#195 - She Laughs!

Good morning! It's a beautiful day in Columbia! I had a nice, relaxing day yesterday. What a blessing. Let's going ahead and jump into some Word this morning!

Proverbs 17:22 - A happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing, but a broken spirit dries up the bones. 

Proverbs 31:25 (NLT) - She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.

I decided to read Proverbs 31 today in the New Living Translation just for a little bit different of a perspective.  I came to "she laughs" and just felt drawn to it. She laughs. She laughs. She, this woman has the ability to enjoy life. She laughs. Carefree. Without fear. She laughs.

I just think of the days I've had when I haven't laughed. The days where maybe I've cried. Everything has mounted up, I maybe was taking on the cares of the world, trying to figure out God or... in some cases, play God. I remember days when I have not laughed. Days when I have not been "carefree." Those have not been fun days.

I remember watching a program that featured someone who was healed of cancer. They took Proverbs 17:22 to heart. In their spare time they just watched comedy programs. They rented movies that made them laugh. They watched comedians. They spent their days just laughing! Laughing and laughing! What good medicine!

Laughter. The ability to heal. Heal a broken heart, heal frustration of yet to be reached goals, heal unanswered questions, to heal the unknown. In today's busyness, sometimes we forget to laugh. Sometimes we are to wrapped up in life that laughter does not come automatically. I am going to recommend that today you find a way to laugh. Look up jokes online. Watch a funny movie. Get on the floor with your child and have a tickling war. Find a way today to laugh. I know I could use it.

Speaking of laughter... Tyler Junior went to bed late last night because we had dinner with some friends. He is just now waking up. As I turned up the baby monitor, this is what I heard: "Mama, mama, mommy. Amy. Amy. Amy. Amy." Lol! He has heard daddy calling me "Amy"... so sometimes he will repeat my name over and over. He's done that recently in a store, he just said, "Amy! Amy! Amy!" I can't help but laugh. I'm Mommy & Amy! :) What a fun age!

Well.... go have a good laugh today!

xoxo!
Be Blessed!

#178 - JOY!

Good morning! It's a nice morning here, a bit of a cool morning, but I anticipate it will turn into a warm day. The joys of living in the south! :)

Let's get started:

Psalm 30:5b - Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

As I was reading through Proverbs 5 this morning... the verses that really jumped out at me were Proverbs 5:21 & 23. Proverbs 5:23 went on to say, "He will die for lack of discipline & instruction..." As I read that, even though it was the main scripture that jumped out... as I took some time to just listen to the Voice of the Holy Spirit, I just kept hearing, "Joy comes in the morning. Joy. Joy. Joy comes in the morning." The phrase repeated in my ears.

I sat on this subject of "joy," I took some time to reflect on what all I have to be joyful about. An amazing husband, an awesome, funny son, a baby on the way (Trin), a home to live in, an awesome family, a business, the ability to stay home with Tyler Jr, God as my Provider.... I have so much to be joyful about. Just last night before going to bed, I was reading and read an excerpt about a man complaining about having no shoes until he beheld a man on the street with no feet.

Have you felt like weeping has endured long enough? The night has seemed to drag on, the weeping, exhausting? Joy comes in the morning. Allow today to be the day for joy. Allow today to be the day where you just let your hair down. I envision cranking up your favorite CD in the car with your favorite happy song on, putting the windows down and just driving. Singing. Belting out the lyrics, tune of no importance. Just finding that place of joy. Being spontaneous. Stopping to get your favorite ice cream... a cone, or blizzard, a yummy McFlurry. Whatever it is, allowing it to be a spontaneous day. If it can't be a day.... maybe it's just a spontaneous stop, or spontaneous hour. Taking a long lunch break to catch a matinee, a fun afternoon movie!

Joy comes in the morning. I am praying that today would be your morning. It would be the morning YOUR joy comes. Weeping has endured too long. We only have today, today. We are creating our story, creating our legacy now, we may as well enjoy the journey & do it with joy.

May today you experience your joy!

#88 - Faith Comes by Hearing!

Good morning to all! How goes it?! Good here. I am outside on my porch. The weather is nice and fallish. I'm in my college sweats and sweatshirt! :) Comfy! I did have to dry off the glass table that I sit at... it was covered with dew. Is that what it would be called? Or just condensation? Anyways, it was wet! Fall is here!


Well...yesterday was an interesting day. I was overcoming some stomach issues, so the afternoon consisted of a nice long nap. Thankfully the boy cooperated with me and took a nap too! What a good kid! Such a blessing to his mama!! Needless to say, I did not end up posting yesterday... hopefully you can forgive me! :-D


Let's get going...

Psalm 51:12 - Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Proverbs 31:18b - ...her lamp goes not out, but it burns on continually through the night [of trouble, privation, or sorrow, warning away fear, doubt, and distrust].

Pretty short and to the point with verses today. What a good word today. A good word to me, and I anticipate to some of you this will speak to you too! 


I want you to just think about maybe a failure in your life. Something that you have been trying to have victory over. Maybe it's a goal you have been working towards and it has just seemed like you've been working on it forever and still in the same place. You've been going and going and going, with little to show for your efforts. Today is a word for you. 


