Thursday, May 26, 2011

A piece of my heart

















Avid Tomboy, drummer extraordinaire, snowboarder, long boarder, lover of fake facial hair and dressing up as oddly as possibly, gangsta, puddle jumper, paintballer, fashionista, cartwheeling, dancing on my counters, lover of laughter and passionate follower of Jesus.

Today you have surgery and so many are praying for you and lifting you. You have grown into a magnificent young woman that I learn from daily. God has blessed me greatly with an amazing daughter.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

The secret

Wednesday's Word




I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

Philippians 4:11-12 




Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Pushing through

Tuesday's Quotes

“Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to the tremendous difficulties”
~C.H. Spurgeon~






Nick Vujicic



Monday, May 23, 2011

Dead Sea kind of week

 
 


The intense pressure, the roaring wave that has curled up over my head this week.
Thundering down and engulfing my nights with a ponderous weight of problems.

The clouds roll in quickly, thick and dense. My breath threatened. I stare into the blackness praying. The seconds turn to minutes...to hours. The deep ache threatens to break my heart in two.

The waves have seemed too towering, and I feel like I'm trying to move a mountain with a teaspoon.
So many needs a heart can anguish for before it gives way. So many hurting, a heart can't bare up under the burden.
The world seems in chaos, The economy is failing, our country has lost it's foundational focus, marriages are crumbling, cancer is winning, people are without Him and even those with Him... lost.

--crushing--submerging--beneath a churning, turbulent sea of troubles.

Dead Sea

GOD's PROVISION....
Swim up, swim up through the turbulence of dilemma, to rise to the surface and to stand, YES, to walk on the waters, to walk victorious on the very waves that threaten to drown!
God has made a provision, and it is called PRAYER.
We can pray, and with power.

"Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal."
--Thomas Moore--

David was overwhelmed. He said so. He cried out to God. But David knew how to pray when he was overwhelmed.
This is why He (God) has placed this knowledge in His Book. In the 142nd Psalm David prays.
A man crushed and weighed down,
"I cried unto the Lord with my voice; with my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication. I poured out my complaint before Him; I showed Him my trouble when my spirit was overwhelmed within me."

He voiced his dilemma. This is important. The enemy of our life, which is Satan, will attempt to seal our lips. He will try to make us crawl deep down inside ourself and lick our wounds. He wants us to cower beneath his blows and suffer in silence. This is the first step into spiritual isolation.
Don't take that step!
Verbalize your prayer. Speak to God out loud. Tell Him your problems in your own words,
"God, please help me"!

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today and forever".
He is the same today. He can open your Red Sea. He can provide all we need in that wilderness of poverty.


Life may be as flat and colorless as water, but He can change it into wine. He can put life and color into every day. This is the kind of God we have! A loving God. A forgiving God. A good and merciful God. Call upon His Name! Call upon His Name believing and expecting.

I will put it into practice and walk on the waters.
I will not be swallowed up by troubles.
I WILL grow from a weak woman in prayer to a tower of strength. When I pray, the room will take on a sense of power because of Him through me.
Faith will charge the very atmosphere.

A life all about worship and counting 1000 gifts!

#101
Leaning on His promises through thick and thin
#102
Valleys that lead to the high places
#103
Friends that listen
#104
The power He has given us through prayer
#105
Feelings are just that.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Sense of Freshness

Funny Friday

A while ago a new supermarket opened in Las Vegas, NV. It has an automatic water mister to keep the produce fresh.  Just before it goes on, you hear the sound of distant thunder and the smell of fresh rain.



 When you pass the milk cases, you hear cows mooing and you experience the scent of fresh mowed hay.



In the meat department there is the aroma of charcoal grilled steaks with onions.


When you approach the egg case, you hear hens cluck and cackle, and the air is filled with the pleasing aroma of bacon and eggs frying.




The bread department features the tantalizing smell of fresh baked bread and cookies.



I don't buy toilet paper there anymore.


Thursday, May 19, 2011

His first Marathon.











