God's Correction...Discipline Never Feels Good, But It's Always For Our Good

It has been one month since God spoke to me to start blogging. He was direct this time. I mentioned before that I have felt for some time to start a blog, but when I heard God's voice this time, it was more than a suggestion. There was an urgency and a directness that said, “Now. It's time.” As I began to pray and seek God for direction on what to write about, He made it very clear to me. I felt Him leading me to be vulnerable, sharing with you what He was doing in my life as a follower of Christ, as a woman of God, as a wife, and as a mother. Just as our personal lives take us through different seasons of life, we experience different seasons spiritually as well. Lately, I have been in a learning season. I have loved Jesus and served Him all of my life, but I feel God stirring in me a desire for His Word like never before and He is teaching me new things and stretching me in my faith. I was excited about this opportunity to share with others how God was changing me! However, when I sat down at the computer for the first time, I literally just stared at the screen and the words just wouldn't come! I would try to get something started and as I reread it, it just didn't sound right, so I'd delete and start again. Once again...nothing. I was getting frustrated and a little worried because this blogging thing was proving to be harder than I thought! I took a break and that night as I laid in bed, I began to talk to God. I knew without a doubt that it was God that told me to start blogging. I knew without a doubt that God gave me clear direction on what to write in my blog. So why was I having such a hard time coming up with the words to say? I began to pray that He would give me the words and help me write. I wanted to be used by Him and in order for me to do that, I needed His help. When I stopped to take the time to truly ask for His help, that's when the words came. Today's post was actually the very first blog post that I wrote, however, after I wrote it I felt God telling me to wait. It has been my prayer from the very beginning that God will use my story, my experiences, and my words to draw others closer to Him. Sometimes, that may require some extra time for Him to begin preparing hearts to receive my words with the right attitude. Well this morning, I felt the release in my spirit to post this story, so I pray you will receive it well.

**NOTE: I decided to leave my story as I originally wrote it, so the time references are off by about a month, but the message is still the same **

Last week, God used the words from a dear friend to completely change my heart. I pray a lot, I read my Bible often, I love Jesus with all of my heart, and I know His voice. He speaks to me often...offering wisdom, direction, warnings, and confirmation. However, last weekend, He corrected me. Discipline is tough, even as an adult! It has been years since my parents have had to get onto me about my behavior or actions. However, I can still get a knot in the pit of my stomach thinking back to times that I can remember my parents having to discipline me for the choices that I made, not because of the punishment, but because I know my actions disappointed my parents. Well, that's exactly how I felt this past weekend when The Lord corrected me!

Let me back up. Last week, I shared an article on Facebook about Target's new controversial restroom and dressing room policy. It was a great article with some statistics that I felt were worth sharing. However, instead of just sharing the article, I decided to give my opinion along with it. Honestly, I can't even remember exactly what I said, but I know I made the comment that Target is my favorite store and there was no way I could boycott them. I did, however, comment that I planned on calling and writing a letter about their new policies. I even added a scripture about how our words should be gracious and seasoned with salt...which they should be and I still stand by that. It wasn't long after my post, that I began reading some of the comments that others made. Well, a dear friend of mine, made a simple, yet direct comment on my page. Her words were gracious, seasoned with salt, and full of truth. When I read them, I was immediately convicted by the Holy Spirit. I knew without a doubt that God used my friend's words to get my attention and speak to me. As I prayed and stewed on this conviction all weekend long, I actually realized He had been speaking to me all along, but I didn't want to hear what He was saying because He was asking me to take a stand and I knew deep down in my heart that He was asking me to do more than write a letter or make a phone call. You see, God is such a gentleman. He doesn't force Himself on anyone. He was so gracious when He disciplined me. He was stern, but so loving. By Monday morning, I knew exactly what He wanted me to do. I woke up that morning and I knew God was leading me to delete my previous post. He wanted me to delete it because He has entrusted a large audience to me on Facebook. If my words have the ability to cause even one of my friends to stumble, it is my heart's cry that God will always correct me so that I can hopefully make things right. I was reminded of Job 5:17 “Blessed is the one whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.” After I deleted the post, I knew God wanted me to go to my local Target and ask to speak to a manager. This is where His discipline was so loving. You see, He knows Target is my favorite store. He knows I absolutely adore their children's clothing, rugs, and throw pillows! Instead of just telling me to never shop there again, He was gentle and just told me to go speak to the manager. He used those 3 days over the weekend to begin preparing my heart for a hard decision, rather than just telling me what to do. He is truly a gentleman. Once I spoke to the manager and media relations department, The Lord opened my eyes that this was a spiritual matter and I knew at that moment that as a believer in Jesus Christ and as a woman who desires to follow Biblical principles and truth, I knew that if I continued to support this company with my money, that I was contributing to the moral decay of America. Yes, me...1 person out of the 323 million people in America...God was showing me that although I am a mere speck of sand when you look at the number of Americans that shop at Target, I was part of the reason America is where it is today culturally. When He opened my eyes to that truth, what I thought would be a hard decision to stop shopping at Target soon became the easiest decision I have made all year!

Of the 323 million people in America, 80% identify themselves as Christians. Of those, 25% are Evangelical Christians. Sadly, the church has no one to blame for the moral decay of America on anyone but ourselves. God reminded me of the story of Simon Peter when he was fishing all night and caught absolutely nothing. He was an experienced fisherman so I can imagine what He was thinking when Jesus told him to throw out his nets where he had just been fishing all night long and had caught nothing! Simon Peter loved Jesus, he trusted Jesus, he followed Jesus! I wonder how his story would have ended had he responded like many believers do today. Pray. Trust Jesus. Don't fear. Be the light in the darkness. Sound familiar? You see, Simon Peter could have prayed all night long for Jesus to give them fish, but those fish wouldn't have just jumped in his boat. He wasn't afraid and yet those fish still didn't come. He was experienced and an example for other fishermen to look up to. Yet even though he did all of the right things, the fish still didn't fill up the boat. He could have been shining God's light so bright on that boat...teaching his friends about Jesus and acting like Jesus, but even that wouldn't have brought the fish onto the boat. It wasn't until he obeyed God's command to throw out the net, that his nets were filled with fish, so much so that they almost sank the boat! You see, God always requires us to partner our faith with our actions when we need a miracle. Our country needs a desperate miracle. We can't just pray for a miracle. God is asking us as believers to take action that aligns with our faith. He is loving. He won't ever ask anything of you that will contradict that love. When we begin obeying with our actions, I believe we will begin to see a shift.

Shifts are slow...very slow. Look back to when abortion became legal. I'm sure many believers had the insight from the Holy Spirit that this was a terrible decision and that it needed to be reversed. I'm sure there were many who fought the decision. I'm also sure there were many believers who disagreed with it but didn't say anything, whether due to thinking it didn't affect them or maybe they believed there might be some cases where abortion was necessary to save a mother's life. And I'm sure that if there were social media back in those days, there would be believers hashtagging #bethelight or #Godprotects or #stopmakingsuchabigdeal. You get my point. No one could have ever imagined when that decision was made that over the next 40 years, there would be over 58 million babies murdered. What some assumed was not a big deal turned out to be a very big deal. God had a plan and a purpose for each of those lives, just as He has a plan and purpose for my life and your life. But God will never push His will onto us. He gives us a free will and it is up to us to choose to do things God's ways or our own ways. I could list many more examples of past decisions made in America that have had similar effects to the moral decay of our country. I can only imagine what some believers will be saying in 40 years when they see the statistics that resulted from this recent decision, or worse, they become the statistic. We can no longer sit idly by and continue taking an active part in the moral decay of our country by remaining silent. I have heard many believers take the stand that if we stopped supporting the businesses that in turn donated money to charities or causes that went against our moral values, then we would no longer be able to do business anywhere! That may very well be truth, however, we can't justify sin simply because we live in a fallen world. I may not know the specific values, beliefs, and motivations behind the companies that I do business with, stores that I shop at, or the restaurants that I eat at, nor do I claim to know where they choose to invest their profits. However, if any of those businesses that I support with my money, choose to take a public stand on an issue that goes directly against God's Word, that is the moment where I am given a choice. We have been called to do more. We are the hands and feet of Jesus! We can't just pray for change...we must be the change! It's time for us to be different than the world. It's time for us to align our actions with what we believe. When God's truth is mocked and scorned, it's time for us to take a stand. Romans 12:2 says “Do not copy the behaviors and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” We can't remain silent and continue conforming to a new normal every time these decisions are made that go directly against the Word of God! We have to take a stand and align our actions with God's truth. Money talks. If everyone who “identifies” as a Christian began to take action, I guarantee we would see some decisions reversed...and not just the most recent ones! With God's help, we could see lots of changes! But it requires action and God has stirred me to action.

