Yay! A Delay!!

Last night I had the best time with some friends at a craft night. We painted a piece of reclaimed wood for the holiday. So fun to enjoy some fellowship, painting therapy, and snacks. 

All good things come to an end, and I went to my car to go home. No keys. Went back in the house and looked for them, maybe they were on the bed where we all layed our coats. Nope. 

There they sat-on the seat of the car. The locked car. Hmmm, locked my keys in the car. Nice. After over an hour of trying to jimmy the door to no avail, a locksmith was called. $70 later, we are on our way. I think we all should become locksmiths. $70 for 2 minutes of time is pretty good money. 

I felt bad for my passengers who had to wait patiently for me to get the door opened back up, but I never got mad or upset. When I am delayed in traffic, because I locked my keys in the car, because one of my children needed to talk to me about something before I leave, whatever the reason for my delay, I don't get mad about it. I pray. I thank God for the delay. Why?  Well, I feel like the Holy Spirit is delaying me from something I don't need to get involved in. Protecting me from disaster. Protecting me from harm. Maybe we would have had a wreck if we left when we planned last night. Maybe my husband needed some extra alone time with the kids last night. Maybe my college daughter needed to just stay at home last night instead of driving back to her apartment. Regardless of the reason I was delayed, I am always grateful because I know God has my back. I'm grateful that he has my best interests in mind and takes care of me. Who am I to Question his timing for my life-to get mad at the delay?  To fuss about being a stuck in traffic. Maybe God wants us in traffic so we can spend a few uninterrupted minutes with Him. 

Delay?  YAY!!  May we all rejoice in our delays, for they give God time to mold us into more faithful people of we trust that He is in control. Jesus take the wheel. 

Thanks for reading my blog. I love your feedback!

  Enjoy the Christmas season!

Jennifer

The Secret to Puzzles

Jigsaw puzzles are fun.  Some are extremely complicated, some not as much.  There are 500 pieces, 1,000 pieces, or 20 pieces.  Some of the pictures you try to put together are extremely complicated like a sea of candy corn.  Others have a variety of colors and pattern so they are not as difficult to piece together.  Have you ever tried to piece together a puzzle with no box top?  No guide as to what the finished product should look like?  Does it make it even harder to work the puzzle?

Life is like a huge puzzle with many pieces.  Some parts of life are complicated to put together.  Other parts are not as hard.  The fact remains that we do not have the box top to know what the big picture is.  God holds the box top.  Our lives are His story.  He is the best screenwriter there has ever been.  He holds the picture of what our life ultimately will look like.  

If we don't have the guide, the picture, the box top, then why do we continue to work so hard to put all the pieces together?  It would be so much easier if we just sit back and watch the show, God's show, and "perform" as we feel led instead of trying to control every little piece of our puzzle or every little aspect of our lives.  When we try to work the puzzle with all the pieces and no box top, we are basically doing an exercise in futility, having to work and rework the puzzle ultimately getting frustrated and mad with life.  

We are like little children sitting at the feet of Jesus.  Everything from our perspective looks gray, muddled, and messy.  But one day, God will set us up on His lap and show us what it all meant.  Give us His perspective and let us see our box top that He had all along.    May we all sit back and watch the show.  May we sit back and be led and allow God to place our pieces.  We will all be more peaceful, more relaxed, and more content when we realize that God has the answers and someday He will share them with us when he sets us on his lap in Heaven.

I was not actively searching for the great things that are going to be announced on Monday with my blog.  I was simply sitting back, watching the show, and moving as I felt led.  Each day telling God that where He steps I will follow.  Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine where God has taken me through this blog.

When I started writing my blog, I didn't even know what I would write about because my thoughts were so random.  But through the vision of one woman who sent me the link to how to start a blog comes the amazing launch of something incredible happening in my life.  I wasn't trying to work and rework my puzzle pieces into something I dreamed up.  I was simply sitting at the feet of Jesus, moving as I felt led, and sitting back and watching the show.  Well, I sure hope you are excited to hear what my news is.  Two more days and I will be revealing what God has been doing.  You won't be disappointed!  

Thank you so much for reading my blog.  Without readers I would not be where I am today.  Please share my blog and subscribe to receive updates when I write something new.  Stay tuned to this blog for the big announcement on Monday!  

