What's it like to be _________?

Since moving to Georgia, I have a lot more time on my hands. I have been completely aware of something that has been missing in my life and that is peace. Not just any peace but the peace that isn't like the world gives....but peace according to God's word....peace that passes ALL understanding. So I started downloading sermon podcasts. Wow, it has really helped me tremendously. I literally cannot go a day without listening to some kind of teaching. I feel like it is food for my soul. And I have been a complete sponge soaking it all in. Which really reveals to me how dry I have been. 


Last week, I listened to a sermon and the lady said to ask yourself the question "What is it like to be married to me?" My first thought was why in the world would I ever ask myself such a question. Just kidding! But seriously, I thought to myself how many different ways I could ask myself that question. It could really be a fill in the blank question.

• What is it like to be MY friend?
• What is it like to be MY child?
• What is it like to be MY boss?
• What is it like to be MY parent?
• What is it like to be MY co-worker?
• What is it like to be MY sibling?

When I asked myself these questions, it was truly a humbling experience. Being honest with myself regarding each one wasn't pretty. And it still isn't. But I have been asking God to search my heart and show me what I need to work on. I guess this shows that he was just being faithful. And I love that! I want to be better at all of these things. Sometimes it isn't easy searching within. Isn't it so much easier to look at everyone else and their flaws? Especially when you look at people whose lives are really a mess. Then we can say "Well, I am a lot better than that!" Not really. The more we look at "others" and use their mistakes and flaws to make ours seem better only reveal the wickedness in our own hearts. 


I believe God will be faithful if we just finally come clean. If we would just ask God to search US. If we would stop pointing fingers at others and point them all back at ourselves. I have discovered in my own life that EVERY single thing I have judged someone else for has turned around and happened to me in my own life!! This is not fun. And I know God wants more for me and for you as well. Are you up for the challenge to ask God to search your OWN heart and reveal to you what YOU need to work on? I hope your answer is a BIG FAT YES!! But if it isn't, start small and just ask God to reveal to you why your answer is a no. I know this is no easy task. I know that it is scary. But I also know God is faithful and he only wants what is best for us. The things in life with the greatest rewards will always cost us something. Only it is never money.

Life

Can you love if you have never been loved?
Can you forgive if you have never been forgiven?
Can you give mercy if you have never been given mercy?
Can you believe for healing if you have never been healed?

Wouldn't it be great if we could do all these things first? Experience teaches so much. I remember my mom telling me so many times that she wished SO badly that I would learn from her mistakes instead of making my own. And you know, I wish that for my own children too. But then I wouldn't be me. It is kinda funny how life works...how God works. It takes many people going through many things to reach many people. If only a few people got breast cancer I can assure you that my own experience would have been very different. The fact that SO many people have had it gave me such a wide range of people to talk to. People my age, people who were totally different than me, people who were very similar to me, people I could even reach and help, the list goes on and on.

I don't quite think I will ever in my life understand why we have to go through the things that we go through. I don't understand why people in general have to suffer. I mean, if you look around you at others and in your own life, you are either just coming out of a difficult situation, are currently in one, or will be going in one shortly. I remember Dave Ramsey saying once that everyone has a MAJOR situation once every 10 years. If this is true, then I shouldn't have any more major events in my life for another 40 years. Because I have had 4 MAJOR events in the last 4 years. All of them literally back to back with only a month or so break in between.

I'm not even sure what I have learned from this yet. I look at the events and still honestly don't understand. But then again I see all kinds of things all around me going on that I don't understand either. But as a friend said to me yesterday...the bible says that the rain falls on the just and the unjust. Well let me just tell you...I'm sick of the forecast. Are you? I'm ready for some stinkin' sunshine. I'm tired of thinking my middle name must be Job. I'm tired of fighting for everything I have ever known. But I know one thing for sure and that is that I will ALWAYS get back up. I may get knocked down and it may appear that I am down for the count but that is always when I get up kicking and screaming.

Sometimes you have to take life by the horns, look it square in the eye and say "I'm not giving up"!!!!!!! I think sometimes we so quickly forget what we are made of. We forget what is deep down inside of us and that is the power and strength to GET BACK UP! I don't know what you are going through right now but whatever you do, don't let it keep ya down. Sometimes we are going to get down. Sometimes it is going to "feel" like you will never get out of your current situation. Sometimes life just really does suck. But think about a time in your life when you DID get back up and you DID overcome a hard time. Then hold onto that. Never stop dreaming. And whatever you do...never, ever, ever give up.

Thoughts create

Did you know that thoughts create? Anything that has ever been created started with a single thought. Anything good or bad that happens to us started with a thought. I don't know how guys are but I know for sure that in a woman's mind, we can destroy ourselves with just our thoughts. I blogged a few days ago about me waking up one morning in a complete panic. I think that I have had so many consecutive days where I have been totally focused on keeping my thoughts in line that the enemy is trying a new tactic. Because I woke up this morning and was in a total panic again. 


I immediately just started saying over and over and over "Lord, let my thoughts, plans and ideas line up with your will and with your word" It didn't take long and I was fine. I left and went to drop the girls off at school. When I was alone by myself in the car, before I ever got back home, I caught myself 3 different times thinking bad thoughts. But you know what? When I caught myself thinking about lets say for example...one of the thoughts was a memory, I just asked myself if that thought was going to move me closer to God or further away. I thought to myself..."What is this thought going to create in my life?" Now that I am sitting here writing about this, I realize that all three times were a memory of how someone has hurt me. And all three times I realized that thinking about those particular thoughts were only going to bring negativity into my life. To stay focused on those things would only cause me to have insecurities, and to not trust others. 


