Give Me Strength

“Lord, I’m tired.  Exhausted to the core of my being.  And I’m far from you.  Please renew my energy and spirit.”

I sit in the sun on Saturday morning talking to God.  It’s week number five of a cold that won’t quit.  I have no energy.  I’m tired of being tired.  I don’t feel close to God.

“What can I do, Lord?  Please bring healing and rest.”

I sit with eyes closed and listen to my breathing, trying to sense God’s presence.

“Are you here God?  Are you listening?”

I breathe slowly and my shoulders relax.  A scripture comes to mind.

Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion.  But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles.  They will run and not grow weary.  They will walk and not faint.

“Yes Lord, Isaiah 40.”

I open the bible on my lap, turn to Isaiah 40, and scan down to the bottom of the chapter until I find the verse.

I read, “Even youths will become weak and tired…but those who trust in the Lord will find new strength”

I close my eyes and breathe deep, feel the sun on my face.

You’ve been working in your own strength, not Mine.  That’s why you’re tired.  Trust Me.  Turn each day and everything in it over to Me.  Do the work you need to, but do it in My strength, not yours. 

That’s it.  I’ve missed God.  I’ve made time for many things, but not Him.  In my time of weakness when I turn to Him, He reminds me.

My job is busy and challenging.  There’s no way I can do it in my own strength and knowledge.  I need God alongside helping me.

This is my challenge.  At the start of each day, before I get out of the car and walk into my office, I need to turn everything over to God.  Give Him the day and let Him work in it.  Pray for daily strength and wisdom, then rest in that prayer and His presence throughout the day.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

This is my daily challenge…to trust God that the work that needs to get done will be done.  To realize I can only do so much in one day, and to seek His strength and wisdom every morning.

What about you?  Do you need to renew your strength in God each day?  Do you need to seek rest?  Do you need wisdom?  Start the day with a prayer for God to be in everything you do.

Listen For The Whisper

What’s more effective as a means of communication…a yell or a whisper?

Initially you might think a yell is, because you can be heard above the daily noise.  I beg to differ.

Last Monday a virus camped out in my throat and decided to sink its jagged teeth firmly into my vocal cords.  By Tuesday I spent most of the day whispering.  In meetings, or on the phone, it didn’t matter.   I whispered.

I was not happy about this turn of events, but I did make an interesting discovery.  People listen more closely when you whisper.  They don’t have a choice.  They’re forced into an active listening pattern.

How often do you actually HEAR what someone is saying?  Isn’t it true that generally a conversation goes something like this…

Friend - "So we’re taking a family vacation next summer and thinking of going to Maui…"

 

The Listener’s Brain - "Did I unplug the iron before I left this morning?  I have to remember to pick up bread on my way home…and…oh right, that credit card payment is due tonight.  I have to make sure I do that on line.  CRAP, I meant to respond to my boss’s email before I left the office, what’s that beeping in my ear?  Really, my phone’s dying?"

Friend  – "…yup, and snakes."

The Listener’s Brain -"Snakes…what?  What about snakes?  What did she just say?  Where are the snakes….SNAKE!!!  Crap I have no idea what she’s talking about."

We’ve all had one-sided conversations similar to this (maybe without the snakes).  Are your conversations with God one-sided?  How would your relationship with God change if you practiced active listening skills with Him? 

In order to hear God you really do need to pay attention.

Remember Elijah after he kills all the Baal prophets?  Jezebel is ticked and she vows to kill Elijah.  At the direction of God's angel, Elijah goes to Mount Sinai and that’s where God speaks to him.

“Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him.  And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain.  It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind.  After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.  And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. “ 1 Kings 19:11-12 (NLT)

How did God speak?  In a gentle whisper.  If you're not paying attention you’ll hear the thunder and feel the earth shake, but you’ll miss the whisper.

It takes practice to actively listen for God’s voice.  It also takes silence and solitude.  Make some time for that today.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT:

When was the last time you spent time in silence with God listening for His whisper? Do you need to start today?

