Hopeful Romantic

“Why must people kneel down to pray? If I really wanted to pray I’ll tell you what I'd do. I'd go out into a great big field all alone or in the deep, deep woods and I'd look up into the sky—up—up—up—into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I'd just feel a prayer.”  Anne Shirely in Anne of the Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery 

When I was growing up I loved Anne of the Green Gables so much that I used to borrow all the movies constantly from the library and watch them over and over.  I used to read the book and become lost in the characters and feel like I was part of the story right there "kindered spirits" with Anne. 

I do feel that if Anne was a real person in my time we would be friends.  I love how dramatic she was quoting poetry getting into a boat laying down to feel what the person in the poem felt only to be awaken by her boat sinking and her clinging to a pier post needing to be rescued by a boy who teased her (later to become her husband).  Whenever she made a mistake she thought she was "doomed to despair". Mainly I love how Anne (who was an orphan and not actually wanted at first once adopted) finally realized that people loved her for who she was and embraced her unique qualities.  She was no longer a hopeless romantic but a hopeful romantic with people who cared deeply for her and she genuinely cared deeply for people. Not to mention she became a teacher.  What other better profession right? Let's get back to the point.  The quote above is from Anne when her guardian was trying to get her to kneel and say her prayers like a girl who wasn't raised by "heathens".  However, Anne has something different in mind... Anne is a romantic and a hopeful romantic.  She was pretty on par when she explained that she felt the way to get closest to God was through His creation.

As an adult I'm still a bit of a daydreamer and a romantic.  I could lay out in the field of the campground that I go to in Acadia, Maine for hours stare deep into the night sky while the stars beyond stars. I feel so much closer to God being surrounded by His creation, when it comes to having an intimate relationship with God give me a romantic picnic in the field with Him alone any day. 

Sometimes we need to be like Anne more and romanticize even with how amazing God's creation is and let it bring us closer to Him.  Alone time with God in a field?  or in the woods? Doesn't that sound so romantic?  Doesn't it just give you goosebumps?  God wants a relationship with us! He wants to show you His beauty wrap you in His loving arms and tell you how loved you are and how He longs to hold you close to Him.  Where will you meet God today?

James 4:8 a
Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.

The Son Will Come Out Tomorrow

John 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

Sometimes I feel like little orphan Annie just holding onto Hope.  I hope that God meets my needs, I hope that my future will be bright.  However, no matter what I "know", that Jesus will be coming back and when He does He has a place for me... a mansion just over the hilltop.

As a young girl I loved watching Annie.  I loved watching the little girl who had nothing, still clinging onto the hope that someday someone would love her and come back for her.  She hoped that it would be her biological parents.  I'm sure that Annie felt out of place in the "hard knocks" of life.  I'm sure she just clung to her dream that someday someone would swoop her up and her worries would be over and her life would be fulfilled and life would hold a little more meaning.  She sang joyfully of "TOMORROW". 

I admit that sometimes when I have a difficult day I often find myself even humming this song.  "When we are stuck with a day that's gray and lonely we just need to stick up our chin and grin and say... Tomorrow, tomorrow, we love you tomorrow!"  No matter how gray and dismal life can become I always take advice from Annie and remember who my Father is in Heaven and that I've got Jesus coming back for me Tomorrow! and it may only be a day away!  Cling to the promise that there is a mansion waiting for you someday that God is our adoptive Father who loves us very much when the world just seems to be so dark and people are so greedy. God offers us Shelter in His unfailing Love.  Keep focusing on the future! Stay bright and sing on! He's coming back! and until then remember that His Mercy is new every morning so just hang on until tomorrow come what may.

22 It is because of the Lord’s loving kindness that we are not consumed,

Because His [tender] compassion never fail. 23 They are new every morning;

Great and beyond measure is Your faithfulness

Lamentations 3:22-23 Amplified Bible (AMP)

Don't Be a Snore Loser

Psalms 30: 5b - weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

Have the thoughts in your mind ever kept you awake at night? Has worry ever made you lose out on a good night's sleep? Has depression ever overtaken your joy to the point where you sleep all day and stay up all night?

This past week and for probably many weeks now I haven't been sleeping well. I've stayed awake worrying about work and thinking about my classroom. I would get up in the middle of the night to work on lesson plans then be falling asleep at my keyboard and crawl back into bed.  It used to be my constant thought, until now. I remember listening to my husband snoring and thinking HOW does he do it? How can he just "relax"and sleep?  I was so tired of being tired and drinking coke to stay alive during the daytime. I felt like a vampire but instead of sucking life out of others I was letting life suck it out of me. 

