Tag Archives: God

LSOF: 30 Days Of Faith- Day 29; ” Faith and Grace that moves..”

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I was sitting down at Panera Bread the other day trying to write this post. (Clearly, I didn’t finish it.)

There were two military men that came and sat down at a table all of five feet or so from me, they started to talk
about something, as they got their napkins and food placed how they wanted it.

I heard that still small voice of God in my heart say to me, ” Go and talk to them.”
and I sat there thinking, ” But Lord, why would you want me to?”
My heart answered back, ” Because you need to see how Grace moves.”

Again, I continued to sit there, very hesistant. Until I heard them say grace.

So I turned my chair to where they were, and took a deep breath.

” Excuse me, I don’t mean to interrupt your food and conversation, but I was wondering if you might
help me with a blog post I’m writing called, ” Grace that moves.”

They seemed to both be fine with it. So I went ahead and explained to them that the post I was writing
had to do with ” moments that Grace moves.” and being where they were there had to be some really amazing
times.

The one man responded right away,
” Grace moves the same way in the middle of a battlefield, as it does here. I’ve seen as many people give their heart to
Jesus, and get on their knees to pray, as I have seen at church here. There is no real difference.”

I sat there wide-eyed. It was definitely not the response I thought I would get.

So then I asked the other man, if he might be able to give me an example of grace moving
where he was.

He stopped eating his sandwich, and then said, ” Well, I’ve seen a married couple restore their relationship.”

Again, I was stunned. I couldn’t believe there wasn’t some amazing, major story of God doing something amazing there in the middle of the war for them to see.

I let them get back to their food. And I began to think, and understand why God wanted me to have that conversation with them.

The answer that was spoken to my heart then, and I’ll share with you;
Grace doesn’t have MOMENTS where it moves, it moves at EVERY MOMENT. We just have to pay attention to it.

Its just like the wind, its just like the trembling of the earth below…its always happening, we may not always feel it…
but it doesn’t mean its not happening…

I remember I did a share-a-thon with Positive Hits Z88.3 a good few years ago, I was on line 1, so I had a very busy phone line.

I man called whose wife had cancer, but he wanted to help the radio station.

I told him I was very sorry to hear about his wife, and that I imagined it must be very hard to go through something like that. and at the end of the conversation as we were talking, he told me first he had only planned on giving a certain amount, but after talking to me, he felt that God wanted him to give much more.

I think we both felt grace move that day.

Another time, I was driving down the road and a homeless man had a sign, ” Please help me”- and so I didn’t have any money or anything, but I did have a tape from the movie, “Jesus”. So I took it and handed it to him, and said God Bless.

I was telling my dj friend about it, and she was like, ” Ang, that’s well and fine, but how would he listen to it?”

Again, it was grace moving, however it may have looked, I was excited to give that man that tape. Maybe he has a tape player (grin)

So the question more maybe to ask today is, ” Where will you notice grace moving in your life today?”

Perhaps it will be listening to a story, or walking into a room where a random group of people just start praying,
or maybe its walking by someone who is unfortunate and giving them a smile….

Maybe, just maybe…WE have to be grace in this world…and let’s quit planning moments to share it…

Let’s live it out!

LSOF: 30 Days Of Faith: Day 28- Faith and the Masks we wear

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I used to find inspiration to write from the closest object in the room.

I made a story once about a princess that was always sad.
No one in the castle could make her smile. The King tried everything, but all night long the
everyone could hear her cries. She just wouldn’t stop crying.

One day a handsome prince came from a far away land, carrying something in his knapsack.
He told the king that he heard of the sad princess and if he could make her smile he would
want her hand in marriage.
The King agreed.

That night while the castle slept, the cries from the princess could still be heard. The prince went up to her room
and out of his knapsack he took out a ” mask”. He told the princess to put it over her face and she would never be sad again.

She put it on, and went to the mirror and saw an exact copy of her face with a smile.

She told him she had been sad all these years, and it made wrinkles on her skin. It just made her more sad to see her appearance.

He told her to take off the mask so he could see her face.
and when she took it off…
she was smiling.
The wrinkles had disappeared.

The prince and the princess were married the next day, and all the castle slept peacefully from then on.

It’s obvious I got inspiration to write that story from ” face masks” hanging in my room at the time:)

The real truth of the story is that the princess never really had put on a mask of ” happiness”, she was wearing a mask of
” sadness” her entire life.
She allowed herself to believe that she was ” sad”, when in reality it wasn’t the truth,
because she didn’t even have reason to be sad.

We do this to ourselves.

How many times have you told yourself, ” I am fat”, ” I am ugly”, ” I will never be as good as them.”,
” my nose is too big”, ” I’m too slow”…etc.

Did you ever think you were molding a nice little mask of that insecurity for yourself?

I mean we might as well just wear a bag over our heads that said it nice and clear.

So I want to challenge you today to do something. I want to challenge you to take off the mask of whatever it may be,
whether its an insecurity or pain of the past, I challenge you to take it off.

