GIVING THANKS

Have you ever looked around at your life and thought about what you have to be thankful for?  Now I want you to stop for a moment and don't look at your all that is wrong, look at what is good.  I know some of you may be feeling like there is nothing good in your life right now.  Maybe your marriage is in shambles, maybe you have a bad diagnosis from the doctor, maybe the collection agency has called you for the umpteenth time.  I understand trust me...life is hard.  It's so easy to focus on everything that is wrong.  It's so easy to see every mistake and every flaw, It's easy to focus on the negative, but how about for today we make a list of the good things in our lives.

Okay...you're reading this so obviously you have eyes to see,  you're reading this so i assume you have a computer and the internet which means you have electricity.  Do you have a roof over your head (even if that roof is in need of repair)?  Do you have running water in your home?  Do you have heat and air conditioning?  Are you breathing?  (Obviously if you're reading this, you are breathing.)  I could go on and on about the good things in all of our lives.  I challenge you to make a list of all the good things, all the positive things.

I know for me this works wonder for my attitude of gratitude.  Whenever I feel down or depressed I think of every blessing, yes I said blessing, in my life.  I have even began to count the storms and valleys in my life as blessings.  Why?  Because it during those storms that I learn the most about myself and my God.  It is in the valleys that I cling to Him the most.  If everything is my life is always good and perfect, why would I need God?   If I could do everything and get everything I wanted, why would I need God? 

  Psalm 100:4  Enter His gates with thanksgiving ad His courts with praise;  give thanks to Him and praise His name.

This is Thanksgiving week, a time to look back at all of our blessings and give thanks.  Thank you God for our forefathers who risked their lives to come here to America.  Thank you God for America, as imperfect as it is, it is still a great place to live.  Thank you God for being able to worship You without fear and to praise You openly.  I thank God for making me who I am.  I thanks God for my family and friends, for a roof over my head and food to eat.  I thank God for running water and air to breathe.  I thank God for all of you.  

COME HOME

Habakkuk 3:3b-4 His Glory covered the heavens and His praise filled the Earth.  His splendor was like the sunrise; rays flashed from His hand, where His power was hidden.

The rays sparkle on the ocean like a fine diamond, the colors of orange and gold and blue cover the sky as the sun begins its journey to the other side of the world.  As the sun kisses the ocean and the rays from the sun shoot out like arrows piercing the clouds,  the feeling of God's love overwhelms me and warms my soul.  It awakens a spirit of love, grace and mercy in me that I cannot hide. I stand in awe as I feel His very presence surround me.  As the sun disappears from my sight, the skies light up with reds and pinks, oranges and gold.  The amazing thing is that as the sun sets for me, it is rising for someone else somewhere else.

It's so easy to take the sunshine for granted, after all it's always been there.  Everyday it rises and sets like clock work.  Even on a cloudy day, we know it's there.  Taking the sun for granted may sound silly but think about it for a minute.  What would this world be like without the sun?  Would there be a world without the sun?  Could we survive without the sun?  The sun is an essential part of our life, like the air we breathe and the food we eat.  If we take the sun for granted, what else or who else are we taking for granted?

Are we so wrapped up in work and making a living that we take the people in our lives for granted?   Are we so wrapped up in social media that we take our health for granted?  Are we so wrapped up with "keeping up with the Kardashians" that we take for granted the blessings God has given us?  Look around where you are right now, who and what are the blessings in your life right now that you are taking for granted?  I know I'm guilty as charged.  I take my husband for granted so much.  I take my health for granted.  I take my family for granted. And I am afraid to admit, I take God for granted.

How about you?  Do you take God for granted also?  Do you assume, like I do, that He will always be there for you?  The important thing to remember about God is that He will always be there for you.  If you have turned your back on God it's not too late to come back into His presence.  He is waiting for you with open arms.  He has the power to forgive and the power to help us live the life He has for us.  He loves you and I so much that we cannot even begin to comprehend how deep His love for us is.  Come back home today.  Don't wait another day.  He's waiting for you.

