March in Review

April 1, 2022April 1, 2022 RefreshHer8 Comments

I’m loving Daylight Savings time! The Golden Hour in my kitchen has been so pretty this month!

My grandsons come nearly every week for Bible club. Oh, the joy to teach them of Christ! This was a lesson about the miracle at the wedding of Cana. We got to have a celebration, like the wedding feast. But our celebration was to rejoice in the fact that one of them had trusted Christ as his Savior at home that morning!!!

Then, joy of joys his brother accepted Jesus as his Savior three days later! My heart is so very full!! I’m thankful that salvation is simple enough for a little child to understand. But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Matthew 19:14

My precious parents celebrated their 67th anniversary on the 23rd of March. How blessed we are to celebrate with them. God has given them the joy of many years, each one a gift from His hands and we are thankful!

I’m getting to help a friend with a project in her beautiful 100 year-old house and it’s been such a joy! Here’s a little peek at the work in progress. Old homes have such character and beauty!

I had the blessing of attending ladies prayer advance in Roanoke, Virginia.. It was three days of singing, praising God, having the Word of God poured into us, spending precious time in prayer, and an added blessing was time together as friends. I came home with sunshine in my soul!

This past week was spent in Kentucky with my parents. What a blessing to get to serve them during their senior years. I got to cook for them, dig in the dirt and plant pansies, take them to appointments, do some household tasks, and just spend time together with them. Precious! I also had a fun lunch date with my sister and had the opportunity to catch up! So very blessed!

We all struggle with ups and downs of life and I am certainly not immune to those. However, I want to focus my attention on my great God because he is better, sweeter and richer than anything this earth has to offer.

Tell me how you have seen God at work in your life this month!

Praise · Thanksgiving

Lie and Praise

November 21, 2017November 21, 2017 RefreshHer2 Comments

I have a love/hate relationship with the Auto-correct on my cell phone. When I want it to correct a misspelled word, it often does, and I love that. However, it doesn’t read my mind and it often makes assumptions at times that aren’t always right. It can be very frustrating! I know I’m not alone in this.

Recently a friend was texting about whether or not she would be able to attend our church’s Pie and Praise service this week. However, her auto-correct fixed the word Pie to what it assumed was correct. So she let her friends know she wouldn’t be attending the “Lie and Praise” on Tuesday night! I laughed until my sides hurt over that one!

However, the more I’ve thought about it, the more convinced I am that her auto-correct may have been right after all! Oh, I’m sure no one who attends a praise service would purposefully lie about their praise, but there’s a way that I see myself not giving honest praise to my God. Here’s what the next part of Psalm 103 tells us to do:

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Don’t forget all His benefits!! I lift my hands and say, “Thank you, Lord!” This past Sunday after praying and thanking the Lord for His benefits, I marched out the door, went to church, and when someone asked me how I was, the first thing I told them was that I had a migraine! What?! Could I have not shared at least three things God had done for me instead? What about all the parts of me that felt great, thanks to my God who holds this body together?! But no, I turned my praise into a lie by not sharing God’s blessings and goodness with that person! I’m thankful for the conviction of the Spirit of God, because I was able to get it right with Him when I confessed it!

Isn’t it easy to praise one minute and complain the next? God has done so much for us, but if we praise Him one minute and gripe and grumble the next, we’re really lying instead of praising.

I’m asking the Lord to help me to attend the Pie and Praise instead of the Lie and Praise – not just at church this week, but every day of my life!

Do you find yourself praising or grumbling today? Let’s remember all His benefits and praise His name! No lying!

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Praise · Thanksgiving · Uncategorized

Pie and Praise

November 20, 2017November 20, 2017 RefreshHer4 Comments

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I’ve been scouring through pie recipes looking for something great to take to our church Pie and Praise Fellowship Tuesday night. The possibilities are endless, but the success rate on some of them looks doubtful.

So many ingredients!

So many steps!

