I've learned a few things over these past few months since I've rebranded my ministry and website. 1) Bearing my soul before the "world" takes a good bit of courage 2) Stepping out into the entrepreneurial world really is a hustle 3) Building the "tribe" is quite the unexpected challenge As you may know, I've been really pushing hard to put out a healthy dose of inspiration and motivation to encourage you on your journey. My yearly ministry goal sheet is this: 1) Blog post twice a week (Mondays and Thursdays) 2) Post gratitude image/quote to Facebook page daily 3) Record weekly video about doing life, shortcuts, hacks, baking, walking, adventuring 4) Post daily to instagram 5) Publish monthly newsletter 6) Conduct and coach participants through 7 Day Challenge course at least twice a year 7) Thinking about: developing an eMentoring program for women or facilitating a Bible study online All this to say, I could really use your help! And I'm willing to offer you lots of downloadable freebies, encouragement, inspiration in exchange! WHY? aGH MINISTRY MISSIONS STATEMENT:
FOR WHOM?
I NEED YOUR HELP It would mean the world to me if you would help me on this adventure. Perhaps you could: 1) sign up to receive my monthly newsletter a Grateful Heart (register on my website). Although the thought of receiving a newsletter may not be that appealing, I promise not to bombard you or to sell your email address--it's just me on the other side trying to put into your hands free downloadables to make your life a bit easier and to provide you with a practical tools, checklists, goal sheets, etc., to promote healthy thinking and an energized, go-God life style. If you subscribe before June 30, your name will be entered into a drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card AND a free book! RICO THE MORKY will pick WINNER!!! 2) Like, follow, and SHARE a Grateful Heart Facebook page 3) If you see a gratitude image that speaks to you, please share it! Also, please comment on posts. 4) Subscribe to my youtube channel - I'm still experimenting there! I need your ideas! Leave a comment! 5) Follow me and share on Instagram. I have so much fun here photographing Midway, Kentucky, horses, Rico, family, nature and God's beautiful creation. 6) Email me or PM/DM me anytime! victoria4ggus@yahoo.com I would love to chat with you! 7) Please pray for me and for God's direction in my ministry. Thank you. And do not neglect doing good and sharing,
for with such sacrifices God is please. Heb. 13:16 The topic of RESTORATION is multifaceted. A few possible synonyms for restoration are repair, refurbishment, reconditioning, rehabilitation, rebuilding, reconstruction, and remodeling. Notice the prefix "re" which means "again" or "back." We've been considering the names Job gave to his three daughters after he came through his trial. He named the first a name meaning "Day by day," and to the second he gave a name whose root means "to scrape." His third daughter he gave a compound name of sorts: Qeren Hap-puwk or in English something like: Keren-happuch which means "horn of antimony." The symbolism here is so rich. Let's break down each word in the compound. First Keren. This word means "horn," "strength," and "light." The first time this Hebrew word is used is with Abraham in reference to the ram (the sacrifice God provided for Abraham in place of his son Isaac) caught by its horns in the thicket (Gen. 22:13). You may also remember that the acacia wood altar carried by the Israelites during the exodus from Egypt had four horns on each of its corners (same word in Exo. 27:2). If we dig deeper to the root of this word, we find a verb that means "to shine" or "to send out rays or to display or grow horns." This verb is used only three times in the Old Testament to describe Moses's face and how it "shown" after he spoke with God on Mt. Sinai and obtained the two tablets (the second time) on which were written the commandments (Exo. 34). The second part of Keren-happuch's name basically means "to paint," and is used to describe the black make-up women in earlier times wore around their eyes. I learned that "antimony" is a chemical element, lustrous and grey in color. So what do we do with all of these details that provide such a rich foundation for Job and his choosing to name his daughter in this way? Not only did Job learn to live life with such gratitude and appreciation for each day he was given, he also never forgot how God had never left him through such extreme adversity. Now we see a few more adjectives to describe Job's final transformation and restoration into a man God had strengthened as a result of his trial. We see Job's fortitude sustained by God and erupting and bursting forth from the ashes of his devastation, agony, grief, and pain. My grandmother was a modern-day Job. Although she did not lose her possessions, she did lose six of her ten children and two husbands to death in her lifetime. Her faith never waivered. Instead, after each passing, a new layer of her strength in God was revealed, even brighter and more prominent than the one before. Her grief must have been immeasurable, unfathomable...but God's glory shown like the brightest rays of the sun against the backdrop of the darkness she had experienced. Do you know what her favorite Bible verse was? It comes from John 1:1 in the New Testament: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. She told me once that this verse said it all. God was there in the beginning. God gave us His Word (both in the written form of the Bible and in the person-hood of Jesus Christ). Not only that, God later gave His Son to be lifted up on a cross and later lifted up from death. She said, "What more do we really need to know?" Job knew about sacrifice. He knew grief and despair, agony and turmoil.