Just as He used the words from my dear friend to change and stir my heart, I pray He will do the same through my words. He is waiting on our obedience. Just as Simon Peter's obedience resulted in blessings more than he could contain, can you imagine what God will do with our obedience? Could we possibly be the change that ushers in the greatest spirit of revival that the Bible speaks of before Christ's return? Maybe! I'm ready! Are you? I truly believe we are living in the last days. The Bible is clear in warning us that in the last days, times will be hard. People will be easily mislead. Right will be called wrong and wrong will be right. People will discard holiness. They will act as if they worship God, yet they will not let God's power work in their lives. Paul warns us to stay away from people like this. I love how Paul reminds Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 that despite the hard times that he will be faced with, he has been equipped to make it through! Listen to his letter.

“Timothy, all who want to live a good life in Christ Jesus will be troubled by other people. Bad men and those who fool other people will grow worse and worse. They will fool other people, and other people will fool them. But you, Timothy, must keep on doing the things you have learned. You know they are right. You know who taught them to you. From the time you were a child you knew the holy writings. They showed you how to be saved by believing in Christ Jesus. All that is written in the holy writings comes from the Spirit of God. The holy writings are good for these things: to teach people, to show them when they are wrong, to make them see what is right, to teach them to do what is right. In this way a person who belongs to God has all he needs. He is ready for every kind of good work.” - 2 Timothy 3:12-17

It is with this same urgency that I write to you today! We have all that we need! We have God's Holy Word and the Spirit of God lives within us! Friends, we know God's teaching and we must keep on doing what God's Word has taught us! We know it is right! I am so grateful that God spoke through my precious friend when I failed to to listen to the teachings in His Word. In these last days, it's imperative that we tune into God's voice and then respond with obedience. I can pray for change until I'm blue in the face, but meanwhile, God is simply saying, “Mary, I heard your prayer the first time and I have equipped you with My Word and My Spirit to go BE the change! My Spirit is within you leading you, directing you, and guiding you. While I am away preparing a place for you, I have sent my Holy Spirit to be with you because it is YOU who will now be my hands and feet. It is YOU who will lay hands on the sick and see them healed and set the captives free. It is YOU who will stand up against those that mock and scorn My Name. It is YOU that I have equipped! Be wise with your words and diligent in your actions, because your days are numbered. I desire to work THROUGH YOU, but once you pray for the change, you must be obedient and go be the change!”

In Him,

Mary

Money Management...Never Too Late and Never Too Early to Learn

Coming into marriage, my husband and I were both pretty conservative with our finances. I would consider both of us to be natural savers, despite our different stories on how we got there. Growing up, my parents used to say a phrase so frequently that it was forever ingrained into my thoughts. “Live below your means. Just because you have the money doesn't mean you should spend it.” I can remember earning my allowance every week as a child and saving my money up for a specific toy or purchase. Yet, when finally reaching the amount I needed, I would change my mind and just keep the money! That famous phrase would come to mind and thinking about how long it took me to save up that money just made the purchase painful! Even though I had the money to buy whatever it was I was saving for, all of a sudden, I just didn't seem to want it as bad. It was the teaching from my parents that naturally led me to become a saver. I learned to ask myself at a young age if I really “needed” that purchase. More than not, I didn't so I would just keep my money. Just because I had the money didn't mean I should spend it. I was learning to live below my means.

Now, my husband on the other hand, became a saver for different reasons. He began working at his grandfather's fence company when he was just 13 years old. He started off by doing odd and end jobs and mowing his grandpa's lawn. By the time he was 15 years old, he started installing fence for the company. It didn't mater if it was 10 degrees outside or 110 degrees...as long as it wasn't raining or snowing, he was out there working! There were days that he would end his work days numb because he was so cold. Then there were those hot Oklahoma summer days where it was nothing short of a miracle that he was able to make it through the day without passing out or puking! He quickly learned the value of a dollar because he had to work hard for his money.  Spending money was just hard for him..really hard!  He would rather save his money than throw it away on frivolous things that made him feel like he worked hard for nothing!

We thought we were doing pretty good as newlyweds considering we had saved up enough money to put a down payment on a new home. We were living the dream! Here we were, newlyweds...young and in love...living in a new 3 bedroom home, driving nice vehicles, putting money in savings each month...we thought we were doing things right. We believed we were being smart with our money...until we came across a guy named Dave Ramsey! The more we started listening to this guy on the radio, the more we realized that maybe we didn't have all of this finance stuff figured out after all! So, we did what every newly married couple should do...we signed up for Financial Peace University!

It was during this 13 week class that we learned what God's Word said about debt and financial responsibility. Proverbs 22:7 says, “Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is slave to the lender.” Ouch!  Romans 13:8 says, “Owe nothing to anyone.” We also learned that God's Word says good people leave an inheritance to their grandchildren, yet the Bible explains that those who spend whatever money they get, they are fools! I have to say hearing God's perspective on the matter probably had a bigger impact on my husband than it did on myself. We were in that newlywed phase where my husband was trying to establish his role as the spiritual leader of our home and here I was, still trying to learn how to be a submissive wife. This was really the first moment that I can remember where we were both on the same playing field, the same level spiritually, learning something new together and I had a front row seat as I watched God pour out wisdom and leadership into my husband like never before. He desired to be the spiritual leader that God designed him to be and he was eager to lead his family down the financial path that God laid out for us in His Word. Seeing his desire to lead his family in a manner that was pleasing to the Lord was HOT! Let's just get that out there! A man who pursues God and seeks to please Him all of a sudden becomes even more attractive to his wife! I loved seeing him taking on this new found role in our little family!

As if that wasn't enough to get us on the right track financially, we also learned that if we were to start investing what we currently paid in car payments every month (we had two car payments at the time), we could be millionaires by the time we retire! Say what!? Talk about some motivation for two young adults who were naturally savers! Ha! We wasted no time at all tackling our debt snowball and one year later, we were officially debt free, other than our mortgage. During this Financial Peace University course, they briefly mentioned that there was also a program designed for kids! This was several years before we became parents, so I filed that information away since it didn't apply to us at the time.

Fast forward to where we are now. We now have four kids...ages 8, 6, almost 4, and 2 years old! My husband and I have tossed around the idea of starting to give our oldest children a commission for a couple of years now, but because of their age, they are only performing simple household chores that if we are honest here...we felt like the responsibilities they had were things we expected them to do whether they get paid or not! Both of our older girls (6 and 8) are expected to unload the dishwasher, clear the tables after meals, put away clean laundry, make their bed, pick up their room and playroom, and keep the rest of the house picked up and clutter free. As a member of our home, we just expect our kids to do these things to help our home function more effectively. We were afraid that if we started giving them a commission for these chores, our children may expect to get paid for these tasks all of their life or possibly choose not to do them if there ever comes a time they didn't need the money. Therefore, we kept putting the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace Junior approach on hold.

