Bless This City

As I was flossing my teeth last night, God gave me a challenge. He wanted me (us) to speak a blessing over anything and everything that has to do with our city. This is to be done throughout the day and can be as simple as opening your Dothan Utilities bill and saying something like "Lord, Bless this city". As I made my rounds this morning, I looked around to see how this would work. Basically, anything that reminded us of our city, should remind us to say a quick blessing. So this morning, as I dropped my daughter off at school, I thought about the city school system and spoke a blessing over it. Just now as I'm typing this, a city truck turned around in our parking lot. So I said, "Lord, Bless this city". I know people meet and pray specifically for our city and that is great and very much needed. But I feel like God is giving us something that every single person that's willing can easily do. Can you imagine what this city could be like if people were constantly speaking blessings over it on a daily basis? Some things I thought of are: seeing a City of Dothan bill, mail, or correspondence, seeing City employees and/or leaders around town or on billboards, passing a city school and/or bus, seeing a police officer, etc. I'm sure there are many, many more ways that would remind us to speak a blessing over our city. Well, I've shared what God has given me. It's up to you to do your part. Hope you'll participate.

Another unfinished project

Well, I look and see that it has been over a year since I created this blog and posted anything to it. Am I surprised? Not really. It's the story of my life. There's just not enough time to write everything down. But my goal is to put God first, spend more time with Him, and as He gives me something to share - then there will be a post. If there's no post, most likely it's because I'm not spending time with Him. You are allowed to hold me accountable for that. I really hope you hear something from me soon.

My summary of today's sermon

Today we had a guest speaker, Bill Reif from the Wiregrass Hope Group. I always like hearing him. His verse reference was Psalms 42.

"This poet felt that God was remote and distant. He expressed his deep longing for God as being comparable to the intense thirst of a deer for water during a time of severe drought. The poet longed to enjoy once more the assurance of God’s presence with him. All who belong to God experience times when God seems absent, and they long for the reassurance of His presence. Psalms 42; 43 provide guidance in such times.
Thomas Nelson, Inc: Woman's Study Bible . Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1995, S. Ps 42:1"

Bill was telling us an insight he received from his 10 yr old son. His son told him that you can never trust in anything that changes. People change. God never changes. You can always trust in Him.

He talked about being in the midst of bad circumstances. A lot of people, including himself and of course me, put there circumstances in front of God and plead for God to change the circumstances. He said that regardless of what's going on, you should always remember who your God is. Faith is holding on to what you know of your God in spite of everything else going on around you. When you don't feel God in your present circumstances, you need to remember what you know about God. I know that my God loves me and always takes care of me. I know that he is always with me, never deserting me. I know that he has always carried me through the tough times. So in the midst of any great trials, you need to remember these things first and then looking through that, you see your circumstances.

This was a really good message for me to hear. I've been pleading with God to show me His face, but I haven't really been seeking Him the way I should. I haven't been praising Him for all He has already done for me and given me. I haven't stayed in the Word where I usually find all the answers I'm looking for when I'm looking this hard. You would think this was a lesson I would have already learned, but it seems I need to re-learn it.

Center your faith on God!

Colton Potty Trained

Two Saturdays ago, I couldn't get Colton out of his pull-ups into underwear. He insisted on wearing (and using) his pull-ups. Then the very next day it was the opposite. He went to the potty and refused to put pull-ups back on. He would only wear his underwear. So by his own decision exactly two weeks ago, he has become potty-trained. How easy is that!? So now he's wearing Diego underwear, Spiderman underwear and boxer briefs which are just too cute! I don't even have to make him go to the potty. He goes all on his own whenever he needs to go. He doesn't even tell us. Which isn't so great when his butt doesn't get wiped clean. He's also been sleeping in his underwear and has not had the first accident. This is just too great!