The God Chronicles – 11/20/09

I use The God Chronicles as a journal to record the many ways I see God actively working in my life, so that I can pass the stories on to my children. It would bless me if a bloggy friend or three joined in and linked up to TGC, sharing and preserving your stories.

I frequently write about those times when God has done a wow! kinda thing in my life. But God is active even in the everyday, little things of life, so I wanted to jot down one of those for today…

—————————————————-

I often take off my rings (wedding band, engagement/wedding combo ring, family ring) in the evening and set them on my bookshelf. Every now and then, though, I will set them in some other totally convenient location. I once set them on top of the microwave.

The next evening (almost 24 hours later) as I was getting ready to head out somewhere, I began searching for my rings. And searching. I could not find them anywhere, nor could I recall where I had set them the night before. I shrugged it off, thinking it was one of those places that will come to mind later. But as I grabbed my purse from it’s perch beside the microwave, I discovered my wedding band peeking out from underneath.

One of the kids had likely been grabbing something and bumped them. Or, there’s always the possibility that someone thought they would be fun to play with or wear. But I try to think the best of my kids. ;)

I set my purse down and started looking around the kitchen for my other rings. After a minute of two, I stumbled across my family ring on the floor against the baseboard. Unfortunately, no matter where I looked and from what vantage point (crawling, standing, squinting) I just was not finding my precious diamonds! After about five minutes knots began to form in my stomach and throat.

A thought popped into my head… Pray. That was countered by the thought, but what a ridiculous thing to pray about! There are children starving and people dying of cancer, families breaking apart and worse. No matter how I tried to ignore that thought, though, it kept coming back to me. So I stopped and asked the Lord to help me find my ring.

After I prayed I wasn’t sure what to do. Wait for an idea to come to me? Continue searching? Stop searching altogether? I took a deep breath, picked up my purse, and prepared to leave the house – trying to trust that God would take care of it. Somehow.

On my way out the door I stopped to straighten out the mat (as I often do – a crooked mat makes me crazy!). A glint of something flickered in my peripheral vision. Could it be? Nah. As if God would literally answer my prayer two seconds after I prayed it. I almost ignored that little glint, but my curiosity got the better of me.

Sure enough, tucked in the corner right by my front door – only a couple inches away from the heat register – was my ring! The tension instantly lifted from my neck and shoulders, I slid the ring on my finger, and headed out the door smiling.

As I hopped in my vehicle and turned the key I felt a little whisper in my heart, you’re welcome. And I paused again for just a moment to give honour and praise to the One who cares about what’s important to me.

Filed Under: my walk, prayer, The God Chronicles November 20, 2009 By 1 Comment



Photobucket

Quick Reminder

The God Chronicles will be going up on Friday. Please join me and link up!

I’ll be back with something to say tomorrow. For today, I’ll leave you with this…

Girls really do just wanna have fun. :)

(P.S. I was four months pregnant, so don’t knock the belly.)

Filed Under: carnivals, fun and games, just because, ministry, The God Chronicles November 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment



Photobucket

The God Chronicles – 10/20/09

Want to join in, chronicling the hand of God in your life? Please, your stories are so very welcome…

When we move next month, our plan has always been to rent this house out.

Renter #1 – A girl who used to work with Pat, bringing her boyfriend and her brother. She said she wanted it, Pat said she could have it. I felt unsettled, but was prepared to stand behind Pat’s word to her. But I really felt like this house is a family home. When we got to serious talking about leases and such, she changed her mind. Coincidence?

Renter #2 – A couple…a blended family…just starting fresh. There were no red flags with them, but numerous yellow flags. For example, he was employed, but just started at this new job a week earlier due to a layoff. We were uncertain if we needed to heed these yellow flags or if we were supposed to be compassionate and give them a chance. We prayed about it. We asked them to come for an interview. They declined. Chance?

Renter #3 – An African family with 5 very young children. Very friendly and appreciative. They kept talking about where there things would fit in this house. We both felt really good about them. They wanted to stay and fill out a rental application on the spot.

Renter #4 – Came to look on the heels of #3. A young couple with 3 kids. Friendly, social, very interested in the house. We both really liked them. They also wanted to stay and fill out an application.