However, when our church recently announced that they were going to be offering a 6 week class on Dave Ramsey's book “Smart Money, Smart Kids”, we were excited to take the class! We were ready to learn some new ideas to help us begin implementing those important financial principles into our parenting techniques so that our kids will be smart with their money too! We just finished up the class a few weeks ago and the information was invaluable! We learned so many great ideas and approaches to teaching our children about money! I would love to share with you the system we just implemented in our home with our children after completing this class!

The first lesson in this 6 week class was all about teaching your children that money is connected with work! This is a lesson that will hopefully lead your child to develop a good work ethic as he or she gets older! Unfortunately, our government has completely missed the mark on this valuable lesson! We live in a culture that defies this concept. We are raising up a generation that believes that they don't have to work to earn money. Why should they work when they can receive government stipends and handouts with little to no effort on their part?  I could go on and on about how our government is missing it, but I'll save that post for another day!  Truthfully though, unless we want to think about a future without teachers, leaders, doctors, nurses, etc., we better do our part as parents to teach our child that money is indeed connected to WORK! Dave Ramsey encourages giving children household chores and responsibilities as young as 3 years old! Teach them young that when they work, they get paid!

The lessons following are all on teaching your children how to manage the money they earn! Being natural savers, we have always encouraged our children to save their money! One of our very first purchases for each of our children was their first little piggy bank! They love filling them up with Dad's spare change and with the money they receive for birthdays and holidays. When the piggy banks get full, we load the kids up and take them to the bank so that they can deposit their money into their savings account! It's always a big deal to them to actually get to go inside and give the tellers their own bag of money. They love it! We felt like we were doing great teaching our kids financial responsibility by teaching them to save their money!

However, after taking the Smart Money, Smart Kids class, we realized that we needed to be just as intentional about teaching our kids how to spend their money and give their money wisely! It really is important for them to learn all three...GIVE, SAVE, and SPEND! We don't want to raise our kids to be so tight with their money that they fail to be givers or refuse to have fun! And we don't want to raise our kids to thinking all spending is bad! There has to be a balance! This class gave some practical ways to teach your kids how to give, spend, and save smart and they gave you several ideas for different ages! It was great information!

Here is what my husband and I decided to put into practice! First of all, we realized the importance of teaching our kids that money is connected to work! So, we decided to implement a chore chart right away. Now, Dave Ramsey has a cute chart that you can purcahse and place on your refrigerator. However, with four kids, my fridge is often the place we display artwork and the idea of more stuff being plasteerd for all to see, makes this mom who despises clutter just cringe. So, thanks to Pinterest and some chore chart ideas I found online, I came up with a system that works for our family...and the best part, it's cute and part of our home décor! Yay!

I went to Walmart and purchased some of the plain, inexpensive clipboards. Then I picked out some scrapbook paper that carried on the same color scheme that we have throughout the living areas of our home. I followed a step by step tutorial that I found on Pinterest and created the cutest clipboards for each kid in our family!

I then printed out a chore chart that I found online that again went along with our color scheme and clipped them to each clipboard.

Sometime ago, I had found some hanging baskets at Hobby Lobby that was numbered with four baskets! Um, let me just fill you in on one of my personal obsessions...organizational containers! This obsession began when I was a teacher and since becoming a parent, it has only gotten worse! I'm constantly looking for cute storage ideas to keep our home clutter free and organized! So having four kids, when I saw these cute hanging baskets that were numbered 1-4, I just bought it and knew I'd eventually find a purpose for it! Well, when I found the cute chore chart and clipboard idea, I wanted to combine the ideas and store them in this piece that I had bought months before! I have it hanging in the hallway that leads to the children's bedrooms.  Plus, it's right next to the kitchen wall and mudroom wall, which is where we pass anytime we come and go...all this to say, it is very visible to everyone! This will serve as a constant reminder to our kids to complete their daily chores every time they walk past these clipboards! They each picked out a sheet of stickers that they will use to fill in their charts after they have completed all of their chores for the day. I chose a monthly chore chart simply because I have four kids and the idea of having to remember to print off new charts every week just overwhelms me! If I can make my life easier by just having to remember to do something once a month, I am all about it! Can I get an amen!? Okay, so here it is!

Next, I knew we needed to start implementing the money jars that Dave Ramsey's program teaches...GIVE, SAVE, and SPEND jars. Now, the kids already had cute piggy banks that match their bedroom decorations, so I hated to just get rid of those! However, I am a little OCD about things matching and looking cute, so I wanted two jars that would look nice next to their piggy banks. I decided to go with a simple jar from Hobby Lobby that was comparable in size. I found some cute chalkboard name tags at Hobby Lobby that I used to label the jars! I love the way it turned out and they look adorable sitting on the shelf next to their piggy banks! Their piggy banks are the “SAVE” jars and we explained that to our kids. Make sure they understand that since they aren't labeled! Here is a picture of Myka and Kipton's jars just to give you an idea of what it looks like in their room. I just love that it's cute and serves the purpose! So, now that we have our system in place, we are ready to start teaching our kids how to be smart with their money!

What goals do you have? What is it you are hoping to teach your children? Do you have a plan in place to help you achieve your goal? For those of you that are needing a plan to get to that point where you can experience financial peace, I highly recommend Dave Ramsey's program! His program is set up with baby steps, making it attainable and easy to follow. The same goes for his Smart Money, Smart Kids program. He gives you practical ideas to get you on the road of teaching your children how to be smart with their money! These are life skills that literally will affect the course of your child's life! His program has changed the course of our lives and we want to pass that along to not only our children, but to everyone in our sphere of influence! If you have any questions about the steps, I'd be happy to help in anyway!

We are still working on the latter steps in the program ourselves...saving money to apply towards college funds, retirement, and knocking down our mortgage every month! It takes discipline and requires a monthly budget, but it will pay off! As Dave Ramsey says, “You must have a game plan. If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” It's so true!  Whether you follow Dave Ramsey's steps or choose a different path, the key is having a plan and sticking with it!  I am excited to begin the journey of teaching my children how to manage their money God's way!  In case you haven't figured it out...God's Word works...every time!  I'd like to end our time together with one of my favorite Dave Ramsey quotes. 

Be blessed friends and be weird!

Mary

Let the Holy Spirit Be Your Guide

Welcome back friends! When I finally took the plunge a few weeks ago and decided to start blogging, I knew God was going to stretch my audience to more than my close family and friends. I’m a pretty private person and typically don’t share personal information with anyone unless I know them. I always make sure my social media account settings are as private as can be and I never accept a friend request unless I actually know the person! Some may say I’m a bit paranoid, but I would say I’m overly cautious. Not only am I very cautious of who I allow into my personal circle, I am also extremely selective of who I allow to speak into my life. I typically don’t’ listen to sermons unless I trust and respect the speaker. I don’t read books unless it’s written by an author that I trust or that was at least recommended by someone that I trust and I rarely follow blogs unless it’s someone I personally know. I’m just extremely careful of who I allow to speak into my life. In case you didn’t know, there’s just a lot of junk out there and a lot of opinions that are far from God’s opinions, so I think it’s important to be selective of who you listen to. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”

When I knew God was leading me to make my blog public, I immediately knew God wanted me to start off by sharing my story. If you are going to allow me to speak into your life, you need to understand where my heart is coming from. You can’t do that unless you know me. It’s my desire that after reading my story, you have a better understanding of where my heart is coming from. I’m probably not going to lead you anywhere that I haven’t already gone and I sure don’t expect anyone to follow unless I have established some sort of trust and respect through this process. I really hope that after reading the first four parts of my story, you feel like you know me a little better.

I wish I could tell you that I’m only going to write about things that will always leave you with a smile on your face and feeling encouraged. However, I know what God is doing in my own life and many of the things that He is speaking and revealing to me sometimes ruffles my feathers initially. He is challenging me and stretching me. He is pruning me and that process can sometimes be painful. I know God is opening up this opportunity for me to share about that process. I don’t want you to read a future post and tune me out the first time your feathers are ruffled. Instead, I pray that you trust me enough to hear my heart. Then take my words, sit on it, pray about it, and allow the Holy Spirit to confirm it within your own heart! If the Holy Spirit doesn’t confirm it, throw it out or just keep it tucked away somewhere!