Have a great weekend!

Jennifer

Sporting Sheet Marks

I showed up on a Saturday morning to run with my friends a few weeks ago only to have it pointed out to me that I had sheet marks on my face.  NICE!  The very next day when I was going into church my husband pointed out to me that I had sheet marks all over my arms.  Today while in church, my husband leaned over and said, "You are covered in sheet marks."  I texted my running buddy that I had sheet marks on me again this morning and she said something that sparked the inspiration behind today's blog post.  She said, "I don't get sheet marks because I flip and flop in the bed so much I don't have time to get them."  I began to ponder this statement because I have always woken up with sheet marks from laying still in the bed.  I have always slept like a rock thus I am always covered in sheet marks for hours after awaking each morning.  After my friend's statement my mind began to wander as it does so often.  This is what my mind wandered to:


What kind of sheet marks are you covered in?  What do you "lay in" long enough in one spot to sport the sheet marks from it?  Are you laying in God's word, so that when you go to Walmart people stop you and say, "You have sheet marks of the Lord all over your arms." ?  How about social media?  Do you spend so much time on the computer that you bear the sheet marks of internet?  Do you focus so much on money that you bear the sheet marks of a workaholic?  How about sheet marks from your children?  Do you focus so much on them that you neglect your husband? Good deeds, helping the helpless, being a friend, showing Jesus to someone, donating your time are all good sheet marks to bear.  Pornography, drugs, alcohol overuse, internet, selfishness are all sheet marks we need to remove from our bodies.  What sheet marks are you bearing today?  Good or bad?

My friend's comment has sparked a stream of thought in my head.  Today I sit watching football and thinking about what sheet marks I need to keep and which sheet marks I need to purge from my life.  Let us all lay long enough in the fruits of the spirit-love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, that we bear the sheet marks from them every day.

Now THAT is a point to ponder!  I hope you enjoy my blog.  Please subscribe to the right so you won't miss a single update.  If you are on a mobile device, then scroll to the bottom and click on web version. Then you can subscribe in the column at the right.  Have a great day today!

Jennifer

HOW to Take One Day at a Time

Don't you just become disappointed when you get a teaser for a tv show, a movie, or even a Bible class that tells you what you can look forward to next week only to look forward to it, anticipate it, attend or watch it then discover that you really didn't get out of it what you expected to hear or learn?  I was in a Bible class about a year ago that gave just such a teaser.  The teacher said, "Next week, we will be discussing how to live one day at a time.".  I was so excited about knowing how to live like that!  I anticipated it all week.  Finally it was time to go to the Bible class and for the first time in a long time, I actually had some hands on education that helped me understand how to take one day at a time.

The teacher explained it like this:  The past is gone.  As much as we would like to change it, or do it differently, it is gone.  Never to be regained or seen again.  It is over.  Gone.  Done.  We can't change the past.  We can't have a mulligan in life as much as we may like one.

The future is secure.  If we are baptized believers in Christ then our future is secure with Him.  He knows the future and we need not concern ourselves with it because Christ is already there and has all of our future secured just for us.

God gave us this moment-the present.  He knew when He made us that we could not handle knowing everything that was going to happen to us along the way.  He knew that we could only handle what was right in front of us right this very moment.

When you are concerned about things that happened in the past, or anxious about things that may or may not happen in the future, then take a moment and refocus.  Remember that all God expects us to handle is this moment right now.  Our past is just that-in the past.  Gone, done, finished.  Our future is secure and we need not worry about something that is already taken care of.  All we need to concern ourselves with is the present.

Folks, tomorrow never comes.  When "tomorrow" gets here it is the present.  So in all reality there is no tomorrow.  The tomorrow we always talk about is secure.  Let's focus on the present and do with it what can glorify God in the moment.

God is so smart to realize that I can only deal with what is right in front of me.  Imagine that anxiety we would have if we could see into the future or be able to fix or dabble in the past.  We would not be able to keep our heads screwed on straight.  We are made human, and humans can deal with the very small moment called the Now.

THAT is a Point to Ponder.  I hope you all have a wonderful day today!  Revel in the moment for it is all we have.  Subscribe at the right to my blog so you won't miss an update.  Thanks so much for reading.  Please share my blog with your friends!

