Brand Spankin' new :)

Today woo hoo I am grateful for a brand new year !!!!

To start off sparkling white and fresh, joy joy joy.

With each day, week, or month maybe I can add some color to my feathers, something bright something sheek, something wild !!! Or maybe I can just maintain my newness, my freshness, my awe!!!

Gratitude washes over me to imagine the wonders possible. To bow down in obediance and just watch God do His work. To find God at work and join Him, there is nothing impossible when God is at the wheel.

I'm so grateful to be able to look back and see when I finally just surrendered my stubborn "self" and He began a new work in me (or actually an old work I had been holding up). There is no way possible I could have ever brought myself to this place, this place of joy. This place of happiness, and family, this place of peace, place of love. God brought me here, God is full of grace to give me this, full of mercy to offer even more !!!

On my own my life was a mess, so much so that I ooozed hurt on others. My life was broken, my heart filled with bondage.

Today I am grateful to have a heart full of love, bursting within itself and constantly amazed at how God squeezes in even more with each new friend, new experience. God has taken a broken mess of a girl and filled me, fixed me, freed me. Oh yes Lord today I am grateful!!!!!

Grateful for friends

Today I am grateful for friends that make me giggle. I go to my sweet friends blog and read her kicking and nudging her way into gratitude and I just smile outloud into a fit of giggles. Wanna laugh too? Go to www.debily.com
There are mornings it is tough to FEEL grateful, to wrap the warm blessings of The Most High around you and know you are HIS.
Everyone would much prefer a promised tomorrow over a blessed today, myself included. Financial security is important, it can rob you of "The Moment" you might be sharing with your child, or your neighbor. Today I want to keep my focus on my "daily" bread as opposed to worry about tomorrow's. Today Lord I want to hear my children laughing and enjoy it instead of hearing it as noise while I'm busy stressing out.
Today Father I am grateful for today. I am grateful for children making noise, being happy and excited. Today God I'm grateful to not be alone in a snowy field, but in the company of fellow believers that make me giggle.

growing can be NO fun

This picture goes from being beautiful to me, than not so beautiful. Today -I get this picture. Today I feel the process of learning a lesson can make you feel buried, make you feel surrounded by dirt. Growing can make you feel physically changed, mentally beat. But ah.....wait ???

Growing means you are expanding into more wisdom, growing means you are being taught a lesson. I can see where I will be grateful to have learned such a lesson, I can see where I needed to change, to grow. Can I say I like the process? No. Can I say it's been easy to praise Him throughout all this? No

Can I see a light at the end of this? Yes. Well okay maybe I can not visually see a light, or even the end of this, but I trust that it will end, I trust this life lesson will have an end. I trust my Father to take what has been hard, really hard for me and make it something beautiful. I trust I will look back at this as a small price to pay for a greater understanding of my ways and where I made a mistake. It is this trust I hold onto, it is this fact that He will prevail I hold dear. It is this complete faith in God that will give me strength to keep going, pushing my way thru the dirt to bloom one day. I am HIS, and HE will bring me to bloom for HIS purpose, I promise you this is fact.

Today God I am grateful for learning, I am grateful YOU teach me, I am grateful for love so powerful satan must bow down before it. I am grateful that satan can come six guns a blasting and God has offered me HIS full armor. What an honor, to be saved , to be loved, to be a child of GOD.

Oh that HIS ear is on me I'm humbled to my knees.

Today I am grateful for friends that pray for me and with me. I'm grateful to God for being quick to convict me when I'm just not paying attention.
I have begun this my third attempt at posting and words fail me. Yeah if you know me you too are shocked by this. God is directing me to listen more, again.
Clearly I remember the beginning of the year when I was beginning a new study and God told me to shut up. He did try asking me to be quiet repeatedly, but, well like an over excited child I did not hear him thru all my chatter. Clearly I began to hear Him say shut up Lisa, listen to me speak directly to you thru these people. Listen for it, you'll know it's me the minute the words are spoken, but ya gotta shut up and listen.
Today Lord I am grateful when you take extra time to reach me, when I miss the first few attempts you do not just blow me off, you continue to reach out to me and offer help.

Today Father that I may be more tuned into You is my heart-felt prayer. That I don't miss your direction while attempting to find my own way. Lord I'm grateful to be able to reach up to you and know that forever your hand and heart are right there eagerly awaiting me to come to you. Lord, Most High I am grateful for a love I am unable to comprehend or feel worthy of, yet know is there.
When the cold wind blows and the snow falls, when barely another creature sees me and knows I am chilled to the bone, You Lord know me and see me. You Lord offer me shelter and peace. Thank you Lord.

Turkey day without apple pie?

The table was beautiful, family was just finishing dinner, and out came dessert. Now keep in mind God asked me to not eat anymore chocolate. 1st pie, chocolate silk pie, pies 2 and 3 chocolate custard type pies, pie 3 pumpkin cheesecake turtle pie, with chocolate and pecans on top!!!! Oh Lord, am I to go dessertless on Thanksgiving? Is that allowed? I think there's a law that mandates dessert on Thanksgiving. What am I to do?
Then my hubby seeing the panic in my face, the room I had saved for dessert was at risk of not being filled. He casually scrapes the beautiful topping of pecans and chocolate from the pumpkin cheesecake and I slice a sliver for my "dessert place".
Today Lord I am grateful for a husband that may not agree that you spoke to me about chocolate, but supports it anyway, and without hesitation helps me out.
I need to ask, has tradition gone so far away that pumpkin and apple pie have been replaced? I loved that part of the meal just as much as I do the Turkey. Next year I am probably not making either, but I will certainly buy both!!!!

someone to laugh with.

Today Father I am grateful for friends to laugh with. In the midst of a stormy season what a blessing this is. A good belly laugh is always a good thing. In the valley of a heavy season, it is a great thing. Lord, only your timing can provide such necessary relief from sorrow.
Thank you for friends I can laugh with. Thank you for opportunities to serve. Thank you for the many many blessings you have given to me and those I know. Laughter is indeed one of my favorites.

Be careful little one .

Be wary child, watch for deceit, watch for danger, keep your eyes on the heavens for surely that is where your peace comes from.

As God gives me directives I must be so very careful not to allow my flesh, or even worse, satan trick me into not submitting faithfully.

God says "Lisa, eat for health to sustain a body ready to serve." Flesh says "surely God wants you to enjoy a treat or two, after all you have been good all day".

God says" Lisa, chocolate is an addiction of yours, give it up." Satan whispers" Surely God did not mean ALL chocolate, after all dark chocolate is now said to be good for you".

My best is God's only intention, therefor if God says it, it must be the best. Be wary child not to allow my mind, thats made up of the world, to re-invent God's path for me. Be careful not to allow my mind to bend HIS word, HIS directive for me to make my path easier for a moment.

If I begin in any moment to twist or bend, alter in anyway what I know is from HIM may I recognize the craftiness of satan and turn a deaf ear to him. For some these tasks may seem simple, to me maybe not at all.

Today Father am I ever grateful for your word that says you will never ask of me what you have not already equipped me to bring to pass. Lord, that you go before me and with me to every place You send me. God thank you for the ability to see satan and call him on his deceit. You have given me the power to not run from him, but instead covered me in your armor to defeat him. Today Lord, thank you for telling me to keep a watchfull eye and ear out for him, as surely as you give me a task he will try to prevent me from doing as You ask. Thank you for warning me that he is there, and Lord thank you for the power to defeat him :)