There have been situations in my life where I e asked God to do something & what I asked for didn’t happen. Quite often in these situations, what has happened instead of my request tended to be better than what I had asked for.
What we plan & ask for doesn’t always work out but we must always know, trust & believe that God loves us & God’s ways are always better & higher than our ways 
Posts Tagged 'change'
The unexpected
Published March 22, 2013 Angola , Genuine love , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , saving moses , spiritual 1 CommentTags: adjust, change, flex, plan
something WAY cool!!
Published December 28, 2012 Angola , Cambodia , family , Holy Spirit , living , missions , prayer , saving moses , spiritual , travel 2 CommentsTags: change, encouraging, growing, helping, learning, transform
Hola friends!
Now that we’ve finished Christmas, I’m starting to reflect back on this year and thinking of many of the totally great things that have happened in the last 12 months. Watch this to see some really cool stuff:
Changing & growing :)
Published December 18, 2012 enemies to intimacy , family , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , relationships , spiritual , travel 1 CommentTags: change, grace, grow, learn, transform
I had an interesting conversation with someone yesterday that seemed to be really out of character for them. I found this interesting because I often believe that it’s impossible to change the spots on a leopard. The problem with this way of thinking is that I can get really rigid in my attitude toward various people & not allow them to change in my thinking.
This is a really big problem because this way of thinking entirely ignores the transforming power of Jesus’ redemption for us. People can & do change, so lets be full of gratitude that God isn’t only helping us to grow & change, but God is also working on other people with redemptive & transforming power. Lets give each other the gift of space & grace to grow & change
something helpful for hardships
Published September 20, 2012 family , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , spiritual 1 CommentTags: change, grow, hardship, learn, mature, struggles
As a mom with 3 wonderful kids, I’m super high on my kids. I think they’re amazing, funny, intelligent, kind, wonderful and they can almost walk on water, almost ,) With that being said, I’ve noticed that my gentle efforts to wake them up every morning are sometimes not as effective as something less gentle – we call this the defcon 5-1 approach
While it’s unfortunate, it is also true that we sometimes learn the best and grow the most through hardship and struggle. Even though I want to insulate my kids & protect them from every single hardship & struggle, this isn’t always what is in their longterm best interests. Perhaps God sees us with the same perspective, knowing that we often grow and mature the most when we wrestle with hardships and struggle. Perhaps this is why James says that we’re to be grateful for adversities – ouch!
I want to change
Published July 26, 2012 Holy Spirit , living , prayer , relationships , spiritual , travel 2 CommentsTags: benefits, change, endurance, grow, struggle
I want to change
There are things in me that I don’t like. I don’t like that I’m selfish, i dont like various insecurities that are tiresome & there are several more things in me that I’d like to be adjusted as well.
I’ve been thinking of these things lately & as I was reading Rom 5:3-5 this morning, something really struck me. It seems to me from these verses that there are several ingredients that are essential for the sustained changes that I want, 2 of which are essential: hardship & endurance. Indeed, I can see in my life that there are many good results from the combination of hardship & endurance. So I’m reminding myself to celebrate the process & journey to these changes that God is working out in my life
Journeys and Destinations :)
Published July 13, 2012 Cambodia , enemies to intimacy , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , relationships , saving moses , spiritual , travel Leave a CommentTags: change, genuine love, grow, new creation, travel
The plane ride to Hong Kong from the US is a little long (abt 13hrs), so I had some lovely thinking, listening & reflection time. I’ve been thinking of late about genuine love, which is God’s love. Here’s the short summary of the recent hours – it seems to me that the elements of genuine love (kindness, patience, truth, etc from 1Cor 13:4-7) are the best resources to heal & redeem the various broken places in our lives. With this in mind, I’m super keen to nestle into Genuine Love with eager anticipation for getting to know God better on this great adventure. Let’s GO!!
the difference between failing and be a failure
Published July 9, 2012 enemies to intimacy , family , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , relationships , spiritual 1 CommentTags: accept, change, fail, failure, grow, learn
I know that it’s July & most of us are enjoying the lovely Summer heat, but I’ve been thinking about snowboarding, my favorite winter sport
All of my family skis & I’m the only one who snowboards. When they measure the success of a day skiing, they’ll often talk about the few number of times that they fell, or that they didn’t fall at all. In contrast, when I was first learning to snowboard, I stopped counting how many times that I fell because I can’t count that high ,) But all of those times falling were nothing more than stepping stones to help me to learn a sport that I now thoroughly enjoy. I still fall from time to time when I snowboard & now when I fall, I make sure that it’s a REALLY GOOD FALL 
So my point is that failing doesn’t make us a failure unless we quit. There are alot of things in which we can fail in life & these things are often the exact places where God would like to move the most in our lives with beauty, grace, poise and redemption.
prayer & results
Published July 6, 2012 enemies to intimacy , family , fasting , Holy Spirit , living , Lord's Prayer , missions , prayer , relationships , saving moses , spiritual , travel 1 CommentTags: change, diversity, grow, prayer, relevant
I’ve been thinking about prayer lately & the wide spectrum of what prayer means to us. In my mind, prayer has LOTS of applications. Prayer is about:
- being persistent
- exploring God’s promises
- confessing struggles, failures & shortcomings
- walking in and through Genuine Love
- expressing frustrations, uncertainties, misunderstandings
- being vulnerable & honest
- listening
- asking God to help others (intercession)
- being present with God (some call this “keeping company”)
- learning Who God is and about God’s will, preferences & priorities
- giving voice to our gratitude for what God does & Who God is
- presenting requests to God
- candid conversation
- a quick HELP!!!!
Let’s be careful to allow prayer to have a WIDE array of expression & relevance throughout our lives
how to get what we want :)
Published June 21, 2012 enemies to intimacy , family , Holy Spirit , living , missions , prayer , relationships , saving moses , spiritual 2 CommentsTags: change, desire, want, work
There are lots of things that I want. I want to: be effective with saving moses, be smart, be healthy, to know God, be a good mom, be a good wife, be strong & compassionate, . . . . . I want alot of things & here’s an important secret to getting what we want: In order to get what we want, we will often need to do what we don’t always like.
I’m reminded of this principle today as I was reading an organizational structure & business book. As I was reading the book, I found myself thinking, “This is why I didn’t major in business at school.” Neverthless, to help saving Moses be all that God has designed it to be, I have to grow in some areas that don’t really excite me. In order to be a good mom, I have to continually improve my communication skills, especially with listening. In order to be a good wife, I need to get better at home improvement projects both big & little. I genuinely believe that God has designed us to some really cool stuff & it seems to me that seeing these cool things become a reality will require our cooperation, even when we may not like the process
eat your veggies ,)
Published June 20, 2012 enemies to intimacy , family , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , relationships , spiritual 1 CommentTags: change, grow, learn, love
I had an interesting conversation this morning with my daughter about some of the required reading that she needs to do over the Summer. My conversation reminded me of the books & short stories that I had to read in school that I didn’t like. To be truthful, I didn’t like Herman Melville nor Edgar Allen Poe, among others. But my point with my daughter was that it’s good to push ourselves with new things – otherwise, we can easily get stuck in little, tiny, small lives of virtually obsolete diversity.
Maybe this was the mistake that the religious leaders of Jesus’ time made. Maybe they were more comfortable with their legalism than with loving people. Genuinely loving people can get messy for sure, but remember that Genuine Love is based more on the giver than the recipient
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