Picture DEES Prayer's Panic Button

The night was coming to a close. The fire pit outside was slowly smoldering out after a warm treat of marshmallows made up in s'mores. The hardest part of the evening was getting the dogs inside who were enjoying the evening country air and the challenge to chase the nearby Farrell cats.

Once inside my granddaughter Brooke noticed the eye of her dog Casper. It was covered with blood. In a panic her and her sister went for their phones to call their mom. After endless tries of not being able to reach her they continued to fear for their dog. 

"Where was mom? Why wasn't she answering her phone?" were questions on their minds. I told them she probably was dealing with something happening at work. A resident may have died or something else happened. "But she's at home not at work," was Brooke's reply. That doesn't matter sometimes I reassured her. 

Finally after a few minutes their mom called. After listening to their cries and fears she told them she had been on the phone with an employee whose grandma had just died. Their mom wasn't trying to shun their silly teenage fears, she wasn't ignoring their cries for mercy and grace for their dog. She got to it when she could without leaving the employee hanging in her despair. 

As things finally settled down I got to thinking about God and the panic 911 calls of prayers we send to Him. It's true not everything is a 911 emergency but when emotions fly so does our panic button sometimes. 

God may not answer immediately but we can rest assure He isn't shunning our silly human fears. He isn't ignoring our cries for mercy and grace. He will get to our prayers in His time without leaving another person down in their own despair.  Such as my friend in Chicago who had her own emergency the night before or myself and others with cancer who seek their own answers and so much more. 

Our job is to cry out to Him and then take our finger off the redial panic button and have a little faith that He heard our prayer, He cares about us, and He will answer as soon as possible. No, not everything is a 911 emergency but everything matters to God and we need to trust in His timing and answers to our prayers. 

Call on God today but leave the panic button alone. He can be trusted, He does hear, He will answer. 

Copyright 2015 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Sent from my iPhone

 

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

Bible Talk~~~Nothing Too Hard

"Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Genesis 18:14a

Recently in one of our devotional times my grandchildren and I call "bible talk" we came to this scripture.

As we talked about Sarah and her situation we got on to the subject of my cancer. I told them that nothing was too hard for God. If He wanted to cure me of my cancer He could in a heartbeat. That the thing to remember is whether or not He wanted to cure me or not.

As hard as it is for a ten to fourteen year old to understand God allows things to happen for a reason it's true. Often the reason for these moments is to get our attention. Being the stubborn and stiff- necked people we are its not easy to get our attention unless we are going through hard times.

I must confess some of the greatest lessons I have learnt and maturity I have grown was during hard times. I trust God that this time of my cancer is no different. God has a purpose for allowing this to happen. He has plans for me in Heaven and plans for my family here on earth.

I am sure He wants all of us to learn to trust Him and believe in His will whether we understand it or not. As with my epilepsy I don't believe God gave it to me to fill some quota of having a certain number of epileptics on earth. I believe it just happened and God was more interested in what I was going to do with it. Same with my cancer He didn't give it to me to be mean or because He was bored or something. It just happened and He is watching to see how I behave during this time. Am I going to turn against Him or trust Him to see me thru.

I am trusting Him to see me thru and see my family thru. He loves me and I love Him. I know nothing is too hard for Him. I don't understand why I had to get cancer but I know things will work out whether I am cured or not.

They Call Me,

Grandma


Sent from my iPhone

Trust In and Rely On

In the scripture my granddaughters and I read today we found this in Psalm 52:8,9. Both of them just starting out in life at the age of ten and thirteen they are just now learning what trust is all about.

Growing up in a backwards world it seems like we are having to teach our kids more who they cannot trust than who they can. Being let down by a society that does as it pleases with no regard to others it's hard to know who you can trust.

It's a wonderful thing to know we can trust in the Lord. His lovingkindness and mercy is something we can confidently rely on forever and ever.

God will never let us down and we need to do the same for Him. We need to be reliable in our own way as we wait on, hope in and expect in the name of The Lord whose name is good, powerful and worthy of praise. A name that one day every knee shall bow to and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Now not later is the time to trust in and rely on the Lord.


Copyright 2014 Karen J Gillett at Pencil Marks and Recipe Publishing

What We Can and Cannot See

Frequently it’s hard for people to trust in a God they cannot see. The people in the Bible had that problem once when they decided to make a golden calf to worship so they’d have something they could see. It was a wrong choice that got them into big trouble.

Although God may not be visible to see like our parents are, or the teacher at school, or the clerk at the store but He is there. You can see Him in His artwork, the creations He made, in the spirit He has given us to live inside of us.

