Faith Filled Fridays From Croley’s Corner of Chicklit Power

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Welcome to Faith Filled Friday’s Coffee Hour. Today’s blog may seem simple yet for certain we are always in need of a reminder that our words are powerful in that they can bring life or death. Grab your favorite beverage, journal and join me for a moment as we look into God’s word together.
Proverbs 18:21 teaches us that “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Our words have a tremendous ability to heal and bring peace or to destroy and hurt others. We also find in Matthew 12:34–35 Jesus reminds us that the words we speak are actually the overflow of our hearts.
I have five amazingly talented, gifted, beautiful grandchildren, I guess I’m a bit partial, then again, what Grandma or Grandpa wouldn’t be? We have three girls and two boys, the ages ranging from 12 to 7. The two boys are 7. Now mind you, I love them dearly; however when they are together, it seems like there’s an army of them…literally! They seem to multiply right before my eyes! I find it funny that the boys seem to emulate one another more so than the girls, maybe because of their ages, yet I’m not convinced, (girls do as well; however, we’ll leave that for another time of blogging.)
One thing for sure what one boy does the other will soon follow, repeat or even act out. I recently bought them some Lego’s. Soon after they opened their packages they began comparing each item, one was better, bigger, more pieces, and had more men. As we watched them interact you could sense the atmosphere changing and quickly a verbal argument broke out. Of course at this young age the worst word one could hear was, at least from our grand boys, was ”That’s stupid,” and I’m keeping the name confidential for the sake of privacy. :)
He quickly turned and looked at us, to see if we were going to react. He definitely had a look of ‘uh oh’ I’ve just said something that wasn’t nice. Immediately you could see the reaction on the other boy’s face. He, too, was surprised, hurt and then angry. Yet within a few minutes the offender said, "I’m sorry". He recognized he brought brokenness between the both of them. Even at the age of 7, they recognize that their words can harm one another and bring improper actions.
The power of our words can actually rescind one’s spirit. It could have been a whole lot worse; however, I was thankful for the tender-heartedness of our grandson to ask for forgiveness and yes the other grandson responded…. “I forgive you.” They hugged and played on.
We find in Ephesians 4: 29 that Paul warns us “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” Here Paul is emphasizing the positive over the negative. The Greek word translated “unwholesome” and means “rotten” or “foul.” It originally referred to rotten fruit and vegetables. Yet another blog for another day!
Although Paul was speaking to a mature church, we find that it’s not impossible to be equipped and empowered by what is good, acceptable by the power of our words... at any age, for that matter. How blessed are we when we use our tongue to lift up and encourage the people around us. Simple as that!!!
Prayer: Father continue to show us in your Word that our mouth would be a means of grace… a tool that would bring You glory and that the hearer will know that our words are covered with Your love. Help us to be reminded whose got their eyes on us that they would find we are able to control our actions, our words that may feel like it requires us to respond in a corrupt way. We recognize that the fight for purity of mouth starts in the heart… in that we should emulate the example of Jesus whose words were so filled with grace that the multitudes were even amazed. Amen!!
Have a wonderful weekend… and keep Him close to your heart.
Love,

Deb

Tuesday's Thinking Out Loud from Diane Huntsman @ Coffee Hour with Chicklit Power

Tuesday’s Thinking Out Loud

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power…

Welcome to Tuesday’s “Thinking out Loud”! This is a fun series that I post periodically as I look through my Facebook newsfeed. I found this post a few weeks back and thought its timing would be great today as the holidays are zooming in all around us! Grab your coffee and join us for some thinking out loud by Diane Huntsman!

I am all about the family picture life. I have faithfully gathered my brood together once a year for the annual family pic’… for YEARS! There is only one request I make of each person in my family: that they make every effort to be available for this event.
There have been some photo shoots that my son literally pulls up from a long drive from Santa Barbara with surfer bed head, arriving moments before the scheduled photo shoot…but I never care what he looks like, as long as he makes it!

As I’m making my plans for this year’s Huntsman photo extravaganza, I begin to plan for the backdrop; it’s every bit as important as the subjects in the pic’, don’t you think? I want beauty behind us, something unique.

