Making This Summer Count

Happy Friday friends!
Isn't summer the best?!?!  I am SO happy to see the sun after so much rain!  Thank you Jesus! Watching the sunrise this morning was so refreshing.  It rises every morning, but sometimes we just can't see it...because the clouds cover it...


And I'm reflecting on bible study last night with my sweet sisters-in-Christ, they truly are the best!  We're studying the book of Hosea.  In depth.  Chapter by chapter, verse by verse.  I'm coming to understand the love and character of God in ways I never have before.  Last night we were in chapter 6.  After all of this time of Israel running after other gods, they are returning. 

Hosea 6:3- "Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge Him.  As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth."


Such a beautiful verse, so hope-filled.  Israel, the unfaithful people.  After rejecting God and running after other gods, they are returning.  What strikes me is how confident they are that He will come to them.  Even now.  After how they've treated Him.  How do they know that He won't turn away from them after they've run from Him for so long?  Because they know Him.  They know that His faithfulness isn't dependent upon their faithfulness to Him. Oh, aren't you grateful that His faithfulness isn't dependent upon us in any way?  He is faithful as the sunrise. 


Just let that sink in.


Another amazing thing is that He doesn't wait for them to come to Him.  As soon as they acknowledge Him He comes.  Because He's been waiting for His people to return to Him.  He wants their hearts.  He wants their devotion.  He's been waiting for them.  His people.


While we run from Him He waits.  He wants our devotion, He wants our hearts.  He waits for our return, and when we acknowledge Him He comes. 


As I was walking in from bible study last night I looked up at the millions of stars.  Oh city people, I don't know how you do it!  Country skies are breathtaking!  And I just thought, the One who created all of this beauty, the Star-breather loves me and desires a relationship with me.  I stood there for a few minutes just letting that soak into my heart and mind.  How awesome.  I am so grateful for his great love and faithfulness. 

Some days it's so easy to see Him all around me and others I really have to look for Him.  We humans are just so focused on what's right in front of us that we sometimes miss what's really going on, the bigger picture.  My goal this summer is to slow down.  I'm always so busy, with good things, but I just want to make sure I don't get distracted from my ministry because I'm too distracted by my busy schedule.  I know that's not God's plan for me. 

I just want to grab hold of summer with both hands and not let it slip by without making my days and hours count.  Sometimes I think growing up makes you not enjoy life anymore.  Not that you're necessarily unhappy, you just don't have time to slow down and enjoy where you are.  So this summer I'm making time to enjoy it.  I'm gonna read more books, drink more coffee, wake up and put my swimsuit on instead of clothes (when you work from home you can work in a swimsuit and take pool breaks.  Yay!), and snack on popsicles and fruit all day.  I want to watch the sun rise and set and have coffee with my favorite ladies.  I want to leave the make-up off and take the extra morning time to have another cup of coffee and read an extra chapter in my bible.  I want to do more craft projects, because that's what I truly love doing, working with my hands.  I want to take more pictures, write more, dream more, learn more of God's heart for me. 

I'm off to a good start.  My kitchen table has been covered with paper, ribbon, jewelry, lace, paint, picture frames and feathers for days!  Dad can hardly eat at the table, which he hates!  I got back involved in a ministry that I have such a heart for, volunteering a few hours every other week to answering calls and counseling with women who are going through unplanned pregnancies.  I cannot even tell you how rewarding it has been!  There are hard aspects to it as well as there is with any ministry, but it's better good than bad.  God is good.  What a blessing it is to serve Him!  The stack of books under my bed has grown and grown and grown.  SO. MUCH. READING!!! 

Welcome summer!  So happy you are finally here!


Have a blessed weekend everyone!  Enjoy celebrating your dads!

#LIKEAGIRL

All throughout the bible satan has wanted to silence girls.  Take Eve for example.  Satan started with Eve to get to Adam.  He told her lies and got her to believe them in an attempt to destroy her.  Gen. 3:1 "Did God really say?"  Eve listened to the voice of satan instead of listening to the voice of God.  And we've been listening to the lies ever since. 

As girls, we were created to bring forth life. Satan knows that and wants to silence us. 

I was blessed with the opportunity to be a counselor and speaker at a girls conference over the weekend.  I believe it's one of the greatest things I've ever been a part of.  We had a mix of all ages.  86-6 years old.  It was a wonderful time of learning, laughing, dancing (lots of dancing), singing, eating, praying and worshipping our Lord together.  There were also many tears as some of the girls and each of the speakers shared our deepest insecurities.  It's a difficult, and very humbling thing to voice your deepest insecurity from a stage to a roomful of girls, but to be truly free, you have to come out of hiding.  We wanted the girls to know that we all struggle, we all have areas that hurt to talk about, but that in that room surrounded by sisters-in-Christ who love and care for their hearts, it was a safe place to come out of hiding.  There's freedom in exposing the raw and messy, because if you don't, you'll never stop hurting.  I don't know why we didn't have a box of tissue in every chair because oh my heavens!  I know we all cried at least once! 

I cried when a young lady shared about her dad leaving and how she lost her joy for a long time-and again, when she shared how God brought her through it and she got her song back.  I cried when a young mom shared about her struggle with her weight, and again, when a little girl came up to me for prayer saying that she struggles with feeling like she's not enough.  "Oh sweet girl, but you are.  You are exactly who God made you to be." 

Looking out into that audience of ladies old and young I saw such beauty.  Each and every one is so beautiful in her own way.  But for most of them, they can't see it because they've believed the lies that they're not skinny enough, pretty enough, strong enough, brave enough, not enough. 

I told the girls that if they have given their life to Christ that they are His princess, His chosen daughter, and that when they begin to see themselves the way that God sees them that it will change their lives forever.  I know it's true because it's changed mine.  If you can understand just a fraction of the love your Heavenly Father has for you, you can't ever live the same again. 

Ladies, you are chosen, loved, redeemed, spoken for.  We are called to live set apart, to be different than the world, to guard our hearts, minds and bodies.  Having higher standards doesn't mean we think we're better than anyone else, it just means we live for a higher calling.  We are called to honor God in the way we live. 

Remember who you are.  You are His.

Loving my new tank!