"Me-OW," said God ~ Guest Blogging Day

Keep deception and lies far from me,
Give me neither poverty nor riches;
Feed me with the food that is my portion,
That I not be full and deny You and say, “Who is the Lord?”
Or that I not be in want and steal,
And profane the name of my God.

Proverbs 30:8-9 NASB 
 

They look so peaceful when they're sleeping, don't they?

But, my little buddy, pictured above nestled in with his football, no longer wants to sleep at night!  No, Jinxy Kitty; now 13 years old, has decided that he needs to eat at 3 am, if not earlier.  What that means for me is:

• Beginning at sometime between 1 AM and 3 AM, every morning since January, I begin to feel his "gentle" nibbling on my eyebrows, biting on my head, or pawing at my nose.  
• He has also began to pull at our window blinds, so those usually are opened at bedtime in order to ensure they are out of his reach.
• After being fed, he promptly retreats back to the master bedroom; while I, now awake, read for about an hour in the recliner until I nod off again for an hour until my alarm sounds.

I'm tired...I don't go to bed very early, so I'm only getting about two hours of uninterrupted sleep each night.

But while others say, "Put him in another room," I cannot; because I KNOW with every ounce of my being that God is teaching me something through this.

He's reminding me that I can do NOTHING apart from Him. 

Continue reading on Comfort in the Midst of Chaos...

That's What He Said ~ Guest Blogging Day

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth
And making it bear and sprout,
And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;

So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.  Isaiah 55:10-11 NASB

My cat has been waking me up somewhere between 1:00 AM and 4:00 AM in the morning since January.  Since I don't get to bed until 10 or 11 at night, that leaves me only a "couple"of hours of uninterrupted sleep for a few months now.  

But, that's a story for next week.

I just needed you to be aware of my state of sleep deprivation so the following story makes more sense.  Today, I want to tell you about the surprise blessing I received this past week by committing to scripture memorization.  

I have stayed on the mailing list for our women's ministry back in WI even though we now live in NV, and a few months ago I saw a message to the women that there would be a scripture memorization challenge for the summer. I thought that would be something fun for me to do while I was off of work and home with Evie over summer break.  

I didn't realize I was supposed to start BEFORE summer, and I was dragging my feet at starting in on the memorizing.  I really had only planned on it when "I had nothing better to do."  

Something urged me to start this past week, however, and I'm glad.  

When I pulled out the program information, I found that we were to start by memorizing Psalm 1.

AN ENTIRE PSALM?  

Continue reading on Comfort in the Midst of Chaos...

Getting Plugged in to my Power Source ~ Guest Blogging Day

Evie and I praising at Joyful Noise Family Fest a few years Back...

 

Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, 

as I lift up my hands 

toward your Most Holy Place.  

Psalm 28:2 NIV

What is with the people raising their hands?

I remember asking myself this question over and over again when I would attend church with my grandma and grandpa as a young child.  

As an adult, I not only lift my hands when worshiping in church, but I do when we are at Christian music concerts, and I do even when I'm cruising in the car and the Spirit moves me.  

I realized the other night, while worshiping at the Beautiful Offerings Tour with artists like Big Daddy Weave, Jason Gray, Citizen Way and Lauren Dagle, that my hands lifted in praise are EXACTLY the PROOF of "HOW I STAY SO POSITIVE?"

People say I inspire them, and they want to know how I find the energy to do the things I do...Just as a tall tree would work as a conductor of energy from a lightening bolt to the earth, my hand raised in praise of Jesus is my power source.  It IS how I continue to persevere in a world that is so broken.

 Continue reading on Comfort in the Midst of Chaos...

Blessed Enough to be Speechless ~ Guest Blogging Day

Image "Mother Giving Hand to Child" Courtesy of David Castillo Dominici/freedigitalphotos.net

While he was saying this to me, 

I bowed with my face toward the ground and was speechless.  Daniel 10:15  NIV

A few weeks ago we were at an ophthalmologist's office.  My daughter was meeting this specialist for the first time as she has several eye conditions which include, but are not limited to; aniridia (no irises in the eyes), and glaucoma (high pressure within the eyes).

If you've never seen how doctors measure the eye pressures in children and infants, they typically use an item called a tonopen.  This pen must be placed directly on the eye ball, right where the iris and pupil are located.  The pen takes several readings which reflect how high the pressure in the eye is. 

Because my daughter doesn't have irises, she is photosensitive; meaning, she has extreme sensitivity to light.  She wears sunglasses at all times when she is outside, even if the sun is low on the horizon or behind clouds. 

Keep in mind that my family just moved from the Midwest to the far West under a year ago.  We have become acquainted with all of our new doctors, but don't know them NEARLY as well as we did our doctors in Wisconsin.  Often, I just assume that the doctor knows what he or she is doing; but that's not the best thing when it comes to rare diseases.

For example, when the doctor was trying to check my daughter's eye pressures with the tonopen, she made her tip her head back and stare straight up into an overhead fluorescent light.  It didn't dawn on me to tell the doctor to turn the light off, nor to ask her to dim the light.  My daughter kept closing her eyes while the doctor had the tonopen set on the eye ball attempting to get a reading.  

I watched, silently, as they both struggled to do their jobs:  my daughter was struggling to protect her eye from the blinding light and the doctor was struggling to get a reading as quickly and accurately as possible.

It was excruciating to watch.  

Continue reading on Comfort in the Midst of Chaos...