My other family♥


Wednesday, May 18, 2011

PERFORMANCE IS CANCELLED

Wednesday's Word


Any kind of law-keeping is burdensome and amounts to a “heavy yoke” of oppression because
no amount of law-keeping can bridge the gap between our sinfulness and God’s holiness.
WE CANNOT PERFORM OUR WAY TO THE PEARLY GATES!

What makes Jesus’ yoke easy and his burden light is that in Jesus’ own active obedience (i.e., his perfect fulfillment of the Law of God), He carried the burden that we were meant to carry. His perfect obedience is applied (imputed) to us through faith, just as His righteousness was exchanged for our sin at the cross. Our obedience to Jesus then becomes our “spiritual worship”.

Furthermore, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit who works in our lives to mold us into the image of Christ, thereby making the yoke of Jesus easy and His burden light. The life lived by faith is a much lighter yoke and a much easier burden to carry than the heavy and burdensome yoke of self-righteousness under which we continually strive to make ourselves acceptable to God through works.


Monday, May 16, 2011

Creating Empty Space




Elusive Balance

“Balance is beautiful.”
- Miyoko Ohno, Japanese bridge designer-



Working mothers have a tough time achieving balance between work, family, fitness not to mention the filling of our spiritual and emotional well being cups. At least this here mother does!
My struggle has and probably always will be in CREATING EMPTY SPACE.

I've managed to carve cathartic all too fleeting moments out of my week to reflect and write, a once (not often enough) a month massage, even time to cook on my one "leisurely" day off.
I make time for my family, and loved ones, but I tend to neglect myself. Why?
I become derailed from the track I attempt to set out on.
We are not born with balance.
Babies can't balance well enough to sit up, let alone walk. Their emotions vacillate wildly. A baby can be crying loudly one minute, laughing the next, and fast asleep a few minutes later. How do we ever get these emotional swings under control?
Identifying barriers to balanced living can well, in itself throw me off kilter.



“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”
- Albert Einstein-

Even a year ago I would have added an "Amen Albert" to the end of that quote but...
my axis has shifted.
I don't pretend to have the answers. What I do have is a tenacious spirit. My Daddy gave me that.
A curiosity and drive to fill my purpose but a new found passion to sit at His feet quietly and listen.
To breathe, unstirring, hushed...quiet.
For me, being centered in the Savior centers my earthly plane to more of a degree than any self help book, article, website or reality talk show EVER could.
With my GPS set on Him I find I don't attempt to carry the world quite as much. Oh I set my spiritual balancing scales down from time to time but I'm finding the span of time between takes to be shorter.

As I wrote about IN THE UNEXPECTED

There is a moment. A moment after the final lilting note. A pause as the note fades and lingers into almost silence, then applause. It's in THAT moment, in the quiet, that I find so much delicacy so much potency and blessing.
As in the best decorated room an imagination can conjure up, draw your eye to the EMPTY SPACES because it's there where I believe the real harmony lies. Thank you Lord for helping me to look towards You and capturing a rhythm that no earthly metronome could contain!

#88- 100
Clarity

Peace

Breath

Simple

Windy days

Waking up to birds singing

Inviting friends in

Laughing...at myself...at life...and yes sometimes at others

Getting caught up in ridiculous youtube videos

My children

A great husband

Oh nooooo the discovery of Lay's kettle cooked CREAMY MEDITERRANEAN HERB CHIPS!!!!

The blessing and promises a new week holds

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Tuesday's Quote







“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”
- Henry Ford

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”
- George Bernard Shaw

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
- Mark Twain

“No one is so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.”
- Henry David Thoreau


Monday, May 9, 2011

Igniting the boundaries

holy experience
 
 

I love to read for many reasons.
It's an escape, provides mental adventure that ignites the boundaries of my imagination, challenges me, pushes me to think outside the box of conventional wisdom, provides me great laughter and sometimes a heart stirring soul aching groan.

It also helps calm my spirit when I have to fly because...well I've never quite been a fan of hurtling 50k ft over the earth in an aluminum bullet at 500 mph .

