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Meriah

The Lord's Prayer

I believe most of us know the Lord’s Prayer by heart and have possibly recited it, or sang it from memory since we were little.  Today, we are going to take a deeper look at The Lord’s prayer and give it more of a personal meaning in our lives.

We find The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13.  

Jesus gave us The Lord’s Prayer as an example of how to pray.  He proceeds the prayer by telling us in Matthew 6:5-8 to not be boastful about our prayers, drawing a lot of attention on ourselves.  This would take the focus away from where it should be: On Christ. 

I believe there are many aspects to a good prayer life and many different ways which offer spiritual connection with God.  I don’t believe every prayer I pray requires my hands to be folded with my head bowed and my eyes closed.  But I do believe there is great power in this kind of connection with God. 

Another way to spend time in prayer that I love, is to journal.  I also send my  prayers up to God with my eyes wide open while driving, doing dishes, folding laundry, and many other activities I complete during the day.  I believe we can come to Him anytime, anywhere.  I also firmly believe that God gets excited about being a part of our every day life.  After all we are His and He is genuinely interested in everything we do!

Now let’s take a look at The Lord's Prayer:

"Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."

The Lord’s Prayer begins by directing our attention to God and acknowledging Him as our Father in heaven. Next, God appeals to us to join with Him connecting our will to His. First, we connect with Him then God acknowledges our needs; because it is through Him He supplies our needs.  He provides for our physical and spiritual needs with bread.  Through His bread of life He gives us spiritual and physical nourishment providing us with power to resist the devil on a mental and physical level, daily.  Most importantly God calls us to a personal relationship with Him and through Him.  In addition, He invites us to have a relationship with those around us.  He provides us with forgiveness, and petitions us to forgive those who wrong us.  He invites us to close our prayer with an Amen; conveying respect and adoration.  

Please don't miss where He directs our attention. Up!  Not within; up!  Then He invites us to join our will to submit to His will.  These actions will give us the spiritual, physical, and emotional strength we need to resist the devil and call upon God to do battle for us thus, resisting evil.

Something that is very uplifting for me and makes scripture very personal is to write it in my own words.  I wrote a personal version of the Lord’s Prayer below.

My father in the heavens above, I exalt you and praise you.

Come soon; prepare me here on earth to be with you for eternity.

Bless me daily with your spiritual food.

Forgive me for not loving my neighbor as you have done.  And forgive me for not spreading the gospel to speed your return as you have commanded.

Help me to resist the devil and deliver me from him.  For heaven is yours.  You will reign victorious, and gain the victory forever.  I love you Lord.

When you make scripture personal like this especially in a prayer it connects you more deeply with the Lord.  For me sometimes it helps me realize He is speaking directly to me.

I petition you today to make prayer an important part of your everyday life.  A part you don’t skip, or kick off your calendar for any reason.  God desires to have a personal relationship with you.  And that can only come through time spent with Him.

Why Mom’s Don’t Shower

The shower was running at a perfect temperature and I was ready to step in. “Mom”! The request sounded urgent.  I quickly but begrudgingly turned the shower off and promptly got dressed again while thinking how close I was to getting  all squeaky clean in a nice warm shower.

 I arrived on the scene to settle a squabble between my two kiddos.  Meanwhile, the dog snuck outside and ran away. (Kessa the runaway dog I wrote about) Ugh!  We called and called for her but, no dog.  I loaded the kids up in the car to go look for her.  After we finally found Kessa we decided to go feed the horses since we were already out and about.  After we fed horses we arrived back home.  Finally, I could get my shower! Wrong.  I forgot the two miniature horses we had at home were out of hay and I needed more hay to feed them their breakfast.   So we loaded back up in the car and went to get them some hay. 

Life can so quickly get in the way of even simple things like taking a shower.  The same way my shower kept getting delayed is the same thing that can happen to our time with God.  We have good intentions but things keep coming up and before you know it the day is over and we never spent a minute with God.

The devil doesn’t want you to spend time with God.  He will do everything he can to keep you from connecting with Jesus.  If you set time aside you can count on something coming up so that you are unable to spend time with God.  Your boss may move a deadline.  Your friend might need you urgently.  Your kids might get sick.  Any number of things can come up.

If you have a regular routine for spending quality time with God that is fantastic and I would love to hear about it.  If you don’t; pray and ask God to help you make Him a priority in your life.  Make a commitment that you are going to figure out a plan that works best for you. 

There are many different ways you can spend time with God on a daily basis.  I love to journal for my main prayer time.  This is a great way for me to revisit how God has led in my life and answered my prayers.

