Category: 2012 Posts

Posted on in 2012 Posts

The Election is Over, Now Let’s Live Like People With Hope!

I’m thankful for those who have served and are serving our country still today! Honoring my dad, two brothers and son today…I rejoice for their sacrifice and for those who continue to serve to keep us free!  God Bless America!

Today my grandson, Brycen, is staying with me because he is a bit under the weather.  He was asking me what we were going to do and I told him we had to stay home today because the blind guy was coming.  He said, “You’re having a blind guy come over?”  Then he started asking how he was going to drive here if he was blind.  I had to explain…I am having a guy come that sells blinds, he’s not blind!  This past weekend a friend called and asked what we were doing and I told her not much.  I said, “I had a cyst removed on my leg Friday so I’m not supposed to be doing much for a couple of days.”  She replied, “You helped your sister move?”  We both had a good laugh when I explained what I had really said.  Too funny!

There are many times that we say things that make perfect sense to us but when spoken out loud are either misheard or misunderstood and their true meaning is totally lost.  I giggle when I think about it.  Perhaps a few politicians who didn’t keep their promises from the last election might use the argument, “You misunderstood or misheard what I said.  I didn’t say I wouldn’t …”

Speaking of the election, I have talked to many who are distraught over the results.  Call me a hopeless optimist, but I just can’t seem to muster up fear and trembling because of the outcome.  Nor will you see me walking around exclaiming the world is coming to an end.  It just isn’t in me.  Even if the world is coming to an end, what’s the worst that could happen?  I die and go to heaven?  I just can’t get too upset about that.   I believe wholeheartedly in a God who can so why would I believe He won’t or fear He can’t?  Before the election, many were claiming His promise in 2Chronicles 7:14 that says, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”  What promise in that verse changed since November 6?

I know many of you also believe and trust in God like I do.  However, it concerns me to see so many Christians feeling hopeless about our future with the latest election results.  As Christians, we are not a people without hope.  As far as I am concerned, God is still in control no matter who the president might be! Our hope is in God not in a man, is it not?

Don’t get me wrong.  I do feel a permeating evil in the air when our Christian values are voted out more and more in each election.  I grieve when I see freedoms slipping away one by one as well.  I agree something has to change.  We can no longer live as usual as I feel our Christian morals are under attack more than ever.  I hope the passion exhibited during this election will carry over into a strong passion to be more vigilant about our faith in the days ahead.  I feel God is calling us to pray harder, work unceasingly for the Kingdom and EVANGELIZE more than ever before!  If we want to change our moral culture in America it is going to start within the hearts of each person.  God may not always answer our prayers how we thought He needed to but He is still God!  Nothing has changed!

God’s Word gives us many promises of hope:

Jeremiah 29:11 (NKJV) For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Deuteronomy 31:6  Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.

Proverbs 1:33   But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil.

John 16:33  These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

Can God’s message be any more clear?  Focus.  We serve a God that we can trust in ALL things, at ALL times and He is here for ALL of us if we would just call upon His name!  Don’t live in fear; rather, rejoice as children of the King with hope!  Have a blessed week and don’t forget…go be a blessing!

Posted on in 2012 Posts

Live, Dream, Plan, Expect!

We all go through life imagining what the perfect life would look like don’t we?  We see others with more money…less stuff…more stuff…different jobs and no matter what, we wonder, “Would my life be better if I had what they have?”  I think if I just did this or that…all my problems would go away.

I remember one time before Jim and I got married we took three of our four kids on a weekend away at Cumberland Lake.  We had high expectations of the perfect weekend allowing our three kids still at home to get to know each other.  We had the perfect blended family in mind.   We had planned the weekend with fun things we knew the kids would enjoy doing.  When we got there, we unpacked the car and headed out for a day of adventure.  The first stop was one of those restaurants where you drive up and park.  Someone on roller skates came out to take our order and then skated back with our food some time later.   It was something different since we didn’t have one of these places back home and they had a nice assortment of food that the kids would enjoy.  It was the perfect stop for some famished kids.

My daughter and her friend were in the back with Jim’s two kids in the bucket seats in the middle of the van and Jim and I up front.  As the food was delivered, we all excitedly passed the goods around the van with the anticipation of the first “fun” we would have that weekend.  Most of us had taken a bite or two when one of the kids in the middle seat started choking.  He had bitten off a piece of his cheesestick and the cheese was stringing down the back of his throat not allowing him to move it up or down!  Jim turned around and held out his hand just in enough time to catch the flying, chewed up piece of cheese.  We all just sat there looking at our food.  One by one, each person put their food back into their bags and filed out of the van to the trash.   No one looked at each other but just returned to their seats, solemnly staring forward waiting for our next great idea.  Not wanting the day to start on a sour note, I cheerfully turned and asked, “Who wants to go bowling?”

By the time the weekend was over and we had all gotten to know each other a little better, we could laugh at our first experience as a “family”.  However, what we had expected for the weekend and what we got were two different things.  I can’t say it was bad because we didn’t get to enjoy our meal…it was just different.

