Lesson #3 my daughter taught me.

Lesson 3 of things my daughter taught me, "LISTEN WITH YOUR HEART"

When My daughter was about 9 she was getting ready for school one morning.  I was reading in the living room and she yelled out to me, "mom is there a book in the bible called Ephesians", I told her there was and she said "what dose Ephesians 12:6 mean?"  I said, "What, are you sure you have that right?"  (I was very new in my walk and was not to familiar with the bible but, I didn't think Ephesians had that many chapters)  It was silent for a moment and than she said, "wait, I think I mean Ephesians 6, look it mom"

I grabbed my bible and look up chapter 6 and I told her I was there and I asked her where I should look.  She said, "I thought 12 but now I think it is 10-12, can you read it?"  I was not sure what was going on and why she was yelling down the hall for me to all of a sudden look up a scripture.  I began to read, Ephesians 6 starting at verse 10, Finally, be strong in the lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the  powers of the dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

My daughter said thanks and I said, "should I read on" and she yells back "yes keep reading".  I went on to read, Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground  and after you have done everything to stand.  Stand firm than with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God.   I asked if I should keep reading and she said, "no" it made sense to her now.  Curious as to where this had come from I went into her room to find out where she got this scripture from.

To my surprise she told me that she was standing in her closet trying to choose what to wear and she couldn't make up her mind. In a very matter of fact voice she told me that God told her that scripture so she would know what to always wear.  My mouth about hit the ground.  Now it wasn't like God had said in a audible voice "Hanna the Lord saith put on the full armor of God",   I was a new believer and I had heard people say that God had told them things in their hearts or spirits,  I just hadn't experienced in such a wonderful way as my daughter just did.

She was so a matter of fact about it like it was something that happened all the time.  As I look back on it I see that she never put God in a box, she knew who he was and she was open to all of him, there was no limits to the extend of her belief in what he could do.  I was so happy to see her hearing from God and I knew God was using her to teach me that I to could hear from him in my heart if I just chose to really listen.

That day she taught me to always listen with my heart so that I wouldn't miss a special moment to hear from God.  She taught me that he can teach us so much if we are willing to listen.  My daughter bounced out the door that day excited to know what God wanted her to wear and I sat down after she left and thanked God for speaking to her and I asked God to show himself to me in that way.  I prayed that I would have a open heart to hear him.  As the years have gone by and my walk with him has grown  I  have learned that he really does speak to our hearts because he loves us so much.

She is one wise young lady and I am lucky to call her my daughter.  I look forward to the many lessons I know God will show me through her in the years to come.

Remember to always listen with your heart because God wants to 

show you some very special also.

Things my DAUGHTER taught me (Part 2)

Lesson #2 my Daughter taught me.

Everyone has a gift, find yours and remember if you don't use it you'll make God sad.

8 years ago, I found myself by the side of my dear friend's bed as cancer closed a door to her life here with us and opened a new door to life in heaven.  During that time I was spending lots of hours by her side, helping around the house and trying to figure out what to tell her two beautiful young daughters as to why their mommy was so sick.

I was by her side all night at times and that meant that things in my house were put on hold.  My wonderful husband was working, trying to pick up the slack for me and take care of our two young kids so I could be by her side.  I am blessed to have such a wonderful man who would give me all the time I needed with her and never complain for a moment that he had to take on more work.

One Sunday evening I was sitting on my front porch, tired and crying from the sadness in my heart.  I felt guilty that we didn't even have milk in the house for breakfast and I was feeling like a bad mom for not being there with my kids.  My beautiful girl had just taken a bath and was in her little PJ's.  As I sit here typing this and I find myself breathing deeply as if I am trying to take in the smell of her clean and wet hair.  If you are a parent you will know what I mean when I say there is nothing better than cuddling with your child and breathing in the aroma of a freshly washed head of hair and the smell that children's shampoo gives them.

