Picture DEES~~~~Lemonade Anyone?

 

The news at the doctor's office wasn't good. The cancer that had entered my body four years earlier had made its way to my bones, liver and now my lungs. Tears of fear flooded my eyes as I drove home trying my best to be strong for my two grandkids who were with me and for those who were not.

As I began to drive home the silence of the car was interrupted by a message God had for me in between the flows of tears watering my cheeks. He said, "Lemonade anyone?" I knew instantly what God meant. As the old saying goes, "When life hands you a lemon you make lemonade."

Life had just handed me another lemon, the sour thing called cancer, and the only way to get thru it was to make something good from it. Something refreshing and pleasant. A lemon by itself can be very sour but with the right ingredients it can turn into something very delicious such as lemonade. Something that really hits the spot when swallowed bringing a refreshing feeling.

I may had just got my "lemon" but it wasn't too early to set out my lemonade stand.  As I thought about it I thought of the lemonade stand our granddaughter Marissa set up once. With very little customers she finally had someone who wanted some lemonade. The lady had passed by our house once but returned. After getting out of her car she bought her cup of lemonade from the little 7 year old girl on the front porch of Marissa's house. After getting her drink she handed Marissa a silver dollar and a silver dollar for her two younger sisters as well. she explained to us that she had a lemonade stand as a kid and no one would stop and buy any. She vowed as an adult to stop at every lemonade stand and buy a cup with a silver dollar that she would quickly run to the bank for as she did for our granddaughters.

It's important that we learn how to make the right kind of lemonade with our sour lemon or misfortunes that life hands us. There are some situations that are hard to overcome but with Jesus as our main ingredient its possible. It may not get us out of the situation we are in but it will certainly get us through it as a cold glass of lemonade gets us through a hot summer day.

Trust in God mixed with a lot of faith makes a fine cup of lemonade. The praises and thankfulness we give to God for that which is good in our lives outside of what is going on makes for great ice cubes to keep our drink cool and delightful. I may find it hard to be thankful for cancer but I can thank God for my family, my ability to still get around, friends, bright sunny days, warm winter nights in front of a fireplace and so much more.

Whether we want it or not life will hand us a lemon sooner or later. Some could open their own fruit stand with all the lemons they get but its our choice what we are going to do with what we have been handed. I don't know about you but I choose lemonade. Years ago when I had epilepsy I had chose the route of bitterness, anger, self-pity and failure and it got me no where but further into a slump I didn't need to live within. A true picture of, been there done that, wasn't worth it.

Lemonade anyone?

P.S. And another thought is the fact that we need to stop by and visit other people's lemonade stands and support them. With my cancer people have been doing just that for me and my family. The silver dollars of encouragement have poured in from all sides. For example tonight, 20 minutes after talking to his boss my husband got a return phone call. "Don,' his boss said, 'I called some people and its all set up. You will have a job for the next several months and will be immediately transferred to this other one after that." The burden of trying to keep his insurance going to cover my medical needs was lifted off at last from a very heavy heart. With a choking sound in his voice when he got off the phone Don said, "I don't know what to say." I told him, "Let's say thank you Lord  and praise you God." Indeed the Lord of my life had dropped in again to visit a lemonade stand I had set up.  Father God, thank you for the ingredients You've always supplied to make it all possible. Ingredients such as strength, trust, mercy, grace, love, patience, and understanding. Love you Lord, thank you for loving me.



Copyright 2015 Karen Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Picture DEES I See Fruit

"I see fruit." In order to show my grand kids what it means to produce fruit I made them each a tree to document their good fruit.

Whenever I see them doing something that is good fruit I tell them "I see fruit." For every fruit I see they get a sticker for their fruit tree.

It's important to recognize in ourselves and others what good fruit is and the importance of it. The Bible tells us the axe is ready to chop down any tree that doesn't produce fruit. Therefore its vital that we produce good fruit for God.

We need to stop long enough to honestly examine our lives to see if we too can say "I see fruit." What is the condition of your fruit tree?

