Every test....

Baby Shipps....coming this December

Be patient with my doubt because I am trying to figure out YOUR will. I’ve never been so scared for a moment in my life that caused a fear in me that was a paralyzing numbness that left me senseless. Who would ever think that carrying a child inside of you could be so scary all coming from life experiences that took chunks of my heart? Today was a day of mixed emotions but the one that deserves the attention and praise is HOPEFUL!!!!  When you have “hope” you have a future.  So God asked me today…. loud and clear………… to trust HIM with every ounce of my soul. So I prayed and I ask everyone that I knew to pray with me. I prayed that HIS will, not mine, would be done.  As hard as I kicked and screamed on this one prayer, I knew that he knew best for me.  As hard as this child bearing experience has been, it has taught me many things. I have been taught and believe that He wants me to have this miracle and He wants to give me my heart’s desire.  Today made HIM happy. Today made me hope for a future instead of fearing the unknown. I witnessed firsthand His love, presence, and mercy. I lay on my knees in awe of Answered Prayers!!! He brings hope to the hopeless…..He gives peace to the restless…..He fills those who are empty and rescues those in the valley.  He finds me in my weakness and he heals the wounds of my heartache.  Open my eyes to the things unseen and show me how to love and trust your plan for my life. For those that were there today near and far and supported us, just know you are a blessing to me. You continue to love me and lift me!!!! You help me stay strong and hopeful and help fight this battle.  But one thing is for sure ….WE all are blessed!!!!  You saw a blessing today!!!! Today we are 14 weeks pregnant and this baby is fighter!!!!!! Another Baby Shipps on the way……coming this December. PRAISE GOD!!!!!!!! He gets all of this glory!!!!!

When Pain Paralyzes

I wanted to share this message with you because it really hit home for me. You can learn more about this ministry and their encouraging words through Incourage at the link below.

Check out this post: http://www.incourage.me/2012/04/when-pain-paralyzes.html

Emotional Pain. It can be hard to know what to do when we are hurting.

Inundated with pain and sadness that makes us want to cry for hours, we feel lost and all alone. Our hearts become mangled beyond recognition.

One blow. A twinge of pain. Two blows. Excruciating pain. Three blows. The depths of despair!

Completely subjugated on a bed of affliction, we feel buried under a mound of mental anguish.

As Christians, we tend to feel guilty when we experience negative emotions.

That’s when we act in pretense and find the nearest rug to sweep our feelings under while telling ourselves, I can’t let anyone know I am hurting. They will think I’m not a good Christian; that I don’t ‘have it altogether!’

As we repress our true feelings, the slightest provocation sets us off. When they surface, we are shocked! Where did that come from, we wonder?

Comparing ourselves to others, especially the men in our lives, doesn’t work. They are wired differently. They compartmentalize their heartache and move on without a second thought.

As a woman, this method is foreign and far reaching.

Overcome with machine gun emotions pelting us from every side, we quickly retreat to our bedrooms with a box of Kleenexes. We cry until we have a sinus headache, our voices become nasally, and our eyes are bloodshot.

Finding out our teenager is on drugs. Our spouse betrays us by having an affair. Learning our unmarried daughter who is still a kid herself is expecting a baby. A good friend we thought we could trust falsely accuses us. A business partner doesn’t uphold his or her end of the deal. Our spouse gambles away their paycheck leaving us without money to pay our rent. We read about an innocent child abused by a parent.

Pretending our emotions do not exist is not the answer.

We must deal with our feelings in a healthy manner. Talking about how we feel with a trusted friend or our spouse and praying about them is crucial. It’s okay to be honest and ask the Lord to help us work through the issue we are struggling with.

God created us to be emotional beings, but balance is key.

What do we do with all of the pain when it becomes unbearable, causing us to feel we can’t take another shard of glass? Stuff it? Run from it? Pretend it doesn’t exist?

1. Talk to the Lord about it in prayer!

2. Share with a trusted friend, get their feedback, & pray together.

Our pain, when given to the Lord, is never wasted. It has a purpose. If we choose to embrace it, it will make us stronger and make us more like Jesus.

A stranger asked a Silversmith who was refining silver “How do you know the right amount of heat needed for the refining of the silver?”

He looked up and said, “When I can see my own reflection.”

The Lord refines us through pain and difficult circumstances for the purpose of eventually seeing His reflection in us.

