Ever feel like it’s a Monday instead of Humpday?
Our feet hit the ground running…..fast!
God was in all that we were allowed to participate in today…..in the middle of it, providing in ways I can’t begin to describe.  Isn’t HE good?
Today was filled with surprises, hardships and love.
Today was a God day.

I took my camera to the 7:30 football game Tuesday night and borrowed a friend’s flash hoping to get some great shots.  I couldn’t get the silly flash to fire.  Don’t know what I was doing wrong!  UGH!  So no photos to share tonight.

Just basking in my Beth Moore bible study, The Patriarchs, and feeling his all-consuming love tonight.
IN HIM,

I listened to Focus on the Family today and heard Trish Berg who wrote Rattled talk about what she calls the Ministry of Mediocrity.  What she said rang so true to my heart.  In her voice I heard my own.  And I remembered having talked with women about his time and time again.

My question:  What impression do you leave on someone when they enter your house or meet you?
Is it one that makes the person feel like they don’t measure up or do you present an image that is real?

What do you feel like when you walk into a spotless house?
Do you feel “less than” in some way?

When walk into a house with toys on the floor, laundry spinning in the laundry room and the morning’s dishes in the sink do you breathe a sigh of relief thinking, “Ah, someone who’s life is like mine?”

When you run into a friend at the grocery store who’s hair is in a sloppy pony tail do you feel relieved because you look about the same way?

What does the way we act say to others?
The image we present to the world and especially to other women?

“You must be perfect too.”
or
“Hey, there is no perfect, there’s just me.  Let’s grab a coke!”

Think about it…..

Today was just one of those days I woke up funky.  We had planned to go see the free movie “Surf’s Up” with friends and then spend the day at the lake.  What I really wanted to do was hide in a hole and growl.  That sounded like fun, huh?  The movie was really cute though and after we got to the lake I read in Revelations for a while.  I love Revelations.  It’s so graphic, mysterious and awesome!  I can just see Jesus’ feet shining like bronze, his hair while as snow and his eyes like fire.  COOL!!

By the end of the day (now) I’m feeling better after a nice day at the lake, grilled hamburgers and fun with friends.  I prayed hard all day for the Lord to calm my raging hormones.  Ugh.  Don’t you hate those things?  I wonder what hormones were like BEFORE the fall?  It had to be a piece of cake, maybe even enjoyable!

Now I find myself in the camper under our carport with all three children sleeping as I blog.  The rain gently falls on the driveway as the crickets and night time bugs hum away outside.  I’m getting ready to catch some Zzzz’s too.  Maybe tomorrow will be hormone free!

I also would like all of you praying sisters out there to lift up someone really special in my life.  I can’t tell you who right now and I can’t tell you what but her family is sitting pretty for a miracle (as Beth Moore says).  And they need one, well…..three, really!  If the Lord leads will you please lift up my special someone in prayer?

I’ll keep you posted on the miracles I just know God is going to give them.

As always….only in Him…

“Anything we have to manipulate to get we seldom get to keep.”
quoted by Beth Moore in her study The Patriarchs

Some of you who keep up with my blog know that I do a lot of Beth Moore bible studies.  God uses her to minister to me in a very special way right now and has for the last 2-3 years of my life.  Different people have ministered to me in different times of my life.  Charles Stanley when I first became a Christian, then Joyce Meyer, TD Jakes and many others.  But God uses Beth right now.  Sometimes I want to reach through the video and hug that dear woman.  I love her passion for God, for Jesus and for his children.

This morning I got up a few minutes before the rest of the family.  I’ve got quite a few photos to edit and when I came across this one I was reminded of the way God hunts us down.  Passionately and insistently he chases after us until he wins our hearts.  Words can’t even describe the depth of my gratitude over his pursuit.  “Thank you dear sweet precious Jesus for hunting me down.  Go after every one of my children with your intense desire for them.”

May you feel pursued today!!!!!

I love light.  Maybe it’s the photographer in me, maybe the Jesus in me, maybe both.  I just know I love to watch the way sunlight plays in the evenings.  I love the warmth of the sun at that time of day.  I’m not a morning person but I know if I was I’d love the morning light too.

Last night I took my camera outside to play with my new lens.  It was one of those warm spring evenings where the sun still cast long shadows across our yard as it was disappearing behind the trees.

These pictures of my daughter’s chalk box made me think of God.  And it made me think of myself.  I’m amazed at how beautiful the colors are inside  of us even though they are contained in broken vessels.  When we accept Christ he gives us a new heart (a beautiful sparky colorful one).  I can rest in knowing my heart is good.  But only because it was given to me by Him.

Hoping you can rest in Him today
Julie

In Memory Of

Emily Anne Roberts

This is so amazing…

A friend emailed this to me today.  I just had to share it. 
God never ceases to amaze me with HIS wonderful creation.  Clink
on the link below for a wonderful photo documentary of baby
hummingbirds being born, nurtured, and taking flight.

Enjoy!!
Julie