Because I love you...

How do you decide how much you matter?  Are you struggling with the issue of do I really matter?  Well, the answer is yes!  You matter a great deal and in Isaiah 43:4 these words provide so much hope and love for each of us...

Since you are precious and honored in my sight; and because I love you.

Who loves you?  God loves you!  You are precious and honored in HIS sight.  Don't look to this world for your self worth look to God.  I treasure these words that God provides to remind us of who He is and that is truly what is important.

Ladies, look around you.  Who is struggling?  Who feels alone?  Who needs a smile?  Who needs a helping hand?  Provide the smile.  Provide the hand.  Provide an encouraging word.  WE can help to change the tone of this world that we move around in everyday just by sharing this wonderful reminder of who truly thinks we are precious and loved.

I know that some of you feel alone and that nobody understands where you are and truth be known we don't.  Unless someone walks in those shoes then, we don't truly understand.  We don't even know how to understand, until we actually walk in the shoes of different life issues.

My husband walks in pain everyday.  Terrible pain that never goes away, but he goes everyday never stopping providing for all of us that he loves.  He hurts with each step, but yet he knows deep inside that God knows his pain and will help him through each step.  I know his pain only because of the pain in his eyes, the way he tries to get out of bed, the slowness of his steps, but I try to do little things to help him get through.  I make sure we are on the calendar for his shots he gets in his back.  I try to make sure he gets to anything that might help relieve the pain.  Whether it is cold therapy or massages whatever to help ease the pain.  But do I really understand his pain?  No.  It's not my pain, so sometimes I know in my heart he hurts, but I don't  truly understand the pain that  makes him feel alone.  

WE all face it in different issues.  Divorce, Death, Money Issues, Gossip, Loss of Job, the list goes on and on and our issues all look different.  Yet we all face them.  Nobody understands everything.  Accepting that we just don't get it sometimes helps to realize who we need to really depend on and grow with during the difficult times.

So today and everyday cling to the verse from Isaiah and remember you are precious, you are honored, you are loved and God does see you and God does know you!  Remember the lost sheep?  God knew all His sheep and that means you and me!  

Sweet blessings,

Debbie

Measuring up?

Do you ever struggle with your self-worth?  Do you think you don't measure up?  Are you trying to measure yourself against something that doesn't make sense?  I love this photo of this tiny boy up against the giraffe.  The giraffe bending down to eat the offered banana.  Or perhaps lowering himself down to the level of the little one.  Do you ever do such things?  No, me neither.  WELL, I know that isn't true of me all the time.  Sometimes, I do this without even realizing that is what I'm doing.

I was reading this wonderful new book entitled I AM by Michele Cushatt.  Day 6 struck a chord with me on realization that perhaps I struggle with this in ways I didn't realize.  Let me ask you a few questions and see if you might struggle with this issue too.  Do you need to know you matter?  Do you run tirelessly trying to help people?  Do you try to make everybody happy?  Do you try to fix things? Do you see the struggle?

I realized that some of these issues might be me trying to have proof that I matter.  Proof that I make a difference and I didn't even realize that this might be what I was doing, but I felt the Lord speaking to me this morning on this topic strongly.  

Where do we look for our worth?  Our value?  Are we looking to others?  Are we looking at our own things we accomplish and think we are moving on up the ladder of self-worth?  

I was reminded that we don't have to prove anything to God much less anyone else and remember our value comes from above.  Jesus reminded us in Matthew 10:31 ~

So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Is this what we are afraid of?  We aren't worthy?  Well, we aren't and nothing we do makes this change.  God changes it.  Jesus changed it.  We are His!

Sweet blessings,

Debbie

P.S.  The book I mentioned is fabulous.  I wasn't ask to endorse it by anybody, but it is great!  Lots of real stuff that everybody is able to relate to.

Forever

Forever.

I don't know if getting older makes one reflect more and realize so much more, but nothing last forever...except God.

Yes, I believe the words from Hebrews 13:8 -

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Hope is found in God's Word.  I love the way He surprises me with just what I might need for the day, if I just take the time to listen, ponder, and reflect.  Yesterday, was a day of reflecting.  My sister's lab that has been a part of our family for 18 years is really sick.  Hershey was brought by Santa one year when Vaughn was like 5 and Kyle was 2 and Blake wasn't yet here to brighten our world.  Santa dropped him at my house early and he stayed with me until it was time to move across the street. 

Hershey is sorta of like my other nephew just with 4 legs.  He gets excited when DeDe shows up like her boys do.  Yes, they still like me after all these years.  Anyway, Hershey is a great dog.  Well, he isn't doing well and probably will not be with us much longer.  I know we've had him a long time, but letting go isn't easy if its just been a few hours or years.  We all love our families and loss is just difficult and extremely hard.  Whether it is our doggies or our 2 legged family members it hurts so bad...God knows it does and He reassures us with His Words that He is with us.  He never leaves us and He goes before us.  He knows what we face and He helps us along the way.

Yesterday, He brought to me the words from Psalm 136 and over and over in this Psalm these words are repeated...

His love endures forever.

Please pick up your Bible and read these words.  God reminds us throughout this Psalm who He is and what He has done.  He brings our focus to Him and indeed the words remind us to praise Him.  Loss is so difficult and I don't pretend to have any answers other than to point to the only thing that helps to heal my own broken heart and that is God's Word.  He shows up and takes my hand and leads me through the tough times.  

So today and everyday take His Hand and allow Him to remind you who He is and He reminds us that He is with our loved ones and He is also with us! 

In closing here are the words from Psalm 136:26

Give thanks to the God of heaven, His love endures forever.

Sweet blessings,

Debbie

Creation

God really touches my soul through His creations!  It hasn't always been true.  I remember rolling my eyes when people would talk about birds, and be so enthralled with birds.  Well, I have become this person!  I am enthralled with birds.  I am amazed with God's attention to every detail in everything He creates and created.  It reminds me of who He truly is...

I share a lot of photos of creation.  I am intrigued and want to share things that God shows me along this journey.  Sorry if it gets to be too much for you, but if it touches one then it's okay.  I've learned that one is just as important as many.  

I read this quote and it spoke to me;

"You never know what may cause them.  The sight of the Atlantic Ocean can do it, or a piece of music, or a face you've never seen before.  A pair of somebody's old shoes can do it....You can never be sure.  But of this you can be sure.  Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention.  They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and its summoning you to where you should go next.  Frederick Buechner

God pursues us in whatever way to have relationship with each of us.  He speaks in ways that we hear Him, He shows up in ways we might see Him, He cares and He pursues us.  I believe the reason creation touches me is that is when I most often have those goose bump moments that I realize God sees me.  He loves me and He shows up!  It is always in the most unexpected way and it truly reminds me of how Big God truly is and it gives me such amazing peace. 

So many verses speak to God the Creator of all and provide hope being reminded of who He is such as some of the following.

Job 38: beginning in verse 4

Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?  Tell me, if you understand.  

Who marked off its dimensions?  Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?

ON what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone-while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

Who shut up the seas behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, 'This far you may come and no father; here is where your proud waves halt'?...

Or 

Isaiah 45:12

It is I who made the earth and created mankind on it.  My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts.

Psalm 147:4

He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.

I love the reminders of scripture that remind each of us who God truly is...

Today, look around.  Enjoy nature and be reminded of who Our Creator truly is and absolutely nothing bad in this world compares to who God is...We are never alone.  He goes before us and He goes with us with every step we take, so go enjoy your day!  Share the glory of who God is ...

Sweet blessings,

Debbie