Through it all, even our crazy emotions have a purpose. They remind us we are frail human beings in need of the daily grace and strength of God. As our trust in God increases, we come to realize, we are never alone…

He rides the waves of our raging emotions. He knows what we are going through and He’s not afraid of our feelings! After all, He’s the God of the Universe. Sometimes He calms the storm. Other times, He calms the child!

By: Carole McDuffee

To be yourself.....

Getting connected to what really matters

“If you organize your family life to spend even ten or fifteen minutes a morning reading something that connects you with these timeless principles, its almost guaranteed that you will make better choices during the day--in the family, on the job, in every dimension of life. Your thoughts will be higher. Your interactions will be more satisfying. You will have a greater perspective. You will increase that space between what happens to you and your response to it. You will be more connected to what really matters most.”
― Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone

It’s been a long journey full of ups and downs, tears and laughter, and lessons that are molding me into the person I am today.  After the loss of my daughter at almost full term (35 weeks) in the summer of 2009, God blessed me with a community of other believers that invited me into their small group because he knew I would need them.  Oh, and how true that was!!!! And since that time, I have come to know Christ and desire to spend time with him daily.  Through multiple women’s connections groups studying various books of the bible and the lessons and conversations we have in my other small group, I feel God is teaching me and empowering me to be so much more. He's calling me to do more than just attend the groups.  He is molding me to lead and filling me with the desire to bring other women together!!!! Seriously?!?!....ME????  He wants to use little ‘ol me to do this and teach me so MUCH MORE!!!

 OK…..so I prayed about it for over a year.....and little by little God started revealing to me that it was time.  I'd get those feelings that would just not go away. Through many answered prayers and signs that it was time, I decided that I wanted to lead a study but I was not sure which book to do.  How would I know what to lead?  What are the next steps?  I had no clue but I knew I would figure it out. I found it interesting that there were so many signs that the book of James may be the book I would choose. I studed the book of James back in 2000.  And here it is 12 years later; he is using me to lead a group to do the another study.  And there is absolutely no coincidence that my church, Heartland, is also studying the book of James and Darryn Scheske is leading us into a deeper understanding of who James was.  I have been filled with so much support by those in my small groups, my pastor, and those that have been on this journey with me.  God is calling me to come completely out of my comfort zone and step out in faith even thought I feel inadequate in my ability.  I trust that by putting God first and being obedient in what he is calling me to do, I will learn more than I ever knew was possible.  I continue to pray for his lead and guidance and he will take care of the rest. Our pastor is so on fire for the James study that I can’t help but take pages of notes to the point that my hand cramps.  This book is AMAZING and so relevant for our generation. 

I want to share this with you….my readers on this blog….what I am learning and my thoughts on how these lessons are molding and shaping me into a better person full of purpose.  I hope you find this information interesting and most of all I pray that it gets you to think outside of the box just as those leaders are challenging me to think and apply the principles I learn.  We will learn through James, it is not what we know, but what we are doing with what we know and how we can make a difference in His kingdom. 

We are getting ready to start the Beth Moore “Mercy Triumphs-James” this week.  Check out the introduction to her study: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1NmnTlUQ4Q

As I prepare for the study, I am reminded of the notes that I took during the Going Deeper series at Heartland.  Our pastor has been a HUGE source of inspiration for me.  He is so anointed with the Holy Spirit and his perspective and insight is so interesting.  I wanted to share his thoughts that have been summarized in my notes in my next blog post.  I do not take credit for all these thoughts but I wanted to share his insight with you as we learn about who James is and why this book in the bible is so powerful and relevant today. 

Getting ready to embark on a new chapter in my life

Getting ready to embark on a new chapter in my life and I could not be more excited to see how God is going to use me to be a leader to bring other women together in UNITY so they can grow in their faith and relationship with God and learn who he is in order to grow in relationship with him.  I feel honored and humbled and so unequipped….and yet very excited that he is bringing us all together for a bigger purpose.  I am absolutely amazed at how God is healing me one day at a time and using my inadequacies and strengths to help those that are hurting and lost around me. It has become my focus because I can relate on many levels.  I know (more than I want to admit) about the loss of hope and dreams, of grief and sorrow, of one disappointment after another, about being angry and shameful.  And through all of that stuff that weighs heavily on my shoulders, I am humbled by the undeserving love and mercy that comes through Christ.  Trust me…..it is not by my own strength that I am who I am today and this transformation is a daily thing.  Feel free to follow by blog over the next 10 weeks as I take an adventure to bring more meaning and purpose in my life and how this purpose can be used for something much bigger than me!!!!!!