Speak Life

"Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children".
-- Charles R. Swindoll



I have learned in life there are people who make messes and people who have to clean them up.  While we may not get to choose who we are....we can choose who we are not!



I have been thinking a lot about Words.  We have all experienced their power on one level or another.   Tell someone you love them or tell a woman she looks beautiful and you see it.  A smile, a confidence that arrives.  Tell a child they did a good job on a project and watch them beam.  Tell someone you are proud of them and watch them walk away with head held a little higher.  Thank You!  Your Awesome!  Your smart!  Words are amazingly powerful.  They encourage, they inspire, they build confidence and increase ones ability to succeed!  I think we would all agree that this is true.

However, the opposite is also true there is power in negative Words. Negative words cut, rip and tear at the very heart of a person.  They tear down confidence, lower self esteem and kill dreams inside a person. You are a Loser!  An idiot!  I hate you!  Your ugly!  Your stupid!  You'll never make it! You don't do anything right!  These words speak death!  They kill the heart of a person slowly and over time they leave the framework of a battered, fragile, broken person.  Verbal abuse is very often passed on from one generation to another.  It becomes a learned behavior....almost a coping mechanism.  But there is Hope!!  The cycle we can be broken!!!



"Affirming words from moms and dads are like light switches. Speak a word of affirmation at the right moment in a child's life and it's like lighting up a whole roomful of possibilities."
-- Gary Smalley


If we want our children to succeed than we need to give them the tools.  Tools of confidence, self esteem, love!  Love doesn't want to shred and rip and tear....Love wants to uphold and preserve and protect.  Love is selfless!  The love of a mother sees beyond her own exhaustion, her own frailty and will do anything she can to nurture and protect!  Generally, as parents we have the greatest opportunities to communicate this to our children.  To speak words of Life over them.  What we say has a huge impact on them.  Huge!


So, the challenge is this.  Let's make every effort to ask God for His strength and wisdom.  Lets Guard our lips.  Lets choose to speak Life.  If we feel we have no good words in a situation then let's choose to hold our tongue until we have clear direction.  Lets choose to build up.  Choose to speak Life over our Children.  Then let's sit back and watch the fruit!!


 Ecclesiastes 10:12
The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.

Psalm 19:14
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

Proverbs 15:1
A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.

Proverbs 16:24
Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.

I could use a little help please!

I am tired....like really tired!  There was a point yesterday when I really began to question my ability to pull myself together and I did not like it.  I am a mom of five and we have had many challenges come into our lives in the past few months.  For the most part, being tired is nothing new but yesterday I was so tired it went right through my bones right down into my soul.  Sometimes when we deal with things for prolonged periods of time we use up our "reserve", our ability to cope.  That was me.  I am embarrassed to say.  My life is amazing, blessed, and happy.  So, for me to say that I have moments of wanting to run away seems like nothing more than weakness.  However, I have found that only showing strength gets real exhausting.  So, there it is I fell apart and had a good messy, cry.  The cry you need the paper towels for!   When I got done I said okay God....now what?  I need your help.  I need your supernatural strength.  I need you to pick up the pieces and lend me hand....In the quiet of the night this was what I heard:

Psalm 121

   ¹I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
   ²My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
   ³He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
   ⁴Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
   ⁵The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
   ⁶The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
   ⁷The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
   ⁸The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.


So, that is what I have.  My circumstances have not changed.  I am tired.  I don't know how to be all the things I need to be for all the people I need to be... but I have a promise.  If I choose to stay, to stand, to embrace the life I have been called to....then I can call to Him and ask for help.  He has promised to never sleep, never slumber.  He will uphold me.  So,  today I choose to believe.  I choose to stand in His Strength.  The Maker of Heaven and Earth.  This is my prayer.

Is Jesus on my Christmas List?

Tis the Season!

Rushing, baking, lists of people to shop for,  lists of who to send cards to, lists of parties to attend!  Our calendars are full and our wallets are nearing empty.  This morning when I was getting ready for the day a thought came to me....what did I get Jesus for Christmas?  Is He on my gift list?  It almost seems like a cliche to say... He is the center of this very Holiday....but He is and yet so often we don't include Him in our giving.  Sure we may get all dressed up and go to a special Christmas service or give to local charities.  We may read our children the story of the first Christmas and acknowledge His birth....what I am talking about is much deeper.  I literally am asking what can I give Him this year!  A gift from me to Him.  Something born out of my own personal sacrifice.  A gift to show Him I love him.  The awesome thing about getting Jesus a gift is He is not hard to shop for.  His "Christmas List" can be found right in His Word.

Our Whole Heart:
Jeremiah 24:7
"And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart."

