How blessed we are to have friends who lift us up, who speak truth to us, who listen, give advice, encouragement and their constant prayers. This is richness; this is true treasure to have such wonderful women in your life.




Tuesday, June 25, 2013

My Soul Finds Stillness

Hello girls!

The Lord is so good!  I am much like Bev mentioned in this week's chapter.  I am decidedly NOT an auditory learner.  I learn far better by seeing what I need to learn than hearing it.  I think that is why so often the Lord teaches me through object lessons.  This week we had a birthday party at my house for my little one year old granddaughter.  She gave to me the perfect object lesson for one of the primary verses we used in this chapter:  Psalm 131:2-"But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me."  By the end of her party, Adley was spent.  Her day was napless, and she had more than her fair share of birthday cupcakes.  Her sugar high had crashed, and she was feeling every bit of her fatigue and low blood sugar.  Adley was pretty much inconsolable...except with her mom.  All Adley wanted was her mom to hold her.  Once in Kaley's arms, Adley found peace and was able to relax.  What a picture!!!!  

The next day as I read this passage, I could not help but think of my little Adley bug content in her mom's arms, cuddled up close to her.  That is what I can experience with God!  That is what you can experience with God!  Why in the world do we let such peace slip though our fingers each day????  Are we crazy????

I found it interesting that on page 53, Linda writes;

 "I am tired, but not from physical labor.  My tiredness comes from the frantic pace of life around me.  Yours likely does too. As I look at my friends and myself, I fear we are becoming nervous, anxious, overactive people who don't know how to be still.  We rarely give our full attention to anyone or anything.  We're always thinking ahead to the next thing that must be done, the next person we must talk to and check off our list.  We do the same with God.  We hurry our "quiet time," which is anything but quiet.  Our bodies sit, but our minds race.  Ready to get on with the day, we hope our moments with God win His approval."

I wrote next to the passage:  "Whoa!!!"  These words hit too close to home and even in this week.  I found myself getting on with my devotions so I could get on with my day.  There was no time to "crawl up into the lap of God and rest like a weaned child."  I had things to do!!!

What I loved about this chapter is that Linda made it clear this was a common ailment for those of us who truly love God and want to go deeper in our relationship with Him.  She also made it clear that this kind of fast paced loving of God was unworthy of Him and counterproductive to our lives.  What an epiphany!!!  The SOLE purpose of all my rushing is to be productive and not lose a moment to idleness.  Some years back, my oldest granddaughter, who was all of four or five years old at the time, asked me why I was "rushing all the time."  Obviously,  this has been an issue in my life for quite awhile.  There have been  those wonderful moments when I have entered into some sweet times with my Lord and I think "I will never go back to that frenetic way of life again."  But somehow...someway it sneaks itself back in:(  This, though, I know is true...once you have experienced God on a deeper level, you crave it for the rest of your life, and I believe God will not let us rest until we find out way back to His loving, peaceful arms.  

One of the practical ideas that I will be using this week is having a notepad and pen next to me as I worship and the minute one of those Oh, so important thoughts hits my head...as I know they will...I will jot them down quickly and get back to focusing on Who is truly important.

I am bound and determined to grow in my worship.  I so want to please Him and to bring Him joy and pleasure.  I have got to wrap my mind around the truth that my most fruitful time is on my knees worshiping the God of the Universe who is worthy of my time and devotion.

Love and a worshipful, restful time in His arms this week:)

Cherri

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Introduce Yourself!!!!

Hello, my friends!!!

Let's get to know one another!  I am certain you are all busy ladies, but can I ask you to take a few moments to introduce yourself to the others who will be joining us this summer on the blog? Let's do something a little different and have some fun:)  Along with giving a short bio of yourself, tell us the best piece of advice you were ever given about marriage, parenting or relationship with others in your life...Boss?  Mother-in-law?  Teachers?  Difficult Neighbors? 

Each week I will try to have up a post asking a new question for you girls to answer.  Please feel free to enjoy this blog.  I would love to hear from you and I am sure the other girls would as well.  After all, this blog is entitled TOGETHER we are one wise woman:)

Have a blessed week, Sisters!!!

Cherri

PS  Just hit the  "comments" button at the bottom of this post and type away!  I will try to get a comment up asap just in case you need an example.

My Worship Awakening

Good morning, my blog sisters...