Share your thoughts by clicking on “comments” below.

Mom's Night Out - Sony Pictures

A biker tattoo artist
A Pastor’s wife
Three stressed out moms
A missing baby

Does that have the makings of a great plot, or what!  These characters all come together in Sony Pictures new movie, “Mom’s Night Out” and I was fortunate enough to attend Shine FM’s pre-screening of it in Edmonton last week. 

Sony does a great job of developing these characters.  They are so true to life they could be you and me. 

Life doesn’t come up all flowers and sunshine and Sony doesn’t try to sugar-coat it.  Life can be hard.  There’s a new challenge every day, sometimes every minute, especially if you’re dealing with teenagers or young kids.

What I loved most about this movie is its portrayal of the reality of the situation. 

Allyson, a strung out, frazzled mother isn’t afraid to admit to her husband she’s not happy.  She’s living the life she dreamed of as a young girl, but it’s hard.

The beauty of it is she doesn’t say it from the accusatory, “I’m not happy and it’s all your fault”, or “I’m not happy and I’m going to find myself and leave you” standpoint. 

She’s just stating the truth and her husband, to his credit, takes it at face value.  He doesn’t get all worked up about it thinking their marriage is over.  He takes it for what it is, a truthful statement and something they need to resolve.

Life isn’t perfect, and people, regardless of the role they’re type cast in, aren’t either.  And here’s another cool thing about the movie.  It shows that God can use anyone, in any capacity to get His message of love and acceptance across.

It’s a great movie.  It has some laugh out loud moments and some "box of tissue" moments.  There’s no swearing, no blood, or guts, or gore.  It’s a good clean, heartwarming story with a great message.

Mom’s Night Out opens Mothers’ Day weekend on May 9.  It’s definitely worth checking out and would make a great Women’s Ministry night out.

I think I’ll have to buy the DVD!

If you go to see Mom’s Night Out, come back and share your thoughts by clicking on “comments” below.

 

A Lonely Place Called Overtime

It’s been so long since my last post I’m not sure I remember how to write one anymore.  Let me start by apologizing to you, my readers.  It was not my intent to leave you hanging for the last two months with nary a post!

I confess...I succumbed to the seedy underbelly of the work world…overtime…and lots of it! 

It’s a club few people want to join, but many are dragged into.  The atmosphere is oppressive.  The dim glow of laptop screens reflect the despondency in bulging eyes, peering out of faces gone pallid from lack of sunlight.

Bodies, bloated with high carb intake, and jacked up on caffeine, slump in office chairs.  No one makes eye contact.  This is a cold, dark, lonely place where people wither and die inside.

OK, so maybe it wasn’t THAT bad, but it wasn’t good.  It’s hard to find a balance between putting in enough time to do your job well, and sacrificing your personal life and health to make it happen.

I should know better.  I’ve hit the proverbially brick wall before – working myself so hard that I ended up with stress induced asthma and heart palpitations.  But I push, optimistic that I can create more hours in a day.  (There really are only 24, you know.) 

 

I trade sleep for work; working until midnight, then getting up at 5:30 to exercise.  I trade quiet time with God for stress time with my computer.

Soon I trade exercising in favour of getting to the office earlier to work more.  Next I trade healthy eating in favour of binging on chocolate and carbs to energize my sleep and exercise deprived body.

I crave tea before I even got to work in the morning.  I find my eyes drooping at red lights and think, “Maybe I could close them just for an instant.”  I’m bone-tired exhausted on the drive home.  Then I do it all over again.

And that’s where I’ve been for the last two months.  But it’s a twisted, unhealthy lifestyle!  This week is about finding balance.

I’ve designated time with God – it’s booked in my Outlook calendar as a meeting…Lunch With God! 

I’ve gone back to running on the weekends, and set my baseline weigh and measure at Curves. (That was a disturbing visit!)  Chocolate now is a treat instead of a prescription.  I'm focused on being in bed by 10:00 every night.