Jennifer

Be A Gracious Recipient and a Cheerful Giver

If you really didn't want to bring food to me then don't call me and offer because I am going to accept your offer.  On top of that, I am going to accept without expecting to have to repay you for your generosity.  I have learned to be a gracious recipient as well as a cheerful giver.

One of my least favorite comments is "I owe you one."  You don't owe me anything.  If I do something for you it is out of the goodness of my heart, because I had money or time at the time you needed something.  If you can't accept my help without feeling like you owe me something then you have missed the point.  You take the joy away from the giver if you are not a gracious recipient.  Now I did not say you needed to be a score keeping recipient, but a gracious recipient.

The same is true of being a Cheerful Giver.  If you give something expecting that the person will be someday paying you back then you have missed the point.  It takes the joy away from the recipient if you make them feel obligated to "pay you back".

I like the idea of paying it forward better.  I don't have enough time or energy to be keeping a tit for tat scorecard of favors given and received.  I give what I can, when I need to, when I see a need, when I have the time, the money or resources.  I receive when I am in need, I don't say no to an offer if it is something I need.

I would like to use the example of my recent bad week of losing the puppy and my son being hospitalized with extreme mystery illness.  I did not want for anything during that time.  My friends and family called me when passing through town to see if I needed anything.  If I did, I told them.  One friend even brought me toilet paper.  I was actually sitting by my sick son thinking about how we were just about out of toilet paper when I got a text from a very good friend saying she was at the store and what could she get me.  If she didn't want to help me she would not have texted.  I would have stolen joy from her if I did not allow her to help me.  I told her we needed toilet paper.  She brought it to us.  Best.Gift.Ever.  I do not feel like I need to repay her for the toilet paper.  I would be stealing the joy from her if I did.  I am sure it made her incredibly happy to help us with a necessity like that.  I know it would have thrilled me if I could have helped someone like that.  Be a gracious recipient.

Toilet paper.  Simple item, big message.  Help the helpless and if you are helpless, allow others to help you.  People want to help, they just don't always know how.  Tell them how.  And be grateful.  When you are on the giving end, remember toilet paper.  And don't expect the favor to be returned.  It steals the joy from the Charmin.

I hope you enjoy my blog.  Please subscribe in the box to the right and share my link with your friends.  Have a fabulous evening and don't forget the Charmin, and burn the score card

.

Jennifer

Becoming an Angel

Yesterday was a heartbreaking day.  A young friend of mine was taken all too soon.  Fine one day, gone the next.  Those left behind scramble to find comfort, reason, answers.  The fact is that there may be no answers this side of heaven.  Comfort will be found in the warmth of a touch, the smile of a friend, the words of someone who has experienced this kind of loss.

As memories flood back, I can't remember ever meeting her.  We grew up knowing each other.  She was a few years older than me, so we didn't run in the same crowds in the youth group, but we knew each other.  Our families were in small group Bible study together years ago and that was when we really connected.  We had common ground with trying to raise Christian boys.  We talked about educational struggles with our boys and hard decisions we made along the way concerning our children.  She and I made some of the same decisions about our boys together as we put our heads together thinking about the greater good of our children, not just what was good for the moment.  The last long conversation we had was a few weeks back when we had lunch together for folks who wanted to become World Bible School Teachers.  We were both excited about this opportunity.  We talked about how hard it is to talk to others about Jesus in person and how some people have that gift and some don't.  We both joked that we didn't have that gift, but that we could teach online.  We talked about our boys.  We talked about my oldest graduating.  We just talked...I treasure that talk.

When tragedy strikes, we wonder why?  I look at this situation and cry for her mother, for her husband, for her twin boys, for her step-daughter.  I cry for her friends, for her family, for everyone here on earth who is grieving her loss.  But I don't wonder why.  My faith tells me that God took her for a reason.  He is writing a story here that we can't see the ending yet.  We may not see the ending this side of Heaven.  Why not Her?  She was a perfect candidate for God to take.  She loved Him, she was a baptized believer, she was a faithful wife, mother, daughter, granddaughter  child of the King.  We are all here on earth in the appetizer phase of our lives.  This is not the main course, folks.  Hang on to your fork because the best is yet to come.  My friend is there.  No doubt in my mind.  She is sitting at the table of the main course.  We all want to be.  Take me too, Lord!  Come quickly.

