Monday, March 31, 2014

Don't like to go here...



I like my dentist!  I like all his staff, but I don't like all the noises that come with a dentist office!

I am always truthful with you, so today I share this is not the way to start off a Monday...other than it will be over with and you don't have to dread it the rest of the week!

Seriously, I must remember my life verse from Joshua 1:9 on dentist days...just reminding me to remember God goes with me even to the dentist office and especially the dentist office!

Hope you have a great Monday and actually I give thanks for the dentist and all his team!

Sweet blessings,
Debbie

Friday, March 28, 2014

Dancing and Getting Her Praise On!



Today is a reminder to live your life to the fullest!  Enjoy and celebrate we only go round once...

Look around at the older people in your life are they enjoying it?  Are we?

Today, in God's Word I was lead to Exodus 15 the story of Miriam with tambourine in her hand praising God following the people of Israel walking across the dirt of the Red Sea!  The story always reminds me of God's Amazing Power to allow His people to walk right across the dirt underneath the sea with the sea walled up alongside them.  What a powerful image and I don't care who you are!!!  Celebrate God's Amazing Power!

Miriam did!  Yes we are told in Exodus 15 that Miriam lead the women singing and dancing in the following words:  "Sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted.  The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea."  Now, remember when you thing about this passage that Miriam wasn't a young girl, or a young lady, or even a middle aged woman no she was according to  most commentaries think in her 90's!  Yes, in her 90's and she is leading all the other women of different ages in the Praise and Worship!  Don't you love it?

Amazing picture not sitting on the sidelines, but leading the women!  Today, don't forget to celebrate God.  Age is a number, but God will and does give all of us a reason to praise Him always!

Today, think of Miriam when your back hurts or whatever hurts...Celebrate and think of Him it will ease the pain.

Blessings,
Debbie

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Such a ugly word and even worse disease



I don't know anybody that isn't touched by the word above...ugly, horrible, awful, dreaded cancer...

Just this morning I've read or heard on the television stories about someone fighting this awful disease.  Amazing stories of courage, of honest feelings, of real people.  Yes, real people that we love fighting with all they have to beat .......

I want to share a book that is real and honest by a beautiful woman of God.  Kasey Van Norman is her name and she is a fighter that shares her "Raw Faith" in her book entitled exactly that..."Raw Faith".  She is so real that it is definitely raw.  I don't know the walk personally other than a family member having it...but until we walk in the shoes we don't know how we truly would feel or the words that would cut us to the core.  She does and she is honest about all of it!

I am so moved by her truths.  I am going to post her webpage posting today that I believe will touch anybody facing it whether you are the person or the person that loves someone walking with the disease.  Go read her writing for yourself...
http://kaseyvannorman.org/2014/03/when-god-picks-a-fight-pain/

then purchase the book at amazon. com - Raw Faith.

Since I've been in ministry words sometimes just don't fit...no words help or take away the pain, but yet we try and sometimes they just aren't the best thing for the person.  I know my words fall short many times, so I am just honest when I say I don't know how you feel...until we walk in someone's shoes we don't know.  Simply being honest perhaps helps...I don't know, but Kasey does know.  So if you are hurting or someone you love is get this book and allow God to help you through Kasey's raw honesty!

I apologize for the times that my words hurt rather than help, but perhaps knowing I realize they are just words will.  I was not given this book to encourage anyone to read it.  I purchased it and know that God is definitely going to help many people if we help get the word out about it...so help me pass the word to purchase this book and give it to your loved ones that are walking in these shoes.

Love and prayers,
Debbie

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Daily dirt...



I give "thanks" for the growth I've experienced by recognizing my "daily dirt".  

Okay, who among us thinks I've got it all together?  No problems, I know the way...
Never makes a mistake...never makes a wrong choice?

Anybody bold enough to truly believe deep in your heart that you got this thing all figured out?

I hope not...