If you took it all away. What would you be left with?

Well, that’s sort of how it works with faith.

I was sitting down listening to an admissions lady for a computer class, and she was saying how when you aren’t used to doing the computer courses it would be like being molded into someone completely different.

Ladies and Gentleman, we need to break the mold of who we have been to this point. We need God to take it down piece by piece.

Whatever you have in your life that makes you feel bad about yourself…get rid of it!

If its some sort of addiction, maybe try praying and asking God to take away what you are continuing to face within yourself day after day.

The one thing about the essence of this project of 30 days of faith was it was the result of what happened inside of me when God broke through the mold of who I thought I was. In what I thought I believed all along.

I took the mask of belief off, and and once there was unbelief…through my doubts, I found my true faith.

What does your mold look like? Will you be willing to take a hammer and shatter it completely?

If you do, though it will be hard at first, I KNOW that you will be satisfied with the results.

LSOF: 30 Days Of Faith:Day 27- Faith and What we believe?

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Sometimes what we “believe” to be true, and the ultimate “reality” are just not the same.

I remember as a child walking through The Fun House at the amusement park in New Jersey. Of course some parts of
it were so much fun, but the one place I dreaded going was at the very end…” The Mirrored Room”.
Now I LOVE mirrors most of the time, as a baby my mom has picture after picture of me just staring at my reflection, and as a child I used to place the palms of my hands to the surface, and pretend there was another world on the otherside…
but this particular set of mirrors were wall to wall. I would try to walk through and find another mirror….the mirrored maze.
I would after that just get frustrated and start pushing through the mirrors until one was an actual way out…but
most, of the time it wouldn’t happen until I had an accident of somekind. Like my nose I bashed into a mirror right before
I found my way through. Yep, I’m a tough one y’all.

One other thing about some of these mirrors though I remember clearly, some would actually distort how I looked. It was funny to see, though I think as an adult now it would be quite traumatizing. grin.

I was speaking to a friend a few nights ago, and she was telling me how she was always ” misunderstood”, and how no matter how hard she tries, ” people just won’t get her.” She continued to use all kinds of words less than positive.

Now I am one who is the poster child for this, I have spent years trying to convince people that I am someone they should like to know. Truthfully though, I have also spent years realizing that is not going to be the reality.

Not everyone is going to welcome us with open arms into their life. Most of the time its due to their own insecurity, but sometimes its also just the position they are in.

I always have wondered why God would bring the people into my life, that seem to be the ” busiest” people on the face of the earth. I could blame it on insecurity and say perhaps its so I wouldn’t actually get close to people, but I am learning more so these days, that we don’t have control over who is apart of our lives.

I remember one friend in particular years ago. This friendship ended within a year or so. This person was ” well-known”, and we were actual friends. However, one day this friendship just ended, this person’s life changed dramatically…and well, it just was the ” freak” transition for both of us.

I was mentioning this story with a friend the other day, and though this particular friendship used to bring me to tears trying to figure out what ” happened.” I now know that it was just ” God” It was just Him doing ” His Will”-
This friendship was a ” season”- it was a learning experience. I believe that was God’s purpose. He wanted me to start to realize ” Who He was”, and then He took it from there. I don’t have hard feelings about it, because God loves me and so does that friend who is no longer apart of my life. We have to stop trying to ” make mountains out of mole hills” when it comes to people, we have to just realize they have their lives, and we have ours.

Since then, I have been blessed with such a wild group of friendships. People who have just ” popped in” to my life as if God had to pulled them out of a hat like a rabbit.

I would like this friend who is struggling with this particular thing to know, if we don’t let those go that we are feeling pulled away from, God will pull them further. Trying to hold on to them is like trying to hold on to the ” golden calf”, we allow people to become idols, because we are not ” Into” God’s plan.

Of course that’s not to say that everyone is in our lives for a season.

Facebook is a beautiful thing. So is twitter. Most people would be more opt to say that its ” too much” social stuff for us to take in. Reality of that is, not really.

Because of twitter alone, I have made such a sweet group of friendships. I have known a few from ” blogworld”, but I got to know them on a deeper level through twitter.

People who are apart of your daily ” Social networks” are not there for just a season. If you suddenly move out of the country tomorrow, you can still say in touch with those same people and nothing changes. I do believe that God’s hand is apart of social networking. I have the most precious friendships ever through them!

But its also possible to have ” real” friendships too:)

I went and visited my old church yesterday for Easter. I haven’t been there since November. One person in particular that I’ve known a long time, I hadn’t talked to since moving to Georgia.
There is so much in the back of my mind about this person. I never thought they were truly sincere, or that they truly understood me. I didn’t think they cared about me even being around…yep, I had a lot of years trying to ” fight that”.

What I saw yesterday though was a ” truth” I needed to see. This person was indeed sincere, and they really did understand me. I can even go as far to say as they were ” happy” that they got to see me.

