Category Archives: Guest Blogger

Back Off! She’s MINE! Guest Post by my daughter!

I am so blessed to have children that will repeat the Bible back to me…as adults…as in, making sure I stay on the straight and narrow.
My daughter, Faith, has inspired me in so many ways with her mothering skills, her Godly focus on her marriage and her calling, and her humility.
I am so honored to share her first blog with you!
~Christi

Marriage is such a very spectacular and amazing adventure. It isn’t like anything else that we can experience in this life. In no other situation to do you come in possession of a person and in turn become another person’s possession. Not in the terms of a thing or a slave, but in a very unique and incredible way this person belongs to you and only you.

Throughout our lives we will have relationships with people who are “our people”. My mother, my friend, my son, my daughter. But in those relationships your “ownership” of those people is not exclusive. My mother is not just my mother, she is also my brother’s and sister’s mother. My friend is also the friend of other people. You get the picture. I do not have exclusive rights to these people, I share them with others. Yes they are mine but they are also part of other people’s relationships that mirror mine.

Marriage is something else entirely, in marriage I give myself to you and you give yourself me, excluding all others. My rights are not sharable or transferrable to anyone. You are mine and I am yours. There is no one else. It is because of this that I believe Christ used marriage as an analogy for his relationship with us, “I am the Lord’s and He is mine.” He is MINE! Have you ever seen a movie scene or read a book where the girl says, “Back off, he’s taken.”? You have a right of possession, a right of jealousy if you will. The Lord says He is a jealous God, he wants our hearts to be His and His alone. It doesn’t just go one way either – you have a right of possession of God. He has given himself to you as your bridegroom.

As I walk through my life I know that my husband is there to back me up, straighten me out, and lift me up. Because I belong to him, he will protect me with everything in his power and take me where I need to go. How much more so with God! I have a right of possession of Him, He belongs to me and I can believe that He is walking beside me, behind me and ahead of me, every minute of my life, constantly available to me because He belongs to me. In turn because I belong to Christ He has possession of me and stands in the way when things will harm me. He pulls on me when I need pulled. He tells Satan, “Back off, she’s taken.” How powerful is that?! “Back off, she’s mine!”

Today as you go through life stand tall knowing that not only are you fearfully, and wonderfully made, not only are you a work worthy of God, but you have a knight, a defender, a protector. This God man is actively, tirelessly, and passionately standing in the gap for you, taking the heat for you, and showering you with more love than you could ever ask for. Walk strong today because he says to you, “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.”

~Faith Gibson
mother of three wonderful boys
husband to my favorite son-in-law~

She is a stay at home mom, who homeschools her oldest, while overseeing the younger two.
She has asked me to move into her backyard, so I will be able to enjoy her wisdom face-to-face from now on!
I also am looking forward to grandbaby hugs and kisses and giggles and squeals!
I also think I have the best son-in-law in the world!

We love this family so much….

If you do not know if the above is true for you, here are two resources:
Got Questions provides a detailed explanation of The Roman’s Road.
Billy Graham’s version of the Plan of salvation

Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

“The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear.
If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation.
If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself.” – from My Utmost for His highest

Copyrights and Legal-eze
There are many organizations that support children and families. Here are ones that we are blessed to be a part of. Please consider sponsoring a child – the life you change could be your own.

Naomi’s Heart Ministries
Obed’s House Ministries
Project Based Missions, Global
The son of a friend will be interning with CRU – previously known as Campus Crusades for Christ. If you’d like to support someone I can vouch for in this area, please consider going to Matthew Plant’s donation page.
Compassion

28 days of Grace – Day 13

What holds you back?
Why don’t you move forward?
Why do you hold back from doing your best?

I don’t have any answers for this one….since, I have just completed the 60 day challenge with T-Tapp, and I am struggling with the idea that I held back.
Could I have done more floor exercises? Sure.
Could I have eaten better the first 6 weeks? Sure.
Could I have been more consistent with what I knew to do? Of course.

