Kid DEES ~~~~~~~ Jump or Stand

“Problems get us to the edge but we choose to jump”

 

It is no secret that life is hard. As much as we would like to stroll thru life without a care in the world it doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t matter if we are a teenager, college student; young adult or elderly; problems will always linger nearby.

Problems such as our relationship with others, health problems, problems with work or at home, and even other people’s problems invading our life and more. Each problem listed carrying its own degree of how bad they are or not with some people having more than their fair share to deal with.

 

It’s important to remember that “problems” don’t choose their victims they are things that just happen. We are the ones who make the choice through our actions to be a victim to the difficulties we face.

Indeed there will be times when problems or difficulties in life will drive us to the edge but it’s our choice whether we are going to jump or not. That edge where we are about ready to lose our temper, get mad, get even with those causing our problems. Its here at the edge where we make the choice whether we are going to stand strong against our troubles or allow ourselves to become victims and jump into something we shouldn’t.

 

It’s our job to be ready at all times to face life’s difficulties. Our readiness comes from the preparation of our hearts, how well we trust in God, and how strong our spirit is. As much as we try we cannot face our problems alone. We need to God to help us through them. The best way to accomplish that is through the reading of God’s scriptures and prayer.

 

A scripture such as Proverbs 3:5,6 can carry us a long ways through our troubles. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Also the scripture in Philippines 4:13, “I can do everything through Him (God) who gives me strength.”

 

Running from our problems is never an answer. Ignoring them will never work either. Standing up to them and fighting them through the strength God supplies is the only way to successfully overcome and win the battle against our troubles, difficulties, or problems.

 

Fight or flee. Jump or stand. The choice is up to us. The one may get us over the problem but never through them where true success is found.

They Call Me,
                                        Grandma

A lesson from my garden

Several weeks ago in the middle of the night we had a wind storm go thru our garden with winds up to 60 miles per hour. The next morning when my husband went outside to check on the animals he noticed something different about the garden.

 

Walking over there to explore what it was that was different he noticed the corn was totally flat. It wasn't only flat but halfway down the rows of corn there was a circled spot where it was beyond just flat. It almost looked as if that was where the wind tunnel originally touched down. Running into the house he got me to go and take a look. "Wow!" I said. I had never seen anything like that before. The entire crop of  tall stalks of corn over seven feet tall was lying flat on the ground with the remainder of the garden and yard untouched.

 

After marveling over the loss of our corn crop we went to work. I figured I would get a picture of this later and share it with my friends on Facebook. That night when I got home from work it was dark so I planned on taking a picture of the corn the following morning on Saturday once it got daylight. Much to our surprise come Saturday morning, almost two days after the corn was flattened, we woke up to a big surprise. The corn was standing upright!

 

How could it be? One day it was flat on the ground and now it was standing once more. Was it really going to be okay? Would we ever see a kernel of corn off of them? Well it's been over a month now and the corn remains standing and is producing terrific corn.

 

As I stand and look at the corn as it stands tall in the garden I think of the lesson we can learn from it. Often in life there is something that touches down in our lives that knocks us down flat. We have the choice to stay down there or get back up and keep moving forward. God has equipped us to be able to do that no differently than the corn stalks He created. We should use that which God has supplied us with and pop back up in an upright position so quickly that world around doesn't even have a chance to notice we are down.

 

I don't know what it was that made the corn come back up but what we have is the Holy Spirit within us to help pop us back up. We have God's written word of encouragement and directions to help as well. Recently when a devastating thing struck my family, as my youngest granddaughter cried I told her we need to just trust in the promises of God. That is what will help up stand upright once again is trusting in the promises of God thru any storm.

 

Another lesson from my garden is the one from the sunflower that is standing near the corn. The lesson I learn from it is the fact that every morning it faces the morning sun and follows it thru the day. It would do us well to begin and end our day the same way, facing the rising Son, Jesus Christ. Truly this is another way that will help us to stand upright when life knocks us down.

