365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 294

I have decided to do my first 5K towards the end of October. I like to have a goal to push towards rather than just trying to exercise for the sake of exercising. We have to think of our time reading God’s word with the end goal in mind. That ultimate goal is a growing intimate relationship with God. I think a lot of people get caught in the trap of the bible is boring. Even I have fallen into that trap lately. I have to stop and re-start with a heart open to hearing God and dig more. Don’t let that boringness attitude block your heart. Pray for a right open attitude of heart and for guidance in discovering more about God than you knew before.

Philippians 3:14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 236

God has always given us the choice and yet He always shows that He is always with us, always loving and caring for us. We can always look back and see the plans of God unfolding in our lives. We can always in hindsight realize he was right there with us. What about seeing Him right here, right now? I have always found that my times when I am focused and in His Word everyday that I am much more aware of His presence and see His works in every little thing. Our busy lives, our problems, the difficult circumstances that life throws at us will weed away our focus and take us away from our time with God. He created us to be in fellowship with Him. He is the father, mentor, best friend, confidant, counselor that all of us need. Time with Him is like a plant being watered by the gardener. How good it feels…If you aren’t carving some time in your day for Him, stop and pray right here, right now for Him to guide you in helping you have a committed heart. With His guidance you can find the best time and way for you to really focus just on Him.

Acts 14:16-17 In the past, he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 57

I like this quote from Joel Osteen: You have a choice; you can either keep your joy, or you can give it away.  Choice is by far one of the biggest factors in becoming a believer of Jesus Christ and in our Christian walk. From the moment we make that first choice to believe that Jesus is the son of God and died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead so that we too might live we have the Holy Spirit within us. But everyday is a new day and so everyday we have choices to make. Not just the physical choices of what I am going to eat for breakfast or pick to wear today. Not just the mental choice to have a positive attitude or figure out the bills to pay but the spiritual choices of do we rely on God today, do we pray for the Holy Spirit and the fruits he can ripen within us or do we go it on our own. I for one have seen the power of the Holy Spirit working within me and it motivates me more. It is much like going on a weight-loss plan. The first week you are motivated by the idea of losing weight and feeling better about yourself, etc and by the third or fourth week the motivation comes from the very real reaction to your action. You get on the scale and see you have lost 3lbs and are thrilled. I have felt that same way every time I experience the Holy Spirit has given me what I needed. It makes me want the Holy Spirit working within me every moment of my life. For each day in the rest of my life, I am going to choose to pray in the morning for the Holy Spirit to ripen the fruits of the spirit within me, to help me love, to remind me that my joy comes from knowing I am saved and have the love of an awesome God.  And each night, I am going to pray and thank the Lord and confess my sins and what I could have done better and thank him for all the blessings, help, guidance, protection, inspiration, love and fruits of the Spirit that he gave to me for that day. I made a choice a couple years ago after a dentist visit with the typical talk about needing to floss. I made the choice to do it everyday and have only missed maybe two days in the last 2 years. If I can floss everyday, I can certainly pray everyday and so can you.  It is your choice.

2Thessalonians 2:13

But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 341

Happy Halloween! It is the one day of the year, you can dress-up and be someone else for the day. For those of us who are introverts, this can really be freeing. It gives you the confidence to speak up and be the extrovert you just aren’t normally. Dressing up as someone or something else does give a sense of freedom. As children of God, we have been given guidance in God’s word on how to dress for success and put on the armor of God. We can be a soldier for Christ, a saint, a witness for the gospel and more with the armor of God. Here is a link to a bible study I found on the internet about the armor of God.

http://www.acts17-11.com/armor.html  Praising God for this day set aside for fun and freedom and praising God for giving us the guidance and what we need so we can dress-up for Him everyday.

Ephesians 6:10-17 ...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 round 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.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 328

Praise the Lord for a new day, a new beginning, a new everything. What a gift that is to be able to go to bed with the gossip you may have partaken in at work or the yelling you did at your kids or the lack of love you showed and wake up the next day and start fresh. Sins of the day before washed clean. Each day we can say we are sorry and know that we are forgiven. The Holy Spirit will fill us up and guide us in our new day but we have to listen. That is probably the hardest part. I got caught in the trap of talking negatively about someone with co-workers. I saw it coming and fought it internally but what I should have done is got up and walked away from it or even better stand up and say no more negative talk about anyone. I am thankful for the forgiveness given to me thanks to Jesus and I am thankful for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in helping me learn from my mistakes. Have you done something recently that you just knew after doing it that it was wrong? Stop and tell our mighty God you are sorry and pray for his help.

