How are you living your dash?

"For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him." Philippians 2:13 (NLT)

The message delivered this morning by Dr. Bob Baker at Calvary Baptist Church in Lexington, KY was "Don't Dash Through Your Dash." It was a very thought provoking message for me, although God took me on a slightly different path than the one Dr. Baker was focusing on.

It's a path full of questions and insights God has been laying on my heart for many months now. One of the questions I had been focusing on previously was "if you knew this was the last year of your life, would you be spending it the way you are today?" Dr. Baker's message plus a poem and film he included (links attached to this post), has caused me to change my line of self-questioning to "How are you living your dash?"

You see, the dash represents the time between your birth and your death, as represented on your tombstone. I guess I'm one of the few people who had not previously read "The Dash" poem by Linda Ellis ( read at http://www.behappy101.com/the-dash-poem-text.html).

The poem ends with:

So, when your eulogy’s being read

with your life’s actions to rehash...
would you be proud of the things they say
about how you spent your dash?

David and I went out to breakfast after the service and when he asked me what I thought of the message, I could hardly express myself through the lump in my throat. God has been convicting me of so many things over the past six months to a year and they are all about how I'm "living my dash". I wish I could share with you that I have been 100% obedient 100% of the time to 100% of what He has and is showing me, but sadly I cannot. However, today's message by Dr. Baker reminded me that God has not given up on me and He is not through with me yet.

I am confident that God loves me and He does work in me giving me the desire and the power to do what pleases Him. That's how He wants me to live my dash - by pleasing Him. He wants me to live it by becoming and being the best I can be for Him. He wants more for me than I do for myself. He wants me to live it by sharing with others the love, grace and mercy He has so richly blessed me with.

I'm not so concerned about what people may or may not say in my eulogy or even about what they think of me today. But, I am concerned about what my Father in heaven thinks of me and about whether or not I am living each day in complete and total surrender and obedience to Him.

I need to be working on my dash - or at least staying out of His way, so He can work thru me the way He wants to.

What about you - how are you living your dash?

Prayer for today: Father God, thank you for who you are and for your loving faithfulness and mercy to a sinner like me. Thank you for your forgiveness, your guidance and for all the lessons you teach me - even when they are not what I want to hear. Thank you for not giving up on me and continuing to work on, in and thru me. I love you so much! My heart's desire is for every word, action, thought and deed I do to glorify and honor You. Lord, please empty me of me and fill me to overflowing with your Holy Spirit so that your light, your truth and your love spill out to those I encounter in a way that glorifies you and only you. Please help me to live my dash in a way that will allow you to say "Well done, good and faithful servant" when we meet. I pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

What do I want to be when I grow up?

" . . . it has not yet been revealed what we shall be . . ." 1 John 3:2

It seems like one of the most typical conversations we have with children - from preschool age on up - is "What do you want to be when you grow up?" What a dilemma! How are we supposed to know that at such a young age?! When I was in elementary school - or even college - I didn't even know jobs like the one I hold now even existed. And, many jobs that do exist today didn't even exist way back then. So, how are we to know what we want to be?

What we should be asking young children and adults alike is "who do you want to be?"

I'm not sure I could have answered that as a preschooler either, but I can today!

I want to be a completely sold out, totally devoted, always immediately obedient servant and follower of Jesus Christ who every minute of every day shares the hope, love, mercy, encouragement, forgiveness and grace that can only come through Him. I want to thirst for His Word even more than I do for H2O. I want to help others come to know Him. I want His fragrance and His light to so totally engulf me that others can't help but notice that something special is different about me and want to know why. Like a quote I heard a year or so ago, I want to be a woman who, when I roll out of bed each morning, Satan cries, "Oh, no! She's up!"

I wish I had this direction much earlier in my life - I thought I did, but came to realize that my faith and personal relationship with Jesus Christ was about as shallow as my bath water. I am so thankful that my Lord and Savior is who He says He is, does what He says He can do, and continues to work on making me who He wants me to be. I rest in the knowledge that I can do all things through Him and pray that each and every day His Word is alive and active in me.

