Hard Times

Times are really hard right now. The economy is not good. Many families are in hardship. This hard time is making everyone take a look at what is a real need and what is a want. From foreclosures to total financial ruin. Women I talk to daily are dealing with stress levels that they are not able to carry on their own. Husbands are feeling like failures and not good providers - this will only lead to worse things if we don't focus on the CREATOR!

Our family is not exempt from the economy either. Our lifestyle has adjusted dramatically over the last six months. We have cut back and cut deep. My teenage daughter and I have given up our cell phones. Such a trivial thing, but we have come accustom to them and rely on them for emergencies and convenience. We have cut back on all extras in our home from lowering features on cable and telephone, making sure lights are off and taking shorter showers, to cutting back on trips into town - sticking to our grocery budget and when the money is gone it is gone for the week.

No matter what your "Hard Time" is, whether it is making ends meet, dealing with a handicap or new found disease that is life threatening or debilitating , being emotionally alone, or in some other sort of bondage ~~ God is with you and He loves you and He has a way! His Word Says So! Remember it is His way, not ours.



Yesterday while we were in church service God asked me what we needed most when we are in "Hard Times". My first answer was Him, then the question came - How can you find me? I wondered the whole service.

God usually speaks to me in questions. I have the gift of discernment, but when it comes to my own life many times I am so close to the problem I can't discern my way out. So, I thought of what I was missing to help me accomplish finding God in the midst of whatever crisis I was in. Here is what He gave me:

1. Memorizing Scripture, being intimate with His Word, knowing Him more. Hiding God's Word in my heart.
   
2. Having a true godly friend, one who speaks God's truth to me daily. God loves you and has a special plan for you - you are His -- an encourager of God! When a person is in the midst of a really hard time, they have no HOPE, this person helps them have Hope! This person boldly says, "GOD IS GOOD!", even when we can't see it.
   
3. Getting Face Down - How often do I remove all distractions and get down on my knees and come into His presence? Using this time to listen - Joshua 5:13-14
4. Ask ME - God says ask and he will give you the desires of your heart. Why don't we ask? Even if he doesn't answer the way we want - His way is always much better than anything I could have ever come up with on my own. I think we don't like the answer in God's time and His way - we want our way and timing!
   

I hope in some way these ideas bring you intimacy with God, encourage you and give you hope along with knocking you down to your knees to truly seek Him; and give whatever your crisis is, over to Him, totally! He so desires to love you and give you - we give our children the desires of their heart - how much more does God love us?

So, open your Bible, begin that relationship of spending time with God to get to now Him. Find that godly friend (be that godly friend) - pray that God would provide one. Get down on your knees and listen - it may take some waiting, but He will speak. Ask Him, ask him for what you need.


In Christ,
Sandra Carter

My Life This Week

We have posted all over the website opportunities for you to allow us to pray for you. I am now going to ask that you pray for me personally. After much prayer and avoidance, I know for sure God is asking a few things of me.

• GET PHYSICAL STRENGTH - this means do what I need to do to be healthy. God desires me to have strength for endurance to glorify Him in all I do.
  
• WAIT - not to take action on a job that He does not want for me, trust He is the provider.
  
• WRITE -God has given me four doors as a visual for this book I am suppose to be writing. It will cover our Mental, Spiritual, Emotional and Physical lives. Right now He has me hand writing out over 30 pages of verses to go along with what He has to say in His Word about these topics.

Now as God has asked me to obey in these areas, I have been putting them off and now I am at a point where I feel like God is telling me that I must obey. He wants all of me. This means my eating, my exercise, my finances, my fears, my anxieties, my love, my happiness and my sorrow. ALL of it. I am scared to give over the physical part of my life, I am scared of what I see in front of many myself and many Americans with our economy, I am scared to write and to move into a deeper accountability with God. However, I am going to GET PHYSICAL, WAIT and WRITE.

In part, because I have a healthy fear of God and the other part is that I also desire that amaZing closeness to Him. I am honored that He loves me enough to stretch me, use me and mold me.

Please pray as I move forward that God would shower me with the grace of Jesus Christ our Lord, that I would feel and know God's love and that I would be in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. I live daily to glorify God.

In Jesus Name,
Sandra Carter

The Carter Girls are Funny!

Good Morning! I have a good one for you....

We have started a Thursday night family devotional and prayer time. Courtney asked this week for her feet and legs get better. Courtney is our five year old with Cerebral Palsy, she so desires to wear flip flops. So, we added that to the request and then I mentioned she could pray that on her own at night if she wanted to before she went to bed. She said, "I didn't know I could do that. I will tonight." So, she prayed moving her lips and no sound coming out of her mouth, on her knees, in the floor, beside her bed. It was soooo cute.

The next morning Kelli asked her, "Have you prayed this morning for your feet and legs?" Courtney politely told Kelli that it wasn't dark outside and praying was like wishing upon on a star and there are no stars out in the day time. Kelli sweetly told Courtney that she could pray anytime. Courtney replied, " I didn't know that, Kelli.".

Kelli waited a few moments and asked, "So are you going to pray?". Courtney replied, "I'm gonna pray that you leave me alone!"

Kelli was shocked and came and ran and told me the whole thing and I laughed! It is never a dull moment at the Carter house.

