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A Journey to the Foot of the Cross

ASH WEDNESDAY

After some consideration I have decided to let the Holy Spirit lead me in these posts during the season of Lent. I will not be using Daniel L. Lowery’s Mini Meditations simply because I don’t have his permission to do so…which is a Blessing…I’ll allow the Spirit to guide us:)

“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments ” Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness And relenting of evil.

Joel 2: 12-13

____________________________________

Holy Lord,

As we begin this season of Lent and self-denial, help us to have discipline. Let us offer You sacrifices that will please and Glorify You Lord. Help us to decrease so that You may increase. May your journey into Calvary becomes a journey into our hearts, which leads us into a deeper love with Your Precious Son, Jesus.

In His name,

Amen

Praise and Glory goes to the FATHER, THE SON, and to the HOLY SPIRIT

Fat Tuesday!

HAPPY FAT TUESDAY!!
HEE HEE, a little Julian Smith.

I actually like cats, but hate to admit I feel this towards my 3 dogs, husband, and 2 kids at times. Oh lot’s to work on during Lent…

Enjoy your indulgences today! Prepare for tomorrow as we go deeper into prayer, fasting, and alms giving for the next 40 days. Lent is a spiritual journey that takes you right to the foot of the cross and makes you a greater witness to The Passion! Praise God!

During Lent, I will be attempting DAILY POSTS that offer short meditations written by
Daniel L Lowery. I encourage you to go deeper into these meditations by reading more of the Book from God’s Word where these verses are found.

I will also be running posts on CHOOSING HOPE in the coming weeks and have been spending lots of time in prayer over the enslavement that is caused by WORRY.

Walking beside you always, please join me.

Choose Hope

“Look at the birds of the air,

that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not worth much more than they?”

Matt 6:26

If you have been here before, you know I’m crazy for birds! Note the new blog background:)

I just enjoy them so much, watching them , listening to them, photographing them.

I can even recognize many of their calls!

God willing, I will live to be the crazy old bird lady!

Last night we had a terrible storm and it poured down rain. The noise kept me up half the night, as the wind and rain hit the side of the house with such fury.

I awoke this morning to see my 11 yr old on the floor curled up in a ball. No room for her in the bed because all three dogs had already found refuge there, under the covers, afraid too from the storm. Many schools were delayed as homes and roads were struck with flooding water.

It was a mess!

BUT…

the first sound I hear, besides the alarm, was the birds chirping outside my window.

After all the wind and beating rain, the birds sang out, happy.

This afternoon, the sun returned, and I captured these shots.

The birds were bathing and playing in my birdbath!!

How can it be that after such a terrible storm, these little guys could be playing and singing like that? Just like nothing happened, not a care in the world!

This scripture came to mind, it was also the reading at church this Sunday.

Where did these little guys go last night…where did they hide to be safe from the weather?

We have all been through storms, days upon weeks where we ask ourselves, “How am I gonna make it through this?!” Unfortunately for many, sometimes those days turn into years and we can become hopeless. Hopeless that the job will never come, the cancer will never heal, the house will never sell, the spouse will never return, the addiction will never stop, the child will never grow! Worry is such a burden to so many of us. It’s that endless voice in our heads that nags and tears at us until we are heaped in the corner, defeated and alone.

Worry is the opposite of TRUST.

It is a lie.

LOOK AT THE BIRDS! His Word tells us to look at them…they do not worry. After the storm they play and sing, as if no storm ever came. Or maybe they are rejoicing in the aftermath of God’s mercy.

I pray that whatever aftermath you are feeling today, good or bad, that you would see God somewhere in it. He is holding you in the palm of His hand, right this minute.

He is your hope, choose Him.

This is the start of a random series of posts called Choose Hope. Please pray with me that God would use our blogs to inspire HOPE in others and the desire to know Him more.

Linking up with my friend Jen at Finding Heaven today!

Thank you and may God Bless you!

I made this for you!!!

