Purpose

Every human on earth wants to feel like the are doing something for their existence and having some purpose in life. Otherwise, life looses it's reason for continuing, and you see where people loose this hope when they choose to take their own lives. It's sad that we can reach such a low point in existence where we completely loose all and any reason for why we are here. Life is such a gift. ( ask any unborn child) And when we choose to throw it all away because we just have lost sight of what is important for us in our life.

I have had this thought the past couple of days, as I feel I'm just continually elbow deep in poopy diapers, and a the never-ending task of cleaning up after my little children. It's a calling, this a know, being a Mom is an amazing calling, so I am not discounting that. It's the mundane of every-day life that has begun to take it's toll on my hearts motivations. When I was young I was excited for each day because there were new and exciting things awaiting me, and slowly, as my life became more and more rooted in it's place, I felt myself loosing that excitment. Before I take down a road of sadness though, let me shed some light on this subject. That line of thinking is flawed, and it's just another attack of the enemy to get me to get "stuck" in one place and put my eyes back on myself, rather than on my creator, a creator who has great plans for me.

When the joy of Christ purpose begins to manifest itself in your soul, even the most mundane tasks can and will be done as an act of worship to Christ, to bring His name glory. The difference is this, either you plop down on your kitchen floor to scrub it with a scowl on your face and a darkness in your countenance because lets face it, this job stinks. Or, or the flip side, you could plop yourself down on your dirty kitchen floor to scrub it, and say, Lord, how can I honor you in even the most mundane of tasks? How can I make this floor cleaning session an act of worship to my Lord? And this is where the switch takes place. It's a shift in our thinking, and a committing of all our plans to the Lord, for His purposes. It is in this prayer, that we see God's will, align with it, and rest in it. Here was the climax for me friends, when I pray, and I pray in honesty to be in the center of His will, to ask for eyes to be opened to His plans, His purposes and His desires for me, I can see Him in the small tasks I have set before me. He chose me to be mother these children, with that, comes the tasks of the home. And the tasks of the home are an all encompassing job, which equates to an opportunity to worship God and bring glory to God ALOT! :) hahaha.

But in all seriousness, my calling, although it feels unnoticed by all, even if I'm painting the backside of a barn I can worship the Lord with my ATTITUDE.

Anyone ever smelled a stinky attitude? I have and it stinks real bad. It sends such a potent stench through the whole house, pretty soon it's attached itself to your once smell good husband and children and now everyone is suffering from the stench of your bad attitude. It's yucky, and just good breeds more good, so does bad breed more bad....So what type of attitude to I want to give birth to? I want the attitude of my home to peace, joy, and good smelling things. So, I clean my floors till they shine, and I have dinner made in time ( in a perfect world) :) and I can try and keep the Lord's purposes for me at the front of my mind, knowing that when my will is in align with His, my home can be the best it can be, and I am watching, waiting and listening for His calling for me. His purposes will be made known to me, when I am seeking them out in such way that it's my every breath and every beat of my heart. Every beat of my heart. This all just came clear to me in entirety this morning, and I feel refreshed, renewed and ready to clean my house with the passion of Christ, and mother my children with the purposes of His heart, not mine. Isn't it amazing the God makes known to US the purposes of HIS heart for us? Gods heart! Think on that today, or any day you start to feel like the job you are doing each day is either pointless or worthless. Asking to be in alignment with Christ's will for you will not only give your life direction, it will make sense of what seems confusing, pointless or uninteresting.

"Do you have any idea how many good works God has prepared for you? They are waiting for you to enter into as you walk in faith and trust and dependence upon Christ. The situations are there, ready and waiting for you to step into. This is what God has called you to. As you do so, you become a vivid display of the greatness and the glory of God". -Ray Stedman

I hope that encourages all of you, as it did me. Go! Give life to this statement within your own life and do give way to the lies of the enemy that your life is not worth very much. What you do, whatever it is, when it's done for Christ and in His name is beyond words. He is honored and glory is brought to His name, and that my friends is the greatest purpose of all.

When we are weak

Today, I have been weak. Weak in the sense that I gave into the temptation to loosing my cool with my children. Anger is interesting, once you "break the seal" so to speak, there is not stopping it.

