Today on the way in to the grocery store there was one of those really big funnels meant to collect coins for a local charity. They design those funnels with kids in mind. For some reason watching the coins go round and round is fascinating. The coin collector caught my youngest son’s eye. “Mom, I need some money! I want to put in in the funnel!”  I hated to break it to him but I had no coins, so I came up with a plan. “Let’s look all around in the grocery store and see if we can find a penny on the ground.”

By the end of my shopping I was looking at sad faces. No coins. Oh boy, I knew on our way out we had to pass the funnel again!  ”Let’s look in the parking lot!” My genius plan continues. We must have looked a little strange with all of our faces to the ground, but if there was a coin in sight we were going to find it. About half way to the car my son cries out, “Mom, there’s no use! We’re never going to find one.” The car was just steps away and I knew, chances are, he was right, but God nudged me and said, “Ask Me.” For a split second I thought, “Now Jesus, I don’t want to go and get their hopes up if you don’t deliver!” He responded, “Is anything too big for me?” Before I could reason my response again I said, “Jesus, help us find a penny!” I took only one more step and directly in front of me was a single shiny penny on the ground right next to my car. We all screamed, picked up the penny and ran to the funnel. You would have thought it was the greatest day of their lives. My middle son, Hayes, the quick thinker, said, “Mom, why didn’t we ask Jesus for a million dollars?” 

It was such a simple thing, yet it was SO big! It was  just a penny, but it was a penny placed strategically by God to teach me and my kids a lesson: Nothing is too big for God. Nothing is too late. Nothing is too specific. If He can provide a penny seconds after I say a prayer just to show off to my kids then why can’t He provide absolutely anything we need? I didn’t need the penny. Honestly, I didn’t have the faith to even believe for it, but He wanted to show Himself capable and faithful. 

Next time I am in real need I am going to remember this little story. It’s a beautiful display of  his attentiveness, power and really clever sense of humor! 

Community, friendship, a sense of family and place to belong. We all need to do life with someone, a few someones. People are essential to our growth.

We need:

*People that are strong in areas we are weak.

*People who love us in the bad, but nicely speak truth.

*People that encourage and don’t criticize.

*People to have FUN with!

If you have to compartmentalize them then go for it, but make sure you have those areas filled. I have prayed over the years for the Lord to send me specific types of relationships, and also that He would graciously send me those I don’t even know I need. He has done both.

I have a friend who thinks in ways my brain will never go! She is so organized she makes Martha Stewart look like a mess! EVERYTHING (literally) in her home has a place in a container with a label on it. It’s unbelievable, yet sooo inspiring. I visited her last week, came home and started sorting. I gleaned from her ideas, and now my home is a bit more orderly for it.

Another friend of mine can get away with telling me just about anything. It rarely hurts my feelings because I know she loves deeply and only wants to see me get better. I can do the same with her. It’s a two way street.

God has been very faithful to send me friends that really know how to have fun. One way I instinctually measure if I had a good time is by how much I laughed. It’s just part of my personality. It’s VERY important to me to regularly have fun. I like to laugh, a lot. I’m attracted to people who like to do the same. Recently I stayed up with 3 ladies until 3 am… yes, 3. My eyes haven’t seen 3 on the clock in years unless it was to get up to go to the bathroom! I needed this time of laughing and chatting with women whom I can trust. Although my blood shot eyes paid the next day, it was well worth it.

Make sure you’re investing in relationships. It’s probably one of the best investments you can make. You will reap the dividends even years from now.

xoxo 

It’s Monday. My brain is a little tired from the weekend so I’m not going to get too deep on ya! I just thought I’d talk about what’s been on my mind lately, and that’s the challenge I’ve given myself to eat gluten free. My disclaimer would be this: I’m not making any promises!!

During our 7 Day Juice Fast (you can read about it in previous blog posts) I felt incredible! That was a little odd to me being that most fasts cause you to feel bad the first few days. I never felt bad. In fact, I felt better than usual. After we broke the fast my system had a hard time returning to normal. That’s when I decided that maybe I shouldn’t go back to normal. I’ve always struggled with minor digestive issues so maybe I should try to doing something different. That’s when I thought about trying out eating gluten free. There are quite a few ladies in our church that eat this way so I started asking a few questions. This is what I’ve learned so far:

- Eating gluten free can be a little more expensive, especially if you are a carb eater.

- Use gluten free ready flour mixes for baking. Don’t try to make your own mix of flours if you’re not knowledgeable of what each flour does (which I am not!). I bought a pancake/waffle mix and absolutely LOVE it. So do my kids which is a big winner for me! I also bought a muffin mix. I made banana/choc. chip and banana/blueberry muffins already. The texture was more like a mixture between a normal muffin and corn bread but the taste was pretty good. My kids liked those too.

- Jason’s Deli has a gluten free menu. The bread is surprisingly pretty good.

-Walmart has a small section devoted to all gluten free products (cookies, pastas, flour, cereal, etc.).

- The clothing store, Altered State, has a cookbook called “Baby Cakes” that I hear is great for gluten free sweets recipes. I plan to get that.

I have no idea how long I will keep this up, but I’d like to see if it helps! I will let you know!

I welcome any advice or ideas if you’ve gone the gluten free route.