But he also knew the remarkable beauty of restoration. Did you know that "in all the land no women were found so fair as Job’s daughters" (Job 42: 15)? Each daughter was a profoundly lovely reminder to Job that he served a God who taught him
Have you ever met this God who restores? Please know that you are not alone in your pain and loss. Not only do we have the promise of everlasting life after we die, we also have the Holy Spirit, our Comforter, right here and right now to help us come to full restoration while we live on this earth. We can be made new, rebuilt, refurbished, if you will, and the results are positively beautiful. Picture this: An intensely lit, blindingly white room with one open door in the back that leads to all things pitch black. Then picture a bucolic, stunningly beautiful vineyard with sloping hills, a rising sun, vivid color contrasts of blues, greens, yellows, fresh air. You have a choice: You can walk through the door into the darkness OR you can reside in the vineyard. Which would you choose? As we conclude our reflections on imagination, we have learned that in life we can train ourselves to deal positively with dashed hopes and expectations and that we can willfully resist the temptation to allow our imaginations to run wild when we feel jealous or afraid. We actually have the ability to control our thoughts, but we must consistently and repeatedly practice doing so. In other words, we are determined to use our imagination FOR us, not AGAINST us. Every single day, I face my own mental battles and the option to walk through the door into the darkness or to remain in the light, and I'm sure you do, too. Sometimes I'm challenged by a sad or distressing memory or regret; sometimes I wrestle with a comment someone said to me; I'm feeling disappointed in myself or others; and other times, I'm my own worst enemy and discouragement overwhelms me. In all scenarios, I have learned to tell myself: "Stop. I am not going to walk through that door into darkness where there is no good benefit for me or others. I choose life, health, wholeness, and peace. I play for God's team. In His vineyard there is no lack of any good thing. There I find security, forgiveness, blessings, freedom, rest, strength, and hope. I am His child, an heir. I have His Spirit inside me and the mind of Christ to help me find and practice Truth." This self-talk is the discipline of using "Truth Trump Cards" to control my thoughts which influence my brain and consequently direct my mood and behavior. This is how I reorient myself to continue to walk in God's love. Often, as previously discussed, at the root of darkened imaginings is fear. Both Love and fear are powerful motivators, but Love is stronger and more deeply influential. The Apostle and Evangelist John wrote this so beautifully in his letter to the Christians (in Ephesus it seems): "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love" (1 John 4:18). I don't know about you, but I want to be perfected in love (to have completion and fullness, maturity, to be characterized by consummate human integrity and virtue). This is really hard to do without having first received God's love. In other words, when we have God's love in our hearts, we have the Supreme and Divine Advantage. In our mental storehouse are innumerable Truth Trump Cards that we can quickly cast over our toxic, fruitless thinking. We are better equipped to wage war in the battlefield of our minds. We are offered victory through Christ who defeated any and all darkness that we could possibly ever imagine. We are offered a nice place to do life in God's vineyard. If this sounds hokey to you, I am truly sorry. There was a day when I also would have thought this was weird, foreign, and absurd. But I was spiritually blind, and spiritually blind people cannot see the Truth until the scales fall from their eyes. For me, I found myself in that dark room, chased by the Hound of Heaven and ultimately rescued by the Author of Love. Hmmmm....speaking of hound dogs, Rico says hello. He wonders why you are not subscribing to our aGH monthly newsletter! I mean who doesn't want to enter a drawing for a free book and $25 gift card coming your way?! Plus we will send you a GRATITUDE WHEEL to download, print, and personalize! Just click on the aGH Newsletter tab to enter your email address and name. And I promise I won't misuse this information! :)
Until next time, I'm so grateful that God allows us the choice on how we use our imaginations. May He abundantly bless you and encourage you today! I have a million dollar bet for you if you are a clerk or anyone who wears a company name tag or badge. If your customer takes a split second to examine your name tag and call you by name during the vis-à-vis transaction, I wager that said customer is walking in love. He or she is making a conscious effort to connect with you, bless you, and be kind to you. I'm willing to bet so much money because practicing love is remarkably exceptional. The odds are in my favor big time. Maybe you are like I am sometimes. I am sorry to admit that I have seen people as obstacles to my agenda, my schedule, my check-list, and my daily maneuvering. Sometimes I just want to scream at people to move over, hurry up, and get out of my way already. Geesh, what's that all about? For starters, this attitude and mindset smack of self-focus and self centeredness. Can