God

Remember me?

It's ok if you have to think about it, because it scares me to think how many days have passed before I even looked at this site.  That bothers me, because I consider it a ministry.

But I also consider caring for my family a ministry and this week, that went up a notch or two in the care department.  Our youngest developed a sinus infection which brought on an asthma flare up.  She was down and out for days and that means so were we. 

Instead of knocking myself out trying to catch up, I'm just going to post a little something today and start all over on Monday.

Come on back now, you hear?

Five Ways to Tell It's Been That Kind of Week: Julie Arduini version

1.  My husband and I have incorporated the word "shift" into our parenting this week.

2.  I'm healthy.  It's 4pm.  I'm still in pajamas.  For the third day.

3.  There is a peanut butter egg in the fridge.  If you know me even a little, this is a statement. Because if this were a normal week, that statement would be in the past tense.

4. I'm fluent in Chinese after four days.  How?  Non stop recordings of Nick Jr's Ni Hao Kai Lan.  I'll be honest, I just know the word dolphin but I should be fluent in Chinese.

5. 'Getting out" meant opening the door to get the mail. 

 How was your week?  How did God carry you through?

What Beth Moore's Believing God did for my healing in Christ, I believe Sheila Walsh's Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God is the same caliber of a book.

As a blogger and writer, I'm constantly putting myself out there in surrender mode. I get frustrated because some issues take so long, or, I make progress only to take three steps back. Sheila Walsh showed me just through the title and cover of the book what my root problem is:

Trusting God.

Sheila opens up the pages of her life and holds little back in her struggles, confessions, and experiences. Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God is part testimony, but so much more. Sheila dug up some beautiful research for this book and wove Biblical characters and their trust God issues throughout her story. I learned so much about Anna, Tabitha, and even well known Bible characters like Joseph. If that wasn't enough, at the end there is a free Bible study. I just started a small group in my home to encouragement women and show them God's huge love for them. I can't wait to utilize the Bible study. I don't know what else to say except if I was on a swing and Sheila was pushing, I'd let her take me as high as she wanted to push. If you read her book, you know that's quite a statement.

Be sure to watch this video about Beautiful Things Happen When a Women Trusts God:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWbkcH3VhXM

As I sound like a winter Dukes of Hazard re enactment backing into my driveway

this picture gives me hope.

As I receive three text messages in a row that we're under a weather advisory

this picture gives me hope.

As my children try to recall what a full week in school feels like

this picture gives me hope.

As I burn my Yankee candle lilac scent knowing spring beckons, right?

this picture gives me hope.

I took this picture while getting the mail a couple days ago.  I'm convinced God refreshes our spirit just when we need it and this was a huge gift from Him.  It was a brilliant sun this picture could never quite capture.

Sunsets, sunrises, and water are my favorite nature sights.

How about you?

I'm on Chapter 7 of the late Jill Austin's book, Dancing with Destiny.

The more I talk with others, listen to services, read devotionals...it's always coming back to the same theme: dreams.

We all have dreams and we either never realized them or they were crushed somehow. It's time to get those dreams back.

Maybe not how you think they are meant to be, but how God created the dream to be in and through you. I'm seeing this take place with women and it's exciting. But one thing this chapter reminds me... You have to contend for your dreams.

Like I said, your dreams are a creation of Our Creator, God. Your Heavenly Father. You also are God's creation. That means an automatic fight with the defeated one. I'm not sure why it surprises people when they learn the devil is real and hates you.

It's. his. job.

The message God is sharing with me is that this truth shouldn't scare us off or make us quit. If Christ is your Savior, you have as much power as Christ did on Resurrection day.

You already are on the winning team.

And the one who is after you is the defeated one, not you.

With our own eyes we're seeing a literal shaking in the world. Governments are changing, sometimes overnight. What we thought would always be stable is either unstable or outright gone. Thing is, that shouldn't surprise us either. The Bible states wars, rumors of war, shakings, famine...and well, here we are.

1 Peter 5:8 NIV tells us,

A ZAKA delegation in Haiti was dispatched on Saturday to a collapsed 8-story university building where cries were heard from trapped students.

After hours working with rescue equipment provided by the Mexican military, the ZAKA volunteers succeeded in pulling eight students alive from the rubble during a 38-hour rescue operation.

The ZAKA delegation took time to recite Shabbat prayers. Many locals sat quietly in the rubble, staring at the men as they prayed, facing Jerusalem.

At the end of the prayers, they crowded around the delegation and kissed the prayer shawls.