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 🙂