ARE YOU BURDENED FOR SOMEONE SPECIAL TO YOU AND DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO?....

This question has been on my heart lately. I have come in contact with so many people burdened for their love ones. Their heart hurts as they see them hurting and they can’t do anything about it. Families with children in prison, with drug addictions, just making decisions that will govern the direction of their future, to name a few.

Last week, we were involved with several families sharing the details of the events I have

mentioned. You just want to pull a switch and make it go away and making everything all right. It’s not that easy people have a free will making their own choices. That makes you feel helpless but that’s a lie. There is one thing you can do and that is to pray for them. God has a reason for having this surrounding you and it’s too big for you to carry. As you pray, it is good to have some kind of pattern to take action. Actually everyone dear to you needs this prayer and it wouldn’t hurt to pray it before it gets critical.

This pattern was brought to my attention several years ago. I ran across it a few days ago and was reminded to begin again this 9 Fold Prayer for My Family. We should pray this for each family member and ourselves.

9 FOLD PRAYER FOR MY FAMILY
(Paul's Pattern for Prayer in Col. 1:9-14 demonstrates how to pray for our leaders and those close to us)

MY PRAYER IS THAT THEY WILL:
1. Understand God's will. v.9
2. Gain spiritual wisdom. v. 9
3. Live their lives pleasing and honoring
to God. v.10
4. Do kind things for others. v. 10
5. Know God better and better. v.10
6. Be filled with God's strength. v.11
7. Endure in Faith- in duty and in trials v12
8. Always be thankful. v 12
9. Stay full of Christ's joy. v13-14

All believers have these same basic needs. When you don't know how to pray for someone, remember Paul's prayer pattern for the Colossians. He prayed this although he had never met them.

25 THINGS I LIKE IT WHEN….

Going through one of my journals the other day it was so much fun. Let me describe it.
Got my car keys, my journal bag (that’s my current read, Bible, Journal and pen) and set out about noon, did some shopping in our town Blairsville its small and it doesn’t take long. It was lunch time I was getting hungry, so I decided to do something light and low cost. Wendy’s seem to be a good place. I was surprised at the counter when the guy announced my selection was only $1.59, what a bargain! It seems that at Wendy’s if you are a senior your drink is free, at least that’s in my town. A small Caesar Salad and iced tea fit my budget calorie and money wise!

After eating I settled in at my table, flipping through the many pages I had written over the year I came across one that caught my eye. It was from Dec 2002, called “25 Things.. I Like it When…”. I had gotten this assignment from my son Phillip that morning. He had called and said, “Mom I want to give you an assignment that I just did”. I agreed right away, because that was a first from him to give me an exercise such as this. I share it with you today just as I had written it on that day so you see inside my heart and to begin this practice for yourself, it works. It gets your mind off the low things going on around you and causes you to think in the moment, getting your mind on things higher that really matter to you. Hope you enjoy reading my thoughts of that day, here goes….

25 THINGS…..I LIKE IT WHEN…

1. I like it when I look over at Phil as he is driving and I am quite knowing he is in “his cave” as he calls it, having his “man time” that’s when he is creative, planning what is next on the agenda for us. I get excited but I don’t let him know.
2. I like it when I feel healthy in Spirit, Soul and Body.
3. I like it when I am in my study early mornings. I have had a good nights rest, had my energy drink, got my coffee, having my Quite Time, looking out the big window in front of me, seeing the morning sun reflect on the windows of the houses miles away on the mountains, its like I can hear God saying, “Good Morning my daughter, ready to start our day?”.
4. I like it when I have seen a movie that has a message that reaches my heart and I am “awe stuck” as I walk away speechless.
5. I like it when Phil tells me I am pretty or I look good in my outfit.
6. I like it when I sing a special song I made up for Caeden to make him go to sleep when he was a baby and now he tells me to stop because he knows that means its time to go to sleep and he is not ready, he’s so funny at almost 3!
7. I like it when snow is predicted and it happens. We are prepared all cozy and warm and life is on pause till we can get out moving around again.
8. I like it when a miracle happens with no explanation.
9. I like it when everyone dear to my heart is happy.
10. I like it when I have (or take) the time to just sit and find my center. It is what I call getting back in the real me.
11. I like it when I know God is allowing me to exercise my gifts in helping a hurting person. I know and can experience Him doing it and not me.
12. I like it when I am with Caeden and I see the openness and innocence’s of a child.
13. I like it when I can control myself in the area of health. I feel in touch with what I need to have a good life.
14. I like it when Caeden and I are playing and he tells me something from his heart.
15. I like it when we visit the coast of Maine in September in our RV slowly living each day just where we are.
16. I like it when the entire family is around our table, we have finished the meal they requested, then we tell the stories from the past laughing so hard.
17. I like it when I find a bargain walking away thinking maybe God had something to do with it.
18. I like it when I see a friend happy as they share a blessing.
19. I like it when I am reading a good book and can’t put it down.
20. I like it when I bake cookies, I take them from the oven and Phil wants one before I take them off the pan and then he brags on my cooking.
21. I like it when I have peace knowing it’s from my Father, even when things are out of control around me, knowing its good for me even though its out of my comfort zone.
22. I like it when I have candles lit, music playing, relaxing in a bubble bath after a busy day.
23. I like it when I attend family gatherings with my siblings and their children catching up with all the news since we were together the last time.
24. I like it when I sit on my porch in my swing on a warm summer night, the sunset has had a grand display, the sound of the first whippoorwill can be heard and life is still.
25. I like it when I know I don’t have to stop at 25….

