No matter what... Sing Praises

Reading the Guideposts (March,2017) that had an article from Reba. She was talking about music is healing to her.. then she states it.. “I believe it is because it helps us. I find if I’m worrying too much about something, I’m not trusting God. I need to give my worries back to him.”

I firmly believe that praise and worship music can change an attitude. A radio station I listen to will dare people in January to stay with their station for 30 days and just see how their life improves. I love listening to the testimonies that occur. I remember once I lived further from home and worked where I didn’t know the Christian radio stations. I turned it on country or regular music. I could tell I was just moody. So one day I logged onto the internet to stream my home Christian radio station, and I honestly could feel my mood change. I keep it on at work still to this day. Now I’m home, and I have a radio next to me. Most jobs now frown on streaming music using their stuff… so this works. I love listening to my children sing these songs. I see people posting their kids singing other songs, but it just does my heart good to hear my kids singing praises to our King! You know there are times they sing while they are busy playing at home. It isn’t worldly music.. they just still praise our King.
So if sad, praise Him.
If lonely, Praise Him.
If worried, Praise Him.
If scared, Praise Him...
I betcha it will help!

Wounds...Scars...

“Never let your wounds go to waste… One day they could lead to another healing.” Beck Payne

 

My pastor spoke on the wounds of warfare this past Sunday. 2 Timothy 4 talks about how as soldiers in God’s Army, we will be wounded to some degree.

There are so many kinds of wounds. One I hadn’t really thought about are the wounds from God.. Really our God would chose to wound us? Yes! He has to make us better somehow. I talk to my friends often about how things happen that move us from the path of life that we have fixed ourselves on. Why would God cause this to happen, well he tried telling us to leave this job, did we listen? No. So he caused something to happen to set our foot on the path that he wanted us on. We didn’t need this roommate that we had, but we weren’t going to move.. so God allowed something to happen that set us back on his path. I remember when my son was younger and some horrible things happened at his daycare. I wasn’t sure about leaving, but I do not do well with change. I don’t want my child to lose everything he knew since he was a kid. You know what? Months later, he didn’t recognize anyone at that daycare at age 2! Instead only 1 daycare had spots open…seriously just 1. This 1 daycare was more expensive (in my eyes) than the others, and if you know me, you know I’m going to get a deal. Well now 6 years later, my other child is still at this daycare. This daycare opened my child’s eyes to his Heavenly Father. My child grew so much at his new school. This new daycare caused my heart to want to visit the church associated with the daycare. Then guess what, we changed churches and here we are! I will give God props on forcing me out of my comfort zone. I won’t say I didn’t shed tear, my old coworkers witnessed it and comforted me.

Well back to God.. God wants to mold us, refine us, and prepare us for MORE!

 

We also have wounds from life, self-inflicted ones, friendly fire (family & friends, and more.  If you think about each of these, I know you can place a list in every category…

He reminded us to have the Victor mentality.. not the victim.. We need to move forward.. Jesus was wounded so could be made whole…

 

I loved how he talked about Scars… They are there to remind us, but they don’t define us. They remind us where we have been, how far we have come.. The same is about wounds.. There are visible scars and those scars that are deep wounds that lay beneath us.. in our hearts.. We need to hold these and see these as ways to move on, be molded into more, and to help others..

 

Scars… Let’s run thru mine..

My right hand holds scars from childhood. I might had been a little tattletale.. I remember trying to get my mom’s attention in the house that we lived in. I banged a little too hard on the window.. well Ok I punched it b/c I was so mad. Well do you know what happens if you punch an old window.. Yep my hand went right through it. I have smell scars that remind me.. I need to hold in a tattle every once in a while. I was so blessed no stitches were required, I didn’t lose a finger.

My right knee holds a scar of Kindergarten age. My mom went on a walk with my sister in a stroller. I decided to stay at my friend’s house, changed my mind, went running down a hill. Yep, knee skin gone. Forever scar is now there. Both my knees hold scars from lateral releases and arthroscopy surgery. This is an ongoing battle that I face.  

