New Years

2011 was a crazy year!

My husband and family went on another journey with God. We found out in January that the church where my husband was a part time youth pastor would no longer be able to pay us after June. In May, my husband graduated from college. Then the quest for a full time job started. Amazingly enough we only interviewed at 2 churches and after a long process we start at the new church on August 8. My husband is now a full time youth and children's pastor.

Usually I pick one theme verse each year. But last year I fell back on one from 2007.

Proverbs 3:5-6
5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Looking back on this year it feels as if I really have not move very far spiritual or physically. I just did what we need to get through. I was the rock of the family and put more into the family then to myself. We made it through and we are good, but I want to do better this next year. There are 2 commitments I am making for myself and this blog.

1. Post 26 things that pertain to the "temple"
2. Post and memories 52 new verse. The new church uses NIV, I know all verses in KJV.

Keep tuned and help me stay accountable to you my readers and to God my Lord.

God did it in one try

Genesis 1:1
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

I was teaching Sunday School for one of our teachers when she was gone. The lesson was on God's creation. The opening exercise was for the children to draw a picture of an animal. The paper was divided into 3 parts. The first part is for the head, the second for the body, and the third for the tail or feet. There were three children, one drew a monkey, one a tiger, and one another animal. I had the children trade one part and see what their animal looked like. Then they traded another part, when all was done they traded 4 times to get there original animal back. What a wonderful visual! It took us four times to get the animal right and it only took God one. What a wonderful, almighty God!

Fret

Proverbs 24:19
19 Fret not thyself because of evil men, neither be thou envious at the wicked;

It is so easy to look around you and see lots of people that seem to be doing better then you. It is even easier to want what others have no matter how they may have gotten it. Sometimes evil and wicked men or women got worldly riches, but we need to remember that they are also of their father the devil. We might not have alot in this life but we do have eternal things to look forward to.

Wait

Psalms 27:14

14 Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

Have you looked at one of those picture that when you are close up they don't look much like anything. Then you take two steps back and you see more to the picture. Then if you move a few feet back you see a pretty picture with many more details.

Life in much like this. You go through a testing of your faith and when you come out on the other side you don't really see why it all happened. Then in a few weeks if you look back you can start to see why things happened the way they did. Then in a few months or years you can see what a pretty picture God has made out of your life.

Be patience and wait on the Lord because he sees the whole picture and he knows what we need in our life and also what we can handle.

Jonah

Jonah 2:10

And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

My husband is preaching through Jonah, the above verse struck me. What a visually God spoke to the fish and out comes Jonah.

There are so many trials in life sometimes it is because of things we have done like in Jonah life somethings it is to glorify God such as in Job's life. The last year in our life has be filled with ups and downs and I know that God has been there throughout it all. I always want to show good character. It is not always easy to show good character when things are not going well. But this verse help me to realize that if we cry out to God he will take care of the trail. Just like in Jonah's case God spoke to the whole and Jonah landed on dry ground.

2006 John 3:30

2006 John 3:30 - He must increase but I must decrease

I have never liked the new years resolution stuff, so long ago I determined instead of setting one goal I would just make sure I was a better person then the year before . In 2006 I started doing something different, I picked a verse each year that would be my theme verse for the year. The verse for that year was the verse above. This was the last year my husband and I would be youth leaders instead of youth pastor and wife. It was a very tough year and I truly believe I did decrease and I became more like Christ.

Waves About ME

2 Sam 22:4-54 - I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised;So shall I be saved from my enemies. "When the waves of death surrounded me,The floods of ungodliness made me afraid. NKJV

When I was between 5 and 8 I went to a lake with my sister and several cousins. I was the youngest by 4-6 years. I wanted to be with them everywhere they went. I was your typical annoying little sibling. On this day, I wanted to be out on the lake with them. I was on a one-man raft and they were on another one all together. I went out pretty far with them, and then they decide they had enough of me and pushed me off to float alone. They figured I would float back into the shore. They were wrong and I went out farther. When I finally realized I was going the wrong way, I decided to get off and walk back into the shore. Problem was I was out too deep and could not touch bottom. I was off the raft and could not get back on the raft. I panicked and started to sink. My sister saw what had happened and she jumped in to help me. By the time, she got to me, not only had I almost drowned but also started a lifelong fear of the water. Sure, I still swam but there were times when I would have panic attacks and I would not go into deep water without have great fear.

I took a day off last week to be with my family and some family who were here from out of town. We went to the beach. This was last week, which according to my calendar was leg day. I knew that whatever I was going to do I needed to do it there because I would not have anytime the rest of the day. I start out with a boogie board and I started to swim hard. I figured this would be a great leg workout. I got out pretty far when I realized that there was a buoy out in front of me. I start out towards it. I decided I was going to swim out to it and back. As I went out, I realized it was out there a lot farther then I realized. Once I got to it, I was so happy to touch it. I know the swim in would be harder because I was swim against the current, but did not realize that also I was swimming again my fears also. As I turned around it was so hard to get started back to the shore. The shoreline seemed so very far away. I kept looking back at the buoy and was so afraid that I would not make it back. One time I looked back and I show a boat stop. I realized they too were worried if I was going to make it back. When I show the boat, I was even more determined to make it back. I know that God had placed that boat there for me just as he did my sister. However, this time I found the courage to fight through the demon on my own and I did make it back to the shore. I was a great victory and a great workout.