Intimacy

While out running this morning God and I had a beautiful conversation, this is what He said to me:

"To have intimacy with Me people have to take the time to LISTEN to Me.  Sometimes my children fill their life so full with "good" stuff but they don't take the time to nurture their life in Me.  They come to me with their worries, complaints, problems, fear, frustrations, their praise and love and admiration but they do not take the time for Me to speak to them.  I want you and them to let go of some of the "good stuff" because it's just time fillers.  They are robbing themselves of the BEST with just the good.  I am the Best.  I am the Greater.  And yet you and they settle for "good stuff".  You want to grow closer to Me in intimacy?  Then let go of some of the stuff and come and spend time with Me.  Learn to listen to Me."

6.2!

Ran my first 10K (6.2 miles) since this marathon and I had a decent time!

Oh Lord, You KNOW I needed this sunshine today!!!!  Thank you!

Someday....when I have grandchildren.....

Someday....when I have grandchildren.....

Here I am, almost 44- thinking about grandchildren!  Just yesterday I had three little babies of my own and now the years have flown by and those babies are adults!  One married and two in college!  WOW!

But, in the next few years Allison and Ben will  have children and I will be...gulp...a grandmother!

While I was out transplanting dandelions this afternoon I began to think about some things I would like to teach/impart/leave legacy to my grandchildren.

My hearts desire first of all is...that they have a beautiful intimate relationship with Jesus.  That they are spiritually healthy.

Second, I will give them unconditional love.  To fill their soul with beauty. I want them to know who they are in Christ.  I want their soul- their mind, will and emotions- to be healthy.  For them to know the riches of Christ and to live from Him.

Third, I will get their hands dirty.  I want them to trudge around in boots in the mud, to eat dandelions from the ground and find great pleasure in watching things they planted grow!

I will teach them about herbs.  That herbs can be used as medicine, healing and preventative.

I will lay with them on a blanket on the ground and read them books.

I will sing old hymns with them as we rock in the swing on the porch.

I will run barefoot with them through mud puddles during a spring shower.

I will RUN with them!!!

I will take them hiking, so they can enjoy God's beautiful creation.

I will tell them of their great grandparents and great great grandparents.  I will tell them of the people they come from.  I will take them to Kentucky so they can walk through the same hollars I did as a child.

I will read to them Romans 6 and explain it- many many times.

I will tell them I love them.  I will show them I love them.  I will love their parents.  I will speak words of truth, affirmation and encouragement to them.  I will lift their soul and not crush it.

I will teach them to work.  To pick up after themselves, clean their room and help their parents keep the house straightened up.  Because that's what families do.  They "do" together.

I will teach them to give, to help, to share, to love, to be kind, to be encouragers, to be concerned with one another, to have empathy and to have compassion with others.

To be who God created them to be.....

To live from Him so they CAN be spiritually, emotionally and physically healthy.

Someday...

March 8th!

March 8th, one of my favorite all-time days! Two of the greatest things happened to me on March 8th.

March 8, 1986 I shared half a green m&m with a boy I barely knew at Pulaski Co. High School gym- watching Casey County Rebel boys play in the District Tourney. 28 years later- that boy is my beloved husband and the father of our three great kids. 

Happy 28th Green M&M Day, Nick Ellison!

14 years later-

March 8, 2000 Literally, my life was exchanged!
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Today is my Spiritual Birth Day. : )

I am...His dwelling place.

Ezekiel 37:27

My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.

He created in me, a dwelling place for Him.  As I look around and see all the things He created BUT the dwelling place for Him was in…me. – From audio of Problems, God’s Presence and Prayer with Michael Wells.

2 Corinthians 13b Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you

Galatians 2:20 Christ lives in me

Colossians 1:27 Christ in you

Romans 8:9, 11 Spirit of God dwells in you

Ephesians 3:17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith

Dread

If I live my life- dreading things to come, I will live in much dread. 

5 miles

I ran my first 5 miles since the marathon this morning.

Oh. My. Goodness

My foot didn't hurt BUT it honestly felt like the first 5 miles I had EVER run.

But.  I did it.  : )  So, amen!

Living room furniture!

Spiritual Sandpaper

My last class Advanced Discipleship Training class is in a couple of weeks and I have to write a 7 page paper, basically about what God has spoke into me not just in this class but understanding Who God is and who I am because of Him. 

This has been a journey I've been on since about 2007. Well, longer than that, I guess, but maybe I just started listening in 2007. I don't have much of a problem writing, or expressing my thoughts. I am not trained. I have no idea when I write a sentence incorrectly or correctly. But I don't journal, or blog or anything for anyone but God and...me, I guess.

Writing this paper, I have went back to my journals. I have kept a journal of some sort since I became a Christian in 2000. To write my prayers, express my thoughts, weep and wail...whatever it may be!

Now, I am seeing the fruit of this. I am seeing how God has led me. How He has become my Life and Everything. I am seeing all the people He has spoke through to me on this beautiful journey. AND how He has used me to speak to others on their beautiful journey.

Yet, my journey and their journey is interconnected and it is really OUR journey. We are all branches, on One Tree, all apart of each other and One.

We cannot go this journey alone. We must have one another. To wrap one another in love and yet be the sandpaper God uses to smooth, to remove old layers or to make more rough.

Thank you to ALL of you who have loved me- who God used as sandpaper.

Some of you God used to make me more smooth- settle and calm me, revealing truths to me.

Some of you God used to help removed OLD OLD layers of lies and unbelief and failures of the past.

Some of you, God used to roughen me up- brought the "flesh, self-life" to surface so that the process can be started again and God can smooth and remove.

Some of you were ALL of these. I am so blessed to have you in my life. So thankful for YOU.