Just like trying to ” keep” people in our lives, we also do harm to ourselves, and them sometimes, because we also try to
“mold them”, make them how we want them to be in our lives.

God is the only one in charge of the “molding”, we are not the creators of Heaven and Earth, so we need to just put the paint brush down the rip up the ” portrait” we have of other people in our minds. It’s not fair to them, or to us.

As I said sometimes it is position that keeps friendships at a certain point. We need to learn to be okay with that, so God can let anyone He believes will help His plan along into our lives.

I don’t know about you, but I still have that little voice in my mind that says, ” You just aren’t good enough to be their friend,”

Let me just say this. I KNOW how untrue that is. Because of what I wrote above it. God ultimately is the one who knows who is best for our lives, and who is the worst. We are given the choice, but He makes clear who should and shouldn’t be apart of it.

Sometimes we let our own past determine what ” happens” after a friendship is through. We question ourselves, say things that we know are not true…when again, it was just time for it to end.

Let’s just stop being so uptight about who is in our lives now but who may not be tomorrow…just appreciate people for who they are. Call your friend today, send a card…but pull back if you are SURE you are supposed to.
Don’t let insecurity take a foothold on who is in your life, give God back that control.

What we really believe about ourselves should not be defined by the friends we have had, we must leave that truth to God.

He loves us. He understands us. He knows deep down what haunts us. and sometimes the people we have apart of our lives are there to help ” break” us of our futile thinking….

Think about it.

LSOF: 30 Days Of Faith: Day 23- Faith and Knowing Love…

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Something I have come to understand about 1 Corinthians, is that while it is the ” Love” chapters…
it isn’t really about the love between a husband and a wife, it goes deeply beyond that.

LIVING FOR LOVE
“If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. “( 1 Corinthians 13:1)

What this verse is saying here is that without our love for God, without intimately really giving of our lives to Him, without giving Him our heart, we can shout and we can play music, but it will never be effective in our lives or anyone’s because it is not spoken and done from a heart full of love for God.
We are nothing unless we love Him, and not just say it, but let it pour off of us in how we live our lives.

KNOWING LOVE
“If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”(1 Corinthians 13:2)

Anyone can say they have a ” word” for you, they can be so very wise with the highest of degrees,
but if they aren’t sharing it without having the depth of knowledge that only Christ can give,
and in the knowledge it can only be created within us by love, than we will just speak a lot of empty words.

GRACEFULLY LOVE
“If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. “
(1 Corinthians 13:3)

Living our lives in vain. Plain and simple that is what this verse is conveying. You can be a millionaire, or someone who is better off in life then someonelse, or you can be someone who saved someone from a burning building or a situation in life…good works DO NOT cut it.
You can be a wonderful person, nice to everyone you meet, and still not have a clue of what it is to really love, because TO love, we have to know how to love God, and KNOW that He loves us. How can we love others, and believe their love, if we don’t believe God loves us?

BELIEVE LOVE
“Love is patient
Love is kind
Love does not envy
Love does not boast
Love is not proud
Love is not rude
Love is not self-seeking
Love is not easily angered
Love keeps no record of wrongs
Love does not delight in evil
Love rejoices with truth
Love always protects
Love always hopes
Love always trusts
Love always perseveres
Love never fails.

(1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

We could go through and break apart each of these meanings of love, but I think they are pretty self-explanatory, we just have to believe in them. BELIEVE His promises, and promise to BELIEVE.

LOVE IS PROMISED
“But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. “(1 Corinthians 13:8)

There you have it, it says right here in scripture that GOD will silence and still anything not done or spoken in love. Its not a maybe either. It says, ” THEY WILL” so He is serious!

BREATHE FOR LOVE
“For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.”
(1 Corinthians 13:9-10)

This verse caught my eye and almost brought me to tears, because again here is promise from God by His love for us.

We don’t know everything, because plainly, we arent’ supposed to. God will let us in on His plan when we’re READY, and its not when we THINK we are ready either, it is when GOD sees we are ready.
There may be more things to take on in our lives before God shows us loud and clear what the next step is, but taking that deep breath and just doing the thing, it gets us closer to it. We let Him be in control.
He knows we are imperfect, He was there for it. He promises us that we will be like Him in the end.
Not right now.

REACH FOR LOVE
“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.”(1 Corinthians 13:11)

I reaffirmed my baptism a good 6 months ago, and this verse was almost spoken aloud to me, if I hadn’t seen it in the Bible, I think He would have spoken it audibly. I feel it in my bones.
He wanted me to know that I am not a young Christian anymore like I was when I was first baptized, I know WHY I believe as I do, and there is no color print to it, it is BLACK AND WHITE.

I was listening to ” Believing God” today, and Beth Moore was speaking on Joshua 4, about the stones.

“In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”( Joshua 4:6-7)

I have a story to tell at 28 yrs old, and my story is still going; and its important to reach love in such a way that we “remember who we were before we were called.”
We all have our stones, we have all had some major life obstacles regardless of how much or how many times. We all have a story.

