Words have power. Written words provide proof. You can read them, and reread them whenever you want. They can speak life to someone who needs encouragement. They can speak death to someone who is being deceived. The choice lies within you. How is it that you want people to remember you? Encourager...that is the gift that God has laid on my heart. To use my written, spoken, and/or sung words to lift people up. To be one link in their road to healing, restoration, joy. I have been without those things, and I claim them to be mine again. If you want me to seek God on a prayer for a specific situation...that is why I am here. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to pray God's Word of Life over you.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Whatever You Do…Do NOT Give Up!

I was reminded of this simple statement last week. Don’t give up! Why…you might ask? Because, when you give up…you make it more difficult or maybe impossible for God to show that He is faithful to the end. Forever faithful to YOUR end! Let me set this scenario up for you. I will show you how persistence, and the will to keep on keepin on…pays off!

2012 Kinzua Dam 202 I told my husband that I was going to call this picture…’Persistence’. Ha-ha. He rolled his eyes…as usual…and asked if I realized it was a weed. He is so not artsy as I am artsy. Ha-ha! ;)

Really though. I was looking at this weed growing strong in the middle of a huge black-top paved sidewalk…and it got me thinking. This weed has strength and persistence. It is surrounded by harshness and ugliness. It rarely gets a break from the unrelenting sun. It is hated by most people that walk by it. It is stepped on if it gets in the way. It is ripped out by anyone who has the urge. Sounds like a healthy environment to grow up in huh?

Do you realize that there are people that feel like this? Right in your city. In your circle of friends. In your house even. There are people that are surrounded by harshness, darkness, ugliness. They always feel beat on and burned. They are hated by sight without even a chance of ever being spoken to. They are stepped on by people they trusted. They are ripped on or pulled down by anyone who just decides they feel like it.

What about Jesus? Couldn’t that also describe Him? Do you think He walked around feeling defeated or delivered? Hated or loved unconditionally? Empty or always full? Broken or complete? Starved or satisfied?

I think about how close I have been at times to giving up…and I feel a bit ashamed. I do not have to handle what Jesus had to. I do not endure even a fraction of what He did. And yet…He was blameless. He was the ultimate example in every aspect. Every conversation. Every harsh scenario. Every slanderous accusation against Him. He was perfect.

You see…He KNEW who He was. He knew who His Father was…and what He was capable of. Being fully man, He showed us by example that it is absolutely possible to rely on your Father in Heaven to fight on your behalf. To wage your war. To clear your name. To get vengeance when needed. To instruct you…and come out blameless.

So why do we so often forget to follow Jesus’ example? Ugh…I know! I am right there with you.
Let’s just say that you are a youth leader at your church. Let’s also say that for weeks…no let’s say for months (maybe even close to a year)…that the enemy has been feeding you lies. You thought they were from him…but you still kept thinking them. Saying them. Believing them. And the more you said them…the more you believed them. And the more you thought they were your thoughts and not his.

So one day you decide you are going to give up. You are just going to not show up…knowing that you might be the only leader there that night. You are done…because you are not good at what you have been trying to do. You are not good at public speaking. You can’t breathe when you talk to them. You feel like your breath is being sucked right out of you.

Even though you want to stay home…you go because you know the result of you not going could cause bigger problems. You hate confrontation even more than awkward the youth’s awkward silence or harsh comments. You decide it will be a night with no teaching. Instead it will be a time for testimonies and prayer. For your unwilling…and also willing obedience…

GOD SHOWS UP! God proves Himself faithful to the end. God gives you examples to speak. God gives you words to pray. God moves mountains that have been built by the enemy. God strengthens relationships. God breaks down barriers that society has set. God breaks through silence…and speaks! God sheds light and truth on the lies that the enemy has been feeding them…and YOU!

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Praise God! How awesome is He? I mean come on. I was humbled by that night. No wait…I mean you would’ve been humbled by that night. Ok I give…I was referring to myself. Shocker, I know! I was at my breaking point. I was believing junk. I was speaking that junk over myself. I was so close to giving up…and God saved me. He renewed me. He refreshed my passion. He lit the fire from within. I don’t deserve Him…but I don’t understand how anyone lives without Him!

How about you? Does something immediately come to your mind when you read this. Something that you have been allowing to be spoken into your life. Something that does not come from the correct Author. The father of lies, satan, is an imitator of light. He tried to be like God…and he got cast out of Eternal Glory…into eternal suffering. Now…he spreads lies to bring others into his suffering. When you are a child of the King though…you can tell a fake. You know your Father…and you know how He speaks. Trust in your Author…and cast anything else back where it belongs.

I would love to pray for you. Contact me however you can. Written words of life have everlasting effects! I live to write prayers for people. Please don’t shy away from helping me to fulfill my calling! I would LOVE to hear from you!!
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I heart you...XOXO

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Always an Adventure

Evening bloggerland! I am writing to you today to tell you of my newest adventure. Photography! It is something I have loved to do since I had my first child. And although most of my family and friends seem to enjoy looking at pictures of my children...not everyone else does. *sigh...the truth hurts*
But come on...really...who can see a face like this and NOT fall in love? I can't stand how much I adore this child!! =)

God has recently given me a new passion to take pictures. With that passion, comes the need to do something with them. I 100%, completely, fully, whole-heartedly (am I getting my point accross?) understand that God is the Creator of the beauty that I capture. With that said, I want to invite you all to view our new loves. I am taking the statement..."Find out what you love to do, and figure out a way to get paid for it."...and I am running with it. God just keeps opening up new avenues! Praise God for His ways are unlike mine. Praise God that His creativity is being passed on to me in miniscule increments. I am gobbling them up as fast as I can! =)

So far, I seem to be taking pictures of nature. Flowers. Sunrises. Sunsets. Horses. Trees. And even some that involve my children being 'Mom's helper' in her artistic mind's eye.

