Heart and Breath

I may sound like a broken record in saying this. I state this often because I strongly believe it and long for you to also believe and fully experience it.  

Our relationship with the Lord is the most important relationship there is. 

In this relationship, we will receive benefits we could not imagine. In my own experience, I have found all the love He has to give is mine and I receive it new each morning, quietly alone with Him where I know daily the heart and breath of His love to me.

The joy that puts a bounce in my step just walking from room to room or across the aisle of the grocery store, that is the heart and breath He is to me! When I understand that I am loved by an Almighty God and heavenly Father, it is a natural progression to be filled with joy. How could this not fill me with great joy?

The heart and breath He is to me also comes in the peace He gives me. I don’t have to worry about what I do not know, because I have His peace, which is better than answers. Oh, I definitely start to worry, but I have to stop and remind myself what God’s Word tells me, and I choose to trade worry for His peace.

With His peace, I also gain comfort and strength to take me through the difficult days that life is sure to hold while we walk on this earth.

He fills my heart with all of this and more, and I live and breathe these blessings every day. With each breath I take and each beat of my heart, I will love the LORD my God. 

Mark 12:30 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.  

Uniquely Gifted

If you want to see God’s handiwork on display, you will find it at the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden, especially in the spring when the tulips grace the grassy fields for several weeks. You may have noticed a few of these Arboretum photos of their Dallas Blooms tulip exhibition in my recent posts, because, yes, I had to go see them. 

Just as God has beautifully created elegant flowers in bountiful colors and designs, He has beautifully created each one of us. Some of us are tall, some of us are short. We might have brown hair, or we might have blonde or auburn hair. Our eyes could be blue, but they just might be brown.

Our eyes might sparkle at the smallest hint of joy or we may easily spill a tear when emotions tug at our heart. God made us and He made us each unique.

He also gave us gifts and talents to use and enjoy. 

We might be a Master Gardener and can grow beautiful tulips like the ones above. We might be an artist who can paint on canvas what the eyes have seen, or a photographer who can use their camera to catch just the right amazing picture.

Please join me at God-sized Dreams today where I write about how we are all gifted by God, because He fearfully and wonderfully made each one of us. 

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We Are All Gifted 

Savor

To every child of God today…

For a little while

Just let it soak in and savor

Who you are in Him

You are His child

He wants a relationship with you

Daily

Hourly

Moment to moment

Every moment

For a little while

Spoil yourself by sitting in His presence

Pour out your heart

Place your hand in His

Know He is with you

For a little while

Just be His child

Just be the one He formed and fearfully and wonderfully made

Be the unique person He made you to be

Be the one He wants to draw near to Him

For a little while

Indulge yourself

Just let it soak in and savor

Who you are in Him

1 John 3:1

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!

A Gift of Days

Today,

This moment,

This is where we live.

Sometimes though, 

We forget to live in the here and now.

We are often living for a tomorrow that is a product of our longing or imagination. 

We buy into the grass is greener on the other side mentality. Because certainly life will be better when...

Today turns into a place of discontent and we are too focused on what we think will be better in the days ahead.

I think I have some good advice. 

Embrace the season you are in. Embrace where you are today.

I have said this to others and turn around and forget to do it myself. When I follow my own advice though, I will look harder to see the beauty in each new day. When I follow my own advice, I also find that I am okay in the moment and am reminded that life is a gift of days - given one at a time.

I need to keep both feet planted in today while it is today and not start skipping ahead to tomorrow. If I am skipping ahead to tomorrow, I will then literally skip today. That would be a shame. 

What happens if we don’t give today the attention it is due? I think we end up devaluing it and that turns into a wasted day. Now I know when it comes down to it, I don’t want to waste my days. 

In my heart it is my desire to walk my days with the Lord. I need to do that one day at a time while living in the moment to moment of each day. 

Today,

Here,

Now.

Psalm 118:24 This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Finding Perfect Peace

You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You. 
Isaiah 26:3

Almost everyone I know wants more peace in their lives. Many people that I know are desperately hoping and grasping for what seems altogether impossible in their present situations. They don’t see solutions but just maybe they can find some peace.

If there is a remedy for finding peace in our turmoil-filled lives, it will happen when we see our Holy God as He is, Almighty, all powerful, all-knowing, wholly Sovereign.

We will not learn how to free ourselves of anxiety - until we learn to give Him our worries and believe He will never forsake us no matter what is going on, according to the promise of Deuteronomy 31:6, “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.” 

Most worry develops because we cannot fix our problems. We can’t make things happen and we can’t make things stop. When we choose to trust, worry loses its fierce grip from our nervous wringing hands.

We will have peace when we believe the same God who parted seas, loosed prison chains, and used marching men shouting and blowing trumpets to topple a city wall, is the same God who never leaves us in our hour of need. This same God will walk with us in the difficult trials of our lives.

We will have peace when we believe with assured confidence He will carry our burdens and carry us, too. He will take us through, always walking beside us. He is all the help we will ever need. This is why we can find peace when we make the significant choice to trust the Lord.

A Good Season of Life

I am an empty nester, and I love it. It wasn’t that I was anxious to get my two little birds out of the nest. It was just that when the time came I discovered that this is also a good season of life. I love the young women our daughters are, and I also enjoy having my husband to myself.

    

But, I became an empty nester sooner than my plans would have allowed, far sooner than I would have expected when we first started our family.

    

We had hoped to have three to five children. I was thankful to be marrying a godly man who wanted to have several children. Randy and I knew it was ultimately in God’s hands what size our family would be, but as we discussed our plans in those early years, we both hoped to have at least three to five children.

    

We do have five children. We have two here, and three in heaven waiting for us. I had two miscarriages and one precious newborn baby girl who only lived on this earth for two very short days.

    

So, my cozy nest was never as full as I had hoped it would be. I thought there would be many more years of little ones underfoot, and to make our family fill up more chairs around the table, more little ones and growing ones to love and to cherish.

    

But God had other plans. I don’t know why, but I know Him. And I rest safe and secure and loved in knowing Him and knowing He is a sovereign God.

    

I also recognize and know that I am blessed beyond measure in all I have been given, and when my empty nest years came sooner than I thought they would - I found that my life is full, so very full. God fills me up! In whatever season of life I am in, He fills me up.

    

God gave us His strength and comfort to heal from our loss, and grace to accept that His plans for our lives and for our family were not the ones Randy and I discussed early in our marriage. We learned that in accepting His will for our lives that we were also graced with peace and joy to embrace what we had been given.

    

Yes, the empty nest years came sooner than I anticipated, and the rhythm of life greatly changed upon the departure of both daughters as they went off to college and careers and built their own lives. They are thriving in the new season of their lives, and my husband and I are thriving in this new season of our lives.

The latest change in our family has been the marriage of our oldest daughter.  So we have added to our family with the addition of a wonderful son-in-law.

    

Life is full of changing seasons. This is also true for our dreams and goals that can also change with the tide of different life seasons. Yet, through life’s changing seasons, we will find there is one thing that will never change. We can trust God with it all and through it all!

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 23:6