Picture Dees~~moving forward

Expect good things. Expect them. Get your "expectors" out of the back of the closet. Dust them off and start expecting good things in your life.

Too often in life we sit around waiting for the "other shoe" to drop. Which means we are waiting for more bad things to happen. That is the wrong way to live. In the year 2014 I was living that way because of all the bad news I was getting one time right after another.

It started in March when my cancer medicine stopped working and my cancer spread. Next a spot on my brain was found. Later I got a blood clot in my lung. Next my cancer spread to my liver. Every trip to the doctor brought more bad news.

It wasn't hard to expect more bad news. It was hard to try and expect good news but it was a choice I needed to make. It's all in our attitude and the kind of choices we make in our lives. It's a focus that will help us to move forward in life.

If we expect the bad often that is what we get because its what we are looking for. However, if we expect good things it puts a spring in our step, a smile on our face, a song in our hearts. If the best or good doesn't come we still have the strength to go on because we have the better attitude to endure.

Good focus. Better attitude

Copyright 2014 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

God loves us so much

God loves us like a grandma who is always carrying around pictures of her kids and she can't quit talking about them.
 
How awesome is that knowing the Lord loves us that much. We are not a number to Him, an account He has stock in, a faceless person hidden in a long line of other faces waiting their turn to meet Him.
 
We have a face to Him, He knows what we are thinking, He knows our hearts. He carries with Him a piece of us like the grandma we talked about. His children mean something to Him. He rejoices with them, He mourns with them, He is pleased as well as disappointed in their behavior yet He loves them.
 
The fact that He even knows our name to talk about us is such a wonderful warm thought to think about. As God loves us we need to love Him as well, showing that love through our actions, our behavior, our attitude, and the choices we make it life.

Rules to Live By

A simple set of rules not only for our kids and grandkids to live by but rules for all of us to apply to our lives.

Rule #1 Pray Always

Rule #2 Be thankful

Rule #3 Take responsibility

Rule #4 Choose to be happy

Rule #5 Go to bed with a forgiving spirit

Remember: There are no giants, only mountains yet to climb, so take action!


Pray always. Praying always to God keeps us in touch with our Lord and Savior. Our purpose in life is to establish a good relationship with the Lord and we do that thru communication. If we tried talking to our parents or the teach at school only once a week for an hour or two they wouldn't like it. No relationship can be built on the lack of communication and our relationship with God is no different.

Be thankful. As human's we have the tendency to not be thankful. Tendency?! Wrong word we are flat out very ungrateful people. We can find an excuse to grumble about anything. Instead of looking at what we do have we would rather reflect on what we don't have. Instead of being thankful for the things other people are doing for us we would rather find fault in the things we think we could do better.

Take Responsibility. Too often we fail to take responsibility for our actions. We would rather blame our parents, our teacher, our siblings, the full moon, or the change in the atmosphere for our behavior instead of taking responsibility for it. When we do something whether its good or bad we need to take responsibility for our actions. Own up to what we have done. It's not that good of a thing we have to "own up to" then we need to use this moment to correct whatever it is inside of us that made us do what we did. Spouting off at the mouth and saying, "Well I own up to it, that is just the way I am" is not a good attitude to take. We need to step down off our high horses and our thinking that we are the ones that rule our lives and that everyone gets to do whatever they want in life, good or bad.

Choose to be happy. Daily we need to make the choice to "choose to be happy." Circumstances, people, money, or anything else is responsibility for making us happy. It's a choice we make for ourselves. Many relationships have broken up over the fact that one of the people in the union wasn't being made happy by the other person. That is our job to choose to be happy. It comes from our attitude, our choice to look at things in a positive manner. It's not something we can rely on others to supply us with. Indeed others can make us very happy but its not their responsibility. If our attitudes weren't correct in the first place whatever they did would never have worked. It comes from us.

Go to bed with a forgiving spirit. The best thing we can do for ourselves is to go to bed with a forgiving heart. Doing this forces to deal with things immediately like they should be done instead of sulking over them only to get madder and madder. It's best to take care of it and deal with your differences now instead of later. Hanging on to our anger and hatred for someone is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. It just doesn't happen, we are the ones who wind up injured from our anger.

