Sometimes, life gets so full of situations, that we lose our ability to think and see things clearly.  We have so much that takes our time away from us in our world today.  Entertainment is constantly in front of our eyes.  We have something going on almost every minute of our day.  Even when we are alone, we have constant companionship with our electronic connections, TV’s, IPod’s, etc. and unless we choose to give space to allowing good things to shape our lives, we can be totally overtaken by all the things that do not build us up, but instead drain us of our ability to see and speak positive things, into our lives.

In life, it seems it is the negative things that get noticed.  Our news we watch is fed by the bad things that happen and rarely cover the good things that are going on.  Imagine a news station that covered 90 percent positive things, going on in our world.  We are simply human and we must hear and speak positive in our minds, in order to act and expect a positive solution to our problems!  Because of this, if we don’t take the initiative to set ourselves apart from our world of negativity and speak positive to ourselves, then we will be faced with an inability to cope when disaster hits us.  God is not the author of confusion, but he is the master of perfection and if we will speak to ourselves what he is speaking to us about ourselves, then we will see the thoughts of despair start to fade away and then will we be uplifted and encouraged!

So, take hope!  This is not the end but the beginning of new and exciting adventures, that will amaze you when you look back and realize how God has brought wonderful things you never thought possible into your life.  By choosing to trust him, you have developed hope in him, and you will not faint, when things are getting ruff.   You will be blessed beyond measure.  You will be a walking and living testimony to those around you who will need you to cheer them on and lift them up!  Not only will you have the Power to Achieve, But, you will show others that they have the Power to Achieve also!

Maybe we didn’t realize, that we weren’t even suppose to be on that road.  That was not a pathway that was meant to enhance our life and selecting that road for travel again, will not get us a different result!  Many times, God is standing at the beginning of that crossroad and maybe he is pointing to a different pathway he has chosen for you.  This may happen through someone he has placed in your life, that really does care about you and wants truly what is best for you.  God uses his people here on this earth, to help you find direction for your life.  If you are truly serious, you need to stop at that crossroad.  Be still and listen.  Don’t be in a hurry to take off.  Look around and see who God has put there before you to send you in the right direction.  Ask him to show you.  Then just listen.  Grab a hold of his hand and listen to what he is saying through his word, the Bible, his Holy Spirit, (that voice of wisdom inside of you that will speak to you with your best interest in his heart) and his true followers.  The Bible says in Matthew 7:15,  “beware, many will come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly, they are ravening wolves.”  These are not the people you want to be around.  Avoid them like a plague!  Don’t get on a road again, that will lead you to them!   Instead, go back to a quiet place and  listen.  The Bible also says in John 10:27, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

Whatever you are going through at this time, please stop and listen.  The Bible says in Psalms 46:10, Be still and know that I am God.  As you listen, you will get ideas.  Follow through on them, don’t be lazy and expect God to do it all,  but let God lead you through the doors, that will lead to your victory.  Don’ just sit around and think that God is gonna do it all.  He says in Matthew 7:7, Ask, and it will be given unto you.  Seek and you will find.  Knock and it will be opened to you.  When you ask God for directions and he begins to inspire you with the pathways you could take, began to seek his guidance and he will show you.  He has many pathways he can lead you down, but only one, has he chosen for you.  That’s because he knows what is at the end!  Follow that pathway, and you will find that he has chosen for you a pathway that will lead to his perfection in you and therefore, will he put in you, the Power to Achieve!  Be blessed as you follow that pathway today!

