Women of Faith....part 2 -- broken & bruised, now safe & loved

Have you ever thought about what it was like back before the 'fall of man?'  When Adam and Eve walked with God through the Garden of Eden.  How amazing would that have been?  Physically walking with the Creator of the Universe...side by side.  Something we will finally get to do when we get to Heaven and see how God had truly intended life to be like with Him.    I mean, do you think the animals had a voice to talk then (before 'the fall')?  Because, Eve sure doesn't seem too surprised when this slithering serpent speaks to her in the middle of the garden!  Seriously though, it would be quite surprising if you were walking down the road and all of a sudden this serpent creature starts addressing you.  "Hey, how you doing?"  But still, even though the fall of man took place and Adam and Eve ran and hid themselves, God was still there to take care of them.  Even though, He was all "where are you?"  He knew. He knew where they were, He just wanted them to come clean, admit to their sin and repent.  Isn't that all God wants us to do?  He knows everything about us and everything we do, and all he wants from us is to come forward, to come clean, to ask for His forgiveness, To humble ourselves and pray.  


God loved us so much that He sent His only Son into a world full of sin and despair, so that those who seek forgiveness can have eternal life through Jesus Christ.  
 "For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”
Christ came to this world to take on our burdens so that we may be able to have new life.  When we feel as if we our broken beyond repair, it is Christ that sets us free our past.  It is in Him that we can lay down our baggage, remove our mask and be free!
Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.


There was a story that was told about a family that was in the Alabama tornado who went through the terrible storm last year.  The family was headed to their shelter when the little girl asks about needing to find their family dog, Mason.  They looked around for this dog and just as they were pulling in this dog through the door, the dog was sucked out of their arms by the winds and taken away through the storm.  They waited the storm out and when the  storm was over, they opened the shelter door and seen the effects of this powerful storm.  Their house had been damaged severely, as so much was.
The little girl was devastated.  
When the storm was over, the little girl, still scared, tells her family that they need to look for Mason, she insisted.

Mason "the tornado survivor dog"

Everyday, they went back to the house.  They did this for 21 days. And everyday, the little girl sat on the steps that were left of the home.  She would sit there and wait for the dog.  
Then on the 21st day.  They could see that there was this small animal hobbling us the pathway.  It was Mason. He had come home. He had two broken legs and he was half is weight, but yet he pushed himself to get home.  
See he knew where home was.  He knew were there was food, shelter and love for him.  He knew where he needed to be and he was going to get there and do what he could to get there.  He was coming home dirty, bruised and broken after being in a storm.
Isn't that the same for us?  Aren't be a little like that lost puppy?  Sometimes we get lost.  Some are broken and bruised.  But when we decide to come home, or find our way home, it is then where we can find rest with our Father in Heaven. Our God. Our Healer.  Our Protector.
God is there to protect us and be with us, hold us when we need to be held and pick us up when we fall.

Women of Faith...part 1 -- it's okay not to be okay

This past weekend I was able to attend a Women of Faith conference.  I've been able to attend a few of them before in the past and they have always been amazing and worth so much for all that I can take away from the conference.  The speakers are so full of life and their love for God shines all over that stage!  This conference was a one-day event, as the two-day event will take place later on this year.   The one-day is a great addition to Women of Faith if you can't make the two-day one, but I think this event just made me more excited to see, hear and attend the event again in October in Sacramento!  :-)  


There is so much to tell about this event because it was all so amazing!  So I think I'll break it up into a couple parts in this blog, so here is Part 1 of the conference...


Worship - They always have an awesome worship experience at these events.  With this being a smaller event, there were probably near 1,000 women singing their hearts out -- praising and worshiping an amazing God!  Especially when the music stops and it's just 1,000 voices praising the Lord.


We were then introduced to the main speaker Sheila Walsh, who was accompanied by David Pendleton -- ventriloquist and Scott Macintyre -- musician/singer, once on the American Idol stage -- more to come about his story later. :)
David Pendleton shared his message through comedy through ventriloquism. While Scott Macintyre shared his heart through music and how he "walks by faith, not by sight."

