MEMOIRS OF AN IMPERFECT CHRISTIAN: Tonight is the Night!

MEMOIRS OF AN IMPERFECT CHRISTIAN: Tonight is the Night!: How many of you read my title and started to instantly think of that song Betty Wright sings? I must admit I did. Sorry what I am blogging ...

Tonight is the Night!

How many of you read my title and started to instantly think of that song Betty Wright sings? I must admit I did. Sorry what I am blogging about today has nothing to do with that sort of thing….maybe another day. I wanted to talk about my journey planning the Daughters of the King ALL Night prayer retreat. This is my second year leading the Prayer Retreat and it is very good for my soul. Last year I was totally unprepared for the trick and pitfalls the spawn of hell had for me but this year I was better armed and sited up for all the things ahead. I truly believe that often we are so unprepared for the war we have to fight daily. We all have some kind of war going on…whether it’s a war on a lying tongue or war on choking the life out of someone who almost ran you off the road on the way to work. We all have a thing we fight daily. Well…while I am planning these prayer retreats everything that may be laying dormant in my spirit wakes up full force. I have tests and pop quizzes that I couldn’t ever imagine. I was so exhausted last year after all the different things that happened and to top it off the same week of the retreat I got super sick with a dreadful cold. It was kind of funny how the different prayer retreat leaders were bringing me meds and orange juice because they dreaded me not being there to lead the retreat. Nonetheless, I made it through and loved the end result. I have learned as an adult Christian that each time God wants to take me to the next level there are a series of test that I go through and until I pass those sufficiently or learn the lesson to be learned I have that same test over and over. There is nothing worse than a redo! It’s like being lost and thinking you are finally on track and realize you passed that same gas station an hour ago!!!   This year I must admit I do have a couple of redos because I have definitely not arrived and I must say I can be a bit stubborn when it comes to sooo many things!  Trust me though God definitely doesn’t give up on us even when we think we are so set in our ways we have no need to change.  He has a compelling way of getting us to conform. When it’s all said and done I am so glad that God chose me to represent Him in this way. I start off each time with the purpose of enlightening someone else but in order to do that I have to be enlightened. God always puts the perfect study in my path and I can definitely say that has happened while I studied the book “Unglued Making Choices in the Mist of Raw Emotion by Lysa Terkeurst”. Just reading the title gave me chills and I knew that was what we needed this year. I know I have lots of raw emotion that is just out of control at times. I have been accused of having a bad temper when I get upset there is no stopping me and if anyone attempts to them they can get some too. You did notice my blog is Memoirs of an IMPERFECT Christian? Don’t judge me. (J) This book taught me so much about controlling my emotions and not letting them control me. I even was reminded that when I allow someone to get me all bent out of shape and lose control of my emotions I no longer have the power because I have gave it to them! She touches on amazing points regarding how to handle raw emotions and help them work for us and not against us. I chose the name title for the retreat Daughters of the King because I am all about empowering women to live as God’s (the King of all) daughters. What better way to start that than knowing how to handle our raw emotions. I am so excited! Tonight is the night and I pray that God is pleased with what we have put together through His direction and guidance. Meanwhile….I have lots of running and last minute work to do before 9 tonight! I guarantee you though I will be tested all the way through…I sure hope I pass them all so I can be at the next level! 

MEMOIRS OF AN IMPERFECT CHRISTIAN: What Language Are You Speaking??????

MEMOIRS OF AN IMPERFECT CHRISTIAN: What Language Are You Speaking??????: I have spent years trying to get the man in my life to be more affectionate and lovey as I call it. I often picture him grabbing me an h...

What Language Are You Speaking??????