Keeping Up With Life

If I did all the things I thought I should do -- Wow! I would never sleep. All the crafts I have in my head, relaxation things, movies to see, books to read, people to pray for alone would consume me, not to mention reading my Bible and my journaling, going to lunch with friends, dinner parties, sports event, laundry, cooking, cleaning, parenting, being a good wife, the list goes on and on ...

I think the older I get the more I see life in it's entirety. We go through seasons of life, not just one never ending day of life. It's okay to space things out. If I take all the things I want to do and push as hard as I can to accomplish them in this season, then I miss out on the experience of the thing I wanted to do - it becomes a task on my "to do" list and not a life experience. I tend to do that - push through to make it to the next day, stuff the things I can't get done or deal with in a closet. Instead of placing it where it goes the first time.

Remember those closets I was cleaning out?

I blogged about this several weeks ago. I finished five closets - now I think I need to move onto the dreaded (under the sink cabinets). Those are a little lower down and much more messy. Just to refresh your memory there were a few categories that I came up for my actual closets in my home and then God told me to apply those same categories to my mental closet. My mental closet is the places where I store my thoughts, emotions and feelings when I want to push through the day. Let's compare my real closets with my mental closets.

Here are the categories:

• Keep
• Throw Away
• Give Away
• Store it and/or Save it

These four areas had to be defined before I was willing to go on. Keeping something meant it had to be useful to our me or our family the majority or the year. Throwing it away meant it had no useful value to us or to anyone else in the future. It was just taking up space. Giving it Away meant that it did not fit the first two categories, but someone may be able to put it to good use. Then the all time favorite, Storing it or Saving it this meant it had to be valuable to our family in some sentimental or monetary way.

Okay, I have to confess I have been putting off the cleaning closet thing for a few weeks. I so enjoyed organizing and cleaning the closets once I got started. It was the getting started that wore me out. Although, I think I may have been working on my mental closet the most. I'm okay with that.

Now, I am sure it is time to go lower (deeper) and clean out under the sink in my bathroom and kitchen. Right at this moment I am making a face that says - yuck! I feel that means when I clean out these things that God is getting ready to take me a little deeper and clean out something deeper within my mental closet. So, to clean out those "underneath cabinet" I have to get on my hands and knees. That sounds harder to me... There is never growth without pain - or so I've heard.

I am dreading it! Why? I think it is because I get use to the dysfunction I am in and at least know what to expect. I should be sitting on pins and needles - excited about what God is going to do!!!!

Psalm 32:8-9
Is not the verse I was looking for, but this is the one God gave me today. I had to laugh out loud when I read it. It is so true! He is a God of humor too! Thanks GOD! AMEN

Psalm 32

8 Let me give you some good advice;
I'm looking you in the eye
and giving it to you straight:

9 "Don't be ornery like a horse or mule
that needs bit and bridle
to stay on track."

Our Instinctive Pull

I haven't written in a few weeks. One of the issues going on at the Carter house is that our middle daughter has casts on both of her legs. She is doing stretch therapy (serial casting). Courtney has Cerebral Palsy and is currently growing faster than our daily therapy can keep up with. The casting is necessary to get her stretched into a flat footed position to be fitted for a new pair of AFO's (Corrective braces). Our whole family has been somewhat emotional this week. Courtney seems to be handling it like a trooper. I was able to write an amazing devotional out of it this week and I also wanted to share another topic God revealed to me this week.

Our Instinctive Pull
Usually, when everything is going normal (relative word) I tend to not spend as much one on one time with each of my children. I also don't pay them as much attention in the parenting realm either. I stop observing and participating in their moral corrective training during those smooth times. I let them go on their way and then I'm here to pick them up when they need it. They tend to start thinking individually instead of family oriented, they become more selfish with toys, time and attention on themselves. And don't express how precious those around them are.

This week God has really spoken to my heart about how I react when the smooth, normal time is a distant memory. The moment something isn't right I instinctively pull them to my side. I am more protective of them and hate to let them out of my sight and they tend to want to be nestled in my arms as well. We all know something isn't right and now we are being reactive instead of being pro-active.

I think we do that with God. All is going pretty smooth (normal) in our lives and we loose track of God and go off and do our own things. We become self focused and not others oriented. We don't want to share our personal time, our space or even our kindness. Then God gets our attention with something - a crisis in our eyes. We instantly get mad at God for allowing something like this to happen to us. We were doing just great and then "BAM" something gets our attention. We know something isn't right and we react. When the crisis hits we instinctively pull back to settle ourselves. Hopefully, the next thing we do is run to God and allow Him to begin to instill in us His values again. His promises and His will for our life. I wonder if God feels that instinctive pull to bring us closer to him when we go off on those tangents? I also wonder if we were pro-active, by resting in His Word daily and praying uninterrupted daily, if we would become more proactive than reactive?

Thank goodness we have a God that looks at us and says, "I love you, come here let me hold you and nestle in me."

He is always there. Always waiting, always loving.

Have a great week and see you next MONDAY!
In the loving spirit of the Lord,
Sandra

Webstie Info

Good morning friends. Just wanted to take a few short lines to let you know where we are on the website. As you can see, some of it is still under-construction. My plan is to start doing Monday Blogs starting Monday, September 15, 2008. I am still working out some of the bugs with the website. We will be sending out a Monday email of our website. If you would like to sign up please do so under the contact us area and in the subject place weekly email.

S~