365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 108

During some of my wakeful hours during the night, the TV show The Amazing Race ran through my thoughts and I started to see the connections in the show to our lives. For those that may not have seen The Amazing Race, it is a traveling race around the world where pairs of people travel from one country to another and in between have road blocks and speed bumps that they must get through. These pairs of people are all mixed from spouses to best friends to brothers. Now some of these pairs work well together and have no trouble but for others the challenges they face bring out their worst. These road blocks and speed bumps often have to do with overcoming fears such as fear of heights but also have to do with working past something you don’t do well like swim. Some of them can be difficult and you need to have perseverance and patience. Some of these teams get into trouble because they are in too much of a hurry and will not read the clues carefully. Other teams will just make the wrong choices and end up lost or at a challenge they cannot conquer. We are living out our own amazing race. We aren’t necessarily traveling the world but the concept of going through change and seeing new things we do go through. We need to be partnering up with the Holy Spirit for our race. Without the help of the Holy Spirit, we will find ourselves lost, impatient and a whole host of other negatives. But with the Holy Spirit, we will be guided and given all that we need to overcome the challenges we all face in our lives. However, it is a partnership and like any relationship it takes two. We have to do our part in this partnership by praying, studying and reflecting. Take the time today to reflect on how well you are running the amazing race of your life.

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 90

Men don’t change hair styles like women do. My husband has had the same hair cut for 17 years except for a brief try after we were first married to go a little longer. So, he proposed to me that he was going to try going shorter on the top. He talked to a guy at work that had just got his hair cut and decided he might want to try it but he wanted to get my thoughts first. I told him to go for it. Even if it didn’t work for him, it would grow back. So, he went and did it yesterday. He came back looking like a new man. Okay, now I am exaggerating but it was a nice difference. He told me how he always used a certain cutter size on the sides but always told the hair stylist to do an inch on top. This time he got a lesson in haircutting. He learned that he could use the cutter on the top too but with a different size. He tells me, “all these years I have been explaining to them what I want and nobody ever said a cutter size for the top until now.” This whole experience made me think of how people don’t go to the right source. They do it their own way or they try a different source that is not of God. The one right source is God and his Word. Of course, I am not saying when you need haircut advise the answers are in the bible. I am talking about spiritual decisions and choices we have to make throughout our lives. Our horoscope isn’t going to lead us on the right path; the TV isn’t going to lead us on the right path; a person without Jesus in their heart isn’t going to lead us on the right path. The only right source is Jesus, the Father and his Word. Be careful of what leads you and guides your choices. The devil will use anything and everything to make any kind of separation between us and the Father.

Ephesians 6:10-18 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 88

It was ten years ago today that I went into labor at 20 weeks with my daughter. It was one of the scariest days of my life but with God’s help my fear was covered over with his peace. The minutes it took us to drop my son off at a friend’s house and get to the hospital were beyond anxious. I was shaking with the fear inside of me of what was happening. I will never forget the look of the nurse who checked me and yanked her hand away so quick. In the next few minutes they came and adjusted my bed I was on back degrees and told us the amniotic sac was protruding out of the womb. They got me to a room and the doctor came and took a look and gave us two choices: a surgical procedure to put a stitch in the cervix to keep it from opening more or take labor stopping drugs. The doctor had no idea what started first the cervix opening triggering the labor or the labor starting which opens the cervix. She told us the two choices and said I will give you five minutes and walked out of the room. The pressure of this decision was so intense. I asked my hubbie his thoughts and he was leaning towards the surgery and said it was my decision to make. I knew that I couldn’t make this decision alone and prayed at that moment for help. My prayer was heard immediately as I was filled with a complete sense of peace. My fear and anxiety were gone and I believed in my heart my baby girl would  live and be healthy. I made the decision to go with the less risky drugs and the labor stopped. Both nurses who worked with me through that first 24 hours came to me later and told me they literally felt God in the room. All I could do is tear up and nod my head with an “I know” in my heart. Seeing the peace that came over me and making the decision, my hubbie said you can name her whatever you want and I, without hesitation, said her name is Faith. The next day as I started my 4 ½ week journey lying in that bed angled back at 10 degrees, I read this verse in the bible and just cried with joy.

Mark 9:23 “If you can?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.”

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 271

My daughter had a homework assignment to read a story and than ask us our opinion on who should go to jail. The story in a nutshell was about a man whose wife is sick and in need of medicine. He goes to an apothocary to get medicine but does not have enough money. He asks if he could give him what he has, take the medicine and pay the rest when he gets it but the apothocary says no. He goes home and later goes out and breaks into the apothcary's place and takes the medicine his wife needs. Who should go to jail? Well my son and I said the obvious answer and went with the law. The man stole the medicine that is breaking the law. What the apothocary did wasn't breaking the law it just was an uncompassionate choice. My daughter who was totally into this said well maybe the woman should go to jail for getting sick. NO-NO-NO I told her. You don't go out and ask a virus to make you sick. The woman didn't have any choice in getting sick. So do you see where I am going with this? Some choices aren't against any standard law or against the Ten Commandments and some choices are but no matter what the choices are, there are consequences. Though the apothocary's choice didn't directly break any law it spurred another man to make a choice to break a law. The bible tells us that if there is something that may cause our brothers or sisters to sin than we should not do whatever may cause the other to sin. Each choice we make, each action we take, each word we say can be that "whatever" that may cause another to make the choice to sin. I am thankful for this homework lesson that came home for my daughter that brought up this bible truth. May the words and actions I take today be only loving and kind and not cause another to make the choice of sinning. Amen.

1Corinthians 8:13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 207

My daughter had the choice of going to her YMCA camp on Wednesday and the field trip they would be going on or going to a swimming birthday party. It turns out the field trip is just not exciting enough and the birthday party wins. It makes me think about our own choices. We have an un-told number of choices that we have to make each day. Some of these you have forgotten they are choices like how you choose to approach the day with your attitude or how you react to interuption after interuption when you are trying to do something. There are more choices we are making everyday than we realize and in the busyness of life we can go from choice to choice without much thought. We just make them and deal with any consequences. It's a challenge to stop, think and pray for God to guide us in every choice we make but it is something that will inevitiably be beneficial to our life. Seek God in everything and God's blessing will be with us. How do we go about trying to seek God with every decision we have to make? It starts with a simple prayer every morning that sets you up for the day. Father, we thank you for another day to live out our lives shinning your light. Guide us today in each choice we have to make and steer us down the straight path towards you. Amen.
Proverbs 3:6 ...in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.