God is Teaching Me

I woke this morning before the alarm went off thinking about today 

and all the things that need to be done

~ changeover meeting

~ all staff meeting

~ pick up boys from school (two trips)

~ boys to swim tests

~ house meeting to check in with the boys

~ watch the Survivor finale, something the boys and I have been enjoying 

together the past few months 

~ write daily reports

and then for me personally

~ shower & get ready for the day,

even put on makeup, something I haven't done in a long while

~ quiet time and how I want it to be

and once again God met me right where I am

I grabbed my coffee and banana,

sent Ron to the front porch so I could have some quiet

and opened my devotional

is the word for the day!!

Psalm 86

And I took this away

God you are full of compassion, graciousness, abundant in mercy and truth,

You are my strength when I can no longer hold myself up

And because You are these things to me I can be these things in others lives.

Closing in this

As I prepare to meet the day I am encouraged to be all that God wants me to be.

To consider all who I come into contact with today may be dealing with something I have no clue about BUT with the Lord I can be an

encourager and a listener

~ doing for others for what they need and not for what I can get out of it.

And then this came across my Facebook memories

and I am encouraged for today I can choose to do the things I need to do for myself

~ eat breakfast (coffee and a banana)

~ drink lots of water, goal is 100 to 125 oz

~ extend grace to myself as I extend grace to others

Most of all be the woman God has created me to be!!!

How about you?

Do you have any goals for today?

It doesn't have to be giant grand goal, just a goal to accomplish one thing today.  

I would love to hear from each of you reading

and be able to encourage you along life's journey.

Accepting the Challenge

The Challenge:

I heard the Lord say

"So are you going to just 

keep floating along

or are you going to accept the challenge

to do something?

to do what your passion is?

to follow where the Lord has opened windows?"

This morning I woke up early, early for a day off anyway, and felt the Lord calling me, to pick up His word and meet Him in my special place.

I grabbed my Bible, my 

(yes I know I am a pen snob),

and my journal.

I opened my journal and the page is titled

and I laughed.

"Lord I know I need to be committed,

not having one foot in the door and the other headed down the road!"

There are so many areas of my life where I lack commitment...

...eating healthy?

I found myself thanking the Lord for bringing this to me today...

...only I can get myself healthy, no one can do it for me and I can't do it for anyone but myself.

and I need to commit daily to getting healthy.

For today I focused on drinking water.

I drank 108 oz of water!!!  

My doctor wants me to drink between 100 & 125 oz of water ~

I am happy to say today I did it!!!

The scripture for today was

And that's how I began my day ~ 

committed to drinking  my water!!

May not sound like much but to me it is one step towards getting healthy.

And then I read Psalm 37

or at least I thought I read the whole thing 

but when I went to write about what I wrote I realized two pages had stuck together

so my reading today

(Ali's paraphrase)

I read this Psalm as confirmation of what and how I am supposed to be

and also found myself thinking of what is it I want to be doing

today, tomorrow, the weeks to come and even down the road.

I want to:

...write my book on surviving, dealing with and coming out the other side of trauma

...encourage women that what happens to you as a child does not have to rule your life as an adult

...that no matter how bleak things look there is always HOPE!

...encourage parents you can stop the cycle of abuse

...encourage those that come from a difficult past that you can move to a positive future

AND

 God can always turn the bad into good!!!

I was encouraged by my friend that right now I have the best of all worlds:

a job that pays well, a schedule that gives me time to focus on my wants and desires and 

tools available to reach my goals.

Please join me as I start this journey

of committing to getting healthy

and sharing how God has led me through some difficult times 

to seeing His love for me

and He can and will do the same for you.

Being Challenged

Sometimes I find myself questioning what I am doing ~ I believe we are where God wants us to be ~ House Parents here at the Methodist Boys Ranch yet then my mind begins to wander and wonder if we should be somewhere else? Doing something else? Seeing only the negative and not acknowledging the positive ~ the positive in "our boys" lives, in our own lives and truly enjoying being in the moment and loving life.

Doing that causes a lot of anxiety in my heart, in my relationships, in my outlook of life and my roles/responsibilities as a wife, mom, house parent, woman, grammy and friend.

And then I question, question the little things, question the big things, question Ron and question God.

The last few months I have questioned so much and found myself doing things my way and leaving God out of the equation.  This past week while we have been off God has really been challenging me in my thinking, in my actions, in my thoughts and words.

