Thankfulness

Thanksgiving week- Day 2
Today I am highlighting how thankful I am for the best husband God ever created! Jonathan is such a blessing in my life and the best thing that ever happened to me. I love him more as the years go by and we are the best of friends. He is absolutely my favorite person to be with. I know I am gushing but I just can't say enough wonderful things about my man!!!
God gave me a lavish gift when he brought us together and has taught me so much about Himself through Jonathan. I pray that I am half the spouse to Jonathan that he is to me.
Here are some excerpts from Song of Solomon that express it better than I can:
"How handsome you are, my lover! Oh, how charming! My lover is radiant and ruddy, outstanding among ten thousand. This is my lover, this my friend,"
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the gift of Jonathan in my life!

~ Psalm 107:31~

Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love

and his wonderful deeds for men.

Thankfulness

Thanksgiving week- Day 1
I am going to be posting a little spot each day on something I am thankful for as we progress towards Thanksgiving day this week. I need to focus my heart and mind on the things I am thankful for and what better way than to share them with you.
So today I am thankful for God alone- this is the most important thing in my life and I want to just say "Thank you God for you, Thank you Jesus for you, Thank you Holy Spirit for you." My heart overflows with joy and thankfulness as I contemplate my God and Savior. I can't even think of words to express my heart. I am singing in the shower (poor Jonathan has had to endure), smiling at scriptures and being caught up in the fall beauty as they all point to God!
Psalm 28:7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.
These verses caught my eye today and I pray them for you and for me!

~Colossians 2:6-7~

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Week-end Get Away

Jonathan and I took a little trip to get away this weekend. We ended up in the Texas hill country and rented a lovely log cabin on lake LBJ.

Both of us needed a retreat and a time of rest so we took off on Friday night with no bigs plans. We ended up sleeping, hiking, spelunking and enjoying the rustic beauty of God's countryside. It reminded me of God's own time to rest on the 7th day from his work.

While God commands us to work and labor for him in all we do, he also desires us to come away, rest and refresh ourselves with him. As we took in his marvelous creation and toured Longhorn Cavern, I was thankful for these sweet times of rest and revitalization.

We are back at work and going strong now but thank God for his rest!

Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. ~ Psalm 62: 5 ~

Pics from Hannah's Wedding

We prayed and God delivered! My younger sister was married this weekend outdoors and we were praying hard for good weather for NW Arkansas. God answered us with a beautiful sunny 75 degree fall day and the wedding was wonderful.
Check out these fun pictures!

Jonathan & Esther

Allen Family portrait with new additions!

Family is Joy

I have been mulling over family and how it affects our lives this week.
This past weekend my brother in law got married and we had the pleasure of helping and being at the event. The wedding reflected the bride and grooms personalities really well. We were all very excited for them and for the future of their family.
Jonathan and I sent them on their honeymoon this week and picked them up last night from spending some time in Mexico. As they were telling us some tales of their trip and the fun things they were able to do, I was struck with how much pleasure it brings to give to others so they experience joy and their dreams can come too! They were alight with joy and simple pleasure after getting away for a few days. And Jonathan and I were also happy because they had experienced such a wonderful time together. It was a joy to give to them.
Two things stand out to me today as I reflect on this.
1) It was a joy to spread joy through giving of ourselves to them during this time! Being willing to give brings joy and fulfillment to the giver as much as it does the recipient. God commands us to give as much for our benefit as for the ones receiving the gift! He doesn't need our gifts as much as he wants our hearts and desires good to come to us through our giving (If only I would better remember this when I struggle to give due to a selfish heart).
2) As the bonds of human family here on earth bind together people that may have never been together otherwise, we learn love and good when God is at the center. Perhaps you would never have been able to stand each other without that family bond but God can help us all love one another and become less harsh and judgemental. If we who struggle with being able to love each other still enjoy giving to one another then God must really love to lavish on us because he loves us perfectly all the time. I acknowledge this in my head but I struggle to grasp and believe this in my heart!

Father help me to grasp your love so I may rest in it lavishly and learn to love others more completely! Thank you for the gift of family and help me to love them better too!

Let Go and Let God

Do you ever come to a point where suddenly you realize that you have been festering over things in your life subconciously and not trusting God?
Well (as the commercial says) I'm so there! I find myself doing this on occasion. It seems to build internally and before I know it, I am holding tension in my shoulders, I am not sleeping well and waking up mulling over things that I should be looking to God about for direction. I really strive to pray over things and turn to God for direction but this problem slowly seeps in and my trust factor is forgotten. I don't mean to and am even thinking that I am trusting God for things. Yet, it still happens.
So now that I am in this place again, what do I do?
Three things came to mind as I was spending time with God this morning.
1) Take a time out- turn off, disconnect, get away and get quiet before God so that you can address the anxiousness of your heart. Getting away so I can focus makes all the difference for me. I am able to recenter my thoughts and heart on Christ and reestablish priorities.
2) Focus on the problems at hand instead of on the future- Stop thinking about future things, stay focused on where you are right now in life and turn the future back over to God's care. I am one to look for the next thing and I forget to enjoy right where I am in life. This often leads to worry instead of thankfulness.
3) Ponder- Mull over how God has come through in the past and praise his faithfulness. Looking over the past provisions brings a peace over me and a thankful heart. I turn upward and outward instead of inward!
So now I am working on putting these 3 things into practice and changing my habits (again). Let go and let God because it is all about him and not about me!

Monday Musings

It is another Monday and God has been loving as usual to show up and give me some bites of wisdom to chew on.
1st of all let me report that God has continued to work on me after my last post! I am happy to say that when we played volleyball this week, I was more aware of Him and hopefully more responsive to him in the midst of the battle. God is working and I have to will to let go of myself and cling to him!
God has been teaching me a lot about surrendering myself and being obedient when he asks me to do, be or give something up. This morning I was reading in Joshua and came across these verses.
Joshua 5:11-12
"The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate of the produce of Canaan."
What God brought to mind was this, when I am in a place of struggle or desert, he provides manna for my time there but he never intends for me to stay in the desert eating manna for the rest of my days. He has called me to walk through the desert to somewhere, the place he has called me, my land of Canaan. There I will eat of the abundance of the land and God's temporary manna will stop because his permanent produce will be supplied! How cool is that? I am still mulling over this so I don't have all my thoughts in order yet but I wanted to share!