May 2009

Good morning my dear friends,

May is so busy! I am so overwhelmed with my schedule. Yet yesterday, Mother's Day, I was so relaxed and had a true day of rest. I enjoyed the day so much.

I have been doing quite a few things since my last BLOG. I have started attending a local Christian Writer's group here in town. I am enjoying it so much! I was also able to attend a Christian Writer's Conference in Orlando and for the past 5 weeks I have been teaching Anointed, Transformed, Redeemed at our church on Thursday mornings, not to mention my two little girls both had birthday over the past two weeks ~ and for most of us the school year is ending and one party or event after another. Oh Yeah! Jim and I are also teaching a parenting class at our church one night a week. Needless to say my schedule has been packed, but in two short weeks it will be totally empty for the summer. Well, not totally, but definitely not so scheduled. I am not complaining, just coming up for a breath of fresh air this morning and enjoying a cup of coffee while I type this. My mind always wonders who is reading this and what are they thinking ~

Courtney had some major testing for her pituitary gland three weeks ago and no results from the doctor yet, I haven't stressed over it - they told me two weeks. This week I am going to start calling and firmly request answers.

There are a few things God has been sharing with me over the past few weeks and I thought I would pass those along to see if any of you could put them to good use for yourselves.

• Seek Him, Listen to and for Him, and obey Him! In all things ~ I am working on creating a Bible study based on our spiritual, mental, emotional and physical conditions and how all those areas make us who we are and who all those areas are connected to God. I think we tend to put things in different compartments - this is a mental issue, this is a emotional issue, etc. What if all these issues are Spiritual, just in a sub-category of mental, emotional and physical. The way I just described it doesn't sound fun in this paragraph, but it is! See - I need to learn how to write better...
  
• Through the adventures of the website and teaching on Thursday mornings ~ God has had me share some personal things that I found myself asking Him if I could not share with others. My reasons for wanting to keep my life stories a secret were all wrapped around my selfish pride. It was about me and then He gently reminded that He is the one who gets the glory, not me - so I shared (obeyed). He was glorified in my weakness.
  
• God has made it clear that in my service in ministry, I am to always direct women back to His Word. I desperately don't want to make followers of Sandra. I want to encourage women to yearn for the most intimate relationship with Him that they can get. One of my desires is that each woman I come in contact with; be able to feel and know the grace of Jesus Christ, see the love God has for them and enjoy experiencing the fellowship with the Holy Spirit. I want to develop followers of Christ. My responsibility is to always direct women back to God's Word and what He is saying to them, not what I am saying to them.
• I am also suppose to be a student of learning the craft of writing. Like a sponge soaking up as much as I can, because at some point in the future I will need that talent. I am to be humble and patient.
  
• For Mother's Day I was suppose to write my mother a personal letter ~ I haven't finished it yet -- our relationship is strained and the Mother's Day cards from Hallmark just don't fit our relationship. But God has a plan for her life and I am suppose to write her a letter that is TRUTH and LOVE. Still working on that - I must finish it by Wednesday -- my personal new goal - I think God wanted me to have it done for Mother's Day. I haven't obeyed yet...
  
• Pray for my temptations ~ over and over again anytime someone in the Bible was tempted the next word is almost always - PRAY. On my weight-loss journey with my wonderful husband, my prayer is that once we are off the prescribed diet that I don't fall back into the trap of eating for comfort - I keep myself busy with activities like reading my Bible, Crafts and lots of fun stuff. I so don't want to go back to feeling alone and unwanted and eat to feel comforted. I have lost 35.4 pounds since Feb. 2009! My husband has lost a total of 86 pounds since August with a two month holiday break at Thanksgiving and Christmas. He is almost to his goal weight (within 10 pounds) and I have about 12 more to go. We have learned that this diet is a lifestyle and that we are not to return to our old way of eating.
  

Through this Bible study, Anointed, Transformed, Redeemed God has made a few things clear - I have had Tragedy and He has saved me - my instant response was not one of choosing to work through the tragedy with Him - Initially, I wanted to be mad at God and work through it on my own, because God hurt me. I have turned, repented, mourned, cried, whaled, fasted and sought Him on my past tragedy and He has come to my rescue. My Redeemer! A lot of this is going to be in my online summer study, so I won't give the whole study away right now!!

I could go on and on today, but I want to update the website, finish my Bible study for the week and do some study time in the Word. I would love a weekend away to write - but finances don't permit me going away and staying somewhere and I am not going to go camping by myself. I am not a camping kinda girl either. So, I should probably better manage my personal time ~ and enjoy the stage of life I am in. God will take care of everything!

I hope my journey this month has encouraged you -
Love,
Sandra