It's been too long. :)

Please forgive me for seeming to drop off the face of the earth where this blog is concerned. I think I've kept in touch with most of you personally. I started this blog to be able to communicate about the daily struggle of being a Godly woman, and haven't posted in two months! I do ask your forgiveness. I lost my message for a while - but then, I realized, we ALL do sometimes. Sometimes God changes our message, or we refuse to listen to the message He wants us to share (as a wise woman admitted in her study last night at church!:D)

So, I might as well jump right in with a tough subject, right? :D

I've been feeling lately that I'm sleepwalking through my personal walk with Jesus. Let me tell you what I mean, and I hope you'll share whether I'm crazy :D, whether you've gone through something like that yourself, or whether something in your spirit is testifying the truth of what I share.

I read my Bible. I read devotionals online. I read REALLY great stuff that's being written by my friends and contemporaries.

I pray. I pray with my husband. I pray throughout the day. I do devotions with my husband.

I listen to praise music. I sing praise music - and worship music. I sit in stillness and try to listen.

I minister. I help my friends. I give them tough love and we have real communication about what God wants.

And some days, it's GOOD. Some days, I feel GREAT about where I am, what I'm doing, and what God's using me for.

And yet.

There are MORE days when I don't feel like I'm moving. When I feel NOTHING. When I know God is moving, and moving ME, but I'm not being MOVED. Does that make sense?

Like I'm sleepwalking through when I should be WIDE AWAKE. Like I'm not engaged in what God is doing to me or through me.

Or is that the way it's SUPPOSED to be? Am I being a vessel, poured out and used by Him?

So tell me, dear one. Does this strike a chord for you? Which do you think it is? And can you give me some Biblical backing for what you think?

The picture of the cat, above, is one I dearly love. I took it in Kalama, WA, outside a little restaurant. It's one of the prettiest places that's not directly on the ocean that I know of. :D This cat was sleeping on the handrail outside the restaurant. He wasn't phased by ANYTHING or ANYONE. He was content, comfortable, fed, and on his own turf.

But I don't want to be found SLEEPING. I want to be awake, alert, and AWARE. So talk to me!!! :)

Capture That Thought!

Hello, dear friend. How are you doing today? Are you feeling blessed? Because you ARE. AND highly favored!

This isn't the message that I thought was going to be first to you, but it's the one God's been dealing with ME about, and I feel that He is asking me to share my struggle and my understanding on it.

Last night, I was REALLY tired. We'd been up a long time, today was going to be a busy, long day, and I was ready to rest. But God wasn't ready to let me end my day. :)

I lay in bed for a long time, trying to be still so Kenn could get some sleep. I finally crept into the bathroom and took a bath, hoping that would be relaxing enough to push me into sweet slumber.

Nope.

I went back into the bedroom and lay back down. (My glasses were in there, so I couldn't really go anywhere else!) I decided to try some other tricks that usually work.

Nope.

Finally - why is it ALWAYS the last resort???? - I asked God what He wanted to tell me.

"Capture every thought."

Huh? What did THAT mean??

And then I began to follow the "thread" in my life lately. Holiness. I'm sure you've either heard or sung the song "Holiness is what I long for". And that's been the sermon topic for four weeks at our new church. It's becoming more and more important to me; I want to seek holiness, to "be holy as I (God) am holy" - and I know I CANNOT be, except to let Him take me and fill me.

"Capture every thought."

OK, Father. I will. I know there's a Scripture that relates those very words, so I'll look it up.

Still no sleep. :::sigh:::

OK, God. I hear you. You want me to capture every thought. Practicing self-control in deed is not enough; each THOUGHT needs to be held up to Your light. No dwelling on past hurts, no thinking about temptations that I know I'll not succomb to (but thinking is fun!).

Yes, Lord. With You, I'll do it. You'll have to do it through me, though. I'm not strong enough.

The next thing I knew, it was morning. :D

Here is the Scripture, dear one:

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (New International Version)

4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

That is my pledge this week. To capture EVERY thought. Every "pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God".

