A quote from Martin Luther King!!!

"To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing"~

Martin Luther ~

Do you ever find yourself sitting at home or work and the day is just awful????

A Scenario:

The baby's screaming, the 5 year old wants to know why trees are green, the 8 year old wants something to eat and the 10 year old wants to go to a friends house, all at the same time.....So do you Explode and tell them all to shut up and go away or do you calmly hand the baby to the 10 year old and tell her not now you need her help, fix the 8 year old a snack ,while explaining to the 5 year old the miracle of photosynthesis???

I can tell you that when my day is like this and I explode I know I haven't covered my day or my children with prayer (and I can tell you I, personally, explode more than I'm calm!!!) Prayer is the language of heaven. In America we speak primarily English, well heaven speaks primarily prayer!!! We open the heavens when we pray. It's our language to God.

I know that on the day I'm calm it's because I've been speaking with Jesus and he has once again calmed the storm in me. So I agree 100% with Martin Luther......A life without prayer is not a life worth living at all.

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In Other Words

"Wherever you are spiritually whatever you have been through emotionally, you are already wrapped in the Lord's embrace. Held close by nail-scarred hands."
~ Liz Curtis Higgs~

This is a neat quote. It took me a while to think about it!! So often we, at least I know I, forget that no matter where I am, whether I've temporarily lost my way, or if I'm just stuck in a rut. He always has his hands around me. Even when I don't feel him.......He's there!!

Why can't I believe him when he says I will NEVER leave you, or forsake you?? He's here..even in our deepest darkest times....he's here.

IN OTHER WORDS:

"God has delivered us, He has parted waters for us,

He has made water gush forth from rocks and sent us our own manna from heaven.

He has brought us into our own Promised Land.

Will I miss the opportunity to tell the story to our children?"

~ Ann Voskamp, Holy Experience ~

I can remember sitting in a chair so high on drugs and actually seeing hell before my eyes(i was hallucinating) I would scream in my head for the lord to save me.....Then I remember that night, a knife so close to my throat, my mind telling me this is how I deserved to die, and then a God releasing hate from the assailant to lead him to hand me his weapon....I cried all night for a life that was full of sin who knew only a "in heaven" type of god, for the first time I knew he stood right there in that very room with me.....I rolled a joint that afternoon and for the first time I saw the sin in the drug and as his spirit took me over I wept for the sadness the lord had every time I used a drug.....For the first time I knew he lived inside me.....He delivered me from the hell I lived.....my life is a witness to his power.....They will be blessed by it.

Blessed by a Blogger

T is another woman who I know personally. I love her personality. She is so fun and yet she is wise to the leading of the Lord. Here is a snipit from Dull as Dishwater:

Deliver Me O Jesus
I just posted this a month ago... but it needs to be repeated this month!
Deliver me O Jesus from the desire of being esteemed.
Deliver me, O Jesus from the desire of being loved
Deliver me, O Jesus from the desire of being extolled, honored, praised.
Deliver me O Jesus from the desire of being preferred to others
Deliver me O Jesus from the desire of being consulted and approved
Deliver me O Jesus from the fear of being humiliated
Deliver me O Jesus from the fear of being despised, and of suffering rebuke
Deliver me O Jesus from the fear of being slandered, of being forgotten, or being ridiculed.
Deliver me O Jesus from the fear of being wrongedand suspected.
That others may be loved more than I
That others may be esteemed more than I
That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease,
That others may be chosen and I set aside
That others may be praised and I go unnoticed
That others may be preferred to me in everything
That others may become holier than I, provided
that I may become as holy as I should.Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it

I hope you too fall in love with her glowing personality and her zest for life!!! You can visit her at Dull as Dishwater.

In Other Words:

"Has someone seen the life

I planned? It seems it's been misplaced

I've looked in every corner

It's lost without a trace..."

~ Beth Moore~

From the poem: "The Life I Planned "

I remember fantasizing how cool of a mom I would be. I would drink and party with my kids, I would be the coolest mom ever. I laugh now, but I am sooooo glad the Lord got a hold of me before I had children. I know that's not like a deep spiritual sense of the poem, but to me it is.

I remember wanting children so bad, but if I would have had them I would have destroyed them. I was so selfish(way more than I am now). I wanted a doll, that would make me cool.

It's neat how God works though, I did have a baby out of wedlock, but because it was God's timing she changed my life. I knew she needed me and so I quit all bad things. (smoking, drugs, alcohol, sleeping around) And I followed God. In his timing I saw the need to clean myself up instead of bringing her to where I was. God is good.

Now I am a mother of three, I stay at home with them and I am big on their education and their spiritual growth, a place I never saw myself. It's amazing.

"Has someone seen the life

I planned? It seems it's been misplaced

I've looked in every corner

It's lost without a trace..."

~ Beth Moore~

From the poem: "The Life I Planned "

I remember fantasizing how cool of a mom I would be. I would drink and party with my kids, I would be the coolest mom ever. I laugh now, but I am sooooo glad the Lord got a hold of me before I had children. I know that's not like a deep spiritual sense of the poem, but to me it is.

I remember wanting children so bad, but if I would have had them I would have destroyed them. I was so selfish(way more than I am now). I wanted a doll, that would make me cool.

It's neat how God works though, I did have a baby out of wedlock, but because it was God's timing she changed my life. I knew she needed me and so I quit all bad things. (smoking, drugs, alcohol, sleeping around) And I followed God. In his timing I saw the need to clean myself up instead of bringing her to where I was. God is good.

Now I am a mother of three, I stay at home with them and I am big on their education and their spiritual growth, a place I never saw myself. It's amazing.

Melanie's Blog

I am more than blessed by Melanie's blog. She blesses me in real life as well. We have prayed together for a few years now and I have to say I really love her compassion for others. She is a dedicated wife, mommy, sibling, and daughter. I admire her devotion to family. Here is a snipit from her blog:

have you ever had one of those people in your life who never pounded their beliefs in you. who never criticized you for who you were, but gently loved you and showed you what it meant to be a follower of Jesus Christ? someone who silently sacrificed of themselves for your good. someone who truly loved you even when you have been unloveable? someone who prayed for you when you didn't know how to pray for yourself. someone who planted tiny seeds in a hard and broken heart?i have been privileged to. happy birthday to my sister michelle. generations will be blessed because of your pursuit of His glory. i love you much.

I hope you love her as much as I do!!

An Ah-ha Moment

I had a huge ah-ha moment about a week ago. My pastor had this amazing sermon series on the "bad boys of the bible" and at the end he had what he called, "decision Sunday." He gave us all keys and told us that we can all be free if we'll just come to him and surrender our lives before his throne.
It was a turning point in my life!
I went home that night and I was watching This Chinese guy give his testimony on how he was tortured for his belief, and god spoke and told me to write a letter to an old boyfriend who was horribly abusive. So I did and it was so neat because I wrote his name down and it was like, "wow this is real, I really lived this life."

I had pushed this part of my life down so far that it had become a story and I had not dealt with the pain that I experienced in this part of my life.
I would tell myself when thoughts would come up, "I forgive him, it's the past." and I would push it down. Finally, God showed me that denying the past is not forgivness. But it is accepting that what happened did happen and then realsing the guily party from any consequences. I was so afraid of not forgiving him that I didn't allow myself to deal with the hurt he caused. Needles to say I do forgive him, and Jesus is dealing with my wounds now as I reliquish my walls and pain to him.