Small Thought

Here is a small thought to ponder. I may enlarge upon it later, but as part of my mulling I thought I'd go ahead and post it.

Self control is the greatest exercise in self denial and loving others.
Because I love others, I am practicing self control.
Because I need to control my actions, I am denying myself of what I want.
Delayed gratification produces maturity.

Any thoughts out there? Please comment!

Let Me Tell You About My Jesus

I was led through a valley, and then began to trudge up a hill. It's been rocky and steep, and every time I see a stream of sunshine, I fall and scrape my knee. But the lessons are there to learn if I look for them.

And my Lord has never forsaken me.

I want to tell others that He is there, and that He is working. I know, because I've seen it. I can prove it.

During the darkness and doubts, and struggling, Jesus has come to my side and He has given me

Mercy. On hardest days of climbing, the pain was eased.
Grace. Strength to do what I thought was impossible.
Trust. When I was lost.
Strength. To keep on, even when I was so weary.
Hope. When I couldn't see.
Peace. That can't be explained.
Happiness. When I needed relief.
Light. To follow and illuminate.

Everything I need.

God never said He'd make it easy. But He did say He'd help us during hard times. He did say He'd be with us. He promised He'd help us carry our cross.

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent word!
What more can he say than to you He hath said-
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

"Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismayed,
For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by My gracious, omnipotent hand.

"When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
For I will be with thee thy trouble to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

"When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

"The soul that on Jesus doth lean for repose,
I will not, I will not, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no never, no never forsake."




How Firm A Foundation, John Keith.

1. 
   

Link

When I saw this, I thought of Christians linking together all over the world. Connection bringing them together. 

Living Water

John 7:3-38

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."

Living Water.
It was raining today, and as I was driving to work I was thinking about living water. Water brings life. It makes plants green and vibrant. It makes it strong and healthy and causes it to grow almost before our eyes. Without water the plant would die, and would certainly not grow and bloom and spread seeds.
It would just die, brown and dry and dead. No plant, no blooms, no seeds, nothing to perpetuate the plant to continue on beyond it's natural life.

Living water is water that is fresh, and clean, and moving. It has oxygen added to it from movement. It is cleaned and made pure by movement as well.
Gurgling, splashing, dripping, cool, clear water. Without water, there is no life. Water is essential.
In my life, I know how dark and depressing and confusing it would be without the rivers of Living Water flowing from my heart. Living water that only Christ can bring.

Living water refreshes us, and cleans us, and causes us to grow.
Reminds me of the water of baptism. At baptism, water is used to represent the grace of God and the Holy Spirit as He cleanses us and makes us fresh and new. We make a new start, and have a clear conscience. It's life-giving water.
The love of God is Life-Giving Water.

Sometimes I get so thirsty. All I can think of is water, with ice clinking in the glass. And when I finally get some, it tastes so good. I can feel it trickling down, filling me with coolness, and quenching the dry thirst.
This happens with Living Water, too. I get dry and doubtful, and so thirsty for hope and forgiveness to wash down and pour all over me. Living Water never dries up, and is never stale.

I remember when I was in Israel, the temperatures were easily 100F during the days when we were digging. The soil was dry and dusty, and we were hot and sweaty and thirsty. After work one day we went to a spot on the Kinneret where an underwater spring made a waterfall. It was fresh, pure, clean, and cold. It refreshed us, and washed away the dust, and re-hydrated our bodies as it washed and poured and beat down on us.

Living Water bubbles up from our hearts, it fountains out and helps us to grow and then it helps us to spread. You can't hide Living Water. It shows where it is. It makes us green, healthy, and strong. It helps us to bloom and make seeds and spread.

I am thankful for Living Water. I am thankful that there is never an end to it, and it's always there, waiting for us. Living Water that never goes dry.

We need to share our Living Water. There are thirsty people who need it. They are drying up, and dying inside. Only Living Water can revive them.

John 4:10
Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

Someday

I believe in the rest of the story
I believe there's still ink in the pen
I have wasted my very last day
Trying to change what happened way back when

I believe it's the human condition
We all need to have answers to why
More than ever, I'm ready to say that I
Will still sleep peacefully
With answers out of reach from me until?

