It's a new day let's kick it out of the park! I am not an athlete but just like anyone else I love to see a good win! 
We all love being part of a winning team! Millions of people watch the Super Bowl and World Series; they want to see their team win; people just love victory! When you make Jesus Lord of your life you are teamed up with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are on a team that is guaranteed victory every time! The Lord tells us that we will have what we need! Romans 8:31, “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” Many things will come against us, but God is the One who will prevail!
The Lord made the ultimate sacrifice for us so we can be His! Romans 8:37 says, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors and gain an overwhelming victory through Him who loved us [so much that He died for us].” As Believers we are children of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ! He also has individual plans for each person. According to 1 Corinthians we are to run the race and carryout the work of Christ. God never intended anyone to do the work He has for them alone! If you decide to take the task independent of God, I guarantee it will be a struggle and the results will not be the best. The Lord empowers us to run our course in life, He wants us to win! Although, His idea of winning is not the world’s! I use the word win to illustrate a point. To win means to achieve victory or gain a prize through effort. God’s team has purpose! His teammates work to point others to Jesus Christ so the Father will be glorified! Philippians 4:13 says, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus”. If we think we can do it all on our own, we would be in danger of not recognizing our need for a Savior! I do not know how anyone gets through a difficult time without the Lord! Many don’t, they carry a burden with them throughout life. Jesus is the only One powerful enough to remove that burden! We are free in Christ, that sounds like a win to me!
Believe and take God’s Word as final authority, no matter what you face in life! Jeremiah 29:11 states, “For I know the thoughts and plans I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.” We must go forward and have confidence in Christ Jesus, steadfast and immovable in all things! (I Corinthians 15:58). I pray these words point you straight to Him!
Have a winning day! Today and every day!

​Life is a press, recently I was struggling with a mess and could not see how God would be involved and fix things. It has been a real stretch of faith for me because some of my choices caused this. I was talking to the Lord, and He brought to my mind when I used to teach art. Students would bring their art to me and I could guide them to the next step. I could see what they couldn’t. Some would bring me what they felt was a mess, but I could see beyond it and the potential. I knew what techniques they needed or where a different value needed to be placed. As they followed my direction they continued to create and learn, often they ended up with something far better than they imagined. God does the same thing with us; we bring Him our mess and He will guide us through. He sees the potential even when we cannot see beyond the mess. We do not have to cover up or try to earn our way to a more worthy life. We have worth right where we are. Each person has been designed with a plan and purpose! What we have control over is how we choose to think and respond!

