My Resting Rock

'If you cannot be settled within yourself when you are alone, you may seek out a wrong relationship that will increasingly unsettle you.' 

A friend on Facebook shared this quote. It made me think about when I met my husband and of the relationships since we have been together that have come and gone. Not just in our immediate circle of friends, family, and church community but in the world as a whole. Marriage just doesn't seem sacred anymore. Not as God intended it to be. In my life, it was not until I spoke with God and said I was at peace with being alone with him and desired him alone, it was not until then did God give me Chris. It is not always easy, marriage, but when it is Christ-centered, He will see you through if you give it all to him. He is jealous for us; He wants us alone but he also wants to bless his children. He desires for our marriages to last and our children to grow up with their mother and father. For all my life and my marriage, I will rest in my God and seek him out in my times of need and in my times great joy and peace. When I am settled with Him alone, I can be settled in my relationships even if the relationships are not settled. 

Psalm 62: 5-8

"5 Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. 6 Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. 7 My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. 8 Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge." 

Radiating Elegance in a Culture of Magazine Cover Beauty

I love to look at fashion magazines. To see the latest fashions from all the famous designers and how they are being worn. I also love to wander the mall 'window shopping' the latest merchandise. And what woman doesn't like to get 'fancied up' {as my husband would say} to go out on the town. I would also venture to guess that most people love a great bargain! I know I do. Thrift store shopping is one of my most favorite past times. But do the clothes in the mall or in the fashion magazine define beauty? Does the price of something decide what kind of person I am? Who am I aside from the clothes I wear and the price I pay for them? 

Well... I am a child of the one, true God. I am an observer, a listener and a helper. I like simple and traditional looks. I love stripes and polka dots, glitter and ruffles. I strive to be respectful, thoughtful, graceful and elegant.

Let's talk about that last word: Elegant. The dictionary defines Elegant as showing good taste; graceful & attractive; simple & clever; classy & fine. As a woman, these are all descriptive words that I would be taken aback if someone used them to describe me! What a compliment that would be, no? But does that elegance come from what or who I wear? Does it come with the price I paid for what or who I wear? Or does it come from somewhere else? 

I believe elegance radiates from the inside out. I believe you can be the most elegant person in a room in a tee-shirt and jeans if you have grace and class and love on the in side. For those are things of the heart that shine through and people take notice of. 

This is why it is something I strive for ~ elegance ~ and something I will try to pass on to my daughter. What is elegance to you? 

Change is coming in my 2014

Well Hello There Friends! 

It's been a while since I was on here. Welcome to a New Year! I hope your holidays treated you well. Ours was fun and exhausting, full of friends and family and yummy treats. And gifts....! 

So.... 2014

Here we are a couple days in to the new year. Do you create resolutions or goals with the new year? Some say, 'bleh!', to making goals with the new year. I love it! I need it. I am always revisiting it, adding to it, marking things off and rolling things over to my new Goals list. I think it is good and healthy to think back on what you can improve on and to look forward to what you would like to do and learn and invest energy into. And, I like to pick a word for the title of my New Year's Goals. This year's word: 

Change. 

First change that came for my new year: we turned off our Dish service and are going back to bunny ears. That change came two days early! Why? Well, looking back over the past year, I realized God was talking to me through different avenues telling me that it was becoming too important in my life. I realized I had become addicted. I loved my television time. I have my favorite shows and would even watch reruns over and over again, wasting precious time and getting angry if my T.V. time was interrupted. My addiction was effecting our family life negatively. 

Second change to work on this year came to me after I read a post at Hands Free Mama. In her post, About Hands Free, Rachel writes, 

"Finally after years and years of over-commitment and meaningless information overload, I began to see those things for what they were: Daily Distractions. And with much regret, I realized I’d been holding on to “distractions” tighter than I had been to my own family, my own health, my own happiness–my own “things that matter.”

After reading this post and others on her site, I broke down in tears. God was speaking to my heart. I needed to hear this. I had to take a hard, close look at my daily life and swallow that I am not allowing much time for God or what He desires to be important in my life. And no matter how hard it was to read it and admit it [to myself and others], I needed to make some big changes in my life and choices. Thank God for people like Rachel to share these things and Thank God for his perfect timing!

So.... 2014 for me is Change!

Change how I spend my time. Change who I spend my time with. Allow Change to happen naturally and gracefully. Change.....

What is this New Year for you? What is your word for the year? Let God speak to you and stop long enough to truly hear what He is saying. 