Someday all that's crazy
All that's unexplained
Will fall into place
And someday all that's hazy
Through a clouded glass
Will be clear at last
And sometimes we're just waiting
For someday

We are born with a lingering hunger
We are born to be unsatisfied
We are strangers who can't help but wander
And dream about the other side of?

Every puzzle's missing piece
Every unsolved mystery
More than half of every whole
Rests in the Hands that hold you for someday?

"Someday" Nichole Nordeman

Escaping Stress

Stress. Even seeing the word typed out makes me feel it.

I've been so stressed lately. Every time I have a stressful period it effects me different ways. This time, it's hives. Or extreme emotion. But I'd much rather itch than cry so I've been glad that the last two weeks have been more itching than tears.

I've been so stressed, and trying to escape it different ways.
There's sleeping. But even when I sleep I can still feel the pressure sometimes.
There's computer time. Which I have also been doing, but I'm not seeing it really helping with my stress.
There's writing. Writing is an outlet for me. I've been writing more for my blog, published and unpublished, and writing in my journal. Writing allows me to gain perspective when I see it in black and white. It helps me see when I'm being reasonable, and when I'm completely missing the point. So writing has been a positive escape while also being productive.
There's talking to friends and family as a means of escape. This can be productive, too. Building good relationships and working on them is always a positive thing.
Another way to escape stress is to just not think about whatever it is that stresses me. Focusing on other things and avoiding the stress factor. This can go either way. Either I ignore it and never work through the stress, or I ignore it and eventually it goes away because I've gotten busy and grown beyond it with other more productive things.

This list of ways to escape stress could go on for a while.
If I make a habit of escaping my stress, then won't my strength and ability to deal with the stress diminish? If I don't exercise working through my stress or not letting things get to me, it seems that more and more things will stress me and I will have to escape more and more. And by escaping more and more, I'll just continue the cycle. It's vicious.

So that means I need to work through the stress, and work through the issues that cause the stress. Exercise these stress busting muscles.

One way I can reduce my stress is by resting and eating. I forget to eat, or don't want to eat and forget how much I really need food. It's becoming more and more obvious to me that my mood and well-being is directly tied to how much I've eaten that day. And the less I've eaten, the more tired I am. But I keep going and then stay up a little too late and then get up a little too early. Rest is so good. Rest allows everything to calm down, relax, and helps me put everything into perspective when I take time to rest and look at the big picture. Resting is just as important as accomplishing. Without rest, I can't accomplish.

Another way I can reduce my stress is by working on my spiritual life. Whenever I let myself slip, and get lazy, my stress level goes up. I have to stay consistent with my Bible time and prayer time and thankfulness time. Reading my Bible puts things into perspective, too. Prayer time reminds me that God answers prayers and that I have a relationship with God who made everything! And me! Thankfulness time reminds me of what I have and where I've been and how good God is to me.

I keep thinking of putting things into perspective. It's really easy to feel like this hill is so big, when really it's just an ant bed. When I zoom out to look at the big picture, my big troubling stresser becomes so small. There's really a lot more going on in the world than whatever is stressing me. Looking at the big picture is a good way to figure out where I am and where I'm going and what's really going on.

Another thing to reduce stress is by being missional and thinking of outreach. Often when I am stressed, I start thinking about how stressed I am and what is stressing me, and if I'll stop and think of others and reach out to others my problems are not so bad after all. There's always someone worse off than me.

The problem is, I forget all these things in the stress of the moment. Stress can make me feel kind of bleary-eyed and fuzzy because I'm just so Stressed.  And because of the weight of the stress, I forget what I need to be doing and thinking. My thinking processes start processing wrong and I get caught up in the stress.

But writing helps me remember. When I write about it, I remember what I need to be doing to level off and balance out. And then I have a written reminder that helps me when I stumble across it later...

Like now. :)

So goodbye stress. I'm not letting you control me. But I'm not escaping from you either. I'm busting you.

Walking Down Memory Lane

Today I happened to use a term from a Sesame Street song that my sister and friend didn't recognize. So I went over to Youtube and found it for them. And then I liked it so much, I decided to post it here for future reference. :)

And this one in particular: