Blessings in Disguise!

This past weekend I had the privilege of going on a women's retreat with my "home church". The church I grew up in and has been and continue to be a spiritual nest in my life. It was such a blessing and a treat to be able to go on the retreat with my mom, sister in law and some of my very best friends. This is my third or fourth year (I think), of making the retreat a tradition in my life. I love going on the retreat because it is sort of like a "homecoming" for me. So many of the ladies on the retreat have been like extra moms and mentors to me through out my life.

Our speaker and worship leader for the retreat was Laura Story...INCREDIBLE!! She is an amazing worship leader, song writer and just the real deal. During the weekend she shared a song off of her new album, called "Blessings". When she started singing the song, my first thought was "this is new...I wonder if I will like it". Then after about three lines of the song, I was a HOT, MESS!! I had make up and mascara running down my face. As my tears flowed down my face, I was just reminded of the tests and trials that I have faced in the last few year. But in my soul I cried out, that I would not change a thing because my faith and my thirst to know Christ has been changed through these trying times.

The song made me think back to 2004, when we had prayed and prayed for healing for my nephew and God chose to heal him in Heaven. I remember falling to my knees outside of the hospital room and telling God that "I was done!". In the moment, God's still small voice said, "FINALLY, I WILL take it from here!". So from that moment, I felt as if I was starting over with my faith walk. Step by, step by step, day by day, my faith began to grow and mature, based not on how I felt or what my circumstances were but on WHO GOD IS!!

As the song played on I also began to think about the two years my husband, my family, friends and I endured as I worked and waited to become a mommy. I can remember many sleepless night and tear-filled days of waiting and wondering, when was it going to be my turn. When I look back at those days, even though they were testing, trying and full of tantrums and tears, I would not trade them. The reason is, because through those times, I have never felt closer or more in tuned with my Heavenly Father. Each step I took, each negative pregnancy test, through countless needle prickes and body probing, I felt God's hand on my heart.

My favorite line of the song is, "What if my greatest disappointments, or the aching of this life is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satify"! The reason I love this line, is because it finally but in to words, how my relationsip with my Lord and Savior has changed and grown through the tests and trials. Was going through and continuing to go through trials fun...Absolutely not. Yet, the lessons learned and the closeness I have now with my family, my friends and most importantly with my Heavenly Father would not be here if not for those challenges...for those blessings in disguise!!

Laura Story - "Blessings" Lyrics
We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
But long that we'd have the faith to believe

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home, is not our home

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise

I Don't Have Enough Time!

Last week I was the guest blogger on www.househoncho.com


I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH TIME!
Read Ecclesiastes 3: 1-11

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens . . . He has made everything beautiful in its time.

When I was in the 3rd grade, I participated in the most important event in my young life, the Mitchell Road Elementary Talent show. I walked up boldly onto the newly waxed, wood stage in my lavender overalls. When I got to the microphone I belted out, “In His time, in His time, He makes all things beautiful in His time!"

I never would have thought that more than twenty years later, I would be using that song as the inspiration for my housekeeping. The song, “In His Time,” is taken from Ecclesiastes 3:11. In the verse we see that God makes all things, our lives, beautiful in His time. We can use this verse as inspiration in making our homes, families, schedules and daily chores beautiful all in the right time.

Just as God is a God of order and time, we as followers of Him, should also be orderly and use our time wisely. Below I have listed the schedule that I use, and I hope that you will find it useful.

Monday: Laundry, Make Grocery List, Clean Kitchen
Tuesday: Dust and Vacuum House, Go grocery shopping
Wednesday: Clean Bathrooms
Thursday: Vacuum and Mop house, Laundry day again
Friday: Dust blinds, baseboards and chairrailing

Do not be intimidated or frustrated by the schedule. It is just a guide, a road map that you can use on your journey to have an orderly home.

Mephibosheth

2nd Samuel 9:12
“And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table; he was lame in both feet.”


Why can’t I be in the red group for math? Those were the words I said through tears to my 4th grade teacher when she moved me away from my friends and into the low math group. Her answer, “It doesn’t matter what math group you are in. You won’t graduate from high school anyways!”...Me


Those words stung my heart and started me down a path of believing the life that I was not “good enough”. I was taught that God loved me and had an amazing plan for my life, but I really did not believe it. Then I read about the story of a man with a very funny name, Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth (say that three times fast!), was lame in both feet, handicapped, a burden. During his life he had to face many challenges, heartache and difficulties. Yet, he did not realize that the king of Israel was about to bless his life. King David, was the most powerful man in all of Israel, but he went out of his way to bless someone that others viewed as unworthy. Our King of kings, our great Lord almighty desires to do the same with our lives.


