God's Chisel

Happy Mother's Day

A MOTHER...
When you're a child she walks before you, To set an example.
When you're a teenager she walks behind you To be there should you need her.
When you're an adult she walks beside you So that as two friends you can enjoy life together..


Mom's smiles can brighten any moment,
Mom's hugs put joy in all our days,
Mom's love will stay with us forever
and touch our lives in precious ways...
The values you've taught,
the care you've given,
and the wonderful love you've shown,
have enriched my life
in more ways than I can count.
I Love you Mom!

Happy Mother's Day to both of our moms! We love you!

Prayer

Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to every prayer made in this place. 2 Chronicles 7:14-15 (New Living Translation)

Today is National Day of Prayer. Our president does not want to acknowledge it, but it is a day to come together and pray for our nation. I would say right now that our nation could use prayer more than ever. We are at war, our economy is bad and people are losing their jobs, families are falling apart, we are a nation that is being morally pulled apart in all directions. Do we need to come together and pray and ask God to forgive us as a nation, as a people? Yes!

I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing. 1 Timothy 2:8

I pulled the following information off the National Day of Prayer web site. The ask each person to pray for SEVEN things each day of the week. They are listed below.

Are you willing to commit to pray for our country seven days a week? Are you able to set aside time in your car, during your coffee break, or before bedtime? We want to challenge you make this prayer commitment. 7x7 involves praying for seven centers of power seven days a week: Government, Military, Media, Business, Education, Church and Family. By remembering these specific prayer points, we can cover all Americans with God's power. Together, we will see positive change!

Why We Pray
As American troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, President Franklin Roosevelt called for our nation to unite in prayer. He also offered a prayer to prepare each citizen for the road ahead. "Let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be. And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee." The victory that followed on June 6, 1944-also known as D-Day-began the march to Berlin. Eighteen months later, WWII was over and one of the world's greatest evils had been defeated. The prayers of a nation had been a powerful force. Prayer has always been used in this country for guidance, protection and strength-even before we were a nation or a handful of colonies. The Pilgrims at Plymouth relied on prayer during their first and darkest winter. Our founding fathers also called for prayer during the Constitutional Congress. In their eyes, our recently created nation and freedoms were a direct gift from God. And being a gift from God, there was only one way to insure protection-through prayer. President Abraham Lincoln knew this well. It was his belief that, "it is the duty of nations as well as men, to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God." When it came to the fate of the nation, he practiced what he preached. Before the battle of Gettysburg, he turned to God in prayer. "I went to my room one day and I locked the door and got down on my knees before Almighty God and prayed to him mightily for victory at Gettysburg." Won by the Union, Gettysburg was one of the turning points in the war that ended slavery and kept the states united.

Today the need for prayer is as great as ever. Our nation again faces battlefields, along with an epidemic of broken homes, violence, sexual immorality and social strife. As the heroes of our nation did in the past, we must again bow our heads in prayer. We must ask the Lord to bless our leaders with wisdom and protection, and that we will have the fortitude to overcome the challenges at hand. If Roosevelt, the Pilgrims and Lincoln never underestimated the power of prayer, neither should we.It is our goal that you, your family and friends would participate in the National Day of Prayer. We pray that the event impacts your life, and that praying for our nation moves from a one-day event to a lifetime endeavor. So join us and pray with conviction that God would continue to shed His grace on thee.

Need to know what prayer is and how to pray? Go here

http://www.ndptf.org/about/index_2989.cfm

Faith

Faith is exactly what it takes to get through uncertainty.
Faith is not necessary when you know how things are going to work out, - that's knowledge. It's in the time of unknowing that having faith is what sees you through to the other side. Faith is what gives you strength. Faith is that light in your heart that keeps on shining even when it's all darkness outside. Now is the time to keep that faith alive!

Faith...we've used a lot of that over the past few days as we've sat in waiting rooms with family, as my aunt went through surgery. Faith was there. Faith sat beside me and helped me to understand and have peace when things didn't go exactly as planned and many complications arose. Faith is what my aunt had as she went into surgery. My husband and I were in her room the night before her surgery and her faith in God was strong. We talked about how we don't know how people make it through this crazy world without faith. She wondered how people can go day to day with no hope, and we wondered with her. She said it was what kept her going and she knew no matter what the outcome, she was going to be okay because her faith rests in Jesus Christ and if she made it through surgery, great and if not, well, don't worry about her because she would be in Heaven and why be sad for that. My hubby and I smiled and told her we understood since we share her faith but we would all miss her. She just smiled and said well, we will be together again. She said she had no fear of surgery because she had faith that God would protect her. Protect her He did. There were complications before and during surgery, and things were tense for many hours, but yesterday afternoon, my aunt was sitting up in a chair and even joking a little bit. Hard to believe you can have your heart removed from your body and reconstructed and be up in a chair a few hours later. We thank God for the results, and we thank God for our faith, which we clung to in the times where things were not looking so good. He is always there beside us, going through life with us.

What do you cling to today? Do you have faith and hope no matter what?

Surgery Prayers

Today will be a short post. My aunt is having open heart surgery early Monday morning, so I will be with my uncle and cousins, my mom and my sis, and other family and friends, as we wait at the hospital. I was with them most of Friday, when they brought her to the hospital and received the news that she needed the surgery, and was with them part of Sunday. We've shared tears, stories, and laughter. We filled up the entire waiting room at one point today. Fortunately, the staff at KMC is great and they put up with us. So, as you read this, I just ask for prayers for my aunt, her family, and the doctor and staff. Thank you.

Happy May Day

I remember as a kid, we always made May baskets for our neighbors. We would fill them up with flowers and treats and hang them on their doors. The trick was not to get caught hanging them on their door! I'm sure they knew we were there, but since most of them were older and we were little kids, they allowed us to think we surprised them! It is a special memory I have stored up from my childhood, probably because we got to make something with mom, and it was fun to give to others.

Surprise your neighbors today and make up some May baskets. They are a simple gesture, but they can really brighten someone's day, and if you do it with your kids, it can build some special memories.

Going Through the Motions

I wonder how many reading this are just going through the motions of life, not living with passion, or for a purpose. I know it can be easy to slip into a rut of life if we don't purposefully live our lives. It can be easy to just go through life and go through the motions. But is just going through the motions how you really want to live? Is it how you want your family, your kids, those you love, those you know, to remember you? Do you want to spend your life asking, what if I had.........??? Or would you rather live intentionally, purposefully, for a greater cause than you or this life, and know that you made a difference, that you lived with passion and zeal?

This might hurt, it's not safe
But I know that I've gotta make a change
I don't care if I break,
At least I'll be feeling something
'Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

No regrets, not this time
I'm gonna let my heart defeat my mind
Let Your love make me whole
I think I'm finally feeling something
'Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of this life

'Cause I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

take me all the way (take me all the way)
take me all the way ('cause I don't wanna go through the motions)
take me all the way (I know I'm finally feeling something real)
take me all the way

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

take me all the way (take me all the way)
take me all the way (I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go)
take me all the way (through the motions)
take me all the way

I don't wanna go through the motions

Jesus is the only one who can give you that type of life, who can truly fill up everything you yearn for in life. Money, jobs, and stuff don't fill our lives up with purpose. They usually just make us want more, but a life centered in Christ, while not easy, is the only way I want to live my life, giving everything for Him.

God treats everyone alike. He accepts people only because they have faith in Jesus Christ. All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. But God treats us much better than we deserve, and because of Christ Jesus, he freely accepts us and sets us free from our sins. God sent Christ to be our sacrifice. Christ offered his life's blood, so that by faith in him we could come to God. And God did this to show that in the past he was right to be patient and forgive sinners. This also shows that God is right when he accepts people who have faith in Jesus. What is left for us to brag about? Not a thing! Is it because we obeyed some law? No! It is because of faith. We see that people are acceptable to God because they have faith. Romans 3:22-28

The Weekend

It was a stressful weekend. I have an aunt, and an uncle in the hospitals. There is talk of a pandemic flu outbreak. We have friends going through some tough stuff, and we personally are struggling with a few issues. Amidst it all, though, we know God is still in control and we have to rely on that fact.