If you obsess over anything God may just take that away from you. You may not think you are obsessing over something and you may not even realize you are doing it. God wants us to think about Him not about our problems but our promises we have through Him. God doesn't want us to worry He wants us to just trust He has a plan.  For me, I know God has a plan but sometimes it's hard to just "relax" and let God deal with it all.  Thankfully He always seems to know when to grab the steering wheel and pull the car back into the right direction so my thoughts don't run me into a tree.  

My pastor has been talking about Gideon lately and talking about how God didn't call us to be losers. I thought that this was perfect for all the stress that I went through this week to just relax and realize God has already won the victory over my situation.  Then I remembered that word "loser"... I realized losers usually lose something... they usually lose faith. Most of the time they lose faith that God is going to work all things out.  I don't want to be a loser because I know that God is going to work all things out. It's definitely not worth losing sleep over.

1 Peter 5:7 - Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

Shoving the Cork In It!

Luke 6:45  For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Have you ever wish you could hold your tongue? Have you ever said something too quickly and then regretted saying it for the rest of your life?

Last Saturday my pastor gave us a cork at the end of the sermon. He told us an inspiring story about how the whales would smack the cork down to the bottom of the ocean and no matter how many times that cork was smacked down it would still rise up. The moral of the story was that we are not called to be looser but to rise up in Victory and WIN the battle that God set before us. This was very inspirational at this time. I whispered to my mom what I had planned for my small cork and how special it made me feel. I felt like yes I have definitely been knocked down in life. I need to start standing up for myself and say I'm not a looser! I can do all things through Christ who gives me Strength! I have good plans that God has planned for my life and He planned them already. He mapped out my life before I was born and He didn't call me to be a failure He has a plan for success and prosperity! He wants to place me where He needs me most but He wants me to realize He placed me there. I need to not be afraid but trust that He has a reason.

The pastor's son who is also a pastor in my church recently wrote a blog about the "Disease to Please". In the blog he stated how pleasing people can sometimes form into idolatry. We all know that God doesn't like idolatry and He will do anything to destroy any idols we put up in our life.

Confession time: I've got the disease to please... recently it has become aware to me that I'm forming idols in my life with my job. It's not uncommon to want to please my employer but when it takes up about 90% of my life and I soon lack the ability to take care of myself.. then I have a problem. The truth is I can easily cure this by just saying "I'm sorry, but no, I can't right now". The thoughts that Satan puts in my mind causing me to feel like if I speak those words I'd get fired or piss my boss off. That's not God, God doesn't want us to become slaves to worry. God doesn't want us to always be afraid to say no because we are afraid we might lose the fight. That's where this little cork comes in. It's time I put a plug in it! It's time to stop saying I'll do something just to make people happy. It's time I stop trying to please people so much that it takes away from my sanity and ability to care for myself. I need to put the cork in my words of worry and those thoughts I have of failure and just let God's words speak instead. It's time I start believing that God is in control and He will carry me through every step of the way.

Moderation Explaination

Proverbs 25:16 Do you like honey? Don't eat too much, or it will make you sick!
       Here I am exhausted from folding laundry. My husband and I seem to both have an abundant amount of clothing possibly enough to clothe a tribe in Africa of people our size. Since we've been married we've already donated a great deal of clothing to Goodwill. Every Wednesday night I do laundry at my parent's house. Every Saturday morning I attempt to tackle the clean laundry and put it away.

      Today I was thinking of this scripture and realized it can be referenced to a great deal of topics. You've heard the expression "too much of a good thing is "not" a good thing"? Since we've been married we have tried to use this scripture to help us control our diet intake and now I'm coming back to it while I gaze at the pile of "my" clothes on the bed. Anytime I think of this scripture I'm reminded of one time when I was younger and I had too many Skittles and now I don't like eating candy so much. It is true when you have too much of something it is never a good thing.
   
      When Jesus came into the earth he had nothing his parents had very little he never had a huge home with lavish furnishings. Instead He lived very humbly off the mercies of others and God's provision. I admire the fact that Jesus could go anywhere without anything and do what God wanted Him to do.

      For our honeymoon we tent camped at Powder Horn in Old Orchard Beach. There I was with massive amounts of bug spray and still complained about bugs. We brought a whole bucket of clothes with us half of which we didn't even wear. It seemed silly to be burdened with so many things that we thought we needed but in reality were just a hindrance.
 
       Have you ever reached the point where too much of a good thing was "not" a good thing? This week I want to encourage you to downsize. Perhaps it's the amount of food you eat. Perhaps it's the amount of clothes you have. Perhaps it's the amount of time you spend playing games on the computer or video game console. Time to break free from the excess!

