Month: October 2020

Loving Thoughts

Published on by katiesencouragementforyou4 Comments

This week we’ve had more contact with friends from our long ago past, than I can remember having in a long, long time!!  What memories we have had in the contact!  Sweet, golden, ripe memories of love and laughter and the richness of sweet fellowship.

However, some of our sweet friends are enduring terrible trials—and I am asking you to pray for them.

I am writing this blog to encourage those who read, who are undergoing trials right now.

God is love, therefore—

God is patient with us. 

God is kind towards us.

God is not jealous, or boastful, or arrogant,

God does not act unbecomingly or demand His Own Way.  (Think about that for a moment– God who has all the power in the universe and could make each of us, do what He wants, chooses not to—chooses to give us a free will, and does not force His will on anyone.  This is what love does.)

God is not irritable with us and He keeps no record of being wronged. 

God does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.

God never gives up on us, never loses faith in us, and God endures with us through every circumstance.   God never fails.      I Corinthians 13

So– Be– Encouraged!!

Masks

Published on by katiesencouragementforyou5 Comments

These past months in our state, we have been mandated to wear masks around.  My children and I have joked about how the hero in Princess Bride said, “I think everyone will be wearing masks in the future.”

I have found the masks uncomfortable many times, but times when I would have been assaulted by an unsavory smell, I have been grateful for the mask—oh that I would have had these masks while I was pregnant!!

These masks have reminded me of the emotional and spiritual masks I wear on a daily basis.  I put on a smiling face mask and pretend everything is ok, when it is not.

After our son died, I started doing that again.  However, something happened.  Something I thought very unpleasant at the time.  I was confronted by a friend about one of my children.  I did not react well.  I took my mask off and exposed my anger and spoke hurtful words.  That confrontation resulted in me actually grieving for my son.  I took my mask off, and I grieved and I grieved and I grieved.

My friend did not want to be my friend any longer after that happened.  I grieved for that as well.

Now I recognize this as a great gift to me from God, who wanted me to feel the pain of my son’s death. He wanted me to feel pain, because in doing so, I would experience God Himself– I would experience His love and His healing.  I would not be keeping all the “ucky” stuff inside, where it would rot away, destroying me from the inside out.

I have heard a song recently that reminds me of this lesson God had for me, called, “Truth be Told” by Matthew West.  I hope you listen to this song, and that it encourages you!!

Tyrone Tompkins, in his video, Free to Be Me, talks about contacting all the people he had hurt and asking for their forgiveness.   I thought—what courage he had—but also—what freedom he now has.  The truth has set him free.

I think this is the freedom that God wants all of us to have.  He wants us to be real with each other and take off our masks and reveal who we really are.  He wants us to admit it when we have sinned against each other, even if we risk rejection from each other.  He will never reject us.  We will always belong to Him.  He will continually forgive.  This thought has encouraged me on my darkest days!  I pray it will encourage you as well.

Pruning Time

Published on by katiesencouragementforyou4 Comments

This is the time of year to prune bushes and trees.  They need the winter to heal and restore after a pruning, so they can grow healthier, fuller, and with more blossoms in the spring and summer.  I have been pruning our bushes and trees and have been giving them a deeper pruning than I usually do.  Several of them, have gotten overgrown for the space they are in, and needed to be cut back severely.  I prune off their dead and damaged branches, shape the bushes and trees and cut them back to a size fitting the space they have in my garden. My motivation for pruning my garden, is that the plants will be healthier in the long run, even though they are being hurt in the short run when I cut their branches.

I think that God—the Master Gardener—does this with me and you.  He prunes us—He takes things out of our lives, takes away the dead and damaged and makes us more fitting to what our role is in the body of Christ.  In all of us, He seeks to conform us to the image of Christ.  (Romans 8:29)

Jesus died to free us from our sin, and God is not content to leave us in our sin.  He wants us to experience the freedom we have in Him; He wants us to experience His love and forgiveness; He wants us to truly experience intimacy in our relationship with Him.

There is a song called,  “Scars” by I am They and there is a line that goes—“I’m Thankful for the scars, because without them, I wouldn’t know Your heart.”

I can so relate to this song.  It is in the pruning of my life, that I have seen God’s heart towards me– His commitment to me– His intense love for me.

That sounds like a contradiction—and yet it is not.  It shows me I really am His child.   (Hebrews 12:6)

When I am pruned by God—I know, He is in charge, He has the best in mind for me, He loves me so much, He is not content to leave me in my broken and shattered state.

  So—the next time it seems as if God is pruning you—I hope you’ll remember that He is motivated by His great love for you—and you will be encouraged!!

Lyrics to “Scars”

Waking up to a new sunrise

Looking back from the other side

I can see now with open eyes

Darkest water and deepest pain

I wouldn’t trade it for anything

Cause my brokenness brought me to You

And these wounds are a story You’ll use

So I’m thankful for the scars

Cause’ without them I wouldn’t know Your heart

And I know they’ll always tell of who You are

So forever I am thankful for the scars

Now I’m standing in confidence

With the strength of Your faithfulness

And I’m not who I was before

No, I don’t have to fear anymore

So I’m thankful for the scars

Cause’ without them I wouldn’t know Your heart

And I know they’ll always tell of who You are

So forever I am thankful for the scars

I can see, I can see How You delivered me

In Your hands, In Your feet I found my victory

I’m thankful for Your scars Cause’ without them I wouldn’t know Your heart

And with my life I’ll tell of who You are

So forever I am thankful

for I’m thankful for the scars Cause’ without them I wouldn’t know Your heart

And I know they’ll always tell of who You are

So forever I am thankful for the scars