 

Thank you Lord for the lessons learned and the beauty You have created in my garden both physically and spiritually. You are the best Gardener there is! I love you.

 

 

Not Done Knitting

In the book of Psalm in chapter 139 verse 13 it says, “You have created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” The Psalmist knew exactly where he came from and what part God played in it. What an awesome thought to know that we are not hidden from God; it is Him who is busy knitting us together in our mother’s womb.

As birth happens and life goes on God’s knitting is not yet done. The knitting of our physical body is only part of what He does. Throughout our entire life He continues to put us together as He knits us into something that goes from a ball of yarn to a beautiful masterpiece.

Unlike not being able to tear out physical boo boos and starting over in His knitting God is able to do that spiritually with us. He knows the importance of a well finished project. The body is only a temporary thing but our spiritual souls live on forever. It may take years to create, several changes of the design, corrections here and additions there but He sticks with us until the job is done.

He will not leave us in a basket somewhere half done and incomplete. He will never “close the book” on us or give up on us if we don’t close the book on Him. Our job as the one being knitted together spiritually by God is to cooperate with the one doing the knitting.

We need to trust God knowing He is the author and perfector of our faith. He knows how to knit. The wonders He can do with a simple form of a person is fantastic if we would just allow it to happen. We need faith, trust, patience, and obedience during the knitting process.

So when we stop and look at ourselves and our love ones we need to be comforted by the fact that God is not finished with us yet. No matter how tangled the yarn looks, He’s not done knitting. Praise the Lord.

They Call Me,      Grandma

**It gives me great pleasure and strength as a Grandma to know that God is not finished with my grandchildren or daughter yet. I may never see the finished product but I know it will be done well. Thank you Lord Jesus, Thank you.

© 2012 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Where is my worth?

Too often we make the mistake of looking at ourselves and wondering, “Where is my worth? I haven’t done anything special. I am not as good as those people over there. I’ll never amount to anything.” STOP! STOP! STOP! Did I mention…..STOP!!!!!

Like these bucket of flowers in the picture we have our worth. The buckets the flowers are planted in are ones that my grandkids and I picked out of the dump sites on the desert near our home. Fifty to 100 years ago people used that desert to dump their garbage. At the time they went out there and discarded their “junk” they never thought someone would one day make a flower bucket out of it that looked so pretty.

The point is we all have our valve, our worth and its more than what we give ourselves credit for. All we have to do is add little colorful flowers to add brightness to what appears to be a dull, rusty, and worn out surface.

The colorful flowers come from Jesus knowing first hand that we are loved by Him. He doesn’t have a price tag on each of us as He lines us up to sell us to the world at the next neighborhood yard sale that comes up. We are the items in the antique shop that keep going up and up in value. You don’t have to be a child of a missionary or preacher to have that value all you need to do is accept the invitation to be the child of God.

God is willing to adopt each and every one of us if we would only accept the invitation, accept the flowers He is handing to us. No one in their right mind would shut the door in the face of the florist who just delivered a bouquet of red roses and we shouldn’t shut the door in the face of God either.

Get into God’s word, claim his promises, and discover your worth in God. It’s valuable. It’s a treasure worth claiming. That treasure is YOU. Where's my worth? IN God not outside of God.

They Call me, Grandma



© 2012 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

King

In Sunday school today we made crowns. It was to go along with our story of Solomon. He was one of many kings in the Bible. The true lesson to be learnt regarding the crown is to learn who is king of your life. It should be Jesus. Too often we try to wear His crown ourselves and it just doesn't work.

What's the Point

As I went to pick up my grandkids for church one Sunday morning running out of the house was only one kid. “Where is everyone else?” I asked. “They didn’t see the point in coming,” was the reply I got.

“The point?” The fact is a life without Jesus is like an unsharpened pencil…..there is no point. It’s hard to get people to understand especially 7, 10, 11, 14 years olds the fact that the greatest effects of reading the Bible and attending church are often silent, quiet and hard to detect at the time they are being produced.

