God Changes Things

                         And He changes the times and the seasons; Daniel 2:21a

The story of Joseph is such an encouragement to me when life doesn't make sense. I think about when his brothers threw him into a pit to kill him and then sold him into slavery. Then his encounter with Potiphar's wife and getting thrown into prison. There were so many things that happened to Joseph that were so terribly wrong and yet he never  let the circumstances change his trust in God. Joseph trusted that God's hand was upon him and moved forward every day doing whatever needed to be done. Many years later God blessed him by making him 2nd in command to the great nation of Egypt. He was reunited with his brothers and everything changed.

There are many stories in the Bible that show us that God uses the good and the bad for his purpose. We can't always trust in the circumstances of our life but we can always trust God. It should give us hope that no matter what difficulty we may have that God has His purpose and His plan for us too. We can trust Him to make everything right no matter how impossible it may seem and no matter how much we have messed it up.

God can take our hopeless circumstance that we are facing today and make it  our blessing for tomorrow, next week, next month or next year. He brought us life from death 2000 years ago....

 This picture was taken at the Historical Fernandina Beach on January 2014.

I Am Asking “Why” Too!

 written February 8, 2011: 

I walk around with all the "WHY" questions like everyone else
and stay unsettled in the not knowing just how it all goes...
there are days I am strong and the WHY's are just there
then the days that my grief is just centered around all
the "WHY's" that are hanging around....

Amazing I get anything done trying to solve this mystery of
life and yet we all go along without knowing just "WHY" and
everyone works and everyone plays ~ even though we all
struggle with all the daily questions of "WHY"~I don't know!

Yes, I don't know "WHY" today or any day but have learned
that by faith to just trust that the God that I serve doesn't
need me to know the answers right now but one day we will and
then we may be glad we didn't know - just sayin' it could be
so.....just my theory I know.....

WHY do you ask, do I believe such a thing and I have to
reply with the same as before, I don't know but I do.
I trust and by faith live without the question of "WHY"
being answered today.....hope you do too.....

"WHY?" Because I care about you..........by Donella

When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. Isaiah 43:2

 

This picture was taken on one of my walks on the beach 2007.

 

The Enemy

 Luke 10:16 He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.

When I think about the word "enemy" I visualize Satan, demons and very evil people. I don't ever think about my being what others may visualize as their "enemy!" Unfortunately, no matter how hard we may try that is exactly what happens. People will misunderstand us or feel something negative about us that we don't even know is going on there. 

We have all experienced it at some point in our lives; especially if we have children. Our toddlers think we are trying to keep them from fun stuff when we remove them from something like sticking keys in an electrical wall plug. Our teens think we live to rob them of all their fun because we don't allow them to go places that we know from experience will not be a safe place. It is no fun being the enemy of your own kids but unfortunately it comes with the job of parenting!

It grieves me to know that there are people that I once considered dear friends and family that no longer care to see or hear from me. This happens to all of us no matter how hard we may try to not find ourselves in that position. I am so naive that I have actually had a relationship with people that I thought we were very close only to find out differently. It's devastating to my "Pollyanna personality" but I have no clue how to keep it from happening. We have to accept the fact that not everyone is going to like us!

We really shouldn't take it so personal because everything is not about us according to my pastor's sermon a few weeks ago. I would love to tell you that I don't take it personally but that would be a lie. I take it very hard as most of us do. I really have to seek God to get me out of that emotional bondage. Once I find myself at the foot of the cross and only then does God begin to pick me up and show me that He loves me ~ Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Each day gets easier and each day when I focus on His love then the pain put there by others begins to move out of the way. God's love heals the broken heart!

Don't go twenty years letting one negative comment hold you back. You are not who people say you are, you are who God says you are. Joel Osteen

This picture was taken when my daughter n law had her first born!