It's my prayer that we all realize that we don't have it all together or have all the answers, but that we know the great I AM that does.  The I AM that has been, is, and will always be...that HE alone knows the truth and that daily we must admit our "daily dirt".  Yes, we must recognize it and that allows so much growth to happen!

Today, look at your daily dirt and talk to the great I AM about it all...The process of growth is difficult, but...nothing else will fill that need deep in your soul.  Only the great I AM is able to take care of everything.  Trust and believe today.

Sweet blessings,
Debbie

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Thankful for the laughter!



We love our dogs!  I am so thankful for JJ, Annie, and Sadie.  Kenny and I spend many hours laughing at their antics much like the dog in the photo above...they entertain us!  It doesn't take a lot at this stage in life...seriously, I think we have finally realized what matters...

Over the past few weeks I've been laughing my head off at a book entitled "The Antelope in the Living Room" by Melanie Shankle and  it is the real story of two people sharing one life...I think that she and her husband are Kenny and I just a little younger with a daughter.  He hunts and faces back issues just like my Kenny and she writes and speaks about her faith just like I do.  I am telling you if i shut my eyes, I have many of the same stories!  Two very different people yet with similar stories.  

I was sitting getting a pedicure yesterday and I was laughing so loud that the women giving the pedicures were asking is I am okay and then talking about me in their own language....which is okay with me.  I'm comfortable with it.  I know that some think I am loosing it, but that's okay too...no longer do I worry with the smaller issues of life...I just enjoy my funny books wherever I am!

Melanie shared stories about their back surgery experiences and I found myself just rolling.  One of their trips home after surgery she was driving by a Chick-Fil-A and wanted a biscuit.  So she ask, if it was okay to go get one. Well, she was just a few minutes after the time cutoff and well she didn't want anything else, so she jumped a curb (accidentally) to get out of line.  Now I've done similar...I didn't mean to and well we were in a hurry to get home...things just happen!  Thank goodness our hubbys love us!

I think I was laughing the hardest about the story about men vs. women loosing weight.  Doesn't it just get you every time?  I mean you start at the same time and well they loose 10 the first week and you loose 2?  I laughed so hard about the story of Melanie's husband coming home after a night out with friends and still being hungry, so he drank a milkshake at 11:30 at night...then he decided to weigh in.  Yes, you read that right and well he had gained 10 pounds.  He was upset and she was secretly loving every minute of it...(ever been there? yes, me too)  Anyway, he went in to all out war the next day with his eating and well he lost 6 pounds in one day...

Thanks Melanie for sharing such a delightful book about marriage!  It is bringing up so many of my own wonderful memories and I'm not being funny they are wonderful!  I am enjoying remembering early morning hunting trips and the books I took along to help pass the time.  Also, shopping trips.  Now those are a joy together....right?  Unless, I am in Bass Pro or some other hunting store not exactly...or how about chores around the house that's a good topic....

Seriously, I love Kenny and truthfully I am glad we are different...it's never dull!  

Friends, order this book and remember your treasured moments!

Blessings,
Debbie

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Blank pages....



Does a blank page alarm you?

Or let me put it another way does a calendar with no appointments scare you?

Is this how you measure your worth by how busy you are?

I am guilty!  I admit it!  If my pages weren't full and the calendar wasn't marked all up...well, I just didn't matter to anybody...

Wow, I feel better getting that off my chest!

No longer do I measure my worth by how full my calendar is...I enjoy having free time.

I've realized my worth isn't measured by my calendar!

Such freedom! Amazing finally realizing who I truly am and my calendar as nothing to do with it!!!!...

Try it out for yourself and see if you don't feel a little bit better.  Don't try to fill every moment with an activity or a duty.  Just allow yourself to move through the day getting done...what you get done.  Don't mark off your to do list...don't worry if something goes undone...just be who God made you to be HIS Amazing Daughter enjoying being you!

Sweet blessings,
Debbie

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Peace when the world is on edge...



Missing airplanes...