The point of going to church and reading our Bible is to worship God, to learn about Him, to get spiritually fed so we grow up to be the children we are meant to be in Christ. The point isn’t to be entertained, catered to, and served.

The Bible is our love letter from God preparing us for the time in which we will see Him face-to-face. It guides us where we need guidance, it strengthens us when we are feeling weak. Going to church reinforces that in our lives as we surround ourselves with fellow Christians trying to reach the same goals.

The church isn’t by far the “perfect” place because it’s filled with people, people like you and me that are far from perfect. You go there to try and become perfect not because you already are. Believe it or not we are all born sinners; we all fall short of God’s glory. Reading our Bible and going to church helps take care of those shortcomings or at least it should with the right attitude and discipline.

They both work together to keep us on the right road to Heaven. A road we are told in the Bible is narrow. As much as we would like to make it wider and wider thinking God accepts anything and anyone as long as they’re “good people” doesn’t work.

God has His path, He has pointed to Christ as the door we need to enter thru via our faith and obedience in Him. The point is getting to know Him so that some day when we stand before Him He can’t say, “I never knew you! Get out of here!”

No, the words we should strive to hear from Him are, “I know you. You were a steadfast, well disciplined, determined servant; a true friend on earth. Someone I noticed was always seeking even when the road grew dark and rough. Come in, good and faithful servant.”

That’s the point! Getting to know God and being obedient to His word.


They call me grandma



© 2012 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Jesus Loves You

For today I want to go back to the basics. The basic of the news that Jesus loves us.

I can add all the photos I want but we just need to know that Jesus loves us.

The next part is up to us. We have to believe. We have to accept the fact that He is the one who is the King of our lives.

Instead of photos I need to put up a mirror for all to look into and see themselves. This picture I took has me in the mirror. It's sideways because no matter how hard I tried to stand it up it just wouldn't happen. It's saved upright on my computer but comes out sideways here.

Any way the point is who is in the mirror. We need to be looking in to find ourselves and know that we are loved by God, it doesn't matter who is in the image of the mirror we all have a chance at His inheritance and love. We will find in our lives that no matter how hard we try there will be some things about us that we just can't straighten out. "We" ourselves can't but with the help of God it is possible.

It doesn't matter if our image is upside down or sideways. God has ways to "straighten" us out and get us where we need to be. We don't get the option of staying where we are without spiritual growth. A newborn baby doesn't get that option to stay little forever although many parents wish they would, they weren't designed to stay the same.

Spiritually we are not either. Praise the Lord we don't have to straighten up before we accept Him into our lives but afterwards we have our part to play. The part of believing, trusting, following, and being obedient to our Lord and Savior. Reading His word daily, getting it embedded into our lives and praying frequently to keep in touch with our Creator, God.

If we stick with God no matter what the journey the perfection in Him will come.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world He gave His one and only Son that whosoever believes in Him shall have everlasting life." Don't stop at this verse there are many more that goes with it that show us what part we play in the process. John 3:16 is the key that starts the machine rolling, there are other parts that help us to go forward in the right direction.

roads

Driving home one day I must have been bored or something because I got to thinking about the road and how it stays where it is. Duh! Yep, the path to the grocery store, church, or work is always there for me to take. It may be torn up and changed once in awhile for construction purposes but it still gets me to the location of my choice.

If you think about it the road to Heaven never moves either, it remains the same, the path of the cross of Christ. People may try to move it, tear it up for construction purposes but it is unchangeable and remains the same just as the destination it leads to.


We are the ones who make the mistake of not taking the road we need to take to get where we need to be. We delay the journey of turning our lives over to Jesus in order to have a little “fun” along the way. We figure the destination will never change so we can play first then get where we need to be last.


Never take for granted the roads ahead of you, especially the road to Heaven. Just because the road there is secure and will stay the same doesn’t give us the right to delay asking Jesus into our hearts and lives.


Destination, heaven! Christ secured.