A Mosaic Stone --
 I don't have the one she was talking
about, but this one was pretty :)

Then, of course, there was Sheila Walsh who shares her heart every times she steps on the stage.


Sharing - It's okay not to be okay!


Sheila opened up with  Isaiah 61:1.  The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is upon me, for the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed.
Sheila told a story about her how things aren't always how they seem and how we may think we're getting one thing but we end up with something else.  She told a story about how her son (when he was younger) and how he saw this really amazing Mosaic Stone that was beautiful put together and written on.  He decided that would be a great gift for his mom.  Well, after ordering it and when it finally arrived, it was all in tiny little pieces that had to be pieced together.  She said he spent his time assembling the pieces and writing 'I love you, mom' on the stone, in time to give it as a gift, (which, I think it was for Mother's day one year).     If you could just imagine how delicately this stone was crafted together by a pair of hands and how much love was put into it.  It's how God forms His children, taking his time and giving each one of us special gifts to be able to use as we serve him in our life. 


Isn't that how we come to God though?  We come in our brokenness, struggles, fears and tears, only to find how much he can restore us to be whole again.  God gives us new life and pulls all of our broken pieces together when we can't do it by ourselves, just like the mosaic stone.   Even when our hearts are restless and we feel we can't go on anymore...God is there!  In the midst of it all, He's there for us!  He picks us up when we're broken, dusts us off, cleans us up and puts us together, because we our His Children.  We are Children of God!
We are here to become more like Christ as we enter into a relationship with Him.  He helps us whether the changes that lie ahead of us in our lives.  Through Christ's nail-scarred hands he stops our bleeding and heals our wounds.
Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
We can come with all of our baggage and lay them at the foot of the cross.  


If you saw all of your baggage laid down in front of you, would you take it home with you?  OR Would you lay it all down?

He'll bring you through it...

It may not be easy...

Karen Kingsbury has some amazing books that have been released and that have just came out. I've recently in the past months picked up the Bailey Flanigan series; which is a continuation of her Baxter Family series, (but, in a way, it's really a series all on it's own.)  I've found that I can totally and completely dive into her novels and  read continuously and completely engage myself into her characters she writes about.  For me, I can totally put myself in Baileys character and her love for theater and the arts.  Kingsbury uses the current events in today's world in her novels to relate to her characters and what they may be going through.  Love this series and can't wait to fully engage into more of her novels!

p.s. I will probably be sharing more of my favorite quotes from her novels as I continue reading.  :-)

You Are Loved!

YOU ARE LOVED!!! Really that is all what it comes down to. It's three little words that everyone always needs to hear and know about themselves. You are loved and you have been fearfully and wonderfully made to live the life that you are living.  You were put in this life because you were strong enough to handle it.  God made you so wonderfully complex! We can't even imagine everything we are meant for because we are always learning and growing and finding out new ways we can serve and use are talents.  

Wow!  I love listening to KLove radio!  There is always and amazing song every time I turn it on to listen, and Casting Crowns -- love when they are on when I press the 'on' button on my radio. :-)  Really....though....there are many songs out there that are amazing by Casting Crowns, right?  

Especially one of the newer songs, 'Just Another Birthday.' This tells the story of a girl just looking to be loved.  Abandoned by her father when she was a little girl, left to be raised by her mother to play out both roles of mom/dad in her life and used by her boyfriend who isn't in her life for very long.  

There are so many of us out there with the best dads in the world.  We have dads to love us and protect us and pick us up when we fall through out our lives.  They laugh with us and play with us when we are little.  But, have we ever stopped to think that there are, quite possibly, many girls out there who don't have a dad or have dealt with their dad leaving or never really knowing their dad.  They don't know what it is like to be raised by a dad/father that loves them unconditionally.  
So they search and search for love anywhere they can find it. While they end up searching in all the wrong places; completely unknown and don't even realize that they are even looking for something that possibly lead to more hurt and pain.  Sometimes they just need to know that  they are loved!
As the girl in the video who ultimately comes to find that she has a Father in Heaven that loves her so very much and wants the best for her, He gives her all the love she needs in this world she is living in.  When she starts looking into the happy memories and future glances she can soon find that SHE is LOVED by an Amazing Father who will never let go of her!

