Friday, January 28, 2011

Gotta love Fridays!

Firstly, I want to say if my last post was a downer, I'm sorry...didn't mean it to be at all. It was my idea of sharing how encouraging it was to me that the Lord showed me all the different, personal ways He was bringing to pass Isaiah 41:10 in my life right now.

I love Friday mornings ALMOST as much as I love Saturday mornings. This morning I have hope that the week will indeed end and that ahead are two days of less-structured busyness with the potential opportunity to relax a little. Filled with thankfulness the Lord has provided to make it through an exhausting week and relishing the idea of getting perhaps a little more sleep tonight.

O Friday, how I love thee! :) Have a great weekend, everyone!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Strength for Today

"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God, I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand"--Isaiah 41:10, NIV

  • So do not fear when you feel overwhelmed with all there is to do
  • So do not fear that you'll run out of migraine meds before the insurance will pay for any more

  • Do not be dismayed that things at The Company are more hectic than usual
  • Do not be dismayed when your apartment is messy because you have no strength to clean it
  • Do not be dismayed with interpersonal drama because I know your heart

  • I will strengthen you when it's 2:00 p.m. and you're sure you can't make it 3 more hours
  • I will strengthen you when a migraine starts and you have to stay at work anyway
  • I will strengthen you to make it through the week, giving you enough energy to do what you need to

  • I will uphold you when you feel like collapsing into tears
  • I will uphold you when you're so frustrated with your body you can't see straight
  • I will uphold you when you feel alone because you have no energy to maintain contact with friends
  • I will help you focus on your blessings and how I've faithfully provided for you in the past
  • I will help you work more than someone with your health issues should

  • With my righteous right hand I will guide you to abide in Me
  • With my righteous right hand, I'll cradle you in your health-imposed loneliness
  • With my righteous right hand, I'll carry you through.

THANK YOU, LORD!!!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Update on Prayer Request

Thank you for praying. I just got word that my friend Becky is home now from the hospital. She is still sick, but there are no heart issues. All the tests came back negative in regards to the irregular heartbeat. Praise the Lord!

Prayer Request

I just learned that Becky, one of my closest friends, was taken to the ER last night because she passed out. After several tests, they don't think she hit her head when she fell, but she does have the flu. She also has an irregular heartbeat. Please be praying that she will recover quickly and that there will be nothing seriously wrong...the doctor thought the irregular heartbeat was related to passing out and that it would be gone this morning. I am definitely praying that is the case.

To give you some background on how dear Becky is to me, she was my first friend in seminary when I moved to Dallas 9 years ago. Becky and her husband have two precious girls that call me Aunt Sarah and I was MOH in Becky & Aaron's wedding. These friends are such a blessing to me. They have been going through a major period of trials in the past year and this is just another one along the way. Their faith is exceptionally strong and I'm fairly confident that Becky will be OK. It is, however extremely scary! If I had to guess about why she passed out, if it was indeed "just the flu", Becky was probably up and taking care of everyone else even though she was sick.

Thank you for praying with me! I'll update after church this afternoon on the latest.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Not Forgotten!

"God's love is meteoric, His loyalty astronomic, His purpose titantic, His verdicts oceanic. Yet in His largeness, nothing gets lost. Not a man, not a mouse, slips through the cracks. How exquisite Your love, O God! How eager we are to run under Your wings...You're a fountain of cascading light, and You open our eyes to light."--Psalm 36:5-7,9 The Message

I'm a part of the Siesta Scripture Memory Team via Beth Moore's The LPM Blog. This was a very big blessing in 2009 when the LPM blog community did it last. I have been lax in my adult years in memorizing Scripture and this has realy helped keep me accountable.

The verse I've chosen to memorize for the next 2 weeks is really encouraging to me. Such an awesome, mighty, omnipotent God--and He cares about me, a small tiny speck in the context of the universe. A dear friend of mind reminded me also of this fantastic promise in her gift to me this past Christmas. She gave me a beautiful teacup and teaset that had a forget me not pattern on it...so, she said, I would always remember that the Lord will never forget me. I cannot tell you how much this encouraged and inspired me.

You can see from my "about me" statement that my dreams are far-fetched from a human perspective (I'm in my late thirties and [very] single!)--but the verses above remind me that God doesn't forget me. He sees me, He loves me, and He has a plan. What a wonderfully encouraging truth this is.

Whoever and wherever you are, whatever you've done, God cares. He sees, He loves and He remembers you. Never lose sight of that!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

GO BUCKS!!!!

You non-football types can take a 2 minute nap or grab something from the frig or visit another blog, but I have to mention my Buckeyes.

You will notice this is the 2nd post today, which indicates the significance and priority that my upcoming trip has!

While it wasn't a pretty win, it is a "W" and we will take it! We have not won against an SEC team in many many years and every other team in our conference (Big Ten) did horribly last week/end.

Victory is SWEET! :)





I've got the golden ticket!

Isn't that what the kid said in Willy Wonka or something?

Anyway, SOOOO excited to announce that I just purchased my ticket to visit these dear friends overseas!!! I've never been outside the US of A before, so in addition to the excitement of seeing my friends, I'm going to see a whole new (to me) part of God's earth.

This would have been completely out of my reach financially had it not been for God's lavish provision as well as my friends' gracious hospitality. I'm so very thankful (and did I mention I was excited?!?!?!)

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Another great song from church Sunday

"Honored, glorified exalted on Your throne
Holy Lamb of God, we bow to You alone
King of all Kings, our joy for endless days
Jesus You alone are worthy of all praise"
--Randy Vader

This is an exceprt of a beautiful song that our choir and orchestra sang/played in church on Sunday. It struck me as a great way to start the New Year--or each ordinary day, for that matter: praising the Lord. So often I get into the "please do this", "please heal them" type of prayers without remembering to praise the Lord and thank Him for all He's done. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with asking the Lord for these--in fact, Scripture tells us too--but it also reminds us to honor the Lord and ascribe to Him the glory due His name.

Indeed, Jesus alone is worthy of all praise!