I think a good place to start is from reading the wise book of Proverbs in the Bible. We have 28 to 31 days in a month, so why not read a chapter a day?  This could be a new pattern for you, if you will take the time and do it.  It is from the wisdom of these pages, we can learn how to make wise choices and we can take off to a new and better ending. The Bible says, “I can do all things, through Christ, who strengthens me!” If you are still doing things the same way and getting the same results, then try, seeking his guidance. Listen to the inner thoughts you are having. There are always going to be two choices going through your thoughts. One may say, “If you tell the truth, you’re in big trouble!” One may say, “It’s time you start being truthful! Just be truthful and ask them to forgive you! They will understand and at least regain respect for you!” Remember this, when you are weak, God is strong. When you are hopeless, God has the solution. When you are hurting, God can restore you, when you have been hurt, God will be the one to handle it if you will let him. When you have been deserted, God will never leave you or forsake you. When you are poor, God will provide for you. When you are alone, God is the friend who will stick closer to you than a brother. When you are sad, look to God and begin to praise him. A song I’ve know for a long time went like this, “Put on the garment of praise, for the spirit of heaviness, lift up your voice and sing!” God will replace your sadness with gladness! When you are lost and don’t know which direction to go, God will be your guide. When someone you know is lost or missing, God is the Good Shepherd. Trust him to take care of them and he can guide you through each day. Satan has a counterpart for all of the things listed above and more than I have even listed. Choose wisely how you respond to the things in life that you face!

If you don’t like where you are today, ask yourself why. Put positive people in your life, that will be there for you in a good way. Some of your “best” friends, will lead you right back into the same place you are now! Do you need to evaluate who you are befriending and replace them with someone who will hold you up and not lead you right down the same path? Once you get strong and on the right path, maybe that friend will be receptive to you showing them a better way.

I just returned from my 40th High School Reunion. I grew up in a small town. Our class was very fortunate. Most of us had parents, who were true believers in God. We grew up in our various churches, but God was an important part of our lives. I think we had a great group of kids. In school, we shared our faith in God and that faith has carried us through many hard times. It is still carrying our members through hard times and it will carry you through hard times if you will let it. As we all gathered, it wasn’t about the losses in life or the physical challenges. It was about being thankful in all things! It was in knowing,  that our trials make us strong, when we let God become our source for handling them. It was about us being there for each other. We laughed and had great memories to share. Our losses, were some of the things that made us strong. I am thankful that we grew up in a time where serving God was a good thing to do. I am thankful that we started each school day with a prayer. I am thankful that even when bad choices were made, God helped us turn it around and get it right. We had so many good things to laugh about and reminisce! Life should be that way.

We were blessed with an awesome class!

You are destined for success and not failure! By making the right choices, you will find, you are fully equipped to have the Power To Achieve!

If you are God’s child, he is always there for you. He is there to direct your paths.  He is there to supply your need.  He is there to help you through any physical problems you or someone you love is going through!  He is your strong tower and your fortress.  He is your rock and your shield.  No weapon formed against you will prosper!  You will make it and you will look back over the path you have trod and you will see his hand as it guided you!  You will know, it was him, not you, that got you through the storm.

I have a friend who had much of her family in Joplin, Missouri when the big tornado hit.  Very fortunately few people were hurt or lost their lives.  My heart goes out to those who did lose loved ones and possessions, but my friend told me the biggest miracle was the hand of God and his protection through all of the devastation.  After the storm, that was what everyone saw.  How could such devastation come without more death and injuries?  It was the unseen hand of God!

As I finish up this Power to Achieve writing, I want to ask you the question…..whose voice are you listening to? When I started typing yesterday, I didn’t know how I would finish, but as I woke up this morning, I knew what I needed to write as God began ministering to me about this.  Here is the what I wrote down:  God speaks with Wisdom and Satan speaks with despair.   God Speaks with truth and Satan speaks with lies.  God speaks with encouragement, which causes hope, joy, love, peace, long suffering, faith, security, and forgiveness.  Satan speaks with accusations, causing guilt, discouragement, despondency, (No Hope), insecurity, anger, bitterness and inferiority, (thinking everyone or someone is better than you and more qualified to to do what God has called you to do!) God says, ” you are secure and safe.” Satan says, ” you should be afraid!”   He wants you to live in constant fear!  God says, “Have Faith!” Satan says, ” You’re not going to make it!”  God says, “You can do it!” Satan says, “You will fail!”  God says, “You have what it takes!” Satan says, ” You don’t have what it takes!”  God says, “Sin will destroy you!” Satan says, ” There is not God!  Live for today!  Do whatever makes “YOU” happy! God says, “Put it in my hands and trust me!” Satan says, ” It’s all up to you!”  God doesn’t have anything to do with “Your” life!”  God says, ” You can do all things if you trust me.  I will strengthen you!” Satan says, ” You will never amount to anything!  God says, ” No weapon uses against you will prosper!  I will protect you!” Satan says, “You are weak.  You cannot stand.  You cannot forgive.  You can never trust again!  You will never be able to do that again!  Don’t do that, you’ll just get hurt again!  They don’t like you!”  He will also say things about the things such as “don’t touch that, it will hurt you!  He will say things like this about the things that once brought you joy!  If he can keep you living in “Fear,”  he will win!  If something in life was good and once brought you much joy, don’t let fear keep you away from it.  It is yours!  Take it back!

Notice how Satan has to use so many more words.  He is helpless against the things of God and desperate to come against God’s people.  Remember, God says “You can do all things through Christ, who will give you strength!  He also says if we wait on the Lord, we will mount up with wings like an eagle.  We will run, and not be weary.  We will walk and not faint!   Use the words God has spoken to you and they will give you victory over you life and past circumstances and failures.   Put it in God’s hands, and he  will give you the Power to Achieve!

Life is not always kind. Things don’t always go the way we think they will go.  We are challenged by so many things!  I choose to believe, that when God said he would never leave us or forsake us he really meant it!  He is always with us.  There is not a weapon formed against us that will prosper!   How could that be?  Remember, if you are walking with God and he is directing your path, he knows where he is allowing you to go and he knows what is ahead.  When I decided to start trusting him, and let him be in the driver’s seat, I found great peace in knowing he would get me to the right destination, even though I might not understand every challenge along the way.

It was several years ago.  I was sitting in my church and there was a lady there who I had never met.  I noticed as she sang, she had a beautiful voice.  Later when she did a special musical number for the congregation I knew she could have easily recorded, with her country voice.   Several months went by, and I really had never gotten to know her.  I did know her name and heard one day that she was very seriously ill with breast cancer.  God literally put her on my heart.  I had heard she was single and alone and I truly felt she needed a friend.  I asked and found out what hospital she was in, and picked up a little doll that I actually thought looked like her.  I headed to the hospital to see if I could meet her.  When I got there, she was in surgery and I didn’t get to see her.  I left the doll with the nurse and later, went back again.  That was the beginning of a two year mission, God had me on.  Almost daily, I visited and we shares so much during those two years about God and his love.  I found out how just a year before her diagnoses, her Mom had died of Breast cancer and she was still grieving over that.  I was there with her through many visits from friends and was able to share God’s love many times to many who came and went.  Today as I type, I am praying for one of those special friends was just diagnosed with cancer and now facing some of the same challenges my friend Rhonda faced.  Rhonda had great faith and we had so many times we were up and so many times we were down.  I remember  a time, toward the end of the two years.  It was evening and I knew when I left, she was not going to make it through the night.  She had another friend who helped me and I left and drove home with the weight of the world on my shoulders.    As I prayed for her, I saw in my minds eyes two really large feet and I was so small beside them.  I knew I was standing at the feet of Jesus.  I saw myself holding Rhonda and all the cares she faced and realized, they didn’t belong in my arms, but in  his.  I saw myself hand her to him and I felt the weight lift.  The next morning, I went to her house and there she was sitting up on the bed and talking on the phone!  I knew God had done a miracle!  Rhonda did reach her appointed time to die and went on to be with Jesus, but his love we shared during those two years, impacted my life.  I pray many were touched by that time and somehow felt his love in the midst of the situation.  Rhonda’s grandparents were actually 15 miles from the town I grew up in, and I felt God allowed me to be there for her.  Perhaps because of a Grandmother’s prayer or just his special way of doing things.  I noticed a newspaper clipping on her wall when I first started going over to help her and it was from Borger, TX, 12 miles from where I grew up.  Since I live approximately 12 hours away from that location, I was amazed!

This was one of my “God’s Little World” moments and I have had many of them throughout my life. It’s one of those times,  when you have those moments and you wonder, “WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF THAT HAPPENING?”   Chances and numbers don’t mean a thing when God is in charge.  Diagnoses and situations don’t mean a thing when God is in charge!   We must live in a relationship with God, where we will allow him to carry all the load and we will trust him with the outcome!  I’ve always thought about the time we have here on this earth.  There will be a time when our earthly clock reaches the final moment and we will then be finished with our assignment.  It’s not what happens to us in this life that counts, but it’s how we react to what happens to us that counts.  I think a lot about many things that try to rob and steal our peace.  We are left with a choice!  Will we allow our peace to be taken, or will we put our anxiety in Jesus arms and let him defend us!  He will always be there and our job is just to be thankful in All things, because wherever we are or whatever we are going through, we can be thankful he has it all under his control.

My mom left so much of a legacy for us. It never fails, I will be going through some of the things she left, after she moved in with us.  Maybe something in a drawer, or a card she gave me.  Today, I found an article she had cut out about a little boy.  His mom had taken him to the Dr. as he didn’t feel well.  The Dr who was doing the exam, tried to get his mind off of the examination and said, “Let’s look in those ears, and see if Mickey Mouse is in there!”  He looked in his ears and then said, “I didn’t see him in there.”  The little boy smiled.  Then, the Dr. decided to listen to his heart.  He said, “OK…lets see if Mickey Mouse is in your heart.”  The little boy looked a bit more serious as the Dr listened.  He said, ” Nope, I don’t hear him in there either. “  Before they left, the little boy looked up at the Dr and said, ” Dr. I just thought you might want to know, Jesus lives in my heart!”

If only we could have the faith of a child, we would truly discover the Power To Achieve peace and success in our lives and leave a legacy that would touch many others, even when our last second on earth is done!

God’s principles that he applies to life are the same.”I will just start with kindness.”  We are taught, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you!”   When you plant or “sow” kindness, it will come back to you through kindness from others.  When you have relationship problems, it doesn’t come easy, to be kind in the midst of the turmoil.   It is natural for us to repay unkindness with being unkind.   We sometimes want  retaliation!  You hurt me, I will hurt you!  God taught us a new way to react.  When people hurt us, we are to respond in love.  Sometimes we have to step into the other room and have a talk with God and say,  “God, what can I do in this situation, to restore a peaceful relationship with this person who has hurt me!  Could you give me some “seeds” to plant, that will help me repair the damage that was done?   And can you help me forgive them for what they have done to me?  When you do this, God will walk with you and help you plant good seed and he will guide you in nurturing the broken relationship and restoring it.  It confuses people who are rude and unkind, to be treated with respect and love!  This is not natural!  Repaying evil for  evil is the normal pay back!  Feeling you will never trust that person again is also a normal feeling.  But, when you let God step into that situation and you follow his lead and plant a good seed back into that person, it gives God a place to start an amazing healing process!   I am convinced, the seed of  “LOVE” is the most important seed you will ever plant!  The seed of “HURT”, “ANGER,” RESENTMENT,” and” UNFORGIVENESS” are the most destructive seed you will ever plant!  Remember to plant, “HEALING SEED,” FORGIVENESS SEED,” ” ENCOURAGEMENT SEED,”  and most of all plant seeds of  “LOVE.”  Galatians 6:7 says “Whatever you sow, you will also reap!”  If you want healing in a relationship, use kind words when you have a conversation with the individual you are having a problem with.  If someone has hurt you, forgive them and work to restore that relationship.  If someone has fallen into a situation where they have lost all hope, plant seeds of hope into them, by painting a picture of a situation that can be seen in faith, and encourage them to see things, not as they are, but as they can be!

There are also seeds that we plant in our minds.  In today’s sermon at my church, there were some good points brought out in the message.  A good place of worship, is a good place to get good seeds to plant in your spiritual garden!  One of the seeds I picked up today was, “change the way you think, and it will change the way you live!” Once again, when things are not going our way, or we are put in a place where we are leaning on our faith to see us through a situation, it seems more natural to allow seeds of despair, doubt, and frustration, come into our garden.  In my little flower garden, I often have plants come up, that really look like the flower I planted.  They will take over my planting area, if I don’t pull them out.  You have to watch out for despair in every trying situation you go through.  You have to “think on the good things!”  In Philippians 4:8, it says to think on things that are true, honest, just, pure, and lovely!  Now sometimes, we have to get ourselves to realize that the lie we are looking at is not the truth.  We have to see things in faith ourselves.  Remember, if Satan can get your thoughts, he is slipping in that seed that will destroy you! Guard your seed and get the weeds out of your garden!  Listen to what God is saying about your situation and watch that seed grow. Be sure to nurture it and water it with good thoughts!

