Paws for Coffee Hour

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Thanks for joining us for PAWS for Coffee Hour. Can you believe it’s Christmas Eve? Oh, this season seems to come quicker and quicker each year! Grab your coffee and join me for Jennifer’s powerful reminders of the reason for this season!

This year my pastor has challenged us to really focus on “the reason for the season.”  Not in a flippant way but really celebrate our Savior’s humble entrance into the world and what it meant for us.  One of the traditions I have is to hang an actual size nail at the top of my tree as a reminder of why Jesus came to earth.

Another tradition is to read out loud on Christmas Eve a book called “The Crippled Lamb” by Max Lucado.  It’s about a little lamb that was left behind while the rest of the flock went out to a green pasture.  He couldn’t go because he wasn’t fast enough and was very sad he got left behind.  His best friend (a cow) told him that “God has a special place for him” and in the end it was him that lay close to the baby Jesus to keep him warm.  I love the story because each one of us, no matter how messed up or insignificant we may feel, has a special purpose divinely appointed by God.

Everything we do in our daily lives is a training ground for God’s assignment in our life:

“The Master, God, has given me a well-taught tongue, so I know how to encourage tired people. He wakes me up in the morning, wakes me up, and opens my ears to listen as one ready to take orders. The Master, God, opened my ears, and I didn’t go back to sleep, didn’t pull the covers back over my head. I followed orders, stood there and took it while they beat me, held steady while they pulled out my beard, didn’t dodge their insults, faced them as they spit in my face. And the Master, God, stays right there and helps me, so I’m not disgraced. Therefore I set my face like flint, confident that I’ll never regret this. My champion is right here. Let’s take our stand together! Who dares bring suit against me?  Let him try! Look! The Master, God, is right here. Who would dare call me guilty? Look! My accusers are a clothes bin of threadbare socks and shirts, fodder for moths!” Isaiah 50:7-9 in The Message Bible

I love how these verses prove that God will stand by us even when we feel opposition.  Allow God to give you an assignment whether you feel qualified or not.

God created us to worship Him but also to be useful in His kingdom.  “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” Mathew 7:19.    “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do”  Ephesians 2:10.  “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart” Jeremiah 1:5. 

Be encouraged this Christmas Eve…. God uses those of us who feel the least to do the greatest things in His Kingdom.

Jennifer

Paws for Coffee Hour

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Ahhh, it’s that time of the week again: time to PAWS for Coffee Hour and learn something from our furry four-legged friends! Grab your coffee and your Strand of Faith, cuddle up with your four-legged friend and let’s go learn yet again another lesson from these God-given and created beings through the eyes of Jennifer!

When did the “most wonderful time of the year” become the “most rushed time of the year”?  This week it felt like time accelerated and jumped from Sunday to Thursday.  As I look at my furry babies resting peacefully on the floor, I check my list (twice), and I think, maybe they have got it right.  They get excited when they need to – especially when a guest arrives. They run around to the door to greet them then demand a few pets of love, but then they settle back into a restful state and enjoy the moment.  Oh, to learn how to do this! I have decided I don’t want moments to pass me by because I am in a state of constant movement forward.

I need to pause to enjoy my kids, scratch my puppy’s belly, or just enjoy my gingerbread latte.  Most of all, I need to remember why we celebrate this season.  It’s not about the hustle and bustle.  Or about the giving and receiving.  It is about the gift our Father gave to us.  The gift that canceled the separation of God and man because of our sin.

One of my favorite Christmas carols is O Come All Ye Faithful.  It is a true worship song and, for me, really puts this time of year in its place.  My prayer is that on Christmas morning I will awake with the last verse on my lips and the song imprinted in my heart…

All Hail! Lord, we greet Thee,

Born this happy morning,

O Jesus! for evermore be Thy name adored.

Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing;

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

Christ the Lord.

Take a moment in the next couple of weeks to reflect on what Christ’s humble birth has meant for you on your journey.  Rejoice and be glad that He was willing to come to this earth and walk in our footsteps. Greet your guest with enthusiasm, but take time to sit and be still…peaceably!

Until next week…

Jennifer

Wednesday’s Word

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Thanks so much for joining me today for Wednesday’s Word and a little break from the business of life, especially during this season. Grab whatever you’re having for our Coffee Hour and come inside. Oh, and don’t forget your Strand of Faith. I’m confident there will be a couple of knots to tie today! Meet me in my hotel room in Texas, just minutes after finally getting three hours of sleep after a five-hour panic attack!

