Olivia Pompa
I have been living with my new family for almost 8 years and I love them as if I was born here. I am extremely thankful for my new parents, Merily and Daniel ♥ All things work to the greater good (No matter what it is) <33 They are giving more than I could ever ask for and I want to thank them for that too (: I LOOVE YOU GUUYS♥ ALSO, Yesterdaay was my real mommmyss birthday, I wanted to wish her a Happy Birthhdaay! <33 Happy Birthday Moommmyy (: Miss you! <3333
What a post from Olivia's Facebook..How INCREDIBLY solid this incredible God-given child of mine is in her "interpretation" of Romans 8:28: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to
His purpose.
Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us. Ephesians 3:20
Our prayer has always been for our family to be unified. Through the most challenging of times...even more so than the commitment to them through their initial loss and our initial gain has been our recent challenges. God truly has exceeded our expectations! We praise Him!!
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
From Bondage To Freedom
Freedom comes to us in many forms. Often it comes into our lives through bondage. Because we are experienced-based creatures, we have to learn about life through experience. There are some experiences that have nothing to do with choices but yet we evolve into ourselves based on decisions others have made for us. For example, as a child we do not choose our parents or the dynamic within their relationship and consequently choices are made on our behalf that we have no control over. We must however, take those (preconceived) notions/ideas into our next seasons of life and often what drives us is what we learned and often lacked, or possibly even had in surplus to satisfy our desires. Through daily living we find that often what we thought was part of the fiber of our existence isn't where our ultimate satisfaction comes. For me personally, I had to be placed into situations even as an adult that I did not have choices in to realize how true that really is. While choices are always made within scenarios, overarching realities have a far greater determination in who we find ourselves to be. It is far easier to do the right thing when faced with challenge than it is to embrace the changes within that challenge. While our initial response is self-preservation, if we are really honest with ourselves (either through admission or coercion), we must enter the threshold within it that allows us to step across it to a new level of living. What we inevitably find when we enter that higher dimension is soul satisfaction. While it may not look like we have previously known, who we are is who we have desired to be all along but lacked the tools to acquire.
When we belong to God, He often orchestrates events to enable us to find who we have been looking for as well as knew we were destined to become all along but too wounded to attain. Superfluousness sheds itself from necessity, and as self-preservation is replaced by surrender and trust, we take our eyes off our ourselves and put them on to those that we are entrusted with as well as to our God who ultimately holds ALL of the power anyway. We find within the pages of our further unfolding story hope, completion in the creation of ourselves and advancement of of our mind to attain our vision...and even passions deepen within our calling and it is renewed eventhough it may seem to have been detained. We learn that without the reduction in ourselves, we could not possibly reach the heights that God has chosen for His purposes, not our own. There is no other way to remove self than to have it removed for us...at least for those of us who are natural at cultivating resources due to personalities that have determination and perseverance at the helm.
I had to be very honest with myself many times over in this life already to accept that each challenge that I have been called to walk through is perfect for me. Each test of my faith, each test of my character, each test of my self within myself has been hand-picked by God to advance His purpose for my life. I have also had to remind myself in moments where I have been tempted to feel sorry for myself (which could be easy to do with 5 children who have pre-existing wounds and tainted belief systems) that my own journey is not just for me but for all of us. Who they are learning to rely on beyond a Sunday School role of Christianity is beyond what any of us would sign up for, but once living our lives at that level of faith, we are never going to be satisfied with knowing about God...we want to KNOW Him and be known by Him...where we can call upon Him and know He is always speaking even if He is not always answering every prayer to our satisfaction or in our timing. We find in our solitude that a Biblical faith is one that applies the scriptures and follows the patriarchs of the Bible as they did and watch and wait for Him to show up on our behalf. What greater lesson about living a life that God blesses could our children extract from any other experience other than our own?
Be encouraged that God lives with His people as "a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people." Exodus 13:21-22 While we do not see that manifestation in the same way physically, He is still illuminating and directing even our darkest times for His light to become an everlasting flame and the light that must never be extinguished must originate in our own hearts so that we never lose our direction or desire for Him.
