Persevering

What are you doing with God’s word?   Luke 8:11, 13-15 says,      “. . . the seed is the word of God. . . Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root.  They believe for a while but in the time of testing they fall away.  The seed that fell among the thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.  But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.” 

Is God producing a ”crop” in you?  I sure want him to produce a bountiful crop in my life.  Have you received God’s word with joy and then fallen away during a difficult time?  Or have you choked out God’s word by being so caught up in the things of the world, riches and pleasures?  Or are you persevering?  You have heard God’s word and you retain it and you are persevering. . . . knowing that God will produce a crop.  

per·se·vere  (pûrs-vîr)  intr.v. per·se·vered, per·se·ver·ing, per·se·veres

To persist in or remain constant to a purpose, idea, or task in the face of obstacles or discouragement.

Persevering is not easy.  I often want to give up when things get too hard.  Sometimes it is easier to worry about something rather than just give it to God.  And sometimes I hold on to the things that are important to ME, thus choking out God’s word.  I have been in a hard place with some things lately.  And I have been on my knees praying and persisting in the face of obstacles and discouragement.  I know that God is working to produce something in and thru me.  Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” 

Great Food Lion Deals

Look at all the great deals I got at Food Lion today.  I paid $12.67 for all this food – lucky charms, two boxes cheese nips, kraft singles, two lunchables, italian sausage, kleenex, two cans baked beans, eggo waffles, breyers ice cream, and a five box value pack of kraft macaroni and cheese!  I used a couple of coupons I already had, but the rest came from this link here.  Be sure to use your MVP card at Food Lion.  Enjoy.

God’s Goodness

This summer I did a Bible Study that taught me a lot about how God speaks to me.  I began to pray that God would speak to me about some very specific things going on in my life.  One Saturday I had a very specific request that I needed an answer for pretty quickly.  And I prayed that God would give me scripture to pray and meditate on.  The scripture he gave me that day was Psalm 27:13-14, “I am still confident of this. . . I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”  And isn’t it just so God that the very scripture he gave me to pray, contained the answer to the request I had.  The answer was to WAIT.  Oh, is that ever hard for me to do.  On that Saturday I wrote down that scripture on an index card and put in on the dashboard of my car.  It is still there and I still look at the scripture and pray it back to God. 

 Today in my Bible Study, that scripture came up again and I was reminded of the importance of waiting for God and his timing for things in my life.  For me over the past five months, waiting for God has meant spending lots of time on my knees and on my face before God.  Pouring out my heart and soul to him with a number of things.  I don’t know what you are facing today, but I do know that God tells us in his word to “be CONFIDENT of this. . . we WILL see the GOODNESS of the Lord. . . “  God is good all the time.  All the time, God is good.  Are you confident that you will see God’s goodness in your life?  I’d love to hear what good and great things God is doing in your life.  

Early Morning Exercise

Today is a snow day.  And the great thing is that we really got a dash of snow!  I am bummed because we didn’t get to have MOPS today and it was going to be a really great meeting.  I set my alarm for 4:38 am to get up and go to the gym to workout.  I looked outside and there was nothing – just as I suspected.  But I flipped on the news and saw that schools were closed.  Go figure!  I went on to the gym for a torture session and because there were so few people in the class I had to be paired up with our instructor for some exercises involving a partner.  Agghh!  If you only knew. . . imagine me and Ms. Skinny instructor.  She makes a sit up look like a piece of cake.  Everything she does seems so effortless.  And then there is me – roly poly, whining and whincing with each and every difficult move (which is all of them)!  And worst of all is that you can’t cheat at all when you are paired up with the instructor.  I know. . . I know. . . I know. . . when you cheat at exercising, you are only cheating yourself. . . blah. . .blah. . . blah!!!  I am doing good to be there and workout for the entire hour.  Anyway. . . I made it through the workout and worked up a good sweat.  Only to be leaving and hear two of my girlfriends say they were headed upstairs for a little more exercise – maybe some running on the track or the eliptical machine.  Okay – give me a break!  I felt good about the fact that I was one of five that showed up despite schools being closed.  And that was good enough for me.    

It was really nice to come home and lay on the couch and watch it start to snow outside.  My girls were thrilled and so I bundled everyone up (20 minute ordeal) and we lasted all of 10 minutes outside before everyone was soooo cold and noses were running and we had to go potty. . . not to mention that they kept trying to eat traces of snow off the bushes and the ground!  EEWWW – YUK!  But I am grateful that they got to at least play in the snow for a few short mintues.  As we were coming in one of them mentioned that some hot chocolate would be really yummy.  I agreed.  As we were shedding the outdoor clothes and waiting on our water to heat up for the hot chocolate, Ava Jane said, “Mommy this was the most fun snow day.”  That made my heart smile.  So, now, how are you supose to end a blog entry?  It kinda seems like I need some great statement or something.  But wait, I guess I am not writing a book.  These are just my random thoughts, right??  Someone let me know if I am doing this correctly or not.  I plan to spif things up a bit on my page as soon as I have time to sit down with some blogging pros and figure it all out!  And now I have another entry on another topic. . . can I do that??

My First Blog

Unbelievable!  I have created a blog.  I don’t really know what I am doing yet, but figured there is no better time than the present to get started.  I am looking forward to having this avenue to share my thoughts.  I am always wanting someone to “tell” when something funny happens, when God teaches me something or when I figure out something new.  Now I can share it with all of you.  Whoever YOU are!  Welcome to my blog.  Let the adventure begin. . .