WHO KNEW?

Who knew- that God would BLESS me with the opportunities that He has... no the stars didn't have to line up... He ordained my every step before time even began...

Heck yea, I'm striving for His BEST for me... I live my life in full pursuit of it... you know what?... it's not an empty journey... challenging at times BUT well worth the RIDE...

Seek Him with all your heart and you WILL find Him... and your pursuit of life... as far as I'm concerned it doesn't get any BETTER than that...

I hope as you awake to Friday and enter into your weekend that you find His FULLNESS... whatever the days may bring that your pursuit of Him will fulfill your pursuit of Life...



My pursuit this weekend will be loving on these cuties...

HAPPY FRIDAY!




Tab

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To Be" KNOWN" Is To Be "LOVED"

To be known is to be LOVED... 

Chris 

                          

I love how he loves Jesus... it inspires me to... I love his passion for the church and watching God use him in mighty ways... I love how he can't stand for his food to touch and that he gets disgruntled when he doesn't have your undivided attention... I love it that "Acts of Service" is his primary love language and science-fiction can grip his attention for hours... I love the humility he operates within when it comes to his gifting and the assured confidence he exudes when he knows he's right... I love it that he's open about his DISLIKE for cats and hanging pictures on the walls... he is "slightly" scared of bats (he he) and needs my protection... and I love that he loves me JUST the way God created me... 
He is known and he is loved... 

Marybeth



I love her smile and her quirky sense of humor... I love how she becomes the character when she reads a book and knows EVERY word to EVERY song... I love how she only embraces your hugs when she is in the mood and that she tenderly loves those who aren't easily accepted by others... I love it that she looks just like her dad and yet she is an old soul just like me... I love it that we are total opposites and RESPECT each other for it... I love it that she is comfortable in her own skin and knows the one who created her... I love her love for dance and her determination to always be her best... I love how she respectfully allows me to be her mom before being her friend... I love it that she listens yet voices her opinion... I secretly love it that she calls me "tabby-cat" in a defiant kind of way and I LOVE being her mom...

She is known and she is loved...

Topher

I love it that God created him "special"... I love how he kisses with a strong embrace and that everyone gets to come to his birthday... I love his attachment to his stuffed animal "doggy"... I love it that he watches Shrek in Spanish and that he wishes he had REAL power in his hands... I love his passion to learn and his confidence that he can do anything... I love it that he doesn't like to be called little and that he thinks I'm the BEST mom he's ever had... I love how he corrects your speech when you are trying to correct his... I love how he eats enough for 10 yet never seems to get full... I love how music sets his soul on fire and life is abundantly- simple to him... I love how God thought enough of him to make him like He did...

He is known and he is loved...

Grace

I love how strong she is... I love how life is at her finger-tips and how she lets her imagination run wild... I love to hear her play school through the crack in her bedroom door and watch her passionately play basketball... I love how her sense of fashion is edgy yet her heart is pure before the Lord... I love that she is so much like me that we often need time-outs from each other... I love how "RIGHT-NOW" she wants to live with me forever and that she desires to let God lead her life always... I love how she thinks that moles are gross and that you should always smell good... I love the way she loves me and the way she admires me... I love her soul and everything about her smile... I love her compassion for people and her desire to help others at all times...

She is known and she is loved...

To be loved is to be known and to be known is to be loved...


YOU ARE KNOWN... YOU ARE LOVED...


O Lord you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
For you formed my inward parts; knitted me together in my mothers womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Psalm 139:1-4,13-14

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I'll Have What She's Having...

I WILL HAVE WHAT SHE'S HAVING...


Not in a  pearl- cadillac escalade, dolce & gabbana, frozen concoction kind of way...

 In an over indulgent culture we are hard pressed to stay a float... to rise up out of the sea of enticement and live beyond OURSELVES...

He wants our every desire... our every thought... our every belief... To live beyond ourselves and become NOT OUR OWN...

