This I know, that God is for me. Psalm 56:9

This I know!! My God is for me, no matter where I am, no matter what I am doing, in good times, bad times, happy times, sad times, grumpy times....MY God is for me. I love it that He is always by my side, weather I acknowledge Him or not, weather I feel Him or not, the word says He is ALWAYS for me.

So, as we prepare for this long weekend, remember God is for you, He wants to spend it with you, (maybe you could dance with Him) invite Him along and enjoy the ride!

Have a wonderful weekend!

My Peace, My Rest

Psalm 37:4-5, 7
(We) delight (ourselves) in (You, O) Lord;
And (You) will give us the desires of (Your) heart.
(We) commit (our) way to (You, O) Lord,
(We) trust also in (You), and (You) will do it.
(We) rest in (You, O) Lord and wait patiently for (You).

You are our rest, O Lord. Those things that concern us are in Your hands, You will see to them. We will trust, enjoy Your pasture, commit our way to You., and wait patiently upon You. AMEN!

Robert Fraser ACTS Scriptures

I have set the LORD always before me: because [he is] at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Psalm 16:8

This verse has penetrated my heart lately. "He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved!" What a powerful statement, even more powerful when you let it soak into your heart instead of your head. He, God, the maker of heaven and earth, the King of kings, God most high, is ALWAYS at my right hand. All I have to do is take it and "I shall not be moved!"
Then further down in that Psalm it says, "You will show me the path of life, in Your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand there are pleasures for evermore" (vs 11)
All God asks us to do is to love Him, the second part of that is that we should love our neighbors as ourselves, but here's the thing... if we love God, I mean, truly love God, spend time each day in adoration (telling God how much we love Him) then loving others flows out of our love for God himself. It becomes automatic, 'in His presence is FULLNESS of joy". Out of that fullness, we love those around us without even trying!
GOD IS GOOD!
So this next week, I encourage you to take some time to adore God, tell Him you love Him, thank Him for who He is and watch Him open up the floodgates of love to those around you!

I've Learned to Love Golf

For a long time now, I've watched golf on tv with my husband. Not because I liked it, but because he liked it and I wanted to spend time with him. Then, I actually went golfing with him one summer once, I think, maybe twice. The following summer the same, not to often, but once or twice. After that he wanted to go buy me some of my own golf clubs, but I kindly declined explaining to him, as much as I loved spending time with him out there, I just couldn't see myself golfing more than once or twice a summer and so I really didn't need my own clubs. Well, it's been almost 14 years now since he started golfing, last summer I got my own clubs and we go golfing together as often as we can. I've learned to love golfing, mostly I've learned that he loves golfing and it's really fun to be out there with him watching him do something he does really well. He would like to do better, and he will, I on the other hand, do horrible, but it's still fun because we do it together. He's very patient with me, he hits his ball once and then I hit my ball anywhere from 2 to 5 times to catch up to him and on we go. So, any ways, that's how I learnd to love golf.

Buliding Community

"Sometimes it is the person closests to us who must travel the furthest distance to be our friend." >Robert Brault

There's a lot of talk around here about building community, in other words, taking time out of our busy schedules to get to know those around us. So many of us feel like we don't have any close friends, I'm one of them, I often feel very seperated from everyone around me. When I look around and see others talking or spending time together, I wonder why it's never me that's there. I realized that I have to start by looking from the outside in, what I am I doing to build community. Sure I've had people over, but not nearly as often as I could or should. Why is it that those that are closest to me need to work so hard to be my friend? What am I doing or not doing that makes it hard for them to get close to me? Then I realize that if I'm not willing to "stop and smell the roses" or slow down and invite someone over even if my house is a mess or the laundry is not done I can't very well look at others and wonder why they don't want me over.

I'm really going to start making an effort to have people over more, I really think it's important. Gone are the days when someone just 'stopped by for a visit' without calling, I really do like it when people just pop in, but in our day and age that just does not happen any more. I'm just going to have to take the time to make the phone call, maybe even more than one, after all one might be busy and won't be able to make it so it might actually take some effort on my part. I've resolved to do it though, even if it means I have to try more than once. After all, building community is loving others and that is what God has called us to.

"If you have a mom, there is nowhere you are likely to go where a prayer has not already been." Robert Brault

Prayers, we speak, think and hope so many of them. As a mom of two teenagers and one soon to be I'm finding this stage of life hard, hard on my heart. I love my kids with all my heart, like moms do. I guess in the process of raising kids you have your own ideas, hopes and dreams for them, then, low and behold, they come into their own. Some you have to push out of the nest, even if we don't want to, others seem to be trying to get out too soon and you do everything you can in your power to keep them until you know it's safe for them to go. In the end we just have to trust, first of all God, that He will go with them, that they will hear His Holy Spirit speak to them and they will listen and follow. Then I think we also have to trust that we did the best we could in raising them, that we loved enough, shared enough, and lived well enough that they make good decisions. We definitely have to trust them, that they will make mistakes, but that they are strong enough, wise enough, and confident enough to learn from those mistakes and to continue on.

So I'll keep on praying, I won't stop and in the process I'll pray for others in their generation as well.

Won't you pray with me?