Julian just cracks me up…

I wish you all love, laughter, and joy.

Linking up with Sara over at YES, TEACHER. Stop on over to visit her Tickle Me Tuesdays post.

Outside My Comfort Zone

Ok, Ok….I know the last post was hard to take.

Who do i think I am anyway??

Trust me…

I’m nobody and certainly didn’t earn that day in any way.

BUT>>>>>>

It was awesome!

And I savoured every moment of it!!

So back to the day to day….

One of the goals I want to accomplish this year is to get back to the basics. In my art, my home, my health, my family. Try to live more simply and I guess more according to God’s biblical plan for us all. I’m enjoying this and find it easier to do in some areas and harder in others.

My art is one of the hard areas.

Being a mixed media artist is so amazing to me because you’re like a kid in a candy store holding a $100 bill. So many flavors, so much money. It’s kinda like that in mixed media, so many supplies and techniques and your mind just goes to a happy place as you think of all the possibilities. Through my workshops I have discovered that this is not the case for all, and many artist find this to be a scattered, undisciplined medium that leaves them just plain frustrated. Funny, art truly is an extension of who we are.

With God knowing the direction I wanted to move in my life this year, He has so faithfully offered His guidance and has been sending all the right people. Faithful Sweet LORD!

One of my sweetest BFF’s invited me this week to a figurative art class. I have not done figurative drawings in 20 years!! I was excited to be moving outside my comfort zone and get back to the basics of paper, charcoal and sketching the human form. We would be drawing 2, 1 minute poses; 2, 3 minute poses; and 2, 5 minute poses, with time after for painting. Really I thought it would be like riding a bike and I would pick up from where I left off 20 years ago.

uhh…NO!!!

Go ahead…laugh:)

They are funny!

BTW… the model is a beautiful, 25 year old girl that weighs about 100 lbs!

SHE IS NOT MRS. BUTTERSWORTH!!

It’s good to be humbled!

My Yesterday…A Day in the Life

I am linking up today with an amazing lady named Tiffini. Her blog is beautiful and her heart is beautiful. Tiff invited me to participate over the weekend and I thought it sounded fun, but honestly I thought ” who cares what a day in my life would look like?” I’m a mom of two and most of my days consist of doing the mom things…making lunches, cleaning the house, carpooling, homework, cooking dinner and lots of prayer that God will give me the strength to do it all and still have some time for Him and me. And if you read my last post I was in the midst of “climbing down the mountain of God’s Glory” and I was feeling pretty chilly.

BUT….let me tell you…God’s Glory did show up yesterday! I guess He wanted you all to see Him:) Bare with me as this is the longest post ever and probably has a lot of spelling and grammar errors!

-Wake at 7:30 as usual, not a morning person so I was the last one up. Talk to God in prayer before I open my eyes and offer Him my day…I have few rules but this is one of them and it has helped transform my life.

-Let my posse outside to do their business ( 3 black dogs who follow me around and wait for me to look their way or possibly drop some food)

-Make the kids lunches, brush my sons hair, and kiss them on their way out the door.

-Let dogs out 3 more times!

– Read a little of the paper, answer a few emails, drink coffee.

– My sweet friend calls and we talk about God and how great he is for 45 min! We agree on meeting for adoration (prayer in God’s Holy presence through the Eucharist) on Friday am and to do a nine day prayer (novena) for her prayer intentions.

-Meanwhile my alarm is going off up stairs for 2 hours…chirping birds and I kinda like it so I leave it.

– My amazing bible study group arrives at 9:15 and because I have been yackin on the phone I answer the door in my pj’s and haven’t brushed my hair or teeth. Luckily they love me and luckily I don’t care…I just got off the phone with a godly women and I was high as a kite.

-Bible study lasts for 2 1/2 hours as one of my sisters was going through some hard things and she needed lots of prayer and council. After the convo. we were all pumped up because we had some hope in her struggle which had not been there for a very long time. Around that time an Eastern Blue Bird shows up right outside the window, a few feet from where we were sitting. Well the Holy Spirit knows I love birds and they all stand for different things in my heart when i see them…hope, love, peace, danger, God’s presence etc…so He sends them to me all the time.

