Beach Pictures. :)

Hi everyone! Man it has been forever since I have written! Sorry its been so long! Life has gotten soooo crazy busy! It is that time of year I sopouse. :)

     I thought I would do something a little different this time and post some pictures of our vacation.

So without further a do' I present the pictures of our vacation to Laguna Beach FL! The Lord blessed us with such amazing weather! We had such a marvelous and relaxing time! :)

                                          
                                                                    Ah, lovely!

                            
                                         Psalm 103:1 "Bless the Lord oh my soul,
                                        and all that is within me bless His Holy name!"

This little guy posed for me! :D

Its a SAILBOAT! ISN'T That cool?!?! :)

Glad to finally be there! :D 

Oh yeah! :)

Lets go swimming! :)

Believe or not, this isn't photoshopped! :D

Cutest couple on the beach! :D

My lovely sister. :) I love this pic! Look at the lighting from the sunset on her hair! So pretty! 

Psalm 19:1 "The Heavens declare the glory of God, 

and the firmament shows His handiwork."

On our 3rd day there, we went to St. Andrews and the water was so beautiful! We saw so much sea life, it was beautiful! :D 

We have the towels, so we wouldn't get anymore sunburnt. :) When we got home we all had evidence on our red faces! :D lol! :)

Isn't this beautiful?! :D 

A flower by the pool. :)

 Supergirl! Haha! :D

Well, thats all for now! Thanks for checkin in! :D May the Lord bless you and keep you! :D 

    

Shine and Make Them Wonder Whatcha Got!

    When people suffer they are expected to fall.  Its what our world says happens. Or is supposed to happen.  It is what is expected of us.  Whatever happens whether its, loosing a loved one, a car wreck, a friend betrays you, maybe your house was for-closed on, maybe you lost your job, maybe you are screaming internally wondering why God would let this happen to you.  You feel like your world is falling apart.  You feel like you just can't make it.

    This is normal.  Everyone feels this at some point in their life.  The truth of the matter is you can't make it.  At least not on our own strength.   I read this, this morning in my devotions:

2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (emphasis added)
"We are hard pressed on EVERY side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed--" 

     We are hard pressed from every side, but we are not destroyed.  Why are we not destroyed?  I found that answer in Isaiah. :)

Isaiah 41:13
"For I, the Lord your God will hold your right hand, saying to you, "Fear not I am with you, I will help you." 

    The Lord promises that He is going to help us through this.  He says we shouldn't be afraid.  So, the reason we, as Followers of Christ are not destroyed when we are hard pressed is because we have Christ on our side, and if our God is for us, whom could ever stop us?

    So, why talk about falling in struggle?  Remember what I said above, it's expected of the world.  Stop and think about that for a minute.  So, we are expected to fall, but God promises that He "will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear." (1 Corinthians 10:13).  He promises He is going to help us and will be right there with us.  So what does all that mean?

    I met a family once who had just been through a terrible tornado.  Their father, jumped on top of some of his children to save their lives as their house came crashing down on top of them.  All 13 children and mother survived, but to save his children, the father of the family gave his life.  This family had lost their father and their husband.  I could not imagine the grief it must have caused them.  When I met them a year after the tornado I was so deeply impacted.   Never before had I seen such joy written on the faces of this family.  The kind way in which they spoke to others was so kind!  They were such a joy and blessing to get to talk to.  I was told later that what the children and mother had agreed on after the  tornado was to pray that they would not become bitter towards God.  I will never forget this story.  After this family had been through such a terrible thing, loosing their father and their home in the  tornado and many of the children being injured, their one wish and hope was to pray that their hearts would not be bitter towards God.

    That's what that means.  When we are expected to fall by the world, that is when we must shine. That is a opportunity to be a strong testimony for the Gospel.  People are always amazed to see someone else shining when they know that, that someone is either struggling or just went through some terrible things.  That is when we stand out.  That is when people are going to notice us as Christians most.  Maybe that's a time when we can make an impact on this world for Jesus Christ.

    That is not to say that everything is going to be easy. Quiet the opposite, its going to be hard. That's why, when we have most of the darkness around us, is when our light is going to be noticed.

    Maybe your struggling with something as your read this.  Maybe you really can't feel like you can make an impact, that you can't shine. Well, on your strength you can't. That's why you have God on your side. He will hold your right hand and help you shine through the darkness. Maybe now is the moment that God's calling you to make your impact, through this struggle.  Don't waste it!