Our Worship
1 Chronicles 16:29
"Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness."

Our Trust:
Proverbs 3:5
"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding."


These are just a few to choose from...for you it may be that one thing he has been talking to you about for a long time.  That broken relationship he has asked you to forgive.  That destructive habit he wants you to surrender.  Your Time.  Your talents.  I don't want to tell you what I think you should give Him. I know what He is asking of me.   I just want you to think about it and find your own gift.   Lets all include Him in our gift giving this year....just like we invest our time finding that perfect gift for the ones we hold most dear to let them know how much they mean to us....I want to wrap up something special for Him this year and I encourage you to do the same!


Final Thought:
2 Samuel 24:24
  "...neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing..."



                                                        Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!

  

Unseen Miracles

This is the season of Miracles.  Hope was brought to us in the gift of a tiny baby born to change the world.  The Son of God was sent to us to redeem and to free us.  To give us new life in Him.  I learned this story as a child and I asked Jesus to come into my heart.  Through the years our relationship has grown and He has revealed Himself to me in deeper ways.   Despite that growth, I have witnessed and experienced so many things I could not understand.  I have been in a season of learning to trust God more and growing in a deeper understanding of finding hope in Him.

All day yesterday I prayed along with literally hundreds of others for a miracle of healing in a precious baby.  A healing that did not happen in the physical way I would have hoped.  I have a very dear friend that was praying with me and we both talked about how we could see the glory that would come to God if this miracle happened the way we envisioned it.  In the evening when I realized that God had taken this little life to heaven I was really struggling.  I was also struggling with the grief of some of my family who were missing someone they loved and missed so dearly.  I was realizing yet again that the comfort that I could be to them was so limited.  It is hard for me to not be able to "fix things" for the people I love.

So, I laid in bed unable to sleep asking God to give me a greater understanding.  Then at 4am I woke up to this.   As Christians so much of the time we have a very specific concept of what a miracle really is.  We look for very tangible, loud, demonstration  of what we consider the miraculous.  Miracles of healing so often are the focus.  Physical healings can be easy to see to the naked eye. Tonight, I really felt like God was showing me that there are miracles happening all around that we do not see.  So many of these miracles are quiet and can be left unseen if we don't know where to look. I looked up the definition of Miracle:  "It is an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.  A wonder; marvel."

Salvation is a miracle!  Grace is a miracle!  Joy out of sorrow.  Restored Trust.  Love!  Recovery from addiction, or abuse.  Peace!

When we lose someone so often we feel that we didn't get our miracle.  However, God mending the broken heart of a loved one left behind is a miracle.  Peace through a storm is a miracle. Supernatural strength that He imparts to the weary and broken is a miracle.   As I searched the Scriptures I was reminded of Daniel.  The King declared in Daniel 6... "He delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions."  The King could see the miracle, but Daniel was rescued only after he had to walk through the lions den.  In those moments in the den staring those lions in the face... I wonder if the Miracle was that easy to see?

Psalm 136 reminds us "To him who alone doeth great wonders: for his mercy endureth for ever." The mercy of a second chance is a miracle!

Many times when we don't get our miracle in the way we wanted it to come we stop looking all together for the one he wants to give us!
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I remember the coverage of the funeral of the Chapman's daughter.  For those of you who don't know Steven Curtis Chapman's daughter was killed in a tragic accident a few years ago. She was hit by a car in the family's driveway.  Even more tragic was the vehicle that hit her was driven by her own brother.  I remember a profound statement that was played from that ceremony.  Her older brother, a young man himself, stood and said "God didn't heal Maria in the way we would have liked but God is going to heal my brother in a way we will all like".  Even through their brand new, painful loss that young man could see that he was not going to stop looking for his miracle.  Even though, it did not come in the way the way they would have prayed, the way they would have longed, his statement showed the world that he believed it was coming in another way.

I still have more questions then answers about life and death and loss in all it's forms really.  However, I do feel like God is showing me that he is always working.  And at the  times when I don't think I can see Him I just need to keep looking.  Keep searching for your miracle. We have Hope and I believe that is the greatest miracle of all.

 

Psalm 139

Psalm 139

   ¹O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.
   ²Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
   ³Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
   ⁴For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.
   ⁵Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
   ⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
   ⁷Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
   ⁸If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
   ⁹If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
   ¹⁰Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
   ¹¹If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
   ¹²Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
   ¹³For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
   ¹⁴I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
   ¹⁵My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
   ¹⁶Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
   ¹⁷How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
   ¹⁸If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.
   ¹⁹Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men.
   ²⁰For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain.
   ²¹Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?
   ²²I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.
   ²³Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
   ²⁴And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.