When I remind myself that life is a journey as well as a tapestry to be taken and woven all at the same time, I feel honored to be chosen for such a role that has taken me through so many twists and turns and uncertainties. I realize that apart from God's calling and His favor to achieve it, I would waste this life seeking but never being fully satisfied. I can now find riddled within the pages of my life's story the hand of God upon my heart that loves me too much to let my life move randomly. While pain is an inevitable part of growth, life lessons learned births desires beyond reason and hope beyond expectation. I do not believe that God merely calls us to have a legacy that is solely parenting our children and therefore we must live out our calling with our children watching and waiting right with us in order for them to develop the kind of faith that too "if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul." Deuteronomy 4:29 In verse 28, the one directly before, God tell us: " There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell." This is the place where we are in captivity and He desires to release us. While letting go is often not a choice we would make, there is a freedom in having it removed. Rebuilding SOLELY on the foundation that leads us to victorious living is the only place that our soul satisfaction is found. What God adds to that is up to Him, but being driven by our purpose (His purpose) is far more exciting than being driven by our desires.
Who gets what is a common theme in a large family. With God, who gets what is determined by His resources, not our own and I don't know about you, but I would far rather be waiting on Him rather than trusting in myself.
When we belong to God, He often orchestrates events to enable us to find who we have been looking for as well as knew we were destined to become all along but too wounded to attain. Superfluousness sheds itself from necessity, and as self-preservation is replaced by surrender and trust, we take our eyes off our ourselves and put them on to those that we are entrusted with as well as to our God who ultimately holds ALL of the power anyway. We find within the pages of our further unfolding story hope, completion in the creation of ourselves and advancement of of our mind to attain our vision...and even passions deepen within our calling and it is renewed eventhough it may seem to have been detained. We learn that without the reduction in ourselves, we could not possibly reach the heights that God has chosen for His purposes, not our own. There is no other way to remove self than to have it removed for us...at least for those of us who are natural at cultivating resources due to personalities that have determination and perseverance at the helm.
I had to be very honest with myself many times over in this life already to accept that each challenge that I have been called to walk through is perfect for me. Each test of my faith, each test of my character, each test of my self within myself has been hand-picked by God to advance His purpose for my life. I have also had to remind myself in moments where I have been tempted to feel sorry for myself (which could be easy to do with 5 children who have pre-existing wounds and tainted belief systems) that my own journey is not just for me but for all of us. Who they are learning to rely on beyond a Sunday School role of Christianity is beyond what any of us would sign up for, but once living our lives at that level of faith, we are never going to be satisfied with knowing about God...we want to KNOW Him and be known by Him...where we can call upon Him and know He is always speaking even if He is not always answering every prayer to our satisfaction or in our timing. We find in our solitude that a Biblical faith is one that applies the scriptures and follows the patriarchs of the Bible as they did and watch and wait for Him to show up on our behalf. What greater lesson about living a life that God blesses could our children extract from any other experience other than our own?
Be encouraged that God lives with His people as "a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people." Exodus 13:21-22 While we do not see that manifestation in the same way physically, He is still illuminating and directing even our darkest times for His light to become an everlasting flame and the light that must never be extinguished must originate in our own hearts so that we never lose our direction or desire for Him.
When I remind myself that life is a journey as well as a tapestry to be taken and woven all at the same time, I feel honored to be chosen for such a role that has taken me through so many twists and turns and uncertainties. I realize that apart from God's calling and His favor to achieve it, I would waste this life seeking but never being fully satisfied. I can now find riddled within the pages of my life's story the hand of God upon my heart that loves me too much to let my life move randomly. While pain is an inevitable part of growth, life lessons learned births desires beyond reason and hope beyond expectation. I do not believe that God merely calls us to have a legacy that is solely parenting our children and therefore we must live out our calling with our children watching and waiting right with us in order for them to develop the kind of faith that too "if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul." Deuteronomy 4:29 In verse 28, the one directly before, God tell us: " There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell." This is the place where we are in captivity and He desires to release us. While letting go is often not a choice we would make, there is a freedom in having it removed. Rebuilding SOLELY on the foundation that leads us to victorious living is the only place that our soul satisfaction is found. What God adds to that is up to Him, but being driven by our purpose (His purpose) is far more exciting than being driven by our desires.
Who gets what is a common theme in a large family. With God, who gets what is determined by His resources, not our own and I don't know about you, but I would far rather be waiting on Him rather than trusting in myself.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
In Trying Times...Is Anything Better Than This???