I also spend time with God through the course of the day.  I read the Bible and I usually have multiple books or devotions that I read for a few minutes throughout the day.  I also continually pray during the day.  I pray while I am cooking, getting ready for the day, cleaning, or whatever I am doing I just pour my heart out to God.

 Having devotions through the day works for me.  It can be difficult for me to get large chunks of time all at once.  I also feel that if I am constantly gaining inspiration from God through the day, it helps the day run much smoother, and keeps me spiritually stronger.

 We are all unique and will each have different ways of connecting with God.  The main thing is to make a plan that works for you and work your plan.  When you make the commitment to put God first in your life  it doesn’t mean you won’t have trials and troubles;  but you will be stronger and better able to deal with them.

Thought Seeds!

“Watch your thoughts for they become words.

Watch your words for they become actions.

Watch your actions for they become habits.

Watch your habits for they become your character.

And watch your character for it becomes your destiny.

What we think, we become.”

Margaret Thatcher

Close your eyes for a minute and imagine a rolling hill plentiful with a beautiful flower garden, vegetable garden and orchard brimming with the most beautiful flowers, vegetables and fruits you have ever seen.

  

Can you smell the flowers, taste the sugar snap peas, and feel a little peach juice run down your cheek. There is nothing comparable or more delicious smelling; or tasting than fresh flowers, fresh vegetables, and fresh fruit picked right from the tree.

True gardening takes skill, talent, knowledge and time.  Endless hours of planting, watering,weeding, pruning, and lots of other hard work goes into having an immaculate garden, and orchard like you pictured.  However, no matter how well all of the above are completed it wouldn't mean anything if you started out with a bad seed.  If you had a bad seed you could pour all the water in the world to it and weeds would grow in it's place.

Seeds and gardening are similar to a marriage.  We will begin with the seeds.

Think back to when you were dating your spouse.  Do you remember the countless hours you spent day dreaming about your new found love. The time you were apart you spent dreaming and anticipating how wonderful it would be when you were back in their presence again.  You were so happy.  Love was in the air and life was great.

However, somewhere between your "I do" and the stress of life your thoughts turned from sweet to bitter.  Instead of thinking about how wonderful your spouse is your thoughts turned negative.  Negative grumblings about how he leaves the toilet seat up, leaves socks on the floor, doesn’t take out the trash, doesn't do this, and whatever else about him that drives you crazy.

God tells us in Galatians 6:7 that a man reaps what he sows. Your thoughts are just like seeds.  If you have negative thoughts about your spouse, your entire marriage will be negatively affected.  If your thought seeds are positive that will positively affect your marriage. 

If you constantly focus on the negative and brood about your spouse’s faults; that is going to be how you react and interact with them.  Even if you think your thoughts are safe because you only “thought it” and didn't say it, that isn't the case. Remember, your thoughts dictate your actions.  

Your thoughts are like tiny seeds you are planting, and the results will be what you planted.  You don't get a corn plant if you plant a squash seed.  If you think negative thoughts about your spouse your actions towards them will be negative.  On the contrary, if you think positive thoughts about your spouse your actions towards them will be positive.

Thoughts are powerful!  If you are skeptical see for yourself.  For the next week think only positive thoughts about your spouse. No matter how hard this might be; I know you can do it. 

Keep any negative thought out! If you begin thinking a negative thought immediately replace it with a positive one.

In order to immediately replace it with a positive one you will need to write down five positive things about your spouse.

To help you do this; spend time reminiscing about the early days of your courtship and marriage.  Focus on the thoughts and feelings you once had before you put on your high powered "fault spotter goggles".

If the thought of five positive things overwhelms you; begin with one.  If you are still struggling to find anything positive find a powerful scripture.

When you start to think a negative thought about your spouse; immediately replace it with a positive one or recite your scripture.  

Ladies, you set the tone for your family, and the tone you set begins with your thoughts!  What will you sow, weeds or flowers?  Ask God to help you in your commitment to sow positive, beautiful thought seeds about your spouse this week.

The choice is yours

Standing at the counter I gazed across the multiple cases of beautiful watches before me.  I was so excited and overwhelmed.  I had no idea how I was going to pick just one!

  Growing up I was given many opportunities to make many choices and decisions.  I just did not like to.  I was very slow about it and generally preferred if I didn’t have to make any decisions at all. 

Choosing a watch when I was about ten was by far one of the biggest choices I had made to date in my life.  This would be evident by how long it took me to choose a watch.  

I believe we were in the store about three hours trying on watches. (Sorry Mom.)  Of course I had to try several on two or more times.  Finally, I made my choice.