It's so easy to get caught up in Satan's lies and ambushes for us! To get caught in the daily grind, and - even though we know we don't "believe" it, our actions tell a different story! - to live as though the problems of our lives are all-consuming.

If you can grasp this ONE point that I have to share with you, dear friend, it's this: this life is so fleeting. We don't know from one moment to the next if we'll be ALIVE for that next moment. But worrying about the future consumes us! BE FREED FROM THAT. Yes, it's important - and we have to live with the repercussions of our responsibilities. But God is bigger than EVERYTHING. He's BEFORE everything, He's AFTER everything. He SO loves you. He's trying to get our attention. He wants us to know Him. Face-to-face. Intimately. And so many times in our lives, we have to chase down the kids, or talk to the doctor about a life-threatening illness, or deal with a butthead of a boss. And that clamor drowns out His voice, His pleading for a little time with you.

My prayer for you is that you can put all the noise, the clamor, the busyness, the hectic schedule, to one side. There's no checklist! There's no "Do this to get closer to God" instruction manual. Do you know, He's waiting to just BE with you? Tell Him you want to know Him, and then just be still in His presence. You might not hear His voice, but you will be so awed by His presence, His peace, His MERCY - His HOLINESS.

Just be STILL, and know.

See? I told you I'd be back!

This is Maggie. Isn't she beautiful? She's the reason I didn't have time earlier to blog. Maggie just turned 1, and this is one of her "I'm ONE!" photos. We took a LOT, but I just LOVED the look on her face in this one. You know what she did right after she looked at me like this? She turned around, pulled that coupon out of the top of the magazine, and took a bite of it. I was the ONLY one watching her, and she was checking to see if I was going to stop her from doing something she suspected wasn't proper. :D

Just a QUICK thought here - don't we do the same thing with God often???

OK. :) On to what I really want to talk about today: the movie we saw. The four of us went to see THE GREAT DEBATERS, with Denzel Washington in the lead role. WOW, what a powerful movie - and a powerful performance. I truly enjoyed it; it was about a black college's tiny debate team in the 1930s, and the racial tension they had to overcome. This is the kind of role Denzel should do more often, in my opinion - uplifting, challenging one's thinking and moral stand. He not only starred in it, he directed it - BRAVO, Denzel!! The movie did an incredible job of making you FEEL that racial tension, not SEEING the actual violence for the most part, but seeing the aftermath of it.

I applaud this movie on two fronts. First, as a person who passionately loves words, and the use of them - my degree's in communications, minor in English lit :D - I say BRAVO for a movie that shows the POWER of the spoken word to change opinions, challenge viewpoints, and alter people's lives for the better.

Second, this movie was about more than just racial injustice. It was about the act of civil disobedience. I won't tell you my second absolutely favorite scene of the movie, because it's the highpoint of the movie :D, but I'm HIGHLY recommending this movie for anyone who's not afraid to THINK! :) STRONG support for all thought in the movie, and not just secular support - Wiley College is a Methodist college!

If you go see it, let me know what you think. I'd be very interested!

Goal check! MammyT and Judy have checked in with me this week. Becky? Deby? Let's see. My goals so far: I'm up-to-date with my reading, I've got my Y bag all ready to go Tuesday morning, and I'm being able to spend more time with my family and friends this week already. Of course, that's also partly because I haven't been able to get creative in my studio, but.... :D I think so far, so good!

Gosh, I could go on and on!!!! Girls, do you want me to keep questions about your individual goals between you and me, or post here?

Most of you don't know me before this blog, really, which is great - I'm SO glad God's brought new friends into my life! - but one of the things Kenn and I do is an *almost*-daily devotional "thought for the day". I'm posting today's picture here, but I really want to invite you to email me or leave me a comment and let me know that you'd like to receive the emails we send. I'll put you on the list, and then you can take yourself off it any time you decide! I just feel like it would bless you - God speaks through others a lot, and what we do is take photos of His creation, and allow those photos and His Word - and, most of the time, a hint or two from us :D - to speak to you. Just let me know! :)

OK. I'm going to go put on my PJs. It's been a long day, and I have lots of work to do. :) THANK YOU for reading my book today. LOL!!! I'm SO enjoying sharing with you!

GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!