Prayer for Spiritual Strength

I needed this today...

"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."  Ephesians 4:14-19

James and I are praying through a difficult decision, we are trusting the Lord with the outcome and know that He will reveal His will to us.  Remember when you were a child and you cried so hard that when you took a breath in it turned into two?  When I try to think too hard I have a couple of those ;)  Sometimes I need a reminder like this prayer for spiritual strength in Ephesians.  God's Word is the best place to be when you seek His will, and on your face in prayer.

Hummingbird Feeder Raid

For the last two nights, raccoons have been raiding my hummingbird feeders.  More than just drinking all the sugar water, they completely destroyed them.

 

The next night we...James, put out a live trap...

 

 

We caught one of the little boogars but we thought there might be more so James set the trap again but they were too smart to go in it again...after all they did see their buddy here get caught...don't worry, James just let it go far away from here.  We have resorted to bringing our feeders in at night, I read that if you sprinkle coyote urine around that raccoons won't come near...James said that it stinks too bad and he would know.  Coyote urine is kinda expensive too...do you know how hard it is to get a coyote to pee in a bottle?



Purge Much???

You know it's been too long since you've went through your kids dresser drawers when you find something like this...

It's not that these are spiderman or some other weird character underwear found in your 16 year old son's underwear drawer.  In fact, he would probably wear a similar pair if they were in his size. 

But these are just a tad too small...

 

He actually posed for this....

Cheesy Chicken Soup

     Last Fall, a friend of mine and I went to my town's annual Fall Festival - Heritage Days.  Thousands of people descend on our little town...really....thousands.  But it really is an incredible festival, lots of old timey things, crafts, etc. 

     As we were perusing the booths we came upon a packaged soup booth...they had samples. 

One of their best sellers is a Cheesy Chicken Soup mix, all the seasonings are in the package along with some rice.  Just add chicken (which the lady told me she uses canned chicken) and Velveeta and follow the directions and you are golden.  I bought a package...it was amazing!  James raved about it and I have made it several times since.  On the package is their website so I ordered more online, they also have dips and other things.  I've made the Chicken Enchilada Soup as well, it was spicy but good.  Christian and I liked it with tortilla chips.  I brought the Cheesy Chicken Soup to a church dinner, we had none to bring home.  It really is that good.  Here's a link to Peculiar Spice Co, check them out.

http://www.peculiarspice.com/

I Like...

I like...

• When one of my boys randomly tells me they love me
• Teenagers who aren't afraid to act silly
• Playing board games
• Reading good books
• Hugs from sweet little children
• A clean house
• Painted toe nails
• Chocolate
• A good workout
• 8 hours of sleep, what's that like?
• Jeans and T-shirts
• Singing to my Jesus
• Hearing God's Word preached
• A house full of teenagers
• Reading my cousin Jennifer's blog
• Slow dancing in the kitchen with my husband
• Cottage prayer meetings
• Old people
• Sunshine

And most of all...Seeing people come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior

Surrender

     This past Sunday our Pastor was out of town so a man in our church filled the pulpit.  He preached about Jesus and the rich young man, Mark 10:17-22.  I started thinking to myself....wowee, here we go again, more confirmation of what God has been doing in my life.  He spoke about how Jesus told the rich young man that all he needed to do was sell all that he owned and give it away.  Jesus' response to the rich young man was specific to this man's heart.  This young man held his stuff, his wealth in a higher regard than Jesus.  Our speaker titled this sermon "Facing a Defining Moment", he defined a "defining moment" as a moment in your life when you are faced with a truth and have to make a decision.  A response is required.  For the young man, his response was going away sorrowful because he had great possessions and wasn't willing to give them up to follow Jesus.
    God's word is truth, the truth of God's word convicts us, it reveals what we need to change in our lives, yet we often want to stay comfortable so we push it aside.  It's all about surrender....the willingness to give all that we have, all that we are to follow and honor Christ.  He may never ask us to "sell everything" but we ought to be willing. 
     Our speaker also talked about commitment.  We are committed to things, to Jesus, the church, ministry, our families, etc and that's not necessarily a bad thing but commitment suggests effort on our part.  We need to think less about commitment and more about surrender.  Abide in God's word, let His truth change our hearts and respond.  No response is a response like the rich young man...

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." Psalm 51:17

What Obedience Looks Like

This is a video of Jennie Allen, the author of Anything, that I'm currently reading.  Through she and her husband's obedience to the Lord, God called them to adopt.

http://vimeo.com/47633047

 

 "I still can hear God whisper occasionally, “…look at what you could have missed Jennie.”

Jennie writes that after she and her husband surrendered and were praying anything...God was more clear to them than ever before.  They knew that God was calling them not only to obey Him but to trust Him with whatever the consequences of their obedience would be.

"Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." Hebrews 13:20-21

I don't know what my story will look like, what God has planned just yet for my life and the life of my family but I'm looking forward to the journey and the amazing things He is going to do.

Anything

Anything...
     I've been thinking about this word a lot and if I want to be ready for "anything", meaning whatever God calls me to or asks of me, I gotta get my house in order.  He may not call me to something extreme right now but I need to be ready for anything!
     I need to be healthy, so taking care of myself physically is important.  I need to have healthy finances, getting rid of debt is a must.
     I know that God can move mountains and bring about the things He wants to accomplish through us when we say yes to Him but it's important to be expectant.  We don't live as though He's ever going to ask us to do anything at all.  If we are awaiting His call and are freeing ourselves to be available for His work then we are more apt to go and do it!  We often make excuses as to why we can't or we tie ourselves down and talk ourselves into believing we can't be used by God the way He wants to use us.

Be ready for ANYTHING!!