Forgiveness is one of the hardest things to write about or even read. I am writing this chapter as we are on the brink of Thanksgiving, which I find so timely. A thankful heart and the idea of giving is a precursor to forgiving. Forgiving is often giving and expecting nothing in return. Our Heavenly Father gave His only Son and when He gave, He gave it all! He gave His life! He took on sin and shame for us, He sacrificed and gave beyond our idea of giving. When we give, we can be guilty of expecting something in return. Oh, to have a heart like the Father’s, selfless and wholly turned to others, to live a life that exemplifies Christ’s love, not one that seeks our own gain. Yet time and time again we fall flat on our proverbial faces! Whether we are giving to another, forgiving, or maintaining a spirit of thanksgiving, the underlying theme here is giving. The Lord has given the perfect example of how to live this incredible unnatural way. Living like this will change your perspective on how you relate to others. With sacrificial, unconditional giving led by the Holy Spirit, the very presence of God fills us and aids our inherent selfish nature!
This chapter was one of the last written. I personally had a challenging time with this. If we are honest with ourselves forgiveness is difficult. I had to come to terms with unforgiveness lingering in my heart. The Lord showed me what I was looking for was restoration. I am reminded I must choose to forgive first, let go and restoration follows. Forgive just as the Father does for us, remembering sins no more! The Lord is our perfect example. Psalm 86:5, “For you O Lord, are good and ready to forgive our trespasses, sending them away, letting them go completely and forever.” The Holy Spirit will enable us to do this for others and this goes for forgiving yourself as well! Forgiving ourselves can be more difficult than forgiving another person, it can be immobilizing!
Not forgiving yourself is pride, it prevents us from accepting the forgiveness the Lord has for us. It was like a slap across my face when I realized that the unforgiveness I had for myself was pride! It will put a wrench in your relationship with the Lord because God is opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. Self-loathing is not humility, it is pride! Get rid of it and bask in the Lord’s love and forgiveness and move on! I know how hard this is, this is one pit I had been stuck in too long! Just a little side note, pit and pity are one in the same! It focuses on the negative and completely on self! It can become a stronghold! To get rid of a stronghold, we hold on strong to the Lord! Psalm 27:1 says, “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall, I fear? The Lord is the refuge and stronghold of my life.” Unforgiveness will not allow us to walk free. As a Believer our role is to forgive, let go of resentment, and trust the Lord will bring healing and restoration! He is our Deliverer who is quick to forgive, a trait we need to adopt!
I was having regular migraines that went on for years! As I sought the Lord for healing, I was prompted to resolve unforgiveness in my life. As I took steps to forgive, it began to manifest in my heart. I got to the point of genuine forgiveness and experienced a release inside me. My headaches left and bit by bit the relationship was restored. Forgiveness and healing are not something we can do on our own, rather it is something the Lord does through us. As I was dealing with unforgiveness in my life, the Lord helped me to realize I would not want anyone holding all my sins over my head for the rest of my life. So, who am I to do that to anyone else? Jesus died for my sins and forgave them and remembers them no more. That is the kind of forgiveness He wants from His children!
Paul posed some questions in Romans 2, “So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” If I condemn then I am guilty of the very same thing. Ouch! When someone does us wrong and we refuse to forgive we are guilty of sin. If we want God’s blessing, we must respond His way! Easier said than done! Unforgiveness is a thief, it will steal your time and your joy! Are we ready to allow the Lord to do this through us? Yielding to the Lord opens the door to His results in your life. We do not forgive because we feel like it, we forgive because God commands us! It keeps us from the snare of the enemy and from bondage to bitterness and resentment. Proverbs 3:7, “Be not wise in your own eyes: reverently fear and worship the Lord and turn [entirely] away from evil!”
The Lord went through persecution and rejection far beyond what anyone on this earth will ever see, yet He forgave. As He hung on the cross, He cried out, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing!” We too can do this because He lives in us. We may still feel the sting of rejection and hurt and the enemy will use these to rip us apart. God has the glue to hold us together! It starts with us obeying what He says. It doesn’t matter what happened, what matters is how we respond. How do we love others? I am not discrediting a tragedy someone has endured, the Lord wants you to have peace in your life. Or are we stuck in self-loathing? Either way does not receive the love and forgiveness the Lord has for us.
In Colossians it tells us to rid ourselves of anger, rage, bad feelings towards others, which means it is on us to act!  Colossians 3:12 says, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” We all have difficult people in our life, let’s try not to be the difficult ones! We can only yield our will, we are not responsible for changing others, but we can pray for them. How I wish I could tell you I always respond with grace and mercy. As a child of God, I need to always respond in love! On my own I cannot do this. He doesn’t expect me to, that’s not how we are designed! He designed us to need Him! Yield to Him and His ways as you walk out hard things, like forgiveness. God will have His perfect work done through you! True forgiveness ushers in restoration, a timely process with beautiful results!

Thanksgiving Day is the perfect day to begin preparing your heart for the holidays! Let’s make it a priority to keep Jesus the focus of the season. When our sights get swayed by commercialism or even by a great holiday show, it takes away the true meaning of why we celebrate, or rather Who we celebrate. Our faith and family are of utmost importance so let’s purpose to enter this season with intentionality!

Let’s begin by being thankful!
Psalm 100:4, “Enter His gates with a song of Thanksgiving and His courts with Praise. Be thankful to Him, bless and praise His name.” We thank the Lord for the day that we have and the moments we are given as we embrace right where we are! Be thankful for the simple things. Food to eat, fresh air to breathe, even a new day! Gratitude and thankfulness are the entry way into a beautiful holiday season! Holidays can be difficult as we miss those who are gone or how things have altered with the passing of time. Traditions may even change but what needs to stay constant is our heart toward God, a heart of thanksgiving and a sacrifice of praise!
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May our life be a song of thanksgiving that resounds to the ears of those around us. Our life’s song blesses the Lord as we honor Him with our attitudes and words. No matter where we are, we have something to sing about! You have a Savior who loves you! Put on some music today and belt out a song of Praise!