Does your life entice others to desire NOT what you have but to know the ONE you have... to get drunk on His love & to "store up" TREASURES in heaven... to make every moment count beyond empty satisfaction...


... charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. (1 Timothy 6:17)

Tab

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Her Season to Dance

For everything there is a season; a time for every matter under heaven..

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Life is so FULL of many twist & turns.... ups and downs... in & outs... certainly there are seasons of joy and laughter.... often followed by seasons of refining and pain... This verse, growing up, didn't pull at my heart strings like it does today!

Though I still consider myself in some of the prime years of my life... I have certainly lived long enough to slowly slip into my season to plant only to be rapidly yanked into a season of pruning... followed by a season of silence that lead to a season to speak...

That's HARD but that's REALITY! Why... because GOD said so!

A part of the process that makes us MORE like HIM!

This is HER season to dance... my little brown- haired, blue-eyed G...

My child who is stubborn but gentle... strong-willed but FULL of courage... giddy but WISE!

I cannot begin to re-create this season BUT I never want it to leave... I find myself asking God to let it STAY... to give me her weeping/tearing/mourning seasons so she can have the dancing/laughing/loving seasons... after I speak this I am QUICKLY reminded in my spirit that it's the HARD seasons that usher us into the BEAUTY of the good seasons! 

Where are you... are you embracing the season you're in?

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Over the weekend my family and I watched the secretariat... it was a very good movie filled with great inspiration... it is based on a horse CHOSEN by his owners who fulfilled high aspirations...  this horse, not liked by all but loved by his owners, achieved the highest in his circle... many would say he beat all odds from sickness to lack of experience... he attained the GREATEST prize not achieved by many... when he crossed the final finish line there was a GREAT reward awaiting him and an embrace by the ones who believed in him the most...


As simple as the concept, my heart couldn't help but reflect upon this... we have all been created for the race of life that God intends for us to complete in Him... it is a race that only we as individuals can run and only we as individuals can complete... my race isn't your race... if I try to complete yours I will NOT attain my ultimate prize... let us run with endurance and fight the good fight... life is hard and sometimes the RACE is long but there is an ultimate prize waiting across that finish line, that only we can claim... 


"Do you not know that in a race all runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it!" (1 Cor. 9:24)


"...let us lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with ENDURANCE the race set before us... looking to Jesus!" (Hebrews 1:1-2)


Run it... believe it... receive it... achieve it... and ULTIMATELY attain it!... it's yours... it's what YOU were created for! 

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"Tangible Compassion"...

 Tangible Compassion... a prompted deep thought- from a blog post I read earlier...


Maybe you have been known to state your compassion at the news of tragedy or rough times in another's life... I sure have!... That somewhere deep down you feel that pity or maybe even sadness for those hurting around you... maybe you even had the thought "Thank You Lord That's Not Happening To Me"... I'm sure at some point in time we've all had that thought... NOBODY likes to feel that deep pain, that takes your breath away... It just doesn't feel good... 


Is it our love for Christ that compels us to move from thoughtful compassion to tangible compassion... maybe not for some... maybe it comes naturally... there are a lot of "Good People" that don't know Christ... maybe it's your spiritual gift manifesting itself... All I know is I am compelled to show more "Tangible Compassion"... I believe it is CERTAINLY being the hands and feet of Christ... picking someone else up when they've been knocked down... I  once heard it said "Don't withhold something from someone that you one day will need in return"... Tangible Compassion, if you haven't yet needed it bestowed upon you... One Day You Certainly Will...


May I so graciously share the link to where my deep though was prompted...





http://khphotography.net/blog/?p=878

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   " Draw near to God and He will draw near to you!"

                                    James 4:8

Yep... this is exactly what I've been doing... and let me tell you there have been GOOD days and there have been some not so good days! Drawing near to God and asking Him to show you unclean places in your life... well let's just say it sometimes leaves a little less to be desired! 

Funny thing though... in my moments of "un-pleasantness" (pretty sure that's NOT a word) I feel His presence abundantly MORE!

Like an embrace God LONGS for you to draw near....

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