We were unsure, but decided to go with our gut feeling on the first family. It was a risk, because they could change their minds in the meantime (before we got damage deposit). And then the second couple could have found something else. We’d be back at square one… But we prayed about it and felt that “this house is home for the African family.”

When we told them we wanted them to be in our house, the husband exclaimed, “praise the Lord!” When we told the other couple (#4) that we were renting it to someone else, they seemed relieved.

The wife later told me that they had been looking at a few places to rent, but none of them felt right to her. They were about to pay the deposit on a house and she asked her husband to wait another couple days. For some reason, he decided to search the internet for other rentals. She told me that he never searches the internet, and that before this day they had never even heard of a website called kijiji. On just that very day, renter #2 didn’t pan out, and I decided to re-post my ad on kijiji. When the husband googled “houses to rent in Red Deer” the very first link that came up was our ad.

She tells me that she believes God has provided this house for them, just for their family. She said she can feel that the Holy Spirit dwells here. She says it already feels like home. I told her that we have been praying for just the right renters, and that we believe God has provided them for this house. Good luck?

I don’t believe in luck, chance, or coincidence. Nothing is done by accident, without the foreknowledge of a loving God. He is as concerned with the small details of our day-to-day lives as he is with big global issues. He is a God who cares.

This couple isn’t able to officially rent from us until December 1, due to their current rental agreement. Interestingly, our mortgage payments on our new house in SP don’t begin until December 1.

Only God could work out every detail so meticulously to ensure that just the right people are living in our house. Renters who, I believe, will take good care of it as if it were their own home. And a house created for a family of seven, with all of their needs in mind – right down to the extra water heater.

Nope. No coincidences here. Just God-incidences.

Filed Under: moving, my walk, The God Chronicles October 19, 2009 By 1 Comment



Photobucket

The God Chronicles – 09/18/09


Have you seen the hand of God in your life lately? Joel 1:2-3 instructs us to tell the next generation the stories of God’s faithfulness in our lives. That’s what The God Chronicles is all about. I would be honoured if you joined me. Just write your own post for TGC, link to this post in your writing, then come back here and add your name and your post’s URL to Mr. Linky at the bottom.

Here’s how TGC began.

And here are a few instructions for those who like to follow the step-by-step.

————————————————————-

For this one, I am going to need to take you back a ways. Right to the beginning of this year, when I prayed that the Lord would unsettle me. I knew it was a dangerous prayer, but I was wildly ready for anything He might toss my way.

And somewhere in that first part of this year Pat shared with me that he was sensing a change on the horizon. We attended the BreakForth conference together and came home expecting BIG things.

Then we went about our lives as usual.

I remembered my prayer for the new year when it was convenient, but mostly I let myself forget about it. You see, I don’t actually do well with change. I like consistency, stability, predictability.

A few short weeks ago, God reminded me of my desire to be unsettled. He said, “You don’t want to have all this normalcy, do you? It’s so….boring. Why not come on an adventure with Me? Why don’t you show people that your faith isn’t just something you say, it’s something you do.”

I replied, “Um, no thanks God. I’m good. I’m not bored at all. Life is so perfectly settled right now; I’d rather not change.”

The moment those words came out, I head the phrase “unsettle me” echoing in my soul.

Our family will be moving soon. Not just to a new house, but to a new city with new schools and a new church. We are brought there by a new job, one that promises a whole new life for our family. At this new job, Daddy will be home every.single.night for supper. He will have a long weekend to spend with us every.second.week. He will not be called to work out of town for weeks on end – in fact, he will not be called to work out of town EVER.

Today we are in the midst of the sloppy business of moving forward, with the excitement and adventure of the new ahead, and the sorrow of leaving so much good behind. Man, does it ever hurt to let go of GOOD things! The only thing that helps is to know that when God asks us to do that, He already has even BETTER things on the horizon. And there is comfort in knowing that rather than just leaving all this love behind, we will actually end up with two homes where we are loved. A new one and the old one. A double-blessing.

