Meeting at the Well

When I hung up the phone or should I say slammed down the phone, I just wanted to scream out loud.  Not again! How can she be so rude? How can she be so uncaring?  The she was my mom...A part of me knew that I should turn the other cheek, take a deep breath and extend the grace that Christ has given me.  I must be honest giving grace was the farthest thing from my mind at the moment.  I had done nothing to evoke her behavior, in fact this was how our conversations usually went.  I just gotten to the point in my life where I had enough of people treating me this way.  My mom was just the tipping point.  I was getting tired of being nice and giving trust to people who in return would stomp on my emotions.  Then I realized that I was letting what other people though of me get to me.  I was not letting what God thought of me remind me of how important I really am.  Then I heard the story of the women at the well.  How Jesus met a woman at the well and offered her living water.  He looked past all her faults and saw the beauty and worth that she was capable of.  This story hit me in a different way that it had in the past.  It helped me have a new love for the people around me.  Now when I am on the phone with my mom, I just listen to what she has to say.  I try look past the harsh words and the sarcasm.  I try to  see the hurt that she is living with on a daily basis.  I try to see her as God sees her...wonderfully and beautifully made...in His image.  When someone is rude to me I try not to  take it personal, I turn it to God and say a small prayer for them.  This is not always an easy task.  I don't always turn my cheek and extend the grace I should. I have always heard the term ask Jesus to meet you at the cross...what if we took it a step farther or before the cross?  what if we meet people at the well?  It does not matter what a person is like or what their life is about.  We should be prepared to offer up the truth of the cross, which in sense is meeting them at the well and telling them about how they can receive living water which leads them to the cross.  Look past their faults, fears, and judgement they may be showing you.  It says in God's word to take the log out of your own eye before pointing out the splinter in an others eye. (Matt 7:3) You can also ask God to show you people who are hurting and a way to help them.  If you ever get nervous like I do when talking to someone you don't know about Jesus.  Take a deep breath and ask for His words not yours.  He will make it happen in a way that shows His truth and the peace He has to bring.  Just my 2cents, Missie



 Then Jesus made a bold promise: "Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst" (John 4:14).

Dear Younger Me...

Dear younger me

 Where do I start?

If I could tell you

 Everything That I have 

Learned so far

Then you could be

one step ahead

 Of all the painful 

 Memories still

Running through my

 Head

I wonder how

 Much different 

Things would be

Dear younger me

Dear younger me

I cannot decide

Do I give some 

Speech about how to

Get the most out of

Your life

Or do I go deep

And try to change

The choices that you'll

Make cuz they're

Choices

That made me

Even though I

Love this crazy

Life

Sometimes I wish

It was a smoother 

Ride

Dear younger me

Dear younger me

If I knew then what I know now

Condemnation would have no 

Power

My joy my pain would've never

Been my worth

If I knew then what I know now

Would've not been hard to

Figure out

What I would've  changed if I had

Heard

Dear younger me

It's not your fault

You were never

Meant to carry this

Beyond the Cross

Dear younger me

You are holy

You are righteous

Your are one of the redeemed

Set apart a brand new heart

You are free indeed

Every mountain every

Valley

Thru each heartache you

Will see

Every moment brings

You closer

To who you were

Meant to be

Dear younger me

Dear younger me

You are holy

You are righteous

You are one of the redeemed

You are free indeed

Dear younger me

                               ~MercyMe~

Dear Younger me's just know you are my world. If I can do anything to make your world better just ask and it is done. I am so proud of each and every one of you, thank you for being who you are.  You have blessed me more than you know.  Just my 2cents...Love older you!

Overwhelmed...By His Love...

You Are Loved (Overwhelmed)

You are love I am lost 

 You are great I need grace

   You are never ‘er moving

`

  I’m still running for the cross 

 You’re all power I’m all poor

  You are perfect I’m impure 

  I’m still hiding in the garden 

  You’re still calling out my name 

 Overwhelmed that I found Your favor 

That you would call me by Your name.