The clock said 9:06 a.m. My first thought was that God had heard my cry for sleep. That thought opened up the door of my mind and returned to my last thoughts before falling asleep, the thought of having to have this sinus surgery. I pushed that thought back into the closet of my mind and sat up rather abruptly. Why do I feel so rested after having only three hours of sleep? My mind tried to reason but His Spirit within me whispered to my soul the answer: God had heard my cry, knew my limits and granted me rest, divine rest.  Heck, knowing that He had intervened gave me energy!

I got dressed to go downstairs and get us a few cups of their brown water …oops, I meant coffee! :-) The elevator door closed on this thought: It was time to start changing my thinking about this surgery and allow God to turn my fear into fearlessness!

I came back up and George and I sat down to have our coffee together and I opened up my Battlefield of the mind book. I had left off in Chapter 8, reading about a “normal” or abnormal mind and I began to read aloud and highlight fast and furiously, as if my mind and heart were starving and couldn’t take these truths in fast enough. The timing of this was profound, especially considering the night I had gone through.

See, as Joyce explains and I wholeheartedly agree, especially because I’ve experienced this truth, the mind and the Spirit are meant to work together, not to fight one another…however, the sad truth is our mind does fight against the promptings of the Spirit, especially if the prompting is an unknown direction! See, His Spirit is gentle, convicting but not condemning, believable and not bullying. He doesn’t shove us toward something; He nudges…ever so gently.

See, His Spirit within us has a very specific job: to reveal to us God’s wisdom and revelation for the Holy Spirit knows the things of God and my spirit knows only my own thoughts. How does that work, you ask? Well, His Spirit speaks to our spirit which then enlightens the eyes of our heart, aka, our mind! It’s a very subtle process and it cannot happen in the midst of chaos and confusion! 1^st Kings 19:11-12 confirms this through Elijah, a prophet whom God revealed many things to. I’m going to sort of paraphrase these verses and put you and me in them to bring this truth home to our hearts:

So God told Elijah to go out and stand on the mountain before Him. (He was going to demonstrate this principle of speaking quietly but always present to Elijah) So the Lord passed by and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord…but – yes, but – the LORD WAS NOT in the wind. See, just because we meet with Him doesn’t mean we won’t have storms and that the winds of life’s forces won’t be felt. It’s what we are able to know, hear in our hearts with our spirits that keep us standing. He’s always there, but oftentimes because of our fear, we can’t hear Him. He never leaves us or forsakes us; He’s always ready to speak to us! He was with me in my panic attack; I just couldn’t hear Him!

This portion goes on to explain that after the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was NOT in the earthquake. What is shaking your world today? Has it knocked you down…and perhaps moved you a bit away from Him? Trust me when I say that a panic attack can really rock your world…and your faith but His Word rights what was threatening to fall down and crumble.

After the earthquake there was a fire! But the Lord was NOT in the fire. In other words, life can really heat up! Whether it is ignited through circumstances of failing health, finances or failing relationships, the fire is there to refine us. How do we know that? Verse 12 says “and after the fire, a still, small voice.”

See, that was a still, small voice I heard at the end of my panic attack, one that spoke life into my faith, quieting my fears. Friend, God is a gentleman, a gentle man in the form of Spirit…in each one of us! He is not loud and forceful, argumentative, bullying in any way. So for those of us who say we can’t hear Him, could it be that we are not sitting still long enough to soak in His presence and hear that quiet, still voice?

Take time to sit in His presence and soak in His Word because it NEVER fails to splash perspective on any given situation we may be going through or know of. It never fails to quiet the fears and feed the faith!

Listening for His voice

Evinda

Paws for Coffee Hour

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Welcome to PAWS for Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power! We are delighted you could join us today for another lesson to be learned and some wisdom to be gained from our four-legged children and Jennifer! Grab your coffee and come join us for some profound communication tips…from a dog!

My dog Logan has no problem letting me know what he wants.  Sometimes I feel he is a better communicator than I am :-). 

• When he is hungry – he carries his dog bowl around
• When I walk in the door – he shows concern (where were you, he says)
• He tells me no when he doesn’t want to do something
• He sits by the door when he wants to go outside

The list could go on and on.  He is a very smart dog and has learned what responses or interactions get corresponding reactions from his people.

Do I think that deeply about my communication?  I like to think that I do but sometimes I don’t believe I do.

When God created the first human beings—Adam and Eve—He created them in His own image (Genesis 1:26-27).  This likeness included the ability to engage in intelligible speech via human language.  In fact, God spoke to them from the very beginning of their existence as humans (Genesis 1:28-30).  They possessed the ability to understand verbal communication—and to speak themselves!

