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?

one thing

It's impossible on New Year's Eve not to reflect on what's past and cast hope for what is yet to come.  I feel poised on the edge of something, and I'm ready to make 2012 happen in a very good way.

A few realizations from 2011 -

 - Now that I'm 50, I'm not nearly as concerned with looks as I am with attitude and perspective.

 - I'm more easily able to turn off the self talk that's played in my head for years (about myself and others) and I'm happy to see it go.

-  I really do remember how to drive a stick shift.

 - I'm amazed at the power of the mind and how it influences and determines every choice we make, from what's on our plates to what we believe about ourselves (right or wrong).

- God can be trusted through thick and thin, and is with me 24/7.  No one else can make that claim.

What is one thing you've learned in 2011, and what's your highest hope for 2012?

the best way

A bolt - a movable bar or rod that when slid into a socket fastens a door, gate, etc.

To bolt - a sudden dash, run, flight, or escape.

The same word, but with two very different meanings depending on the small word in front of it.  And the "to bolt" is what I've been using food to do for a good part of my life.

In Women, Food and God by Geneen Roth, she devotes her third chapter, "Resist the Inclination to Bolt", to this concept.  She aptly describes how we easily use food to escape the moment, get away from reality, and avoid facing what is going on right in front of us (and of course, we can put other words like money, drugs, or work in place of the word "food" above).  The more I re-read this chapter that I had read a year ago, the more I see myself blatantly in those pages, in those words. 

It is much harder to stay in the moment than to placate it with chocolate.  It is much easier to run to the kitchen than to face the emotional heartbreak that keeps coming through the door some days.  It is more difficult to watch your or your loved one's world crumble without eating it away as a temporary salve to the pain.

But the food doesn't fix a thing.  It can't.  That's giving it a power it doesn't have.

The good news is, we are more resilient than we think. If we will choose to do so, we can stand strong during the worst of moments and find ourselves still standing (and our cupboards still full and undisturbed) after the storm has passed.   Our answer is in Joshua 1, where God tells us, "Be strong and courageous!  I will never leave you nor forsake you." 

It stands to reason that if we have nowhere to turn, we will most likely consume something to conquer our feelings.  As believers, we have somewhere to turn.  We have somewhere to run.  We have somewhere to bolt. 

It's to God's everlasting arms.  

Try Him the next time circumstances have you reaching for the cookies.  I guarantee the results will be better than what food could ever give you.

(If you struggle with this food issue as I do, I'd love to hear from you.  Leave me a comment below and you will be read and prayed for.)

permanent christmas trees

I drove past our local garden center yesterday.  Their outdoor sign read, "Permanent Christmas trees."  Hmm.  That phrase made me stop and think a minute.  Permanent Christmas trees.....or, how about, permanent Christmas?

Every year, thousands of people go and buy a beautiful, live, cut Christmas tree to display in their home.  And every year after the season is over, thousands of people haul said tree out to the woods or the trash and dispose of it in a timely manner. 

It's served its purpose, done its duty, and is now to be tossed.  The same icon that was so necessary to herald in the season is put out to pasture, soon to be forgotten.

I'm afraid sometimes I do that with Jesus.  I feel the desperate need for Him for a season, and then things get better, easier, and I tend to take over.  And while I don't exactly haul Him to the dumpster when simpler days come along, soon there's a bit of dust on my Bible and I find myself shooting up quick prayers of apology that I don't have more time to spend with Him because life is good again and I'm just too busy.

Just like a permanent Christmas tree can be taken home, invited in, and planted in soil to root and grow, I need to remember that because I've asked Him to be there, Jesus is a permanent resident in my heart.  It's always Christmas, because the gift of Him is always there, walking with me day by day.  As He takes hold of my life and I find myself rooted and growing in Him, it becomes clear that there's no other place I'd rather be.

He's found a permanent home in me.