Then there is the one scar of that I thought about Sunday while the pastor was speaking about scars. See I hold a scar on my left hand by a knuckle.. I was in High School sitting amongst football players. I don’t remember the class, but I remember the boys being boys and rubbing a metal tip pen on a wooden desk. They were all fascinated about how hot it would get. Well this one boy ask for my hand. I wasn’t really paying attention.. well boys being boys. Let’s grab this girl’s hand to see what it does? It took the skin off! I remembered the rude boy’s name. I remember the day I walked in my mom’s house, my sister sitting on the couch saying that she was going to introduce my cousin to this boy. Then she said that name! Really! Him, he is mean! She was trying to tell me how he was going to be a Pastor. Well I want my cousin to have a good man, but him? That dude scarred me. I was glad he had wised up, but I really didn’t like the idea. Well guess what.. They got married.  I grew to like him, but I still remember her sitting on the couch saying that name and my knee jerk reaction. Now last Sunday, I sat and watched Him as my Pastor. He is preaching a powerful series right now and reminding us of our scars. I went to look and years later, that scar is hardly visible. He is an awesome man of God, and he has been the perfect gift for my cousin.  Scars may remind us, but things change, they may soften over the years..  But I would say that when I got that scar, I would had never dreamed how that football players life would had intertwined with mine. God could had laughed and said.. she has no idea! 

 

We all have scars and wounds that hurt deep. There are some that would hurt us daily if we let them. We need to give them to God. Let him mold us into something greater! Some of them can be used to HELP OTHERS! Use lessons learned, battles fought, to reach out to help others, or even just to encourage them in their battle. Or maybe just to remind them that God is molding them or simplying just pushing them b/c they wouldn’t list to his nudges.. I know my hard headed, disliker of change has to be pushed from time to time… The pushing is uncomfortable, but the end result can be amazing if we TRUST God.

The Acid Watcher Diet

A 28-Day Reflux Prevention and Healing Program by Jonathan Aviv, MD, FACS

 

This is a nice sized paperback book with a thick laminated type of cover. The introduction gives you symptoms of what to look for in acid reflux and the damage it can cause. The book in broken down in 3 parts. The first tells about acid reflux and breaks it all down. The second part talks about different foods and things to look for to help it improve. The third is the 28 day cycle of healing foods. You will feel like a doctor of this area once you finish reading this. For people that really have issues in this, I believe this is a great book to have on hand! He gives it in a story form, giving you stories from people that have tried certain treatments and had certain issues and how they handled it. There are even exercises given that you can try. I would recommend this book to all my friends with this issue.  I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review

And Still She Laughs : Defiant Joy in the Depths of Suffering

By Kate Merrick

 

I first saw the titleand was sold. As a woman, you know the verse.. still she laughs. Then I read the back cover and saw this woman had lost a child to cancer. I almost stopped myself from reading this, b/c I haven’t been in her shoes. Her shoes are a parents worst nightmare. Oh am I glad that I read this. I wish I could be friends with this lady! She is so funny! She reminds me a lot of my sister… one of those people that can do a hardy laugh at the most wrong times, but still she is funny! She gives you the 21st description of Sarah, Bathsheba, Mary, and even the Proverbs 31 woman. The best to me was the Proverbs 31st woman. I guess I had never imagined her having buns of steel. Ha! This is an easy to read book. It makes you laugh, makes you want to cry with her, and just really is an uplifting book for us women. She makes you see life isn’t easy, but we need to laugh – ok maybe not laugh when God is trying to teach us something, but we need to know God is with us, and He can give us JOY like no other. She reminds us that this life is hard, really hard, but we need to chose to live every day for eternity! I do pray for this author. Her life isn’t easy, and I don’t think ever will be. But she was real for this book. I do believe her open honesty will help someone else. I enjoyed reading her book and I would recommend it to those ladies who have lost a child to cancer, lost a child thru miscarriage. It will help you. It was an easy book to read. She was sitting there just telling a story. Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255

NOTHING TO PROVE

Why We Can Stop Trying So Hard

By Jennie Allan

 