    "Shine, Make 'em wonder what you've got, Make 'em wish that they were not, On the outside looking bored, Shine, Let it shine before all men, Let 'em see good works, and then, Let 'em glorify the Lord! ~Newsboys Chorus to "Shine" 

Thankfulness

Psalm 19:14 

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord my Strength and my Redeemer."

    Recently I have been thinking about glorifying God.  Not just in what I do, but in what I say and think. Talking and thinking may seem like a really small way to glorify God, but it does.  I have been thinking about thinking the way I think.  I have been trying to focus on the good in my life and not the bad things that are happen to me or the bad things that are happening in the world.  So today to help me with that I thought I would say 10 things I was thankful for. :) 

1. The faithful love of my Lord and Savior. 

2. That Jesus Christ is my Heavenly Father.

3. The Bible, what a helper in our lives!

4. My wonderful parents that are so patient and help me out so much.

5. My awesome siblings that make me laugh and are such a joy to be around.

6. My awesome friends who will cry with me, crack me up and are there for me.

7. All the kids that I work with. They are such a joy.

8. My sweet cats! :D

9. Good, clean, enjoyable books.

10. Chocolate. (where would we be without it. :D)

    So what are you thankful for today? You certainly do not have to comment and say what you are thankful for (I would love it if you did though :) ) but i would encourage you to say something your thankful for to the Lord. Because without His grace and mercy we wouldn't have anything. :)

The Ability To Glorify

So, the other day I was having a really rotten day. Not a normal rotten day, but a really rotten day. I was struggling, I was fed up, I was angry, I was not someone who you wanted to be around that particular day. So, I went outside to clear my head. To think. To try and reason things out.
There's a place in our yard to the side, behind a island of tree's near our woods, where I used to go when I was a little girl. I smiled despite feeling rotten as I walked down the trail towards my little "corner", I remember walking this trail many times before, with a stick in my hand, pretending it was a golden scepter and that I was a princess in my own imaginary world. Life somehow is so much simpler when we're younger...
Anyways as I reached my corner I sat down on one of the fallen logs and started to think and to pray. I sat there for about half an hour. I cried out to God asking, why again, did we have to go through this? How many times, God?
I have a habit of leaning my chin into my hands when I think, so I stared at the ground while I was thinking and praying. When I was done I looked up, and somewhere in the near far distance, I heard a bird singing. I looked around and noticed that the tree's were starting to loose some of their leaves. Some of the leaves on the ground had already turned yellow and red, and then some were still on the tree's shinning a magnificent green color. It had been raining that day and the sun was just coming out from behind a cloud. I started to think about the bird I was hearing. It was so cute and so happy to hear him (or her) just singing out, like no one was listening. I thought about what it takes to hear a little bird singing. It takes ears and ear drums of course, but it also is the ability to hear. I looked around at the all the different colors of the leaves and the sun shinning and it takes to see. It takes, eyes and all the muscles in your eye's, but it also takes the ability to see. Sherlock Holmes once said, "There are millions of people who see things every day, but do not observe." It takes ability to see and hear. It takes thinking about things to notice them because we take all of this for granted. What about if there was a different way of communicating with each other besides hearing each other? What if God just made the world black and white? What if God didn't give us the ability to hear things and see things?
So why did God give us the gift of seeing colors and hearing beautiful things? To give glory to His name.
Psalm 19:1
"The heavens declare the glory of God and firmament shows His handiwork."
He gave us the gift of our senses to glorify Him.
James 1:17 

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning."

So every gift that God gives us is from Him and Him alone and He gives it to us for His glory. Pretty cool huh? :)
It's so easy to get caught up in our daily lives and become so absorbed in what we are doing and just take for granted everything around us. I do it every single day. So today, remember to stop and maybe listen to the birds, look around at all the colors of the outdoors around you, look at the baby you hold in your arms, and marvel at the work that God has done. Praise Him from whom all blessings flow. Give Him the honor due to his name. Thank Him for His good and perfect gifts. Above all remember to give God the glory.
"May the Lord bless you and keep you and the Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you, may the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace."
Numbers 6:24-26
~Emma :) 

