How Can I Love You More

If your heart is full of Love for the Lord, the rest of your life will fall into place. 

 “Lord, how can I love you more”? Instantly the Lord responded “be thankful”. 

 Love always brings revelation, allowing you to see things and people in God’s light. When you decide to be thankful to God, even for the suffering, then the love in your heart for God will increase and so will your revelation of knowing Him, When you thank and praise God in your suffering your love for God allows Him to make the situation work together for good, for you and for other people also. 

You only need to read the prologue in the book of Job to see thankfulness and gratitude in the face of trial, a difficult example to follow. If we witness love for God in the presence of blessing it is easy to see why that love is strong but when that Love for God is evident in the face of tragedy and loss, we understand what God's unconditional love can do for us when we need Him the most.  

Just "keep Trusting the Lord" he will never fail.




Dear Lord...How can I love you more?  help me to put you first in my life and be thankful every moment of every day that I have found your promise to be true...I can not love you more than you love me. In your precious name I pray....Amen.

Are You Where You Thought You'd Be?

Am I where I thought I was going 46 years ago? Were my feet set on the path that leads to my life today?

If truthfully thought through, the answer is,"No".  My goals were smaller if I had any at all. There was no bigger picture out there somewhere with dreams to be conquered, they just seemed to drop in my path to be dealt with. Some of the obstacles I encountered on my path made me stumble, fall and lose my way for awhile, others blocked the direct route and I had to change direction and follow a side road.

from the song "Something Beautiful" by Bill and Gloria Gaither

"if there ever were dreams that were lofty and noble

they were my dreams from the start.  And the hopes for life's best

were the hopes that I harbored, down deep in my heart..."

I was young, married right out of high school and it seemed that must be my dream, everybody did it. Our first child was born,  so mothering, cleaning and cooking became the dreams of my future or was it?  The call to "serve his country" took my husband away for a time, and I was left to make it on my own, and I found that I could. That call also led to traveling across a big wide country, living without family and old friends where together we learned to lean on each other for what we needed, in sickness and in health. A second child was born and coping with sickness made us stronger.

This initial big change to our pattern for life led to more choices and decisions throughout the years.
And as I live forward and look back, I know that it wasn't by chance or coincidence it was God! and I understand.

The road of our life remained crooked and strewn with obstacles but I eventually found the map of God's Word to guide me through the potholes and perils along the way,

and I wouldn't change a thing.
Thank you Lord, for guiding and directing me, you are the God of the Mountain and the God in the valley, we only have to acknowledge you, and you will make our paths straight.

Proverbs 3: 5&6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

Use What You've Been Given

Romans 12:4-8

*  4Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function,5so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.

6In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

We can't be all things to all people...and it was meant to be that way so we lean on each other, borrow from others what we do not posses and lend to them that need what you have been given. The Spiritual Gifts that God has given us need to be cultivated, not hidden, but used to the best of your ability,

 "Hide it under a bushel No! I'm gonna let it shine"

 Be proud of your gifts and spread them around for all to benefit. Use your Spiritual Gifts to help one another. What have we done with the Grace assigned to us by God? Have we obeyed and followed through with responsibility and pressed on even when trials made it difficult? 

 2 Timothy 4:7 7 

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

His master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master." (NASB) Matthew 25:21 and 23

Thank you Lord, for the gifts I have been given, help me to use them according to your purpose, and join in with others to make us one body through you, in Christ Jesus I ask. Amen

Finding Your Faith

I prayed for faith and thought it would strike me like lightening. But faith did not come. One day I read, “Now faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” I had closed my Bible and prayed for faith. I now began to study my Bible and faith has been growing ever since.

Dwight L. Moody

 God loves us unconditionally, God will never let us down, and God is waiting on us to turn to Him and ask Him what His plan is for our life. God never left us or turned his back on us, He's been right there, in the same place, all this time. All He's wanted is for us to admit to Him that we couldn't do it alone, and to surrender our will back over to him.  

