posting on (in)courage tomorrow


Every once in a while you just need a piece of fun news.

So let's have some fun.

 I'm guest posting on (in)courage tomorrow, Wednesday January 25th!

Please stop by and check out this incredible website for women - an online beach house just for us gals.  You will find amazing people and incredible faith there waiting for you with open arms and hearts.
A slice of heaven on earth!

See you there tomorrow!

fearless

   Many thanks to Melanie Moore from Only A Breath for designing this beautiful graphic for me with my one word for 2012!  It's perfect.

   It seems that as soon as I chose my word, life unleashed events that would put it to the test. 

   When that happened, I smiled.  I knew I was doing something right.

   Even now, at almost the end of January when 2012 is still a newborn, I find myself heading to panic in certain situations and I have to stop myself and remember......

Fearless. 

And it's as if I can audibly hear God saying, "Bring it to me.  Turn it over to me. Am I the God that you trust, or not so much?  I can handle this.  Believe me."

So once again, I lay it down for Him to pick up and carry away from me.

Just where it needs to be.

it's in the cards

Have you ever received a card at just the right time- maybe it lifted your spirits, made you laugh, brought a smile, touched your heart...the list can go on and on.  It's amazing how much power is packed into a simple card!  

My sister sent me one last year when I was going through a particularly rough time, and the verse on it was about the strength of an oak tree.  I wept as I read it, because it spoke exactly to what I needed to hear at that moment.  That card will be in my "stuff to keep" pile forever, because I will remember how God used it to assure me that He was with me, that I might bend but I would not break, and that He would be my strength.

I love sending cards - it's a simple, inexpensive, yet powerful ministry.  Knowing how I have felt being the recipient of cards that really spoke to me, I love the possibility that a card I send will get to the intended person just when they most need it.



Upon my request, Dayspring sent me a beautiful card pack with a magnificent card holder/organizer so that I will have no excuse to ever miss another birthday, anniversary, or important holiday again!  (DaySpring gave me the free product to review and all opinions stated are my own.)  I chose the Holley Gerth Hope and Encouragement 10-card assortment, and they are lovely in every way.  The theme for January's card packs is encouragement, and I will be using the cards to send to special women in my life who are champions in what they do in their lives, their homes, their workplaces and their families.

Now here's the really good news- You can join in the fun! All you need to do is click here to go to Dayspring's Inspired Deals page.  Dayspring wants to help provide you with cards to share joy throughout the year, for any occasion, so they are giving away two card packs to 200 winners.  Hurry!  All you have to do is share a card sending goal that you are setting for yourself this year - easy peasy.

Enjoy, and happy sending!

strength



So far, I've lived 12 days of 2012.

To date, it feels like 12 years.

In the past 12 days, I've been grown and stretched and pressed and molded in ways I didn't see coming...all to make me more like Jesus.

There's a verse I discovered at the end of 2011 that blows me away....for those days when I have no idea what's ahead, or better yet, for those days I do think I know what's coming, yet life goes a completely different direction.

Deuteronomy 33:25 says, "The bolts of your gates will be iron and bronze, and your strength will equal your days." 

Think about that for a moment.

Your strength will equal your days.

That's huge.

When it comes to strength, there's no need to fear that you won't have enough to get through whatever you're going through.  Because it's not up to you to dispense it.

God's got your back.  He will give you what you need when you need it. He knows how much or how little you'll endure in the next 24 hours, and He'll dose out enough strength to match, to equal, your day.

So breathe a sigh of relief.  There's no need to worry.

There's every need to trust. 





just. one. word.


There's a lot of talk on the blogosphere right now about choosing a word, just one, to encapsulate the vision for your life in 2012.  I love the idea, and love that it's catching and spreading.  It's a great challenge!

My word?

Fearless.

I wrote about it here, on (in)courage.

What's your word?

Leave it in the comment section, and then hop on over to oneword365.com and join in the fun!

resolute



Who doesn't love New Year's Day?

We're at the top of the calendar.  We're on page 1 of a new year.  We've erased from our minds - or learned from - the last year, and usually are glad to put it behind us and move on.

Who doesn't love a fresh start, a clean slate, a new run on life?


Even if you aren't in the habit of making resolutions, the start-over feel of January 1st simply can't compare with any other day of the year.

Not even January 2nd.

By tomorrow, most of us are back to work, back to life, back to the daily grind, whatever that may be.  Some of us love our daily grind, others not so much.

I'm finally old enough to realize that soon and very soon, life is going to hit me smack in the face again. January 1st will be over, and January 2nd is going to feel like any given day I had last year.

That newness will be gone.  The fresh quickly becomes stale.


But only if I let it.

The resolute in "resolution" comes when it's February 11th and we are still sticking to the way we wanted to do life differently when the ball dropped.  And then when we're at July 30th and we look back and say, "Yes! I've done what I promised myself I'd do, by God's grace and with His help. I am so glad I did this."  And our faith grows and our trust grows and we even start to believe in ourselves a little more than we did before.

True excitement comes when it's December 31st and our pondering over the past year brings joy to our hearts and smiles to our faces.  Not necessarily because it's been an easy year, but because we've been true to who we are; we have spent the past 365 days living an authentic life. We've not let ourselves down.   We are who God made us to be and we are not afraid to show it and we have gone through the past year letting Him shine through us each and every day.

To live a life like this is my heartbeat for 2012.  I don't enter into it lightly, but I am entering into it.  More details to follow on what I mean by that.

I'd love to have you join in and together, we can see where we are on December 31st, 2012.

Who's with me?