Picture DEES~~~~~Two Spots

Recently in our weekly prayer session a devotion was given on Elijah from 1 Kings 19:1-8. Elijah exhausted from his travels and the task he was doing came to a broom tree. He was down to nothing but God and his grace. In utter despair with no where else to go he sat down at the foot of the tree and prayed to God that he may die. Instead of granting him his request God strengthened him instead.

Too often when we come to that point where we are down-to-grace we come to that tree and want to hang ourselves rather than wait for The Lord to replenish our strength. This is what the foot of the tree has to offer, maybe a place of momentary rest but a place of despair, weakness, and pain.

The foot of the cross offers us strength, grace, mercy, love and so much more. The spot at the foot of the tree can be gone the first good storm that comes its way where the spot at the foot of the cross remains forever.

So when we find ourselves down-to-grace we need to decide which spot we want to be. The tree of no hope that offers only temporary solutions and emotional despair or the spot at the foot of the cross where hope and the ability to go on is found.

Meet me at the cross. You'll never regret it.

Everyone Has a Story

As my granddaughter Brooke and I sat in church one Sunday the preacher talked about Paul's story. He then mentioned the fact that everyone has a story.

One by one the preacher asked volunteers to tell their stories. As people were talking my granddaughter Brooke reached out and gave me a hug. She knew in her heart her grandma had a story to tell whether she got to tell it that Sunday or not.

As there was no time to share it at church I am sharing it now for Brooke and all my other grandchildren. So here we go kids, this is grandma's story:

At the age of twelve I accepted Christ into my life thanks to the fantastic witness and example my preacher Rev D L Penhollow (Penny) was as he displayed his love for Jesus daily. God was going to test that commitment I made as I was declared disabled twice in my life. The first time in my twenties when I had epilepsy and again in my fifties with my breast cancer.

What I learned during my first disability were things I was going to need to survive during my struggle with my cancer. Lessons on how to deal with stress and how to effectively lean on Jesus. Already out of the way was the battle with the "why me" struggle with my epilepsy that kept me from going there when I got cancer. I learned about forgiveness and the poison of bitterness and the short falls of self pity and giving up.

Jesus was and still is my strength thru it all. He was the guide I was going to need to lead me out of the darkness using His word, the Bible. When I wasn't taking well the test of life He was patient with me. He granted me grace when I needed it and mercy when I didn't deserve it. He has always made me feel loved and worthy of what He has to offer. He has walked me thru many trials and picked me up when I have fallen.

He has always been there for me. He has tickled me when I couldn't laugh or smile on my own. His hand has wiped away many a tears from my face. His arms hugged me when I was alone in the darkness. It was His angel He sent to comfort me outside my kitchen window. He has never let me down. He has disciplined me as a loving father does his daughter.

He has shown me again and again how much He cares. Therefore as my second disability carries on so will my love for Jesus. As He is there for me so will I be for Him. My holy reverent fear of Him makes it so I don't have to fear what is ahead of me.

Stick with Jesus my love ones and you too will have a fantastic story to tell. It may not include angels or disabilities but it will contain the same story of love Jesus has to offer you as He offers me and those who have gone on before me such as Penny Penhollow.

Seek God and be amazed at what you'll find.

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

Rainbow cloud

As I listened to my radio in between the music they were playing the conversation the disc jockey brought up caught my attention. He mentioned a rainbow he was seeing in the clouds that looked unusual. Calling his wife he asked her if she had ever seen anything like that before.

Curiosity and the love of rainbow stories brought me out of my chair in hopes of seeing what they were seeing. Living 26 miles north of where he was I held out hope that it was in a position where I could see it too.

Sure enough hiding in the clouds were the markings of a rainbow, the colors stood out on top of the clouds just waiting to come out. As much as I wanted a good picture of it the bright sun directly above it shining into my camera made it difficult to capture the moment on film. However, it wasn't hard to capture this moment in my heart, a place of storage that will outlive any picture I could have taken of it.

On the disc jockey's side he got the full view of the rainbow with the cloud behind it. For me I got the cloud with the rainbow peeking out from the top of it. To me it was the view I needed at the time as it made me think of life and how we find ourselves surrounded by storms, clouds of clutter, winds of change, and showers of unpleasantness.

