Is God REALLY in Control of your life?

Every time something tragic happens in our lives, we say, ‘God’s in control’. We tell others the same thing. But do we really believe that? Have you TRULY given God complete control in your life?

Let me tell you a little story about faith….
My husband came home from work Friday and told me his daddy was scared for his mamaw. So naturally I asked, why? Mamaw A is a true old time lady. She never learned how to effectively cook on an electric stove so she cooks everything on high and hopes for the best. Well, mamaw A decided to fry pork chops Thursday night on her electric stove instead of firing up the wood stove. The pork chops caught on fire and smoked up the entire house. My father in law walked in to see her sitting on the couch wearing her oxygen with smoke engulfing the house. He asked her what happened and she told him of course. When he asked her what she did she said, “I turned the stove eye off and came in here and sat down”.
“Well mama why didn’t you try to put it out”, he asked. She simply replied by saying, “I didnt have anything to put it out with. God had control of it anyway, and he took care of it”.
Now at this point my father in-law thought his poor little mama had gone crazy. As I listened to the story though, I thought to myself how amazing to have that kind of faith in God.
Often I try to take my trials and tribulations into my own hands and attempt to fix them while I’m waiting in God. But if I could just be still and know that he is God like this precious lady did…..I’d do a whole lot less worrying because God would take care of it for me.

“For with God nothing shall be impossible.” Luke 1:37 KJV

I’ve got so much to thank Him for

So my friend over at Amazing Things Can Happen truly inspired me to examine my life on a deeper level yesterday. She has challenged everyone to thank God for the hardest times in their lives. This is in fact, no easy feat. We like to tell people who are going through hard times “God has a plan”, “trust God”, or “something good will come of it”. But do we implement that thought process when we ourselves are going through rough times in our lives?

Along with her challenge, she is posting examples from her categories. You can read the entire post about the Give Thanks Challenge here. I plan to follow her in this journey so that God can shine the light on the ‘bad’ experiences I’ve had in my life.

“I’ve got so much to thank Him for
So much  to praise Him for
You see He has been so good to me
When I think of what he’s done
And where He brought me from
I’ve got so much to thank Him for.”

This week I have done nothing but complain. I’ve been working 2 jobs and am trying desperately to find someone to replace me at my 2nd job so that I can spend more time with my son. I’ve been so tired lately because I feel like I’ve done nothing but work. I don’t have any energy to play with my son in the evenings, my house is topsy turvy, and I’ve not fed my family a decent meal but once this week.

Yesterday I began to basically wallow in self pity as I looked around the cyclone I currently call home. God spoke to my heart. It was as if he said, you have a home, and a warm place to sleep. I realized those dirty dishes meant we all have full bellies. The laundry strown everywhere means I have clothes to wear. My son going crazy playing in the living room floor. He’s healthy. My tiredness means he’s given me the strength to work all week.  And those 2 jobs He allowed me to have means we can provide for our son. It wasn’t so long ago I didn’t have a job at all, let alone 2 to complain about.

It is only human to complain and gripe about these things, but to let myself get to that deep dark place where I only complain is only giving the devil victory over my life. I want to thank GOD for all he’s done for me this week! I am blessed beyond measure and if no one sees anything else in my life, I want them to see God and all his glory!

Don’t forget to head on over to Amazing things can happen and join in the give thanks challenge!  I will be over there joing in this challenge this month! She also has some other “Amazing” stories about her personal miracles!

Deer Hunting with Jesus

I’m sitting in total darkness, the cool air of morning in my face. I hear the rustling if leaves, things moving below me. I wait in anticipation of day break. Soon the foggy haze reveals squirrels playing in the leaves below, turkeys make their way in. Rays of sunshine stream through the trees onto the freshly fallen blanket of snow below. There’s nothing more magical and spiritual that witnessing the world come alive! All of God’s goodness and glory become extremely apparent as the animals begin their daily routine.
I await the arrival of a big buck while nestled in my stand with a big goose down blanket across my lap and a warm cup of coffee in my hand. I bow my head to pray. I thank God for safety into the woods and all of his glory he has bestowed upon us. I pray if he allows us to see one of his magestic deer that he steadies my aim and allows me to make a clean kill or a clean miss so not to waste his wonderful bounty. As I look up from my prayer, I see a doe peaking her head across the ridge looking to see if it’s safe to come on in and have a bit of breakfast. She comes to eat and leaves peacfully. I had just had our son and was breast feeding so i used this quite time to express milk for my son. My dad, who I’ve hunted with since I can remember, says “Wouldn’t it be funny if 2 deer walked out while you were pumping and we got to shoot them at the same time?” Of course, I said jokingly “Funny yes, but maybe they’ll wait until I’m done.” As I begin to finish up I look at the top of the ridge and notice something odd looking. There in the thicket, stands a buck. I make sure he has at least 6 tines on one side. My breath begins to quicken, my heart begins to race. So i quickly laid down the bottle and removed my nursing cover….daddy always taught us not to look at the horns before we shoot, but it was too late I had already seen this was a monster! I raise my gun to get ready for the shot. As he steps into the clearing, with his head thrown back, I pull the trigger. He’s down! But as I pull the lever to reload, he raised his head back up. At this point my heart is beating out of my chest! Then I look where he was standing, and see another buck watching him. I alert my Dad whom I always have hunted with and he shoots the second deer. He’s down also! So not to let my deer suffer, I shoot him again. This time he’s dead. As I sat there shaking with excitement I thank God for our bounty.

– Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me [some] venison; Genesis 27:3 (KJV)

Deer season is coming up in a couple of weeks here in NC and I’m stoked! I always get excited this time of year! There are so many things I love about fall, but I’ll have to say, deer season is my favorite!  Growing up, my dad worked 2 jobs to allow my mom to stay home with my brother and I. While it was great having Mom at home to help us learn and grow, we really missed our dad. When deer season rolled around he would take a week off of work to take us deer hunting. At first it was a great way to spend time with him (and still is), but he instilled his love for hunting in us during that time. We could hunt separately now, and have at times but we enjoy the fellowship too much to hunt separately most days.
I am very thankful for the opportunity to learn how to hunt from my dad and that he made us aware that God is who controls our hunts.
If you are a child of God you take Jesus with you wherever you go. But when you are riding a 4wheeler up the side of a cliff praying you make it without flipping, this makes you much more aware of the reality that old age is not promised. So I challenge you to ‘take Jesus’ with you every where you go!
Whether you get that big 8pt buck or come home empty handed, always remember… in all things PRAISE HIM!

God Bless!

Blue light special!

So I’ve had a dead tag on my car since July. It is now November. I guess it’s about time for that one to catch up with me. Yesterday while on my journey to work I finally got pulled over.

Everyone suddenly becomes a great driver who is extremely safety conscious at all times…. why is this? I do it myself, you see the police, you check your speed and sometimes some people are trying to buckle up settle the kids down, put their phone up and so on… we even pray they don’t notice we have a dead tag….

How many times do we do the same thing when we see the preacher out in public? Or church folks? How many times are we careless until we feel someone is watching us? Then we try to clean up and look like everything is right real quick like they’ll never notice.

Friend, the harsh reality is unlike a state trooper, God watches us always. He knows our every move, our every thought, even when we are asleep, he sees ALL.  The good news is, he knew how rotten we were BEFORE he walked up Calvary BUT he did it ANYWAY!

I know my last post was extremely similar but I’ve had this on my heart for a while, God has shown me I need to clean up my life more and live every day like it’s my last because it just may be. This thing is not going to last much longer!

How clean is your bathtub?

While sitting here drinking my coffee and getting my day in order this morning, my mind wandered back….
I remember talking with a friend. It was a great conversation, about visiting family members and how no one has time for much of that any more… then she said something that shocked me.

“When I use someone’s bathroom I always pull the curtain back to see how nasty the bathtub is.”

My first thought was, why in this world would you do that? And who cares?
Now, I’m sure I’m the only person who does this, but if unexpected company shows up at my door and my bathroom is a mess I throw the towels, toys, and/or dirty clothes in my bathtub and close the curtain. It never occurred to me that someone would pull that curtain back and look to see what’s in there.
This made me wonder as Christians, how many times do we try to hide our ‘pet’ sins from others. Of course God knows all and sees all but how many times are we the only Bible some people read? And they see those things that we think we have hidden? but they’re peeking around the curtain looking to see how clean we really are?
I’m afraid I fail at this daily. We all say and do things that we shouldn’t on a daily basis….let’s face it, we’re imperfect.  But we all have those things that we know are wrong or are getting in the way of us doing right that were not so keen to remove from our lives…
We need to make a conscious effort to always keep our lives in a shape so that we don’t have to try to hide the clutter. This made me very aware that I can try to hide the clutter in my life but there will always be someone pulling back that curtain to see what’s there….