God wants you to be blessed and prosperous!  He can make a financial blessing come your way, when it seems there is not a way!  As we become a blessing to others, there is no way we cannot be blessed by God. Financial seed is a blessing!  Time and time again, it has been proven by time that planting a financial blessing in someone’s life is like planting a seed of financial blessing in your garden.  God loves to prosper us in ways we have never dreamed possible.  The seed that you leave in your hand, will never have an impact on your life!  God may sometimes tell me to bless some one who is in need.  It is a blessing to be a blessing!  God’s blessing, or harvest on that seed, may come back in ways you never dreamed of.  I like to give, when God puts it on my heart to do so.  Time and time again, throughout my life, I have watched the seed come up that has  been a result of someone giving out of their heart and then receiving unexpected return on that gift.  We shouldn’t give, just to get.  We should give to be a blessing!  God knows what we have need of, even before we ask.  If you can be faithful over a little, God will cause you to be faithful over a lot. Get rid of the seed of “UNSELFISHNESS”  and plant seeds of “COMPASSION.”  Don’t just throw your seed out there.  Ask God where you are to plant it.  Everyone will want your seed!  Plant it in the right garden and watch it grow!  Giving to God’s plan, may definitely go outside of the church doors.  Giving can help, or it can hurt.  If you give in a situation where you cause someone to be lazy and not work, you are actually hurting them by doing so, and you are really doing it, to make you feel good about yourself!  So many parents do this with their children.  I have been there and when I heard this concept, it changed my life!  Never had I thought I was hurting them by giving and never had I thought that I was doing it because it made “Me” feel good!  Giving to a child or someone who worries about the payback can also put a seed of “guilt” on them, for not being able to repay the debt.  Sometimes, you need to really seek God’s advice before giving, and sometimes, you need to have a lot of faith when God ask you to give in a situation where you see it could cause you a hardship.  If God puts it on your heart and you know it is him and you give because of that, he will see that you are covered.  He says, to give and it shall be given to you.  Pressed down, shaken together and running over will God give it back to you.  He takes care of the payback!   Be a giver of financial seed when God ask you to do it.  Don’t miss out on a financial blessing of harvest by not planting that seed!  Also, you may not just be giving a seed of finances, but also a seed of just giving or yourself.  Helping a friend in need, taking care of someone in need, sending out a message of encouragement and volunteering to help others who have been hurt or had a loss in some way.  These seeds are all valuable in the Kingdom of God!

God wants to bless his people.  He is working all over the planet to see that his people are not only blessed, but to see that they are a blessing.  He wants to prosper you and he knows where your seed needs to go to see that that happens.  Let him guide you as well in your investments, financial decisions, getting out of debt and all aspects of your life.  As you do this, your seed will increase and you will have more seed to plant!  It’s fun to see the harvest and God is delighted to see you reap a harvest of blessing!  Find the Power you need to Achieve in your harvest from your seed!

Received this from a friend a long time ago and still worth sharing:
A man was exploring caves by the Seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake. They didn’t look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could.

He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock .. Inside was a beautiful, precious stone!

Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left.

I am so blessed by the gems of friendship I have with family, old friends, and new friends.   Thank you for looking beyond my clay vessel. We are not perfect, but God sees a gem in us.  I hate messing up and I’m slower to forgive myself than he is to forgive me.  God looks on the inside and he sees our inner beauty!  See yourself as God sees you and you will have the power to achieve in everything you do!

