LACED WITH GRACE... a fish lesson

Today I have shared a short devotion over at LACED WITH GRACE, entitled "A Fish Lesson".

When a storm sweeps across the ocean surface, the fish below know exactly where the water is still — deep down under. While up on the surface, the winds and the waves are raging, but below lies water completely at peace. Perhaps we could learn a lesson from fish! Consider this. In a shallow relationship with God ...

CLICK HERE to read the rest of today's devo!

THANKFUL THURSDAY ...shoe shiner

Giving of yourself goes so much more deeper than just dropping a dollar or two in the offering plate or going to a mission to feed the hungry. Many of the greatest feats of servant hood go unnoticed.

A story about D.L.Moody, a powerful leader in Christianity, shows how giving of yourself secretly can be a powerful thing:

A large group of European pastors came to one of D. L. Moody’s Northfield Bible Conferences in Massachusetts in the late 1800s. Following the European custom of the time, each guest put his shoes outside his room to be cleaned by the hall servants overnight. But of course this was America and there were no hall servants.

Walking the dormitory halls that night, Moody saw the shoes and determined not to embarrass his brothers. He mentioned the need to some ministerial students who were there, but met with only silence or pious excuses. Moody returned to the dorm, gathered up the shoes, and, alone in his room, the world’s only famous evangelist began to clean and polish the shoes. Only the unexpected arrival of a friend in the midst of the work revealed the secret.

When the foreign visitors opened their doors the next morning, their shoes were shined. They never knew by whom. Moody told no one, but his friend told a few people, and during the rest of the conference, different men volunteered to shine the shoes in secret.

How humbling is that?  Many of us want to be great ministers for the Lord. We want our names and our works to be remembered. But how many of us are willing to be shoe shiners? Not only would Jesus have shined those shoes in secret, but He would have returned to wash their feet also!

Matthew 6:4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

Have you been asking the Lord to use you? Shine someone’s dingy shoes, give a gift to someone in need, love on someone hard to love — but don’t tell the world — do it in secret! You can be sure that the Lord sees these things and you will be rewarded!

Today on this THANKFUL THURSDAY, I am honored and blessed that God has put some "shoe shiners" in my life. People who have given of their finances, their time and their love to me and my family, often times anonymously. I want to be like that, like Jesus, giving sacrifices with no strings attached!

Join your grateful heart with ours by linking up over at LYNN'S as we celebrate TT this week!

WEDNESDAY WEEKLY WORD...who are you protecting on your watch?

Having relationships with people can be made up of many things, including joys, sorrows, successes and failures. When you think of your closest relationships, say with your spouse or your children, the furthest thing from your mind is for it be a battleground. Sometimes in our relationships, we have to be able to choose our battles!

Face it, the enemy lurks around every corner to try to trip us up and confuse us and to leave us with our guard down. The place I see this happening the most is in our relationships. Just like the jewelry store that is guarded by security to protect the valuable goods inside, we must stand guard over the precious valuables that God has entrusted with us in our relationships.

Sometimes the lurking thief will not be so noticeable, it may come looking attractive and desirable but it's main goal is to undermine your love and appreciation for those closest to you. In your marriage, the thief may come to lure your heart away by offering unrealistic comparisons or unhealthy desires. When it comes to our relationships, we must put on the armor and pick up the sword to protect against such attacks.

 In last weeks YOUR OPINION MATTERS POLL, I polled the readers the following question, "When you think of PROTECTION, what do you think of?" The top 2 answers were:

1. 83% of those voting said that they think of God when it comes to protection.

2. 16% of those responding said they think of Police.

Protecting your loved ones against physical harm is one thing, but how can we protect our relationships against spiritual and emotional scarring? Too many relationships are infected with crippling parasites. A parasite is anything that will latch on and suck the life out of you! The kind of parasites I am talking about are the kind that suck good things out of your relationship. Parasites like addictions, gambling, drugs and pornography. These things will not only steal the loyalty from your relationships but it will infect the hearts of those you love the most. Protecting our loved ones does not stop with installing a burglary system in our homes, we must protect the heart as well.

