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Happy Birthday to You
You're more beautiful than you knew
Great mom, sister, friend
And you can still do a back bend
We hope your day is extra great
For presents you no longer have to wait
Maybe tiny baby will cooperate all day
And on the couch you'll get to lay
Take some time to breath it all in now
It's your day, HOLY COW!
WE LOVE YOU! ~ The Chicks!
Before I start this blog let me just say that this is not for plannerchick. I have not put any hidden messages in it and I am not trying to send her a message within my post. This is something that has been on my heart that I have experienced lately.
We plan out our lives. Even as a small child we plan on when we think we should get married, what we should do for a living, how many kids we want and when we want them.
I had it all planned out; married by 18, have a kid 6 years later, then another one 2 years after that, and maybe one more 3 years later. That was my plan. We have Miss priss and Little Sis but didn't plan on even trying for another one until Little Sis had turned 2. Well needless to say here I am now Miss Priss 3, Little Sis 18 months and another one is on the way.
So where did I ever say in my plan of life, "God what is your plan for me?" I always thought that I would just walk the way that I thought and God would lead me. But then I got pregnant and was a little on the upset side. Because I didn't even stop to think that this was God's plan for me and Mr. Social from the very beginning of our lives.
So you can plan all you want but do you have room for God's plan to fit into your life? We try to plan day to day or week to week or even year to year but do we every say God if this is not your plan for me then please disrupt my plan and show me yours? Then when God totally changes our plan, do we have a good attitude about it?
I felt like God told me a few weeks back that he was looking for a NOW Generation! A generation that doesn't hold back and ask why or analyze everything. A generation that hears God and immediately responds to what he tells us to do.
So if we have everything planned out for our lives then do we have time to be a Now generation! If God tells us to pray in a business meeting, are we alright doing it knowing that we may loose our job? If God tells us to lay hands on someone in Wal-Mart, do we stop because of the social status we have in our community? A Now Generation doesn't worry about tomorrow, they live in the word of God that he spoke to them at that moment!
A few weeks ago God told me to grab a flag at church and wave it. Well I hesitated and I heard him say, "Do you have enough faith in me to know that I can conquer every battle that you go through?" So I grabbed the flag and began to wave it. That night I started spotting and figured that I was having a miscarriage. Mr. Social grabbed me up and began to pray. That very moment that same soft spoken voice said, "Do you not have enough faith in me to know that I can win every battle that you go through?" At that very moment I had peace! Because of my now actions with waving the flag it built my faith up enough to have faith immediately when the situation looked bad.
You never know what God is preparing you for when he asks you to do something "Now"! Your "now" faith, or your "now" obedience leads to a "Now generation!
Lets stop worrying about how we have planned out our lives and try to pull together and be a sold out living for God Now Generation!
I walk through the living room and Mr. Bossy is laughing and tells The Boy to tell me what he said...
This is what went down...
The Boy: ( to Big Girl) Do you kow what an orchestra is?
Big Girl: ( very delighted, because this was one of her vocab words) YES!, Its.... (and she gives him her text book definition)
The Boy: well, if you were in it, I'd call it a dork-estra!
That is all, you do what I say- Bossy
Lane: Mom, dad is thinking about liking the Gators
Me: I know son
Lane: Seriously mom, he wants to be a Gator
Me: I know baby
Lane: Do you want to be a Gator?
Me: Never Lane.
Lane: We still like the Seminoles, huh Mom?
Me: Yes Lane
Lane: Does that mean you and Daddy have to break up?
Me: No baby, I dont think he will ACTUALLY become a Gator (hehehehe).
Lane: He mom, Im responsive now.
Me: You're responsive?
Lane: Yesssssss...You can have a date night tonight. Because I've become responsive.
Me: Oh you mean responsIBLE? Is that so...
Lane: Ugh...YEAHHHH. I can watch babies now.
Me: Which babies?
Lane: All the babies. I'm already responsive. How hard is it to feed a baby again?
by sassychick ~ Instead of waking up everyday TRYING to earn love - Wake up everyday in the awareness you ALREADY ARE.