Our job is to learn to trust in God’s heart even when we can’t see His hand. We need to make it enough to trust in the fact that He is there. We shouldn’t need signs or miracles from above demonstrating God’s hand at work in our lives.

However, if we truly looked we can see just that, God at work in us and those around us. Trust is the key to a strong relationship with our Lord and Savior, the one whose hand is there. As they say, some people have never seen a million dollars but they know it exists because they believe it does. It’s no different with God, we cannot see Him with our eyes but we can with our hearts if we would only believe. God is there. Don’t miss Him.


© 2014 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing for Karen’s Kids Korner

Another Rainbow Another Chapter

As we drove down the highway on our way to the coast a rainbow nearby was spotted. Chasing after it for its beauty I had no idea I was in need of its hope it represents to me. Picture after picture I tried to get the best one I could. As we were looking at it so was God.

 The road to the coast was almost over. Just a few more twist and turns and we would be there. Little did we know at the time another path was starting. More twists and turns to go on a journey we never planned to take like we planned our coast trip.


Truly another chapter was beginning in our lives and we needed to be ready to endure, enjoy, or enhance what it was and what it would bring into our lives. That's why we need God in our lives to be our Skipper. The one who sees us thru life's storms. He may not stop the storms in life from coming but He will guide us safely thru them. Our part to play is to trust in Him. To allow Him access to get us thru without us trying to tell Him what to do. It's not up to us to understand or know what or why things happen as they do.

As much as we would like a GPS system for our life like we have for our car it just doesn't work that way. Once again, our job is to trust in the Lord. Our assigned duty is to put our faith in Him and not question His abilities, skills, or knowledge. When we do this we can face the next chapter of our lives starting to be written and say with confidence in God,  "Howdy Life, make your MOOve. God is watching over me. I trust in Him."  Amen

Proper Use of Quickness

                                                      

 

As a young kid one of the cartoons we watched was one called “Quick Draw McGraw.” The cartoon character always seemed to be getting himself into all kinds of trouble. Perhaps you could say, He was too quick for his own good.

                                                                                                       (image courtesy of Bing.com)

As people we suffer from the same problem he did, we are way too quick. Too rapid to jump into things, too hasty to jump to conclusions, too speedy to speak before we know what we really should be saying.

 

We need to slow down and think before we jump into anything. It’s important we find our balance between being way too quick and too slow. Both have damaging effects if not properly handled.

 

Our quickness should be used to refer to how quickly we turn to the Lord and lean on and trust in Him. The too slow needs to be time utilized to wait for the Lord and be still in Him. Sooner or later we catch up to God and He tells us it’s time to move forward in Him. Staying still forever is not an option no differently that jumping into things we shouldn’t be before we think things out is not a choice either.

 

Save your quickness for proper use and once again save yourself from unnecessary pain and suffering. Acting instead of reacting is always a better way to go.

 

© 2013 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

A Moment of Silence

On December 21, 2012 at 6:30am Pacific time there was a moment of silence for the people who were killed in Newtown Ct. Twenty six bells chimed in honor of each victim. As I stopped to observe this moment of silence I thought of the song "I heard the bells on Christmas day."

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along th' unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men."

Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

In despair we have all bowed our heads thinking in our hearts that there is no peace on earth. Truly hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men. The important thing to remember is not the fact that hate is strong but the fact that our Lord is not dead, nor does He sleep.

He wasn't asleep when the tragedy happened nor is He slumbering now. Eventually wrong will fail and right will prevail and there will be peace on earth, good will to men. In the meantime we need to continue to pray for the families of those affected by this tragic event and offer them the comfort they need instead of trying to come up with answers.

When we go seeking it is faith we will eventually find not answers. Faith and trust that God is in control even though our enemy the devil has his jurisdiction on earth as well.  Trying to come up with the answers to our "Why?" questions will get us no where. Leaning on our faith in God will lead us out of the sad and rocky situations we find ourselves in into brighter days and healing.

Years ago when I had epilepsy I nearly beat myself to death trying to find out the answer to question of "Why did this happen to me?" It wasn't until I was told that 90% of my seizures were stressed caused that I figured it out that I had to give up my search for "Why." When I did the stress of seeking something that wasn't for me to know was gone and my seizures improved.

Over twenty years after being cured of my epilepsy I got breast and bone cancer. The question of why could have popped up but I had learned that lesson years ago. There was no answers and to try and go down that road again would only end up on the same dead end street I found myself on during my time of the uncontrolled seizures of epilepsy.

