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Here is an interesting article "Food for thought" if you will: Collide Magazine » Blog Archive » Cupcake Marketing

To Tweet or not to Tweet...

Here is a stunning statistic that jumped out at me while going through piles of junk mail. "The typical American spends roughly twenty times more hours each week engaged with media than involved with all forms of traditional religious activity". Quoted from a pamphlet from an organization called faithHighway.

I had to ask myself- how true was this for me? I began to have memories of the dinner table and the sacred moments of family time being interrupted by a "chorus" of ringtones generated by overzealous finger communication. Yes, text messaging has become a normal part of dinner conversation. Our precious family time has been invaded by a messages from friends who basically now join with us at the supper table. Perhaps on the bright side to this is that I don't need to feed the additional mouths ... But, how much time do we spend focused on Jesus in our family moments or my personal time.

Ironically, I have been wrestling with whether to add to my list of "things I do on the computer" each day - Tweeting.

Technology to me once was a way to save time, organize and structure our lives that are continually in motion. The desktop PC was a core location to set priorities, keep in touch with long lost friends and communicate with family members who you may (or may not) really want to speak to live in person. Yes, technology is the curtain that opened to more... The big question is, more of what?

The truth of the matter when all is said - I spend more time with my fingers on the keyboard than hands folded in prayer or paging through the Word. I am convicted...

on that note, I sign off - for now!

So Thirsty...

I had a wonderful quiet time today learning about John the Baptist – I am studying Luke . It never ceases to amaze me how the Word of God is living and comes alive in new ways. I feel as though, I am sitting under a faucet with my mouth open – in a spiritual sense. I remember when I was young doing that very thing with the outside spicket on our house. It was a small white cape cod with the black shutters in Grandville –all the neighbor kids would gather there at our house to play kick the can. We would run and play until we were so thirsty, that we formed a line to get to the spicket. The spicket water- how fresh the water tasted … it was cold, crisp and smelled wonderful. We would let the water run for a time, to make sure there were no foreign things in the faucet that did not belong! The water was so refreshing after playing hard on a hot summer night.

Spiritually and emotionally, I have been running hard – I am grateful for the time to refresh and rest my soul under the healing flow of the Word and Spirit. There are days I have felt the presence of the Spirit so heavy on my heart that I have wept and laid prostrate for hours. There are moments when I feel the anointing of the Spirit wash over me like rain, I walk around with goose bumps and have wanted to burst out laughing! I wished to be able to share with someone what is happening and what I am feeling and experiencing, and then I hear the Lord gently say: this is our time to share, just be still and enjoy. This may sound strange - it likely is! At times -I cry one minute and laugh another, and then the release comes and I feel the comfort and peace. I know that people are praying us through these hours and days of discouragement… I am in awe and humbled by the mercy of our Lord.

Putting away the Christmas Tree....

It is Saturday, and I finally resolved to pack up our 12 foot artificial Christmas tree this morning. My family dreads to put the thing up, and they groan when it is time to put it away. It was quite a gift of love to have our tree up this year, as originally, my husband set up a very pathetic looking "slim" four foot tree on a box in front of the bay window in our living room. It was so slim that it really did not want to hold the lights on the tree without tipping over to one side. I was depressed seeing this representation of what our Christmas felt like it would be after a difficult year as a family. This puny pathetic tree, was representing exactly how I was feeling inside. It was at this moment, that I had a breakthrough of sorts - well, more like a revelation of what was truly going on in this mind and heart of mine. I was suffering from "the feel sorry for myself syndrome". After recently losing my job (like nearly thousands of other poor people in this state) I had determined, that I had a worse life somehow.
I find it amazing how the Lord knows my name, He knows my quirkiness, He knows my temperament, and more than anything - He loves me, despite my selfishness. What a Savior, kind and true. I began to hear His voice in my quiet time, in the morning watching the sun rise, in music that touched my heart in a way that only the most intimate relationship between the God of the universe and I would ever be able to communicate with one another. Yes, the Lord is faithful and merciful, His love endures forever!