My God My Everything

Saturday morning began with a list of things that needed to be accomplished. The house was a mess, the dogs needed a bath, Christmas shopping still needed to be finished and groceries purchased for the week. I started with the bedding and after it began washing I turned on some Christmas music and began cleaning. The whole atmosphere seemed chaotic and I felt like I was going in circles. Then I heard the words, “seek first His kingdom,” in my head and knew that I needed to stop and first spend my quiet time with God. I turned off the music, kenneled the dogs then sat on the couch and…

The other day I read a Christmas card from one of our African Tour vendors. Each year they feature a different animal and this year it was the Zebra. The message was: “Zebras. They stand out. No two are alike. Just like human fingerprints, a zebra’s stripe pattern makes each one unique.” “Yet on the savannahs of Africa , zebras don’t stand apart. They huddle together. They form clusters and their stripes make it hard to tell where one zebra ends and another begins. Which makes each of them safer from predators.” “Because as different as they are, zebras know they are stronger when they stand together.” “This holiday season,…

One night while on vacation I didn’t sleep very well and had several strange dreams that clouded my mind. I walked around the hotel room trying to clear my head and settle down so I could go back to sleep, but God had a different plan for me. He invited me to meet Him for an early morning display of His wonders. The morning air was so clean and inhaling it brought a new calmness with each breath. “Be still and know that I am God,” was the invitation before me and His peace is so inviting and desirable that I couldn’t refuse. While sitting on a beach chair I…

One of the fun parts of traveling is looking for souvenirs that will remind you of your adventure long after it has passed. I often joke that the souvenir I want to bring home is a tan and I usually do. In time the tan will fade, but the memories will remain. As I was looking through pictures and trinkets that we purchased I re-lived the trip until those were stashed away. Then one morning I was flipping through my travel bible just reading the highlighted sections and notes in the margins when I remembered reading a particular verse on a previous trip. I continued to turn pages and other…

One of my favorite things about getting away is the extra time in the day to just be still and reconnect with God. I like to get up early and go for walks on the beach and then find a secluded place to sit and have my quiet time with Him. As I sat and listened to the rhythm of the waves I noticed that I was slowly drifting into a beautiful place of peace and reflection. I watched as the sun rose above the horizon and listened as seagulls squawked each time the waves touched their feet. While sitting in the beach I buried my feet in the sand…

I just returned from a weekend get-a-way to Cabo San Lucas. While driving through the desert terrain I was taking in the sights of the many different businesses, homes and people in the area. One site that surprised me was a Christmas tree lot. They had several different sizes of trees and even white Christmas trees. In the center courtyard of the resort was a very large Christmas tree and other decorations like snowmen and presents. At the entry way was a beautifully landscaped cactus garden with a nativity scene in the center. Throughout the weekend I kept thinking of how it didn’t feel quite like Christmas without the snow…

Have you ever done something, intending it to turn out one way only to have it turn out completely different? This happens often to me with Pinterest projects and holiday baking. You see a picture of what you would like to create and the end result looks nothing like it. This happened to Paul in a different way in the book of Philippians. He had been imprisoned by his persecutors with the intent of quieting him from sharing the saving message of Jesus Christ. The end result was opposite of what they intended. “Instead of being squelched, the Message has actually prospered. All the soldiers here and everyone else too,…

………..I break out in exclamations of thanks to God. Doesn’t that just make you feel loved and valued! Those are the words in the first chapter of Philippians and are followed by, each exclamation is a trigger to prayer. That just makes me smile and think of those who cross my mind each day. Those thoughts are opportunities to send up a prayer for each person. Prayers of thanks, prayers of protection, prayers of comfort, prayers for salvation and many more. Paul, the writer of Philippians, said that he prayed with joy and confidence because he knew that the good work that God started in each one would be carried…

I began reading the book of Philippians this weekend and I really enjoyed the introduction that the Message translation provided. It began by saying that this was the apostle Paul’s happiest letter and that happiness is infectious. It continues, “But happiness is not a word we can understand by looking it up in the dictionary. In fact, non of the qualities of the Christian life can be learned out of a book. Something more like an apprenticeship is required, being around someone who out of years of devoted discipline shows us, by his or her entire behavior, what it is. Moments of verbal instruction will certainly occur, but mostly an…