Remember, there are no giants, only mountains yet to climb, so take action. Too often we look at things and think they are too big for us to deal with. We get scared at the tasks ahead of us instead of stopping long enough to just move forward in faith, faith in our Lord and Savior that tells us he will never leave us nor forsake us. The only way we can access that promise is through faith. We need to be looking at the size of God not the size of the task in front of us. Instead of holding ourselves back from accomplishing great things we need to take action knowing we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

Graduating Class of 2012

June is the month of graduations. If you just graduated from something like kindergarten, Jr. High, High School, or college, Congratulations!


(The picture here is my graduation picture from 1976 along with Mary and Debbie)

Recently as I was listening to someone talk about their busy schedule they told me that they were, “All graduated out.” In other words they had so many things going on surrounding the graduation of their children that it was wearing them out.

Another parent could be seen writing notes of endearment to their daughter on their car windows stating, “Congratulations Gracie we are proud of you. We love you” as she graduated from kindergarten (this is Gracie in the picture). Next on the scene was the grandparent sitting on a hard bench bearing the pain just to watch their 8th grade granddaughter graduate into High school. Each of these families in their own ways offered up encouragement to their loved ones.


However, it’s important the encouragement doesn’t end there. We need to keep encouraging our kids more and more. Life out in the “real” world isn’t as kind and sweet and easy as they would like to believe it is. There will be hills to climb, bridges to cross, roads to travel down, and valley’s to go thru. At times they will run into an occasional brick wall, dead end, bridge out sign, and pot holes that will slow them down but they must know that they need to keep moving forward.

(In this picture is my granddaughter Marissa who graduated from 8th grade. I was the grandparent that was struggling to sit on the hard bench. Ouch! )
The best traveling companion they can take with them is their attitude. Believe it or not our attitude is what makes or breaks us. It is what will slow us down or speed us up depending on what kind of attitude we choose to have. If we go out into life with anger, bitterness, negative, disrespect, selfishness as the base of our attitude we won’t go far. However, if we have a caring, loving, upbeat, positive respectful attitude we will get much further in life.

Begin your journey with seeking God. Don’t wait till you’ve gone out and “did your thing first.” Always put God first in your life and all the other things needed to survive life will fall properly into place. God is where your strength will abound, it is through Him you’ll find peace for yourself, its with Him that mountains can be conquered, bridges crossed, and pot holes filled in to make traveling much easier and definitely more successful.


World, I present to you this day Class of 2012. God bless them all.


“Lord God above, watch over each and every one of them as they move up, move on, move forward in their lives. And may each of them appreciate what they have and look forward to the one true graduation ahead. The one where we graduate into Heaven as we fall alive into eternity with You Heavenly Father to the place of no pain, no tears, no struggles, no trials, no fear but only the blessings that come with having accepted Christ into our lives.” Amen


Christ, I present to you this day Class of 2012 and every year before and after that. We are blessed thanks to you.



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.

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

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 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

Kid Dees---Joy and Trials James 1:2,3

Kid-DEES are devotionals for kids from Bible verses in the word of God. On March 8, 2010 I asked the Lord to lead me to a name for my devotionals when He told me “Kid Dees” as in kiddies. Get it? I did and here they are. The Picture DEES we do are devotional thoughts from things we see and Kid DEES are from things we can read when we open up God’s word and allow it to enter our hearts. The third thing I write about is “Words to Live By” which are thoughts or devotionals coming from quotes I’ve heard that carry a good message to share. Perhaps you can help me name those something that goes along with the “DEES” as in ‘devotional’ line of writing. Anyway, read on and enjoy.

James 1:2,3 (NIV) Consider it pure joy, my brothers whenever you face trials (difficult times, temptations) of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance (firmness, determination).

Being young and just starting out in life you may not know what a trial feels like or maybe you do. If your parents ever separated, you were picked on at school, or you have a brother or sister that is always trying to get you into trouble you have faced what can be called a “trial.”

