There Are No Forks in God's Road.

Hi ALL!~ That is if I have anyone reading these anymore. I haven't been on much lately and I don't have any excuses either! Imagine that! I guess you could say I've been 'in a rut'. Let your imagination go wild there.

Several things have taken up my time lately. I've been trying to find a hobby, you know, something to eat up the time I waste, to allow God to use me in whatever way He sees fit. Since I was a kid I loved drawing, and I was ok at it, but when life took over I had put that all aside and really haven't visited it much during my busy years of raising kids and working. Because I want God to be the author of all that I do I prayed about it. I really felt led to get back to drawing but I had this great idea to even add to it by getting into wood carving as well. That's something that has always peeked my interest through the years. Isn't it awesome how some of those carvings tend to almost jump out at you and come alive? That's the kind that I want to be able to do.(Ya, don't we all?!)

So I ran with the idea. I researched it, like with everything, until I beat the subject to death. I wrote to a few carvers to get their words of wisdom and even got one that was willing to take me under his wing for awhile. I was so excited to start! Then I went and got myself all the 'beginners' tools and it took me a week just to find the right kind of wood. Thinking I was the smart one I grabbed a piece of red oak that was laying out by the wood stove instead of ensuring that I had something soft to start with. I just figured that once I learned how to carve with that, everything else would be like butter, right? HA.....what a mistake there! All I did was frustrate myself as well as the carver that was TRYING to teach me something. Lesson learned. We are NEVER as smart as our teachers. Next, I needed sharp tools. Since sharp tools are the ideal way to go when your taking delicate cuts out of wood, I needed to learn how to do my own. It took me another week just to get all the materials together for that, plus add a few days of trying my hand at it. It didn't go real smooth. I won't get into the gory details but luckily I still have 10 fingers left. I'm here to tell you, no matter how smart you think you are, it's never as easy as it looks and it's always a good idea to have a First Aid kit handy! So here I sit...I have a teacher, sharp tools, soft wood, and a pattern BUT I'm too frustrated and sore to give it a try! I won't tell that to my teacher though because I'm just too darned embarrassed.

All of this started with me wanting to do whatever God had planned for me. Since I tossed the 'artist' in me aside, I thought maybe God had plans for something in that area long ago but I had taken another path back then. And now when He reminded me of the talent he had given me from the start, I go and take the fork in the road AGAIN!

Isn't that just what we humans do? And we're so good at it too! God picks the plan for us. He steers us down the road we are to take, but we think we're so much smarter so we take another path, add our brilliant ideas and end up with bloody fingers. I won't totally give up on the carving idea but instead of jumping ahead of myself and obviously GOD, I'm thinking I will go dig out that old sketch pad and a pencil or two and see where that takes me. Then .....well, I'm not sure but I'll get back to ya!

You Ain't Gonna Like Losing!

This is an email that I received recently. I had another post ready but with all the mess that is going on in our country I thought the timing right for this 'forward'. Judging from the types of emails that are coming in, people are starting to panic. I don't know who wrote this letter below but I believe it's worth putting up on the blog. This is something I feel we really need to think and pray about it.
AUTHOR UNKNOWN:
I know everyone has a different opinion on the war and our current President. But, this article makes a lot of sense, take 2 minutes, read it and give it some thought.
When electing the next President, 'the only decision you have to make is who you want sitting in that seat in the White House when - not if - WHEN we get hit again and millions of American lives are put at risk!' This is from: 'You ain't gonna like losing.'

