You have a tool belt given to you by God!

When you fill it with the tools God gives you to both Thrive and Survive, you have God-given power to wield to accomplish both!

LOVE is the greatest tool from God in your tool belt!

This week I was reminded in two powerful ways that God’s love is both simple and powerful!

First way I was reminded was after receiving very difficult news about my mom’s tragic illness of Alzheimer’s. 

Not only is it progressing, which it is, it is progressing rapidly! As I watch her mind and body deteriorate, my heart breaks with each progression. Last Wednesday my heart could not sustain anymore.

I broke down BIG TIME!

My broken heart could take no more. I cried out to God loud and strong!

He heard my cry!

He reminded me that He holds my mom in the palm of His hand. He cares for her, holds her tight and wraps His tender arms around her so she is never alone!

He reminded me gently by bringing to mind this song that she repeats over and over and over again, even though her mind cannot remember the ones she loves the most!

“Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so…”

These simple but powerful words demonstrate God’s great love for her, for me and for you!

God’s LOVE is greater than any disease, loss, pain, grief, or trial that we go through!

God’s love helps me rise above my circumstances and survive!

And then, in the most tender of ways, God gently reminded me that He not only loves me so that I can survive, He loves me so that I can thrive!

Last night I was putting my two youngest grandchildren down to sleep. I was reading them books and cuddling with them both! After we said prayers, I said what song do you want to sing…

They both shouted out,

“JESUS LOVES ME!”

My heart was swelled overflowing, as God had gently reminded me my love is sufficient for you! I love you, no matter what! I can both survive and thrive because of the true and pure love of God!

TRUTH BOMB

JESUS LOVES ME THIS I KNOW!

Speak Truth Love

When you’re back against the wall and you’re stressed and have no margin in your life for air or extra, what do you do?

You go back to what you know! 

My dad has been in heaven for 12 years now. When he passed from this world to heaven, he didn’t want a big funeral. In fact, he didn’t want a funeral at all! He was a strong and stubborn man, and his quote was, “if they didn’t spend time with me while I was alive, then there’s no need for them to show up when I’m dead!”

Instead, he wanted every little bit of money he had left, which wasn’t much, to go to all of his girls and their spouses and their children to do something fun together! So we went on a cruise and celebrated the life of my dad!

After that, in his memory, we put a small plaque down where his parents were buried and the saying that we chose to put on that plaque took no time at all to decide upon. 

My dad has four daughters, and every one of his daughters, and everyone of his grandchildren quickly looked at each other and quoted what my dad always said to us,  “What do you know for sure?” And the answer we always replied back to him was, “That you love us.“ 

Every time I miss my dad,  I repeat that phrase to myself. And my heart is filled with love from my earthly father.

When I am tired and have no more to give, when I am stressed out and nothing seems to make sense, and when I am frustrated and hurting, and nothing seems to heal or soothe, I remember what my Heavenly Father says to me.

“I will never leave you or forsake you.“. “I have loved you with an everlasting love. “Nothing in all creation, neither life nor death, nor principalities, nor powers, can separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, my Lord.”

I am quickly reminded and restored that there is no difficulty in life I go through that my heavenly father is not there for me. He is for me, and He is with me! And I can rest in that! 

TRUTH BOMB

GOD IS MY STRENGTH WHEN I AM WEAK!

Speak Truth Love

On a day when we remember one of America’s worst days in history, we are simultaneously reminded of one of heroes, America’s resilience, and beauty coming from ashes.

When any group of people are willing to look beyond the tragedy and lift their eyes to the Creator of the universe, the one true God, He and only He can bring beauty from the ashes. 

There is no denying the heinous crimes that were thrust on America. Innocent and heroic lives were lost. Families were devastated and a country mourned. On this day it is important to remember each life lost and given for the good of another. Every life matters to God, and He sees and receives them all. 

In the light of such a tragedy, there is hope to be found when we fall on our knees and turn our eyes toward Him. God can make beauty from ashes! One of the most significant reminders I have from this is the miracle birth of my nephew Jake. He was born exactly four years after, on 9/11/05. My sister had prayed 10 years for a child, and even through in vitro, she was unable to maintain a pregnancy. The doctors told her there was nothing else they could do. She walked into the parking lot that day, threw her hands in the air and cried out to God.  Later that year, Jake was born, her one and only, miracle baby! I believe that Jake being born on 9/11 was no accident. He is our reminder that God brings beauty from ashes!

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…to comfort all who mourn…to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness…”. Isaiah 61:1-3 (NKJV)

We serve a miracle working, all-powerful God, who has all things in His control! As dark as the world may seem, or our lives may seem, when we bow our knees and turn our eyes to Him, He can make beauty from ashes.

TRUTH BOMB 

Our God specializes in making beauty from ashes!

Speak Truth Love

Once the calendar turns from August to September, there is a switch that flips in my brain. September signals to my brain, Fall! The days are shorter, pumpkin spice lattes are on the menu, and the temps should be dropping! But they are not and I long for the cool days of Autumn. Yet, reality remains that the days and possibly weeks ahead continue to SIZZLE! 

While the temperature heats up, the key is my attitude should remain cool. Keeping cool in the middle of the heat is not easy. The heat in our lives can be physical heat, or mental, or emotional heat! Regardless, we must try to keep our cool. As temperatures rise we must reach out and grab the Truth of God’s Word to cool down. Our mental and emotional temps heat as quickly and easily as we reach out for our hydros or Stanley’s to cool our physical heat. God’s Truth brings cool, calm refreshment to our overheated emotions and mental states.

“As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him?”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭42‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭

TRUTH BOMB

WHEN WE ARE IN A STATE OF SIZZLE, GOD’S WORD GIVES TRUE REFRESHMENT!

Speak Truth Love