Sometimes, life with God feels just like this…
But I promise you, all His promises are true, and He ALWAYS has our best interest at heart, because He loves us more than life itself. 💗
Just hang on. This will be the best ride of your entire life!
life
How Big Is Your World?
This thought came to mind as I listened to my 89 year old grandmother talk about life last week on her birthday. She told stories of her childhood and talked about friends and family members who have long crossed over. She talked of her small southern town that she loved so much, and she spoke of her world travels with the love of her life who passed away almost 16 years ago.
This thought came to mind as I perused through my pictures from our recent trip to Ukraine, and again, when my husband and I were asked today how many countries we have been to. We spoke of our combined travels to Ukraine and Bahamas, his trips to Israel and Central America and my long ago childhood trip to Haiti, all mission trips of one sort or another. It lead me to remember others who have traveled so many more times and to so many more places throughout the years, All reaching someone for a cause.
This thought lead me to think of how small our orbits can become in day to day life and how big our sphere becomes when we reach out beyond where our comfort lies. Will we remain for dependability, or will we go for availability? Will we resist out of fear, or will we embrace out of love? It’s all in the choices we make.
So, I ask you again, How big is your world, really?
You Can Because He Will
Really enough said.
But for those who don’t know, don’t understand or don’t believe, this Scripture seems foreign. Yet, within each soul, there is a longing to know a greater being, to rely on a stronger source, to understand a higher power. Why else would so many seek power, fortune and fame? Why do so many spend a lifetime searching for answers in “intellect, religion and deep findings of the universe?”
Because the Creator of our being placed that longing within our souls. The Master of the universe set those desires deep within our hearts; so, we might find Him and know Him.
That missing piece to the puzzle is Hope.
He is the Hope for which your heart longs. He has the love your heart so desires. He is everything you need.
Just try it. Say His Name, “Jesus.”
Comfy Cozy
Comfort zones are so… well, comfortable. They’re nice and cozy. They’re places of no discomfort, no pain, no adjustment, no change. They are places where it’s easy to do what you do, and you have no fear of failure, intimidation or rejection. Comfort zones are where you can set your course “steady as she goes” and not worry about a thing.
Comfort zones can also become the place of stagnation and mediocrity. If you remain in your comfort zone long enough, you’ll never grow, you’ll never be challenged, you’ll never have to face the fact that you could be wrong in your methods, your words or even your mindset and how you approach life. When you choose to stay here for decades upon decades, you can even begin to regress.
The huge oak trees never become massive shelters in the forest without the acorn moving beyond the comfort of the warm soil. The flower never becomes a beautiful rose or a lovely tulip that comforts at the graveside without the moving and sprouting beyond the tiny seed that once was. A child never develops a skill that can affect the world until he goes through the needed the process of learning, development, and training that causes him to step beyond where he began the process. Growth simply doesn’t happen without change.
Even so, you and I never become mighty men and women of strength, character and grace without those uncomfortable moments that draw us out from the shadows and force us to adjust to the new, the uncomfortable, and yes, the changes that come.
If we constantly refuse to adjust, we will constantly stunt our growth. If we constantly stunt our growth, then we may remain in that comfort zone, but we will have nothing to show for it at the end of our days. Once something (or someone) grows comfortable, unyielding, unmovable, and stagnant, what purpose and what value does it really hold at the end of life?
How comfy are you??
Motherhood Would Be Easy If Not For This
This. If you are a mother who still has children at home, you need to read this. Especially if you have littles in your home, this is a must read. I promise, you will feel strength once you’re done. Jennifer Batchelor, the author, has an amazing way of bringing grace right to our hearts.
My favorite quote is, “I’ve yet to find a hack for parenting, though. There is only the slow, long, daily work of getting to know each child as an individual, and then tailoring your methods to meet them where they are.” She is so very right. When we get to tailor our lives to some other mother, or create in our child the responses we see another child has, we are destined for failure. We must find grace for the moment and remember, we all go through seasons in this life. We just have to learn to thrive in them rather than just survive.
What she shared is so very true. We must learn to lean into our hard. Reading her post led me back to a blog I’ve read so many times. This person has taught me the art of leaning so well; although, I’ve never met her in person, and now, she has simply left a beautiful legacy for us to read and remember. Kara Tippetts shared her heart time and again through this blog as she braved the struggles of cancer that wracked her body with pain, fear and doubt; yet, she came forth triumphant and victorious. She opened her heart through her writings so honestly and with such vulnerability that I stand in amazement time and again. I encourage you to read, Braving Broken to start. Her story still challenges me to find that grace everyday and live it to the fullest. 💗
When Your Load is Heavy
Where do you go when your load is heavy? Who do you turn to when the weight of the world seems to be on your shoulders? What do you do when all feels lost, and you don’t know what to do?
Sometimes, life just stinks, and there’s not a thing you can do to change it. The rain has been coming for weeks, and now it’s pouring, and you find yourself without an umbrella or raincoat; then, the lighting strikes, and the thunder rolls on and on.
What do you do in moments like these? What is your reaction, your response, your thoughts in the midst of the torrential rains? Do you run for shelter or fight the elements? Do you grow angry and frustrated or just sit down and wallow in your tears of pity?
