Check Yes or No

Do you remember those love letters you would pass in elementary? " Do you like me? Check yes or no" I remember those letters. I remember the fearlessness in which they would be written and received. As an adult, the idea of giving one or receiving one is a bit scary. As a child, it was just fun and curiosity. I had an interesting conversation with my 3 year old this morning. He wakes up and says, "Mom Mr. Shine Shine is awake!" Mindful of my parental responsibilities and wanting my children to know God I reply, "Do you know that God made Mr. Shine Shine?" My 3 year old with all his wisdom replies, "Yep! God made Mr. Shine Shine, branches, and dog bones! I like him!" The powerful part of that statement to me was, "I like him!" If someone asked you if you love God, more than likely our response would be, "Of course I love God! He's God! Why wouldn't I love him?!?!" From experience that response is more of a standard one! From experience, there's a bit of guilt with that response because that love is out of a sense of obligation rather than a relationship. Let's table love for a second, and ask a harder question. Do you LIKE God? I believe if we answer honestly, then we don't know if we like God. Why don't we know? Because we don't take the time to get to know him. We base our opinion of God on what we see of people claiming to be Christians or believers. Or the stories we heard in Sunday School as children, that's enough knowledge right? When in reality we don't care to take the time to get to know him. Why mess with the status quo? If we're doing more than a few people we know, then that's enough right? If we're generally a good person then that's enough right? The hard truth is no, its not enough. God desires a relationship with us! Gods love for each of us, I believe, is something our human minds can't truly fathom. I have a son, would I sacrifice my son for people? I can honestly say, heck no! But Gods love was so great for us, that he said yes. I want to not only love God, I want to LIKE him as well! I don't want it to be out of a sense of obligation, duty, or guilt. I want it to be a direct result of getting to know him! I don't want to read my Bible, Pray, go to church because I feel its the right thing to do; I want to read my Bible, Pray, and go to church because I hunger for more from this awe inspiring God! When God passes me that love letter, I want to HONESTLY and WHOLEHEARTEDLY check yes! All I hope is that you figure out if you'd check yes or no . . .

Pass It On

God places people in our lives. I believe he purposefully places people in our lives to be a blessing, an encouragement, and to help us learn hard lessons we would rather not face. I believe God places people in our lives for us to be a blessing, an encouragement , and to help them through hard and trying times. The Bible says we are made in Gods image. I take that to mean we are to imitate God. So what is God? He is mercy. He is love. He is compassion. He is so many things we can't even begin to imagine! I continually pray for God to help me be a better person. And I like to believe that keeping that in mind and with Gods help I reflect a glimmer of his incredible mercy, love, and compassion! I believe it means I give love freely and without conditions! I'm finding that it is not hard to give my love. Because every bit or love I give, I find myself a bit closer to my Heavenly Father! To be honest it is a glorious thing! O how I love him and I can't wait for the day I get to see him! Keeping this in mind I do my best to be thankful for each and every person he has placed in my path. So try your best to give a kind word whether you believe the person deservea it or not! God has already said that they are! God has freely given each and every one or us his love ... so do your best to pass it on "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your rather which is in heaven" Matthew 5:16 "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore your eye be single, your your whole body shall be full of light" Matthew 6:22

Take him at his Word ...

The other night my 3 year old repeatedly wakes crying with the words, "no no no no" I realize he's having a bad dream and my husband immediately asks our son if he wants us to pray. We receive a sleepy yes, so we begin to pray for our son. In a matter of moments he's asleep and snoring. I'm laying there holding my precious baby boy when I realize its that simple for him! We pray for him and he has no doubt that God has taken away the monsters and he can now rest peaceably. I'm thinking about the fact that as adults we don't trust God nearly enough or give him enough credit! And we use all kinds of excuses to neatly sidestep the call of Faith he desires from us! But I believe the truth of the matter is we can't really wrap our heads around the fact that God is God! The same way its hard for us to truly comprehend Gods love for us! At the bottom of the matter is do we sincerely, truly trust God? Not just love him for what he's done? Do we wholeheartedly believe he can keep all those promises he made to his children? You may say yes but deep down in the recesses of your heart do you believe it? I'll admit I have trouble processing it! But I'm learning that the closer I am to God the more easily my trust in him becomes! God does keep his promises, its just realizing we have to take him at his word!

Long Winding Road . . .

So my last post was in August and it's been a crazy ride since then! I was offered a job and after A LOT of prayer, accepted. I worked at this job from September thru December. I didn't mind the job itself and felt completely at peace with the choice I had made. However towards the end of December I started feeling like it was time to move on . . . I kept thinking, 'God you want me to quit?!?!?!' I don't take leaving a job lightly. So it definately boggled my mind that I was feeling a nudge to leave and move on! However, God and his infinite Grace opened a door for me with another company. It shortened my drive by 40 minutes and increased my income. I'll be honest here and say I still hesitated to leave job #1. God had opened another door for me, was giving me peace about changing jobs, he all but pushed me through the door himself. But still I hesitated! It was completely nothing but fear! I kept thinking, 'Did I make the wrong decision to begin with?' After some encouraging words from my husband, I took that leap and left Job #1 for Job #2.  Taking the time to read my Bible and Pray is definately something I have trouble doing! And having the desire to follow God's will for my life and NOT reading my Bible and Praying for direction is even harder! I don't want to be one of those people that talk the talk and profess to have God on speed dial when in reality I don't even have the right phone number! I want to be at peace with my relationship with God! I want to feel him with me daily! I know that God doesn't leave me, it's me that leaves God! And not praying and reading my Bible is one sure way of forgetting him when I walk out the door! So i'm still at Job #2 and some amazing opportunities have opened up for me! And now I look back and think, 'God knew EXACTLY where I was going! I'm the one that forgot to look at my GPS!' So i'm still on this Long Winding Road, Praying daily I don't end up in the ditch . . .