As I’m thinking about backdrops for family photos, I can’t help but think about the backdrops of our lives. I don’t want an ordinary family photo, and I certainly don’t want an ordinary life, boring and full of predictable play-outs. But I certainly don’t want pain and affliction either! But wait, aren’t those the very things that can turn ordinary into extraordinary? It’s the pain, the days met head-on with suffering that drop us to our knees and cause us to cry out: “GOD, I NEED YOU!!! Rescue me! Meet me! Deliver me! Teach me what it is I am to learn through this dark hour. And in the crashing waves and gasping for breath moments, He shows up. He meets us, rescues us by granting us strength to swim. He doesn’t take away the pounding waves, but He gives us the grace to swim and stay afloat.

In time, He sends a life boat and we are taken to shore and get to experience reprieve from those crashing waves that cause us to cry out, question with things like: “Why do some people get to have tons of kids while others are left barren?” Or, “Why does one person get healed from Cancer and the other one dies?” Oh, and “Why do parents lose kids to death or to this world of lies and sin and others swim through life with ease and blessings?”

I DO NOT KNOW!!! I scream at the same injustices while in the midst of them but then I have to look to heaven and know that the God who made me also makes the backdrop of my life, and yours. And in that backdrop of beauty there is tons of painful threads woven through to make it beautiful, because if I don’t have pain, if I don’t have loss, if I don’t have lack in my life, I don’t need nor do I want Jesus. And then, ultimately, I will look to my own efficiencies, my own successes, my own agendas and ignore the One who breathed life into me 47 years ago.

It is in my weaknesses that I am made strong in His strength [2^nd Corinthians 12:8-10] and when I understand that, the painful threads in the backdrop of life become beautiful, vivid with grace and love, unconditional love.

This fallen world will always have suffering, my friend. Just because we suffer doesn’t mean He doesn’t care or hasn’t seen our afflictions for our sufferings are opportunities to trust Jesus to make something beautiful out of the ashes of pain…to be able to walk through that same suffering with someone else, to hold their hand, to share in their tears, to understand like no other person what they feel. God intended that we would comfort others with the comfort we’ve been given [2^nd Corinthians 1:3-5], pointing them to heaven with these words…our suffering is for a time, but paradise awaits us, and for all eternity we will be pain free and we will know joy unspeakable.

Our temporary sufferings will not compare to the glory which shall be revealed in us!! Pain and suffering lead us to the Rock that is our stability, to the One who is our comfort in the dreadful pain we run from. I hate pain! I want things my way, but I can’t have that beautiful backdrop in my life without it.

So with arms stretched high, I surrender all and say, make my life something beautiful to the praise and glory of Jesus Christ. Let’s clasp hands and walk through the pain together, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith as He paints the beautiful backdrop of our lives.
From my heart to yours,

Diane

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Have you ever had to choose between life and death for your pet? Join us for Monday's Manna

Happy Monday Manna Friends,
I’m writing this from my dining room table trying to re-cap the weekend. So much has happened, but the good news is that we have a new edition to the family- Duke Jenkins! All 8.5 lbs of this little guy is completely healthy, so we thank you for all your prayers.
Saturday was one of the toughest days I’ve had in a while. It was finally time to take our little dog to the Humane Society to be euthanized. We adopted our little guy approximately four years ago, and within that time there were a total of four different incidents that involved biting, not including the times he had bit Kay and I. We exhausted all of our efforts as we sought the help of professionals and changed a lot of our daily routines in order to cater to the needs of our little four-legged guy.
I can remember the day that we spotted him at the Riverside shelter. Kay and I were eager to adopt, so we were on a mission to find the right puppy. As Kay and I were making our rounds through the never-ending corridor of kennels, we saw Walter make his way over to us and lay his chin on the concrete step as other dogs were jumping and screeching all over. Those manipulative hazel eyes stared into the depths of our soul! We took him outside for some “meet and greet” time and we knew he was the one.
Wally and I would often go for walks/ runs and I knew that God had brought this little companion into our lives for a special reason. So many things were revealed to me as we trained and ran with this little dog on a regular basis. He used to stray while we ran at night, so I would give him a little tug to redirect him into safety. He would test my patience and I would do my best to give him grace for chewing up our guest’s shoes, socks, and other articles of clothing. I know that God brought Walter into our life for a special reason and throughout his time with us, I can look back and just thank the Lord for four years of companionship that he provided to us.
After his last biting incident, Kay and I discussed our options and after tons of calls we realized that no adoption agencies would qualify him for their programs due to his serious history of biting. We would not post his information in the classifieds since we were fearful that another new owner could potentially be bit. Now with little Duke in the family, we are unable to risk the chance of another attack so I did one of the hardest things I’ve EVER had to do in my life.
He smiled at me as I loaded him in the truck and we drove to Ramona Humane Society in San Jacinto. As we pulled in the drive way he was panting and was smiling, as if to say “Where are we going now, Dad?” I put on his leash and with tears in my eyes we entered into the front lobby. With a shaky voice, I informed the woman at the front desk that I needed to surrender my little guy. I filled out the paperwork and a volunteer asked me if I was ready.
I knelt down to say my good byes, but as the volunteer was trying to pull him to the kennel, he kept crying and was fighting with everything in him to come back to me. I walked him back to the quarantine kennel myself, took off his collar, told him I loved him, and cried like a baby as I shut the kennel door behind me. He was crying hysterically as I walked away.
I was completely heart broken. As I made my way home through the canyon I looked at my passenger seat and sitting there were his collar, his leash, and his intake paperwork. I just betrayed my best friend. I remember praying as tears were rolling down my cheek just asking for God to give Walter and myself peace. I prayed that God would take away his fear and anxiety of being in that scary kennel before being euthanized. I began to give thanks for the four years that God gave us with Walter. We had learned so much from him and my mourning turned into thanksgiving. God gave us that little puppy at a time in our lives when we needed him more than he needed us.
I know that Walter is in a better place where he can run for days without tiring. A place where he has no more anger or aggression and his heart is at peace. Today Kay and I were at Petco to pick up more supplies for our other pup and I saw a dog at the adoption booth that looked exactly like Walter, but I knew it wasn’t him. With a peaceful heart I just thanked God for Walter. Animals are very special and God has given us domain over these cute little critters; their unconditional love comes from the one who made them…
God Bless and have a great weekend.
In His Love,

Garrett Castro

Super Glue for Christians-January WOW-From Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power

Thanks so much for joining me for a little break at Coffee Hour. Grab your coffee and let’s get back to our Words of Wisdom and Weapons of Warfare! His Word really does WOW us, huh!

Let’s break it down and find those diamonds. For those of us who have our “fire insurance” and know where we will be going when this life is over, it’s easy to understand that we can’t be separated from Him in death, or even in the terrors of death, and of course, if we’ve made that confession, then He is with us in this life as well, but read it like this: For I am persuaded that neither death nor life will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I wondered why “life” was included in this verse, and after a bit of digging, its anything that happens in this life, sorrow, pain, trials, tribulations. It also is in there to imply the “comforts of life” as well! I love that!

Now, let’s look at the next section: angels, principalities nor powers. Honestly, I’ve always thought that principalities referred to demon-like principalities, but in looking this up in the concordance – by the way, this word is in the Old Testament only one time, in Jeremiah – this principalities refers to any head of something, headship. That’s not to say that there are not demonic headships but my mind wandered to our political situation, and I’m not going to go there with you except to say that even the things that the government is doing and laws that they are enacting now and will enact in the future cannot separate us from His love. I don’t know about you, but that encourages my soul. Sometimes, I can almost feel the fast pace in which we are moving towards the end and our final destination, and though I know who wins in the end, it’s still disturbing. These words are like super glue to my soul, stopping the peace from flowing out and sealing my heart in faith.

This is reiterated in “nor things present or things to come.” And I love that height and depth are included. That’s the heights of prosperity and/or the depths of adversity and disgrace!

“Nor any other created thing” shall be able to cut our love off to God nor His to us. The only thing that separates us from that love is sin. Now I can hear you say I just threw a dust bomb on you and made this all muddy, but let me clear it up quick: When we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us our sin. So when you become aware of your sin, you are now accountable to confess it so He can remove it and let His love flow! God loves us through Jesus, our mediator, the one between you, me and God.

Yes, I am convinced that we are going to be okay because NOTHING can separate us from the greatest love ever known, the love of Jesus Christ, the one and only Son of God. As we begin a new year, let’s cling to these words, but not only cling to them, let’s memorize them and then call upon them when something threatens to undo us.

Convinced,

Evinda