In less than a week, I’m going back to Angola w www.savingmoses.org & I have some mixed thoughts about this visit. Of course, I love the people with whom we work & I have nothing but massive respect for the daily work they do. I’m also eager to see some old friends since this will be my 4th visit & I’m getting to make some nice friendships. These are nice things but there are some not very nice things that I experience on these trips. It’s not pleasant to hold a baby who is malnourished & is struggling to survive. It’s difficult to see frenzied moms who are doing everything in their power to keep their baby alive. It’s hard for me sometimes to try & explain the needs I see to an audience that can occasionally be apathetic & cold. But when everything is said & done, despite the tremendous privation I see & the gut wrenching feelings that I experience, on these trips I sense Jesus is very real ways that I’m often unable to explain & because of Jesus’ presence, the disconcerting thoughts are not as severe. Traveling with Jesus helps me to have peace in my mind & heart
Posts Tagged 'thoughts'
Disconcerting thoughts
Published April 3, 2013 Angola , Genuine love , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , relationships , saving moses , seeing Jesus , travel 5 CommentsTags: emotions, hardship, saving moses, thoughts
Better thoughts
Published March 28, 2013 Genuine love , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , relationships , seeing Jesus , spiritual , Uncategorized 4 CommentsTags: choices, confidence, life, thoughts
I’ve had some interesting interactions with people of late. Some of these interactions were in the intimidating & bully category. Being on the receiving end of the intimidation efforts, I can’t say that it was a pleasurable experience. And there have been more than a few occasions where I wanted to return some of that bullying.
Nevertheless, I decided with God’s help to look in my mind for some better thoughts & here are a few ideas for better thoughts:
*if God is for me, then who can be against me?
*I am more than a conqueror because of Jesus’ resurrection
*love never fails
*in God’s hands, a temporary affliction can turned into some heavy duty glory
*all things work to my benefit as I
Continue to stay in love with Jesus & true to His purposes in my life 
Make the decision with me to choose better thoughts
focus is really important
Published March 5, 2013 Genuine love , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , spiritual 4 CommentsTags: choices, distractions, eyes, focus, thoughts
Several years ago, I took a lesson in mountain biking and I learned REALLY quickly that where you focus is where you go. I watched this happen with 2 of my mtn biking classmates who had major crashes because their focus became gridlocked on a hairpin turn. When I came to the same hairpin turn, my instructor kept yelling at me to look past the curve. My brain started to argue, but I decided to obey my instructor & I turned my head to see where the trail was going after the curve – when I turned my head to look at the trail after the curve, my bike naturally followed my focus and I never crashed in the hairpin curve. This lesson about focus has helped me in all kinds of ways because it’s a continual reminder that I need to keep my eyes / focus on Jesus and not to get gridlocked on difficulties, impossibilities, etc – look past the curve. Further to this point, I’ve been thinking about a really great verse in Ps 25:15, “My eyes are continually on You and you will pluck my feet from the net.”
With this in mind, here are a few things that help me to keep my eyes / focus on Jesus:
- good praise & worship tunes,
- being thankful
- memorizing verses
- prayer
Do you have things that help you to keep your focus on Jesus? Please share! :)
In my “better moments”
Published February 27, 2013 family , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , spiritual 2 CommentsTags: better moments, choices, thoughts
We all have times when our thoughts can be very dark & depressing – those times when we are not at our best. When I was a kid & would be in a discouraged mindset, my dad would always say, “Sarah, you know in your better moments that these thoughts aren’t true.” My dad would encourage me to make healthy choices with my thinking & not to dwell on negativity or doubt – to be better at believing than doubting. He would remind me of my “better moments” as a path for my thoughts to start moving in a different direction rather than being stuck in the discouragement quagmire. So my friend, lets not ignore reality, but lets also with God’s help, let our thoughts reside in these “better moments”, filled with faith, hope & love
More thoughts about quality decisions
Published February 15, 2013 Genuine love , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , spiritual 1 CommentTags: choices, decisions, feelings, quality, thoughts
I’ve been thinking some more about the topic of decision making & the results of my decisions. Sometimes the quality of my decisions gets compromised because my thoughts & feelings are in a bad place. When I allow insecurity, fear, hopelessness, discouragement and other dark things settle into my thoughts & feelings I inevitably make mediocre to low quality decisions. Perhaps this is why Paul in the Bible said that we should take captive every thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of Jesus. Decisions are often the results of thoughts & feelings, so it’s important to be dialed into that on which we allow our mind & feelings dwell.