 I can promise you this…I pray about each and every post and write it days before posting so that I can have some time to pray and make changes if necessary. I want to be led by the Holy Spirit and want God to use my words to point others to Him. I want God to use my words to challenge you to examine your own life and allow the Holy Spirit to shine a light on areas that need to be surrendered to Him. I hope that by now, you have a glimpse of my character and heart. Please know it is never my goal or intent to bring condemnation upon anyone nor judge you. I simply want to share what I have personally gone through and share what God is doing in my life. I pray this blog will encourage you, inspire you, and challenge you! More importantly, I pray that this blog will draw you closer to God than ever before, leading you to go deeper in your faith. Time is short! He wants more than a surface level relationship with you. He wants more than an hour on Sundays. He wants you...all of you! He loves you more than you'll ever know! Thank you for joining me on this journey. Let's go deeper together! He is waiting for us both!

I would love to hear from you! I am praying that God will use this blog for divine connections! I want to pray for you and I want to hear how God is moving in your own life, so please feel free to share! No posts will ever be posted until I approve them. If you ever want to send me a comment, but would prefer your comment be kept private, just let me know and I will make sure I don't post your comment to the thread. I pray everyone has a fabulous week! Sending you some love! xoxoxoxo

In Him,

Mary

My Story - Part 4

Happy Monday friends! Today I will be sharing the last part of “My Story”. I smile as I even write that because my story is far from over. However, for the purpose of you getting to know me a little better, this part of my story will allow you to understand me as a person even better. I would like to share with you how motherhood has changed me. I should tell you something first. I have dreamed about being a mother since I was a little girl! I have always wanted lots of babies and I was one of those girls that was just born with that natural tendency to love and nurture. In fact, it's those qualities that I believe led me to pursue a career in teaching. It's just in my blood...the desire to be around kids and getting to love and nurture them! Do you remember in my first post when I said God has our story written out for all of our days even before we were formed? He writes our story before we are even formed so that He can purposely place within us specific personalities, character traits, and strengths as He makes us. Just think about that for a moment...”we were fearfully and wonderfully made” and He made you on purpose, for a purpose, for such a time as this! Sure, my environment and those I have chosen to surround myself with have certainly played a huge role in who I am today, but God...God made me with a purpose in mind! I have no doubt that my need to nurture and my love for kids was something that God placed inside of me when He formed me. He knew the plans He had for me and He knit me together in my mother's womb, making me in His perfect image, paying attention to every detail, making sure I was wonderfully made and perfectly formed in order to fulfill the purpose that He has called me to accomplish during my days on this earth! For me...I believe I found my purpose in 2008!

In 2008, my dream of becoming a mother came true when I gave birth to my first child! The first time I looked at my daughter's face and held her in my arms, I literally felt like my heart may just burst! The love I felt for her was something I will never be able to describe in words. When I became a mother, I can honestly say that I found my calling. Psalms 37:4 says, “Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” God did just that...after all, He's the one who placed those desires into my heart! I have always wanted lots of babies and being true to His Word, He blessed my husband and I with four beautiful children! Here they are...Kipton (almost 4), Khloe (6), Nora (2) and Myka (8).

The Bible says children are a gift from the Lord, a reward from Him! I feel so incredibly blessed and humbled that He entrusted these four precious souls to my husband and I. I can't wait to share more with you about each of my children, but there's so much I would want to tell you, so I'm going to save that post for another day! Today, I'd like to focus on how God used motherhood to change me as a person and draw me closer to Him! When I became a parent, I vowed to raise my children in a home where they would grow to know the Lord. I dedicated each of my children to The Lord. I loved Jesus with all of my heart and all I wanted to do was please Him. He gave me these kids as a gift and I felt it was my responsibility to love and nurture them in a way that was pleasing to Him! Well, little did I know how this desire to please Him would draw me closer than ever to my gift giver...to my Lord, Jesus Christ.

I mentioned in my previous posts that I have been in church my entire life. Other than a very short season where I strayed from the Lord, I have served Jesus whole-heartedly. I have a t-shirt that says, “She's a good girl, loves her mama, loves Jesus, and America too!” Well, that could have been said about me! Well, little did I know how experiencing motherhood would change my life and forever change my perception on what a “good girl” was!

Motherhood has a way to draw you closer to The Lord! “Jesus Take the Wheel” may be a popular song, but let's be honest...it's a prayer I learned after becoming a mom! I learned real quick that prayer was an essential part of my parenting journey. In fact, I think it's safe to say my prayer life really began when I became a parent! As I said earlier, I desired to raise my children in a way that was pleasing to God. I have prayed that since I was pregnant with my first child and continue to pray it daily even now! I just didn't realize how that prayer would truly change my life and lead me on a road to righteousness like never before. It wasn't until I had a toddler repeating every word and imitating my every action that my perception of righteousness changed! It's amazing how words and actions from a 2 year old open your eyes to behaviors that just might not be so pleasing to The Lord! Things that I may have never thought of as being “bad”...things that won't send you to hell...things that my fellow Christian friends do or say...things that were just second nature...all of a sudden, when seeing them through the eyes of my child...I had to ask myself, if Jesus heard my child say that, would He be pleased? If Jesus were right here watching my child do this, would He be pleased? As I said earlier, these weren't sin issues, but was I using my power of influence to point my children to righteousness or was I allowing my not so pleasant behaviors, habits, actions, and outbursts to possibly cause some heart issues that could easily turn into sin issues someday? Well, let me tell you how God answered that question for me!

It wasn't long after we entered that fun toddler stage when my oldest began copying my husband and I's every move that I heard a sermon on parenting. I can't even remember where I heard the sermon. It was probably my pastor, but I listen to so many podcasts that it's possible I heard it online. Anyway, the speaker said something that forever changed me! “Parents, what you do in moderation, you give your children permission to do in excess.” When I heard those words, the Holy Spirit immediately convicted me about some areas in my life where this applied. Now for those of you who are already getting defensive and thinking, “Well that's just not Biblical”...start by reading the story in Genesis 26 where Isaac lied in order to protect himself...just as his father had previously done. His father's one quick decision to lie in an attempt to save himself ultimately gave permission to his children to lie anytime they needed to get out of trouble. Then, read any reference about sowing and reaping...there's too many to list! Once I allowed this message to marinate in my heart, I was amazed at how many areas the Holy Spirit began shining a light on areas in my life that weren't pleasing to the Lord. And if the Holy Spirit didn't shine light on a certain area, my children certainly did! All of a sudden, I felt convicted about watching some of my favorite shows and movies! Those shows that I have watched for years, or that movie that I couldn't wait to see...all of a sudden every curse word and every love scene began making me extremely uncomfortable! What used to not bother me all of a sudden made me feel like I was in a room alone with the Lord! Knowing He was there with me made me feel embarrassed to watch it! It didn't matter if there was just one curse word, I literally felt like my daughter's ears perked up every time. That statement above kept ringing in my ears when this would happen...”What I do or allow in moderation, I give my children permission to do in excess!” Would I ever allow my children to curse or encourage sexual immorality? Of course not! But that's in essence what I was doing! I can remember watching a dancing show with my daughter when she was little! She used to dance all around the room and have so much fun! It was hysterical! But one day, I caught her rubbing her hands down her body and moving her body in a way that was definitely not pleasing to the Lord. She was copying what she had seen! And what a reminder of that powerful phrase it was! “what you do in moderation, your children will do in excess.” Here I thought she was just moving around to the music, having fun, not paying attention to the music, dancers, or costumes. However, when I saw her do that particular move with every bit of sass and sexiness that she had seen no telling how many times before, my heart literally sank and boy did I get a good dose of God's correction.

