Blessings - Laura Story

 

[this song speaks to me EVERY TIME I hear it]

 

"Blessings"

We pray for blessings, we pray for peace.
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep.
We pray for healing, for prosperity.
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering.
And all the while, You hear each spoken need,
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things.

'Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops.
What if Your healing comes through tears.
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near.
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise.

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear.
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near.
We doubt Your goodness; we doubt Your love...
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough.
And all the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe.

'Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops.
What if Your healing comes through tears.
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near.
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise.

When friends betray us...
When darkness seems to win,
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not,
This is not our home!
It's not our home.

'Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops.
What if Your healing comes through tears.
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near.

What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy.

What if trials of this life...
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights...
Are your mercies in disguise.

Colossians 3:12-17

Seven Word Status

 

I am truly blessed with wonderful friends.

 

 

Someone Worth Dying For - Mike's Chair

 

 

"Someone Worth Dying For"

Mike's Chair

You might be the wife waiting up at night
You might be the man struggling to provide
Feeling like it's hopeless

Maybe you're the son who chose a broken road
Maybe you're the girl thinking you'll end up alone
Praying God, can You hear me?
Oh, God, are You listening?

Am I more than flesh and bone?
Am I really something beautiful?
Yeah, I wanna believe
I wanna believe that

I'm not just some wandering soul
That You don't see and You don't know
Yeah, I wanna believe, Jesus, help me believe
That I am someone worth dying for

I know you've heard the truth that God has set you free
But you think you're the one that grace could never reach
So you just keep asking
Oh, what everybody's asking

Am I more than flesh and bone?
Am I really something beautiful?
Yeah I wanna believe
I wanna believe that

I'm not just some wandering soul
That You don't see and You don't know
Yeah, I wanna believe, Jesus, help me believe
That I am someone worth dying for

You're worth it, you can't earn it
Yeah, the cross has proven
That You're sacred and blameless
Your life has purpose

You are more than flesh and bone
Can't you see, you're something beautiful?
Yes, you gotta believe, you gotta believe
He wants you to see, He wants you to see

That you're not just some wandering soul
That can't be seen and can't be known
Yeah, you gotta believe, you gotta believe that you are
Someone worth dying for, oh

You're someone worth dying for, oh
You're someone worth dying for

Listen up!

I believe that God speaks to us all the time.  And if we don't listen, He speaks louder.  And if we still don't hear Him, He finds a way to speak louder.  And if we continue to disregard His voice, He'll get even LOUDER...until He has to use drastic, possibly painful, measures to get our attention.

Well, apparently I haven't been listening to His words for me lately.  Because in the last two weeks, I've had a couple of very hard lessons handed to me.  After being hurt and angry, and then crying for hours...on TWO different occasions, I heard His message loud and clear.  "Move on!  Let go!  I have other plans for you!"

Failing to listen to God's word, shows our (my) determination to pursue life through our (my) own resources and foolishness.  Why would I not choose to listen to the One Who created me?  Had I listened earlier, it could have saved a lot of tears and frustration.

Not only that, listening to God shows that I trust Him.  I DO trust Him.  And I want Him to know that I trust Him.  He knows much better than I do, what it better for me.


James 1:19-25 
19Know this, my dear brothers: everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, 20for the wrath of a man does not accomplish the righteousness of God. 21Therefore, put away all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls.*
22Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.  23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his own face in a mirror.  24He sees himself, then goes off and promptly forgets what he looked like.**
25But the one who peers into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres, and is not a hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts.  Such a one shall be blessed in what he does.***

* [19-21]To be quick to hear the gospel is to accept it readily and to act in conformity with it, removing from one’s soul whatever is opposed to it, so that it may take root and effect salvation.
** [22-24]To listen to the gospel message but not practice it is failure to improve oneself.
*** [25]Only conformity of life to the perfect law of true freedom brings happiness.

Merry Christmas!

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

 

[I sang this during communion at mass today...though not nearly as well as Fernando Ortega does here.]

I love the haunting, yet peaceful melody of this song.  (It speaks to my somber mood this weekend.)  And the words are beautiful and especially appropriate for the Christmas season.

Seven Word Status

 

Fighting depression today...sequestered in my home.

All I Want for Christmas

- someone to share my life with, a soulmate that loves me and thinks I'm beautiful, even when I'm not.
- a clean, organized, comfortably decorated, warm and cozy, softly lit home with the light scent of vanilla and burning leaves.
- employment for my friends and family who aren't working and want to be.
- a successful Relay...and no more cancer!
- no more depression...for anyone!
- self-discipline, a diligent work ethic, patience, and a humble and kind heart.

Philippians 4:4-7

[the second reading from mass this weekend...and one of my favorite passages when I'm stressed]

Brothers and sisters:
Rejoice in the Lord always.
I shall say it again: rejoice!
Your kindness should be known to all.
The Lord is near.
Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Seven Word Status

 

Must learn to stop holding a grudge.

Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11

[the second reading from mass this weekend]

Brothers and sisters:

I pray always with joy in my every prayer for all of you,
because of your partnership for the gospel
from the first day until now.
I am confident of this,
that the One who began a good work in you
will continue to complete it
until the day of Christ Jesus.

God is my witness,
how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
And this is my prayer:
that your love may increase ever more and more
in knowledge and every kind of perception,
to discern what is of value,
so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
filled with the fruit of righteousness
that comes through Jesus Christ
for the glory and praise of God.

Seven Word Status

 

He loves me.  He loves me not.

1 Thessalonians 3:12-13

[from the second reading at mass this weekend]

Brothers and sisters:
May the Lord make you increase and abound in love
for one another and for all,
just as we have for you,
so as to strengthen your hearts,
to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father
at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. Amen.

Finally, brothers and sisters,
we earnestly ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that,
as you received from us
how you should conduct yourselves to please God
and as you are conducting yourselves
you do so even more.
For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

Seven Word Status

 

65 degrees on December 1st!

Greenhouse effect?