Safety Net

I have moved around some and in that time I found it difficult to leave some of those friends I accumulated along the way. It is hard to find that right combination to go along with my personality. [have you ever felt that way?] I had built up so many protective walls around me I was like a fortress. I didn't allow others in but was willing to listen and share with those that would want to have a sounding board or a confidant.

There are places that I have lived where I can't remember one single friend but there are more where there was one special person that was able to breach the walls because of their caring and observing the real woman behind the mask. Those are the woman that no matter where I move to I can still call and it is like I was just sitting in their home yesterday. [I pray you have someone like that]

They never judge me and all my muck. They listen and hear my words that are spoken and even the ones that are silent but my heart is shouting. They are the ones that stop everything and pray with me, on the phone, or send an email that is the sweetest prayer it makes your heart melt and know that they have led you back to the Father and his open arms.

I desperately want to be like that, to share another woman's burden and  to lead her to the One that is waiting to enfold her in His arms so she can hear the steady beat, beat, beat of His heart. To remind her that God has a plan, and He has not been taken by surprise. He is working all things out for her good and He is madly in love with her.

Perhaps you are a sister that is hurting and wondering if anyone really cares. I can tell you from experience that our God cares. He is waiting for you to just place all that garbage in his pack and the boulder you are carrying that makes your heart feel like it can't take another thing He wants to carry it too. He will exchange with you his load that is light as a feather. You will be so surprised that he takes it immediately and you will feel the weight be lifted away. Try Him! You have nothing to loose and everything to gain. I pray that you will be overcome with the such a great love that flows straight to your heart. It is like none other.

1 Peter 5:7

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Jeremiah 29:11

 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

 

 

Coffee for Your Heart



Bouquet of Your Choice

I just love flowers don't you? I love the potted plants that smell so fragrant. I love the cut flowers that can go in a vase to make the house look festive. I love looking out in a field of wild flowers as they sway with the breeze and the scent drifts toward me and makes me close my eyes and savor.

I have found lately that there is another kind of "bouquet" that can be gathered that perhaps we should leave in the field or on the path of life. I have been gathering "flowers of sarcasm". There have been fields of "you are not good enough", and a bed of "you are too dumb to even know that". There even was a bloom so big of "I don't like you today". I gathered all these that seemed to just fall in my path. They didn't make me smile and the smell was pretty repulsive but I seemed to gather them to me anyway. At the end of the day they didn't make up the beautiful "bouquet" that I had longed for but as I finally looked at them they were just thistles and thorns and a huge clump of weeds.

Have you ever gathered a "bouquet of hurtful words" and held onto them like they were presented to you like Miss America? Did you go to bed crying because you believed each and every "flower" you had collected that day? I have, and it was such a dismal night until I realized that these flowers were strewn by one that has no regard for me and really doesn't even know me. Even if these words were spoken by someone I love or someone in passing I seemed to collect them instead of being selective in my "bouquet" gathering. The Bible tells us;

John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;

 

 

Hmmm, so the flowers that I carelessly collected yesterday did just that. They stole my happiness and destroyed the time I could have enjoyed with a loved one. But that isn't the end of the quote, here is the rest;

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full

 

Alrighty then, I think I get it. I need to only collect the "flowers" that are kind and loving and uplifting and leave those other ones in the field and by the wayside. I need to stay in the "field" of the one that created the "flowers" in the first place. That is exactly what I intend to do today so that tonight my "bouquet" will be sweet smelling and beautiful. I want the life and to live it to the fullest. Don't you? Happy "bouquet" gathering!

 

 

Coffee for Your Heart



You are Loved

I am a slow learner when it comes to the things of God. I am able to read the Bible and take a few notes of things that I didn't seem to catch the first time I read it. But it seems like just lately I am finding out that what the Bible says to ME and what MY life is all about is slowly coming into my range of view!

I would read the words and be sure they were for someone else. It was so very hard to understand that God is speaking to me. I guess I needed someone to show me just how to read and truly listen. The book, His Princess: Love Letters From Your King by Sheri Rose Shepherd is a book just perfect for revealing what God has said in His Word but it is written in a very personal way to really feel like God our King is speaking directly to our hearts.

I read it each evening and the words make my heart melt. To know that God love me so very much and He desires me to know that, is overwhelming at times. Have you ever been overwhelmed by love? It takes your breath away, makes the tears flow, and your chest ache. That is the kind of love God has for each of us.

There is a page called "You are my precious daughter". It tells us that we are the "apple of His eye, Daddy's girl". Well, my father died when I was very young so I have never been "daddy's girl or for that matter the apple of anyone's eye. Those words come form 2 Corinthians 6:18 "I will be your Father and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord God Almighty".

You know that the Bible tells us that God fashioned us in our mother's womb, so who knows us better than any other. He created us, He knows our quirks, {He gave me an over abundance in this department}, He knows what makes us tick. We are exactly what He had in mind when we were born. How wonderful to know that truth.

Perhaps you need to know just how much you are adored by the God of love. If you don't believe it just do a word search in the Bible for love. You will be reading loads of verses. Remember only God's love is perfect for He is love, and you are the Apple of His eye!

Coffee for Your Heart



The Word

I just received this picture in an email.

 

In the beginning was the Word

In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

 

which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.

 

May your unfailing love be my comfort, according to your promise

 

Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains! For the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

 

“I, even I, am he who comforts you

 

I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.

 

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

 

These are just some of the words that I found that relate to this picture and they are all from the Bible!

 

How awesome our God is that when he speaks to us through the written word we can feel just like the picture above, wrapped snuggly in His arms. No matter what we perceive our problem to be, God is in the Word and ready to envelope us in His arms.

 

 Doesn't she look at peace and it looks as if she feels so safe right where she is. We all have that opportunity to feel exactly like she looks, contented and safe. We just need to "get into the Word". Take God at His WORD today. May He bless you richly this day!

 

Coffee for Your Heart







It's Never Too Late

Sometimes I wonder how I have made it through life this far.  I can't believe how thick my head is sometimes! I don't know if there are any others like me out there but if there is just one, then I need to share the most wonderful thing that has happened to me in the past week and a half so you don't wait till you are so close to Medicare that you can hear the door creaking open!

I got an email that invited me to get a book by Sharon Jaynes entitled "Praying for your Husband From Head to Toe". Yes I have prayed on and off for the wonderful man I married 40 years ago but it was when there was a crisis or something I was sure God needed to change in him so we would be happier. {what I really was telling God was that my husband needed some tweeks so I would be happier.} So I thought why not and bought the book.

The first part of the book explains all the parts of my husband and why I should be praying for them. Kind of an eye opener to me so I kept reading. The second part of the book is where she uses scripture to back up each of those parts to pray for and then gives examples of how to pray. {I am very glad for examples as I said before my head is pretty thick.}

So along with Sharon I start to pray for my husband. {I tell God first that I am going to give this a go to see just what will become of this.} God is so faithful and so patient with "thick headed wives". God knows my needs so well and instant gratification seems to be something I need. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to actually see answer to prayer that happens in the same day but I was blown away by God's blessings.

The first day my husband and I had a small altercation and he said something to me that hurt my feelings. {they are so easily hurt} But in the next moment I heard him tell me he was sorry! Well, I don't know about you but that was a first for me. I was so grateful and praising God that  I don't think I touched ground for the rest of the day.

I was pretty excited to pray the next day to see what God had in store. We had a home malfunction {water heater broke down} and he told me to go on ahead to the gym with out him and he would wait for the repair man. I said that I had a few errands to run after but would be home directly. I went to the  gym and then to the grocery store and got a phone call from my husband. I was sure he was going to ask when I would be home but no another huge surprise, he said " I just wanted to tell you to please be careful as the weather had turned ugly and be safe on your way home. I love you." Well, I don't know if any one in the store noticed but there was a smile and a warm feeling all the way to my toes as I went through the check out lane.