They call me grandma

Best barn

The preschool class on Sunday was almost empty. It was just one student and I. After the lesson we proceeded to play with the wooden blocks. The object of choice to make was a barnyard.

Block by block we created our barn. The light brown square blocks worked well for hay bales and the blue ones were used for the pond the animals drank from. Although the roof idea we had didn’t work to well the made up pickup with a loading ramp for the animals to walk up did.

As the finishing touches were added Adison marveled over his creation. Over and over again he was anxious to show it off. “I wish Duggan was here to see this,” he kept saying. The more I heard him praise what he saw, the more I thought about how Jesus told us to become as little children.

Content with the wooden pickup, the blocks for water he was pleased with what he had. Unfortunately as we grow up our contentment seems to go away. We start to want bigger and better things. Made up hay bales and wooden sheep just won’t do it anymore. It would do us well to learn from the little kids and get back to true contentment. The one we had at our made up tea parties, thrown together Halloween costumes, and sticks for a pony to ride.

Be thankful for what you have. More isn’t always better. It depends on the attitude in which it is received, taken, and kept.

They Call Me, Grandma

Letting our light shine

In the Bible it tells us that Jesus is our light. He is the one we look to for everything we need. He is the brightness, hope, guidance we need in a world darken with the bad things sin has created. The sin of anger, the sin of selfishness, the sin of telling lies, the sin of picking on others, the sin of not doing the things God tells us to do in the Bible.


One of those things the Bible tells us to do is to let our light shine for Jesus. Did you know the moon at night does not have its own light? The light you see from the moon is the light of the sun reflecting off of it. We need to be like the moon and reflect the light of Jesus. We do this by living as Jesus would want us to live.

Let your light shine. Don’t let the darkness of the bad stuff around you put your light out. Like a candle, a wind can come up and blow it out but you need to light it once again and make the choice to continue on.

It’s all in your attitude, its all in your choice to stay positive and look to Jesus for the source of your shine.


They call me grandma

Doing the Impossible

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 I will rejoice always, pray without ceasing and in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ




In this verse for the day it seems like all the things listed seem impossible. There’s no way we can “rejoice always” after all have you seen some of the things that have been going on lately! And what about this pray without ceasing. I can’t be down on my knees praying, I have to go to school, sleep, and eat.

Then the last one seems the most unworkable of all, “in everything give thanks” that’s the craziest thing in the world. How can we give thanks for our parents fighting, the bully at school, the attitude of people around us, and so much more?

Alone these things are impossible that’s why we have the Holy Spirit on our side to help us through these things. It’s a help that comes to us through reading the Bible, praying, getting to know Jesus, and being obedient to God’s words.

We don’t have to rejoice or give thanks about the bad things that are happening to us. What we need to do is look for the positive. If all we have to be thankful for is the air we breathe, the birds we see flying, or the dog we hear barking then so be it. It’s all about our attitude and whether or not we are going to control it or allow it to go on controlling us.

They call me grandma

Kid DEES God,the driver. We, the passengers

My grandson at the age of seven thinks it’s funny to jump in the car first and get behind the wheel and pretends he’s driving. He looks as goofy there as our black lab does when he gets in that same seat.

As excited as most people are to start driving soon they learn it’s nice to have someone else behind the wheel at times. Spiritually is no different. All we have to do is board the bus, sit back and watch the scenery go by, trusting God knows where He is going.

Recently my husband and I went to a big city to visit our niece in the hospital. In order to get to the hospital we had to ride the community bus system. Our job was getting to the station on time and finding the right bus that would take us where we needed to go. When we boarded the bus we noticed a sign at the front that said, “Do not disturb the operator while the bus is in motion.” Once we got where we needed to be all we had to do was sit down and allow the driver to do the rest.

That is the way we need to be with God. Our job is coming to Him. Showing up at the right time at the right station and being still while He takes us where we need to go spiritually. We may have to put up with a few of the characters on the bus as they put up with us but that’s okay as long as we get to our final destination of Heaven with Jesus.