Isaiah 55:6-7 “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 327

One of the benefits on the journey to becoming a Christian counselor is that I will be discovering more about myself and strengthen my relationship with God. I started reading a book that covers the basics in the theory of temperaments. I am fascinated by it. Already only 10-12 pages into it and I can see what they say about how we can focus too much on our weaknesses and that will bring us out of balance. I totally have done that with my worry over my auditory processing ability. My brain just takes a bit longer to process what it is hearing but I realized that the best part about being a counselor is its okay to ask for more clarification from the person who is talking to you and its part of the job to ask questions and its okay to take notes during your discussion. Whatever my temperament is, I am sure one of the weakness I have is worrying about what others think. It is my biggest road block and confidence crusher. I have been overcoming it more and more but I feel like I am on the verge of really knowing who I am the way God created me to be. In reading this book, I know that that weakness can become a strength when my focus is on the Lord. Praise to God for your guidance and leading down this path to discovery. You are amazing! Love you so, Lord.

Phillipians 2:13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 277

I have been reading a book called Faith of Our Fathers. It is a book in a series on stories about the Kings of the Old Testament. This book is about Manasseh. From my reading of the bible, I knew from the get-go as I began this book that Manasseh was a king who did evil in the eyes of the Lord. I found the two entries in the bible about Manasseh and was first off glad to see the writers thus far have followed what is in the bible but the amazing part is all the story around what's in the bible. Now this is fictional so they made it up, but it really makes you think of how bad or evil a person is but what is the story behind all that sin. What got them to that place? In this case, the writers make him out to be envious and jealous of his boyhood friend and family and even though he grew up learning the Torah the seeds of this envy and jealousy had been in him and all it took was the right corrupt person to enter his life that played up to this part of him and led him away from God and to so much sin. It makes me think of how careful we need to be when it comes to the people we meet and the things they say to us. We have to call on wisdom and discernment from God to help us on our journey and make sure are path is straight to God. Wisdom, discernment and clear guidance on what my next step in life is has been my goal. Despite the pros and cons that I am putting together of the various carreer avenues I can take, I want to take the one God wants me to take. What is he calling me to? Have you wondered what next? Only God knows what is the best and right place for us to go. Seek and you will find.

2 Chronicles 33: 1-2 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fify-fve years. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelistes.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 273

My first meeting with a college about becoming a medical assitant was great. I was so very impressed with the school and the person whom I was meeting with. By the end of our time together, I was feeling almost giddy with excitement and she could tell I was getting excited about the possiblities. Scheduling the program into my life will be the biggest hurdle to conquer. The starter class would be a month of M-F classes from 6-10pm after which I could switch to either the 6am-10am block of classes or the 10am-2pm block of classes or stay with the evening block. I can't imagine doing M-F classes in the evening for 9 months but I might be able to arrange my work schedule around the other blocks but may have to shave off an hour or so of work time. At this point I am keeping an open mind and look forward to meeting with another school next week to see what their program and school are like. I am praying a lot for God to give me a clear answer on the direction I should take and will wait for His answer. Does all this mean that my ministry is going by the wayside? No, but I will probably have to wait to try to get a faithbooking bible study group going. In the meantime, I will keep working on my ideas for writing a faithbooking bible study that will be for parents to do with their kids. Of course, this praise challenge will continue until Thanksgiving and than I will start a new challenge for the year that will help build-up my faith and relationship with the Lord and being encouraging to others. Only God knows our future and I am just praying he guides me along the way.

Proverbs 3:6 In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 272

Praising God for the opportunities available to make a change in the course of my working life. I have been researching the possiblity of making a carrer change into the medical field as a  medical assistant. The job prospects are good and are projected to grow by 38% by 2018. The median salary in my town could be a  little better but its more than I make now. It will probably cost me $12,000. for schooling plus more for the incidentals like books and testing fees to become officially certified. But there are more learning and skills that can be added to your belt to make your resume really look good and get you a higher paying position. The job itself is a mix of working with people on your feet and administrative stuff at a desk which I think would be a good fit for my body. Helping people is a plus as its one of the small side benefits of my current job but as a medical assistant I would be helping a lot more people and in a healthy way not just in a financial businessy way like I do with alarm companies now. I am starting to meet with colleges to get some idea about the programs offered so not sure at this point what will happen but I am thankful to God that I even have this kind of freedom to change what I am doing as work for my life. I keep praying for guidance and for God to put me where he wants me to be. Hopefully your job gives you a good feeling of success, confidence, joy without any negative side affects like pain, frustration, anger, resentment, discouragement. If so, be proactive in praying and seeking out a change led by God and in the meantime keep your focus on Him.