I began praying that God would open my eyes to all of the areas in my life that weren't pleasing to Him. Just a warning...do not pray this unless you are in a place spiritually where you are prepared to have your toes stepped on! I would have considered myself to be a good girl, so when he began to open my eyes to ALL of the areas that were not so pleasing to Him, it didn't feel good! Some of the things were easy to give up! Others...I may have tried to explain myself to God in an effort to justify that my heart was in the right place or that I would just stop watching certain shows in front of my kids or that the movie was “just” rated PG-13 so it was okay. The Holy Spirit has a way of reminding you of your prayers as He corrects you and opens your eyes to unrighteousness! And that message continues to ring loud in my ears even today...am I giving my children permission to do anything unpleasing to the Lord? Over the course of the last six years, the Holy Spirit has convicted me about many of my choices, but I am so grateful because when I prayed that prayer six years ago...I meant every word.

God gifted me these four blessings. He entrusted me to guard their hearts from the enemy's tactics and to train them up in the ways of the Lord. They are watching me and learning from me everyday. If there is anything in my life that is unpleasing to the Lord, I mean it when I say...it stops with me! My perception of appropriate entertainment has drastically changed since becoming a mother! My perception on appropriate clothing has drastically changed since becoming a mother! My perception on appropriate talk has drastically changed since becoming a mother! Motherhood changed me! God changed me! And the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to one of the best lessons I have learned to date...RIGHTEOUSNESS MATTERS!

We are experiencing a spiritual break down through generations because we are falling victim of unrighteousness in moderation! When you think about the progression of unrighteousness over the past three generations, it's alarming! I can't imagine what my great-grandma would think about Christians today! Back then, she probably thought someone holding a deck of cards was sure to go to hell...and my grandma wouldn't dare step foot into a movie theater! But do you see how a few shows here and then a PG rated movie there, led the next generation to start watching some PG-13 movies and then maybe started using some of the language they heard in those movies, and now this generation watching Rated R movies and participating in the same sexual acts that they are seeing in movies and on the tv's in their own home? Can we really be surprised that we are witnessing this spiritual breakdown of Christianity? I considered myself a good girl who loved Jesus and I'm sure many of you do the same! However, when I became a mom, God used the words of an obedient pastor to open my eyes to the fact that I have a greater responsibility than just “being a good girl”. I have the responsibility to teach my children to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord. Ephesians 5 instructs us to live as children of the Light and to find out what pleases the Lord.

How do we find that out? Just ask God to shine His light on areas of darkness in your life. You may be surprised like myself as to just how much unrighteousness is really present in your life. As hard as it was to see my actions and words as unpleasing to God, I am so grateful for the gentle leading of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says it's the loving kindness that leads people to repentance and that couldn't have been truer in my life. God didn't condemn me and tell me I was going to hell for what I was doing or saying. Instead, He allowed the Holy Spirit to walk with me and shine light on areas in my life that weren't pleasing to God so that I could find out. You see, our standard is Christ and His glory and Biblical truth...not our freedom, not our laws. If we set out to love God and please Him in everything we do and say, our children will learn the same. It is then that we will be able to pass on a heritage of faith, instead of excuses.

It is my prayer that God will use my words to in some way draw you closer to Him...just as He used the words from a pastor to draw me closer. I pray that this blog will be a vessel for The Lord to speak to each of you! I pray that my posts will challenge you to seek after God more and spend more time with Him...in His Word and in prayer. And most of all, I pray that in everything I do and in everything I say, may it always be pleasing to Him.

If you haven't signed up to follow my blog by receiving email updates, you should do that today! I don't want you to miss any of my upcoming posts! Thank you again for taking the time to read this today and for joining me on this new writing adventure! I would love to hear from you so let me know if I can be praying for you or I'd love for you to share how God is changing you! Praying you all have a blessed week!

Hugs,

Mary

My Story - Part 3

Welcome back friends!  Last week, I shared part one and two of my story.  Part one of my story shows the power of influence.  I am grateful for Godly parents who were not only wonderful role-models, but they prayed for me every single day of my life…and still do!  Their influence in my life has definitely played a huge part in what God is doing in my life today.  Part two of my story shows the power of choices and the power of obedience.  You see, I didn’t get to choose the influence that my parents had in my life, but I did choose to be obedient when it came to allowing the influence that Nathan had in my life.  He is a huge part of my life because of a choice that I made 20 years ago and I am so happy that even as a 15 year old kid, I listened to the voice of the Holy Spirit.  We all make choices every day.  It’s important that we are led by the Holy Spirit because the choices you make will have an impact on your future and who you will become.  You see, God has a plan and purpose already written out for your days here on earth, but it’s our choices that will determine whether those plans will come to completion.  So choose wisely. 

Today, I want to share with you part three of my story.  Today’s story will show you the power of Jesus!  This is the part of my story where my faith shifted.  It was no longer about serving Jesus because Mom and Dad taught me that was the right thing to do.  This is the part of my story where I experienced Jesus in such a real way and it’s this experience that has changed the way I pursue God.  You see, I have learned about Jesus my entire life.  I was practically born in the church!  I was there on the second row pew just days after being born!  So I knew all the verses.  I knew all the stories.  I knew about Jesus.  But it wasn’t until I experienced the power of Jesus myself that I really knew Him.  This is the part of my story that for the first time, I understood that the same Jesus that I had learned about my entire life…the same Jesus that raised Lazarus from the dead…the same Jesus that parted the Red Sea…the same Jesus that died for me and rose from the dead on the third day…the same Jesus that I had asked into my heart as a child…this is the part of my story that I understood for the first time that He truly is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

When I was a young girl, around 12 years old, I began battling with fear and anxiety.  It got so bad that it had such a grip on my life that I literally felt like I couldn’t breathe at times.  Now let me just say something about this time in my life.  This was that awkward time in my life where I was trying to find myself.  I was at that age where I was making a choice…was I going to follow the path that my parents had taught me my whole life or was I going to start doing what I wanted to do.  I was in that stage where I was teetering with sin, curious, yet I was still close enough to God that I always had a guilty conscience and repented.  I didn’t know it then, but that was the Holy Spirit.  Sinning just isn’t fun when you are taking the Holy Spirit with you!  I’m not going to go into this part of my life in today’s post, but I need you to understand something very important.  When we are living in sin, we open the door of our heart and mind and guess who doesn’t waste anytime moving in!  That’s right…Satan.  We don’t have to invite him in.  Sin automatically creates the environment in our hearts and minds that welcome him whether we want him there or not.  Now, I don’t know if my fear and anxiety was a direct result of my sin.  I learned years later that I have family members that have battled fear and anxiety for generations!  So whether it was a generational curse, brought on by sin, or whatever the source may be…it was bad and boy did it have a grip on me! 

For those of you that have never dealt with fear and anxiety, let me paint a picture of what life was like.  I had a great life.  I was happy and healthy.  I was active in sports, made good grades, had an amazing family, had great friends…life was good!  So what would a girl be anxious about when everything in life appears to be great, right?  Well, that’s what I used to think and guess who was always right there to answer my own questions!  The enemy!  There’s a reason Satan is called the father of lies.  He is the biggest liar and he will use your most vulnerable times in life to flood you with all of his lies.

