by Sharon O | Sep 28, 2010 | Uncategorized
Sharon and I were followers of the same blog when she came over to visit mine. She is such a blessing, with a beautiful heart full of love and encouragement.
Last week, I asked folks if they know their own story, the one that God had written for them. Sharon responded by sending me a part of her story.
It is my pleasure to share my friend Sharon with you today.
This is from Mary Kathryn Tyson’s blog posted yesterday.
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a simple prayer
Before I became a Christian, my view of God was full of skepticism and unbelief. He was like a Santa who gave things to people when they asked. He was very far away and not an all-knowing GOD.
Jesus was a man in a story book.
I was not raised in a Christian home, yet I do remember walking to a small church as a little girl to Sunday school. As I listened to the stories of the Bible on flannel graph boards, God and Jesus were unreachable to me. They were characters in a hard-backed book. I couldn’t touch them or feel them. They were songs sung to the music of an un-tuned piano. Jesus loves the little children… only I was not one of them.
The way God reached out to me is a wonderful and powerful reminder that He does indeed listen to the prayers, of those who do not know Him.
He listens to the heart cries and He is moved with compassion.
In my freshman year of high school, I began to search for the meaning of life. We had moved again to a new rental home and another new school, probably my 20th by now. It was at the bus stop while waiting for the bus where I would engage in conversation with a girl standing there with me. She was an honor student who lived with her parents in a normal stable family. I was very different. I would wear the Diana Ross highly-ratted hairstyle, fake eyelashes (yes, I did say that) and white eye shadow. It was the late 60′s and the look was between Diana Ross and Cher.
Every day this girl would ask me questions. Pursuing me. Forcing me to ‘think’ about God and church and life. Every day I argued with her. It was constant. My life experience had been much different than hers. My concept of ‘love’ was not something she could understand. We were two friends speaking different languages. She talked often and gave me lots of questions.
As our friendship grew, I began to listen to her. I decided to test her ‘GOD’.
My sister Mary had been gone for many months on the street, living life as a drug addict and runaway. I missed her greatly and wanted desperately to see her. We didn’t know if she dead or alive and it was a heart ache I couldn’t take care of on my own. I remembered this girl told me ‘GOD hears all prayers’. I didn’t believe it but what could I lose by trying?
One night as I was going to bed, not knowing how to pray or what to pray or how it all all works for Him to hear you, I prayed a simple prayer. A bold one. A searching from the heart prayer. I said, “God I would believe, I think I can believe you, if you can find my sister. The girl tells me you know everything, you see everything. So you should know how to find her. I want her home. If you are God. If you know everything then you can bring her home tonight. When I wake up in the morning I want her sleeping in her own bed. If you can do that, then I will believe”. I went to bed and fell into a deep sleep. Unusual for me at that stage of life.
You can imagine my surprise when I woke up the next morning, and saw her across the room sleeping in her own bed. The police had found her in the middle of the night and contacted our mother. She had been beaten badly but she was home, sleeping in her bed, in our room. It was an unbelievable moment and a miraculous reunion of sisters. A cry from a young person’s heart to a God who hears. We were always hopeful she was alive, but never knowing it was crushing to my heart. Mary didn’t stay at home very long. She left soon after the first night, but my prayer was answered.
Now I had to deal with ‘the girl at the bus stop’. I made the phone call telling her what happened. She told me about God, church and her youth group. The girl at the bus stop is now my sister-in-law. We married brothers.
I believe God knew the only way I would trust, was for Him to show me an answer to a simple prayer. From a simple heart. HE can do the unimaginable. I trust Him. The journey continues.
The years after God came into my life were not easy. But because of the strength HE gave I was able to trust Him through the process. He was hope when I felt hopeless. He was my peace when it wasn’t peaceful. He was love on a Cross saying to me, “I care deeply for you”. His ways are mysterious and wonderful and I am always in awe of His love. I have never regretted that first life-changing prayer.
I hope this finds you encouraged. Our God is a God who hears the simple prayers of faith. It doesn’t have to be fancy or elaborate. It just has to be from the heart.