Thank You Lord, for we have TODAY! In Jesus’ Name Amen!

​What are you thinking about? 
When our focus is on things of this world more than God’s Word, it chokes out the word and what we are thinking about becomes much larger. What we are thinking on becomes our focal point, it becomes our concern, and our worry! The source of anxiety is based on those things. When we function in that capacity we find our hope is derived from those things rather than God! However when we focus on God ‘s Word He reveals truths to us and by the power of the Holy Spirit He enables us to walk in these truths! A telltale sign that you are walking with the world as your barometer is that your concerns about worldly things are greater than your concerns about things of God! Also in certain situations the voice of the world is what gets your attention more than the voice of the Holy Spirit.
My son ended up sick on a trip out of town. We found ourselves in urgent care and I had to make some decisions. I went home and the Lord lead me to James 1:5, “If any of you lacks wisdom [to guide him through a decision or circumstance], he is to ask of [our benevolent] God, who gives to everyone generously and without rebuke or blame, and it will be given to him. But he must ask [for wisdom] in faith, without doubting [God’s willingness to help], for the one who doubts is like a billowing surge of the sea that is blown about and tossed by the wind. For such a person ought not to think or expect that he will receive anything [at all] from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable and restless in all his ways [in everything he thinks, feels, or decides].”
The other verse that comes to mind is Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” I wish I could tell you it was simple, there’s a lot of information on both sides of the coin. This is where faith comes in, this is where you lay it down, trust God and listen to the Holy Spirit. Now meditate on the Word of God and block out the noises of the world! Get off the Internet and phone! Look to God, and let Him direct you and make what’s going on clear in your mind and heart.
He loves you and cares about your personal situation!

Yesterday I had so much energy, today not so much!  I think I used it all yesterday. I am living a wonderful dichotomy of menopause and toddler life. It has been an journey with the Lord as He shows me what really matters. Sometimes it’s sitting and having a cup of tea while your toddler makes you a snack of twigs leaves and whatever else he has in his wagon. The hallway upstairs is not done being painted, the books still have to be illustrated, the toilet needs scrubbing, I have two baskets of clothing that need to be folded, I have three large bowls of tomatoes that just got harvested that need to have some thing done with them. At least dinner is started! I have been in Mom for almost 30 years and the daily tasks don’t change! After 30 years I am so thankful that God works through me and sanctifies me. I see improvement, I see hope and even some relief. I finally understand that it’s not dependent on me! There are days where I feel more accomplished and there are other days I wonder why they existed. But in the picture of eternity God knows why each day was needed. If I can walk away from each day knowing this the day was a success! When I walk away from this life knowing that my eyes were on Him and that I showed my children the way to go, showing them how to look to Jesus, I can count my life a success!
Have a blessed day! 

Remember those days of hanging on every word your spouse said, you couldn’t wait to hear his voice? You loved every moment you spent together; it was never enough! It does not have to be only a memory! We can have that love life when we have God as the head of our marriage. With Him in the mix it works the way it was designed! Sure, there are rough days, even seasons. God’s way lives everyday looking for the best in the other person, regardless of the circumstances. It is hopeful! Many of us get stopped up at some point with pretty good reasons. Read that verse at the top of the page again!
I order things online, I much rather shop with a cup of tea than in the stores! When I do I expect it to show up and be exactly what I ordered. Why don’t we have the same expectation when we pray for our marriages according to God’s Word? Do we trust God? Do we have that kind of expectation for our spouse? Do we believe the best of them? Love hopes ALL things, and all means nothing is left out! That goes for enduring and believing the best, the word except is not in there!
God is Love and it is He who calls us to this standard. In myself I cannot do these things, I fail! It is difficult to live up to expectations, therefore in our flawed humanity we humbly accept grace and mercy from our Lord! Difficult times come, question is, how will you respond? Have confidence in God and in your marriage! The key words in this verse speak volumes: Bear, Believe, Hope, Endure, they are followed with the words ALL THINGS!
Regardless of what comes look for the best in each other, remaining steadfast during difficult times without weakening! 

Lord, I come with great expectation that You will work through us as a couple helping us to show one another Christ’s love. That we may be a testimony to who You are!
​In Jesus’ Name, Amen! 

