I am the clay and my Heavenly Father is the Potter, moulding me and making me into the person He sees. And even though I don't always understand what He is doing, I choose to believe and trust in His vision. Isaiah 64:8
I had a great time at home with my parents, Kristi and Chewie on Easter weekend. We ate lots, went to Church of course, watched lots of hockey, played lots of games and laughed A LOT.
Here's a typical picture of me and Chewie hanging out together:
And here's a song that we sang at our Good Friday service. I had forgotten how much I love this song.
And here's a picture of Chewie giving me a great big good-bye hug on Sunday afternoon.
And as I go into this week, I'm going to try to remember the words from the song "Trading my Sorrows" which say
I'm trading my sickness, I'm trading my pain, I'm laying them down for the JOY of the Lord!
"The Dove Campaign got it partially right—the fashion industry has certainly contributed to a distorted perception of beauty. And yet, their solution—“every girl deserves to feel beautiful just the way she is”—is well-meaning and yet fundamentally unbiblical. You see, women believe that physical beauty will make them happy, successful, popular among the women, desirable to the men – so they pursue it with a fury! Physical beauty, however, does not deliver as advertised. Proverbs 31:30 reveals the falsehood and the futility of this quest for beauty: Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain. Even if every girl did “feel beautiful just the way she is,” it wouldn’t bring her true joy or lasting happiness or solve even one of her problems.
Truth be told, what we all deserve is not to feel beautiful but rather to be condemned to hell for sinfully seeking to attract the worship of our fellow creatures instead of living to bring glory to God. God did not send Jesus to this earth to die so that women could get over their self-esteem problem and feel better about themselves. No, He sent his Son to die to rescue us from our sinful, futile quest for physical beauty and to reveal to us the satisfaction that comes from knowing God—whether we are beautiful or not! What freedom and hope is found in Christ! We don’t need to feel beautiful about ourselves to find happiness! In fact, we’re better off not even thinking about ourselves. Rather, God has offered us in Jesus Christ forgiveness, hope, freedom from sin and a joy that never ends.
So while this little video effectively exposes the false front of beauty presented by our culture, let’s not look to Dove’s advertising executives for the solution to the beauty crisis. Rather, let’s join the campaign to tell others of the true freedom that is found in Christ!"
I pray that my heart truly believes and understands that real beauty is found in Christ alone. This is a hard one for me...
Let's start this week off well with this great song! My coworker Debbie and I always love when this song comes on the radio at work. There's isn't an official music video for this song, but this video is pretty good. Check it out.
Lyrics to Blessings by Laura Story:
We pray for blessings We pray for peace Comfort for family, protection while we sleep We pray for healing, for prosperity We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering All the while, You hear each spoken need Yet Love is way too much to give us lesser things
‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops What if Your healing comes through tears What if a thousand sleepless nights Are what it takes to know You’re near What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise
We pray for wisdom Your voice to hear And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love As if every promise from Your Word is not enough All the while, You hear each desperate plea And long that we'd have faith to believe
‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops What if Your healing comes through tears What if a thousand sleepless nights Are what it takes to know You’re near And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise
When friends betray us When darkness seems to win We know the pain reminds this heart That this is not, this is not our home, It's not our home
‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops What if Your healing comes through tears And what if a thousand sleepless nights Are what it takes to know You’re near What if my greatest disappointments Or the aching of this life Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy And what if trials of this life The rain, the storms, the hardest nights Are your mercies in disguise
So I went to my new home church again this morning, and the sermon was awesome. It is just what I needed to hear today. The pastor was talking about the story of Lazarus, which is a story I've heard a hundred times, but today the Lord really spoke to me. Let me share:
Dawning is the Day - Part 1 The Heart of God John 11:1-44
-God uses turning points in life to strengthen our faith and relationship with Him. -vs. 4 Its for the glory of God so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.
-When Jesus heard about Lazarus, He waited. Sometimes He is silent when I need Him the most. Sometimes it feels as though He is not acting as quickly as I want Him to. I want Him to swoop in now. But it doesn't happen that way. Why? -vs.14 So that you may believe. -He is deepening the faith in these moments.
-vs. 35 Jesus wept with them. -He will weep with me. He is deeply troubled also, He doesn't cut himself off from the situation. Even Him, the Son of God, who holds all the power, the keys to resurrection and salvation- even He took time out to cry. Why? -He is a personal relational God who knows the deepest longing of our heart and in our hardest moments, he kneels beside me, wraps his arms around me and cries with me.
-He waited 4 days to show his power. -vs.41 Father, thank you for hearing me. Let everyone around believe. -In the difficult circumstances Jesus is deepening the faith of those around.
This story reveals God's heart: 1. Death and Sin evoke the anger of God. 2. Jesus weeps with us. 3. Turning points are part of our story - we want them to go away but God uses them to deepen our faith in a way that nothing else could.
But remember: Even if there's no miracle afterwards, God's heart is still the same. He is here, weeping with me; and He's the one carrying me when I can't stand on my own.
I read this devotional on Wednesday at work and I've been thinking about it all week so I thought I would share it with you all:
2 Samuel 16:12 "Perhaps the Lord will see that I am being wronged and will bless me because of these curses today."
"Why do we care what other people think of us?
Every now and then you meet someone with the uncanny ability to brush off negative comments about themselves. As for the rest of us, no matter how old or successful we appear, we're still vulnerable to hits against our reputation. Once in a while the hurt sneaks up and tweaks our self-esteem, leaving us perplexed about how to protect our good name and wondering if others believe the bad stuff.
King David was no stranger to rumors or heckling. It must have felt invasive to face accusations from strangers like Shimei, who didn't know him but based his opinion of him on hearsay.
To combat Shimei's negativity, David chose the quiet way. A wise military strategist, he was capable of fighting back. But he knew that sometimes the best way to tame the enemy is to refuse to engage in battle. David didn't combat Shimei but let the man level all the verbal assaults he wanted.
Sometimes fighting back only provides more ammo for the accuser. David was accused of stealing the throne; he certainly wasn't going to respond with violence and give people reason to believe the lies. Perhaps he knew that Shimei's tirades would reveal more about Shimei than about David, as accusations usually do.
David released his reputation into God's hands and made his life about God's reputation instead of his own. If someone wanted to diss him, so be it. God knew the truth, as long as David was living for God, no one's words could thwart what God accomplished through David.
There always will be someone who doesn't like you, for good reason or no reason. Don't give them cause to back up their feelings. Your reputation is on the line only with God, so look to him to clear things up when it matters, and continue quietly with your business."
So I had the pleasure of dogsitting my friend Kristy's pug Stella. She was with me from Wed the 30th until Sun Apr 3. I enjoyed having her hang with me, always wanting my attention. And all the snuggles- she loved to snuggle all night long which I thoroughly enjoyed. The experience reaffirmed that I know I want a dog one day, but it also reaffirmed that I'm not ready for a dog full time - there was a lot of trips up and down from my 10th floor apartment so it was tiring. But overall it was still well worth it and I'd definitely do it again!
I'm a follower of Christ and I live with Fibromyalgia and ME, also called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). I have an Accounting degree and my goal in life is to use my skills for God's glory.
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