My Story In HIStory ♥️

Wow, as I sat down and picked up my iPad to share, so many thoughts starting flooding my mind and now tears are rolling down my cheeks.  

Where are they coming from?

What do I even want to share?  

I think I just really have a strong desire to share my heart, my life and my story, but why?

Perhaps it is because I am so fully aware that there is one who loves me, who has actually been writing my story all these years.  Knowing that, I am pretty sure the desire to share my story comes from my desire to share the author.  More and more everyday I realize that this world is actually HIStory, and I am one of many people He has chosen to live it out.

I guess I should start here, with my greatest truth.  I believe in God.  The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The God of the Holy Bible, both Testaments, old and new.  I believe in Jesus.  I truly believe in the miraculous birth of Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, through the virgin Mary.  I believe that Jesus is God’s son, born on earth to dwell among men.  I believe Jesus was fully God and fully man.  I believe he and the Father and the Holy Spirit are one, although I still don’t understand that completely 😆. I believe that God loves me, like really loves me, so pretty much everything I share in life hinges on that truth ♥️ I believe that God is good and kind and holy and all knowing.  He knows me better than any one on earth and still he completely loves me.  I believe that is because He is Love!  It’s not so much what he does, it is actually who he is! There is probably so much more I could share about what I believe, but I think you get the idea.  I really love my Father, Jesus & His Holy Spirit and that’s what I hope comes across in everything I do share here.  

Now what?  What do I want to share here in this space today?

My original thinking when I hopped on today was that I would share what I am up to today and what I have planned for the new year.  I find that I want to share here a lot, but somehow I rarely get around to doing it.  I think maybe I am hoping that sharing my day to day would keep me a little more accountable.  I have definitely been slack and so very sporadic in my sharing over the years. I would actually love to share on IG as well, and sometimes I do, but most days I find I can’t articulate what I am trying to say with actual outloud words 🤣 so I am thinking maybe this is a better space for sharing.  🤞I can keep it up!

Alright so the reason I led with “what I believe” in the beginning is because what I am up these days has a whole lot to do with what I believe 😊 so what am I up to?  And would you all even be interested in some regular posting about it?  What’s funny is that it has taken me two days to write this (so much overthinking) and that goes right along with what I planned to share first 😆

So what was I planning to share, after all this intro 😂 well I think I will wait and post that tomorrow.  So what do you think, are you in?

My Sheep Know My Voice

I don’t know why you chose me

but you did

It’s your great love that does it

I am His

Your mercy is too beautiful to describe

it brought you here and

we are side by side

You scoop me in

hold tightly to my soul

your love is like nothing I have known

I feel so protected

your arm won’t let me go

We walk as one

Thank you that I can clearly

see us

talking and laughing - in this vision

you are just talking away

and I am looking up at you

catching every word ♥️ 

Thoughts On A Tuesday

Okay I’m going to try and get out all that I wanted to yesterday.  I’m so not good at this, but here’s the (very long 🤣) gist.  Yesterday in my quiet time I was looking up verses about the Holy Spirit (prompted by a message I heard at church a few weeks ago) after reading through some Holy Spirit verses I decided to look up Holy Spirit songs (because I love music) the first song that came up was the one I shared yesterday (and I loved it so much, definitely my kind of music, which is why I love God so much because He knows me so well and knew exactly what would speak to my soul).  So when I saw who the artist was, I realized I had already downloaded some other music by him earlier in the year, so I decided to look him up and see what he was all about.  This led me to his website, theamencollective.com where he has posts about his songs and what they speak to his heart.  As I read the first one, again the Holy Spirit spoke straight to heart, regarding what I had just been praying in my quiet time!  I love how He does that!! The Father used this artist, who I have never met, who lives far from me, to speak love and leading to my heart so clearly!  It’s overwhelming really, how sweet God loves!  So I share all that to say, seek God and you will find him and you will find the sweetest, kindest love you have ever known 🤍 and go check out @mrstephenbradley as he is seeking God and sharing God’s faithfulness and search out others (as the Spirit leads you) who are following Christ and let your heart be encouraged!  This world is a tricky place, with so many ups and really far downs, but there is a hope, I promise, and his name is Jesus and He really, really loves us!!

Check Out Song Here!

https://youtu.be/N1Gm4nbgx5g?si=xUrO6DoILm215iDn

 

Thoughts On A Tuesday

So, yesterday I finally got to see Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret?  I have been so excited since I heard it was coming because I loved the book so much when I read it back in the 1970’s.  I remembered parts, but somehow had forgotten one of the main parts, her religious confusion.  When I saw the movie with some friends yesterday I actually asked, “Was this part in the book?”  I probably need to do a little more research, and I will after I write out these thoughts, but for now I just wanted to share where my thought went with the movie.  I am not in any way saying this is where the movie went or where the writer Judy Blume intended for the movie or book to go because I actually have no idea what her beliefs are.  This is just my own thinking things through and writing out my thoughts of what I know to be true for me.

