One time I bought a fish. He was a beta and the pet store had put him in a tank full of white fish who had bit off all his fins to keep him submissive. When I bought him, he was almost clear in color. One year after living in his own tank he had the longest, most vibrant colored fins I have ever seen on a fish. I feel like that fish.
(more…)
Being chronically ill is like trying to live on a teeter totter by yourself. Dealing with sickness, pain, depression and anger is common. Sometimes it is really hard to stay positive, especially when occasionally it seems like you just got catapulted off the darn thing and you don’t know when and where you will land, or if you will land softly. Sometimes just the fear of what could happen during a flair up catches you off guard.
(more…)
We heard a great message at church this week; one that caused me to consider what I would change if I could go back in time. I have considered this many times. My list has changed through the years, as I grew up in Jesus. It is amazing how different what we think we need during times of great stress is from when we are spending time getting to know Jesus and our identity in Him…
(more…)
Trust in Him at all times, you people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is refuge for us. Selah Psalm 62:8
Immediacy is not a virtue.
When I am stressed I feel like announcing my feelings and thoughts about everything, right now to everyone, except God; I don’t want to process anything before I react, yet I am so thankful to Jesus who is leading me to spend time praying and in the word to hear what God thinks and how He is teaching me to behave because lately, life has felt like one run on sentence…
(more…)
This week I finally moved my recipes from my old beat up recipe box to my new one; one that belonged to my Great-Grandma Drummond. I learned a few things while I organized my recipes into it: She liked recipes with oranges in them and this recipe box was new to her. It came with a few new recipes that she had not organized into their appropriate dividers. There were a few recipes she has tucked inside, but obviously she had not had the chance to completely move into it, herself. I keep thinking about how she had probably had it on a list of things to do while she healed from her surgery; she probably wasn’t thinking she would not get a chance to do that. She still had plans.
(more…)
I want to like myself. I want to love myself. I want to trust my feelings and thoughts. I know I am lovable because Jesus and Karen say I am lovable. My nieces and nephews love me; they like to talk to me, they look excited to see me, they jump to hug and kiss me. They are happy to let me touch them, stroke their hair and look in their eyes. There is freedom with them I don’t feel with most of the people in my life — they like to be loved. They let me encourage them. They trust me. I see in them, things I learned to dislike in myself and it helps me see that I have judged myself too harshly. I love watching them grow. I know God feels this for me. When it is just Him and me, life is easy. But I let “what if’s” collect. Sometimes it is next to impossible to detach from these…but I haven’t purposely been using the tool of detachment for very long; I am sure it will get easier.
(more…)
For we are God’s fellow workers; You are God’s field, you are God’s building. According to the grace of God which is given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stray, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire: And the fire will test each ones work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work, which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do you not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
Psalm 95:1-2OH come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
Psalm 21:6For You have made him most blessed forever; You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence.
Isaiah 12:2-3Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid; For YAH, the Lord is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.
My name is Summer. That is how you can call me. I hope that I am a blessing to you. I am not perfect. I will fall again. But I am forgiven.
Do you know Jesus? Do want the Holy Spirit to fill you and give you understanding and salvation? Ask Him. Want someone to pray with you? Contact me.
If you would like to know Jesus as your friend, but want to make this amazing commitment by yourself please pray something like this:
Thank you Jesus that You are the Son of God, the God that created heaven and earth. Thank you Jesus that You came to earth in the form of a man so that You would be able to empathize with my humanity. Thank You that You did this in order to fulfill the promises You made at the foundation of the world.
I realize that I am a sinner and do things that hurt myself and keep myself away from you. Thank You that You died for my sins so that You could defeat death and bring me into Your life. Please forgive me.
I ask You to be Lord of my life. I ask you to heal my hurts and show me what my new life, empowered by You looks like. Thank You for Your mercy.
Amen
The Lord is with you always.
For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
Then He taught, saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations?’ But you have made it a den of thieves.”
“Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow, and it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth, but when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. And seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced; some thirty-fold, some sixty, and some a hundred. And He said to them, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear!’”
I found my baby book a couple weeks ago and in it was a note from my mom, when I was 6; she said I prayed a lot on my own and spoke of spiritual things. I don’t remember this but I do remember the day I met Jesus. I was and playing alone in my backyard. That was 33 years ago. As of 2 days ago, I have committed myself to more prayer and time with God. I have repented for not living in my gifts and allowing God to use me to His fullest. I will probably have to do this many times. As I have already done this many times in my walk with Jesus; even in the last month. (more…)
My heart was aching before I wrote this.
