Tag: love

God Has Me On His Mind

I have written your name on the palm of my hand; (Is. 49:16)

I have two tattoos. I have always been fearful of needles so I never saw this one coming. From the time of my children’s birth I had these little things I would say to each of them. To my son, “I love you so much I can’t even believe it.” To my daughter, “I love you more than the moon loves the stars.” Way later in life, once they were both adults, married and in the military serving our country. My daughter would occasionally say to me, “Hey mom we should get a tattoo.” I would always respond with,”yes we should, but never really wanting to go through with it, I thought it might be a sin and God would not be happy with me and I wasn’t really into self inflicted pain. Through much prayer and finally finding peace that it was not a heaven or hell issue, and surely how bad could this really hurt? I said okay, let’s do this. While she was stationed in England about to have her first child I went for a 5 week stay with her. By the way her husband was actually in the military she was just fortunate enough to be able to get stationed there with him. After her daughter was born, there was an airman there on base that did tattoos. I told her the only way I would get one was if we did one about us. So we each had moon and stars tattooed on our foot to represent, “I love you more than the moon loves the star.” I just want to say that was more painful than giving birth,” but I loved her that much. A couple months down the road my son was over, he had been in the Navy and I was showing him my tattoo, when he asked where was his? I thought oh my, I am going to have to endure another painful encounter with that needle. What the heck let’s’ go BIG. I got a tattoo on my back of a woman representing me, holding a staff that said Believe it, with the sun representing my son to the right just above her. That was a lot of ink, I couldn’t get the whole I love you so much I can’t even believe it on there, but we knew what it meant. I did this because I loved my children and I wanted them to see I was willing to go through anything to show them of my love for them. The photos in the picture are not that good partially due to the length of time I have had them and they are a bit worn and the other reason the camera didn’t capture the one on my back very well. I believe that scripture above is a tattooed reminder from God to us. “I have written your name on the palm my hand.” Just as my tattoos represent my love for my children, I believe this scripture above symbolizes God’s permanent, unbreakable love and constant reminder of His people. He will never forget his children and our lives are always at the forefront of his mind, just as my children are always at the forefront of my mind daily.

Wedding Crashers

Proverbs 17:22 says, “Laughter is like a good medicine.”

Everyday we need to take our medicine. Find something that makes you laugh. See the humor in life. Put a smile on. Be friendly. Be good natured. Learn to laugh! Laughter is powerful and free accessible medicine, all natural. I like all natural remedies. Some of the benefits are: It lowers stress hormones, increases immune cells, reduces disease risk and boost cardiovascular health. It relaxes muscles through the release of endorphins, which is a natural pain relief. It increases serotonin and dopamine, causing a better mood as well as giving us the ability to see things in a new perspective when approached with challenging situations. When we share laughter with others we are able to connect better and resolve conflicts.

I have a newfound love for laughter. When I am faced with a heaviness or a difficult situation, mostly a place where I just can’t see past it at the moment, finding something to laugh about brings a calming effect and then I can focus on whatever it is that I am needing to deal with. I just have to loosen the load so to speak. Every time you are able to find some humor in a situation, you win. I love to joke around not in a malicious kind of way, but one that brings others to laughter, I feel a sense of connection when that happens. Everybody needs someone to make them laugh when they think that they’ll never smile again. In Proverbs laughter is portrayed as a gift from God, a sign of joy, and a therapeutic force. When we laugh, we neither think, grieve, or feel. In Eccl. 3:4, it’s a natural part of life’s rhythm, “a time to weep and a time to laugh.” Laughter is the best medicine but if you laugh for no reason, you need medicine …LOL. My husband and I love to laugh, we laugh at some of the craziest things, but the best times are when we are laughing so hard we are crying and trying to stop but can’t and end up laughing even harder and longer. I also love it when I hear someone else laughing uncontrollably, it causes me to start laughing and I may not even know what it is about it just becomes contagious.

I challenge you today to think about something really funny, whether from your past, an experience that was really bazaar, just something …and begin to laugh. I promise you will feel so much release from the mundane, or just happier than you already are.

Learn to Laugh …Life is much better when you are ~

Preparation for Paradise

“In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” (John 14:2-4)

Today is my dad’s birthday as you can see on his stone. It’s been a long time since we have celebrated birthdays or anything else for that matter, but I know one day we will be celebrating all things together. First, I have to tell you he is my stepdad. I was 4 years old when he married my mom, so he is actually the man who raised me. I was engrafted into his family, much like we are with our Father God, through Jesus Christ. The year before he left his earthly home he was diagnosed with cancer and somewhere around a year before that him and our mother divorced after nearly 30 years of marriage. We lived in Texas at the time; I was married to someone else, and I had two children from a previous marriage. My dad was doing his treatments at MD Anderson in Houston about an hour from where I lived. He stayed with me part of that year as well as my sister just under me, his biological daughter. She was divorced and living alone, until my stepbrother came down from out of state to spend some time with our dad as he was ill. Dad had two sons from his first marriage, me, and then him and my mom had two daughters. The one I just spoke of is a little more than 5 years younger than me and the other sister is 17 years younger than me. The two stepbrothers both lived out of state and there wasn’t a lot of communication between them and us. Unfortunately for all the siblings, I being the oldest of all the kids was the only one who had children, therefore their children never had the chance to know him. Dad and I would stay up all hours of the night talking, due to the medicines he was taking, he couldn’t sleep. We didn’t have the best relationship to say the least as I was growing up, but when I was considered adult age and out of the house, my mom became pregnant with my youngest sister, and we began to form a bond then. We became pretty close over the next few years; he even coached me through my pregnancies. Back to our long nights. It first started out him seeking forgiveness from me for the horrible things I went through as a child, his part in that, that is. Which by doing so, enabled me to forgive him. Then he began talking to me about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. You see, his father was my grandfather that was a minister, a minister my dad’s entire life, well my grandfather’s entire life as well, after the war. My dad knew the Word of God; he just didn’t live like it most of the time. So, to say he reared us up in the likeness of Jesus is a far cry from that. But he was making up for lost time now. I believe he knew after about 6 months into his treatments, he wasn’t going to be here long, and he had some work to do, that work I call, “Preparation for Paradise.” He knew what the Word said about having unforgiveness against your brother & others, and the importance of it. That if he wanted his Father in heaven to forgive him, he must forgive his brother and seek forgiveness where it was needed as well. He was on a mission, and he was leading by example now. He went the distance sick and all to find those he needed to make right with. Back to our long nights again. He told me about a book he had received from his parents about the Holy Spirit, and he wanted me to read it, like as many times as it took before I really understood it. This was very important to him, that I get understanding. I still have that book today and two years after he left us, I spent an entire day reading it aloud to my baby sister and I remember my current husband like it was yesterday, coming home from work finding the two of us bawling. When he asked what was wrong, I told him, “I have sinned, the unpardonable sin. I had blasphemed the Holy Spirit.” He reassured me I hadn’t, if I had I certainly would not be that upset. Gotta love baby Christians! Later I finally got it, and I did read that book a couple more times just like my dad suggested. You see my dad didn’t have anything of earthly value to leave us kids, but what he did have was knowledge and understanding of our Father God and His plan and purpose for our lives. The legacy he was about to leave me was one I would have to grow into, but he prepared me with a good foundation to grow on. I learned a lot in that last year of his life and I know now, what to leave my children as a legacy before I enter into Paradise. Two years after he entered into Paradise, I rededicated my life to the Lord and I have been diligently seeking him ever since. Thank you, Dad and Happy Birthday, see you soon.