I've had something on my mind for the past few days that I want to share. All of us have hard times. Bad days. Times when we feel down or depressed. Sometimes we don't know any reason for it...we just feel that way. Other times there are circumstances in our lives that are bringing us down. They may be in our control, or out of our control, but they bring us down just the same. I just want us to remember that God has reminded us time after time after time that we may have to go through something unpleasant to get to something wonderful.

There are examples of this all through nature. Rain brings a rainbow. After a cold winter, comes a beautiful spring. There are examples of this in our daily lives...unpleasant work brings a paycheck. A long ride brings us to our destination.

Most importantly, there are examples of this all through the Word of God. Joseph was sold into slavery by his own brothers. He was put in prison for a crime he didn't commit. He was forsaken and forgotten by everyone...except the One that mattered. In Genesis 39, we read "The Lord was with Joseph", time after time. God didn't forget him. Joseph didn't know what was going on...but God did.

Jesus even reminded us before he ascended to his Father that he had to go away or the Comforter couldn't come. His going away was unpleasant, but what a wonderful blessing is the Comforter!

Are you going through something unpleasant? Don't lose hope. God is with you. He knows how to turn something unpleasant into something wonderful. One of my favorite verses right now is Micah 7:7 "Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me."

Just a few thoughts from my heart...to yours. May your day be blessed and your heart be happy.

Summer break is finally here! Whew! What a year. As the kids get older, being a homeschooling mom gets harder. This year we had Algebra II. Math is NOT my best subject, so it was a challenge. But I enjoyed spending time wtih my son every day, and I actually enjoyed learning some things. Who knew you can teach an old dog new tricks? :)

I've had some things on my mind I wanted to share today:  there are some things you just can't get back.

No matter how much you wish to, you can't turn back the hands of time. Once you have your 30th birthday, you'll never be 29 again. That's just the way it is. It's the same way with moments. I try to cherish moments with my kids, because I will never have things exactly this way again. Time marches on whether we like it or not.

Have you ever gotten wild and crazy and gotten a haircut? Not a trim, but a real haircut? Then you get home and look in the mirror and cry and say, "I want my long hair back!" Guess what. You can't get it back. You can try to grow it again, and it may or may not look the same as it did before, but you can't get it back. Nope. Impossible.

You can't unbreak something once it's broken. This goes for glasses, vases, promises, and hearts. If something is broken, you can try to piece it back together, but it will never be the same. Never.

This last thing...and it's a biggie.. is your reputation. When I say the names of some famous people, be honest...what's the first thing that comes to your mind? Bill Clinton. PeeWee Herman. James Baker. Lindsay Lohan. It doesn't matter how many good things someone has done in his or her life, people will remember the bad things you do. Trust me, it's just human nature. That's why it's so very important to think through decisions that you make. Ask yourself, "Is it worth it?" Odds are, many times, it's not. A moment of pleasure is never worth a lifetime of pain.

I'm sure you can think of other things that can never be gotten back once they're gone. Just a few thoughts from my heart...to yours. May your day be blessed and your heart be happy!

It's NOT all about me???


This verse, Matthew 16:24, has been on my mind a lot lately. "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."

Woah. Deny himself. It seems that is a pretty unpopular opinion these days. We live in a very self-centered "Me" generation. Almost every immoral thing in society can be traced back to not denying oneself.

I, too, struggle with this from time to time. However, I find when I put my selfish wants aside and do something for someone else...take a little time to focus on others...it brings me joy.

I am a very routine person. I have a certain way of doing things, and I don't like to have that changed. I find when something comes up that makes me step out of my "comfort zone", I get upset about it. I don't want to deny myself the comfort of my routine. A little boy at our church used to sing a very simple song..

J-O-Y
J-O-Y
This is what it means...
Jesus first
Yourself last
And Others in between.

I'm sure that is a very simple formula for JOY, if we can only make ourselves adhere to it. Deny ourselves...a little time, a little comfort, a little money. There are many ways to put others first. Jesus didn't call us to be leaders...he called us to be servants. So simple to say...so hard to do.

Just a few thoughts from my heart...to yours. May your day be blessed and your heart be happy.

 

 

SPRING!!