I am so glad that I am a child of God. Because He is my Father He is always teaching me something. Some lessons are harder than others. We have been working on forgiveness for a long time….we still are…
“And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.” Mark 11:25
I have decided that there is no magic pill…that was always the answer I just didn’t want to think that. I was taking 2 different meds to help me with living with anxiety disorder and the one meant to help me sleep didn’t always work. I had decided it didn’t work and planned to talk to the dr about it on my next appointment. Meanwhile I have been going to a Living Well with Chronic Illness class and have finally made peace that I must choose to live on a schedule so I can accomplish my personal goals and as I was beginning to see success…it was time to go to the appointment. (more…)
Recently Karen and I were loaned a copy of The Isaiah 9:10 Judgement DVD by a friend, who has watched lots of times and felt that we really needed to see it. So that is what we did on our day off, actually it played twice through because Karen had fallen asleep at the end and I was inspired to pray and search the bible for a few words about themes that I saw throughout the production. The editing team that created it made sure that it looped and so, in the end it was at least listened to twice in our house.
The Isaiah 9:10 Judgement DVD was written by Rabbi Jonathan Cahn to accompany his books The Harbinger and The Harbinger Companion.
On ChristianBook.com the Publisher’s Description for The Isaiah 9:10 Judgement states:
(more…)
This morning I woke to sunshine streaming in the window and a song on my heart. The voice sounded like me but it was deep within me. I am used to this and I think I take it for granted sometimes.
“*Draw Me Close to You. Never let me go. I lay it all down again, to hear You say that I’m Your friend…”.
1) I am thankful that I can say thank you. So many people don’t stop and say thank you. Gratitude is an amazing gift from God. When we say thank you we are blessed in so many ways. When you make a lifestyle of being thankful (which Jesus told us to do in the first place) it becomes easier and easier and even in painful, stressful, terrifying situations you can always find something to say thank you for. Doing this blesses God and amazes blesses the people around you. If you are alive, have something to eat, clothes to wear and some sort of shelter, you have four things to be thankful for. If you don’t have great shelter or are feeling blue you might even be more thankful for the beautiful weather today because being stuck outside in the rain is not nearly as fun as dancing in the sunshine. If you have someone that loves you or many people that love you, you are rich indeed! (more…)
1) I am thankful that God planned be before the foundation of the earth and set me on a path He created just for me. I am thankful for my salvation and the fact that God is always working in me and blesses people through me. (more…)
1) I am thankful for my printer! I have had so many issues with printers that more often than not I don’t have one and although it is nice say hi to the folks at Copies Today SpeedyLitho…it costs too much to make copies for committee meetings so I often don’t have much to hand to Karen Gidderon, Jamie Holloway, Lynn Brown, Angelique Yoder, Clarence Beerman and Jacob A Beerman and guests…BTW in case you haven’t read your emails…we have a Living Ministries meeting tonight at 6 pm at Life Works…
I recently went through a huge loss. I lost a friend; or I lost the illusion that I had a friend. It has been hard to heal from this loss. After 3 years I have come to the realization that this is not a healthy relationship and although with time and prayer I will be able to forgive, I will not be reconnecting with this person. I don’t believe that we can encourage growth in each other and some actions kill any incentive to rebuild trust.
Although I have come to this decision, I have not shared it with her and yesterday morning I woke up to a text message from her that referred to me as Beloved. Just another reason that I need to let go. (more…)
1) I am thankful for my marriage. I have been best friends with Karen Gidderon for 12 years in October. Since we have been married, I feel like there are parts of me that were broken that are no longer broken, parts of me that were weak that are stronger, and parts of me that I knew were missing that have been found. There is an unmeasurable greatness in knowing that I have someone beside me always that wants what I want. Both of us have blossomed by knowing that. Professionally, personally and spiritually we have seen growth. We love taking care of each other.
2) I have lost two relationships since May and although accepting the loss and the good parts of the relationship that are no longer, I am thankful that the end came. I am a dedicated person and in the past have accepted a lot of emotional abuse, control and manipulation as part of relationship. I am not called to do that. Until these two people left, I didn’t understand the turmoil and stress they were causing in my personal, professional and spiritual path. I am grateful to My God who has carried me through the loss and pain and also showed me the bigger picture. (more…)
No one pays me for what I do here.
If you would like to buy me a cup of coffee please do.
Thank you for reading and make sure to leave a comment.
Please wait...