FALL, A TIME FOR CHANGE

It's fall y'all.  The green summer leaves gives way for the oranges, yellows and reds of fall (of course there is those brown leaves too) and the warm summer breezes become cooler and cooler.  We change from tank tops and tee shirts to sweatshirts and sweaters, shorts are packed away and the jeans and sweatpants come back out.  Baseball has been transformed to football and campfires move into fireplaces.  It's season of many changes.  I am weird.  I love change.  I love the different seasons.  I love Michigan because for me, this is home.  My children and grandchildren live here within an hour of where we currently live (okay I have 2 children and 2 grandchildren that live in Toledo, Ohio).  This is where I grew up, met Jerry and this is where we raised our family.  For me home is not a house, home is where my heart is, with my family and friends.

We have lived in quite a few different houses over the years.  The longest we stayed in one house was 15 years.  There are many of you out there who have lived in the same house for 40 or 50 years, my mother-in-law has lived in her house for 60 years I believe.  That's great for you but that's not my desire.  Like I said before, I am weird.  I have loved each home we have lived in and each one represented a season in our lives.  Right now the season we are in is one of downsizing.  A brand new, smaller home with less upkeep and no repairs.  But there will be room enough for all my family to gather together.  

Change for some people is very difficult and even heartbreaking.  It can cause anxiety and depression for some.  I totally understand.  Life is hard enough sometimes without throwing in a change like moving.  Some of you out there ave struggled with the thought of selling and moving, some of you dread the thought.  Let me just say this...life is full of changes, some good, some not so good, but in order to grow, in order to become the person God created you to be, you must be willing to change.  

A change of heart and a change of mind will affect not only our way of life it will also change our words and our thought patterns.  By allowing God's Holy Spirit to transform our hearts and renew our minds, our lives can be more peaceful, more joyful and blessed.  Our fears can fade, our anxiety can calm, our faith can increase, and our words can be filled with love.  Although this process of change is not always pleasant, to look in the mirror and see the reality of our heart condition, the result is life changing.   

To be honest we can do our best to try and change our heart and renew our mind on our own but it will not work as well as when we allow the Holy Spirit to dive into the deep recesses we keep hidden from even ourselves.   Only the Power of God working through the Holy Spirit can reveal the truth.  So today I ask you to allow God to dig deep.  Allow change to become a new pattern for growth in your life and I am going to join y'all.    

CONSTRUCTION ZONE AHEAD

Enter At Your Own Risk!!!  Construction Zone Ahead!!!

The process of construction can be exciting.  The endless possibilities and dreams of what could be encourage us and propel us into a new adventure.  Decisions to make can seem endless.  For example last week I woke up at 5:00am.  I found myself tossing and turning over what countertop to choose.  I had one already picked out but I doubted my decision.  Was the one I chose the one I wanted or not?  Do I want granite?  Quartz?  Marble?  Concrete?  Then there is the color and style.  Some countertops are so busy and then there are others that are plain.  A simple decision of countertops can leave me frustrated. Which to choose????  
   

This process is not for the faint at heart.  It takes a lot of hard work and a lot of training to build a house.  First things first....picking our a plan.  How many bedrooms?  Do you want the kitchen in the front or in the back?  Dining room?  How many bathrooms?  And on and on and on.  I literally searched house plans online every day for months.  There are millions of plans and which one you choose depends on how much you want to spend and how much square footage you need.  The endless possibilities sent my head spinning but over time I finally found what I was looking for.  Thank God!  The process is just beginning.  A pole barn is in place to store all our stuff.  Now we patiently sit and wait for the next step.   

Construction--my life is a construction zone.  God is continually building me into the person He wants me to be.  The process is as exciting as building our house but it also has its challenges and frustrations.  There are many times in my life that I want things to go my way, not God's way.  There are so many times I have to choose between the narrow path and the wide path.  God never forces me to take the narrow path, it's a choice I get to make.  I get to choose between right and wrong, good and evil.  I get to choose if I say yes or no.  The thing I have come to realize is that with each choice I make, each decision I decide on...I have to face the consequences of my decision.  I have to live with the choice I make.

I am a work in progress.  God has the blueprints for my life and He is constructing me in a way that is best for me.  Others may not approve of God's plan for me, but I do.  He always works things out for my good so I trust in Him to continue constructing me more into His image.  While I still have decisions to make in my life, I trust in His guidance just like I'm trusting in our builders guidance.  They have the blueprints and the knowledge.  One is building my house here on Earth and the other one, God, is building my eternal home.  

