being and doing

my temper has not been good the past two days... due to the "flood" that occurred in my room. there was so much anger and disappointment, when my family members didn't come to my rescue. i think this year... my sense of loneliness within the family has escalated. i feel disconnected. i feel as though i can't reach out to them, nor are they reaching out to me.

it's been a tough year.. when mom said that it was no point that they came back coz they couldn't DO anything... i realized... getting them to DO something, wasn't my top priority. I just needed them to BE there...

which makes me think and reflect... more often than not, we all think that we can only be effective if we DO something... we forget to BE ourselves. i remember DN reminding me... i am already God's blessing. I don't need to DO something... as though i need to prove my worth. I just need to BE who i am... and that's good enough.

i think sometimes we focus so much on what we can do, that when we, in our finite minds think that nothing can be done... we just surrender... or we don't do anything... but the best gift that we could offer could actually just be BEING there... the presence of someone who understands... who empathizes... is so much more powerful...

going for the Psychological First Aid course made me realize... this is exactly it. Our goal isn't to go there to SAVE them... to MAKE a difference... it's to hold those in pain... to accept and to share the experience of the disaster... it's to BE there...

need to learn to be there...

how?

how do i get rid of this... i don't know if it's healthy... i feel taken for granted.

how do i get rid of this... it deters me from sleeping well at night...

but sometimes, i wonder... is the challenge for me to get rid of it, or to handle it better...?

help me Lord.

Lamentations 3:21-23

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

My Fingernail or His Hands?

The Lord upholds him with His hand. —Psalm 37:24

Tough times can cause us to get our perspective turned around. I was reminded of this recently as I talked to a fellow-griever—another parent who, like Sue and me, lost a teenage daughter to death suddenly and without warning.

She told me she had been missing her daughter terribly, and she told God she felt as if she were hanging on by her fingernails. Then she felt as if God reminded her that His hand of protection was there to hold her up—that she could let go, and He would catch her.

That’s a better perspective, isn’t it? This picture reminds us that when troubles come and we feel least able to hold on to our faith, it’s not up to us. It’s up to God to support us with His mighty hand.

Psalm 37:23-24 says: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord . . . . Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand.” And Psalm 63:8 tells us: “My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me.”

In tough times, we can become so preoccupied with our role in “clinging to God” that we forget about His promised protection. It’s not our fingernails that sustain us—it’s His loving, upholding hand. —Dave Branon

God’s hand that holds the ocean’s depths
Can hold my small affairs;
His hand that guides the universe,
Can carry all my cares. —Anon.

No one is more secure than the one who is held in God’s hand.

Lead me to the Cross...

http://www.crosswalk.com/church/worship/what-are-we-singing-lead-me-to-the-cross-11607007.html

Ways to overcome discouragement

How do you overcome discouragement when you run into one dead end after another?

If you've ever house sat or been volunteered to water your friend's plants or feed her cat while she was away on vacation, you know how important the keys are.

After you've pawed under the mat or turned over the flower pot and come up empty, you figure she forgot to put the key out. The thought of shriveled ferns and a dried out feline drives you to hit the panic button.

You dial your friend's number.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, you confess you can't to find the keys.

You're so sorry, but could the keys be somewhere else?

O, yeah. Your friend chuckles. I forgot. The keys are hanging on a nail. Behind the downspout. Near the back door.

Does this scene sound familiar?

I'm not simply talking about the keys to a house.

I'm talking about the keys to God's plans for you.

You've prayed, read your Bible, and done everything you could possibly think of -- to the best of your strengths and even to the detriment of your weaknesses.

But, the keys to your questions can't seem to be found --

-- that opportunity you've been knocking down doors to open

-- that breakthrough you've been waiting for, hanging by a thread

-- that big problem you've been trying to solve, failure instead of success.

What can you do?

Shock and Loss

I was processing a stack of mail when I pulled it out. It was an official looking envelope from the State of California. It's the kind of letter you open right away.

Reminder: Your business state taxes are due by the end of the month.

I started a business and became a statistic.

In less than two years, I closed up shop and liquidated all inventory.

It was a shock to me and our bank account because it was the last thing I expected.

I crunched the numbers and accepted the risk. I became a entrepreneur because I believed God was in it 100%.

My needs were real. I was a new mom who needed a job with flexible hours and a greater desire to stay home with baby.

My priorities were godly. Motherhood and family. Slam dunk, right?

