This beautiful girl is my daughter Stephanie. She was 11 years old when this picture was taken. My niece who was a budding photographer, took pictures of our budding model. She didn't stay with modeling, but Kim turned out to be an excellent photographer!

"These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. {John 16:1}

These things that Jesus refers to are the hard times that come when we will be persecuted and misunderstood. He warns us, so that we are not caught in questions such as,"Why didn't God save me from this trial? "Why did that one have to die? "How come bad things happen to good people?"

It is hard to reconcile these questions, but we know that our loving Heavenly Father does not put us in harms way unless there is a good reason. As Joseph spoke to his long lost brothers in Genesis, What you meant for evil God meant for good, we see that God brought it all together at the end. We don't always see the end being good on this earth, but we will when we meet Jesus face to face, or more often "who we become" through the trial.

God is interested in using us here, for His glory, so His hand sometimes may seem harsh. His desire is that the unsaved will see our witness as true believers following our Lord, to the end, whatever that "end" may be. As a Father longs to protect His children so our Father longs for us, but He, who knows the end from the beginning also knows the good that comes when we cannot see it. He being all knowing, knows the wickedness of our flesh much better than we do. Many trials bring our flesh under control, as He sands us down like a carpenter prepares a fine piece of furniture for staining. The more we allow Him to work, the easier the process becomes. Let God, and let God! Life will be much better that way!

Good morning! What a wonderful God we serve! He is just so faithful! I am in Orlando Florida, about to go to Animal Kingdom with my husband, daughter and her friend, where we will meet up with old friends who live in the area. Yesterday we went to Epcot and it was so lovely, even though it was a packed house.

 The glory of God could be seen in everything we did. From Soarin, to Nemo's aguarium, and all the  countries that were varied in their culture and style.God loves all people, no matter what their lives are like, but He desires deeply to touch all with His powerful love and healing.

Seeing all the crowds, I couldn't help wonder what their lives are like, where they were from, and what they knew of our Wonderful Savior! Do they have the priviledge of being a part of an on-fire church, where they can grow in Christ, or have they never walked into the doors of a church?

My Dad was such a man. He didn't even get married in a church, much less go to one of his own volition. My life was the only witness that he had of what a Christian is like, until my husband came into the picture. They didn't get along because my Father was angry and demanding, but my husband wanted to encourage and uplift me, which he does every day.

As I grew older, My heart was burdened for my Dad, and I prayed and asked the Lord to show me ways in which I could minister to him. I knew under all of his gruffness was a heart that was hurting . Maybe you have someone right now in your life who is not considerate of your feelings. Only Jesus can give you a love for them and a heart to reach them for Christ. Call upon Jesus with a contrite heart, and He will answer, just as He did with my Dad.

As it turns out, the Lord laid it on my heart to get my Dad a dog because he was a huge animal lover. This profoundly touched my Father, and changed his attitude towards us. God is a good Father and He knows how to touch anyone, no matter how hard their hearts are. Blessing, Blessings, Blessings!

I like shoes, but I don't buy everything I see, so when I saw this picture, I thought how I would enjoy coloring it. I don't do this often, but it's nice to do if you are sitting in front of the t.v.. Shoes can tell a lot about a person.

Some women like shoes that are flashy and have a lot of bling. Some like heals, some like flats. Some have old lady shoes like me, because I have bunions, and can't wear heals. Don't you know that I have tried! I will rarely wear shoes that I think are beautiful, but hurt my feet by the end of the day, and into the next.

Women have particular tastes in most things. When it comes to God, the lover of our souls, we want Him, in all of His glory and wonder, we need to prefer Him over other things.  Sometimes we don't feel as if we deserve Him, which is just not true. When we pursue Jesus, He longs to hold us close and hear our heart's cry. I wonder why we have trouble accepting the completeness of His love?

Could guilt be standing in the way? We feel guilty for past sins, and mistakes we made, but if we repent, and turn from these things, they are thrown in to the sea of forgetfulness. I guess we have to forgive ourselves. If the Almighty God of all heaven and earth has released us for our guilt and sin, we ought to grab hold of it and be free! Do we know better than Jesus?

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." {Galatians 5:1-2}

If we could see what Jesus sees, with all the spiritual warfare behind the scenes, we would never choose to go back to slavery. Stand! Stand! Stand! Is what I hear my Father saying to me. Don't give any place to the enemy. You can stand too, if you pray, read God's word, have godly fellowship and kept it going on a regular basis. Grow in the things of God, and you will always choose to go the way of our Father. He loves you more than words can say!

Blessing and love to you this sunny Friday! Here in N.Y. Most school are out next week, because of winter break. February is moving right along. We like it that way. Only four months and it will be June.

