Some Lessons I Have Learned This Past Week

It's so very awesome to see God at work in your own life, many times as a person we aren't able to step out and see the "Big Picture" of what God is doing in our lives. A few weeks ago I was so content as a person in everything that was going on, I was happily building up my business (albeit slowly), loving life, enjoying my family and just being near them and getting to know each and every one a little better, happy to be single for however long God wanted me to be, etc. I was just content. Then it seemed God threw a little bump in the road and upset my whole apple cart... now I'm not saying that I am not happy with any of the above stated facts. But, everything just seemed to happen all at once and all the sudden I don't feel so confident in my contentment anymore. In fact I feel down right vulnerable right now and I hate that feeling, because I love being in control and feeling strong.

 One evening this past week, while I was really feeling that vulnerability and I was at my weakest I decided to go outside and just walk in my gardens and be with God (not that He's in my gardens, but I always feel so much closer to God when I am outside, plus He is wherever I am). I was crying out to God for some answers (and I mean literally crying) and as I sat down at the edge of my herb garden Proverbs 3:5-6 came to mind the words flowed through my head as the tears flowed freely down my cheeks "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding; But in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.". There are times in our lives when we know in our heads what we need to do, but it's getting our hearts to freely follow Christ's bidding that is so hard (Jeremiah 17:9).
  God gave me a rare opportunity to step outside of myself (not literally), to step back and see a big picture of sorts and just see some of the things He had prepared me for, to see some of  what He had been doing in my life over the past few years. I was so shocked at what I saw. I mean in reality I shouldn't be shocked to see what God has done, but for me it is a lot easier to see God work in others rather than to see what He is doing in my own life (1 Cor. 2:6-12).
 God is so good to this child who's faith often wavers and sometimes seems to come crashing down, but Jesus is always there to pick me back up, show me where I was wrong and guide me back onto the straight and narrow. I know my heavenly Father loves me and is watching over me, and right now while my thoughts are swirling around certain things in my life that I am not sure where they are headed, I know that my loving, heavenly Father will always take care of me and that He has a plan for my life and I don't need to worry (Jeremiah 29:11).

Here are some things that God has taught me this week... He has taught me to daily lean on Him (and that's hard to do for someone who likes to be able to stand on her own two feet with no one's help), He shows me that my strength is not my strength, instead my weakness (or my vulnerability) is what God uses to make me strong through Him (2 Cor. 12:9-10), that no Glory belongs to myself, but to Him and Him alone...don't look back at the past victories that God has given me lest I think they are "my" victories(1Cor. 1:26-31) and last but not least God has taught me that He (not I) brought me out of nothing to something, He made me His child and I need not worry about tomorrow (Matthew 6:33-34).

What has God been teaching you lately?

Why Daughter of Vision?

What exactly is a Daughter of vision?

When I was thinking of a title for this blog this is the one sorta just jumped out at me, while I was reading scripture (it is not necessarily in scripture, but I do believe you could say that the Proverbs 31 Woman was a woman of vision) I felt the LORD was leading me to use this title, but I thought I couldn't name it without at least some explanation for it.

The reason that I started this blog was because my Father and I came to the decision that we no longer needed to be apart of a social network that supported things that we were not for, things that God definitely was against, if God was against it, then shouldn't we also be? So I deleted my Facebook account and here I am a day and a half later (it literally took me that long to get this up and running). I saw this as taking on my Fathers vision, or at least one of his visions, so there is one meaning in it right there.

The LORD led me to the verse Psalm 37:4 (which you see on my header up there) one day about six months ago, and I being the curios George that I am went to the Strong's Concordance and looked up the words to see what it meant. I was really desiring a lot of stuff in my life right then and I thought "well I have been praying for it to happen, why is the LORD holding out on me?" as I read and looked up the words and formed my own paraphrase of it, I realized that I had not indeed been "delighting myself in the LORD" instead I had been using the "pull Jesus out of the pocket" syndrome, I was disgusted at myself and asked the LORD to forgive me,  of course He did as He always does for those who ask. You see delighting in the LORD means that you are so much in LOVE with Him that His VISION becomes your vision, just as a woman should be so much in love with her husband that his vision becomes her own. I want to be a Daughter of Vision, My Heavenly Fathers vision, and My earthly Fathers vision and hopefully one day my husbands own vision that the LORD has given him.

Also just last night as we were on our way home from church and a night out with some friends I was thinking about what I could do to keep up with all of my friends from Facebook and how many of them were probably wondering why in the world I would let something that seemed so small make me leave my friends that I cannot normally keep up with all at once.
Well, I was looking through my Bible just looking for passages that I might be able to give my friends to let them know it is no small matter and that I want to be an obedient daughter to my fathers (heavenly and earthly). God tells us in Psalm 78:6-8 "That the generation to come might know them (the law), even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:  And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God." I want the next generation to be different, to be set apart to love God with all their hearts, now I know that every generation is sinful since the time that Adam sinned in the garden and although at times I get discouraged,  I know I can do my part in obeying God and telling others the good news, raising my children in the admonition of the LORD and teaching them to raise their children to do the same.
Now I know that there is no way that we can save every person in the world, but God intends for us to do His will, to get the good news out there, be a light for those who have only seen darkness as a hope of escape, sometime I think if we could be in front of Jesus at this very moment I would weep at what I have not done for Him. I am getting teary eyed right now. God has such a great vision for our lives, but we also have a free will, will we choose to follow our hearts (Jer. 17:9) create our own worldly vision for our lives and claim that it is our life to live and that no one else should have any say in it?...or will we choose Christ, live our life for Him, let Him give us the vision for our life, follow His will and make it our own, know that it is not our life to live but Christ's and His alone, showing everyone God's everlasting love, His peace, His joy, and everything else that Christ has to offer to the unsaved soul.

"And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick? For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath. And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it. "
~ Mark 4: 21-32 ~

Will You Be A Son or Daughter of Vision?