The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor.
Proverbs 22:9
Tag Archives: Christian
Interview with Carrie Turansky, Author of A MAN TO TRUST (Love Inspired) COMMENT FOR A FREE GIVEAWAY!
It is my pleasure to feature Love Inspired author Carrie Turansky on my blog today. She is giving away a copy of her newest release, A Man to Trust. Answer the question at the end of the interview and leave your email address for a chance to win. We have to have at least ten comments to make a contest so make sure to pass the link on to your friends.
Interview with Carrie Turansky, author of A Man to Trust, and a chance to win a copy!
Well, I Made it Past November
I kind of held my breath during the month of November. It’s always been a strange month for me. November 1, 2000, I nearly died in surgery. November 8, 2004, I had a massive hysterectomy. November 15, 2006, I had an emergency gallbladder removal. So up until November 22nd of this year, I kept thinking…”Am I going to have surgery this year?” It seems like my surgeries have been one week apart each time and I was hoping nothing would come up since we still don’t have health insurance. I started noticing aches and pains in my body and started speculating what might have to be removed this time. Oh, the power of our minds.
My son tells me I’m superstitious. I deny it. But maybe I am. So I began thinking positively that I would not have surgery. And I didn’t. Of course, it has nothing to do with how positive my thinking was. It simply has to do with the fact that God is all powerful! He is all knowing. He knows we don’t have health insurance. He is in control of my life. He allowed me not to have surgery this November and I praise Him for it. But I know if I had had to have surgery, He would have paid for it. He’s good like that.
So, on the back side of the month of thankfulness, I can say that I am thankful for many, many things in my life. But one thing I am thankful for is that I did not have to go under the knife or the laparotomy or whatever they call it these days…and that I was here to pray for others who were going through medical and other issues.
Have you thanked HIM today?
Love AND Respect…
Just had to share this great blog I read today: Love AND Respect….
If I Could Ask For More of Something
If I could ask for more of something it would not be for more money, with which to purchase more earthly treasures. It would not be for more Bibles, for the Lord knows I have plenty of those sitting around the house just gathering dust (and needing to be shared with others) from years of being a Christian. It would not be for more clothes, for the two pairs of jeans and ten or so shirts and three pair of shoes I own will suffice. It would not be for more credit for the things I have done, for staying out of the limelight isn’t such a bad thing. It would not be for more children to teach, for my fourteen years of homeschooling was enough. It would not be for more hands so that I could get tasks done more efficiently. It would not be for more time. It would not be for more energy. More sleep. More friends.
It could be for more humility. More thankfulness. Or even more love. But right now, that’s not what I would ask for. It would be for more ears so that I could listen to the precious voices of my husband and two children all at once and never miss a single thing they ever say. To be able to hear every utterance that comes out of their mouths while they are here with me on this earth would be a precious gift.
Being there
I was thinking this weekend about how important it is to invest in someone’s life and then thinking about how we can do it without failing. I mean, come on, let’s face it, in today’s world, no matter how hard you try, you’re going to let someone down. It’s just impossible to be there for someone all the time. Right?
So then I started thinking about the people who had been there for me throughout my life. There are so many that I cannot possibly name them all. But one particular person popped into my head. He and his wife have loved me and prayed for me and my family for as long as I can remember.
Who is this person and what makes him stand out to me? His name is Bill and he was my youth pastor growing up. He loved hanging out with us kids because he was a kid himself. He took us wherever we wanted to go and didn’t mind waiting on us. (This was before everyone got paranoid and started preventing men from working with kids without a chaperone.) And Bill listened to all my woes about boys and such. He was always there for me. But there was more to it than that. He taught me the Word.
The time came for my family to leave my childhood church because my dad became a preacher and accepted his first church. A year or so later, Bill began attending the new church with us and started working with the youth. That’s the summer we studied the book of James. That made such an impact on my life and has remained my favorite book in the Bible.
He eventually left the church and ended up landing at a great spot where he found his lovely wife…who just so happened to be my middle school gym teacher. What a small world. I was so thrilled when they asked me to participate in their wedding. But there’s more. There’s something else. Something more about this man.
Bill has been at every major event that has occurred in my life. My wedding. The birth of my children. The funerals of my parents. The graduation party in honor of my daughter, who he barely knew but loved because he loved me. The recent funeral of my brother-in-law. This man has kept me in the honored position of a family member. He loved my parents and he loved me and my sister and, therefore, has continued to love on my family. This “ain’t” your usual youth pastor. Especially not in today’s world.