I am reaching for the deeper things of God, and He is letting me.
But I had to have my stones first.
I had to have my hardships in life.

REFLECT LOVE
“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. “(1 Corinthians 13:12)

This was a verse also spoken to me not just by reading the Word, but listening to a study that spoke about Moses and the burning bush.

Moses entire life changed when God was ready for it too. My study said Moses was about 80yrs old at this time.

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. “(Exodus 3:5-6)

What caught me about this part was how Moses hid his face from God, because he was afraid to look at God.

He wasn’t happy with the reflection his face had, but God said this.

The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3:7-10)

“But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
(Exodus 3:11)

God was speaking to this imperfect man who was afraid to show his face, that he would be the one to help deliver Egypt. God wasn’t concerned with Moses imperfection. He chose him for the job, and so that was all that mattered. He was going to equip him to reflect God to the people.

And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” (Exodus 3:12)

I am sure Moses was trembling from every part of his body in fear, and doubt.
” Why me?” moment had to have settled in.

God saw Moses grow and mature, and he saw his times of difficulty and times of sin, but the reflection God saw that day was someone he would use, someone he KNEW would help His people out of Egypt.

The poor reflection we have will be the one where we no longer see ourselves in the mirror,
but a child of Christ. Humble and ready to move with God.

REMAIN IN LOVE
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Moses soon forgot about his imperfections and went on a major journey for God,
Love is what led the people out of Egypt.

And love is what will always deliver us.

So in conclusion here are the points to remember:)

1. LIVING FOR LOVE (1 Corinthians 13:1)
2. KNOWING LOVE(1 Corinthians 13:2)
3. GRACEFULLY LOVE( 1 Corinthians 13:3)
4. BELIEVE LOVE(1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
5. LOVE IS PROMISED(1 Corinthians 13:8)
6. BREATHE LOVE(1 Corinthians 13:9-10)
7. REACH FOR LOVE(1 Corinthians 13:11)
8. REFLECT LOVE(1 Corinthians 13:12)
9. REMAIN IN LOVE( 1 Corinthians 13:3)

Its not about us, our talents, are hopes and desires….love can only be lived through us by God,
we must stop trying to take on life on our own, and only giving a limited love to others, because that is all we have without God, a limited love…but if we fully live for God, and shower love on people and love Him with everything we are…

than love is LIMITLESS:)

xoxo
angie

LSOF: 30 Days Of Faith: Day 20- Faith and Overcoming..

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A prayer I prayed the other day,

” Lord, help me to do what I need to do to be who I need to be.”

We never know how our prayers will be answered, we can only believe that God knows best.

Overcoming is something that praying offers us. Prayer is something that makes us step out and do something about what we are dealing with. Its our way of going to the source and saying, ” I’m not quite sure I know to use the tools you gave me, they don’t seem to be working correctly.”

I had one of those prayers the other day. I needed to overcome something in my life that was really shielding me from what I needed to accomplish, and really was tormenting my self-esteem.

Genesis 32-24-28
24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.

28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, [a] because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”

I had to figure out that I wasn’t just wrestling with the whole situation, but I was wrestling with God too. I was trying to figure out a way around having to pray to get out of the situation. I wanted to bypass it and handle it on my own.
The more I tried to handle the situation, the WORSE it got. It’s why I prayed what I did the other day.
Because I had to realize the situation wasn’t my fight at all. There is this thing called, ” God’s Will” and when things go horribly wrong constantly in our lives, and we can’t figure out why regardless of what we do…its when we are dealing with more than the situation, we are in an all out battle with some not so good stuff. And its not our battle.

So when I prayed this to God, and then went into this place the next day, before I walked in the door I just kept asking God,
” Please Lord, let your will be done here, just please.”
the atmosphere when I walked in was so strange and heavy, I literally felt like I was walking into a furnace. But I took a deep breath and dealt with it.

Then I brushed the dust off my feet, and left out the door.

Of course after that I sort of felt strange for awhile about it, wondered if I had done the right thing, because everyone was telling me, ” This is really scary, are you going to be ok?” but then I got an email from someone this morning,
saying exactly this: ” Sounds like you did what you needed to do.”

Um, WOW.

Honestly, this place I am speaking of was my job. It became so utterly difficult to work there anymore, to the point of complete harassment, that I dropped my keys and walked out the door.

I am not afraid, I have real peace about it now. I did the right thing. We often can’t say that with clarity, but I know in my heart God didn’t want me to continue to be somewhere that was affecting how I felt about myself. A job is not supposed to degrade you, but make you feel successful, and a job is supposed to hold everyone to accountability not just a certain few…
I could go on, but I won’t.

So this weekend, I am going to FL to visit for a few days, going to do some photography with a friend for LSOF book, and just enjoy this time.

