Thermometer or Thermostat?

Which one are you? Ok, I know, crazy question and do you know how to answer it? I didn't either until the question was posed to me this past week in my quiet time. In light of the new year and the decision to make some changes in my life, spiritual, physically and emotionally;  I am reading a book in my quiet time about God's Power to change my life.  What an eye opener for me! But back to my original question. So that you can answer the question for yourselves, let me explain them both a little more.

A thermostat, controls the temperature. It influences its environment; it sets the standard. A thermometer registers the temperature. It simply reflects its environment, whether its hot or cold. Which are you a - a thermostat or a thermometer? Are we content to just be a thermometer, simply registering the coldness and bitterness all around us, or are we willing to become God's thermostat in our own homes and lives? As women, moms, wives, and friends we can make the choice to be used as God's thermostat and provide His warm love to all that we meet if we make that choice!  Hmmmmmm.....

Blessings!

The things a little boy can remind you of...

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Tonight I had one of those moments that God sent me a little reminder in the form of my little boy Colby and I just had to blog before I forgot it.

We were driving to Kendra's basketball game and an ambulance, and two fire trucks were coming towards us in the opposite direction. Colby says to me, "Mom we should follow them, someone might be hurt." I quickly explained to him that there was no need for me to follow them since there was nothing that we could do for them. He cam right back at me and said, " well we could pray for them." Ouch! A lesson relearned from my little 7 year old. And so we did right there in the car, prayed for whomever was involved.

I sure do love this little man and his great BIG heart for God!!

It's a brand new year!

"Happy" 2009???

It is the beginning of a brand new year; 2009, wow, where did the time go. Our parents used to tell us that time goes by way to fast and it hasn't been all that long that I have started to believe them. You may notice that I put the word happy in quotes above. Already this year, we have seen two tragedies in our church family. Both families have lost family members. It's really hard for me to say happy new year at this time. My family, friends and I are holding these precious people close to our aching hearts and praying for God's comfort to be upon them at this very difficult time. It's so hard for me to know what God's plans are when it comes to most things, but certainly this. I know his plans are sovereign but it is so hard to understand that at a time like this. Faith, it's really all one has. Please join me inpraying for these families in the next couple of weeks and months ahead.

On a much lighter note, the Johnson family is excited to head into the new year! Frank tells me this is going to be a great year for us and I believe him in spite of what is going on around us. It's a milestone year for us. Frank and I will celebrate 15 years of marriage in May! I am so blessed to be the woman that Frank chose to spend his life with! He is such an amazing man and God certainly is blessing our marriage. Kendra, is turning 16 this year. Takings drivers education, getting a job, and becoming such an incredible young woman. Austin is going to turn 12 this year, his last year of being a non-teen! He leaves recreations sports this fall and moves onto Jr. High sports, wow! Time is flying and his height reminds me of how quickly I will be looking eye to eye with him or maybe even up at him soon :) He is still a quiet boy with a sensitive spirit and I really enjoy our time together. Colby and Cam are turning 8, HOLY COW!!! Talk about time flying by! They are wonderful little boys and so much fun to be around. Very active and full of life (sometimes more than this mom can keep up with) but really a lot of joy in this house comes from them! Frank is continuing going to college at night to work on his machining degree, he should graduate in November 2009 , if all goes as planned. I continue to serve as Children's Ministry Director for our church and I am so looking forward to directing our VBS this year! It's going to be great! Most importantly Frank and I are simply going to be praying and watching for God's direction in our lives. We both want more... more of Him and so as a team, as a couple, we are going to be encouraging and helping each other accomplish more relationship with our heavenly Father. I am excited to see what God has in store for each of us individually and as a couple! I feel like it could be a year of growing in Christ and closer together as husband and wife :)

I am closing this post with a prayer and a verse that I read this week in my devotion time. I pray that this year God is real to you in some way. That some healing will take place in your lives, and that the source of real happiness becomes very much a part of each day for all of us. We aren't guarenteed tomorrow, so live for today... for Him. Don't let a day go by without loving those around you and thanking God for each and everyone. HAPPY 2009!

Romans 15:13, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Father God, I love you and I thank you for all that you are and all that you are going to show me this coming year. While I know that some of it may even be painful, I am trusting in You and Your promises that You are always there for me and ready to hold me in your ever loving arms. I ask you to touch my family and my friends in a very real way that you would let them feel your presence and your grace at their times of needs and it would cause a real hunger and thirst for more of You in their lives. Bless my friends and family and thank you for what each and everyone of them adds to my life,. I am so grateful for each of them.

Amen

Father's Love Letter - WARNING!!! A long one, get a cup of tea and enjoy!

It's my most favorite time of the year! I love, love, love this time of the year, ever since I was a little girl, as far back as I can remember! I just love Christmas so much. And now that I have kids of my own, I love it even more. To see it through their eyes is simply amazing to me. They are so excited with the lights and glitter, baking, and yes, presents! But the electricity in the air just from their excitment is enough to keep my mood cheerful and light... well most days.  I have struggled with enjoying the holidays as much since my mom passed away almost 5 years ago. It is still fresh in my mind today, the last Christmas that we spent together. We knew it would be the last, and made so many good memories with my children and I am so grateful for those memories, as are the kids. Kendra and Austin remember them well, and thanks to scrapbooking, Cam and Colby have them too! Nothing can ever make that pain go away for me, but it is less each year and the memories that I have of our time makes me even smile now!