Satan’s lies = Fear = Anxiety = Sickness

This sums up how I lived for ten years of my life!  I began to dwell on the lies of the enemy which led me to live in fear.  When you live in fear, you are anxious about everything!  You worry about things completely out of your control.  This is not only unhealthy for your mind, but worry is one of the leading causes of many serious health problems, including depression, eating disorders, obesity, acne, menstrual problems, and gastrointestinal problems…just to name a few!  The list goes on and on.  I suffered with many of these health problems as a result from my fear and anxiety.  I was diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) which is a very painful gastrointestinal problem.  When I began to worry about something small, it would cause my IBS symptoms to flare up which caused me to be very sick.  Well, my sickness would then cause me to worry about the effects of being sick (missing too much school, being behind in my work, missing soccer games, etc.) which just made things worse!  It was a vicious cycle!  I was gripped by fear and sickness so often that I eventually became a prisoner in my home!  I was afraid to go anywhere because I was afraid my IBS symptoms would flare up and I would be stuck in a public bathroom bent over in unbearable pain which would then trigger a panic attack.  Now what teenager wants all of their friends and peers to see them in that condition!?  It was awful!  So rather than chancing it, I just chose to stay home.  There was a comfort level in my own home that allowed me to not worry about things as much so as long as I was home, things were better.  However, just getting up to start a new day to get ready for school, church, soccer, games, dates, shopping, or going out with friends, would be enough to throw me into a panic attack because I would start worrying about what I would do if I’m out at one these places and my IBS flares up!  I can’t tell you how many days of school I missed during my high school years, nor could I count the number of times that Nathan and I were at dinner or a movie and I would have to end our date early and ask him to take me home.  It got so bad that I just stopped going places.  I ended up dropping out of sports because of the fear of getting sick at a game that was too far from home.  If I couldn’t be home in 15 minutes, I just didn’t go!  Do you see how the enemy used fear to make me ineffective?  That’s how he operates!  He’s sneaky.  He slips in when you aren’t prepared for him and he feeds you just one lie.  That lie leads to another lie and before you know it, you’re completely living a life of bondage with crippling chains.  Keep in mind, I knew what God’s Word said about all of this!  I loved Jesus and other than that short period of time where I played around with sin, I have always served Him with all of my heart.  I knew God could set me free!  I knew God could heal my body!  But I began to believe the lies that either God was punishing me for my bad choices or that God doesn’t always choose to heal us here on earth. 

How many of you have been there?  Many of you are believing those lies right now!  Let me tell you about that place for a minute.  When you get to that place where you actually begin to believe those lies, it’s a very hopeless place to be.  When you truly believe that in order for you to experience peace and freedom, you have to die first…you are in a bad place and let me tell you something else…that’s exactly where Satan wants you to be!  Christians are really good about taking the lies of the enemy and sprinkling them with a little bit of spiritual salt and pepper as if that’s going to make the lie easier to live with and believe.  Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about.  We accept the lie that God chooses to heal some people on earth, yet He chooses to let others die and receive their healing in heaven…now what part of that message gives a sick person any hope!  None of it!  That’s a lie from the pit of hell and I used to believe it!  I honestly believed that God must not want to heal me because I had prayed for so many years for God to heal my body and mind, yet things continued getting worse.  It must not have been in His Will, right? Somehow He must have been able to get more praise out of my sickness instead of my health, right?  Somehow, there must have been some greater good that could have come out of sickness and fear, right?  After all, I have a relationship with Jesus Christ so I don’t need to let the troubles of this world keep me down because they are only temporary.  I’ll get to experience my healing someday in heaven, right?  These are all lies that were sprinkled with just enough spiritual salt and pepper that they actually became believable.  But let me tell you something, to a teenage girl that has longevity in my family line, these lies were daunting!  The mere thought of living my entire life with these chains of fear, anxiety, and sickness made me feel hopeless.  I began to have thoughts of suicide.  Now keep in mind, I loved Jesus and the fear of going to hell kept me from killing myself.  I was desperate though.  I just needed a breath.  I was drowning in my circumstances.  Satan has a way of doing that.  He will use your circumstances to make you believe that there’s no way out.  I had been to doctors.  I had every test ran on me that you could imagine.  I was on multiple medications, many of those merely treating the symptoms caused from the medications that were treating my physical and mental problems.  Satan took me to a place where my circumstances seemed bigger than my Jesus.  But God…

God is faithful.  He gave His one and only son, Jesus, to die for all of mankind because He loved us…because He loved me.  Jesus…He took every sin, every sickness, every disease, every curse, every diagnosis…He took it upon himself as He hung on the cross.  Do you understand what He did for us?  Not only did he take our sins upon him, but he took everything that the enemy would try to put upon us and He became it.  Jesus became our sin and our sickness so that we didn’t have to.  My Jesus…He did that for me…and He did that for you.  The Bible describes what this did to our precious Jesus in Isaiah 52:14.  “His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness.”  He was unrecognizable because of the sins and diseases that He became.  He no longer even looked human.  Wow.  When you hear that verse, “By His stripes, I am healed” I pray you can truly understand that he didn’t just take 39 stripes on his back so that you could be healed.  No, He became your sickness and disease so that you could be healed.  He took it away from you!  Now that’s a message that gives hope to someone fighting a battle for their health!  That’s a message worth living for!  I am so grateful that God had mercy on my soul and allowed me to truly comprehend this truth.  Let me tell you how He did that for me.

In my darkest hours, when I was being tormented in my mind and body with fear and sickness, I cried out to God.  I prayed that He would take my life because I didn’t want to live like this anymore.  I remember in my darkest moments, there was one thing that would calm me and give me rest…that was God’s Word.  When I would read my Bible, I could feel the pain slowly leave my body, allowing my muscles to relax, eventually allowing me to fall asleep.  I can remember literally placing my Bible over my stomach at night and sleeping with it on top of me.  I didn’t understand why it made me better, but when you are in that dark place, you don’t care.  I just quickly realized there was power in God’s Word and that scripture about God’s Word being “alive and active” took a whole new meaning for me.  It was the only thing that made me feel better so to me, it was alive and active!  I learned as a teenager that there was power in God’s Word.  I may not have had the words to explain that power to others, but God allowed me to experience it in such a real way that I rarely left my house without my Bible.  I was sick…really sick…not only in my body, but my mind was just as sick as my body.  But let me tell you what started happening when I began renewing my mind in God’s Word.  I didn’t understand as a sick teenager that I was renewing my mind and allowing God’s Word to change my thoughts…I just found something that brought me peace and that’s why I was reading my Bible!  But God…

God was renewing my mind during my darkest hours.  He was filling my thoughts with His thoughts.  And then He gave me a prayer.  During one of my panic attacks, I remember being in a fetal position bent over in pain.  It was at night and everyone was sleeping.  I was trying to be quiet, trying not to let my cries be heard from my bedroom.  I opened my Bible and began to read Psalms.  I loved Psalms.  I began with chapter one and just kept reading.  I knew eventually that if I just kept reading long enough, the pain would subside.  My tears were dripping from my eyes onto the thin pages of my Bible and then God gave me this prayer when I read Psalms 6.  Listen to these words:

“No, Lord!  Don’t punish me in the heat of your anger.  Pity me, O Lord, for I am weak.  Heal me, for my body is sick, and I am upset and disturbed.  My mind is filled with apprehension and with gloom.  Oh, restore me soon.  Come, O Lord, and make me well.  In your kindness save me.  For if I die, I cannot give you glory by praising you before my friends.  I am worn out with pain; every night my pillow is wet with tears.  My eyes are growing old and dim with grief because of all my enemies.  Go, leave me now, you men of evil deeds, for the Lord has heard my weeping and my pleading.  He will answer all of my prayers.”