The Eastern Blue Bird just happens to stand for HOPE and the girls had never even seen one! We were in awe of that little bird as we knew He heard our cries. Big hugs and they leave.

– Brush hair and teeth…at 11:30, YUCK!

– Work-out to Jackie Warner on-demand video for 35 minutes and she kicks my fat butt. Thanks Jackie, needed it!

-Shower, and get ready.

– Answer a few more emails and make a few calls.

– Pick up the kids at 3:00. Listen about there day and always enjoy hearing it. Unless they are at each others throats and I then tell them to stop talking.

– Run over to get groceries at ALDI, my favorite place, besides TRADER JOES, for food shopping.

-Spend 25 minutes getting groceries and get up to check-out line to pay. The cash I thought i put in my purse is not there and my atm card is not working. ALDI’s doesn’t take credit so I ask the cashier to put a hold on my receipt and let others go through the line while I call my hubby (who says ” what do you want me to do” I don’t know, wave your magic wand?) and frantically search my purse. As I’m looking through my purse, a women comes over, hands me my receipt, and says ” here, I’ve taken care of it”. I say in shock ” What? Oh please no”. And she turns and heads right out the door with me yelling ‘THANK YOU!” I immediately start crying like a baby because of her generosity, but mostly because of the experience I had shopping the week prior.

Week prior-My son and I were at Aldi’s , doing my weekly food shopping. We start talking with a elderly man in a wheelchair while grabbing a carton of milk. He was poor in appearance and had a strong odor and he started to tell me where I could get free groceries and free meals. We chatted for awhile and I went on with my shopping, helping him here in there, put food in his bag whenever i saw him needing assistance. While I was in the last aisle of the store, getting ready to check out, the Holy Spirit says ” Buy that man’s food”. So I tell the Holy Spirit ” OK, I will if he gets behind me in line” I know, pretty stubborn, huh? So of course the old man gets behind me in the line and I purchase his food. Really it was no big deal and more a Blessing to me then the old man I’m sure. Plus my son was all jazzed and it was a great opportunity to witness to him as well that sweet old man.

Back to yesterday…weeping in Aldi’s. People are staring of course and all I could hear the Holy Spirit say was ” I will never be out done in generosity”. WOW, what a moment! I will be donating $83.12 to my church, the exact amount the kind women paid for my groceries.

– Run home, unload the food and get on homework with the kids.

-Go out at 5:oo to my sisters boutique for a open house she has been working very hard to plan. Drink champagne and get treated like “Pretty Women” as i buy the cutest hat and purse for $40 with %50 off, bill equals my exact budget! Yeah! I usually hate shopping but had a blast and felt really cute and very frugal leaving her cute little shop .

– 7:00, go and visit my girlfriend and her new baby who arrived almost 2 month premature. While holding the 4 1/2 lbs. baby boy, looking over his tiny hands, I feel the presence of God’s might and perfection.

-Get home at 8:30 and at 8:45 a dear girlfriend calls, crying over a really sad issue she has been dealing with. We talk for 45 minutes and we both feel better, hopeful that God has this all under control.

– Kids asleep, disappointment because i didn’t kiss them goodnight. Bad Mommy!!

-Husband waiting in our prayer room to do 2 Novenas and Holy Rosary.

– End prayer at 9:57 and kiss hubby goodnight. He goes to bed at 10:00 every night…he’s so good!

– Answer a few more emails and watch TV for an hour, flipping through the stations because it is all trash. Give up and go to bed.

– Prayers of gratitude as I’m in awe of God’s Glory and that He would allow me, a lowly housewife, be a witness to His Kingdom! Fall fast asleep.

I KNOW!!!! Crazy good stuff huh?! What a week I’m having as one of my bff’s is picking me up in an hour to do portrait drawing with a live model for 3 hours!