Last week I pondered listening and communication.  This week I have been focusing on why God created communication and how we are supposed to use it. 

God spoke the world into existence and we were created in His image, so that tells me how much power our words have.  So what do we do with that power?

I believe there are five standards of communication:

1. Care - Am I choosing my words carefully and weighing the consequences of them?
2. Praise - Is what I am saying tearing down or lifting up? (even conflict can build up someone)
3. Truth - Do I have all the facts or am I making assumptions based on what I am feeling?
4. Faith - Where am I placing my faith? In them? God? Circumstances?
5. Surrender – Am I holding back or putting up defensive walls?

Hurt people hurt people. Healthy people don’t hurt other people. People are dying for respect. When you treat people with dignity, and use communication standards, you treat people with respect. Stop and listen to what’s beneath the words they’re saying.

James 1:19 tells us: “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry”.  God gave you two ears and one mouth. He wants you to listen twice as much as you speak. But we get in a hurry. St. Francis of Assisi said, “Seek to understand before seeking to be understood.”

Until next week, PAWS and pay attention to what you may learn from your four-legged pet…

Jennifer

Wednesday’s Word: What’s Your High Hill?

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Thanks so much for joining us for Wednesday’s Word and Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power! I just love knowing we have this time to share revelations from the Word with the heart and prayer of them coming to life in your life! Grab your coffee and your Strand of Faith and join me for a little break.

A couple of weeks ago I began committing to memory a scripture I came across while doing my current Bible study. It’s found in a book I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never read, but reading this verse has definitely piqued my interest and I will make it a point to study this entire book after I finish my current one. Anyway, it’s found in Habakkuk 3:19 and says “The Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like deer’s feet; He makes me walk on my high hills.”

Isn’t that a cool but peculiar scripture? I mean, why would we want deer’s feet? Oh, there is so much symbolism here in these words, and, no, I’m not insinuating that we are by any stretch of the imagination like a deer, but this is a beautiful analogy God paints for us. Have you ever watched a deer walk, or run for that matter, especially uphill? Oh, my goodness, the first word that comes to mind is grace! Seriously, they are such beautiful and graceful animals.

Now let me share some of my real-life drama with you and then bring it home to your heart. Come with me into one of the toughest nights I’ve endured in a long time.

I woke up with a jolt groggy from too many sleepless nights in Texas, the allergy capital of the U.S.! And yet, I was wide awake, all my senses on alert. I looked at the clock and groaned. Nooooo, not again! What hit my internal panic button this time? My nose was fairly clear, thanks to my nose drops, which I hated taking but finally was forced to just a few hours prior. My tongue felt as thick as peanut butter, almost as though it were swollen. I grabbed a vitamin C from my nightstand, thinking that would help, determined to hunker back down in the warm covers to keep myself protected from the freezing wind tunnel in our room from the air conditioner. :-) I like to sleep warm in a cold room but that is mostly because of the stuffy nose issue that I’ve had for some time now.

The vitamin C didn’t work. I had already taken an anti-anxiety pill before falling asleep just three hours prior so I couldn’t take another one. I threw the covers back, got up, went into the bathroom, took a tinkle and headed back to bed determined to sleep. Normal breathing wouldn’t come. I began to rub my feet together, faster and faster, my anxiety increasing. It was getting more and more difficult to take a breath in normally. My thoughts went to some emotionally painful places and thrust me back out of bed again.

A reminder of my ENT doctor’s diagnosis put my panic on steroids. I replayed one of his statements over and over, unable to push the pause button: You either have surgery now or I’ll see you when you have no other choice but to let me operate on you because you can’t breathe out of your nose! Oh, my good God! Is that what was beginning to happen? Was my nose beginning to close?

These crazy thoughts began to run through my head so fast they were pushing panic to an ultimate new level.

My sweet husband lay undisturbed by my tossing and turning, snoring the minutes now turned hours away. It felt like it was getting more and more difficult to swallow. By now, I was in a full-blown panic attack, getting up, going back to bed, getting back up, checking the thermostat and making sure my husband hadn’t changed it from freezing…no, it was still on 69, which considering the weather in Texas at that time – it didn’t’ get higher than 42 most of the time – should have felt warm.

I thought about getting up and reading…but I didn’t want to wake him up; after all, he couldn’t do anything and often says he feels helpless when these attacks hit. So I kept it to myself and I lost count of how many times I got up and came back to bed, walking around like a freaking zombie, frustrated as all get-out, feeling utterly terrorized as my thoughts went to getting on a plane the next night to come home. What in the world was I going to do? I couldn’t risk rupturing my eardrum(s)! And what if this happened on the three-hour plane ride home? How would I even make it home alive?

