Gateways to Joy

F or those of you who blog and wonder if your blog reaches the heart or touches a soul. I'm here to say, "yes," it does.  Do you wonder if God is doing something good with what you are writing, "He is." Let me remind you of what the Bible says, "So will My Word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing that what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it." ~ Is. 55:11 If or when God lays something on your heart dear blogger— blog it.  Tell it. Tweet it.  Facebook it.  Youtube it. Proclaim it!  Even though you may never get one iota of a comment on what you typed out.  Share what He gives you anyway... all the time! And you simply find solace in knowing that you put it out there, out there in the monstrous www. This morning I decided to have my devotions by reading one of my favorite blogs, "Grace is for sinners."   First off, I love that name.  Have you eve...

M y mother is visiting for the weekend.  Like all mothers and grandmothers, she came with gifts.  Her gifts are the "life lessons" of gifts.  Her gifts don't fade or get old with time.  If received properly, in fact, my mom's gifts are a bit like fine wine: they get better with time. Usually I have to swish what she's given me around in my head a bit, savor it.  Pine.  It is only after much thought most often do I come to see the true treasures she continues to give me. Her gift to me today was a paper.  A paper that had been given to her at church.  She couldn't wait to share it with me.  After cleaning under children's bed, sweeping, washing, moving clothes from washing machine to dryer—I am now at a place where I can rest a minute. I remember the paper after seeing it resting on my pillow {I placed it there so I wouldn't forget to read it}. I start to read. Here are the words.  I hope you glean as much from th...

How do you respond to God when He tells you to "go" or "do?" Does your heart say, "Anywhere you lead Lord I'll go?" Yesterday, while fellowshipping with some of the ladies in my neighborhood, I found myself telling my "new" young friend and neighbor, Veronica, a mother to a three year-old, wife of five years and new to the faith... thedetails of when the Lord called me to be a homeschooling mom. In telling the story my heart went back and I reminisced on the early years of my obedient heart.  Back then it seems that all of my prayers were, "Lord what is your will for my life?"  "Anywhere you lead me God, I will go." Sometimes it seems like I get so far from that in my heart now though my sentiments are still the same. What about you dear friend?  What is your hearts cry to the Lord concerning "the thing" He is and has called you to do? In her book, "Wherever He leads me," Corrie Ten Boom w...

Calling all ladies, bloggers and non-bloggers— Ladies would you consider partnering with me? Beginning Monday, September 19, 2011 a group of blogging friends and I will start reading the book of 1 John. The   group will run from September 15 through December 15. Thursday, September 15 I will send my first email to those of you who have signed up. We will correspond by emailing, Facebooking or texting one another Monday-Friday after having our morning quiet time. Also, would you spread the word about our group and invite some of your friends to join us?  If you all want I will create a message board for us to meet as a central location, and if you want {for those who are local} we can even meet one Saturday morning for breakfast just to talk about what God is doing.  It's up to you all.   We will use the S.O.A.P method of studying the passages: 1.  S-write out the Scripture passage of the day. 2. O- write down one or two observations ...

How many of you have someone in your life that you find difficult to love?  Could you be that difficult person to someone else? This thought plagued me this morning as the Lord and I sat "just talking".  I'd told the Lord a few weeks ago that I didn't care for a particular person's personality and that I was glad I no longer had to deal with them and all of their drama. "Out of sight, out of mind." So I went ... on my merry little way. God reminded me of something this morning though. "I am still required to love the difficult!" The more I pondered on my difficult relationships the more I saw where I learned something about me.  Could it be that those "difficult" people served a purpose in my life after all?  And that all the fuss and fight wasn't null and void? The more I began to focus on the various relationships that I've had and have in my life that have caused me anguish, the more I see how the purging has...

God loves us more than we know.  He gives us more than we can ask or dream.  He's unrestrained . . . excessive . . . outrageous . . . OVER THE TOP. ~ {Dallas 2011 Women of Faith  motto} Friends join me this week and next as I showcase the lovely speakers who are lined up to speak at this year's Women of Faith Conference in Dallas. We will also take a look down memory lane and talk about some of the previous speakers ... see what they are doing now. Some of these speakers, I'm not familiar with so we will learn about them,  their life and their ministries together. I always look forward to meeting new and exciting people.  People with stories . . . life stories.  Can't wait to share the life stories and ministry stories of these souls with you all! So stay tune! Angela talks schedule to showcase the speakers are as follows: Monday, August 15, 2011 Patsy Clairmont Tuesday August 16, 2011 Marilyn Mebug Wednesday August 17, 2011 Lisa Whelchel Thu...

How do we know if or when we should stop having biological children? Should we stop ourselves? This is what I call a "hot" topic.  This talk can get attitudes fueled quickly for some.  It's sort of like topics on abortion, women being submissive, staying at home . . . Personally, this was a question that my husband and I had to ask ourselves. But before we were able to sense the direction God was leading us, family members, friends, church members and lo and behold, even strangers, would ask the dreaded question, "Do y'all plan on having more?" I never could understand why it mattered to people that we didn't ask to help us in anyway with our children.   People who weren't involved in our lives cared to know.  Why?  Whose business is it? Rarely do we allow our children to sleep over people's houses, and we never let anyone other than my mother and a few times my sisters-in-law keep our children.  We never had our hands out for money...

She's upset.  On her way to work she sits on the passenger side, quiet.  I almost didn't spy her sadness ... her needing comfort as I was on the cell phone comforting a friend. "But God spoke to my heart." The first thing He showed me was that I was on the phone while driving—something I try to never make a habit of doing.  Then I heard her awkward silence. "Let me call you back."  I say to my troubled friend. "What's wrong?"  I ask my daughter as I glance down to be sure I'm clicking on the right button to end my phone call. "Nothing." I suspect she's upset 'cause I made her assist with the cleaning of the living room before going to work, but that's not the only reason. I scolded her hard in front of everyone when I saw the "ugly" in her heart.  I scolded in front of all because she displayed "ugly"in front of all ... made her stance very obvious.  I did it, too, so that the others w...

The questions was asked, "How do I get going early in the mornings?" Steps to rising early : 1.  Set the alarm clock for the same time each morning. 2.  Have the alarm put in a place where you must get out of bed to turn it off. 3.  Don't get back in bed { You will be tempted if this has not become your normal routine } 4.  Visit the bathroom { Get dressed. This makes it harder for you to get back into the bed } 5.  Head for the coffee pot, Bible and so forth { Yes, I do it in that order } 6.   If you fail.  Try again tomorrow.     Remember— Mornings are the most profitable. I think this is the time when we are most energized making it much easier for more things to be done. It takes time to prepare our minds for the day, so rising early gives us the jump start we need. Note:  I try to make sure to have everything that I'll need for the morning ready at night. Just as we don't change all at once, so we don't swallo...

"Use me then, my Savior, for whatever purposes and in whatever way you may require.  Here is my poor heart, an empty vessel; fill it with your grace." D.L. Mood — excerpt from One Thousand gifts. Sunday morning thought-felt meditations