Now, I hope you are motivated to make your list; you don’t have to stop at 25 either. Your life is yours and you can keep filling in good things….

WHAT AN EXPERIENCE…CHALLENGED TO BE BOLD!!!.....

Been gone since last Thursday, had lots of commitments in Atlanta so we got a three night deal at a motel we like, got in our room, unpacked “made it our nest” like I “have to do”. We set out on our agenda to get all the things done in our three days in town. Doctor appointments, Word of Life Conference, take in a movie for some playtime and we certainly had to do the Mall.

With mission accomplished we arrived to our last day so this morning we got up early showered and dressed and went down for breakfast, I just love that part. It’s such a nice display of foods to select from, all kinds from healthy stuff to clog your arteries stuff. We enjoyed a slow meal and then left for our final destination. Let me describe it, this is what I just have to tell you about.... It was Heaven!

About a couple of miles down the road we began to see the one lane traffic that you knew to get in to find your spot. We came upon the men directing us with their vest on that let you know they knew where to tell you to go. The only parking was way off from the main entrance. I hadn’t seen this since my first concert experience down at the Phillip’s Arena in Atlanta years ago and this was not a concert this happens each week at this place. We found our parking spot got out and walked in the crowds to find a seat. The people started greeting us as we entered the door, I felt like they really wanted me there. We walked hurriedly knowing we had thirty minutes before it started. Already the downstairs seating was filled so up to the balcony we went. It was filling fast and if we didn’t find a seat we would have to go over to the west wing seating and watch from the big screen, which we didn’t mind. Finally we were in our comfortable seats looking around overwhelmed at the experience that surrounded us.

After the announcements were done, the music played and then it began, the thing we came for. I will remember this day for quite a while as the speaker took his place and begin speaking from his heart expressing what he had prepared all week to bring into this moment. I looked all around at the attentive people thousands filled the room. I was amazed at how many came out to hear what was going to be said. The speaker had already shared to a 9:00 am crowd, then after this 11:00am crowd he would again share with a 12:45 crowd. My heart was moved to think this many people were interested. To hear the News on TV or read in the papers we are living in a time when people don’t care and are giving up on this. Must not be true to see this many young people, old people and all kinds of nationalities present for this interest at hand.

It began, what I had been waiting for all week to experience, this moment not to follow this person by no means but to get what he was to say in a package of words that just penetrates my spirit to the core. We were told of a story told many years ago, a true one about a man that could not say “no” to what he stood for and was punished for it at that. He stood up for the one person that he would die for one day, and “get this” that one person had died for him one day. We were challenged to speak up and to BE BOLD just like him. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I listened, identifying with conviction, to the words that were said. I looked around and I was not the only one, as these well-packaged words were being cast out as seeds on a futile ground. My heart felt good as I thought what could happen when we all do what he was asking us to do. Oh! How much will be accomplished today and beyond as we take this and put it to practice. At the end he said as you leave today you will be given a bracelet you can wear to remind you of what you have heard today and to act on it. I got one and I am wearing its to remind me of the men in the Bible we were told about who stood up for the One who stood up for us that day….His name is Jesus! The bracelet says BE BOLD Act 4:29. Wow! What an experience I have BEEN TO CHURCH!!!