God tells us we need to consider it a good thing when we go through these types of things. That sounds kind of odd doesn’t it? It’s because of what we learn from these times is why we should be happy. They prepare us for things that might come along in the future. The more we learn how to properly handle these times the better at it we get.

Take for example going through an earthquake. I’ve never been through one before, have you? If you have then you already know what to do to get through it. You’re one step ahead of me because I wouldn’t know.

One of the biggest lessons we learn during these times is how to trust the Lord to see us through. As our faith and trust in God grows so does our spiritual maturity. We don’t need to wish bad times on us so we can grow and learn more. Those times will come invited.

Prayer and learning verses from God’s word will help see you through these times. Following your emotions won’t. Getting mad, upset, angry, depressed will lead you away not towards where you need to be.

Precious Heavenly Father, forgive us Lord for the times that the trials we are going through don’t seem so joyful. Help us Lord to keep our eyes on You and not on the situation. May we always know in our hearts that sooner or later this moment also will pass in our lives. Praise you Lord for giving us the avenue of prayer we can use to stay in contact with You to walk us through and carry us around life’s trials and temptations. An path opened up through the blood of Christ shed upon the cross. We love you Father, In Jesus’ name we pray in His name. Amen.

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

Thanksgiving: A Beginning that Has no End

If you look back in history you will find that Thanksgiving Day was created out hardships, misfortune, and difficult times. The crops the Pilgrims had planted that year were failing. They were having what we would call, “A bad day or several bad days or even a bad year.” Their crops were their source of food for the year. They didn’t have a Wal Mart to run to, a Safeway to shop at, they had to grow what they needed to live off of.

It definitely was a time period that was very rough and it was because of that they decided to have what is called, “a fast of praying.” It would be a time period in which they would go without food in order to dedicate all their efforts to praying to the Lord their God. It was God who had brought them to this new country in the first place and they knew He could see them through this as well.

It was from the first idea that someone thought of something better to do. It was suggested that instead of a fast they needed to have a feast in order to be thankful for what God had already given them. This was the birth of Thanksgiving.

Try as we might to change that part in history to be something its not, such as calling Thanksgiving Day, “Lucky Thursday” the birth and purpose of the holiday remains the same. It’s a time to stop and instead of showering Heaven with our complaints through our actions we flood Heaven with our thanks.

Being thankful doesn’t come once a year. It’s not reserved for only the situations in our lives that are good. It’s a time that should be lived year around no matter what. It’s where we put our focus. It’s what we have placed in our hearts.

This Thanksgiving…..

If your brother or sisters beat you to the table first and take all your favorite goodies you can be thankful you have legs that get you there whether you’re first or last.

The meal may be small but you can be thankful you have any food at all.

The house may be lonely because a love one is missing but you can be thankful for the love ones that still remain.


The whole thing is all in how and where you look. If you look for the negative, bad things in life you will find them every time. If you look for the good in all situations to be thankful for it can be found as well.

Look and live out your gratitude daily. It will get you further in life than you can even imagine! It’s a task we will be doing for all eternity in Heaven so start today on this action that has a beginning but indeed no end.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!!!

And thanks to you Jesus for who You are and who we can be thanks to You!


© 2009 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

In the News~~~ Valedictorians In School

I couldn’t pass this one by as I listened to the morning news. Somewhere in the United States a school has decided to do away with the honor of “valedictorian” because it hurts the feelings of those not receiving the award. In case you don’t know what that big word stands for it is an honor given to top A students who have done well and accomplished great things with their grades throughout school. Therefore they are given the honor to give the commencement or farewell speech at graduation.

Unfortunately there are people who think that things like this should be done away with to help spare the feelings of those who don’t get such an honor. I never got it in school and it didn’t seem to harm me or at least I don’t think it did. In fact I had two sisters above me that was given this privilege. They earned it over the years. They worked hard for what they accomplished. Both of them even made “American’s Teen of the Year” award broadcasted in a book nation wide.
I was way too busy being “me” that I didn’t care what they did. As much as my parents probably wondered what in the world happened to “Karen” their third daughter they never brought up the subject of being like my sisters. My listed accomplishments were chasing boys, playing volleyball, dancing on the drill team, and running around with the church youth group.