Cancer...

Fighting politicians...

Companies closing...

People lost...

Murder...

All terrible, terrible things happening and so much more, but how do we have peace?

My thought is by remembering who GOD truly is...

The words "I AM" say it all for me...

Remembering who Our Savior truly is brings a peace that only He brings...

The scripture found in Isaiah 66:1 really puts it all in perspective for me...

Thus says the LORD, "Heaven is My throne and the earth is my footstool."...

We serve a Lord that the earth is HIS footstool...seriously it brings great peace to think about just how truly BIG GOD IS...

Focus on that instead of the other....peace will overtake you!

Sweet blessings,
Debbie

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Flowers fall...but the word of our God stands forever...



I want to share that in a movie I absolutely love it when the man rushes in to the local flower market and picks up flowers for his lady on the way home.  The movie captures me at the moment because I love fresh flowers, I also think it is absolutely wonderful that a man would think to pick them up on the way home and well they are just gorgeous the man and the flowers!  I don't care what kind of flower it is, it brings life into the moment because of the action taken...

I love fresh flowers!  Do you hear me????  Kenny???? Oh, I think that might be the echo of the shout coming back at me....Seriously, I love flowers...but not as much as God's Word.  Not even in the same ballpark and I love flowers....

I am going to be honest and share with you that I think our world tries in so many ways to capture our attention that speaking for myself sometimes I just don't pick up God's Word and I fall apart!  I do!  I start to realize that I am not in a good place, everything is absolutely the pits, the world is darker and well I've lost my focus.  I'm not as close to God. because I didn't take the time.  I'm a woman that studies God's Word and this still will happen to me, so it must be happening to others as well.  Let's be real and honest...so we can allow God to transform us!  

I want to help change this for myself and for others.  I want to encourage everyone to pick up God's Word and read it!  In Isaiah 40:8, we are told these beautiful words

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.

First, these words bring me great comfort because God is forever and ever.  He is eternal and His words bring peace to my heart!  Pause for a moment and give thanks for HIS WORDS...His Words bring us truth, bring us relationship with Him and we realize HIS AMAZING LOVE through these words.  I realize some of you reading this right now, perhaps don't know if it is all true...let me tell you I believe it is.  It is a living, God-breathed gift to each of us.  I don't want to argue this point, but I want to ask a question...how do you pick and choose the parts that you want to believe are true?  

His Words matter.  His stories matter because it shows us WHO HE TRULY IS...

The way I finally settled this in my own spirit and heart were God is so much bigger than I could ever imagine ~   He made us. Look at your own body for a moment.  Ponder it! Ponder how it all works together and it works.  I believe it, so if He made me and you, then He could surely make everything in the Bible happen.  I trust Him.  I allow no doubt into my heart on the 
subject , because  doubt allows the devil that is peeking around every corner to ease on in...

I don't want to argue with any of you about whether you believe it or not.  I believe they are God's Words.  I want to encourage you to read it and ask yourself this question;  How do you choose to believe that He offers me eternal life, but not the other parts?  Just ponder it for yourself and talk to Him about it.

Also, I have to tell you I am a sinner.  I know this and I also know that God knows I am.  I'm not judging anybody or anyone because the only hope any of us have are Jesus.  I know this because of God's Words.  My sin is sin.  Your sin is sin.  God looks at it all the same  ~ it's sin.  Jesus covered it all with His blood and during this time of Lent it's my prayer we all focus on Jesus and His amazing love and forgiveness.

I give thanks and praise that God knows each of us so well...He knows us!  He made us and He wants to share every moment with us...Today, take a moment and pick up God's Word see what He might want to share with you today!  He reminded me this morning of His amazing love and wanted me to remind you too!

Sweet blessings,
Debbie

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Innocence Lost



I want you to think about the little girls that you know from the age of about 8 up.  Beautiful, innocent little girls that need to be protected by their loved ones.  The innocence and beauty of sweet little girls playing with dolls and flowers and immune to the dangers that lurk around them, but they are protected by loved ones.

