More calendar lessons

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes. ~Matthew 6:34 MSG Translation

dude....I don't even need to do the commentary thing for that one to sink into my brain and smack me around.

good stuff.

It never fails, when the stress is creeping back in after it's been banished, and I'm doing my best to remain calm and remember that I can do nothing, but God can do everything, something smacks me and makes me feel inferior....and then God....well....this verse was emailed to me this morning.

Now glory be to God, who by His mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream - infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes. Ephesians 3:20 TLB

How's that for divine timing?
We got the next round of assumption papers for the house and filled them in and sent them on to the potential buyer....please keep that in prayer! The bank said it takes approximately 30 days after they receive this round of paperwork to make a determination.....so I'm working on being patient and not being anxious but in all things making my requests known to God....

July is going to be a crazy busy month....the usual summer craziness, but in addition to that, K sister is graduating (yeah, I know, wasn't she just 5 and sitting in the HA cafeteria while my mom made cookies yesterday????)
Uncle R and Aunt N are coming for a visit and we've got some short travel planned for various things. We're hoping to be able to take a short getaway for our anniversary in August.

Things are looking more homey at the new place and it really doesn't resemble a cardboard fort at all anymore - just a handful of boxes waiting for us to figure out which shelves and pictures are going where....then I get to work on a fun project....going through the digital camera and printing my favs and FINALLY putting the pics in the gorgeous collage frame we got from N Bro.

N bro & his wife are doing very well - baby girl should be here in August and momma is doing great. we have their shower in July too....

Well...that's about it for updates and good words....off to the grind for me

Brain Hungry! Need Food!

Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desertand streams in the wasteland.
Isaiah 43:19

Ooh...that one may take my brain all day to chew on....
Lately I've been in a funk, feeling down and feeling the weight of the many stressors around me crushing down and I've tried to fight it and tried to just "deal" and accept the stressors....then a wise person said to me "don't do that." Because as soon as I do that I am allowing that THING to be stress, and once that stress is removed, I allow the stress to capture something else. I need to not accept it. I need to pry my fingers off of it and look to God for peace. No, that doesn't mean that things will never get to me and that I won't feel pressure...it means that I won't let it surround me and take over my thoughts so that I'm lying awake every night mentally yelling at God for not letting me have "sweet peaceful sleep" like Psalms promises....

So...my mission...and I've chosen to accept it....is when those things hit me hard, oh and I bet the last doughnut and coffee they will, I need to look at it, praise God for the strength to get through and press on. Yesterday it manifested in the form of "God, help me to not let this steal my joy today" rather than crying in the ladies' room like I really wanted to.

Lessons from a calendar.

Embrace this God-life. Really embrace it, and nothing will be too much for you.... That's why I urge you to pray for absolutely everything, ranging from small to large. Include everything as you embrace this God-life, and you'll get God's everything - Mark 11:22-24, MSG

It really shouldn't surprise me that this was my verse today on my calendar - God's been speaking to me a lot lately about my prayer life and how I will certainly pray when I'm in the valley of the shadow...but then I stand up, wipe my eyes and pick all my trials back up and wander back to my worry-fest. Wow...yeah, a little vulnerable today. But it's true. I talk to God, and I tell him I know that he can do everything and can fix what's going on and then I try to help. How hilarious is that? That my pea-brain thinks the almighty needs my help. Goodness, I can barely speak in whole sentences before the first cup of coffee and I think that I can help God move the mountains in my life? What an arrogant concept. We live in a world where we are almost trained to be arrogant - and we call it being confident, we call it being proud of who we are - and those two things on their own aren't bad - it's when we allow ourselves to cross that line and feel as though we are entitled to amazing things without doing anything.
I once heard an illustration of faith - I was 10. I was at summer camp and we were talking about chairs. The pastor said that faith is sitting in the chair. I looked at him wondering how that could be. Then he fleshed it out. I can look at a chair and say "I believe this chair will hold me." But until I actually sit in that chair confident it will hold me, I have no faith that my statement is true. Until I actually pry my fingers off my trials, I will never actually have faith that God will overcome them.
So....he's trying to get the concept through my brain in many fashions these days. Isn't it wonderful how much he cares? I'm convinced he shakes his head at me at least twice a day. "silly little girl, don't you get it yet? I've got you. And I promised no one shall pluck you out of my hand."

Go listen to this song....heard it a while ago and thought of it again today.

ooh...

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.- Corrie Ten Boom

I really wish I had heard this quote before the stress of the weekend began because it is oh so true....

Well...we're moved. We're exhausted and sore, but we're moved. We spent a lot of the weekend trying to find the right places for things and trying to find things we needed....I asked Bug when he thought it would start to feel like home. He said give it a week....right now it feels like we're visiting somewhere...living out of boxes and suitcases....our bed would not go back together so our mattress and boxspring are on the floor - and in the midst of being ready to break from the stress tension and exhaustion it hit me...how much had I been praying about the move and everything? I'm ashamed to admit just a few words here and there. By the time Saturday night rolled around, I was so worn down that my stomach was chewing itself to pieces. So I laid down and it hit me. I needed to pray. So I started with the way I was feeling and thanking God for our new place and a successful move and went on to protecting our marriage and getting us through settling in and guiding each step...I ended up falling asleep praying in the spirit. And for the first time in I don't know how long, I had peaceful dreams instead of ones where I woke up going "how on EARTH did my subconscious come up with that one???????"

Here's where you may all say "um, duh Eye." Yes, I know where my help and peace and strength (hee hee, and daily food for those that were just waiting for it....) come from. Why is it so darn hard to get it from the brain know to the practice know?

So last night I started re-reading The Forgotten God by Francis Chan. Amazing author (also wrote Crazy Love).....time to start remembering what powers the system....and I don't mean coffee this time.

God is faithful. We found not only a bed in our price range, but the new mattress we've been needing for a while...on sale....God rocks.