Now, as far as my bathtub goes…yeah I’ll probably still be hiding stuff there 🙂

5 Reasons why we dont celebrate Halloween

I LOVE Fall! It’s always so exciting to me when the air changes slightly cooler. Cold crisp mornings with the smell of wood smoke in the air, and the mountains painting a beautiful portrait of yellows, greens, and reds right before my eyes! I have loved this season ever since I can remember. I even got married in October just so I could have a fall/Autumn wedding, and yes I use my wedding decorations yearly 🙂

One thing I truly dislike about this season though is Halloween. Yes, I dressed up and went trick-or-treating as I was growing up. No, I didn’t turn out to be a Satan worshiper, but that’s not the point. We just do not feel that it Glorifies God in any way.  Since the semi-recent birth of our son,(who is a year old now) we have chosen not to allow him to participate in trick-or-treating/ celebrate Halloween. I can tell you, I am not judgemental or mean. If you enjoy this holiday, be safe and have fun! This is a personal conviction in our family and I don’t try to talk anyone out of trick-or-treating so I’m a bit confused as to why some people try to talk us into taking our son.

So  here are a few reasons why we don’t “do” Halloween……

1.) Dressing up– The celtic believed that demons could roam the Earth only on Halloween and would dress up as demons so if they ran into a real demon they wouldn’y recognize them as human, but as one of them

2.) “Trick-or-treat”-  Well the explanation is already in this phrase. Children receive a treat in exchange for no ‘tricks’

3.) Evil is emphasized– any way you slice it, ghosts, goblins, zombies, vampires…despite what the Twilight series says, these are just not any ‘good guys’. I know there are non-scary costumes but it is undeniable that evil is celebrated on this night. My personal belief is that I shouldn’t teach my child to participate in a celebration of evil…He is allowed to dress up as Mickey Mouse any other day of the year to play and use his imagination, just not on Halloween. I fail daily, and sin daily but I try my best to ask myself before I take action, “Does this glorify God in any way?”

4.) DIABEEETUS– On the lighter ‘ish’ side of things, all of that candy is just not good for kids! Sweets are not a large part of our diet at home and all of that sugar will do nothing good for his little body.

5.) Childhood obesity and tooth decay– Now I surley hope everyone is only letting their kids binge for one night and not constantly, but I have seen extremely small children have 24/7 acess to their Halloween stash and this can cause more problems than I have time to list!

So to conclude, everyone has their own beliefs, and these are mine! Whether you chose to go out on Halloween or stay in, please be safe! 🙂

Happy Fall Ya’ll!

The Greatest Gifts cannot be wrapped.

“On that resurrection morning, when all the dead in Christ shall rise. I’ll have a new body. Praise the Lord, I’ll have a new life, eternal.”

I’ve contemplated starting a blog for sometime now. I feel like this would be an effective way to de-stress and relax in the evenings while keeping me sane all at the same time!

I am first and foremost a child of God, then a mother, then a wife, and finally a nurse.

I am a pretty random person, so to say this blog will have a specific content, I cannot. But I can say that it will include my random crazy thoughts, personal beliefs, and general child rearing struggles….along with whatever else may pop into my mind! 🙂

So to begin this wonderful journey, I would like to share my testimony.

I was in the 11th grade, I felt like I was on top of the world! A+ student, dual enrolled at the local community college and getting a jump start on my career. I thought I had it all… I was taking  a psycology class at the college which was currently teaching totally and completely against my raising. I had been raised in church somewhat, but not consistently until about the 7th grade. I thought the Lord had saved me when I was a young child, but I had never felt conviction, just someone asking me to repeat after their parayer and BAM! you’re in. I was also in an English class with a new teacher who made fun of Christians. She actually requested that the class hel her make fun of Christians one day. I was under conviction…. if you’ve ever been there, you know what I’m taking about.

I questioned the very existance of God. I wondered if these teachers were right while simultaneously being scared to death that I would die at any given moment. If I were to die I would inevitably lift my eyes in a firey Hell, because nothing I had ever done could warrant going to Heaven. I had nightmares for a week. I was afraid to sleep for fear I wouldn’t awaken. I sat through church that Wednesday night scared and what I thought at the time ‘confused’. Sunday morning was no different. By the time sunday night rolled around, I was a nervous wreck. I dont remember what the preacher preached on. All I remember was them singing “I’ll be waiting at the River for You”. I tried and tried to visualize that river, but nothing….My heart was beating out of my chest and I knew it was the Holy Spirit telling me I was lost and I had to be saved. It felt like an eternity standing there gripping the back of that pew. The first step to that alter was the hardest to make. After the first step I really couldnt tell you how I got there. But I did. I knelt in the alter and begged God to save me. (I dont know about you but Heaven was just a plus for me at the time all I wanted to do was avoid Hell).On that Sunday night in the Spring, Jesus saved me. This is the greatest gift I have ever recieved in my life. It didnt cost me a dime, and no one can take it away. Without my Jesus I would have no hope and no purpose for my life!

Since this wonderful night, there have been ups and downs in my life. God has blessed me with a Husband and a wonderful little boy (years later of course).  We go through hard times just like everyone else, the only difference is, we have the Lord to help us through it all. He has never let me down!