Have you ever been told that you were too fat, too skinny, to short, too tall, too young, too old. You may be, dealing with a handicap, the loss of a child, divorced, singleness, unable to have children, without a job or living with regret over past mistakes. We all face challenges and difficulties in our lives that make us feel unworthy to serve the Lord. We feel that there is no way that God could possibly use us, because the things that we cannot do for Him. But do we ever stop and think about the things that we can do for God. God does not look at our outsides, our limitations of our failures. He looks at His perfect creation (that’s you and me), and says, “I can use you, I want to use you”. Live in this truth and do not let anyone or anything stand in your way of serving our great King of kings and Lord of Lords!

Rachel

Seriously! Seriously! She is pregnant AGAIN!! How many times can one person get pregnant. Why God, Why! All I want it one child. I am not asking to have a litter of children like Leah and the rest of the ladies around here...but is one child too much to ask. It seems like every time I turn around we are having another baby shower for Leah. How many baby gifts do I have to make or buy from the market before it will be my turn to be a mother. I know Jacob says he loves me, but I see the disappointment in his eyes as year after year goes by without me giving him a child. What do I have to do for it to be my turn?

Read Genesis 29-30


Rachel longed for a child. She sat sadly and helplessly as her sister Leah had child, after child. Not only were Rachel and Leah sisters, but they were also both married to the same man, Jacob. Now don't be freaked out or think this is an episode of "Sister Wives", because that was the accepted practice in the Jewish culture in the Old Testament. Leah was Rachel's older sister. Since Jacob loved Rachel and wanted to marry Rachel, he had to marry Leah first in order to keep with Jewish culture. Rachel may have had the undying love of Jacob but what she really wanted was to be a mother like her older sister. After enduring many, many years of longing for a child, Rachel's prayers were finally answered and she gave birth to a son Joseph, and what a mighty man he turned out to be! If you want to read more about Joseph's life, Read from Genesis 39 to the end of the book.


Do you or are you feeling like Rachel? You may be feeling that everyone around you are just checking off their life goals and you are waiting to put down the first check mark. Are you single waiting for your spouse? Are you a wife waiting to become a mother? Or are you a mother of one who is feeling the pressure to expand you brood? The world and sometimes even the church define a “complete Christian” as one who is married and has two to three children. A woman that is single or childless or maybe just has one child, is many times made to feel that she is an incomplete Christian. It is the desire of most Christian women to be a wife and a mother, but that is not always God’s plan for their lives. The message that needs to be said loud and clear is simple. The Church and those in “Christian land” need not to dim the light of God’s amazing plan for these ladies’ lives by making them feel inadequate.

Sarah

So.....Abram keeps telling me that God told him that he is going to be the father of a nation. Really God...with whom? Do you not know that my womb has continued to prove that it is not a place where a baby wants to be. Don't get me wrong, I believe and trust that God created the earth, saved Noah from the flood, and can give my sweet Abraham a nation, I am just not sure it will be through me? HMMMM, maybe my servant Hagar could help him out? I wonder how that would turn out? It could work, right!


In Genesis 16 we see Sarah's plan for giving Abram an heir to begin the great nation that had been promised to him by God. Sarah was going to "help" God out. She figured if she could not give Abram a child, she could give her servant Hagar to Abram, who in turn would give Abram a child. Once Hagar had the child, the child in which Sarah thought would be the solution to her childless problem, an abundant amount of problems came to be. Hagar became insensitive and prideful. In response to Hagar's actions and attitude, Sarah kicked Hagar and her newborn child out of the camp. Sarah was again left with no child and now had no servant.

How many time do we in our lives to do this? You may be asking God for a job, a house, a husband, or a child, and waiting on Him to answer. Well, in theory anyways!

We claim God's promises and answers to our prayers, but sometimes we try to "help" God out. We will work harder, prayer more, volunteer at every church event and even give God suggestions as to how He could answer our prayers. When really all God wants us to do is to "be still and know that HE IS GOD!". So today as you are waiting on God to answer your hearts cry, be still and allow God to work in His on time and with His own plan. Sarah tried to do her own plan instead of waiting on God, and we see what happened. Learn from Sarah and even when it is easier said then done sometimes....WAIT!

Jesus throughout the Bible

Just in case you thought Jesus only showed up in the New Testament..

In Genesis, He is the Seed of the Woman.

In Exodus, He is the Passover Lamb.

In Leviticus, He is our High Priest.

In Numbers, He’s our Pillar of Cloud by day and our Pillar of

Fire by night.

In Deuteronomy, He is the Prophet like unto Moses.

In Joshua, He is the Captain of our salvation.

In Judges, He is our Lawgiver.

In Ruth, He is our Kinsman Redeemer.

In First and Second Samuel, He’s our Trusted Prophet.

In Kings and Chronicles, He is our Reigning King.

In Ezra, He’s our Faithful Scribe.

