope and healing.    However, God’s ways are above mine and I do not always know what “setting the prisoner free” looks like and sometimes it is all I can do to say with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego:    “I know that you can do this God, but even if you don’t, I will still trust in You.”   We have a God that can move mountains upon our request, but not all the mountains seem to disappear when we implore our God.    We have a God that provides instantaneous salvation, but doesn’t remove all the sinful issues in our lives at once.    What is God’s part in answering these requests and what is mine?    And I question my own motives in prayer, am I asking a righteous godly t...