Beginning a new chapter of my life

Well I'm hoping to keep this up. I haven't done so well with that in the past. But this is a new year, and I'm planning on making some changes, and part of that, is networking a little more and putting more of my thoughts out where others can maybe read it.

Today was a great day. We had a great day in church (well Caleb not so much, he never does well in the nursery here lately). Had a great lunch out and then back home to relax, on our 3 day mini-vacation. It's nice to be home with the family. Since school started back its been hard to coordinate our schedules just right, so I live for the moments that I have right now.

Today's sermon at church hit home for me today. We are doing a new sermon series called Life's Healing Choices. It is an 8 week course and we are on part 2. This series to help us become free. Free from the choices that we have made in our past, and the choices we continue to make. This series also teaches us about the choices we can make to become free through Christ.

The Hope Choice-
We need to earnestly believe that God exists, that we matter to Him, and the He has the power to help us change.

Our choice to hope.

That is a hard one for me to embrace. Change. I hate it. I loathe it. I run away from it at all costs.

The verse from today was from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount- "Blessed ar those who mourn, for they will be comforted" Matthew 5:4 (NIV).

We learned that we should rely on our paths for comfort and hope (anything that produces escape, addictions, entertainment.)

We also learned that we should follow God's path for comfort and hope which involves the next 3 steps.

We need to- see who God really is

We need to realize that our God is compassionate, caring, full of mercy, all comforting and He wants a relationship with us. He isn't full of judgement.

The second step is we need to see who- We really are

We are all broken, we are all sinners. And even though we are all broken and sinners, He still loves us anyway (Jeremiah 31:3). His love will never fail us.(Psalm 119:76a) Its a gift, not something that we have to give something first for. He doesn't hold his love back when we don't do something right, we get it all of the time. His love can nowhere compare to human love. And He gives it to us anyway, even though we fail him all the time.

Finally we see how God can change us

The process of change isn't all on our shoulders. It's not about us changing for God. Its about Him having the power to change us for the better. And all we have to do is ask. God designed our soul to catch the updraft of His love, and we need to quit trying to do it all on our own and ask for His help. We need to want to change. To let go of our past, our sorrows, our shame. And let Him fill us with His love and spirit, and make us a new person!


Dear Heavenly Father, I come to you today in awe of how AWESOME you are. You don't have to love us as broken people, yet you do anyway. Thank you for blessing us everyday. Lord, if we need to change, then please help us. Help us to change for the better. We need to be honest with ourselve and You. Please bless us this week as we go through. Keep us safe and healthy.

For it's in Your Holy name..Amen!