 This went on for FIVE hours! I was so incredibly frustrated but even more terrorized as I realized that this was happening more and more frequently. The million dollar question that plagued me the entire panic attack: is this allergy-related or yet another sinus attack/infection? See, I hate not being able to breathe out of my nose. It’s something I have struggled greatly with and the older I get the worse it gets. I have traced my terror to several childhood occurrences where I woke up to someone smashing a pillow in my face trying to smother me…in the name of fun! And no I don’t stay stuck in the past but this is where that body memory comes from.

I lay there, frozen in my thoughts in my freezing room and suddenly it hit me: the thought of waking up with my nose packed not only terrorizes me but…it’s my HIGH HILL! Silence! I literally almost stopped breathing!

This verse began to rise above my terror and in the quiet of the night it spoke louder than the panic. What if I had to have the surgery? Is this my high hill, I reasoned with myself? For months I’ve begged God to heal my sinuses and even argued that I didn’t want to have a surgery only to discover this was all allergy-related, so why have it? On the other side is what little common sense I have which reasoned that it still would bring some improvement…but would it be worth it? Could I wake up with my nose packed and not have a heart attack?

My breathing began to not feel so labored and I begged God to please intervene divinely and let me sleep; I just couldn’t take any more.

I woke up with a start, again…and I had slept three hours!

I can’t say that the panic has completely dissipated and disappeared; but I can say that if this is a hill I need to climb, my God will give me feet like a deer’s and He will help me walk that hill with grace, protecting me from all of the harm I’ve imagined would/could come my way as a result of this terrorizing surgery which includes a complete remodel of my nose! He says on one side I have a master bedroom and the other, well…not much! :-)

So what’s your high hill? Is it a financial mountain?  A hurting marriage or love relationship? Are you trying to parent a troubled child who is troubling your heart? Are you caring for an aging parent? Oh, Coffee Hour friend, let’s trust Him together to make good on His promise, to strengthen us and give us feet like deer’s feet, to walk our high hill together, with grace! His promises never come back void!

Join me next week with another powerful word in this saga! Oh, and by the way, my plane ride home was uneventful…I only panicked a little, even when I heard it was going to take longer to get there because of weather!

Love,

Evinda

Paws for Coffee Hour

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Welcome to our PAWS for #CoffeeHour @ Chicklit Power with Jennifer and friends…four-legged friends. I love Thursdays…. There is so much to be thankful for and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had such contentment sitting on the couch with our four-legged babies right beside us. There’s just something about the love from a dog…and, oh, the lessons they unknowingly teach us! Grab your coffee and come in for a few minutes, away from all the holiday festivities as Jennifer shares another spiritual analogy and insight gained from her dogs.

I live in house full of men.  I have a husband, three boys and two male dogs.  The only other female in the house is my cat, and that doesn’t really count! (LOL).  Some days I feel like everyone in my house suffers from selective hearing!  There are many days where I feel like I am talking to the wall.  Even my puppies act like that, though Corey at least wags his tail…as if to say, “I hear you but I don’t know what you are saying.”  Logan actively ignores me.  He darts his eyes away to tell me…yea, yeah; I can hear you but I’m not listening. 

We are all capable of listening effectively in different situations and to different people.  Listening effectively is, however, an active process - something that we have to do consciously and something that takes practice.  Communication is the same way.  I think what happens is that we get stuck in our way of communicating and those around us “listen” on auto-pilot.  We forget that God created our words to carry weight and purpose.  After all, God spoke the world into existence, Genesis 1.  We are created in his image and our words can build up or tear down!

Often we think that our words evaporate or carry no weight.  This isn’t true.  I still recall hurtful remarks from my childhood, and remarks which carry their sting of verbal abuse from my ex-husband, and yet, I am able to find joy in the exhortation of a friend.  

Sometimes things “slip out”….”Oh, I didn’t mean to say that.”  God’s word tells us that words flow out of what is inside of us.  “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart” Luke 6:45.

As I ponder why I feel no one is listening, I have to reflect on what am I really saying.  Is my go-to response words of peace, joy, harmony…or something else? 

‘Tis the season….we can choose to “be Merry and Bright” or The Grinch.  My prayer is that my heart will grow in size this season and that the people around me will hear words of life, affirmation and love…instead of…well, the opposite! J.  One thing I do know for sure is that my dogs respond much better to “Good boy” than “Bad Boy.”