~~ Author unknown ~~

President Bush did make a bad mistake in the war on terrorism. But the mistake was not in his decision to go to war. Bush's mistake came in his belief that this country is the same one his father fought for in WWII. It is not. Back then, they had just come out of a vicious depression. The country was steeled by the hardship of that depression, but they still believed fervently in this country. They knew that the people had elected their leaders, so it was the people's duty to back those leaders. Therefore, when the war broke out the people came together, rallied behind, and stuck with their leaders, whether they had voted for them or not or whether the war was going badly or not. And war was just as distasteful and the anguish just as great then as it is today. Often there were more casualties in one day in WWII than we have had in the entire war. But that did not matter. The people stuck with the President because it was their patriotic duty. Americans put aside their differences in WWII and worked together to win that war. Everyone from every strata of society, from young to old pitched in.
Small children pulled little wagons around to gather scrap metal for the war effort. Grade school students saved their pennies to buy stamps for war bonds to help the effort. Men who were too old or medically 4F lied about their age or condition trying their best to join the military. Women doubled their work to keep things going at home. Harsh rationing of everything from gasoline to soap, to butter was imposed, yet there was very little complaining. You never heard prominent people on the radio belittling the President.

Interestingly enough in those days there were no fat cat actors and entertainers who ran off to visit and fawn over dictators of hostile countries and complain to them about our President. Instead, they made upbeat films and entertained our troops to help the troops' morale. And a bunch even enlisted. And imagine this: Teachers in schools actually started the day off with a Pledge of Allegiance, and with prayers for our country and our troops!

Back then, no newspaper would have dared point out certain weak spots in our cities where bombs could be set off to cause the maximum damage.
No newspaper would have dared complain about what we were doing to catch spies. A newspaper would have been laughed out of existence if it had complained that German or Japanese soldiers were being 'tortured' by being forced to wear women's underwear, or subjected to interrogation by a woman, or being scared by a dog or did not have air conditioning. There were a lot of things different back then. We were not subjected to, a constant bombardment of pornography, perversion and promiscuity in movies or on radio. We did not have legions of crack heads, dope pushers and armed gangs roaming our streets.

No, President Bush did not make a mistake in his handling of terrorism. He made the mistake of believing that we still had the courage and fortitude of our fathers. He believed that this was still the country that our fathers fought so dearly to preserve. It is not the same country. It is now a cross between Gomorrah and the land of Oz. We did unite for a short while after 9/11, but our attitude changed when we found out that defending our country would require some sacrifices. We are in great danger. The terrorists are fanatic Muslims. They believe that it is okay, even their duty, to kill anyone who will not convert to Islam. It has been estimated that about one third or over three hundred million Muslims are sympathetic to the terrorists cause. . . Hitler and Tojo combined did not have nearly that many potential recruits. So... We either win it - or lose it - and you ain't gonna like losing. America is not at war. The military is at war. America is at the mall, or watching the movie stars.
(Remember Obama said in his book 'Audacity of Hope', 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction'.....what better place for the Muslims to control our country, than in the office of the President of the United States. If you ever forwarded an e-mail, now is the time to do it!) PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR MILITARY, AND ASK OUR GOD/LORD TO TAKE CARE OF THIS ELECTION!! PRAY ABOUT ALL OF THIS!!

I feel that although it's important to keep informed of the news, I feel that it's also important that we also remember that if we have God, we have something that no one can take away. Read the scripture below but don't just read it, think about it. Realize that we aren't alone in this at all! In Isaiah 43:10 it says:

"You are my witnesses," declares the Lord. "and my servant whom I have chosen. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior.
I have revealed and saved and proclaimed- I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses,: declares the Lord, "that I am God. Yes, and from ancient days I am he. No on can deliver you out of my hand. When I act, who can reverse it?"

The Fingerprints of God

I'm looking back, not that long ago, where I was in the middle of a deep dark depression like I'd never known before. Although friends kept telling me that God was there for me, I couldn't feel Him. What I felt was more like a dense fog dividing us that seemed impossible to penetrate. No matter what I did I just didn't feel that connection that I had known and now hungered for.