In spite of the clouds and storms around us if we go looking there is a rainbow to be seen peeking out. At the time I took this picture I did so because of my love for rainbows but now that I look at it, it was a sticky note in the sky from God. The cloud with the rainbow was directly over my parents' house. Later the same day I took this picture my dad got news that his lab work from his annual physical came back abnormal. Still waiting to talk to the doctor I already have heard from God that my dad is going to be ok. There is a rainbow hiding in the clouds for him and my mom. I just need to watch for and be ready to capture it when it comes by.

To My Granddaughter Marissa who I nicknamed Rainbow:
I love you my sweet, on this same day I took this picture of the rainbow I knew you were having troubles with your friends but everything is going to work out fine. There is a rainbow hidden in the clouds for you showing you God is there, watching over you and things will work themselves out. Turn to the substance that will help you the most, Jesus Christ and go Rainbow hunting in the sky.         Luv forever, Gma

Caught my attention~~~~A Painting in The Sky

 

As I worked early in the morning something caught my attention. It was the paint job of the sky God had painted for me. I couldn't pass it by, my work could wait, I had the time to stop and appreciate. As I went outside to get closer to this great painting in the sky it was awesome to see.

 

The beauty of God is all around us and it would do us well to pay attention and stop long enough to appreciate it when we see it. Our hearts need to be opened up to receive such blessings as we intentionally go looking for God wherever we are.

 

Being a collector of black and white holstein cows I can spot a black and white cow anywhere. Even my family has gotten to where they can as well. Those cows just seem to jump out at us wherever we go. We need to be a collector of God's beauty and before we know it, it will be jumping out at us as we spot it everywhere we go.

 

Praise the Lord for today's painting in the sky and the artist behind it all, God our Creator. God not only created and designed the colors I was seeing but He created and designed me as well and that is something we need to look upon as one of the beauty's of God. We don't need to be the prettiest girl or the most handsome boy in town, what God sees as beauty is the soul within us, the person we are and can be if we would only allow God to paint the colors of His beauty in us. The colors of virtue, responsible, patience, loving, caring, humble, strong, merciful, upbeat, and the list goes on and on.

 

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.

 

 

Mountains

Here in Central Oregon we call these mountains the three sisters with Mt Bachelor seen to the left of them. The names given the three sisters are Faith, Hope, and Charity. Today I'm going to rename them Marissa, Aubrey, Brooke, and Mt. Bachelor gets the new name of Anthony as I talk about mountains. Mountains not in the form of dirt or clay and trees, but rather the large obstacles that life's issues, adventures, and struggles come in.

In Joshua 14:10-12 As Caleb said when he was 85 years old so I say, “…here I am today, 53 years old. I am still as strong today as the day Penny Penhollow sent me out. I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me that mountain (the welling being of my grandchildren) that You promised me when You took upon Your lap my grandchildren.


Lord you were the one that said, “let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. When Jesus had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.” Mt 19:13-15

I am standing by Your promises Lord to never leave nor forsake them. That You are the Father to the fatherless who helps them, does justice for them, defends them and relieves them. These are as much Your children as they are ours. We trust in You and our hearts are helped.

As I stand at the bottom of the mountain waiting for you I promise not to collect gold to make myself an idol or something that stands between You and me. Indeed a collection of “gold” that comes in the form of worrying, impatience, disobedience, and acting on my own. I promise Lord to not walk around and around the mountain following the same behavior that got me nowhere in the first place.

I stand here in the faith You have provided me with to move mountains and shout one more time, “Give me that mountain!”

As everything else in life it's all about our attitude. We can demand something or we can ask for something. We can be bold in our faith or obnoxious in our wants. With the right faith, the correct motive and the power that comes from the Holy Spirit we can move mountains thanks to God. We have to operate within God's will, not our own wants and follow His lead alone.

The key is, "Not our own." What we do should be done through Jesus. What we accomplish should be credited to Him. What we gain is for His glory not our selfish needs. Each of us has that ability to shout, "Give me that mountain." From there as our voices echo in the canyons of life we need to wait patiently for the Lord to either lead us up that mountain in victory or direct us to another mountain where victory can be found.

Ps 121:1-3 “I lift my eyes to the hills where does my help come from, my help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.

They call me grandma

© 2012 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---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

Kid DEES~~~It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not.

I wish I could say the world out there is full of kind and gentle people but I would be lying. Unfortunately kids often get bullied at school and it doesn’t always end there, adults do it to each other as well.

