January 26, 2012 Greetings My Friend, I had a Christian radio program on the radio as I drove around town. Today a Preacher was teaching on the Lord’s Prayer. It is about as familiar to me as my morning coffee. I have heard this prayer since I was a young child and have said it often in my life. I am always amazed that something that is so familiar can still have a great lesson. I also am amazed that when life is too hard to deal with I will often pray this prayer repeating it until my mind settles and I then can begin to pray in my own words. I was reminded yet again that we are on a day to day journey with the Lord. We are learning and growing each and every day. Some days we see a great movement in our faith and other days it is a mundane process. The teaching was focused on praising God. I again learned how important it is to praise God. In learning to be thankful and praising God I find myself being able to live in the now instead of the past or a dream of the future that never will actually happen. I find the more I tell God with a genuine heart how great He is I find that He stays right at the center of my life. For me I’d like to worry each detail of life until it is a soggy mess. I’d like to fret and fear and be dramatic and all of a sudden I am worn out and fearful. So praising God helps me stay focused on God that life is under control, God’s control and God will be there every step of the way so I need to just run with it. At about this point I often reflect on the Scripture verse that says “I will never leave you or forsake you.” Part of my thought process at this point is a backward look at those moments when I have seen God work in my life in the past. I tend to do this in my daily prayers. For me a daily reminder helps me to realize that God’s promise “I will never leave you or forsake you” is true. I am able to stay strong when I’d rather quit. I am able to move forward easier. I also find that a daily reading of the Word helps me stay in tune to God’s ways and not the desires of what I want God to be. My prayers begin to line up with whom and what God is more than who and what I am. I am not a proponent of “Name it and claim it” theology. In reading God’s Word I find I begin to align my life differently. My goal in life is to love God with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my strength. As I learn this I begin to see changes in me in the way I feel and deal with life. I am not about “me” as much as I am about trying to be about God and His ways. I find that when I am not focused on God daily then I begin to be self-absorbed and every detail in life is a huge struggle. Many days the old hurts try to flare up. I have not been able to completely let go of the past hurts so I often dwell for a bit anyway on that hurt. Sometimes I hear God say “Janet, I’m here or Janet, I’ve got this or even the time God showed me how “He” was using his friendliness toward me as a way for “Him to get people to feel sorry for him.” In this I find that my past focus is not as long or even as painful. I think on them and then soon I am onto other more pleasant thoughts. I believe because I have a daily focus time for God I am able to stay more in my faith journey than not. I also find that again I am on a journey so there are moments where the road is easy and moments when the road is hard. The hard moments tend to be when I take my eyes off the “Cross” so to speak. Many years ago when we were first married Junior constructed a large wooden cross for me. We hung it up in our basement and Junior put a small shelf next to it. On the shelf were placed a box of nails and a hammer. When I had a struggle I found myself writing out the struggle and then nailing it to the cross. For me the more I did this the more I was able to give God my problem and when I began helping God, God reminded me that it was nailed to the Cross and I gave it to Him and I needed to let it go. Last week in Sunday school I finally was able to “get it.” Jesus said “Go forth and make disciples of all nations” as he ascended into heaven. I believe that my faith is not to be a private walk but a public walk as much as possible. I had thought being public meant saying “God or Jesus” all day long. Nope, it is also important to walk the walk and talk the talk. I am to be a Christian wife to Junior. I am to be a Christian woman when I am in public and at home. That means I don’t need to be a gossip, say hurtful things, get into pornography and the like. I need to love my family. So my daily goal is to read the Bible, to pray and talk to God and in that I find I am more content. When I was a mother of young children I often heard “Children live what they see.” That is also true of my faith journey. If my children see me cussing, cheating and telling them that they should be honest and not swear well guess what? They more than likely will do what they see you doing not what you are telling them. Same goes for our faith journey. May God bless you and keep you, make His face to shine upon you. Love Janet