Throughout the movie, and I guess the book too (although I have got to go back now and reread it because like I said I just can’t remember 😆), Margaret is working out her thoughts on religion as she’s growing into her teen years.  The story is so perfectly written and will take most of us right back to our childhoods.  I really did love the story.  Anyway, throughout the story Margaret is talking things out with God.  Along the way she meets a teacher who encourages her to research her religious beliefs, or lack there of, and this begins her checking out the various ways people seek God.  She soon learns that the process of getting to God and how people believe is the best way can really lead to a lot of conflict, and oh how true that is!!  If I am honest I must admit I still get tripped up on all the different religions myself.  I often wonder how my beliefs work out with those of others I see around the world.  

But, here’s the thing I know and here is the point I just feel like I want to share today. There is a place in the movie where Margaret decides to give up on trying to figure it out and isn’t sure there is a God at all, but by the end of the movie she is talking to him again. Not only that, but she thanks him.  Since I couldn’t remember the whole book (only remembered my love for it), I was so anxious to see where the movie would take us. Like I said, I have no idea where the author meant for it to go, but in my mind I was just so glad to see Margaret still talking to God.  Because here’s the thing, my beliefs in the Word of God tell me that when we seek him we find him.  In believing that, my heart was so happy to know that this fictional character was still seeking, so she would surely find truth.  

I feel like I have just rambled out a bunch of thoughts ( and there are always so many in my brain), but I hope you catch this message.  There really is a God, He is real and good and true and He is there and listening and He loves us!  His Word says in Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and you will find me when you search for me with all your heart.  I know this to be true, I have found Him and He is my very best friend.  My hope in writing all these thoughts out, is that you too would seek Him and find Him ♥️

*Again let me say, these are my very own thoughts and I am in no way trying to speak for the author Judy Blume or the creator of the movie.  I simply speak as one who loved the story.

*Let me also add, that I am fully aware that Judy Blume has written books (about sexuality and teenage sex) that have created much controversy.  I am in no way speaking to or about those controversies in my writing of this post. 

Get In The Word

Hey guys, it has definitely been a minute since I shared anything here!  Life got really crazy for my family and me in November, December, even into January, but it seems like maybe we are  swinging back into rhythm and I am so thankful.

Since I had a few minutes this morning I thought I would hop back in and share my heart a little.  So if you follow me at all you know I started a new plan for reading the Bible last year.  I decided I was going to go a book at a time and let the Father lead me through at a slower pace.  The way I have done this is to pick a book, then go through and either pray the Word or take notes.  It has been my favorite way to go through the Bible, but it has definitely been slow.  You will not get through the Bible in a year on this plan 😂

Here is how it looked for me in 2022

January Lamentations

February Romans

Mar/May Psalms, Philemon

June Hebrews 

July Hosea & Ezra

August         Mark, Acts

Sept/Oct Genesis

November Ephesians & Joel

December Luke

I tried to go back and forth between the Old & New.

I ended the year with Luke, which is one of my very favorite books of the Bible.  So many of my favorite stories are in Luke.  Maybe I can share my favorites later, but today I just want to share something that I feel like the Lord showed me fresh this time in reading through Luke.  It may seem so simple and not a big deal to you, especially if you are a super scholar, but I wanted to share because I love the way God loves us all so personally and speaks straight to our hearts in every season.  I have read these verses many times and to be honest they always kind of bothered me a little.  Let me give you the verses and then I’ll explain what I mean.

“The crowd was listening to everything Jesus said. And because he was nearing Jerusalem, he told them a story to correct the impression that the Kingdom of God would begin right away. He said, “A nobleman was called away to a distant empire to be crowned king and then return. Before he left, he called together ten of his servants and divided among them ten pounds of silver, saying, ‘Invest this for me while I am gone.’ But his people hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We do not want him to be our king.’ “After he was crowned king, he returned and called in the servants to whom he had given the money. He wanted to find out what their profits were. The first servant reported, ‘Master, I invested your money and made ten times the original amount!’ “‘Well done!’ the king exclaimed. ‘You are a good servant. You have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, so you will be governor of ten cities as your reward.’ “The next servant reported, ‘Master, I invested your money and made five times the original amount.’ “‘Well done!’ the king said. ‘You will be governor over five cities.’ “But the third servant brought back only the original amount of money and said, ‘Master, I hid your money and kept it safe. I was afraid because you are a hard man to deal with, taking what isn’t yours and harvesting crops you didn’t plant.’ “‘You wicked servant!’ the king roared. ‘Your own words condemn you. If you knew that I’m a hard man who takes what isn’t mine and harvests crops I didn’t plant, why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’ “Then, turning to the others standing nearby, the king ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one who has ten pounds.’ “‘But, master,’ they said, ‘he already has ten pounds!’ “‘Yes,’ the king replied, ‘and to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. And as for these enemies of mine who didn’t want me to be their king—bring them in and execute them right here in front of me.”