The answer isn’t taking away from one person’s accomplishment to compensate for those who don’t achieve the same thing. I would never want my sisters to lose their honor because I didn’t care about achieving what they did. Bringing them down wasn’t going to bring me up any higher than what I wanted to be.

That’s like saying no one should have the honor of being president of a country or organization because others can’t be on that same level. The achievements of others give us something to strive for. It should never be used as a stick to beat ourselves down with. That unfortunately is a choice we make for ourselves.

Put the stick down, if you don’t make it all the way to the top that’s okay too. If others pick the stick up and try to beat you over the head with it wondering why you aren’t better, walk away but look back. Ask yourself, “Are you trying as hard as you possibly can? Could you do something better?” “What can I learn from this to help me in the future?” If you are doing your best and applying all you can to accomplish what you can then hold your chin up high and walk forward.

Don’t ever anchor yourself at the doorstep of “if only I could be like them,” “if only I was smarter,” If only I was prettier, smarter, richer, or more outgoing.” “If only they wouldn’t honor people like them I could feel better about myself.” Wrong, you can feel good about yourself no matter what others are achieving.

The true valedictorian or honor student is the one you are in your heart and your attitude. No one can take that away from you. Following Jesus and being obedient to His word will help you accomplish that in a very big way. Don’t bring others down, lift your own self up with Jesus.

© 2009 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Picture Dees #31 Snowdrifts of Life's Troubles

Oh the beauty of God’s artwork continues to amaze me. As I looked upon the snowdrifts left by months of winter storms I saw the flowing water able to cut through and make its own path.

That same beauty if found in the Living Water of Jesus Christ. It doesn’t matter what life’s storms have piled up around us. If we allow Christ into our lives He is able to cut through and make His own path into your heart and into your lives. Never doubt the power of God and the purpose of that power.

A week after this picture was taken the snow was totally gone and the creek continued to flow. God does that for us. He doesn’t just cut and run He is there to stay. Our job is to come to the Water. To quench life’s thirst with Him instead of trying to find it in other things such as other people, drugs, drinking, sex, video games, hobbies, habits, sports, or anything else.

Allow Him to flow freely in your life, don’t build a dam of bitterness, mistrust, and a “me first” attitude that stops Him. Let Him flow, He can cut through anything. Eventually life’s difficulties or troubles will be gone but He will continue to flow. Stop and look. Stop and allow Him to flow in you.

© Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Kid DEES~~~God will change you but you have to do your part

It's been awhile since we've had one of our "Kid DEES devotionals." Here we go to get back on track.....

The first order of business when you think about this quote is the issue of “Do I need to change? Why should I be the one to change? Why not the other guy, they are worse than I am?”

I hate to burst any bubbles you’ve built around yourself but we all have things about us that need to change. Like the clothes you pick out for the day. Depending on what you did for the day at the end they are more than likely going to be dirty. Our attitude, habits, minds, and thinking are no different. By the end of the day we more than likely have picked up some habit or attitude that needs to go as it’s not what Christ would want us to be wearing.

If we truly want to get rid of the things we have picked up along the way God is more than willing to help us get changed. Taking off only our dirty socks and keeping on the T-shirt that is heavily soiled isn’t going to make us “clean.” It all comes off. Don’t keep back what you “kind of like” or don’t want to deal with.

The process doesn’t happen over night. You don’t come to Christ today and are changed tomorrow. It takes time and effort on your part. The process doesn’t start when you are a kid and ends when you become an adult. It’s something that goes with life at any age. You can do it and don’t ever let Satan tell you otherwise. You are the one that grades your efforts. If you want an A+ day you need to make A+ decisions and choices. You want to be an A+ person get rid of the things that can drag that grade down.

Go with God and He’ll go with you. The first step is yours.

They Call Me, Grandma
Copyright 2009 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Praise and Thanks #4

Our praise and thanks for today is…..