Faith is our strength to endure not answers. God bless those affected by this event in not only Newtown but other events in life such as a death from cancer, a tragic accident, loss of income, relationship struggles. Everywhere we look there are dark corners but if we trust in God eventually the light of Jesus will come to every corner but only if we grant it access through our faith.

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

Picture DEES #44 Maze of Mirrors

At a carnival there is a ride you can go on that is a “maze of mirrors.” It is set up to where it can be difficult to get through as you frequently bump into mirrors that block your way. It seems like you are constantly running into one dead end after another.

Recently as I watched a young child go through it the man in charge of the maze was standing outside telling the little girl which way she needed to turn. “No, no,” he would shout. “Go that way or go this way.” It took her awhile to get out but eventually she did.


Life is like that as well. Its set up as a maze of mirrors to where it can be difficult to know what way to turn and which way is out. God is the man who knows the way out. He gives us the directions we need to take to accomplish getting through the best way possible.


We can either listen to His advice or we can continue to bump in to the dead-end paths we take. Paths of disobedience, thinking we can do it our own way. When we do that all we are doing is postponing a trip that could have been much quicker and a lot less painful.

Father God we praise You for being there for us to see us through the maze of life. Forgive us Father for the times we don’t listen and decide to go at it alone. Help us to be patient as we trust in Your guidance instead of our own desire to “do it ourselves.” Amen

They call me grandma




© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Picture Dees #38 The Donut

One day as my grandchildren and I were looking through the donut selection at the local bakery I got to thinking about the connection between donuts and life. Something beyond what can wind up on our hips if we eat too many of them. Ha Ha.

Think about it. In life we have the tendency to bypass looking at the things we do have. The things present in our lives. Things that may be plain to the eye or nicely decorated like Brooke’s donut.

Instead we look for what is missing like the center hole of a donut instead of being thankful for what we do have. When we do this we miss out on the best part just because we were thinking too much about the part that was missing.

Instead of wishing for what we don’t have let’s concentrate on what we do have. There’s a beauty to be found in everything if we look hard enough. For example, the hole that is missing in your life may be a parent who has moved away due to a divorce or died. Look at what you do have like a parent who is still there, a grandparent who is giving their all to you, a friend nearby, a youth pastor at the church or someone else.

We need to stop looking at life through the donut hole and get our eyes focused outward on the greater things around it. Concentrate on what is there. What is missing will take care of itself. Turn to Jesus. He will help you where you struggle to see what needs to be seen and let go of what needs to be let go of. Learn that lesson early and you’ll be way ahead of a lot of adults. God bless.


They Call Me, Grandma

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

Picture Dees #37 Hole in the Cloud

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 #37 Hole in the Cloud

In life there will be days when it seems like everything is clouded over dark and stormy with things going on at school, problems in the family, parents splitting up, and so much more. No matter how stormy life gets we need to know there is a hole in the cloud, a break in the storm, a ray of sunshine if we would only look and wait.

The clouds don’t have to part for us at our command like grown-ups think they can do with a traffic light getting it to change at their demand. In the midst of the storms we need to hang on to Jesus, get into His Word which is the Bible and stay close. Before we know it there will be a break in the clouds. Like the tree in the picture pointing to the hole in the cloud there will be something out there pointing to that hole in the cloud in your life.

Like it or not, there’s no such thing as a life that is storm-free, we all go through them. Its how prepared we are that matters. We don’t need to chase after them for the thrill of it. We don’t need to hide from them either. Jesus is our guide through them, our hope to hang on, and our strength to endure.

We need to be watching, waiting, and willing to hop on board with Jesus.

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

Kid DEES devotion from John 3:16

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (NKJV)


Oh, what a wonderful thing it is to know when someone loves us. Don’t you agree? It makes us feel good inside not only to hear those words but to see them in action as well. It’s an important thing for all of us to know if God, our parents, grandparents, friends, and relatives love us or not.

Straight from God’s spoken words in the Bible He tells us He loves us. There is no reason to doubt that at all. He not only said it but He showed us how much by sending His son to die for us on the cross and forgiving our sins.

Too often, we think because He loves us He will let us get away with anything we want because God is a God of love. Right? Wrong. Try that on your parents and see how far you get.

God gave us His Son Jesus Christ to get us away from sin (doing what is wrong is God’s eyes) not to do it more. Our chore or job is simply to believe in Him. Believe what He tells us in the Bible, believe He exists, and believe He cares and does love us. Believe there are penalties to suffer if we do not do what we are told to do by God.

