Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Anchor.



"This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary."-Hebrews 6:19

Dwelling a lot on this verse this week, trying to quiet my soul. Please pray for me. My family. My community. It's been a trying week, but I will hold on to God's promises. I know He has a plan and His ways are higher than mine.


"I know that I'll never be alone, You will never let me go; You are my anchor. Hold my hand while I'm sinking in the sand, no one else could understand;
You are my anchor


Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Blessed be Your name.



" The LORD gave me what I had, and the LORD has taken it away. Praise the name of the LORD!” -Job 1:21




My husband is the youth pastor for our local church and together we have been teaching our youth about true worship. We have taught them that above all else, we are to first and foremost worship God! When we are sad, angry, happy, etc....we are to worship Him. Worship blesses us. It heals. It empowers. It protects. It delivers peace. With that being said, we can't teach them that without believing it ourselves. The past 24 hours of our community have been devastating. My heart has been burdened for Chardon High School. Lives and innocence were lost yesterday and as our community draws together, as I reflect on why we worship God, the cry of my heart is "Blessed be Your name!"



Blessed be Your name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name
And blessed be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be your name


Every blessing You pour out I'll
Turn back to praise
And when the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's "all as it should be"
Blessed be You name
And blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name


You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name

(Matt Redman)



Monday, February 27, 2012

If my people pray....



Such a sad day in our community and what an awful way to start the week. This morning, 5 students were shot and injured at Chardon High School. As of this time, one student has passed away. My heart can not help but ache. All I seem to be able to is cry out and pray that God will bring peace and healing. This verse has been resonating in my spirit all morning.


"Then if my people who are called by name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land."


Hear us from Heaven, Lord.....


Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Goals

We all have them...lose weight, spend more time with family, be a better friend, become a better steward of time and money, etc.

At this time of year, we might still be calling them"resolutions." I think that's where the problem comes in. Resolutions have a bad reputation. We call them "New Year's Resolutions", implying that we can only resolve to change at the beginning of the year. So when we don't follow through with them (which is expected of us anyway, right?), we merely shrug our shoulders and say "There's always next year."

Wrong.

I'm not one to make New Year's Resolutions. I do, however, set goals for myself. Or at least, I always thought I did. My goals have always lacked a foundation. I'll just call them generalized goals. I had an idea of what I wanted, but I never set up a plan for action. Denis Waitley said, “The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don't define them, learn about them, or even seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them." I've never done that. I've never defined my goals or mapped out what it would take to achieve that goal. In her book Reshaping It All ( just a warning, I'll probably talk about this book a lot because it is what has inspired me to start this blog to begin with), Candace Cameron Bure says, "Both planning our goals and the means of getting there gives us a greater chance at success than living impulsively would. When things are organized and on schedule, the likelihood of success is increased." She also offers up three questions to answer when considering your goals:

1 . What is the goal you hope to attain? Be specific.
2. What do you hope to gain by reaching this goal?
3. What is it going to take to make this change?

Just as the military maps out a plan of action or a pilot maps out his best route, we must also map out our goals.

With that being said, I have created new goals for myself and I have carefully planned out what I must do to get there. I know what that plan will require of me, and my success depends on sticking to that plan. But it is nice to know that if I fall off track, I don't have to wait until next year--- I only need to reroute :-)