Even when I Fail, He is Faithful-February’s Wow-Part 1

Thanks so much for joining me for Coffee Hour and our monthly WOW (words of wisdom; weapons of warfare). I can’t believe January is already gone and something tells me February is going to fly by faster, and not just because it’s a shorter month! Grab your coffee and come on in.

Do you ever experience times when you wish you hadn’t said something, acted in a certain way with a wrong attitude, or done something you knew that you knew you shouldn’t do? Oh, sister, I have, and way too many times to count!

He just brought to mind a poignant memory that helps soothe that uncomfortable frustration. It was a Tuesday evening and our church service had just ended. I was standing in the back musing on this exact frustration while all the guys were putting away all the chairs and cleaning up everything, leaving not a trace of a church service for the elementary students the next day. (We were meeting in an elementary school at the time.) I must have really been deep in thought because when I heard my pastor say my name, I remember being startled but pleasantly surprised.

We began to walk toward each other. I don’t’ remember how we started the conversation but I do remember that we wound up talking about this very subject and I shared the frustration I was feeling with him about myself!

This pastor is a gentle soul and his words of encouragement will resonate in my heart forever. He said: “You are a leader with a gift of words, which can be like a double-edged sword and the key is learning the how to use them to edify and not tear down, and that includes not tearing yourself down! He recognized that while I was frustrated with the situation, I was more frustrated with myself! I felt validated in my frustration and encouraged to just keep trying to get it right and be more accepting of the gift of words God had given me. Maybe if I relaxed a bit, I might not offend so often?

I still make mistakes in the area of saying too much, being too transparent, but I’m so thankful for His Word that splashes perspective and reminds me that the work He began in me will continue until I am face to face with Him!

This month’s WOW is from the book of Psalms, 73:26: My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever!

Honestly, I had no intention of sharing that first part and I didn’t mean to get off on that little detour, but that’s where He led, so we’ll pick up with our WOW on Wednesday, and I’ll share the incident that led me to these words of wisdom and how they came to life within me and I pray they will do the same for you!

Have an awesome Monday, and if you can, tune in with us at 1:00 Pacific time at Blog Talk Radio for our show on breaking free from co-dependency! www.blogtalkradion.com/Chicklit-Power
Don’t forget to join me tomorrow for Invitation Tuesday because I’ll be giving a little heads-up about our next event!

Humbly,

Evinda

Nana Holds-From Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power

Welcome to our Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power. I’m so glad you could come by and take a break with me. Grab your coffee and come on in.

As I look back on that first week of being Mama/Nana, it was definitely one of those footprint times when I know the Author and Finisher of our Faith carried George and me, and all of our pain, sorrow and frustration. There’s no need to go into all the gory details and run the risk of glorifying the evil one but what I would like to do is highlight some of the beautiful moments that shone through more brilliantly than all the pain and sorrow. They are moments that bring so many of the promises of God to life within our home and definitely deeply into this circumstance.

And in the midst of living in those moments, there were lessons learned along the way, again, lessons that bring to life the Holy Spirit inspired Word of God, promises that have led us through the most painful part of this circumstance to victory in many areas of our lives. See, He has warned us that we will have tribulations in this world, but He has already overcome them. I don’t know why I am always so surprised by His creativity, His sovereignty that accomplishes so much with one circumstance, but I am and I continue to be awestruck, captured by His characteristics in a way that ties so many knots in my string of faith along the way that I, by His grace, shall never come unraveled in my faith. I may have trouble finding my joy sometimes, and there may be days where I have to stir really hard to bring it up to the surface that it may come out and splash others, but I know too much to go back and too much of HIS Word, too many of HIS promises have come to fruition in my own life for me to unravel!

In the midst of the pain, sorrow, frustration and confusion, I was preparing for our holiday event “Living outside Your Circumstances.” Wow, did He ever prepare me that I may comfort others with the comfort I’ve been given. And in my research, I found some diamonds, big diamonds, Girls! I think they will sparkle so beautifully in any circumstance you may be going through and I’m excited to share them with you. The first diamond I discovered is within the word tribulation and I have to tell you as I dug for a deeper understanding, it became so much easier to keep an eternal perspective in our current circumstance, aka, tribulation.

Tribulation translates to “thlipsis” in Greek and primarily means “a pressing, pressure, anything which burdens the spirit and is often accompanied by anguish.” Hang on with me here because this gets better. So the root word for tribulation is actually a sort of sifting machine, a machine that goes and sifts the bad from the good by applying pressure!

There it is; the 10-karat diamond that sparkles with truth that shows us that circumstances/tribulations can work for our eternal good by sifting out the bad, separating it from the good, if we let them!
Please join me tomorrow for the beginning of the highlights of the moments that nearly took our breath away and etched in our hearts their revelations and lessons.

Marveling at His handiwork,

Evinda