That night she came outside and was doing cart-wheels in the yard and talking with me in between them (she had grown out of sining everything by than but she was still my little girl).  She had gone to church that morning with her best friend and her momma (my very special friend) was her Sunday school teacher.  My daughter asked me why I was sad and I told her I was sad for my friend and that I felt bad that I was not taking care of my family like I should be.

What would happen next would impact me to the very core of my heart.  I can see it as clear as day, the sun was setting, the air smelled crisp and she bounced up to me in her little PJ's with her wet hair in ringlets and put those soft little hands on my face.  What she told me filled me with the greatest feeling of joy.  She said, "I went to Sunday school today and you know what I learned?" " I learned that God gives us all gifts.  Each one of us has something different and if we don't use the gift that God gave us, we make him sad".   She then put her arms around me and said, "Your gift is taking care of people and you need to do it or you'll make God sad"  I am teary just thinking about those sweet words.  Next she said, "Don't worry about us mommy we are going to be okay, you need to be with them".  Powerful words for a 8 year old.

She than bounced back to the grass to do more cart-wheels and I sat there with tears of joy streaming down my cheeks.  Little did she know that a few weeks before I had been given one of those tests to find your gifts so you would know where you could serve in the church.  That test had only made me more confused because none of the choices seemed to fit me.  That night I found my gift and I began to understand that each of us is given a very special gift and it is not to be found in a test. We just need to be who we are and it will fall into place.  For me  however, it took little extra help from very smart and soft hearted little girl to find my gift.

I slept good that night and went back to my friends house the next day to take care of her and family until it was her time to see Jesus.   I am glad I was there and my daughter was right, they were okay.  A few days later my friend went to dance with Jesus and I am thankful for the time I got to spend with her.

Please remember that you too have a very special gift and as my daughter said, "If we don't use our gifts we make God sad"  I hope you find your gift if you haven't already.

How I hope you will check back in to see what the 3rd lesson was that my daughter taught me.

Thanks for reading my blog and I would love to hear what your gifts are and if there is anyone in your life that has taught you things like my daughter has taught me.

God's blessings!

Things my DAUGHTER taught me (Part 1)

The day my daughter was born I watched my husband fall head over heals in love with that 6 pound bundle of joy.  As time would go by, that little girl grew and continued to wrap her daddy around her pretty little finger.


Everything to her was a song.  I mean she sang EVERYTHING.  Our house was a real life musical complete with the customs that spilled out of her dress-up box.  Oh how she would light up when her dad came home, she would sing and dance right into his arms.   Her daddy would give her the world if she just asked.


My daughter has always had a soft side about her, sometimes it was hidden under her daring personality but, I knew it was in there.  Under the dirt she brought in with her from outside, all the bugs she has collected, the horse's hoof that fell out of her pocket into my washer and the pile of rodent bones I found on her counter, there has always been a sensitive soul within her.


When she was about 4 we had a Christmas play in our church and my husband, son, and myself were in the play.  We had invited my dad, my bonus mom, and other members of my family.  My dad is a great guy but the whole church thing isn't his cup of tea.  My daughter sat on his lap that night and at the end of the play the lights dimmed and we sang "Silent Night".  She turned herself around, knelt in my dad's lap, and placed her hands on his face.  Her little voice belted out that song with such feeling it brought tears to my dad's eyes.  He told me that she really understood what she was singing about.  God had taken root in her little heart and it was obvious to those around her.


That little girl knew God from a young age.  Looking back she was walking with Jesus way before I ever really knew what it was like to be in a relationship with Christ.  It would be about another 3 years until I would really begin my walk with Christ and I began to understand that it was more than just showing up to church on Sunday because it was the right thing to do.


Looking back I see that God was using her in mighty ways that would affect not just me but, my husband and son also.  When I think of her singing everything, her dancing and how she ran to her daddy with great joy when he came home, it still makes my heart melt.  Like I said before, her daddy would have given her the world if she just asked. I see now that if we run to our Daddy in heaven and jump into his arms with joy and songs of praise he too will want to give us all our hearts desires. 


