A New Direction

Beauty....its an illusion that is created by the standards of the world... Unattainable for many Impossible to achieve We are constantly told we aren't good enough just by the ads we read, the TV shows we watch, the music we listen to. We are led to believe that if we don't look a certain way we aren't good enough. Says who??  Really - who gets to decide that for us?   I have struggled most of my life with weight issues.  Too fat, at one point because I became obsessed with weight loss I was too thin.  I lived my life around what I ate, how much I ate, how much I ran, what SIZE my clothes were, that I look back now and realize I wasn't LIVING.  I was fighting.  I was fighting to achieve what the WORLD says was good enough. You are good enough if you have medals showing you can run a long distance.  You are good enough if you get a lot of likes of your picture on social media. You are good enough if you wear the smaller size cl...

Ocean Waves -      Powerful;     Forceful;     Strong;     Crashing;     Roaring;         Fierce; How can something with so much power offer so much peace and tranquility to our souls?  Its amazing to me that God, in all His power and greatness, can be so loving and soothing to us when we need comfort.   He created the vastness of the ocean - the depth and the width - and when I sit on the shore and look out, it reminds me of His love and His forgiveness.  He loves with an everlasting love - a love that is deep and wide and vast and never ending.  I love the beach.  I'm drawn to the smell of the salty air and the breeze that washes over me like a cleansing shower.  I love the soothing sound of the waves as they crash against the shore.  I long for Gods love as it does the same - soothes and crashes into me - a force that is so strong it knocks me to my ...

Cats in a Christmas tree. Its cute but so frustrating. You spend hours decorating the tree, making it look beautiful and perfect, then the cats get in it and pretty much destroy all your hard work. They love to climb up the middle of the tree, knocking things off as they go deeper and higher. There is no point trying to keep them out, they will find a way to do what they want to do. I was sitting here this morning looking at my once pretty tree that has now been consumed by my cats, and it came to me that its a great symbolism of our lives. We dress ourselves up, make ourselves look pretty on the outside, but then sin comes in and destroys us from the inside out.  Sin wreaks havoc on our facade of perfection, knocking off the pretty bows and sequins we use to make ourselves look pretty.  We walk into church on Sundays looking our best, but inside we are a total mess.   I come home from work, I assess the mess and begin trying to put things back where the...

A few mornings ago I decided to turn on the music instead of watching the news.  The news is always full of bad stories and I just wanted to worship.  I have an Amazon Fire box and so I sorted thru and found a channel with Christian music.  I was singing, packing my lunch, making breakfast and just worshiping the Lord as I readied for my day, when this song came on.  I've heard it many times but the cool thing about this app is it prints the words on the screen.  It came to the above verse and I just stopped in my tracks and tears started falling down my face. You see, I've been in some storms this past year.  My heart has been downcast and I've wondered where God has been in it all.  I have wondered if he loves me as I've been told He does.  Its easy to wonder when you feel completely surrounded by a storm and you can't feel his presence.  The words of this song reminded me I need to take my eyes off of the storm and place them...

I had a very vivid dream last night.  My grandparents on my moms side are both passed away.  In my dream they walked into my office while I was working.  At the moment I was surprised but not too stunned to see them.  They came to visit.  As I tried to get away to spend time with them it seemed the busier I got.  I was anxious to leave, but people kept coming in and wanting help and asking me questions - they were distracting me from being with the 2 people I most wanted to be with. As I was finally able to leave, they walked ahead of me out the door, across the street, into a crowd.  I tried to keep up.  Its as if they knew where they were going and they trusted I would follow.  I turned a corned and end they were gone. I panicked.  I asked a lady if she had seen them.       "They are old and I can't find them!  They were just here!"  I ran around frantically trying to locate them, but I couldn't.  T...

Fall. Its a beautiful time of year. Leaves start changing color.  The winds blow in cool and crisp.  The days are shorter and the nights are longer.  The animals are preparing for a long winter ahead by storing up food for the winter months. Fall is also the sign of an end.  The end of summer and long hot days.  The end of all things living and green.  Its a sign that its time for some things to die and slip into hibernation in order to prepare for the new life that will begin again in the spring. Our faith can be very much like fall.  We have sailed through a bright and sunny season in our lives when the winds of change roll in.  The breeze picks up and the winds of change start to howl and the leaves of our dying faith start to fall.  We've had a fun and easy time and we haven't built up our faith.  We haven't had to exercise it because life has been good.  What do we do when the storms of life roll in?  How ...