I have talked with some of you and found that many have yet to receive your books.  That really is no problem since this is pretty much a "no rules blog."   What that means is that you can start anytime and comment on any week we are addressing or have addressed.  Anyone who has entered their email address in the "keep up by email"  for this blog will receive an e-mail alert whenever there has been a new post or comment.  We can discuss back and forth over the weeks as the Holy Spirit leads.   I will put up an "Introduce yourself" post sometime today so that even those who have yet to receive their books can interact with us a bit.  We have some friends joining us from outside the state this summer, so it would be wonderful to get to know each other a little better.   Look for this post sometime today (hopefully:)

This week's chapter, "My Worship Awakening," is worthy of at least a couple of posts.  This morning what is on my mind is the "ABCs of Worship" exercise she encourages us to do.   I'll be honest with you...I thought this morning for devotions I would "zip" though this because I had what I thought was limited time to accomplish it, so I sat down, Bible opened to the A section in my concordance ready to do some devotions on the fly.  But the Word has a way of changing you...it's powerful like that...even when you aren't expecting or looking for it.  That is exactly what happened to me.  As I began to go through my concordance looking for words that would describe God...all of a sudden, it got personal.  It took all the way to...C.

I started out with some that came quickly and easily to mind:  A-You are almighty, great and awesome.  B-Beautiful and beloved, but then came C...You are the Creator who says to Your creation, "Cast all your cares on me."  That just got to me.  The Creator of ALL THE UNIVERSE bends down to me so that I might cast my cares on Him!  And then D-A divine Deliverer who delights in His people...in me!!!  I sat back in wonder.  My Lord is divine and I am oh so...NOT divine and yet this Divine One delivered me from all my sin and then goes beyond deliverance to delight in someone who is as undivine as me???!!!!  For cryin' out loud!  Four letters in and I found myself in awe and adoration for the God I was worshiping.  I had gone into this time of worship halfhearted and in a hurry, but now I found myself wanting more...more time...more letters:)  I found out one amazing truth this morning...God will more than meet you half way when you have even that smallest glimmer of desire and give Him a moment.

So here I sit writing to you girls thinking to myself, "It will all wait...all the stuff I thought I NEEDED to get to this morning."  Anytime I am in a "worship funk" I think I will pull out a sheet of notebook paper or one of my journals and begin with A-You are God...and see where the Spirit leads me in worship.

There is so much more to talk about for this week, but this was on my mind this morning.  I hope you have a wonderful, worshipful week, my blog sisters!!!

Love to you....

Cherri

Monday, June 10, 2013

My Thristy Soul

Hey sweet blog sisters!

Let's get this summer blog rolling!!!  This week I thought I would throw out a couple of quotes from the first chapter of our blog book, Satisfy My Thirsty Soul, that really spoke to me personally.  Please feel free to add your thoughts on these quotes as well as adding your own for discussion.  So here we go....

"I longed for intimacy, ecstasy and a deep relationship with my Bridegroom, but as the years passed and life became hectic and complicated, I settled for serving the One I loved.  My loving Bridegroom walked the earth, searching, calling, bending down and tenderly whispering to my heart in hopes of slowing me down long enough to embrace Him...I was too busy doing good things for Him."

I spent a good part of my life "doing and doing"...always at church or at my children's Christian schools.  I was so busy doing "good" that I had no time for devotions or anything more than a quick prayer in time of need.  I was always on the go and I felt pretty proud of myself and all I accomplished.  AND THEN..."when we place more emphasis on loving others than on loving God, we are headed for spiritual and physical exhaustion."  That would be me...completely spent...and I mean COMPLETELY.   In a very sick and twisted way I had turned what I thought was serving and worshiping God, into serving and worshiping myself and others.

I also LOVED the quote from C. S. Lewis..."in the process of being worshiped...God communicates His presence to men."  I don't know about you girls, but I want God to communicate His presence to me.  There are times I NEED to know  He is with me, guiding  and loving me along life's path.  I need to know I am heading in the right direction.  I need to hear His voice direct me...help me know what to say and even more importantly in my case, what NOT to say.  I know if you are joining us this summer on this journey learning how to make worship of God a lifestyle, you are every bit as serious as I am about your desire for His presence in every area of your life.

I know this for sure, my friends, if we ask God to make us into true worshipers, lovers of Him first and then of others, these are prayers He is anxiously waiting to answer.  This is going to be one wild and wonderful ride this summer!  I can hardly wait to hear from you...

Love to you, my searching sisters...

Cherri