 

Spring has finally arrived here in Virginia. We went out last Saturday and ate at one of our favorite local "hamburger joints" and watched these baby ducks with their momma. They were so cute! The day was just so beautiful! While the air can still be a little chilly, the colors are just so bright and beautiful. I think springtime must be alot like Heaven will look like. So many colors and so bright, so full of life and love. We had a little bird that kept visiting our back deck today, singing its little song. It boggles my mind to think that the great God that created every kind of bird and animal, every kind of tree and flower, would still take the time to listen to me when I pray and care enough to help when I call.

 

It reminds me of some verses from Psalm, Chapter 8.

 

"O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens...When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?...O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!"

How excellent indeed!!

Just a few thoughts from my heart, to yours. May your day be blessed and your heart be happy!

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

We've all heard some version of this growing up, and more false words were never spoken. I don't know who said this, but clearly they'd never felt the sting of hateful words. There are times when a sock in the gut would hurt less, and certainly for less time, than words spoken in haste and anger. The funny thing about physical pain, is you can't remember what it feels like. Sure, you remember it hurt, but you can't recall the actual feeling of the pain. Not so with words. Our minds can call them back time after time, and they can hurt just as much years later as they did when we first heard them.

The book of James in the Bible (one of my personal favorites) speaks about the tongue being a deadly evil, full of poison. “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.” (James 3:8-10)

Sounds like words can be pretty harmful to me. As Christians, we need to be very careful of what we say to others. We can tear down, or build up. We can discourage, or encourage. Sometimes a kind word is what a person may need most.

Words were very important in the Bible. God's word spoke the very Earth into existence! Proverbs 18:21 states that "Death and life are in the power of the tongue"! Such a small part of the body, but so powerful! I want my tongue to speak life!

Just some thoughts from my heart, to yours. May your day be blessed and your heart be happy!

Ten years ago, my sister got sick. She was just really weak and tired, short of breath. She would get tired just walking from the car to the house. Little things really wore her out. She thought maybe she had bronchitis or some sort of bug, so she went to her doctor. He gave her some medicine and sent her on her way.

A day or so later, she was at a luncheon with the people from her work, when she couldn't breathe. She just couldn't get enough air. The lady she works with put her in her car and rushed her to the emergency room of our local hospital. When she got there, she was told she was in congestive heart failure.

What?! Congestive heart failure? Isn't that something that happens to old people? She was only 33 years old! She had been pretty healthy her whole life. Where was this coming from anyway?

Our local hospital sent her to a more specialized one an hour down the road that deals with cardiac problems. I was there the morning they did a catheterization to see if she had blockages or something causing the problem. I remember the doctor coming in to talk to my parents, my brother-in-law, and myself after the procedure. He told us there were no blockages, but that her heart was functioning at less than 10%. It was enlarged to about twice its normal size, and just stretched out like a rubber band that won't bounce back. He said there was really nothing much they could do and she would need a heart transplant...

Words like that really send you reeling. Heart transplant? My dad, the one who always fixed things for me and my sister when they were broken growing up, asked the doctor if there was nothing that she could do to strenghten her heart..he was trying to get some glimmer of hope. The doctor basically wasn't giving us any. My dad looked at him and said, "You do all you can do. We'll pray." The doctor said they would pray too.

And pray we did. Churches joined us all over in praying for my sister. I poured my heart out to God, asking him to please give my sister a miracle. You see, she isn't just my sister. She's my best friend.

She came back to church for the first time on Easter sunday that year, so weak she was hunched over when she walked. She plays piano at church, and we bought her an office chair with arms on it to sit at because she was too weak to hold her arms up to play. In the following weeks, she got back to playing the piano. Then she stopped using the chair and went back to using a bench. Then she got back up there and started singing with me again...something I love to do and still cherish. For her to have enough breath to do that was a miracle already.

Last year, she went back for her yearly check up, and the technician doing her heart study told her she had such a beautiful heart, she could be a heart model! You see, God isn't a stranger to healing hearts. He takes hearts of stone and turns them into hearts of flesh, and he takes broken ones and mends them. He took hers that was enlarged and not functioning right, and made it go back to normal size and normal function. She travels, she shops (my how she shops!), she sings..she loves life!