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My name is Sharon. I am 55 years old and have been married almost 37 years now. God has blessed me with two wonderful children and now six delightful grandchildren. Life has been a journey of ups and downs but with God, all things are possible if we trust Him.
by Sharon O | Sep 27, 2010 | Uncategorized
Today I am guest posting at beauty for ashes site.
Mary Kathryn Tyson asked her readers to share their testimony story so I did.
She asked me if she could post it on her website blog.
http://marykathryntyson.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/a-simple-prayer/http://marykathryntyson.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/a-simple-prayer/
by Sharon O | Sep 25, 2010 | Uncategorized
Our Pastor asked us the other day,
“If Jesus looked at the church today what would he see?
People broken and fractured weighted down with heavy hearts and wounded souls.”
He said,”Do you realize Jesus death was birthed out of a concern for humanity?”
Broken people are fragmented and they are disjointed. They are not peaceful. They are not calm.
They are broken.
God sent his son so we ‘the broken’ can become whole.
We teach our little ones to sing, “Jesus Loves the little children all the children of the world.”
But do we bring it down to us… Jesus loved us.
Us means you and me. You and I.
Or do you remember the song, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
Do we believe it really?
It would break his heart to see a broken lifeless church after all he died for us.
He died a terrible death so we.. so we… you and I can become whole and healed and full of life.
He died so we could have hope.
He died so we could have a chance to be saved and believe in him.
Jesus knew the cost. He knew the routine he had seen other ‘Crucifixions’ but it would be HIS that would save the world.
Remember.
In the garden he had asked a chosen few to watch with him and wait.
What did they do… they fell asleep.
When he found them he said, “could you not watch with me a little while and pray?”
He knew the heaviness of his own heart.
I am often reminded of the tomb and remember so well the scene where Mary is crying and weeping. Her Lord is gone. The tomb was empty. She was empty. She was broken.
She was full of sorrow deep agonizing sorrow.
Remember what happened?
He said “Mary”~
Mary… the one whom he loved and who loved Him.
Mary… He knew her name. He was personal. He was powerful.
He was relational.
She knew his voice she knew it was him saying… Mary.
Something to ask yourself.
If Jesus were to say your name would you know without a doubt it was him?
Only when we are in tune to his voice and his love will we know it is him.
I pray we will be like Mary…
and know his voice so well we will hear him in the midst of our tears and cling to him and not want to let go when he says our name.
by Sharon O | Sep 22, 2010 | Uncategorized
What is the difference between believing the Lord and following the Lord?
It is a real question.
Many people who saw Jesus believed Him~
not that many actually followed.
They saw and experienced his miracles and they saw and experienced his power.
They could remind themselves every time they saw him how he turned the water into wine or how he fed the many with little or how he healed the dead and helped the cripple to walk. The blind could see and the closed hearts could hear.
The teachings he taught and the people he met all had a visible reminder of ‘Jesus’ and who he was.
Even after all that not everyone who saw him believed and not every one who believed in him followed.
So why do you think the ones who heard Jesus say “Come follow me” left everything to follow him?
It is a question for us all to think about.
They did not hesitate. They dropped everything they knew and left it all for a man who was walking by from a shore line saying to them…”come follow me.” Did they even know who he was or did it not matter? Was it just because he ‘believed’ in them and they really wanted that for their heart?
Today if Jesus said to you…
“Drop every plan and every agenda of your own and follow me. Leave your life behind and come… walk with me and you will find peace.”
Do you think it is believable?
The rough and tough fishermen were called out of the water because Jesus believed in the potential they had within them. Our Pastor said, “When we follow Jesus we can’t be like him on our own it is from HIS potential for us that creates our likeness of him.” Jesus taught the fishermen and followers so he could transfer himself to them. So they could do what he did.
Did they dare? Did they believe they could? He told them they could.
Are we teachable and open to follow after when the Lord says to us ‘come I want you to walk with me today.’
We can’t just believe we need to put our belief into action.
The question our pastor asked, “Are you willing to risk all that you have in order to be all that God wants you to be?”
It is a very real question.
Do we want to be all that he wants us to be?
by Sharon O | Sep 21, 2010 | Uncategorized
There are two questions to ask ourselves…
(as we continue the nurturing a tranquil soul topic)
Where are we now on our spiritual journey?