A few weeks ago we bought a new sofa for our family room. The one that we had seems fine for a few years, but recently it had bee sagging terribly, so we had our handyman open it up so we could repair it. We could not believe what we didn't see! There were no springs, foam, or metal support system. All we saw were these straps that crisscrosses the entire width and that was all there was to hold the cushions in place. No wonder we felt as if we could drop right into the thing!

Hang on for a minute while I explain this next part. It may seem irrelevant, but it will fit, I promise. Earlier today I was really feeling the need for some sun on my face, so I laid down on the floor in our dining room. There was a small patch of sunshine hitting that area of the wood floor. To those of you in warmer climates, this is what us New Yorkers do with our spare time during the winter!

As I felt the warmth of the sun on my skin I thought about how clueless we would be without sunlight; there would be no life at all. It's only because of the exact right tilt of earth to the sun that we don't freeze or burn up!

It is the support of the sun to our planet that allows for life. It was the lack of support that caused our sofa to become useless. So how does this make any sense for your day? We can sometimes be like my old sofa. We lack the support that we need to stand up. We can fizzle out under the weight of all the pressure from the boss who just doesn't understand your need to be home in time to get your son off the bus. Or maybe your and your husband have been angry at each other because someone forgot to pay the electric bill on time, and things excelated from there. 

The point is, without God's loving care and the power of His precious Holy Spirit in our lives we can't bare up under any of life's pressures. We were not made to hold anxiety, fear or stress. The only way life makes sense is when we lay all of our burdens down at the feet of Jesus. He made us to display His glory, and anything less is not him. 

"Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved."   {Psalm 55:22}

This is my card. I know most of you know this already, but if you read my post on facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, you can go to wholeheartedlady.com and place your name in the space provided on the page and my blog will come to your inbox everyday!

"Direct my steps by your word, And let no iniquity have dominion over me." {Psalm 119: 113}

It is funny what people respond to, especially when it comes to movies. My daughter likes horror movies, but I tell her not to open herself up to those things. The more we subject ourselves to the wrong kind of visual or audio, the more it will seem to loose its sting. It won't seem to be as bad as it once seemed. We slowly give it place in our lives as if it is normal, and acceptable.

So it is with sin. At first we know it is wrong, not pleasing to God, but the more we indulge, the more the lines seem to blur. This is a dangerous place to be! We lose sight of God and what He says, and become accustomed to what the enemy of our lives says. We "fit in" with this world, but not the God's anymore. Nothing saddened the heart of God more, than for a christian to forget the wickedness of sin, and wrongdoing.

Thank God that grace can be extended to everyone who reaches out to Jesus in true repentance, with a contrite heart, humbly asking to be restored. It is the life that we live as His children. Getting ourselves up, and asking for the grace to move on. It can be very painful, to humble ourselves, but it is necessary. It is where grace can begin its work in our hearts. Brokenness is a good place, not a comfortable place, but a place to learn. We trust God in brokenness, we are willing to learn.

Our comfort is not what God is looking for. He is looking to move us into a place where He can use us. Moving is never comfortable. It brings upheaval and work, but Jesus has a healing balm that causes us to soar high above all these things, as we lay them at His feet. You don't have to be strong, just obedient.  love to you my dear sweet friends.

Wonderful! Yellow roses in the middle of February; if that doesn't make you think of summer I don't know what will. The sun being out today and the snow melting helps a lot too. I love when the snow comes down, it's when it hangs around for a while that I'm not so fond of.

God promises to wipe away our tears, and He is very good at this! The hope that He gives will make each day brighter and more exciting! "A man is not established by wickedness, But the root of the righteous cannot be moved."   { Proverbs 12:3}

The reason I love this verse is because it gives hope to the wicked, that they don't have to stay in their place of misery. The righteous person, that have their roots down deep in the soil of God's faithfulness and justice, they don't have a worry because they are ready for the storm. They dig even deeper when the winds of adversity come their way. They know Jesus has won the battle, and they live confidently in the Truth.

I feel a new wind is blowing across our country. It is one of victory for those who will stand on God's promises. It is a wind of hope for those who will determine with all their hearts that they will dig deep into the soil of God's word, and hold on with all their might.

 If you have ever done any gardening, you know how important it is  that the soil has the right nutrients in it. Without them the plants will not survive. Jesus has provided us with His Holy Bible which is the right soil for our spirits. We are fed just the right nutrients to grow powerfully and be the women of God that He needs for this specific day in which we live. Be blessed and grow on!

My picture didn't come through! What can you do? I say let's move ahead anyway! Life is too short to wait for everything to be just right! I will tell you that it was a picture of a delicious plate of heart shaped cookies with pink frosting that my daughter's friend spent a lot of time on.

"The Lord will go forth as a mighty man; He will stir up His zeal like a man of war. He shall cry out yes, shout aloud; He shall prevail against His enemies."   Isaiah 42:6

Do we have any doubt that God will prevail over His enemies? No, we know that nothing can stand against Him. Do we wish for Him to come now, and destroy those who are bent on doing evil? Yes, I do. Do I know everything and am I able to keep everything under control? No, I have to admit, I would like to control everything, but I don't. Ugh!

How bad would it be if a mortal was in control of earth, the atmosphere, and all other things? I am SO glad that I don't have any say in that! So it would make sense for me to trust God that He will take care of His enemies at the appropriate time? Yes, it would.  And I do trust Him, sometimes I just wish he would hurry up and do what I know He wants to.

His timing is perfect, and I need to relax, because for all of the things we know, we don't really know. His perspective is is for our good, and He also is interested in others coming to salvation. So He waits, and we pray, and He hears and He answers!

"Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised In the city of our God, In His holy mountain. Beautiful in elevation, The joy of all the earth.   Psalm48:1-2a

What if we could see everything from heaven's point of view? We would not just say, God is great, we would probably say something more like, How amazing and abundantly overwhelming is the Lord God Almighty, who far exceeds the very best of our thoughts and dreams! We would be emphatic, and unmoving in our estimation of who is is. There would be no living with us, because we would never stop singing His praises.

We could be like this even now, because when we pray, and His presence envelopes us, we feel heaven all around. If I could just keep my eyes on Jesus, and not be sucked in to the everydayness of life! There is one problem with this! If I can't empathize with others and know how they feel, I could not pray effectively or help them as I would if I had been through the same thing.

 Do I have to feel everything to be empathetic? No, but being human helps me to understand the human experience so much better. Should I cast my burdens upon the Lord? Absolutely, But I need to realize that all of my life experiences help me to be more like Jesus, and to better identify with those around me.

Be still, and know, that God is so readily able to keep us, and that He very well knows how to make us in His image. There is nothing I would rather do, than give Him praise!

" The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect."   Psalm 33:10


This is an interesting verse. When we think about "the nations" we can be overwhelmed with the very thought! Who are the nations that we think about? Most likely those that are in the new the most, so that would be all of them! But "the nations" that concern us the most would be those in the Middle East.

God is not concerned about the plans that they make, or what they say. He doesn't lose sleep over the fact that so and so has nuclear weapons, or that someone else is mad at someone else. His agenda goes on the no consult with one or the other. The truth of the matter is, He can turn them around in a split second, and make them forget what there plans were.

The only plans we need to concern ourselves with are the ones that God made thousands of years ago, before He even sent Jesus to die for us. God knew before He created mankind that we would need to be saved, and that the final plan of justice would occur at the end. He has a bit of unfinished business with the enemy, something to do with locking him up for a very long time?

We are not too far from all of this, and the nations will all fall into God's plan, even if they don't realize who He is. Psalm 33 continues in verse 14 and 15 to say, "From the place of His dwelling He looks On all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works." He is ever present in the affairs of men. I will keep my eyes on Him!

This little snowbird is happily sitting on my kitchen window sill, between the basil and parsley. The little chickadee in my garage was not so happy. She got closed in and wanted out in the worst way. Once we have tasted of the goodness of the Lord we also can't stand being closed in any longer.

               "How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings, { Psalm 36:7}

As we grow in the ways of the Lord, our capacity for more of His truth grows. We long to be in His presence, and so we spent more time at His feet. Our capacity for truth begins to deepen, and we understand things that we never before could. God's word is opened up to us, and heaven seems so near.

Then something happens! Our son is on the way to the hospital because of a car accident, our husband falls in the driveway and breaks his leg. It could be anything really, but it jolts us into fear, and we become captive to it once again. I remember two years ago my daughter fell in the driveway and broke her foot. We were waiting for hours in the ER, and nothing seemed to be a problem, until the x-ray came back, and revealed three bones in her foot that were fractured. The next few days she was in a tremendous amount of pain. The medication could only do so much. I had lost my balance, and did not pray the way I would have for someone's else's child.

So what do we do in these circumstances? We ask for help from others who will pray in faith and believe God with us, and so we can get up and run again. We need to spend less time down, and more time running! The sooner we get up, the better off we will be. If you feel like you got broadsided by something, call a friend who can pray! They will be able to help you get on track again!

When I get to heaven I hope that I can have a field of flowers like this one, only I am sure it would be even better than this! A picture sets a mood, gives an idea and establishes a feeling, however it is never as good as the reality!

