A Bit Of Beauty

I don't know about you, but I need some beauty and flowers today.  I love our foggy weather and colder days, due to the heat being hard on me, but there are times when I just need that bright splash of color to make my day a bit brighter and more enhanced.

Isolino loves to give me flowers.  I have a sweet swan vase that is on the small side.  I love to look at it, and it sits in my kitchen window.  It catches the sun, when there are no flowers in it, and it is there for those sweet surprises when a flower shows up suddenly in this vase.

It is a wonderful gift that Isolino gives to me, to allow me to look forward to seeing the flowers he chooses for me.  It has gotten into a family gift to me, as both Jolynn and Kaylee have gotten into the act of picking beautiful flowers that they see, and putting them in the vase to surprise me.  I never know who has done it, and I do ask Isolino if it was him, when I see one there.  It is a quiet gift of love, that is appreciated so very much.  It is also to see how soon I notice these gifts.  Sometimes I see them right away, and sometimes it has been there a day, before I have noticed.  Now, I try to check every day, because it is just not right to recognize when someone has done something kind and generous for you.

I am trying to do that in my own life, when others have given me unexpected gifts or done something generous that should be recognized.  I always plan to do "thank you" cards, but sometimes my own life gets so hectic that I lose track of whether I had thanked someone or not, and then it gets so far from that time, that I am embarrassed to say anything, because it is so late.  I wonder if you deal with that too.  I have some friends that are right on top of those "thank yous" and I always wonder if they think I don't appreciate their gifts as much as I do, because I have not gotten that "thank you" to them.

I have been blessed with such generous friends.  I feel so thankful to God for the friendships He's brought me.  I tell my kids, "I prayed years and years for good friends.  Now God has given me so many wonderful friends, that the time in my life where I had few friends, seems non-existent".  It is so hard on these younger kids.  Friendships are so shallow, and dramatic.  I pray for my kids to have good friends.  My oldest and middle daughter are finding friendships to be more lasting as they have gotten older.  My youngest has struggled to find friends that understand her.  She has a few good friends, but at school the drama gets intense.

I think of our relationship with God.  Do we thank Him for the things He does for us.  Do we recognize when He's given us a gift?  How long does it take us to see that He's given it?  Do we praise Him for Who He is, or for what He does for us?  All week long, I was working on my accounting at work.  I was trying to get the bank statement and my checkbook to balance, but it just wasn't going well.  I probably went over it twenty times, and each time was getting a different figure.  I was praying and asking God's help the whole time, but it just wasn't balancing.  At one point, I had been praying all night, and the next day, before I went into work, I asked God to please help me balance it, because I needed to take care of some things, and this was just taking so long.  Well, I went over it two or three times, and finally, on the last time, it all balanced.  I just lifted my hands and said, "Praise the Lord.".  Isolino was there, and he raised his hands, and I said, 'YES!  Praise the Lord, I finally got it balanced."  We laughed, but it was a huge thing for me.  I could feel the warfare of the enemy.  When you are getting different amounts and you are doing the same numbers, there is definitely something going on!

Now, I know I was praising Him for what He had done for me, but I was also praising Him for Who He Is, because He was the only One, Who could cut through the mist that the enemy was putting up there.  Our God is Victorious.  He is Mighty.  He is able to do so much more than we can ask or imagine.  That is what His Word says.  He says "we have not, because we ask not."  One of my favorite verses has always been, "Seek and ye shall find, Ask and ye shall receive, Knock and the door shall be opened."

I use this verse in my prayer time.  It means so much to me.  I pray that it will help you too.  I apply God's Word to my life.  When He gives me a verse to ponder, I usually think how I can use it in my everyday life.  God's Word is active.  It is sharper than a two edged sword.  It cuts through the marrow and the bone.  It really does have an affect on our lives, if we will believe it.  Apply it.  Live it.  I encourage you to think on what I have shared here today.  Think of those people in your lives that have helped you.  Given you gifts that weren't expected.  Shared their lives with you in some special way.  Especially think of where God has been there for you.  He loves you so much.  He loves to be appreciated.  But you know what the really neat thing is?  God's Word says. "that God inhabits the praises of His people."  That means, as you begin to praise Him, He shows up in a big way.  I don't know about you, but I like having God in my life in a big way.  He has done so much for me.  I believe He has done lots for you too.  Have you seen it yet?  Have you recognized where His footsteps have been in your life?  I love you all.  I pray this will encourage you to see more clearly than before.  Have a wonderful Sunday, tomorrow.  I pray your night tonight is blessed.

