Gateways to Joy

Living. Within the realm of living each of us will experience trouble times. Trouble times are a part of life, even for the Christian. The Bible assures us that trouble times are permitted for certain purposes in the Christian life. It is in these sorts of times that God allows us to be transfigured and refined. As we see with Job, sometimes well-meaning friends and loved ones who aim to comfort during trouble times can actually make our situation worse with their advice. “Lean on the Lord.” “Hold on to God's unchanging hand." This was some of the advice given to me. The problem with this advice is that I didn't know how to do what I was being told to do, nor did I understand what was really meant, thus failure always ensued. That was until I changed my perspective on how I viewed God. “Nothing here below is profane for those who know how to see.” ~ Pierre Teihard de Chardin   Come with me on my journey. You don't have to leave your house; you just need ...

His Word says, "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS." ~ Matthew 11:29 To practice humility in our lives WE must wake up daily with an attitude ready to serve others.  Not just the doing of the service, but having the right attitude before, while and after doing.  In order to really have the humility that Jesus calls us to have we must forgo the rights of ourselves and the expectation of exaltation. Is this the attitude that I display in my life daily? often times I don't.  I want to.  Long to, and even strive to.   This is one of my daily soul journeys ... .  I don't pray for it either, sadly.  Too afraid God will put me in situations where I'm constantly having to practice it—though I have to practice it. This post is linked to Ann Voskamp's blog, A Holy Experience.  The subject of our Walk with Him Wednesday talks is "The practice of humility." This post...

We laugh.  We talk as we stroll about admiring things in the store. "Ooo.  Ahh." We say as we pick things up to touch, feel.  On and on we chatter interrupting each others sentences, finishing them too. I think to myself, "He's done it again.  God has answered my heart-felt prayer.  He loves me this I know." I cried out to Him, just yesterday, "Father help me.  Help me make my children first priority again.  First before my beloved blogging.  First before my beloved writing, and before Internet socializing.  First before the phone calls, the errands.  First before this and first before that.  Give us the opportunity to be just my children and me.  Give us opportunities with no expectations."  Today it's just us.  My first born, second born and me.  I'd thought that maybe they would not want to be with me—hanging out, spending time with me their mama.. I remember a time when all they wanted was me. ...

Hi ladies! I thought it would be fun for us to participate over at Courtney's place and join her in the summer reading plan for moms. What exactly is Courtney's summber reading plans for mothers you ask? Her plan follows the S.O.A.P method.  What is the S.O.A.P method?  So glad you asked. The S.O.A.P. Method stands for: 1. S- Write out the scripture passage for the day. (I have a shiny new notebook where I will be writing out the verse/s of the day.) 2. O - Write down 1 or 2 observations from the passage. (After I write out the verse, I will write what I learned from the verse.) 3. A - Write down 1-2 applications from the passage. (Then I will write out how this verse applies to me if it is applicable.) 4. P- Pray over what you learned from today’s passage. (Then I will pray this verse over myself and my family.) As you go through this study, if you come across a verse or passage that you don’t understand, I recommend Crosswalk’s Bible Study Tools found here: h...

Every second counts.  How are you spending your time? I've been thinking often about this, in particularly how I'm affecting my children with what I do and don't do with my time. Then I came upon this: "Are my children satisfied first everyday?  Before phone calls, household chores, email inboxes, message boards, errands, volunteer activities, church functions, hobbies ... are my children deeply and fully satisfied?" ~ Ann Voskamp I feel like I'm slipping ... falling.  I'm striving working at trying to balance it {all that I have to do} better. Then I remember my calling and what's important.  There's really no need to try and balance it all 'cause there is just one thing that's most important.  All else is secondary He whispers to my heart. Blogging is good, but blogging—and all that it entails ought not have first priority. Lose myself in His will and calling first and He will give me the desires of my heart.  This is som...

This post is a continuation from yesterday, looking at Mary's submission to her husband as she submitted to the Lord, and looking at Joseph's heart-moved submission to God. In viewing this couple we are able to see the beauty and power that submission gives in a person and couple's life when they totally live a life of a surrendered and obedient heart. God looks at our hearts, just as He did Mary's.  And just like Mary, God wants to use you and me to do great things for Him. Our obedience or lack of it holds the power of life and death for ourselves and those we love.  "Get up!  Take the child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you ... so Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt." Matthew 2:13 This couple was a couple with a prepared heart. Mary submitted to her husband and her husband submitted to God. They submitted and their family was saved. Remember Adam ...

