Words From Joel Osteen

Occasionally I watch Joel Osteen.  He was recently on and in Guideposts Magazine (a magazine my mother loved and always ordered for me).  I've been trying to watch Robert Morris at Gateway Church in the Ft Worth area on Sunday mornings.  They have a live broadcast.  However, Robert Morris has been on vacation for several weeks.  He'll return next week, thankfully.  I turned on Joel this morning who was speaking about healthy homes and to husbands and wives.  It was a great message.  It was about husbands and wives honoring each other, building each other up, speaking words of encouragement, appreciation, thankfulness.  Pour in honor.  Approve of your spouse.  Build them up.  Do not push your spouse down.  Be generous and free with your love.  People never get tired of hearing how much you love them.  Compliment your spouse.  Start their day by complimenting them.  Don't compare your spouse to someone else's.  Find the good things in each other, whether small or few, and speaking them out so your spouse hears you love them.  He spoke about listening with your eyes (as well as your ears), looking a each other when you speak, giving your undivided attention so they feel and are heard.  When you talk about the good, you draw out the good.  Focus on and magnify their good qualities.  How husbands treat their wives has a great impact on  how children respect and honor their mother.  Treat your husband how you want a wife to treat your son.  Treat your wife how you would want a husband to treat your daughter.

These are the words that he looked into our eyes and into the camera and said at the end.

**to the husbands**
"Your first mission field is your own family, bless your family, speak a blessing over your family, over your marriage. You are men of valor, men of honor, men who rise up like Solomon and bless their wives, men that make their children a priority, men that speak a blessing over their family.  
**to the wives**
"you are a woman of faith, a woman of honor, a woman who keeps pouring the honor in, I can say Like Solomon, there are many beautiful women in the world, but you excell them all, you radiate strength, beauty, intelligence, dignity, you are one of a kind (I LOVE THAT).  
**to both**
Make sure you are taking care of the gifts God has given you, they are not always going to be here, Be generous with your words, I love you, I'm proud of you, I'm glad that you're in my life, express love on a daily basis." 

While it's too late for me, if your married, or not married yet, and you get a chance to listen to this particular sermon by Joel, Healthy Families, do it.  It could make all the difference.

Ephesians 5:33

However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Encourage One Another, continuing the journey on fresh paths.
Blessings and love to you, xoxo
REMEMBER...a blessing is not a blessing until it is spoken!

Animal House

I hadn't seen the squirrels lately.  I have only seen them once on the squirrel feeder...maybe they don't like it.  When I filled up the bird feeders yesterday I did not put the wire back on to keep the squirrels out.  Didn't think I needed it.
I was wrong.  I've named her Notch.

 She's having to share with the cardinal...or the cardinal is getting the fallen leftovers.

 She's a acrobat!

 Just so cute...but she does look like a relative to that mouse that I had to trap this week!

 She finishes off her snack with a drink!  You can see her notched right ear well here.

See her reflection in the water.  Wonder if she thins it's a friend or foe?

I suspect she will be back and if I don't put that wire back on the feeder she'll have that top off.  I did not get the photo of her whole head inside the feeder snacking.  That was hilarious.

There's that little friendly very unafraid rabbit in the neighborhood too.  She has shown up often, almost every morning, lately without her friends.  I have decided I will try NOT to share with the grasshoppers but I am willing to share my plants with her.

She really doesn't even run off when I go out into the yard.  No reason to.  I certainly will not hurt her!
They say rain is on the way.  I hope so.  There is very little for any creature to eat.
Deuteronomy 32:2

Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.

Encourage One Another, continuing the journey on fresh paths.
Blessings and love to you, xoxo.

If You're a Believer, Shhhh!!

No doubt if you're a believer you've ask God to speak to you, answer a question, give you a direction, give you something you're praying for, something.