In this life, we have many choices that have to be made.  There are many directions that we could go.   Today, as the Easter season has arrived, and I think of new beginnings, I realize that my husband Mike and I too will face a new beginning.  We have been in Nebraska on a temporary job for a little over 2 months.  There were so many signs, that God brought us here.  We have committed our lives to his direction and thought we might stay for a time.  We had heard rumor that that might happen and a few more months here would be offered with his job.  Daily we have waited for news and we were now the last to leave from the workers that were here.  I couldn’t possibly know what would happen, but I did know that God knew what would happen and he had our trust that he would guide us and we would follow his lead!  This is a daily lifestyle that we all need to live by.  In the past, we jumped out ahead of God, and made plans without his guidance, and we found out he had other plans in mind for us.  In Jeremiah 29:11, the Bible says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD.  They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”  I had planned to attend church here this morning, but Mike left for work with our truck, to complete his last day on the job.  I will rest and know that with God in our life and him as the captain of our ship, we have the Power to Achieve!  As he achieved  victory over the grave, we are assured of victory in every aspect of our life as long as we follow his lead!

It has been a quite week for me.  Wondering what I needed to write about and if I would get inspired with just the right thing to say. I took time out and watched a movie “Abraham.”  It really stuck me as to how God took Abraham down a similar road, which he too would go down with his own son Jesus someday.  Abraham was told he would be the Father of many nations!  His seed would be as the stars and the sands of the sea!  As an old man, he didn’t have a son, so how could this be?  Finally a son was given to him by a maid servant, but not by his beloved wife, Sarah.  Abraham decided that his son given to him by the maid servant would be the one God had in mind for bringing about his promise.  He grew to love his son, but Sarah was deeply anguished that she was not able to give a son to Abraham.  She was an old woman around 90 years old and Abraham was an old man and it seemed it was now not even a possibility!  When God spoke and she overheard that she would become pregnant, she was in the tent and she laughed!  Abraham didn’t see how it could happen, but God told him he would have a son by Sarah.  He was the one God would choose to fulfill his purpose and Sarah would be his mother.  His other son would also have many blessings but his son by Sarah would be named Isaac and he would come to them even though Sarah was beyond child bearing years.  It happened, just as God had told them and the love that Abraham had for Isaac as he taught him and watched his grow was so great!  He taught both of his sons about God and during that time, for the covering of sins, he taught them how to lay the precious lamb on the alter after tying it up, and then how to slice the throat quickly so the lamb would die and then the burnt sacrifice could be offered.  I watched as he got so caught up with Isaac, training him and teaching him everything he could, because he was an old man and he feared he would not have time to prepare him to be a good leader.  He doted over Isaac so much, he neglected other important things.  His love was so entwined with Isaac, he was unbelievably stricken when God spoke to him and asked him to go to the mountain and offer up a sacrifice and that sacrifice would be his son Isaac!  God made it clear and by this time he knew God’s voice.  His heart was wretched!  He was in anguish!  As he gathered Isaac and they went to the place of the sacrifice, Isaac said to him, “Father, where is the sacrifice that we are to offer?”  Abraham could only answer, “God will provide!  It wasn’t until they were at the altar and the bundle of wood was in their hands, that Abraham asked Isaac to stretch forth his hands and he began to tie them with rope.  Isaac must have known at that time, what was about to happen.  With trembling, he was asked to lay down on the alter.  He laid there as his dad drew out the knife.  He closed his eyes tightly and Abraham raised the knife up!  It was then, God spoke and told him not to continue.  God knew he had proved his love for him and he provided an animal in the thicket for him to offer!  (You can read this story in the 1st chapter of the Bible starting at Genesis 17.)

I think as this event took place, God was rehearsing for what would take place, when he sent his Son to die on this earth for the sins of the world. He knew how anguishing it would be, but because he wanted to give us the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, he did it.  Jesus willingly went to the cross and he did die on that cross and to his disciple’s surprise, after 3 days after he died, he came forth out of the tomb and appeared to them.  After some time, he ascended to heaven and he is coming back some day to finalize everything and take his children home.

He cares about every aspect of your life. More than anything, he desires a relationship with his children!  He wants to daily, put his arm around you and tell you he loves you!  You are the reason he died!  He wants to now show you how to live.  I hope you will let him show you that he expects you to be blessed in all you do.  He has given us the Power to Achieve!  Happy Easter to everyone!  God Bless!