My daughter's facebook post today: I want to remember this time in our life and how God used this scripture in our lives and in our family: "You meant evil against me but God meant it for good..." (Genesis 50:20-21)
Olivia Pompa
Riding home from a fantastic thanksgiving! Another thanksgiving dinner on Sunday! I am thankful for so much. Loving parents, annoying but amazing brothers, my giving grandfather, and soo much more! ((: Happy Thanksgiving everyonee!!
I DON'T DESERVE THIS FRONT ROW SEAT IN GOD'S AMAZING LOVE...BUT I AM SO GLAD HE CHOSE ME FOR IT :))
Philippians 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Olivia Pompa
Riding home from a fantastic thanksgiving! Another thanksgiving dinner on Sunday! I am thankful for so much. Loving parents, annoying but amazing brothers, my giving grandfather, and soo much more! ((: Happy Thanksgiving everyonee!!
I DON'T DESERVE THIS FRONT ROW SEAT IN GOD'S AMAZING LOVE...BUT I AM SO GLAD HE CHOSE ME FOR IT :))
Philippians 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Friday, November 25, 2011
My Father's Business...ONLY He Would Consider Me Worthy.
Thanksgiving Dinner 2011.
At dinner with my dad yesterday, we took the time to go around the table as we always do giving thanks. I was enriched by my kid's hearts and their expressions of gratitude. What I wasn't expecting was my own. The VERY first thing that came to my mind and consequently out of my mouth, was my gratitude for Dylan and Olivia. What I realize is that I have become who I am as a result of them in my life. The difficult and unpenetrable places of my heart that I knew were resistant to change have become open and receptive to offering myself and what has been stifled as a result of the wounds that have been in me since I was very young and rejected and abandoned by my own biological father.
The public battle that has taken so much from us has undeniably given us so much more. The matter of the truth being heard has become secondary to the greater purpose it has served within our family. Only God could accomplish such a feat. My protected and repellant state of existence can only be defined as fear. What did I fear? I have asked myself that so many times I have lost count and yet it hasn't been until God took my fear that I realized why it existed and that I wasn't the one who could control when or how it would become a healed wound.
I humorously added that I was glad that they had the personalities they had and that there were 2 of them rather than the reverse with the 3 that came from Danny and I being added to the mix ;)
The second thought that came out of my mouth was something that occurred the day before but it wasn't until I began speaking that I realized another healed area of my wounded self. Olivia and I went out for the evening the other night and the boys (especially Izik) were anxious to finish the Christmas Tree. Under any other circumstances and any other year, I decorate it.
When we came home Izik was laying on the couch looking at the completed tree with a look of satisfaction. He asked me what I thought of it...I took it in and told him it was PERFECT!
It was while I was recounting what I was thankful for that I found myself announcing that all of the stress in my life that I have had no choice but to deal with has not robbed me at all, but restored my joy and appreciation for the role of a mother called into a unique situation for an enormous purpose...to mend hearts. I realized that it wasn't possible to fully mend my children's hearts when my own still required an overhaul. God has provided the opportunity for this to occur...I will never be the same and my children will be blessed by me and through me as a result.
So thank you to the one who has created havoc. And Thank YOU more Lord God for knowing my heart and loving me enough to not leave me as I was but calling me out of myself and into your desires. While releasing my own has been done through tremendous adversity, I am now grateful for your relentless love and mercy that accompanies our challenges.
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them. Isaiah 42:16
The final piece of gratitude that emerged from my brokenness was the power of God alone to do this. I realized fully in that moment that trust maintained in the ONLY ONE who holds the power to turn defeat into victory is how the ultimate battle is won. Many "things" can be taken, but the things that matter most are our relationships and our hearts with their desires in tact with the hope that has been long-since planted, but with roots growing underneath the soil until the appropriate time for them to spring forth.
I NOW UNDERSTAND MYSELF...that my God will meet all (of my) needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. What has been replaced by what has been stolen is far greater.
At dinner with my dad yesterday, we took the time to go around the table as we always do giving thanks. I was enriched by my kid's hearts and their expressions of gratitude. What I wasn't expecting was my own. The VERY first thing that came to my mind and consequently out of my mouth, was my gratitude for Dylan and Olivia. What I realize is that I have become who I am as a result of them in my life. The difficult and unpenetrable places of my heart that I knew were resistant to change have become open and receptive to offering myself and what has been stifled as a result of the wounds that have been in me since I was very young and rejected and abandoned by my own biological father.
The public battle that has taken so much from us has undeniably given us so much more. The matter of the truth being heard has become secondary to the greater purpose it has served within our family. Only God could accomplish such a feat. My protected and repellant state of existence can only be defined as fear. What did I fear? I have asked myself that so many times I have lost count and yet it hasn't been until God took my fear that I realized why it existed and that I wasn't the one who could control when or how it would become a healed wound.
I humorously added that I was glad that they had the personalities they had and that there were 2 of them rather than the reverse with the 3 that came from Danny and I being added to the mix ;)
The second thought that came out of my mouth was something that occurred the day before but it wasn't until I began speaking that I realized another healed area of my wounded self. Olivia and I went out for the evening the other night and the boys (especially Izik) were anxious to finish the Christmas Tree. Under any other circumstances and any other year, I decorate it.
When we came home Izik was laying on the couch looking at the completed tree with a look of satisfaction. He asked me what I thought of it...I took it in and told him it was PERFECT!
It was while I was recounting what I was thankful for that I found myself announcing that all of the stress in my life that I have had no choice but to deal with has not robbed me at all, but restored my joy and appreciation for the role of a mother called into a unique situation for an enormous purpose...to mend hearts. I realized that it wasn't possible to fully mend my children's hearts when my own still required an overhaul. God has provided the opportunity for this to occur...I will never be the same and my children will be blessed by me and through me as a result.
So thank you to the one who has created havoc. And Thank YOU more Lord God for knowing my heart and loving me enough to not leave me as I was but calling me out of myself and into your desires. While releasing my own has been done through tremendous adversity, I am now grateful for your relentless love and mercy that accompanies our challenges.
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them. Isaiah 42:16
The final piece of gratitude that emerged from my brokenness was the power of God alone to do this. I realized fully in that moment that trust maintained in the ONLY ONE who holds the power to turn defeat into victory is how the ultimate battle is won. Many "things" can be taken, but the things that matter most are our relationships and our hearts with their desires in tact with the hope that has been long-since planted, but with roots growing underneath the soil until the appropriate time for them to spring forth.
I NOW UNDERSTAND MYSELF...that my God will meet all (of my) needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. What has been replaced by what has been stolen is far greater.
In Trying Times...Is Anything Better Than This???
My daughter's facebook post today: I want to remember this time in our life and how God used this scripture in our lives and in our family: "You meant evil against me but God meant it for good..." (Genesis 50:20-21)
Olivia Pompa
Riding home from a fantastic thanksgiving! Another thanksgiving dinner on Sunday! I am thankful for so much. Loving parents, annoying but amazing brothers, my giving grandfather, and soo much more! ((: Happy Thanksgiving everyonee!!
I DON'T DESERVE THIS FRONT ROW SEAT IN GOD'S AMAZING LOVE...BUT I AM SO GLAD HE CHOSE ME FOR IT :))
Philippians 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Olivia Pompa
Riding home from a fantastic thanksgiving! Another thanksgiving dinner on Sunday! I am thankful for so much. Loving parents, annoying but amazing brothers, my giving grandfather, and soo much more! ((: Happy Thanksgiving everyonee!!
I DON'T DESERVE THIS FRONT ROW SEAT IN GOD'S AMAZING LOVE...BUT I AM SO GLAD HE CHOSE ME FOR IT :))
Philippians 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
PAIN PRECEDES PURPOSE
I feel an inner oppositional force at work. I feel the desire to share my heart, but I also feel the desire to remain quiet. What is within me has been expressed many times for you to find your own encouragement for hope when life seems out of balance or a desperate need for restoration is a craving needing satisfied within your soul. I am learning through seasons of turmoil that the only place to find that peace is within. It is not found by expressing discontent or injustice nor is it found by indignant posturing. Our hope is only found in the power that God alone possesses. He alone knows what is best. Injustices occur. Our skewed perspectives of what is right and wrong occur. Our trust in others expecting our protection to be first and foremost in their dealings with us can also occur. We learn through disappointments and oftentimes devastation that life-lessons are often necessary for our future dealings in the lives that we are called to live out. If we interpret each defect and detour along the way as a life-lesson and learn from it then we begin to view our progress and impotentence simultaneously. We realize humans are exactly that...we rise and fall at the same time.
The dichotomy between our thoughts and our actions is at the very core of why we need a savior. We need someone to guide us that is beyond human and finite in thinking and direction. While faith used as a crutch is often an excuse for those who do not understand it and always accompanies a refusal to release control, for those of us that grow (often by force) through life's challenges, we begin to understand at an even more concentrated level that pain must precede purpose.
