JANUARY
IN THIS ISSUE BY M ICHELLE GRANADO
POETRY Rejoice
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By Barbara Elkin
DEVOTIONAL Livin g on Pu r pose
?WHAT WOULD YOU ATTEMPT TODOIF YOU KNEW YOU COULD NOT FAIL?
When we make New Year ?s resolutions, we try to be intentional about a goal we want to accomplish. We focus our attention, energy, and effort on that goal, whether it is to lose weight, travel, pray more, spend more time with family, be more organized...the list is endless. For a lot of us by the end of January, that intention has waned. We conclude that achieving that goal is too time-consuming and requires too much effort. We may feel like we don?t have the time, or that the thing we were focused on was not "the priority" that we first thought. The problem lies in our ability to persevere through the hard places. For the most part, we are trying to achieve this goal in our own strength. We are self-willed and self-determined, and when our self grows weary, we are unable to proceed any further. If our intention is intrinsically linked to a purpose higher than, or beyond just ourselves, perhaps our drive or desire to complete what we intend is weightier than we thought.
Robert Schuller once asked,?What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?? If our intentions were birthed out of our Faith and Love of God, we would have the confidence that we could not fail, and we would not have to quit. The responsibility is not wholly ours; when our self grows weary, we can call on God, who cannot fail for help.
by Donna L. Barr
Maybe the first thing we should be intentional about is prayer, to accomplish all the other tasks we have purposed to do. Perhaps we should pray about every aspect of our lives, not only about those things that we believe we can?t handle.
REFLECTION
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PERSONAL REFLECTION
Lost in t h e Sau ce
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by Schearice Moore
In t en t on En joyin g His Sw eet n ess
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by Wendy Templeton-Stone
The truth is that we can?t handle any of it without God. Intentional--by design. Now, who is the designer? Is God the designer of what we intend to do, or are we?
A Woman?s Heart and Soul Magazine Pro31Media LLC Designer: Danya Granado Copyright Š 2018 by Pro31Media All rights to articles reserved by the author of the article. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
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Each day is a gift from the Lord ? A promise, a blessing, a hope. When I feel like I?m drowning and lost, in His mercy God throws me a rope. Each day?s an adventure, a chance, A new invitation to live, To see with fresh wonder and joy Ever y mir acle God has to give. Each day is like sky without clouds ? All of yesterday?s fear s are gone, Er ased by the Father whose love Hums in my hear t a sweet song. So today I will pr aise this fine day. It is glor ious and shines with God?s light. I?ll pr ay for His wisdom and gr ace Knowing He always guides me ar ight
BY BARBARA ELKIN
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48 homeschooling, carpooling kids, and the role of kitchen garbage disposal, which is my alibi for the extra weight I?m carrying around. The sauce had become so thick and I forgot to come up for air. I forgot that before all this, I had dreams and aspirations. I used to take better care of myself. I realized this one day when I was talking with my daughter, and she was sharing what she wanted to be when she grew up. She reminded me of myself. Her words were convincing, filled with perseverance and tenacity. At that moment, I recognized that my dreams were drowning somewhere in the sauce. They had been simmering so long that I couldn?t tell the difference between the meat and the sauce any longer.
BY SCHEARICE M OORE
The day I woke up in the sauce was shocking and debilitating. I opened my eyes and realized that I had just emerged, like a meatball that had been spinning around, up and down, in thick spaghetti sauce that had been boiling and simmering for who knows how long. I?d have to say eight hours in spaghetti time and eight years of my life. I married the love of my life and was whisked away on this love adventure. Our basic plan was for him to be a wealthy business owner, for us to have two kids, and for me to stay home, raise them, and live happily ever after. It hadn?t been long since I gave my life to Christ ,and asked him to be my Lord and Savior. I had two scriptures that impacted my life and directed the way I was planning to live. Ephesians 5:22-28: Wives submit yourself unto your own husband as unto the Lord and husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church, I paraphrase. Proverbs 22:6: Train up a child in the way they should go, and when they get older they will not depart from it. These scriptures gave me hope for a good marriage and a great family life. They led me to a devotion to my husband?s dreams and desires. They made me careful not to smother his dreams and to cheerlead his plan of success and business. Meanwhile, raising my children in
At that moment I became fully awake and aware of my current state of existence. My heavenly Father took the opportunity to take me on a visual journey, full of scenes of things I wanted to do when I grew up. I saw businesses that He and I planned to start. I saw
the home was utterly foreign to anything I had ever known. The job required long hours, heavy lifting, food prep, sanitation, jesting, and expected me to be on call 24 hours a day. Additionally, my salary mostly came in the form of kisses, smiles, flattering and milestone cheerleading, with which I was content. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years. Along the way, I had picked up a few extra jobs:
lost in the sauce (v.) I t means clueless of what is going on in one's surroundings. Also if a person is talking to another and the person listening doesn't know what is going on, they are consequently "lost in the sauce."