The question is, did I take every moment, and make the choice to move forward? Fail forward if I needed to?
I don’t know.

Life is made up of choices…and we are the composite of all of our choices.
We are not in control of what others do to us, but we are in control of our reactions and replies.

The past 6 weeks, my husband did a challenge of his own.
Here is his blog post:

ON GOALS, CHALLENGES, AND DOING THE LITTLE THINGS,
by Jim Wildman
As I’ve said before, I frequent the Nerdfitness online community as “wildross”. Every couple of months the community runs a “6 week challenge”. Participants post 3 fitness goals and 1 life goal, then track their progress. In the most recent challenge, and video game system for scoring points was added (which I’ve ignored). The community is divided into “Guilds” depending on what your fitness focus is. Mine is weightlifting, so I’m a “Warrior”. My most recent 6 week challenge thread is here. As part of this 6 week challenge, the guild leaders proposed we try to lift the weight of a loaded space shuttle (4,000,000+ pounds) before the Enterprise was set on the deck of the USS Intrepid on June 6th. To track our progress, they published a Google spreadsheet and divided us into 2 teams.

Right off the bat I saw that keeping track of total weight lifted instead of just repetitions and sets added a different flavor to the competition. All lifts were counted at full weight, with pullups counting at 90% of bodyweight and pushups counting at 60% of bodyweight. I started out doing between 15 and 20,000 pounds of lifting during a workout.

On May 8th, I proposed a challenge to do 30,000# of weights in one session (no allowance for bodyweight exercises). That seemed like a real stretch goal to me. Two guys immediately did over 40,000#. It took about a week and I did it too. Not as hard as I thought at all. One competitor proposed a 100,000# workout. (No one has done that yet, but I believe I can with a bit more conditioning.)

As the challenge went on, I constantly had to revise my goals. 30,000# in a workout became my “standard”. I did it for 2 weeks straight, 5 days a week, with a max of 61,000# on the last day. I thought I would lift a total of 250,000# in the 6 weeks, then 300,000#, then 500,000#, then 700,000#… I ended up lifting over 970,000# of weights in the 6 weeks (including body weight exercises).

So what did I learn from all this lifting?? Maybe nothing new, but lots of basic things got solidly reinforced.

Consistency matters: going to the gym every day (or as my goal was, 5 days a week) adds up. A number or goal that seems impossible is attainable in steps.
Little things matter: the team I was not on “won” the challenge, mostly because several of the women realized that the pushups were “easy” and added up. One did 1,000 pushups in the last weekend (having never done more then a couple dozen in a day before); 10 or 20 at a time. Another did 500. Several of the men did as well.
Success breeds success: once we knocked off the 30,000# goal, we knew we could go much higher and were encouraged to do so. Once the women realized that they could do a set of 10 pushups every half hour, all day, it became possible to do it several days in a row.
To accomplish big things, you need to do a few little things well: The basis for my average of over 30,000# a day is my ability to do over head presses and bench presses. I can do 10 sets of 10 with a considerable amount of weight, every day. I would fill out the workout with other exercises, but those 2 were the base.
Lay the ground work by doing the little things every day: Early on in the challenge, I often thought about doing pushups before bedtime or before I took a shower, but I didn’t do it. 7 pushups a day would have put me over 1,000,000# for the challenge. But I didn’t know that until it was too late to make up the difference.
You have to use all your resources to do big things: I can’t lift 30,000# in a session with just my arms, or in just one exercise (at least not yet). But I have a number of exercises that use different sets of muscles that I can alternate. By varying the routine, I use the energy stored in all my muscles and get more done.
This one is old…slow and steady wins the race: Big and flashy wears you out.

So where does this leave me? Very encouraged at what I can do physically. Very humbled that I have not applied these simple principles to other areas of my life. I’ve sold myself short in many areas because I’ve swung for the fences (big splash) or thought a particular goal was beyond me. Or as the prophet Isaiah said it “Line upon line, precept upon precept”

So what big goal can you break down into little bit size pieces??