My prayers were answered. I prayed and sought God's guidance for a year, as I did the market research, built a business plan, and prototype. At every intersection along the process, I saw God confirm prayers.

My due diligence. I sought wise counsel and applied my expertise from a career of releasing products for high tech corporations.

Business opened and sales looked promising. I was hopefully optimistic.

Then, the market crashed.

Never Would Have Guessed

What happened?

Why would He lead me down a path that He knew would not only be fruitless, but a loss?

The answers to this question merits a book, which I'd love to write one day.

But, I'm telling you this story because I sit here in the red years later, with a business closed and the door to a lifelong passion opened: my writing.

To market my product, I created a company blog.

I have always longed to pursue writing. But it passed me by like the midnight train to Georgia.

I faced one dead end after another. I gave up hope and resigned my writing life to an underground pursuit behind closed doors and a motley crew of notebooks.

Then, my business died, along with the company blog.

But, I didn't want to stop writing.

If I blogged for a product, why can't I blog for purpose?

What if I wrote about all this stuff in my journals and published it online?

Would anybody read it?

I would've never guessed in a thousand years I'd be here to blog with you today.

My disbelief didn't change God's plans for me.

Yours won't change His plans for you either.

The Doors We Cannot Open

Do you have a plan for your life that hasn't gone the way you expected?

Are you confused to why God's led you down one path and not another?

We can try to engineer the perfect solution, with sincerity and by faith.

But there are some doors that we cannot open.

6 Keys To Overcome Dead Ends and Discouragement

If you find yourself discouraged, remember the 6 Keys To Overcome Dead Ends and Discouragement:

1. God has the keys to your life and purpose.

2. God hasn't forgotten to tell you where they are and you aren't left out in the cold.

3. In His time and wisdom, God will open the doors of opportunity for you. No matter what.

4. No hardship or personal failure can keep that door from opening. No matter how late you think it is.

5. Stay faithful in unchanging situations, while God aligns the needed sequence of events with your heart.

6. If it is time to make changes, set them in motion.

Nothing is wasted. Everything done by faith that is unseen is visible and useful to God.

It may seem door after door is shutting closed in front of you, but God has his hand on the special ones reserved. Just for you.

At the right time, you will walk through them, with a smile on your face and amazement in your eyes.

"These are the words of him who is holy and true,
who holds the key of David.

What he opens no one can shut, and
what he shuts no one can open."
Revelations 3:7

Escape

http://www.crosswalk.com/blogs/bonnie-gray/three-gifts-to-feed-your-soul-with-true-escape.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twpage&utm_campaign=dailyupdate

Sometimes I wish vacation was just around the corner. There is something special that happens when you know vacation is coming. As you go about your day, you breathe deeper. You know you can make it. Rest is coming. Vacations are great, but honestly, they are few and far between. What are we left to do in the mean time?

Feeling Invisible

Sometimes, the everyday demands of life can leave a fray on our souls. Add on top of that, the stress of a less than perfect job, relationship, health --- or an extended period of waiting -- and our souls can easily start to grow calloused. It's like a natural defense mechanism kicks in. We don't want to feel so much. We turn to "auto-pilot" mode. We unconsciously move into a survival mentality and focus on the tasks at hand. We become invisible, even though we go through the motions. Our souls were never designed to merely live functional lives.

Three Gifts

God's original habitat for us -- from the very beginning -- included three gifts:

a garden (beauty)

relationship (community)

1-1 friendship with Him (intimacy)

The Garden of Eden was perfect because it afforded an uninterrupted time away from life-draining work. We may not have a physical Eden any more. But, God has provided a better way: a true escape within us. Himself. We often feel guilty for not drawing close to God enough, but the truth is this: God can find us even in the most desolate places. Sarah's mistress Hagar could not see a way out of her miserable situation.

She ran to the desert. It was there that the Lord spoke to her.

"You are the God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me." ~ Genesis 16:7-14

God is the living One who sees me. This is how Hagar found the strength to return to less than favorable living arrangement. I don't know if you're in the desert starting this week off. I'm not saying your life has to be full of troubles or hardship. The soul's desert places exist within. When our souls long for escape -- from someone or something -- we have an answer.

It isn't guilt.

It isn't try harder.

The answer is The God who sees me. Wherever you find yourself this week, you are never so far that He cannot find you.

God will speak.

~~~~~

Which of the three Eden gifts are you hungering to escape to find --

- a garden (beauty)?

- relationship (community)?

- 1-1 friendship with Him (intimacy)?