My life had taken several very serious jogs, where some had almost put me over the edge. As I dissected the previous weeks,months and even years, detail by detail I couldn't put my finger on anything significant that brought me to this frighteningly lonely place. Although I could credit part of it to my declining health and the fact that I was now 'disabled', I had been dealing with that for awhile now and I didn't think it was the cause of such a debilitating depression. But more importantly, God kept silent. There were so many issues that needed His help and each day of my life was getting so difficult that I just didn't know how much longer we could hang on. I couldn't work anymore so my husband was killing himself working at least 2 jobs and taking on anything else he could fit in to make ends meet. My back surgery had failed miserably and I was getting worse by the day. Our marriage was suffering from the daily arguments about the smallest things and fun and relaxation were just words that were spoken of in the past tense. The problems were consuming us both.

I continued to do what I thought I was supposed to do, pray, read my Bible and sometimes go to church. But God remained silent. Most of my prayers started with 'why'. "Why is this happening", or "Why aren't you there?" repeatedly pleading with God for His help. As Christians we are instructed to be thankful for everything, from our life, our home and family to just little things like having a meal to eat and clean water to drink. I continued to just maintain and even thanked God for all of those little things, just like I was instructed to as a child. But deep down I knew that those words were not coming from my heart. I was angry and frustrated and, yes, I felt sorry for myself. I thought things like, "why can't I have a pity party? I really AM getting dealt a bad hand. I HAVE gone through much more than most people my age! Heck, I have the right to feel this way! My world was crashing in and God is ignoring me!"

All that time, day in and day out I just went through the motions, saying the same stale prayer and waiting for God to fix it all. I wanted my life to be easier, with happy times just once in awhile and couldn't understand why any of this was happening to me, to us.

I had muddled through many years of my life claiming to be a Christian. I'd learned that the Bible is full of God's promises for His children to have healing and prosperity as we walk through life with Him. He says that 'we are the apple of His eye', that 'He'll never leave us or forsake us', and 'He will give us the desires of our heart', and many many more. It's strange because during this time, although my mind was flooded with questions and I was an emotional wreck, ultimately I didn't doubt God and His word. Even though I was unable to understand why, within myself I knew there was a reason that I was going through all of this.

Several years ago I had subscribed to a daily scripture email. As they came in each day, sometimes I read them and sometimes I didn't. When I did it was almost like I tried to get through them as quickly as possible. Almost like I was appeasing myself with what I knew I was supposed to do. But just like my prayers, my heart was not in that either. One day as I was going through the motions of reading the daily scripture I recognized this particular one from when I first came to know the Lord many years ago. My first response was the usual skimming over it and then closed my email to go on to other things. But as I did, the scripture kept running through my mind. It just kept repeating itself over and over until finally I stopped what I was doing and opened the email again. This time the scripture almost jumped off the page. Matthew 6:33 "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." I thought, Lord this is a scripture that I've known almost my entire life. How can this be my answer? But then I read it again and this time I really read it. What it's saying is that if we make God the most important part of our lives, He WILL take care of ALL other things.

Yes, I had read this verse many times before, but I never committed to practicing what it says to do. I had accepted Christ but had I made Him first? I guess I had to admit the obvious. I was one of those convenience Christians. You know, the one's that use God when things go bad but other than that, you don't hear much about Him? I knew this fact but never wanted to admit it. I guess I wanted to try the easy road, use Him when I needed Him but I didn't want to commit to reading the Bible and regularly assembling with other Christians to learn about Him. Incidentally, it's not the easy road. It's actually harder but I didn't know that then.

I didn't know what to do first so I started to change the way I prayed. One of the hardest types of prayers to say are honest prayers. This type of prayer is the one where we tell Him our absolute true feelings. To me, that meant admitting to God many things. Admitting that my prayers to Him were not from my heart, that I'd only been 'going through the motions', and then I asked for His forgiveness. When talking honestly to God, we humble ourselves and tell Him how weak we are or that we don't believe in ourselves, if that's the case. We tell Him those things about ourselves that we're not so proud of or things that we wouldn't even say to our spouse or closest friend. It involves speaking to God about things that are difficult to say out loud, even when we're alone. It means digging deep within ourselves and admitting those faults that we try not to think about or speaking those secrets we hope never get spoken. They tend to stumble out of our mouths with hesitation and, if we're doing it right, sometimes even fear. This is a prayer of utter and complete honesty to Your Lord. It makes it easier to do it if we remind ourselves that we're not telling Him anything He doesn't already know but He needs us to trust and obey Him enough to do it.