In this process, God’s handiwork has been evident in a million small and large ways:

- the peace we had with making a very fast decision; the encouragement and words of affirmation from other believers

- the fact that I asked God to show confirmation for this decision by making it possible to keep our house here and rent it out, and He did

- the first house we looked at was not only good for our family, but it had a whole bunch of features that Pat and I had only dreamed of (three living rooms, a den/office, a large attached garage, a veranda, an eat-in kitchen and a dining room, a fireplace, oodles of bathrooms, a jet tub); honestly, at first I felt that we should not even consider this house because it was so much of what we wanted, that I was certain we didn’t deserve it – funny thing about God, though, is that He likes to give good gifts to His children just because

- we closed the deal on that house tonight, and though the steps along the way were not bump-free, they were relatively quick and easy

- finding a Christian program within the public schools that is totally FREE

- knowing that the ministry I love – my baby – is in the best hands of the most amazing, competent, Godly, visionary team of women

- and many more.

I don’t know why God is moving us. But I do know that He is answering a decade-long prayer of ours for Pat to have a job that provides well but doesn’t have him away. And I am certain that He has a plan for friends, schools, a church family, a home (not just a house), and more. I believe that sometimes God calls us to do really difficult things so that we are stretched and moved closer to Him, and so that our faith in His goodness and His provision can grow. I fully trust Him to take care of us, our friends, our family, and our ministries – and I believe that He even has a BETTER thing in store for each of them.

It won’t be easy. Change is difficult, scary even. We will be like foreigners in a new country. It could end up feeling a bit like a desert for a while. So as we walk I will tilt my head to the sky, and I will follow the Pillar of Cloud that goes ahead of me, showing the way.

————————————————————–

What about you? What is He doing in your life these days?

Filed Under: moving, my walk, The God Chronicles September 17, 2009 By 1 Comment



Photobucket

Ths God Chronicles – 06/24/09


The God Chronicles is a blogging carnival where we link up and share the stories of how we have seen God working in our lives. We do this because we believe in the importance of writing down and recording our “God sightings” – both so that we will remember them, and so that they can be passed down to our children. Our stories are also an encouragement to others, so that they can see that our God is real and that He is actively working in our lives. For the origins of TGC, read this post.

If you have a story to share, big or small, please join in and write your own TGC blog post. (You have no idea how excited I get when someone links up…or how depressing it is when no one does, lol.) In your post, link back to this post so that your readers can come back and read through the other links if they like. Then, once your post has been written and you’ve hit “publish,” come back to this post and add your name and the URL for your TGC post to Mr. Linky at the bottom (please link to your actual TGC post and not just to your blog’s main page, so readers can find your God story easily). For all the technical details, read this post.

——————————————————————

I often try to find a “big story” to put here on The God Chronicles. But because I see God’s work in my day-to-day life, too, I wanted to share some of those “smaller stories.”

Throughout my day, people I know just come to my mind. For example, I could be cooking tacos – which are one of my nephew’s favourite things to chow down on at my house – and suddenly I’m thinking of him and wondering how he’s doing. When this happens, I try to take a minute to pray for that person. Not always, but sometimes this happens at just the right moment when someone was really in need of a little prayer. Periodically, I’ll even wake up in the middle of the night with someone on my mind and pray for them.

Have you ever had a time where it seems like the same message is being repeated, over and over again? I once had a friend who said to me, “I don’t know what God’s trying to tell me, but the parable of the Prodigal son has appeared at least six times in the past week!” I get that. I think God must know my hard-hearted nature, and the way I assume every message I hear is just perfect for someone else. In order for me to get it through my thick head that He’s speaking to me, He needs to get that message to me repeatedly – through devotionals, sermons, books I’m reading, movies I’m watching, stories friends tell, and so on.

Delays and interruptions can be so annoying. I am a “schedule person.” I thrive on order, organization, and time-tables. I can sometimes get so structured that I miss out on God’s still small voice in my day. There are days, though, when nothing goes as planned. (Like the two days I lost internet a couple months back. Argh!) It’s funny, though, that in the midst of days filled with frustration and schedule glitches, I begin to seek God a little more. It often starts with me praying, “Lord, nothing is going as planned. Please help put my day back on track.” And then I sense Him telling me, you needed to be a little off-track today, because otherwise you would not have come to Me. Ah-ha.