I love this crazy roller-coaster ride God has me on! So why was I in the valley last week? I guess so that the mountain would be even higher. Like my Priest always reminds me, this is not Heaven. But boy, I felt like i was there yesterday.

I pray that you too yearn for His Glory. He is faithful, never outdone.

The Freeze

To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.
Mother Teresa

Here in the Mid-West, Indianapolis to be exact, we are going through a deep freeze. I woke up this morning to 2 inches of ice and wind gust of up to 50 miles an hour! Crazy stuff with trees and power lines falling down.

You know what is really crazy? That’s how I feel spiritually right know. Before my feet hit the floor this morning, i spent some time with the Lord and I asked Him to forgive me for my sins and give me back the deep emotion that comes from loving Him. If the feeling I have is a feeling of familiarity or complacency, I don’t want it. I never for one minute want to take for granted His love, but lately it feels like i have.

So what has changed? I’m doing all the same things to be close to Him. I’m active in my Church and prayer life, as well as alms giving and ministering to those in need. But as much as I don’t want to admit it, without the emotion, I am just going through the motions of loving Him.

Kinda like I do with my family sometimes, another thing I don’t want to admit. And though I put myself there sometimes, they (HE) still loves me.

I can’t help but think of Mother Teresa, who went through a 50 year period which she calls a dark night of the soul. St Francis also experienced this as it is said he felt unworthy of God grace. And lets not forget Job, wow! Talk about a dark night of the soul! Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not even in the same ballpark as these souls, not even the parking lot of the ballpark! But it does give me some reassurence to know that dark nights happen sometimes.

What are we to learn from being away from Him?

Could God be testing me?

Is He testing my faith?

When the freeze comes will I fall like the mighty trees and power lines?

They look so strong.

Or will I bend like the willow and find shelter like the birds?

They look so fragile… I feel so fragile.

I guess I was a little to comfortable in that peace He was giving me:)

Psalms 27:13-14

I remain confident of this:

I will see the goodness of the LORD

in the land of the living.

Wait for the LORD;

be strong and take heart

and wait for the LORD.

When I climb down the mountain
and get back to my life
I won’t settle for ordinary things

Third Day

A Journey to Robin’s Well

Poppy

10×10” gallery wrapped canvas

I can’t believe how time is flying by lately…in a good way since I am enjoying the ride. Days aren’t dragging, they are flying and it is just amazing how God’s law is freedom. I have taken time to FILL UP as I walk along my journey of Faith. I was never really good at the filling up part before, wasting time and trying to fill the hole with lots of STUFF. Stuff that could never satisfy so I would just add more STUFF. What a amazing joy it is to drink of the Living Water and be quenched! I have been filling up with Him, creating art, getting organized still ( this is a journey in itself and not one I particually enjoy!) and spending lots of quality time with family and friends. You know what I mean by quality time, just being together and letting things happen.

I wonder what fills you up?

***************

On one of my last posts I promised you that i would turn you on to some of my favorite bloggers. Women who inspire me, challenge me, and who lift me up in so many ways. True Blessings that I never expected to meet out here in this blogosphere.

Meet Robin !

She is a amazing Godly women who lifts people up and inspires them to be brave. She believes in herself and I just love that. Not in a cocky way, in a way that tells you that she has confidence in her Holy Maker.

Robin has a new e-book out (brave soul) called MY CREATIVE PEACE.

Here is what she says about the course…

THROUGHOUT the e-course, we will:
-explore God’s creativity
-explore the beauty and VALUE of creativity
-explore creativity as an act of worship
-PINPOINT your creative journey
-INTEGRATE CREATIVITY AND SPIRITUAL JOURNEY MORE DEEPLY

Robin was so nice to take the time to answer some questions for me about her journey.