As I knelt before Him and began to tell him those things that I had hidden deeply in my mind and heart, the tears came. As I opened myself up to Him and spoke the words that I had held back for so long, instead of increased apprehension and dread, what I felt was freedom along with peace like I've never experienced. This only made the way easier and allowed me to continue telling Him everything and needless to say the prayer went on for a very long time. Instead of the usual 'going through the motions' prayer, I spoke from my heart. I admitted to Him how much I wanted and needed His direction, His will and His power to change me into who He wanted me to be.

I'm still me with all of my little idiosyncrasy's, my flaws, my personality quirks and sins. But I want to be putty in His hands so His fingerprints are all over me.

I pour myself into whatever God leads me to do. Of course the problems in life still come but with them comes peace. I know that as long as I make Him first, He will give me everything I need and He has. He has blessed my life in ways I never thought were possible.

Yes, being a Christian does mean committing to make the Lord absolutely first. But with that comes a closeness with the creator of our universe. We put everything into His huge hands so we never have to be afraid or worry because we know that He has a plan for every jog in our life. We are never alone in anything we experience, good or bad. We WILL get through it because whatever 'it' is, it's a part of His master plan. It means that He has His fingerprints all over you and your life. It doesn't get any better than that!

A Kiss From God

Just the other day I was thinking of that idiom that goes, 'you can't judge a book by it's cover'. (Yes, once in awhile, I actually do just think about things like that). I had been talking with a friend when she mentioned how her son was having a lot of problems being teased by other kids in school. She was looking for advice and as we talked I couldn't help but remember my own pain as I was growing up.

I was born with a crossed eye and the other children couldn't get past how I looked. I remember feeling like the cruelty was literally endless. The teasing didn't stop when I got home from school. It happened everywhere I went and even extended into my own family. Although this very much affected my self esteem which I struggled with for too many years, I've ultimately found that it made me who I am today. In fact without it, I may have ended up being a little less forgiving and a lot more judgemental of others. I know you're probably thinking, "whoa, wait a minute! What did she just say?"Well, just hang in there and let me explain.

As with most teens, prior to and into my teenage years, I desperately tried to find my place in the world by trying different paths, both good and bad, and just searching for who I was and where I fit in. But aside from the normal struggles, I just wanted to understand why God made me different. I spent many nights in my room crying and asking Him why but I don't remember ever getting angry with Him.

My father had died when I was 8 and my mother did the best she could to help me just accept it. But she had explained to me that the God that made me, loved me, was with me always and he had a plan for me. Although I questioned all of that, because she was my mom I believed her. I knew she didn't lie and that was huge to me.

Throughout my early teen years I constantly searched for an answer. Then one day I ran onto an article written by a woman and she told how she had been born with a birth mark that stretched across the entire left side of her face. As I read it, I couldn't get over the fact that she came across as so very strong and sure of herself. In a world that puts so much value in appearances, how did SHE overcome the negative attention that this had to have brought to her life? She went on to say that during her childhood years her dad had told her that she too was loved by God and He had a master plan for her. He said that because our Father in heaven has so many children to keep track of, He makes codes for those that He's got special missions for. Her dad told her that God had placed a kiss on her cheek so it would be easier for the angels to find her when He needed her.

Well, it appears that my mom was right! Call me gullible but this story was just what I had been looking for. God knew that and He provided the answer. I no longer questioned why I looked the way I did. Of course people still noticed and I even continued to get teased but it was different now. I felt sorry for all of those kids that didn't have a special kiss from God.