God is just as present in the everyday things as He is in the parting-the-sea style miracles. Sometimes it just takes me a little bit before I catch on…

Filed Under: my walk, The God Chronicles June 24, 2009 By 1 Comment



Photobucket

The God Chronicles – 05/20/09

TGC is a chance for us to record the special stories of how we see God working in our lives. It is a blog carnival, where you (the readers) are encouraged to join in by writing your own TGC post on your own blog and linking here. Just remember to link to this post from your own blog post. Read this to find out how it all started. Click here for “the rules.”

———————————————————–

As promised, I have a very special guest blogger (actually, she’s not even a blogger – yet) today to share a story dear to my heart. I’d like to introduce you to my mom, Frieda! Make sure you give her a warm welcome to the blogging world in the comments. :) Here is her story…

Not too long ago I had the pleasure of having my 83 year old mother (this host blogger’s grandma) come for a visit. One of the things that challenges me each time she visits is wondering how I can gain some assurance about her faith. I want to know that she’ll be waiting to greet me in heaven if she dies before me. You see, we all think that Grandma believes, but it’s just not something she really talks about. Maybe it’s a generational thing…

On the last day of our visit, as she and I were leaving a grocery store, mom tripped on a speed bump in the parking lot. Before I could even react, she was down. Truly, one moment she was walking beside me and the next she was laying on the ground with blood pouring out of her nose and mouth. Now – you have to know my mom. No mention of any pain, just striving instantly to get up because she was embarrassed. She is a tough cookie! I convinced mom to lie still until we were sure nothing was broken and with the help of several bystanders, helped her to the car and took her home. Mom was battered, bruised and swollen. Her lip was cracked and puffy, she had a scrape on her forehead and cheek and her hand was swelling up as we applied ice. Over and over she kept saying how glad she was she hadn’t broken her dentures (that happened in a previous fall), and I kept saying how glad I was she hadn’t broken her hip or anything more serious.

Anyway, after a couple of hours, because of her age and because she was flying home the next day, I decided we really should take her to the emergency department. Long and short of it, it truly could have been much more serious. She had no concussion but she did have a break in the knuckle of her small finger. The doctor told her she’d require surgery and a pin because it was an ‘unstable’ break. They gave us a CD of her x-rays to take home with her and sent us on her way. I just have to interject here – I think it’s worthwhile to note that the doctor didn’t say “it looks like it might be a hairline fracture, but the x-rays aren’t too clear” or something like that, he clearly saw a serious break on the finger and was certain it would require surgery.

The next day we were at the airport sharing the events of this story to family when a man standing close to us heard mom needed surgery and said he was a surgeon. The man was obviously Jewish, a long flowing beard and a black skull cap (forgive me if that’s not what it’s called). I jokingly said, hey, we need a surgeon. He then grabbed my mom’s hand and for what ever reason, asked mom if she understood German (she does – Low German) and proceeded to pray over her hand. He then told us that he was also a chiropractor but that God was the Great Physician. When he was done praying, he told her it ‘is finished.’ Trust me – family reactions were mixed. I thought it was cool, my niece looked like she thought a kook had just prayed over her grandma, my sister in law (a nurse) looked sort of indulgent but unbelieving, and my mom – the woman who’s faith a sometimes worry about – thanked the man for his prayer and told me she thought she was healed.

A few days later after a visit to her own family doctor and more x-rays….her doctor told her she was fine and nothing further was required. When my mom shared this part with me, my doubting self had to ask, “well, did he take more x-rays? did he show her the x-rays? what does he mean nothing further is required?” I wanted some sort of earthly explanation.

You know, there are times that I really try to rationalize God. I want it to make sense. But today, I want to say thank you to a man who overheard a conversation in an airport and had the boldness to take my mother’s hand and pray over it. And the biggest thank you to God – the Great Physician. He absolutely showed me where my mother’s faith is – Praise God. And He heals, He really heals! Cool, eh?! Whenever I think of it I just shake my head and grin. God is so good!

written by Frieda (aka Mom)

Thanks, Mom, for writing this story down for us. Can’t you imagine me (many, many years from now) sitting and telling it to my grandchildren?