Did you ever say to yourself, I can’t go on this is too hard or I don’t know how to fix this, feeling there is no answer? Then this is for you! You are not alone, though it may feel that way. There is a God who wants to walk with you through this crazy thing called life! He loves you and wants to see you whole! Each of us has a story where our messes become our message! It's not about life’s isolated situations but the intrinsic way God breathes life into them and weaves them together! We don't have the answers, but I want to point you to the One who does!
 “Put on your strength, shake off the dust and be loosed from what binds you!” These words are taken from Isaiah 52. These are words of encouragement spoken to the one grieving the death of a loved one lost to suicide, to the one who lost their father to Cancer, the one who lost a friend who was taken from this world too early. It speaks to the one who went through a divorce, to the single mom as she returns to school, the person who watches a loved one suffer with Dementia and Alzheimer’s, the one who lost their job, the mother who lives far from her grown children, the one who has suffered rejection and broken relationships. It’s for the person who lives in a new town and is alone, for one who misses their beloved pet and as life goes on so does the list! Loss comes in many forms, and I have been all these women. Those words of encouragement are strengthening! I need this message every single day! Life is filled with fantastic and crazy fun times, and it is filled with times of struggling to stay afloat! 
When that concrete block is on your chest, and you cannot breathe as the heaviness of another day is more than you can bear. When even good memories are so painful you must lay them aside just to go on. God is still there! A heavy heart can come from many things, for me loss and grief have made their way to my door all too often. I know them like an old friend, but a friend they are not! It was years after my brother died that I realized loss was the golden thread in my life. It was my mess and now it is my message! To keep from sinking we must set our thinking on Jesus rather than the all the distractions and pain that can seemingly engulf us. Jesus is our magnificent hope! “Now to Him Who, by the power that is at work within us, is able to do superabundantly, far over and above all that we ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams].  To Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3: 20-21). I could park right here for a while! It amazes me how His power woks in us and beyond our wildest dreams! There is real peace in that! It is not dependent on us, but we get to live dependent on God who does beyond what we ask or think!
As a former potter I easily identify with the illustration from Isaiah 64, of our Heavenly Father being the potter and we are the clay in His masterful hands. Just as a potter carefully crafts his creation molding and shaping what he intends, so does our loving Father. We have been created by a loving God who molds us and takes the brokenness of our lives and makes them whole and new!  Only He can take the hurt of our lives and shape it in such a way that we become stronger. It has been over 25 years since my bother took his life, yet I find myself needing these words just as much now as I did then. Submersing myself in God’s Word as I sought answers, developed a deep relationship with my Savior. Life has changed but I am still in need of the One who has the answers! He offers to be our companion on this rugged road we call life. Do we take Him up on it? Jesus wants us to know Him like we know those who are near and dear to us. Can you say you have that kind of intimate relationship with our Creator and Savior? If you don’t, no need to worry, you can! He wants to walk closely with us!  
Healing and restoration are not a one-time fix but an ongoing process throughout our lives. My prayer was that the Lord would take the untimely death of my brother to help others. As life continues that same prayer resonates. God has a design for our lives, an individual and unique plan laid down since the beginning of time. Life is marked with joys as well as pitfalls, but through it all Jesus is the beacon of light that shines bright! May these penned words shine a bright light to the path that leads you straight to Him!  