Luke 19:11-27 NLT

Okay so when I just reread these verses again I almost didn’t share because they seem pretty harsh right??  Although the harshness is not really even what bothered me as I read these verses, for me I think I was just reading them so literally that I just wanted to skip over, because I have never really been a risk taker, at all.  I am a play it safe girl.  I always have been and more than likely I always will be.  So when I read these verses, and took them so literally, I always thought, well I’m out because I probably would have buried my money too 😂

But here’s the thing about God’s Word, it is ALIVE!  In Hebrews 4:12 it says, “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.”

So while many of you probably got these verses in Luke years ago, my eyes were just now really opened to them.  This time when I read these verses in Luke, the word KINGDOM jumped off the page to me.  When it did, it opened my eyes to see these verses in a new way.  The kingdom is what I have been given and entrusted with and the kingdom is where I need to invest.  God has been speaking to my heart for years the importance of investing into the next generation, but when I read these verses, it was like a wake up call to really get in gear!  He has blessed me with a family of faith filled believers who have poured into me over the years and I want nothing more than to pass that blessing on to my children and their friends and to my friends and their children.  So that is what I am trying to do today, with this post I hope to encourage you to get in God’s Word.  I promise you there is a God, the God of the Bible, who loves you with an everlasting love.  He is LOVE and when you get to know Him you will know a love like you never have before!  When you seek him, you will find him and when you find him you will love him.  You simply cannot know him without loving him and being loved by him.

I don’t know a lot, but I do know His love and I promise you can know it too!  If you want to study the Word with me I would love that so much.  Just reach out and we can get started!

Praying Through Ephesians Chapter 4

Father I thank you for your Word, all of it!  Your Word is my truth!  Your Word is my peace!  I thank you that you have taken me through it nice and slow this year.  I thank you for speaking to my heart and my mind daily.  Your presence brings such tender care and mercy.  I thank you today for your Word in Ephesians.  As I pray through your Word in Ephesians 4, I ask that you would lead me in sharing.  I thank you that as I have prayed through your Word this morning, with a very heavy heart, I could feel your presence like a blanket ♥️ Father I thank you that you have never failed me and you certainly won’t start now.  Your faithfulness is the most beautiful thing I know.  

Ephesians 4   

Father I thank you that I have been called by you, although I still have days when I feel unsure about my calling, I know that your Word says in Isaiah 43 I am called, I am redeemed, I am yours.  V1 I ask Father that you would help me lead a life worthy of my calling and that you would show me exactly what that looks like.  My heart longs to please you above everything else.  V2 Father I ask you to keep me humble and gentle.  Help me everyday to be patient with others and to make allowance for faults and disappointments because of your great love.  Father I thank you, that you and my family and my friends faithfully make allowance for my faults and disappointments.  You have blessed me so!  You have loved me so, let me love others in a way that honors you.  V3 Father I ask that you would help me, help all of us, to make great effort to keep ourselves united in Spirit, bind us together with peace.  V4 Father I believe your Word and your Word says, there is one body and one spirit and we are called to one glorious hope for the future.  I believe your Word as it says, there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and you are the Father of all.  V6 You are over all, in all, and living through all.  V7 Father I thank you that you are the head and we are your body and I thank you that you have given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of your Son.  V8 Your Word says, when Christ ascended to the heights, he lead a crowd of captives and gave gifts to your people.  Your Word says Christ ascended, which clearly means he descended to our lowly world.  V10 Christ who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.  V11 Father I thank you that in Christ and all that he did he has made us worthy to receive these gifts.  V11 Now here are the gifts Christ has given the church (to us his body): the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.  Father their responsibility, our responsibility, is to equip your people to do your work and to build up the church.  Father I thank you for everyone who is walking out their calling with grace.  Again I ask that you would help me walk out mine with love and grace.  V13 Father I ask that you would keep your body united in your will and let us continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of your Son that we grow fully mature in you.  Let us measure up to the full and complete standard of Christ.  Father help me, help us, to fully understand what that even looks like.  V14 Father grow us up!  Let us not be tossed about or blown by any wind of new teaching that is not from you.  Let us cling to your Word and its truth!  V15 Let us always speak your truth in love and let us grow in every way more like Christ, who is the head of us, your body.  V16 Father thank you that Christ Jesus makes the whole body fit together perfectly!  Thank you that as you help each of us do our part, the whole body will grow healthy and strong and stay full of love.  Thank you Father for Jesus, for his sacrifice, for his love, for your love.  Thank you for binding us together in this perfect love.  Thank you again for your Word, for your Son, for your gifts, for your body, for binding us all together in you.  Father I love you with my whole heart!  I give you this day, I give you my life, I give you my heart and mind.  Lead me please in every step I take today.  Let me love the way you created me to love,  let all of us love like you!  Father thank you for gifts to give away and let me, let all of us, lean in to you for all that we need this day to do your will.  Father I thank you again for Jesus and I ask all of this in his precious name, amen ♥️ 