Alcohol, drugs, violence, sexual abuse, unfaithfulness, divorce and heartbreak, has sewn it’s threads into the lives of almost every home in America and I’m sure throughout the world.  Lying to ourselves and denial of the ravage that seeps into even the best of homes, has threatened the very essence, of what a family is to be!

We asked God for direction in our lives in regards to Mike’s layoff last September.  We knew we didn’t need to take off in just any direction, without consulting God’s guidance.  We loved being in our comfort zone, but God brought us back up to the cold country! We arrived in the hills of Nebraska for a season in our lives.  We knew, when we came, that Mike had a sister and a brother whom he had never met.  Due to alcoholism in the family roots, the family had left siblings along the way and this brother and sister, share the mother of Mike and his sister, Sherri.  Mike and Sherri also had another half-sister who was the oldest sister and her name was Carole Ann.

Years ago, when Mike and I were first married, we knew Carole Ann and her husband well.   We did not live in the same town, but often they came to visit Mike’s Grandmother and Dad so we kept in touch.  She was a beautiful and caring person.  I had forgotten that she lived close to Mike’s other half-brother, Bobby, and his sister Cheryl.  She had practically raised them.  Sherri, Mike’s sister, had met Bobby and Cheryl as she had moved near Carole Ann and she had told us about them, but for some reason, we never met personally.  It was in 1992 and we were moving from Houston, back to our home town near Amarillo with a new job.  I had stayed in Houston to pack the house and arranged a flight for my brother to fly down and help me pack the truck and drive to our new location.  Mike had just begun his job and couldn’t come back.  We got a horrible call!  Carole Ann had been killed in a car wreck!  The timing for us was bad.  Carole Ann now had remarried and moved out of state and we couldn’t make her funeral.  I keep a beautiful picture of her on my mantel and think of her often.  We knew, through Mike’s sister, that Bobby lived in or near Omaha, Nebraska.  We hoped that when we came here on the job assignment, we could find him and get to know him.  He is now 47 and Mike is 59.  Mike’s only brother and they had never met!  It was this past weekend, which we planned a trip to Omaha, only an hour away.  We called his sister Sherri and requested any contact information she could find for us, so we could give Bobby a call.  Sherri hadn’t talked to him in over 2 years, and all she had was a cell phone.  Mike made the call and Bobby and at first he didn’t answer.  We waited and he did call back.  He was skeptical and a little afraid that someone might be doing a scam or something, but as he and Mike talked, he realized it really was his brother!  He wanted to meet us, so we arranged a late evening meeting to eat out and get acquainted.  He asked if his daughter could join us and we met with her too.  This I believe, from all I’ve learned, is the beginning of a healing, which will now grow into a loving family relationship.  Imagine, hugging a brother or a sister, your own flesh and blood, putting all the bad memories of the past behind and building on a strong hope of future relationship!  We know this is just the beginning and we had to take the first step!  We had to take a chance that maybe Bobby wouldn’t won’t to meet us, after all!   We took that chance and he says it was so timely and something he needed in his life so intensely right now!  We are already to build a future and a life of future memories and try to bring restoration to lots of people who have been affected by bad decisions of the past!  Bobby has 5 children and 6 grandchildren!

We need God to forgive us, but we too, cannot heal, unless we are willing to forgive. We might need to put our self-esteem out on the line, and risk rejection or hurt to find healing in our situation, but it will be worth it because of the peace in knowing that at least we tried!  It’s not about us!  It’s about a loving savior who placed us on this earth for his pleasure in seeing us make good choices and build long lasting relationships.

Every good building has a strong foundation under it.  When our relationships are bad with those we love, there are cracks that seep into that foundation of our lives and it begins to crumble.  God wants us to get the relationships repaired and as we do that, he fixes the foundational cracks!  How awesome is that!  He will “Orchestrate” our lives and put the harmony back into our song if we will ask him to show us what to do and follow his lead, even though we might not get the results we expect.  You do your part and he will do his.  He said to be thankful in “all things!” Turn whatever happens, into a prayer of thanksgiving and just see how it turns out.  Get peace and victory back into your life.  Only look back to learn from the past and take the lessons you learn and build a future full of peace, contentment and successes, knowing you have done your part!  You were meant to have the Power to Achieve through all things!