One thing that saddens me as I reminisce about the impact that Bill has had in my life because of his constant presence in it, is that I have not done the same for him. I know he understands that being a wife and mother (especially a homeschooling one) can kind of be all-consuming, but still…this man sets an example that I hope to follow with the kids I have worked with at my church. I think investing in someone’s life is something we have to do intentionally but it’s also something we have to do genuinely. If you’re only doing it because you have to or because these people are “assigned” to you, then you may make a short-term difference in their lives but I don’t think you’ll make a long-term one. Kids are smart and they know when you’re faking or doing something out of duty. Bill had a genuine love for us and that’s why what he has continued to do for thirty + years has worked and why it means so much to me now.
May I always remember that impacting someone’s life is not a job. It’s a pleasure. And it brings joy to the life of the giver as much as the receiver. Thanks, Bill, for setting an awesome example!
A Conversation with God by Marcia Ford
A Conversation with God for Women
If You Could Ask God Anything What Would It Be?
By Marcia Ford
This book answers all the questions you might have for God (plus ones you might never have thought to ask). It is broken down into small sections with questions about God, Jesus, The Bible, Life, Prayer, Relationships, and Good and Evil. Within those sections, there are seven + questions and the answers. This is in a conversational style and speaks to you as if God, Jesus or someone else from the Bible were answering the question for you. The section on prayer was very helpful to me. Sometimes I feel as if I hound God constantly and that He gets sick of me for praying so much. This book helped me to get over that feeling.
As I read it, I thought about how great this book would be for a new Christian who may feel like she doesn’t know enough about God and who may shy away from conversations with others in an effort to avoid feeling ignorant. This book would also be a great gift for someone who is experiencing a period of doubt or even depression. It makes you feel equipped to answer questions that others may ask about God. Marcia Ford definitely did her research when writing this book!
Book Description: A front row seat to a fascinating conversation with God, Jesus, and other biblical characters answering important questions women have regarding life and faith.
A Conversation with God for Women allows readers a one-on-one dialogue with God, Jesus, and other important biblical characters as they respond to questions and concerns relevant to the Christian faith. The often challenging questions address issues and tensions specifically felt by women. Each answer, designed for both believers and seekers, is based on Scripture and written with the warmth and intimacy of a Heavenly Father relating to His child.
Categories and sample questions include:
*God, why don’t You just reveal Yourself? *Jesus, why was a virgin birth necessary? *The Bible, what can it teach women? *Life, what about women in ministry? *Prayer, can it really make a difference? *Relationships, how can we trust after betrayal? *Good and evil, how can they coexist?
I received this book for free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as a part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Same Life, New Story by Jan Silvious
Same Life, New Story – Change Your Perspective to Change Your Life by Jan Silvious is probably the most inspiring book I’ve read in a long time. The title says it all. This is not a “power of positive thinking” type book but a book that helps you see that you can either let your circumstances keep you down or you can choose to push through them, embrace them, and learn from them. Many of Jan Silvious’s experiences in life mirror experiences I have had and I found myself nodding my head in agreement with her words. Because I am not a big crier, I often feel like others may think I’m out of touch with reality or that I suppress my feelings and, therefore, do not deal with issues in my life. But after reading this book, I realized that what I do is embrace each trial and ask God to lead me through it and teach me what he would have me to learn.
I love the concept she uses in the book about writing your story and rewriting your story and how you have the power to start a new chapter when life gets you down. She uses stories from ten women in the Bible who persevered through difficult times in their lives and glorified God in the end. Jan also uses stories from people that she has met along the way and shares how they have come through their trials. She also includes stories of women who have faced trials and not come out so good in the end.
This book is subtitled “A ten-week Bible study for women” but I chose to read it alone instead of with a group. I also did not take ten weeks to read it because it was so good. I simply flew through it!
I received this book for free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as a part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
A Roller Coaster Kind of Spiritual Walk
I love roller coasters! I love to feel the wind in my hair and I love to scream and release all my suppressed emotions. My screams turn into uncontrollable laughter as the momentum of the train increases, giving me freedom of expression like I cannot get anywhere else in this world. My heart pounds in my chest at the anticipation of that next turn or loop-tee-loop. It’s hard to believe that a three or four minute ride could lift your spirits so high that you would feel exhilarated long after the ride is over and that you would yearn for the next opportunity to ride again.
My walk with the Lord is much like a ride on a roller coaster. Now I don’t mean it is full of ups and downs and high-pitched hills and drastic drops. Well, maybe it is a little of that. But what I mean is – well, let me explain.
You know how when you are riding along on that track and you know that curve or that upside-down spiral that scares you to death is coming up and you are convinced that you that you are about to have a heart attack?
You fear for just a moment, even though you know your thoughts are preposterous, like the train will come off the track? For a minute, you feel like maybe, just maybe, you are about to die. Of course, your fears are totally unfounded. In just a flash of time, you are whipped around that bend or thrust down that hill or twisted like a pretzel and then – finally – you are upright and back on the straight and safe track and you can catch your breath.
