Have You Had An "Aha" Moment Lately?

Have you ever had one of those "Aha!" moments where you suddenly realized, "now I get it"?  That moment for me was a few weeks ago when I went with some friends to stand and pray outside an abortion mill in Dallas.  As I stood there and watched in astonishment as these young women drove through the entrance of that place, it hit me that this wasn't just a storyline for a movie or a topic for a sermon, this was real life.  These were real women, with real babies in their womb, so desparate in their situation that they felt they had no other course but to end the life of that baby and hope they could put this horrible experience behind them and get on with life.  What they didn't realize, and what my friends so urgently and desparately tried to make them understand, was that this was not their only choice and this most certainly would not bring peace and an end to the situation they were in.

Today is Mother's Day.  This day is one of the proudest days of the year for me.  I look at my two beautiful daughters and realize how incredibly blessed I am.  They are my single greatest accomplishment in life.  Two beautiful women who love and respect their father and mother and are passionately in love with their Heavenly Father.  There's nothing more I could want or ask.

I think of my friend who just last week was blessed with her first grandchild.  What joy is in that household on this Mother's Day as they hold this new life that God has so graciously blessed their family with.

Then my heart breaks as I think of the women I saw drive into that same place yesterday, Mother's Day weekend, and make the choice to take the life of their child because they didn't want to become a mother. 

My "aha" moment was the realization that for years, I have been content to do battle on my knees, offering up prayers for people like my friends who have been out on the battlelines for over a decade now reaching out, trying to make a difference.  My "aha" moment was the realization that I could do more.  The realization that I "should" be doing more.

Then I had my second "aha" moment as God showed me that it's not just the abortion of babies that I need to physically do battle for.  Daily, people all around me are making conscious and unconscious decisions to abort their own spiritual life.  They have a Father who wants to give them eternal life, who is so desparate to make them His child, that He gave up the life of His own Son to make a way for that to happen.  Yet they choose to abort that adoption either by arrogance or by ignorance.  He needs more than my prayers on my knees for these people.  He needs me to stand, pray and plead with them to realize what it is they are doing and that their choice most certainly will not bring peace or the end result they are wanting.

May God continue to give me "aha" moments until I have completed the work He has for me to do.  I pray that when the day comes that I stand before Him in heaven, He will look at me and say, "Aha!"

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Last year I finally had the opportunity to attempt something I've wanted to do for many years but had never done before...a backyard garden.  Although it was very small (just a 3' x 5' area), I had so much fun everytime I would go out and find another tomato or a new pepper ready to be harvested. 

This year I decided to be a little more daring and expand not only the size of the garden, but also the variety of produce and herbs.  Who knows what I'll do next year.  Before it's over, my entire backyard might be a garden!

Every time I go in my backyard, I am amazed at the growth I can physically see taking place in the plants.  The formation of peppers on the bell pepper plants, tomatoes already forming on the tomato plants, the incredibly rapid growth of the potato plants (I can't keep up with them).

I wonder if our Heavenly Father has just as much excitement when He sees our lives producing fruit. He has given us as His children one very important job to do while we are here on this earth.  To carry on His great commission to reach the lost world.  And the tools He has given us to accomplish this task are found in the Fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control).  As we cultivate and water these gifts through prayer and studying the Word, the fruit our life produces will be a very visable witness to the world that God is love and that He loves them.  Now that's a garden worth tending!

1 Colosians 1: 9-14 -For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption,the forgiveness of sins.

Before I go, I thought I'd share pictures of my garden as of today.  I'll try to post again later with updated pictures as it continues to grow.

                         My baby peach tree we planted last year.

The first peach (and it's not supposed to produce for another year)

 Not to be outdone, this branch has 10 peaches on it.

                This is the main garden (minus potatoes and garlic)

                                           Cucumber

                                             Hot Peppers

                                    Greenbeans.  My favorites.

                        Look at those beautiful bean plants grow!

     The first tomatoes of the season.

Basil (Can anyone say "pesto"? Mmmm...)

Potatoes

(I just covered them yesterday and they're already popping out again!)

The grapevine is growing wildly!

Is that a cluster of grapes I see?

Bell Peppers

Cilantro

Garlic anyone?

Chives (they're just waiting for those wonderful potatoes to bake)

Precious Memories

There are certain things in the past that I would choose to forget and leave in the past.  Mistakes, regrets, hurts.  But on the other hand, there are some things from the past that I pray I will never forget.  Best friends, great music, fried bread and coca-cola.

