Shouts of Joy

From our children's devotional:

"He quiets the raging oceans and all the world's clamor. In the farthest corners of the earth the glorious acts of God shall startle everyone. The dawn and sunset shout for joy!" (Ps 65:7-8 TLB emphasis mine)

Which reminded me of one particular night.

The children and I went to watch their daddy play on our church's softball team. While they watched their daddy, I also watched our Daddy God paint the most amazing sky with purple, pink and orange.

And although no camera could ever truly capture the beauty of it all, I decided to keep all photo editing software away from these photos.  Because this sunset, on this particular night, seemed to "shout for joy" and I wanted you to see what I saw.

He is all around me, my husband, our children, our family, our friends...us.  If the heavens can shout for joy, then so can I and I'm so thankful for the reminders.

Blessings for your weekend,

Sunset During Softball photos by Lisa Arnold taken with Canon PowerShot SX120IS 10MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Images Stabilized Zoom and 3-inch LCD

Dislike button!

I will apologize about the errors and painful lack of formatting in last night's blog post. I actually fought with it for an hour and every time I previewed the post, something else was off.  I even published it twice to see if that made a difference.

Uh...no.

Actually it's very interesting that I was writing a post about not letting anything, even muddy water, be a discouragement while I started to feel discouraged. So in a moment of boldness, I decided to leave it alone and let you read it the way it was...and as of this post...still is.

I just wish I had a giant DISLIKE button to push.

Nope. It's not "perfect" and neither am I.  I think there is something beautiful and healing about letting others see that.

Blessings for your day,

Muddy water?

For the past few weeks, Google has continually sent me reports that my blog...well...basically stinks.  For the life of me I could not figure out why my ratings PLUMMETED.  I mean, I know I don't write often enough nor do I feel I write about things that would interest a wide audience.  But you see, as I've re-discovered in the past week...that's not the reason I started this blog.

I actually started posting stories because of the encouragement of others and if you read last week's post about getting over myself, you can imagine...I was getting excited to share again.  But then this morning happened.  I got another report from Google.


Yikes. It was really bad.

However, this time I actually opened up the site and looked over the numbers...again...and again...and again.  Every report looked worse than the last and I started to feel down again...just like the declining red arrow I was staring at on the screen. Down...down...down...

I kept thinking to myself, "Great. You've lost everyone and nobody cares about you at all. Get over yourself and stop writing completely. You suck."  Ew.  If you know me, you know that is not the mindset I keep.  You know...cause I'm a WARRIOR PRINCESS!

So I did what any self respecting Warrior Princess would do and walked away from being uncomfortably hot...and irritable...and HOT.  After all, I can't let anybody see me sweat and my nails are much too pretty to fight with the keyboard right now!


Breath in.


Breath out.


An entire day went by.


Breath in.


Breath out.


Yes. I did walk away but I knew I really needed to figure out why I was feeling hurt.  So instead of "not caring what everybody else thinks" and blowing it off...I thought about it. And just like any princess, I went to Daddy. But instead of conversational prayer, I was lead to making dinner because...well, it was dinner time. Then it seemed like that was when the mystical and mysterious way our Father works started to seep into my thought processes.  The kids were off playing, husband at work, phone calls done...silence. Just me...and my heavenly Daddy in the kitchen.


Nothing was happening other than I noticed I was beginning to relax and I mean REALLY relax.  I started making breakfast for dinner. Odd. I hadn't planned on it but I knew the kids wouldn't mind.  So I continued.  I mean, I had chicken. I was going to cook the chicken. Why breakfast?!


Oh well. I made a full breakfast with bacon and eggs and toast and marmalade and milk and yum, yum, yum!  The kids were so grateful and in such a good mood all day. I sat there feeling warm and loved and thankful too.  Just at that moment, we decided to read a second devotional while they finished up.


Have I ever mentioned the perfection of God's timing?  Because it truly is perfect. Earlier in the day we read a devotional and the children learned about God's provision and how important it is to care for others.  Then just an hour later I had a conversation with a good friend of mine about a ministry she is involved in (Hi Jodi!).


And here I was, sitting at the kitchen table having breakfast for dinner AND reading a second devotional.  It's almost like it was symbolic way of showing me the day can start fresh...at any point.


Now, I am going to cut the story here because you already know where this is going.


After dinner, devotional, and dessert, the children went off to play again.  I cleaned up a little and opted to sit back down to look at the reports of doom and gloom.  I started to notice a slight pattern I didn't see before.


WAIT A MINUTE!

Everything had gone south when I changed the layout of the blog!

Could it be?

Might be!

I opened my template in HTML and started scouring code (yes, I am a true nerd).

IT IS!!!

The new template I switched to in Blogger did not properly read the code to...errrckk.

Oh nevermind, if I want to keep some of my readership I need to stick with English. The point is, I found the problem and fixed it. It wasn't that nobody was reading my blog, it was that Google didn't know anybody was reading it and they kept telling me yucky things.

I felt victorious and lifted again!  I won! I beat the Google beast by throwing God's net of starting fresh over something that was simply muddying the waters.  Daddy took His princess to a place of relaxation and confidence where she could trust in the talent and mind HE had given her...JUST SO SHE COULD SEE that nothing...not even muddy water...is a reason to feel defeated.

Want to know the verse in the evening's devotional?