Where would we like to be on our spiritual journey in six months to a year?
Journey:
dictionary.com says it is a passage or progress from one stage to another.
So the questions are asking: where do we hope to be as we move forward
spiritually from the stage we are in today to a new stage tomorrow.
Hope is a huge word. We hope for many things. What do you hope for?
The last ten pounds off~ the last chapter written so you can send in your writing~ finishing the race you have trained for and not yet accomplished~ getting the job you know you are qualified for?
It takes action to move forward.
It is stepping out as we take baby steps towards our goal.
If someone is an athlete it means they have to exercise even when one doesn’t want to.
If one is a writer it is a forcing of oneself to find quiet reflective time even when it feels like there is no time left in the day.
It is pressing oneself harder and challenging oneself deeper to reach the goal that we have set before us.
Spiritual journeys are not any different.
It is forcing ourselves to read and study and meditate even when we don’t feel like it or we don’t understand or we are just too tired.
Are we blocked by our lack of bible knowledge or our lack of discipline or our own anxieties?
What will it take to get us back on the journey?
Spiritual growth is crucial to our development as Christians.
If we don’t grow we become stagnant and that produces other issues that are not healthy for us.
Are there barriers keeping us walled and closed off?
Are there forgiveness issues that needs to be addressed?
Do we have relationship issues that are broken and leaving us ‘open and empty?’
Taking action to move forward towards spiritual growth is the first thing we can do to become strong and firm in our faith. Each step we take is a step closer to our goal.
It is as essential as breathing or eating.
Are you further this year than you were last year or are you feeling stagnant?
Lots of questions to think about.
I pray that as we begin to nurture a tranquil soul we will find a sense of peace and order as we move into a new direction of deeper spiritual growth.
Let us journey together in encouragement and affirmations for each other.
We can do a good job no matter what small steps we take towards our goal.
For any movement is better than none especially if we don’t have to do it alone.
by Sharon O | Sep 18, 2010 | Uncategorized
A grandparent’s heart grows wider and deeper~
with every grandchild born.
It is an honor and a special privilege to be grandparents.
It is love at a different level.
Our son now has three son’s.
Samuel is six… Josiah is two and a half and Seth is one day old.
A baby was born.
To parents who love and nurture and care for each other so they can care for their children.
Changes will come to this house… making room for one more is a bit of a re-adjustment.
Rooms reorganized and closets de-cluttered. Change… is good.
Each child is different and needing different things.
When we were young parents we brought our children up with the prayers that they will be good citizens some day. That they would be responsible and true to themselves.
That they would love their Lord and serve in some way.
That they would make us proud.
Our daughter has three daughters and now our son has three sons.
We are very proud and pleased and so very blessed.
A baby to love is a beginning for us all.
His life is fresh and new and tender and sweet.
Lord God bless our little ones and protect them always.
Surround them with angels and form a hedge of protection around their every move.
Thank you God for entrusting these children to their parents who love them and to the grandparents who would do anything to make their lives safe and comfortable.
We are thankful to have Faith, Hannah, Alexis, Samuel, Josiah and now Seth join our hearts circle of love.
Lord God we give you thanks~ we are SO blessed.
What blesses you today?
by Sharon O | Sep 16, 2010 | Uncategorized
I thought of something the other day or maybe I heard it somewhere.
“Nurturing a tranquil soul.”
What a concept~ What an idea.
For the last year I have been off work and really have enjoyed being home.
The goal has been to slow down and enjoy the day~ slow down and enjoy the moments.
When I read ‘nurturing the tranquil soul’ it resonated with me so intensely.
We all should strive for a peaceful soul. Or a place of quiet inside.
It is hard work to slow down the pace of our fast moving world.
It is hard work to be still and be quiet.
Dictionary.com says:
Nurture: To support and encourage; to bring up; to promote development.
Tranquil: Free from commotion or tumult; free from or unaffected by disturbing emotions; serene: calm peaceful and quiet.
Does it feel like something you want?
Nurturing a tranquil soul.
That is not meaning you have to sit around in a yoga position humming.
It is nurturing a peace that passes all understanding deep inside inside your heart.
So that when something bad happens you grieve but you are not broken into pieces.