When I read these verses, I literally felt like I could have written them word for word.  I knew without a doubt that they Holy Spirit had drawn me to this particular passage for a reason and this became my prayer.  Every time I felt fear creeping up into my thoughts, I read this passage aloud.  Every time I felt a symptom rearing its ugly head into my body, I read and prayed this passage aloud.  The Holy Spirit began to drop specific scriptures into my heart…some that I had heard all of my life.  Except this time, there was a new understanding that was revealed to me about these specific scriptures.  All this time that I had been renewing my mind in God’s Word, the Holy Spirit was at work in me, giving me fresh understanding and revelation that only He can do.  God’s Word was no longer merely head knowledge.  It had taken root into my spirit.  It was down in my heart!  It was planted!  And now it was time to see it harvest!  I began praying the Word of God over myself…specific scriptures…and when I began to do that, my circumstances began to change.  Why?  I had prayed for ten years that God would touch my body and mind and free me from the chains of fear and sickness!  Why was this different?  Let me tell you why!  God’s Word works and His Word never returns void!  God heard every desperate cry from me.  In fact, the Word tells us he collects our tears in a bottle and stores them.  He makes a record of every tear.  His love for me never changed.  His promises never changed.  His Word never changed.  So what changed?  I did!!!!  My prayers changed!  When I finally grasped what God’s Word said, my desperate prayers changed to confident and bold proclamations!  When I finally grasped what God’s Word said, I began rebuking every lie of the enemy that came to my thoughts and I began proclaiming what God’s truth was instead!  When I finally grasped what God’s Word said, my hopelessness turned into expectancy!  That’s what God birthed into me as I began to renew my mind daily in His Word.  There wasn’t a trumpet sound from heaven or goose bumps all down my neck feeling.  There wasn’t an exact moment that I knew I was healed and set free.  There wasn’t a voice from God that spoke to me and said “Mary, because of your faith you are healed.”  Instead, it was the still soft voice in my mind reminding me of a specific scripture to stand on when I was sick.  It was the peace that came over me as I confessed His Word over me as soon as I began to feel an anxious thought causing me to tense up and begin to shake.  It was the hope I had in Jesus as I finally understood that what I was suffering with, Jesus became it so that I didn’t have to deal with it anymore.  It was that confidence that stirred up within me that allowed me to completely trust God’s Word and believe it even when my circumstances said otherwise.  It was the boldness that came upon me as I proclaimed God’s truth when Satan would attempt to feed me another lie.  That’s what my healing looked like.  It was a process…a journey…a mind shift that only comes from The Lord and through the renewing of your mind.  I had to retrain myself how to think and when I did that, my words and actions became different.  You see, I haven’t had a panic attack in over ten years.  I haven’t had to take medication for my IBS symptoms in over ten years.  But do you know what, Satan hasn’t stopped his attacks on me!  He still sends those anxious thoughts to me all the time.  And do you know what…when I haven’t been renewing my mind in God’s Word, sometimes I’m caught off guard and I can begin to dwell on those thoughts and lies.  We can't control the thoughts that come, but we can control what we do with those thoughts.  If we dwell on those thoughts, they become imaginations and imaginations become strongholds.  We need to keep our minds renewed in God's Word, because when I am armored up and I’m spending time reading God’s Word, I recognize his lies now.  You know why?  Because when they don’t line up with God’s truth, His Holy Word, I can spot them from a mile away!  I no longer dwell on those thoughts.  Now, when I begin to feel those anxious thoughts coming and the lies coming, I take those thoughts captive by speaking God's Word!  I tell the devil how it is now!  “No, devil!  That is a lie from the pit of hell and I rebuke that thought and take it captive.  God has not given me a spirit of fear! No weapon formed against me will prosper!  I am the head and not the tail!  I am blessed going in and blessed going out!  Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world!  By His stripes I am healed!  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!  If God is for me then who can be against me!”  I begin speaking God’s Word to the devil and guess what…he flees every time!!!  He hates to hear God’s Words!  He flees at the name of Jesus!  He has no power over the Word of God!  That’s why the Word of God is called the “Sword of the Spirit”!  Have you ever noticed that all of the other armor that we are instructed to put on is to protect us from the fiery darts of the enemy?  It defends us or protects us!  But the sword is different!  It puts us on the offense!  Praise God!  I don’t know about you but I don’t want to always be on the defense!  When it comes to the enemy, I want to be on the offense!  I want him being the one retreating and fleeing, not me!  That’s why we need to be renewing our minds in God’s Word…so that when the enemy comes around attacking our minds, our bodies, and our relationships, we can take up the sword of the spirit and begin fighting with God’s Word!  Speak it, pray it, shout it, proclaim it, and declare it in Jesus’ Name!  It is done!  And for goodness sake, don’t be picking it up again once you have been delivered!  I have seen too many believers “lose” their healing because they took it back upon them the first time the symptoms came back around.  Remember how I said that even though I finally got it once I started renewing my mind daily, Satan didn’t just leave me alone!  It was a long process before I finally got hold of what Jesus did for me on the cross and was able to confidently stand on His promises.  It was a long process before I was symptom free!  But do you know Satan still tries to put those fearful thoughts and symptoms on me?  It would be just as easy for me to fall back into my old thought patterns and begin living in fear again and it would be just as easy for me to allow those symptoms to take hold of my body again, but why would I ever do that!?  I have been set free!  I’m not going back to that!  I rebuke those thoughts and symptoms the second they try to come back on me and guess what…they are gone!  That’s because they were never mine in the first place…Jesus took those from me when He died on the cross!  Praise God!  He is faithful!

If you are in need of healing today in your mind or body or you have been living in bondage, let me tell you something, there is hope!  You don’t have to die or wait for heaven to receive your healing friend!  It is available to everyone!  Hear my heart, there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus.  If you are feeling condemned because you aren’t there yet in your faith, stop right here and repeat that scripture over yourself right now “there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus!”  The enemy can use guilt to keep us in bondage just as much as he can use fear so just stop!  Recognize his tactics and speak truth to it!  It’s a process and I am still learning new things every single day but I promise you, if you begin renewing your mind in God’s Word and ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to new revelation and understanding, I know God will transform your thinking and your circumstances WILL change!  I promise!  How do I know…because God’s Word works!!!!  His Word is the only word that has the power to break every chain in your life…to heal every disease, to break every addiction, to free your mind…His Word will break every chain!  I am so passionate to share this truth with everyone because I am so tired of seeing other believers feasting on the devil’s lies!  It makes me mad that God’s people are suffering with things that were overcome on the cross!  Jesus paid too big of a price for us to keep it!  It’s time for us to be free and live in victory and share what God has done in our lives!  He is good ya’ll!  My God…He is good!

To close our time together today, I would like for you to listen to this song.  In fact, I’m going to invite you to have a little church right where you are this morning and listen to it until the end!  This is one of those songs that I listen to often in my home.  It’s one of those songs that causes me to stop what I’m doing and I crank the volume up as loud as it can go.  It’s one of those songs that I can’t help but sing along to.  And it’s one of those songs that’s causes me to get a little free right in the middle of my living room.  Join me.  I just shared my story how God broke every chain in my life and I am praying that He will do the same for you today.  I am putting my faith out there today and I am believing that God will use my story to stir your faith just enough for you to call on the name of Jesus and go to His Word!  Folks, there is power in the name of Jesus to break every chain so prepare yourself.  Someone is about to get free today!  In Jesus’ Name! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cAUnuH7Lik

In Him,

Mary

My Story - Part 2

Happy Friday friends! Today is an exceptionally special day, not just because it’s Friday, but because today is my husband’s 36^th birthday! So let me begin by wishing him a very happy birthday! Today’s post is not only part 2 of my story, but it’s a tribute to the one whom my soul loves (Song of Songs 3:4). For you to better understand who I am as a person, I need to share with you the story of how this 12 year old boy stole my heart.

When I met this cute blond headed, blue-eyed kid, I was just in elementary school. We grew up together in church. Although I never even knew his name when we were on the puppet team together in children’s church, this cutie got my attention when I moved up to the youth group as a boy-crazy eleven year old girl. We had several mutual friends and we got to know each other on my first summer youth trip to St. Louis! He was quiet and shy and absolutely adorable the way he got so nervous around me! Just thinking about the way we were together makes me smile. I thought he was cute, but for Nathan, it was love at first sight. Let me back up and share something that happened when we were on that puppet team together that I mentioned earlier. The first time Nathan saw me was when we were serving on the puppet team together in children’s church. Now keep in mind, I didn’t even know his name! Nathan shared with me years later that God told him that day that he was going to marry me! It truly was a love at first sight moment with him.  So fast forward a couple of years later when we were actually introduced to each other and started talking and spending time together…he was smitten and I didn’t even know it. After our youth trip, we became great friends and since we had several mutual friends in our youth group, we hung out often before and after church. He was so shy though so I didn’t even know he liked me until I was 15 years old…three years after we had become best friends! Thinking back at how awkward we were just makes me laugh.