My thoughts turned here as my heart grew heavy today while I read a post from a friend who is having open heart surgery this morning. It was sudden, no real signs of trouble, but she just didn’t feel right. She has significant blockages, but her arteries are too small for a stent. The doctor said he is going to do as many bypasses as he possibly can to assure the best life she can obtain. She is a single mom of two college age children, about to finish her degree and just landed a great job.
I struggle with these questions as I listen to an update from another friend who has had an incredible year of troubles. Her body just developed a disorder where her arteries naturally create blockages. She’s had over a dozen surgeries and procedures over the last year, and she’s not eligible for a heart transplant. She now goes to cardiac rehab simply to obtain the best life she can possibly have with the condition, and even this treatment can cause heart to have an episode due to over exertion and stress. She is married, and her husband is currently overseas completing his job assignments while she is in the states dealing with all of this without him.
My heart wrestles with these scenarios and ponders the possibilities as I read yet another status from a friend who daily struggles with a condition of Anaphylaxis where she can simply awake in the night and have to inject 2 or 3 epi’s into her body just to have the time to get to the ER before she takes her last breath.
Each one of them have their own fears, doubts and questions as these circumstances play out in their lives. Each one have share both their hopes and their trepidations in living with these conditions. And each one amaze me time and again by their unfailing faith in their God. For all of these dear friends of mine know the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
I cannot adequately tell you of the hope He brings in times of struggle. I cannot clearly express to you the peace He gives in moments of crisis and distress. I cannot give you a description that truly describes the abundance of His unconditional grace which you will find when you believe.
Yet, I can tell you this. When you believe, and when you completely surrender your heart to His, you’ll know what I’m talking about. You will realize the hope my friends have found.
I pray you find Him, and I pray He reveals Himself to you in such a way that you have no doubt, no question, no way of denying what we have found to be eternally true.
I Will Hold To Hope
You left so many years ago
I thought the time could never be restored
The years changed us. The years let go.
I believed we’d always be strangers passing and more
You returned for a bit
I thought maybe a relationship could grow
The days changed us. The days in our heart lit.
I believed we’d not restore years but maybe a new life we’d know
Then you left again, maybe this time forever
I thought things could be different, an alteration from things destined
The moment changed us. The moment of surprise severed.
I believed it could be new but now your old self may win
I can not determine what may come
I will pray it’s not what I feel and what I see
I do not know what tomorrow will sum
I will hold to hope and believe safe and secure is where you will be
1/26/18 – MG
The Pain Refines Me
Yeah, painful people bring a deeper character to my soul. Painful people are like sandpaper on my heart, and God uses them to polish out those rough, fleshly, selfish places I’d like to hide. Painful people should really be seen as a joy when encountered. For when they inflict the pain, it’s the perfect opportunity for our God to do three things: 1. Polish our soul a little more. 2. Fight our battle for us 3. Comfort our hearts in a way we’d not experience without the pain.
Yeah, painful people can be for our good and can bring out the best in us…if we’ll let them.
…now, if I can just remember this and embrace it the next time that pain comes along. Lol. 😉😂
Fight, Flight or Freeze?
What do you do when the storms of life come? We all have a natural instinct to fight or flight, and some just simply freeze, regardless, the size of said storm. Each of these reactions can cause us to find victory or defeat, depending upon the needed reaction for the given moment.
The difference between your success and failure through the storms of life will be the awareness you have and the wisdom you use to determine the reaction to what comes. Sometimes, you must stand and fight that demon coming against you, because your victory comes through the conquering of that bully that’s trying to suck the very life out of you. Sometimes, you better duck and move, because dodging the lighting bolt and getting out of the way will be your safety and survival. Still other times, staying out right where you are will give the needed time for your army of support to come to flank you on either side, and through that needed help of family and friends, your faith and your God, the battle is won!
So, no matter what your natural inclination is when the storms come, the most important thing is to use wisdom to know the best reaction to act upon. Sometimes, your very survival will be dependent upon the wisdom of that one moment.
Got Character?
What do you do when things don’t go your way? Do you pitch a fit, and throw a tantrum, get mad and not speak to anyone?
What do you say when you are falsely accused, maligned or slandered? Do you strike out in revenge, slander right back and fight and claw to bring about your own deserved justice? Do you take the “martyrdom high road,” and manipulate the ones accused with guilt and shame to bring retribution? Or do you recede into nothingness, pretending you don’t care, it doesn’t matter, and you don’t matter anymore?
How do you react when everything falls apart, and it seems the world is closing in around you? Do you cry, scream, become apathetic or create scenarios of denial all around you?
Life brings with it sufferings, unfair events and painful injustices. Sometimes, it will kick you in the teeth and, just for the fun of it, kick you again when you’re down. Sometimes, it just is what it is, and there’s not a blessed thing you can do about it.
What you do in those critical moments will determine your character, integrity and stability in handling far more than that moment for all to see and know for a lifetime. What you say and do in that moment can make an impact for life.
So, I ask you again… what do you do in those crucial moments? What do you say? How do you respond? How do you react?
the grizzle grist mill 