Praise you Lord for caring enough to listen to my cry Ps 40:1

***As far off as God seems to be sometimes, He is there listening to our every cry. Often our cries are selfish as we feel sorry for ourselves not getting our way. Just imagine how many times God has probably heard us cry over what someone else did to us and why didn’t He stop it from happening.

The true cry that He should be hearing is not over the IPOD we didn’t get for our birthday but over the wrongs we commit in our lives but a cry for His help, guidance, love, companionship, and forgiveness. A cry directed towards others not because of what they did to us but what we may be able to do for them through our prayers. People we see or know are out there such as the homeless, sick, those who don’t know Christ, the kid at school, or the stranger on the street in need.

We like the idea that God is listening to our cries but when we are told He also listens to all the other things that comes out of our hearts and mouths we don’t like to hear that. It’s true and you need to live your life remembering that. Nothing you say or think is getting past God. He’s not listening to your cries and ignoring your snotty remarks to other kids. Say and think, knowing God is listening and cares about what He hears. Listen to God as He listens to you.



Thank you for the beauty of fresh fallen snow.

***Living in an area where it occasionally snows it can be something of great beauty and we need to be thankful for that beauty. It doesn’t matter if we get a lot of it or just a little we can be thankful for this gift from God. It’s a part of a cycle that has a purpose. The purpose is not to drive us crazy because we’d rather have sunshine instead. There’s nothing like the brightness of new snow lighting up the ground like a glow worm squeezed to activate its light. This beauty from God is found everywhere if we would only look. Just watch the rain as it falls, the sun as it rises and sets, the wind as it sways the trees. When looked at through the eyes of appreciation and gratitude beauty can be found anywhere. You’d be surprised.


Remember…
We are exchanging please and thank you with Praise and thanks to God. Praising Him for who He is, thanking Him for what He has done, for the things around us, things given to us, gifts hidden all over the world for us to find.

X marks the spot!


© 2009 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

WTLB~~~NEW~~God is not a component of our already in place stereo systems, there to give our life a boost

How God went from being the Lord of the Universe, the King, the Creator, the Salvation in which we are saved by to merely a component of our already in place stereo system or life is amazing. God is not a component to be added, something to boost a system we already have in place. An added amplifier, an added speaker, an added sound system, or control panel. God needs to be the main system in our life.

When we have made Him the main system we go by, use, and rely on we will find that there is nothing that needs to be added. There is no need for a “boost.” The other things in life are just added pleasures. God like a great meatloaf, if you like meatloaf doesn’t need ketchup or other additions He is able to stand on His own.

There was a man in the Old Testament you may have heard of, his name is David. Through all his struggles, failures, and successes he knew who the main component of his life was, it was God. As a result instead of being an added piece, God to him was as he describes in 2 Samuel 22….. MY rock, MY fortress, MY deliverer, MY strength, MY shield, MY salvation, MY stronghold, MY refuge, MY Savior, MY God, MY support, MY lamp.

More things David said about Him were, He is trustworthy and praise worthy who hears us when we cry out to Him as well as rebukes us when needed. He will rescue us. He delights in us and rewards us when we do right. Indeed He is the best resource to enlighten the darkness surrounding us due to sin while giving us a bounce to our step, making our way perfect, and enlarging our path so we don’t slip. The very One capable of pursuing our enemies and giving us the armor needed ourselves to accomplish this in the battle against Satan. The tower of our salvation who shows mercy to His anointed those who have accepted Him into their lives and follow Him.

A boost? No, He is the main system we need in place in our lives. The same God who was there for David is there for us. We don’t come already attached to this main system, yet we come with a hole in our heart where only He will fit. We are the ones responsible for making the move to get God into our lives. As you would go after the stereo system of your dreams you need to go after God, you won’t be disappointed. It’s not what God can do for me but what can I do for God by the way I live my life, the choices I make, the attitude I carry. Like David, you will have your successes, failures, and struggles but like David you serve the exact same God. YOUR fortress, strength, rock, and the list goes on and on.

Copyright 2008 Karen J. Gillett at Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing