Clouds have always captured my imagination, my excitement, my heart!  I sometimes love to just sit outside on the grass in the backyard and look up into the blue skies with fluffy white clouds floating by.  They always seem to me an ever-constant reminder of my Savior's love for me.  With the sun shining on my face I look up and there He is.  In everything around me.  So I must remember that even when the skies are dark and pouring down rain, He is still there with me; His love no less and yes, He is closer to me still.  Take courage my friends!  His love is there through any storm, His blue skies still remain behind the clouds!

Trusting In His Faithfulness

Maiden Princess

Blue Sky

Francesca Battistelli

When you’re down and you’re out
And you don’t think you have a friend
When you’re lost in the doubt
And you can’t see what’s around the bend

Just hold on
Don’t turn around
Keep on walking
Don’t lose heart
‘Cause I am here, I am here
Wherever you are, wherever you are

(Chorus)
When the rain is falling
And there’s no silver lining
And you just can’t seem to find the light
When you need a reason
To help you keep believing
Let my love be your blue sky

Don’t you know that I know
Life can be so hard it makes you wanna give up
But don’t you know over the horizon
The sunny day you’re looking for
Is waiting right here in my love

Just hold on
Don’t turn around
Keep on walking
Don’t lose heart
‘Cause I am here, I am here
Wherever you are, wherever you are

(Chorus)

Come on come on
Don’t you be afraid
Whatever comes tomorrow
My love is here to stay

(Chorus)


(Francesca Battistelli / Rebecca Mizell / Sam Mizell) © 2008 Word Music, LLC (ASCAP) / Wordspring Music, LLC (SESAC) / Simple Tense Songs, Wyzell Music (ASCAP) (Adm. by Simpleville Music, Inc.)

Garden Ramblings

By Maiden Princess

            Have you ever noticed that if not kept in check, weeds will overtake your garden?  That’s like our lives.  When not dealt with, weeds, (our sins and sinful nature) will overtake us and choke out all the good fruit (vegetables) we are trying to grow to bring glory to God.  We need to be diligent to pull these weeds out at their roots (sometimes a very painful and slow process) to keep them from coming back.  We can’t keep them away for long with a hoe (a quick fix, slap-together job), because all we are doing is chopping off the top so we don’t see it anymore, but the root is still there just as strong as ever, and gaining momentum on us.  We just feel better because we can’t see it anymore. God deserves our very best harvest of fruit for Him, that means we need to take the time, with God’s help, to remove those weeds in our hearts at the roots, or else we will be either overtaken completely or only a shadow of what we could be!

            Have you ever noticed that plants need water to survive? Believe me, I sure have!  If I don’t water the plants in my garden regularly, especially when it’s hot, they will wilt and become sickly looking.  If we aren’t in the Word every day, especially when under heat from the enemy, we will wilt and become useless, having nothing to offer to anyone else.  However, if we are watered everyday then when the heat comes, growth will be the result, not death!  Are you taking time to water every day?

            Have you ever noticed how plants sometimes can be too much of a good thing?  Like my lettuce for example.  Ok, so I have tons of lettuce in my garden, 1 ½ 20 foot rows to be precise.  Although I love lettuce, our family of 4 just doesn’t eat enough lettuce to keep our rows “on the grow”.  I planted the seeds, they grew, I thinned them, they grew some more. Now they are full grown and crowding each other out,time for another thinning.  I was thinking that this applies to our lives and what it is necessary, not what we want.  For example, Martha did what she wanted, not what was necessary.  So it is with the lettuce, while I love it and it’s all good and healthy, I just don’t need that much of it, so I have to thin it out.  It doesn’t grow good so crammed together.  There are too many heads in such a little space. Because of this the whole crop suffers needlessly. It is hard to pull out perfectly good lettuce and let it wilt and die, even though I know it will compost.  However, if I take the time to thin it out so that there is “breathing room” between the clumps of lettuce it will not only grow better but taste better and be lest waste.  In our lives, our daily 24 hour schedules can be crammed packed to end in sometimes disastrous results.  The mildest consequences, no doubt, are fatigue and grouchiness.  (Hey, a grouchy woman can be deadly! LOL)  In our lives we only have 24 hours, if we try to jam too many events, ideas, appointments, and lists in, everyone suffers.  We only need the necessary things on our agenda.  When Judgment Day comes, I don’t want to be accused of not managing my time wisely, you know, too many heads in a row.  I want to have the amount of heads I need and focus on making sure they grow and mature the right way.  I want to weed out the needless parts of my life so that I can focus more clearly on what’s important and what’s necessary. 

            And all these thoughts just from a few hours in the garden. J  Hah! Who would’ve known!

Growing In Him, (ouch! That hurt.  The Master Gardener is pulling on a deeply-rooted weed, this is not pleasant! Ah, but to be effective I must be pruned, er, weeded!)

Maiden Princess

I am at my Aunt's house and this morning I woke up to rain pouring down on the roof.  At first it was gentle and then gradually, a harder pounding was happening on the roof.  So it is now, gentle, harder, gentle, harder. 