I woke up every day with a heaviness that drove me to my knees. I often found myself wanting to go home. I no longer live in my lovely country home. Often the question comes to mind, what is home? I now live thousands of miles from that house. Nine months prior, the Lord prompted me to start cleaning the house as if I were to move. I continued to do what was in front of me as I sought the Lord. Two years before this, I was approached by a friend’s husband, who prayed often for our little family, he encouraged me to seek the Lord if I desired to remarry. I took that advice, fasted, and went to the Lord in earnest prayer. As I prayed the Lord showed me a man, I repented and asked the Lord to forgive me for my mind wandering. This was someone I knew from my youth; he went to a small Christian school where my father had taught. I was not in touch with him, nor did I know him well, but this is who came to mind. Over a year later we connected through a mutual friend! I now sit here writing as Mrs. Love, married to the man I saw as I prayed! The year after we married, we welcomed a little blessing! To be in my late forties and raising a little one is amazing, crazy, and wonderful all wrapped up in the best package! I moved far from my adult children and the life I knew. I found myself sad and missing where I was and most of all, my family. It is not that I would trade one for the other, but the pain is real. God knows this! I wish I could tell you I never feel that way, however the Lord gives me peace when my days feel stormy and my heart aches.
In Genesis and Exodus, we read about how God brought Joseph through incredibly challenging times and ultimately into a place of blessing. In one day, he went from prison to the palace! I encourage you to read this amazing story of God’s sovereignty! Joseph was divinely led to a safe place, with provision and purpose for God’s plan. We see this continue after Joseph passes with Moses now at the helm, yet years later the ancestors found themselves driven from that very place. They were on the road to a better place and delivered from a life of slavery. They could not see what God was doing as they longed for the way things were. They kept looking back, taking their focus off God. God never left them; He was always leading! It is the same for us, sometimes it does not look or feel like we think it should or how it once did. Our deliverance lies in trusting a sovereign God. Trusting that He will lead each step of the way. We serve a faithful God who wants us to find our security and comfort in Him, not the things of this world!

We often define our home as the house we live in, a town or people that are close to us. Home is where the heart is, right? Matthew 6:21 says, “for where your treasure is there your heart will be also.” That encompasses your wishes, desires, where you center your life. What is your life centered around? Pursuing the American dream, a house, family, job, success, in themselves these are not wrong things but are they your focus? Do they possess a more prominent place in your heart than God? Where do you find home? To have peace and joy again we must continually keep our focus on Christ! My home is in the Lord, wherever He guides me and directs me! I want what God wants for my life! My favorite verse is Proverbs 16:9, “A man’s mind plans his way, as he journeys through life, But the Lord directs his steps and establishes them.” Yet along this journey I have wandered here and there pursuing my own ideas, having attitudes that were less than honoring to God. I am not being dismissive; it is sin and sin separates us from God. He knows this about us and offers us His ever-abounding grace and mercy. When the Hebrews were delivered from the hand of the Egyptians they sang unto the Lord. They praised Him for bringing them into the land of promise and planting them on the mountain of His inheritance. “The place, O Lord, You have made Your dwelling among them, the sanctuary, O Lord, Your hands have established,” (Exodus 15:17). The Lord provided food for them daily, He did it in a way to evaluate if they would obey Him, and ultimately trust Him! From our perspective we read the accounts of this story and wonder how they could see all these miracles, the very hand of God and question if He was going provide necessities. How does that really differ from our lives? The earth points to a masterful Creator, He has given us a Savior who rose from the dead and saved us from our sins, He gives us life and breath! If you are reading this right now you have that! Will we trust our Creator to meet our needs? Will we trust God to provide a house for us to live? Will we trust God to create in our life the purpose that He designed for us? Will we trust Him for direction and answers?
In Exodus 16:8, God hears the people grumbling and complaining because they had grown discontent. Are we grumbling and complaining as we look at the circumstances around us, or are we praising God because we trust Him and who He is? What if we keep our eyes on Jesus instead of what we see! What if we choose to trust Him? In Exodus 14:14 it says the Lord will fight for you while you only need to keep silent and remain calm. Sometimes we need to keep our mouths shut! God provides a way and tells us to trust Him and remain calm! When we look at circumstances that are beyond our control it is easy to allow feelings to dictate and complain about the situation. When we look to Jesus for the answers, we find peace and contentment. He is our foundation, our dwelling place, and our source of provision. We can stop wandering about like the Hebrews, stop looking back and wondering. We choose Him and enter a place of contentment knowing that Home is found in Him!
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Hebrews 13:5..."because God has said, Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