I am so privileged to be able to pray for the man I dearly love and see God's hand working not only in his life but God is changing me in the process. I didn't think I could be more in love with him but each day there are little surprises from my husband for me that God is showering me with. I have changed my reason for praying for my husband, not to be happier but that my husband has God's complete covering over his entire body and that he is blessed.

So if you are a haphazard prayer for that man of yours you need to start covering from Head to Toe with your prayers.

Ephesians 5:31

New International Version (NIV)

³¹ “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”

 

 

Coffee for Your Heart

Coffee for Your Heart

It Isn't Easy

Recently I was at a meeting where a younger woman confessed that she had been under such guilt of not being able to forgive herself for her past. As the ladies around the table began to nod in agreement that yes this was a real stumbling block for all of us. I was so encouraged with what one of the beautiful women had to say.

She talked about struggling with this same issue and then shared what the Word has to say about forgiveness. She said that Christ died on the cross to take those sins from us. {Yes we all nodded in agreement knowing this part already, just not quite able to apply that truth to ourselves}

She noticed that we all believed that part but our faces must have shown that yes, we can forgive others but not those horrible things that we have not shared with anyone because, as we look back we can't believe ourselves that we have done those things.

So she continued as we sat on the edge of our seats to finally know how to move beyond our past and to have it gone. She told us "trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on you OWN understanding in all your ways ACKNOWLEDGE Him and He shall direct your path." {Proverbs 3:5-6}

Then she sat back and we all just sat still for a few minutes to take in what she had said. Sure I had heard that one also but I started to think about the words and to soak them in. Was I leaning on my own understanding of my past? Had I really acknowledged that God had taken away all the gunk that the enemy flings in my face when I least expect it? If not, then how will He direct my path to the freedom from those sins that I long for? Hmmm, I think you could hear the wheels of our minds grinding away as we really heard the words that have been spoken to us many times before but glazed over in our hurried state to get to the end.

If you are like the ladies sitting around that table longing for the solution of how to give your past sins to the only One that can really remove them from you aching shoulders, then reread those words and sit still and let God do exactly what He has promised, to remove yours sins from you and separate them from you as far as the east is from the west. Trust Him. Acknowledge Him! He adores you! He WILL direct your path.

Coffee for Your Heart



Words

A small thing that makes a big difference is the post prompt for today's writing. I would have to say that words even though they seem small or unimportant at the time are something that make a big difference.

Take a birthday card. The ones that have that handwritten note inside that let's you know the heart of the person it came from. {I don't know about you but my eyes race to the handwritten words and skip the poem.} How about a letter that comes in the mail? {those are so few and far between that I rip open the envelope to read what someone took the time to say. Awesome!}To think that a friend would take the time to pick out the writing paper, nice pen, and sit down and send those words of love to me, makes a difference in my day. I must read it over and over in my mind a thousand times.

Then there is the email. {yep, I am up to date knowing that it is a sign of the times} When I check my inbox and there is something there besides spam and companies that seem to think I am their new best friend, and spy a note from a friend  that has moved away or a relative that I am not able to visit because the funds are not available, and they are sharing some news about themselves that is a small thing {I am sure to them} but it makes a big difference in my day.

There are the words "I love you" spoken from a granddaughter, for no reason, other than to express her feelings at the moment. Just 3 words, small in number but have a HUGE impact on the Nana that hears them. Oh yes, my day has taken flight and I am soaring for a week!

So I guess I am saying that the small things in my life that make a huge difference are the words that are read and spoken. Words that bring love and sweet joy into my life. Even words from a book can bring such hope and peace. Words like: "I will keep  you safe because no one can snatch you out of My hand" John 10:29, or "The good things that I have planned for  you are too many to count," Psalm 40:5, maybe this "I will never abandon you!" Hebrews 13:5. These are the words my King says to me. Don't they just make you want to dance and shout.

 Yes I think the small things of WORDS that are spoken with such a great love behind them make a HUGE difference. Choose them wisely and say them often.