"...You act like a lion roaming the earth;  but you are nothing more than a crocodile in a river, churning up muddy water with your feet. 

 King of Egypt, listen to me. I, the LORD God, will catch you in my net and let a crowd of foreigners drag you to shore." (EZ 32:1-3)

Isn't that GREAT!  It was actually a devotional about remembering to stay humble. But for me, I saw the need to be reminded that God is ready to give victory to anyone who looks to Him. Life is filled with goodness but it is full of disappointment and obstacles and scarey things but there is never a need to feel useless just because you can't "see" something clearly and assume the worst.

I know, I know. This is one small victory but it is still a WIN...and I got to dance with my King this evening. All is well that ends with G.R.A.C.E.

Blessings for your day,

In step

Yesterday I mentioned that I recently saw someone and I told you I would return to tell you.  Do you remember the Cookie Cutter Words series I wrote about a "nine little words" encounter?  Well, as you can only imagine...just at the same time I was discovering my two left feet in these recent stories...I see her again.

I was so overjoyed in seeing her that I purposefully asked her how she's been doing.  Now, because she has been attending our church off and on I've kept her identity a secret and will continue to do so.  But I must tell you that she is not doing well.

She may be overwhelmed with work or that may be her choice. She may be having health issues and cannot go to the doctor because of financial reasons or she may be making excuses.  She may be telling stories or she may be holding back the truth out of fear of rejection.  Regardless, I do not judge her nor condemn her.

The truth is I don't know what burdens her heart but I know my Father, your Father, her Father does.  So as I said yesterday, "...I will tell you who I've recently seen, so we can pray...and then dance. Together."

If you wouldn't mind so much, would you? Could you? Join me? Be in step with me? Pray for her. Together? 

Saturday.

You know that was the darkest day before our glorious redemption.

It was a Saturday when everyone awoke and hoped the nightmare of our crucified Lord was just that...a nightmare.  Then the sun set and the darkness of the night matched the darkness of their mourning hearts.

And then Sunday.

Sunday the grave couldn't hold Him.

And the nightmare ended. Our redemption realized.  Blood poured out was not the final note.

Come along. I ask you to be in step with me this Saturday, tomorrow.  I prayerfully hope the tugging on her heart is from the collection of prayers from rightous women longing for another to wake and see the sun rise on a Sunday morning and know...in the deepest part of her soul...that all that weighs her down does not get the final say.

Would you? Could you? Join me? Be in step with me? Pray for her?

Blessings for your day...blessings for hers,

See, Pray, Dance

A friend of mine posted on her blog today after being gone from the "blogging world" for months.  I was so happy to read her again.  She actually had the exact words for why I have NOT been writing. I just happen to be fumbling over myself...with two left feet...for the past month...or so.

You should head over there and read what she has to say. Click here.

Go ahead. I'll wait.

[waiting...]

[waiting...]

[waiting...]

Good stuff right?

I often ask myself why any of us so desperately seek the approval of others. How is that possible?  How does that happen? How can you catch it in time to stop it from becoming an idol you worship? How did that happen to me?  How do I get rid of it?

Now if I really took the time to explain to you where I look for the approval, many would say to me that it's no big deal.  Also, "Of course everybody loves a compliment!", would be the perfect rationalization for my prodding and seeking.

But the problem became more of feeling as if  I would be misunderstood and no one person could possibly appreciate what I was doing with nine little words. My encounters became about the stories and instead of actually "seeing" a person through their pray request. I would think about what lesson God may want to teach me rather then getting on my knees and earnestly praying.  And lastly, instead of dancing with joy over being given a glimpse of His heart I would type and retype words to tell you a story that never made any sense...even to me.

Now before I sound completely out of whack, I will tell you that I never once asked one person my nine little words question that I did not carry in my heart and pray over.  Every individual  I ever asked has stayed with me and has been poured over in prayer.  Unfortunately, with potential new encounters, what I recently started to do was  think about the story and if you would even like it or  think it was funny...before even asking the question!  I would become so preoccupied with the setting, the weather, the mood, people around me, etc., that I wouldn't even have the courage to ask when it came time.

It's sort of like Samson. "...He awoke from his sleep and thought, "I'll go out as before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him." (Judges 16:20 NIV) 

I am in no way saying God had abandoned me, but I certainly did not have the courage He had been giving me on my little adventure. He left me fumbling and waited for me to get over myself (huh...sort of like Samson again).

Why?

Because maybe, just maybe...He leads this dance...and I'm not as good as I think I am.

Oh, SNAP! [keepin' it real]

So where does this leave us?

Here.

Right where it all began.

Why?

Because just like the words of a wise woman:

"Even if I'm getting it wrong and I'm stepping all over God's toes. Even if I'm trying to lead GOD, and every one's laughing at the presumptuousness of that foolishness. Even then, He has not left me or forsaken me. He is out there--on the dance floor--claiming me as His--2 left feet and all. He delights in me and sings over me. He hates that I have to feel this way, but He knows what it will produce in me, so He is strong enough and loving enough to let me go through it." - Lisa Jones from Seeking Him Desperately 

During this dance, I am actually very grateful my heavenly Daddy let me trip over myself...by myself and not bring anyone down.  Because for a Latina who is supposed to have rhythm...well...that wouldn't be pretty. Trust me. Not pretty. At all.

Tomorrow I will tell you who I've recently seen, so we can pray...and then dance. Together.

Blessings for your day,