This year I am dealing with a different kind of loss. The loss of a relationship with my earthly dad. He is still here, but due to some choices that he has made, we are no longer a part of his life at this time. It is a grief process that I deal with daily, some better than others. For those of you that know me well, you know that I have always been daddy's little girl and to not have that in my life is simply tearing me apart and question many relationships in my life as well as produce a sense of disbelief in most everything.  Having told you this, let me tell you about my day and show you just how great my Heavenly Father is to me.

This morning started as any other, busy getting ready for work at the church, just like most Wednesdays. It's a busy morning since I need to get school stuff ready for the kids before I go and make sure that they are all set. I needed to get something at the local store on my way to church. I have convinced myself not to do this, but I am a gluten for punishment, I guess, and drove by my dad's house. There on the front porch, I saw my dad and his live in lady were enjoying the morning coffee and paper together and my whole world seemed to crash around me. The tears started to fall and I had no control of them, the rivers opened like a dam and there was no stopping them. I cleaned myself up enough to get to the office without everyone stopping me and asking me what was wrong which in my world only makes it worse since it makes me cry more! I went into my office and started working, after all, work hard and think about anything other than what I had just seen. I needed to do the bulletin board in the Children's Ministry Wing today for the Christmas season and was looking online for a new idea. While I was searching, I came across the video that I will share with you at the end of this blog. This is no mistake, and certainly no coincidence. After you watch the video you will see why this was sent to me today and you might even shed a tear with me or for me! My Heavenly Father is looking for more from me. More love, more time with me, and more relationship. He wants to be my best friend, my comfort, and my favorite person to spend time with. He wants to be my Dad! 

I hope that I haven't bored you too much and that maybe someone else out there can even relate or maybe it explains things about me to you differently. Whatever it does, I hope this video blesses you in a special way today!

Enjoy~

Another reminder of God's awesomeness!

Today I was again reminded of how awesome our God is!

I had to take my daughter Kendra to the cardiologist in Portland for an echo cardiogram. Last week at her sport physical they detected a murmur in her heart and wanted to be sure that it wasn't anything to be concerned about. It was a great day for us, the sun was out so the driving was nice, but more importantly, we had time to chat, really chat! We don't have that opportunity very often without 4 guys that we both love dearly being around to either overhear us or offer their own opinions, LOL! So that time in the car was a huge blessing to me! But what really was amazing to me, was that I was able to sit in the room with her while they were doing the sonogram and I could see her heart beating and providing life to her body and I was simply awe struck at all of the details of this part of God's creation. If you have never had the opportunity to see this, you are really missing out on something truly miraculous! The things we just take for granted, like this, your heart continuing to function one beat at a time to keep us going in our day to day! What an awesome God I serve!!!

At one point during the sonogram, they did an audio of her heart beating and I was quickly brought back to the day 15 years ago that I first fell in love with her and that sound! Tears filled my eyes at the thought of the gift she is to my life and many others.

God is good and He is awesome and we must remember to thank Him for all the "everyday" things in our lives. We don't deserve any of it, its all a gift of grace and love!

In the search of....

These past couple of weeks, I have been in a blah, a fog, if you will. Nothing bad, per se, just the same things day in and day out that the rest of you I am sure deal with as well. The same family, time, seasonal and everyday issues everyone faces, but for some reason it seems to have gotten the best of me. The last couple of days, I have really been searching. Mostly inside myself, since I know that feelings like this, at least with me, usually start there. My kids are all doing well and are healthy, Frank is working hard and classes are going well for him. My "job" at the church is going really well, I feel. What can it be? So, I am in search of happiness. Sounds like a cliche, right? Not necessarly so in my case. I am truly a happy person for all intents and purposes and I seem to have lost it, so I am looking for it! I know that I need to be looking to the One who created me inside and out and let Him show me where my happiness and wholeness comes from and I am trying, really I am. Just while I am on this part of the journey, I am still looking for my true happiness and am impatiently waiting for it to return.
In my devotions today (not a coincident, I know):
"The strngth and happiness of a man consists in finding out the way in which God is going and going in that way too." ~ Henry Ward Beecher

Randomness...

Anyone who knows me well knows how incredibly random that I am :) I have a major case of "oh it's shiny", meaning I can be in the middle of a sentence or a thought and something else will catch my attention and I am off in a whole other conversation about that or an exclamation about what I just saw, leaving the one that I am with and talking too with this look on their face of pure confusion. This is usually my dear sweet hubby, who now after almost 15 years of marriage, just smiles and shakes his head and continues to love me in spite of myself! Most days I beat myself up over this quality as I really don't find it good for much. However today, God reminded me that I am fearfully and wonderfully made! In my devotions today, I was reading in Psalm 139:14 and it reminded me that God created me just the way I am for a purpose. God didn't just throw a recipe together and hope it came out alright... He put thought and purpose into me and that includes ALL of me, even my randomness! Also, during this devotion time, I realized that at times my randomness has a specific purpose. This past week, I have been under attack from so many angles that I lost count. And yesterday, I was beat down and my spirit was tired. However, because I really don't have the ability to dwell very long on anything specific because I am so random, I was able to use that to accomplish a large event for our church and I had a lot of fun doing it!
God is good and He thought so much of me to put specific thought and time into making me, including all my idiosyncrasies, like my randomness! Thank you Lord, for making me who I am, but please continue to work on me to make me more like YOU!