Order.  Most of us, if not all, function better in our day-to-day goings on when we have order in our lives.  Everything from government to our homes has order, or some resemblance of it.  At one time it seemed as if I were telling my children every other day that, even when they leave our home they will still be subjected to the rules of others.  Be it God, government, school, work, or a spouse. There is order to keep from having chaos. A lot of women, including myself at times, doesn't like hearing that we are called to submit, obey or subject ourselves to anyone, even if it is God's order.  We still aren't thrilled about it. The reason that I'm not thrilled about hearing the subject preached on first and far most is my human nature, secondly is the fact that I've witness many men who don't quite understand their role as a husband or the woman's role for that matter, and they begin to abuse their wives. ...

"They say time is money, but that's not true.  Time is life, and if I want the fullest life I need to find the fullest time." ~ Ann Voskamp I look at the clock anxiously.  I need to get everyone in bed so I can get started on writing. My soul is longing for it ... calling out to it: serenity.  My head is filling with thougths that need releasing.  I have two books to read His and hers, then I want to get some journal writing in.  Today I added more gifts to my gratitude list!  I'm anxiously waiting for the moment to open up and ingest the words of Daniel .   He gave thanks three times a day, don't you know?  I long to follow. How often do you thank God during the day?  Do you see all your days as a gift?  It's easier to say, "thank you" when you believe what you have been given is a gift . My eyes are different, they are anew.  They search for gratitude.  Gifts from His hand. I wa...

My husband began a new career in sales— meat salesman in particular.   I was back home. We were doing much better financially, but we still had a lot of debt to clean up from the previous months. One account that had been severely damaged was our rent in the apartment where we lived.  We were charged an astronomical amount {in our eyes} for late fees.  An amount which preceded our rent.  We couldn't renew our lease unless we paid the fees.  We did pay the rent and an agreed amount of fees, but we didn't renew the lease.  We moved, instead, a couple of blocks away to a cheaper apartment. At this point, I'd been home for a couple of weeks.  Reading Elisabeth's book, and listening to her tapes. Sometimes Elisabeth would have her daughter Valerie on her program and Valerie would talk about what it was like being a stay-at-home mother with eight children whom she home schooled. "Eight children?"  "Home school?"  "What kind...

His smile was quite, this time.  More of a grin. His eyes communicated with me in ways they had never done before.   They said, "I love you. Don't go." So I stayed and chatted more. He sat quietly in the corner... smiling, watching us as we, the children, my husband and I, rummaged through the boxes of gifts my mother brought out. Someone from her church had given her things ... .  She couldn't use them, and as things go when you have a large family they figured we could.  They were right. "Strange," I thought.  My dad had not cracked one single joke.  Instead he sat back looking.  From time-to-time, I would look up at him from my seat on the floor and see that he was watching me ... staring at me.  I would smile at him and he would smile back.   "I wonder what's wrong with my daddy? I hope he isn't going to die.  I hope this won't be my last time seeing him," I thought silently while...

I love caring for my family.  Nothing gives me greater joy than to do laundry while picking up and washing dishes—gazing out the kitchen window.  Letting the dreams take me far. At times however, I get irritated and feel as if I'm not appreciated.   I'll clean up the kids room, put away their clean clothes only to find out a few days later that not only is that same room a mess, but they've taken the clean clothes and put them back in the pile to be washed. My reaction to this kind of treatment sometimes is to go on a strike. I've come to find out that the strike {things that don't get done} bothers me way more negatively than it does my family, and I become stress. So I've resolved some things within myself.  I've made up my mind. Since I find pleasure in an orderly home.  And I love cleaning and caring for my family in this manner, I'm resolving within myself today not to give into the pressures I feel when they don't do as I thi...