GREAT QUESTION!!!!
I’ve been held back because I could only see doing a Triathlon…not walking 1/4 mile 4 times a day.
I could only see doing the Full 15 minute Basic Workout for T-Tapp – not doing the 9 minute chair workout, twice.
I can only see the whole book written, not writing one chapter at a time.

I have been held back by seeing the hugeness of the task, and not breaking it into smaller bites.
Our daughter, Faith, memorized a poem from Shel Silverstein’s book, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and I can hear her recite it in my ear today:

Melinda Mae
Have your heard of tiny Melinda Mae,
Who ate a monstrous whale?
She thought she could,
She said she would,
So she started right in at the tail.

And everyone said, “You’re much too small,”
But that didn’t bother Melinda at all.
She took little bites and she chewed very slow,
Just like a good girl should…

…And in eighty-nine years she ate that whale
Because she said she would!

I pray that it doesn’t take me 89 years, but thanks to Jim, and several ladies I will be praising in one of my future blogs, I am making steps forward.
Here’s my favorite small steps song:

The goals Jim’s team made seemed impossible when they made them.
I do have to keep my health limitations in mind….but, I need to give myself grace, I need to look at things in smaller bites, shorter steps…one step at a time!
Thanks, Jim!

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Romans 5:1-2

Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

“The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear.
If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation.
If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself.” – from My Utmost for His highest

I’d love to hear what you think – please leave a comment!
Or ‘like’ me!

If you like The WildBerry Patch, follow me with the RSS feed.

We have email subscription! Or sign up for an account, and you can manage your subscription from the dashboard!
Soon, we will have a gallery for the art I have created by the hand of God.

Naomi's Heart Mission

Help a child in need. Check out Naomi’s Heart Mission or Compassion International. The life that changes will be your own!

28 Days of Grace – day 11: The folded napkin

I got this in my email today, and it really hit me in the context of meals, eating, lifestyle, etc. I have reprinted it here:

So Why Did JESUS Fold The Napkin?
Do you know why? This is just beautiful.

Why Did Jesus Fold the Napkin?

This is one I can honestly say I have never seen circulating in the e-mails so; I’ll start it.. If it touches you , You might want to forward it.

Why did Jesus fold the linen burial cloth after His resurrection? I never noticed this….

The Gospel of John (20:7) tells us that the napkin, which was placed over the face of Jesus, was not just thrown aside like the grave clothes.

The Bible takes an entire verse to tell us that the napkin was neatly folded, and was placed at the head of that stony coffin.

Early Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.

She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, ‘They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and I don’t know where they have put him!’

Peter and the other disciple ran to the tomb to see. The other disciple out ran Peter and got there first. He stopped and looked in and saw the linen cloth lying there, but he didn’t go in.

Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying to the side.

Was that important? Absolutely!
Is it really significant? Yes!

In order to understand the significance of the folded napkin, you have to understand a little bit about Hebrew tradition of that day.
The folded napkin had to do with the Master and Servant, and every
Jewish boy knew this tradition.

When the servant set the dinner table for the master, he made sure that it was exactly the way the master wanted it.

The table was furnished perfectly, and then the servant would wait, just out of sight, until the master had finished eating, and the servant would not dare touch that table, until the master was finished..

Now if the master were done eating, he would rise from the table, wipe his fingers, his mouth, and clean his beard, and would wad up that napkin and toss it onto the table.

The servant would then know to clear the table. For in those days, the wadded napkin meant, “I’m finished..”

But if the master got up from the table, and folded his napkin, and laid it beside his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table, because……….

The folded napkin meant,
“I’m coming back!”

AND SO HE SHALL!!!

