God, the Lifter of My Head

Has anyone ever taken your chin in their hands and lifted your head up to meet you eye to eye? Whether it be to show you adoration and just get your attention as they're trying to give you encouragement? I know my mom would do this to me as a child. And this is what I think of when the scriptures say that God is the "Lifter of my Head." (Ps. 3:3)

When we're feeling down, discouraged, depressed, as if life it too hard, and we just want to wish it all away - that's when God wants to take your chin in his hand and lift up your head and speak His life into you. I picture Him saying "Why is your soul downcast? Why so disturbed? Put your hope in Me! Give Me praise!" (Ps. 42:5)

Praise brings glory to God, and it brings our spirit to a higher place! I can't ever think of a time when I was giving praise to God that I felt low or depressed. Praising God is like medicine for the soul. True praise to God brings victory! Satan hates it when people praise God!

After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose. (Acts 16:23-26)

There is power through praising God! God can take your circumstances and turn it around. Life is not supposed to be easy. Actually, we need to have our "ups" and our "downs." Each time we learn to overcome an obstacle, we become stronger, we learn to depend on God and not on our own strength.

God wants to bestow on you a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. [You] will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of His splendor. (Isaiah 61:3)

God is a powerful God and He can take you through any situation. Give it up to God, give God praise from deep within your heart and allow God to break the chains that have a hold of you. Allow God to set you free.

He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God." (Ps. 50:23)

I used to believe

I was listening to the radio this morning and they made a little comment about this website. It's called http://iusedtobelieve.com/ . It's just a fun website, where people tell something they used to believe (usually as a child) and it makes for some good laughs. Do you have any good stories of what you used to believe? Feel free to share them if you so desire. :)

Here's something I used to believe: When I was in kindergarten, I used to believe that my vanilla yogurt was Elmer's glue and wouldn't eat it. I thought my mom was mean to give that to me as part of my lunch. Why would she give me glue to eat?

Just being a mom

I am loving this picture right now. It's also one of my favorite outfits on Sophie. :) This is my big (almost) 7.5 month old. :)

HEY MASSACHUSETTS PEOPLE!

I'll be visiting this weekend, so make sure you go to the first service at church. :)

If I miss my chance to see you this time, then hopefully I'll have a chance to see you when I visit for a week in March (3/23 - 3/29). I'm hoping to actually be able to get together with a bunch of friends in March... I'll try to make plans for that. I'll keep you posted. :)

Hope to see you at church this weekend! You can also feel free to drop by my parent's house too. Give a call to make sure we're there.

Ok, that's all! :)

Loving Sophie

Well, I love everything about Sophie, but here are a few things that she does, that melt my heart:

• Sophie's smile, especially when I walk in the room
• When she dances
• When she sings
• When she touches my face while I'm feeding her and she's asleep
• I love watching Sophie play. I know she's learning and developing and becoming her own person. It's amazing to me.
• When she crawls over to me and reaches her hands up for me to hold her with a big smile on her face.
• When she crawls over to me and grabs on to the couch and pulls herself up to stand and then she gets this REALLY EXCITED look on her face and starts laughing as if to say "WOW!!! MOM LOOK WHAT I JUST DID!!!"
• I love the special bond she has with her daddy.

The list could go on and on....

Feeling bad

Here I am, making a spring-looking blog, knowing that Judy will make one for me for a small donation for missions, but right now, I barely have a "small" donation. I want to give, I'm sorry Judy!

My blog doesn't look as nice as what yours would look like, and when I can afford to give a donation, I'll have you re-do mine, or at least my banner. I did my banner in my Paint application from my computer. I'm not sure how you make such cute banners, but mine is what it is, ha ha!

Anyway, I for some reason, felt like I needed to explain myself. Probably didn't need to, but I felt the need.

Have a Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Holy Spirit, Savior, Healer

I can't think straight today. For the past couple Wednesday nights, I leave our youth group feeling uneasy. Sometimes I wish I could just stay oblivious to the evils in this world. I am outraged and devastated at the situations the majority of our young girls have had to deal with in their short lifetimes. I now understand how confused they are about their value, their worth and their stand on purity.

I want to take them all away for a while, starting from the basics - salvation, and gradually lead them to a place where they can understand the importance of God and his commands, and also just know the kind of God that He really is. These girls need more than just a Wednesday night meeting of 1.5 hours of church.

I wish I was qualified to counsel these girls, but I'm not. I wish I knew what to do, but I don't.

For now I will just pray for these girls. Since God can do anything... I know He can speak to, minister to and heal these girls hearts and minds. I just hope these girls will open their hearts and ears to listen. And, I need God to give me wisdom.

I'm not sure how acurate this is, but I've heard that 1 out of 4 girls have been secually and physically abused. I believe it. This world is evil, and I can't wait until Jesus comes back.

Worth Posting (Common Sense)

Obituary for Common Sense

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend by the name of Common Sense who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such value lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, and that life isn't always fair.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not kids, are in charge).
His health began to rapidly deteriorate when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate, teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch, and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer aspirin to a student, but could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Finally, Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense finally gave up the ghost after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot, she spilled a bit on her lap, and was awarded a huge settlement.
Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason.
He is survived by two stepbrothers, My Rights and Ima Whiner. Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still know him pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.

- Author Unknown

Some tough stuff

We had our girl talk at FUSION (youth group) on Wednesday night. It went really well. We had one of our adult leaders give a testimony and from there, the girls had a million questions (ok, so maybe not a million, but there were a lot of questions).

Some girls felt comfortable enough to share some stuff with us. One girl took me aside to tell me some issues she has dealt with in her life. All of these issues I have never dealt with (THANK YOU GOD), but my heart breaks for this girl. She can't afford professional help, and I might need to go out and buy her a pregnancy test. For the sake of confidentiality, I won't go into all the details, but I do just ask you to pray for this girl. She would benefit GREATLY from Christian counseling. I wish I knew where I could direct her, because she really does not have the money to pay for services like that.

These girls are so young, and already have been used, hurt, mislead and are so confused about what they know from their home life and what we talk about at church. They get two different messages, and I just don't know how seriously they take God's word.

What I would like to do is put on a purity retreat - SOON. We have a lot of unresolved topics to go over, and I know they're interested in hearing more. Please pray for me, and the other youth leaders that God will direct us and show us how to handle some of these really fragile and extreme situations.

THANK YOU!

Can't wait for more 60 degree weather!

We went to Salisbury, MD for the weekend. It was great! Paul got to see some of his old buddies, and we just relaxed. The weather was gorgeous! It was 60 degrees on Sunday and Monday! It felt like freedom! Sophie went outside without her big huge fluffy pink marshmallow snow suit!

This is a picture of Sophie outside in her hoodie and pink sunglasses, because it was pretty bright outside! :) And, I just couldn't resist putting them on her!

Well, as far as the superbowl goes - we weren't happy with the end result. We were hoping the Cardinals were going to win. You know, the underdogs defeating those bullies called the Steelers! That would have been awesome! I do think the referee showed favoritism toward the Steelers though. So... who knows, the Cardinals might have won if not for one of his calls earlier on in the game. And, who am I to talk football? I don't even get the game! But I saw what I saw, and I think the referee made the wrong call. :)

I hope everyone else had a great weekend! Ours was beautiful!