Ephesians 6:6 Work hard, but not just to please your masters when they are watching. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 253

As I was laying in bed this morning, contemplating all the plans for the day, I realized how very nice it was to be able to sleep in and wake up without the need to get up and get going.  In our fast paced world, it seems these moments of just peace, quiet and comfort are rare. This reminds me of how God wants us to be still and listen. We have to find the time, NO, make the time to just be still with God. These are the moments when our hearts are ready to receive the blessings of wisdom, clarity, guidance, insight, inspiration and on. Just like everything it is something we have to be intentional about. Jesus would go off alone into the mountains to just be with God. Are you making consitent alone time with God? Before the rush of the day starts, maybe this would be a good time to talk to God.  Lord, we thank you for the gift of our alone time with you. We forget how much it can help us and our relationship with each other. Help us to make the time to just be still and be with you so we can hear your voice. Amen.

Isa 30:20-21 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."

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.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 119

Excitement is running through my veins. I have my first outside workshop set up for April 15th. It's a one-time kind of workshop based on John 16:33. The photos used for this workshop can be of your Easter celebration. God has even provided a great song to go along with the workshop by Jeremy Camp. My dream is becoming a reality! God is so good. Anyone can attend these workshops so if you are here in town, you are welcome to join us on April 15th. I will post more details on my calendar of events page or you can email me. This isn't the most optimal photo of the project but you get the idea. The photos in the project are only temporary until we go through Easter and I can add my Easter photos. I have other paper options to suit your tastes as well. I am praising God for his continual guidance and faithfulness as I go along this journey with this ministry.
John 16:33 "In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 92

One of my new responsibilities at my job is to call back alarm companies that call in with questions, etc. Most people that know me, already are aware I am not a phone person. It may be because of what I think is an audiotory processing issue I have that is fairly common. I have always had a fear of the phone. But I have been steadily gaining more confidence especially at my job because I have been there for almost 3 years and pretty much know my stuff and if I don't, I know where to get it. Yesterday morning I had to call a man who had a very thick accent, possibly French who seemed very frustrated so I wasn't so sure how this phone call was going to go. So, I started off the phone call with a casual easy-going what can I do to help you out? That set the tone very well as he said later in the phone call that he felt like he was talking with a real person rather than a robot. It turns out the guy was not very good with computer stuff and just needed someone to listen to him and to give him a little guidance on what he should do. Although I was initially a little wary of what this phone call was going to end up being like especially because of the thick accent, I was happily delighted with the outcome. The man was very happy and professing today is turning into a great day. I am really thankful to God for giving me a sense of peace in doing this phone call, patience, understanding and compassion which really ended up helping this man out. Is there a frustrated or angry person in your life that could use a showering of kindness?
Romans 11:22 Consider therefore the kindness and sterness of God: sterness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 60

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together. Okay, so you have already heard me say, I am not the best when it comes to planning. I have always been by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of person but my new years resolution last year was to become more of a planner to be better prepared for all things. I don't want to scramble at the last minute or be stressing when I could be enjoying. I joined a master mind group and had our first meeting last week. If your not familiar with the term 'master mind group', it's simply a group of business people who are committed to getting together regualarly and we help each other with ideas and we are accountable to each other. I am working on building a good foundation for this ministry because God led me to that conclusion through His Word and many prayers. Although it is a chunk of change to do this, I felt very convicted to do it. We've only had that first meeting so far but already I have been making more strides in my research this last week. One of the first keys towards success and prosperity based on the book Ten Keys to Success and Prosperity by Meredith Bromfield is the idea of getting rid of the old negative stuff filling our lives. When we start getting rid of this stuff, what is left is an open space and like any vaccum open space will be filled. We have to create that open space for those good things to come into our lives. One of our assingments was literally to start doing 18 minutes a day to get rid of stuff whether it is actual stuff or meditating and choosing to let go of negavite feelings we are holding onto. I can't say I have done the 18 minutes but I have tried to do something everyday even if it's as little as taking the trash out of the car, which my hubbie will SO love. The great thing is I can already feel the positive affects of this with the new ideas and resources that have come to me or I have heard from others this week. So, I am thankful for the guidance this group has given already and looking forward to all it will bring in the future.
Proverbs 2:1-6 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turing your ear to wisdom and applying your hear to understanding, and if you cal out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search fro it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 36

My shoulders continue to hurt and I have delved further into researching surgery option and found there may be other options related to a particular kind of calcium. I will probably call my acupunturist today and get in and hope that some of those needles will be able to alleviate the pain at least until with God's help I can figure out what to do. I have been praying about guidance on what to try. I really don't want to have to do the surgery especially after more research and finding that there are way too many that have had negative things to say about the outcome of their surgeries. So I am praising God for this glimmer of hope to avoid the surgery but praying he will give me a definite answer that I clearly know is from him.
Psalm 62:5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone: my hope comes from him.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 32

