Saturday, May 28, 2011

Surviving Birthday Mania

May is a crazy month for our family.  We start out with Cinco de Mayo, also known as Harrison's birthday.  This year since Daddy was in Colorado for work and couldn't make it home we just had a very small party at our home.  It was hot, so we had food, cake and ice cream and sprinklers and the little wading pool for the kids.  Harrison had been practicing singing Happy Birthday to himself for about 5 days prior to his birthday and didn't stop for about a week after, so it was a LONG birthday for him!  We opened gifts on the morning of his birthday from Mommy, Daddy & Heidi and from Grandma & Grandpa in Canada.  He loved his cowboy hat because it's just like Grandpa's and his Buzz Lightyear from Laura.

Later that day several sweet friends came by and dropped gifts off for Harrison!  He loves his 2 new Bug Rangers dvds and his Lightning McQueen water wings and swim goggles.  At his party we were blessed to have lots of family come from out of town, especially Harrison's cousins from Tyler, TX and Mike's Memaw.  It was very special that she made the hot trip to celebrate the day with us.









Earlier that week Harrison, Heidi and I made some red velvet birthday cake for Mike, baked it in some mason jars, and sent it to him in Colorado.  What a fun way to celebrate even though we were apart!  We made enough to share with his co-workers even though I'm not sure it ever got shared!  Mother's Day and Mike's birthday were on the same day this year and then my birthday was a four days later.  Fun times!  Add in there Mike's dad & brother, Mike's parents anniversary and my parents anniversary it's almost as much as having Christmas and New Year's with Heidi's birthday in between!

We survived and it was wonderful.  We look forward to being all together next year and maybe having birthday week away somewhere :)


who knew you could bake cakes in a jar!?


roses from my love



Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Blessings in the Park

Yesterday I settled the matter - I would get to the park and run in the morning.  We belong to the YMCA here in Abilene. It is such an awesome facility for families.  The membership is so reasonable too.  I know many people who pay more for a single membership then we do for a family rate. Every day I can drop the kids off for "play group" for up to 2 hours as part of our membership. I can workout inside, take a group class or run outside on the paths.  Other benefits are sports teams for kids.  Harrison is going to take swim lessons in June for 4 weeks and in the fall he will be registered for flag football!  I cannot wait for this! I am so excited to see 3 year-olds chasing each other around, too fun!

So this morning I stuck to my plan and after breakfast we headed to the Y for play group.  The kids literally run in they're so excited, which makes it much easier on me to go get some mommy time in.  I re-started a couch-to-5K program today, which is awesome.  I select the songs from my ipod and it adds it to the 5K program and a voice prompt coach will tell me when to walk and when to run.  Kinda cool, huh?  It's also very easy.  Just follow the instructions.

Sort of like with Jesus.  Just tune in, listen to the voice prompts and follow the instructions!  Except I find Jesus WAY more fun than exercise!

I passed an older gentleman with his beautiful silver Schnauzer on the path and in passing said "She is really well behaved", and I didn't hear his response but then what I did hear him say was "What Lola wants, Lola gets".  He smiled and we both continued on our ways.  Immediately the Lord said to me "What you desire deep within your heart, you will have".  I began declaring a job at home in Abilene for my husband, for him to be better paid than what he is now, and for him to be involved at church, and for Mike to be happy.

I continued on and soon I noticed a man walking about 1/4 of a mile ahead of me .  He was walking briskly but obviously having a difficult time with it.  I was listening to "People Get Ready" by Misty Edwards.  If you think Jesus music can't get your heart rate going, think again! Woooooooo!

While I was watching this man struggle a holy compassion swept over me and I started declaring that God would heal him, muscle would heal, ligaments would regenerate, and that his leg would even grow out and all pain would leave!  By the time I caught up to him we were approaching a bench and I stopped him and asked him about his leg.  His name is Alex and he used to be a runner.  He was in an accident a long time ago and injured his leg, and that he also has arthritis in his leg.  I asked him if his life would be better and would he be happy if he could run pain free again?  He said "Oh yes!"  Then I asked him if he was ok with me putting my hands on his injured leg and praying for it.  He sat on the bench and stretched out his leg, I prayed just as Jesus had prompted me just moments before. I felt led to declare that if he'd ever been told that one leg is shorter than the other that his other leg would grow out and be even with the other.  He just sat in stunned silence and when I was done he had tears of gratitude in his eyes.  Alex then told me that he felt heat from my hand on his leg while I was praying.  I told him God wanted to bless him today and then I kept on with my run.  About 3/4 of a mile down the path I stopped to stretch and he passed by me and stopped to say that a lot of the pain had left and he really felt better! A second time he marvelled that he had felt "energy" go from my hand to his leg.  I smiled and said "God wanted to meet with you today" and he continued on, grinning ear to ear.  Isn't God great!??

Not only did I exercise my body this morning but my faith.  God is so good and I am so blessed to be part of how he wants to change the world, one heart at a time.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Radically New

If you know me at all, you will know that I have very little of a life outside of my church, church friends, and my service in the church.  I am not boasting about this at all, it is merely a fact about myself. I have chosen this path because it is my sole (and soul!) desire to see revival fires burn throughout America and even all of North America; to radically change the way we "do" life, family, and church.

I've been listening to a lot of teachings lately. As many as I can get my hands on really.  I am hungry for more of God. To learn His ways, how to recognize Him, hear Him, to walk with Him and talk with Him.  To help me I've also been reading lots of books, too.  You'd be surprised how God can radically change your life when you cut out all the junk- tv shows, radio, modern entertainment.  

I read something very recently from a book by Ruth Ward Heflin published in 1999 called River Glory.  This passage put into words exactly how I've been feeling for awhile:

"God is doing new things, and I like that.  I have had many wonderful experiences in Him, but unless I am touched in a new way in every service, unless God reveals something to me that I have not known before, unless I have a fresh insight, unless I feel the quickening of His Spirit in new ways, I am not satisfied.  I am determined to keep reaching into the eternal realm of the Spirit of God, I insist on stepping into new liberty, I refuse to take a single step backward, and I continue to claim new territory in God.

God is doing things differently than we could have anticipated. He is sending revival in His own way and is calling for a people who will accept revival on His terms."

I am learning how to see and experience revival on Gods terms.  It's not necessarily going to look like what I want, but He knows what is best!  He knows what we truly need.

I encourage you to experience something new in Christ today.  If you don't pray, maybe start there. Talk to God. He wants a relationship with you.  Did you know he calls you friend?

Do you worship God at home?  Maybe put some music on and praise Him. Let God take you into a deep place of worship with Him.

Do something new.  Do something radically new.  Ask Him to take you there.  Do not be satisfied with the status quo, because just look around you. It's obviously not working. It's not working for you, your family, your city, or the nation.  My prayer for you today is that you to experience more of what God has for you today.

Bless you!