Yesterday I left the office at 4:30 and was home by 5:10.  I had an evening to make soup, chat with my husband, play with the cats…and start a blog post.  It was amazing!  I know it doesn't sound like much, but it was a huge accomplishment in my world!  My goal is to have more of those nights.

You’ve heard about burning the candle at both ends.  Let me say this, you can do it for a while, but sooner or later your fingers get burned and then the flame goes out.  Stop the madness before your flame goes out.

Is your life an unbalanced, out of control mess?  Is it time to set boundaries and reclaim your personal time?  Share your thoughts by clicking on "comments" below.

Navigating the Fog of 2014

Have you set any goals for 2014?  I’m not talking New Year’s resolutions, already buried in the dusty repository in your mind labeled “Good Intentions”.

I’m talking about REAL, honest to goodness goals.

What’s the difference?

Well, in my opinion, a resolution is an ideal we’d like to reach that rarely has any logical steps for achievement attached to it.

A goal, on the other hand, is a well-defined objective with a step by step road map of how to get there within a specific time frame. 

If you read any material on goal setting you’re quickly introduced to S.M.A.R.T. goals. 

S – specific – goals need to be well-defined

M – measurable – set a quantifiable measurement so you know when you achieve your goal

A – achievable – don’t set yourself up for failure.  Be realistic when setting your goal.

R – relevant – make your goal relevant to your life and what YOU personally want to accomplish

T – timely – give yourself a specific time frame to reach your goal

Why set goals? 

Starting off the year without a goal is like driving after dark in “pea soup” fog.  You creep forward a fraction of a kilometer at a time, eyes desperate to pierce the thick cloud that blinds you with reflected brilliance from your headlights.  It’s a slow crawl to your destination…if you get there at all.

Without a goal to work towards you’re driving blind in the fog that is 2014.  Life comes at you fast and furious, and if you don’t define goals early on, you find yourself sitting in the cold, dark belly of December wondering where time went.

I know we’re already playing peek-a-boo with March, but it’s not too late to set your goals.  You still have ten months to make them reality.  A lot can happen in ten months. 

Not sure what to work towards? 

I like to set four different types of goals…

Personal – by the end of 2014 I want to migrate my blog to a self-hosted website and have compiled two e-books in pdf format from previous blog posts – one devotional book, and one of blog recipes.

Fitness – I want to run 5 km in 30 minutes.

Professional – by the end of 2014 I want to have a stable team of six sales people billing at goal level and I want to have read (or attended) a minimum of three different books (or workshops) that will equip me to become a better manager.

Spiritual – I want to spend time reading the Bible and praying EVERY day.  It doesn’t have to be a long time, but it has to be dedicated time when I am focused ONLY on God.

Goals don’t have to be monumental.  They don’t have to rock the world.  They don’t even have to shake your neighborhood.  They just need to be something important to you.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Have you set goals for 2014?  If not, why not?  Set them now.

Share your thoughts by clicking on “comments” below.

Work + Health = Wealth + Joy

It’s Sunday afternoon, unwelcome thoughts of work invade your mind.  Your body tenses.  You pray for a minor natural disaster, for time to stop, or the world to end…anything to stop Monday from coming.  None of these events transpire.

The alarm rings, you attempt to burrow your way to oblivion in the mattress.  You fail.  You have to go to work.

Ever felt this way?

I came across an interesting verse in Ecclesiastes the other day that I thought I’d share.

"It is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it.  To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life - that is indeed a gift from God.  People who do this rarely look with sorrow on the past, for God has given them reason for joy"   Ecclesiastes 5:19-20 NLT

Work?  A reason for joy?  Well, let’s see…

Do I want to get up and go to work every day?  No, not really

Are the days stress filled?  Yes, most of the time

Do I work long hours that eat into my free time?  Yes

 

Here’s a reality check.  The “perfect” job doesn’t exist.  There are pros and cons to every work place.  The truth is most days my job as Sales Manager for a Christian radio station is crazy busy and filled with challenging scenarios. 

