Where is God on vacation?

We all take vacations. Where is your God while you are sitting on the beach, or hiking up a mountain, or visiting with family, or even just relaxing at home for a week?

So many times when I go on vacation my daily reads are put on pause. My bible studies are put on pause. My prayers are put on pause.

It shouldn't work that way. God doesn't take vacations from us so when we're on vacation we shouldn't take vacations from Him.

Joshua 1:9b -- for The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. 

source

I encourage you, as well as myself to continually stay in the Word while on vacation. I bet our vacations would be just that much better.

Your Love Oh Lord

Photography by Kevin Rees

May God's Grace Cover You Today!

May God's grace cover you today!

source

Consider it Pure Joy

Let me share with you a verse that I never really understood until this week.

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything."
James 1:1-4

Here's what I have learned from this verse:

1. Be joyful, even thankful, when you go through the tough stuff.
     When I faced a really tough trial this last week, I was torn apart emotional. I was distraught, frustrated, hurt.. I was fighting to do the right thing. But when I dug into the Word to seek God's counsel, I read this verse like it was the first time. And I finally got what God was trying to say... Be joyful when you face trials. Welcome them... not that you want to go through them.. but when it happens, understand that by working through it, you will be better for it, and God will be glorified in it.

2. Let your faith be tested - it will develop other characteristics that will help you grow spiritually.
     I grasped the concept that by working through this trial with joy, God was going to develop the fruits of His spirit in me. By allowing my faith to be tested, Christ wanted to see how I would respond. Would I respond with hate, anger, or bitterness? Would I just give in and give up so it would all be over as soon as possible? No... I knew that by allowing the situation to take it's time the way God wanted it to, He was teaching me that through this waiting time, he would develop the spirit of perseverance in me. Trials give us a chance to choose how to respond and grow. Instead of choosing to be angry, hurt, or distraught... I chose to take control of my emotions and understand that through this testing, I would mature and grow. I would much rather become more mature in my faith then just give in to the fight.

3. God's purpose will always prevail.
     Sometimes the trial is not just about you. Sometimes the person or people in your a trial with, need to go through it so that God can see His plan come to pass. God wants you to grow just as much as he wants the person your in trial with to grow. I knew by going through this trial that God had a plan for every person involved. That's not my place to say how, I just felt God speaking to me that He was going to use this trial for His good. What a privilege that God gave me to help see His work in others begin and be fulfilled. Because I knew God was using this for my growth and the growth of others, I had to chose for my words and actions to reflect Him. You see, in tough times, in fight, in trials... we choose how to respond. We can chose to be lovingly honest and work toward building better relationships, or we can chose to be critical, use guilt or blame, and respond with hurtful actions or words.

God places or allows trials in our lives because He wants to see our response. God wants to see us grow from everything we encounter. He knew that throughout our lives, there would be trials and that we would struggle. So He used the Word to share with us how to consider those trials pure joy. To be thankful when we go through tough times, because if we chose to follow His commandments and teachings, we can grow in our faith from every trial we encounter.

So if you are going through something really tough right now... whether it be spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, relationally, financially, etc... consider it pure joy! Because you know, through the power of the Holy Spirit, you will grow in faith and perseverance!

When is it too much?

During the last 8 weeks my life has taken a U-turn. I needed to get back in the right direction. My schedule life was starting to pull me down. I found myself extremely overbooked and my thoughts and mouth were out of control. Running the kids to multiple sporting practices 7 days a week, trying to keep up with two bible studies, read the word, blog two blogs, cook dinner, wash the clothes, clean the house, work at the kids school, babysit, listen to peoples problems and occasionally wash my hair and update my Facebook status. I was a worn out, haggard, grumpy, and a self conscious mess!

I began flaking on things I had committed to. I was letting people down. I was letting myself down. I was letting God down. How was I to witness to people around me if I was a hot mess. How was I supposed to get anything out of Sunday Service if I was grumbling about having to run my daughter to her next soccer practice in...4 hours, because I was that awesome mom who supports her kids.

Bible studies, psh...those were supposed to be a daily reflective study. I was waiting till the last minute and cramming 5 hours of study time into 2.5. I can almost put money on it that I missed so much of what God was trying to tell me in those lessons, because I was rushing through, Instagraming, tweeting and mentally making my grocery list at the same time. Why, because I had to stay on top of everything. If something fell through the cracks in my day...I failed. I would beat myself up about it, snap at the Mister and choke the kids with my harsh remarks.

