Do I Make God Proud?

Philippians 1:27a says, "Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ." My first thought when I read that this morning was "WOW! That is NOT easy to do all the time!" First, I thought of times when I am frustrated with the kids for disobeying me for the millionth time. Do I respond in a way that makes God proud? What about when the neighbor is doing stuff just to tick us off? Are our actions and/or words making God proud? Does the way I respond in every situation point people to God? Do I make others want to know God and have a personal relationship with him, or am I turning them away from Him because of how I handle myself when things are going badly? It's easier to conduct ourselves in a manner that makes God proud when things are going smoothly for us, but I want to make Him proud ALL the time! I have a wonderful earthly father, and I know it makes ME feel proud when I know I made him proud. How much more should I want to make my heavenly Father proud?! That is what I want to strive for! I want to make God proud in each and every situation. I want to conduct myself in a manner worthy of Him, and in a way that gives Christians a good name! Are you making God proud?

God is Good...ALL the Time

I almost had to laugh when the title I chose for this note popped into my head, but it fits so well in spite of all we are going through right now that I just had to use it. I'm sure God is the one who put that "title" in my head anyway, so I might as well listen to Him since He's been talking to me a lot lately through the scriptures.

I almost have to start this from a few months ago. We had had a lot of rain during the day and into the night. When my husband woke up at 2:00 am to get ready for work, he discovered his work clothes that hang in the bathroom closet were all wet. He realized that we must have a leak in our roof, which we were definitely NOT expecting since we had put a new roof on our house just a few years ago. We put plastic down on the floor and placed buckets where the water was coming in at. The man who had done our roof came over and told us he strongly suspected the leak was coming from the one skylight (we have two, one on each side of the roof). Oddly enough, it was the skylight on the other side of the roof that caused us to put a new roof on! He put more caulk around the window, but he said he wasn't sure if that would help. He said if it continued to leak, we'd either need to replace the skylights with better ones or just have them removed and fix the roof. We discovered a few weeks later that the roof was indeed still leaking, but it wasn't leaking very much and sometimes it wouldn't leak at all so we decided to wait until we were in a better place financially to do something.

Last Thursday and Friday, we had a tremendous amount of rain so I continued to run up to the attic to check whether the situation. The roof was definitely leaking so I just kept an eye on whether I felt the bucket needed to be emptied. I dumped about an inch of water from the bucket around 11 am. My husband checked on it at around 7 pm and said there wasn't much water in it (probably about an inch), but the bucket held a gallon and figured it would be fine through the night. He was wrong. Sometime after he left for work and before 5:30 am when I woke up, the box which the bucket was sitting on either gave way from the weight of the bucket or became soaked as water started to spill out of the bucket and then partially collapsed. In any case, enough water came out of the bucket that it made its way down to the bathroom ceiling and came through all over the floor. When I awoke at 5:30 am, I had no idea why I was standing in water when I walked into the bathroom. My daughter came in and simply said "The ceiling is leaking." I immediately RAN up the stairs and into the attic and was horrified to see the box soaked through, partially collapsed in the center, and the bucket leaning precariously to the one side. I grabbed the bucket and saw it was FULL. I realized how much worse it could have been had the bucket completely fallen over and all that water had spilled out. Yes, God is good....all the time! I took the bucket down and dumped the water out of it. Then I went back upstairs and cleaned up the water that was all over the plastic...totally soaking quite a few towels and other rags in the process. My daughter brought me another box and I set that up as good as I could to try and catch any more water that came in. Then I went downstairs to clean up the bathroom floor. Finally, I called my husband at work and told him we had a problem!

I called the roofer and was thankful that the rain had finally slowed down. On Tuesday, I left another message for the roofer because he still hadn't called back. That same day, it rained again and we noticed the one wall in Micah's room (which is on the third floor and technically part of the attic) was now wet below and beside the skylight. As the rain continued to come down and my husband was upstairs trying to figure out if there was anything at all we could do, I told the kids we needed to pray for the rain to stop. Micah, who is only 6 years old, said "Mommy? I didn't pray for that. I prayed that God would do a miracle and that our roof would stop leaking." I had to fight back tears at the faith in my little boy and realized I must be doing something right! I told him that was good, but I still wanted us to all pray for the rain to stop. Micah and Sarah both prayed, and then I prayed. As the kids ate dinner, I went on Facebook and asked my friends via my status line to please pray for the rain to stop. Within MINUTES, the rain stopped and the SUN came out! Later, my daughter yelled down that there was a rainbow in the sky. I didn't need to see it. I knew it was there as soon as I saw the sun come out. I knew God was reminding me that He keeps His promises and He was in control. Of course, Satan didn't like that very much and caused me to start worrying later that night because it was suppose to rain all night. I laid awake and literally felt sick to my stomach with worry. I just kept praying for God to intervene. It didn't rain until almost morning. Yes, God is good...all the time!

