What Happens When I Let God Be God

My busy girl doing homework for college in Corvallis
in between work in Salem and internship
at an international adoption agency in Portland!

In a previous post, " A Laid Down Lover For God," I talked about loving the person God puts in front of you and let God be God, verses trying to be the Holy Spirit to them. I used an example of a situation that came up with my daughter last Spring. "When I want to tell my 20 year old college attending, hard working daughter, 'please don't plan another mission trip to Haiti in the middle of your already too busy schedule.' Instead I praise her for her heart and desire to serve God and the needy and trust God will provide for all her needs."

Well God did provide for all her needs! She went to Haiti, she worked hard, and an unsuspecting life was changed for God because she was there! This was the life of one of the team members. It wasn't about the orphans or the financially needy this time. It was about a young lady who was struggling mentally, she was "poor in spirit".

What we usually think of when we hear the word "poor" is those who are orphaned or homeless, or starving. There is another type of "poor" and it's at epidemic porportions here in America as well as poverty stricken places, like Africa and Haiti. That is what this young lady was suffering from, being poor in her spirit.

The poor in spirit are those who are sad, hopeless, starving for love and acceptance...they need Jesus! I've been there and it's awful! My daughter was just who this young lady traveling with her to Haiti to help others needed to talk to. As my Shayla listened to her story, the Holy Spirit began to minister to her and prompted Shayla to pray for her. It was exactly what this girl needed and her life was changed that day! An act of God it was! He's really great that way!! This new friend who was feeling hopeless and sad went away feeling loved and valuable as well as on fire for God! And when they returned home She asked Shayla to baptize her! I'm so proud of my beautiful daughter and I give God all the glory!

KEEP YOUR EYES ON JESUS!

If I had interfered with God's plan by worrying about my daughter's too busy life and discouraged her from going to Haiti, her friend's life would not have been touched and she might have been lost forever. I'm so glad I've learned to let God be God and just love the one He puts in front of me! And I know it makes His job a little easier too haha...

IN ALL THINGS REMEMBER, GOD KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING, TRUST HIM!

What Does It Take To Be A Credible Witness?

God's beautiful creations constantly make me smile! :)
That is what I call a tender mercy.
There is always beauty among the ugly
which makes the beauty more beautiful!
Everything in God is indescribable beauty!!!

Have you ever heard the statement, "that's just not fair"? I wonder where we get the idea that life is supposed to be fair? All we have to do is look at the life Jesus lived while He was on the earth. There is nothing fair about God, our Creator, who never committed a single sin, taking the punishment we deserve so we could live and not die.

 I think sometimes as Christians we like to paint a picture that life with Christ is a life free from problems. And then some of us think there is something wrong with us if we don't have the life  that Jesus died for us to have. The fact is, stated right in the Word of God, "a righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers Him from them all." There's the good news! He will deliver us! We have divine help to get us through our problems! 

Lord continues to shower me with His tender mercies. I just LOVE those!  He puts a smile on my face every day. My Church attendance has been spuratic at best. I miss way more meetings than I attend. A few of the members know that I have been struggling with a physical illness and I know they are praying for me.

 At New Hope Community Church, we have a prayer chain that is managed by my beautiful spiritual Momma, Nona Petersen. A lot of prayer requests come up on the chain so one day I felt like throwing in a Praise Report of supernatural increase for the glory of the Lord. Our very expensive furnace oil has lasted twice as long as it naturally should! I thought that was worth giving God glory for!!! Thank You Jesus You are such a wonderful provider!!!

So my question to God one day was, Lord if people see that I am sick in body and not getting well year after year, how can I be a credible witness for You?

And God replied,


"Your Love for Jesus  overshadows you and that is what all can see."

So if you ever feel like your testimony wont count on account some things in your life aren't neatly arranged in a picture perfect way, then remember, not even Jesus lived a picture perfect life, in fact it was far from the way we would want our lives to be. It's your love for God that needs to be seen by all, so please don't hold it back, testify of ALL that The Lord has done for you!!! He will bless you for it, I promise!!

Dance through the pain

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also ~Matthew 6:21

I spend most of my days alone with God. Since I have been sick in my body for the past 4  years, I don't get out much. During this time He has become my very best friend in the whole world! If you were a fly on my wall you would conclude that I am crazy! Talking all day long to my King. Laughing, singing, talking, crying, you name it, that's what we do together. We even dance together when I am feeling strong enough. Did you know the Lord dances? "He's the Lord of the dance, He's the dancing Lord!" Yes, He even wants to dance with you!! The more I get to know Him the more delighted and amazed I am at who He is, how precious He really is. He really is delightful! I had no idea before now just how awesome our God is!

Did You Know God Has Feelings Too?

So many prayers for our needs, so many prayers for our wants, so many prayers for this and for that.  Please bless our finances God, please bless our children, please give us an easy day at work, please keep us safe Lord.

Did you know that Jesus prays for us? Who prays for Him? Just because He is in Heaven seated next to  our Heavenly Father doesn't mean that He doesn't still need our prayers.

 We couldn't possibly comprehend the amount of rejection and pain and sorrow our Lord goes through every single day. I find it so hard to understand why He created us knowing full well how much He would suffer because of us. But He created us anyway and says His children are worth everything! What an awesome God!

Gift of Salvation

Praise the Lord oh my soul, praise the Lord! He gave it all away when He could have chose to stay. No longer sitting on the throne as a King should be all for the Love of you and me. All of heaven had to say goodbye, for that brief moment, to the Apple of their eye.

I can't imagine such a Love as this, that the Creator would become the created for those He created. He who was and is truly greatest became the least while He dwelt among us. How profound! In His great Love and compassion for His children He became one of us, to be tested and tried just as we are but even more so I think because He is God and could've called heavens army to come rescue Him at any given moment. But He didn't. He stayed the coarse, suffering great persecution and humiliation, betrayal, and inconceivable abuse at the hands of Roman soldiers.

It was His plan from the very beginning before we were ever created,  to reach out His own Hand from heaven and save us from our depravity. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, not by works lest anyone should boast." If we would just humble ourselves and admit our need for His help and repent, turn away from doing what is wrong in the sight of the Lord and seek His beautiful Face instead. The gift is already there, your passport to heaven, bought and paid for, all you have to do is reach out and receive it, say yes to Jesus, tell Him you want His great gift of Salvation and  ask Him to be Lord of your life if you haven't already.  God paid a price way to high for us to pick and choose who we think is worthy of this great gift. Salvation is for everyone who believes!

Thank You my dear sweet Jesus for saving a wretch like me!!! I love you forever and can't wait to be married to You for ALL eternity long!!!

Tale Of A Teenage Hitchhiker

O GOD, Your chariots are tens of thousands and thousands of thousands! The Lord has come into His sanctuary. Praise be to the Lord, to God my Savior, who daily bears my burdens. My God is a God who saves, from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death.

 (Psalm 68:17, 19-20)

It was a cold dark October night in Central Oregon. I was only fourteen at the time when my 16 year old friend Janet,  who was really more of an acquaintance, invited me to run away to Ontario California with her. Janet had a boyfriend down there that we could stay with. It sounded like a great idea because I couldn't handle getting in trouble at home one more time.

With only $14 between us, we had every intention of hopping a train to get us started on our journey to California, but that darn train was going way to fast! Defeated by plan A, Janet came up with plan B. So we walked to Jake's, the local truck stop, to hitch a ride from one of the truckers.

We had to be sneaky at this point because I had been missing since school was out 3-4 hours earlier. Hiding behind unsuspecting semi-trucks we waited for a driver to return to his cab. "Here comes someone", Janet noticed and approached the the dark haired, middle aged, scruffy truck driver, and asked for a ride. Sure he said, hop on in...so we did...

We were able to get across the border before the truck driver had to go a different direction than we were headed. As morning had come upon us he pulled into a California truck stop and let us out. There we were able to find another ride heading towards our destination.

All in all, we only had to actually stand out on the highway with our thumbs in the air one time.  Ironically we were picked up by a State Trooper. He believed our silly story that we were on our way home but ran out of money for a bus. He was happy to give us a ride. I think my anxiety level had peaked at this point! The rest of the way was smooth sailing as the truck drivers were very kind in taking us where we wanted to go. I know God's Angels were watching over us because "praise the Lord",  we didn't get raped and or murdered!

It was less than 24 hours later, and almost a 1000 miles from home, starving and exhausted, we reached Ontario California. It felt more like Spring than Fall that sunny afternoon. It was like night and day compared to Bend's climate.

It turned out that Janet's boyfriend had a brother,  he was good looking and single, yay me! His name was Steve.  He didn't think much of me at first because I was tattered and worn from the journey. However, once I got some much needed sleep, a shower, and a change of clothes Steve "noticed" me.
I told him I was almost 16 and he believed me!  If I would've told him my real age, he would likely have sent me packing! By the way, he was 23 at the time.

They had a small little house with a small front yard. Inside it was kind of dark, as they kept the blinds closed to keep out the heat.  There were only 2 bedrooms and 1 bath so Steve invited me to sleep with him the second night Janet and I were there. It wasn't long before Steve proposed, not knowing that I was really only 14 years old. Of coarse I said YES! Finally, someone loves me, so I thought...

One week went by, then two...  Janet found a job working at a laundromat.  I stayed home alone during the days while Steve and his brother were also at work.  It would be too risky for me to apply for employment. I had no desire to go back home! The days were long and lonely, I watched soap opera's to pass the time while waiting for everybody to get off work.

One afternoon my fiance's brother came home before Steve and Janet. He brought friends and drugs with him. He called it "Sherman", "Sherm" for short. I'd never heard of it before, although I had tried  alcohol, speed, pot, even acid once, and I smoked cigarettes.

"Here try this", my soon to be brother-in-law said as he passed me the bong, with this foreign to me drug in it. "Take a small hit", he told me. I took a big hit as if it were pot. Big mistake that was! Before I knew it I was being carried to my bed where I lay completely paralyzed from head to toe. I couldn't even open my mouth to speak. For hours I lay there staring at the ceiling unable to move a muscle. If it weren't for the Angels of God helping me, I'm sure I would have died that day so many miles away from home.

By the Grace of God, I did fully recover a couple of days later. He is such a good God! And then another week went by and then it was all over. My fiance and his brother got in a big fight that ended in gun fire. Steve's brother was so mad that he told the police his brother was harboring a runaway. They came and took me away that day. I spent the night in a juvenile detention facility, and to my horror, they put me on a flight back to Oregon the next morning. I didn't want to go...

I told the man sitting next to me on the airplane what my story was and he told me, "you will look back at this and laugh one day." I never saw it as funny, but I do see the mighty Hand of God on my life even then when I was just a lost little teenager.

I will thank Him forever for His incredible Grace and Mercy!!! All things are possible with God. I was one of 2 teenage girls hitchhiking hundreds of miles away kept safe by Him even while the devil was trying to kill me!!

It's 30 years later and that wild child has long since grown up. Today I'm extremely rich in blessings, as I have 3 adult children.  My oldest son and daughter- in- law are due to have a baby boy in June,  our first grandchild! My oldest daughter is a college graduate and getting married in August. My youngest daughter is a 3rd year college student and she's going on her 3rd missions trip, it will be her 2nd time to Haiti this May! I have a wonderful husband who is also following the Lord and takes great care of our family! God is SO GREAT in our lives!!

Thank You Precious Lord for being so GOOD!!!

Do you have a time in your history that you can see God's helping hand when you didn't realize it was there at the time?

A Laid Down Lover For God

My daughter on her first mission trip
to Haiti

One of my favorite mighty Women of God is Heidi Baker, founder of Iris Ministries and missionary in Africa, partners with God to feed, heal, and spread the Gospel to millions. She relays the message that our heavenly Father is looking for laid down lovers, who will lay down and let God be God and love the one He puts in front of you. My answer to this call, "Yes, Lord, I will be a laid down lover for you!'

I'm all over the idea of letting God be God because He is so much better at it than I am haha...It is really quite good news to me that He wants to be the One to do it! So with great joy, our Father in heaven is teaching me and I'm slowly but surely learning what this looks like.

It goes something like this;

When I want to preach and direct the person in front of me, I don't. Instead I pray for this one, and let God be the one to teach and admonish him/her. That's the Holy Spirits Job, not mine. My job is to love that person. This is a profound revelation and I've said it before, "I am not the Holy Spirit!" I use to try to be but I wasn't any good at it!

My job is to love the one God puts in front of me!

When I want to correct the person who is wrong, no matter how clear it is,  I don't,  I hold back and let God have His way with them. I simply keep loving them.

When I feel taken advantage of and instead of rebuking the offender, I humbly submit and let God take care of me. I can't seem to find it written in the Scriptures, "thou shalt not let others walk all over you..". Our Father in heaven says the least among you is the greatest, that sounds to me like we are to put all others ahead of us. If everyone else is greater then that pride goes away and I no longer feel taken advantage of and God will fix the situation when the time is right! :)

I will keep loving the one He puts in front of me!

When I want to tell our newly born again 25 year old son and soon to be father, "get a job",  I don't. I trust that God "will complete the good work He began in him" and wait for Holy Spirit to direct our son's steps to that perfect job at the perfect time, cause that's how God is ya know, His timing is ALWAYS perfect ALL the time! I will keep extending love while we are waiting.

When I want to tell my college attending, hard working daughter, "please don't plan another mission trip to Haiti in the middle of your already too busy schedule. Instead I praise her for her heart and desire to serve God and the needy and trust God will provide for all her needs.

...keep loving the one God puts in front of you!

When I want to call the doctor after waiting nearly 2 1/2 weeks for lab results but I don't. Instead, I wait trusting that God is in complete control of my situation and I will hear the results in His timing, which did i mention is always perfect??? I will not get mad at the doctors for "neglecting" me, I will extend grace...

...and i will love the one God puts in front of me!


Let God be God and love the one God puts in front of you! I said "YES!" Will you?