Testimonies & Thoughts

Many times the Lord will give me great pictures of His relationship to us.  I sometimes cry, or smile, or just feel touched.... then my next thought is to WRITE IT DOWN.  Most of the time, I either forget about it, or put it on my to do list --- which I never accomplish, and these sweet moments where God speaks to me (and I KNOW it could help others) get passed over and buried deep within my heart.  Well, I sincerely want to share these things AND record them for myself and my future generations.  So, today... before I do anything else, here is what the Lord showed me.  I just cried immediately when He did it - it was so sweet.  May you find comfort and blessings and most of all a relationship with Him if you do not presently have one.   He is real, and He is your God and Lord and Savior too! I was coming up to a stop light and noticed a man with a young boy getting ready to cross the busy intersection.  My light had just turned red, and I w...

We knew for Christmas we wanted to get our three children a backyard playset.  When a stranger donated $1000 to us for the holidays, we felt this was our "playground money gift" from the Lord. I had the check in my purse.  We were on a routine visit for my husband's outpatient physical therapy.  Our family decided to go to the inpatient floor to see if we could visit a friend's uncle who we heard was there.  He had checked out already, but in the process the Lord orchestrated us meeting a different family.  We tried to encourage them, and in the conversation, I had picked up on a few key words the mother said about their needs. When we left, I felt the Lord impressing on my heart that we should donate our $1000 to this particular family.  It sounded like they needed funds for food and gas while their 20 year old son was just beginning his journey of healing. I presented this "feeling" to my husband and two daughters.  We stopped in the hallway to...

This morning in church, I wrote our pre-determined tithe check and remembered I had a $20 bill in my purse as well.  I had received it for my birthday (over a month ago), and had forgotten about it until this moment.  I felt compelled to give it to my six year old daughter to let her drop it in the offerring plate as it passed by.  I gave our check to our eight year old daughter. Later, in the car, when my husband asked if I had given our tithe (he had been in a men's classroom study), our six year old was excited to share with her daddy that she had also put in $20. I said, "It was my birthday money.  I decided we did not need it." My 6 year old daughter replied, without missing a beat, "Yeah, we don't need $20, we need more!" I found this really comical and precious to see her ability to think about giving completely differently than I was.  She already understands that we cannot outgive God (Malachi 3:10).  Even I was looking at giving the $20 as...

We are in the middle of trying to learn more about God's love, His discipline strategies, and His character.  I don't claim to have that all figured out - but I wanted to record today's impression I received.   People say, "God did not make you sick." or "God does not hurt His children."  We wonder why then do we endure such physical hardships.  This morning, in my time with the Lord, I read something that really hit me as an answer to this dilemma I have had.  It basically said that God eventually turns us over to the evil side when we refuse to repent or obey (I am paraphrasing).  This finally made sense to me.  I know God is a just God and He cannot be just and allow His children to repeatedly disobey without any consequences - not for their sake or for the sake of others.  So, though GOD is not the one that brought the specific hardship, it is possible, by our refusing to obey and follow in His safety and protection of our lives, WE have a...

This morning I felt the Lord show me myself, once again, through the example of our toddler. He came into our room so frustrated, because he was trying to put his baby guitar in the carrying case.  He had the large part of the guitar going into the large part of the case.  However, the problem was, once it got inside, the neck was still sticking out and the case was upside down.  In his frustration, he came in and asked, "Can you help?"  "Of course, I can help you!" I said cheerfully as I hopped out of bed to "rescue him".  This was the first we had heard or seen him. Our entire family had slept in (we are in the middle of a nice ice storm and are completely off schedule). I actually suprised myself with my immediate cheerful response towards him.  I saw what he was trying to do.  I saw how frustrated he was.  I knew the answer.  I knew I could help them, and I was anxious to do so as soon as he asked. I was able to turn the case ar...

Over the last few weeks, I have had conversations with various people about our current situation (how difficult it is to manage all that has been thrown into my life after my husband's spinal cord injury July 15 th ). Two people finished my sentence with "like this is not what you signed up for." They were trying to empathize, so I do appreciate their listening ear and sentiment, but this phrase has been just replaying in my spirit with such uneasiness. This morning, at 3 am, I finally woke up with it needing to get out, so here it is! I DID sign up for this. When I accepted Christ as my Savior and committed my life to His will, I signed up for this. When I accepted Scott as my husband, who is also a follower of Christ, I signed up for this. I signed up to be vulnerable, available, and committed no matter what obstacles would come my way. I signed up to be a servant, for Christ and my husband. Now, maybe I do not like the circumstances, but to give myself the thou...

The other day, Avery was snuggling up to me and told me how beautiful I was. I felt so loved and appreciated her sincere compliment UNTIL I caught a glance in the mirror later that day. My hair had not been brushed at all in at least an entire day and was thrown up in a crazy looking hairdo. I had not had a shower in days and really smelled not feminine, my face was dry, my skin broken out with acne here and there, I saw wirey gray hairs here and there not obeying the pattern of my pony tail, my clothes were tshirt and sweats... I just looked so horrible. I am not saying this to come across in some backwards vain way - what struck me was that she was seeing something completely different than what I was seeing. My mind has been so tainted by the media, the actresses, the magazine covers, the ideal girl and woman photos. My mind has also been so tainted with my negative issues about myself. Her mind is capable of seeing the beauty in who I am, how I am acting, God in m...