I could never thank God enough for the miracle that he has given us. I am so thankful for my sister. We share so many things that no one else will ever share. We keep praying for her. Last year her function was a little bit less than normal, but we are hoping that was just a variant of the reading, because we know God hasn't brought her this far to drop her now. He has truly worked a miracle in her life, and I want the world to know that miracles aren't just in the Bible. They still happen today. What a mighty God we serve!

So Happy Anniversary, sissy! I love you!

 

 

 

Spring is here! We have had a hint or two of it in our area, with promised warm weather and sunshine this weekend. Oh, how wonderful it is to think of going outside without coats, warm sunshine, lovely smells from the lilac and honeysuckle!  

 

With spring, comes the budding of leaves and the reviving trees. The Bible speaks of believers as being like a tree. "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."  (Psalm 1:3).

 

There are all kinds of trees. What kind of tree are you? Are you strong and unwavering, like a mighty oak with roots deep in the ground? Are you sad and droopy, like a weeping willow? Are you a little sapling that is weak and fragile, bending and breaking with any strong wind or resistance? Are you a cactus, prickly, hard, inaccessible? Are you a fruit tree, providing sweetness and sustenance to others? Are you a shade tree, providing shelter and comfort when the days are hot and long? Are you an evergreen, unwavering and strong even when the long cold days come? Are you a lilac or dogwood, showing beauty to those around you?

 

The truth is, Christians should all be bearing some kind of fruit…being some kind of help to others. We are also branches, grafted into the vine (Jesus). I hope I'm a tree that brings honor to Him.

 

Just some thoughts from my heart….to yours. May your day be blessed and your heart be happy.

Today, I want to share one of my favorite stories from Paul Harvey.



Jesus and the Bird Cage
Paul Harvey
Boston preacher Dr. S.D. Gordon, placed a beat up, bent, rusted old bird cage beside his pulpit when he told this story.

An unkempt, unwashed, little lad about 10 years old was coming up the alley swinging this old caved in bird cage with several tiny birds shivering on the floor of it.

The compassionate Dr. Gordon asked the boy where he got the birds.

He said he trapped them.

Dr. Gordon asked what he was going to do with them.

The boy said he was going to play with them and have fun with them.

The preacher said, “Sooner or later you’ll get tired of them. Then what are you going to do with them?”

The lad said, “I have some cats at home. They like birds. I’ll feed them to my cats.”

Dr. Gordon said, “Son, how much do you want for the birds?”

The boy, surprised, hesitated and said, “Mister, you don’t want these birds. There just plain old field birds. They can’t even sing. They’re ugly.”

The preacher said, “Just tell me. How much do you want?”

The grubby little lad thought about it. He squinted up one eye. He calculated and hesitated and said, “Two dollars?”

To his surprise Dr. Gordon reached into his pocket and handed the boy two, one dollar bills.

The preacher took the cage.

The boy, in a wink, hurried up the alley.

In a sheltered crevice between buildings, Dr. Gordon opened the door of the cage and tapping on the rusty exterior he encouraged the little birds, one at a time, to find their way out through the narrow door and fly away.

Thus having accounted for the empty cage beside his pulpit, the preacher went on to tell what seemed, at first, like a separate story.

About how once upon a time, Jesus and the Devil had engaged in a negotiation.

Satan had boasted how he’d baited a trap in Eden’s garden and caught himself a world full of people.

“What are you going to do with all those people in your cage” Jesus wanted to know.

The Devil said, “I’m going to play with em’, tease em’. Make them marry and divorce and fight and kill one another. I’m going to teach them to throw bombs on one another. I’m going to have fun with them!”

Jesus said, “You can’t have fun with them forever. When you get tired of playing, what are you going to do with them?”

Satan said, “...They’re no good anyway! ...Kill them!”

Jesus said, “How much do you want for them?”

Satan said, “You can’t be serious! If I sell them to you, they’ll just spit on you. They’ll hate you. They’ll hit you and beat you. They’ll hammer nails into you! They’re no good.”

Jesus said, “How much?”

Satan said, “All of your tears and all of your blood. That’s the price.”

Jesus took the cage, and paid the price, and opened the door.

Happy Easter, from my heart...to yours. May your day be blessed and your heart be happy!

Fix, it mama!

