I don't want to waste even a day in the valley

There were so many kisses of God this extended holiday/weekend...and so many times I made my complaints known to God. I'm still in the valley, barefoot and treading through terrain that is at some points well watered, soft, and beginning to grow spring grass and lilies. 

But I step too hard and my feet sink and are stuck in the miry clay mix that I know I'm pulling out of, but it's slow.  Then when I'm free from the muck, I place my foot in the next part of the path and it's rocky. It's the only way through the valley, I think. And I have to ask for discernment. Is this straight? At first glance all sides look the same-painful and wrong.

This weekend was that path. But what the  Lord did was prove his holiness and omniscience-again! And when pressed in on all sides, feeling the need to make a decision for direction, but being open and naked, in a valley exposed to enemies, all I could do was wait, pray, and ask. What was I feeling? Was I feeling anything at all? Shock? Numbness? Nope. Fear. But Fear of the Lord. He has an answer. My daily reading today was Hebrews 10 to the end of the book. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." and "For, after just a brief moment, he who is to come shall come; he shall not delay. But my just one shall live by faith, and if he draws back I take no pleasure in him. We are not among those who draw back and perish, but among those who have faith and will possess life." (Hebrews 10:30, 37-39)

I still had no clear answer other than to have Faith though I had foggy vision. I continued to pray for revelation because as I had remembered when we are hungry, lonely, angry or tired, we shouldn't act, we should stop and pray. Those cloud or fog our judgement and discernment. 

And. HE. DOES. EVERY. TIME.

 More than I could imagine...

He gave me a chance encounter with a dear friend at the bookstore at church: A helper from my third grade class was working the register as I checked out. 

Then a former student from said class was there as I turned around at the ready to tell me all about his life since then and give me hugs.

Blessed prayer time at the end of worship with ministry students blessed my heart and allowed me to minister to them. 

All weekend to find respite and connect with a friend and her family to process and find the path and answer for navigating valley in a safe way. 

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope"

 His promises are true and they are real. My faith only needs to be the size of a mustard seed, but I love it when it's even bigger!

"So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20

For your listening enjoyment...Audra Lynn says, "I don't want to waste another day" in Tastes So Sweet 

Battle Scars and Best Friends

Most days I live in oblivion (probably ninety to ninety-seven percent of the time) to the destruction terrorism, war, and real poverty are doing around the world. My battles are with the television ads telling my daughter she must look a certain way and my son he needs a Pajanimal (if you haven't seen these count yourself lucky.). 

As a mom with an intercessor or Anna calling, I do tend to have a little more heightened sense of the burden or ache for these things for sure. However, I get distracted. The mundane. The routine. Even the beauty of my blessings take my mind off of what freedoms I have living where I do and the need to pray for those in war zones and poverty. 

I frequently look at others and wonder Why God did you choose now? How God did you choose to place me here? Why these talents for me? Why did you choose for that person to live there? What are you going to do? What are you trying to show?  

One of the dearest women The Lord placed in my life who strengthens my walk, challenges my integrity as a person, and inspires me to have fun every day is also a veteran. 

But you would never know that she fought and still fights every day for my freedom and yours. I never knew the comittment that even our reserves and many of our retired military put into our country after the fact or when off duty. I am so honored to be a citizen of a country where I have freedom to speak out and debate with others about how my amazing country is run. I am grateful for her and others who continue to do their duties so that last Tuesday I could proudly walk into my local voting venue and safely vote. 

And today I will do my duty to honor veterans and celebrate them.  I send extra thoughts and prayers to honor you and bless you. I pray that battle scars be healed. That a revelation of what our country was founded on spread across our nation and to the ends of the earth. 

Thank you veterans for giving what I cannot so that Americans can have a life of freedom. 

Beauty of the Season

"Now Peter and John were going up to the temple area for the three o’clock hour of prayer. And a man crippled from birth was carried and placed at the gate of the temple called “the Beautiful Gate” every day to beg for alms from the people who entered the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms. But Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them. Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorene, [rise and] walk.” Then Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles grew strong.  He leaped up, stood, and walked around, and went into the temple with them, walking and jumping and praising God.  When all the people saw him walking and praising God,  they recognized him as the one who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with amazement and astonishment at what had happened to him." Acts 3:1-10 (NASB) 

This year I took up he challenge of adding the goal of reading 10 chapters of the Bible a day. Not every day have I read my Bible and not every day have I been able to get all 10 chapters read; however, to read through the Word in this manner, in large chunks changes things. The atmosphere changes. My heart changes. The Lord has time to speak. The Word is really alive and active. It gives it time to run throughout, not just sprint in and out of my daily life.

So when I read Acts this week, again, of this man sitting, every day, disabled, weak, hoping to receive something from his fellow humans. I hoped with him, felt his hunger stronger and could picture a family on their way into temple dropping off a loaf of bread. And just maybe yesterday he received two mites, but it wasn't enough to do anything with, so today he hopes for two more. Maybe enough to get him some dinner tonight, he thinks. And then he sees them--foreigners. The pull him up he stands. Never before. What sorcery? What trick? No! It's the power of God's son, Jesus. As the sight registers on faces, scrambling begins for everyone to get a seat or standing room only. "If only I can get in and get out for a touch of the healing power." 

The touch from Peter and John was just the catalyst for the man to fully understand the truth he'd been "sitting" on the whole time. All he needed was to know who He was. Beautiful. He needed the power to know that who he was in Christ was already enough. Who he was right there in the moment was who Christ needed him to be. That he was beautiful already. Beautiful.