Each one of us has hundreds of choices we make on a daily basis.  The world is at our fingertips, literally.  From the time we get up in the morning to the time we go to bed, we make choices. 

We make small choices like what to eat or wear to large decisions.  No matter if they are big or small all of our choices and decisions make an impact affecting our lives in one way or another.  Some affect our lives in a more noticeable way than others.  One choice we make every day that makes a huge impact on our life is the choice to spend time with God and truly make Him a part of our life.  Every day!  

Joshua 24:15 …As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

We are told in Matthew 6:24 that no one can serve two masters.  You must make a choice.  Will you run into your savior’s arms today?  His arms are open and waiting to wrap them around you.

Called By Name

We have over 50 chickens and they all have names.  Some of the similar ones do have group names and collectively their name is "chick's".  When I call them they excitedly come running to see what goodies I have for them.

We have several horses and they definitely know their names. When I call them, they come to me.   Or if I call them by name from a distance they will whinny at me. 

My dogs of course know their names.  Many times when I call them they come running to me wagging their tales with joy.  But sometimes they don’t come when I call them, they run the other way and do what they want.  

One of our dogs is particularly bad about this.  She likes to do her own thing.  She is not real obedient, especially for me.  She is a big love but definitely has a mind of her own.  She specifically likes to sneak out of her yard and “run away” for a bit.  She always comes back but she likes to go exploring in the neighborhood.  I try to keep a close watch on her but she is really sneaky.   Sometimes when we are outside together and she sees people or animals walking by she will go out to greet them. Even if I call her name she will continue to run out to the road to greet the passers. 

One day she did not listen again and refused to stay in her yard.  Consequently, the dog she went out to greet was not appreciative of her greeting and attacked her.  The other dog owner got her dog to let go of my dog but it could have been a fatal attack.  My dog Kessa has suffered with her injuries for the past couple of weeks and is slowly healing but will undoubtedly be left with scars.  

God tells us in Isaiah 43:1 … I have called you by name, you are mine.

 God calls you specifically by name to Him every day.  Will you come running to Him to see what He has in store for you today?  Or will you run the other way and do your own thing?

Faith

 Earlier this week I had the most fabulous day with my kiddos.  We traveled to several amazing places.  I had two of the best pilots in the world flying me in a private jet and I was even provided with a delicious gourmet meal in flight.  I also traveled to the airport to board my private jet in style; in a black stretch limo. 

My private jet took me to Hawaii where we landed and spent the afternoon splashing in the warm water and building sand castles on the beach.  After our delightful afternoon in Hawaii we made our way to our next destination.  We boarded a cruise ship headed to Alaska to see more of God's beautiful creation.  It was an amazing fun filled day. 

The kids and I wish every day was like that; filled with relaxation, fun and adventure.  Funny thing is with kids it seems every day is a bit like this.  You see, kids have amazing dreams, imaginations and huge faith.  I don’t know how many times I shake my head in amazement on a constant basis at my kid’s faith.  And I think I have faith.  Ha! I don’t even begin to have a clue. 

Just yesterday my son and I were hunting for a paint brush to complete a little project and he said, “Mom let’s have a prayer and pray we find one.” “Of course, let’s have one,” I replied.  Without delaying we bowed our heads and had prayer right in the doorway of our storage shed.  After prayer I walked right over to a box, and the first thing I put my hands on was a paint brush. 

We have tried to teach our kids to pray first in any situation.  If they need help, if they have lost something, whatever the issue might be they know they can take their cares to God. 

Many times when we have prayed for a situation or a lost item to be found, their prayer isn't please help us find…. They pray thank you we found….  Mistake? No. Faith!  Faith in action.  They know God will answer.  They have faith.  They don't question if He will or how He will they know He will.  

2 Corinthians 5:7 For we live by faith, not by sight.

One time we were having a thunder storm with light rain.  My kiddos aren’t crazy about thunder so on their own they prayed the thunder would stop.  I am sad to say I was silently thinking and praying during their prayer.  I prayed, “Lord, how will I explain to them without squashing their faith that you do answer ALL our prayers it just isn’t always yes or the answer we want?”  I don’t believe they finished their Amen’s and…… the thunder stopped!  While I was rejoicing in awe they were not surprised.  They prayed about it and they knew God would take care of it!  

Matthew 18:3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Kids can see and imagine anything.  Even though we can't see it they can.  Just like God can see far beyond what we see.  Kids live a life of faith.  By faith and dreams, the impossible becomes possible.  We see a swing on a porch or a tarp in the yard but kids; they see a private jet, and a gorgeous cruise ship. 

Let’s start living our lives more like children.  Let’s let our dreams and our faith collide and stop limiting God.