I had to really reflect about what I was doing to myself. What was I doing to the relationships around me?  I don't own a cape. I have no super powers, so why would I try and do the impossible...I was trying to be Super Mom/Blogger/Team Mom/5 Star wife  {Well, it's possible, just you probably wont be sane} When is it too much? Friends I was at that point. It.Was.Too.Much! I broke down one Monday Morning. I couldn't bring myself to get out of bed. I felt like a huge weight was on my chest. I fell under conviction because here I was proclaiming I am a Jesus Freak, but the fact is, I hadn't had time to even really pray. When was the last time I said, "GOD YOU ROCK! Thank you for my breath, my family and the ability to move in the morning." The kids were still in bed, so I just laid there and cried my heart out to God. I mean I really cried. Possibly in the beginning it was a poor me cry, but during the release of all that self pity, I began to really seek Gods face. Begging him to help me stop this madness. Begging with him, what did I need to do to get my sanity back? I needed to be in that sweet spot with him again that I had slipped away from. I needed that so bad. It was as clear as I am writing you now. He said "let go of Blogging. You need to dig more into the word." Out of EVERYTHING I was doing in my day...he wanted me to stop my personal blog? But WHY? Why can't I pull the kids from ONE of their sports I have to take them to, they are in 3!? Why can't I go on a cleaning, laundry and cooking break? Why...WAHHHHY!?! Because he wanted me to pull away from something that had me so wrapped up in myself and the statistics and less of him. *boom* I felt like such a schmuck. I fell for Satan's schemes. So I said my goodbyes to my blog. I pouted for a little bit. But....

Now that I have left my personal blog, I have started two new Bible studies AND I am actually focusing on what is flowing from those pages. I tell you what....Daniel by Beth Moore, is speaking to my heart. God is showing me how wrapped up in myself and things of this world I was becoming. I can slowly see some women that mean a lot to me headed in that same path. It scares me. I am still praying God will show me the right way to address that, but for now...I write here.

So I ask you beloved. When is it too much to handle? Do we let it get to the breaking point I was at...trying to please everyone, take care of everyone and everything, concerned about how my blog was doing, consuming myself with anger and frustration because I was failing at what I treasured the most. My relationship with the Lord.

If you are feeling overwhelmed, anxious, on the verge of a break down. Trust me you are not alone. So many women are dealing with the same situation. Something has to give right? Why not give it to God?

"So I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness.."

Ladies I am so excited to be back writing again!! We took a nice long month "off" but spent the lovely time praying over our children. Not that we don't do that always, but we focused on it last month. 

Before I write I spend time praying about what I should write about. As I was spending some quiet time with the Lord while the children napped it came to me.

Weaknesses.

Remember those awesome school or even work assignments you got... List all your strengths & weaknesses. I always dreaded those. Or better yet, when you are sitting there for an interview & they ask you that question.

In my journal I was writing out 2 Corinthians 12:9 & I thought to myself I am actually looking forward to making a ginormous list of weaknesses.. WHY? Oh because God will be there with His power & make me stronger. His power is made perfect in MY weakness. Say what? Yes. Amazing.

So that list I was telling you about... Here are my weakness and definitely not all of them.

• Confronting issues -- this girl right here hates confrontation, ask my husband.
• Sharing my faith -- I struggle opening up & being like hey guess what, Jesus is my Lord! And it's not just sharing it, it's more of being courageous to speak Truth to nonbelievers.
• Handling finances -- now, we pay all all our bills, that is not the issue.. the issue is overspending on things I don't need. Like 8 maxi skirts. 
• Walking in faith consistently -- not just whenever it's convenient for me. When I go on vacation it's like I also go on biblecation. I think God will pick up with me when I get back. Um nope, He's there with me along the way. I need to be committed in those times out of the norm.
• Resisting temptation -- what can I say? I give into peer pressure sometimes, ie. those 8 maxi skirts because I can't live without them... Right.
• Trusting God with His plan & ditching my own plan 
• Sticking up for myself -- who is a pushover? This girl.
• Debt -- Hello student loans, I would love to say goodbye to you at any point.

And literally this list could go on.. And on.. And on... But I will stop here for now. 

I am here today to tell you...

I encourage you to get our your journal or a notebook or an index card or even what you write your groceries on.. Make a list of your weaknesses. Pray over them. Ask for God to help you through them. Trust that He WILL be the power in those. 

Father, I just pray that our weaknesses as women are not hindering us from being who you want us to be. I pray that You will be the Lord in their life to reign Your almighty power over their weaknesses. Allow these ladies to trust in You to overcome their weaknesses. AMEN.

Zesty Crock Pot Chicken

One of my favorite chicken crock pot recipes is this zesty chicken dish. Who doesn't love an easy dinner but tastes super delicious?

Now don't mind my pictures. 

This is what you need.

But then I forgot to add the brown sugar. But at this point the chicken was already in the pot. 

I was caught up in the moment with excitement. 

 Mix your ingredients & add them to the crock pot & all over the chicken.

 And this my dears is your sweet sweet little chicken that tastes oh so delish.

Ingredients

2 frozen boneless chicken breasts

1 1/2 cups BBQ sauce (Sweet Baby Rays my fave)

1/2 cup Italian Dressing

 1/4 cup Brown Sugar

2 TBSP What's This Here Sauce aka Worcestershire Sauce

Instructions

Add chicken to the crock pot

Mix BBQ sauce, Italian Dressing, Brown Sugar & Worcestershire Sauce in a separate bowl & then pour over chicken

Cover & cook 3-4 hours on High or 6-8 hours on Low