He leadeth me beside still waters...

Friday afternoon, during my receptionist duties at the PRC, I had an opportunity to babysit my friend's sweet, smiley baby while she met with a client. :-) So I wrapped up a few of my projects in the office and slipped my sunglasses on as I took Nora on our little expedition in her stroller.

We walked along a beautiful scenic river-way, discovering so much beauty. The birds were singing, the water rushed by, and the trees shadowed the beautiful plant-lined trial.

Psalm 23 came to mind... and I went over it in my mind...

The Lord is my Shepherd; 
I shall not want. 
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: 
He leadeth me beside the still waters. 
He restoreth my soul: 
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. 
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 
I will fear no evil: 
for thou art with me;
 Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. 
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
 Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: 
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.          

The Lord used this time to remind me of His great faithfulness, goodness, and trustworthiness. I can put my life in His hands. He is enough. He knows what's best. Mercy and goodness are following His children every day.

And? He included a happy baby into this wonderful time of praising Him. :-) He always knows what we need and somehow sees fit to give us extra... <3

~Where joy is~

Picture credit goes to my sister, Alyssa. 

"You make known to me the path of life;

    in Your presence there is fullness of joy;

    at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

~Psalms 16:11

I've always loved this verse, but sometimes it's easy to read the Bible without application, isn't it? Well, I was recently encouraged to daily remind myself of this verse and apply it to the moment...

~That in the presence of the Lord we find fullness of joy.

~At His right hand we will find pleasures that last forever and ever.

Such precious and amazing reminders of where to focus our eyes on through the daily hustle of life!

~Our Treasure~

Yes! I love this quote:

"When God's forgiveness and acceptance have freed us from fear and pride and greed, we are filled with a zeal to love others the way we have been loved. We risk our possessions and our lives since we are secure in Christ. When we love others like this, our behavior is contrary to human self-enhancement and self-preservation. Attention is thus drawn to our life-transforming Treasure and Security, namely, God."
~John Piper

A summer update... =)

With a little sweetie at a Run for the PRC!

Hello, friends!

These summer days have been filled with so much learning... so much is going on, and getting my thoughts together for a blog post hasn't been the easiest! (I am doing well though...)

And here's a quote I just ran across. So good.

"In this life, there will be plenty of reasons to worry. But we have more reasons to trust. God has been more than faithful in the past. Because He sent Jesus to rescue us from our sin, we can trust Him with all our worries and fears, today and every tomorrow. When life’s unexpected challenges and overwhelming tasks tempt us to worry, when our to-do list gets long and sleep evades us, let us look to the cross and believe, trusting in what God has already done, and what He said He would do."
~Christina Fox

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And if you would like to contact me, I would love to hear from you anytime and will for sure make a point to write back! My address is: whitefrosting8 (@) gmail (dot) com

Blessings! 

~Jesus Paid It All~

I hear the Savior say,

“Thy strength indeed is small;

Child of weakness, watch and pray,

Find in Me thine all in all.”

For nothing good have I

Whereby Thy grace to claim,

I’ll wash my garments white

In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.

And now complete in Him

My robe His righteousness,

Close sheltered ’neath His side,

I am divinely blest.

Lord, now indeed I find

Thy power and Thine alone,

Can change the leper’s spots

And melt the heart of stone.

When from my dying bed

My ransomed soul shall rise,

“Jesus died my soul to save,”

Shall rend the vaulted skies.

And when before the throne

I stand in Him complete,

I’ll lay my trophies down

All down at Jesus’ feet.

Jesus paid it all,

All to Him I owe;

Sin had left a crimson stain,

He washed it white as snow.

~Inexhaustible grace~

"Grace,... allows me to hear the hardest things about my flaws and patterns of sin because I know, by grace, that there is no flaw I can discover nor any sin I can unearth that can ever decimate my life. I cannot be any more loved and accepted than I am by the Lord who loves me with the full knowledge of what I have done, am doing, and will do; I have unshakable confidence that nothing can reduce His love for me. Therefore, I am free to admit my desperation. In so doing, I can experience real change, which is the very power of the kingdom of heaven in my life.

What marks kingdom people as genuine Christians is that they keep coming back to this one thing - the inexhaustible grace of God, knowing that it is all we have and all we need."
~Elyse Fitzpatrick

The Lord is good...

"Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;

Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!"

Psalm 34:8

~New mercies for each day~

I have been learning lately the value of focusing on one day at a time... focusing on God's great love for me... and focusing on His sovereignty.

There is something within each of us, that wants to control our lives, isn't there? But it is a fruitless pursuit. It is a road filled with worry and anxiety. No matter how hard we try we are incredibly insufficient to plan our life out.

And to add a little note: I'm not necessarily saying we shouldn't plan or have dreams and goals, but that we should focus on today and eternity mostly and hold those dreams/plans for the future lightly. As Corrie Ten Boom aptly puts it: "Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open."

So here comes faith. God IS indeed in control. And that is good news... yet, I find there's a daily surrender I have to do to refocus my mind on His majesty and my dependence. Placing hopes and dreams on the Lover of my soul, who has planned life out.

So I'm learning to refocus on the truth. Trust in Him. Because fretting "only causes harm"... (Psalm 37:8b).

And what does the Bible tell us to do instead?
Let's look here:
"Trust in the Lord, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lord,
and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in Him, and He will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him..."
~Psalm 37:3-7

There's so much direction packed into those verses, isn't there?

His mercies are new for each day. They're happening right now. They're not for tomorrow yet...

Our loving Father holds our lives in His hand. Nothing can stop His sovereign plans!

Take heart with me, and let's delight in our God and His mercies for today! =) =)