Labels

Everything these days has a label. It seems that many have gone to the label that can't be chopped away with the scissors but is embedded into the fabric. There are no more pesky labels that scratch the skin off my neck or rub my waist raw. Instead, they are still there just not as painful as before.

We have labels that either we give to ourselves or others have so "generously" given us. Labels like ugly, bashful, not enough, lazy, uncaring you know THESE kind of labels. These are the pesky labels that scratch the skin right off our hearts and minds as they rub us back and forth through out the day.

I was watching an Andy Stanley video the other day that was talking about this very thing! {imagine God's perfect timing!}He mentioned some important things to think about. The only one that had the right to put a label on one of those T shirts or purses or whatever was the manufacturer, the owner of the product line, the one that created the product. Not the purchaser or the one looking at the product! Hmmm! Does that make you think a little deeper?

We are not our own. We are created in the image of God, He is the creator and only He has the right to "label" us. You don't have the right to even label yourself! Guess what He labeled us?

2 Corinthians 6:18

“I will be a Father to you,
    and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.”

 

Did you catch that label? He labeled us a "daughter" to the King. I think that makes us a "princess". This is one of those labels that is not something that is able to be cut out with a pair of scissors but is embedded on our hearts and minds. Why don't you toss out those "other" labels and believe the one that was given by the Creator. It is the only true one, the only one that counts! Live like  you believe the "label" given to you by God,

 His Child,

His Daughter,

His Princess!

 

Coffee for Your Heart



If Only. . .

Do you have certain things you like to read over and over again? I do. I am rereading the story of Esther. Awesome book of the Bible. If you are not familiar with it here is the short version.

There was this king who got rid of his queen because she wouldn't parade around in front of a group of drunk men with only her crown on. Then he had the kingdom send all the beautiful young girls to the palace to find a new queen. Enter Esther. She has a year of preparation! {now that is a lot of pampering} of course she is selected or the name of the book would be someone else. All is well in the kingdom until {duh duh da enter the villain} Haman enters the picture.

Now Haman is one of those guys whose cup is half empty, maybe even three quarters empty. The king thinks he is the greatest thing since sliced bread and that isn't enough for him because of this ONE guy named Mordecai who is a Jew and won't bow down to him.{God is the  only one to bow before}Now the rest of the kingdom bows before him but one man refuses. {the plot thickens}He convinces the king that all the Jews are a threat and that they should be wiped of the planet and the king who isn't paying much attention say ok do what you think is best. The date is set.

Haman is called to a banquet with the king and queen, just him, and they also want his presence the next day for another banquet! Now, he is so elated until he spies Mordecai, who still won't bow, on his way home to tell his wife about his good fortune. He moans to his wife all is terrific IF ONLY that guy Mordecai wasn't around.

I will let you read the rest for your self, it is a spell binder. Any way I was thinking about how sometimes we can be like Haman. We look in the mirror and say, IF ONLY I didn't have that . . . or we look at our lives and say IF ONLY  I was more like . . . Perhaps we look at our children and groan IF ONLY  they would . . .  { and you thought you would never identify with the villain}

If you have ever fallen into the trap of the IF ONLYS you are looking in the wrong direction. We need to look to Jesus and not ourselves. God is in charge. He created us to look exactly like we do. We are to compare ourselves to no one else. He loves you just the way you are. He adores you for that matter. Don't get caught up in thinking IF ONLY but praise God you are the ONLY one like you.

 

Coffee for Your Heart

Surprise!!!!

Where we live right now it hardly ever rains. When it does there seems to be about 4 drops and the sun comes out again. Well, we were in for a surprise last Saturday. It was like the cloud above us was somehow anchored right over our home and it stayed there and poured down every drop of rain in the storehouse.

The area I live in was so taken back with this new development that even the power went out for about 2 hours! So with little to do and nowhere to go my husband and I decided to take a nap. We woke to find it still raining but to our surprise as we looked out the window there was a mudslide headed straight for us. {nothing like those of CA mind you but just the same it was pretty ugly} As I looked out it was like caramel icing that wasn't thick enough to spread and it was oozing all around out home. We looked up to see where the "leak" had started. The berm made of rocks of all sizes had been broken through and the water and mud were pouring through the break and heading our way.

We ended up with about 4 inches of mud. Have you ever tried to walk in mud? {maybe when you were a child with bare feet. I am not a child and bare feet were the last thing on my mind.} Well we needed to get to church so we donned our winter shoes {spring shoes don't have high sides} and stood with the door open and tried to make our feet go down the stairs into the awaiting goo. With trash bag in hand and a change of shoes in the bag, we made it to the truck did a quick-o-change-o thing. Good thing for the plastic bag as the mud was like concrete and our shoes were encased in the muck. { if we didn't walk quick enough we could still be standing in the drive!}

When we returned home the area had been backhoed out but now in its place was a hard layer of mud. {used to be stones but they are all at our neighbors now}  We didn't need the winter shoes, we were able to walk right on top of this hard mud. It was a little dusty but it held us up just fine.

I got to thinking about times in my life when "surprises" arrived. Like when my husband's blood work sent us to an oncologist, or a family member suddenly became very ill. Just like that oozing mud headed straight for us. However, just as the mud was backhoed and we were able to stand on the hardened mud so are we able to stand on the words that God tells us over and over again. Words like,
"I see that the LORD is always with me. I will not be shaken for he is right beside me." Acts 2:25 or "Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

I pray your next "surprise" is a good one, but if it's not then turn to the words that will set your feet on the Rock.



Coffee for Your Heart

Who Knew?

I love being a "nana"! I wasn't sure at first if I was old enough to have that title, but as I passed by a mirror I had to look twice to see who that was. Then I realized yes, I qualified. I love the way 2 little girls run to the door to greet me when I stop by. They never get tired of seeing me or seem to be upset that " here she is again". No, they can't wait to give me kisses and hugs and demand, "come play with me!"

I have found that I look forward to see "who" they are that day. One day I might find a princess, complete with a gown of white with gold trim and a sparkling crown. Perhaps the next time I find a builder that has constructed a huge building made of colorful legos. Then there can be an artist that had created so many masterpieces that the refrigerator couldn't hold them all and they were spilling onto the kitchen counters and I had to hurry into the home to see each one. I think the most startling time was when I found two little "naked as jaybirds" girls flitting around the house because clothes were just too confining to wear that day!

Yes, I just love being nana! Life with 2 little girls is so unpredictable, but oh so free! They are so quick to make me feel so very special and so deeply loved. They don't care if my hair is grey, or the wrinkles are expanding by the second. All they care about is that I am there and they know I adore them.

I look at my daughter and my love bubbles over because I also love being mom! I think back on the day that title hit me. Once again I wasn't sure I was old enough or wise enough to have that title. As the days passed and the love I had for my own little girl grew until I thought my heart would burst from my chest. I still have that feeling after 40 years.

It makes me think of how God must see me. One day a princess all dressed up and feeling so special. Perhaps the next day not so much. However, just like a nana or a mom that is so in love with her girls, God is crazy in love with me. I can't wait to tell him all about my day or ask Him what are we going to do today. Just like life with 2 little granddaughters, or life with my precious daughter life with God is so unpredictable but oh so free!

God is crazy about you too! Did you know that? Do you believe it? Just check out what he did for you so he could tell you that He's crazy in love with you His precious daughter.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world {YOU} that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

 

Happy Mother's Day

 

Coffee for Your Heart

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