If you feel like someone’s not listening, maybe it’s time to check what you are saying…or better yet, how are you saying it?

Jen, Logan  & Corey

Tuesday’s Trench Lesson, cont.

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Welcome to Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power and thanks so much for stopping by. Grab your coffee, or maybe that gingerbread latte, your SOF (Strand of Faith) and come on inside as I share from my heart to yours.

Have you ever had one of those moments where something was happening and a scripture came to mind? Now, please don’t get me wrong; I am far from well-versed in His love letters to us, especially when it comes to the addresses; however, I have been trying to become a bit more diligent about learning more of His promises so I can proclaim them in times of need. It seems lately I’ve been a bit needy because of full-on panic attacks which are brought on by my sinuses which get messed with in the changes of weather and seasons! Okay, so I just got side-tracked, sorry!

Anyway, there is a scripture that has come to life in my life so many times I’ve lost count, and that’s not boasting on me in any way, but in my/our Father whose words do not lie. They are promises you can take to the bank that will not bounce or come back void. They do not lie! But doesn’t it make it even more powerful when it actually comes to life in your life? So what’s the scripture you’re asking?

Well, it’s found in Joel 2:25 wherein God says to Joel: “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.” Now you may be wondering what in the world does this have to do with the price of eggs, especially since this seems to be talking about bugs and crops! Well, when we dig into this part of scripture and the history behind it, there is so much more to it than that. See, God is all about restoration…of anything that was taken by and through the hand of the enemy.

I actually see this over and over again not just in my life but in the life of our Transformers! I just loved hearing stories of restoration of/with their family members. It brought tears to my eyes as they recounted stories of relationships in the beginning stages of healing over the Thanksgiving holiday. Those of us who have experienced brokenness within family as  a result of addictions, abuse or whatever the enemy used can truly appreciate it when this restoration begins to peek out through the clouds of sadness, regret and longing.

See, I was one of those who suffered and lost family as a result of both addiction and abuse, and God is still working His restorative powers into the canvas of my life. I am able to recognize this truth now while I am actually experiencing it instead of missing it because I am not staying in the moment! See, I was for quite some time one that NEVER stayed in her moments but instead was frantically trying to plan the next moment, often missing the beauty of the present because of my past while trying to control my future! Ugh, what a futilely exhausting cycle! But God be praised…this cycle has slowed down so much and is nearly gone.

While I was in Texas I discovered a new hobby that could easily become a fun addiction; that of building Lego sets…with my granddaughter! There we sat for not one hour, not two, but three-and-a-half hours building a “Friends” Lego set! It was so much fun, just being…with her and being in her world, a part of her world! See the ability to stay in the moment is getting easier and easier.  Even my son remarked on it, amazed and he didn’t even try to hide his amazement for which I am truly grateful! I don’t know whose heart was more full, his or mine or my granddaughter’s!

I am so thankful for His word that comes alive in my life…too many times to count but I will never forget!

I challenge you…stay in your moments and maybe He will remind you of what He is restoring in you, for you that the enemy borrowed but couldn’t steal!

Love,

Evinda

Paws for Coffee Hour

Thanks for taking a few minutes out of this special day, a day of family, friends, fellowship to celebrate Thanksgiving. Grab your coffee or hot cider and come on in for a very heart-felt PAWS for Coffee Hour blog from our friend, Jennifer.

Today is Thanksgiving…

“For everything God created is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” 1 Timothy 4:4

I love the early morning of this holiday before the day gets too busy, the smells of baked goods and a slowly roasting turkey. What I love most of all is that this holiday isn’t about receiving; it is about being grateful for everything we have in our life; it’s about giving thanks.

I am thankful for….

• A husband that sacrifices his time and talent to serve our country
• Three healthy thriving children
• Family that never gives up
• Beautiful friends who stand by your side no matter what
• A church I love serving in
• My faithful and loving puppies

What are you grateful for?  Listing them out may bring a tear to your eye but it will fill your heart with joy.  Take a few minutes and name at least seven things you are grateful for. In Psalm 119:164 it says: Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous judgments. What seven things can you praise Him for right now?

And now to honor our furry friends on this gratitude filled day, please enjoy the following…..

Puppies enjoying their first Thanksgiving 

10 Costumed Dogs Celebrating Thanksgiving 

PUMPKIN PIE FOR DOGS 

11 Thanksgiving Staples That Are Hazardous To Pups

Enjoy…everything about Thanksgiving!

 Jennifer, Logan & Corey