 Life is a press, God did not promise we will live a problem free life, He did however promise to never leave us or forsake us! ( Hebrews 13:5) I was recently struggling with a mess and could not see how God would be involved and fix things. It has been a real stretch of faith for me. Namely because some of my choices caused this. I was talking to the Lord about it, and He brought to my mind when I used to teach art. Students would bring their art to me and I could guide them to the next step. I could see what they couldn’t. Some would bring me what they felt was a mess, but I could see beyond it and the potential. I knew what techniques they needed or where a different value needed to be placed. As they followed my direction they continued to create and learn, often they ended up with something far better than they imagined. The Lord does the same thing with us; we bring Him our mess and He will guide us through. He sees the potential even when we cannot see beyond the mess. Are we going to trust Jesus with our life? Will today be the day we choose to lay down our ideas as we look to Him to guide and direct us? He has a beautifully designed plan and purpose! So, how will we choose to think and respond?
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There are many different types of loss, loss of a loved one, a job, identity, hope, joy even loss of the familiar. Loss can be paralyzing; you do not have to be behind bars to be imprisoned. Our own thoughts can keep us in bondage. Yet there is freedom for everyone no matter where you are. Take the regrets, mistakes, failures all of it and get rid of those heavy weights and receive forgiveness, lay it down at the foot of the cross. One thing I ask myself, no matter how big the situation I am dealing with, “Can you change it? Can you go back and change anything?” This very question can be paralyzing but it is meant to help put things into perspective. The answer is no. So, now what do I do? Look to God’s Word first. Paul says in Philippians, “But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.” We must keep our focus forward. This may become a daily choice and feel like a daily chore at first and it will be hard, but we must take control of our thoughts! We choose to think on what is before not what is behind. I know this struggle well! Good messages come from big messes. I wish I were just gifted with ideas to share in a lovely manner that would inspire people. Instead, God uses the muck and the difficult circumstances to craft messages from real life experiences. So, you can know if He can do it for me, He will do it for you! Letting it go is not easy, it's in the surrender. I cannot wrap my head around some of the choices I made in life, but it’s done. Somehow this feels like where a brick wall should be inserted, but with God all things are possible. Take the weights of the losses and mistakes, all the shoulda, coulda, wouldas and lay them at the cross. This means we are taking all those burdensome weights and giving them to Jesus, acknowledging and accepting what He did on the cross. He paid the price for our sins giving us His grace and mercy. His sacrifice was the ultimate, it was more than sufficient, it was complete!
Hebrews 12:1-3 says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." 
Walk in the mercy He has given you and do not let your minds relive the wrongs and the hurt. You are not meant to lug those heavy burdens through life. When dealing with the grief of loss keeping God as a priority in our thoughts will keep us on the right path. Jesus says in Matthew 11:29-30, 29 “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” 
I want to shed some light into the darkness of loss, that good can come from even this! I am not talking about those ten pesky pounds you want to lose. However, the burden of loss is a heavy weight to carry. This is a reason people write books about the war in our minds. The enemy uses thoughts to move us off what God’s Word says. The Word of God tells us to take captive those thoughts and cast down imaginations. We are to think wholly on the Word of God. The enemy’s warfare on our minds can feel  worse after we take it to Jesus because the enemy wants to convince you otherwise. It is a lie, don't believe it! He doesn’t want you to take your healing or deliverance, he wants you bound. God loves you so much He sent His son to set you free!
Put on your strength, shake off the dust and be loosed from what binds you! These words are taken from Isaiah 52. These are words of strength spoken to the one grieving the death of a loved one lost to suicide, the one who lost their parent to Cancer, one whose friend was taken from this world too early, it speaks to the one who went through a divorce, to the single mom as she returns to school, the person who watches a loved one suffer with Alzheimer’s, the one who lost their job, the mother who lives far from grown children, the one who has suffered rejection and broken relationships, the one who lives in a new town and is alone, the one who misses their home, those who miss their beloved pet and as life goes on so does the list! Loss comes in many forms, and I have been all these women. These words of strength are life giving! They are words I need every single day! We all do! Life is filled with fantastic times, and it is filled with times of struggling to stay afloat! We need to set our thinking on Jesus rather than the circumstances and distractions that can seemingly engulf us. Jesus is our magnificent hope! So shake off the dust and be loosed from what binds you and remember,  “Now to Him Who, by the power that is at work within us, is able to do superabundantly, far over and above all that we ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams].  To Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3: 20-21).
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Excerpt from Strength in Faith by Dawn Love