Luke 3:11  John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”

Humble Pie

2 Chronicles 7:14

if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Lately I've been hearing the saying "don't let your eyes grow bigger than your stomach" a lot.  When I think of where my life has been going these last few years I was never really pleased. When things happened which i felt were unfair I blamed people. When in reality I could have gotten myself out of the mess I was in if I just used the brain God gave me instead of trying to insist that everyone solve my problems for me.  Who was I to think that I should be dished out an "easy as pie" life? I know I have  calling to be a teacher. Yes the economy is very unkind right now to that specific calling and yes I was provided with a lousy education for it. However, instead of dwelling on the negatives I need to just push it off and move forward.  Sometimes I need to swallow my pride... and it is not always easy. Sometimes the best way to swallow your pride is to make it into humble pie. We need to understand we are "no one without Christ" and would get "no where" if God didn't have a plan.  Then we need to actually USE the gifts He's given us to get the task done even if it means getting our hands dirty. Bake all that frustration and anger about our circumstances into a nice pie and cook it in the humility until it is ready to swallow. Then move forward.

Today reading the scripture it just released what's been on my mind lately. I'm not humble! I guess I was going with the world that viewed being humble as a sign of weakness. If I admitted that I am the cause of my problems then I am admitting that I am nothing without God's hand in my life.  How can I "just" have God's hand without my own? Didn't God create me so I can do what "I" feel is the best thing "my" way. Somewhere along the road I climbed up onto this high horse and got comfortable. Then after reading this scripture I got a tiny bit confused. This was God talking but for some reason my mind automatically thought to Jesus. I was thinking He never did anything until He knew it was okay with His Father in Heaven. If anyone lived by this scripture it was Him.  Jesus didn't go around and say THIS IS UNFAIR! I should not be hanging from this cross I am called to be the King of Kings! This crown should NOT be made of thorns! This is "not" my calling!  Even when the world's sins came upon Jesus on the cross and all of our burdens... He obeyed His calling.  He was called to be the sacrificial Lamb. He didn't whine, mumble, or blame his teachers or parents.  He did what God wanted.  He fought through it all.

So I'm realizing now it's time for me to stop making excuses and pick up all my slack.  We all have a cross to carry and the world may not be easy but we need to keep on keeping on! When we humble ourselves and realize this then God will bless us beyond what we could ever imagine. It may not ever be in this lifetime... or it may, who knows. All I know is... it is time to take our pride and make some humble pie.

Matthew 23:12 

For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Easy Street

Matthew 7:14

But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

      It's a new year! Are we going to still continue down that same path? You know the path "everyone" looks for... the easy way out. Anyone loves an easy road we don't have to worry about any speed bumps or stop signs. We don't have to worry about any caution signs and we never would have to put on our hazard lights. Unfortunately, life is never that easy... even when we belong to God.

A lot of people believe that when they give their hearts to Christ that life will be easy from then on out. Christ says to give Him our burdens because His yoke is easy and His burden is light. It doesn't say our burdens will disappear. The difference is when we cast our cares upon Jesus He "helps" carry our burdens instead of us carrying them all by ourselves. However, we need to also realize that when we belong to Christ and our identity is through Him we are going to take on a lot of His burdens as well. Jesus never took the easy road... if He did He would have never willingly submitted His body to go through torture and be crucified on the cross for us. It wasn't even "just" the physical agony that Christ went through. When Jesus was alive He lived the life of an outcast maybe even an outlaw according to the pharisees. He was always running from people who wanted to kill him ever since he was a baby. The people who welcomed Him in put themselves in the line of danger as well. Peter was a good example when he was afraid for himself so he denied Christ three times. Thankfully Christ forgave Peter because the bible says "anyone who denies Me will be denied before My Father in Heaven". We don't want to deny who we are in Christ just to take the easy road. Yet people do it all the time.

    When I grew up in the public schools there was one half of a year in middle school where I was harassed because of my faith. Children spit on me and called me the Virgin Mary, why? because I was "saving myself" for my future husband and honoring God. To them that was an open opportunity to harass me. I am sure we all go through things like this where we are harassed through situations because of our faith even if it's just a joke a work. There are even people who "die" for their faith because they will never deny Christ. The thing I'm constantly reminding myself is... yes I will be persecuted but "blessed" are the persecuted we wont get treasures in earth but our treasure is in Heaven. We wont "fit in" or "belong" here but our home is in Heaven and I am okay with that.

     The bible says "what good does it do a man to profit the whole world but loose his soul". There are people who are walking around with one foot in the world and one foot in God and they can "not" serve two masters. The master of the world is "Satan" and I "know" I want "nothing" to do with him. However there are still Christian's who believe it's okay to live a worldly "easy" lifestyle and belong to Christ. You may "think" that that road is easy but the place it ends up will be far more torturous than you can ever imagine. So be careful which path you take the path less traveled but with a promise at the end or the path which is beaten the path of the world that leads to destruction.


Next time you come to the fork in the road remember to read the signs. Do not take easy street this year.  

Luke 9:23 

 Then He said to them all: “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves

and take up their cross daily and follow Me.