Two Pennies and a Message

God did the most awesome thing last night. This morning I had the opportunity to speak at First Priority at my former high school. Since I was asked to do this Monday night I started praying continuously for God to lay something to speak about on my heart. As the sun went down yesterday I still didn't feel what God wanted me to speak on, I stopped off at Walgreens on the way home and used cash (which I never do) and as I walked out, God finally answered my prayer (in His timing) when I opened my hand and saw two pennies. Yes, it does sound crazy, I know but keep reading it gets better. I had been given a very shiny penny and a dirty penny. As I stared at the two coins in my hand my eyes grew wide as the Lord began speaking and I listened. As I went home I told my parents about what God had spoken to me and my mom made it better, she gave me a filthy, chipped (broken) penny. With these two pennies God gave me the message I was to speak to the students this morning.

Think of this with me for a second. Jesus is the shiny, spotless penny. We are the broken, filthy penny. When Jesus died on the cross He covered our sins with His blood. Now think of that shiny penny covering that dirty, filthy, broken penny. You can't see the filthy anymore... THAT'S WHAT JESUS DOES TO US WITH OUR SINS!!!! 

"We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags." - Isaiah 64:6 (NLT)

We are like FILTHY rags! We are impure, unclean, infected, broken with sin and Jesus comes in and cleanses and purifies us! HE MAKES US LIKE HIM!! THIS IS THE GOSPEL!!!!! Is that not the most awesome thing?? There wasn't a whole lot of students in there but God allowed me to look at some of them and watch the expression on their faces change as they really just... got it. It was such a blessing to be able to speak there this morning and I pray that God allows me to have more opportunities in different places to speak before long. So that's what God gave me. Two pennies and a message, and wow wasn't it an awesome message:) 

May the Lord bless you richly!

Signs In The Sky

I usually don't post things this close together, but I had to share this. If you are on my Facebook then you have probably already seen the picture that I shared of the clouds that looks like Jesus on a horse with an angel behind him. I have seen several comments from the original post about this being fake and as I sat asking God to give me a reason to believe it wasn't He reminded me that I have seen an image in the sky that was just as clear as the one in the picture. This past Sunday morning on the way to church, though I didn't take a picture of it, I saw very clearly a cloud that looked like an angel blowing a trumpet. I saw that image with my own eyes, not in a picture in the sky and that can't be faked. Someone commented on the picture saying they know cloud formation and that the picture was faked because clouds don't do that (and yes I am paraphrasing how he said it) but I have news for you, God can do ANYTHING. 

So with that being said I have posted the picture below and just want you to take a good look at it:

When my mom first showed me the picture a song immediately became stuck in my head and I have been singing it all day. "Day's of Elijah", I have posted the song below, listen and you will hear why. I hope that this has really touched you and reminded you that as Revelation 1:3 in The Message bible says, "Time is just about up." 

God is BIGGER than ______________.

I want you to take a moment to fill in the blank. God is BIGGER than __________. Take something that you are currently struggling with; school, work, finances, trust issues, fear, lies... and fill in the blank. It doesn't just have to be one word, express your weakest self, knowing full well that He is BIGGER. While you do that let's talk a little bit about why I am asking you to do this.

Most of you on Facebook have seen, I'm sure, the God Is Bigger movement. I have a bracelet to remind me that He is but in the last few days I have become so overwhelmed with some things that I am losing my grip on this truth. When I open my bible there is a quote that I wrote down after having seen it on a church sign on my way to work, I took a picture so you could see it below:

"Let your faith be BIGGER than your fears."

I am sharing this with you because as I flipped open and read that quote over and over and over again today I found myself crying, my heart writhing in pain because I realized that my fears about certain things in my life, far exceed my faith... I feel like I am powerless against my fears (and please feel free to comment on what God says about these feelings) but I feel like I am being held under water because of these fears, worries, and concerns about things that could NEVER be in my control. I know that the Word says God has not given us a spirit of fear or timidity but one of power, love, and a sound mind. I try my best to cling to that when I feel most overwhelmed by my fears. My insecurities. My stress.

I am weak. I am allowing you to read that here. I am opening my heart and allowing you to know that I am broken and I am weak... but I know... no matter what... I am loved. I am cherished. I am HIS.

Greater is He who is living in me than he who is living in the world. (1 John 4:4)

So let me fill in the blank for my life. God is BIGGER than my every fear, every temptation, every doubt, every insecurity, every trust issue, every hurt, every bit of stress, every concern or worry, He is bigger than my anxieties, He is bigger than my finances, He is bigger than every lie that Satan is trying so hard to convince me of and quite honestly God is bigger than ANYTHING I could ever face. 

So now it's your turn. Take some time. Allow God to bring it to your mind and fill in the blank. Speak it out loud, shout it from the rooftops or at least to the top of your lungs where ever you are at right now. CLAIM IT! Right here. Right now.

God is BIGGER than _________________.

Worship as a Lifestyle

Something has occurred to me recently that I don't guess I have really consider: Worship is not just an activity or an action, but instead, a lifestyle. Our entire lives, the in's and out's, the up's and down's, in everything that we do, we should be worshiping God. God created us to worship Him, we are worshippers. So why is it that we only seem to consider worship as singing a few songs. There are plenty of "lifestyle" choices that are being made in the world. People choose to have a lifestyle of being gay, or partying but as Christian's should we not choose a lifestyle of worship? Stop arguing over whether or not we should accept the lifestyles of non-believers and start shining through the darkness with the lifestyle of a WORSHIPPER!

Starting this week I am going to make every effort to live a lifestyle of worship. Because of certain struggles I have been facing my mentor has recommended, that I fill as much of my time as possible with reading the Word, and listening to praise and worship music. Now don't get me wrong this should always be our goal, struggle or no struggle and I have always enjoyed doing these things but now I need to increase these things in my life as much as possible. I think doing this will be a great help to me as I begin to make worship a lifestyle, and NOT just another church activity, as so many of us have sadly made it.

So will you join me? Will you stop worshiping on just Sunday's and Wednesday's and start worshipping all day every day? Will you stop allowing worship to be just another church activity and start making it a lifestyle? I can promise you, God will change your life in ways you never expected if you do:)

I know this is a short post so this next statement is probably kind of sad but this actually took me about three days to write... I know... sad. Truth is between work, church, school, study time, and family it was a lot harder than I thought to write a post this week. I know you understand:) Hopefully next time it will be a bit easier=D May the Lord bless you richly and far beyond all you could ever hope or imagine! May the Lord help you to make worship a LIFESTYLE from this day forward. =D Love you all!!!! =)

I Have a Lot of Children

For those of you that know me you know that I work at a daycare, in fact some of you reading this may be the parents of the children that I keep every afternoon (please keep reading). When I say I have a lot of children I mean it. I didn't give birth to them, I have no legal right to them, I am not their mom, and in some situations I am not their teacher. If you bring your child to the daycare I work at odds are once I meet that child whether they are in my class, have left "graduated" from my class, eventually coming to my class, or are to never set foot in my class they are still mine while they are there. For most of them I have changed their diaper more than once, I have kissed more invisible "boo boo's" then I can count, I have rejoiced over counting (correctly) from 1 to 10, I have potty trained, cleaned up accidents, tied shoes, found socks, cleaned up spilt water, spilt milk and dried the tears caused by the spilling of the milk. On some occasions I have held children close and rocked them doing every thing I could to soothe them as they screamed and cried because they had a fever well above 101 degrees and their parents hadn't quite made it to the daycare yet. So parents please be aware when we call you to let you know that you child is extremely sick, there is someone (be it me or another teacher) who is holding your child close and comforting him or her until you get there, and quite often we get whatever they get but we would do it again because they are ours while they are at that daycare.

