You Are More

I love the words:

But don't you know who you are,
What's been done for you?
Yeah don't you know who you are?

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade.

Cause this is not about what you've done,
But what's been done for you.
This is not about where you've been,
But where your brokenness brings you to

This is not about what you feel,
But what He felt to forgive you,
And what He felt to make you loved.

Isn't it great to know the Lord remakes us? You know how we all love new things...I can't be the only one that loves to come home with something new and perfect. And then I think, "That's what the Lord does for us. He remakes us!" We are new! Who else can give you that?!

the hole

This morning we listened to a sermon from one of my favorite pastors. He's one of my favorites because his message always convicts me.

The message all boils down to looking inward and finding that one thing that you least want to give to the Lord...and then giving it to Him...because that is the one thing He wants MOST. It all comes from this scripture about the rich, young ruler who was asked to sell his treasure.

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.'" And he said to him, "Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth." And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. (Mark 10:17-22)

I tend to think I truly love the Lord. But loving God is not just saying, "I believe Jesus is God, and I love Him." It is truly putting Him first as your treasure. And that is where I say "ouch".

Because I do love God.

I do pray before meals.

I do read the bible.

I do go to church.

I do give.

BUT...do I put Him before EVERYTHING? Do I love him more than anything else in my life?

For me, the least thing I want to give to Him is my time. I mean, I get an hour (if I'm lucky!) of time in my day that is only for me. I want to do whatever I want with that time. But I wonder if the reason my time seems unbalanced is because I have not given my time to Him.

So, here is my personal experiment...lots of people give up things for Lent. Well, there are 4 weeks until Easter, and I want to give my TIME to God. Being diligent and disciplined with my time. He gives it to me. May I honor Him with how I use it.

If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it. ~Luke 17:33

(For a more succinct message, go to the source: http://www.mychristchurch.com/messages.html )

mood food

I'm a big believer in using food as your medicine. I'd much rather change my diet to improve my health than be put on medicine. The other day I caught a blip on a morning show about foods that improve your mood and it was very interesting.

This is what they said:

To help your brain think better, eat spinach (iron source) and pair it with high vitamin C.

In need of energy, have an apple with peanut butter.

PMS'y, have a grilled cheese.

If you're angry, drink a cup of green tea.

If you are feeling stressed, have a piece of dark chocolate. (I like to eat chocolate even when I'm not stressed.) :)

Yum! :) Have a HAPPY day!

a new view on life

This is Lucy. Our first baby...pre-Bella, pre-Geni. Our very first sweet girl. And we adore this doggy. She brings so much life and joy to our family and home. We found out our precious Lucy has something called lymphosarcoma...a cancer of the lymph nodes. She's 3. There is no cure. We have the option of trying chemo or just giving her steroids to make her comfortable. Chemo is not a great option, so we've chosen to give her steroids to hopefully make her feel as well as she can.

The prognosis is 4 weeks to 8 months.

I don't like it.

It breaks my heart to look at this sweet dog and know there is a deadly disease taking over her once strong body. She's going to die. And then I realize we're all going to die. There's something different about Lucy and the rest of us...I guess we all feel like we have awhile before we go. Lucy doesn't. Don't get me wrong, I'm praying for a miracle everyday. The way we're living with Lucy now is different. We don't take the simple things for granted. We love on her every opportunity we get. We go outside as much as we can.

I step back and think, "Why don't we ALL live this way?" I read in Job yesterday, "Life is but a breath."

Live EVERY DAY to its fullest. One time I was in a coffee shop and I overheard a man saying goodbye to his friend and he said, "Tom, have the best day of your life." Pretty cool, huh? I like it.

I hope to give Lucy the best days of her life. I am thankful we know about her future. I rejoice in my belief that she'll be in heaven. I just wish we had a little more time to take her on runs and to the lake, and just see her happy. I will choose to celebrate these days instead of mourning. I'll be sad later (I am still working on this, as I'm crying thinking about her not growing up with the girls.)

Ok...forgive the blubbering....not much eloquence in this post.

I need to go hug a dog.

ugh

i hate it when i have a fight with my hubby. i love him. he's amazing. and it just completely breaks my heart when we don't get along just right. ugh :( and i really don't know why i'm putting this on my blog...but i am.