IT'S BEEN A WILD RIDE LATELY

These past few months have been a season of change for Jerry and i.  We sold our lake house.  Yes, I know everyone asks us the same question..."Why?"  It's hard for me to explain but the truth is that for us it was time to move on to a new adventure.  While I loved the view, God removed the desire for lake life in both Jerry and I at the same time.  I actually stood on our deck, staring out at a magnificent view and said, "I"m done"  It seemed so weird hearing those words come out of my mouth but in m heart I knew our time at the lake was over.  Jerry was in 100% agreement (thank you God). Now to be honest our children and grandchildren were not in agreement but they support our decision. 

Patience, persistence, waiting on God, trusting in His timing all played a key role in this selling and moving process.  We believed God would work this all out for our good.  God's timing is always perfect and His ways are higher than ours.  His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.  We began the process of sowing seeds of trust and belief.  We began sowing seeds of praise.  Waiting on God has been a learning experience my entire life but this one was a little scary.  We sold the house knowing that the process to build would take at least 6 months.  Where would we live in the meantime?  Where would we go?  What would we do?

God had a plan all along.  To be honest it would be a very long story to go into all the details so just let me say this...God stepped up and provided us place to live with dear friends.  They have opened up their home to us and for that I am eternally grateful.  God has always shown up in our lives in ways I never imagined.  I truly believe that the reason God has shown up for us in so many ways is because we do our best to sow seeds of praise and gratitude along with a strong faith and trust in Him.  

I know life can be very stressful and chaotic and depressing.  It's so easy to get angry and upset when things don't go the way we expect them to go.  It's easy to get impatient and frustrated, but those emotions, those feelings, as real as they are, cause us much more pain.  If we can earn to praise God even under the harshest of circumstances, we will reap a harvest of biblical proportion.  

Ephesians 6:7b  A man reaps what he sows. 

So my question to me and to you is this...What are you sowing?  What do you want to harvest? 

WHERE DO I BEGIN?

Where do I begin?  I really don't know where to begin or if you'll even begin to understand what I'm trying to say, but here goes nothing....  

I feel like I have lost sight of myself and who God created me to be.  I have a very hard time explaining this but ever since we bought our lake house 3 years ago I have felt like I have been in a spiritual battle that I was losing. The truth is that God took me through a time I really didn't expect.  For so very many years my TV viewing was wholesome shows with happy endings.  No crime shows for me for probably about 7 years.  Then I got hooked again.  NCIS, Criminal Minds, Blacklist and a few others got me back into the crime shows.  This time it was different though, the thing I love about crime shows and mysteries is solving the crime, solving the mystery.  Figuring out what triggered someone to commit a crime, what happened in the past that caused that person to commit a crime.

I love to try to figure out what's going on in a persons mind, what makes people tick. For a very long time I felt guilty for watching these shows.  What would God think of me watching these shows?  The thing is these shows taught me some very valuable lessons that God has used to help me.  One of the main things I have learned is that there is always a reason, whether real or imaginary, as to why a person does what they do.  Now I'm not just talking about TV shows and criminals, I'm talking about real life.  

Hurting people hurt people.   Now this is not an excuse but it does explain a lot. There are a lot of people out in the world who are in a lot of emotional and physical pain.   Through these shows I've been watching, God has taught me about the human heart and how it can affect our minds, our moods, our attitudes and our actions.   He has reinforced a truth I have known for a long time...out of the heart, a mouth speaks.  

Our mouths, our tongues, are weapons that can be used to destroy others.  Our mouths lead us to act out in ways we normally wouldn't even dream of.  Our mouth can build up a rage so deep inside us that it can lead to unspeakable acts...just watch the news or listen to a police scanner.  Hurting people are hurting people.  It's real.  TV may dramatize it, but the reality of it is true.  Our hearts are wounded, bruised and have become hardened.  Because of that we act out in ways we shouldn't.  We say things we never imagined would come out of our mouth.  But don't give up.  There is hope.

Jesus Christ can heal and soften and restore even the hardest of hearts.  He can forgive even the harshest criminal. He can change not only our hearts, but our words and our actions.  He is the one who died to free us from the chains of our past.  Let Him heal your heart today.   