Me?  Definitely.  I ask him everyday...for something or about something.  If I'm asking for a something I need him to tell me, I ask him to speak out loud.  Yell it out so I'll be sure to hear.  I tell him sometimes I'm hard of hearing and I need him to shout it out to me through my denial or refusal to listen.  I've discovered that's not how he works...of course not, God yelling...unlikely.  Here is what I've discovered.

A number of years ago he did just that, talk to me.  He woke me up in the early morning hours out of a dead sleep.  Out of my bed He sent me to the sofa and through my hand I wrote down what he said.  It was as clear as a bell as if he were whispering it into my ear...like dictation.  That day, that word, changed the course of my life.

Lately, I've been doing a lot of asking for words or answers.

About two weeks ago He woke me up in the middle of the night and said "It's just a matter of time!" That's all He said.  My interpretation of that was something like....
"I hear you...be quiet and patient...wait...it's not time yet...keep seeking me...have faith....have hope...don't give up...keep walking forward!"  He may have been referring to any number of things we've been talking about.  So, there's a word.

I never take a nap.  However, last Saturday afternoon while reading, I dosed off in the chair.  So I got up and lay down on the bed and napped.  During that nap, He woke me up and said "Maybe it's Me (Him)!"  My interpretation of that was Him saying...

"All those things you're asking for that aren't working out...maybe it's me not letting it work out...maybe it's not good for you so I'm in the way...maybe it's not changing because I don't want it to...you've asked me to tell you, lead you, guide you, now you follow...maybe it's me!"

That's three times He's woken me up with a "word".  I now believe it's because when I'm awake, I'm doing all the talking and He's doing all the listening.  I'm doing a lot of telling (thanking and praising) and asking for things.  He doesn't have time to "get a word in edgewise" as my mother use to say.  He's got to seek me out and find me still...still and quiet to the point of being asleep, still in my mind so I can hear him.  He probably wants to say "Shhhhhhh, listen to me."  I wonder how much I would hear him if I actually sat quietly and listened to and for him everyday?  What about you?

In the meantime, thank you God for seeking me out in the quiet of the morning, in my sleep, when nothing else is in the way.  Thank you for reaching out to me in the dark and for waking me up and for the pen by the bed.  Thank you!

Psalm 84:8  Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty; listen to me, God of Jacob.

Psalm 85:8 I will listen to what God the Lord says; he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants— but let them not turn to folly.

Encourage One Another, continuing the journey on fresh paths.
Blessings and love to you, xoxo.

Sometimes Mother Nature Really Makes Me Mad

Starting in early June I was fighting off some Swallows who wanted to build a nest on top of my porch lights right on top of my porch steps.  They are so messy.  I knocked their initial "mud building nest" down for weeks.  Then they started building a nest on the porch, up in the corner, not over the steps.  I decided it would be cool to watch the babies grow up right there so I left them along.  It's pretty amazing how they carry that mud and build that nest.  She sat on it a while then I saw her peering in.  I gave her a day or so then started taking photos of them on July 4th.  For about a week I have been photographing every to every other day.  They were adorable.  I let them build so Baby Gray and I could watch them grow up.  When they were a day or so old any noise would have them opening their mouths, searching for food, chirping, etc.  When mom would fly up there to feed them I could always tell because there was so much noise.  Today I was going to photograph them then download all the photos onto the computer and post this post.  I got the ladder set up and looked up to call them.  I called to them which always sent them chirping.  I didn't see their little heads peeping over the top.  When I got on the ladder I still didn't see them.  When I climbed higher and looked into the nest...it was empty.  I'm just sick about it.  I googled something about "the baby Swallows were there then they weren't) and it didn't give much info except "predators"...unnamed, "just how nature works" .  I cannot imagine what would have crawled up the wall or flown onto and under my porch to get ALL of them out.  The parents are flying around and looking for them in the nest.  I really want to cry.  I'm not going to post the photos.  Maybe I'll just delete them (unless you ask to see them).  The end.

Genesis 3:19

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Encourage One Another, continuing the journey on fresh paths.
Blessings and love to you, xoxo.