Sunday at church during the children's moment I looked at the beautiful children and thought how could terrible things happen where children are taken and scarred for life?  How?  Is it because we turn a blind eye to what is happening?  Is it because we don't know what we can do to help?  It can't continue.  We must act in whatever way is possible!  So today I share a sad, but true story about little girls that some of the things that happen to them are unthinkable, but yet they do have hope because of people like Matt Roper!

Well, I signed up to review a book written by Matt Roper that was given to me to write this review.  I want to say that Matt captures the heart break of all these little girls that have lost their innocence along a highway in Brazil and is trying desperately to make a difference, to change their world by sharing their stories in his book, "Highway to Hell".




What do I say?  It's a book that opens eyes, but breaks your heart at the very same time.  It's a hard book to read, but one that we must to open our eyes to terrible situations that are around the world.

Did you know that selling of children was a big problem in Brazil?  I didn't realize how big of a problem it is and that the governments turn a blind eye to bring in tourist.  Yes, the leaders were turning their heads and putting on blinders because of the tourist dollars being spent and they did not want any negative publicity, so they let these children be sold to men that came to town.  They would pretend it wasn't going on...How?  How?  One lady that fought it happening was so discouraged when she was told the words that Hang gliding was the only tourist event they had in town, so don't risk it by fighting the child prostitution.  It boggles my mind...how is this happening in our world?

The author, Matt Roper was driving along this highway one night when he describes her as a tiny little thing wearing a pretty little lilac dress.  The dress was fluttering in the breeze as she began to wander toward the traffic no older than 11.  Innocence is the world he used to describe her.  Her hair was jet black neatly tied back with a ribbon.  He describes her as looking like she had been dressed by her mom who had fussed over her yet she was on this highway at night about 1 in the morning when they spotted her.  On a dark highway alone when his friend Dean ask "Did you see her?"  Do you think?  They went back in a few moments to find her asking if this is what she is doing and she replies yes, please let her in before someone sees her.  I cannot even imagine all the feelings of these two men.  A little girl, a little girl ...They ask about her parents she replies they know what she is doing and that they are at home.  She tells them that they take the money for food when she gives it to them.  

How do parents send their children out to make money to buy food like this?  We don't understand here in the land of excess, but poverty surrounds these families and they just send their children?  I just can't even grasp the thought.  The words these men shared with her next just give a touch of hope in this awful image in my mind...Matt tells this little girl, "You 're worth much more than you could ever imagine, please go back home.  You deserve much, much more."  She smiles for the first time and even offered them a hug, turns around and goes back to the highway...forever changed these two men...

When these two men find this little girl a year later, she is changed.  She is harder, she is cold.  I believe we  would all be changed after such a life as  she is living now even using drugs.  These little innocent children grow up very fast  ~ innocent no longer in their world...but hope brought in to their world by people like Matt and Dean who are trying to help  change their worlds.  

I don't want to give a lot away because I want you to order this book and read this not because it will make you feel better, but because you will have to help some way, some how...One chapter is entitled "Living Dead" and it describes how these young girls are described as saved now, but their days are more dead than alive.  I want you to imagine for a moment the healing that must begin to take place once they are saved from this highway to hell.  The self worth, the fear in their eyes that must slowly be removed by special people that come into their world to share words of love and  to be told "that indeed they are special."

So much in this book about Matt and Dean's journey down Highway 116.  The story of Matt taking home one of the girls that is now pregnant and then the loss of that baby to their home.  The added pain of loving and caring for one of these children,  the child not having yet realized what love truly is about...Matt and his wife opened their home to more pain for themselves by the loving of this child...but yet they could not leave her in the terrible place of pain and heartache that her own mother and grandmother brought to her life.  A mother who was jealous of her beauty that tried to kill her with her bare hands around her neck  and a grandmother who used the love the child had for her to send this baby out into this terrible world of selling yourself for your family.  One of the stories that touched me beyond words was of eating dirt.  Yes dirt and how she thought it was normal...