My mind is heavy thinking of why.  Then the why not's invade my brain.  Why not a perfectly healthy woman, young, vibrant, for she is an organ donor.  Her organs can save many lives.  Possibly unbelievers.  They will have more time to come to know Jesus through this life-giving act.  My friend didn't need more time.  She knew Jesus.  Now she has met him.  Others who lay in the hospital sick with terminal disease can find the gift of time today as they receive a new organ from my friend.  A healthy organ.  God is on the throne and His message is being sent to nonbelievers in the form of organs today.  My friend lives on, and she is able to spread the Word to others, something she wanted to do and did so while she was here on earth.

Mourning is for the living.  I mourn today, not for my friend, I am excited for her, sitting at the throne of God and worshiping His Holy name.  I mourn for her family.  I am sad for those of us still on earth who my friend brought a ray of sunshine to their lives.  I am sad for her boys.  May they truly feel how proud their mom was of them.  If ever they forget, I can give them an earful.  I know because my friend and I talked about our boys a lot.  Today is a sad day here on earth.  One of God's greatest has left us to go to her eternal reward.  When we have been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we have no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun.  I am so so sad.  So heartbroken.  So lost.  Lord, Come quickly and get us all, give more time to those who need to know you and let others come to know you through my friend's gift of life.  Amen.

I have lost a friend, and heaven has gained an Angel.  Save me a seat, My Friend, I am coming!  I am going to watch over our boys.  We are raising Christian boys just like we wanted to.  You did good with your twins.  They are awesome!!  I will hug them and tell them how proud you are of them. I will comfort them as best I can.  They are good boys.  The best.  You did great.  Tell Jesus hello for me!

One Day at a Time

I have not blogged in a bit longer than normal because I have had my head buried in Memory Lane.  I have been digging through things for graduation pomp and circumstance for my oldest daughter's high school commencement.  It has been a bit consuming.  At first it is overwhelming because some pictures are physical pictures and are in scrapbooks because that was popular years ago, then some are in boxes, then we went to digital and those pictures are on disks or on the computer.  Oh my goodness it made my head spin.  And how does one condense 18 years into 10 or less pictures when they are all so important and you took tens of thousands because she was your first??  Well, you just do.  But it takes you days to do so, and many tears along the way.  It took me three days to find one particular picture of my daughter's kindergarten graduation cap and gown.  I had the thought that I could make it into a split screen with her high school graduation picture.  That is when the waterworks commenced.  It hit me in the side of the head how fast the time flew.  One of my best friends said today that "The Days are Long but the Years are Short."  So true, so true.

Today I am reminded of one of the best Bible classes I have ever sat in and one of the best Bible teachers I have ever had the privilege to sit at the feet of.  He doesn't speak his own words, he let's God speak through him.  The reason he has this ability is because he is a broken man.  Broken people are real, they are transparent and they let God live in them and speak through them.  He taught a Bible class on how to take one day at a time. He told us exactly how to do that.

There are three parts to life:  past, present and future.  The past is gone.  We can't do anything about what has happened in the past, we can't change it, we can't get it back, we can't redo it.  If we are baptized believers living a faithful life then our future is secure.  The tomorrow that we look forward to NEVER comes.  Think about it.  When "tomorrow" gets here it is "today".  So tomorrow never comes.  So all we have is the here and now.  Right here, right now.  The reason God only gives us this moment is because he knows that if we knew our future, we would be overwhelmed.  If we could do something with our past, we would be overwhelmed.  God made us and he knew that we could only handle right here, right now.  So that is what He gave us to handle.  And yet we try to handle everything else too.  

So when you become overwhelmed think on these things:  The past is gone, we can't do anything about it.  Our future is secure, it is guaranteed.  So all we need to focus on is what is right here right now.  God gave us that much to handle because it is all we could handle.  We are His creation and He knows what we can handle.  We are the ones that take on too much thought and overwhelm ourselves.  God wants us to think about right here, right now.  The past is gone, He has secured our future.

What a wonderful feeling to know that I only have to handle my right here, right now.  Thanks so much for reading my blog!  Please leave comments below or like my page.  Go to link at the right to subscribe to my page so you will receive updates.  Have a great rest of the day!!