Cooperation with the driver is the key. Following the rules of the bus and being patient with the journey itself is important too. We may not understand God’s logic when He makes a left or right turn or frequent stops but that is where trust comes in.

It would do us well to, “not disturb the operator while the bus was in motion” as well. The operator being God and the bus is our life in motion with Jesus as our destiny.


They call me grandma

Kid DEES Growing Fruit

 
“I see fruit!” are the words I speak when I see my grandkids doing things that are right, good, and beneficial for themselves and others. Fruit is something that is produced. When we have Christ in our lives we need to be producing all the right qualities to be able to see Christ-like produce growing in our lives. Fruit that comes in the form of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and more.

Being kind to your brother or sister is good fruit. Doing what mom and dad ask you to do is good fruit. Cleaning your room without being asked is good fruit. Giving up your place in a line at school for someone else is good fruit. Having a good attitude is good fruit. Telling the truth is good fruit.

To visualize the idea of growing fruit, draw yourself a tree on a large piece of paper. Every time you see the kind of fruit growing we are talking about here put a sticker on your tree. If you’d ask your mom, dad, grandma, or grandpa or

whomever I’m sure they would be happy to let you know when you have done something that leads to good fruit.

Just because we get lots of stickers on our tree we have to beware of the fact that bad fruit can show up as well. If you are kind to your sister one minute and later are mean to her that adds bad fruit to your crop. When that which is bad is allowed to stay with the good fruit it soon spreads its rotten-ness to the good to the point that the whole bowl or tree can wind up ruined.

Learn to recognize fruit that has gone bad and deal with it, don’t let it continue on where it affects other areas of your life. Don’t waste your time trying to examine other people’s fruit and what they are growing. Stay in your own field and take responsibility for that which you are producing in yourself.

It’s important you don’t let someone else put up a fruit stand near yours by allowing what they do to affect your outcome. Their bad fruit of anger doesn’t have to become a part of your crop. It can if you allow it, so beware.

Be a fruit inspector taking charge of your own fruit-stand, producing for Christ that which is good, all natural, and truly organic and pesticide or sin free.

They call me grandma




© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Kid DEES "Rest Here!"

Matthew 11:28, 29 Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Christ when He was here on earth sent out an invitation to all. He invited us to come to Him especially when we are feeling tired and worn out. His invitation included a promise for us to find rest in Him.

The best way to come to Jesus is through prayer and the reading of His word, the Holy Bible. There are a lot of places to go. Often if you search your Bible enough you will find the scriptures that help you the most in the situations you find yourself needing rest.

For example:

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Feeling weak and trampled down by things going on in life this is a good scripture to hold on to. Claim the promise here that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. It doesn’t give you the power to leap tall buildings in a single jump but it will give you what you need to endure and go on.

Joshua 1:5 …as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.” God may have been talking to Joshua there but that promise is for all of us to claim and hold on to. God will not leave us or forget us. Satan will try to make it seem like He has but He won’t. There is tremendous rest for your spirit to know and believe that this is true.

Proverbs 3:5,6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. One of the big things that drain us of strength that leads to the lack of rest is trying to lean on your own understanding. Stop it! If you do that you’ll be way ahead of a lot of adults. Just trust the Lord with ALL your heart, not parts of it, not when its convenient for you but ALLways with ALL your heart.

The treasure chest of scriptures useful to give us strength and rest is endless. Get in the treasure chest of God’s word today and find more to take along in your journey through life.

Now that we got our scriptures to travel with let’s now take the time to pray to round off the perfect start to a long journey, the voyage of life itself.

OUR PRAYER: Precious Heavenly Father, the King of comfort, strength, and giver of rest we pray this day that we will take that first baby step towards You and accept Your invitation to “Come.” We come running into Your arms Lord God seeking the kind of rest and strength You promise. Thank you Lord that we will never find Your arms closed or Your back turned. Forgive us Father for the times we listen to the lies of Satan telling us You don’t care, You forgot about us, that we are not important to You. We know better Lord and we claim Your promise to never leave us nor forget us as we learn to trust in You. In the precious name of Jesus we pray. Amen.



