*seeking Peace in a storm

Now I lay me down to sleep I pray the Lord my soul to keep Your love be with me through the night and wake me with the morning light. Amen I'm sure most of us remember our bedtime prayer or at least a bedtime prayer from when you were a child. The one above is what I have taught my daughter, and when I was typing it, I could just hear her sweet little voice and I know that God grins from ear to ear each and every time she prays that little prayer. I'm so glad that we serve such a tender, loving God that loves my children more than I will ever be able to fathom! Now, why would I post that bedtime prayer at 10:30 am? Check out that last line? "and wake me with the morning light." Other songs I've heard say "'til morning light." Morning...UGH! I'm just not a morning person. So for most of my adult life, I sleep until I absolutely must get out of bed. I hit snooze 5 times and even set my alarm fast so that I might trick myself into actually ...

It's the Monday (now Tuesday, I didn't get this posted on time, lol) after a fantastic weekend of worshipping our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Can I get an Amen!?! I had the awesome privilege to attend Living Proof Live in Little Rock on Friday night and Saturday morning. This is the 4th Christian women's event that I have participated in and each and every time God just shows up, shows out and moves my small self in such a tremendous way; no words can describe that feeling I feel as I let go of all insecurity and lift my hands in praise to the One and Only Living God! I get so overwhelmed by His presence during these events. I tremble. Literally shake to the core, because He is so real there. So tangible. I just love my Lord y'all! And I am in awe of His power and His mercy for me, a wretched sinner. LPL was followed by an equally amazing Sunday service at our church. Our small congregation was so moved by the filling of the Holy Spirit in our sanctuary, that ...

I've been out for a little while. I haven't been blog-reading or writing lately...just kind of been super busy, which tends to happen when you are a full-time working wife and mother of two! A mother's work is never finished! A LOT has been happening lately- We got news that my husband could be jobless soon. :-( My daughter had strep throat & a urinary tract infection and My son had to have tubes put in his ears after suffering his 7TH ear infection since December! We looked at a house for rent and are probably going to be moving around the first of June (it is bigger, cheaper, and away from all of the fast-food joints!). I've been preparing for the Beth Moore conference in Little Rock this weekend; helping our pastor's wife put together a fun devotional for us to do at the hotel, turning the conference into a mini-women's-retreat for the 15 ladies that will be attending from our church! Getting ready to begin the Bible study 'No Other Gods'...

“The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” Galatians 5:19-26 This past weekend was so beautiful! The sun was shining, the breeze was softly blowing, the birds were chirping…just GORGEOUS! The type of weather that beckons me to take the kids out to play in the yard, bathe in the warm sunshine and behold the beauty all around. A...

I need to turn the world off for a while. You ever feel like that? God deserves so much more of me and my time than I have been giving Him. Yet I give most of me to the world. How ironic is that when God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for my sins, yet I keep finding myself so caught up in this world that I don't even wake up with a breath of thanks to the One who gave me another day!  "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16 I try too hard you know, to make myself and everyone around me happy. There are so many "shiny things" out there that are temporary that tempt me-and win me over more often than not. And to be honest, I am sick of it. I want relationship with my Father, The Lifter of my head. I don't just want to know that I am saved from an eternity in hell, I want to know the One saving...

MEASURING UP. Did anyone other than me just feel like hiding from those words? I constantly compare myself to others around me and I make sure to point out to myself exactly what they have that I don’t, OR vice versa. (oh, that one hurt someone’s toes, including my own) Do you measure up to _____? or Does _____measure up to you? This has caused much issue in my life, past & present, and I’m just guessing here, but if I don’t catch it soon and cage it, it will probably fly straight into my future and cause some problems there too. I have always felt a need to be more. be better. be greater. grander. prettier. I grew up with 2 sisters and a brother, so attention was hard to come by at times. So I say that’s where it stems from, but I’m no shrink. :-) I have this inexorable need to be someone’s all-someone’s favorite-someone’s love. And in this crazy world where everyone is competing with everyone, and you are always going to be outdone by someone in some way, there ...

Just before sitting at the computer to write this, I was cleaning the counters in my kitchen-wiping up the messes from the day, the messes from our dinner that I ate two bites of and was full. When all of a sudden there was a loud rumbling of thunder, followed by an even louder rumbling. And then the rain started to fall harder and all I could think of was "that is exactly how I feel inside." My heart & soul are rumbling, like thunder during a rainstorm. My pride snuck up and bit me tonight- I'm having a tough time shooing it away...that's been happening more often lately- having a good day and then all of a sudden, someone says something or does something to spark my selfish-fleshly-self to become arrogant, or envious, or angry, or ______...you fill in the blank. Whoa, bright lightning through the window and another loud roll of thunder. I wanna go stand in the rain right now! Let it fall on my face as I lift my hands toward the sky and just be...Be Still. Be...