Now, onto the part of my story when I realized Nathan was the one whom my soul loved. We had been great friends for a few years, and sure I thought he was cute, but it wasn’t until tragedy struck that I actually realized how much I cared for Nathan. On April 12^th, 1996, Nathan was riding a 3-wheeler and lost control, causing him to crash and be thrown off the vehicle. He was critically injured and suffered severe head trauma. When I heard from someone at church about the accident, my heart sank. The next day, my parents took me to the hospital to visit him in the ICU. That day will forever be etched into my memory because it was the day I fell in love. The first person I met when I walked into the waiting room was Nathan’s grandma. After introducing myself to her, she informed me that she was so glad I was there because Nathan had been asking about me all day. Hearing those words made my heart almost beat out of my chest…literally. I can still remember the sinking feeling in my stomach as I heard her words because it was at that moment that I knew…Nathan loved me. I was so nervous to see him because his family had warned me that it was bad. I remember walking back through ICU with my sister and when I saw him, I didn’t even recognize him. His head was wrapped in bandages from his emergency surgery the night before. He still had bloody scrapes all over his face, arms, and hands. He was hurting, but when he saw me, he smiled. My eyes filled with tears and my heart ached just seeing him like that. He couldn’t move much without hurting but he slid his hand over and grabbed my hand. I stood there holding his hand in mine and at that moment, I knew…he was the one for me. I remember crying uncontrollably on the car ride back home because my heart was broken.  I  had just left a piece of my heart at the hospital. That blond haired, blue-eyed, bandage-wrapped, and scraped up boy had my heart. I loved him…and he didn’t even know.

Let me just stop right here for a moment and tell you something about our Jesus. He is faithful ya’ll! The Bible is clear when it tells us what the enemy has come to do. John 10:10 tells us that, “Satan has come to kill, steal, and destroy.” But it doesn't stop there. It goes on to say that, “Jesus has come so that we may have life, and life to the fullest.” I didn't recognize it as a 15 year old kid, but looking back, I have no doubt that the enemy was out to kill Nathan and destroy the plans that God had for him. But God...He is faithful. Genesis 50:20 says, “You (the enemy) intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Does that not just make you want to shout!? When the devil is out scheming, plotting to bring destruction to your life and to those around you, you need to understand this...the very thing that he intends to cause harm to you, God can use for good to accomplish His plans! Do you remember in Wednesday's post how I shared that God has ordained our lives and He has our entire life story written and planned out even before we were even formed (Psalms 139)!? Well the enemy hates that! He's out to destroy those plans! And although the enemy may interfere with God's plans, God can use his evil plans to bring good! Praise God! What are you going through right now that you know is a direct attack from the enemy? Maybe you have just received a bad report from the doctor or maybe your marriage is under attack. Whatever it is, remember this...Jesus has come so that we may have abundant life and God can use what was meant for evil and to harm you for His good to accomplish His ultimate plans for your life! Satan wanted nothing more than to take Nathan's life. But God. God heard the desperate prayers of his family and He was able to use that terrible wreck to accomplish good. We may never know everything that God was able to accomplish through the events that surrounded Nathan's wreck, but here's what I do know. God worked a miracle. In a matter of days, Nathan went from being in emergency surgery to relieve pressure on his brain due to the swelling and from being told that he may never be able to do certain things again because of the damage on his right side of the brain to walking out of the hospital less than one week later and passing his driver's test on his 16^th birthday just a few weeks later! Don't tell me God doesn't still work miracles because I wake up to a living reminder of God's faithfulness every single day! Nathan's recovery baffled the doctors, nurses, and family. But God...He works for our good to accomplish His plans and purpose. Here's what else I know. God took what was meant to harm my future husband and he used it for good to accomplish his plans to prepare my heart to fall in love with him! I hadn't looked at Nathan as anything more than a friend up until that moment that I saw him lying there in the hospital. At that moment, I believe the Holy Spirit allowed a shift in my feelings for him. God knew before I was even formed that we would each do great things for the kingdom of God, but He also knew that some of our greatest achievements for the kingdom would be accomplished together, as husband and wife. I have no doubt that even in those moments where Satan tried to harm Nathan that God must have said this, “Do you really think I'm going to allow you to harm my precious son? I'll show you! Not only am I going to heal him and restore everything the doctors told him he may lose, but I'm going to give him the girl he desires! And you just wait, devil. When these two become one, they are going to be a dynamic duo and you'll be sorry you ever even messed with him! I have great things in store for them so you get your hand off of my son. He's mine.” Now I need you to understand something...our God is a loving God, but guys, He's our daddy!  As much as my earthly father would go to battle for me and protect me at all cost, we have a Heavenly Father that gave it all for us. He ain't about to let the enemy take something that He gave His one and only Son for! That would mean his Son died in vain and that just isn't so! Be encouraged today! Whatever you are facing today, Jesus gave it all so that you could overcome and have victory! It's yours! 

Back to my story...Over the next several months following Nathan's wreck, our friendship grew even closer, and on September 11, 1996, we had our first official date! I don't know what God was thinking...or what my parents were thinking! I was just 15! I have children now and oh mylanta...15 is just a baby! As much as I have absolutely loved experiencing life with Nathan, I would really appreciate it if God would go ahead and wait until my children are at least 21 before he brings their spouse into the picture! Fortunately, he has a few more years to begin preparing my heart for when that time does come!

Because we were so young when we began dating, I have had the privilege to not only watch Nathan grow up physically (he used to be a head shorter than me) but I have had the amazing opportunity to watch the one whom my soul loves grow into the man of God that he was born to be! I have literally watched God birth dreams in Nathan's life! I have watched him grow in wisdom. I have been there to see God's favor upon him and I have witnessed God's blessings in his life time and time again. You guys...God is faithful!

After dating for six years, we finally were old enough to get married! Hallelujah! He has continued to make me the happiest woman in the world throughout our 13 years of marital bliss! God has blessed us with four beautiful children and I can honestly say I love this man more today than ever before. I feel absolutely honored that God allowed me to be his wife. He is my very best friend and life is so much more fun with him by my side. I am blessed.

My husband is 36 years old today and I have been a part of his life for 24 of those years! I have been in love with this man for 20 years!!! So forgive me if I write mushy posts about him in the future. Forgive me if I can't help but post how grateful I am for him. Forgive me if I'm outspoken about God's faithfulness. Forgive me if I argue that God is still in the miracle working business. This man is the reason why. He changed my life. God changed my life. And because of him, life is so much sweeter.

I have so enjoyed sharing this part of my story with you! I am excited to share part 3 of my story next week. I would love to hear from you, so please feel free to leave comments below or on Facebook. I know some of you are having trouble getting your comments posted to my blog.  When you are posting comments to the blog, follow these steps.  Click the "Comment" button below my post.  Write your comment in the box, but be sure to click the little down arrow in the drop down menu that says "Google Account" and scroll down to choose “Name/URL” instead. That will allow you to write your name and then you can post your comment. You don't have to put anything in the URL space. If you forget to do that step, it will not post your comments.  If you have left comments and I haven't responded, I'm not ignoring you! I just didn't see them. Thank you so much for joining me in this new blogging journey.  I pray each of you have a blessed weekend and I would like to wish a Happy Mother's Day to all of the ladies! You are a blessing!

Hugs and Blessings,

Mary <3 p="">