Blessings

Good Afternoon Beloved,

The song Blessings by Laura Story keeps going through my mind today and I heard it on the radio once too.  A friend of my brother John lost her 5 year old daughter yesterday following a 18 month battle with cancer.  I cannot imagine the grief and cannot imagine how I would handle that type of struggle.  Praising God for the ability to hold my (full of life) 5 year old daughter in my arms!  Praying for the family of Anna who is now with Jesus HEALED!!!  Romans 8:28 ALL things....

Love you!

Jolene

Blessings by Laura Story

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not our home

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise

Pursuing

^{Good Morning Beloved,}

 ^{I am so looking forward to being at Pine Lake this weekend.  My mission is to keep the kids enjoying life as much as possible.  Dave and I really want them to be free this weekend with no sick mom (no meds changing her personality) and no disappearing dad (going to work, mow, work in garage= not options).  My prayer is that Dave and I learn, from their youthful experience, how vital it is to live in each moment.  Today, I read this in 1 Timothy Chapter 6:}

11 But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, ^[h]perseverance and gentleness. ¹²  Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 

I love how Paul says to pursue these things (love, perseverance and gentleness) not embody them.  We will fall short but we are called to dust off the failings and get back to pursuing.  Oh How I love the grace we are afforded in Jesus!!

Make it a great weekend, my readers!!!

LOVE YOU,

Jolene

Teaching

^{Today I read further on in 1 Timothy 4:}

^11 [d] Prescribe and teach these things. ¹²  Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example ^[e]of those who believe. ¹³  Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. ¹⁴ Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you throughprophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the ^[f]presbytery. ¹⁵ Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all. ¹⁶  Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ^[g] ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.  

This is a good reading for me as I finish preparing the lessons for youth group for the last few weeks of this school year. I think it is so important that the youth learn from the words in their Bible, and not just from my interpretation or my life lessons.  I know I am in that place to show them how to learn, not just to teach them what I want them to know. Paul is good to remind Timothy and all of us that lesson.

LOVE YOU!

CONSTANTLY nourished

Good Morning Beloved,




^{1Timothy 4: 6-10}

⁶ In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the ^[b] sound doctrine which you have been following. ⁷ But ^[c]have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; ⁸ for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since itholds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.⁹  It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance.¹⁰ For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.

We are called to be disciplined in doing what we are doing (being "constantly nourished on the words of the faith.")

What a beautiful day the Lord has made.  I am facing a lot of laundry to get things back on track after our weekend away and looking at our Family Retreat weekend Friday. I can't wait to read what you have been reading.  

Slow to anger

Good Morning Beloved!

(I have decided to use this blog as a devotional.  If you are a member of our Good Morning Girls email group, you will recognize these comments from there, but I want to have a place where others can read them.) 

These are the next verses I am going to be memorizing in the first chapter of the book of James.  I have not given up on that Goal and I know God won't let me forget about my commitment to it either!  Thanks for your prayers on this task!!!!

I think it is interesting that the theme of gentleness that has been weaved through our time together is once again brought into focus.  SLOW to anger....  I have had times where this seemed so distant!!  But God is nearer now because I moved closer... HE never moves away!  Thanks for your support past, present and future!

¹²  Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has ^[m]been approved, he will receive the crown of life whichthe Lord has promised to those who love Him. ¹³ Let no one say when he is tempted, “ I am being tempted ^[n]by God”; for God cannot be tempted ^[o]by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. ¹⁴ But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. ¹⁵ Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin ^[p]is accomplished, it brings forth death. ¹⁶  Do not be ^[q]deceived,my beloved brethren. ¹⁷ Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or ^[r]shifting shadow.¹⁸ In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be ^[s]a kind of first fruits ^[t]among His creatures.

^19 [u]This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; 

LOVE YOU!!!