What We're Listening To Wednesday - Rejoice and Lament

I find myself drawn to this song for a few reasons. 

#1.  It is like poetry...and I love poetry ;)

#2.  I like the word lament.  I sort of knew what it meant and being the nerd that I can be sometimes, I love looking up words and their definition.  This is what I got: 

la·ment: to express sorrow, regret, or unhappiness about something

#3.  There is a time/season to feel out your feelings.  You're allowed to feel.  Just don't get stuck and dwell on your feelings.  Move through the process, you can still thrive through the process of pain, hurt, sadness...just make sure you continue to move and push forward.  

#4.  When the season of lamenting is done...REJOICE.  

Don't forget that through the lamenting, you can still have peace, joy and love.  If you are walking through a season of lamenting, lean on God, trust in Him, continue to ask Him for the best, continue to hope, believe, and dream.  Let your suffering produce deeper roots in Him, let your sadness/hurt from the past catapult you towards a bright future.  God's hand will never stop moving in your life if you allow it, He will continue to bless you even in your time of lamenting and when you look back, you will see that those feelings, each and every single one of them...got you to where you are today.  

Rejoicing with you, 

Christy Creative Dreamer Dawn

Overflow!

They say traveling brings out the BEST and the worst. I ponder this familiar statement and read, "may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:13 NIV).

Above 40,000 feet in the air, the worst happened with multiple moments of explosive vomit. I sat in my confined middle seat and questioned, "should we just go home?" But, I heard God boldly say time and time again, "the BEST is yet to come!" So, with little faith and a smudge of doubt I mumbled a prayer, "vomit cannot be the BEST...I choose to receive only the BEST oh Lord." 

The best did come...

The BEST exhibited itself by exploring European culture, swimming in caves of the Mediterranean Sea, eating fresh Italian pasta and glorious gelato, deepening new and old friendships, discovering breathtaking landscapes upon ATV's and bikes, and looking up at the stars as the waves crashed upon the shore. 

Sometimes the BEST requires patience and a willingness to wait. Furthermore, the BEST requires perseverance and hope for what cannot be seen or even touched. In addition, the BEST requires an eagerness to receive what your Heavenly Father has already provided in advance for you to simply experience. 

Truthfully, the BEST might not be what you envisioned or anticipated or even expected. As a result, the best ironically endures a point of completion and a verbalized goodbye.  The old saying states, "every good thing comes to an end." But, I'd like to add that the best always ends so another beautiful piece of life can be explored and experienced. 

So, I've returned home and frequently been asked, "how was Europe?" I cannot help, yet glow and respond with a single response, "the BEST!" Ironically, I returned home to hear discouraging news. Hence, I am realizing the power of declaring the best upon the days and weeks before me and especially on those whom I love. Furthermore, when I don't understand certain pieces of life, it is actually an opportunity to humbly ask God, "please reveal only the best..." For sometimes His best is discovered in seasons of waiting; endured in transitions with such perseverance; and simply accepted with mere awe and wonder because it's right before you! 

In the process of unpacking the contents of my backpack, I realized that overflow comes from a point of believing and declaring the best!  I re-read the passage and began to declare the best in a place of overflow. So, "may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:13 NIV).

Will you join me in declaring the best?

Charlene

P.S. And I pray that you may discover God's abundant overflow for you just like this picture from Greece! 

Thankfulness

Definition: Expression of gratitude; acknowledgment of a favor.

                     1. Gratitude; a lively sense of good received.

What We're Listening To Wednesday - Explode My Soul

What We're Listening To Wednesday

This whole album is worth a listen, but this song in particular has captivated me.

Explode my soul is an awakening, a calling upon my spirit.  The words seem like they were stolen from the depths of my very being.  Every time I play this song, I feel myself wanting to run down a sidewalk shouting "explode my soul...explode my soul, Lord."  I've decided against the shouting out loud in public scenario.  Yet I continue to sing this from a place that is being changed, transformed, challenged, encouraged, restored, healed and moving towards an explosion that will I'm sure, shake things up :)

I hope you find this song to be of encouragement.  Maybe you'll find your spirit drawn to another song, or perhaps you'll interpret the lyrics differently and they'll mean something entirely opposite of what they mean to me.  None the less...be blessed ♥

Love,
Christy Creative Dreamer Dawn

P.S., please share in the comments what you are loving listening to, we'd love to hear :)

Rest and Prayer in Italy

Happy Mothers Day

I wonder if sometimes as mothers we feel alone, lost and maybe like we are failing....

We look around, comparing ourselves to other moms and maybe start feeling a little inadequate.

Before I go on let me share a few verses found in Psalm 139...

"1You searched me, lord, and you know me. 2You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. 5You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. 6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain."

You may be wondering, what does that have to do with how I'm feeling or what I'm struggling with, we'll let me explain what I'm thinking....

I am thinking that God is our Father, our parent and just as we are familiar with our kids and their ways God is familiar with ours. Read those verses again.