The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. ~Deuteronomy 31:8

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ~Jeremiah 29:13

When we acknowledge that it really wasn't God who left us, but that we drifted away, bit by bit, day by day putting distance between ourselves and God, we need to be the ones to go after Him, close the gap and return to home base.  Little steps at a time finding the comfort of His Word

Sing His Praises

The only path to healing hurts, is to go back and fix them. 

Don’t give up. Keep on fighting for your faith, get back into His Word.  Spend time with God, for He's been there all the time, waiting for you.

Dear Lord, Thank you for helping me find the way back to you, lighting my path with Your Words and music, directing my steps to the safety and security of Your Love. 

In Your precious name...Amen

Follow Your Faith

Joshua 3: 2-4
After three days the officers went throughout the camp,3 giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. 4 Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.


Luke 6:39
And Jesus told them this parable: "one blind man cannot lead another one; if he does both will fall into a ditch. 

                               *****************************

Who will you follow?

Follow the one you trust....You can’t be an unbelieving believer. You either trust God or you don’t. You trust His Word or you don’t. Get into His word and find your way. 

Psalm 118:8  "It is better to trust the Lord than to trust people."

Matthew 21:22. "And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

belief is Key...I love the words in this song sung beautifully by Jake Hess and friends, " Have faith when you speak to the Master, that's all he asks you for.  Prayer is the key to Heaven, but  faith unlocks the door."

Job's trials kept him on the road to God, he trusted him even though he had not seen him,
Job 23: 9, God has been at work in the North and the south, but still I have not seen him.
Job 23:11, I follow faithfully the road he chooses, and never wander to either side

Dear Lord...give me faith dear Spirt. Help me to be patient as I follow Your Word.  You will not fail me, of that I am sure.  In your precious name. Amen.

A Living Example

When you stand for God, you will stand out. And sometimes it will be painful, and sometimes you will fail but Sometimes You Won't and that's what is important.

Be a Holy living example, 

Lord, I want to be a just like You
cuz he wants to be like me

A great message about what others see in you, when you don't even know they are looking. 

Remember the saying, "Little pitchers have big ears"? well they hear, see and imitate...When I see myself in the people around me, I want to be proud of what they have chosen to emulate! 



2 Thessalonians 3:9
We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate.
1 Timothy 4:12
Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.

As important as it is to be an example to the younger generation, I want to be a person people use as an example for their life and purpose. that is a huge, monumental goal, but attaining that goal becomes part of your everyday life, a little bit at a time. 

Who  I admire, read, watch or listen too may be the deciding factor in reaching the height I have set for myself.  
And as important,  how do I react when I slip on my chosen path and I know that I will.


We Are Examples
Learning to live as the Savior and follow where he leads...

Father, Help me to look and learn about Your loving guidance and order as the pattern for my life. By following the example of Your Son, in mutual love and respect, may I become a living Bible for others to read.  Lead me on Your path.  In your precious name, Amen

Good News

The “Gospel” is the “good news” that Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty for our sin so that we might become the children of God through faith alone in Christ alone. The basic ingredients of the gospel message, are namely, the death, burial, resurrection, and appearances of the resurrected Christ. 

1 Corinthians 15:1–4,  

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sinsaccording to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures

 Paul provides the most succinct summary of the gospel: the man Jesus is also God, or Christ, and died on a cross in our place, paying the penalty for our sins; three days later He rose to conquer sin and death and give the gift of salvation to all who believe in Him alone for eternal life.

The good news starts out as awful news, He died and was buried, but the wonderful Good News is that He rose and lives in Heaven with His Father, and went to prepare a place for us.  If we believe that Jesus rose from that grave, we have heard the Good News and we will also rise from the grave, and be reunited with our many loved ones who have gone before.





Spread the Good News of Hope and Victory from death.

Good News,

         Good News
Isaiah 52:7 .....How beautiful on the mountain are the feet that bring Good News...Who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

Dear Lord,
Thank you for being the Good News in my every day...the end of my bad day is always...Good News, Good News..I believe that I will be with you one day.  Thank you. Good News! In your precious name, I believe in your Good News.  Amen.