God comes through once again...

This past weekend I got my feelings hurt pretty badly.  It doesn't happen very often but I did.  It ended up not being a big deal and I shouldn't have gotten near as upset as I allowed myself to be. Anyway I decided to take off to the great city of Selma, Alabama and see my mom.  I don't know if you all have a mother like mine, well Paul and Katie do. My mom has never been one to tell you what you wanted to hear but always what you needed to hear and always in a loving manner.  As I was leaving her house I ask God to give me a word, a song, a bit of scripture something to help me get over this hurt I was feeling. I got in the car and before we got to the end of the road Mattie was asleep and  my CD on shuffle played the following song

 It's so easy to cash in these chips on my shoulder
So easy to loose this old tongue like a tiger
It's easy to let all this bitterness smolder
Just to hide it away like a cigarette lighter

It's easy to curse and to hurt and to hinder
It's easy to not have the heart to remember
That I am a priest and a prince in the Kingdom of God

I've got voices that scream in my head like a siren
Fears that I feel in the night when I sleep
Stupid choices I made when I played in the mire
Like a kid in the mud on some dirty blind street
I swore on the Bible to not tell a lie
But I've lied and lied
And I crossed my heart and I hoped to die
And I've died and died

But if it's true that you gathered my sin in Your hand
And You cast it as far as the east from the west
If it's true that You put on the flesh of a man
And You walked in my shoes through the shadow of death

If it's true that You dwell in the halls of my heart
Then I'm not just a fool with a fancy guitar
No, I am a priest and a prince in the Kingdom of God

I thought about that and must have played that song 7 times on the way home.  It is so much easier to be ugly back but I chose not to and I am glad I didn't because it really wasn't a big deal at all and how foolish would I have looked.  Also it is hard to remember sometimes that we are priest for God, all of us no matter what our job, just a thought.  The song is Fool with a Fancy Guitar by Andrew Peterson and I think he is fabulous. Anyway I hope you all have a great day.

What If.....

Last night I was in the kitchen cooking supper and it was a little later than usually for Mattie's supper time.  She proceeded to her seat and tried to crawl up.  I said Mattie supper isn't ready just yet so you will have to wait. She sat on the floor and said what sounds like amen and clapped her hands, I don't know why she claps after we pray but she does. Anyway I thought, how funny, she thinks if she says the blessing she will get to eat.

Then I thought what if no one ever taught her to pray. What if no one ever prayed with me. What if daddy didn't die and what if, what if, what if, the list can go on and on and on you get what I am saying here.  I thought back to my thought for the day the other day. It said:

“We do not know how to pray as we should. But the Spirit himself speaks to God for us.” Romans 8:26

You know, we really don’t know what to pray for, do we? What if God had answered every prayer that you ever prayed? Just think who you’d be married to. Just think where you’d be living. Just think what you’d be doing.
God loves us so much that sometimes he gives us what we need and not what we ask.

I am amazed more and more everyday at how much God loves me. I heard this song last weekend on our radio station that we get with Dish network.  Anyway it just kind of sums it up I think.  Paul Coleman sings it and I love it

Here I am
In a river of questions
Can I pour my heart out to a listening ear?
I see this life
Its valley's and mountains
And I think of all the roads that brought me here

I've questioned my reasons
The life I'm living
I've questioned my ability
To judge wrong from right
I've questioned all the things that I've ever called certain
My race, my religion, my country, my mind

But the one thing I don't question is you
You really love me like you say you do
You really love me like you say you do
Hold me
Hold me

I've questioned significance
Meaning and relevance
Does the work I'm doing really matter at all?
Well I've questioned my friendships
Alliance, dependence
Who will still be here when I fall?

Only one thing doesn't change
Only one thing stays the same
All I know at the end of the day is your love remains

And this is just because I love these pictures of Mattie and I think she is cute.

She is putting together her outfit here. 

After "she got it like she liked it"

Mattie's face when you tell her "I want a kiss" 

Have a great rest of the day and good weekend and for all my teacher friends a great spring break.

Leslie