Come forth with Thanksgiving

Be Thankful

It's not Thanksgiving, I know. God has put this word on my heart to kind of express(it's theraputic for me too).

      I have been ill for years, in and out of hospital visits in horriable pain, feeding tubes, the whole big shabam and no doctor knows what's wrong with me. Don't pity me. That isn't the point. I keep seeing people take things for granted like being able to eat things like wings or cake and keep it down. People complaining about taking notes in class, driving their kids to practice etc. I have had a habit of doing that too. Trust me, I am not perfect. It just kind of makes me jealous when people aren't thankful for the simple things like that considering I have trouble doing all those things. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 talks about giving thanks in all circumastances because it's God's will; that is so true! Someone always has/had it worse than you it seems. That is no reason for you not to care though for those who are sick or hurting in some other way. God commands us to pray, help and love others. If their is anything that this illness has blessed me with it is the gift I now have to emphasize with people who are in pain both emotionally and physically.

Philippians 2:4- Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

God bless!

A Good Deed a Day Will Keep the Blues Away

  "Your room is a mess! You have clothes thrown all over the ground, shoes underneath your bead and your night stand is crowded!" Those were the words I heard from my mother last night. Whatta great goodnight greeting! I do have to admit, my room was a cluttered mess. I sat in bed and looked around my room. Just one look at the junk made me feel instantly lazy and lethargic. I know I should clean my room but, that would require effort, right? Then a grand thought popped in my head "Clean your room." I looked at my alarm clock and it was already 11:00 at night. I jumped out of bed and got to cleaning, by the time midnight rolled around I was putting on the final touches: Adjust trophies, make up bed, light guava nectar scented candle. I couldn't wait to see my mom's face in the morning when she saw my room.

    In a meeting my mother slipped me a note saying "Good job on your room this morning! It looks VERY nice. Love you!" Little did she know that I stayed up to the wee hours of the night. That is besides the point though. The point of all of this is when you do a good deed and help out others & do the extra mile(in this case I cleaned up my room before my mom got to it)you feel good about yourself. Even if you were in a bad mood before when you help others out of pure love you feel good about yourself. Even without the praise!

"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" Galations 6:2

"But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?" 1 John 3:27

"Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." Philippians 2:4

"Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God." Hebrews 13:16

"Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”  Luke 6:38

Trials That We Face In Life: Sickness

No one has a perfect life & we all face trials. Some of us face more trials than others but we, as Christians, already know this because in first Peter chapter four Peter writes to tell us that we shouldn't be surprised that we have to go through pain and we should rejoice that we share the same sufferings as Christ. What does this mean? It means that we should feel content in knowing that God thinks so highly of us to carry out his plan(even if it hurts us).

  In this post we will discuss how to deal with physical sickness. Your sickness may be acute or chronic. Easily cured or hard to treat. Whatever your situation may be I know exactly how you feel(To learn more go to my other blog that talks about my health). You might feel hopeless and angry at God for doing such a thing to you or you may be irritated by your symptoms. In order to win this fight against the Devil you need to stay as close to God as you can spiritually so that your spiritual health flourishes. When you try to be optimistic and grow in your relationship with God you will realize that you have at least one thing to be thankful for. 1 Peter has always been my go to book in the Bible whenI feel helpless. The book soothes my worries and gives me courage. Everyone goes through suffering. You can either wallow in your own pity or be happy that your God loves you and that you are alive! It is my prayer that God blesses you if you are sick. In my next post I will talk about dealing with your emotions when it comes to having a loved one who is sick.

Remember it can't rain forever. There is always a rainbow after the rain.

Forgiveness: Forgiving Others

 This post will be all about learning to forgive others. It may be hard to do so but you can.

     You may have every right to be angry with someone. They could have done anything from forgetting to feed your cat when your out of town to murdering a loved one. Whatever the situation is you need to forgive others like Christ forgives you for your sins.
     

Reasons to forgive others:
1) Jesus commanded us to.
2) So you can finally be at peace
3) To move on
4) To be an example of how a Christian should act.

Matthew 6:14-15 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

   - It may not be easy to forget & forgive but you need to so you can find peace again. Holding a grudge will only make things worse.

Forgiveness: Forgiving Yourself

Do you ever catch yourself thinking "I can't believe I did that." Whether it be forgetting to do your homework, cheating on your spouse or maybe going 'too far' with a boyfriend or girlfriend? Well this blog is dedicated to you! It doesn't matter if you have done something petty that you regret or something that is a huge deal. Sin is sin is sin in God's eyes. Here is the good news though; Jesus died for your sins! All you have to do is accept him as your savior, confess your sins and admit you're a sinner. You may be thinking that I don't understand. I'm sure I can. God is a understanding forgiving God and you can be just a prayer away from being forgiven. Just because he forgives you doesn't mean you wont have consequences. You must have consequences so you can learn from your mistakes. Just know that everyone sins. That doesn't mean that you can sin and get away with it just by praying for forgiveness afterwards. God only forgives the people who are truly broken about their actions. If you were a Christian I doubt you would ever use God as a 'Get out of jail free card'.

1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Matthew 11: 28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."

1 John 2:1 "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One."
God bless!