How many times has a child asked you this? They bring broken things to us, not doubting that we will be able to put them back together. They don't know how it will be done, and they don't try to figure it out. They just bring them to someone that they have faith in...someone who will make it all better.

When a child brings something broken to you, what's the first thing that has to happen before you can fix it? They have to LET IT GO. They have to place it into your hands so you can do what needs to be done. If they are still holding onto it, you can't take control.

I'm afraid I'm like a child so many times, bringing things to God. I ask Him to "fix it", but I'm unwilling to let go. I bring my worries, my hopes, my fears to Him in prayer and ask for solutions, but I'm still holding onto the problems in my mind....still trying to figure out how to fix it myself. I realize this is something I need to work on. I don't have the answers. I don't have the ability. I can't "fix" everything. But I do know Someone who can. I may not know how He will do it, and I don't need to try to figure it out. Faith is enough.

My Sunday School teacher once said that he thinks of us as carrying our burdens and problems in "spiritual backpacks". They burden us and slow us down. They make the road harder to travel. They keep us from enjoying the journey. He said we bring these backpacks of burdens to Jesus and lay them at his feet in prayer. However, oftentimes, when we rise from our knees to go about our day, instead of leaving the burdens at the feet of Jesus, we pick them back up, put them back on her backs, and carry them around some more. If I truly have faith that Jesus is going to answer my prayer, I need to leave the burdens out of the backpack. I need to LET IT GO. Because Jesus is more than able. He is more than enough.

Just some thoughts from my heart...to yours. May your day be blessed and your heart be happy.

The Sun is Always Shining...

I work from home as a transcriptionist. I also homeschool my kids. I'm busy, but blessed!! I have a room in my house that we were blessed to add on as my "office". It has a lot of windows - which I love. My desk is underneath this little octagonal window where I can look out at the trees, sky, clouds, and birds while I work.

In southern Virginia, we have A LOT of cloudy days. I'm not really sure how Seattle gets more rain than we do sometimes. With that being said, it seems almost every day when I am working in the evenings, after school is done, that the sun will shine right into my eyes as it passes over this little window. I like to call it "baking at 350 degrees". It is not easy to find window coverings for these strange little windows, and so I sat. And baked. And fumed a little from time to time. I would tape up paper over it, hang fabric on a coat hanger and a thumbtack, many things. Finally, my husband cut a piece of cardboard to size that I could place into the window and solved my dilemma. I love that man. But what really struck me as odd, would be that we would have an almost totally cloudy day...gloomy...maybe even rainy. But in the evening when I was sitting there working, the sun would peek out from behind the clouds just for a while, just long enough to shine in my eyes while I was trying to type.

I got to thinking about this one day. I decided I wanted to take these little bursts of sun as God "waving" at me from heaven...letting me know that even though the clouds may be out right now, that gloomy days may be part of life, the sun is always shining, whether we can see it or not. Kind of like the way the "SON" is always shining in our lives, even on gloomy days when we can't see Him working.

So now, on those cloudy days when I'm working away, and the sun begins to shine right into my eyes to get my attention, I just think, "Hello, God. Thanks for letting me know you're still there."

Just some thoughts from my heart...to yours. May your day be blessed and your heart be happy!

Am I a Jesus fan?

We all know that one sports fanatic...um, I mean...fan. The diehard fan who cheers louder, dresses more brightly in the stands. You know, the one who sticks by his or her team no matter what, win or lose. Even when times are tough. You know to not say anything bad about their team, or you're in for a fight. Why? Because they truly, passionately LOVE their team.

That got me to thinking about sports fans. Some aren't diehard at all. They are more bandwagon fans. The ones who jump on board when it's smooth sailing and rainbows, but stop cheering when times get hard. They're not cheering because they love their team...they're just cheering because they love winning.

And then there's the 'fake fan' who wants to wear the t-shirts and hats, call themselves a fan, but they don't watch the games. They don't know the stats. They aren't really a fan at all, they just want to be included in the fun.

Hmmm. I wonder. Do we know any Jesus fans? Do we know the 'fake fans' who wear the crosses and call themselves Christians, but don't pray, go to church, read their Bibles? How about bandwagon Christians? Everything is fine until life gets hard...then they want to blame God and cry out against Him.