They call me grandma



© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Kid DEES It's Not Fair

“It’s not fair Grandma, it’s not fair,” were the words being expressed by my two granddaughters. They were words I had heard before from them, from their mother when she was little, and from my very own mouth.

What is it about life that we seem to think it should be fair? It would be a wonderful thing but that is not the way it is. Back in the days of the county fair I remember hearing my Aunt inform her two boys that the county fair was anything but fair.

Instead of wondering why the world is full of unfair things we need to learn how to handle these situations. Crying out in anger, getting upset in disappointment, pouting in a corner will not change a thing. If you think about it most of the things we label “unfair” are the situations where we don’t get our way.

Like it or not we have to learn to take the good with the bad, the fair with the unfair. We don’t need to go out of our way to make things unfair for some but we don’t need to go out of our way to make everything “fair” either because it’s impossible.

Is it fair that when I’m on a diet others can eat chocolate and I can’t? Honestly and truly the answer is yes. It’s not other people’s fault I need to lose weight. We need to learn to be thankful for what we get and have and stop looking at things through such negative eyes.

They call me grandma

© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

The time is now

Yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not here. The time is now.

The time is now to follow the Lord. The time is now to respect and love our parents. The time is now to do what we are called to do as children of God. Too often our thinking is the time is NOW for ME. We were never meant to be number #1 in our lives. We are to put God first, others second and then us.

As you notice time often goes by quickly while other times it can travel rather slowly. It only travels slowly when we want it to go by quickly. Odd isn't it! It’s a quick little thing that slips by before we know it.



Putting things off till tomorrow is something we should never get in the habit of doing because we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. One day I was living a healthy life, the next day I found out I had cancer. Just that quickly my life changed.


We are not here to get all we can in for ourselves first then start the, “God first others second” phase. No, when you put God first you’ll be surprised how much you will get out of it yourself. Now is the time, now is the place.


They call me grandma


© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Kid DEES ~~~~~~~ Don't Blame Me, Blame My Mouth

As I sat in McDonald’s with two of my granddaughters, the youngest who was the last to finish looked up at me and said, “Grandma, don’t blame me blame my mouth.”

Coming from church where the sermon topic was about telling lies verses telling the truth her innocent little
statement about her food said a lot. Too often in our lives we like to blame anything but ourselves for our actions. Blame my mouth, don’t blame me is our way of thinking. God tells us it isn’t easy to tame the tongue but it’s possible.

I heard a lady in her 50’s once shout out that it was her “God-given right to say what she pleased.” Wrong, it is not our God-given right to say whatever we feel like saying. If you look in the Bible you will not find any place where God gives us that right. What we are told to do is control our tongue, to say only that which is beneficial to others, and to let our words and meditation of our heart be pleasing to God.

Just because we have ability to speak doesn’t give us the right to speak whatever we want. Turning 50, 60, 15, 10, or 5 doesn’t give us that right either. What comes with age should be maturity not the attitude that now that I’m older I can do whatever I want.

We need to take responsibility for our mouths. Like it or not its connected to our heart, it’s a part of us. Just like you would never get away with slapping another kid in school and say, “Don’t blame me blame my hand,” it doesn’t work with the mouth either.

They call me grandma

© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Kid DEES---Navigating the Storms in life without capsizing

We need to know how to navigate the storms in life without capsizing


Have you ever been in a storm? I’ve been in a few that sent me quietly and fearfully to a corner somewhere in my house to ride it out. No matter how terrifying they can be storms eventually end. What we do during these storms is important.

In life we see many storms. Such as the storms caused by a family breaking up, an unexpected illness such as cancer, a sudden accident, or other circumstances. As people give lessons on what to do during an earthquake we need to know how to navigate the storms in life without capsizing or turning our lives totally upside down.