To unwind a bit, we left in the middle of a rain/snow storm and decided to go for a drive around a couple area lakes. I can unwind at a lake. There's just something about the water that brings me peace. Once we got out to the lakes, the sun was out and it was pretty. We saw ospreys, several types of ducks, a loon, grebes, yellow-headed and red-winged blackbirds, geese, herons, and deer. We just sat and listened to all the birds for awhile, and enjoyed the noise they were making.

I also got to enjoy some old barns, which is another favorite of mine.

It was nice to unwind a bit and enjoy some time with my hubby.

Snow

On Tuesday, when it got close to 80 degrees, I heard several people worried about 'if it's this hot already, how hot will it be this summer?' I wanted to say as I was walking by these groups of people, IT'S TEMPORARY, enjoy it!! I have lived here for 33 years, and the one thing you can count on is that the weather will change. We get teased with a nice day here and there this time of year, but they are usually few and far between. I know a few of these people, and some were complaining about global freezing a week before the three days of nice weather arrived. A friend texted me this morning 'SORRY.' I didn't know why she was texting me that. Did she know something I didn't know about my job, a family member or friend, or what??? I texted her back and asked why she was sorry. She asked if I had looked outside this morning. I had from a distance awhile ago, but not recently as I was getting ready for work. I opened up the curtain and saw tiny snowflakes coming down. I shut the curtain back up! I just opened up some other curtains, and now the snow is the size of a quarter, coming down extremely heavy. I am not amused! Not at all. I have flowers blooming! I planted bok choy and spinach in my garden. I want to go up to those people who were worried about the hot temperatures and ask if they are still worried about the weather this summer! I am. I think of how it snowed on June 10th last year, and hope it doesn't do the same this year!

The Battle

Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done..C.S. Lewis

I opened up my devotional journal this morning and the first verse I read was "Let the morning bring me word of Your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in You. Show me the way I should go, for to You I lift up my soul." Psalm 143:8 I needed that this morning. I need a reminder of God's unfailing love. I need to remember each moment of each day to rely on Him. I have been wrestling all night with emotions of frustration, anxiety, and even some fear from some of the things that took place in our teen group. About a third of the group is into some very scary stuff, very dark things. I know there is a spiritual battle going every week, but last night it was stronger than it has been. The darkness reared it's head in a more threatening way, a more real way than it has before. I left filled with sadness, anger, and even some fear. This morning the thought I woke up to was greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world, which comes from 1 John 4:4 you belong to God, and you have defeated these enemies. God's Spirit is in you and is more powerful than the one that is in the world. I needed that reminder.

Sometimes the battle is overwhelming. At times like this I need to turn to God's word more than ever and be reassured that He is in charge, no matter what happens. Jesus has already won my battles because He died on the cross. I need to take those battles and give them to Him and not let them have victory over me. I already have victory in every battle I face, even if it may not seem like a win here on earth. I need to remember each day as I face those battles to be prepared:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6: 10-17

We are in a spiritual battle, a war, and we are all warriors. We have to choose which army we belong to, God's or satans. The battle isn't easy, but I choose Christ.

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. 1 Corinthians 16:13

Flowers!

I went to work early on Monday, so I could leave early. The forecast was saying temps in the low 70's and I just had to get out and enjoy at least part of the day. I arrived home early afternoon, and headed to one flower bed. I must say, the weeds seemed to have multiplied over the winter! I had pesky knapweed and annoying clover trying to ruin my tiered bed. I put on the gloves, grabbed the shovel and went to work digging those weeds out. After I was finished, I planted a few new lilies in the upper tier, and will save the lower tier for petunias. I also took some time to just sit in the sun for a few minutes, basking in the wonderful heat! It felt so good, especially on a body that had been digging and bending for over an hour. As I was sitting on my bench, I enjoyed listening the mourning doves, red-winged black birds, song sparrows, kill deer, and I even heard a meadowlark. Not bad for living in town! I know spring has officially arrived because I was also chased away from one area of the yard by some wasps, and I saw some yellow jackets out front.

My hubby gave me some beautiful Martha Washington geraniums for Easter. While it's still too cold to plant them in the ground, they enjoyed a day out!

In my front flower bed, the violets and one tulip plant made their grand appearance, as well! It was a wonderful day to be outside, enjoying God's beauty. My hubby and I worked in the yard until dark, and we got a lot accomplished. Thank you God, for such an amazing day.