Then there's true Jesus fans. Paul and Silas in the Bible were true Jesus fans. They were thrown into prison for doing absolutely nothing wrong, and what did they do? They sang hymns and praises!!! THAT'S the kind of Jesus fan I want to be. The one who cheers louder, shines more brightly. The one who praises Him not for what He can give, but for who He is....

Just some thoughts from my heart...to yours. May your day be blessed and your heart be happy!

Pieces

Pieces

Pieces. I've been thinking a lot about this lately. Have you ever been putting together a really big jigsaw puzzle? You know, the ones with thousands of tiny pieces, each one so similar to the next that it is almost impossible to figure out what goes where. Maybe you've put a particular jigsaw puzzle together time after time, year after year....so many times that you no longer need to look at the picture on the box, because you know instinctively where each piece goes.

Now, imagine you are sitting down at a table to work this particular jigsaw puzzle for the umpteenth time. Your little girl comes to sit down next to you and says, "Mommy, can I help?" Now, you know this puzzle is too hard for her, especially because you've lost the box it came in and don't even have a picture of what it is supposed to look like. But you take her by the hand, sit her down with you, and say, "Sure, honey. Let's do this together." You give her about 10 or 12 pieces that you know will work to make a part of the picture, a small piece of the puzzle. She sits and works for a while, trying pieces first here, then there. She tries to put them in the wrong places at times, and you guide her hand. Then, after a time…voila! "I did it, Mommy!" She exclaims.

This goes on for a while, you giving her a few pieces to work on, guiding her, helping her, and her completing her portions bit by bit. Finally, in frustration and impatience, she says, "I don't want any help. I can do it just like you!" She takes all of the remaining pieces (not just ones you have given her) and tries to put something…anything together. She fits and tries and arranges and rearranges. Nothing. She gets more frustrated and annoyed, and tries some more. Not one piece goes together. Finally, she slings the pieces off the table, and exclaims, "I can't do it!", lies her head down on the table and cries. You say to her, "I know you can't do it by yourself. You're not ready for that. You need to let me guide you bit by bit, little by little, to put things together, because I know where everything needs to go to work out just right. You can't do it alone. But you can do it with me."

Now, I imagine me as that little girl, with God as the Ultimate Puzzle Master. Sometimes I try to do things on my own, thinking I know the best places for everything to fit. I try to fit things in here and there, turn it around, try again. But I don't get anywhere. Finally, I cry out to God, "I can't do it!" It's then He says to me, "I know you can't do it alone. You don't know what this is going to look like when it's finished. Only I know that. But you can do it with Me. I'll just give you a few things at a time that I know you can handle, and eventually, we'll get the whole picture finished. You and Me…together."

I want God to take all my pieces, jagged and torn, broken and ruined, and put them together into a picture, a mosaic, that will bring Him glory and honor.

May your day be blessed and your heart be happy,

-Andrea

"What you see is what you get." 

Or is it? In these technology bombarded times we live in, what we see is sometimes far from the truth. Movies, televison, magazines, internet images...they are all cropped and enhanced, changed and rearranged. It seems nothing is worth posting unless it fits the image of "perfect" that Hollywood has defined...but that is a blog for another time..

I got to thinking about the photoshopped images we see, and it occurred to me...am I a"photoshopped" Christian? Do I sometimes put the image out there that is untarnsihed, more vivid than actuality, more glowing than true? Do I put on a face for others to see  that is unlike that God sees? God isn't fooled by "photoshopped" images. He upholds our lives to the mirror of His word to see how we reflect. I want what God sees to be what the world sees too. I don't want to just APPEAR to be a Christian...I want to truly be one, from the depths of my very being. In today's world, it seems a lot of people are claiming to be Christians, but I'm afraid they are photoshopped. The image they send  out doesn't always "jive" with the way they are truly living their  lives. I don't  want to be that way. I want to be a true image. I have flaws...I'm not perfect. I get angry and sad, jealous and rude. I am not always happy with what I see, but I can only begin to work on changing the reflection in the mirror if I am honest about what I am seeing. I don't want it to be "touched up". I want it  to be changed....to be created in the image of God...to reflect Him.

May your day be joyous and your heart be happy!

-Andrea