"Don't allow yourself to be hurt to avoid hurting the slug"

A few weeks ago when I was setting up for  a Dag sewfest at my church, I noticed a slug on the front window when I was leaving the building.  When I opened the door, it fell off and was in the way of me trying to get out of the building and I didn't want it squished by the door so I eased my way out of the door, saved the slug, but wrenched my hip by straddling the door.

Lesson learned.  And Devo developed. 

The lesson:  Slugs ruin things, plants, leave their slimy mess as a trail to where they have been.  The squishy mess is small compared to the damage a slug does to a garden.  We don't have to care about them.  I know my friend has a slug race every year, and I'll leave that option open for them as it helps her business and others at the port during this event. 

But for the rest of the time, slugs have no place in the garden of our lives.  Metaphorically speaking, they will destroy the Garden that God has placed you.  Like the cunning snake, they will continue to leave their slimy mess behind them if you let them get away with it.  They will distract you from your purpose of providing for those you care about if you let them rule your garden space.  There is a place for slugs, but not in the garden where substance is provided.  . 

When approacing the slug, remove it.  Don't let what its brought with him to pollute what God has already set in place for you.  They carry with them  diseases from other plants and transfer them to your own garden.  If God has already told you what to do, do it. 

What happens if you let the slug continue to roam in your garden?  Manipulation, deceit, resentment, bitterness and rejection start to grow because you've started to make a place for the slug to thrive where it really doesn't belong.  Soon you won't even reconize your garden because the slug has taken over.  The plants that you planted are ruined because of the attention you gave the slug.  There's not life left in the garden. 

So today, get the slug out.  Do whatever you have to do to make sure it doesn't return.

My wake up call-placing my health back into top priority

I finally had the wake up call.

For the last year and a half  I felt the Lord tell me to not do make-up until the time was right.  It was not a great struggle as I haven't made a habit of it for quite a while.   This morning I believe He said to start again.  That was the first wake up call.

The second was due to my procedure this past Thursday.  I am changing my eating lifestyle back to vegetarian and throughout the day I had been feeling more and more to follow Jethro Kloss's "Back to Eden" book for devo and learning how to obtain a healthier lifestyle. And I'm thinking of adding in the Daniel Fast Cookbook by Grace Bass and Lynda Anderson, a vegan cookbook and working with the two primarily.   I'm seem to always have some sort of challenge going on in my life. 

I set a goal of working toward losing 10 pounds a month for the next couple of months.  Looking at the "comfortable" wardrobe of jeans, t-shirt and sweats kind of showed me that I was in need of a change. 

Some of why I've been living this lifestyle is due to the career I have being an in home caregiver.  You get used to seeing just one or two people a day outside of family and then develop a who cares attitude as you get more relaxed in the work environment.  For the past four years I've been wearing sweats or jeans and t-shirts as primarily I was working nights for about three of the four years and sleeping during the day.   Not that it was that great of an excuse.

Other changes are taking place and not knowing where this leg of my journey is taking me, its best to put my health first at this time.

Day 21 of Daniel Fast

Its been a good journey. Being the last day I contemplated a lot of things from the past few weeks that took place. I've stayed away from meat products and most dairy products. I tried to do vegan when it was possible and when it wasn't I stuck to a vegetarian eating plan.

My other commitments didn't fare as well this past week. I'd love to blame the rain for my staying indoors alot and feeling like there was nothing else to do but watch tv or check my email on the internet. But I know I could have found other things to do when I got other activities done that I had scheduled to do.

God was faithful, even during the times I wasn't. He still provided in many ways when I failed in my commitments. It didn't mean that I could just blow off my commitments but that He is soveriegn. Its a word I had trouble understanding for quite a while. I'd heard it so many times but didn't understand its meaning. The best way to discribe it is that He is merciful. He knows our hearts and I learned through a time of devotion yesterday that when He knows our names, it means He knows our hearts. He knows our hurts and sorrows, and our joys and what makes us happy.
He knows that we do try to keep with our commitments but that circumstances arise due to the world that we are living in. There are times when we have to make a choice, and there are times when we have the choice made for us. My lack of commiting to my goals were my choice. Period. I admitted that to Him.

So tomorrow starts a new day. I'll do another fast, just not sure when. I had thought about doing one the three days in Arizona, as I want to hear God's word clearly, and to be encouraged in what He's called me to do.

I know I'm going to stick with the vegetarian lifestyle moreso now then I had in the past. Some meat will be added once in a while as I need the protein.

I did discover that by taking caffiene out for the past three weeks I've slept longer and deeper then I had prior. My dreams were much more vivid and I was able to remember most of them when I woke up in the morning. I believe that God does talk to us in dreams and its up to us to discern which are His and which are just dreams.

