Sometimes we can find encouragement from nature...

To be or not to be:content in every situation...

...That is the question...
I am learning a lot about this lately, because there are many things in the past month that could make me angry at God for allowing. Even small things such as stress, or too much to do, not enough time...but God uses everything for His good and His glory. I am a witness to this. He is either preparing us in our situation for something else, testing us to make us like Him, or simply blessing us to depend more on Him! So, whatever it is, I will rejoice in all circumstances because He is working out His eternal purposes in me! ~inspired by Jer. 31:3, Psalm 34:8, and Phil. 4:12.

Just a thought

It's interesting: the more I find myself bush-whacking through this path of life, the more I find that Jesus is right beside me, not too far away from the narrow road. And when it appears, the way to follow Him seems much more clear; and even though I spent all this energy going through the difficult, highly weeded "non-path", Jesus takes out the weeds and I can see the path again, the one I take with Him...

On language learning (PART 1):

I find when learning a new language, one must pass through phases in which to learn. Let me explain. Phase 1- trying to grasp the sounds and pronunciation, while trying to remember simple greetings.  In addition, when pronouncing and listening, it feels like you’re babbling like a child; and you have no reading skills yet. You are eager to learn everything you can, which is nearly impossible, but you feel like you can do anything; and staying positive helps you get through this “awkward phase” of not being conversational enough to use the language in order to practice it.

Phase 2- you’ve now mastered trying to remember “hello”, you learned the alphabet, so you can soundi out constants, and you know most of the important tenses-the rules at least!

Phase 3- you begin to read, which you do so ever so slowly, which makes you ashamed to admit you can read because then you will be called upon to read aloud…you are sounding out EVERYTHING! You neglect to congratulate yourself in this small milestone of beginning to read signs/advertisements, because you realize just how massive this language is and if you will ever become fluent!

Phase 4- You have finally mastered greeting and small-talk and you feel so far from talking about politics, philosophy…the important conversations you want to touch on (instead of the usual weather and food topics!), and you think you should be farther along by now…but you’re improving without realizing it and not giving yourself much credit; people either encourage or discourage you at this point. Don’t let them!

Power of Prayer

It's amazing how God works in us to bring His will on earth, something Jesus encouraged us to pray (see Lord's Prayer). Lately, He has showed me this through praying for Syria. I allowed Him to lead me to pray for not only peace, but for the U.S. President would be given "a way out" from having to strike Syria in an act of violence (only God can have justice- how can we take revenge and justice into our own hands, using violence and war?)...and God granted this by having the Russian President seek to speak to Obama about collecting the chemical weapons from Syria. I prayed this the night/morning of when this decision was brought about. This tells me some incredible things about God: 1. He shows us how to pray, 2. He involves us in His will through prayer, 3. He humbles us by our dependence on Him to take control of what we have no control over. The Master is at work, and He is good.

What is happiness? What is this strange feeling of usefulness, purpose, and dignity that we call fulfilling? 1 John 3:1, 3:  “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God!!!...And everyone who has this hope purifies himself, JUST AS HE IS PURE”!!! I cannot deny I am a sinner, because if I do then I call God a liar…but now I am pure as He is, thankful to this hope of being His child! We are not alone! God gave us help: if our hearts bring us down and depressed, Christ is greater than our hearts and He knows all things and brings us out of what is holding us back (1 John 3:20)!

The tongue is deceitful, who can tame it? (James 3:7-9.) I try to, and each time it feels like I have fewer victories and more failures because the flesh wants the best of me. However, this flesh is like the grass: it will disappear one day, and God’s Words will remain (1 Peter 1:24-25; Isaiah 40:6-8). I don’t want my words to remain. They are worthless; they have hurt people and have shied away from sharing a truthful message about Christ. Oh Lord, forgive me. Forgive my Western friends and families who have over the generations made wrong decisions in how to respond to the rest of the world. It has not been wise or just; even the wealth of the West and the “whites” is not from a truthful method. It came from the sweat of slaves, the exploitation of the voiceless… I tried to deny my relationship to the West when I was younger so I could be rid of the responsibility. But they are still my sisters and brothers. God still loves them, He still loves me- and the sooner I humble myself the more free I can be. It’s His kindness that brings repentance…and with repentance (sins) brings grace all the more (Romans 5:20). Praise God through Jesus Christ! This is true joy, true fellowship with the Son.