A Gentle Rebuke Through Discovery

For the last three days my you-version devotional has consisted of the same simple scripture… Psalm 33:3 which says: Sing to him a new song play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts. The first day I read this I thought it was kinda cool because a few short minutes before I started reading it I was singing a song in Spanish to him… now the song that I was singing wasn’t necessarily new but singing it in Spanish was… so I took it as confirmation that I was going in the right direction.

Later on in my reflection time I took the play skillfully on the strings kind of literally and decided that I needed to start playing my violin more often just to play it and praise Him while doing it. I decided that I needed to stop being afraid and stop worrying about my skill set and to play anyway! I left encouraged.

The next day(yesterday) upon reading the same verse. I took it to mean that I need to spend more time perfecting the talents that God has given me… like painting, dancing, writing, and playing the violin… even if I don’t consider myself good at any of it (except for maybe writing)… God has given me an innate desire for all of these things and I need to worship Him accordingly.

And then this morning while reading and meditating on this same verse I discovered that God wants all of our praise, all of our worship, all of our attention, all of the time and anything less is insufficient. I realized that even though I do a pretty decent job of worshiping Him no-holds-bar on Sunday morning I am not doing it during the week. I know that it hasn’t always been this way and it’s not even like I don’t communicate with Him during the week because I do… I talk to Him maybe more than I talk to my husband.

During this morning’s quiet time I realized that what I’ve been doing is bottling all my praise from the week up and trying to release it all on Sunday morning during worship… It hasn’t been working and it has left me yearning for more, and that is why the Lord has been gently nudging me to give Him more.

As I laid in His arms meditating on what I just discovered He gave me a simple and gentle rebuke. One that I am most grateful for. He didn’t yell, or make me feel stupid (not that God would EVER do that but humans do), instead He disciplined me with loving arms wide open showing me what it’s like to be a parent. Of course I repented, and apologized for my behavior and it left me wanting to discipline my children in a similar way; lovingly, gently, with arms wide open. Knowing that it can be done.

Thank you Jesus for opening my eyes, for my gentle rebuke, for teaching me, and speaking to me. Thank you for showing me that your love is real and all you want me to do is experience it first hand through worshiping you. Thank you for your patience and understanding. I love you and I will give all of my talents in worship to you! Amen.

Bolivia Pictures!

Finally!!! Here are the pictures from my awesome and wonderfully blessed trip to Bolivia. For those of you who have no clue what we did while we were there I’ll tell you! We had several days of medical missions, we spent time on one of the college campuses doing outreach and holding conferences, we ministered at different Every Nation churches, we had good food while we where there, celebrated birthdays and even had a tea party… So we had a pretty well-rounded trip… I hope you enjoy the pictures…

Happy Engagement Anniversary!

That’s what a dear friend text me this morning… how she remembered I have no idea… but today is in fact the third anniversary of when I was engaged to be married to my husband…

It was such a special moment one that I had been waiting for all my life and for the last couple of months leading up to it… It was done during our monthly night of worship at church in such a way that only my husband could pull off… I looked a hot mess because well it was the beginning of the weekend after a long day of work and Jesus loves me no matter how I look…

Which anniversaries do you celebrate?

There we were up on stage praying for our youth group that we led together when all of a sudden his prayer changes and its more me focused than youth focused and I was quite confused ( I had my eyes closed)… and then it happened… I finally opened my eyes to see him on one knee with a ring in a jewelry box from Bolivia…  I will always look back on that moment with pure and utter delight! For that was the day we started our forever future together!

So tell me dear readers… do you celebrate seemingly unimportant anniversaries like this or are we the only ones? I’d love to hear which ones you celebrate and why… if you don’t mind sharing that is…

 

Prayers Needed

Hello everyone I know that you all may have been expecting pictures from my recent travels to Bolivia but I promise I will get those up in the next few days… I just wanted to take this time to highlight a great need that I feel which is; the need for prayer!

It's time to PRAY!

Now these prayers are not just for me although I will gladly take them, No in fact they are for people around me who are going through some tough times. Most of these people are in my church family but either way they all need to be lifted up to God the Father… They are going through things like the lost of a child, the death of other family members, sick children, sick family members, sick and disease stricken people (I’m not just talking about the common cold I am talking about things like cancer), loss of jobs, loss of houses… I could go on and on… a lot of people are in serious times of need, where they need more than a smiling face, they need action and by action I mean saints praying to God on their behalf!

So if you are reading this please say a prayer for my church family members and friends in need. I am not giving any names because God already knows exactly who I am talking about and He can bring the healing and the miracle to them without us ever discussing small details. That’s just how wonderful He is. Thank you in advance for all the prayers that will go forth on the behalf of all my family and friends in need. And if you need prayer don’t be afraid to ask for it whether you ask me or someone else… there are people who are willing to pray for and with you, and don’t ever think that something is ever too big or too small to pray about… because it’s not.

Thanks so much again for stopping by and reading this and thanks for your continued prayers. Blessings to you now and always.

Quick Update

Hello everyone I know that you all have been waiting to hear from me… and for that I do apologize… I literally hit the ground running once I got back from Bolivia… speaking of which was fantastic… Thank you for all of the prayers and support to get me there. I truly had nowhere to hide and was made to speak and speak often… which if you all know me is not my thing… God really used that time to build my confidence in Him. I will try to have pictures for you all early next week…

As for my few days in Miami well it rained the whole entire time I was there but it still felt like home. I got to do a little sight seeing and discovery… which was nice… I ate a cuban sandwich on Calle Ocho… and it was amazing. I also spent a lot of time practicing my Spanish. I hope to learn a whole lot more by the end of the year… Since I’ve been back home I have been talking with my husband who is way more fluent that I am… so that’s been fun…

Now that I am back in Clarksville, I have been catching up on sleep and looking for jobs, as well as continuing to pack our belongings, actually I have been trying not to mess up all the great work my husband has done while I was away… our house is getting emptier and emptier… and hopefully as we finish up I will have some good news about a place that wants to hire me… so please keep praying… well that’s all that I’ve been up to… talk to you all later…