Frequently it’s done simply because someone is labeled “different” than all the others by the standards the bully has chosen to measure them by. They use all sorts of excuses like a girl who doesn’t wear make-up or own a cell-phone like everyone else. The constant picking and pecking and shoving of others around gives great pleasure to the ones who are doing it as it brings tears to the one being hurt.

After enough beatings we often begin to think it really is because we are not like everyone else. We begin to doubt who we are inside and it begins to hold us back. We can’t play the part of the bully and pick on ourselves for not being “like everyone else.” Honestly take a good look around. Are these bully’s really as great as they think they are. What has their makeup got them? What has their ownership of a cell-phone achieved them? The right to bully? The right to pick on others? No way!

Know who you are inside. God created each of us to be different, unique, and worthy of His love. It is by His standards we need to go by in our hearts. The bully at school may never stop, in fact, if they think they are losing their game they will only increase their pressure. Although harsh words can pierce even the strongest of hearts it’s important to stay strong and pride yourself in who you are, not who they are trying to make you out to be.

No one is perfect, we all have our areas where we could use some improvement but that is up to us to decide not the one doing the browbeating. Learn to walk away and to stand strong. Make up your mind before hand that you will not let it wound you to the point you begin to make the mistake of actually listening to those harassing you.

For now you may be their target physically or emotionally to pick on but you don’t have to remain their target as long as you stay strong. You will have your weak moments when it can really get to you but don’t allow yourself to lie down to be their doormat to walk over. Walk away, stay strong, and lean on those worthy of the title called, “friend.”

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

They Call Me, Grandma

Picture Dees #35 Playgrounds and Battlefields

Picture Dees are devotionals with a picture. Read them alone or share them with your family and friends to get the opportunity to talk out what God wants us to learn through the simple use of pictures and words.



Picture Dees #35 Playgrounds and Battlefields


When we ask Jesus into our lives we think that life is going to be a playground of endless fun and laughter. Being on the winning side with Christ it can be just that thanks to Jesus. However, there is a battlefield we all will go through as well. It’s a zone where we find ourselves fighting against the local bully of the park, Satan himself, the one who comes to cause trouble for as many people as possible. It’s important to remember it won’t always be battlefields or always playgrounds. Either way we need to stand strong in Jesus in order to come through both areas of our lives stronger and better children in God. Learn how to fight to win with Christ and learn how to play in praise to the One in charge of both our good times and bad, Jesus Christ himself.

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

Praise and Thanks #3

Our praise and thanks for today is…..

Praise you Lord for your salvation and strength (Ps 37:39)

***Too often we think its God’s job to stop all this bad stuff we need deliverance from. “If He wants to save us then save us, praise the Lord. I kind of like the sin life. I’ll live it then get saved later, He’ll forgive me.” Wrong attitude. The salvation or deliverance He has to offer is a rescue from our sins and their destruction that needs to happen now because later is too late. Praise the Lord He is willing and wanting to do such a thing. The issue is we have our part too. We have to be willing and wanting to be saved. The lifejacket is there, one size fits all. We are the ones who have to put it on. Praise God He will supply us with the strength needed to follow and survive whatever it is Satan will throw in our paths to stop us from God’s salvation. God cares about us. Satan is just out for a trophy to bring to Hell with him as many people as possible. We have praise in Jesus, the praise of His salvation and strength, use it!


Thank you Lord for our family, for their love and care.

***What a treasure it is to have a loving family. It’s a gift not everyone gets to open and enjoy. A gift that tends to get broken, lost, or taken away long before we are ready to let go of someone we love. Treasure them now, don’t wait till they die to honor and appreciate what you use to have. The dad or mom or grandparent currently in your life may be a neighbor down the street, a couple at church you absolutely love to spend time with, a youth pastor that filled the shoes of a missing parent, or someone else it doesn’t matter. What matters are you giving thanks for what you do have instead of dwelling on what you don’t have. Looking and longing to have what other kids have as far as family will not solve anything it will only create bitterness in your heart. Creating a family whether physically or spiritually is not an easy task. Whatever the role, mom, dad, brother, sister, grandparent, aunt, or uncle we all have our roles to play our duties to help contribute to this unit. Don’t be worrying about the others not doing their part. Just see to it that you are doing yours. God will help.

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