Well, that is how I feel about my spiritual walk with the Lord. When I am burdened about something or praying for something to happen in my life and it is just not happening swiftly enough, I get this desperate feeling. An urgency crawls up my esophagus and threatens to choke me. I start to feel like that curve is coming up and my life is going to fly off that track into oblivion. God is not acting quickly enough for my liking and I feel, just for a moment, that He is not going to save me from going off the track or, more specifically, that He is not going to give me what I want.
Here is the thing – as long as I am seeking God’s will for my life, He will not let that train go off the track. He will not let me fall. He will answer my prayers. His answer will be “yes,” “no,” or “wait.” He may allow the ride to go on a little bit longer than I think I can stand, allowing me to experience a few more loop-tee-loops or spirals or mountainous hills and deep valleys. But He is the conductor! He knows at which moment I need to have the things I have prayed for. He knows the perfect time to open that door I have prayed open. He knows when my heart has had all the anticipation it can stand and when I am ready for and in desperate need of that train coming to a bit of safe track.
In the last month, while I was fasting, I got to see the Lord do some amazing things in the lives of some of my friends. He provided house payments. He provided clarity on relationships for some. He provided job interviews for others and even a job for one friend. He provided a way out of addiction for another. He provided financial blessings for my family and even some great news from my publisher for me!
So I kind of like having a roller coaster spiritual walk with my Jesus. My heart gets to pound uncontrollably as I see Him working in my life and in the lives of those I love. My blood pumps ferociously through my body. I get to scream and laugh and even wiggle in my seat as I see His will revealed – even when the answer is not what I wanted or expected. And when that portion of the ride is over and it is time to get off the train, I am ready to stand in line for the next ride because a ride with the Lord is worth all the ups and downs, twists and turns, lunges and lurches. Oh, life is so exciting when you ride a roller coaster with the Lord!
A Little Over 365 Days Later
In September 2009, my husband was laid off. The economy in Georgia had fallen to an all-time low and unemployment was not too unexpected. At first, panic sets in when you obtain news like that until your head tells you that you have to believe your heart that everything will be just fine. To add insult to injury, the next day I got the Swine flu and the next week, my husband was stricken with it, as well. This blog is the product of 365+ days of trudging through the financial mudslide and emotional drought that comes when you lose your necessary income.
A few days after Dan lost his job, a friend sent us $60.00. My in-laws brought us a box of meat and canned goods. Then a neighbor brought us some meat from the grocery store that was nearing expiration and being thrown out. Here and there, friends asked my husband to do handyman-type things, which resulted in $200.00 here and $75.00 there. Someone else asked Dan to do some work and there was $100.00 for groceries. We were sure a new job would come soon and that these treasures were simply God’s little blessings…His way of showing us He had not forgotten about us.
The following Sunday at church, a surprise box was waiting for us at the Information Desk. This was approximately $60.00 worth of food and personal care items. Included in the box was toothpaste, which I had just run out of that day. That evening, my neighbor brought us $40.00 worth of meat from the grocery store. Just when things seemed to be too bleak to make it through the week ahead, a friend gave us $100.00.
Tithing was something that we had committed to do no matter how bad things got during the period of unemployment. And boy, it was getting hard! On November 1st, we tithed on faith not knowing from where our grocery money would come that week. When we got home from church, we found two $20.00 bills swirling around on the driveway in the leaves. The night before, it had rained. These bills were dry. They had not been there when we had left for church. We started to look up to the sky in thankfulness and in partial expectation for more bills to fall.
The next week, we tithed again on faith. Then a friend asked Dan to do some handyman work and paid him $200.00. Our daughter was having oral surgery that week and we were expected to pay $1,500.00 up front. On November 10th, someone from our church called and said that someone had brought an envelope to the church for us. Dan went to get it and the envelope contained $2,000.00!
On November 15th, a friend shook Dan’s hand and slipped $25.00 in it. Feeling inspired, we tithed it. On November 23rd, our pastor made a plea to the church, asking those that could to put money in pails that were up on the stage and for those that needed it to go and get it. Dan and I went down at the urging of our friends. We came home with almost $400.00.
Dan made $100.00 for doing some handyman work the following week and our neighbor gave us more meat. On November 30th, a friend gave us $60.00. We tithed $10.00 of it plus our regular amount. That week, we got a gift card in the mail for $100.00. Dan did some more handyman work and made $200.00 and a friend gave us $50.00 the following week. Dan worked again and brought home $210.00.