God says...

I'm with You

You were meant for more.  I live my life for God.  It's not about me, it's all about Him!  Just some of the statements we hear and talk about during our 
walk with Christ and our relationship with Him.
When you put your faith and trust in the creator of the universe, when you surrender everything; ultimately, to the one who knows you from the inside out, every part of you, including your future.  
We hear these words so often, but sometimes they're just hard to fathom.  We want to surrender everything. We want to trust that God has a plan for us.  But, sometimes are question back is...When God? When is it going to happen, for me?  
I mean, I know it's your timing but when?  We are constantly being little impatient children, it's part of our human nature.  We're like that child you see in the candy store, tugging at our parents side begging for that piece of candy we are so desperately wanting and we just have to have.  We want things now or in the time we think we deserve something.  It's not until something might finally happen to us when we finally realize why God has had us wait so long.  As He is preparing each and everyone of us for our own journey, and though we may not fully understand why, we ultimately know that our wonderfully Father has nothing but the best prepared and designed for his children.


As I listen to K-Love through out the day the song, I'm with you by Amy Grant and Nichole Nordeman has played several times now.  I love the words of this song and the way that the song describes the relationship between Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi.  It really just made me want to read this wonderful story, that I know I've read/heard so many times before, again to be able to recapture it again.

(Ruth 1-4)

I just love the relationship that was told about between Ruth and Naomi.  The story of the young woman who stayed by her mother-in-laws' side even after the death of her husband.  
Sometimes we don't understand what God is calling us to do, and we don't even know where to begin sometimes, but it's our devout faith in our God and King that gets us though some of the hardest times; because, we know that He has something better planned for us in the future.
Ruth loved her Heavenly Father so much that she was willing to devote her life to serving Him as well as standing by her mother-in-law, Naomi side.  She was willing to stay with Naomi's for the rest of her life. 
Ruth found so much in Noami.  She found this older, yet wiser woman.  She found a mentor. Someone whom she would be able to talk to, to confide in, to be a friend to and to learn from.
Again, this is another woman that God had more plans for.  It was then, while Ruth was working in the fields, harvesting the grain, she met Boaz.  This would be the man who had showed her kindness and ultimately being the man she will marry.  The story is an amazing story of faith, hope, love, commitment and devotion.


It's so amazing to be able to have a wonderful mentor in your life.  Someone you can look up to, ask question to, someone who has possibly been where you are/have been and can give you advice on how to deal with life as you grow in Christ.  It must have been an amazing learning experience for Ruth to have spend this time with Naomi as she grew in the time they were spending together.  
Take joy in those women who you can get advice from and can learn from.  I, for one, can think of several wonderful women that have had an amazing influence on me, in every place that I have lived from California to Indiana.  I am grateful for the woman that I have become because of their influence and I am so thankful for everyone that has been involved in my life in these place.  What mentors have you had in your lives that have given you a positive outlook on life? Have they increased you walk with Christ?  

I'm with you

Love is a hurricane in a blue sky,
I didn't see it coming, never knew why.
All the laughter and the dreams,
All the memories in between,
Washed away in a steady stream.

Love is a hunger, a famine in your soul.
I thought I planted beauty, but it would never grow.
Now I'm on my hands and knees,
Trying to gather up my dreams,
Trying to hold on to anything.
We could shake a fist in times like this
When we don't understand or we could just hold hands.

You and me, me and you,
Where you go, I'll go too,
I'm with you, I'm with you.
Till your heart finds a home,
I won't let you feel alone,
I'm with you, I'm with you, with you.

You do your best to build a higher wall.
To keep love safe from any wrecking ball.
When the dust has cleared, we will
See the house that love rebuilds,
Guarding beauty that lives here still.

Who can say I'm left with nothing?
When I have all of you, all of you, yeah.
In the way you've always loved me.
I remember, He does too.