By doing this, it brings so much peace. Honestly, it is peace I haven't been feeling for quite some time now. And we can ALL use some peace in our lives, right? I wonder how different our lives would be if we took EVERY thought captive? It amazes me how we can start out with a single thought and we can let those thoughts take us to some seriously ugly places before we even realize what we are doing to ourselves. So I challenge you as well as myself to try a 24 hour challenge. For the next 24 hours, catch yourself. When you think a thought that is NOT positive, ask yourself what that thought or those "thoughts" are going to create in your life or are currently creating. I think what we will learn together is that we have created a lot of our own stuff in our own lives. And that WE are responsible for a lot more than we want to admit to. But the only way to change it is to take personal responsibility and do something about it!! 


You may be thinking "Okay, so now what?" Well, if the thoughts are not creating something that benefits you then you must change that!! Think about some of your fondest memories. Listen to music that lifts you up. Call a friend. Look at pictures of people who make you happy. Reflect on some of your greatest achievements. And while you are thinking about "those" things, ask yourself what you are creating in your life. I am convinced that there will be a huge shift. I am up for the challenge, are you?

Honeysuckle

One of the things I have SO enjoyed being here in Georgia is that every time I go for a walk no matter where it is I am walking, I can smell and see Honeysuckle. I honestly don't have a lot of good memories from my childhood but boy when I smelled that smell it sure brought back some great childhood memories and I felt so blessed and so thankful. 


Did you know that our beliefs are wired with emotion? My mentor explains it this way...do you remember where you were on September 11, 2001? Do you remember exactly what you were doing, who you were with, your reaction? The result for ALL Americans after that day because of all the deep emotions we felt was that we are no longer safe. I'm sure we can all think about some of our deepest fears and trace it back to when that belief was wired in. Just like someone who is terrified of dogs. Most likely they were scared by one at some point in their life or bitten by one or something like that. I'm sure you get the point. I can actually hear an 80s song and be instantly transported back to what I was doing when that song was playing. But the bad thing is that I wasn't saved then and didn't live a very good life at that time. So the memories aren't good. 


A few days ago I was on a walk, smelling the Honeysuckle and I could also smell someone cooking out. Mmmmm.....it smelled so good. You know what it is like when you smell something like maybe homemade rolls and it just reminds you of your momma's cooking. All of these things kinda relate, don't you think? I started thinking of the good smells, the good emotions, the good beliefs I have. The things that actually bring back GOOD memories. As I smelled that Honeysuckle I instantly thought to myself, I want to wire in a belief right now. So the next time I smell Honeysuckle this is what I will remember. I started praying for my husband and my marriage. I couldn't believe the things that started coming out of my mouth. I just said God I thank you for my marriage! I thank you for my husband! This is the husband YOU have given me! I commit my marriage to you! I ask you Lord that ALL my plans, thoughts and ideas line up with YOUR will....with YOUR word. Lord I pray you would draw my husband back to you. I pray that no matter where Deryl turns that he will bump into you!! Lord God I pray that you would bring scripture to his memory. Lord that you would put a hedge of protection around him so tight that any time he even attempts to get outside of your will that he would be pricked immediately by the thorns of that hedge and run back to you!! 


I KNOW that was the Holy Spirit!! I know it! And you know what? Deryl and I went on a walk today at a different place and there was so much Honeysuckle everywhere!! Each time I smelled it, I remembered more and more of my prayer. I just kept praying it again over and over in my head. As we held hands, I just silently spoke that prayer over him. So it worked so mightily!! I know that each time in the future that I smell Honeysuckle, I will be reminded of that prayer. And you know what is SO awesome? That I am convinced that one day when my marriage is FULLY restored, I will smell Honeysuckle and see how far we have come. I will see how faithful God is. I will see HIM and HIS mercy and goodness. 

I think the enemy would LOVE nothing more than for us to focus on all the negative beliefs we have. But isn't it so cool that WE have the power to wire in POSITIVE beliefs!?!? I just love that. I love that God gave me this revelation. I challenge you to pray and ask God to help you wire in a belief that HE has for you. And I KNOW He will give you some God size ideas on how to do it. Please let me know what you experience. God is SO awesome and so creative. I can't wait to hear how he blesses you in YOUR life with some awesome new beliefs!! Beliefs that are special and specific for YOU!!!!

Through the Storm

Last night when I was at church I was in such a grumpy and sad mood. I hate being like that but it was just one of those times where I couldn't snap out of it no matter what I tried. We started singing the song "Nothing is impossible". I started thinking to myself, am I going to praise God "when" I see him come through for me? Or am I going to stand on His word and praise him "UNTIL" he comes through? 


I think it is definitely so much easier to wait to see if he will answer our prayers. But that mentality is not faith at all. It is really holding onto and believing that the worst will actually happen and there is only a slim chance God's word is true and that he will do what He says in His word he will do. 


The only way for me or you to praise Him in the storm is to just do it. I decided that I wanted to praise him through it, during it and wait for the expected, promised results. This morning I woke up in a panic. I know that HAS to be the enemy. I immediately started quoting the word and praying and asking God to give me my hope for today. I went and looked at Facebook and a friend of mine had left this on my wall.

May the God of all hope fill you with joy and peace in believing! Rom 15:13

Is there anything that you are having a hard time believing God for? Maybe it is just me! But I think that we ALL have "something" we have been WAITING on God to come through for us on. Maybe some things are bigger than others but if it is what YOU are waiting on then it is important to YOU. If you are hoping God will heal your marriage or heal your body, they are both important to GOD. Let's start praising Him while we wait for His promises to be fulfilled in our lives!!