Discover your dream

This beautiful blonde is my oldest daughter, Karlea. I dedicate this post to her. :)

Success in and of itself doesn't mean fullfillment. Life is about experiences and God uses our experiences to encourage others and the added bonus is we find satisfaction when we serve God and serve others. This brings meaning to life. What you are is God's gift to you and what you do with yourself is your gift to God.

As a child Karlea loved to go around the house singing. She lived from her heart and seemed to enjoy blessing others with her smile and her song. She hugged and expressed love to others because she wanted to not because she had to. She knew from a young age the music that played in her heart. God had given her a gift of compassion and that fits her nursing career very well.

Most of us settle for what life brings us; I know for me it seems at times I just live life the way it comes. I don't think that is what God had in mind when he weaved us with such care and detail while we still were inside our mother's womb. He has woven into our heart a special purpose, unique to us. It is important to find that dream and began persuing it. This dream is not just so we can be happy. And, it's not so we can feel significant or have the satisfaction of knowing we are living out our destiny. Those are all benefits of living out what God had in mind, but they are not the motivation and reason behind discovering it. Our motive is to fulfill the call that God has placed on our lives and live out for Him what He intended, for His glory.

God is the dream giver and he doesn't want to keep it from you. That is God that put that desire in your heart to make something of life, to accomplish something. Desires in the heart are put there so we realize we have a dream to discover.

Our assignments usually are just as much about the formation and development of our heart as it is about what is needing to be done. Most have a dream on their heart that they feel at one time or another they will not be able to live out. We stumble through the journey but God's arms are always reaching out, waiting for us to reach back. When we allow negative messages to interfere we need to take a heap of positive encouragement to replace one single negative message. Wounded hearts can heal and you can become whole! Focus on the solution and not the problem because you cannot change any part of what happened by reliving it. Getting hurt is inevitable, but to be a victim is your choice. It takes the same energy to choose forgiveness as to choose bitterness.

I took my life over some bumpy roads and made some bad choices that have had lifelong consequences But God restored my hope and reassured me that He promises in His word to work all things (even the bad things) together for good in our life when we love Him and are called to His purposes. I heard a Pastor once say, we all love chocolate chip cookies Umm Umm, but how many of us like the individual ingredients that go into them? God mixes all the bad stuff together and makes a delicious cookie.

"Life is like a canvas, make yours a masterpiece!" This was the theme of Karlea's 6th grade graduation. Have you ever thought of your life as a masterpiece? We are God's masterpiece! The dream weaver is also a master artist. He specializes in taking corrupted canvases and repainting them into magnificient masterpieces. No matter how badly I have messed up, no matter what mistakes I might have made, God has redeemed my life, restored it, and renewed it into a beautiful masterpiece. It is never to late to become a blessing and to leave a legacy.

We all come into the world the same way, sinners trying to paint our own canvas. When we make a wrong choice in life, a bad brush stroke appears and we try to hide it or make it blend into the overall picture of our lives. A big mistake looks like a spill of paint right through the middle of the canvas. We mess up that painting every time we screw up and sometimes it looks like there is nothing we can do to salvage the piece. Give God the brush and let him do what only he can do with your life.

Renewal is the ministry God does best. God takes what seems to us completely unworkable and makes it of utmost value. Grasp the wonder of God's love for you as you surrender your life to Jesus.

Find out what makes your heart sing and let God touch the deeepest part of your soul. The worst thing in the world would be for one to die with unplayed songs in their heart.

Be strong and courageous

God graces us with strength and courage for battle



I’m going to share with you about someone I knew who died of cancer. Eight year old, Meghan Post was a neighbor and good friend to our family.

I first met Meghan when she was three years old. Even as a 3 year old she exhibited a zest for life that never seemed to fade even when she was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor at age 5. Throughout her illness, several things stand out about her attitude and God’s grace in her life: First of all, she still had a concern for other people even though she was suffering herself. For example, she prayed for other children with cancer, she spread sunshine to those in the radiation waiting room and maintained her contact with friends. Second, she had a lot of love inside of her to give away. She always wanted to hug and kiss people. Every time she would ride with me in the van she would say “give me a hug and kiss”. Third, she showed good coping skills, her illness left her with a poor sense of balance so she couldn’t ride bike or run as well as before but she didn’t give up. She asked her dad to put her training wheels back on her bike and she and her friends would play with sticker books and found other non-strenuous activities to do. Fourth, she developed a rich, spiritual understanding of God. One of her favorite songs was “You Can’t Take My Jesus Away From Me”. She had something strong to hold on to and for her it was her faith in God.

Meghan had an incredible family support system, all the way from her immediate family to her extended family, Parents, brothers, aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents. They all made sacrifices of their time and money to support each other during the difficult times they faced. I am sure it helped Meghan to know that she was cared for so deeply.

Meghan exhibited strength, love and courage. Her eight years she lived on this earth were a strong punctuation for how to live and love. She didn’t even realize she was teaching us but she was! Some people spend their entire lives searching for this faith and courage that Meghan’s entire life embodied. Her life was an example that the people around her were to follow. Her attitude has inspired me so much over the years and it continues to have a positive effect on me. “Attitude: A little thing that makes a big difference!” These words of wisdom ring true no matter what age you are.

Ten years later this child still has a tremendous impact on how I feel I should live out my Christian life.

Life itself is a gift through God’s grace and it has many voices. If the sounds are grim we must bear them, if they are joyful let us hold onto them. We are recipients unable to choose what life will give us; yet we can choose how we will respond.

With the Easter season upon us, we celebrate the miraculous, unbelievable, unpredictable and spectacular grace of God. I am reminded of how much hope, happiness and love Meghan spread while she was here in spite of the suffering and death associated with her cancer. At Easter we celebrate the gift of salvation that Jesus brought to us by hanging and dying on that cross for our sin. Just as children with cancer and their parents may feel forsaken, Jesus did too! He asked God, “Do I have to do this”? He willingly died for us. Light rises from the darkness bringing forth life from death. New hope that dawns for me on Easter morning is that we can all love God and others with unabashed faith as Meghan did!

Let the miracle of Easter shine in your heart and lead you to value the “great” and ignore the “trivial”. Let it shine over your sorrow!

The Bible says in Joshua 1:9 be strong and courageous! Even though Meghan is not a physical survivor, her courage and strength is an example for us all today.

Hope in God

No matter how much we want the ideal - we cannot be perfect this side of heaven. We all make a mess of our lives in one way or another but God can take that mess and make it into a message of hope for someone else.

It doesn't matter how banged up or torn up we become, God promises "a bruised reed he will not break." God cares about the bumps and bruises we acquire and even though he doesn't remove every negative circumstance from our life he promises He will go with us. Sometimes I question "God, where are you"? I've even found myself asking "God why won't you do that for me" ? God holds the answers to all life's difficult questions and the days He gives us are all days of grace whether we are enjoying them or enduring them. We know He is always working for our good and His glory.

This hope in God is what we can hold onto when we are getting banged around or torn up in life. We certainly cannot hold onto our human strength. The old familiar saying, "when the going gets tough the tough get going" used to be something I believed until God showed me through experience that we do not have what it takes in and of ourselves to get out of the tight spots in life. We may white knuckle it for awhile and put on a tough outer shell but one day we break and we find ourselves crying out to God for the help that only He can give. My experience has been that God is close when we are brokenhearted and His grace, love and mercy are extended to us so that we may put one foot in front of the other and move forward. Really a broken and contrite spirt is what God longs for.

A dented fender won't stop the car from running nor will life mishaps disrupt your hope and faith in God.