Quenched

For I will give you abundant water to quench your thirst and to moisten your parched fields. And I will pour out my Spirit and my blessings on your children.  They will thrive like watered grass, like willows on a riverbank. (Isaiah 44:3-4)

Empty, dry, deserted.  Sometimes my spirit feels exhausted.  It happens when I pour myself out.  It happens when I am faced with an extreme situation.  But it often happens when the winds of life pick me up and I don't step foot on the ground for what feels like an eternity.  Daily life can wring me dry.  But when I remember my First Love and run to his refuge, I am quenched.  My parched, dry, weary heart is filled again, and I know.  I know that I am loved, cared for, planned for, and overwhelmed by refreshment.  
Sometimes, I even think that God wants us to realize our desert-state.  Then, we really realize our need for him and when we are quenched by him...

But then I will win her back once again. I will lead her out into the desert and speak tenderly to her there. (Hosea 2:14)

Monday, Monday

I'm loving Valerie's Monday Mantra... So I stole it!  

This week I'm hoping to have half-way bare feet every single day!

3 Cheers for flip-flop tan lines!

I believe that God is going to draw near to our ministry and our people this week as we focus on fasting and what that means.

I'm addicted to Bare Minerals.  Seriously.  Sorry for the over kill (kind of).

I wish my gas gauge would never near E.  I don't like gas stations, stopping, or spending that money.  (Can you tell that is on my to-do list today?)

 

I'm jealous of the people who get to spend 8 hours a day with my hubby at work.  I'm not jealous of the work part, just the time part.  Let's keep that straight.

Soundtrack/Mantra for the week:  Heal my heart and make it clean.  Open up my eyes to the things unseen.  Show me how to love like you have loved me.  Break my heart for what breaks Yours - Everything I am for Your Kindgdom's cause.  (Hosannah - Hillsong)

Tiny Offering

Happy Easter

This weekend we spent some time with the people on our block:

My brother's girlfriend (and my friend) Jackie was explaining that the eggs were for the hunt and not to pick them up yet!

Eating candy out of the Easter egg

My youngest brother 

I swung with him forever because I couldn't bear for him to stop giggling.

Remember that I said a family needed diapers?  This is her face when she saw them.

(read about that here)

This is her family in their tiny house.  

What a blessing these people are to us.

What an amazing way to celebrate Easter...

Being Christ's hands extended...

Loving others because he first loved us (John 4).

Such a tiny offering,

Compared to calvary.

Nevertheless,

We lay it at your feet. 

Pleasing

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.  Psalm 20.14

The words of my mouth:  As a woman, I have so many words in my mouth.  Personally, I have a ton of opinions - very strong, black and white, overpowering opinions.  I also have a ton of emotions all of the time.  My mouth, needless to say, is not always a pleasing tool.  However, I desperately want it to be.  I want to be encouraging, just, and I bet that if I give my mouth to God, he can use it for more that I've imagined.  Perhaps, just perhaps, I can be even more than nice.  Maybe he can use me to speak into someone's life.  Maybe he can use me to give praise to him in a desperate situation.  Maybe he can use me to give hope to someone who hasn't met him yet.  That would be wonderful.  I just need to give him my mouth.

The meditations of my heart:  Am I the only one who thinks that if I think something, even if it is bad, or negative, or competitive, or impure, that because it is in my head, it's alright?  I mean, nobody sees my thoughts.  They don't really come out into the way that I live.  Right?  Well, that's not true, and I know it.  I try to convince myself that, but this verse reveals my issue.  My heart and my thoughts, just like my words, need to please God for me to be on the same plane as he is.  My heart is where I harbor bitterness and frustration and pain, and if I keep those things close to me, I am not free and God can not take them and work in those areas of my life.  If he can't work in my life, then I am not as effective for him, and I might not be able to find the peace and joy and love for others that he has available for me!

Have a wonderful Good Friday!

Published

Since before I can remember, I have wanted to be a writer.  Books are and have always been my best friend.  I'm amazed by the way people can utilize words to make you hurt and cry and laugh and change.  I want to do that.  I want to change people with my words.

If you know me, you know that I'm terrified of this.  If you read my blog mini-series, Sueño, you can see some of my recent processes through my complete fear and insecurity.  God has been teaching me about faith and about who he says I am and the gifts that he's given me.  God's security = incredibly increased confidence.  It's a different type of confidence than my own.  My own is critical and unstable, but his is assuring and humbling.

I have to say, it's amazing when we give something to God.  I was tired of asking him how I was ever going to write.  I was exhausted praying over my dreams.  I wanted to do something, and I needed God to show up or I was going to put my dream in a shoebox on a shelf and hope someday it fell down again.

Long story short, God has been showing up in amazing ways.  First, he has given me a heart for a certain subject, and I'm attempting to research (Biblically) and experiment with writing about it.  I'd like to make it into a book someday, but we'll keep that our secret, because something that big still terrifies me.  However, God somehow just introduced into my life small online Christian girl's magazine called Lily Girls (if you know any teens, tell them to read the articles - the other girls are amazing, and it's free to read).  I wasn't researching, and I wasn't trying anything.  God knew what he was doing, and knew when I would be ready.  So, as of this month, I have started writing for them!  My first article was published today!  If you want to read it, you can see it here:  Perfectly Imperfect.

P.S.

I have to send everyone of you a humongous Thank You.  When I have felt as if I'd gone out on a limb by writing something, you encouraged me.  This small feat might seem like nothing to you, but it is so much to me.  And so are my bloggy friends that have been God's tools to fuel me into action.
You are amazing, and I love you!