CHILDLIKE FAITH…

You might be able to tell in my last entries I have had some things that were trying to move me or maybe you didn’t notice. But truth is from time to time Father does some “rustling up of my nest” and I want to say “oh please don’t, please leave things like they are and don’t touch that, or that. I have it like I want it.” But He says, “OK child let me have it, it actually belongs to me anyway” and He knows “out of control” is way out of my comfort zone but I will take my hands off and Rest in Him. This morning this message came to my attention and made so much sense in all of life’s trials. I want to stay like a child, have child like faith. I want to share this with you maybe someone out there is or has been going through the same school I have been in. Hope we can get our diplomas soon and graduate but you know what? There will be another school down the road, that’s what growth is about and I don’t want to stop growing in the school of life!!!
(I like following Steve McVey’s blog from time to time. Steve's message really spoke to me on point today! I don’t want to stop having child like faith. I want to keep life simple even though the storm rages around me sometimes. He says I can! I am His child, He is my Daddy and I am safe…)


Grow Old But Don't Grow Up
Taken from Steve McVey’s 1/17/11 Blog Post http://gracewalkministries.blogspot.com/2011/01/grow-old-but-dont-grow-up.html


Growing older isn’t really a choice we can make, given our options. However, growing older and growing up are two different matters altogether. When we were children or perhaps later, when we acted like irresponsible teens, we were all admonished at times to “grow up!” Those words of advice were probably well intended, but the more I’ve thought about it, I don’t think it’s such a good suggestion.

An argument could be made from Scripture that God’s desire is for us all to remain children at heart. When trying to explain the kingdom of heaven, Jesus once lifted a child onto his lap and said, “If you want to enter the kingdom of heaven, you have to become like this.” (See Matthew 18:1-3) We are to become childlike. That’s what Jesus plainly said.

To remain a child at heart, however, requires constant grace in a society which tries to force us into growing up. G.K. Chesterton once said, "I think God is the only child left in the universe, and all the rest of us have grown old and cynical because of sin..” Has this sinful world stolen away your childlikeness?

The desire of your Father’s heart is to free you from the shackles of an old heart and empower you to be young again. Like a child, your role is to trust Him completely, laugh heartily, live playfully, run intently, dream imaginatively and love unconditionally.

Life in this world is a warm-up for what comes later. One blip on the screen of eternity and our time on this planet is done. Why waste ourselves away with headaches and heartaches over things that won’t even matter to us a hundred years from now?

The call to childlikeness isn’t a lure to childishness. Of course we are to act responsibly, but not become bogged down in the muck of artificial maturity. In the midst of responsible living, the indwelling Christ will equip us to move ahead experiencing life through the heart of a child.

Our Father has everything under control. He has every detail of our lives worked out already. We don’t have to live like we are the captains of our own destiny, because we aren’t. Just relax. Your privilege is to join hands with your Father and enthusiastically run through the fields of grace He has planted for you in this world. He’ll see to it that you reach His intended destination for you.

Grow older if you must, but don’t grow up. Stay a child at heart. One day you’ll see that the things that worry you most now didn’t even matter in the eternal scheme of things. Live with eternity in view. Play – it will do your heart good and your Father will be pleased.

FEELING TRAPPED?....

You know what’s on my mind today? Well we are snowed in, rare in this part of the country. These North Georgia Mountains see this maybe every 10 years so I am getting to experience it. Heard this news this morning that 49 of our 50 States have snow wouldn’t you guess it? Florida is the only State without snow on the ground. We were warned to get ready earlier than usual so we got our supplies and settled in. At first it was fun, then got old. Snow Storm January 2011, I will remember for a long time, and the feeling that came along with it...FEELING TRAPPED!!!

Feeling trapped in this house has allowed me to see “up close and personal”, how people allow their circumstances to overcome them, to the place of feeling like their world is caving in and they FEEL TRAPPED. It could come in the form of waiting on a lousy job situation to change and it lingers on and on, a relationship that is complicated seems to get bigger and bigger each day, in this day and time most people are living hand to mouth, paycheck to paycheck in a financial crisis, feeling like there is no way out. And you could tell me your story and it could be worst than I have mentioned here

What will happen? I have heard Phil say so many times, “twenty years from now we want even remember it” or “ this too shall pass”. I think “yeah”, but when the “rock is in your shoe, it’s a big rock”. But pretty soon something else takes it place and you start over with this Character Building Process, I call it. There are choices that really make a difference. We can sit here and have a “pity-party” with puckered lip but how will that help? It doesn’t help to throw in the towel and quit you know for sure about that one. If you are reading this you are a pro-active person ready to take action in your situation. That’s what it takes, having that ‘go get um” attitude, and “fight, fight, fight” as Meg Ryan portrayed so well in “You Got Mail”. I’ve even acted like she did in that movie in my room under stress about my stuff, of course, with no one looking….

