To Do or Not To Do?

Yesterday afternoon, after a busy, scheduled filled day~ my husband and I took a drive up to Lakehead to visit some friends who were RVing for a few days in the area.  What a DELIGHT!  Their campsite overlooked Shasta Lake and was shaded by some beautiful large pine trees from the warm summer temperatures. It proved to be a peaceful, serene, restful, intimately, delightful time!  Being away from the hub and bub of the daily routine and to do’s, with nothing more to do than just lounge and drink in the both the beauty of our surroundings and one another’s company, was not only enjoyable, but a much needed reprieve.

You see, I’ve been getting ready to leave town for a few weeks to celebrate my son’s 30th birthday and to join a treasured old-time family friend in celebrating her son’s wedding day. But with that said, at this point, my entire focus has been on getting ready.  There is always so much to do when preparing for a trip, not to mention keeping up with the regular routine.

I am a master scheduler, but as hard as I try NOT to over schedule my time, it seems my days are FILLED with more to do’s, then the time I have to do them.  Today, I’d like to discuss that topic in regards to the stewarding of our hearts; the topic of busyness.

Busyness can be a real encumbrance that robs us of the very life we think we will find in the midst of it many activities.  As Chuck Swindoll says, Busyness rapes relationships.  It substitutes shallow frenzy for deep friendship.  It promises satisfying dreams, but delivers hollow nightmares. It feeds the ego, but starves the inner man. It fills the calendar, but fractures the family. It cultivates a program, but plows under priorities.

We were created for intimacy. Intimacy with God and others.  There is a nurturing of the heart that takes place during such times of intimacy, as it did last night for myself with my friends at Lakehead, but busyness can often leave us bankrupt of time and the emotional currency to have such transactions.  And without them……………well, emptiness, discouragement, frustration, and other heart robbers come in and loot our treasuries.

As Tim Kimmel says, Intimacy provides the immune system for the soul~ it battles the psychological infections of discouragement, rejection, inadequacy, insignificance and insecurity.  Being assured by acceptance by the people closest to us gives us confidence.  Confidence gives us the ability to endure.  But rushed schedules rob us of the time needed to develop intimate relationships.  If time is anything, it is oxygen of close relationships.  Hurried life suffocates intimacy.

To do, or not to do….that is the question. I believe taking a hard, honest, prayerful look at your lifestyle and commitments is truly the first step.  Assessing exactly how you are spending your time can bring into the light of your awareness areas you might be able to trim, so you will have more time to breathe and prioritize intimacy with God and others.

I will be doing just that the next few weeks.  Taking much needed time for intimacy with family and close friends to regenerate.  As I do, I will not be writing on my blog, but rest assured when I return, I will be refreshed, renewed and ready to share from a regenerated, spiritually oxygenated pumping heart!

I would encourage you to also schedule in some much needed down time to spend this summer with those you treasure.  I know it will also refill your treasuries with rainbows and pots of gold.

-The Quilted Poetess

Seek and You Shall Find

This past weekend I participated in a 4 family, 2 day garage sale.  One of the greatest blessings of this event was…………….a great find of my own!  We all pooled various books together to sell, and………………as I perused them, I FOUND…….Richard Foster’s,  Streams of Living Water.  I pretty much love reading anything by this incredible author, but as I sat down and flipped through its tinted, aged pages, I was DELIGHTFULLY surprised to find the tinting, unfading beauty of the ages within.

You might recall a while ago, when I completed series on the 6 Christian Traditions of the With God Life.  I had been inspired to blog on this topic from a book I had read by Richard Foster at the time. In its pages was one short chapter encapsulating the highlights of these 6 traditions, but NOW, in my hands, I had found a treasure beyond treasures…………..378 glorious pages filled with in-depth historical golden nuggets about them!  This book would truly be worth its weight in gold to me, and the blessing is that I only had to pay $1.00 for this gold mine.

As I continue this current series on stewarding the heart, I’d like to share some of these golden nuggets with you as that pertain to this very subject. For those of you that previously read my series~ it will both refresh and enhance your understanding; and for newbies, it will be only be an introduction to some very interesting  biblical perspectives on our Christian walk. *If your interest is sparked to go more in-depth, please read my blog series beginning at #84, entitled, They Saw the Star and Were Overjoyed.

The first Christian stream or tradition Richard  Foster refers to is called the Contemplative Tradition. This tradition has my signature all over it.  Spending quality time in solitude with the Lord is my favorite activity, or should I say inactivity.  I believe in order to steward our hearts effectively, making and taking time for this spiritual discipline is a must.  Sitting quietly at the feet of Jesus as Mary did, with on open heart and mind~ relinquishing any agendas or plans of our own is our response.  His is to meet us there~and meet us there He will.

Practicing this tradition on a regular basis gives us the opportunity for Holy Spirit to fan the flames of our first love with Him. As Richard Foster says, Christian Life comes from not gritting our teeth, but by falling in love.  Stewarding the heart is this fashion causes us to become, as Frank Laubach says, Beautiful in Soul, or in the words of  Teresa of Avilia, intimate as with the sharing between friends. 

Regularly spending quality times of solitude with God is our heart’s opportunity to gaze upon the God who loves us.  Love, Peace, Delight, Emptiness, Fire andWisdom are some of the fruits that are birthed from practicing this tradition. Why not begin today by taking some time to sit at His feet and gaze into His loving eyes?  Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return. ~Thomas Kelly

In the words of Jesus, Seek and you shall find………………

-The Quilted Poetess

The SONshine of His Love

Alas!  Sunshine, warmth, and blue skies; occasionally intermingled with popcorn clouds!  Boy, this spring has been so full of rain, rain, rain; that I almost forgot I live in the city that is noted for having the most sunny days of the year!

I don’t know about you, but I love the sunshine.  As I awaken each morning to its smiling face, it puts a smile on my face.  Its rays of life bring encouragement with them infiltrating my heart, for no particular reason; just because.  And it seems that whatever might be darkening my heart~ is slowly lifted at the dawn of a new day; both inside and out.

This morning while reading Daily Bread, I read a quote that dearly touched my heart on this subject:

By the sunshine of His love, God paints on our clouds the rainbow of His grace.

One of my favorite verses from  Zephaniah 3:17 says,  The LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with his love, He will rejoice over you with singing.  As sunshine brings me fresh hope; this scripture also brushes the landscape of my heart with rainbows of His grace~ no matter what cloud of despair might be looming in the distance.

As I remind my heart of the truth of how much God truly not only loves me, but delights in me~ even enough to sing over me, I too begin to sing to Him, thanking Him for all He is.  Once I begin, it’s hard to stop, for there are so many facets of His amazingness; they truly are like every color of the rainbow.

Why not spend some time today allowing Him to sing over you, basking in the SONshine of His love?  Allow Him to paint on any clouds looming in your heart, rainbows of His amazing grace, and be warmed and filled~ both inside and out.

-The Quilted Poetess

Laying Aside Every Encumbrance

This week I’ve been in prayer about exactly what the Lord wants me to share tomorrow as I lead our ladies bible study on the book of Jonah. The topic He’s shown me fits in quite well with this blog series on stewarding the heart, so I thought I’d share it with you today.

The topic is Laying Aside every Encumbrance. Encumbrances are things that get in our way by literally weighing us down from the freedom to move forward in victory towards any goal the Lord is leading us to co accomplish with Him.  The sky is the limit as to what these things can be.  Some examples that come to mind are such things as the fear on man, self-centeredness, addictions, busyness, and the focus on riches.

In Hebrews 12:1 it says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Encumbrances in this case are all things that entangles us, because once we give way to those things~we are hindered from freely running our race of faith.

Personally, I know I can become entangled in the encumbrance of unbelief. When the Lord has given me a promise and I truly believe it with all  my heart, and choose to follow, trust and obey the leading of His Spirit to do my part, but when complete, I don’t see the fruit of the promise, I can fall into this entanglement. 

In God’s Word, Jesus spoke the following powerful words to the Jews in John chapter 8, If you hold to My teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.   He says, If you HOLD to My teaching. To HOLD means not to merely study the Scriptures, but to embrace them, to act upon them, and to obey them.  When we do these things, the truth that is imparted through them will set us free.