When something unexpected happens you are shocked but not knocked down.
John Eldredge says it is a sense of belonging… to oneself.
Just as we want to belong to a family we also want to belong to ourselves.
Have you ever met someone who is nice to get to know but as you get to know them it feels like they do not know themselves very well? It’s like they are not connected… not having an idea of what they are showing to others. They are sort of clueless.
I think nurture is a wonderful concept.
It is our ‘purpose’ to encourage others~ to promote others to do well and to be peaceful.
Be calm and quiet. The word tells us to be quick to hear and slow to speak. We find strength when we are quiet.
Helping others to nurture themselves helps them to move deeper into a sense of self and helping ourselves to do the same.
I ask you… how well do you nurture your heart or soul?
Is your hearts desire always way back there somewhere while you attend to other more important issues?
I ask you…
do you nurture yourself in the way you would nurture another?
If the answer is NO ask yourself why.
ARE you not as important as another? repeat the question:
are you not as important as another?
Remember to be tranquil is to be free… free from noise, commotion or disturbing emotions.
Are you free today? I pray that you can come to a place where nurturing a tranquil soul is normal for you.
by Sharon O | Sep 13, 2010 | Uncategorized
The Compassion team just returned from Guatemala and each person wrote blogs about their experience.
Today instead of me writing I am going to let them write.
Starting with /Ann Voscamp@AHolyExperience.com/
Be sure to have your sound on. Her site is beautiful and she is a powerfully gifted writer.
You might even need Kleenex nearby as you read the heart wrenching stories.
Then you can move on to Lisa-Jo (The Gypsy Mama) www.Thegypsymamma.com/
Next you can read:
http://amandajones.com/ Jones (Baby Bangs)Living Proof Ministries
After that you can read:
http://www.lindseynobles.com/
There are a few other bloggers who went with the team you can log into their sites I believe from the other sites.
Reading their last weeks accounts of everyday life in Guatemala will help you understand poverty and its face and put a name on your heart I hope to sponsor a child.
Sponsoring a child only costs $38.00 a month.
We pay more for coffee or frivolous lunches out or that fancy pair of must have shoes.
I encourage us all to think about missions. Not necessarily go to far away places. But if one cannot go then one can certainly sponsor a child who lives there. Finish your reading with the leader of the Guatemala group:
/www.ShaunGroves.com/
I encourage you to take the time to read these posts maybe even subscribe to them. Personally I subscribe to about 35 blogs. They encourage me to press forward and also it is like a devotional time on line along with my bible studies.
I would LOVE feeback if these links work and what you thought of them. I tried to click onto a few of them from my blog here and couldn’t get them to work please let me know if I did anything wrong with the addresses.
Today it was important to take a bit of a break and encourage us all to think beyond ourselves and to realize the world is not often the way we see it in our cozy neighborhoods and warm homes.
I pray that we can look beyond our own lives and SEE the lives of others.
by Sharon O | Sep 10, 2010 | Uncategorized
Continuing on the topic of soul sessions
our pastor was sharing how it is good for us to have healthy fear.
That got my attention because as a child living in a home that often brought fear to the surface I was intrigued by his comment ‘healthy’ fear.
The example he shared was about his little daughter and how they often would tell her to not touch the stove… it is hot… it will burn. Over and over the voice repeating to her ‘NO don’t touch’. Then in a split second the day came when she did. The door was left open and she reached in to touch the bright hot surface.
She learned in an instant through pain and tears and cold water the cause and effect of the warning. Don’t touch the stove it will burn you~ don’t touch~ it will hurt you .
Then he continued to say ‘we do the same’ thing with God.
God will say, “NO don’t do that” in many different ways as a protection for us so we will not be hurt. It is our choice if we reach out and touch it and when it hurts us the truth becomes a reality we can grasp because we experienced it. What God was saying was true.
Just as pastors little daughter became more respectful of the oven when the door was open.
We become more respectful of the warnings of God.
Pastors little daughter probably walked by that stove every hour touching the cold outside frame and not understanding ‘it is hot~ it will hurt you.’ Only when the ‘heat’ hurt her did she grasp the truth and it became a lesson for her to learn from.