“Dear Heavenly Father thank you so much for loving me as You do. If there is any unbelief in me Father God take it away and replace it with trust and faith in You. Help me that my life will show just how much I do believe by the attitude I have and the things I do and say. I love you God and again thanks for loving me.”


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

Kid DEES~~~Great doors are swung on tiny hinges

In the world of electronically operated doors there are still some hung on hinges. If you’ve never noticed, they are the metal things that keep the door swinging. It doesn’t seem to take much of a hinge to swing the biggest of doors. How well they swing depends on the hinge.

In life many doors of opportunity are opened on the tiniest of hinges. A simple little act of volunteering at a nursing home can open the door to a job working with the elderly. A writing assignment in class can open the door to future writings as you find something you’re good at and enjoy. The tiny hinge of being good at whatever you do can open big doors of great opportunities. It doesn’t matter the talent, the gift, or the hinge its what we do with these hinges.

Doors will open and doors will close. Some will swing fast and others will take their time. It’s important to be patient and to not give up or expect all doors to be the same for everyone. I had a door once in my car that seemed to take its time to open so I sprayed oil on it to make it swing better. It swung better all right. It swung so fast I was never able to move quick enough to get out of its way. OUCH! Later I used that same oil on a door leading into my laundry room hoping to get that door to swing just as well and stop squeaking. It never did work as the door continues to make noise.

Since we never know what hinge will work or what will make it work even better we need to keep on trying. Trusting in God to show us what opportunities are best is a good way to catch those moments. We need to trust His judgment when doors are opened and others are closed.

There’s a saying you may have heard before that goes like this, “When God closes a door somewhere He opens a window.” In other words He may stop us from going one way but He will open other opportunities for us through the tiny windows of bigger and better things. Our job is to stay alert and be looking for these moments instead of sitting around pouting outside closed doors that were never meant to be in the first place.

It’s our job to be on the lookout for tiny hinges of bigger opportunities as we allow God to be our doorkeeper. Its up to us to stand ready to trust Him to open the ones that need to be opened and close the ones that need to be closed.

Thank you God for the door of Jesus Christ and the way He opened for us to enter Heaven. Opportunity has knocked, may we all take the time to enter, embrace, and enjoy eternity with God our Father.

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

Picture Dees #36 Window Seat

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.

I don’t know about you but when my grandkids were young the seat of choice in the car was the one in the middle. They liked being able to sit there and see out the front window. As time past the place to sit would change to the window seat. As much as we would all like to be able to see out there are only so many windows in a car to go around.

As we travel through life it would be great to have the window seat that shows us what is coming, what’s out there, what’s next but it doesn’t work that way. Just like the patients who have cancer that sit in this chair next to the window getting their chemotherapy treatment they can only hope and wonder what life has in store for them next.

As we trust the driver of the car we are sitting in we need to put our trust in God that He knows what He is doing as well. Things will come at us unexpectedly, good things as well as bad but that doesn’t mean God is not in control.

It’s not up to us to see, it’s up to us to trust.


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

Picture Dees #34 The Backburner

In the busy, busy, busy life we live often the thing that winds up on the backburner of our lives is Jesus. “Oh I don’t have time to go to church today. I want to sleep in. I’ll pray later. I’ll read my Bible when I get to it next week perhaps. I want to do what I want first then maybe if I have time I’ll think about Jesus later when I’m old and gray.”

For each step we take towards the things we “want” we place God further and further back to the point we almost forget He’s there. Soon things happen and we wonder “where was God?” Sadly enough He was right where we placed Him in the priorities of our lives, in the far back.

Daily we need to make the choice to put God first. Keeping open the spot upfront for Him by the choices we make and the attitudes we display as we let the other burners or areas of our lives fill in around Him. God should never be a side-dish but the main course of our lives.

It’s a choice you will never regret and a blessing you will never want to live without once you have experienced the wonders of putting Him first. What we consider our “needs” is often what we “want” not what we necessarily need. Learn the difference and watch God at work as you turn the cooking and the providing over to Him.

It’s not ALL about me, its all about God


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

Praise the Thanks #5

Our praise and thanks for today is….

Praise you Lord for healing our broken hearts. Ps 147:3

*** There are all sorts of things that can break our hearts. The cause can be anything from not getting our choice of birthday presents to the death of a loved one, the breaking up of a family home through divorce or separation all the way to the loss of a favorite pet or a fight with a friend. What we don’t think of on our list of things that can break our hearts is the list of sin. Living our lives outside of God’s commands and boundaries causes a great deal of brokenness in our spiritual hearts that God wants to heal. We have our cure, Jesus Christ but we need to want our hearts repaired.