Wednesday morning, I woke up with the following verse in mind: Philippians 4:19 says "My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." I noticed it said WILL meet, not might meet. It says ALL your needs, not some of them. I claimed that verse as my own. Later that day, the roofer finally called. He said he'd have to think about what estimate he would quote us and would call us back. I was worried about how long it would take for him to get back to us with a quote on what it would cost to fix our roof, so I checked the weather report and saw no rain was in the forecast until Tuesday. Yes, God is good...all the time!

Yesterday morning, I was doing devotions and read the following verse: Deuteronomy 31:8 says "The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." I was so thankful that God was again reminding me that He was with us. He knew what we were going through. He knows about our finances. All I need to do is trust Him and not be afraid because He will be there to help us through this. Yes, God is good....all the time!

I thought about writing a note last night, but I wasn't sure what all I wanted to say or if anyone really would want to read it. God made it perfectly clear this morning that He did indeed want me to share what He was teaching me. My devotions today were to read John 14:1-6, but it was verse 1 that stood out to me. It was Jesus' own words: "Do not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me." I know many people think God and Jesus don't exist, they are a myth, or a fairy tale. Well, I know that they are wrong! I do not have any doubt that God does exist! I also know that He speaks to us and gives us exactly what we need when we need it. I don't think these verses I've been reading the last three days are just a coincidence. I know God has been sending them my way to comfort me and remind me to just keep trusting Him. We still are waiting on the roofer to call back and give us an estimate as to what it will cost to remove the skylights and fix the roof, but I know that God is in control. In spite of all the reasons I have to be fearful and worry, I know that YES! God is good....ALL the time!

RUN the Race

I have never been much of an athlete. Sports have never really interested me, probably because I wasn't good at any of them! I do enjoy watching certain sports, and I love watching the Olympics. I know that people who run in a race, whether it be a sprint or a marathon or any distance in between, dress as lightly as possible. They don't want to be weighed down by heavy clothes because that would prevent them from running as fast as they could. In longer races, a runner who chose to wear bulky/heavy clothes would not have a chance of winning, and they very possibly would not even be able to finish the race because they would be too exhausted and/or overheated.

The Christian walk is often referred to as a race in the Bible, with the finish line being heaven. I did a search online for the word "race" in the NIV Bible and specifically looked for verses where the word was used to describe how we "run the race" or "finish the race" and found 6 references (Acts 20:24, I Corinthians 9:24, Galatians 2:2, Galatians 5:7, 2 Timothy 4:7, and Hebrews 12:1). For most of us, the race of life would be more of a marathon that a sprint, so it is very important that we are not being slowed down by carrying along things that weigh us down.

The other day I read the following verse: Philippians 3:13b -14 says "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." When I read this verse, I was reminded of how easy it is to focus on things that have happened in our past. It doesn't matter whether it is something that happened to us or whether it is something we did, we can allow ourselves to be weighed down by our past. If we are running this race called life, why would we risk not being able to reach the finish line....heaven?!

If you are holding onto things that have happened to you in your past, it is time to turn those things over to God and throw off those chains that are weighing you down! If you are focusing on things you did wrong in the past, ask God to forgive you of those things and then let it go! When you ask God for forgiveness, He forgives and FORGETS all of the things you did worng. It doesn't matter how big or small those things are. You don't need to keep worrying and being weighed down by chains that God Himself removed from you. Instead of slowly dragging yourself through life because you are weighed down by all this junk, get rid of it so you can RUN to the finish line!

I think those verses in Philippians can be paraphrased like this: "Forget about all the stuff that is in your past! Turn it all over to God and keep moving forward no matter what. When you reach the finish line, you'll receive the best prize of all...eternal life in HEAVEN!"