I have been wondering what do I want to be doing?  What should I be doing?  Where should I be doing it at?  How do I not lose myself doing for others.  Our work here at the Boys Ranch is filled with lots of change: day to day and over the long term.  Overall I would say most of our time here is positive but when it is hard/difficult it is really hard/difficult.  And that is when the questions really rise in our hearts and mind.

Our work schedule is great as we work 7.5 days, off 6.5 days.  During our off time we have the time and freedom to travel to see friends, family and checking out new places.  And most of the time working those 7.5 days seem to go pretty fast.  Sometimes though some days seem to drag on and on; for instance last week it felt like we had two Sundays, two Mondays, two Tuesdays and Wednesday would never get here.  It is those weeks when we seem to do a lot of sleeping, resting, vegging and zoning out and that is exactly how this week went.

And that's why I think God chose this week to 

me 

in my thinking,

in what I do

and what do I want to do,

what do I want in my life, 

what legacy do I want to leave for my children and grandchildren.

And then I got a 

from a friend I haven't talked to in over a year

that she wanted to chat with me.

So we set a time and date

and we chatted via Zoom (like Skype)

for an hour and a half!!!

It was good to hear from her, 

see her smiling face

and reconnect.

We shared about what we are doing, what she is doing,

things in the past, discussed future plans and ideas

and when I hung up

I heard the Lord say

"So are you going to just 

keep floating along

or are you going to accept the challenge

to do something?

to do what your passion is?

to follow where the Lord has opened windows?"

Better to Give than to Receive

““In this way we remember the Lord Jesus’ words: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” ”

Acts 20:35 (ceb)

Franklin sits on an empty milk crate on Fulton Street, a block down from my subway exit near the World Trade Center. I don’t know his whole story, but I’ve garnered bits and pieces: he is estranged from his son who struggles with some sort of addiction. His wife died a couple of years ago. He likes worshipping at a nearby church and drops in at another one to get a shower and a free meal.
He has a cardboard sign that says “God bless you” and a cup for donations, but he doesn’t do much to solicit funds. Most of the time he’s too absorbed in a small, well-thumbed copy of the New Testament and Psalms. I like talking to him about that because he reads carefully and loves God, which I find hard to imagine considering the life he leads.
“Rick,” he asked me one morning, thumbing through his Bible, “where does it say ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’? I think it’s in the book of Acts.”
“I’m not sure, Franklin,” I said. “Let me check my concordance at the office.”
Franklin was right. “It’s Acts,” I told him the next time I saw him.
I give him cash from time to time and things to read. Once I gave him a backpack with food, gloves, a parka, and a warm blanket, most of which were gone the next day. “What did you do with the stuff in that backpack I gave you?” I asked him.
“Gave it to a friend,” he replied.
I was surprised but only for a moment. After all, wasn’t it Franklin who reminded me where to find Jesus’s words about giving?

Digging Deeper:   2 Corinthians 9:7   

Lord, let me be the cheerful giver You know I can be.

From Daily Guideposts, 5/10/17

The above was my devotion this morning.  

It is right where my mind is as we begin our 7 days on duty this morning.

We had a great 7 days off, spending time with friends we call our Texas family, relaxing, sleeping reading, crocheting, fellowshipping with believers and just being immersed into God's love.

Last night as I laid in bed I thought about the coming week and what attitude I need to have as we re-enter the boys world.  Wednesdays are usually a hard day ~ we are learning about what has happened, we are bringing with us the expectation of a good week and praying we don't have any major mishaps during our week on.

We know this week will be busy with the regular stuff, picking kids up from school, taking boys early to school, new things like taking one boy early for church as he sings on the Praise Team, getting one boy to his job each day Friday to Sunday and then you throw in a special concert on Thursday night and figuring out new schedules and getting to know better the two newest boys in our unit...I hate that word - I need to start referring to our home as a home ~ we are not in an institution we are in a 

We are currently reading "The Connected Child" by Dr. Karyn B Purvis.  It is such an eye opener as our boys here at MCH ~ we don't necessarily know all the details of their birth and early years yet so often we expect them to act/react/behave like our own boys that we raised since birth.  But when we stop, take a breath and open our eyes, we realize our boys here at MCH need all the things that our own boys received as babies ~ hugs, love, food, patience, understanding, nurturing, laughter, structure, expectations and consequences that they did not receive.

As I was reflecting this morning and then reading my devotion I was reminded that I just need to give our eight boys here at MCH the love and attention we so freely give to Jamie & Brandon and then to our five grandchildren, to encourage them to become the strong, healthy boys that God has made them and wants them to be.

Please join me in praying for our eight boys and us as we serve these boys and love on them like parents and grandparents should have from the beginning.