Until next time…. XO

She’s the super hero of anxiety. Beneath the mask and all that spandex she’s a villain at heart. She’s powerful I tell you! She’s modern day. N

Worry is easily justified as a noble act. After all, isn’t worry what mothers are supposed to do? Not really. We and everyone else is supposed to respond to every situation in faith. Fear will always be knocking at the door, and inevitably sometimes we will give in and wear her like a new pair of shoes. But when you do, strip off her cape, throw out the worst case scenario and tell God you trust Him. THINK about if the best case scenario happened. That will open up the door for the possibility of it actually happening. This is a constant act I must intentionally do. It starts with intentionally making the decision to stop negative thinking and walk by faith. Be warned, though, Anxiety Girl is persistent and doesn’t like to take no for an answer. But keep at it. Eventually FAITH wins and she’s forces out, leaping away to the next willing victim!  

Hebrews 11:6 “Without faith it is impossibly to please God.”

On day 6 I drank several jars of my juice I had stored in the fridge. Of course, it’s always best to juice and drink right away, but I had a busy weekend so I used what was on hand. On Saturday evening I incorporated small amounts of food, such as a banana and edamame. On Sunday, day 7, I broke my fast around 2:00. This was, by far, the best fast I have ever done. After 2 or 3 days of fasting the hunger pains went away. I only had to hush the desire to munch out of habit not hunger. I felt good the entire time. I think the key is continually drinking juice. This year I’d like to incorporate 1 or 2 day juice fast every couple of months just to give my system a break and a jolt of vitamins. 

Spiritually I enjoyed this fast. I had a lot of quiet time. I wrote, I read, I sat and enjoyed God’s peace, I listened and I talked to Him. My spirit felt calm. That’s why I spiritually love fasting. Your mind, body and will are set apart for the Lord and are completely submitted to your spirit man. That makes for a really good week. 

Consider making fasting a regular part of your life in 2012. It can just be for a day. Outside of your regular routine with the Lord, carve out time to completely focus on Him. After this week I feel better equipped to walk out the days of 2012!

It seems that God has been writing a sentence for me over the past few weeks and into this fast. From daily scripture to the books I’ve picked up, “Believe” is the message I’m continually hearing. Sounds common, cliche even, but for me, I know it’s from the Lord. Coming out of a season where my believer was almost all believed out, I’m taking this time to refresh, regroup and challenge my faith again. I think of the 20 long years Abraham believed God to see His promise fulfilled. In his humanity there must have been times he desperately needed to regroup, clear his mind of doubt and recall the promise once again. This is why I like celebrating a new year. It gives us a chance to mentally “start over” or get back to what we lost sight of during the previous 12 months.  

What is God calling you to believe for in 2012? He’s powerful and can do what He says He can do. If only we’d believe. 

Genesis 15:6 “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.”

Today I juiced by color. Think I’m getting a little bored?!? I made three different kinds of juice. Red, Orange, and Yellow. Kind of like Kindergarten. The Red consisted of grape, radish, cranberry, strawberry, red cabbage, ginger root, apple, and orange (I don’t love the radish!). The Yellow consisted of orange, carrots, a few grapes and apple. The Orange consisted of mango, apple, and orange. So, that’s what I will “eat” today. 

A little trick a friend told me about last night: instead of peeling your oranges you can shave them with a potato peeler. It removes the bitter outside but leaves the white pith, which is really good for you. Thanks Ellen!

If you’re feeling weary, don’t quit. Remember, we’re in this with you!

So we’re at day 3 and I’m actually feeling pretty good. After this week I may not want to see juice for a while, though! Yesterday I went too many hours on water alone so today I juiced extra and stored it in jars to take with me throughout the day. If you choose to ever do this, fill the jars up almost to the top so as little air as possible is in the jar. I added pineapple today- yum! I’m learning, to me, that pineapple and strawberry mask most of the veggie taste- almost.

Yesterday I juiced grapes, celery and cucumber. It was the worst thing I’ve ever tasted! So I gave it to my husband. Joking, he was a good sport and actually volunteered to drink it!

Here’s a scripture that spoke to me today:

Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

This week part of my focus is what I put into my body. How much more should we focus on a regular basis what we allow to get into our heart?

Thanks for reading! Have a great day.

So, yesterday I experimented around with ingredients. Some good, some not so good, but I downed it anyway. I’ve learned that celery, carrots, cabbage and tomato combined aren’t my favorite flavors but hey, I’ve consumed more vegetables in a day and a half then I think I do in a month! Here’s a nifty little fact: drinking 8 ounces of carrot juice is equivalent to eating a little more than a pound of raw carrots! That fact came straight out of the book, “Juice Fasting Bible” by Sandra Cabot, M.D. It’s a great read full of juicing info. There are plenty of websites to google too.

Today I needed more fruit so I ran into Walmart. What do you know I had to pick the time the bakery was baking fresh French Bread. The smell was wafting through the store. Painful! As I put ginger root into my cart I actually held my breath and maybe even called the ginger root a few bad names. Foods I don’t even like were tempting me. So, word of advice: while on a fast- stay out the grocery store!

If you’re fasting this week I hope you are going strong. If not, no worries, just get back in the game. Do whatever God has put on your heart to do. Carve out time for Him. Listen to hear His voice. In the end it will be worth every ounce of effort!