The main theme of this is, “Why am I still thirsty?” Because people are seeking everything BUT Jesus! With Jesus we have nothing to prove. He loves us unconditionally. We all think that we are not good enough, brave enough, smart enough, and the list goes on… but God says with Him we are enough!  One phrase that she used stood out to me. “We cannot do this ourselves. We have to be saved.”  God has so much planned for our lives if we would just focus on Him and let Him use us. This is so hard for our physical nature. We are moms, wives, friends, sisters… we are always feeling not enough. This book is Jennie telling her story how God convicted her and used her to be so much more than she felt that she was able to become. There is a Note’s section at the back of the book that gives you Bible passages to relate to each chapter. I see at the back of the book that there will be a study guide that will go along with this book in April. I do think this book would be good for a group to go over and read it together. This book would be good also for those looking to realize they are Good Enough! You can find a book club from her website. This is a hard back book with the pretty print on a dust cover. Once you  remove the dust cover you have a plain navy book. I think it would been fun to have it on the actual book. I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review

The Journey That Life Takes Us On....

I just recently crossed paths with a guy that lived next door to me when I was in Kindergarten. My mind started thinking.. Wow.. He has no idea where my life has taken me since I was in Kindergarten. Back then my mom and dad were married, and I had a baby sister. Now he sees me married with my children, but oh the path God has put me on over the years. Just like everyone else, we just see the NOW, but we honestly have no idea the journey that they took to get to where they are. You don’t know their hurts, hangups, joys, and hardships that have made them who they are today.

                Does he know that I know the hardships of being a child of divorce? I have actually seen 2 of them. One that gave me a wonderful stepmom and a Daddy that I would have a buddy in life, but that I saw die in my early 30’s. I now know about what Cirrhosis of the liver can do to a person. I can look at someone and tell that they have a bad liver. I now know things about estates and will planning. I have had a stepdad that gave me 3 wonderful brothers to grow up with. I grew up one of 5 kids, but people today don’t see that. I had a wonderful spiritual set of grandparents during this time. I got to see the Proverbs 31 woman in that Mamaw.  I got to have those brothers taken where now I see in passing or social media. I had to say goodbye to one after depression and suicide. All these things change a person.  I have been blessed with a great stepdad now that comes with 2 stepbrothers that I use to babysit and a stepsister that I wondered how did she live with those 2 knuckleheads, but in the end, I’m there for them. We have a different grownup friendship.

                Would he know that my mom had open heart surgery at 36. I still remember that scary period of my life. I know about mitrovalve prolapse, Coumadin, INR numbers, and other things that people might not know about. Would he know that I have had my knee caps go to the side of my leg more times that I would had liked? I know things like VMO muscles, having my knee drained, lateral releases, etc.

                He sees me married. Does he realize I married my high school boyfriend, that while separated, he joined the Army. I have seen him in Korea, Kuwait, Iraq, and lived thru these deployments. Army life is a life in itself. Expect the unexpected as I always say. We had awesome friends there, but there are a lot of stories that could be set with lessons learned. Within this time I have learned so much of having a stepchild and the legal system for custody. I have used my knowledge to help friends, but these are some life lessons I could have skipped, but God put me on this journey of life.

                God blessed me with a quirky, fun loving, beautiful sister.  I honestly couldn’t had done with journey without her.. We have faced so much together.. from family dramas, miscarriages, to fighting for her husband. My heart breaks seeing her a walking nurse about her husband’s broken heart. She knows more medical terms, medication names, and everything about her husband’s care with his LVAD.  She even taught me early on not to run through a glass door.. and I taught her not to knock so hard on a glass window. 

                We must all remember that God has set us each on a unique journey. There are hardships who make us who we are today. Take your lessons learned and help those around you that might be in similar troubles that might need your insight or maybe just your encouragement. Let’s bring a little light to this world. Yet when you run across someone you might not understand, please remember  that you don’t see the journey they have been on. You don’t see their painful times that have made them who they are. Here’s to not being so critical of a person, but instead trying to see that they are a child of God. God loves us no matter what!