1 John 4:18...There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life - fear of death, fear of judgment - is one not yet fully formed in love.
I am not referencing a relationship with a husband, a child, a friend. Why? Because that is not a perfect love. Lesson number 1....There is one, and only one, perfect love. Quit trying to make it make sense.
How many of us have thought the following at one time or another...
I had two flat tires, I didn't get that promotion at work, and the kids are out of control....God must be trying to tell me something. I must be out of his "favor". Why else would this be happening?
I read recently the exact definition of this kind of mindset...Favor Driven Relationship...or a petal picking Christianity...he loves me, he loves me not. That has never occurred to me that I had been living that kind of relationship with my father. I spoke of love, taught of love, but I lived with a favor driven mindset...if I just kept it in between the white lines, it should be smooth sailing. Any boat rocking and I must be out of his"favor".
The only thing that implies is that my God loves me based on my actions, based on what I do to "EARN" it. Why do we strive to be accepted by a God who went to GREAT lengths to prove it was already ours. So I have spent 30 years trying to earn points with a God who doesn't keep score.
I think we have missed the point on many of the lessons God has tried to teach us throughout his word. Where we have perceived punishment and been motivated by fear, God was teaching us HIS UNENDING LOVE. His love in unaffected by our actions. The key to God's favor is NOT what I can do or give him, but what I've already been given.
This was PERFECTLY illustrated by my son who when he did something wrong said, "Mom did the devil get in my heart?" No son, the devil did not get in your heart. We all do things we shouldn't sometimes. God still loves you the EXACT SAME AMOUNT as he did before you did it wrong. The only thing guaranteed is we will mess up and God, who loves us passionately, will continue to loves us. Period.
So I hear your minds just a going. Isn't that a excuse to sin....Who will do right if they know there is isn't a fireball to decimate them at a moment's notice? So how is that been workin for ya so far?
Fear motivates temporarily. Love motivates permanently. Not going to hell should NOT be our main selling point for a relationship with God. If it is, we don't know much about why God created this union between himself and man. What He pictured was a lifetime spent teaching us the depths and width of His love, through any adversity, anytime we fail, despite all doubt and in knowing how deep that love goes we can't help but love Him right back.
When you love someone, walking with them becomes second nature. Not participating in sin is something we are compelled to do out of genuine love for a God who did everything in his power to remove anything that will cause distance between Himself and his beloved, not because he will hate me if I do. Fear is powerful, God's love in infinitely more powerful.
I read this and I thought it was a perfect definition: God is not disillusioned with you, because he had no illusions about you in the first place. It ok for us to be disillusioned with God, WHY?....because we need to "DISS" our Illusions. So God has given us the power to CHOSE to live in his love or consciously walk less loved and into bondage. What an amazing and seemingly easy choice, yet we chose the latter EVERYDAY.
Why do we have such a hard time walking Loved? Because we cannot love without trust, and frankly most of us have a hard time trusting God. Not JUST because we may have had a bad experience with our earthly father, but because we live in a punishment/reward based world. If we don't earn it there is no reward and when we do bad we can expect some punishment. Well newsflash, you can't compare God love to anything you experience on earth, why? Because you will NEVER experience that kind of love with another human. Doesn't sin offer its own punishment in the form of consequences? Does God have to hand out punishment on top of punishment? Or maybe, just maybe, does God let us experience the consequences of sin and Love us through the consequences and use those times to illustrate His perfect love. And human love - imperfect. That's a promise.
If we don't FULLY trust that God is passionately in love with us AT ALL TIMES, we will keep him at arms length and never walk in relationship with him, never truly experience him. We will continue to walk in shame and doubt. We cannot trust based on our abilities, if we do that we are saying God is not bigger than our failure. And that we couldn't be more wrong.
Are you tired of riding a roller coaster? Are you tired of working so hard in an attempt to "earn it". Joy has been handed to you. Freedom has been handed to you. Acceptance has been handed to you. Love has been handed to you. Will you walk hand and hand with it? Or will you CHOSE to walk less loved?