Matt started a non-profit to help these young girls change their world through dance.  The dance helps to bring hope into their world through a pink house....yes, pink!  Check out the website at www.meninadanca.org

Also, please order Matt Roper's book which is entitled "Highway to Hell" through Amazon. com or wherever you purchase books.  Order it and have your eyes opened to some of the horrors happening around the world that some people want our eyes shut to...some governments just want the tourist dollars, so what about little girls that have lost that look of innocence forever!  Let's help Matt change the world first by ordering his book and then by going to the website!

Sweet blessings,
Debbie


Sunday, March 9, 2014

Resting in the comfort of who we are made to be...



I love this photo!  The couch in the middle of a very green field welcoming one to comfort...what more could you want?

I am in the process of reading a book entitled, "The Antelope in the Living Room" by Melanie Shankle and let me tell you it's good.  The laughter she is bringing to the memories of early marriage and learning the differences about each other...Her story and mine are pretty close to each other being we both married hunters.  Only difference is I would entitle my story "the grizzly in the living room"!  

Yes, it's true.  I have a stuffed grizzly in my living room and you know what I like it!  Oh, I know many of you are cringing at the thought, but after all these years of marriage (over 30) you learn that bears aren't so bad!  In fact, they provide humor when a new repair man comes to the house.  They walk in unknowingly and  you begin to share what you need them to look at when suddenly they feel like something is lurking behind them they turn and well if I filmed these I might win America's Funniest Video show!  It can be pretty funny and a little fun as well!

Seriously, this book brought back memories of picking out your bridal registry and the differences over the years.  How we might pick a little differently later in our marriages than when you first marry...like picking the china patterns for a setting of 16.  Not to mention all the crystal and china.  How often have you actually eaten on your china plates, used your crystal or silver?  Or picking out your linens and how important you thought it was...yet not really in the big picture!  Seriously count the times used.  Do you think we really thought we would be serving a lot of meals in fancy clothes and eating on fine china?  Really?  Dixie plates work pretty good for me.  NO clean up just throw away sounds awesome!

It is pretty funny and it brings back the best memories of how much you truly have grown as a couple!  I'm telling you she shares about flying out on the honeymoon her with her book and him with 2 hunting magazines and how quickly he is done with reading...doesn't like to read much, but what now?  Isn't it amazing how we grow into each other?  Oh, it takes time and hard work, but accepting each other for the differences and realizing that antelopes aren't so bad...

I have laughed at Melanie's humor because it brought back some pretty funny memories of my own.  The reality of where I am now to thirty years ago is so much better than I imagined!  We are comfortable being who God made us to be...we accept each other ~ bears and all...No longer are we worried about what other people think about our bears or antelopes...no we realize that we are okay just being us!

Be yourself today and everyday!  

Sweet blessings,
Debbie

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Thankful for my friends



How many of you remember slumber parties?  The laughter that surrounded the night echoing through the homes until your parents would come to the doors and remind you to laugh with a little less gusto?

I do.

I treasure these memories.  I treasure these girlfriends.  Oh, some I have just facebook status updates on, some I pass in the grocery store and some I don't even know where they are...but I still treasure the friends of long ago!

I also give thanks for my friends that walk the path with me now.  Friends that I study God's Word...Friends that will tell me the truth even if it hurts...(thanks for being such a good friend)  friends that we laugh and share truth with...oh what a gift!

Yes, friends I treasure you and I give thanks for each of you!

Last night, as some of us were together studying God's Word and we shared the whole time my heart was filled with joy because of each of you!  The honesty, the vulnerability, the realness that is offered to all of us, but most of all the love.  A love that God filled me up with...a reminder that He brought us all together to study about Him.  So, today I thank God for this beautiful gift of friendship that He gave all of us...whether long ago or still today each of you have touched my life in a way that only YOU could!  Thanks for being special and being you!