I'm still on the road to who I want to be when I grow up, but with Jesus leading the way, I know I'm going to make it!

Who do you want to be when you grow up?

Prayer for today: Father God, thank you, thank you, thank you for your patience and your love. Thank you for not giving up on me. Thank you for being who you are. I love you so much! Thank you for sharing messages and encouragement through your Word and also through others using your Word. I pray that I always hear Your truth alone and hear it clearly. Lord, you know I still need your help with the control and discipline issues, but I know that through you I can get there. Thank you for the sacrifice of your precious son, Jesus Christ as payment for my sins and for those of my brothers and sisters in Christ. Amen.

Walking the Walk

"Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did." 1 John 2:6

Sometimes trite old sayings are trite old sayings because they are truthful. My prayer is to "walk the walk" and not just "talk the talk." And, quite honestly, I don't believe I do that every day. At least not the way Jesus did or would. I want to, but too often I fail miserably.

"No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him." 1 John 3: 6

"Those who obey His commands live in Him, and He in them. And this is how we know that He lives in us. We know it by the Spirit He gave us." 1 John 3:24

I know when I am not acting (or thinking) the way Jesus would. The Spirit He gave me reminds me immediately - or soon thereafter. Usually it involves my tone of voice or thoughts of words I want to say. I praise God that He usually keeps me from voicing some of the things that run thru my mind - names I want to call people, heads I want to snap off. But, it still feels like sin - because it is.

I am so thankful to serve a gracious, merciful and loving God who gives me chance after chance after chance to draw closer to Him and continues to teach me how to walk more like Jesus.

"I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer, my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the Lord, who is worth of praise, and I am saved from my enemies." Psalm 18: 1-5

Prayer for today:

Father God, thank you, thank you , thank you. Thank you for always loving me for who I am, no matter what and always encouraging me to learn lessons I sometimes don't really want to learn because you know I need them. Thank you for your mercy and patience and forgiveness. I love you.

What is God showing you today?

Goodbye, Toodles

I know the stated purpose of this blog is to share bits of insight God has shared with me thru His word, but I'm breaking that premise today to share some thoughts about our sweet family dog, Toodles, who left this earth today. Let me say that if you're one of those people who doesn't understand how losing a pet can hurt deeply, please stop reading because I need to write "sappy" and remember her thru my tears.

Toodles came into our family as puppy we "rescued" from the humane society in November 1994. The kids couldn't agree on a name. Stuart wanted Brutus and the girls voted for Holly, some other seasonal girly name or something like Fluffy because at the time she was a fluffy little ball, but when I suggested Toodles, they all agreed! We went there looking for a "lap dog" and at that age, Toddles was. However, it wasn't too long before she was thigh high and close to 50 lbs!

She was such a sweet girl and gave our family much pleasure over the years. We've loved her dearly and I believe she felt that love. As a "youngster" one of her favorite things was chasing rabbits. We have such fun memories of watching her out the windows of our home on Masters Way. She would try to sneak up on the as they came out from under the shed, but somehow they always alluded her. One of the things Toodles I shared - especially at the house on Masters was the love of laying out in the sun! Toodles would bask on the deck while I floated in the pool. Even tho she could have easily walked or jumped into the pool, she never ever did.

When Toodles was younger, she loved to jump up on the bed when I was still in it. David didn't like her doing that and she knew it, so she'd wait until he had left for work - or at least left the room, and then she'd jump up in bed with me and snuggle! Same thing for the couch - she loved to jump up on the couch and lay there with her head in my lap.

Most of her life Toodles was primarily an outside dog. She was only inside when we were home and even then she often wanted to be outside. When we moved to Lexington almost four years ago, that all changed. I know most of that was her age, but even tho we have a fenced in yard, she didn't like being outside here as much. And, she had to climb quite a few steps to get into and out of the yard. So, it seems like she started going downhill since we've been here and has been progressively worse recently. Letting her go was one of the hardest decisions we've had to make, but we know it was the right thing to do for her.

David took her to the vet this morning and then drove her over 2 hours to his brother Winston's house in Glasgow to bury her. It's going to be hard to get used to her not being with us.