I love reading what my Facebook friends post. I get some good insight seeing what different ones put on there about what goes on in their world. Today, a friend of ours shared she is moving. It seems it came upon them in just a matter of days and caught them off guard. I got a feeling they were experiencing some of the things I shared here. Waiting, and waiting and then “Suddenly” it happen. Here’s what she said that was so good. I told her I was borrowing it from her and using it as my status for the day, and I did. Here is what she posted, “The moving truck comes tomorrow. Wow. It's happening fast. Chapters closing, blank pages waiting, God leading, faith following.” Now isn’t that good stuff in just a small amount of words? It gives us hope for what we are going through. You might be packing right now going on a new adventure or you might be wishing you could be packing, just wait your day will come. In this tight place you are stuck in, one day it will come and the message will be….”Chapters closing, blank pages waiting, God leading, faith following” ….and this snow will melt soon so I can get out so I will get back to my busy work while I wait……

DECISIONS MAKE THE PATH OF LIFE.....

“Decisions, Decisions, Decisions”…. we all have to make them as we walk the Path of Life. Which way do I turn? What must I do about what lies before me? What will this cost me? God has “wired” us to make our own choices. Sometimes I say, “Lord, why did you do that?” But then Holy Spirit reminds me, if He had not, we would be like puppets with Him pulling all the strings. So with that thought, it leads back to our making the decisions. But does He leave us alone as we decide which way to go? No! He is right there with us, but it is still ours in the final plan of action. I think of the children of Israel when they crossed the river Jordan. Can you imagine how they felt when they were told to cross over and they got to that water? They had to stand there thinking, okay how do we do this? He said, “When you put your foot in the water it will part”. It was their choice and not His. When they, by their own will, made the decision to go to the other side it was all done He made it happen…WQW! So I know when He says, “do it” you better believe he “will part the water” before you!

Today, as I was reading to setting my mind for the day, I thought of all the decisions we have to make. We have lots of them, some which have the potential to “major redirect”, our current comfortable path. I have to tell you the truth, its scary. I look back over our history walking with God and I know in my heart He has led us all the way. It is not the “event” it’s the “process” in getting there that gets to me. It’s the “walking up to the water” that my “eyes and ears” will try to lie to me. I can see something and hear something that will try to move me but in my heart I know God is saying, “My child walk and I will be right there with you”.

I don’t like change. It’s so nice to know everyday where I am sleeping, what I will be eating, and where my foot will land each step of the way. But if the truth is told, change is not so bad. Anything done over and over and over and over can become a rut and what fun is that? And we would actually have no growth, becoming stagnant. The unknown is what scares me too. But we know faith is not having “sight”. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” It takes absolute FAITH to walk this life each day we don’t know what it holds or where it is going but as we walk in what we know is the Truth our lives will be guided into what is the best life, the full life and to have all that is ours. I don’t know how many times I have posted this verse here, but it is a verse I claimed years ago and it returns to me so many times in my mind. I will close this time with you reminding you it is for you too! Psalms 16:11 “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

I just said a prayer for you my friend as you stopped by here. He is going to do great things in your future, walk with me up to the water and lets go ahead with Faith Decision to put our foot in and walk across……

SANDPAPER PEOPLE OH HOW I LOVE THEM, YEAH RIGHT!!!....

SANDPAPER PEOPLE…. are you wondering what that means? You know you have them around you each day in different ways. Some are those you bump into in passing, could be a relative, could be someone living right in your home giving you a feeling that they must be “attached to the hip” and you can’t escape their behavior that “stinks”. Bottom line they are in your space and you are irritated!!! Now you get the picture?

I think I told you I am reading through the Bible again this year. I like it when I am reading and something jumps off the page like it is illuminated with my name on it, like it did this morning. Reading a portion of scripture in Matthew, I was reminded of a client we had in our office last year, that made me so mad and I never get upset with anyone like that. But she caught me off guard with her vulgar comment toward me. If I didn’t realize that “hurt people, hurt people” and believe me she was hurting to the core, I would have taken action on her. I had to step back, take a deep breath and view what was going on in the here and now. As I was reading this portion of scripture I mentioned, that I would share later, I had written in the margin the name of this person “who attacked me, dressing me down”!!! I was convicted again as I read the words going into my soul.

