MID-YEAR REVIEW

This post is somewhat late. I usually like to write early in the week, but it was a holiday weekend and I felt compelled to purge-my closet!


And after spending a day and a half wading through such an abundance of clothes, I felt ashamed. Ashamed for the excess, ashamed that some of those very clothes I brought out of impulse and the desire to try to fulfill a need that money cannot buy. And with spending that time purging and organizing, it took time away from needed relaxation and other things I would have liked to have done with that time.


I have found that it is true that once you turn a certain age milestone that life doesn't have to dramatically change, but I think that there is definitely a shift in one's paradigms-standards where some things you just do not want to stand for or continue to deal with.  For me, it's about not being so disorganized that I cannot think.  It's about putting more focus on what's important in life.  

And if you've been the kind of person who has poured your whole self into others, it's time to reevaluate your self care. This is my year in review; I've come to the conclusion that these are not the days to settle, or to be silent. Now more than ever, I've got to be more accountable to God, yes even I as a minister sometimes lets the so-called "small stuff" slip. But sin is still sin! And I have to be more accountable to my family and their needs as well as the ministry that God has called me to.


What about you? As spring approaches and we face another change in season, may it's time to do a mid-year review in your own life. Is there need for an adjustment or a total renovation, seek the Lord and allow Him to lead you through the next phase of your life!


P.S. I can actually walk into my closet! :)

Blessings

What's for You?

I recently became aware of a performance opportunity for my daughter.  She is in "the business" for right now, and she was quite excited about the auditions and she prayed for a good outcome.  I also prayed, but I prayed in a different way, I first thanked God for the opportunity that presented itself and then I asked that the Lord that HIS will be done!

Yes, like our wonderful God in heaven, I want every good thing for my daughter, like God desires that His people have every good thing.  But by what standards are we judging the things we desire; by God's or ours?

On the way to the callback for the audition, I told my daughter not to tie up too much emotion into this and respond to it for what it is, an opportunity, but not necessarily your opportunity.  If this undertaking, if this opportunity is for you sent from God, you will get it and you will do well with it.  If you don't, then you will know that this was not for you and praise God for His intervention!

We live in a make it happen kind of world!  I've made some things happen that definitely didn't work out for my highest good; certainly didn't reflect what God wanted for me!  What God has for you is for you!  When someone told me that many years ago, I didn't know what that meant because I did all the work trying to bring good things into my life.  But, I was stupid!  I have a God who already said in His word that every good thing comes from Him and He does not withhold any good thing from us, His people!

I think it's okay to have ambition, to aspire to greater things, to be receptive to opportunities, but if it doesn't work out right after you've done all you can, maybe it's just not for you!  Try surrendering your heart, mind, soul, desires, ambitions and aspirations to God, so that He can show you what's for you, and what is not.  At the end of the day, the good things that "I make happen," pale in comparison to the good things God has already promised He has for me!


Blessings!

Letting Go of a Love

This past Sunday at church, the preacher preached from the title, "I Use to Love Her."

He spoke about how before we come to know Christ, we are in love with "her," meaning the "world."  Well, that is indeed true and I would even dare say that that love affair for some is still going on, or is revisited every now and again.

Let's be real, letting go of a love, whether of worldly things or not is sometimes hard to do.

I find myself thinking about the love relationship I have going on right now, with whom or what is really not the issue.  Because, when a love starts to hurt you, or  you have allowed it to hurt you for far too long, then it becomes a problem.

It's about having known this person, this "thing;" being used to something that has been in your life for so long, that it is difficult to see your life without him, her, or it.  The song says, "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" and that is no lie!

But where is God in all of this?  1 John 4:8 says, "Whoever does not love, does not know God because God is love." So we are to love, or at least try to love as God, the author of love, loves-unconditionally.  And it's okay to love: people, your church, a good book, as long as these things do not interfere with your relationship with God!  God ALWAYS comes first!  Why?

• Because people can and do leave
• Because people are in churches, churches can be dysfunctional
• And no person or object can call themselves your Creator!

So, if loving someone or something no longer looks like the love God intended for us to share, it's time to learn to love from a distance!  We don't like to hear that, I know.  We are comfortable (to an extent), we are complacent and change is difficult; and how many of us sometimes feel like we give love much more than we actually receive it?  But again, we come back to loving as God would have us to do; unconditionally.

Sometimes, after much fasting and prayer, the difficult decision has to be made: am I receiving love or am I use to the abuse when so called "love" hurts?  

There are no easy answers, but one thing I know for sure, the change one wants to see, has to begin in the individual.  Inaction does not produce action.  One has to make a move!

Blessings...