It was in part my fault, I'm the bright mommy who thought that it would be a great idea to take her just 3 year old, and 20 month old to Subway. Sounded better in theory. And, of course it was chaos. Water was flying everywhere, Cheetos all over the floor, children running in opposite directions and a Mommy left looking like she had absolutely no control over her children. Not only did I feel embarrassed, I felt defeated. My children were stronger than me, that is how I felt. So when we got in the car, I really let Joshua have it, I mean, I really TOLD him. SO, when was the last time any of you, to your knowledge, lectured a three year old into obedience. Anyone? Well, if you tried this, then you would have discovered the very thing I did, IT DOESN'T WORK.

They, just get madder, and then, they tell you NO, and laugh. It's all very fun.

And in my weakness, I lost it. Rather than calling upon my Father's support, I went into "you embarrassed me in public, and I'm in control" mode, and STOMPED around their house, mumbling to myself about how much I'm walked all over, and I shouldn't have to put up with this! That boy basically spit in my face, despite all the nice things I do for him. Then I listed to myself all the things I do for him...I clean up after him, I care for his every need, I make sure that he's safe, I give him gifts, I love him...and yet this child, still spits in my face, and embarrasses me and disrespects me in public. I lay down my life for him daily, and he never says thank you. And then, something hit me. I do that too. I do it to my heavenly Father. Ouch.

So, I knelt down, asked for forgiveness for myself, and then for my attitudes towards my (naughty) children, I asked for forgiveness from Joshua, and Annie. And then it hit me, we are His little children. Ironically, I learned this in class this morning, that John actually called his flock of believers, "little children" and it stuck out to me as such a soft, understanding, and endearing term. Because with the term child, comes a host of understandings that are immediately forgiven because you are a child. People are most patient with your clumsiness, with you slowness to understand, and with your weakness.

A sign of an obedient child is that desire to be good, and the instantaneous realization of wrong. I know immediately (for the most part) when I am wronging the Father. He does not expect perfection, but He does expect us to be painfully aware of our sins when we are deep, true, oneness with Him. Just as we desire our children to be remorseful towards us because of our deep connection we have with them.

A child of the Lord should have these qualities about them, that we are of the understanding that we are not going to be perfection but that we are increasingly more and more aware of our own personal sin, and that once convicted, we confess at conversion, and then on a regular basis as we do our daily childish acts against the Father.

He tells us not to run into the bathroom alone, and we do, so upon being caught, we ask for forgiveness, he tells us not to dump our Cheetos all over the floor of subway and we do, (of course) and we then are expected to ask for forgiveness. He's not mad at us, but He wants us to learn how to behave in a way that imitates Christ and is respectful (because we love our Father) and we long to be obedient to Him because we are so unified with Him.

Just as we love our children without condition, so He loves us.

So this weakness I possess is a blessing really...

Not that I go on sinning saying that "His grace is sufficient for me." No, all the more I strive to become more like Christ because when I am more and more one with Him, my desires begin to come more and more in line with His. Leaving hopefully all of the former self behind and becoming this new creation who although is not perfect is looking more and more like her Father every day.

We mess up. Our children mess up. God does not mess up. He covers us with his blood and we are saved by His grace so that when we do mess up, we can confess and grow and learn from our mistakes, and He is strong.

Now, thankfully Joshua and Annie are quite forgiving, and so is my Savior. When I am weak, He is very strong. Humble is where He wants me, because in weakness, and humility, I can allow His strength to take over where I have none. Less of me, more of Him.

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 1 John 3:1

The 3 Truths

Today in my morning discussion with the Lord, I found something amazing. 3 basic truths that I know I can claim for myself. Any time I start to waiver, or feel fear and the prick of the enemy I can remind myself of these truths found in 1 John 5:18-21..

1. Anyone born of Christ will not continue to sin (meaning, it's not something we want to do)

2.GOD KEEPS US SAFE (doesn't that bring a sense of security? It's written right there!)

3. AND, THE EVIL ONE CANNOT TOUCH HIM. ( Christ wins!)

The other night, I was laying in my bed literally feeling the oppression of evil in my mind and heart...trying to sway me and get me discouraged. The enemy is strong, and persuasive and if we do not fully understand the truth that Christ has for us, we will believe his lies.

My friends, let this be a warning for you, the lies you hear in your minds about the truth of your circumstances, are just that lies. The truth is what you know about Christ, not the flitting fears that you hear in your heart and mind.

If what enters your mind is fearful to you, it's not from the Lord.

So, in that moment of fear the enemy had me in the other night, I literally prayed against the temptations of the evil one and told the enemy to be "gone in Christ's name." And you know what friends? The fear ceased instantly. I mean instantly. It was just gone. Now that my friends, is the power of the Christ. He is your protector and as 1 John 5 tells you, He keeps you safe, and evil cannot touch you.

Now don't you feel comforted? I do.

We can tap into all kinds of heavenly peace here on earth, we just have to do it, and in order to do it, we need to first and foremost, confess our sins before the Lord, claim Him is our Lord, and then believe on His promises for us.

We cannot claim these luxuries of peace if we do not claim our sin first though. I stand guilty before the Lord, but the gift of forgiveness is just that, forgiveness, all we must do is ask. So, as I ask, and He washes me clean, I in return receive His Holy Spirit, and with the guidance of this being in me, I now know where to step next.

The phrase "wanting what HE wants.." has continually swarmed my thoughts the last couple of days, you hear the words in 1 John 5 also "asking anything according to His will, He hears us.." vs 16b and your mind instantly goes to the thought of all wants being fulfilled...am I right?

Those verses have continually confused me throughout my walk, and I found myself almost skipping over them because I thought, "either I don't have enough faith or those verses are somehow being read out of context, because nothing I ask for ever happens." Anyone with me?

Well, let me tell how flawed my thinking was. Asking within His will, is different that asking within our will. Catch my drift? I'm new to this to, so don't think that I'm speaking above you. His truth is this, that when we confess our sins, lay down ourselves, also we lay down our will. Ouch but necessary to understand, because then what we ask for will be different in the light of Christ's will and desires for us...

And as I spoke above, what I asked for in Christ's name was instantly answered...because I feel for quite possibly the first time in my life, I asked for something that was in Christ will for me in a given moment. I felt very loved, and also I felt the power of Christ. I believe that is what His answering our requests is all about, not just because He loves us and wants to give us what is best for us, He wants us to have our faith increased and see His mighty power.

In these things that I have learned here the past couple of days, I have learned a few basic things I wish I had learned 20 years ago. But now that am getting a grasp on it, I wanted to share it with all of you...

The enemy wants to drag you down with fear, but by leaning on the saving grace of Christ, we can experience heavenly gifts of peace and protection right here on earth. I am learning so much about the God I serve and I am so humbled that He cares for me in the way that He does. How could I even consider Him not giving me what is best for me? It's just that all these years I have been asking for things according my desires and my will...but I'm really just getting the point where I find myself saying, " Lord, I want what you want, so allow me the wisdom to know what that is," and then, ask for it.

It's been a long time in coming and I feel the peace of the Lord wash over me as I begin to pray prayers according to that format...

I think that this is why the Lord's prayer has been so influential not only in the life of Christ himself as he was on earth, but also for us as we are to imitators of Christ.. so as we start our days saying, "our Father, who art in heaven, I praise your name, your kingdom come, and your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.."

And as we utter these words of praise and recognition of His power, we are then given our daily bread. I feel so nourished, quite possibly for the first time in my life, and it feels so good.

Outside of Me

It is difficult to shift ones thinking so much so that you are literally outside of yourself, meaning, no more you in you, all that is left is what God gives you to be sustained on.

And although that makes me sound like I am barely hanging on by a thread, I am not, I'm hanging onto God, and there is absolute peace in that. I knew this to be true today when I encountered a situation that even two weeks ago would have pushed me over the edge...but it did not today. Why is this? Because Christ is sustaining me. He is bigger than anything that could topple a human emotion. Human emotions are so fickle, they sway with the wind, one day up, the next down. But when Christ is steering the ship and being the very sustenance of life, peace replaces human emotion. Praise the Lord for that. I found myself thanking Him so deeply here this afternoon for that and it sunk it how much different my response was today from days past, I not only saw God in that moment with my own eyes, I believe a little more deeply. My trust grew and my peace increased.

Getting outside of myself has been a lifelong journey and in my 26 years, I never imagined all that I would want to divorce of myself. I really am sure that apart from Christ, there is no good in me, and that is in fact right where God wants me to be I think.

" NOT MY WILL, BUT YOURS BE DONE." LUKE 22:24

That verse basically covers it all in one fell swoop and I like that phrase, it's easy to remember and I is a basic laying down of self. The laying down that God requires a follower to do if we are to truly run after the path of Christ, go where HE goes and learn what He teaches.

Pride and self sufficiency just cannot be present when we claim to have given Christ full control, and most of my life I spent teetering on the fence, of "your will God, NO! wait! my will..." and I stayed there for many many years. But the wind kept swaying me and finally, I fell into the arms of the Father fully on the other side. There are times where I do try and climb back up on that fence and lean towards the "my will" side of the fence, but chaos breaks out and I soon recognize my folly once more and land back into the Father arms once more.

He his so patient with me, and yet, as I felt the sting of his pruning here these past couple of months, I recognize that although He is patient, He is jealous (not in a sinful way) but He is jealous for my heart and arranges circumstances so I feel my need for Him, because He wants more for me than what I think I need.

I am only an "I" when I am in the center of c-h-r-I-s-t.

Because there I exist, in the center of His name, the center of His will. His plan.

Today, as my heart began to respond in regards to the "old me" He again was my Gardner, taking ahold of my heart and face in his gentle hands saying, "My plan for that person, Is not my plan for you. My plan for you looks different...trust me, trust my plan."

SO, I responded towards Christ as He desired me to. I placed my trust in His hands, and do you know what friends? My faith grew. Because in that moment, when I was in great need, He knelt down and took the time to reassure me again.

It's like when your child is begging for your attention, and we comply, we kneel down, look into their eyes, and take the time in that moment to reassure them, and calm their fears.

So, here is where I am whole. I am whole and full when I am on the outside of me, and on the inside of Christ. In the center of His name I am a whole person.

So here I rest...Longing for one thing, more of Him. Thanks be to God.

FOR GOD IS GREATER THAN OUR HEARTS, AND HE KNOWS EVERYTHING. -1 John 3:20b

Thankful

So very thankful am I.

I have a lot of things to be thankful for today my friends, and in order to pay tribute to my Father, and express my love for Him, may I used you my friends as my sounding board?

This Gardner that I spoke of yesterday has made me so very thankful, I recognized His hand all along the way, where it was leading, guiding, pruning and gently pushing me out of my comfort zone to where I need to be. His hands are so faithful. They give you exactly what you need so that you can have the maximum amount of joy in your life, and that joy melts away any and all fear.

Today the Lord showered me with love as He reminded me that with each gentle teaching lesson, He provides a way out from under it, and in other words, He gives you what you need when you need it most. And what I needed, was not what I wanted...

"Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, they are always with me." Psalm 119:98

and.."I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life." vs. 94

And that last verse really sums it up for me today my friends, He preserved my life, maybe not in the same sense as David spoke of as he was hotly persuade by His enemies, but friends, I was being hotly perused by a vicious enemy of my day and he was coming at me from every angle. Let me expose this enemy so you too may see his points of entrance and how he creeps in ever so deceitfully. Usually, his entrance begins with a sense of dissatisfaction, which grows to all out want and leads ultimately to discontentedness with all that you current situation holds for you. What God holds for you. So at the core you are then discontent with God's plan at the moment for you and now the enemy has gained some ground. Be on your guard! Look out for the thief in the night! He comes with many different masks and takes many different forms. And if we are to truly recognize this prince of this world for who he is and all his lies all we need to look for us discontent in our hearts, and be assured, the enemy is not far off.

So examine your hearts today friends, is there a seed of discontent anywhere to be found? Where is it? Why is it there? Ask the Lord to dispose of it for you and protect you from it. Name it! Claim it! and then throw it away...

this freedom is yours, and the freedom you want, need and desire is your very survival, which leads to an ultimate dependence to the vine, the sap and the Gardner I spoke of yesterday. You are never alive and independent of the vine.

" I run in the path of you commands, for you have set my heart free!" Psalm 119:32

Thank you Father, your words are freedom and your path is contentment. May this be the path I put one foot in front of the other for the rest of my days on this earth...Then I know I am right where I need to be. What a God we serve my friends. Does anyone want to go for a walk with me? There is room on this path for all my friends.