Day 12 of Daniel Fast

I was thinking this morning that I had miscounted my days!

I'm still learning more of God's grace during this time. My two co horts on this fast with me I was hoping would add their two cents in but have yet to respond.

God has been working on their lives as well and showing them many things as to what He as in store for them, which was my prayer for them during this fast. It was exciting to get a text from one of them the other day saying "Guess what! We're going to Africa!" For a while she was struggling even though she knew God had said she was going.

The last few days have really been faith builders for me as I'm learning how to trust in Him and to see what His plan in the situation, and that His word is true.

In the past it was hard to stand for what I knew God was calling me to do when others were influencing me or circumstances were influencing me. I've chosen to stand firm in what He has said, and He has provided, not in a manner of what I was expecting. It falls in line with a quote that Bill Johnson stated "He manifests opposite to the manner of the day." I apply Proverbs 3:5-6 to that quote because really when we trust God, we can't lean on our own understanding. They are two different spheres. We have a small brain, God is the master of the universe. We can't comprehend past what we see and God is unmeasurable.

So today I admit I am struggling, but the struggle is mine, the temptations are ones that are easy to ignore, I just had a "tude" today. I'll get through it.

Day 9 of Daniel Fast

I am reading Derek Prince's book "Shaping History through praying and fasting." As I read it I was praying through it for more power in my prayers for good government as that is the will of God. My for the week are prayers for misunderstandings to be resolved and for forgiveness on my part in those misunderstandings, and for guidance as I continually walk in faith in His will.

I worked last night so I didn't get to my bible study on time, and was woke up by a friend who needed to talk. It was one of the misunderstandings that I really needed clarification on and greatful for answered prayer.

When I arrived at the bible study a new lady was mouthing to me "thank you" several times. I was a little confused until she told me that her living conditions that I had been praying for had improved in the past week. Later I was told that the woman had seen me walking by her home and knew I had been praying for her (word gets around that you prayer walk in a small town!), and she could feel that God answered her prayers along that line as well.

God is showing me that even when there are times when I falter on my list of things I'm fasting from that He's not setting a hard and fast rule with me. He's still blessing me, and when I know that something is not something I'm to do I learn to walk away from it as its in line of what I am fasting over. My goal is to walk away from any idle talk, gossip and the like and it includes what I watch on Tv or respond to on the internet.

The other night I had tried to go to bed early as I had to work later that night but couldn't sleep. Hubby was watching a cute spy movie with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones. I decided to sit up and watch it with him. When it came to a scene like so many where the couples are rolling around on the floor I thought "great, now I got to leave!" I was starting to get up with Sean Connery said something about how he couldn't go through with anything more then the kiss, and I was thinking "This is so a God thing!" I was able to enjoy the rest of the movie in peace.

There are still many areas that are small areas still that I know God is going to break through in the next two weeks. I just have to stay focused and faithful. He will bring me through. He is that faithful to His word. I just have to stay faithful to mine.

Day 7 of Daniel Fast

I know I haven't posted in the last six days, but I've kept up with eating vegan/vegetarian during this time. We are on a limited budget and I've only been getting what I can afford when I go to the store so its been mostly one or two veggies for a stir fry for later in the week as I gather more veggies in the next day or two, lots of rice and beans, and a salad mix that I can get four servings out of one bag for 98 cents. I stopped eating tomatoes about mid week as I read that the acidicity level is not good for the stomach when making a change in the diet that quick. I've eaten vegan and vegetitarian most of the past year, but have faltered over cheeseburgers and such more times then not prior to this fast.

God is showing me many things during this time of having a reliance on Him. One thing He told me several weeks ago and He's reiterated it to me was that I was to only take a job by word of mouth.

Twice a couple of weeks ago I had the oppurtunity to apply at a local facitlity. I prayed over and over about it and the next day two people that I had worked for at Good Sam saw me and stated that working in home care field is the best for me as I was less stressed, I was more active and not as tired and wore out. Even the person I work for said the same thing. At that time was when I felt God saying to take jobs by word of mouth.

So last week I was praying while driving to Curves and asking God again if what I heard was correct. I have an application for another facility that is along the lines of home care that I'm praying if I should fill out. I was praying this as I was driving and when I got to Curves, went around one turn and a someone from my past came in. We had bought the restraurant from her several years ago and we were discussing our woes of owning it. She asked me what I was doing now. I told her of my working as a CNA and doing home care. She asked if I did and respite care, and I told her I did. She then said that she wanted someone that could take care of her mom while her and her brother went out a time or two. I was hired on the spot by her.