And so He shall return –

Luke 18:8 Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

Why is that in red? Because those are the words of Jesus as told to us in the book of Luke.
Jesus has just proclaimed that:

And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. (Luke 18:7)

Prayer….
Though HE bear long with them….
God will avenge…

Mary Magdalene, along with all the others, felt that the Lord had left them all alone.
Jesus had told them about this judge that didn’t fear anyone, even God, but a widow had come to him over and over and over to be avenged of her adversary…and he chose to do so, because of her constant appeals.
Jesus said that we should pray like that widow.
In fact, Luke says:

And he spake a parable unto them [to this end], that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; (Luke 18:1)

The point of the email was that Jesus is coming back…there is another meal being prepared…who is going to be found ‘worthy’ to sit at that table?
Servants of faith! (not fear – not to self)

Hebrews 11:1-3 says

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
For by it the elders obtained a good report.
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

By FAITH the elders obtained a good report!

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Without FAITH – it is impossible to please God!

I wrote a series of blogs about Giants in my land, and one of those giants was the Giant of Fear.

Fear and Faith cannot co-exist.
Fear holds me back,
Faith propels me forward.
Fear steals my happiness,
Faith impels me to joy.
Fear makes me paralyzed,
Faith compels me to LOVE.

(mcw 6/8/2012)

Why do I continue to climb my way forward?
Because I have faith that HE is coming back for me!
He folded His napkin!
By His GRACE, I’ll be ready!

Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

I’d love to hear what you think – please leave a comment!
Or ‘like’ me!

If you like The WildBerry Patch, follow me with the RSS feed. We have email subscription! Or sign up for an account, and you can manage your subscription from the dashboard!
Soon, we will have a gallery for the art I have created by the hand of God.

Naomi's Heart Mission

Help a child in need. Check out Naomi’s Heart Mission or Compassion International. The life that changes will be your own!

28 days of Grace – Day 10

10 days out of 28…
or 10 days into the rest of my life!

My husband, Jim, wanted to share some thoughts…and I appreciate them, and him.
So, heeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeesssssssssssss JIM!

Jim Wildman – my husband of almost 32 years, and best friend for almost 40, and the father of my five children.

As Christi has pointed out, she (and I, though she has not said that) have had a real struggle with fast food. This goes back probably 15 years. In the evening, this has taken two forms. One is that she calls or texts me on my way home to swing through <name a fast food restaurant>. The other form is that I get home, then she asks me to go get something.

Since she started the yeast free diet 10 days ago, she has not done either of these even one time!! This really hit me tonight as I was driving home and she didn’t call me (I realized that I was expecting her to call). When I got home, I could smell supper from outside the trailer! What a wonderful aroma! And she had the table set and worship music playing. After supper (which we finished early because I did not have to go get it), we played a game of Scrabble Apple. One good thing leads to many others!

God is so good to strengthen my wife’s heart and will to be able to stick to a new way of eating!!

Here’s supper. Grilled salmon, sweet potato with coconut oil, quinoa salad with cucumbers, snap peas, and green onions. Very yum..

So much better than whatever fast food we would have had. As we were eating, it struck me..it can be very hard to give up things we “like”, even when we know those things are either outright bad, or at least not good for us. Even when we can see the bad side effects in our bodies, we still justify or explain away our behavior. I was thinking about this with food, but it applies just as well to sin. Making healthy choices is a struggle. Making holy choices is a struggle. Eating healthy must become a life style. Living holy must become a life style. There is no other real choice for a Christian.

~Christi here:

It has been a prayer of mine since becoming ill, and handicapped to be able to take care of my husband as he has taken care of me.
Because of hip issues, and the chronic pain from Fibromyalgia, I have not been able to stand at the stove/sink/counter long enough to prepare a meal, much less clean up after it.
I have been able to enjoy exploring my old cooking skills as my energy has been growing.

I am so blessed that God has blessed me and I have been able to bless Jim.

Easy Quinoa Recipe: How to cook Quinoa in a Microwave
1 C quinoa
2 C water
put in 2 qt microwave bowl with loose lid/cover

cook for 3 minutes
sit for 1
stir
cook another 3 minutes
sit for 1
stir

Quinoa is done when all the liquid is absorbed and the white outer starts spiraling off.