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God said it so BELIEVE it

In Hebrews 13:5, you find these words: Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

Since I'm a stay-at-home mom and my husband's one job is our only source of income, our finances are definitely not where we want/need them to be. It has been a real struggle at times to make ends meet. I almost had to laugh when I read "keep your lives free from the love of money" because for us it sometimes seems like we've kept our lives "free from money". LOL! It sure can be hard to be content with what you have, especially when you know that you need something but you can't afford it. We currently have just one vehicle, and that one probably isn't going to last much longer since it has over 130,000 miles on it and has been definitely showing signs of its age. I have seen though how the Lord has been faithful in meeting our needs. He always seems to provide for us when we need it most; and I truly believe that's because we've been faithful in praying about what we need and then doing our best to leave it in His hands and not worry about it. I'm not saying we never worry about finances because we do. My husband seems to worry about it more than I do, but I know that's because he wants to make sure he is taking care of his family and being a good provider. I'm so lucky to have him as my husband! When it's time for me to pay the bills, I often pray over the checkbook because I can see exactly where we're at and it can be scary! I don't want to give satan that foothold so I simply say something along the lines of "Lord, you know exactly what we need. You know we don't have much money left so I pray that you will continue to provide what we need. Thank you!"

Hebrews 13: 6 says the following: So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?"

I love the fact that it says we can say WITH CONIFIDENCE that the Lord is my helper! We don't need to be afraid of what may come our way. We KNOW that the Lord is WITH us! He KNOW He will NEVER LEAVE us! Since we know God never lies and always keeps His word, we know He will always do what He says He will do. Therefore, we can be certain that He will always be there to help us and we don't have any reason to be afraid! PRAISE THE LORD!!

Our God is an Awesome God

On Sunday morning, my husband Bob started our one remaining vehicle and we immediately heard a loud noise. We looked at each other and I asked "muffler?". Bob said he didn't know and then promptly asked "What did you do to it?" I was taken aback and said excuse me?! For those of you who don't know, this was the car (SUV) that I drove all the time, but he's been the one driving it for the last month since his car was the one who died. Anyway, in response to me wondering why in the world he was blaming ME for doing something to the car, he said "well you were the last person to drive it!" Well, I was VERY amused by that comment and smiled as I pointed out "YOU were the last person to drive it!" He looked at me with a questioning look, so I smugly pointed out that I had driven the car to worship team rehearsal on Thursday night...but HE drove the car to work on Friday! His face registered defeat and he muttered "well it wasn't making that noise when I parked it." LOL! Aren't husbands wonderful?

As we drove to church, Bob thought it could also be the catalytic converter...which he knew would cost us at least $200 to replace. With finances as tight as they are, we were both hoping Bob could be able to fix the car quickly and easily without costing us too much money! To top it all off, the car needed to be inspected this month and even though I had reminded my wonderful husband over 2 weeks ago to call and get an appointment, he "forgot" so he HAD to call and schedule an appointment to get the inspection done THIS WEEK. He pointed out that he wasn't going to be able to get the car inspected now until he got the car fixed, but I encouraged him to call on Monday and schedule the appointment anyway to assure that he could get in if indeed he fixed the car. Of course, I did tease him that if he had listened to me, the car would already have been inspected by now and he wouldn't have had to worry about that. LOL! When we got home, he checked the car and determined that it wasn't the catalytic converter (YEAH!) nor was it the muffler. A clamp that was holding 2 pipes together had rusted and the pipes were moving. The pipes were also quite rusted, so he knew he was probably going to have to buy them too.

He came home from work yesterday and the first thing he did was call to schedule an appointment to get the car inspected. His appointment was scheduled for the next day, so he knew he HAD to get the car fixed today (which was actually yesterday). Someone had told him that he would have to take the pipe off before he bought the parts because there is a part inside the pipes that may have gone bad as well. We were worried that if he took it apart, he wouldn't be able to get it back together because the bolts and stuff that had held the clamp had also rusted badly and he was afaid they were going to break when he tried to take them out. With no other car to use, we would need to find someone to run him to the place to buy the parts if he couldn't get it back together.

He was outside working on it for awhile and I suddenly decided that I needed to start praying about the situation. I prayed that he'd be able to get the car fixed, that he'd be able to get the pipes put back together to be able to drive and get the parts or that we'd be able to find someone who could be willing to drive him there, that God would give Bob the knowledge to fix the car and that he'd be able to remain calm and not get frustrated, and finally I prayed that the parts would cost under $100. I know car parts can be expensive and I knew Bob was going to need quite a few things. I felt that I needed to state the price that I wanted the cost to be under. I just kept hearing "ASK ME!" so I prayed earnestly for EXACTLY what I wanted God to do. I then called the kids down so we could all pray for daddy together. I told them what we needed to pray for and they each said a prayer, and then I prayed with my kids pretty much the same prayer I had already prayed alone. Seconds after we prayed, Bob came in and I asked him if he was going to be able to drive the car to get the parts. He said he didn't think so, but he didn't know who to call. He doesn't like making phone calls in the first place, and he also doesn't like asking for help; so you can imagine that this wasn't something he wanted to do. I told him I'd call my dad for him. I made the call and said a quick prayer that dad would be home. Dad answered the phone as soon as I finished my silent prayer and he said he'd be right over! I love my dad!