This is one reason why Saving Moses is so important – it gives loving hope for a better future to babies & their moms who are in hopeless & even dying situations.
cause & effect
Published August 29, 2012 Holy Spirit , living , prayer , spiritual 1 CommentTags: choices, God's Word, thinking, thoughts, wisdom
When I was growing up, we had a trampoline in our backyard & I super enjoyed getting to jump, do tricks, play games & even lay on it to watch the clouds. Our tramp was LOTS of fun!! On the hurtful side, I learned very quickly about the painful effects of falling into the springs or landing on the steel frame or the mis-execution of a new trick – all very helpful lessons ,)
With this idea, I’d like to encourage you to consider that many of our actions are a result of our thoughts. With God’s help, if we consider what we think about (be that healthy or destructive thoughts), we can realistically look adjusting our actions, behaviors & attitudes to have more godly outcomes or effects in our lives. Take an inventory of what you let yourself think about & be careful that you cultivate the thoughts that are in agreement with God’s Word
getting rid of toilets :)
Published August 17, 2012 family , Holy Spirit , living , spiritual 2 CommentsTags: maintainence, thoughts, toilets, trash
I had a movie moment from “The Help” yesterday when I took the trash out. We recently had to replace a few toilets in our house for various reasons & I hauled the broken ones to the curb, along with our other trash, hopeful that the trash guys would pitch the “thrones” into a place of higher glory ,) Thankfully, we kept the old toilets in the boxes that the new toilets came in, hoping to avoid offending the sensitivities of more delicate people.
With all that being said, I thought about how our really nice trash guys come by once a week & haul away the collection of trash that the five of us have accumulated over the course of a week. Maybe I take this trash maintainence for granted because it’s just part of life’s routines – which has started me to thinking. I think that from time to time, we need to clean out the trash in our thoughts & stuff that corrupts our hearts / minds by allowing the Holy Spirit to shine truth into our lives & de-clutter the accumulation of dribble, froth, deception, dysfunction & general refuse that we can accumulate in our hearts & minds. Paul says that whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely & a good report that we are to think on these things – the rest can get thrown into the trash & washed away by Jesus’ blood
Thoughts while traveling
Published May 14, 2012 Angola , Holy Spirit , living , missions , prayer , saving moses , travel 2 CommentsTags: Angola, saving moses, thoughts
Angola ’12
Well, I’m back on my way to Angola for my 3rd visit with Saving Moses. I have mixed thoughts & feelings about this visit. My first trip to Angola was extremely impacting because I didn’t have any clue what it would be like to look face to face with infant mortality. My 1st trip to Angola gave me this introduction. Last year, our visit to Angola didn’t have the same 2×4 shock of the 1st trip, but it was every bit as impacting. Maybe last year was more powerful than my 1st visit because we were able to make more friendships like Manushe & her daughter Celestina, Angelina with Desorae & a follow up visit to Belito from our 1st trip. It was nothing less than pure delight to get to be with my nun friends as well, so I’m very eager to catch up with them again, hopefully, on this trip.
I never want to get mechanical on these trips, which means that I always want to keep my heart soft, tending & feeling. I can trust that God will guide & direct not only our physical steps, but also the experiences for my heart as well. Be sure that any journey on which your heart travels always keeps God as your closest traveling companion. Stay tuned for more updates
some encouragement for adversity
Published March 14, 2012 enemies to intimacy , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , spiritual 2 CommentsTags: encouragement, perseverance, strength, support, thoughts
Lately, there have been some rather large difficulties that I’m having to face and I find myself having regularly make choices about where my mind will settle. If I’m not careful, my thoughts can go down some very dark alleys and they can become very discouraging. What I’ve found to be really helpful is to give my mind something constructive to chew on. So here are some verses that have been super helpful of late – may they be encouraging to you as well!
- Rom 8:37, “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us”
- Rom 8:31, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”
- 1 Cor 15:57, “but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
- 2 Cor 2:14, “But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph is Christ and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.”
- 1 John 5:4, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has over the world – our faith.”
I’d like your feedback
Published March 12, 2012 Uncategorized 13 CommentsTags: feedback, help!, opinion, thoughts, wisdom
Greetings! I’ve been thinking about writing this blog for quite awhile now & it seems to be the right time now to solicit your wisdom & input. I’m keen to know if and what topics you’d interested for me to write about. I’ve tried to keep a broad range, but it would be super helpful to me to know what is interesting & helpful to you. So please, please, please and one more PLEASE leave your feedback for topics in which you’d be interested – thanks ahead of your time your wisdom & help!!! 
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