365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 309

In the morning, I try to get in a ten minute indoor walk. Do a loop through my kitchen, living room and front office. During this walking time, I like to pray but I find that I am easily distracted by the stuff I am seeing on my walls, tables and counters. I end up thinking about other things rather than having my conversation with the Lord. So, this morning as I was going through this same thing, I chided myself for doing it again, going off to thinking about other things. So, I got myself back on track and was walking with my head down just looking at the floor in front of me. That’s when God gave me a beautiful light bulb moment! If we are truly going to focus on the Lord we have to be looking down at the footsteps He puts before us. It is like when you are out hiking in the forest, you have to keep your eye on the ground before you otherwise if you are looking ahead or looking back, you will find yourself tripping over a rock. I love the visual of the footprints in sand or snow when you are trying to step exactly in the footprints in front of you, one step at a time. Lord, thank you for this moment of clarity and giving me a visual to help that sink deep into my heart. Follow you, you ask and I will follow one step at a time in your footsteps. Lead the way Lord. Amen.

Isaiah 58:11 The Lord will guide you always.

 

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 284

This weekend I had the opportunity to connect with my father-in-law. They had driven down in my brother-in-law's new GrandAm so hubbie and son wanted to go for a ride. We opted to drive to church in two cars so my father-in-law got to go with me and my daughter. I have to say I did not look at it as an opportunity to connect but more negatively like I have to be in conversation with this man for a 20 minute drive. I have never really had this situation come up before when my hubbie wasn't there to steer the conversation. How do you connect with someone when you know they aren't interested in your stuff and you aren't interested in there stuff? I ended up starting by digging, digging for something that we could connect with beside the weather, the road conditions and other trivial conversations. I asked him if he could tell us about Nathan as a kid. I found a connection through the past! They used to go hiking. Now that was something we had in common. I was feeling good about how the conversation was going and the thought came to me to ask about how often he was able to read the bible. There was Satan on one of my shoulders telling me that might not be the best converstaion to get in and there was the voice of the Holy Spirit saying, "Don't be afraid". So, I pushed Satan off my shoulder, took a deep breath and asked him how often he had a chance to read the bible. It was an answer that I am sure a lot of people would say..."not as often as I probably should". He said reading always puts him to sleep after 20 mintues or so. I suggested he try a read the bible in a year plan because it breaks up the reading and he could do the reading in that 20 minutes each day. I told him how much I learned from reading the bible in this way. I was very happy the holy spirit had helped me by giving me the courage to speak up to someone about God. You never know what your words and actions will bring. I am not going to say I am there yet but I am working on being able to be fearless for the Lord. Baby steps....

1 Peter 4:11 If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.