One Very Long Book Review

I love reading so much!  I don’t always have tons of time for it, but when I do I soak in as much as I can.  I love fiction.  I love the way you can get lost in another time, another world.  Sometimes I get so in that I almost forget these people are not my friends & family.  Seriously, I have been so sucked in that I have almost prayed for characters in books 😂 that’s when you know it’s a really great story! I also really love doing Bible Studies and reading books full of wisdom & advice, and I really, really love reading the Bible!  How about you guys?  Readers or no?  If you are a reader, I would love for you to share your recommendations in the comments so I can add to my already very long list of books to read 😆

As I was saying, I really do love to read, so this summer with an extended vacation time I decided it was a good idea to start and try to finish 5 different books, along with my daily Bible reading.  Kind of ridiculous I know, but I just got caught up 😆.  Anyway, I read some good stuff so I thought I’d share it here with you.  I had started reading Where The Crawdads Sing at the gym before summer hit.  I love to read on the treadmill because if you can find something that sucks you in the time just flies by!  Crawdads definitely did that for me!  The only problem with that one is that there were times when I was reading that tears flowed, and I’m pretty sure my fellow gym goers probably thought I was a weirdo.  I took that one with me to the beach and finished it there, just in time to catch the movie.  It was a good one, sad, but very good!  

Next I started four more, two books (one advice & one fiction), one study, along with my Optivia book.  Yes, I did Optivia, but that is another story for another time.  I have to be honest and admit I am not quite done with that book.  It holds a ton of really good information and advice in its over 500, very small print pages.  I’ve actually made it to page 472, but when I read it my eyes get super heavy after about two pages and have to put it down and go to sleep 😴  Thankfully I had the other three!  I read, Fear Is Not The Boss of Me by Jennifer Allwood and Orphan Beach by Laura Thomas. I also started a Bible Study by Christine Caine called 20/20.  All three were amazing in their on way.  Fear Is Not The Boss Of Me is chock-full of great advice, humor, and encouragement.  It’s an easy read and I love that Jennifer Allwood talks to you like you’re one of her girls friends over for coffee.  I definitely give it a 10 out of 10 😊. Orphan Beach was the second Christian Fiction book that I’ve read and it was so good!  It had drama, sadness, love, happy, all the things you want in a book.  It was written in a way that I thought she had jumped into my life with my friends and family and told our tale.  The characters in this book prayed together and for each other and encouraged each other with God’s Word.  I had never read a book with this kind of content and I loved it so much!  It was like the real life of a believer written in a made up, very exciting story.  I also give it a 10 out of 10!  

And  finally, we have Christine’s study 20/20.  I just finished it up today.  Along with that study, for the last month I have also been reading A Million Little Ways by Emily Freeman for the 2nd time and doing a book club to go with it, but I’ll save that review for another day 😂 Back to 20/20, like I said, I just finished it this morning and I really want to recommend it!  Not only recommend it, but it’s really the whole reason for this blog post.  Seen, Chosen, Sent, that is the message of her study.  Christine has been seen, chosen, sent in a mighty way, that’s for sure, but I have been too, and so have you!  If you are a believer like me, in the wonder working power of Jesus, we are sent!  We are called, we are chosen and we have work to do!  We who know Jesus, know him because someone took the time to share him with us, right?  So it is up to us to carry on!  Christine talks in the last video about watching the Olympics and the relay races and the importance of passing the baton to the next racer.  There is a beautiful exchange that happens in the passing of the baton, and without it there’s no finish.  Do you have a Jesus story?  If so, it’s time to pass it on!  If you haven’t had a Jesus story yet, today could be the day!  I would love to tell you all that I know!  I would love to tell you my story, and if you have a Jesus story please share it in the comments.  It would make my heart so happy for this page to be a place of Jesus stories!  Redemption stories!  Set free stories!  

We really are running a race guys!  We really do have a part to play.  God’s Word (which I believe with my whole heart) says in Hebrews 12:1 - Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.  And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us!  

We are truly in a race of time and we have the best trainer in the world available to us!  Let us seek Him, Know Him, love Him and be loved by Him, and then let us pass that baton to the next generation so they can pass it to the next and they can pass it to the next and so on!  It’s time guys, to tell our story and to share His Good News and in telling our story, let us live to make HIStory known to the world 🌎♥️