I can honestly not tell you how many times I have had to go back up to someone and let them know that I work at a daycare because I have went on and on about "my" kids and how they have; learned a color, learned to count from 1 to 10, learned to use the potty, told a crazy and funny story, learned to walk, learned to talk, and so on and so forth. I remember when I was on the baby hall and had my first, first steps moment with one of the kids (had another parent walked by they would have thought she was mine) I was so excited and went from room to room to room making sure every teacher saw that she was walking and (yes I did make sure they got just as excited before I walked away). I reacted the same to the two kids that did so afterwards as well. Not only did I get excited in the daycare, I stayed excited after I went home and proceeded to tell my family (in detail) about each child and their first steps.

There is one last thing that I want each parent reading this to be aware of, not only do I love your child tremendously, but I pray for your child AND your family. I pray that your child will be a mighty warrior for God and that they will serve Him all of their lives. I also pray for you (parents) that you will trust in God, that you will find strength and peace in Him, and that you will never be discouraged. I pray so much more than all of this over you and your families. When I walk into the classroom in the afternoons, before I ever wake the kids, I get on my knees and I pray; for my kids, my co-workers, the day and yes I pray for me too. When I sub for a morning teacher the first thing I do as I walk in and start preparing the room is start praying for the same things. Please never doubt that when you leave your children with me, they are loved, cared for, protected and prayed for. Things happen, your child might get bit by another child but it DOES NOT mean that we didn't do what we could to prevent that from happening. We are not perfect people but we do our best to take care of your child while they are with us. If you sit down and you think about it 9 times out of 10 your child is with me more than they are with you. PLEASE DON'T MISUNDERSTAND ME, you work and I get it, sometimes you are off and you need that break and it's okay! I don't mind having your child but it is a fact that I see your child more than you do in a day, Monday-Friday. So, please find comfort in the fact that when you walk out that door headed towards work or wherever, and you leave your child with me, they are mine. I love them and will take care of them to the best of my ability until you come back.

So, now I am going to go and get ready for work. I am going to go and be with these kids whom I love so very much. I would ask that you would pray for me and my co-workers because while we love your kids, we also have many others. I have 9. It takes a lot of strength to care for 9 2-3 year olds. This is my life. God has put me where I am and while He may move me later in life, for now I am right where He wants me. I have A LOT of children and I love them all. =)

I'm so Excited!!!

Yep, you've probably guessed the reason for my excitement correctly. IT'S WEDNESDAY!!!!! Okay, part of my excitement I will admit is because we are half way through the work week and it has been a rough work week. However, the bigger (much BIGGER) reason is that I get to go to church tonight! If this is your first time reading my blog than you should probably know that I have two favorite days of the week every week, no matter what. Those days are Sunday, and Wednesday. I LOVE my church. I also LOVE my worship family (again if you are new, that's a BIG thing and there is a post to help you understand just how much I love each person in my worship family). I look forward to these days with excitement every week, I think if they took away one I would probably cry because that is one less day that I get to go to the house of the Lord and worship with the people of the Lord. So, tonight not only do I get to go worship God with my brothers and sisters in Christ, I get to go downstairs after the service and worship with my worship family.. so yeah, I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!! If you are not new you may be getting tired of reading this because I have been pretty repetitive in the last few weeks, and while I am kind of (not completely) sorry for my repetitiveness I am not sorry for the reasons that I keep repeating myself:) I have an AWESOME God, an AMAZING church, and a beautiful worship family! I want people to know! =D God has blessed me so much more than I ever thought He would, and far beyond what I deserve.

Don't you want the excitement I have? Find true love in Jesus:) That's all it really comes down to.
If you know me personally or even if you just kind of know me (some choir members, it's okay I don't know all of you either but I LOVE YOU JUST THE SAME!) and you want a "GOD IS BIGGER" bracelet (www.facebook.com/GODISBIGGERMOVEMENT) just find me and you can have one:) It's a good reminder.

To my worship family: I will see most of you tonight, and I absolutely CAN NOT wait to worship with you during practice! =D I love you all, and may the Lord bless you richly! =D

P.S. If you come in contact with me today (and if you work with me you will) please be aware that I am sorry for how annoyingly excited I am going to be throughout the day and also for how much more annoying I will get closer to time for church:) Well.... I'm only a little sorry =) PLEASE feel free to follow =D