Is God Your Savior or Your Judge

I was in Bible study this morning and the speaker asked the question, "Is God your Savior or your judge?" I have spent most of the morning thinking about this question. God is my savior because he provided his son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for my sins. It is only through Jesus that I know I will have eternal life in heaven. But the Bible also says that we will sit before the judgement seat of Christ and he will measure out the works that we have done in this life to determine our reward in heaven. Doesn't that make God both my savior and my judge?
I know that I already have been given the gift of eternity because I accepted the amazing gift of the blood of Jesus. There is nothing that I can do that can earn my salvation, but I can do good works here on earth to bring glory to God. That is, after all, what he has asked us all to do. Every time I serve the poor, help the hungry, or visit someone who is ill, I am spreading the love of Christ and storing up treasures in heaven. I love my savior, I have an amazing respect for my judge and what he has asked me to do. Thank you God for being my savior and for allowing me to know that you will be my judge, so that I can do good works for you now and celebrate them later in heaven.

Feeling Beautiful

Today I got my nails done. It is such a silly little thing but I really enjoy it. I was feeling guilty about indulging in this pleasure since I am recently out of work. My husband did the budget last night and tole me to go ahead and have them done. He told me, "I love doing things for you that make you happy."

As I left the salon this morning I noticed how different I felt. I have a beautiful new french manicure and I see that I hold my hands differently when they feel beautiful. I toss my hair back differently. I even carry my purse differently. I was able to spend an hour at the salon with a friend and talk about things that did not involve baby talk. It was a little bit of time where I was just able to be a woman instead of mommy, wife, house cleaner, and taxi.

I am so grateful that my husband understands that I enjoy things that make me feel beautiful and that it is important. He understands that when I feel good about myself I feel better about what I do every day. He wants me to feel good about myself and I love that it makes me feel spoiled.

I have a goal to do one thing every day that makes me feel good about myself. Granted it won't be a manicure every day, but maybe once a week I can give myself a facial. I can spend just a little bit of time when my children have gone to bed reading a book just for fun. I feel better about myself and better about my goals as a mother, a writer, and a Scentsy consultant. This is going to be a good day!

Giving it all to God

My husband said something the other night that really struck me. He asked, "If I have really released everything to God, then why I am so tired?"
God tell us not to worry about tomorrow or to worry about what we will eat or wear. We are to trust him in everything. This is a moment by moment battle for me. Now that I am no longer working outside the home, I find myself worrying about our bills and about how we will afford to do some of the things that we enjoy to do with our kids. My husband says that he still finds himself worrying about our finances as well. But our God wants us to trust him with everything.
All of the resources that we have come from God. He knows how much we need to live and He will provide that for us. It might not be exactly the way that we had planned, but how much better will God's plan be than any that our finite human minds could think up?
I am excited to see where God is taking my family now and I will, moment by moment, trust the Lord with everything in my life.

Glorifying God in Good and Bad Times

It is easy to glorify God when things are going well. We shout his praises to the rooftops when everything is working out the way that we want it to. What about those times though, when things aren't quite the way that we had planned? I am sitting here at home today, on a day when nomrally I would be at work. I no longer have a job outside of the home. I have spent some time as a stay at home mom, but I always figured that I would have a career. Now I see years ahead of me with no job to speak of. Can I glorify God now that I am lost and confused?
Of course I can! God is still in control! He still know everything that is happening and has a plan for my good. He wants me to have a hope and a future. I have a wonderful family and my children are very excited that mommy is home with them after school now. To tell the truth, I am pretty excited about it myself. My littlest ones are having a tea party in the living room with their dolls right now. My oldest will be home from school in a few hours and she will tell me all about her day. I will get to hear it first, not after she has already shared it with the people at daycare and forgotten about some of it. There is joy in that experience, and now that joy is mine.
While I may not always understand why things happen in this life, I do understand that I serve an amazing God and that He loves me at all times. I am never out of his hands.

God Is In Control

I know that, no matter what happens in my life, God is in control. I find it hard somtimes though, to remember this fact. This has been a rough week for my family. I have been diagnosed with a medical problem that is causing us to make some serious changes to the way that we approach things. Due to this issue, I might be facing the loss of my job. I carry the health insurance for my family. We are nervous to see where our road is going to take us now. We are trusting that God will only lead us where he wants us, and that no matter where we are He will give us the strength to handle it. I am learning what it means to truly depend on my husband to care for me. I am discovering how to reach out to my friends for help when what I really want to do is just handle things on my own.

I have always been that woman who can handle everything and fight my own battles. It is quite the wake up call for me now to have to rely on my husband to drive me where I need to go and to help me so much around the house. I can't just decide I want to go somewher and pick up and go. I have to put more planning into things now, and I have to trust in the Lord for provision much more.

I am excited to see how He will provide for us in this scary time of transition.

A Beautiful Day

I woke up this morning to fresh snow falling and two inches of fluffy whiteness already on the ground. I opened up my devotional to read about an amazing woman holding onto her faith when she was in prison in China for bringing Bibles into the country. It reminded me of what an amazing God we have! No matter what trials we might be facing, He is always there with us. Even when we feel like we are all alone and there is no one who can understand our pain, He is holding our hand. It was such an encouragment to me after the long, difficult week that I have had. Our God is amazing! His love for us is never ending and it does not depend on anything that we do. All that is required of us is love and faith! How incredible is that?!?

Sometimes I slip into the thinking that I need to "do something" in order to "earn" my way into heaven. It is nothing that I can accomplish on my own. Only Jesus' work on the cross can bring me into everlasting life with my heavenly Father.

What a wonderful way to begin a beautiful day!

Rejoicing in Affliction

2 Corinthians 12:7-9 "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."

This week we received some upsetting news about my health. We learned that I have an affliction that most likely will be with me for the rest of my life. It is going to mean some changes in the basic way that we live life as well as greatly decreasing my independence. My first reaction was to wallow in sadness and bury myself under my pillow. I came home and pulled out my Bible. I cried, I yelled, I prayed, and I begged the Lord to take it away from me. Then I remembered this verse in 2 Corinthians. Paul was a great messenger of Christ, yet he had a "thorn in his flesh". The Bible never says exactly what that thorn was, but it was something that tormented him greatly. Even such a great minister of Christ had to deal with a weakness, trusting that God's grace was sufficient for him.

As I embark on this new journey that God has placed in my life, I know that His grace will be sufficient for me. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

Feeling Dry

I woke up late this morning. When I rolled over to look at my alarm clock I realized that we had to be out the door in 45 minutes. That meant getting myself up, dressed, and ready for work and my 3 daughters ready for school. I rushed around pulling out clothes for the girls and grabbing them poptarts so that I could go get dressed and brush my hair. When we flew out the door only 3 minutes late, I realized that I did not take the time to read my morning devotional. By the time I got the kids delivered to where they needed to be and myself to the office, I was feeling stress build up in my neck.

Once I arrived at work I had to jump on a conference call then head to the bank... all before 9:00 when I had to unlock the doors for customers to come in. During all of this time the knot in my neck grew increasingly tighter. When I was finally able to take a moment to breathe, I realized that my sould was crying out for connection with my creator.

I thank the Lord for the internet. I logged on and pulled up the Women of Faith daily devotional and the Charisma daily devotional. Sitting at my desk, I took a few minutes to read those and bow my head in prayer, thanking the Lord for another beautiful day.

How wonderful to realize that the knot in my neck is now gone and I am ready to work through another amazing, blessed, day!