In 1980 after the untimely death of my mom, I went to live with a precious family that took me in as one of their own.  I didn't know it at the time, but thirty years later now, I look back and see how God so graciously orchestrated this very tender, broken and incredibly special time in my life.  He took a seemingly hopeless situation (I was 17 years old and my mom had been killed in a tragic bus accident) and through the love of this family and my precious best friend, He brought restoration and grace to a broken-hearted teenager.  My friend has told me on more than one occasion that I saved her life.  But, the truth is that God used her and her family to save mine.  While the pain of my mother's death is a memory that I don't like to remember, the result of her death orchestrated some of the dearest and most special memories of my life.

Last week, I had the opportunity to walk into that house again after over 25 years and was overwhelmed with a flood of emotions and memories as I revisited every room.  I could hear us lying in bed talking late into the night; I saw her brother banging tennis balls against the side of the house; I saw us sitting at the piano singing for hours on end.  And oh, the food.  My dear sweet mom made for me fried bread and coca-cola. My favorite. Suddenly, it was 30 years ago, once again.

Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them."  If you are going through a battle in your life today, I challenge you to put your trust in God and watch His hand at work.  When He brings you through, I'll bet you'll also find precious memories on the other side.

Our Blessed Hope

I watched again tonight the movie, "The Passion of the Christ".  I have watched this movie six times now, and I have yet to walk away from it unshaken, unmoved and not in a state of disbelief.  Not disbelief that it really happened, but the inability to comprehend why He would suffer the way He did for ME.  There is no one more unworthy of His sacrifice than I am.  No murderer, no thief, no deciever...no one.  I am just as sinful in God's eyes as they are and still, He did that for ME.  No matter how hard I may try, I cannot begin to fathom the kind of love it took for Him to set aside for a time the beauty of heaven and come to earth as a human being, knowing all along exactly what He would suffer...for ME.  I don't know why, but I'm so glad He did.

And I'm so glad that He didn't just die for me...He also was resurrected for me!  Thank you my Lord for the promise of new life.  May I daily be reminded of Your great sacrifice and of the victory of Your resurrection.  In the words of Martin Luther, "Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime."  This is truly our blessed hope.

The Beauty of Being Still

I mentioned in my profile that I have proclaimed this year for me as the year of "Be still and Know".  My life, over the past several years, has been a virtual whirlwind of busyness.  Working up to three jobs, involved in multiple ministries at church and the busyness of domestic life respsonsibilites left little time for personal one-on-one time with God.  The chorus of an old song called "I Miss My Time With You" says:
                                
I miss my time with you...those moments together.
I need to be with you each day and it hurts me when you say
   you're too busy.  Too busy trying to serve me. 
But, how can you serve me if your spirit's empty?
There's a longing in my heart.  It's wanting more than just a part of you.
It's true.  I miss my time with you.

I was so "busy" with life that I was missing out on the things that truly matter...quality time with the family, time to feed my mind through reading and studying and most importantly, time to know God through prayer and the Word.  I could stay busy and have nothing to show for it five years from now, or I could choose to "be still" and in turn, be a stronger, healthier and wiser woman of God.

There is beauty in stillness.

Try it, you'll like it.

Psalm 139:17-18  How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!  How vast is the sum of them!  If I would count them, they are more than the sand.  I awake, and I am still with you.

The Most Encouraging Words I Could Say

I was thinking the other day about how much healing there is in a hug.  I was a little apprehensive about seeing someone who had at one time been such an important part of my life, but whom I had lost contact with for many years.  When she saw me, she hugged me so tightly that all the apprehension immediately melted away.  I knew at that moment that I was still loved and that our relationship was still alive and safe.

There is a song written by David Crowder that expresses this same sense of healing.  If you are in need of a hug today, as you read these words, may you feel the arms of Jesus around you so tightly that there is no doubt that you are truly loved and safe with Him.

How He Loves

He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,

Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.

When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,

And I realize just how beautiful You are,

And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us oh

Oh how He loves us,

How He loves us all

And we are His portion and He is our prize,

Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,

If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.

And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,

And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,

I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,

When I think about, the way…

That He loves us,

Oh how He loves us,

Oh how He loves us,

Oh how He loves.

Didn't See That One Coming

One thing I'm not particularly great at is planning ahead.  I'm more of a "swing by your pants", "one day at a time" kind of person.  Quite an oxymoron for someone who also hates very much being caught off guard or unprepared.  One of my favorite quotes (and my children will tell you they've heard a hundred times) is, "It's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it."  I would just prefer to keep plenty of whatever "it" is on hand now so that I don't HAVE to plan ahead.

The problem with not looking ahead though, is that you often don't see what's coming until it's right smack in your face.  Talk about being caught off guard and unprepared!

That's when I'm so thankful for a Father who not only sees ahead for me, but he has everyday of my life planned out.  So, no matter what may hit me in the face tomorrow, no matter how unexpected, I know it didn't catch HIM off guard.  He knows exactly what to do and where to go.  It's my job just to follow Him.

Psalm 28:7  The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.