people (none of them I recognized) that He and I were going to help. I took a tour through one of the homes that I had dreamed of building for women who are less fortunate; it was open and running beautifully. He even showed me myself doing things I couldn?t even imagine and felt so far from. He showed me things that made me blush,unbelievable things if shared with anyone they might not believe. Just then my daughter says, ?Mom, where did you go?? She and I have a phrase we use; whenever anyone seems to be daydreaming, we say that they must have "taken a trip." I apologized and realized that she and I were still standing in the kitchen. She was doing the dishes while I was stirring the spaghetti on the stove. I can?t go back to where I was. I could only go forward. My heavenly father reminds me that he created us, His children, with a purpose and a plan. He says in Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord, plans to prosper you not harm you,
plans to give you a hope and a future." Don?t get me wrong; I love my life, my husband, my children, and all that I am doing is part of his plan, but it is not the whole plan. It is important to stay conscious when God is speaking new things and wants you to be available to do something new. Don?t bury yourself or your dreams in the sauce. God says we are His handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do. Even when life looks different than you imagined , and your dreams seem afar off, God has not forgotten you. He says, "Delight yourself in Him, and He will grant you the desires of your heart." If you?ve been living life in the sauce for some time or longer than you can remember, here is your ladle. Please take a breath, be conscious and listen to what the Father is saying to you in this season.
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BY DONNA L. BARR BY BARBARA ELKIN BY WENDY TEM PLETON-STONE
We were asked to participate on a parent panel for CCU?s freshman orientation when our daughter was entering her senior year there. One of the questions asked us was ?W hat advice do you have for the incoming freshman?? My husband said, ?L ive intentionally. Don?t just let life happen to you.? I remember thinking, that?s pretty profound; I just wish we had lived by that philosophy. L ed by our fleshly desires, the dreams and goals we might have had, got swept away because, like Esau in the Bible, we traded our birthright for instant gratification of flesh. I am so thankful that God is sovereign and that His Word promises that ?He causes all things to work together for good for those who love the L ord and are called according to His purpose, for those He foreknew He also predestined to be transformed to the image of His Son.? No matter what choices we make or even the sins we commit, if we offer them to Him as His children, He will make something beautiful and glorious out of them. He is forever faithful to do that transforming work in us even through our bad choices. However, we miss out on experiencing the vastness of His goodness and blessings in the moments we don?t intentionally choose Him and His ways. I once again realized the consequence of not being intentional last year. January came around and I had not chosen a ?path? for my devotional time. Usually, I have a 365-day devotional book, or I determine to read the Bible in a year, or one year I copied several books of the Bible and reflected on the passages I copied each day.Because I
had not chosen anything specific to do, my devotional times were sporadic. I would get up in the morning and get caught up in the tasks of the day.T here was not a day when I wasn?t communing with the L ord, but it was amidst the craziness and business of the day and it just wasn?t the same as being solely focused on Him. I really missed that sweet fellowship and there were so many days I would think, ?W hat happened? How did I have time to spend with Him always before but now the days just seem to get away from me?!? I wasn?t any busier than I had been previously, but I simply was not intentional about prioritizing my time to devote to Him and His Word. A whole year went by, sadly, with only snippets of that sweet and intimate, intentional fellowship. I really did miss Him even though He never left me for even one iota of a second of my life and even though I talked to Him throughout each day. T he sweetness of that one-on-one time with Him was missing and as a result, I missed out on the fullness of His blessings. T his year, I am intent on spending the first moments of my awake time each day in His Word and fellowshipping with Him. T here have been a few ?tyranny of the urgent? days that my devotion time got postponed, and I imagine Him smiling and just loving me providing me the grace needed in each moment of every day. He knows that I know it?s not about performing for Him; it?s about spending quality time with Him and just letting Him love on me. T her e is nothing
sweeter !
To w hom do you offer t hanksgiving? And w ho do you fervent ly praise? For all of t he gift s t hat can never be bought , To w hom is your grat it ude raised? W ho do you t hank for t he beaut y ? The mount ains, t he sky and t he seas, For t he awesome display of rainbow s and st ars Of flowers and sunset s and t rees? Take a breat h? W here?s t he air t hat you breat he? Are you t hankful for w hat is unseen ? For moment s of joy and memories dear, For beginnings and endings and t ime in bet ween? W ho do you t hank for your friendships? For family? For love you receive? W ho do you t hank for your measureless wealt h, And how many gift s does it t ake to believe? Let your heart feel His spirit w it hin you. Be set free from all st ruggle and st rife, And give t hanks to t he One w ho?s t he Giver; Give t hanks to t he Aut hor of life. Believe in His might and His power, His design so immeasurably grand. All heart felt t hanksgiving belongs to t he Lord, So give t hanks t hat you?re part of His plan.