It was that soft spirit in her that has lead me to write this 3 part blog post.  Thanks to her she has taught me so much about God from a young age and I can't wait to see what God has in store for her future.


Lesson 1:  Give with a open heart, never expect anything in return


From about the age of 6 my daughter started wanting to help people.  She asked me one day if she could use her allowance to buy supplies so that she could make cards to sell and then give the money to the food bank.  For a little thing she blew my mind.  She would turn in a $100 dollars at a time to the food bank.  That led her to lemonade stands for the food bank and for St. Jude's hospital. Then she started taking orders for cards and she even put them in a craft show.  We told her we would match what she raised and found ourselves writing checks for a $100 and up.


For Christmas last year she asked for us to let her pick out of the World Vision catalog some animals to send to needy families instead of her getting so many gifts.  She then came to me and asked, "Can I take my own money on top of that and buy more things in the catalog to give for Christmas?"  She has shown me to never think that you can't make difference, she's shown me the joy of giving with expecting nothing in return and she has shown me how to be the hands and feet of Christ.  


One day I remember my son saying, "she has got IT, she is right with God and I want that"   That little girl was one of God's instruments in her brother's salvation and she helped my husband and I to really see what it means to walk with Christ not just go through the motions.


I hope you will want to check back in to see parts 2 and 3 on, "Lessons my daughter taught me" and I hope that you to will want to be like her, singing with joy as you run into Abba Father's arms for he longs to love you and give you eternal life in heaven and to fill the desires of your heart.

The painter of light

Thomas Kinkade is known as a painter of light.  He has a wonderful way of making a painting come to life by making them shine with light from the windows of the most peaceful looking cottages and from street lights on beautiful streets scenes he has painted.  I found this in his biography, Bridges are one of his favorite subjects, as are steps or grassy inclines leading upward or through a gate-images that are symbols of his religious faith. Some of his paintings actually are visual depictions of Bible verses, such as his A Light in the Storm, taken from John 8:12: "I am the light of the world."

Being a picture person I can't help but think of God, the creator of the universe with the world laid out before him as his canvas carefully painting a perfect picture.  Each of us he gently creates taking his time because he loves us.  Just as Thomas Kinkade paints the light in his photos that seems so real that it draws the eyes of the onlooker deeper into the beauty of the painting, God gently paints us with the Love of his only son so that we to can shine the light of Jesus from our eyes to the world around us.  Each of us has the ability to be a beautiful work of art if we allow God to be the artist.  Matthew 5:14-16 says, You are the light of the world A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before men.  That they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven.  As I think of these paintings and how they relate to us showing our light, Matthew 6:22 also comes to my mind,  the eye is the lamp of the body if your eyes are good you whole body will be full of light.


Another wonderful thing about a Kinkade painting is that there is more than meets the eye in each of them, there is hidden treasures if you look deep into them.  Kinkade loves to show his love for his wife and daughters in his paintings by hiding there names and initials in his them.  For example in the Twilight Cottage 2, the one Kinkade painting I am privlidged to own, has the letter "N" hidden 4 times in it for his wife Nannette.  Searching for the hidden treasure is a fun thing and the light in the painting never seems to stop filling me with wonder because of how real it seems to be as it spills out of the painting. There has been many times I have wanted to look for some hidden switch or cord because it seems that there should be some electrical source powering the painting.  In the same way Kinkade marks his pictures to show his love for his wife and daughters,  God to leaves his mark on us claiming that we are his children.


God wants to spill his light out of us like the light in the paintings and God also as the ability to show us the hidden treasures when we seek him.  Colossians 2:2-3 My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding , in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  Paul is teaching us that when we seek Christ we gain true wisdom and we gain the treasure of Salvation!!    What could be greater than finding a hidden treasure full of Love, wisdom, truth, and SALVATION!  


