A Gift that just might possibly have an agenda!?!

Hello friends and family.  Thank you SO much for the huge honor and blessing to get to pray with you and for you.  I know God...and He will answer!

So some of you might recall I had the awesome privilege of facilitating the Women's Bible study at my church through Becoming More Than a Good Bible Study Girl. And what an honor and privilege that was.  You see when I read that book the first time I fell in love even MORE with my Jesus...and if there is one purpose I have on this earth..it's to share that Jesus with all I come in contact with.  And this book was a great resource at doing just that.  Well over the weeks of facilitating the Bible study I had shared some of my personal struggles, and issues with my obsessions, addictions, indulgences...or whatever they may be called with both chocolate brownies and shoes!  And at the end of the study one of the women comes up and hands me a wrapped gift and card.  She presented it to me with a verbal, 'thank you'.  It wasn't until later when I was driving in the car and stopped at a light with my 4 year old  'demanded' or requested that I open the gift...a wrapped gift and a little 4 year old curious mind don't stay in the same arena very long!  So I tore open the gift...and here is what greeted me...

Joyce Meyers new book, Eat the Cookie...buy the shoes. Giving Yourself Permission to Lighten Up.

I started laughing out loud in my car...and of course the 4 year old was not quite as impressed with the gift..'a book'

But being that I am a girlie who loves to read...I usually have about 2-3 books going at the same time.  I can be found in the kitchen at around 5ish...cooking dinner,playing referee, coaching homework, greeting husband, answering the phone,feeding the dog and reading me a book!

So I have read the back cover, the introduction..and I am a few pages into...and I am thinking that I really want to share this journey with you. 

I think this gift just might have an agenda...not one planned by the giver of the gift...but rather by my Creator.

So because I need someone to journey with me...cause I am a little nervous of what I might meet...am I truly ready for freedom and guilt free living?

Who knows what could happen...I might just be found in the middle of the shoe section at Macy's eating a 9x13 pan of brownies...with book in hand!

So if you want to join me...I would love it.   Either with the book...or not.

I will be back in a day or two to get us going.

What comes in most go out!

Hello, welcome to the blog!  I am glad you are visiting today..because I just have to share with you!

God is amazing...He is full of great things...and wants to pour them down on you!

I have been very blessed by friends and family that encourage me, love on me, pray for me and inspire me. 

Today I want to give back!

So I am going with the mantra...What comes in most go out!

Would you bless me with the amazing opportunity to pray with you and for you today?

I would love to!

You can either leave it in the comments...or email it to me!

May you know your Creator loves you, adores you, and has great things to pour down on you!

A Recharged Momma

So into this Monday I have arrived recharged and renewed.  Nothing like a little spoiling from one amazing man and two amazing little guys to get this momma refueled and focused again.

Thank you Engineer and T-Squad for living life on purpose with me!

It also helped that message from the stage yesterday at church was filled with a whole lotta Jesus' love for this girlies heart.

Do you ever feel as if society really could care less about the job title you carry from day to day?

I know I have!

But lets just say as of yesterday and going into today...I am recharged...on purpose!

To live out what the Creator of the universe has asked me to do...

1. Be in relationship with Him
2. Be wife to the Engineer
3. Be mom to the T Squad
4. Be leading others to God

May we know that our job titles as woman, wives, and moms are given on purpose from a Creator who knows what He is doing!

And I encourage you to:

Continue on

A woman once fretted over the usefulness of her life. She feared she was wasting her potential being a devoted wife and mother. She wondered if the time and energy she invested in her husband and children would make a difference. At times she got discouraged because so much of what she did seemed to go unnoticed and unappreciated. “Is it worth it?" she often wondered. "Is there something better that I could be doing with my time?"

It was during one of these moments of questioning that she heard the still small voice of her heavenly Father speak to her heart.

“You are a wife and mother because that is what I have called you to be."

Much of what you do is hidden from the public eye. But I notice. Most of what you give is done without remuneration. But I am your reward.

Your husband cannot be the man I have called him to be without your support. Your influence upon him is greater than you think and more powerful than you will ever know. I bless him through your service and honor him through your love.

Your children are precious to me. Even more precious than they are to you. I have entrusted them to your care to raise for me. What you invest in them is an offering to me.

You may never be in the public spotlight. But your obedience shines as a bright light before me. Continue on. Remember you are my servant. Do all to please me."

By Roy Lessin

I call her mom

There is a woman who was created in the very image of God. And in that image is displayed many characteristics that make her unique and beautiful. She is full of unconditional love. She fills a room with joy and fun. She takes the simple and makes it grand. She can bring laughter. She comforts. She stands beside and encourages. She lives in grace and thus gives grace. She believes in second chances and thus not only takes them offers them. She is teachable. She is quirky in a neat away; you know the one that makes you ask her opinion. She knows when a hot bath, warm cup of tea, or a hug is needed. She would sit next to you, stand next to you, stand in for you and hold onto you. She would take the time, the minute, the hour, the day, the years. She is committed. She represents selfishness. She has taught submission. She has exercised endurance. She gets the meaning of patience. She is her heart. She loves. She prays. She experiences Jesus moments. She has been changed inside and out. She knows relationship. She has followed, lead and come back to walk alongside. She has real tears, genuine hugs, and sincere compliments. She has guided, taught and also able to be guided and teachable. She sees others. She has left a legacy. She has made this world a better place.



She has a name.


I call her mom.

2 Mirrors

Yesterday I had a 'day'.  One in which I found myself in one of those funky mirror houses...you know the kind that you can go through at the fair.  One mirror will show you all scrunched up and 2 feet tall...while the next mirror shows you tall and lean.  Okay so its my analogy for the day...I wasn't really in the mirror house...but hang in there with me....

Yesterday I was cranky, tired, overwhelmed, being pulled in a million different directions...and on top of it all I felt like my head was going to explode.  Seriously going outside right now in this wind and pollen infested climate is really startin' to do this girlie in.  So I truly limit my time out there!

So it gets to be around 5pm and I am in the kitchen...and I am not quite sure why this is, but 5pm and the kitchen can always...and I am serious here...bring out some uglies in me.  Yikes!  The uglies were a flying out. 

I was angry.

I was frustrated.

I was grumbling.

I was jealous.

I was pouting.

I was complaining.

Oh and I had excuses for each ugly coming out...

I am tired.

I am too busy.

I am a girl whose head is going to explode with this pollen allergy induced sinus pressure!

Lets just say the Engineer and the boys...stayed pretty clear of the kitchen vicinity.  Oh and its as if every corner of the kitchen had a mirror...so when I turned...I could see the ugly.  It was a bunch of ugly scenes.

Have you ever been right where you are supposed to be and it's not very comfortable?

After clearly seeing my ugly...I was in survival mode and ready to just make it to bed time. 

So we get the boys in bed and I can clearly hear God saying...'time for you to do your Bible study'. 

What?  I am in NO frame of mind to be doing any Bible studying...I am ready to be putting my head on my pillow and looking forward to a new day!  Out of some Jesus inspired obedience I grab my Bible, and my Bible study book I am currently doing...titled...Me, Myself and Lies  by Jennifer Rothschild and head out to the family room to sit in my over sized comfy chair with my quilt.  I open my Bible study book...I am on week five (friends it has taken me MUCH longer than five weeks to get here...this book is HARD...like serious life changing HARD...don't take my word for it...get the Bible study and do it yourself to find out!)...anyway...I open to:

Week Five Day 3: Grumbles In The Thought Closet

Seriously...this had been my thought closet all day!  It was upon reading that title that I knew Jesus and I were about to have a talk!

I get to this paragraph:

"Complaining always reveals a lack of humility and plenty of self-centeredness.  Complaining doesn't flow from a thought closet where God is central.  Our grumbles show our self-focus..."

In a matter of a few seconds I was sitting there looking at myself in the mirror...and it was NOT pretty, it was rather ugly.

And in the next few seconds I hear Jesus whisper...

"Nichole I wanted you to see all that ugly tonight and remind you I can't sit next to that."

As uncomfortable as it was to look in that mirror and see the ugly..its where I needed to be.


Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don't act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like. James 1:22-23 (MSG)



Ugly is not looking like Jesus.


For Jesus to be fully residing in my heart He needs to clean house!



Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I'll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You'll be living proof that I didn't go to all this work for nothing. Philippians 2:14-15 (MSG)

When Jesus is fully residing in my heart, what comes out of me will be pretty.

Thankful for a Jesus who loves me so much to not allow be to be ugly.  But in all His grace to show me His mirror and to encourage me to allow Him to make me pretty!

Choosing to look into His mirror!



Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (NASB)

You are either a Bridge or a Barrier

Hey thanks for visiting today.  Today I write from a sequestered much sheltered area within the protection and comfort of my home...its crazy windy here in my neck of the woods which means its blowing pollen all around like crazy which has me SO stuffed up...its lovely my friends...you don't take breathing for granted until you just can't get air through your precious nostrils!

Okay really the whole post today is not about me and my lack of breathing issues...but thanks for listening!

Now onto much deeper thoughts...which don't you kinda of wonder how I can go there since my brain is lacking the full amount of oxygen...anyway...

Pastor Mike has been preaching himself a super amazing sermon series on Bridges these past few weeks. 

On Sunday Pastor Mike shared some scripture with us from Mark 10:35-45...he reminded us of Jesus' purpose

the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Mark 10:45

And if my oxygen supplementation is what it should be...aren't we as Christ followers to be like Christ?

Intentionally finding the lost.

Purposefully helping to heal.

Seriously serving.

Making sacrifices.


Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross! Philippians 2:5-8



This morning as I am reading the Word, I found myself in the pages of Mark 11.  God makes a pretty large point to me...

You are either a bridge or a barrier.

Now try this out for me...

Jesus came to be a bridge to God.  It was the purpose of the cross.  To restore a broken relationship with our Creator.  Jesus was intentional on seeking and saving the lost.  He made it His lifestyle to lead others to the heart of God.

If we are called to follow in His footsteps we are to be a bridge for others.  A bridge that leads them to the heart of God.


If your words, actions, and lifestyle do not lead others to see God then you are a barrier.  You are not serving as a bridge.

May we truly seek to be a bridge in all we say and do and not keep others from seeing the amazing Creator!

Firsts

Nothing like your first video blog and your face is stuck like that...well my mouth is stuck open what can I say...HA!