Filed Under: carnivals, family, my walk, The God Chronicles May 20, 2009 By 1 Comment



Photobucket

Reminder

Tomorrow is the 20th! Time for The God Chronicles. I have a special post by a special guest for you tomorrow.

I would be honored for you to join me in celebrating how God is working in your life – feel free to link up tomorrow.

Filed Under: The God Chronicles May 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment



Photobucket

The God Chronicles – 04/24/09


It makes a girl feel good about herself when others encourage her. You can encourage me in this journey (life, blogging, etc.) by participating in The God Chronicles.

Click here to get the backround story of TGC.

Click here to get the details on how to join in.

For a number of years, we struggled financially. Many of our struggles could be attributed to living beyond our means. I was beginning to feel hopeless and helpless, that creditors would never stop calling.

I had prayed about our finances before, but it was always more of a “rescue me” prayer filled with hope that God would provide through a surprise source of funding. And many, many times He did. But this time, my prayer was one of repentance. I was desperate for God to change our financial situation in a permanent way, and I knew that would require sacrifice.

God provided me with a friend who had experienced “being broke” in a way I could never understand. She was (and is) incredibly wise in money management and budgeting. She took many hours of her time to build me a budget that worked – within our means – and had me paying off the debt we had accrued over the years. Though I felt we couldn’t “afford” it, I had her build in a section for tithing in that budget.

Some of the rules of this new budget included making a meal plan, NEVER eating out, praying over every purchase, shopping several stores, paying bills first and groceries last, using cash only for things like entertainment and beauty. It wasn’t easy, but it was what I knew God had called me to do, and I was finally ready to obey. Thanks to frugal living and following the rules, we dug ourselves out of the hole. And because of God’s miraculous provision for months on end, even though our budget showed a red $800 at the bottom of the “estimated” column, with all bills paid the “actual” column each month showed a beautiful black $0!

We decided this financial obedience thing had something behind it. So when God called us to pay for a friend to have a sitter once a week for a few hours, we created a new budget line for that expense. The red number grew bigger, yet the black number held steady at $0.

Next step – move from “giving” to the church when there was extra to “tithing” to the church and considering the rest our extra. The red number grew. I kept on with the crazy grocery shopping in four stores and saving money for three months to get my hair coloured. The black number remained.

Then, the most unusual thing happened… A man who we barely knew took my husband to a quiet corner of the church one Sunday and handed him a card. It was a fuel card. No – NOT a gift card for fuel, but a credit card for fuel. He and his wife had been praying about who to bless, and God brought us (near strangers) to their minds. The credit card, he said, was ours to use for the next year. Wow, God, you are wild! Given the vehicle we have, changing our fuel costs to zero brought that red number waaaaaay down. I am not even surprised that the bottom of the page still reads $0 at the end of the month. So humbled, thankful, and blessed, but not surprised.

God’s love is so extravagant. He provided a blessing to help us out of a nasty situation that we deserved to be in. The definition of grace.

Let me just say, when we feel that gentle nudging to provide for someone else’s needs, whether it be money, a meal, coats, childcare, prayer…we have learned to stop and listen. Not every thing we do is rewarded in turn. Not every dollar we put out is replaced. In fact, sometimes we sacrifice what we want and what we think we need in order to obey. But never, ever have we suffered, because it’s impossible to suffer when you have the joy and peace of being in the centre of God’s will.

God has trusted us with His money, and nothing gives Him greater pleasure than watching us give it away. Just try it, and bask in the warmth of His delighted smile.

The God Chronicles Participants


1. Bobbie
2. Judith

Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.

Filed Under: budgeting, carnivals, my walk, The God Chronicles, think generous, tithing April 24, 2009 By 1 Comment



Photobucket

The God Chronicles – 03/20/09

The God Chronicles is a place where I journal out the ways I have seen God working in my life. Because I believe in the importance of documenting this stuff for our children and their children, it is an open blog carnival – anyone can join in. For details on the inspiration behind TGC, read this.