My praise is for clarity! A lot of my answers and guidance from God comes to me early in the morning when I awaken, perhaps it comes in a dream or maybe my mind needs to rest through the night to mull things over and get the clarity. In any case, my best ideas, thoughts and guidance comes in the morning. My letter for the last couple weeks has been "P". The word that most comes to my mind has been "prepare". So, with January 15th looming over me for the first introductory crop, I realize that my preparation for this is far from complete. God took us through all the old testament times before he had Jesus born to us on Earth to save us. He was preparing the way for Jesus and he did it in his own time. I realized that I am running on "my timing" and I have concluded finally in my mind that that won't do. To be successful with this ministry, it has to be about God's timing and being prepared. Like any good business, the planning is the most important part to it's success and though I have had plenty of thoughts on this ministry I haven't yet really layed down the plans. God has put it on my heart that this is more than a one-person ministry. It will need to be a team effort to be successful so my first step in planning is to build up a body of Christ for this ministry. Each of us has gifts and this ministry will need more than what my gifts are in creativity. Do you have some spiritual gifts that can help this ministry? Do you have friends either in town or far away that may be able to not only participate but be a part of the team. This is a call to action to not only participate in this minsitry but become an integral part of it's success in reaching out to everyone for Christ.
Ephesians 4:12 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 24

Last night I was in the new spa with my daughter. It's not like we don't get plenty of opportunity to spend time together. That is her love language, quality time, so I make sure she is getting her love tank filled but there is something about relaxing in a hot tub at night with the dark sky and twinkling stars that just made it a very opportune time to really connect with her and see how things are going. So, she opens it up with 'let's talk' so I asked her how things are going at school with teacher, class and friends. Everything is good until we get to the friends part. She tells me one of her friends is hurting her. By this she meant she is getting hit, kicked and scratched by this 'friend'. Unfortunatley, this is not the first time with this 'friend'. They had this same issue back in either Kindergarten or 1st grade and I had to conquer my fears of confrontation and approach the mom at the bus stop and pull her aside to let her know what was going on. It seemed to have stopped but is now rearing it's ugly head. It may be because they are in the same class again but it apparently only happens at the lunch line in school, on the bus or at her house. Hmmmm... sounds like she's only doing this when she knows she can get away with it. Faith is a gentle and very-kind hearted person and says she doesn't want to hurt her feelings but also says she is afraid too because she doesn't want to hurt her more. Oh my... so for the first time probably ever, LOL, I told her I was going to pray about it and talk with Dad about it to see how to proceed. So, that next morning I was taking work off because my shoulder so I walked her over to the bus stop and afterwards walked the mom to her house telling her about the conversation I had with Faith. Of course, the protective defensive nature in a parent came up but we just discussed and decided to give the girls a break from playing with each other and she would talk with their teacher and her daughter. So, although I am not sure she is feeling like this is an issue with her daughter, as Nathan puts it, you have planted the seed and made her aware and that's all you can do at this point. So, I am thanking God for the opportunity to learn more about my daughter and her life and thankful for his guidance in how to deal with it.
Psalm 73:24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 15

Today marks the birth of my son 15 years ago! So, as we celebrate the season and the greatest gift given to us in Jesus, I also celebrate the blessing that God has given me in my son, Tristan. My prayer life really began because I wanted to talk with God about my children and pray for their safety, health and especially that they will grow in relationship with the Lord. God has answered those prayers and it's wonderful to see my kids relationship with the Lord. My praying for them will never cease for as most of us are already aware, the devil is out there waiting for every opportunity to prey upon us and our children.

We just recently went to a conference at our church called Sticky Faith which is about helping create a faith that will stick with your kids especially when they go out on their own into college and beyond. The time will be here oh so quickly when my son leaves our home and so I pray that what we have done has been enough and that he will look to God for his guidance on all things.
1Thessalonians 5:16-17 Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 9

I read the book The Three Trees to my daughter last night before bed. This book brought out the lesson within the genelogy of Jesus even more. The three trees have big dreams for themselves but in the end they become the manger, boat and cross that Jesus is in and on and they discover that despite their dreams that what really happens to them is the best thing ever. I am sure the women in the geneology of Jesus also had big dreams for their lives too and didn't plan on the sins they commited but the Lord took their lives and used them for the bigger picture. So, today I will ponder on who in my genelogy is like one of the women and one of the trees, who had dreams, sinned but were forgiven and part of the bigger picture of Jesus. I am thankful for the Lord's guidance in discovering even more treasures and truths in his Word.
1 Timothy 2:3-4 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who want all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.