· What inspired you to want to do this creative workbook?
When I was fumbling my way through trying to figure out how to be more creative, I remember looking around book stores and libraries trying to find some guidance. For me Julia Cameron’s books (The Artist Way series) helped me immensely. But as I was going through I felt myself wanting to move into allowing my creative time to be a time of prayer and meditation. I had not come across any material that discussed that aspect and so I began to consider the idea of using my journaling as a means to create something for others to use.

· What are your intentions for this creative workbook?
My initial intention was to create this as an e-course. I was all set to go and even began promoting it on the Internet. But a series of events occurred that got me to reconsider. One very important one was a woman sent me an email saying she found the course and though she couldn’t afford to do the course, she wanted to thank me for creating something along the lines of what the course offers. This along with my desire to get back into serving in the local church caused me to temporarily move the course into this direction. My next step is to approach some local churches about offering the course within their small groups.

· How did you feel as you started to dive into the details and content of this creative workbook?
FEAR AND GRATEFULNESS SIMULTANEOUSLY
Fear because I was second guessing the idea that my experience of wanting to integrate creativity and Christianity is something others are desiring to do.
Gratefulness for how much GOD has answered my prayer to want to take the limited time I Have and let it be a time where I experience GOD and feel incredibly fulfilled.

· How did you feel when you started to promote the creative workbook?
I felt this relief about knowing I had done all I could do as far as putting my words and my art together in a manner that is aesthetically pleasing and in a way that anyone can pick up the workbook and begin. I am so excited because I have seen GOD do unexpected things! When I think I am doing something for one purpose, GOD is FABULOUS about taking it and doing more than we can ever ask or THINK!

· Can you offer any advice to someone who is contemplating doing something they have never done before?

If you really sense GOD is moving you in a new direction, you cannot FAIL! CANNOT! Take the little steps; the little things you KNOW TO DO. The steps may feel like you are bumbling around in the dark. It really did feel that way for me. And then you have this “suddenly” moment where you find yourself in the middle of this thing that is BIGGER than you and yet is THE MOST SATISFYING SPACE. And then rest in it and ENJOY IT.

What an way to fill up! GOD AND ART!

I’m in and can’t wait to get my hands on this book.

Thank you Robin for being brave and encouraging others to FILL UP!

Peace

Peace

Is this my new normal?

Living in the not knowing and feeling so safe and satisfied.

Giving you each of my days, letting go of MY plan.

Not thinking about the dropping ball or the ticking of the clock.

Being free to just BE and offering all of myself to the world.

I prayed for peace, now give me the GRACE to sit a while in this place.

More on Being Real

In keeping with the spirit of my last post, I wanted to share this video from country singer BRAD PAISLEY. If you have never seen it, check it out…totally hysterical! Always makes me laugh. And it is so true!

Here in blogland I often wonder what people are REALLY like?

I have had the pleasure of meeting some of you and can honestly say your blog doesn’t do you justice! I also know a few people who blog and they are nothing like the blogs they write. So sad because it shows in their writing. Don’t get me wrong, I try and put my best foot forward too, as I do in my everyday real life. No one wants to log onto a whiny, bitchy blog everyday (and believe me I can be those things like what I’m kinda doig right now!). But I also try and keep it real. As I’ve posted before, I never expected to blog about my faith journey as often as i do and I thought people that posted their kid’s pictures were asking for trouble. I just thought I would have a cute little art blog that would promote my work and workshops.
I have grown to trust you and myself more through blogging and now post any old thing, when ever the mood hits me. This is not a numbers game for me, it is an extention of who I am.
Not saying I don’t try to encourage or inspire you and I’m not saying I would mind more followers. Just saying I would rather have 10 followers on a similar journey, then 4000 followers who really don’t care to have a connection with me or what I care about or struggle with.
I feel so blessed that this blog is growing and you actually care about reading it!

In the next few week I am going to invite you to check out some of my favorite blogs. These blogs are written by genuine women who have touched my heart.

Jen at FINDING HEAVEN is like that. Stop over and visit her for a glimpse into her authentic life and journey of Faith.

Enjoy the show…

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