I am an overcomer. And so are you. Don’t let anyone make you feel like you are not worth being more than who you are,
we all are a work in progress. Its important to stand up for yourself, and what you believe.
And don’t let people intimidate you just because they are in authoritative positions, because when it comes down to it,
we are all at the same place. That person might have the education, but you have the common sense.

Remember always who the battle belongs to.

1 John 4:4
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

I have my very last post writer now: I am still interested in anyone wanting to write for the last 10 days, but if not its fine:)

Her name is Joy Tracshel, and she is a friend of Leigh Gray’s(www.leighhargisgray.blogspot.com)
she has short but sweet words on faith, and I think you will enjoy reading:)

My faith post:

When I think about my faith it is almost impossible to put into words. How do
you talk about something that is truly your “everything?”

To put it into words is like trying to pour the ocean into a container.

I am a visual person so it seems easier to express what I see.

I see a covering. Something that surrounds me. Something that protects me,
comforts me, separates me from hurt, and never leaves me.

It’s a feeling of a constant presence in my life. It is my God.

Thanks

Joy Trachsel

LSOF: 30 Days Of Faith: Day 18- ” Faith and the Sensitive heart”

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This was on a Facebook status this morning:

Two children were in the their room having a conversation. The mom happened to overhear what they were saying.
The little girl said to her brother, ” My heart hurts.” and her brother replied, ” Well, then we can pray about it.”
He prayed saying, ” Dear Lord, Please make my sister’s heart stop hurting so I can love her the rest of my life.”

Of course children are adorable and saying the sweetest things, but I think we really can find truth in this.

My friend and I were having a conversation today about ” Faith Like A Child” the song by Jars Of Clay, and the apart lyrics go something like this:

They say that I can move the mountains
And send them crashing to the sea
They say that I can walk on water
If I would follow and believe
with Faith Like a Child

They say that love can heal the broken
They say that hope can make you see
They say that faith can find a Savior
If you would follow and believe
With Faith Like a Child

I am definitely the poster child for this post. I AM probably the most sensitive person you could meet in your life! But I also on the otherside of it have been told I am the strongest person people could meet…I guess it balances out somewhere.

” I’m sensitive and I’d like to stay that way.” -Jewel

Having a sensitive heart though, I believe that is the real treasure to share with anyone.
People are so rough these days, and so thick skinned, that they forget to let go a little, and smile,
or even cry.

It’s great to be confident in yourself, and what you can do. But its also great to share that confidence with someonelse and
see what you can help them do.

I choose to be sensitive, because it continues to connect me with people at the hardest places in their lives.
I don’t ever want to be someone who ” knows it all”, that I forget about how it makes another person feel.

I have had much experience watching an insensitive heart at work. Its sad really.
People who don’t see others needs before their own…they miss out on a lot in life.

My friend Yvonne(www.yvonne4real.blogspot.com) just returned from Cuba, and when she has a moment I know she will love to share the experience with you.

A sensitive heart will go out of there way to make a difference in another life…they come down to others level, they cry and laugh with that person.

They see what is going on in the world, and they figure out what they can do to help, even in the smallest instance.

One reason why I love Beth Moore, is because of her sensitive heart when it comes to her faith in God, and who she is with others.

She is always saying how God ” brought to her heart this or that.” but what I love about it, is she says as direct as she can almost her conversation with God. How she knows she is flawed, and imperfect, but He continues to use her.
She is such an inspiration to me, because at times I am like, ” God how can you use me?”
but she is that way too…its so encouraging.

You have to be sensitive to your feelings, and thoughts. You have to break away apart of the day and just be still and evaluate what you are doing, or who you may becoming.

I know personally, I am someone who LOVES to learn other people’s stories, its like a huge painting in my mind of every little story someone tells me. People’s stories are beautiful, regardless of what its about.

I guess the stories I most relate to are the ” underdogs”, because I have been there plenty of times, but whats so neat in listening to every story. Each person seems to share something they have been successful at doing or becoming.
AND I LOVE to hear about how they drug themselves out of the ground to DO SOMETHING better, something worth it!

Here are some definitions of the word ” Sensitive” that I have found; never really looked up the word before:)

1. (adj) sensitive
having sense of feeling; possessing or exhibiting the capacity of receiving impressions from external objects; as, a sensitive soul

2. (adj) sensitive
having quick and acute sensibility, either to the action of external objects, or to impressions upon the mind and feelings; highly susceptible; easily and acutely affected

3. (adj) sensitive
having a capacity of being easily affected or moved; as, a sensitive thermometer; sensitive scales

4. (adj) sensitive
readily affected or changed by certain appropriate agents; as, silver chloride or bromide, when in contact with certain organic substances, is extremely sensitive to actinic rays

5. (adj) sensitive
serving to affect the sense; sensible

6. (adj) sensitive
of or pertaining to sensation; depending on sensation; as, sensitive motions; sensitive muscular motions excited by irritation

What I love about all these, its as if “sensitive” didn’t exist, that perhaps something would be missing.