Stand back and look at yourself as you would look at one of the Thomas Kinkade paintings I am writing about. What do see and what do you think others would see when they look at you.  Is the love of Christ shining form you? Do you carry within you the treasure of salvation?  When others look at you do they see that light and wonder what is that, how can I have that?  Do you hide that treasure or do you share it with others in actions and words.  


God in his mighty love has painted each of us in our own special way and he longs to be the painter of light in each one of us if we will allow him to.  I pray that my light shines each day and that it will guide others to a love like no other.  Like a Thomas Kinkade painting I pray that you too will let your light shine and that people will see in you a treasure that they too will long to find have for themselves. 

What is important to us is important to our Daddy in heaven

The other day I was standing in the kitchen at our family cabin.  As I looked out the window I could see my two nephews sitting at the picnic table playing with their hot-wheel cars.    They were both very intent on what they were doing and it made me smile to see them play with their cars.   As I stood there and doing the dishes my brother walked out and sat down at the table with them to partake in the hot wheel driving around the table. 

I stood there with my heart overflowing with joy as I watched my brother interact with his son’s.  My brother is a great dad and what is important to his son’s is important to him.  There were so many other things at that moment that could be done but my brother saw his boys doing something that they enjoyed and he chose to take part in it.  It was hard to tell who was getting more joy out of driving the cars, the boys seemed so happy to have their father join them and my brother seemed blessed to spend time with his sons. 

I stood there watching them and it hit me that God wants to be a part of everything we do.  We have a heavenly father who wants to be a part of our lives.  What is important to us is important to him.   One of my favorite things is to get in a work out and I love to invite God to join me in my worship music and in my prayer time as I take a walk or a jog.  When we allow God to join in our daily activities the blessing are a two way street.  We are blessed by the father’s presence and he delights in spending time with us.

Just like my brother who is full of love for his boys, God is full of love for us.  He longs to be in our day-to-day life, to enjoy our highs and to carry us through our lows.   No matter what it is, our Daddy in heaven who wants to join us in everything we do.   I hope you let God spend time with you each day it what you enjoy. 

God is like an all you can eat buffet

Every once in a while my dad likes to take us all to the local buffet for a all you can eat dinner, he loves it because the grandkids can get what ever they want, it is fast and everyone leaves full. 

The hot out of the oven rolls are my favorite along with a little mashed potatoes and gravy and I have blown my calorie intake for the whole week.   We laugh about wearing our buffet pants so we can get our moneys worth.  (For those of you that don’t know what buffet pants are, they are sweats or loose fitting pants, to help avoid having to undo your pants on the ride home after we have over eaten at the buffet)  Oh, did I forget to mention the yummy sweets to wrap up the meal with.  I often think I’ll need to run a half marathon to burn those extra calories off but it is always a fun family time so it is worth it.

Sitting in Church I got the picture of God being much like a buffet, just like we step up to the lay out of all kinds of food with a empty plate, we can step up to God and fell our souls with exactly what we need.  The best thing about his buffet is that it is free!!  One day we may need a serving of Grace, with a double helping of forgiveness.  The next time we might need Strength, peace, and comfort.  

Just think of all the wonderful things that we can help ourselves to when we step up to the Buffet of the Lord.  You can pick from, Joy, wisdom, understanding, compassion, kindness, love, forgiveness, comfort, strength, peace, gentleness, patience, clarity, rest, grace, and healing just to name a few of the wonderful things he offers.

There is no limit on the serving sizes you can take.  You can come as often as you need!  There is no guilt when you serve up at his buffet, there is no shame and you always feel satisfied. 

Psalm 34:8 says, 
Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!  Don’t you think it is time to step to the buffet and start loading up your plate with what you need? There is never a line and it is always open.  

What are you waiting for, go and get your fill!!

Don't forget to empty the trash!!

Once a week my husband rolls the garbage can to the end of the driveway to be picked up by the garbage men.  Some weeks we have so much garbage that my husband can be seen climbing up on top of the garbage and jumping to smash it down so we can get one more load of trash into the can.

