Is this a last-first event ?

“But forget all that- It is nothing compared to what I am going to do.
For I am about to do something new. See I have already begun!
Do you not see?” ISA 43:18-19

Monday Aug 16th was my daughter’s last-first day of high school. Tuesday was her last-first high school volleyball game. Tonight she is attending her last-first high school football game. This is all the beginnings of the end of her life as a high school student.
These times are both exciting and nerve wrecking.
Times of tears for joy and tears of sorrow.
Times to look both forward and backwards.
She will spend this year remembering back on all the good times she has had with friends over the last 11 years. She is also really starting to look forward to the next step in her walk of life.
As I have watched her through this process it made me look at my walk with God differently. Do I look for the next phase that God is bringing me into? Am I excited, a little nervous but excited, to let go of where He has me now in order to move on. My daughter is embracing each day of this senior year for all the last-first things that she gets to do and be a part of. God does not want us us to stand still… to become lukewarm. So He is always doing something new in our lives. He is always preparing us to graduate on to something else but we have to see it. We have to be willing to let go of where we are and step toward where He is taking us. We can embrace all of our last-first moments as long as we also move towards our first-first moments.

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Missing puzzle pieces

It has been so long since I have been here to post. I have sat at my desk and stared that the blank computer screen many, many, many times but nothing came. Others have ask me to post about various subject, mainly the She Speaks conference and I promised I would once I had take time to process all that I learned that weekend. However, as I began to step back in time in my mind to July 29-Aug 1st I realize that there were piece to my puzzle still missing.... questions still unanswered... dreams still unconfirmed. I have just felt undone since those days in North Carolina. I left my house on Thursday the 28th fill with self assurance that I was going to meet God to recieve my "marching orders". That I was ready to run into the fire as others would be running out. When I stepped into the Embassy Suites in Concord NC, I realized that I was going to be rudely awakened.


My eye opening first came in the Friday night General session when Lysa Terkeurst told the tale of two cities. The cities that fought for year and final City A decided to take up all their garbage and dump it over the wall to City B. In turn City B want to bring peace between the two so they gathered up all their treasures and tossed it over the wall to City A. My heart was broken at that point. I became so aware that daily I had been dumping my garbage on God and He just continued to hand treasures back to me. I have even come to expect His treasures and yet I have never really offered Him anything but my leftovers, the things I didn't need or want anymore.

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Aren't you Glad ???

These last few days/weeks I have felt a little under the weather. I have not been sick physically but just felt myself sinking into that depression pit of my past. I have fought it with all my human powers but it continues to swept over me like the waves in the oceans. So today I made it a point to find some quiet time to pray to and hear from God. I didn't know what verses to read or what words to pray so I sat in my comfy chair and cried. As the tears began to fall the weight on my heart began to lift and I opened my bible to Romans 5:8 " but God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (NIV) In this old familiar verse God reminded me that He loves me unconditionally.



Aren't you that God loves us unconditionally even when.....

• We neglect spending time alone with Him


• We are overwhelmed by all the things others have added to our "to do" list.


• We are frustrated and speak harshly to those around us.


• Our house is a mess and we have no desire to clean it.


• We don't give our spouses the attention they need, want and deserve.


• We feel the weight of the world pressing in on us


• We take our eyes off of Him and focus on our own wants and desire.

He love you and me no matter what life is coming at us.

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The Plan....His Plan

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord,

plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you a hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11

This verse has always meant so much to me. It was on a book mark my daughter gave me for Mother's Day when she was in 1st grade and was really the 1st verse I memorized. For each season of my life it has meant something different an special. As I went back and studied it again over the last few days God has opened my eyes to new things.

Back in March I was in Houston on a business trip. I had arrived at my hotel late in the evening after working that whole day and then taking a very uncomfortable flight. After checking in I went to my room and swiped my room key/card............

........ nothing happened.

I turned the key over thinking I had swiped it the wrong way.

Swipe.....

...Nothing again.

After standing there for a few minutes tired and hungry, I threw my head back in frustration. It was then that I saw the number on the door, 349. The room that the hotel had assigned to me was 348. I didn't know if I wanted to laugh or cry at myself.

As I studied Jeremiah 29:11 this last week God brought this story to my memory and I felt him say to me, "that is how you are treating the dream I have given you."

God has given me (all of us) a dream. A plan or a purpose, whatever it is you want to call it God has something for each of us to accomplish for His kingdom. For His glory. The talent/gift keys He has give us will open the doors to hearts in a might way when they are swiped properly in the door to the room assigned to us.

Are you using you key in the right door ? or are you trying to open a door that is not assigned to you ?

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Put it ALL on.

"Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be

able to stand against the wiles of the devil." Eph 6:11

This morning I got to the office, sat down and flipped my calender to begin the new day. On June 2, 2010 Ephesians 6:11-12 was waiting in me. I have read this passage about putting on the armour of God many time. I had even attended a weekend retreat in which the speaker broke down each piece yet today God taught me something new.

