I Choose Today...

I choose Today to be a mirror…

My hope and prayer is that my actions reflect God’s goodness to those who see me. I desire to represent God to those in my sphere of influence (even to those I interact with at the store, Starbucks, those I pass along in the street). I want them to see my face reflecting God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit by seeing Their countenance on my face, in my smile, through my eyes. How do I do this? How can I know and reflect Jesus? John 1:1 tells us how, “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus is the Word. Knowing Jesus is knowing the Word of God! How awesome is that! With any relationships, it grows with time and intentionality. For example, when I first met my husband, we spent all our free time together, getting to know each other, our likes, dislikes, tendencies, mannerisms, personalities. As the years have passed, we have intentionally made time for one another, take interest in what the other values and deems important, and we have grown together. Lasting relationships, like marriage, take spending time together, take intentionality, takes commitment, takes love. We,

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To believe the truth and not the lie

I love meaning of having a life changing “AHA” moment in life: a moment of realization or understanding by being honest and then taking action (having an immediate response). This brings to mind what I was raised to believe about myself: “stupid, dumb, and would never amount to anything so don’t even try.” But I had an “AHA” moment (which I believe is God breathed) that told me what was being instilled into me was a lie (sudden awakening). I had to look at the ways I was allowing those words to live out in my life: allowing other people’s words to be the truth, not having self worth, self-medicating, running, just trying to survive. I had to break the circle of destruction in my life by the choices I made to perpetuate these lies (brutally honest). But how would I do that when I didn’t have any adult in my life speaking the truth about who I am (a child of God who is unconditionally loved)? I had no tools in my life’s tool chest to navigate this road to healing. The only tools I had were of what not to do or survival tools. But God… “For God

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To Embrace New Beginnings

Zachariah 4:10 describes how God feels about stepping out in faith toward the adventure/calling for His people, “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.”  The Lord rejoices when He sees we are at the starting line of His plan being worked through His children. Even when those beginnings are small like setting a plumb line or setting up a website. My husband and I recently started the process of finishing our very large basement area. It was my job to take lead in installing our flooring. I had to resource the floor which took time to get the best quality for the best price. That took time, but the work to actually install the floor had not begun. Once the floor arrived, a friend of ours came over and he and I planned out where to start. It was when we struck the first plumb line on the cement, that it felt like the work was actually going to happen! I was filled with anticipation and excitement to get started; to see the finished product. Was the work easy after that first plumb line

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I choose today to be invigorated…

I choose today to be invigorated… I love words…Maybe that one of the reasons I love God’s word so much! David uses words to express his awe and wonder over God’s Word. In Psalms 119: 175, David ends this very lengthy heartfelt prayer and acclamations about God’s Word with these words, “Invigorate my life so that I can praise you even more, and may your truth be my strength!” ‭(TPT‬‬) I love this version of David’s words: “Invigorate my life.” To invigorate means to strengthen and give energy to. Can you recall a time when you have been invigorated? For me it is when I spend time at the beach, hear an inspiring sermon or song. When I have these experiences, I am ready to take on the world, to do battle, to do what needs to be done. What David is saying here is being invigorated by God’s degrees/instructions/statutes/principals that empowers him to praise God, and gives him the strength and energy to do battle, face his enemy, do what God is calling him to do. “Your truth be my strength.”  In another version it says that God’s decrees brings iron to his soul. To me iron demonstrates fortification and

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To Stay Focused

I choose today to stay focused “Those who love your instructions have great peace and do not stumble.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭119‬:‭165‬ ‭NLT‬‬ David knew the importance of being strong and not growing weary. David understood that if he stumbled, because he was being pursued, he would be caught by the enemy. He knew his strength came from God’s Word. His peace also came from keeping his focus on God and His goodness and deliverance. It is good to know who our enemy is; Satan and not others. Satan is the great deceiver. He takes the  20% of which is not good and makes that our focus instead of the 80% of what is good. He makes it seem like the bad is all there is; that there is no way out of it or getting beyond it other than to quit (give up, walk away) from relationships, neighbors, coworkers, family. He makes it seem like quitting/walking away is our only option for peace. But that is a big fat lie! God Word says (through David, Joshua, Isaiah, Jesus) that when we meditate on God’s Word, we will find new strength, prosper in all we do, not stumble but stand, not grow

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