Why is it so easy to let go of that kind of trash and yet the personal trash in our lives we choose to hang on to.  In a sense we fight to push it down into ourselves like my husband stomps our trash down in the can.  By pushing down our trash, I am talking about our past sins that we can't let go off,  we can never really be free and clean from our sin.

My pastor talked last night in church about how when we repent from our sins Jesus forgets about them.  I guess he puts them in the garbage and puts a lid on it.  So why can't we do the same?  We often repent and than we take it back.  I know I wouldn't want to dig through my garbage can to pick some gross garbage out so I can stick in the back of my closet and yet it is so easy for us to go and dig our sins back out and hang onto them.

I love knowing that Jesus never holds our trash over our heads.  He won't bring up our sin to cause us shame.  Jesus knows how to take out the trash if we would just let him.  If you have been carrying around a sin let it go.  Stop hanging on to the trash and press into Jesus.  Hang on to him and not the lies and trash that satin loves to pile on us.  There is freedom in Jesus you just need to get on your knees and give it up your sin.    He paid the price so it is free for us to dump our trash and any day can be garbage day. He is waiting to dump your trash so what is stopping you?

Profitable Living

Profitable.  In business it's all about making a profit.  A profitable business is a good business, it succeeds while a business that shows now profit fails.  Let me clarify, I am not lumping non-profit businesses into this.

A coffee shop is not going to sell their product without taking in the cost of everything, from the cost of the beans, the cost of rent, wages, and so on.  It is all calculated into the equation to determine the cost of your coffee so that they can make a profit off of it. Your probably wondering where I am going with this. "Profitable" may seem like a strange word to focus on but trust me it's not.  It hit home with me yesterday and it seemed to be the word that God wanted to stick into my head and my heart.

Yesterday I jumped into my daughters car to hit the road and head to a tournament for my son.  My daughter had taken her Ipod connection out of her car and forgot to turn the radio down.  I turned the key and the speakers boomed with static.  Being the easily scared mid-life domestic goddess I am, I was lucky I didn't hit the gas and run the car into the wall and into my laundry room.  Pardon me I have seemed to digress. I hit the turner to get anything on but static and the first station it picked up was Moody Radio.  God had something to tell me.

They were having a discussion about a politician who recently stumbled.  I am not going to go into who it was or what he did because it is not the point I am trying to make.  What she said that stuck out to me was that he didn't make a choice that was "profitable" to him.  Hum, Profitable, I liked that.  Did he gain anything from his choice, better yet when any of us choose to so something do we take the time to think if it is "profitable" to us.  Will it grow us closer to God or pull us into the darkness of sin?  Do we gain from it or will loss from it.  She said something that hit home to me, when we choose to look at porn, take part in sexting, or any other number of worldly things that we are faced with, we are not doing any thing illegal.  There is now law against it so many times people think because it is not illegal it is all good.  That is where we need to choose to make the profitable choice.  We need to realize just because it is legal doesn't mean it is right and profitable to us. When we choose to cross that moral line we dishonor God and how can we gain in doing that.  Corinthians 10:23 All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable.  All things are lawful, but not all things edify.

As I drove on I listened to callers and the word profitable keep going around in my head.  About a hour later into my drive there it was again.  A man whom I didn't catch his name was giving a quick sermon and as he was summing it up he asked are you living your life in a way that is profitable? I love how God gets his point across to us when he wants us to learn something.  I laughed to myself that "profitable seemed to be the word of the day.

Today it still rolling around in my head and my heart and it has led me to this post.  If a business choose to do things that wouldn't bring them a profit, they would go bankrupt and would end up shutting their doors.  In a sense they would die.  We are much the same when you look at the word profitable.  If we don't choose things that are not profitable spiritually we to will die by missing out on the eternal life that was promised to us.

When we honor God, our bodies, our parents, our spouse and our neighbors we are being profitable.  When we seek God with our hearts, when we press into his word and when we spend time in prayer the reward is eternal life. Talk about being profitable!  When we choose to say to no sin, to be honest, and to do what is morally right we gain the blessings of God.  The whole idea of profitable living is kind of the same idea that we often see on bumper stickers, "WWJD".  When we stop to think what Jesus would do  and we choose to so what is honoring to God and not what is socially acceptable we are living a profitable life.