In the Scriptures there are truths and promises for everything that would try to encumber us. As we make and take the time to become familiar with them, the Holy Spirit will impart to us the specific truths that will do just that; individually set us free.  But as I’ve said before, unless we put them into practice, by first believing and then acting upon them, the fruit of freedom will not be ours.

Regarding the encumbrance I shared about above; unbelief; the Lord has personally shown me recently that FAITH is what pleases Him and when I act upon His promptings; even when I don’t see the  immediate fruit, it is imperative I remember that He is pleased with my faith~ and that is enough.  That is the fruit He is looking for and that I need to focus on as success.  All the rest I can leave to Him, His grace, and His timing.

Just because we don’t see the results when and how we think we will, doesn’t mean there are not fruitful results. Choose with me today to steward your heart to listen, obey and never give us believing.  When you do, hope will be the byproduct and the blessing of the Lord as He whispers in your ear, Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master………….

-The Quilted Poetess

Get a Life!

Get a Life!  Have you ever had someone said that to you, or has an inner voice spoken those words to your heart before?  I  believe most of us are driven by that very motto, whether we are consciously aware of it or not.  The question we really need to ask ourselves is what exactly does that mean?

The world and other people have many strategies and ways to help us define our answer, but the real person we need to seek for the answer is the Lord.  He has created us, as well as given us His Word and the Holy Spirit to dwell inside of us, thus giving us all we need to find the correct answer.

The How’s of stewarding our heart will become so much easier and more effective is we just begin by answering this question correctly. As we do~ such things as striving, heartache, frustration and hopelessness will all diminish, as we remind our heart’s regularly of the truth to this answer.

Now, as Christians, because we have GIVEN our live to Him, our lives are found IN Him.  Thus, HE is our LIFE!  If we have HIM, we have Life~ and as I’ve said numerous time before, life abundantly.  Now, if that is true, why don’t we experience the benefits of it daily?  Because even though we KNOW it is true, I wonder if we’ve really surrendered to BELIEVING it is true with no doubts or reservations. 

HE is our LIFE~ and when we truly embrace that in the epicenter of our hearts, ALL that we are, do, think, feel and believe can become less driven for the purpose of fueling our own sense of well-being and more driven to glorify Him.  That is our most important purpose isn’t it?  To love and glorify Him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength?

I would encourage you today to prayerfully think about just what exactly what this means to you, Truly engage with Him as you seek the answer.  I believe that as you do, you will be more and more freed from deception and false senses of security that want to thwart His LIFE from simply becoming your fulfillment in living.

Although His purpose is to bless you, He also plans to use your life to be a blessing for the praise of His glory, but that is exactly it: HIS glory, not our own. This means that He is responsible for both the outcome of Your obedience, as well as the fulfillment of Your hearts.

He is enough; MORE than enough; but we have to make the choice to look for our LIFE in and through Him. It is truly a moment by moment decision, and the at that place of decision life and death flow.  Guard your heart with all diligence as Proverbs 4:23 says, because from it flow the issues of life. 

Guard your heart from EVERYTHING that would want to fight for your affections to find your LIFE in them.  Fear of man, riches, reputation, power, prestige, appearance, intelligence., worldly pleasures….you fill in the blank.  Choose instead to walk in the faith of knowing and believing He is MORE than enough to fill in your blank.

Oh, how I love Him and love the way He always brings  us back to this truth, because the truth is what truly sets us free!  Free to love, free to be, free to become, and belong when He is our LIFE!

-The Quilted Poetess

Little House on the Freeway

Yesterday, while listening at lunchtime to a Focus on the Family broadcast, Dr. Tim Kimmel and his wife were discussing their book called, Little House on the Freeway.  During the discourse, they shared various keys of transitioning from the hurried lifestyle. The book sounded extremely informative and I would highly recommend you reading it.

Hurriedness, due to overcommitments as well as many other factors involved in our everyday life decisions, truly sabotage what I was speaking about yesterday regarding the stewarding of the heart.  Making quality time for rest to refuel our wellspring with God’s river of life~ will not happen if continue zooming here and zooming there at mach speed.

I know firsthand, that temptation is continually knocking at my door, beckoning me to answer and give way by saying YES to one more commitment of my time and energy.  The funny thing is, I find that these temptations are often times GOOD things, but the real question I always need to ask myself  is,  Are they GOD things? 

This is where exercising both discernment and the fruit of self-control become paramount.  BEFORE committing to even picking up the phone when it rings, I need to ask myself the all important question,What is my focus right now, and will this interrupt it?  If the answer if YES, it can wait. Once I begin practicing the discipline of says NO, the tentacles of temptation back off, for I have found that whatever I choose to acquiesce to, becomes my habit.

In order to be successful at stewarding our hearts, we need to guard our hearts  from EVERYTHING that would want to invade, distract, disrupt, and dissuade us from our most important purposes, which are individually determined with the Lord’s guidance.

Once we hear His voice showing us the way, we must become DOERS of those goals by co-partnering with Him through His grace and wisdom. This will truly only occur if we remember to first STOP ourselves from overcommitments and distractions that are NOT His will and plan for us. As we all know, this is much easier said than done.

Becoming conscious when distractions arise is really the first step of action, or should I say NO action. Always remember that in the midst of this process, there will be divine God- sent interruptions.  This is where discernment comes in. We develop our Knower, through an ongoing, intimate, day-to-day, moment by moment, relationship with God. Otherwise, when those  God-sent interruptions come, we will not HEAR His Voice that speaks to us (sometimes very quietly) showing us the right decision to make.

Are your ready to SLOW down from your harried lifestyle? Choose today to say YES, and I know you will grow in discovering more effectively God’s PLAN for rest and peace with your family, work and relationships. If you get a chance, you might also want to pick up Kimmel’s book, which describes in humorous detail seven marks of the harried life, as well as other great points for the how to’s to change lanes.

-The Quilted Poetess

 

 

Spring Up Oh Well!

When my children were young, I taught them a song that had lyrics that went like this: I’ve gotta a river of life  flowing out of me. Makes the lame to walk and the blind to see. Opens prison doors, sets the captives free. I’ve gotta a river of life flown out of me.  (chorus) Spring up oh well, within my soul; spring up oh well, and make me whole……., spring up oh well and give to me; that life abundantly!

Not only did we sing these words, but we created body and hand motions for each line.  It was a joyous time of immense pleasure for all of us, as we sang and preformed our creation together.  We always felt so FILLED and refreshed afterwards. 

In stewarding our hearts, it is important we daily take their temperature if you will, to assess whether they are filled, or empty.  As I’ve shared before, sometimes they are filled with the wrong things~ and when we take an inside look and find that is the case, we need to do some soul-searching to remove those toxins, BUT……………….then we need to always be sure to refill that empty well with good, living water from the true river of life………….Jesus Himself!!

Life is BUSY~ as I am sure we have all found out, for there is always SOMETHING calling for our attention.  Commitments, people, responsibilities, even fun-filled activities.  All of these things cost of not only time, but energy, and the only way to gain more of it again, is to  stop every so often and REST, relax, and wait upon God to renew our wells.  If we don’t they will eventually run dry.

As a good night’s sleep renews us physically, coming to Him to REST~ by stopping other activities on a regular basis, renews us spiritually.  If we  don’t  we will run dry, and if we run on dry for long, we will eventually  BURNOUT and thus have nothing to draw from or give.

If this occurs we need to sometimes take a complete season off, and REST~by coming to the LORD regularly to revive and refill our wells.  I believe this is what Jesus means in Matthew 11;28-29 when He says, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Come UNTO Me…………come……………unto…………….Me!  We make the decision to COME to Him, with no other agenda, but solely to REST in His arms and spend quality time with Him.  As we do, He comes unto us, and when He does He brings Himself, which efreshes, revives, strengthens, invigorates and refills our wells. 

Sometimes it feels like it is drip by drip, but as we discipline ourselves to regularly meet with Him, focused on Him and not distracted~ those drips of refreshing life add up, and before we know it, the MORE of the river of life begins to flow once more over our dry, parched, tired, rocky, hearts; softening, enlivening and energizing them.  When this occurs, you too, back on your feet will be singing with your spirit’s, Spring up oh well,  ready to focus once more on giving the excess of what you’ve received to those around you!

Won’t you join me today in coming to Him?  Choose to take off your Martha apron and sit at His feet with Mary, or on His lap, whatever is more comfortable. 

-The Quilted Poetess