The best thing we can do is not panic. Don’t take matters into your own hands by trying to run away, turning to things such as alcohol, drugs, or sex. When we do these things it’s like suddenly standing up in the boat that is rocking in the ocean. One sudden move and we throw it totally off balance. The end result is the boat will capsize or turn over and we wind up soaking wet.

No, what we need to do is put our trust in the Lord and decide to sit quietly until the storm passes. It’s scary but it’s possible to endure. The wonderful thing about God is the fact that He has more faith in us than we do in ourselves. God is the skipper, we are the passengers. How we navigate or find our way through life’s storms is by having faith in the One we have placed in charge of our life boat, Jesus Christ.

Kid DEES ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rejoice and be Thankful

In the book of Philippians in the New Testament it talks about how we are to rejoice in the Lord always. It then tells us to be anxious for nothing but in everything pray with thanksgiving.

Rejoice! Thanksgiving! Those are the keys that will open many doors for us. Doors not to get us what we want but doors used to get us through good times and bad. It doesn’t matter how things are going we are told to rejoice in the Lord always! There should be no half ways, part of the ways, when the mood strikes us way but ALWAYS.

Our rejoicing is not for the bad that are going on. Our rejoicing is for a God who loves us and will no abandon us. Our rejoicing is not for the lack of things we may need but our rejoicing is for the things we have no matter how few.

If you can learn this lesson early in life you will be way ahead of many adults. I struggled with this myself in my young adulthood. I couldn’t see a reason to rejoice. What in the world did I have to be thankful for? I was covering my own eyes to the blessings God had for me if only I would look.

Drawing near to God doesn’t get us out of trouble, rough times, hurt, and pain it gets us through. It helps us to come out ahead in life instead of further behind. The choice is ours. We can move forward using rejoicing and being thankful or allow life to hold us back via grumbling and complaining.

Dear Heavenly Father my rejoicing today is rejoicing in Your watchful eye. I love knowing You are there to walk me thorough the obstacle course of life. I’m thankful for the paths You have opened up. Forgive me for fighting against the ones You closed. Thank you for Your love. Thank You for patience. And most of all thank You for caring enough to send Jesus into my life. I’ll love you always, thank You for loving me!

© 2010 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Kid Dees---See you at the pole, God revealed

Howdy everyone, did you make it to your school’s function called “See you at the Poles?” Some schools may have done something while others don’t. Anyway it’s a time to gather at the school’s flag pole and pray for the school and the kids as well.

Every year a topic is chosen. This year it was, “God revealing Himself to us.” What does that mean? Well let’s look together and find out. Revealing is what is done to make something known, to expose it, to open, show, and make public.

What’s great about God is He will do just that. The important thing is we need to be ready to look and see what He reveals to us. The greatest way God shows Himself to us is in His artwork or what some call “mother nature.” It’s really God’s nature that you are seeing. You can tell by looking at how the butterfly is formed, how a rose can open and close on its own, the sparkle in the stars, the colors of the rainbow, the sound of ocean waves and so much more. Each and everything reveals the Creator who made them possible in the slightest of details. The Bible also reveals God to us if we would just take the time to read it.

When someone at school says they are going to reveal a secret to you you’re all ears, or I should say you pay attention really close. You can’t wait to hear what they have to say. We need to be that way with God as He reveals Himself to us in various ways. Eager to hear what He has to say, anxious to see what He has to show us.

There may be some things about God that will remain a secret forever but not everything. Praise the Lord He lets us know who He is and what He stands for. Our job in the process is to be looking for God revealed.

Praise you Lord God that You don’t leave us totally in the dark. We can see You everywhere we look if only we would. We can feel You in the wind that blows across our face. We hear You in the ocean that roars across the sand. We can see You in the birds flying across the sky and it doesn’t end there. We get our own painted picture of You written across the pages of Your Word, the Bible. Thank you Lord for caring enough to show us who You are and invite us to come to You. God revealed. Amen! Forever and ever!

© 2010 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing