Anxiety is a sign of not living in your moments! EL

Wednesday’s Word

The other day I saw a post on Facebook that is a quote by Lao Tzu and it really caught my attention as it collided with the cry of my heart: to stay in my moments that I might have more joy and a consistently thankful heart. Here’s the quote: “If you are depressed, you are living in the past; if you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present,” or as I say, in your moment!

Thanks so much for joining me for Coffee Hour with Chicklit Power and Wednesday’s Word with Trench Classes United. Here are some truths to accompany these wise words of Tzu:

We need to look back, not fall back, that we may recognize unhealthy tendencies and change our choices for we cannot change that which we don’t recognize as a problem.   Looking back can be one of the most valuable tools to change accompanied, of course, with the grace of God! It’s this other tense that got me, the one that says if you are anxious, then you are living in the future, in other words whatever you are doing, you are not really there, or at least all there! Are you catching what I’m throwing?

I don’t know about you, but this is where I struggle, staying in the moments because of all my responsibilities. But is that a crutch of an excuse? Is that just a pass to remain busy, and often too busy? Oh, if we were just given the perfect equation for balance in our lives, huh, some sort of recipe to follow that we would achieve that ability to consistently stay in the present so as to not be ripped off in the future.

I think I found it…the answer to this dilemma, that is! But I must confess, it sounds easier than it is but after trying this consistently, I can say that it is possible! See, this life is just temporary, a sort of practice run to learn how to dwell in eternity with the One whose perfect love will carry us there, so whatever we endeavor to do, wherever we put our most energy, whatever rents the most space in our head…must have eternal value!

Pouring truth into the mind is necessary to keep out the lies that keep us chasing after another thing to check off on our to-do list, or trying to control circumstances, situations or even worse, controlling others. We must discipline the mind with spiritual truths which will then feed the soul so as to not be caught off balance like that of a double-minded, wobbly-legged weakling struggling to stay afloat grasping for air, for a future that is secure.

So as we go through today, my prayer for you and for me from Isaiah 26:3: He will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You…because he/she trusts in you!

Until next Wednesday,

Keeping my mind stayed on Him…

Evinda

Sometimes He calls us into deep waters to teach our faith to float! EL

Wednesday’s Word

Welcome to Coffee Hour with Chicklit Power and Wednesday’s Word with Trench Classes United! You’re in for a treat today with a heartfelt blog from Julie.

When “time hop” pops on your profile FB and reminds you all God has done  🙌 😭
Seriously, I had no idea I would be taking a photo six years later of our five children at the same spot!

Children did not come “automatically” for us as my Uncle told us. We walked the road of infertility and bringing our “wants” to the Lord and exchanging them for his beauty. Honestly, it has felt like God pouring children into our lap at one point.  😭

🙌 

Anyone out there praying and knocking and feeling hopeless like God is not answering?

Don’t lose hope; instead pray, seek, knock and keep knocking.

Remember the story in the Bible how the disciples had fished all night and caught nothing and then …“When he had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.” (Luke 5:4-6)

Notice Jesus spoke to go into the DEEP waters, put down your nets, not just one net, and Simon said “we worked hard all night…” it was beyond their “works”.
God was requiring FAITH in that moment in their lives. They were about to partake in a tremendous miracle of the His faithfulness, of His authority, and of His word.

Imagine they threw the net down and said “not today Lord, we are tired!” They would have missed a blessing, a gift, a miracle, and not just for themselves but for all the others too, and us as well.

So when you feel tired and you want to scream “forget this!” dig deeper in the Word of God and listen for His voice. He may be speaking in the still of the night.

When Nathan and I went back to foster/adopt, we had basically the bare essentials. Honestly it didn’t really seem “like the right time” in our eyes... but God showed up unexpectedly!”

Is God asking you to walk by faith and not by sight? Throw your net again?! Maybe He has a miracle ahead...remember our “works” will never be enough; we will always come back exhausted but when God speaks, He brings the Harvest AND you will glorify Him!

