Fasting and Feasting

I cannot fast without feasting.  I cannot attempt to give something up without filling myself with something else.  As I give up that which consumes me, I must fill myself with that which sustains me, not my body, but my spirit. 

"Man cannot live on bread alone, but on every word that proceed from the mouth of the LORD." Deuteronomy 8:23

My day always starts with grand intentions.  And I do well, until the words of my father get lost in the loudness of the world.  I slip, I rationalize, I decide to start again tomorrow.  You see I can only continue to give up what I enjoy IF I continually replace it with something I desire far more.  I desire this intimacy that draws me to my Abba Daddy. 

The question is why? Why in the tough moments do I give up the BEST, give up what is COMPLETELY satisfying, for what is mediocre and can only satisfy for but a moment?  I have lost sight of HIM. 

I must meditate on HIS word, listen for HIS voice...moment to moment.  Without HIS filling, failure is guaranteed!

Failure is not my desire in this moment, in this season.  I want HIS strength to be my strength, where I am weak I want HIM to come in and fill me with HIS strength.  That is his promise to me.  Intimacy with my Father is the greatest longing of my heart.  It is in this true fasting that I learn to feast in the realm that is far superior than the one that demands me to fill my fleshly desires.  It is in the act giving up that my heart learns to tune in to the rich, often quiet, sound of my Abba's voice.  The voice that I long to hear sing over me and whisper His love for me and lead me in the way that is everlasting. 

My spirit will never go hungry for My Father is my complete feast!

Thankfulness

It is the season for thankfulness.  All over face book and twitter people are posting what they are most grateful for.  I love this time of year!  So many times gratitude is bound by circumstances and then lives become bound to bitterness.  Bitterness is not the place where I want to live.  Most people do not want to live there but wake up in the mornings to find themselves shackled and unable to get free. 

Thankfulness begs us to run free, unfettered, everywhere!  Why not unleash this JOY?

So I issue a challenge, one that I am challenging myself to as well...why not be obviously thankful the whole year through?  Why not post on our Social Media and our Blogs thankfulness regularly so that it become a habit not a seasonal activity?  Starting NOW, I am going to blog one day a week on what I am thankful for, all the ways I have been blessed! When this kind of gratefulness knows no limit, LIFE enlarges!  

So join me as I take a journey of thankfulness, a path of gratitude and let's discover together how the boundaries and perspectives of life change!  Let's watch together how this overflowing of gratitude spills onto others; how gratitude changes lives one thankful thought at a time!

1.  Abba Daddy's AMAZING grace!
2.  New Beginnings, New Mercies everyday!
3.  Strength to do the hard things
4.  Learning and living discipline in spiritual and physical matters
5.  Coffee on a cold, snowy November morning
6.  Thunder Snows
7.  An amazing, loving husband who often forsakes sleep and home to provide so well for our family
8.  Sleepy Joshua cuddles in the middle of the night
9.  A warm bed
10.  Abundance of food

It's your turn...what are you thankful for?  Comment below or post on your face book or twitter.  Guaranteed, your life will never be the same!

Time

Time is a great commodity.  We all have the same amount of time in our day, 24 hours...not one second more or one second less.  How is it that some people seem to get so much more done with their 24 hours while others get hardly nothing done it all? 

I am pondering this thought this morning as I plan out my day and my to do list.  So often it has to do with what we prioritize in our lives.  Do we do what is most important first or do we do the little insignificant things first?  What steals my time and productivity? 

It all begins with a plan and a list!  However, it is also being sensitive to the Holy Spirit as He may put things in our path that is not on our "plan and list."  Today, as I go about my day...I want to follow my list while being sensitive to the little "interruptions" that may make for the greatest highlights of my day! 

The power of words

Death and Life are in the power of the tongue,

And those who love it will eat its fruit.

Proverbs 18:21

Pleasant words are like a honeycomb,

Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.

Proverbs 16:24

...the words of the pure are pleasant.

Proverbs 15:26

Have you ever thought about the words you speak?  God created the world with his words alone.  We are created in God's image and carry great power in the words that proceed from our mouths.  I am challenged every day to speak life.  The Bible also says that from the outflow of the heart the mouth speaks.  Watch your words.  What are you words saying?  In light of the verse above, does it make you ponder what is in your heart?  I want to challenge us to really think about each word proceeding from our mouths.  Make those words be full of life and watch how the world around you changes!

Wow!