The Beauty Of The Storm

So I know in my last post I did a introduction to what I said was going to be a series of post about the armor of God, and I fully intend to do the series of post, I am excited about them, but today I felt like the Lord was leading me to write about something else.
Recently I have been learning about trusting the Lord. Learning to trust the Lord is a hard... very hard thing. Why is it so hard? I think it's because we, as humans, think that love is to be shown through giving me everything that I want. This is plain selfishness This of course is normal to sinful human beings. We are all guilty of it. I am not saying that celebrating someone (a birthday for example) is wrong. Totally the opposite, your celebrating life. But when it becomes a thing where all you want is people to "worship" you and give you what you want, then that is sin.
But God loves in a different sort of way. A way that isn't selfish. God loves us, that's why He sends opportunities like hard struggles for us to trust Him. Wow! That's a little confusing isn't it? I know it is for me. I keep thinking, "God you love me, why did you let this happen to me?"
I wonder if God ever shakes his head and says, "You just don't get it do you Emma?" Or "How many times am I gonna have to teach you this lesson?" I know I would if I was Him. ;)
The past two weeks have been a struggle for me. There was many a time I wondered what exactly God was doing, and if He really cared why would He let this happen to me? In the back of my mind I knew that God did care and that God wasn't going to let me walk through this alone, but still I began to doubt... doubt is a terrible thing, because once its in your head, it's there and it can totally bring you down. With struggling with my doubt I began to feel frustrated with myself thinking, "Emma! You know the truth!! How many times have you been through this before?! You know God is still there and He loves you and is never going to leave you, so what's wrong with you?!"
I began to think yesterday how I needed to stop focusing so much on what was wrong in my life and start focusing on the blessings in my life. So I was saying in my head what I was thankful for throughout the day. That night in our family devotions my dad read this scripture;
John 10:27-30
"My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one."
Poppa then asked the question, "What does Jesus promise to those who follow Him? How does that make you feel?"
I felt like I had been hit with a sledgehammer with the name realization. It was a peaceful kind of hit with a sledgehammer though. I felt like doing a face-palm right then and there and saying, "I GET IT!"
I smiled as I said, "He promises and no one can snatch us out of His hands. We are His children. That makes me feel comforted."
And comforted was the exact word. I felt more peaceful then I had in a long time. I felt the comfort of knowing that God was with me, He loved me, not because anything I had done to deserve it, but because He is a merciful grace giving God. And that He wasn't going to leave me. That He would help me through not just this struggle, but all of my struggles.
I walked outside last night to get some fresh air and stopped to admire the sky. It was just about to rain, and I could hear thunder in the distance, but the sky was beautiful. There was a circle of storm clouds and through the middle of the circle there was a ray of sunshine, and it made me think, "Wow, God can make the most beautiful things even out of a storm."
God can make the most wonderful thing come out of a struggle, just like making a storm beautiful. All we have to do is trust Him. Because how loving is He, after He saves us, to call us His children or sheep, and promises that no one can pluck us out of His hand. I cannot think of a more loving Father.
Maybe your going through something hard. If so, I hope that somehow God has used my ramblings to encourage you. I hope and pray for you that you will grow in your struggle and learn to trust the Lord. And that you would remember that God is a loving Father and that He, "Will never leave you, nor forsake you."

The Whole Armor of God

First of all let me say to all my readers that I am sorry it has taken me so long to post! I looked back and it's been over two weeks! But rest assured that I have not been idle. :) Actually I have been very busy! But now, I am happy to say that I found some time to write, so, without further a do, I'll drive down into my post. :)
Ephesians 6:10-20
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet having on the readiness given by the Gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take up the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that the words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am a ambassador in chains that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.
We read this scripture a couple of weeks ago as a family in our devotions, and I was intrigued and inspired. Why I was intrigued by this scripture, is because I wanted to know why God through Paul put peace, righteousness, salvation, etc. to the specific pieces of armor. I never had really thought about till a couple of weeks ago, so one by one in the series of post, I want to "investigate" each one. :)
So, to begin our investigation we have to ask the 5 investigation questions. What? When? Where? How? and Why? So, first let's see if this passage can answer the "what" question.
What? vs 10- the beginning of 11-"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God." 
This isn't a question or a suggestion, this is a command. Paul is saying through the Lord to be strong, to not let our guard down, to be wise and aware. Why? Because of what's coming. What lays ahead of us.
When? vs 13 and the beginning of vs 18- "Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day having done all to stand firm." vs 18 "Praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication."
Is Paul talking about a specific "evil day"? No, I don't think so, I think he's talking about every day. Because there is evil all over the world, every single day. He's talking about here and now.
Where? vs 16- "In all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one."
So, Paul is not say, "Do this in the near or far distance future at this time, when your talking to this person," he's saying do it all the time, not matter where you are, no matter who you are talking to. It says in I Peter 3:15-"but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,"
So to answer our "where" question, the answer is, all. the. time.
How? vs 13-18"Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet having on the readiness given by the Gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take up the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints"
Truth. Righteousness. Gospel of Peace. Faith. Salvation. The Word of God. Prayer. Supplication. This is how we put on the whole armor of God.
Why? vs 10-13-  "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm."
So, why does God wants us to have all these things? Because the schemes of the devil, because God knows we don't war against flesh and blood, but against the rulers of this present darkness. God knows what we all struggle with. We may all have different area's with which we struggle, but we all struggle with sin. As Followers of Christ we know that we cannot fight sin on our own. We cannot resist temptation on our own. I think that's why it's called the full armor of God. ;) Notice in vs 10 where it says, "be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might." IN HIS MIGHT!!! God knows that without Him we are nothing. Without Him we have nothing. Without Him, we have no chance, but with Him all things are possible (Phil. 4:13) 
So, here's my introduction, that wasn't actually supposed to be a introduction and that turned out actually quiet long. XD :) But that's ok, things don't always happen the way I plan them and God can use that for His glory. :)
I hope you are blessed and encouraged and will continue to read my future posts as I learn about putting on the whole armor of God! :)
May the Lord bless you and keep you~

How Will They Know?

When you love someone or something, you feel strongly about it right? Meaning, if anything tried to hurt that someone or something you would get defensive, you would stand till the last, right? Well, I love Jesus. Not near as much as I should, but I do love Him and strive (not nearly hard enough though) and will be defensive about my faith.    

So the other day I was having a conversation with a very good friend of mine, and she was talking about a famous person she really enjoyed in a film she saw recently. Now, me and this friend have been friends long enough to where we can be brutally honest with each other so the next thing I said did not surprise her, 

"You know," I said, my voice raised a little in defense, "that person was a really good at portrayal, but someone told me recently that they hated Christians."    

She was quiet for a moment then said, "Well, there are those people who say they are Christians and are so hate filled and angry that they stand out on street corners and scream at people that they are going to Hell... if I didn't know God wasn't like that, I wouldn't like Christians either. I mean God's a just God, but He is a God of love also."

This made me stop and think, and I haven't actually stopped thinking about it since then. I began to wonder, how many people turned away from the Lord and said, I don't want anything to do with that Jesus, He causes people to hate others. I wondered if people didn't know the Lord because they said, those Christians are just like everyone else. I began to wonder how many people didn't know the Lord because they had never seen what love really was... and it was the Christians fault. 

Now, don't get angry and click off and think that I am saying that everyone is wrong and we are all failing. I am not trying to be depressing or blame anyone. The purpose of this blog was to encourage others, so, now I am getting to the point of this post.

So, now your either mad at me and wondering where in the world I am going with all of this or your sitting there and thinking, Man, that's awful! But what can I do?

*Ding a ding* we have a winning question, and I am going to give you the answer. Actually God gave you the answer, I am just going to write/read it to you. :)   

John 13: 34-35

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another."

So, my underlining might have helped you get my point. We are supposed to love one another, LIKE CHRIST LOVED US. 

Now, you might be sitting back thinkin phew wee! that's a lot of work! It is, but as Christians we are s upposed to follow what the Bible says and the Bible says to, LOVE. ONE. ANOTHER. 

Ok, lets pause there for a moment and think about something else. You see people all the time who are angry. They hate their family members, their friends, the people around them. The Bible says that this is wrong;

1 John 4:20

"If someone says, "I love God" and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen how can he love a God whom he has not seen?"

So, the Bible is clear, we are to love one another. That doesn't mean we are going to be best friends with everyone, it does not mean we are going to like everyone. There are people we are going to run into that we will have difficulty with, there will be people whom we thought were friends that will turn on us. But the Bible says that we are to love one another. Just because we don't necessarily like somebody or have a hard time with them, doesn't mean we can't show kindness to them. Now, granted this is all very hard, but each person knows his own depravity and the sins that we commit everyday, and yet God loved us so much that He sent His only Son Jesus Christ to die for us, and He loves us still with all of our sinful depravity. When you look at it that way, our job doesn't look so hard.

I hope that through this article (it feels like I have been rambling :p) that your are convicted and encouraged. May God bless you richly~