Here’s my take on Sandpaper People and over my lifetime I have encountered many. Believe it or not, they are good for us. That is so hard to say, but actually its right! It seems like I might draw them to me, aggravating me to the bone and I “hate it when it happens”.  So I put on my good face and endure them knowing like sandpaper they “knock off the ruff edges” of my Flesh….ouch that hurts! Yes, but it reveals those things that other wise I would not see that are hindrances to the best life that I might be missing. I know sometimes the enemy wants to trip me up and he uses people to do it in me personally so I turn it around and it back fires on his plan. I turn it around and make it work for me. Like the verse says, “all things work together” well you know what? They do!

Read this “fresh off the press” reading I had this morning. See how it will fit into your life right now, you might have an encounter with someone today.  File this information away for the future, because trust me, they will be in your path so get ready and be prepared. Now let this soak in.  Maybe mark it in your Bible like I did so each time you read it, there will be a “heads up” like a telegram from God saying this is what I want you to do.  Go over this information and ask Holy Spirit to speak to you showing you how to love that person in your path.....

Matthew 5:43-48 (New Living Translation) “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

THE JANUARY HOHUMMS……

In the last few days, we have had several conversations with people expressing their feelings of being discouraged and living defeated. I call it the time for “January Hohums”. Think about it, we are coming off of some great “Hoop-La” lots of Fun, Food and living in a land of Fantasy, you know what I mean. First it was Thanksgiving and then Christmas. And then here comes January, the month back to reality, back to work and back to the real world, where now we have to clean out the refrigerator while planning which diet program you will go on, clean the house from the decoration you just put away, and heaven forbid pay your Macy’s bill. I know I was in it all too! I coined this phrase with my grandson, Caeden. After a wonderful visit of several days the kids would have to leave to go home. The day would come for them to pack up, I dreaded that day. But it would come…. the “good byes”. His parents would place him in his car seat and he would look at me, bottom lip puckering and with those eyes that said “please go with me!” and in reality I couldn’t and oh how it would hurt! I then would look straight at him and say, “All good things have to come to an end so we can start over”. Don’t know why, but it seem to help him. Well, we can use that phrase with my subject here ending the year and starting over. And in reality we have to face it or we will miss something. I stay so excited about life I don’t want to miss any of it, good or bad!!!

So you are saying, “so how did you get off on that”? Well, its because I wanted to say that, to get to my point. This morning, I was doing my morning read as I enjoy every morning, with coffee in hand, and it was what I was feeling, I sensed you were too! When that comes on me I have to speak and talk it out. I want to live a life of Victory and I know you might be struggling to do the same thing, wanting it so badly and even “spinning your wheels” trying to have it. That is not necessary!!! Its already has been done. When you became a believer in Jesus Christ you got everything you needed to have that Victory as you walk in the Spirit and not after the Flesh. Those of you that have been through our program here at Safe Place were able to see those things that were “Defeat Makers”. Your “unique flesh patterns” were revealed to you “defusing” the hand of the enemy. You remember, those things you lived to get your way, or to make things better, you thought. It didn’t work that’s how you got to our office.

As I read my selected Devotionals this morning, I ran across this one and it was excellent for this subject today I just have to share it with you. I think it will show you who is at the bottom of our wrong thought life which leads to discouragement and living a defeated life. As you read it take it in and maybe even copy it and put it somewhere so you can see it often to be reminded of Who You Really Are, walking in Maturity of the Truth, because of the Work at The Cross by The One Who wants you to have The Life He Died For so you can Live In Victory!!


(Quote from Neil Anderson Devotional “Daily In Christ”)
“Before we received Christ, we were slaves to sin. But because of Christ's work on the cross, sin's power over us has been broken. Satan has no right of ownership or authority over us. He is a defeated foe, but he is committed to keeping us from realizing that. He knows he can block your effectiveness as a Christian if he can deceive you into believing that you are nothing but a product of your past, subject to sin, prone to failure, and controlled by your habits. As long as he can confuse you and blind you with his dark lies, you won't be able to see that the chains which once bound you are broken. You are free in Christ, but if the devil can deceive you into believing you're not, you won't experience the freedom which is your inheritance. I don't believe in instant maturity, but I do believe in instant freedom, and I have seen thousands of people set free by the truth. Once a person is free, you would be amazed at how quickly he or she matures!”