The word "restore" jumped off the page at me. Restore joy. Do you feel like you have been just going through the motions. Have you wondered where your joy is? How can I be happy? I just feel like a failure. I'm just not happy. I'm not where I want to be. This is not how I envisioned my every day being. I just want to get out. I want to get to that happy place. I want to have joy. I want joy! 


To RENEW & RESTORE often requires forgetting the past. Specifically forgetting past failures. Sometimes forgetting the past all together. If you think about your past and all it does is depress you, then maybe you need to forget the past all together. God has forgotten it, as far as the east is from the west, so why do you keep dwelling on it? Begin today and add something in your life that brings you joy. If you like to bake, stop at the grocery store and bake something. If you've had a challenge with your weight and don't want to eat it yourself, think of someone you could bake something for.... sow your gift of baking into bringing joy to someone else's life. Who can you bless with your gift and the thing you enjoy? Amazing that simultaneously, you find joy because you are doing WHAT you enjoy. Do you like to draw? Draw something. Do you like to run? Go for a run after work? Do you love spending time with your kids? Be spontaneous, pick them up after school and bring them to the park. You can dread every day, or you can begin to change it today. 


As I read about the Proverbs 31 woman, I read how her lamp does not go out. Her lamp, her connection to the Word, to God. Lamp in the Bible often refers to the Bible. What does this do for her? Exactly what it will do for us! In the amplified, it says that the lamp warns away fear, doubt and distrust. For us... what could that be? Fear of having to live another day in our life. Fear of having another day bring unfullfillment and despair. Dwelling on the Word, meditating on the Word, ie: keeping the "LAMP" on, helps us to avoid these feelings!


Doubt. What is doubt? Doubt is lack of faith. Lack of belief. If we are living in doubt, that means we are not renewing our mind enough to bring our thoughts, actions & life to a point of faith. To come to a point of belief. So how do we do that? It's a process, and most likely will not happen overnight. Yes, spend time in the Word. What's the verse we have all heard?? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by what? The word of God. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing specifically the Word of God. Meditate on the faith chapter in the Bible. Hebrews 11. Get around and associate with people who have had victory in the area you want to have victory in. Get around people who HAVE the FAITH that you want. Allow their faith to rub off on you! If you are around pigs, if you are constantly in the arena of pigs, what's going to happen? You will most likely be dirty and you will definitely smell like pigs. It will affect how you look and will affect your attitude. Find an arena where people are winning. Find a way to put yourself in that arena to be around them. That may take YOU going out of your way to put yourself there. Maybe driving to get around them. Inconveniencing yourself to put yourself in a place where you can change how you think. 


What else? I was talking to someone the other day who is wanting to lose weight. In our conversation she said something with the phrase, "get my fat butt...". To begin to have faith in succeeding, it takes retraining how we SEE our situation. Faith comes by HEARING. By speaking words that CONTRADICT your goal, by default is what your are going to build your faith in! Faith comes by HEARING. In speaking the words, "my fat butt", she is training herself to have faith in having a "fatt butt" versus having faith in her goal, getting a skinny butt. It's a matter of beginning to SEE, to VISUALIZE, LITERALLY your success. WHATEVER the arena! In a specific area for me, I just capped over 43,000 words in the book I'm writing. For me with my book, it is SEEING my book on the shelves of Barnes & Nobles, seeing my book rise to the top of the charts. It is seeing my name on the speaking line-up for John Maxwell's "Catalyst" conference, it is SEEING my books changing the lives of college girls, seeing them break down and commit to a change towards purity, a change to waiting for the man God has made perfectly for them. For my business goals, it takes me SEEING the people who I will be best friends with, a living room full of my friends and business partners who we go out and change the world with. SEEING a group of leaders filling up our clubhouse, the "man cave" above our garage. SEEING them talk into the late hours of the night about changing this country, about changing families for the good, about setting captives free, about bringing mommies & daddies home from work. It takes me SEEING the people who will be like-minded, who want to make a difference, and we partner, hand-in-hand to take back America for God and for Freedom. It takes me SEEING, truly VISUALIZING and seeing these things come to pass. 


So today.... RENEW your mind. Fill it with the Word. Keep it constantly in front of you. Even if it's just ONE scripture that you can meditate on and every day go back to. Maybe it's a scripture that you search out that says you are MORE than a CONQUEROR. That you are a WINNER. That you are VICTORIOUS. RESTORE your love, your passions, your dreams. Begin to allow those to bring back joy in your life. FORGET THE PAST. FORGET YOUR FAILURES. Stop dwelling in the arena with pigs. Stop living today allowing your past failures to dictate your today. Begin the journey of climbing to joy. Of choosing joy. Of winning. Faith comes by HEARING. Say, "I HAVE A SKINNY BUTT!" Or, "I AM A WINNER! EVERYTHING I PUT MY HAND TO PROSPERS! I AM LIVING MY DREAM LIFE." If you aren't living your dream life, say it anyways!!! FAITH COMES BY HEARING! It will help you work your way to that dream life. It will help you to subconsciously align your actions with your dream life, your calling, your purpose. And it is BIBLICAL! Faith comes by HEARING! To build your faith, you need to HEAR! I didn't make that up, it came directly from the Bible! Look for yourself. Build your faith on the positive. Build your faith in the direction you WANT to go, not where you are now or not where your failures were in the past.


Let's go out and win today!