"Now I see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we will see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." {1 Corinthians 13:12}

It is good to know that "what is to come" will be thousands of times better than what we already have. Sin has tarnished everything on this earth, making it only a mere reflection of the best. It wasn't always like this. In the beginning, Genesis, things were so much better with our world. No darkness, no fear, no worries about if you could pay the bills. Every need was provided for.  That is the way God wanted things to be, for all of us.

When sin entered, well you probably know the rest. What really matters is that when Jesus was sent by His Father, He destroyed sin and death! He took it out of the hands of the enemy, and fulfilled every dream and heart's cry of mankind. Sometimes it just doesn't seem that way. Because we are still here on earth, with the enemy of our soul. The battle has been won in the heaven lies, and so we fight to keep the perspective of heaven. Jesus said, "It is finished." 

When He comes the second time, oh, it will be as the Victorious King, and the devil will be bound, with all his demons never to accuse us, pick on us, or lie to us again. He will be completely revealed as the snake in the grass that he is.  

Stephanie managed to get Lena, our westie into the basket for a second! She is so spunky and full of life that even illness doesn't stop her. Praise God!  We can learn from our animals.

"My son, if you receive my words, And treasure my commands within you, So that you incline your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding; Yes, if you cry out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding, If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, And find the knowledge of God.  {Proverbs 2:1-5}

Sometimes we wonder why did Jesus speak in parables? Why didn't He speak plainly for all people to understand? Ah, His words are jewels that need to sought after by those who have a desire to know what they mean. Jesus wants all people to know plainly what He is saying, but if it is not worth your time to dig them up, maybe you don't want them that badly.

And so we see the same thing in this proverb. Treat my words and commands as treasure, and hide them in your heart, where they will benefit you, and help you in the way that you should go. Does God want us to fear Him, oh yes He does, because He is powerful and if you fear God, you won't fear anything else.  Remember He's the one who spoke the world into existence! He is to be revered.

Once Jesus is our single focus, He can begin to speak to us. We can be so divided and distracted, but our only need is to stay close to Him. Find a place where you can be alone. Sit there, and pour out your heart's cry to Him, He is there! Allow Him to pour His love back into you where those hurts and feelings were before you gave them to Him. Soak up His love and grace, because there is nothing in this world that compares! He designed your heart, and only He can fix it.

This is Bethany beach in Delaware. See the little sandpiper near the edge of the water? All he does all day long is run away from the water as it comes into shore. I guess he never realizes that the water is not going to harm him.

God says that He cares for the birds, so how much more will He care for you, because you are worth more than many birds.We can reason, we can make choices, and choose how we will behave.  Our little friend, he can't do any of that. Most importantly, we can choose to have a relationship with God's son, Jesus. It is why He created us, to have relationship with Him. Sometimes that truth can just blow me away!  Why would He, who is all powerful, all knowing, and has all wisdom want to speak to me? I suppose that is the reason for some people to choose unbelief.

Others choose to not think about any of this, but sooner or later, it catches up with all of us. What comes after this life? Is God good?  What do I have to do to go to heaven? The answer to that is nothing. You can't possibly do anything that would cause a righteous God to allow you into His sinless, Holy place called heaven. The work has already been done for you, and for me.

"It is finished," Jesus cried out before He died on the cross. The work has been completed, so all we have to do is obey, receive, believe and listen. Is He calling you to Himself? I believe He is as He has with so many others. The difference is, He knows you by name. I only know that someone will read this and say to themselves, God is speaking to me! Read His written word, the Bible, and listen for Him to speak again. 

I was just speaking to my sister Allison, and she sounded very upbeat, then she informed me it was Friday, and she had a very hectic week. Hmm, I wonder if any of us can relate? It certainly feels good to have the weekend just around the corner. My husband calls this his Friday collapse. Yes, he will be on the sofa with the fireplace stoked.

" Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever."  {Psalm 136:1}

Just because it is cold outside, doesn't mean that we can't enjoy the warmth that this picture brings. There are multiple reports done on the effectiveness of good thoughts on the mind, and on our bodies. The Bible says, " A cheerful or joyful heart is good medicine { Proverbs 17:22} but a broken spirit dries up the bones." This does not mean that we should be fake or untrue to our feelings. No one likes it when another is faking "happy". It tends to come out more like sarcasm, and that doesn't help anyone, especially the person doing it.

"The joy of the Lord is our strength" [Nehemiah 8:10]

Worship and praise to God gives us real joy that can bring us through the most difficult situations. Knowing that Our King, Redeemer and Lover of our souls is always for us can cause us to relax! Yes really, you can relax and enjoy the life God has given you when you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. I know a song for each one of these verses, and if you think about it, you may know them as well. Whether you do or not, know that when we are "In Christ" as I shared yesterday, you are safe in a way that far exceeds the definition in Websters.  Blessings and grace to you this weekend!