Y esterday while watching and listening to my children interact with their friends, I began to wonder about their life's course and ponder on the many road's my life has taken. I've made so many mistakes friends until I also wonder if those mistakes haven't prevented me from being where I should be.  However, I also know that those mistakes—in hindsight are my life's lessons.  They have taught me well.   I've learned things about myself, God and others that I know I would not have learned had I not gone through my many "gateways." No circumstance or situation that God allows to take place in our live's is insignificant. "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." ~ Phil. 1:6 God is at work. He's working in the lives of His children.  Do you believe that? Skeptical, are you?  Think back with me for a moment ... remember:  Adam & Eve's...

What does it mean to live with Jesus in the center of your life?  Today is  Walk with Him Wednesday community blog link up . It's  another gathering over at Ann Voskamp, writer of "One Thousand Gifts: A dare to live fully right where you are. What comes to mind for you when you think about that question? "What does it mean to live with Jesus in the center of your life"    When I   think about the question, the first thing that comes to mind is Matthew 16:24,  "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." Certainly this will look differently in each of our lives.  What you consider a denial of self—your cross, and a picking up of it will be different than the denial and cross of another.  For this reason, it is important to practice a "no comparison" life.  Do not compare your life to the life of another.  Notice that Jesus doesn't simply say...

`W hat are you doing Lord?" I asked. Times had gotten pretty bad for us financially, not to mention that I'd miscarried.  Bills were piling, rent was due.  The electricity had been cut on and off ... on and off.  My parents came to visit and my mother gave us her credit card to buy groceries, the kids clothes and myself clothes so that I could go to work.  For a while they even rented a vehcile for us too. My husband who had been a drug and alcohol counselor, prior to his stint with becoming a carrier went back to looking for work in that field, which was scarce.  He'd vowed before we moved to Houston not to do work that entailed his income depending on grant money as he saw that type of work as being unstable. I went looking for work too and finally found work with a temporary accounting agency.  Next we found a babysitter.  Thus my days began to consist of getting up at 4:00 am rushing, getting myself and the children dressed and ready t...

G od's will for your life ... Are you ever concerned with being sure you are fulfilling it? I think on this often, " What does He will for me today?"   Not in the complete sense necessarily, but I wonder,  "How will what I do today—my choice, effect the whole picture. I've been reading Philippians and in it I read these words by Paul,  "...but I press on so that I may lay hold of that which also I was laid hold for by Christ Jesus."   Then he goes on to say,  "Breathern, I do not regard myself as having hold of it yet, but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."  Many of us have problems with  "laying hold of that which also we were laid hold for."   Why?  We have a problem with moving forward.  Some of us get stuck, and even more of us get stuck in the past. Being stuck makes it hard for us ...

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'W ords I'm reading—  My second husband's death, a long and agonizing process, made me unutterably grateful to God for plain, ordinary housework.  It was just cooking for him—and racking my brains to come up with menus he would be able to enjoy at least a little bit—and cleaning and washing his dishes and clothes and sheets, carrying trays, keeping track of his medicines and answering his letters that got me through.   I would find myself thanking God for a pile of dishes or laundry. It is the one for whom a job is done who gives it its meaning .  Of course I was not thinking about frying pans or laundry detergents when I was frying an egg or washing. I was thinking of Add.  As the disease progressed, however, he became extremely depressed and no longer wanted to eat, to be read to, bathed, dressed, or cared for in any way.  I was like the "trouble of Israel" to him, and he told me so.   Nevertheless the work still had to be done.  Even when he ...

H e calls to say he's picking up pizza for the kids, and will go to the restaurant to cook us two chicken fried steaks.  That's when I hear it: exhaustion.  He's tired.   Today was his full day at the eatery.  He worked there for hours.  I thought he would come home to be with us after he left there, but he said, "He needed to go and knock on some doors." "Man working by the sweat of his brow, bless him and protect Him Lord. " I pray. I feel awful and guilty.  My back still pangs which limits my movements.  Today my ventures have been to the bathroom, bed, and computer.  Being confined Sunday to the bed wasn't the best of time, at least I had the time to help Husband with his test so I accepted the situation.  Today, however, I really need to get caught up on house work: sit at the table with the children to school properly, and be able to move around.  Where is the gift, hm?  I'm beginning to sense a strugg...