I can be a princess, set sail on the 7 seas, be a pirate, a secret agent, have superpowers, realize I'm not alone in my struggles, draw closer to my Lord, find better strategies to parent my children, discover tips on enriching my marriage and so on and so on.
There is no way I can mention every book I've ever read in this list but these are the ones that stick out to me. The ones that when I look at the cover I have an emotional connection with.

#76

Redeeming Love is a story inspired by the book of Hosea found in the Bible. Set in California in the year 1850, the story is about a young girl, Sarah, who was rejected by her father and left alone by her beloved mother. At a tender age, Sarah is sold to a brothel. There she is raised and used as a prostitute. The loving little girl that Sarah was is transformed into an angry young woman, Angel, embittered by a life of constant hurt and betrayal. With every man that enters her room, Angel feeds the hate and bitterness until it threatens to destroy her. Every desperate attempt to change her life is met with utter failure.
I relate to her battle with self hatred and the war within to accept Christs unconditional love.

<><><>
#77
I love Charlotte!

Charlotte’s Web opens the door to a magical world, which a young girl named Fern finds herself a part of. Fern spends her free time with Wilbur the pig whom she loves and the other barn animals who play a large part in the life of Wilbur. Charlotte A. Cavatica, the large grey spider, befriends Wilbur and helps him deal with the shocking news that his life will end as bacon on someone’s plate. Charlotte goes as far as coming up with an interesting plan that only this spider could carry out with the help of Templeton the rat (who never does anything unless there is something in it for himself) to help Wilbur escape death. This was one of the first books I remember reading and it's ending still brings me to tears and reminds me of the verse

#78
A life changing Love
One of the best books I've read in the past five years. A compelling story about two men: Ron and Denver, the unlikely friendship formed between them, and God's redemptive story weaved throughout their shared lives. While it is a tale of deep pain and difficult circumstances, what is beautiful about the book is the element of nearly-unbelievable redemption. An entirely nonfictional book that calls us to evaluate our life in light of the greatest love and compassion.

#79
Taking captive our thoughts
The fight for the mind
It truly is a battlefield!!! I've struggled my entire life with TAKING MY THOUGHTS CAPTIVE!
This book teaches how to renew our mind through the Word and stand victoriously at battle's end. Satan whispers in our ear and we begin to process that thought. What happens to us then? How do we process that thought? Do we dwell on it? Do we dismiss it? Or do we battle it. The Bible tells us that Satan is out to kill, steal and destroy everyone. If he can plant a distraction to occupy our mind then he somehow wins. But if we fill our mind with Scriptures and learn to speak those scriptures, we can defeat Satan and even deter him for bothering us!


#80

Beth Moore can do no wrong for me with her writings.  This study of selected passages from the Book of Isaiah, draws several parallels between the captive Israelites and today's Christians, in order to show how to make freedom in Christ a daily reality.
In my lifelong pursuit of freedom this book has become the basic black of my library wardrobe.

#81
Imagine your life without fear!
Fear seems to be in the driver’s seat these days. Finances are tumbling, rockets are launching, and seemingly solid institutions are teetering. The economy is failing...wars and rumors of war kind of stuff. It's tough for folks to know where to turn. Each sunrise seems to bring fresh reasons for fear.
I don't typically live my life in fear or make fear based decisions but fear has been an acquaintance on more than one occasion.
What If we could hover a fear magnet over our heart and extract every last shaving of dread, insecurity, and doubt, what would remain?

#82
C.S Lewis

I never considered taking on a set of books. While pregnant with my first child I was on strict bedrest. I had a miscarriage with our first and would do anything, even if it meant standing on my head for 9 mos to keep my baby safe.
I found profound escape through the wardrobe with  Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie. The seven books constituting the Chronicles of Narnia tell how Aslan the Lion, son of the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea, sings Narnia into being from nothing and later saves it from evil by sacrificing himself and rising again. He spares nothing to make others good if they are open to change.
C.S. Lewis created a masterpiece of Christian Allegory of Christ’s Atonement and Resurrection.

#83

As a fairly new Christian and avid reader of fiction I could not set these down. I will preface this as I did with The Shack...Caveat lector. I found this series to be real page turners. There is an Evangelical fervor in these books that gets my blood pumping. Is it theologically on point, no but I find the Tribulation fascinating and to find the true story of the tribulation of course you must dig into the book of Revelation. It's fascinating. Dare I even say I believe we are  being ushered into that time presently and God is awakening His bride.

#84



Governance of God in all things
With almost every word I absorbed from the pages of this awe inspiring book I was brought back to that very thought....Governance of God in all things! 
I think think of how Corrie's sister Betsie was covered in lice in Ravensbruck. Later Corrie realizes that these very lice kept the guards at a far distance.
This autobiography of Corrie ten Boom's survival through the Nazi occupation of Holland in WWII left me in great reverence.  Her survival and tenacity to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the face of such travesty changed the coarse of my very life, my very view of this Great God I serve and His workings in the finite details of my life.
She made it her life's mission to give testimony to the fact that love and goodness can prevail in even the darkest hell. 
I'm in awe and inspired by her faithfulness.

#85

I've read that The Shack has been received among Christians with decidedly mixed reviews. While many have acclaimed it as a groundbreaking story that brings to life heart-stirring theology, others insist that some of what it teaches is patently unbiblical.
Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle: "If you haven't read The Shack, don't!"
Driscoll, whose multi-campus non-denominational church is packed with 6,000 people each weekend in the least-churched corner of the nation, says he is "horrified" by Young's book. He says "it misrepresents God.

Is it heretical?
I read it strictly as a book of fiction. Not a book with any theological value. I did find that it stretched my minds eye view of the heavenlies and gave me a reminder of God's sacrifice on the cross not just for the lovely but for the people who make really awful choices and commit heinous acts if they turn to Him for forgiveness and confession.
It's not a book for the faint of heart. The book seeks to provide answers to the always timely question "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" It's a tale that revolves around Mack (Mackenzie) Philips.
Four years before the story begins, Mack's young daughter, Missy, was abducted during a family vacation. Though her body was never found, the police did find evidence in an abandoned shack to prove that she had been brutally murdered by a notorious serial killer who preyed on young girls....
As with any book, filter with with true Word of God and His Holy Spirit! Caveat lector

#86
Much afraid leaves the valley of fear and becomes a new creation!
A timeless allegory dramatizing the yearning of God’s children to be led to new heights of love, joy, and victory. We follow Much-Afraid on her spiritual journey as she overcomes many dangers and mounts at last to the High Places. There she gains a new name and is transformed by her union with the loving Shepherd.
The thing about this book is that it lays bare the deepest longings and fears of our hearts in following God--following Him when we can't see ahead of us, when we feel like we're going in circles, when we feel like He is not taking us where we want to go, and how following Him can mean laying down the deepest desires of our hearts just because God asks us to, and we know Him to be good and loving.

#87
I love Punchinello
I read this over and over to my children. They could not get enough of Punchinello. Frankly I couldn't either. Every single time I read the book I would get a knot in my throat. The kind you get when you are trying really hard not to cry. This story is not just for children. Not at all. I found healing between the covers. A healing word from the Lord that I, Robin, am special in His sight. Precious and loved exactly how I am.

You Are Special is heart warming tale in which Eli helps Punchinello understand how special he is, no matter what other Wemmicks may think. . It is about small wooden people called the Wemmicks who put golden star stickers and gray dot stickers on each other all day long. The golden star stickers go to the talented, well liked, smart, and beautiful Wemmicks. The gray dot stickers go to the chipped, scratched, and uncoordinated Wemmicks, and to those who cannot speak eloquently. A Wemmick, named Punchinello, is one who receives gray dots all day long and is very sad about it. It is affecting his self esteem and he believes that something is really wrong with him.
He meets Lucia, a Wemmick who is beautiful ...you are just going to have to read it   J