Have you ever made the perfect plan with high expectations?  Perhaps it was a vacation, a new relationship or even a new home?  We live, we dream, we plan, we expect.  How does your relationship with God enter into your life, dreams, plans and expectations?  As children of the King, we should be living big, dreaming big, prayerfully planning big and expecting God to be in every little detail.  However, when we leave Him out of our lives, dreams, plans and expectations, things often fall apart.  Perhaps they might even go as planned but just aren’t as big a blessing as we expected them to be simply because we forgot to include God.

The truth is, we serve the CREATOR of the universe.  If we ask Him to come into our lives and fill our dreams with His plans for us, we should be expecting great things.  I see so many ask others to pray for them and the answer is, “Sure, I’ll pray for you,” in a monotone response.  Why aren’t we excited?  Why aren’t we expecting great things when we pray?  Is God a God you can’t count on?  Of course we pray for things and don’t always get the answer we asked for, but does that make God bad?

I so want to live a victorious life in Christ, don’t you?  I want to get excited about praying for God’s plan in my life and in others’.  I want to wake up every morning with a supernatural expectation that only God can give me.  I want to embrace the fact that the Creator of the Universe, Savior of the World wants me to join Him on HIS team and help HIM to reach others!  We serve an AWESOME GOD!  Why aren’t we excited and jumping up and down about it?

This week I travel to Northern Indiana for four speaking arrangements to share my personal testimony of how God came into my life and changed me.  My body and mind are weary from the last two weeks of saying goodbye to my brother in two memorial services, grieving over the void it leaves in my life, not much sleep for a while now and demands of things needing to be completed here before I go on the road again.  However, I have great expectations.  I know that my strength is not what gets me through; nor is it what is effective in leading others to Christ.  I depend on God who is my strength when I am weak and even when I am strong.  I know that if He is first, He will bless my travels and words despite my physical circumstances.  I’m expecting GREAT things!

What is God asking you to plan today for Him?  Has He invited you to serve Him in some way and you have not yet said yes?  What are you waiting for?  Life gets busy, we get tired, but it’s not about us.  It’s about Him.  Trust me.  Your results may not look anything like what you planned or dreamed but with God in the center of it all, you can expect the unexpected!   So go big!  Live life to its fullest, dream like you can’t lose, prayerfully plan with God in the center of it all and get EXCITED that you serve a God that exceeds any expectations you may have!  The key is to not stop.  Keep moving, praying, serving and expecting!  See you next week!

2Corinthians 12:9-10 (NKJV)  And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” … Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Ephesians 3:20  Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.

Posted on in 2012 Posts

Don’t Delay…Go Do Something!

This was the view after Mike’s memorial at Sunset Cliffs in San Diego.

I noticed several of you went to my site last Monday for a new blog and were probably surprised to find nothing new there.  I apologize for not writing last week.  However, I got a call Saturday night that my brother, Mike, was dying.  My sister and I hopped on the first plane out the next morning to San Diego.  We were able to get there in time that he was at least able to flutter an eyelid and moan enough to let us know he knew we were there.  For that I am grateful.  He died peacefully in his sleep Monday morning.

As much as I wanted to get online and tell you all what was happening, I simply had no words.  Mike and I were very close and his leaving this earth brings a huge void in my heart.   I am assured that he is in heaven with Jesus now though and I know that peace of knowing will comfort me like nothing else can.  I appreciate the online well wishes, cards, emails and phone calls from many of my friends.

I know I’ve written about this before but here I go again.  During the past week, I was reminded once again of how important it is for others to reach out when someone experiences a loss or has an illness.  The simple acts of picking up the phone or sending a card speak volumes to those in pain.  There were special friends who just came and sat with us.  They didn’t need to have words of wisdom.  They simply sat in the living room offering a hug here and there when needed.  Others brought in meals…comfort food one might say.  There were of course condolences shared on Facebook  that were simply overwhelming with the outpouring of love shared in volumes.  We all felt loved by the actions of others throughout the week.

There is a not so pretty side to all of this as well.  It’s painful when you know someone close knows about the death and doesn’t call—maybe because they simply don’t know what to say.  There are others who loved my brother but are now wracked with guilt for not keeping in touch prior to his death.  I heard many say, “I had meant to call or stop by, but I just got too busy.”  Now they will live never having the opportunity of saying their goodbyes.

I am just as guilty as everyone else.  I know there are people I should’ve reached out to by now and haven’t.  This was a rude awakening to once again listen to that still small voice that tells you to go do something.  You don’t need to know what to say.  It may even feel awkward.  It’s OK.  Those on the receiving end will help you.  Life is too short.  Don’t miss the opportunities to be a blessing to others.  For when you are a blessing to others, you are blessed in return!

Thanks for hanging in there with me!  I will try to be more upbeat next week in my writings.  But just in my usual style…what you see is what you get.   These are the things on my mind this week.  Have a blessed week and go be a blessing!

Matthew 5:4 (NKJV)  Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.

John 13:34-35 (NIV)  “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”