I have spent years trying to get the man in my life to be more affectionate and lovey as I call it. I often picture him grabbing me an hugging me an telling me how much he loves me because I am a real blessing to his life. On a really good day I even picture candle light dinners with us slow dancing the night away.  We have such different personalities when it comes to expressing our love. I am always telling him I love him, and calling him sweet little pet names. Where he rarely ever does more than grunt when I say I love you, and he doesn’t so much as call me my nickname let alone a pet name.  A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to hear more than a grunt back after my I love you. I even gave him a short but effective speech on how  “normal” people say I love you back….unless he doesn’t love me. I had to throw the last part in with a blank stare.  His response was interesting because he said, with a puzzled look, “I tell you I love you ALL the time!” I guess we were both puzzled because this man says I love you maybe once a quarter IF THAT! An just like this time it’s because I am making a deal of it and he knows I need to hear it. Otherwise, a simple grunt in return is what I get. Later I rethought the conversation and realized that it was possible for ONCE I may be wrong. No, he doesn’t SAY I love you much at all, but he says he loves me each time he buys me a gift, or when he is there for me through whatever I have going on whether it be sitting with me through a gynecology procedure or taking off work to take care of me after a major wreck, or something simple as getting me my favorite foods to eat.  The list goes on and on….but that is how he tells me I LOVE YOU. I know someone is reading this thinking…DUH….but don’t we all at some point do that? We criticize someone else because they don’t do things the way we do them but that doesn’t mean that their way is wrong. That was a BIG step for me because I felt like he should love me the same way I love him and it should look the same way that I present it to him with lots of lovey dovey words and hugs and kisses where he took on more of an action approach. We often want to judge people that are not like us or that don’t communicate as we do, but each person has a unique way of doing things that allows us to reach people in various ways. Don’t let someone else speaking a different language than you make you put up a wall assuming their way is wrong. Instead learn their way and you may see that love has more than one language!

MEMOIRS OF AN IMPERFECT CHRISTIAN: Change of Plans

MEMOIRS OF AN IMPERFECT CHRISTIAN: Change of Plans: I love love love my kids and their daddy but on any given day they have the potential to make me bat crazy!!! This morning was a prime exam...

MEMOIRS OF AN IMPERFECT CHRISTIAN: Change of Plans

MEMOIRS OF AN IMPERFECT CHRISTIAN: Change of Plans: I love love love my kids and their daddy but on any given day they have the potential to make me bat crazy!!! This morning was a prime exam...

Change of Plans

I love love love my kids and their daddy but on any given day they have the potential to make me bat crazy!!! This morning was a prime example of that. I woke up a bit irritated because Jackson(our family dog) decides to break my sleep not once but twice last night because he needed to go outside….TWICE,  once at 2 am and the second time at 5 am. I regrouped and decided I would get back and start to work early because I have had a crazy week and needed to make up a bit of time. I get up to wake up my daughter. Wake up honey. She murmurs and goes back to sleep. I go back again up the stairs she is still sleep. I wake her again…and again…and AGAIN! Mind you she has several alarms set as well just for this purpose. I finally pry her out of the bed and keep trying to push her to move faster…I am convinced she didn’t just to agitate me. We rush out of the house to the bus stop….and…..THE BUS HAS ALREADY COME!! WHAT!!! I go back home, now in a full blown irritation because this kid doesn’t even care that she has thrown my schedule off. I wake up her brother and here we go again… he is in slow motion when he is usually already dressed and just has to put on shoes. I am telling him ok hurry I have to now take your sister to school. I think they were in cahoots because he was moving just as slow as she was. Finally I went and banged on the bathroom door and told them that was enough of all that lets go. I left the house later than I planned…with an extra tripped I didn’t plan..and the regular trip that was in the plan which meant…when I got home I could forget about an early clock in because I would be doing good to clock in on time.  I gave my kids a stern lecture on how no one in this family thinks I have anything else to do but worry about what they want to do but that I have responsibilities outside of running them where they need to be. They didn’t seem to care much about my fussing which made me angrier. KIDS!!!! UGH! Aren’t we the same way as Christians? We make these plans on our own that have nothing to do with God’s plans for us and just like my morning things go haywire and all off track and we try OUR plan again with a little more tweeking  and make it worse than the first time we tried it. I thought this morning how patient God has been with me when I THINK I’m going to change HIS plan by going my own way. How He must shake His head at me all of the time for interrupting His plans for me. Just like my kids I always want to go my own way not considering anything else or how I am delaying the plans God has for me. So the next time I’m fussing at my kids for messing up my schedule of things I will remind myself how it delays things when I try to change Gods plans.