Gateways to Joy

Can you imagine that?  Going to the abortion doctor to have your baby murdered, but it didn't die! Talk about mind-boggling! There's one thing we must all remember, and that is, "God is the author and finisher of life."  I don't care what we plan or what we do, if God the giver of our life is not ready for us to die, we are not going to die and it is as plain and simple as that. In mouthing those words I'm reminded of the story of Kristen.  I'm about to get off of the abortion story for a minute because I want to share very briefly the story of a girl who was 17 and fed up with her life. What did Kristen do in the midst of her pain?  Oh well, she only went and laid her body over some train tracks for a train to run over her. Did the train run over her?  It did indeed.  Was she killed?  Nope. God wasn't ready for her to die. I will put a link at the end of this post for you to get her book and find out more about her.  I love her ...

My thoughts from my morning journaling. .. Twenty years ago when Kennedy and I stood at the marriage altar, we didn't think much about the journey we were about to take.  We loved Christ and each other, that, we thought, was enough to build our life on. We had a new life together, soon our lives would include another and another, and another and ... . There were so many things we had not learned... many things that we did not know. When we stand at the altar and profess our love are we really prepared to love?  Do we realize the sacrifices love will call us to, the ripping away of self? Why didn't the well-intended tell us what it really took to build a home? Why didn't they tell us about all of the heartache and pain that went into loving and building correctly? We didn't know that love and good intentions could be misconstrued by the loved one to the point that it causes us pain. I never knew love could hurt and the very man who said, "He loved me c...

Have you ever felt like you needed to get somewhere and be left alone? Not necessarily leave your house, but just be left alone. Not even left alone meaning total solitude, I mean left alone where maybe the T.V.'s are kept off and the radio isn't glaring and the kids are stilled—playing or doing something quietly.  Husband too. This is the sort of quietness that my soul longs for today. My depths need to be searched, scanned so that decisions can be made wisely and insightfully. He has told the heart on many occasions and reiterated it again this morning: set some boundaries. Boundaries are our life savers.  They are what stops the ocean waves from rushing in carrying us away. God has drawn lines in the sand.  He's set boundaries 'cause He knows their importance. Look at the expanse ... the horizon. Throughout our lives there are things that separate, bound us by various means for various reasons. Take our homes for instance, in our homes are roo...

For a few weeks prior to this week past, I started noticing that I felt unbalanced within.  I wasn't calm within.  Something wasn't right. It wasn't until I got up early one morning to pray about how I'd been feeling that it dawned on me that this act that I've done for years ... the early morning rising, is what I was missing.  It was what my soul was hungry for. So one morning, I jotted the below writings in my journal.  Just to share with the Lord.  Today though, I want to share them with you. Rising early gives me more time with the Lord.  My days or slow and productive.  During my morning talks with God, the hushed moments in the house also hushes the heart.  These moments cause a worried, rapid heart to slow.  In the hushed and slowness of mind and body I can focus.  I think and am able to remember. At my kitchen table with nothing but a cup of hot coffee, Bible, pen and tablet I sit with heart and hand prostrated befor...

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. ...

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...

T oday is the day.  Today is the day that we memorialize my father.  It's a bitter-sweet day.  I will miss him so.  Still can't believe that this season is upon me.  I want to run and hide—yell at God and say, "No, no!"   But I can't. I must accept all that the hand of my loving heavenly Father gives, though it seems unfair.  Unfair to take a husband away from his wife.  Unfair to take a father away from his daughter.  Unfair to take grandfather away from grandchildren. I'd hoped he would live to see my children, graduate, get married and have children of their own.  But it is not to be. I'd hoped that we would one day travel.  My husband, me and them—my parents. Last night, as I cried silently.  I shared with my husband that I knew it was his heart.  Had suspected it all alone, but why didn't I tell him.  I shared it with my mother, though, I didn't even share with her the extent of how bad it coul...

K eeping this close to heart today because sometimes we need a loving nudge to remind us: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.   And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." ~ Philippians 4: 6-7 Seems like an impossible task doesn't it?  We all have worries be it at home, on the job, in school ... but Paul tells us to take our worries and turn them into prayers. How?  How do you turn those worries into prayers?  By praying.  Whatever you are worried about today, let that be the thing that you pray about.  Lean on God with that prayer. What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Have we tria...

M y first gateway to joy experience and my first encounter with Elisabeth Elliot are two different experiences which I will share with you next week.  Today, I would like to share with you why I added "s" to "gateway," and why I wanted to start this link up.   I added the "s" to gateway because it has been my experience that God uses many "gateways" to lead us to points in our lives of where He wants us to be.  As I shared with you in yesterday's post : God purposely led the children of Isreal "by the way of the wilderness."   His gateways are always meant to direct us and get us onto His path by whatever means He deems necessary. The other reason I added the "s" is because I didn't know if legally I could use "Gateway to joy."   Gateways may not even be legal as it is still so closely named to "Gateway to Joy."   I will just wait and see what happens.  If the name changes you know why. ...

`I NEVER NOTICED until this morning the context of this command in the Epistle of James: 'My brothers, do not blame your troubles on one another or you will fall under judgment.' { James 5:9, NEB}.  The context is patience.  A farmer's precious crop comes up only as he waits patiently for autumn rains, winter snows, spring sunshine.  Anything worth having is worth waiting for.  Troubles are permitted in order to teach us many lessons, not the least of which is patience.  If we instantly assign responsibility for those troubles to somebody else, our energies will go into resentment instead of into learning God's lesson of patient waiting.  The Lord's coming is far more certain than even autumn rains and winter snows.  We can stand firm and patient no matter how others treat us, knowing that in the end our troubles will be transformed. 'The Lord is full of pity and compassion' {James 5:11}. Can we believe that, even when we feel sorry for ourselv...