Being able to find peace within the process is perhaps the greatest of all the demands we must meet. I have learned in my own challenges that surrender is what I do last, but it is precisely where the provisions and protection occurs for my preservation and advancement. I am not sure I ever could have released my efforts to stand and fight for my story or the truth if it weren't for what God had to allow me to pass through for the objective of my purpose being met. I have found that when we feel outnumbered, both on the side of the enemy as well as even our allies, and we have no ability left to find hope in what is right, we surrender. We allow God to take over. We plead with Him for favor, for mercy, for opening the closed minds of those that stand in our way or hold us back from being restored. And we also realize that if He doesn't orchestrate on our schedule (which is already proven by the endless journey and wanderings we are involved in), then it must be for our good and His goals for our life.
This may be the place that breaking down and feeling helpless also is necessary. Without remembering that feeling, there is no surrender. We don't want to give up our fight. We feel the most vulnerable when we do UNLESS our vulnerability has already been proven to us by the circumstances in which we find ourselves.
Remember this quote: "Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties." ~Charles Haddon Spurgeon It is true of some of the most memorable of Biblical contributors to our hope and understanding of God's greatness that they too underwent tremendous difficulties for a much greater and often unforeseen purpose. History is waiting to be made. Do you desire a role in the greatest story ever written? The story is still being written and giving Him the pen is the most assured way of having your designated assignment come to life within its pages.
The dichotomy between our thoughts and our actions is at the very core of why we need a savior. We need someone to guide us that is beyond human and finite in thinking and direction. While faith used as a crutch is often an excuse for those who do not understand it and always accompanies a refusal to release control, for those of us that grow (often by force) through life's challenges, we begin to understand at an even more concentrated level that pain must precede purpose.
Being able to find peace within the process is perhaps the greatest of all the demands we must meet. I have learned in my own challenges that surrender is what I do last, but it is precisely where the provisions and protection occurs for my preservation and advancement. I am not sure I ever could have released my efforts to stand and fight for my story or the truth if it weren't for what God had to allow me to pass through for the objective of my purpose being met. I have found that when we feel outnumbered, both on the side of the enemy as well as even our allies, and we have no ability left to find hope in what is right, we surrender. We allow God to take over. We plead with Him for favor, for mercy, for opening the closed minds of those that stand in our way or hold us back from being restored. And we also realize that if He doesn't orchestrate on our schedule (which is already proven by the endless journey and wanderings we are involved in), then it must be for our good and His goals for our life.
This may be the place that breaking down and feeling helpless also is necessary. Without remembering that feeling, there is no surrender. We don't want to give up our fight. We feel the most vulnerable when we do UNLESS our vulnerability has already been proven to us by the circumstances in which we find ourselves.
Remember this quote: "Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties." ~Charles Haddon Spurgeon It is true of some of the most memorable of Biblical contributors to our hope and understanding of God's greatness that they too underwent tremendous difficulties for a much greater and often unforeseen purpose. History is waiting to be made. Do you desire a role in the greatest story ever written? The story is still being written and giving Him the pen is the most assured way of having your designated assignment come to life within its pages.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
THE LAUNCH
When I sit down to write, I often have NO idea what it is that I have to say. I realize that writing is a tool for me to understand my life with more clarity and my vision is what becomes more vivid as I communicate my emotions to myself and those who read what I leave upon the once blank space. I also understand that often people are filled with unanswered questions about their challenges and finding a space in their head to process is often difficult to do. We wrestle the inner man to preserve the outer man. At a certain inevitable juncture, we must face our reality with the proper persective. That perspective is never one that runs and hides, but one that embraces whatever it is that we are called to overcome and face it head on with an understanding that we will become better, not bitter as a result of it.