But with any job (and every situation) you have a choice.  You can choose how you view it. 

 

I can choose to see the long hours and hard work as drudgery that eats into my free time. 

Or...
I can choose to see the positive difference the hours I work make in the daily life of the people who report to me, and indirectly the positive impact my contribution to the company makes in the daily lives of the people who tune in every day to listen to our radio station.

I choose the latter.

I know it’s a huge struggle to be content in life’s circumstances.  And quite frankly a lot of people never make it to that point.

But like I said earlier… in every situation you choose. 

What about the health part of this scripture?  Here’s a simplistic example from my life this past weekend…

Right now glaciers of ice coat the streets and sidewalks, waiting to work their treachery on unsuspecting pedestrians.  I fell victim to one on Sunday…literally…crashing down in a flurry of flailing limbs to end up sprawled ungracefully on the sidewalk.

Today I feel like I started a new workout routine.  Muscles are tight and sore, but here’s the thing.  I’m grateful my body is able to absorb a fall like that.  I didn’t end up in the hospital with broken bones.  I can move around and still go for a run.  I choose the view point that it could have been a lot worse.

Wealth…

I realize Solomon is right, to have good health to enjoy life is a rare gift and it is to be cherished.  It is wealth.  A job that puts food on the table, a roof over my head, gas in the car, and clothes on my back is not to be taken for granted.  It is a blessing…a source of wealth.

Good health, good work, a wealth of blessings.  Choose to be grateful for what God gives.  This is the start of a joy-filled life.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Do you need an attitude adjustment?  Try looking at life from a different perspective by asking this question…What can I be grateful for in this situation?  Make a choice to see the positive.

Looking for some other posts on leading a contented life?  Check out...

Contented Living

The Christian's CEO

 

Easy Meringue Dessert

 Looking for a light dessert for your New Year's dinner party?  One that doesn't require a lot of effort, but looks and tastes like you spent hours in the kitchen creating the concoction?  Look no further.  This easy to make, decadent dessert will leave your guests asking for seconds. 

It's best to make the meringues the evening before, then put the layers together the morning of your dinner.  This gives the flavours time to blend.






STEP 1 - MERINGUE BASES

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1 cup white sugar
1 tbsp. cocoa

Line two flat cookie sheets with tin foil.  Draw an 8" diameter circle on both pieces of tin foil.  Lightly grease the inside of the circles.  Heat oven to 250 degrees F.

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form.  Gradually add white sugar, beating until egg whites become very stiff.  Sift cocoa over top and fold in with a spatula.

Spoon 1/2 of egg white mixture into each circle, spreading evenly around.  Bake for 1 hour at 250 degrees F.  Then turn oven off and let sit in oven for another hour.  Now remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

STEP 2 - CHOCOLATE FILLING

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 tbsp. water

Combine chocolate chips and water in a small pot.  Melt over very low heat, stirring constantly until a smooth chocolate mixture is formed. 

Gently loosen each meringue from the foil.  Spoon half of the chocolate mixture onto the top of one meringue and spread evenly, then do the same with the second.  Try not to apply too much pressure when spreading as the meringues are fragile.

STEP 3 - TOPPING

2 envelopes Dream Whip (not whipped, just the powder)
1 cup milk
2 tsp. cocoa
1/2 pkg Skor bits (about 1 cup)

Put the Dream Whip powder, milk, and cocoa in a bowl.  Beat until stiff.  Fold in the Skor bits. 

Spread half the topping over the chocolate on each meringue.  Now gently lift and place one meringue on top of the other.  The meringue may collapse under the weight at this point, but it's OK.  It doesn't change the look or the taste.

Grate some chocolate over top for garnish.  Allow to chill in the fridge for six to eight hours before serving.

Enjoy!