Then, treat it like rice!

Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

I’d love to hear what you think – please leave a comment!
Or ‘like’ me!

If you like The WildBerry Patch, follow me with the RSS feed.

We have email subscription! Just sign up for an account, and you can manage your subscription from the dashboard!
Soon, we will have a gallery for the art I have created by the hand of God.

Naomi's Heart Mission

Help a child in need. Check out Naomi’s Heart Mission or Compassion International. The life that changes will be your own!

A Guest Blogger – on Lifetime Goals

My dear friend, Elizabeth Ours, the writer of Yes, They’re All Ours, wrote an interesting blog today.

My Lifetime Priorities and Goals

My comment to her post is this:
I agree that we need to find ways to remind ourselves of what God has put in our paths for our life.

I have written out goals almost every year in January, and one of the things I find interesting is how often, I’ve misplaced last year’s set. And the other thing that is interesting, is how often, when I find last years set – they are almost identical.

One of the neat things, though, is to look and see how far I’ve come since last year. Usually not as far as I’d hoped, but much father than if I had never set goals.

I find Elizabeth to be a Godly woman of influence in my life.

I would recommend following her posts!

Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

I’d love to hear what you think – please leave a comment!
Or ‘like’ me!

If you like The WildBerry Patch, follow me with the RSS feed.
Soon, we’ll have email subscription.

Naomi's Heart Mission

Help a child in need. Check out Naomi’s Heart Mission or Compassion International. The life that changes will be your own!

100 Spiritual Steps #40 – “A Word on Fire Extinguishers”

I stared this morning with my through the Bible readings.

I started this morning with several blogs that I have to write.

I started this morning with some concerns for my focus with my life.

I started this morning with my facebook to check up on a few of my prayer concerns(as in, people that I pray for).

What I got was a dear friend, Vicki Small’s status saying this:

“I wish I didn’t understand this post so well, that I had always “walked the walk” and spoken, as Dave says, when the Holy Spirit gave me the opportunity. Too often have I quenched the Spirit out of fear of rejection or ridicule. Not since the 9th grade, the end of my “zeal without knowledge,” have I been one to push my faith on those who weren’t interested. Ugh. In my 20’s, there were times when I tried, in fear and in trembling, to pull of some evangelistic strategy promoted by my church. The last time was such a bomb that I swore, “Never again.” The result has been most of a lifetime of NOT speaking up; on the other hand, if you’re not walking the walk, it’s best not to talk, isn’t it?
Sorry. That is not the direction of Dave’s post, and I encourage my friends who love and follow Christ Jesus to read it. It’s good for chills up your spine.

Her status shocked me.

Her words unnerved me.

Vicki is one of the ones that inspires me to be better, to be more compassionate, to be more Christ like…and she’s confessing that she doesn’t think she quenches the Holy Spirit? This blog sent chills up her spine? What does this guy say?

A Word on Fire Extinguishers

This not only sent chills up my spine, it set a fire under my bum.

Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

“The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear. If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself.” – from My Utmost for His highest

I’d love to hear what you think – please leave a comment!
Or ‘like’ me!

Or follow me with the RSS feed.

Naomi's Heart Mission

Help a child in need. Check out Naomi’s Heart Mission or Compassion International. The life that changes will be your own!

Guest Blogger – Trisch – What about Job?

My friend Trisch shared this today, in light of several of us having multiple crises in our lives. I asked if I could put it here…I want to keep this thought around forever! At least, while the internet exists! ~C

I used to wonder how Job did so well then spent 30+ chapters whining!

Almost 7 years ago, when Dallas nearly was killed in his bad accident (caused by a driver on cocaine and marijuana), I found out and understood Job better!

Worship is just what you’re saying, C(another person’s comment). Saying, “I might not understand, I might not like it or feel good, but I believe You are still on the Throne, and although it doesn’t make sense in my world, You have a greater plan and it will be beautiful in Your plan.”