Matthew 6: 19-21

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Television Wisdom Wednesday: Malala Yousafzai

"They thought that the bullets would silence us, but they failed," Malala said in a speech at the United Nations on her 16th birthday. "The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions. But nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born."

I watched the 20/20 interview on Malala a couple weeks ago. Wow. Just wow. If you don't know this girls story of getting shot by the Taliban for her stand on educating girls or her message to the world about the power of education, learn it. I believe God saved her and that God can and is using her for good. 

Television Wisdom Wednesday: Wondrous Variety

From the movie 
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves:

Morgan Freeman as Azeem, a Moor - 

Azeem: Salaam, little one.

Small Girl: Did God paint you?

Azeem: Did God paint me?

[laughs]

Azeem: For certain.

Small Girl: Why?

Azeem: Because Allah loves wondrous varieties.

I love this Robin Hood movie. Some may think it a little cheesy but it has some great moments in it like this one. The innocence of a child who had never seen a person of color asked the question as to why he was different than her. I love Azeems answer. There have been a lot of goings on lately in our country (and in the world quite frankly) that have to do with race and differences. We can not avoid it because we are bombarded by the latest updates all over the t.v. and internet. I like what Pastor Rick Warren posted on his Facebook page about it all, "Racism is stupid. It's an insult to God, arrogantly implying that God goofed-up when he chose to make us all different."

So, what are your thoughts? Do you think that God made mistakes with His creations, making us all different? Or do you think, like Azeem in the movie, that God loves wondrous variety.  

And in case you were wondering, like me, exactly what the definition of Wondrous is 

- Inspiring a feeling of wonder or delight; marvelous. 

that is to be marveled at : extraordinary

I like to think that you and I are God's wondrous creations!

Showing Compassionate Intolerance While Living in the Real World

It is no surprise that Easter is around the corner. The stores have been full of Easter 'stuff' that they wish us to buy for a while now. But instead of putting

so much focus on the fluffy fun of eggs and candy and pastel colored flowers, I want to take a moment to focus on Jonah. 

Yep. 

Jonah. 

That guy in the bible that was swallowed by a large fish and then spit out. You see, God wanted Jonah to go to Ninevah to tell them His good message because they were so sinful and He wanted them to repent. But Jonah didn't want to because he despised them so much for their evil ways. But, after being swallowed by the fish and repenting for running away from what God called him to do, Jonah went and shared the message. The Ninevites repented from their sin and God saved them from the consequences of their sinful ways. This compassionate intolerance from the Lord made Jonah angry. All Jonah saw was that the Ninevites were very sinful people. What he wanted for them was justice for their actions not mercy or compassion. 

(Imagine it like this- Could you give mercy to and have compassion on [who many see as] the most vile of our culture like the serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer, or would you only want justice? Learn more about how Dahmer became a Christian here.) 

But, as Jonah said, God is gracious, compassionate, slow to get angry, abounding in love and patient. Jonah, like us, was vindictive, heartless, impatient, barren of love and wished calamity for sinners. God could see that the Ninevites were so sinful, they couldn't tell their right from their left. They needed what only He can offer. It was their only hope to be saved from the consequences of their sin, death. 

Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We like to think that the stories of the world depicted in the bible is so far off but it is not. It is the same sinful place that we live in. God has put us here and desires that we would be concerned with what He is. That we would have compassionate intolerance and save the lost and sinful from the evil one. 

John 17:15 - My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 

We live in a world, not too unlike Ninevah, that likes gray areas. It is too uncomfortable to stand up and say that things are black and white, right and wrong. But, if we say we are Christ followers, that we desire to follow His example, and that we are concerned with what He is concerned with, than we have to be willing to speak up against what is wrong no matter how uncomfortable. We have become too accepting, too tolerant of the grayness. We have become numb to all the poor choices we are making. We need to love each other enough to save each other from the 'wages of sin'. To God, there are no gray areas like we like to live in. There is no scale of bad sins to worst sins. For God, it is just repentant or not. And, no matter how far off we run in our sinfulness, away from Him, He is still within reach. Even when we are feeling swallowed up (like Jonah) by sin and that there is no light left, God can still hear our prayers, our cries out in repentance. 

Deuteronomy 31:6 - Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Think about God's qualities and Jonah's. Where are you, on a scale of 1 to 10, in God's qualities compared to Jonah's? Where or with who is God calling you to show compassionate intolerance before they face the calamity of their own choices? 

*This is a write up of my notes on the Sunday morning sermon at my church, Summit View Church.