In Nehemiah, He’s the Rebuilder of the broken walls.

In Esther, He’s our Advocate.

In Job, He’s our Ever-Living Redeemer.

In Psalms, He is the Lord, our Shepherd, so we shall not want.

In Proverbs, He is our Wisdom.

In Ecclesiastes, He is our Goal!

In the Song of Solomon, He is our Lover and our Bridegroom.

In Isaiah, He’s the Prince of Peace.

In Jeremiah and Lamentations, He is the Weeping Prophet.

In Ezekiel, He’s the Wonderful Four-faced Man.

In Daniel, He’s the Fourth Man in the burning, fiery furnace.

In Hosea, He’s the Eternal Husband, forever married to the

backslider.

In Joel, He’s the Baptizer in the Holy Ghost.

In Amos, He’s our Burden-bearer.

In Obadiah, He’s our Savior.

In Jonah, He’s the Great Foreign Missionary.

In Micah, He’s the Messenger with beautiful feet.

In Nahum, He’s our Avenger.

In Habakkuk, He’s the Evangelist pleading for revival.

In Zephaniah, He’s the Lord, mighty to save.

In Haggai, He’s the Restorer of the lost heritage.

In Zechariah, He’s the Fountain springing up with

everlasting life.

In Malachi, He’s the Son of Righteousness, rising with healing in

His wings.

In Matthew, He’s the Messiah.

In Mark, He’s the Wonder Worker.

In Luke, He’s the Son of Man.

In John, He’s the Son of God.

In Acts, He’s the Holy Ghost, moving among men.

In Romans, He’s the Justifier.

In First and Second Corinthians, He’s the Sanctifier.

In Galatians, He’s the Redeemer from the curse of the law.

In Ephesians, He is the Christ of unsearchable riches.

In Philippians, He’s the God who supplies ALL of our needs.

In Colossians, He’s the fullness of the godhead bodily.

In First and Second Thessalonians, He’s our Soon-coming King.

In First and Second Timothy, He’s the Mediator between God

and man.

In Titus, He is the Faithful Pastor.

In Philemon, He’s the Friend of the oppressed.

In Hebrews, He’s the Blood of the everlasting covenant.

In James, He is the Lord who raises the sick.

In First and Second Peter, He’s the Chief Shepherd, who shall

soon appear.

In First, Second, and Third John, He is Love.

In Jude, He’s the Lord coming with ten thousand of His saints.

In Revelation, He is King of kings and Lord of lords.

EVE

"Stupid, Stupid, Stupid! How could I have been so stupid, so easily misled? I knew that sinister serpent was sketchy! What had Adam always told me, most importantly what had God said? Do not eat of this one fruit, you can eat of anything else in the Garden but do not eat of this ONE fruit. AHHH the Garden. It was perfect there! We could run around and not worry about being hungry, or clothes, or fear of the animals or health issues, or pain, it was perfection, paradise. I did not have this pain and grossness every month, and wow do I not look forward to having another child. Cain and Abel were born with such ease, but now I do not look forward to having "pain" in childbirth. Adam did not have to work so hard to provide food and shelter for us. Poor Adam...OOOh Adam was so mad at me after he ate the fruit! Wait a minute, he ate the fruit too, why is he mad at me!!! Even though Adam is still angry and disappointed in me, the biggest regret that I feel and the one thing I miss the most is the true, real, no boundaries relationship I had with God. Now it is different, there is a seemingly cavern between us. Will our relationship ever be restored?"----EVE


The above are just some dialogue that I thought Eve may have possibly had running through her mind after she realized what she had done in eating the "forbidden fruit". She had lost her home, her health, her perfect marriage and most importantly her unhindered relationship with the Lord.

In Genesis 2 we see that God had created Eve as a partner for Adam. God had given her a perfect partner and a perfect life. Eve had flawless beauty and had no pain, no need, no suffering. All God asked in return was contentment. Contentment....not love, obedience, works, or sacrifice, but contentment. Eve's downfall and subsequent loss of her perfect life, happened because of her DISCONTENTMENT!

But don't we as women fight discontentment every day? If you are single, you want to be married. If you are married you want a child. If you have one child, you want another child. If you have a house, you want a bigger one. If you have a car, you want a better one. If you have your health, you desire beauty and perfection. We as women fight discontentment every day and in so many ways!

Yet, in trying to get rid of our discontenment we may be throwing away the paradise that God has planned for us! The paradise God has planned for you may be to be single while the paradise for many of your other friends may be marriage. God's paradise for me may be to be the mother of only one child while the paradise for some of my other friends may be to have a quiver full of children. Many times as women we miss out on enjoying the paradise God has for us because of our discontentment with the paradise that God has already given us! John Piper states in Desiring God, "God is most glorified, when we are most satisfied in HIM!"

What are you discontent about in your life?