anybody say pride? Impatience? There is a better way, but it takes much effort and commitment on our parts in order to change and develop new habits in dealing with strangers, clerks, and anyone really who crosses our path, including those we love the most. Learning to elevate and be gracious takes a strong desire to change, the commitment to practice, and the time to pray. The great news is since we rub shoulders with others often, we will have plenty of opportunities to practice. We will experience the reward almost immediately especially if the individual we are recognizing looks back at us and smiles. Wow, how can that be? We might even walk away with a bounce in our step and a bit of joy in our heart. Perhaps the Bible says that love is greater than hope and faith because it is hard to have hope or faith in anyone or anything when we haven't experienced the love that rushes in first. Love is the foundational trump card of all trump cards. I'm ashamed to say that you might not know that I was a Christian sometimes by the way I behave or by what I say...but hold on, please. I promise you that I am a work in progress as I progressively work to show others as much love as I possibly can. Truly, I have been forgiven so much! And this brings me to my concluding point. Did you know that we serve a God who knows us by name?
What a profound thought that the Creator of the universe knows me, little me, Victoria in Midway, Kentucky, by name. Yet He is the One who knit me together in my mother's womb. He counts the hairs on my head. He sees me. He hears me. He guides me and comforts me. He loves me so much that He even died for me. His love was, is, and will always be. Love remains. If I abide in Him, then I also partake in that love and have the privilege to walk in it! I hope I can show it to others today, simply by slowing down and connecting with someone by name. Have you ever wondered why the color green is associated with envy? Apparently, green is a color commonly associated with sickness, say from an overproduction of bile that might turn your skin green. In my surface searching, most references trail back to Shakespeare and this line from Othello where lago warns Othello: “Beware, my lord, of jealousy; it is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.” Envy is something we don't talk about very often in most of our circles. It's an inner grumbling and discontent that tends to simmer quietly in our hearts and minds. We may be tempted to compare ourselves to others, but in order to get an inch higher, we have to find a way to cut them down a few pegs. Gossip, Criticism, Resentment, Bitterness are close siblings of Envy. When I catch myself in the throes of wanting something I don't have, scorning someone else's success and accomplishments, wishing I had their hair, looks, shape, travel itinerary, or even waiting for my ship to come in already...I am learning to step back, adjust my attitude, and refocus on the blessings right under my nose. And I'm learning how to practice the art of admiring others and how they have worked to achieve their dreams and goals. It seems to me that the antidote to envy is admitting deep gratitude for what we do have. And second to that is expressing admiration of what others have. Instead of focusing on myself and what I don't have or dismissing what I do have, I can train myself to stop and take a good look at what is admirable in someone else. It might be their unique gifts, accomplishments, appearance, strength, hard work ethic, or positive attitude. It's not surprising that most worthwhile things and attributes really take a lot of work to achieve. This is one reason why it is easy to admire these traits in others because we suspect their success came from a hefty investment in time and energy. Instead of "Gee, I wish I were her size" try "I'm so grateful that I am healthy and can choose to exercise each day. I'm grateful that I have money to purchase lots of fresh fruits and veggies, and that I can set goals to take better care of myself. I really admire how hard she works to maintain her figure. She is inspiring to me. I'll need to ask her next time I see her just how she stays motivated to make healthy choices and exercise." Instead of "her life / her kids / her husband / [you name it] is perfect" try "Man, I really admire how hard she works at staying on top of her game. I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to work hard, too. Truth is no one is perfect, and most people struggle even if they appear not to. Perhaps she could use a word of encouragement right now." Take time to compliment someone, tell them what you admire, ask them their secret, drop a positive and encouraging comment. Write a note of appreciation. Celebrate their victories. Most things or scenarios that we envy may not be out of our reach. We serve a heavenly Father who promises to take care of us. When we work on His team, there is no scarcity. If we really want something, we may simply need to ask God or make a plan to earn it or achieve it. Let's look at others to admire what they've managed to do or acquire and then to stand in awe of something so inspiring. After all, it all starts with a grateful heart. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude,
by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; (Heb. 12:28) |
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