Stinky Little Flowers.....
September Reading Plan: Psalm 31-60
September Memory Verse: Psalm 34:1
Prayer Requests go here.
New to SHINE? Go here.
Good morning, SHINE girls! We are on day 3 of our Praying for Marriages week. How is it going? I sure hope the Lord is speaking to you this week. My prayer is that by being in God's Word, and combining it with specific prayers over our marriages or another's marriage, we will feel His Presence and His Peace.
The book of Psalms is chock full of praises and prayers! I just may burst!
A precious SHINE girl and friend, Sarah, emailed this post to me this morning. I know you will be as blessed as I was. God's timing is always so perfect.
The Little Flower
by: Sarah Frachiseur
I went to hunting camp with my husband and my two babies (5 and 7) this past weekend. Yes, I'm crazy. It was hot, dry, and in the middle of nowhere. Coweta County to be exact. It's actually very beautiful and it has an old home place/farm there, but I may wait for the weather to cool off to go back. I came home with chiggers. :)
But being with them makes this girl happy. So, I'll go anywhere with the three of them. :)
As my husband was helping my father-in-law hang a deer stand (again, I'm crazy), I was looking for arrowheads in a freshly plowed field. (One of my hobbies)
The past two years of my life have been filled with one health issue after another, and too many mental attacks for my liking. The hits seem to just keep coming lately.
As I stood in that field in the heat and the sun, I did what The Lord always reminds me to do. I looked around for something to be thankful for, a blessing, or a gift from Him. If you follow Ann Voskamp you know what I'm talking about. :)
The field had just been cleared, but something caught my eye. A lone bitter weed swaying in the hot breeze. (The ones with little yellow flowers) I used to pick them for my mom at my brother's football games in the fall when I was little. They always made my hands stink.
I'm not sure how the blade on the tractor missed it. Everything around it was leveled. (I took a picture for you)
I walked over and bent down and asked The Lord, "Which part of the flower do you want me to focus on?" And he led my eye to the bright yellow petals. In my heart I could hear Him whisper, "Focus on the yellow, the Light, Me."
He was letting me know that no matter what is going on around me, all I have to do is stay focused on Him. Keep my eyes on him. Stay in his Word. Pray. Even when I don't feel like it.
Cause you know what, girls? It works. It really does. The enemy wants to paralyze us, and keep us from moving forward. But God has so much more for you than that.
Those little flowers stink, but they have the most vibrant yellow on their petals. Something so beautiful on something so stinky.
So today if the hubs is not so pleasing, you are missing him, he is with you no longer, or things are just not the way you would have them to be, ask The Lord what He would have you to focus on.
It may be your husband's sense of humor, or his smile that caught your attention in the first place. Or you may need to find that special something around you that blesses you and lifts you up when you're feeling down, because he may not be with you anymore or because things have gotten just plain hard and hurt too bad.
When you find it please remember this verse, "Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Psalm 46:10 It's been popping up everywhere for me lately. And Jill posted it this morning.
All we have to do is trust Him and know that He will make a way where there seems to be no way.
Go find something beautiful in the middle of something stinky, and watch what God can do!
Keep your eyes fixed on Him, focus on the good, and let it sink down deep in your heart.
"for those who grieve in Zion-- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of despair." Isaiah 61:2
Praying for all of you.
Love, Sarah
September Memory Verse: Psalm 34:1
Prayer Requests go here.
New to SHINE? Go here.
Good morning, SHINE girls! We are on day 3 of our Praying for Marriages week. How is it going? I sure hope the Lord is speaking to you this week. My prayer is that by being in God's Word, and combining it with specific prayers over our marriages or another's marriage, we will feel His Presence and His Peace.
The book of Psalms is chock full of praises and prayers! I just may burst!
A precious SHINE girl and friend, Sarah, emailed this post to me this morning. I know you will be as blessed as I was. God's timing is always so perfect.
The Little Flower
by: Sarah Frachiseur
I went to hunting camp with my husband and my two babies (5 and 7) this past weekend. Yes, I'm crazy. It was hot, dry, and in the middle of nowhere. Coweta County to be exact. It's actually very beautiful and it has an old home place/farm there, but I may wait for the weather to cool off to go back. I came home with chiggers. :)
But being with them makes this girl happy. So, I'll go anywhere with the three of them. :)
As my husband was helping my father-in-law hang a deer stand (again, I'm crazy), I was looking for arrowheads in a freshly plowed field. (One of my hobbies)
The past two years of my life have been filled with one health issue after another, and too many mental attacks for my liking. The hits seem to just keep coming lately.
As I stood in that field in the heat and the sun, I did what The Lord always reminds me to do. I looked around for something to be thankful for, a blessing, or a gift from Him. If you follow Ann Voskamp you know what I'm talking about. :)
The field had just been cleared, but something caught my eye. A lone bitter weed swaying in the hot breeze. (The ones with little yellow flowers) I used to pick them for my mom at my brother's football games in the fall when I was little. They always made my hands stink.
I'm not sure how the blade on the tractor missed it. Everything around it was leveled. (I took a picture for you)
I walked over and bent down and asked The Lord, "Which part of the flower do you want me to focus on?" And he led my eye to the bright yellow petals. In my heart I could hear Him whisper, "Focus on the yellow, the Light, Me."
He was letting me know that no matter what is going on around me, all I have to do is stay focused on Him. Keep my eyes on him. Stay in his Word. Pray. Even when I don't feel like it.
Cause you know what, girls? It works. It really does. The enemy wants to paralyze us, and keep us from moving forward. But God has so much more for you than that.
Those little flowers stink, but they have the most vibrant yellow on their petals. Something so beautiful on something so stinky.
So today if the hubs is not so pleasing, you are missing him, he is with you no longer, or things are just not the way you would have them to be, ask The Lord what He would have you to focus on.
It may be your husband's sense of humor, or his smile that caught your attention in the first place. Or you may need to find that special something around you that blesses you and lifts you up when you're feeling down, because he may not be with you anymore or because things have gotten just plain hard and hurt too bad.
When you find it please remember this verse, "Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Psalm 46:10 It's been popping up everywhere for me lately. And Jill posted it this morning.
All we have to do is trust Him and know that He will make a way where there seems to be no way.
Go find something beautiful in the middle of something stinky, and watch what God can do!
Keep your eyes fixed on Him, focus on the good, and let it sink down deep in your heart.
"for those who grieve in Zion-- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of despair." Isaiah 61:2
Praying for all of you.
Love, Sarah