Pastor was saying: Healthy fear is prevention so harm cannot take place.
I ask you today…
what has brought a healthy fear to you.
Does the fear of God keep you from sinning?
Do you feel protected because of his warnings?
Just as a parent would run to their child and warn them if they were in the street God runs to us in protection for our safety. He sets guidelines and rules for us so that we can stay safe.
Have you ever had a police officer follow you as you were driving?
I tend to grip the wheel tighter as the anxiety rises for me to perform well.
It is the presence of the car and the uniform and the badge where respect and protection come from. The whole time they are driving behind you it is a test to see if you follow the rules and heed the warning. You have a healthy fear for him for you know that he has the power to site you for doing wrong.
Healthy fear is good in many areas of our lives.
Exodus 20:20 tells us: Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid.
God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you
to keep you from sinning.”
I pray that we can stay thankful that we have a God who cares so much
that he is willing to test us to see if we sin or not.
Is he following behind you today?
by Sharon O | Sep 7, 2010 | Uncategorized
Our Pastor has been teaching a series called soul sessions.
It has been thought provoking and interesting.
The question he asked last week was this:
What distortions do you have about God?
I had to stop and think about that question:
Always looking for the meanings of words I found these to match what he was asking from dictionary.com.
Distortion: a change in perception so that it does not correspond to reality.
The disguising of the meaning of unconscious thoughts so that they may appear
in consciousness as in dreams.
My answers to his question were these:
That He would not love me even though I know He does and
That He would leave me even though I know he won’t.
It is my belief that our distortions about God are based on our core beliefs about ourselves
from the world we grew up in. I believe those distortions are a reflection of what we experienced and perhaps were taught in a conscious way or an unconscious way.
The lessons we learned through other lessons given by those in authority.
(These are only my thoughts not verified by a professional in any way).
In my case: abandonment was a big issue when I was growing up.
The message that I was not important was loud and clear.
When a parent leaves it sends the message deep into the core
of the belief system of the child.
I know in my heart without a shadow of a doubt~
that God loves me…
but if I couldn’t be loved by my parent why would God want to.
I know in my heart without a shadow of a doubt~
that God will never leave me…
but I also know that because my own parent did…
it could be possible for God to do the same.
Now in saying all that without the intense meeting with God I had as a teenager…
the ability to doubt and to question would be much stronger.
(the story is here on this blog ~ march 21st entry)
God answered my prayer in such an intense way there was no choice but to believe.
There was no way I could not. The sureness of my new belief system was fortified
by the answer to my prayer. He knew I would need something so dramatic and so meaningful in order for me to believe in Him.
When the questions come… does God love me enough.
The word will tell me…”I have loved you with an everlasting love.”
When the questions come…will God leave me.
The word tells me… “I will never leave you or forsake you.”
Pastor said, “Love defines your relationship with God”…
if your parent didn’t love you enough is it possible to know God will?
Pastor also said, “Hope is found in your view of God…
the survival of your soul is dependent on your opinion of God in the moment.”
A crisis of Faith is a moment in time where you have to put your faith to the test.
For example when my mother in law found out she had terminal cancer she said, “well we will do the best we can and then leave it up to God.” She had a deep love for God so her soul was settled with the fact that she would see Him one day and it would be good. Because of her opinion of God and who He was she fought her cancer without becoming bitter or angry.
Her soul was settled and it had a profound effect on those who were with her throughout the process.
Pastor continued to talk about the survival techniques we learned growing up.
I could so relate to this since my own journey was full of hard and difficult places
my survival technique was to wall off anything or anyone to keep more hurt away.
Only when God touched me and met me through a prayer from my heart
could I truly believe and trust Him.
Soul sessions are all about discovering who we are as a person.
Our Pastor said, “Hope is always found in your view of God.”
I challenge you to explore the distorted thoughts and views you might have about Him.
Write them down and pray about them.
If you don’t know what they are ask Him to reveal them to you.
Then find scripture to counter balance your thoughts and beliefs.
Is a distorted view of who He is… hurting you in your relationship?
I pray we all search our hearts for what is holding us back from accepting a real relationship with a real and loving God.
Our hope is found in our view of God. I pray it be a positive one.