I leave you with this one question: Profitable living or spiritual bankruptcy?     I know I want.  I want to make a profit!

You can have it all!

You can have it all!!  What is “ALL”?  I saw a magazine cover saying you can have it all, the right jeans, the right hair, and the right make up.  If that is having it  “ALL” than I am totally unsatisfied.

Sure I want my hair and make up to look good and I love a pair of jeans that fits right but I want more of live than that.  So that leads me to asking myself, what is “ALL”?

Yes I want to have a home over my head, a happy marriage, and good health, plenty of friends, laughter, healthy children and good times.  Yes I long to have pretty decorations, nice clothes and fun trips.  We all do, I am human but is it all that stuff that allows me to have it “All”? 

We so often get caught up in the day-to-day grind what out ways all the material things and the worldly things.  We can so easily forget the beauty in a sunset, the joy of watching a baby play at the park, or the smell of the air after it rains. 

I am sitting in my car typing this as my son and his friend try out for a college closer to home.  There is a river next to the parking lot and the sound of the water rushing by is like a symphony when you add the chirping birds and the sound of the bats hitting the balls on the baseball and softball fields.  Sometimes it is things like this we take for granted when we are so busy running the race of life and trying to have it “ALL”

Besides the beauty of the world around me and, the simple pleasures of, a walk in the park or, the sound of a river rushing by that I sometimes forget:  having it “All” for me it is having a father in heaven who loves me for just who I am.  It is having the love and forgiveness of Christ.  Having it all means knowing that I will have eternal life in heaven and until that day comes I know that God will never forsake me as I live my day to day life.  That to me is having it “ALL”

What does it mean to you to have it “ALL”?

Put the plug in the gossip drain

Gossip.  It is like a drain, it sucks you in the same way it sucks water down it.


Is it sucking you in?

Gossip can be so easy to fall in to, we all do it.  Just one little tid-bit won't hurt anyone we think.  The problem is one tid-bit can lead to one more and before we know it we can be discussing the personal life of others that needs not to be talked about. "did you hear so and so got a divorce?", did you hear he had a affair?" "Did you hear they are broke or that their kids are out of control." We have all been there.  Why is it that someone else's pain can give us such joy to talk about?   I am not perfect in anyway and let me be honest it is one area of my life where God is really working on me.

I have really had to ask God to convict my heart when this ugly side of me tries to pull me down the drain. I am getting better in this area and I am learning to see how fast it happens.  I have learned to remove myself from lots of conversations when I see it happening and it feels so much better in my heart to walk away from taking about others pain and personal matters.

What about you?  Do you find yourself sitting with a group of friends talking about the pain of someones divorce or how someone has gotten them self into some kind of trouble?  Do you also get sucked down the gossip drain.

Gossip has a way of making us feel better about our selves when we see someone else mess things up worse than we do in our own lives.  It is a double edged sword, on the opposite side of that good feeling we seem to get when we gossip, we dis-honor God and how can that make us feel good at all.

Gossip is a sin, plain and simple.  It is wrong and yet we all seem to take part in it.  It is as if we rank our sins and put gossip at the bottom of the sin list and we think it is not all that bad so we can justify it.  That is not the case, a sin is a sin.  The tongue is a sharp knife that can deeply cut the person on the other end of your words.

Scripture warns us about gossip and the out come of using it:

 Proverbs 11:13 A gossip betrays a confidence but a trustworthy man keeps a secret  

Proverbs 16:28  A perserve man stirs up dissension and a gossip separates close friends

Proverbs 18:8 The words of a gossip are like a choice morsels; they go down to a mans inmost parts

We all have the option to put the plug in and stop ourselves from being sucked down the Gossip drain.  Let's all try to hold ourselves 

accountable in this area of our lives.