1. (adj) sensitive
having sense of feeling; possessing or exhibiting the capacity of receiving impressions from external objects; as, a sensitive soul

I think this just means what you ” feel ” when you are around certain things. For me, a candle flickering, it just moves my mind to a certain place of peace, its no longer a flame, but it takes on its own life.
Or perhaps raindrops falling from the sky, its just beautiful. Or watching the water on a lake ripple…its just the coolest thing in the world.
I’ve always been sensitive to things like this, and that includes people, conversations I have had with others that
I don’t know everyonelse would have done.
I remember just sitting in an airport one time, and a lady was sitting next to me, so I showed her some of my poetry, and
she said, ” Its more important to be an angel to the world, then sit back and watch someonelse do it.”
And I think I’ve lived with that since then.
I want to make every moment count with someone I have even the slightest conversation with, I am not perfect at this,
but I do try.

2. (adj) sensitive
having quick and acute sensibility, either to the action of external objects, or to impressions upon the mind and feelings; highly susceptible; easily and acutely affected

I think this basically means how the surrounding affect you. I am someone who FEELS the atmosphere around me, if its
not a very ” happy” situation or place, I don’t even have to usually see someone’s face to know that something isn’t
” right”, and it makes me uncomfortable. I strive to be a ” safe place” for people. I want them to feel good being around me, and better about themselves. I want them to walk away having both of us learn something from the other.
Its really about the atmosphere in places. Who wants to be around someone who is grumpy and mean all the time, or someone who is stressed out to the max! I admit I can have my drama, but I don’t want people to feel it, so sadly I do hide it when I probably shouldn’t.

3. (adj) sensitive
having a capacity of being easily affected or moved; as, a sensitive thermometer; sensitive scales

I am thinking every one of these definitions regardless of context can certainly work:)
I am easily affected and moved, sensitive people are that way. We are artists in every sense that live, move and breathe by what is going on around us. If you look to the right of the screen at a piece of art made by my friend, its called, ” What moves Me” and its about seeking after things that are beautiful will give you the best prize in life.
For me, in relation to the picture I can be doing anything, and be inspired to write something.
One time it was while watching a movie that had a brawl, and in the middle of it was a little boy who stood just looking
at the stars in the sky. To me, that was so profound. To forget about everything for a moment, and just pay attention to beauty.

4. (adj) sensitive
readily affected or changed by certain appropriate agents; as, silver chloride or bromide, when in contact with certain organic substances, is extremely sensitive to actinic rays

Okay so I know this is all scientific and everything, but look closely. To me it means that because of certain things these things are sensitive to other things. So as with life. We usually are sensitive due to things that happened in our past, for whatever reason it affected us so much that we become sensitive to everything…and easily cry. BUT this isn’t a bad thing, we have to see reason for it. Look who you are now BECAUSE you are sensitive?

5. (adj) sensitive
serving to affect the sense; sensible

This is pretty self-explanatory but basically we are here to affect others, allow them the chance to feel. Teach them how to feel. And take their hand through whatever they are going through, or have gone through…we have to feel, if we don’t feel we MISS OUT!

6. (adj) sensitive
of or pertaining to sensation; depending on sensation; as, sensitive motions; sensitive muscular motions excited by irritation

Again I think this can relate to the ” sensitive heart” of our past. We feel often threatened by certain things that happen presently, even though the reality isn’t so. We live with our past, and it often hinders us from experiencing the thing we are so sensitive to doing, or whatever. This is where the ” sensitive heart” need to grow out of something…this is a piece of our sensitivity that can be thrown out the car window.

We all have a journey of emotion, but we have to learn how to really take things as they are, and believe me I struggle with this. But when things are going good in life..don’t let the “sensitive heart” keep you from really appreciating it.

Faith and the sensitive heart are as follows: THE TWO HAVE TO GO TOGETHER!

My faith keep me in check when my emotions become to much to bear. My sensitive heart is like riding a rollercoaster,
I’m good one moment, and then the next I am like, ” What am I doing, where is my life going…blah blah.”
but then something from inside me says, ” WHY are you letting this get to you?” and then I am led to write out how I feel,
and from there my sensitivity is wrung out until logic then presents itself.

It is great to be sensitive, its totally OK to be sensitive, there is so much beauty in that, but we must try also to really understand rather than feel at all times.

Faith like a child, is as so, children don’t really know what ” feelings” are as of yet, they are too busy learning, I mean if you think I’m wrong, how many times has your child said, ” But why?”
that’ s how we need to be, we need to let our heart be filled with the goodness of life, but also the logic of tomorrow.

LSOF: 30 Days Of Faith: Day 3- A Firm place to stand

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Do you like the word OBIDIENCE? Yes, none of us probably really and truly do.
But what if you pictured the word as if you were standing in front of a huge beautiful mansion.
A mansion God has every beautiful thing inside to be imagined.

But in order to get through the doors, effort has to be made.
You have to get a little scared, get the butterflies of uncertainty in your stomach,
You have to just close your eyes, take a deep breath…and then walk inside.

