March 31, 2007 by His Kingdom Herald.

The waters on the ocean of my life have been quite rough lately.

Times like this are to be expected I guess.

I’ve been finding myself using some of the same relaxation techniques I used while I was giving birth to my three children - only this time with an interesting spiritual twist.

I was taught that as soon as you felt a contraction coming, you needed to train your body to do the exact opposite of what would seem to be natural. Your natural reaction is to tense up, because you know that what’s coming is going to be painful. The problem is that by allowing yourself to become anxious and tense up, the pain you experience is actually increased.

By training every muscle in your body to relax in the midst of your adversity, you are able to conserve your strength during labor so that you actually have a reserve when it comes time to push during delivery.

Now here is the interesting spiritual twist -

When you begin to see situations and circumstances building up around you, you have a choice. You can tense up, become anxious and spend all of your energy worrying, or you can chooses to:

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
1 Peter 5:7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:7

Trust in the Lord, with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight.
Proverbs 3: 5 and 6

Always remember that in this delivery room we call life; no matter how hard it gets you never labor alone. The Father is there supporting you. The Holy Spirit is there coaching you. And Jesus is there interceding for you.

JUST PRESS ON!

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March 19, 2007 by His Kingdom Herald.

Like newborn babies,
crave pure spiritual milk,
so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,
now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
1 Peter 2:2

Have you ever been in a house with a newborn baby?

Do you remember how frequently they cried for nourishment? (When I was nursing my newborns it was every two hours around the clock!)

And grow ! I can remember coming home from a weekend get away with my husband and being amazed at how much they had grown in just two days (and how many new little tricks they had learned from Grandma!).

Now that my children are older (15,12 and 10) they find it VERY natural to open up every door and drawer in my house in search of something that will satisfy their physical hunger.

So why isn’t it just as natural for me to scrounge around in my Heavenly Daddy’s pantry (the bible) and search for something that will satisfy my SPIRITUAL hunger?

I think part of the problem is that it’s easier to ignore a spiritual hunger; or to mistake my spiritual hunger for “something else”. (You know that “something else” craving don’t you? If I just had _______ I’d be happy and content?)

A newborn baby sets a very high standard for you and I; both in terms of frequency of consumption AND in terms of speed in growth.

Are we up to the challenge? I think so. Do you know why? Because we have tasted that the Lord is good.

Once my kids get a taste of my home made cookies; I don’t have to coax them to eat them. In fact I can even tuck them away in a cupboard and they’ll scrounge around until they find them!

Daddy’s got lots of good stuff in His kitchen too, you’ve just gotta take the time to open up those doors and drawers and look around!

Hey Daddy, GOT MILK?

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March 4, 2007 by His Kingdom Herald.

Four of us (a different four of us than last week) were supposed to fly into Chicago for a discipleship training seminar on Friday, but our flight was canceled due to the blizzard.

But that blizzard didn’t stop me from traveling to Aberdeen, Scotland via the internet. I was doing a Google search using two words: “Aberdeen” and “Prayer”.

Among the results that caught my eye was a website called “Aberdeen Christian Diary“. It turned out to be a calendar listing Christian events for the city of Aberdeen, SCOTLAND.

A chill went through me when I realized what I had stumbled upon . You see, Aberdeen, South Dakota was named after the home town of Andrew Carnegie - Aberdeen, Scotland! And now I had an opportunity to take a peek at what God was doing half way around the world in the city that shared its name with us.

I spent quite some time scanning through the events listed there - here are just a few of the neat things I discovered:

1) There is a congregation in Aberdeen SCOTLAND that is called “Aberdeen Christian Fellowship” They have a wonderful website where I was even able to listen in on some of their Sunday morning messages. It almost felt like I was sitting in on one of their services - how awesome is that? Click on the LISTEN tab on their home page and experience it for yourself!

2) There is a nation-wide prayer event going on in Scotland in mid-April. It’s called Connecting Scotland. I love Pastor Bert’s heart. . . a child of The King if ever there was one!

(By the way, for those of you who might not know. . . any of the blue colored phrases in this blog are active links to the exact websites I’ve discovered. If you like adventure, feel free to click on any of these links and they will connect you directly to same sites I visited).

3) The prayer walk across Scotland is scheduled to wrap up on Pentecost Sunday when they will join the rest of the world in the 2007 Global Day of Prayer and the 90 Days of Blessing that are to follow it.

It never ceases to amaze me how God inspires His people to use all of this modern technology!

What a beautiful day . . . just me and the Holy Spirit surfin’ in the snow; and He lets me take a peek at what He’s doing on the other side of the planet!

IS THAT COOL OR WHAT?

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March 2, 2007 by His Kingdom Herald.

What is it about snow that brings out the little kid in all of us?

Yesterday one of our trustees was helping us shovel sidewalks at the corps. When he came in he was covered in snow. He had slipped on some ice and fell into a snow bank. We teased him about making snow angels and he said it was no snow angel - it looked more like a snow monkey!

My kids haven’t been to school for 3 days now. Five of us live in a 16×80 mobile home and last night it looked like a game of tag in full swing. . .

The youngest was giggling as he teased the oldest (it reminded me of a rodeo clown shaking his fanny at a snorting bull!).

Of course my oldest was only too willing to face down this little challenger by saying “Bring it little boy!”

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this much playful interaction between my kids. We get so busy, each running in our own direction. It was fun watching them. (even though I had to referee so that nothing and no one got broken!).

This morning my husband showed me a copy of an e-mail that was being circulated at work. Thought I’d share it with the rest of you snow monkeys.

0 degrees above zero: Arizonians turn on the heat - South Dakotans plant gardens

40 degrees above zero: Italian and English cars won’t start - South Dakotans drive with the windows down.

20 degrees above zero: Floridians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves and wool hats. South Dakotans put on a flannel shirt.

15 degrees above zero: New York landlords finally turn up the heat. South Dakotans have the last cookout before it gets cold.
20 degrees below zero: Washington DC runs out of hot air. South Dakotans let the dogs sleep indoors.
40 degrees below zero: ALL atomic motion stops (absolute zero on the Kelvin scale). South Dakotans start saying “Cold ’nuff for ya?”

45 degrees below zero: Hell freezes over. South Dakota public schools will open 2 hours late.

How long has it been since you’ve allowed that care-free, child-like part of yourself to bubble up to the surface?

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