But there’s one thing I can take with me to that fellowship that is very simple – a heart of praise. Why? Because according to Psalm 103:

Bless the Lord – There’s only one Person Who deserves my praise – it’s my God! I may struggle over which pie to make, but I can never wonder Who deserves my gratitude – it’s my wonderful God! To “bless the Lord” is to give Him praise. This phrase comes with a heart of affection and a sense of gratitude. There is none else who deserves my thanks and praise but the Lord!
O my soul – My mind and heart are all in when I’m praising God! Some of these instructions in the pie recipes are confusing and so complex! Failure seems inevitable! I’ll never go wrong praising the Lord! To bless the Lord with my soul is to use my mind and heart, my emotions and my will. All I have to consider is how great He is, and it comes so readily! My soul was made to have fellowship with God, to enjoy His favor and consider His attributes. I was made to praise the Lord and I will praise Him with my soul!
And all that is within me, bless His holy name. I can give praise with my whole being. While I could keep back a piece of the pie I’m baking and savor it myself (which is tempting sometimes!) to bless God’s name with all that is within me is to praise Him with all my faculties, all my heart, all my will, all my emotions and all my affection. God is worthy of all the praise that I can give Him with my whole being! I will be “all in!”

My pie probably won’t win a prize, but I pray that my praise will be a beautiful delight to my God. He alone is worthy. So I say, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.

I trust you’re preparing your praise to God even more than you’re preparing the food you’ll enjoy on Thursday!

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God's character · Praise · Prayer

God Will Make You Laugh!

October 24, 2017October 23, 2017 RefreshHerLeave a comment

Imagine that you walk into your OB office and you see a 90 year-old pregnant woman sitting there waiting for her appointment. Yes, it’s Sarah, Abraham’s wife. While waiting for her name to be called, she’s knitting little baby slippers for her first-born son. She sees you looking at her, a little grin stealing away on your face, and she smiles, nods and says, “It is funny, isn’t it? Let me tell you how this happened! This baby is God’s gift to me and my husband – he’s 100!”

Then she laughs, and seeing her joy, you laugh with her. We read in Genesis 21:6, “God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.”

God revels in doing what seems to us to be the impossible. His acts are so astounding that often, they are laugh-worthy! They are surprises in answer to our prayers that we would have never dreamed of! A son is raised to LIFE?! There were probably sad tears that turned to laughter! A man is struck blind on the road and hears a voice from heaven calling his name? From that day on, he no longer persecutes Christians, now he is preaching Christ! A tax collector who had been cheating people now follows Christ and repays those he’s cheated? God feeds one of his servants using a raven?! These situations are all laughable because no one but God could have ever done such wonderful things!

What are you waiting for God to do? Don’t try to figure it out! God is going to do it in such a way that will make you laugh! He’s an awesome God and He loves to demonstrate just how awesome He is! When He answers, tell someone so they can laugh with you!

Have you had a “laughable” answer to prayer?

Christian Life · Praise · Speech

With Words of Praise

July 26, 2017July 25, 2017 RefreshHerLeave a comment

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This hideously adorable donkey lives on a farm about an hour from us. We have affectionately named him “Lester.” Lester is very jealous of the other animals on the farm. How do I know? If visitors gather to pay homage to the lovely peacock, or ooo and ahhh over the long neck of the ostrich who lives there, he will begin his very loud and obnoxious,

Hee-haw! Hee-Haw!

It’s really comical to hear him. Not only is his noise hilarious, his mouth and ears look quite funny when he’s going off on his rampage!

While listening to Lester, I turned to my husband and said, “I’m sure thankful I can sing! Wouldn’t it be terrible to open your mouth and sound like that?!”

The next day as I sat to have my quiet time, I read Psalm 145. I was moved at how many times it talks of using my mouth to praise the Lord. Words like, extol, bless, praise, speak and utter were all reminders that God wants me to use my voice for His glory. I must praise Him with speech and song. I must tell others of His goodness by the use of my voice. However, I often neglect the chance to speak up! I remain silent, or I don’t give honor belonging only to the Lord.

Even little things like praising Him like when someone passes and says, “It’s a pretty day, isn’t it?” needs to be followed with, “Yes, and I thank the Lord for making it.” Anything else would be like Lester’s “Hee-Haw!“
At testimony time at church, if I fail to stand and praise Him for prayer He’s answered, I’m belting out “Hee-Haw” instead.
When the opportunity to share the Gospel is given and I am too afraid to share it, my lips are uttering ol’ Lester’s ugly “Hee-Haw!” greetings instead of the Truth that will set that person free!
To miss the opportunity to pray my thanks for a meal, for God’s comfort, His presence, for answered prayer, or for provision is to selfishly call attention to myself rather than my great God. Hee-Haw!
“Hee-haw!” is what I’m really saying if I’m not singing with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and making melody in my heart during the song service at church.

We all have a voice, given by the Lord. Are you using yours to praise the Lord, or do the sounds that come from your lips resemble Lester? Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord!

With praise to Him,