We can’t make sense of things here, because we’re seeing them temporally and through finite eyes. We need His “eyes” to see the Eternal and the infinite. By worship we say I trust You in this.

Just Friday the Lord showed me how I had a small piece of my heart still hardened from one of my miscarriages that was almost 22 years ago. I felt “dead” emotionally. At the time I just thought it was due to the loss, the hormones, etc. It was right before Christmas, 1989, and of course, right before Jessica’s birthday (24th). It seemed that although I got over it and have even asked God’s forgiveness for my bitterness over the years, I reserved a little piece for me–walled it off. Deep down was the “how could God be good when we’ve given Him total control of our fertility and He keeps taking babies to Heaven?” (I’d lost 4 by that point…..little did I know….)

Friday morning I asked Him to show me, why. Why was there this little “dead spot” within me. He had already told me a year ago my struggles were with His Sovereignty, especially since the last miscarriage (almost 3 years ago) and the unexpected death of my mom.

Ladies, when I asked Him that question, I had just been worshiping Him. I have felt Him drawing me more and more into worship. Worship as the main part of my prayer time. Worship before petition, intercession, supplication. Praise and worship. I’m using Psalms, praying one Psalm a day and sometimes even half a one. Really slowing it down!

I read over the names of God in a little booklet I have–several for each day. To remind me of Who He *really* is.

I’ve been giving a lot of things up to Him, my mom being one of them, and I thought I had given all our losses of babies to Him, too. So when I asked Him that question, really wanting to know, really ready to give it all up to Him, that is what He showed me.

“Thou art good, and doest good; teach me Thy statutes.” Psalm 119:68

The night of Dallas’ accident, when I couldn’t go to sleep in the ICU waiting lounge, I read my Bible and this verse stood out.

That is what I told Him when He showed me my heart Friday morning. YOU are good. EVERYTHING You do is GOOD. Whether I understand it, see the reason for it, like it, whatever, I will speak Truth in my heart.

I can’t trust Him if I don’t speak the Truth about Who He is in my heart. That has really come out a
lot in the past week in my quiet time.

When I make the “faith declaration”, as our pastor calls it, it moves His heart. David made a lot of faith declarations when things weren’t exactly going great!

The feelings come later.

I’ve been making these declarations and feeling a bit freer each time, but Friday it was like I realized that *I* was the one holding the chains on! He had already unlocked them….I needed to speak the Truth to my heart that He is trustworthy, even in tragedy, even in losses upon losses…..then I see that I can walk out of this self-made prison and be FREE and ALIVE!

I can’t begin to explain the LIFE I feel in my heart since Friday!

I am not saying I’m perfected now and will never sin again and not trust Him! 😛 I know it is a constant process. Remember Otto Konig? How he thought he’d learned the lesson of the “pineapples” and then he realized that was first grade, and now he was in second grade?! I think that is how it is. We learn it, then another layer is peeled back. We confess, make a faith declaration of trust and worship, another layer peeled back.

I want to deal with the flesh, because I love Him. Not to get anything from Him other than the openness of relationship with Him.

I can’t make anyone else change, but I can worship Him and pray Scripture for them (that way I don’t pray my own will!).

I am realizing that I am to be lifting Him up, and HE does the drawing of all men. So the first place I need to lift Him up is in my own heart–to worship Him.

I am reminded that there is Eternity to live for–there are rewards and glories there that I can’t begin to fathom! I’ve recently gotten tiny, tiny glimpses of the glory that awaits me there–of course Jesus Himself is enough of a reason! But 14 children with Him….losing both my parents before I am even 50 years old…..the accidents, auto-immune disorders, Dad’s disease robbing me of his relationship for 4 years before he died….

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:17-18

Well, I’m rambling, but I thought it interesting that this came up in light of what He’s been showing
me in my own life lately!