  Overwhelmed, that You would see me 

 That you reveal Yourself to me

  Overwhelmed (I am) Overwhelmed 

 Born in sin - A child of Adam 

 Separated from your side

 Born again, on a hillside 

 Where I was ransomed by Your blood.

  You are all - I am nothing

 You are Holy and I am flawed 

 You are higher in all of Your ways 

 You are higher in all of Your ways

 Am So much higher in all of Your ways

~Dusty Taylor~

Happy Easter!! This song really brings home to me the message of the Cross.  Daily I am humbled by the grace and forgiveness it brings.  Thank you goes to my amazing Pastor who wrote this song and weekly brings a message to us that is God breathed.  Thank you for listening to what God puts on your heart to share with us.  Just my2cents, Missie

I am That Mom...Who Knew?

I was talking with a friend and all of a sudden she got real quiet. She looked down at the ground, then as she brought her eyes up to meet mine, she did a half shrug and said...I need to talk to you about your younger son.  Dread filled my heart and I put on a brave smiled, and said what about?  She then begin to give an account on something that he had said to her boy.  In that moment my defenses came up and I stepped into the battle ring.  I knew for a fact that her son probably started it and mine was just in rebuttal. You see this was not the first time our two boys have had words.  When this would happen I would always tell him to believe the best and move on.  You can imagine my anger when my friend had the nerve to point out a wrong doing on my boy, then not even mention the fact that hers might have been in the wrong as well.  Now I don't want to give you the impression I thought my son was perfect...in fact like all of us he is far from it.   I just did not like being told by someone else his wrong doings. Why? It made feel like a failure as a parent. You see my youngest was my most challenging one.  At age six he was diagnosed  with Attention Deficient Hyper Disorder and Sensory Processing Disorder.  I had to learn parenting on a whole new level, plus I was doing it as a single mom.  I learned to see the world as he saw it, I learned how to help him cope in a world full of stimulation overload.  What I did not realize I was doing was becoming a mamma bear mamma. If someone said or did something to him I jumped into defense mode, and even at times distant us from that person who did us wrong. At the time I had know idea I was doing this.  I am pretty sure my friends who were close to me tried to tell me, but...I was to prideful to listen.  Move forward to times of now and my son is older the Hyper has worn off, but he still has the ADD/SP part.  With the grace that only God can give he is adjusting well and living a very normal life.  He will still have the occasional meltdown, but they are easier to work through now. It was not until about a month ago when with a sudden clarity I realized I was that over protective mom.  I now force myself to listen with an open heart and mind when people talk to me about him.  It is not easy and every conversation like this I have to give it to God.  Who knew that I was that mom?  lol everyone but me.  As I mentioned before by the grace of God I can move forward with this.  I ask for you to pray for me, it is not easy admitting one's faults and then trying to overcome them.  As always you can send me a prayer request via the Walking With Him FB page through the instant msg.  In this world we are not perfect, but if we join in prayer by asking God to help us, nothing can hold us back.  Just my 2cents

Feeling Inadequate!

I overheard these words the other day: I feel like I am failing, I feel like no matter what I do I can't get things right.  At first I paid no mind to them and then I paused and let the feeling behind these words hit me.  Hearing them brought me back to a place in time where I myself had uttered these words of desperation.  Then my heart broke for the person who made this statement of being lost and without hope.  I wanted to go find this person and just hug on them and let them know that everything will be okay.  I wanted to tell them about the One who died so he/she could live.  Instead I did the next best thing, I prayed for them.  Asking God to bring them peace and comfort.

What has brought me out of this place of inadequacy?  The love of someone greater than me, and my sins I like to carry around my neck like a shiny trophy for all to see.  It was a process, it did not happen all at once.  I learned the more I gave to God the easier it was to handle life's frustrations. I noticed that as I did this my whole out look on life changed.  When going through a stressful situation where I was tempted to let the feelings of my past behaviors rise up.  I would cry out to God and let go.  As I did this I was able to ask myself, what is the point in getting all worked up?  How does that help the situation?  My answer was there is no point, and it does not help.  True it is not always easy to do this, but if one can take a deep breath, and pray it is the step in the right direction.