Wow!  It has been a long time since I last blogged.  It is now the end of summer, we are 10 days into our 200 days of home school.  It has been an amazing summer, after an amazing spring.  God just continues to take my breath away with his love, faithfulness, and beauty!  I want to just jump right into all that has happened since I was last blogging, but I feel strongly that some gratitude is in order!  Henry Ward Beecher once said that gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.  I would have to agree, on the days that I give thanks first, it changes my focus...takes it off me and my circumstances and moves it to the FATHER, who deserves the praise, honor, and love.  It is a gentle reminder of all the ways I have been blessed.  Gratitude is the way to live a life.  It is always having my eyes and heart open to the blessings, both big and small, that surrounds my every moment of everyday.  Gratitude most certainly combats the cares and distractions of this world by helping me be ever aware of the largeness of God's love for me.   I am going to journal my thankfulness and gratitude right here and continue weekly, if you care to join me, leave a comment and share what you are thankful for.  Once you start, you will find that the list quickly builds and your focus changes!
#1  My Abba daddy who loves me so much
#2  Words of life spoken by my Daddy and God
#3  The start of a new day, new beginnings
#4  Kendall
#5  Grateful, sweet children
#6  Fresh revelation
#7  Being my children's teacher, I love homeschooling
#8  morning hugs
#9  our home
#10  a good cup of coffee and my bible in the quiet of the morning

Blessings for this new day!  May you find the joy and gratitude that is all around you just waiting for you to notice!
 

Time

"The most powerful force for change is time."

Jeff Olson

People are fooled everyday around the world with the idea of right now.  Everyone knows about instant gratification, we have become a generation where even the mircrowave and the line at the local fast food stop is NOT fast enough.  The Bible teaches what you plant, you must cultivate and then harvest comes.  This is a concept that works everytime, however, most people don't have the patience for the cultivating, they want to move straight from planting to harvesting. 

These are our tomato plants.  We love homegrown tomotos, nothing in the world taste quite like that!  Planting and watching a plant grow until you can harvest is an amazing process. We found flowers on ours yesterday.  Isn't God just so creative!  I love it!  But we have to wait, we have to be patient for the growth to come and then the harvest.  It is this way in everything.  Let's use fitness as an example.  We get out of shape, our health declines based on small bad choices made on a daily basis in regards to our diet and exercise.  When we are told we need to get into shape, we do it for a while, but when they don't see the immediate change we want to see we quit.  We have no patience for the cultivation.  We go back to the bad choices.  Isn't it like that with our money as well.  What about our intimacy with our Abba Daddy?  Sadly, it is an epidemic that is spreading in our lives, taking over in our society.  I have done it, until now.  No more small bad choices that eventually add up.  I am choosing daily to make good small decisons that I will not be able to see the results of for a year or more--invisible results they are called.  Choices add up over time to be good or bad.  So I am choosing the good choices.  I am choosing to cultivate my intimacy with my abba daddy, I am choosing to cultivate my health, I am choosing to cultivate my finances I am choosing to cultivate my time.  People may be skeptical, that is fine.  In a year...or two...or three, the invisible resutls will become visible and I will be LIVING, instead of merely surviving.  So, who is with me?  Who wants to make the good choice? 

It's been a long time!

Wow, it has been a long time since I have last posted a blog.  We have been around the world and back.  I had great dreams of blogging each day while we were living on the other side of the world, but it was too overwhelming and honestly, I don't think I could have put into words what was happening, what we were experiencing.  Life changing for sure!  As my amazing husband continued to say "our flashdrives were full!"  Now we have been home a month, life is returning to somewhat of a routine, processing is occuring and I am about ready to burst with all I want to share.  But then, where to begin?  So I am going to start with NOW, this very morning. 

God is just simply amazing and good always.  He is always teaching and molding us, drawing us into a more intimate relationship with him.  One thing the Father has been teaching me is that renewing my mind is critical to walking in the kingdom.  I am not talking about positive thinking, I am talking letting Abba daddy change my thinking.  We have no power to change it in our flesh.  He changes and renews our thinking by redefining who we are.  When we define ourselves, His kingdom, our day, our very moments by HIS truth, we are renewing our minds to live with kingdom power.  Our truth puts limits on us that was not intended by God.  His truth brings freedom and power in such a way that the powers of darkness are dispelled and HE is released into the situation.  THEN, we EXPERIENCE the power of Christ!  That is what I want.  That is what I am going after.  You see as we pursue who our Daddy says we are, we are free to pursue to our destiny and purpose in changing the world. 

We have made some exciting decisions over the last few weeks that we know are answers to prayers. We are pursuing the Father with a new intensity and running hard after our dreams of changing history; bringing Christ, the only HOPE, to the people we come into contact with daily as well as the nations!  Stay tuned...this life is exciting!