Wasn’t that good! Now go have yourself your January Turn Around Day that will be called your “get up brush yourself off letting all the stops out to believe the Truth day” and get started on your life that looks so bright you have to wear sunglasses, see ya later, got to go find my sunglasses……

LIFE IS LIKE A TREE……

I like trees, wish I had time to study their growth. My interest has been stirred lately about the layers of a tree. Did you know a tree’s growth is determined by what goes on in its environment each year? For instance if you cut a tree down and looked at the rings inside and if you could see the history of its place through out its growth it would tell a story. It could have been affected by a forest fire, insect invasion, a rainy season to name a few.

We could say our lives are like the tree. We are affected the same way by those things around us that will determine our growth. I would like to share with you about a year in my “life’s tree ring” that made a strong foundation that still effects me to this day. I will always remember a day in my life, if you could look inside me, you would see a healthy growth in the ring of the year 1986. It was the year of what I call, “the Empire of Mary Mason fell”. It was a hard time, even made me want to check out on everything, it was a dark time for me.

God brought a friend to my door on a day I was at my lowest. March 26, 1986 Linda Rogers knocked on my door, came in sat down and listened to my painful story. After a long while of hearing my “pity party” description, she spoke. Now if you know Linda you know she is a to the point person, with the gift of Prophecy, so let yourSELF step out of the way and pay good attention to what is about to come into your “ear gate” because when she speaks, it is like the old saying “when E F Hutton speaks”….LISTEN!!!

Linda gave me no sympathy that day, and after looking back I am SO GLAD! She was so right on target with what was about to happen in turning the “Ship of my Life”. The orders came rolling out of her mouth after she came over to the sofa where I sat and knelt by my feet and cried out to God in prayer, which got a hold of Heaven’s Throne. She took command of the events that surrounded me and gave me a formula to begin to put into action. Among her list of things was to pray, being gut truthful telling God just what I thought about what was going on, to stop 7 times a day to praise Him no matter where I was when I thought about it, to claim the Armor each day according to Ephesians 6:11 “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes”, going over each part, and most of all to get to Know Him as Father studying Romans 5, 6, 7 and 8. That was just a few of the things she said that day, that made it possible to be right here able to tell you about my journey. There’s absolutely no doubt that God showed up through my friend, Linda. That makes me realize the importance of when He moves on me through Holy Spirit, I must stop and listen getting the orders and then go into action. I don’t know what would have happened to me that day back in 1986 if Linda had not brought His love to me. I do know the enemy had another plan that I almost “bought into” but it didn’t work. You know God so loves us and watches over us with His care? Don’t you just love the way He uses people that care about Him enough to be sensitive to the needs of those in their path? I'm so grateful for those He gives us as friends? Linda, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the day you showed up at my door, changing the whole path of my future, all because you heard His call on your life to take action! Today my Tree of Life has a ring in it that has your name on it, I Love you my Friend!

(Today’s picture is of my special friend, Linda. You might know her and had her “Linda Action” in your own life. If so, you know she tells it like it is, and if you have…. you’ve been vaccinated against this world and set on fire for Jesus!!!)

NEW DAY NEW YEAR 1/1/11…

Don’t know about you, but I like numbers and seeing them in a unique sequence. What about today’s date? Have you really looked at it? 1/11/11 isn’t that neat? Today is the start of a new day, in a new year with a great number. I am excited about our future!!!

Each day I get “via email” a verse of the day, as I read yesterday’s the last day of the year; it got me excited about this coming year. Isaiah 43:18-19 “this is what the LORD says…he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters…”Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Don’t you feel hope when you read those words? For others and myself that walk in dark places from time to time, we CAN TRUST Father as we walk forward into the future with this promise.

In this year, I think it will be a year of seeing our Dreams comes true. Those things you have been waiting for, the goals you work so hard for. For Phil and myself, we are dedicated to working out the life God has for us, walking in His plan. Great things do lie ahead and with new beginnings. That doesn’t mean we sit and wait and “Walla” it appears. It takes putting one foot in front of the other, walking toward the future. I promise you, I am going to practice looking out the front windshield and not out of the little rear view mirror trying to live in the past. I haven’t got time to waste looking back.

Take some time today and make some plans for this year. Set some goals to become all you can be. Think about it. Think BIG, “the stars the limit” with all we have in Christ. He died that we might have life and have life more abundantly….John 10:10 “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

Hope to hear from you as you reach the things you dream for, reaching forth and becoming the person you are created to be! So get up, clean out, sale out, try out, set out, stay out, work out, and any other “outs” you can think of, just don’t “stay in” there’s too much out there we don’t want to miss “out” on ….I’m in, how about you? Let’s get started!!!