This is what I’ve come to more understand what the word, ” obedience” means. It isn’t this horrid word, if we can see
what can come from it.

This new life here in Georgia; I can confidently say it happened because I was obedient and left FL as soon as God took ahold of my hand. I should tell you I thought it was me that was all about coming to Savannah. I thought God was just going to bless me while i was here, because it was the desire of my heart to move here eventually.
But what I have learned since being here, is that God’s desires and our desires for our lives…can be the same.

Its about where we place our feet that matters. Its about where we consciously can take our minds to imagine.
It’s about looking at possibilities as realities. Its about walking through the fog without wondering if there is a wall on the otherside. It’s about faith.

Faith is the foundation. You have to believe in something, but you have to KNOW what you believe also.

Think of a broken down house, the windows and the doors broken, and the floorboards rotting.
On the outside the house painted beautifully and the garden kept.

Its easy to keep the outside of who we are sparkling, in a fascad of make up, but we are dying inside. Who we are on the inside if not kept up in something positive, and encouraging…then it too would look like a broken down house.

We have to make the effort to not just obey, but to also take initiative to do better for ourselves.

Your past may have created who you are, but your past doesn’t make who you are on a daily basis. YOU are the one
who decides that you want to dwell on all your past mistakes and behaviors. Its a choice.

When I was a substitute teacher my rule was this. We all have choices in life, choices to do well, and have respect for ourselves and others, or we can choose not to. Regardless, its is a choice. But with each choice comes a result.
I was clear in telling the students that it was their choice in who they wanted to show the world that they were like.

So what is your foundations set on?

Are you standing on a rocky surface that could fall at any moment and take your dreams with it?
OR are you standing at a place where you can honestly have no regret, and take it all one day at a time?

My foundation is set by who I have chosen to be in my life. It might not always be easy to be on this journey where
I am not quite sure what will happen next, but I do know that very way of thinking and praying has gotten me this far.
I am okay sticking with it.
And sure sometimes there will be a wall on the otherside, but even walls can be taken down.

I would like to introduce you now to my next guest blog poster. She is a long time friend in blogworld.
Her name is Darla(www.http://4evrhis.wordpress.com, and she is what I would have to say is an ” overcomer” she has dealt with so much in her life, and I admire that she has been able to keep her faith through all of it.
I remember her comments on my blog a few years ago. She would always start it by calling me, ” Princess” and anyonelse she would comment to. Its a word that means worth and value.
Darla, thank you for being apart of this:) it blesses my heart!

Please read below:)


My Thoughts on Faith

While thinking about what to write for the “30 days of Faith”, I had a problem with writing just one thing that did not require a long lead in…its a blog for cryin out loud! I can be so long winded.

The Lord taught me a very strong lesson last year, and continued to re-enforce it a few times this year. I drive a school bus, and I am very aware that with out His help, I could not possibly do this every day. Its a huge piece of machinery, and the cargo is alive and belongs to someone else. If I think to long on that I will stress! In the area I live, fog in the mornings is not unusual.

One morning inparticular, the fog was so intense. I could see only 5-10 feet in front of the bus, and knew the back road I was traveling on had quite a dip on the sides that would no doubt turn over this bus. Fear set in. Praying silently…”Lord, I am scared, and do not know how to do this.” A peace settled on my spirit, and breathing easier…then HE spoke to my heart..”I can see, and I know where you are going, do you trust me? Child, this what I mean by walking by faith and not by sight.”

We made it through that fog and many more mornings after, and with each foggy morning I am reminded that although I don’t know where my life is taking me, or the plan HE has for me, HE knows. Trusting HIM to take me is sometimes a blind effort, reaching out my hands and believing. Unknowingly, this lesson was needed for the next year to present in my life.

My life has been going in a new direction, and even now as I type this, I can not see where I am going, or if I will know it when I get there. But I know that I know that I know…these are moments when my Faith is strengthened, and when I come to know HIM more, and that is priceless!

Darla

LSOF: 30 Days Of Faith- Day 1: Dealing With Pain

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Hey there!
I hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday.

Well, today we OFFICIALLY start 30 Days of Faith:) – I introduced the project with my friend, Cady’s blog post ” You and Me”“,
which if you haven’t read it; you will want to re-read it over and over. It’s just one of them REALLY deep words of wisdom.
And regardless of what you believe, I KNOW you will enjoy it:)

Day 1- Dealing with Pain.

First off let me say, that even though you see a list to your right of people writing for ” 30 Days Of Faith”, it was Cady’s idea that I would also write all 30 days as well. So what you will see is a a little post from me in regards to faith, and then I will lead you to the next blog post.

We all have pain in our lives, and its funny, because I can hear the echo of ” Lean On Me” in the back of my mind as I write this. But maybe that’s really what it comes down to; we deal with pain; by LEANING on somethingelse.

What do you, or have you lean on to get you through pain?