The Bible speaks about this protective role.

EZEKIEL 34:8 "the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed the flock."

The shepherds took extra good care of their own needs and fed their own appetites but they gave little to no thought to the safety of those under their supervision. We each have been given a responsibility to care for and nurture someone, whether its your spouse, your children, your aging parents or an unsaved loved one.

In Matthew 24 it suggests that if the head of the house had known that the thief was coming in the middle of the night, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into...We each have charge over someone, the role is ours to protect them. We must take our watch seriously!

A PIECE OF MY HEART... kaleidoscope dreams

Have you ever held a kaleidoscope in your hand? This amazing tube fascinates me when all of the many pebbles and beads inside turn into a magnificent design when it is held up to the light. A if that alone is not amazing enough, each time you turn the scope, the light reflects yet another breathtaking image. Each view seems more amazing than the last. The progression of the images just captivates me each time.

I was thinking about this kaleidoscope and how without the light, we see something different. We just see the beads and the pebbles. The light is what changes everything.

God's Light changes everything also. God is a progressive God and the dreams that we dream, the visions that we have will all take on a new form once His light is applied.

ACTS 2:17 "In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams."

His Light can turn our kaleidoscope dreams into amazing pieces of beauty and art.

and this has been a piece of my heart today;

May we never forget!

Backyard BBQ'S, parades and fireworks. All of it makes for a wonderful celebration of Independence Day!  I hope that your weekend included some family fun as you celebrated your freedom.

Fireworks always make me feel proud to be an American. As the sky is lit up with the magnificent colors and the sound of each one going - it always make me think of the freedoms that I have always known because of of this great Country I live in. Realizing that in some countries, freedom is not something that is available, certainly not celebrated.

Celebrating the 4th is much more for me than just having hot dogs, lighting fireworks and waving the flag ... Independence Day is remembering that our right to life and our pursuit of happiness really comes from God.

May we never forget where our freedoms come from!

STOLEN IDENTITY

One of the biggest concerns people have these days is having their identity stolen. We personally have safety cautions placed on our credit reports to protect ourselves from this happening. It is a very scary thing to think of what damage a person could do by stealing our identity.

Everything about us could be stolen, erased, simply gone just by someone stealing our identity. This feeling of emptiness and being lost is sometimes how I feel in life. Those times that I am soul searching or looking for direction in my life, I often feel like I just don't know who I am. It feels like someone else has stepped into my shoes and taken over my identity.

Times of uncertainty often has me asking God questions like, "Who am I?" and "Where am I going?" It is in these moments that I have to place my trust in God and know that my identity is not where I work, or who calls me friend, but it is WHOSE I am!

In order to not have your identity stolen ... we must know who we are!

THANKFUL THURSDAY...Who holds your tomorrows?

If you are like me, you keep a detailed appointment book. If I didn't live by my calendar, it would be difficult for me to keep my days in order. Lately, I have been thinking about my tomorrows and the important things that still need to be accomplished while I still have time.

I've been thinking about a "bucket list" of sorts. You know, a list of all the important things that I would like to accomplish in my lifetime. The problem with having such a list is that it takes no time at all for the things on my calendar to overtake the things on my bucket list.

It seems for some time now I have been saying I am going to organize all of my photo's and get them in organized, detailed scrapbooks. The problem is I keep saying "tomorrow" I will get started and then my "tomorrows" never seem to come. In fact, it hasn't been days that have flashed by without me starting on such a project but now years have come and gone and still no scrapbook!

I don't know if my "tomorrow" will ever come to accomplish my scrapping adventure, but I do know that time is fragile and only God knows how many "tomorrows" I have left to accomplish the great and magnificient things that He has asked me to do.

JAMES 4:14 "Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away."

I am so thankful for each moment God has given me and I don't want to waste any more time. May we submit each day to God, for only he knows what our tomorrow holds.

Join your grateful hearts with ours over at LYNN'S. She is our gracious THANKFUL THURSDAY hostess this month.