Earlier this week, I bought a recliner for 10 dollars for my husband. This was probably a splurge but it was needed as he didn't have anywhere to really sit as the couch he had had done its time. When the men were carrying it out from the mission, I thought I had seen a huge tear in the seat. I was going to say something but the conversation between them, my friend was where I couldn't get a word in edgewise. I was also calming down my friend as she was frustrated over another situation. Going home I know I was transfering a lot of my husband's frustration of he saw the tear, and I didn't know how to get rid of the couch as the misson didn't want it. I knew they didn't, but the man wanted to look at it to make sure which is why I took it down there.

As my friend was driving she was talking about her daughter who had just moved out. I asked if she wanted it. In five minutes her daughter and roomate had a "new" couch, and a board that made sitting in it a bit easier. (Yes, we could have used the board but that's not the point of the story!)

So we get the recliner home, and I'm thinking of the tear in the seat, and as hubby took the recliner out of the back of my friend's truck I looked and the seat was a flat as it could be with a slight crease in the seat! I was happy! We got it inside and it needed some major cleaning which I spent the rest of the day and part of the next day doing. What we thought was a bleach stain was something else that with a scrub brush came off, and there are some stains that I am still working on but its very close to being new!

Later I was praying about my desire to go to Prayerquake in Arizona. I've wanted to go for years but could never afford and this year is really no different.

One night I was praying and having a bit of a pity party as I get when I know God is going to bless me with something but I always think of someone else that needs it more. God hammered me on this and told me that I needed to take the blessing when it came.

So the next morning I get a phone call from a friend who said she would help with expenses if I could pay for the conference. I was like "Yeah!" I couldn't stop jumping up and down in my house and had to move around as we've had plumbing leaks for the past 10 years and not knowing what parts were the worst I didn't want to fall through!

Its been an exciting week as I see strongholds broken that have been rather stagnant over time. I've got two weeks to go. So excited to see God working!

The journey continues.....

A song was posted on FB yesterday by a friend and I added it to my wall. It was called "I'll walk by faith".

Yesterday when I heard it I began to praise Him by dancing and singing. Its my goal to walk by faith in all that I do.

This morning I woke up thinking about a mission class I took when I was a student at Northwest Christian College in the early 80's.

One of the books we read was "Peace Child" by Don Richardson and I remember sharing this book with people in the church I was going to appalled over the idea that people were told they could accept Jesus in their throat because their culture believed that the center of their being was not their heart but in their throat.

As I think back and I'm made this comment before with people in my age group and those a generation before: The spirit of religiosity played a good role during those times in the church. The family dressed up for church, walked in together and shared together, never letting the dirty laundry of the home life enter the doors because they believed that it didn't belong in the church building. Yet I remember every Sunday hearing the minister talk about what was going on out in the world and no one would budge even if it was happening in their own homes. It was more embarrasing to admit to someone that the trials you were facing were the same as someone else in the church.

However over the years with the Jesus Movement the church as a whole has changed. People are entering that have dealt with sins of drugs, alcohol and sex and are being forgiven. People are opening up their hurts and pains and letting others comfort them and its no longer a thing of keeping up with the Jones as people are pulling together to help one another.

I've talked to people that are around my age that grew up in the church, but fell away. They don't see that the church has changed as they remember what it was like 20 to 30 years when they were younger. They see the church as judgemental and that they don't belong.

It means that we have to do what we need to do outside of the building. If the Christ we are worshiping in the building is also outside working in us it is a much more powerful sermon then can be preached at the pulpit.

As I work with seniors who have fallen away from their faith, very few understand the term of "relationship" when refering to Christ. They remember a God who was not there for them when they needed Him.

So the journey continues in finding ways to share Him to others, while seeking new things about Him. Showing a Christ that will change the mindsets of people who have never really met Him for who He is.

My first blog!

Wow! That was easy.

I decided it was time to branch out a bit from the safety of the group of women that have supported me over the past five years through various message boards with my 50 day journeys. (Yes its been about five years ladies!)

This year God is taking me on a new journey. I will be studying the Charsmatic Movement over that past 2000 years. The first book I'll be reading will be of the same title by Eddie L. Hyatt. Ive been in the Pentacostal churches off and on for the past twenty three years and have heard several things but never really understood them. So I'm taking the next year to do so and understand other ministers of the faith such as John Lake, Charley Finney, Ame Semple McPherson, and others that have paved this path. One other book that I am going to read again too is ""The Lost Art of Practicing His Presence" by James W. Goll.

I want to understand what it means to be in His presence day after day. Somedays I think I got it and other times I feel so far away from it. I want to do His bidding each and every day even when my body is not up to it. I want to break down strongholds that keep me from being the person He's creating me to be.

That is the journey I am on for this year. It's a lifestyle change in a few areas of my life as well.

Cheryl