Like this picture from earlier today. That is my daughter's hand...and I just LOVE the way the final product turned out. I am super excited to share my LOVE with people. I just can't wait to see what God has in store! =)

So if you get a chance. Check out my page! I'd love to hear from you all!! Click here to view what I have posted so far. And if you really want to make my day you can click on the following links...first one here...second soon to follow...and third and last of all...and vote for the photos I have submitted to a national tv photo contest. *fingers crossed* Haha! There will be many more to come...as often as I can sit infront of the computer and edit my pics.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Innocent Mornings Yeild Eternal Results

Hey blogger land! I am so excited today. I just recently (after a year of wonder of why it couldn't be different)...discovered how to make my blog accessible to all of you. And what I mean by accessible...is that you can all leave comments now. Is that not super exciting!!!!! Just me...oh come now. ;) There was a setting that must've been automatic when I started this blog...and I just discovered this weekend how to change it. This is huge!

If you have EVER tried to leave a comment and been denied...please try again. I will give you a good reason as well. Click on this link and read the post titled "What's Your Price". At the end...you can enter for a chance to win my give-a-way. I only had one entry...and she said she didn't want to take the prize because she won last time. Now is your chance to win!!! The contest instructions are at the end of that post. I want to hear from each of you. I want to speak words of life to you...and you to respond with words of life back to me. This is what keeps me going. When I see, and read that the heart of God is moving throughout the city, country, and world...it fires me right up. Speaking of getting fired up.......



I was talking to my oldest son (pictured above with our 'lap dog' Moose)...at the end of last week. Infact it was Friday morning...and I woke up to find him out of bed and in the living room. It was way past time to begin getting ready for school...but when I saw him I couldn't not sit with him and soak up every moment of his morning.

There he was. Alone. Only the light from the one opened curtain was shining in on him. And on the arm of the couch beside him...was his Bible. Like a real, big kid Bible. As in no big pictures and few words...but Genesis through Revelation...every verse! And he was just sitting there on his own will...reading Psalms. I could've had melted right there. I was so excited to have the ultimate Word of Life read to me by a child with such pure, innocent faith. I sat while he started to read from the book of Psalms.

After he got through a few verses, I asked him if he would read from the book of James because it is my favorite book of the Bible. I have just about the whole book underlined in each of my different Bibles. I 'randomly' (or so I thought) picked a heading...and he began to read God's word to me. I soon came to realize that it was not at all random. It was a divine appointment that God had set us up for...to teach Aiden a new truth from a recent life experience involving the two of us.

James 3:1-12 is preceeded by the heading, "Taming the Tongue." I am fairly confident that most...if not all of you have read it before. You will recognize some verses for sure. Pretend though for today that you aren't familiar with it. Read it as if you are reading it to a child for the first time. Or as if you were listening intently as though a child, with untainted faith, was sitting beside you reading it to you and Jesus. That is how my morning was. Aiden was reading to Jesus and I...and we were both delighted (some might say 'tickled pink'...but I am pretty sure Aiden would not have 'pink' associated with him. Haha! Not so manly!) to hear the Word of God coming from the mouth of His child!

James 3: "1 Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 We all stumble, in may ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.
3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or takes ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, 8 but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water."

I recently wrote a post called Thank You Jesus I am Healed. Click that link and read it if you have a minute. It will make the rest of this post make much more sense. If you already read it...then you will remember that Aiden asked me to tell all my friends and family, "Thank you Jesus I am healed." I have been doing my part...and telling people as God gives me opportunities. One of those opportunities was with my dear friend Rachel. As I told her she said she got chills. =) LOVE THAT!!

A few days later she texts me and asks me to pray for her head because she has a headache. My daughter, Ariel (age 5) and I were together...so we prayed. When I texted her back I told her that the two of us prayed. She responded by saying that she was hoping I would ask Ariel because she is a prayer warrior just like her Mama. I got chills that time. What wonderful words to read...they brightened my day! Then I reminded her of what Aiden said...that she was to tell her friends and family..."Thank you Jesus I am healed!" She told me that she kept thinking of that story I had told her...and that it 'fired' her up.

See...fired up. There it is again. It is almost like that goes with the scripture I typed out huh? You see...last Friday morning I told Aiden about how our tongues have the ability to spread words like fire. That can be a bad thing...or that can be an awesome thing. We all know that negative words, gossip, rumors...they spread at a rapid pace! Sometimes the truth, clarification, or explanation seem to come to a hault with the first declaration.

You choose the kind of words that you spread. You choose whether the flames from your words fire people up...or burn them, as if dead to you. Read those words again from James 3:5b "Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark." Each spoken/written/sung word is a spark. No word is too little to have an effect. You choose...affect...or infect.

Aiden started a powerful spark with his childlike faith. It continues to build power as more and more people hear and believe. Do you believe? Tell me about your spark. This tree (me) wants a whole forest to be fired up in the power and majesty of Jesus NAME!!

Keep sparkin' Words of life. Words of encouragement. Words from your Father. And then...tell people so that spark will grow! Hell has no power on my words. And the enemy... he has absolutely no right to think otherwise!!