If you are someone who believes in God more than likely you will answer, ” Oh that’s easy, I lean on Jesus.” but REALLY,
can you REALLY say that is the case? Do you REALLY and TRULY believe that in EVERYTHING that you face in your life?

More than likely though, we’ve all leaned on some sort of addiction.

As a teenager I was a cutter, I shielded my pain by cutting deep inside of myself, where that pain would stay and hide from the rest of the world. Where I could keep it close enough…that I could CONTROL it.
I’ve done the malnourished thing too; I would eat no more than 500 calories a day, to CONTROL what I looked like on the outside.
As an adult, I’ve had a miscarriage, and ate through my pain, CONTROLLING Who I had become.
I’ve done the drinking too; and it was to CONTROL how I felt on the inside.

There are other ways people deal with pain too. And most don’t see it as an addiction, but I TOO have fell into this.

you can’t CONTROL people. You can’t CONTROL what they think of you. You can’t CONTROL what they say about you. You can’t CONTROL what they DO to you…You can’t CONTROL how they FEEL about you…

All these ” addictions” are just merely a temporary shield from pain deep inside.

I had to learn on my own, face down on the floor in a puddle of tears that I wasn’t here on earth to live with pain,
I was here to deal with it.

There is a difference.

I would like to use my mom for an example here. She has Chron’s disease, and I’ve watched her DEAL with it since I was 3 years old.
She actually had some health issues arise recently, but it didn’t stop her from driving 4 hrs to see me and help me with somethings here where I live. She’s never let herself REMEMBER that she was sick. And whenever it did hit her, whenever she was in severe pain. I would watch her just take a pain pill from her doctor and go on with her day.
My mom has always had amazing strength in dealing with her pain.

We need to see that as a real example, only we need to see that God is more in control of how we think, feel, about ourselves then we could ever be.

I know even though my mom takes the pain medication, that God is the one that ultimately takes the pain away.

I stopped cutting when I realized that the pain I felt on the inside would quickly come to the surface when I took a look at my arms. And I would hear God’s voice saying, ” There is no reason for you to do this, who cares what these people think
about you, or did to you…I AM STILL HERE FOR YOU.”

I started eating normally when I realized that I had no energy for anything I loved to do, and my thoughts and feelings
were always completely negative, it made me depressed and just apathetic towards life. Everything.

After the miscarriage, and beings that I was a Christian, it was very hard for me to find that place with God that I had been in before. I felt like He was looking down at me and pointing fingers like I felt the rest of the world was doing.
But one day I was sitting down and I just said aloud, ” God I want to start from scratch.” and it seems it is all it took,
right away things started to change…my attitude changed. By saying what I had I had chosen to accept that I made a mistake, but what happened to me, it wasn’t a mistake. God was teaching me that things happen I may not understand, but its for a greater purpose than I can see. Day by day it got better.

I stopped drinking so much, because it would only make me feel drained and bitter the next day. It ultimately took away my personality and made me gain tons of weight. I was to lethargic to do anything.
So now when I drink, I have a glass of wine, and I am tired, ready for bed.

Bottom line. We cant’ CONTROL our pain, we just have to NOT let it CONTROL us.
We have to find things in our lives that make us smile.
For me, its blogging like this, its spending time with friends that love the same things I do,
its looking outside and seeing a beautiful creation, and then going out my front door to experience it.

My faith has taught me to deal with pain. It’s always going to be in my pocket. It’s apart of me. But it isn’t apart of my life to the extent that it keeps me from LIVING it.

LSOF: 30 Days Of Faith: The Intro:)

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WELCOME TO 30 DAYS OF FAITH!!!!

What is ” faith” to you?
Has what you believe connected you with other people that believed differently?
What has this ” faith” done for you?

These are just a few questions that were placed in my mind as I thought about this project, as
well as the questions I threw out there to the writers.
At the conclusion, March 1st 2010, I will be giving my own answers to these questions, until then
I am looking forward to seeing how this project can affect blogworld…to see how far it reaches others,
regardless of what they are going through; to see how it might have stung a response in a heart to be spoken that hasn’t
in years…I am so excited for the response from everyone’s posts!!!

So here for the intro post-
I would like to introduce to you my friend, Cady McClain who I am sure you might know who she is, but the purpose of this project is about how we can all connect, regardless of belief, or really in her case, even position.
Cady has become a very good friend of mine, whom I have never met face to face, but the conversations we have had about faith have been so interesting. From the first email, to the very most recent, I can tell you that we believe differently on what we consider “faith” to be, but we left that far behind long ago.
We realize we are both writers, and that we both just have a deep rooted passion to see good things happen in this world. We can also share in some struggles. Those things alone are how we connect, and we respect what the other believes, and value what we can learn from the other. God connects us where we are, whoever we are.
Cady isn’t the only friend I’ve had that I can say that about, but definitely one of the few I’ve most connected with.

So please go take a look now at her post” You and Me” and feel free to comment.

Thanks for reading and taking part everyone!

Angie