Swans and Pawns

On our recent trip, we saw these swans in a huge pond area.  I have only seen swans one other time here in California, so this was a complete surprise and wonderful treat.

You may wonder why I called the title "Swans and Pawns".  Well, I am not quite sure myself.  The swans part is easy, but, pawns?  Hmm, what was I thinking?  I think it has to do with what I was sharing with a friend today.  Our choices make a difference, and we are either going in the direction of our destinies, or, we are heading in a totally wrong direction, and become pawns in a war we are ignorant about.  When we get beat up, we don't understand what happened.  But God's Word says "We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but against principalities, rulers, and spiritual forces of darkness."  When we choose to trust God, "He works all things to our good", and Praise Him "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say , rejoice."  Then we will see things more clearly.  When we murmur and complain, we are in dire circumstances, for that is what the children of Israel did in the desert and it displeased God.  It is one of the things He hates.  So, our choices make a difference.

So, a swan reminds us of royalty.  That is what God has called you to.  When you accept Christ as your Savior, you are adopted into God's family and become a prince or princess of the Kingdom of God.  You begin to walk into the destiny God called you to.  When you become a pawn, you lose the pathway to your calling.  You begin to open yourself up to the curses of this world, whatever they are.  You become blinded to what is really happening in the spiritual realm.

The truth is we are meant to live in heavenly places.  Supernatural is a God thing, not a spooky scary thing.  Think about it.  Adam and Eve were supposed to live eternally, but because of their choices, they lost that privilege.  Noah saw animals live in harmony on the ark.  Moses saw God part the Red Sea.  David slew giants.  People saw angels on a regular basis.  They were an expected sight.  Peter walked on water, Saul and Silas saw the jail doors open through praise.  We are asked to believe for the impossible, so why don't we?

So, my question to you is, "What will you choose?"  Swan or pawn?  I want to encourage you to think on what I have said.  To believe for better things in your life this year.  To "enlarge your tent", to "believe that God is for you, and not against you.".  You have a beautiful destiny.  You are important.  Your life has meaning.  God bless you with insight and "eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to understand.".

Surprising Gifts

You may be wondering what this picture is of.  Well, for the New Years weekend, Isolino, Kaylee, and I went camping at Bodega Bay.  On our way to the campground, we stopped at the viewpoint for the whales.

We were blessed to get to see this whale very close to shore.  So many people were as excited as I was, and I wouldn't even have seen it, if Isolino hadn't pointed it out to me.

We had been here so many times before, and I always thought I might have seen a whale, way out in the distance, but you could never be sure.  This time, as you can see, it is more clear that there is definitely something big there in the water.  We could see them blowing through their spouts and spraying water in the air.  Isolino and Jolynn had come here in August to go deep sea fishing and they were blessed to see some whales that trip too, but further out.  I was so excited that God had allowed me to see these wonderful creatures.

This trip was about a lot of surprises.  I was able to get a woodpecker up close, I saw some swans, I was able to get some sheep, a beautiful hawk, seagulls, waves, whales, cranes, blue herons, egrets, and the most wonderful of all, we had a quiet campground, so our New Years was blessed.

I pray that you, too, get to see God giving you special surprises this year.  I have a dear friend who when she went to Hawaii, said, "God let me see everything I was desiring to see.  It was like He was giving me gifts all during my trip."  That is how I felt on this trip, and I pray you feel that same wonderful feeling of getting gifts wrapped up in God's Love and Care, saying to you, "I love you so much, I want to bless you with the answer to this desire."  If an \earthly father can give good gifts, how much more does our heavenly Father want to give us good things?  A lot more!  He is good.  Believe He has good things in store for you my dear friends.  God bless you!