They didn't have one of the parts (the flange on the end of the pipe), but he was able to buy everything else. He put everything on the car quickly. For now, he just put the old flange back on and put some sealant around the connection. It is much quieter so he should be able to get the car inspected today and hopefully it will pass. I think the guy will pass it if he knows Bob is going to pick up the part afterwards and put it on. If not, I'm sure he'll allow him to come back another day this week and pass it then. I asked my husband how much everything cost and it was under $30 (that includes the cost of the flange that they had to order in for him). God answered everything I asked of him, and the cost was WAY below the price that I claimed and believed the parts would be under! Our God is an awesome God!!

We Have To Ask First Before God Can Act

Our church goes to Rehoboth Beach in Delaware every year for a Ladies' Retreat. Last year was my first year attending one of these retreats, and there were about 60 women who went. That was a record since it use to be only 30 or 40. This year, there were a total of 83 women who attended, and half of them were women who don't attend our church! The retreat this year was May 1-3 so I just returned last night from the retreat.

The theme this year was summarized in one word: Heart. We learned that we need ask God EVERY DAY to open our spiritual eyes so that we can see what He wants us to see, learn what He wants us to learn, and do what He wants us to do. I learned a lot and am eager to start putting into practice what God taught me while I was there. I am really excited about one thing in particular that God taught me and that is what I want to share today.

On Saturday morning, the pastor's wife was speaking and she said "We need to act first before God can act." She continued to say that sometimes we may pray about something in the morning or evening, but then we don't ask God for it when we really need to. I immediately realized this was exactly what I was doing! As most of you know, I've been using a cyberschool to homeschool my daughter and I have really been struggling with controlling my tongue. When she ignores me or talks back to me, I often say things I know I shouldn't simply because I'm too frustrated or angry to stop and think first. I've been praying every morning for God to give me patience and help me with this, but God let me know this weekend that I wasn't asking Him for patience at the right moment. I needed to be asking Him for it when I feel myself getting frustrated or angry! God made it so clear to me that what I need to do is stop school immediately and tell Sarah that I need to pray. I then need to pray aloud for God to help ME stay calm because I am starting to feel frustrated. I also should pray for Sarah to listen to me as I speak so that I don't continue to feel frustrated. I can also ask Sarah to pray for God to help her listen. It seems so easy, yet I hadn't ever thought to do that before. DUH! I'm thankful God finally taught me this...even though I wish I would have been told about this 2 years ago! LOL!

We broke up into small discussion groups after this session and I decided to share what God had taught me. I knew it was God who led me to share when a few minutes later another woman in the group started to talk and thanked me for sharing what I did because it helped her to see what she should be doing with a little girl she babysits for every day. God is so awesome!!

I don't know what it is that you may be struggling with. You may be like me and ask God daily for Him to help you resist a certain temptation or handle a situation the way He wants you to, but then you fail when you are faced with that temptation or situation. Next time you are faced with that temptation or situation that you are struggling with, stop immediately and pray for God's help! I'm sure He will then give you exactly what you need to help you successfully make it through.

Are You A Fool?

No one likes to be called a fool or even foolish. I know I sure don't! I guess that's why Proverbs 29: 11 struck me. It says "A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control." OUCH! When I read that, the first thing that entered my mind was "OUCH!" because I realized I do not act like like very wise most of the time when I get really frustrated (or angry). There have been many times when I would be telling myself "you shouldn't be saying this" as the words come to my mind, but I just couldn't seem to stop myself and the words would come flying out my mouth. I do apologize later, but that NEVER makes it right.

Words hurt and you can't take back what you said. I am reminded of an analogy that was used at church to show my kids this very thing. If you take a tube of toothpaste and squeeze the tube, you will see it is very easy to get almost all of the toothpaste out of the tube (yes, they actually had the kids do this! They had a BLAST squeezing all the toothpaste onto a paper plate! LOL!). Now, try to put the toothpaste back into the tube. You should have seen the kids' expressions as they looked at the toothpaste on the plate and tried to use the plastic knife to put the toothpaste back in the tube. They quickly realized it was IMPOSSIBLE...just like it is impossible to take back what you say.

I've decided that I do NOT want to be a fool anymore. I am really going to work hard on ALWAYS keeping my tongue under control so that I don't say things that I shouldn't. I know it isn't going to be easy, but I know that I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me! If you have the same problem as me, I encourage you to make that same decision. With God's help, we CAN do this!!