He knows us pretty well so I'm thinking like our children ask us for help with whatever they can come up with we should be too.....you know, asking our Heavenly Father.

Rather then looking around, comparing, becoming discouraged lets not focus on what one another are doing....or not doing. Instead let's turn to our Heavenly Father for advice, wisdom, guidance. Let's place our precious children in His loving arms and let Him guide and direct us. Let Him parent us and our children through us. After all who could do a better job :)

On that note I just want to say to all you beautiful mothers out there HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! I pray that God would pour out His blessing on each and everyone of you. That your days would be filled with peace joy and an abundance of love.

Xo, TinaMarie

WILL YOU TRUST ME??

WILL YOU TRUST ME??

Will you trust me??? Four words that on their own are so simple, and yet when put together so complex.

TRUST… by definition is the firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability or strength of someone or something (google dictionary).

WILL YOU TRUST ME??

            God started asking me this question in November of last year. I have recently felt a desire and calling on my life to enter into a place of ministry. And I could feel God asking me, “Ashley, will you trust me”. My initial response was “sure God…whatever you want”. My answer was quick and easy, because it didn’t require much sacrifice. The next request was a little harder. “Ashley, will you trust me?”…

            “Sure God, I already said yes”…

            “Then give up your position at work…let me meet your needs, rely on me”…. Suddenly trusting God was getting a little bit harder, was requiring more.  Suddenly I realized that trusting God was a choice…a choice that would require something from me. Suddenly I realized God wasn’t looking for a quick response, or an appeasement, but a decision, a declaration, and an action.

            As I am growing up in my life, I have learned that trust is more than a feeling. Many times we decide whether we will trust someone or not based on past experiences, based on what we know about someone’s character. We believe that someone must earn our trust. That they must first be tested and found true. I trust my husband because we have weathered many obstacles together. I have found his heart to be true and full of love, and ultimately because he has proven himself faithful over and over again.

            So too is it with our Father God. Our ability to trust God often seems based on past experiences. However, God is looking for so much more than a feeling of trust. God is showing me that the trust that he desires is actually an action….an action that comes in the form of

 SURRENDER.

(To cease resisting and to submit to an authority)

In my life, I have weathered some storms….I know that they are not all behind me, that there will be more to come. And God has been asking me “Ashley, do you trust me enough to actually let go…surrender your circumstances and your life to me”. See friends we can say we trust God, but until we can loosen the hold on our lives and live our life in total surrender and abandonment to God’s will and plan, do we truly trust him??

            I actually believe that there are two forms of surrender… I believe that there is a forced surrender and a chosen surrender.

            FORCED SURRENDER: Let me immediately clear up the thought that God forces us to surrender to his will and plans…NO!!!! God is not an abuser, dictator or enforcer. He is not vengeful, and he does not MAKE us do anything. However, life has a way of causing us to surrender. We have no control over situations and circumstances that enter into our life. Death and illness are not gentlemen, they come into our lives whether we want them to or not, and they have a way of forcing us to surrender to our circumstance. People in our lives make decisions that impact us, and often we have no say in the decisions made, but are forced to live with the resulting consequences and repercussions.

            Instead, God is asking us to enter into a chosen surrender. A place of knowing that no matter what obstacles or painful circumstances we face, God is there for us, lovingly holding us, walking with us, and has the ultimate say over our future. Because once we understand and realize this, than there is no fear in letting go, in surrendering our hearts and lives to our Father.

Jeremiah 29:11 says “For I know the plans I have for you” declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”.

            I think sometimes as Christians we foolishly allow ourselves to misunderstand this declaration by our Father. We want to believe and therefore allow ourselves to believe that it means that life will be easy, pain free, without difficult trials and circumstances. If this is your thought friend, than you have mistaken, it is actually quite the opposite. Jesus says in John 16:33 “In this World you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the World!”

“In this World you will have trouble”

            The words YOU WILL are not a possibility, a happen chance or a maybe…They are a guarantee. You will have trouble, there will be pain, there will be heart ache….But even with these guarantee’s we can still be confident in surrendering to our Father. Why?

“And we know that in ALL THINGS God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

            IN ALL THINGS….In sickness, death, pain, uncertainty, confusion, loneliness and anything else that the World will throw at us…God works for THE GOOD of those who love him. Paul actually says in Ephesians 3:20 “now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine”. God can do more than good and even more than great in our lives when we surrender ourselves to him.

I have waited a very long time to write this blog. Why? Because coming to a place of surrender in my life is actually the hardest thing that I have ever done. Nobody wants pain or challenging circumstances in their life, actually we would do anything to avoid them… at all cost. But no matter what I choose, pain will come. The only thing that can take my worldly circumstances and change them into something beautiful and prosperous and good for me is my Father God. So let me ask you…Knowing what you know, what do you choose…. A forced surrender to life’s circumstances that will come whether you want them to or not, or a chosen surrender to a Father God who loves you more than you will ever know or ever be able to contain…

With a heart full of love,

            Ashley

Hearing Gods Voice-Part 2