~Trisch
Trisch writes a blog called “Never a Dull Moment”
~ I commented to this thread ~

I have found in my experience that every time I fall down and worship, I have the right response to a situation. I may be able to fake a right response sometimes. I have gotten to the point where I am able to say to Jim, when I am ‘out of sorts’ about something, “I need some alone time with Jesus on this one before I say something I might regret.”

“We enter into HIS presence with praise and thanksgiving – and in HIS presence we find the joy and the strength to deal with the world – which definitely IS NOT in His presence!”

Thank you, Trisch!
Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

I’d love to hear what you think – please leave a comment! Or ‘like’ me! Or follow me with the RSS feed.

Naomi's Heart Mission

Help a child in need. Check out Naomi’s Heart Mission or Compassion International. The life that changes will be your own!

Just 10 Minutes – by Guest Blogger Kirsten Tucker

~from Christi ~ I have talked about having to redeem the time, and I have talked about how much could get done if we just did 10-15 minutes a day. Here is a lovely post by my friend and trainer, Kirsten Tucker:

Just 10 Minutes

by brngckn on June 22, 2011

Italy is fast! Nothing takes nothing more than 10 minutes. Nothing is more than a 10 minute walk or drive away. The train will arrive in 10 minutes.
(BIG HUGE WINK)

If you’ve ever been to Italy, you know everything is a little slow, a little late, but it all works out in the end. It’s the “manana” or “island time” idea but with European flair! I can’t help but wonder though, why TEN minutes? Why not 20? or 5?

When I visited Japan, 20 minutes was the standard response if you asked how long it took to walk to somewhere. Are 10 and 20 easy numbers in a linguistic sense – easy for non-native English speakers to remember? So, regardless of the actual time required, 10 and 20 are standard responses? Are 10 and 20 magic numbers? Are 10 and 20 minutes timeframes we feel more comfortable with than others? Any linguists out there?

Ah, well – I am back home in the USA now. I’ve got about 10 minutes ’til I have to be somewhere.
(BIG WINK)

Kirsten Tucker is a certified Level 1, 2 & 3 Hoopnotica hoopdance instructor, Level 1 & 2 BodyHoops instructor, play advocate and Certified Laughter Leader. She offers hoop classes and training in NW Houston and worldwide. She is the founder of Houston Spin Stars hoop Meetup group. She thinks hoopy thoughts every day.

~~Her post today made me think of the verses:

Ps 90:12 So teach [us] to number our days, that we may apply [our] hearts unto wisdom.
Eph 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

~~Eph 5:16 says it a little more clearly in the NIV translation:

…making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

Making the most of every opportunity…

10 minutes a day – 365 days a year = 3650 minutes = 60.83 hours.
Imagine the impact that 60.83 hours of practice, workouts, reading, or even cleaning would have on our lives!!!

Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

I’d love to hear what you think – please leave a comment! Or ‘like’ me! Or follow me with the RSS feed.

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Help a child in need. Check out Naomi’s Heart Mission or Compassion International. The life that changes will be your own!

Hidden Snares! Guest Blogger Beth Blair

Sometimes someone else writes something that is so perfect for me, that I ask them to share it here…my friend Beth shared this the other day, and I hope anyone that reads this hear will be as blessed as I am!

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This morning as I was coming back into the house after taking my husband to work, I noticed on the bushes to my left was a nice-sized spider web. (see pic below)

Dewy Spider web on bush

Now I have been past that same bush many times over the past several days, and I never noticed that web. This morning, however, is a particularly humid morning, and the dew settled on the web and made it visible.

Yahweh, as He always does with me, related a lesson to me through that visible web. He told me that we MUST be aware of the hidden snares of the enemy!
Just because we cannot always see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there. We can walk by them time and time again and not realize that we are only inches away from being caught up in them!
It is only when we walk in the Ruach (Spirit) that the dew of His discernment can illuminate those hidden snares for us so we can avoid their trap!

