Quiet Encounters

        What a gorgeous Easter Sunday.   This day has been so precious and beautiful.   I have soaked up every minute with my precious family. I have felt the sunshine on my face and listened to birds sing their song of Spring.   I have loved the laughter and the hugs and the tears.   We sang a song at church this morning reciting “Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah.”   I have pondered those words all day.   I can sing praises all morning, I can have thanks on my lips each day….but hallelujah…those words made me teary this morning.   I came home this evening and began digging into that word that has nudged me all day.   The research stated that hallelujah was in Psalms 24 times.   I pulled out my bibles and could not find it…. I checked the NIV and the ESV and ended up on Bible Gateway trying to find this word that I so desperately needed to understand.   In most versions of the Bible it has been repla...

"Fruit of righteousness will be peace, its effect will be quietness and confidence forever!" Isaiah 32:17   "When the women saw that the fruit of the tree was good and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it." Gen. 3:6 Ugh....that first bite......it is always taken because we are desiring something........ I have eaten my share of bad fruit.  Just like Eve, it looked similar to the good fruit around me, but it was subtlely different.  The enemy is truely an evil schemer.  He offers that one piece, and if you take it....your lens begin to shift ever so slightly.  Then each piece of fruit that you continue to eat, over time, continues to skew your lens of reality...It is so subtle....if it wasn't we could recognize it right from the start.  By the time we have finished the fruit, we have such a warped view of our relationships, our self worth and our relationship with God....Am I the only one t...

~ A Grandmother's Stitches~ In honor of Clara Beaty, who entered the pearly gates on 11-28-2012. Years ago I sat as an excited girl with carefully selected fabric, thimble and thread eager to master the art of quilting. I will never forget sitting on that floral couch and intently listening to Granny as she handed down her knowledge one stitch at a time. I watched her delicate, soft hands with years of sewing captured in her swollen joints make each stitch with ease and perfection. "Make every stitch small" she would say as she handed the fabric to me. She would carefully monitor my stitches, stressing "your quilt should be as pretty on the bottom as it is on the top." For hours, we would share the needle and thread as we passed the fabric between our hands. As I reflect on my life, there are many stitches that are connected to the threads of my grandparents......countless fried apple pies, biscuits and strawberry freezer jam, and apple sta...

journaled on 2.15.11 "On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. I cling to you; your right hand upholds me." Psalm 63:6-8 I have went through a dark season. During this time, I have been so discouraged and felt so far from God. I would try to connect only to find myself frustrated and ready to throw in the towel. I did feel like He keep prompting me to wake up early. But I excused it away. I was working through a bible study on Ruth, but still feeling that my walk with the Lord was hard. I had went to a weekend conference, only to find myself so distracted that I could not focus. I felt that I was in a downward spiral. During this time, I attacked relationships. I hurt family and a very precious and close friend. I fed into the lies of Satan. I begin to believe that I was alone and I let bitterness take root and those roots are hard to kill. So I felt for some reason to look up"...

"Command and teach these things. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. " 1 Timothy 4:11-13 I am completely humbled and blown away. I keep asking the Lord to please give me the wisdom to protect and guard my children. It is a constant check when it comes to those little guys. If I do nothing else right, I want to teach those 3 precious angels to love the Lord with every ounce of their souls. I am by no means trying to toot my own horn. I am struggling if I am adequately equipped to shape these sweet babies. So about 3 weeks ago, Taylor came to me and was very discouraged. He has been ministering to children in his class and sharing with them that God loves them. A true evangelism heart. This has been going on all year. He has amazed me with his boldness and making me stret...

"The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. " Psalm 92:12-13 I have been pondering my relationship with God and the different season that we have weathered together. I love this time of year and all the new green growth springing forth. I have the most beautiful hydrangea that I inherited when we bought our house. I have been reading about the best ways to care for them. I am amazed at how reflective these plants are to our walk with Christ. These plants look so bare and unattractive right now. I have recently been in that season. These are the times in our lives that we feel stripped. We so often mistaken these times as God is distant from us. I am more convinced than ever that this is a time that God is moving in a way to equip us. This season is hard, but this season is humbling and brings us back into balance. During this time, you cannot see what is g...