My prayer for you as start to feel the feelings of unworthiness, feelings like you are a failure, or feelings of you can't get anything right.  Is that God will place someone in your life that can help you. Even if all you want that person to do is just listen.  Sometimes a person needs just that...someone to listen, someone who is not trying to fix the situation.  A person you can trust with all that you have, a person that will pray for you.  Don't worry or get upset if you can't even pray, because you are that low. God will give you someone who will be that prayer warrior for you.  Someone who has the faith of a mustard seed and will stand by your side through the thick and the thin.  Someone who will not judge you even if you are so down you can't even lift your eyes off the ground.  Now hear this:  You are worthy!! You are wonderfully made!! You are amazing!!  God sings praises over you daily, you are that loved.  Just take it day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, and second by second.  With God's help you have got this my friend.  Just my 2cents ~Missie  

Someday Shoes

Everyone has a someday shoes kinda of dream....you know the one that you dare to hope for.  The one that you tell yourself that you can never achieve.  Here is a hint! You can do it.  How you may ask? I have some much going against me.  The thing that you need to remember is to have faith in yourself, and then ask God if to help you with it.  For me there was a time when I was just barely going from day to day, let alone giving in to the hope of things I had dreamed about.  Here I was a single mom trying to make ends meet.  All I knew was that my kids and I needed Jesus.  I would dare to dream that someday God would introduce me to a wonderful Godly man who would be willing to be my husband.  A man who would  be willing to help me raise my kids in a biblical way,   One thing I needed to do was let go of that dream and give it to God.  I also had to work on my own self worth and how I felt about myself.  You see I am not a slender girl, I don't have a lot of money and I trust to easily.  I had to learn that I needed to see myself as God sees me...The apple of His eye, the one who He hung the stars and the moon  for.  I had to come to the realization that He would provide for my needs nothing more or nothing less.  In this lesson of life, I learned that I needed to take care of the monies He gave me. The hardest one was still keeping my trust in people even if they hurt or disappointed me.  This was hard for me, for I had to learn to forgive and let go. Moving on and not letting myself become hurt after someone hurt me was a hard thing for me to do, but with God's grace it happened.  Did you know that God is a faithful God?  He gave me my Ray who is willing to love me through the thick and thin.  Willing to stand beside me and lead in me a way  that God intended.  I am still not rich, but I am not wanting for things.  God always comes through and provides for the needs of myself and my kids.  He is teaching me to trust unconditionally, but trust with wisdom and grace.  God is faithful to surround me with a best friend who gets me on a level that only best friends can get.  I have 4 amazing kids who I love to the moon and back, then to infinity and beyond.  My challenge to you is to put on your someday shoes and start walking towards the wonderful plan God has for you.  He only has your best interest in mind.  Do you dare to reach out and take a hold of the dreams God has placed in your heart?? Go ahead take hold and know that I am fighting for you as well...You got this...Just my 2cents...

Candy Cane and Jesus!

The Candy Cane Story

A candymaker in Indiana wanted to make a candy that would remind people of the true meaning of Christmas; so he made the candy cane to incorporate several symbols for the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ. He began with a stick of pure white, hard candy. White to symbolize the Virgin Birth and the sinless nature of Jesus, and hard to symbolize the Solid Rock, the foundation of the Church, and the firmness of the promises of God.

The candymaker then shaped his cane into the form of a "J" to represent the precious name of Jesus, who came to the earth as Savior. It could also represent the staff of the "Good Shepherd" with which He reaches down to to reclaim the fallen lambs who, like sheep, have gone astray.

Thinking that the candy was somewhat plain, the candymaker stained it with red stripes. He used three small stripes to show the stripes of the scourging Jesus received. The large red stripe was for the blood shed by Christ on the cross so that we could have the promise of eternal life.

Merry Christmas from Walking With Him. May you feel the peace of the Lord upon you and yours.~Missie