And notice the hole at the top in the middle of the web pictured.
He also spoke to me of His grace.
If circumstances or temptations don’t allow us to see the snare of the enemy and we get caught up in his trap, Yahweh has provided a way of escape! There’s a hole in that snare!

1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has seized you beyond what people normally experience, and Yahweh can be trusted not to allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. On the contrary, along with the temptation He will also provide the way out, so that you will be able to endure.
Psalm 124:7-8 We escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowler; the trap is broken, and we have escaped. 8 Our help is in the name of Yahweh, the maker of heaven and earth.

In Messiah’s Service, Mrs. Beth Blair

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Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

I’d love to hear what you think – please leave a comment! Or ‘like’ me! Or follow me with the RSS feed.

Naomi's Heart Mission

Help a child in need. Check out Naomi’s Heart Mission or Compassion International. The life that changes will be your own!

Renewing your mind….by Nellwyn Blackmon

Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Wow! Such a powerful verse this morning! Such an awesome “gift” to start my day!

I can be transformed. I can transform my thinking. I can transform my life. I can transform my body. I can transform my health.

All by the renewing of my mind. By changing my thought processes. By changing how I react to things.

I don’t have to listen to what the world is telling me. It’s up to me! And in doing so I will be bringing honor and glory to God. I will be proving and living the will of God. What better testimony could I want?

I think too often we try to “tell” the world about God while we don’t “show” the world through our own lives. I know I do. It’s a lot easier for me to tell someone about being disciplined than to actually show them discipline. We teach our daughters that they should have self-control over their bodies while we sit on the sofa scarfing down oreo cookies. We teach our sons that they should live a disciplined and controlled life while driving along, reacting to the man who cut us off in traffic. And then we wonder what went wrong? Why did they not get it when we told them all this? Steve pointed out to me once that Anna could bring out my “mad momma” side easiest, when she was acting like I was.

There is a lady in my Bible Study who’s daughter has an eating disorder. She made a profound comment the other day, nothing new–I had made that comment to someone in the past. But at the same time, hearing it from someone else drove it home to me. She commented that they had spent all this money, all this time, all these hospitalizations–and still her daughter was anorexic. (She is one of those 4X4 ladies–about 4 feet tall and 4 feet wide-but losing). She said she had talked to her daughter about eating disorders and taken her to counselors. Suddenly one day, when she was praying and pleading to God on her daughter’s behalf, He reminded her of the verse Matthew 7:5. “You hypocrite! Take the beam out of your own eye and then worry about taking the splinter out of someone elses eye!!” She realized that her lack of self-control, her “I want it, I like it” attitude about food was as serious and deadly of an eating disorder as her daughter’s anorexia. And that while she sat there asking God to heal her daughter of her food disorder while enjoying her own–she was nothing but a hypocrite.

She said she immediately asked for forgiveness for her attitude. For the fact that she was looking at her daughter’s eating disorder through one set of glasses, and at her own through a rosy pair of glasses that made everything look better. She said that she went to her daughter and asked her daughter’s forgiveness for preaching a lie to her through all this, for reacting to her daughter’s anorexia while justifying her own gluttony…..and then she began to work on her own eating disorder. She joined Weight Watchers. She went to a counselor to deal with stuff from her past that was causing her to turn to food for comfort. She quit getting on her daughter’s case about food diaries, and weight. Instead she transformed her mind and began to deal with her own beam. As she began to eat healthier, and to lose weight herself–and most importantly, to quit turning to food for comfort, she said it had been unreal how her daughter’s attitude had changed toward her. And that she realized that all these years, she had been living blind to the fact that she was no different than her daughter. And that whereas she always felt her daughter was being judgmental, she was simply reacting to hearing one “testimony” and watching another one. She also said that God reminded her that the only eating disorder in Scripture was gluttony….and He had plenty to say about that! 🙂

She renewed her mind, and she has begun to transform not only her life, but her daughter’s life, and the future generations in their family.

According to this, all I have to do is to renew my mind….and then I will be transformed.

Awesome!

Nellwyn