What I continue to learn through my own challenges is that with faith in God's direction for our lives and His perfect plan, we fulfill our destiny. This occurs in the most unlikely of ways typically, but we learn too that it is something that is truly best suited to every aspect of God's desire for our life. I read this quote and thought "how appropriate as it relates to my life": “ God asks no man whether he will accept life. That is not a choice. You must take it. The only choice is how”. ~Henry Ward Beecher
Could there be a more true statement of our grapplings with what "happens" to us? The embrace of each challenge with the proper perspective that leads to growth enriches us while the one that asks why me will lead us to defeat. As we journey through our season of enrichment we realize too that "God seldom delivers....virtues all wrapped in a package and ready for use. Rather He puts us in situations where by His help we can develop those virtues." ~C.R. Findley
I have been 12 years in challenges that have defied who and how I expected my life to look. The situations I have found myself in have taken me by surprise (to say the least) and tested every virute and value I have lived by. They have called me to deeper faith, deeper trust, deeper hope and deeper commitment to my ultimate goal of service to a God that loves me, knows what is best for me and cultivates not only my circumstances, but also my heart in the process of where He is leading me.
While some of what He is up to is becoming manifest without doubt, some of it lies in "utter" (outer) space waiting within the deepest but most readily recesses of my heart and waiting with a child-like excitement and anticipation to be released into my world.
As I wait with this fervor, I am feeling led to "release" some of what I have learned in very practial and applicable ways. A few well-respected friends have encouraged me to write more and one relationship in particular has taken an interest in leading me to have that materialize. She has connected me with resources, including her own, to expedite the release of my new blog with the title: Fit, Focused and 40. This will include physical, emotional and spiritual fundamentals that I am trusting God to lead the way with. I have always believed that when God calls us through something that stretches us He also calls us to use what has created pain for a purpose. I am excited to reveal my passions of living, raising a family, seeking to improve weaknesses within the areas of health of the physical, emotional and mental carcass that carries our soul throughout our life on this planet. I thank you for your contribution of questions and feedback in the very near future while sending any questions or thoughts that you would like me to address. While I certainly do not claim to be a final authority and at times even reluctant to share what I believe or have learned for myself, my husband reminds me of the fact that when you have victory over attacks (regardless of the area) it gives you an element of authority that (while it may not be the ONLY way) it certainly is proven through the methods of warfare that led to triumph. I need an army of warriors who desire to fight for victory. The battle is fierce for us all and yet God desires that we win it for Him!
What I continue to learn through my own challenges is that with faith in God's direction for our lives and His perfect plan, we fulfill our destiny. This occurs in the most unlikely of ways typically, but we learn too that it is something that is truly best suited to every aspect of God's desire for our life. I read this quote and thought "how appropriate as it relates to my life": “ God asks no man whether he will accept life. That is not a choice. You must take it. The only choice is how”. ~Henry Ward Beecher
Could there be a more true statement of our grapplings with what "happens" to us? The embrace of each challenge with the proper perspective that leads to growth enriches us while the one that asks why me will lead us to defeat. As we journey through our season of enrichment we realize too that "God seldom delivers....virtues all wrapped in a package and ready for use. Rather He puts us in situations where by His help we can develop those virtues." ~C.R. Findley
I have been 12 years in challenges that have defied who and how I expected my life to look. The situations I have found myself in have taken me by surprise (to say the least) and tested every virute and value I have lived by. They have called me to deeper faith, deeper trust, deeper hope and deeper commitment to my ultimate goal of service to a God that loves me, knows what is best for me and cultivates not only my circumstances, but also my heart in the process of where He is leading me.
While some of what He is up to is becoming manifest without doubt, some of it lies in "utter" (outer) space waiting within the deepest but most readily recesses of my heart and waiting with a child-like excitement and anticipation to be released into my world.
As I wait with this fervor, I am feeling led to "release" some of what I have learned in very practial and applicable ways. A few well-respected friends have encouraged me to write more and one relationship in particular has taken an interest in leading me to have that materialize. She has connected me with resources, including her own, to expedite the release of my new blog with the title: Fit, Focused and 40. This will include physical, emotional and spiritual fundamentals that I am trusting God to lead the way with. I have always believed that when God calls us through something that stretches us He also calls us to use what has created pain for a purpose. I am excited to reveal my passions of living, raising a family, seeking to improve weaknesses within the areas of health of the physical, emotional and mental carcass that carries our soul throughout our life on this planet. I thank you for your contribution of questions and feedback in the very near future while sending any questions or thoughts that you would like me to address. While I certainly do not claim to be a final authority and at times even reluctant to share what I believe or have learned for myself, my husband reminds me of the fact that when you have victory over attacks (regardless of the area) it gives you an element of authority that (while it may not be the ONLY way) it certainly is proven through the methods of warfare that led to triumph. I need an army of warriors who desire to fight for victory. The battle is fierce for us all and yet God desires that we win it for Him!
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