Sweet blessings,
Debbie

Monday, March 3, 2014

Hidden and Treasured



More thoughts on hidden...

Psalm 119:11 ~ I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you...

Hidden original meaning is treasured, stored away...

Pause this morning and give thanks for the wonderful treasures that you have hidden away in your heart!

Words that God gives to strengthen and grow you...words meant just for you!

The words that give you courage, the words that remind you of God's love, the story that God gave you to get you through...treasure these special words in your heart always to give you strength against the evil one that prowls around every corner...

Some of my special treasures are Joshua 1:9, 1 John 4, 1 Corinthians 13 words spoken at my wedding, Psalm 23 words that always bring peace, and these are just a few...

What are some of your hidden treasures?

Sweet blessings,
Debbie

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Hidden...



Where was your favorite "hiding place" growing up?  Did anyone ever discover your spot?

I shared on the last posting about the wonderful book written by Mesu Andrews, "In the Shadow of Jezebel"; which really got me to thinking and pondering.  Always God uses these books to get me into His Word to discover new ideas or thoughts for Him to grow me.

I've been digging deeper into this story and a few things have crossed my mind.

First, the bravery of Jehosheba, which her name means "the word of her oath".  A young woman that was raised by a very evil woman who murders her own grandchildren!  I know women that all I hear about is every move their grandbabies make and this woman murdered her own grandbabies!  (friends don't stop sharing, I want to hear the stories because I love them through you!)  I want you to visual just how evil this woman truly was...Athaliah daughter of Jezebel, who was even worse than her...I'm telling you this woman was bad to the bone! Yet, Jehosheba to save the line of David  had to make a very brave decision.  Enter that home grab a baby less than a  year old and find a safe place to hide him and a nurse.  Imagine, the absolute chaos surrounding this house with murders happening, the guards not knowing who to trust or what to do, do you think it was noisy or quiet with all the death and then you have a woman desperate to save a little baby. Would we be able to think at all, much less to save a baby? She had to wonder will I survive, yet she had a plan.  Would we be this brave?

Jehosheba was safe in the temple with her husband, Jehoiada, yet she goes to the home of this evil woman to be an instrument in God's plan!  She was willing to say "Yes LORD"  ~ I will go.  Are we willing to get out of our safe zones to go where we are called?  It's not always pretty.  It's not always safe.  It's not always what we expect.  Will we allow God to use us in a danger zone or in a safe place?  Will we respond with Yes?

Next, the thought really rolling in my head is this little guy was hidden.  I read in several spots that she hid him in a chamber of mattresses.  The photo above shows newer mattresses, but he was in a room that might have appeared like this one.  Ceilings peeling, not the normal room in the royal palace, no a storage room.  After all, she didn't want him found.A child this age will cry and make noise where would you hide him?   She had to hide this baby until she could get him to the temple to keep him hidden there for over six years!  Do you think, sometimes we are suppose to keep some things hidden until God wants it out?  I don't know if my thought process is clear, but I keep thinking everybody thinks we need to get it all out in the open.  Whatever that might be...but perhaps we aren't suppose to until God tells us to share it.  Do we share sometimes for our own reasons and not for God's planned purpose?

Hidden keeps coming to me.  The original Hebrew word used in this text means "to withdraw or hide".  Perhaps we are to withdraw from something and God is asking us to simply pull back.  I'm not sure, but I am going to continue to explore what God is saying to me or perhaps to share with you.  

I do love it when God uses these wonderful books to get my brain churning and exploring His Words deeper!  Allow Him to churn your brain in perhaps a whole new way!  Dig deeper and at the same time grow closer to Him....I just had a nudge from The Spirit as I write...yes, if my words are hidden in you...we grow closer!  So today Hide His words in your heart!  Hide His Stories in your soul and grow in relationship with Him.

Sweet blessings,
Debbie