I try to post to this blog once a week about the spiritual aspect of my life at that given time. This week, I can't quite explain it. Initially I want to say God is being quiet but that isn't true. I have been prompted to pray and prompted to rethink some things. So no, God isn't being quiet. I am inclined to say I am too busy to be hearing from God, plus, I didn't go to church on Sunday or Wednesday this week...little bit of self imposed guilt comes through there. But that is not entirely it either. I think, perhaps, that the spiritual aspects of our day to day life don't always have to be profound! In relationships (as we are in with God) each day is wonderful but not always full of "aha's" and "wows". Humanly speaking, some of our best relationship days are just quiet days where we get to just simply be with one another. Maybe not a word is spoken! Life is just calm and we are together chillin'. That's good even looked forward to. I know my husband and I have been talking about this and dreaming about it :-). Could this be my spiritual place this week, just chillin' with God? I rather kinda like that thought and I rather kinda like being here...just temporarily though. Ponder it!
Hoping your walk with God is always in forward motion!
D. J.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
I love Norman Vincent Peale
I don't know how many years it has been since I was fortunate enough to read Norman Vincent Peale's book The Power of Positive Thinking. Recently, after many many years, I have picked the book back up and I am reading it again. It's all about thinking positive thoughts - why? Because God through His Word gives us so much hope, so much promise, so much to be happy about!
I am reminded that we, as Christians, simply don't pray enough, we don't read God's word enough and we don't apply God's word to our daily lives enough. I think of the Norman Vincent Peales, the Zig Ziglars, oh...there is one more I can't think of right now, anyway - they lived their faith totally in faith, solid knowledge, and dynamically! Sadly I think these types of Christians are literally a dieing breed. I want to change that. I want to be one of "those Christians" I want to bring about true change in someones life - not just because they BELIEVE the GOOD NEWS but because they BELIEVE AND LIVE what the GOOD NEWS has to say and offer.
I read the scripture this morning that says "who can add an hour to his life by worrying". So true. Why worry? Just pray and believe. We are told to come boldly before the throne. We are told God is able to do abundantly more than we can ask for or imagine. If God be for us, who can be against us? I know the reason I am not prospering as much as I would like right now is because of me! My thinking, my lack of Godly knowledge and my lack of applying Godly knowledge to my daily living. The power to change this is in my hands. I am not just talking financially here. I am talking emotionally, spiritually, through relationships, through work, through mothering and wifing. Doing it all - that's my Call -- I want to do it all with God's power right with me. If I want to drive to Wal Mart I have to put the power of gasoline in my tank, right? Well if I want to live my faith the way God wants me to I have to put the power of God in my mind (by reading His word and thinking positive right thoughts) and on my tongue by speaking truth, life and positive things into everything I say!
That's where I am today. Pondering what I haven't tapped into.
How about you?
Lots of love,
D. J.
I am reminded that we, as Christians, simply don't pray enough, we don't read God's word enough and we don't apply God's word to our daily lives enough. I think of the Norman Vincent Peales, the Zig Ziglars, oh...there is one more I can't think of right now, anyway - they lived their faith totally in faith, solid knowledge, and dynamically! Sadly I think these types of Christians are literally a dieing breed. I want to change that. I want to be one of "those Christians" I want to bring about true change in someones life - not just because they BELIEVE the GOOD NEWS but because they BELIEVE AND LIVE what the GOOD NEWS has to say and offer.
I read the scripture this morning that says "who can add an hour to his life by worrying". So true. Why worry? Just pray and believe. We are told to come boldly before the throne. We are told God is able to do abundantly more than we can ask for or imagine. If God be for us, who can be against us? I know the reason I am not prospering as much as I would like right now is because of me! My thinking, my lack of Godly knowledge and my lack of applying Godly knowledge to my daily living. The power to change this is in my hands. I am not just talking financially here. I am talking emotionally, spiritually, through relationships, through work, through mothering and wifing. Doing it all - that's my Call -- I want to do it all with God's power right with me. If I want to drive to Wal Mart I have to put the power of gasoline in my tank, right? Well if I want to live my faith the way God wants me to I have to put the power of God in my mind (by reading His word and thinking positive right thoughts) and on my tongue by speaking truth, life and positive things into everything I say!
That's where I am today. Pondering what I haven't tapped into.
How about you?
Lots of love,
D. J.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Wives - stop putting too much on those husbands!
God has shown me an interesting thing this week. Not through any major life happening - just an eye opening word to my spirit. My husband always keeps a stash of cash hidden. I rarely ask how much is in the stash and rarely get into the stash. But, I know it's there. I depend on my husband to always have it there. Knowing this, sometimes - well most of the time, my spending habits are rather sloppy and my budgeting discipline has been non existent. God, for quite some time, has been prompting me to pay better attention to our finances, to be disciplined, and while I have acknowledged the prompting - I have done very very very little to act on the prompting. So I spend, without a budget, a little too much here, a little extravagantly there, and there is nothing wrong with 3 or 4 $4.00 lattes in a week - right? And inevitably we end up in a bind - but that's okay because Bobby always saves us with the stash. WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG! My husband isn't stashing to save my undisciplined hiney - he is stashing to SAVE. What an insane amount of stress and pressure I put on him to bail us out because my spending is careless. As a side note - does my husband spend as God would have him to? Well, let me be quite frank here - it is none of my business if my husband is following God's personal promptings and guidance for him - that is between God and my husband. You know the plank in your own eye scripture....Yes, pay attention to what God is telling you and don't whine "But he gets to do it" Okay, back to my point. God is our ultimate provider - not our husbands. Our husbands are here for us to love and to be loved by and to enjoy and grow together. We all know marriage is HARD - so why make it more difficult. I would rather work with my husband in the area of our finances rather than dumping on him when my negligent spending finally catches up. I would rather lean on God together with my husband - trusting God together to be OUR provider. That's what God wants us to do! He wants to provide, but we must trust Him to do so, straighten up our own sinful deeds that would block the blessing of provision, and then stand. I like to envision my hubby and I standing, holding hands and smiling. We all know when we "discuss" money - this is usually not the pose or expression we have.
This week I made a budget for the next two weeks - it's all I could grasp and it's UGLY. But, God is prompting me to look at the budget and the checkbook daily - so He is walking me through this daily. He is honoring what I have done and what I continue to do. I was able to show my husband our SCARY budget last night and we did not argue. I let him off the hook - I told him I didn't expect him to figure it out, I just wanted him to know where we are standing. I also told him I was finally listening to God - thus the budget - and that I am praying about and trusting God to provide. This was a much nicer "discussion" to have regarding our finances. It was good - and I don't think either of us are worried, rather we are focused and full of faith.
Hoping this speaks to someone!
Lots of love to all,
D. J.
This week I made a budget for the next two weeks - it's all I could grasp and it's UGLY. But, God is prompting me to look at the budget and the checkbook daily - so He is walking me through this daily. He is honoring what I have done and what I continue to do. I was able to show my husband our SCARY budget last night and we did not argue. I let him off the hook - I told him I didn't expect him to figure it out, I just wanted him to know where we are standing. I also told him I was finally listening to God - thus the budget - and that I am praying about and trusting God to provide. This was a much nicer "discussion" to have regarding our finances. It was good - and I don't think either of us are worried, rather we are focused and full of faith.
Hoping this speaks to someone!
Lots of love to all,
D. J.
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