From the Abundance of My Heart:

I love my morning (and afternoon) quiet times here at work. That is one incredible benefit of ministry life- you always get to be in His Word. From teaching a Bible class with the kids, to just reading because I want to! What a wonderful life :) Here are some of my fav.'s from the past week or so...
"He doesn't heal us so He can use us. He heals us because He loves us, and then He invites us to play." -quote from Paul Young, author of The Shack.
The Holy Spirit watches over us with tender jealousy. -from James 4:5
"But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure and full of quiet gentleness. Then it is peace-loving and courteous. It allows discussion and it willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It is wholehearted and straightforward and sincere." James 3:17
"If anyone can control his tongue it proves that he has perfect control over himself in every other way." James 3:2 (that's one to memorize!)
"Even when we are too weak to have any faith left, He remains faithful to us and will help us, for He cannot disown us who are part of Himself and He will always carry out His promises to us." 2 Timothy 2:13
"If you stay away from sin you will be like one of those dishes made of purest gold- the very best in the house- so that Christ Himself can use you for his highest purposes."
-I love this one. We can be like God's fine china-
"But the spiritual man has insight into everything and that bothers and baffles the man of the world who can't understand him at all. How could he? For certainly he has never been one to know the Lord's thoughts, or discuss them with Him, or to move the hands of God by prayer. But strange as it seems, we Christians actually do have within us a portion of the very thoughts and mind of Christ!" 1 Corinthians 2:15

And I have started a new book! Big surprise, huh? It's called In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day by Mark Batterson, and it is so amazing. He uses the story of Beniah, one of David's strong men, and the day that he came upon a lion on a snowy day. He didn't run, like normal people would do. He chased the lion into a pit, and then he killed it.
He compares our lives as followers of Christ to that one-liner in 2 Samuel about when Beniah CHOSE fear over the comfortable and much safer decision. I'll write about it more later. I'm only on chapter 4! So stay tuned!


"Many of our prayers are misguided. We pray for comfort instead of character. We pray for an easy way out instead of the strength to make it through. We pray for no pain, when the result would be no gain. We pray that God will keep us out of pits and away from lions. But if God answered our prayer, it would rob us of our greatest opportunities. Many of our prayers would short-circuit God's plans and purposes for our lives if He answered them. Maybe we should stop asking God to get us out of difficult circumstances and start asking Him what He wants us to get out of those difficult circumstances."