When the Bible says that the Lord provides your daily bread, you better believe it. These little amounts may not have seemed like much, but they got us through one day at a time.
That next week, my boss paid me $25.00 extra and a friend gave us $50.00. In mid-December, we cashed in the 401K and paid off several doctor bills and small credit cards, reducing our monthly expenses by a couple hundred dollars a month.
With Christmas rapidly approaching, a faint sadness set in around the house because there would be no gifts for the children. The children were nineteen and fifteen, but still, we wanted to give them something. On Christmas morning, we awoke to a surprise. On our front porch was a basket of food and a gift for each of us. Someone had also given us a honey baked ham and we pulled together some pantry items and fed some friends who had nowhere to be on Christmas evening. It was the best Christmas I have ever had. A friend gave us a gift card for $100.00 and my in-laws gave us $50.00 each.
On January 5th, a second cousin of mine that I had only met twice in my life felt led to send a gift of $1,000.00 to us. Two days later, he passed away.
On January 11th, we found out from our insurance company that the oral surgery on my daughter was approved and we would be getting a refund! That week, Dan earned $50.00 and another $200.00. A friend called Dan and asked him to do some handyman work at his cabin in the North Georgia mountains and offered to let us stay there. We went on January 22nd and our friend paid Dan $100.00 for the work. The next week, Dan did some more handyman work and made $280.00. We continued to tithe. Dan continued to look for work. He had only had one interview since September.
On February 4th, we had to put our dog to sleep. That day was horrible! We did not have the money to treat her illness and had no choice but to euthanize her.
Dan did some more handyman work and made $500.00. Then a friend brought us a $50.00 Kroger gift card. Our neighbor brought us a box of bread.
On February 16th, our house payment was due and this was going to be the first time we didn’t have money to pay it. I put my china up for sale and a friend paid me $500.00 for it but refused to take the china. A friend brought us spaghetti and chili supplies that next week along with a food box from a food pantry. On February 21st, a friend gave us $100.00 and someone left $30.00 at the front desk for us at church. On February 25th, I received a $250.00 Kroger gift card at my Bible study.
In March, the time came for us to put the deposit down on my son’s trip to summer church camp. Someone donated the $100.00! That week, Dan did a side job and made $500.00. Someone sent $10.00 and a $25.00 Kroger gift card in the mail. Dan worked again for a friend and made $100.00. We got our income tax refund and paid the March house payment. A friend sent $50.00. Another friend gave $100.00. Someone else brought us food.
During this time, we continued to give. We gave Seth’s mattress to a friend who needed it after he was given a new one. Dan brought home another $400.00 that week. On March 25th, we found out that our son received a full scholarship to camp!
In March, I started clipping coupons like never before. I saved $213 in coupons on food/household items that month, the exact amount my paycheck had been reduced. Dan continuously brought home little bursts of money from doing side jobs. A friend gave us $100.00.
I saved $289.00 in coupons in April. Then April 30th, Dan got rear-ended and his truck was totaled. He was unable to work for two weeks after the accident and was not able to go to the doctor because we did not have health insurance and no doctor would see him without payment up front.
Even though pain and discouragement was finding a home at our house, the blessings continued to come and we continued to give. We received a $50.00 gift card in the mail, a friend gave us $100.00, and Dan received $175.00 for handyman work. I cashed in our VISA points and got $125.00 in gift cards. A friend gave us $60.00 to buy clothes for Seth not knowing that he needed them. I earned $111.00 doing side work. We received enough from the insurance to purchase another truck for Dan. He finally had a job interview. He received $657.00 for a handyman job. He also made $595.00 doing work for a friend. I babysat and made $60.00 and worked for a friend and made $100.00! Another side job earned me $130.00.
The next day Dan found out that he got the job! The unemployment period was finally over!
We had a hail storm a few months prior and I prayed so hard for hail damage because we needed a new roof. We had the adjuster come out and sure enough…we had damage. The insurance paid us $3,000.00 more than the cost of the roof replacement and we were able to do some very necessary home repairs with the surplus. We also received help from church members with the repairs.
The total of our gifts and money for work during the past 365+ days was more than $16,000.00! God provided gifts and He also provides the opportunity for us to earn money and the opportunity to give. Since Dan’s job began in June, you would think that all of our financial problems have gone away, right? Oh, no! I lost my job in July. We are still waiting for the settlement on the car accident to pay for Dan’s emergency room bills. The wolves still knock at the door regularly. We are nearing the end of October, closing in on our daughter’s twentieth birthday, and we are still playing catch up.
But God is so amazing that I cannot contain myself any longer! He holds us in the palm of His hands and will continue to do so for the rest of our lives. We are not promised that things will get better. We hope they will. But if they do not, we will still give God every single day of our lives!