​​Strength in Restoration
God is in the restoration business! It is no surprise fixer upper shows are a craze; people want to make things new or have it look as it used to! Restoration is only needed if something needs fixing or some type of rehabilitation. We restore things to bring them back to the original state or better. God does this very thing for us! He specializes in taking broken lives of people who have a big ole mess and making it new! That is exactly what Jesus did for us as He gave His life for us. We cannot earn it, but we can accept it! He has a plan for our lives filled with purpose and value! He takes the broken pieces and creates something new, whole, and beautiful! Our story is important because our story points to God’s story. A true real life love story! With Him we go from broken to beautiful!
The pain in brokenness can seem hopeless at the time, unfixable, a devastation beyond repair. Yet there is One who can take what has been shattered to a million pieces and recreate something new, that is Jesus! He can take our broken dreams, hurt feelings, mistakes, failures, losses, all of it, and what appears as the shards of life and He puts back together so we have something whole. As a Creator that is what He does as we allow Him to recreate in our life, despite how things look and feel!
There is a movie scene that sticks with me, where the woman lost her husband in a car accident, she was devasted and felt her life was ruined. She took a crystal dish, threw it to the ground and it broke in tiny pieces. She looked at it and said, That is my life, a mess, shattered and broken! At the end of the story the fragments were put together in a different way to make something new, whole and beautiful. The story was a parallel to the work the Lord does in us. He is able to take what is broken in our lives and do that very thing!  Revelation 21:5 says, “And He Who is seated on the throne said, See! I make all things new! My prayer is for you is that you lay the broken pieces at the feet of Jesus and let Him make your life whole again! I pray whatever you are going through right now that your hope will be rekindled.
All too often I would wake early heavy-hearted and teary-eyed with the burden of regrets. I know it is the enemy, and often we can be our worst enemy. The Lord does not hold things against us, so we must follow His example. I decided to walk away from the morning’s jabs and let God’s Word and a hot cup of tea do its work, especially since it was 4am, the caffeine didn’t hurt! The Lord showed me that we will go through things and those very “things” become our platform from which we share. My heart’s cry after my brother passed was, let this somehow bring God glory. That was the beginning of loss for me, yet over the years loss has become a recurring element in my life. Through this journey I have come to understand what the Lord meant when He says to count it all joy. I am not joyful it happened, but I find joy in how the Lord uses circumstances to His glory. He teaches us along the way and shows us how our mess becomes a message that others will come know they are not alone in all this! God loves us with an everlasting love beyond what we can fathom! He is the God of restoration! We see it in so many places if we just look!
I am remarried, so that is a restoration in itself, and even though I am married to a wonderful Christian man we still are human and deal with real life stuff. During one of those human moments, God showed me that we are being restored as a whole. Marriage is like a car or piece of furniture that is being restored. Often it needs to be stripped, bad parts are exposed, replaced, sanded, polished etc., it’s a long process. Keeping that perspective in marriage, points my attitude in the right direction! We are in this together and what affects one affects the other. We can have an “I am in this with you sweetheart” kind of attitude and can genuinely be glad God is doing a work in us! Our perspective needs to become eternal, more concerned with our hearts and relationship with Jesus Christ than anything else! When we address life from an eternal perspective, we will see real restoration happening. From this new marriage we have a son who is now two years old. As he came running around the corner into my arms and I heard the Lord say to my heart, this is the face of restoration! A child is new and innocent, with a future ahead of them and all the hope and joy you can imagine! My husband and I had been divorced and God brought us together after a hard life on both our ends. Our little man is the ninth child in our blended clan but our first! Children are a true gift from God! It is the children God blessed me with I see this picture of His redemptive love over and over again. It’s not that life ceases to have struggles but that He works things out in the midst of it all! brought such joy during the hardest times in life. My eldest sons were babies when my brother died. Caring for them and looking at their sweet little faces and their love for life kept me going through a very horrible time. Restoration comes in so many forms!
Just this past Christmas my eldest son called me for there had been distance between us. Sadly, many know with divorce comes much brokenness. I did not want to just buy my son a gift that would have no meaning, just to give him something. I prayed it would have meaning so I asked the Lord what I should do. Immediately the Lord brought to my mind a drawing I did years ago, how my son always loved it. I recalled when he was a teen he asked if he could have it after I die. He didn’t have to wait that long! My daughters and I picked out the perfect frame and they gave it to him for me, as I was not able to be with him. His response blessed my heart! My daughter video recorded his response to opening the gift so I got to see his response. It opened the door to our relationship, it was answered prayer, it was the beginning of restoration! I am just back from a trip where I saw him for three days, my heart is so full! God will lead us and create opportunities and ways where it seems there is no way! The Lord equips us to be able to handle what comes our way. He steps in and takes the load, if we let Him! It is a daily press in every aspect of life which is why we must continue the push forward. Just as Paul speaks of pressing on and taking hold of what lies ahead, forgetting what lies behind. Whether we need to leave behind how amazing something was or how horrible it was, we need to leave it in the past where it belongs. Can you honestly say you trust God with your future? Do you believe He has a good plan for your life? Do you know that He is interested? We cannot change what has happened, but we can get God involved! There is hope when we pray and ask the Lord to take what has happened and restore, bringing life where there has been death. Maybe not a physical death but where there once was life and now it has grown lifeless. Pray as David did in Psalms, “In the day of my trouble I will call on You and You will answer me.” Sometimes when God speaks to us it is what we need, not what we want. He is our Restorer, Healer, Redeemer, He will guide us and lead us the right way. God is the constant in my life, I am the one that is constantly all over the place! We can all feel like that! He wants to restore where there has been loss. We often want to take things into our own hands to fix, our idea is to get things back to the way they were. We have the idea of restoring that car to how it was when it initially rolled of the line. We try to do the same in our lives and we want to hit that rewind button.  However, God doesn't work that way, He takes us forward in life not backwards!
The loss of what was can bring sadness, but where there is sadness He brings joy! Where there is weakness, He brings strength and where there is pain, He brings healing! A friend of mine who had been through the wringer shared some powerful words, “Faith starts were strength ends”! Stop trying to do it all on your own and lay the cares of your mind and the weights of your heart before the Lord, His love far outweighs it all! After you do, don’t get distracted by the lies of the enemy who is quick to throw our sins in our face and pull our minds into what was. Satan is the accuser of the brethren; it is important to keep this in the forefront of our minds when those thoughts creep in. Our response needs to be, My God has not forsaken me, and Jesus took care of all of it at the cross! We desire to be whole and fixed up, inside and out! We may not be impervious to life’s junk, but we can have victory over it. Let us pray as David prayed in Psalm 51:12, “restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit.” We have a faithful Savior who walks with us through it all!