My son played football from the time he was 5 years old until he graduated high school. Between days of practices and weekends filled with games, I have see many hours of football but one particular game stood out in my mind as I read and re-read this verse. One Friday night our varsity team came running on to the field and lined up to do their "warm-up" exercises. They stretched, ran, and pass. They did all the things football players do before a game. Then when it was time come together and run through the cheerleader's sign, one of the referees walk one of our starting players up to the coach and pointed him toward the locker room. After a short discussion the player trotted off the field with the trainer. The game started and several plays passed before the player reappeared to the sideline. When the coach saw him he motioned for the young man to go into the game. The game went on but I (being the nosey woman I am) could not help but wander what the player had been sent to the locker room for. He had his helmet, the right jersey, a chin strap, mouthpiece and all the vital pads that I could think of . Had he said something wrong ? Did he make a obscene hand motion? What was it ?

After the game was over I found out from the boys mother that he had left a pad out of his pants. The pad is about 2 inches wide and 10 inches long and fits just in the back of the pants. Most players (and some coaches) consider it useless and unimportant. But on this night the ref, the man in charge of the game, told our coach that the player had to have on the WHOLE assigned uniform or they could not play. He was not willing to risk them getting hurt on "his watch".

Do you think that is why God tells us in His word to put on the WHOLE armour? Do you think it is because He knows best and is not willing to let us get hurt on His watch ? That small pad is a part of a football prayers uniform for a purpose. Frankly it is made to protect the player tailbone. It doesn't seem important until you get hit there without that protection. Parts of the armour of God may not seem especially important until Satan sees that you are unprotected and "hits" you there.

Are you putting on the WHOLE armour of God everyday ?

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Calling Confirmation

This past weekend (May 15-16,2010) a very good friend, Tricia Russell, and I attended the Extraordinary Women's Conference in Birmingham, Alabama.

IT WAS AWESOME !!!!!

God showed up in every way.

First let me tell you how we were able to attend this conference at the last minute. Since T.R. and I will be attending Proverb 31's She Speaks in July we had decided we would save a little money and not attend E-Women this year. The Monday night before E-Women came to town, Lysa TerKeurst, the president of P31, left a post that they would be giving away 2 tickets to a randomly drawn reply. Not really believing I would win I just left a short little comment. Later that evening I found out that I had in fact won. Of course I called Tricia the first thing the next morning. told her to get a sitter cause we were going.

We knew from the first note played on Friday night that we were there by divine appointment and we were going to see God move in mighty ways. I wish I had the time, space and words to tell you all that God did through each speaker, each song and each sponsor but I mainly want to share with you where God took us during lunch break on Saturday.

Because we had won the tickets we did not get the boxed lunch that was offered so we had to leave the complex to get something to eat on Saturday. Due to me have a little brain hiccup and not being able to tell my right from my left we ended up getting on the interstate going the opposite way than we had planned. So we decided to just make the best of it and was heading to McDonald's. As we came around the block to turn to Micky D's we were stopped but a construction roadblock. Once again we had to go to our back-up plan and we went on around the next block to Burger King. As we walking in we sort of questioned if we should stay because it wasn't the cleanest, the line was long, and the staff was no moving to quickly. However, since we were limited on time we decided we would just stay and make the best of it. After a couple of minutes of standing there and couple and their friend came in behind us. As we all stood there waiting and waiting the gentleman just started joking and carrying on with us. He asked us what we were doing in town and we began to tell him about the conference. He told us that he and his wife were both in the ministry. As we continued to tell him about the speakers we found out that his wife was the managing editor of a Christian publishing company. That just blew us away. See T.R. has been working over the last few years to write a book but none of us really knew anything about the publishing business. We decided that even though we only had a short time we were going to stay and share lunch with our new found friends. This couple was such an encouragement to us, not because she was a publisher but because they loved the Lord so much and that came through in the way they shared with us. This couple just sat with us and listened to our hopes, dreams and concerns.

At a time when both of us had begun to throw out all those questions that seem to come in a time of waiting:

Did I really hear from God?

Am I really the one He wants?

Can I do this?

Am I qualified?

An on and on and on..

God sent to us the sweetest couple to confirm what He has already done in our lives and what He will do in the future. In His timing.

(This is just the period and the end of the story)

Because we had sat and talked with them for so long we were late getting back to the conference. We were afraid that we had missed the concert by Mark Schultz but it turned out that there had been some technical prblems and was just playing the first song we we slipped into our seats.

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Thoughts......

I had not really planned anything to post tonight but after completing the two bible studies that I am in and then surfing several of my favorite blogs I noticed a recuring theme... our thoughts that we think/say towards ourselves. Why is it that we can believe every promise that God speaks in His word for others but not take it to heart for ourselves ?

• I can comfort a hurting friend by reminding her that she is a daughter of the most High King but not act like I am also His daughter.
• I can tell others that they are made perfect in His image but each morning I look in the mirror only to see each new wrinkle or gray hair.
• I can go on and on to my children about how God has a plan for their lives even quoting Jer 29:11 over and over to them but if they hear me say that I can't teach a class or take on a job at the church that needs to be done, what have I taught them.

I have recently become more aware that the words I speak to myself not only beat me up and effect me but they also reach out to others like the ripples in a pond. The one small pebble of negative self-talk I throw out can continue on.

What are some of the words you speak to yourself ? Are they truth? Do they reflect the new creature you are in Christ? If not, why?

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