WHAT DO I DO WITH MYSELF?

Luke 23:40(b)-41  "Have you no fear of God?  You're getting the same as Him.  We deserve this, but not Him, He did nothing to deserve this."

Part of the problem with this world today is that there is no fear of God.  I'm not talking about being afraid of God.  This fear of God is a reverential fear.  For me this means trying to do what is right in His eyes, not mine.  Doing what He needs me to do, not my selfish desires.  It means always wanting to please God and living in a way that gives Him glory and honor.  Trust me living this way is not always easy.  In fact it's rather challenging.  

I know what I should do in order to please God, but too often I don't.  I know how I should behave to give God glory, but too often I don't.  The apostle Paul says it best when He said, "what I want to do I don't, what I don't want to do, I do."  This is my life for the most part and I'm sure most of yours also.  We try, we fail.  We get back up and try again, then we fail again.  This cycle goes on and on throughout our lives.  

Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.  I should get the punishment I deserve for my sins.  I should be condemned to hell for all of eternity.  But came down in the human form of Jesus Christ.  He came to save me from my sins.  He took my punishment and became broken for me.  Jesus Christ has healed my brokenness and redeemed me.  I am forgiven because of my faith and belief that Jesus Christ is my Savior who died for my sins and rose again 3 days later.  

Brokenness before the cross of Jesus Christ = healing and forgiveness.  

Acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior = eternity in heaven.

"Jesus remember me when You come into Your kingdom"     

A GARDEN OF LIFE AND HOPE

Recently Jerry and I took a trip to Mackinaw Island  While there we saw magnificent gardens arrayed with a variety of flowers and plants.  To say they were breathtaking would be an understatement.  Now I have been to the island numerous times in my life so I was just walking to walk, you know getting my steps in for the day.  I was enjoying a nice breeze off of Lake Huron on a hot summer day.  Yes the scenery was beautiful but if I'm honest I wasn't really enjoying it and I wasn't looking for a walk among the flowers.  I was there to walk and shop.  Jerry suggested we start at the Grand Hotel and work our way down.  The thing is the gardens there are magnificent, well taken care of and stunningly manicured.  I didn't expect to take a walk in the garden, that is sometimes out of my comfort zone.  But my loving hubby coaxed me to take a journey with him.  

My comfort zone was being pushed, but Jerry knows me all to well and knew I'd love the flowers.  I did!  Although I don't think I let him know that, until now.  He knows my love of flowers runs very deep in me.  there is something about the beauty of flowers and nature that connects me deeper with God.  The different colors and shapes and textures just make these gardens here glorious.  Not a weed in place, well watered and cared for, these gardens thrive, even in a time of drought.  Flowers take time and a great deal of water and work if they are to grow.  Trust me, my flower gardens don't look like this, yet.  This picture doesn't even do justice to these gardens.  

As I now look at this picture I am reminded of a passage of scripture that speaks about us being a well watered garden and our lives will flourish.  If you just take this scripture out without reading the verses before or after you'll miss the entire point.  We can be like a well watered garden but we need to take care of the poor, the widows and the orphans.  But one thing some miss out on is that we can be so busy doing God's work that we neglect ourselves and our families.  What good is it if we are so busy feeding the poor that we forget to eat ourselves and die of starvation?  Okay this may be a slight exaggeration but I hope you get my point.  We cannot take care of others and help others if we are physically sick.  We can't minister to others if we're not spending time with God by ourselves.  There has to be a balance and I know for some of you that balance is hard to get to, but we must strive to find it.

Isaiah 58:11 (Amplified) And the Lord shall guide you continually and satisfy you in drought and in dry places and make strong your bones.  And you shall be like a well watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not.

When we find that balance and learn to help others but still be there for our families and still take care of ourselves, we will be like a well watered garden and we will flourish in ways we never dreamed possible.  Over work  and over extending ourselves is a big problem in this world today. This world needs help.  The poor, the widows and the orphans need to be taken care of and together we can do it but just like a garden needs to be cared for, we need to take care of ourselves.  If we don't we will become a dead garden full of weeds and dried up, dead plants that could not survive the drought.  Balance equals a well watered garden that gives life and hope to all who experience it.