Staying Connected

SO, you have heard this verse a million times, but listen to this:

"I Am the vine, you are the branches..." John 15:1

but have you heard this little bit? "My Father is the Gardner.." vs 1b

No? Me neither.

The Gardner. What a name to paint a word picture. Do you know what I see in my mind's eye when I hear that the Father is the Gardner? I see a kind, wrinkled old face of a man who cares deeply for what He has planted. A person who tends, waters, weeds and gently, ever so gently cares for his plants. His vines, his branches.

In this verse, Jesus tell us that He is the vine, we are the branches and as I learned today, the Holy Spirit, is the sap that runs through all the stems, and trunk of this vine to provide nourishment, which gives life to the verse, "apart from me you can nothing..." John 15:5b

I feel a host of emotions right now in the midst of what I am learning about myself, and about the vine and how that relates to my current life situations. When I at the core, am His branch and I am to be connected at all times, in order to maintain life, and in the end bear fruit.

I have sort of forgotten all about bearing fruit, why? Because I have allowed myself to become distracted by my desires, and human thoughts. (interestingly enough i blogged on that yesterday prior to learning what I learned today, perhaps the Gardner is teaching His little wayward vine something important here)

The idea of fruit slips my mind so often I have not considered it for quite some time. And we all know that the fruits of the spirit are this, "Love, joy peace patience, goodness, kindness and self control." Uh-oh. I can tell you right now, those things have been rather absent in my daily existence as of late, and I'm to blame. I'm to blame for a couple of reasons, one of them being that I choose to disconnect from the vine, when I go my own way and act on anything that is not in the realm of the fruits of the spirit. The great Gardner's desire is for me to remain connected to the vine, be nourished off of the sap from the Holy Spirit, and allow He, the Gardner to prune me and tend to my "weeds" so that I can be bearing the most fruit possible to bring the most possible glory to the Father in heaven. Because when this is all said and done, God's work in me, is to bring glory to God. So, I'm dissecting this.

God is my source. My connection to all things pure, good and lovely, anything joyful, anything patient, anything kind and anything worth being alive for.

Is there anything in my life that has been that source for me, other than God? Yes... I will be honest with you here friends, being a Mom has been that for me. And even though I know God gave me that role, and these children to care for, they are not be my everything. He is my everything, He is my vine. They ( my children) cannot be my source of all joy and contentment in my life, and as I love them dearly, they are merely gifts from the Father, and not the source. This realization has been a long time in coming, and don't even think I would have truly recognized it for what it was unless I learned what I am learning right now and had the pruning of the Gardner that I have lately. Pruning you see, can be painful. And the Gardner loves us so much, he cannot bear to watch us live a growth less, fruitless life. He wants us to be the strongest, greenest, most vibrant branch of Christ we can possibly be. Our source HAS GOT to be Him.

As this pruning pricks us to the core, we are left feeling shaken, forsake, and a little angry and these responses are all wrong...these are the times where the Gardner is beckoning us to run close to Him. He is calling us to stop listening to the lies in our head and the distractions all around us, to focus on what really matters most in life, and that is Christ. And how to grow fruit to bring glory to God. When I feel tears of anger at times towards the Lord and I say, "why God!!!! Why is this going on in my life!" He grabs my face in His hands, and whispers to me saying, "because I want to be first in your life...I want to be most important to you. Your children are lovely and wonderful and I love the fact that you love them, but you have to love me first."

As hard as it was to hear that from my saviors lips, I nodded in agreement and as I turned my eyes towards Jesus's, I saw the deep longing in His eyes for me to return to Him, return to my first love, to lay aside all the distractions that have built up over the years, and just rest in Him.

A vine does not have to do anything to bear fruit accept to stay connected to the vine. To suck the life-giving sap from the source and grow. To let the sap feed you and nourish you and all of sudden, by no strength of our own, we begin to grow and bear much fruit.

That's what I want friends. Much fruit. Fruit in this life means to have patience in affliction, joy when it doesn't make sense, peace that passes all understand, kindness beyond belief, and not an ounce of pride. That sounds good.

Well, now I know. Here I stand, at the beginning of another beginning. Thankful. Terrified. Honest. And expectant. I am expectant of His plans. His growth. His Source of all I need is here. And friends, it's here for you too. If any or all of what I have said here has hit home for you, don't hesitate to call the Gardner's name. He will answer. If you feel disconnected, ask Him to reconnect you..and glean from His life-giving sap and you will be amazed as new growth begins. It starts small but ends big and of course, it is all for God's glory.

" I will make you a great nation, I will make your name great and you will be a blessing."

-Gen. 12:2

Getting Distracted

Distractions Distractions Distractions

We all have them in our midst and yet it's difficult to ignore them. I have many distractions throughout each day as I go about my daily tasks, I feel like I'm constantly saying, "Oh! I wish that I could finish one thing!" Obviously, I'm attempting to do things while my children are not napping, and my task because to daunting as they needed my attention. And then their are other distractions we face...distractions that pull our hearts, and thoughts away from Christ and His desires for us. I've been just captivated by the fact that God has got this plan for me, but I become distracted from the joy of future hope and allow myself to be distracted by human emotions, human ambitions, and lies of the enemy. Similar to the way my desire to surf the net or "take a mintue to myself" distracts me from my job at hand, raising my children. (go figure)

As I talked about my last blog on how we are to put on the full armor of God, well, this will help us in our defeating our distractions, but I'm recognizing that we also need to be on our guard. Being on our guard is like having cat-like reflexes. It's recognizing the presence of evil the very second it enters our minds. And then refuting it with Christ. This my friends is what I'm doing, or at least attempting to do, with scripture and prayers...

Understanding that God is holding my whole horizon in His view is quite encouraging, but I get distracted so easily, and peace I had only moments ago regarding His plans for me, now escapes me, and my distraction has now become my priority. Do you see the transition and how it happens in your own life? It goes a little something like this.. You are at your job, or caring for your children, content. Thankful. Peaceful. Then like a firefly on a summer night a distracting thought flits into your mind. It hovers, you maybe swat at it, scrunch your face up at it, because lets face it, it's annoying, and yet captivating. The light is of that distraction is captivating. It takes your eyes off of whats at hand long enough for you to get distracted, and because you fell for the enemies little firefly, he now knows this is a weakness for you. The firefly could be another man, if your married, a baby, if your barren or want more...a new shirt, if your feeling discontent with what you have on...a new car, if yours just does not seem new enough anymore. And then like that, the enemy is in your thoughts, messing with your peace and distracting you from God's ultimate plan. He desires to make you content with all you have and fill you with what He's going to provide you with. And I assure you, it looks nothing like your distraction.

I want to expose the enemy and all his dirty little tricks that he has thrown at me personally in hopes the save all of you from falling for the same temptations.. The enemies desire is to have you in his snare, and once your there, it proves almost too much for a soul to bear. Don't let yourself get trapped by his distractions.

Instead here is an approach you may take, and it's what I'm attempting to do as I mentioned above, whenever a little firefly of distraction flits across my horizon view, I may glance, but I instantly look away, and contradict that firefly with a coinciding scripture.

such as, "no temptation has seized you accept what is common to man, He will provide a way out for you.." (obviously paraphrased) or

"Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. (James 4.7-8a)"

Take to heart that Jesus experienced distractions as well and He gave us all kinds of ways to fight it by the way He never sinned, and continually resisted distraction. He was focused, and although we do not have the ability to never sin, we can follow His ultimate example..

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Heb 4.14-16) In other words, "he's been there too.." which I find so comforting. If he's been there, He knows how to help me out right now.

The key is to recognize and be aware of the distractions, and praying for discernment and wisdom to see, will help us. This is why we have the Holy Spirit residing in us. He is there to offer us this guidance as we call for help in these moments of great distraction.

Pinpointing your distractions will help your resist the devil and eventually friends, the enemy will flee. he will not remain on soil that constantly sprouts faith and resistance to the evil, it will be far to uncomfortable for him. Resist the devil and he will flee. Remember those words my friends, they are not mine, but Gods. (James 4: 7-8)

So today, as you go about your business and as night falls and the distractions buzz around your tired head, don't swat them with human power, don't gaze on them with desire in a moment of weakness, sqwash them with the truth of Christ, and they will be gone.

So then, as we practice this more and more, not only do we seep ourselves in the word of God, but we become stronger, more peaceful and more trusting. There is nothing better to be alone with yourself and feel peace. When was the last time you were all by yourself and yet still feeling peaceful? I'm not there yet, but I'm gaining the tools to help me get there...who's coming with me?