Thanks for joining me….

Casting my nets,

Julie

He’ll meet you in the midst of your mistake EL

 Wednesday’s Word

Have you ever done something and then thought, oh no, I shouldn’t have done that? Oh, have I got a big uh-oh to share with you today.

Thanks for joining me for Coffee Hour with Chicklit Power and Wednesday’s Word with Trench Classes United.

So picking up where we left off on Monday, I’m on my way home and discover that my GPS must have been in the mood for my company because it took me the long/wrong way home and by the time I realized it, there was no going back so I just settled in and continued making phone calls until I finally reached my off ramp, and wanted to drive the rest of the way home listening to some uplifting music and unwinding as much as one can in the car after an emotionally draining day.

As I made my way to San Timateo Canyon Road and turned left, I pulled up alongside and eventually passed a slow-going train. I thought, oh, I may have to stop up ahead when I make my right on Live Canyon. But I didn’t. There were a couple cars ahead of me that turned right and went over the railroad tracks, and I looked at the railroad crossing bars to make sure they weren’t coming down or that the lights weren’t on yet. They weren’t, so I proceeded forward. I looked to the right, quickly, and I saw the slow-moving train about 1.5 football fields down the track. No problem. I turned and as I landed on the tracks, the railroad crossing bar was coming down!

Instinctively, and quickly, I tried to back up. Nope! The one behind me was coming down on me!! LL

By this time, the train was about a football field down the track. I slammed the car back into gear and pushed the pedal to the medal. My car lunged forward so fast and I escaped as the rear crossing bar came down on the roof of my car.

I drove in utter and complete shock for about a half mile and dared to look out my back window. I saw a piece of something hanging so I pulled over and got out. It was a rubber piece that encased the antennae on the roof of the car. The little red wing that covered the piece that encased the antennae was gone, but at that moment I didn’t see any other damage…until I got home.

By the time I did get home, the reality of what had just happened had washed all through me and I was near hysterics. I went back and forth between thanking God for his provision of protection and beating myself up for not stopping and just waiting for the frapping train to pass. Why had I taken such a risk?

I couldn’t sit still for hours; I was really wound up like an angry robot swimming between thankfulness, disbelief and trying not to drown in it all. I kept seeing the train coming and the forward and rear crossing guards coming down on my car, as if to trap me…but why didn’t they?

There’s no other explanation other than to say: God met me in the midst of my problem and He rescued me, despite me!  See, in my heart, I know that I am not supposed to be working more than ONE day a week; and I keep pushing the envelope. From the drive to get to work, to the computer problems trying to prevent me from working to the long drive to make it home to a near-death experience, God was there…despite my choices.

Coffee Hour Friend, in what area of your life do you need rescuing? Can I encourage you that no matter where you are in any mistake you may have made that God is ready, willing and able to meet you there!
Love,

Kim-Evinda

We are more likely to hear His whispers while being vs. doing. EL

Wednesday’s Word

Driving while not knowing where I’m going, aimlessly, until I reach a dead-end and there’s nowhere for me to go but to turn around and look for the turn I missed…

Thanks for joining me today for Coffee Hour with Chicklit Power and Wednesday’s Word with Trench Classes United.

There’s something that comes over us when we realize we’re lost, especially in the world of Siri, GPS, and any other navigation system coming from our phones and/or our cars. Some of us may experience frustration, especially if we’re in a hurry; and some of us may be more easy-going about it, and still yet, this feeling of being lost may push the panic button. But eventually, we find our way, right?

What about in life, when we feel unsure with the direction it’s headed, not confident with the last important choice we made, or a turn taken? What do we do when we find ourselves in front of a dead-end, with nowhere else to go, no turn to make, and no moving forward? The only choice we have is to do a complete turnaround…or sit and wait for instructions.

We can either sit in peace trusting while waiting that He’s working everything out for our good, ^{Romans 8:28} that His plan is not to harm us but to build us up, ^{Jer. 29:11} or we can fight it, squirming within ourselves, stressing instead of chilling in the warmth of His love, our anxiety rising louder than the quiet of His whispers, risking the possibility of missing our next instruction.

There is something to be said about a peace that transcends all understanding that guards the heart and mind ^{Phil. 4:7} in a fast-pace world; holding us steady while waiting for a way out of the dead-end, a new direction, all the while enjoying being…versus doing; after all, as Jesus says in Matthew 6:27: Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his/her stature?

Waiting…

Kim-Evinda

Wednesday Word:

You want me to do what?

Isaiah 43:2: When you walk through the waters, I will be with you, and the storms, they will not overcome you. When you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, nor shall the flames scorch you.

Welcome to Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power and Trench Classes United and thanks for making the time to take the time to join me for some encouragement in the journey. Grab your Strand of Faith and let’s go tie some knots in the fire…yes, I said fire, but don’t worry, we won’t get burned!
So last week was a pretty hellish-type week for me. The more I go through, the more I realize He’s much more invested in my character than my comfort, for it’s my character that will go with me into eternity! It takes me a while. Think about it: Why would the enemy, described as the one who lurks around like a hungry lion look for the guy that’s already out there building his kingdom of little minions and creating more evil? No way, Jose! He’s working overtime on those who profess to follow Christ! Sometimes, don’t you just want to cry “Uncle”?!

We’ve all heard that things can happen in threes, well, I’ve experienced that phenomena more times than I care to recount, but how many times do we realize that God can play that game, too? See, for every trial there’s a blessing of sorts, a reward, whether here or there. I happen to believe that there is a piece of the reward always given here, and though it doesn’t look like something we’d delight in, even choose as a prize, it has a powerful eternal value: It’s called refinement!

Did I lose you? Don’t go yet. Let me share what happened:

A couple weeks ago, I purchased a new court reporting machine – her name is Plum! – I could hardly wait to write on her and watch my steno notes magically clean up, and my speed increase all the while making it look effortless! WRONG!

Of course it didn’t help that her initiation was with the fastest, one of the most sarcastic attorneys I’ve ever worked with – I truly like him; don’t get me wrong, but he’s impossible to make a verbatim record for. As I sat through four days of sexual harassment allegations, our ministry’s computer was in the hospital because it had crashed.

You might be saying, so what; that doesn’t sound so bad. It gets better. I have learned, albeit the hard way, that it’s going to take  hours of analyzing, diagnostic testing, one key at a time before Plum will understand how I write!@#%^& so I had to just sit in this and be patient in the process. And all the things that needed to be done like yesterday at the office were put on the back burner, piling up like a sink full of dirty dishes.

And so I truly sat in all of this, after having my fit, and tried to be calm. It was the third thing that really sent me over: Our assistant has gone on to greener pastures and gave notice. When he did, I balled like a baby, right in front of him!

In the midst of all this, our sweet little Bryden was visiting for a week and it was expected that I would be available, and then of course there were some interpersonal things going on as well. I knew I needed some knee time because I was spiraling out of sanity faster than my favorite roller coaster, and it wasn’t fun.

When I did get on my face, and cry out to Him, I begged for relief, and asked Him to please explain to me why so many fires were coming my way. Furthermore, I let Him know I wasn’t a fire-fighter, didn’t sign up for that position, no way, no how!

What I heard rendered me humbled…and quiet…finally! “Just sit in it!”

“You want me to do what?”

“Just sit in it!”

I sat still and pondered His message and realized I had been acting like a petulant child who needed a diaper changed; that when trials come, I just want them over so I can continue on with His purpose for my life as I think it is. But now I get it; sitting in the fire, not asking for relief but trusting I will not be burned by the flames, instead, He will use the flames to burn away that which needs to go, refining me more into His image that I might do mighty things in His name. This truth renders me cool as a cucumber in the midst of the fires!

So when trials, troubles come your way, and you want to dodge the flames, maybe you can try just chilling in the heat and see what He does!
Being refined,

Evinda