​                                                  Dawn Love and son Kiehl

​You do not have to be behind bars to be imprisoned. Our own thoughts can keep us in bondage. Yet there is freedom for everyone no matter where you are. Take the regrets, mistakes, failures all of it and get rid of those heavy weights and receive forgiveness, lay it down at the foot of the cross. One thing I ask myself, no matter how big the situation I am dealing with, “Can you change it? Can you go back and change anything?” This very question can be paralyzing but it is meant to help put it into perspective. The answer is no. So, now what do I do? Look to God’s Word first. Paul says in Philippians is, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.” We must keep our focus on forward. This may become a daily choice and it will be hard, but we have to take control of our thoughts and choose to think on what is before not what is behind. I know this struggle well.  Good messages come from big messes. I wish I were just gifted with ideas to share in a lovely manner that would inspire people. Instead, He uses the muck and the difficult circumstances to craft real life examples. So, you can know if He can do it for me, He will do it for you. Letting it go is not easy, its in the surrender. I cannot wrap my head around some of the choices I made in life, but its done. Somehow this feels like where a brick wall should be inserted, but with God all things are possible. Take the weights of the losses and mistakes, all the shoulda, coulda, wouldas and lay them at the cross. This means we are taking all those burdensome weights and giving them to Jesus, acknowledging and accepting what He did on the cross. He paid the price for our sins giving us His grace and mercy. Jesus says in Matthew 11:29-30, 29 “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Walk in the mercy He has given you and do not let your minds relive the wrongs and the hurt it will be like taking up those heavy burdens again to lug around through life. When dealing with grief there are many things we go through but keeping God as a priority in our thoughts will keep us on the right path.
Our new perspective on loss, in this circumstance, it is a good thing. Loss can be good. I am not talking about those ten pesky pounds you want to lose. However, the burden of loss is a heavy weight to carry. This is a reason people write books about the war in our minds. The enemy uses thoughts to move us off what God’s Word says. The Word of God tells us to take captive those thoughts and cast down imaginations. We are to think wholly on the Word of God. His warfare on our minds can be worse after we take it to Jesus because the enemy wants to convince you otherwise. He doesn’t want you to take your healing or deliverance, he wants you bound. God loves you so much He sent His son to set you free!