Sometimes the smallest and most simplest of things, produce the biggest outcome!

Last Tuesday was my Anniversary! I wrote about the smallness of being quiet. That night I was driving home from visiting my grandchildren. I was alone in the car when I began to smell a distinct and painfully familiar smell. Smoke was filling the air and the closer I got to home the stronger the smell got! Storms had raged the weekend prior sending thousands of bolts of lightning striking the ground! Fires had sprung up everywhere and we were facing evacuation for the fourth year in a row!

The joy found in the smallness of the quiet had left my life and in its place was the loud roar of fire storms.

As the week progressed my phone was blowing up with evacuation notices! That sound which sent chills running up and down my spine, was going off every couple of minutes! One zone to the north of us was being evacuated! Another zone to the west of us was being evacuated! Then another, and another, and another!

Saturday morning arrived and we found ourselves still in our home, not yet evacuated.

We got up early and ventured outside to get some exercise hopeful that the smoky air would continue to clear.

We had made it! All of our friends and church family were safe and tomorrow we could continue live streaming our service from church!

Then, the worst news of the week hit us like a ton of bricks.  Beginning at 5 AM on Sunday morning strong winds and lightning strikes we’re hitting again! There was a red flag warning for our county! With it came warnings of dangerous high winds and lightning strikes.

Panic set in! We began to scramble! Would we have electricity to live stream the services? Would we be able to have our celebration drive-through and collect backpacks for our community school? How would we get the word out to people with such short notice? Our brains felt like they were on overload in a matter of minutes.

Then when all hope felt lost, when everything felt completely out of control, the smallest of Truths brought The greatest of Joys!

WE PRAYED!

“The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”   James 5:16

We sent out an email for an all church community prayer time at 4 o’clock that afternoon!

We may have been separated by distance, but we have never felt more togetherness!

Through the smallest of obedience’s to pray, we experienced the awesome power of God!We received a MIRACLE!

No windstorm came that next day!

Not at 5:00 a.m. or 5:00 p.m.! There was not even the soft rustle of leaves blowing on the trees. No lightening in the sky, no bolts hitting the ground! It was calm and clear. The predicted storm never came! God took it away!

As my series through the month of August draws to a close, God taught me the greatest lesson of all at the end.

The smallest and simplest act we can do is pray! The power it holds is like no other!

We may not receive exactly what we ask for every time. But every single time we perform the small simple act of praying, our great God Hears, Listens and Answers!

TRUTH BOMB

THE SMALL ACT OF PRAYER PRODUCES THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!

Prayer may be a “small” thing to do, but it ignites the power of God’s Holy Spirit every single time!

Speak Truth Love

Today is a very special day! Today marks 36 years of God giving me a miracle!

I prayed to God to heal my broken heart from my parents divorce, and He did. I prayed that He would be my Heavenly Father and help me break my deep rooted feeling of being unwanted, and He did. I prayed He would lead me and guide me even though I felt so alone, to pursue a college degree so that I could serve Him and commit my life to Him fully, and He did! Finally, I prayed that He would give me someone I could do you that alongside with all my life, and He did!    

I first saw Jim Swaney as he leaned up against the outside wall of the campus Commons meeting room at our college. His 6’ 2” frame, dark curly hair and piercing blue eyes caught my attention immediately! But there was something small among the obvious big traits that stood out about this man. He said nothing! He was completely silent! He did not even reach out his hand to say hello as my friend and I walked up to join the Bible study that he was about to teach. His friend who was with him did all the talking and all the greeting! Yet as he stood there silently, So much was being communicated through his silence. I sensed a confidence mixed with a sincere humility that literally melted my heart! Here was this guy who had every reason to exude arrogance, I mean he was drop dead gorgeous! Yet he stood there and said absolutely nothing. I was drawn to the quietness. There was a strength in it that over took me. When we walked through the doors into the campus commons room that tall dark handsome quiet man started to teach the word of God! The most beautiful thing that happened was as he taught, I fell in love with his heart for God! It was not his good looks that drew me to him, although they were icing on the cake! It was his quiet, humble spirit! My miracle came when after two years of serving God in the college group together, dating and learning more and more about each other, God gave me this man as my husband!

As God continues to challenge me to lean in to Him, and see the small things in life, and find joy in them, this week He clearly has shown me the joy of being quiet!

Truth Bomb

Big lessons are learned through the small practice of being quiet.

To celebrate our 36th anniversary we went to Pismo beach. We woke up early in the morning and stepped outside of our room to sit together in perfect quiet and stillness and read God‘s word. We said absolutely nothing to each other! We just read and then sat still and listened. In that quietness I heard some thing that pierced my mind with this truth…

In the quiet we are able to hear strength!

As I sat still and silent I began to hear the soft roll of the waves of the ocean. They were rolling in so quietly until they reached the cliff. Then they crashed onto the cliff and rolled back out into the still quietness!

“The fruit of that righteousness will be peace;

    its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.

My people will live in peaceful dwelling places,

    in secure homes,

    in undisturbed places of rest.”

Isaiah 32:17-18

God was showing me that in the small quietness of the role of the tide, strength is built! The same quiet strength that my husband has is built when he is quiet. Then when he speaks God‘s strength pours out!

So today on my 36th wedding anniversary, as I celebrate the miracle God gave me in my husband, I celebrate the strength in the smallness of being quiet!

Speak Truth Love

Are you a big picture kind of person or a small picture kind of person?

Do you order a tall, a grande, or a venti drink at Starbucks?

Do you “supersize” your menu item (dietary issues aside, go with your gut here), or do you order the small coke and fries?

Do you relish a one on one coffee date, or a “pull out all the stops” invite every friend I know kind of party bash?

Do you love receiving that single long stemmed rose or prefer the whole dozen?

Does your heart skip a beat when it’s your birthday and a single cupcake is set in front of you with one candle glowing in it? Or are you waiting for the whole birthday cake set ablaze by however many candles it takes to represent your age?

I think my cake would cause the fire department to be called!

If you’ve taken this short survey with me, you have probably realized that you fall on one side or the other. You are a big picture person or a small picture person! There is no right or wrong here! It is simply our make up. It is the character that we were born with. It takes both sides to bring balance.

As God has called me to “lean into the small things and find joy“, I have just realized that I am a “big picture person!“

And this is a challenge for me!

My entire family would call me into accountability for lying if I told you that I ever order anything smaller than a Venti at Starbucks!

While I can appreciate the simplicity of a single flower…bring on the entire bouquet please!

And that birthday cake…that cupcake would just be an appetizer!

So being the “big picture” person that I am, I will accept the challenge!

For the month of August, I will dedicate my Blog to finding one small thing to find joy in and posting it!

Here’s why…

“BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD.” PSALM 46:10

TRUTH BOMB

TO KNOW GOD IS TO BE STILL AND SPEND TIME WITH HIM!

So, if you are a small picture person this will be easy for you! You naturally have already learned to lean into God and find him in the small things!

If you are a big picture person, it will be more of a challenge for you like it has been for me! But let’s do this!

Let’s allow God to refocus us from what our natural bend may be, and see Him in the smallest and the simplest of things! I believe this is exactly where we will find Him waiting, and HE IS OUR JOY!

WEEK 1 OF THE CHALLENGE ACCEPTED:

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Seems so trivial these days doesn’t it, to find joy in something as small as the foam on the top of your coffee cup?  

But I have started wondering, no, actually searching my heart and asking God if it is in the small things that He wants me to find joy?

The small things that I can still find in the midst of chaos and crisis. And as I lean into these seemingly small, insignificant things, God reminds me, “Isn’t it in expecting or looking for the “BIG” things that you get discouraged, depressed, and defeated?  

I have to ask myself, Do I spend too much of my time looking at the “BIG” thing? The fact that I don’t have it, or that I desire it, and then get discouraged because it isn’t here yet, or I can’t have it, or it’s too expensive, or I can’t attain it, or the world is fighting against me to get it…you fill in the blank!

So, I’m beginning to ask God if indeed it is in the small things that He gives me each day that I am to find Him in!

Like the laughter of my grandchildren as they climb high up on the “spider web” climber at the park and reach greater heights than they did the year before! Like the exhilaration you feel when you reach the top! The joy of hearing the squeals of laughter that come from my grandchildren as they spin around and around on the super spinner at the playground! The joy of sticking your fingers into fresh dough and kneading it and watching it rise. The joy of squeezing four of you into one big bed and snuggling close and saying goodnight prayers together. The joy of knowing this may be the worst night of sleep, but the most joyful! Finding joy in singing the ‘Chick-a-boom’ song with my precious granddaughter over a FaceTime call. The joy of seeing her little head rest on her shoulders as she hears the words,’Chick-a-boom, Chick-a-boom don’t you just love it…’ 

The joy of a phone call with a friend knowing you heard her heart and she heard yours! The joy of listening to a song, seeing a beautiful flower or smelling fresh cookies bake!

I believe that it is in the seemingly “small” things that we find God’s joy. And it is in the letting go of the striving for the “BIG” things that brings contentment and focus!

“You will fill me with joy in your presence.” Psalm 16:11

TRUTH BOMB

TIME SPENT WITH GOD AND SEEING HIM IN THE LITTLE THINGS, BRINGS TRUE JOY!

Speak Truth Love