You can stay mad at mom and dad over not buying you what you want or you can forget about it and go on. You can cry over your grandparents dying forever or you can accept the fact that God has them with Him if they were believers. The breaking up of a home may never repair itself but God can repair our hearts and heal the hurt that comes from this tragedy affecting our families today.

Feeling sorry for ourselves is not the answer. Opening up the part of our heart that is hurting over and over again is not the answer either. God is the answer. He does not promise a hurt-free life no more than your parents can promise you that you will never fall and scrap your knee. What He promises is healing, praise the Lord.

Start the healing process today and go to Him. Learn to trust that He knows what medicine it will take to get you the healing needed. Go with God and He will go with you. Don’t put a stop-watch on Jesus thinking He needs to heal you in the time frame you give Him. We’re on God’s time not ours. Healing will come if we allow it to arrive through Jesus.


Thank you Lord for fruits and veggies you created for us to enjoy.

**I think we can safely say that not everyone is so quick to thank the Lord for veggies. “Yuk! I don’t like to eat my veggies,” they complain. Whether we like spinach, broccoli, corn, carrots or any of the rest doesn’t matter, we can still be thankful for the food God has provided for us. How mom cooks them may be better than how grandma does it but that is not the point. The point is being thankful for what God has provided for us. It doesn’t have to be an apple, orange, green bean, or turnip that we are talking about it can be other foods we get to eat from God’s marketplace. Foods to eat with our mouths as well as the food we get to digest from His Bible. His commands He has given us to obey. We may not like what His rules are that He expects us to feed on, “Yuk! I don’t like that rule. Why can’t I hate my brother he deserves it the jerk!” we complain. Try as we might to rearrange it to fit our taste it doesn’t change what God originally had to say. We can dress up carrots with salt and butter to suit our taste but we can’t with God’s word. God’s word stand on its own it doesn’t need ketchup or salt. Feed on it, follow it, and enjoy the results of what it has to offer.

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

Praise and Thanks #2

Our praise and thanks for today is…..

Praise you Lord for helping us and being someone we can put our trust in Ps 37:40

***It’s a wonderful praise to know that the Lord is there to help us. It’s up to us to seek that help in all the right ways for all the right reasons. This is done through prayer, reading His Word and listening to what He has to say to our hearts. He can help us through problems at school, problems at home. He may not make the situation go away, that isn’t the promise here, what He does is help us through the things we find ourselves in the middle of. He can be trusted in a good and wonderful way, we can never get away from that particular praise as its through that trust that we are helped.

Thank you Lord for our animals, for the love they have to offer and the memories they put in our hearts

***Animals are a wonderful gift from God. They are full of unconditional love for their owners as they give us memories we will cherish for life. Each with their own special characteristics built in by God Himself and for this we are thankful.

Remember…
X marks the spot. We are creating a point of focus to direct our minds too when times get tough, or we are feeling depressed, happy, excited, sad, lonely, fearful, or whatever. Whether it’s the first thing in the morning, in the middle of the school day, or the last thing at night it doesn’t matter it’s a point of focus we need to train our selves to do.

When life gets negative and you feel your spirit being drawn down by things going on in your world make an X on a piece of paper. Once you’ve done that look at it and turn your head slightly and you can see your X turn into a cross. The cross of Jesus He died upon to get your life focused on what truly is important, a life with Him. With the right training of our eyes we can see Jesus wherever we are, in everything we gaze upon and it starts with the proper focus.

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

Picture Dees #10 The Puzzle

Puzzles are fun. They are challenging and entertaining. Especially when the pieces look so much alike and you have your doubts on whether you have put the correct two pieces together. We already know what it will look like by the picture on the box. Once together you can even glue them in order to hang your artwork on the wall.

To watch someone else put a puzzle together drives us nuts because we want to help and give out advice on where to put the pieces. The scenario with God is no different. Too often we find it very hard to sit back and let Him put together the puzzle pieces of our lives. Our lack of patience and trust shows up in our fidgety behavior waiting for Him to complete the picture. Too frequently we jump in and try to help and we wind up upsetting the whole box and the pieces go a flying.

Our biggest challenge is to trust God with EVERY piece of our lives and dreams. Not just the pieces we have a difficult time with. We need to stop arguing and begin to trust the one that holds the final design or picture of our life. The One with the ability to make the outcome of it even more beautiful than we could ever imagine. The choice is ours for the making. The pieces are His for the taking.

Copyright 2008 Marissa and Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing