Polishing Our Faith

Hi everyone!

As the month dedicated to giving thanks culminates this week, people are also in the process of preparing for Christmas.  I have spent the past year sorting through a lot of things in my life, both material and internal, dusting off treasures from the past and looking forward to the future.  

In the process I found my faith, sitting alone in the midst of the fragrance of potpourri.  I am reminded of how our faith is often with us, but if we are not careful it can get lost. 

Love & Hope, which at first I thought may have been lost, needed to be brought back into my life.  They had been broken long ago, but I knew it was time for them to once again be a part of my Faith. 

When things like Love & Hope rejoin our lives there is a warmth and a newness to it all, but what I noticed when I placed them next to my Faith, was that my Faith had grown dim, worn, and weary from all that life had put it through.  Don’t we all have times such as this, where we don't necessarily lose our faith, but where it grows dim from weariness? 

I needed to revive my Faith, polish it if you will, so that it could embrace and welcome back in Love & Hope.  In the process I was reminded of the mustard seed.  God tells us that all we need is the faith of ONE mustard seed.  When you look at all of the tiny mustard seeds in the little bowl, what an incredible thing it is to realize that all He asks is that our Faith be the size of just ONE.

Sometimes, before we can start to decorate the outside of our lives, whether that be by putting up Christmas lights, building a writing cottage, or having an extreme physical makeover, we first have to dust off and clear out the things in our lives that have led to our Faith becoming dim.  Maybe that entails letting go of hurtful words that have held us back, or betrayal, or maybe it is just a matter of learning to be comfortable in our own skin.  Learning that our Faith was with us all along and sometimes in the battles of life it will get dim, not because we lost our Faith, but because in every battle that we must fight dust and dirt will fly so that we can win the fight.  

A soldier’s uniform gets dirty as he or she fights to save the freedom that we hold dear.  Our Faith can also get covered in dirt, not because it has grown weary after all, but because we have been in the trenches fighting the good fight.

So as we give thanks this week and start to write out our Christmas lists, I think the most precious gift I can give to myself and those around me, is to finish what the Lord has started in my life, polish up my Faith, surround it with Hope & Love and see what beauty results on the outside in this coming new year.

Resurrection means HOPE

Hi everyone!

Though the rain is rolling in, nothing can put a damper on this day.  For this is the day the Lord has made – let us rejoice and be glad.  The stone has been rolled away and with that hope was given to this world.  This is the time of year to reflect and leave some things at the graveside so that we can move into all that the Lord has planned for us. 

 

Sometimes this isn’t so easy.  Sure, there are some people that walk into our lives and in just 6 months we can barely remember anything about them and then there are those who come into our lives, touch our lives and stay with us for a life time.  The important part to both experiences is that both good and bad are in the past and if we don’t know when to leave the past behind and roll the stone away we can find ourselves trapped in a grave of the past. 

 

Easter is about resurrection and hope; it’s about new beginnings and leaving the past at the graveside so that we can come into all that the Lord has planned.  As I have watched dreams that I thought were buried for good rise up to meet my future; as I watch new doors opening all around me, I embrace the hope and new life that this new season is bringing into my life. 

 

 

Change can be tough and fulfilling our dreams can mean lots of work and perseverance, but with each step that HE illuminates it makes all the effort worthwhile.  HE is pushing me farther in the hope of bringing me farther than I have ever gone in my life.  Knowing that this time is leading me to fulfilling the most important race of my life makes me so thankful that HE has risen so that HE could guide me in a time such as this.

 

Happy Resurrection Day and my prayer is that you too allow HIM to be a lighthouse in your life and raise you from the dead.

 

One Step at a Time

Hi everyone,

As I have struggled over the past several weeks to make sense of all that is transpiring in my life, these words by Oswald Chambers left me saying “WOW”!!

"If God has made your cup sweet, drink it with grace; or even if He has made it bitter, drink it in communion with Him. If the providential will of God means a hard and difficult time for you, go through it...You must go through the trial before you have any right to pronounce a verdict, because by going through the trial you learn to know God better. God is working in us to reach His highest goals until His purpose and our purpose become one."

~ Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest

Ok, let me examine this a little closer.

“If the providential will of God means a hard and difficult time for you, go through it... because by going through the trial you learn to know God better.”

I have to admit this is tough for me on so many levels.  In part because I have so many questions that will probably always be unanswered.  Up until this point in my life, when life has thrown curve balls my way I have done a good job of asking God “WHAT do you want me to learn from this” and not “WHY”.  This time it is all the unanswered WHYs that haunt me.  I have always been one to focus on my relationship with God and not a certain religion.  So I guess that is why my dialog with Him these days resembles more of that between a parent and a heart broken teenager.  Just like our parents know what is best and we have a hard time grasping that concept when we are in our teens, so now do I have a tough time grasping all that has unfolded in my life.

Dr. Dobson’s book, The Strong Willed Child, states that “The difference between life as it is and life as it out to be is a frightening and distressing bit of reality.”  I cannot help but smile through the tears – boy Dr. Dobson, did you ever get that right??!!!

While there have been days when I have wondered if my heart will ever heal, I find comfort in knowing that when we indeed follow God’s guidance He will restore all that has been taken from us.  For me, that makes me so thankful this time of the year.  Yes, He can take a mess and turn it into a message.  One step at a time!!  

Thank you for walking along this journey with me.

God Gave Me You

Hi everyone!

This post has been weighing on my mind for about a week now.  I have just been trying to find the right way to put it all in words.  For the past 2 ½ years this was a dialog that took place in my life – “God gave me you” – to which about a year ago the reply became “You don’t feel jipped?”   It would be easy, as life has spun out of control over the past couple of months to be angry and say “YES, I feel jipped,” but this is where this post must now begin.

The thing is…God can bring people into our lives and while HE means it all for good, they have their own free will to both accept and embrace the gift HE gives them or to throw it all away.  The toughest part for me is the realization that the past 2 ½ years have been a lie.  Do I feel “jipped” – well no because all I did was look for the best in someone, saw their potential and how God could use our talents for good.   Sometimes the darkness that is part of a person’s life though cannot come into the light.  God did not jip me, He tried.

“Unless you get your house straight, Curiosity Cottage is a lie.  It is in your heart, but it needs to be for real.”  Little did I know at the time of this statement that a disorganized house was the least of the lies that existed under my roof.  I feel like I am in the middle of a Lifetime movie.  However, this one will have a happy ending, because the truth has indeed set me free… Set me free to create and truly bring Curiosity Cottage to the place it was always meant to be.

Will I ever trust again…well I really doubt it at this point.  I could handle the “in sickness & in health; for richer and poorer,” part of marriage, but the curve ball that I have been given has just been too much for me to bare.   I have had to come to the realization that what God meant for good was really just a pit stop in a stepping stone of schemes. 

So how do I take what was meant for harm and turn it into good?  Well it again goes back to what I said at the beginning of this post – God can bring people into our lives for good, but they have the free will to either treasure the gift or to dispose of it at the local Goodwill store.  When we have lived our lives like God has instructed us; listening and obeying His guidance, then we just have to trust Him with what He has planned for us. 

Yes, Curiosity Cottage is my very being and it has been in front of me all the time.  Now it is time to bring her where God has meant for her to be!!

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