Write a post for TGC on your blog (or if you don’t blog feel free to leave a really long comment), go ahead and use the graphic if you want to, be sure to link to THIS POST in your blog post (to send people back here for linking up and reading other TGC stories), then put your name and the URL for your blog post (please use the perma-link for your specific post, rather than linking to your whole blog – this makes it easier for others to find what you’ve written), and don’t forget to leave a comment here and everywhere you visit. For all the specifics and rules and such, read this.

————————————————————————-
One of my favourite things is to see my children growing in their faith. I love seeing them raise their hands in worship, or talk about God like an old friend, or act in a way that shows me they have taken God’s Word to heart. It gives me a warm fuzzy (or teary chokey) feeling to hear one of them say, “Jesus is my best friend! He loves me!”

Recently, Abbey (7) has been struggling with fear at night. She’s afraid of a fire, and that they would not get out. She’s afraid of spiders or other insects crawling on her as she sleeps. She’s afraid of the shadows and the dark. The crazy thing is, I can see the fear in her – it’s tangible, real, and powerful. It has been bringing her to tears and trembling at bedtime for nearly two weeks.

Pep talks are not helping. Ignoring it is impossible. Praying with her seems to offer only temporary relief (usually she’s out of bed, nearly hysterical, within an hour). But we decided that we could not afford to let this fear gain victory in our home! So Pat and I came up with a strategy.

At bedtime, we pray with authority in Abbey’s room and over her heart and mind. We renounce the enemy and seek His hand of protection. And then, we coach Abbey in speaking God’s Word for herself. It’s a repeat-after-me sort of thing from Joshua 1:9, “I AM strong and courageous! For the Lord MY God is with me wherever I go!” On the third night, Abs proclaimed it for herself, with no help from us.

Each night that we have gone through this process, she is smiling by the end of it – and you can tell she is feeling safe and strong. No night waking, no talking of fearful dreams in the morning. Absolute freedom from the fears that were practically debilitating her. Freedom because of God’s Mighty Word.

———————–
Braeden (11) received a much-anticipated gift for his birthday. Bakugan. The creme de la creme of boy’s toys. These babies are special…

When he went to school the day after his birthday, Braeden asked Shea (3) to babysit his Bakugan. When he got home from school, they were missing. Despite my assurances that we would surely find them somewhere in the house, Braeden was pretty broken-up – after all, they had not been uncovered after nearly an hour of searching.

At bedtime that night, Grandma prayed with him, and they asked God to help find the missing toys. Three minutes later, as she was tucking Shea into bed, it occurred to her to reach behind the bed. Low and behold – the precious Bakugan were tucked snugly where they had last been seen as Shea laid down for her afternoon nap!

Grandma was excited to share her discovery with Braeden, and had already forgotten that they had prayed about the toys. But Braeden – he remembered. He was shouting and clapping his praises to the God Who Answers Prayer, “Yay, God! Yahoo! You rock, God! Awesome. Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you, Jesus!”

The God Chronicles Participants

1. Hope@Pinkadoodledoo

Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.

Filed Under: Abbey, Braeden, carnivals, praying for, Shea, The God Chronicles March 20, 2009 By 2 Comments



Photobucket

The God Chronicles – 02/20/09


If you have never heard of the God Chronicles, you can read this post to find out what it’s all about. The short version is that we are making note of God’s fingerprints in our lives.

I would love it if you’d join in! Please check out “the rules” about the hows and whatfors of linking up. The two key things to remember are: link to the actual post you’ve written for TGC, not just your blog; and please link back to me and this post in your post, to send your readers my way if they want to read more TGC stories.

Mr. Linky will be ready and waiting for you to join in until 9pm MST.

—————————————————————————————

For my story today, I am linking back to an old post. Partly, because I haven’t got anything new and exciting to write (or maybe I’m just too lazy to write it). Partly because it’s a great story of how God uses the people in our lives to bless us, to correct us, and to encourage us.

Please read Undeserving and then use your back button to return to this GCH post and leave me a comment! Because you know I’m a junkie for that comment love…

The God Chronicles Participants

1. Hope@Pinkadoodledoo

Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.

Filed Under: carnivals, my walk, The God Chronicles February 20, 2009 By 3 Comments



Photobucket
« Older Posts