You know how much I like object lessons and I believe that the LORD gave me one a few days ago when it was raining at my house.  As I look out my Aunt's sliding glass door, listening to the rain caressing the ground I think of the how the LORD gently rains on us.  He washes away the dirty parts of our lives.  Gently, and sometimes not so gently, He scrubs away the rough edges, He renews us, and forms us into His image.  Refreshing, revitalizing, replenishing.  May the LORD rain on me every day.  Every day, may I open to His rain!

Bring The Rain

Mercy Me

I can count a million times
People asking me how I
Can praise You with all that
I've gone through
The question just amazes me
Can circumstances possibly
Change who I forever am in You

Maybe since my life was changed
Long before these rainy days
It's never really ever crossed my mind
To turn my back on you, oh Lord
My only shelter from the storm
But instead I draw closer through these times
So I pray

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings
You glory And I know there'll
be days When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to
praise You Jesus, bring the rain

I am yours regardless of the clouds that may
loom above because you are much greater than
my pain you who made a way for me suffering
your destiny so tell me whats a little rain

[1st Chorus]

Holy, holy, holy
Holy, holy, holy
is the lord God almighty
is the lord God almighty
I'm forever singing

[2nd Chorus 2x]

everybody singing
Holy holy holy
you are holy
you are holy

[2nd Chorus 2x]

One thing I always found interesting about Jesus is that He never had to go and lure people to listen to Him.  He never had to go and hunt people down to be have an audience to hear His testimony, they always came to Him.  Why???  Because His life was an open book.  Basically, His relationship with His Father was on display for everyone.  He didn’t try to hide the fact that H e loved God with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength.  He lived according to His Father’s instructions and was not afraid to be bold about His faith.  In fact, that was about all He talked about!  He was a perfect representation of His Father and as God’s sons and daughters we should be striving for the same thing.  We should do as Jesus did.  Being  gentle, kind, loving, loyal, faithful, hungry and passionate, on fire for God, saturated in His love, living out His plan for us in perfect obedience.  We should show the world that there is a God who lives and He is living in each and every one of us as Lord and Master of our lives.  He has set-us apart as His children and we are to be different from the world. It is our responsibility to show them how good it is to be a child of God.  Is it possible to do that if we want to just look like the grass?  If we throw away our calling to be different are we really content with the love God provides or are we looking for something the world has to offer?  If we walk, talk, and act like the world then we must not know God like we should. 

Do we want more than what He can offer?  Do we want more than freedom and life, love and loyalty, discipline out of love, kindness instead of hate, and compassion and grace instead of unbending grudges?  This makes absolutely no sense!  Why do we want what the world has to offer, when all is has to offer, is only a fraction of what we already possess as heirs of His kingdom?  Why do we think that we have no freedom in Christ?  Why do we look at His command to be set-apart as a death sentence instead of a divine calling of love?  Can we show the world how great God is if we, His children, don’t seem to be satisfied with Him?  If we are seeking what the world has to offer then why would the world seek what we have?  It would be a waste of time. 

May God open our eyes to see that He is all we will ever need in this life and the next.  As His children, may we realize that what the world has to offer is death to our souls and is really of no value.  May God help us to see that our calling to be different should be obeyed out of our love for Him. 

Father, fill us with overflowing love for You!  Help us to want to be different.  To want to be dandelions and stand up for who You are and to represent You rightly.  Help us to be an extension of You in all we say, do, and think.  Help us to show that we are Your children today by allowing You to change us from the inside out.  Let us not desire what the world has but let Your great love be enough for us.  Help us to remember how deep and wide Your love truly is . 

So, let me ask you now.......are you going to blend in with the rest of the grass today or are you going to be a bright yellow Dandelion for God’s kingdom?  Sometimes it’s tough to be different, but just knowing that God will be pleased is enough! Happy dandelion hunting today!

May He be glorified in my life and yours forevermore!

Maiden Princess

"Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, You are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering Yourself with light as with a cloak, streching out the heaven like a tent curtain. He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters; He makes the clouds His chariot; He walks upon the wings of the wind." Psalm 104:1-3

"Let the name of the LORD be praised, both now and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the LORD is to be praised. The LORD is exalted over all the nations, His glory is above the heavens.  Who is like the LORD our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?" Psalm 113:2-6

 Will You Trust Me?

By Maiden Princess

            A few days ago I was looking out our front window and I saw a red-headed woodpecker eating at the suet we hung out on one of our trees.  I stopped to look at it, since we rarely glimpse a woodpecker around our house.  As I continued to watch, God gently reminded of the verses found in Matthew 6:26-27&33-34 that say “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow or reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  As I watched this woodpecker eat his food I felt the LORD telling me to trust Him that He would provide for my future and had a plan for my life. 

This week, as evidenced by my earlier post, I have been really struggling with discontentment and the feeling of uselessness.  I was allowing my restlessness to hinder my relationship with the LORD and His plan for me and I came close to making some decision out of His will for me just to make myself “feel” fulfilled.  Even now as I type this, while my Mom is unloading our family’s week worth of groceries, I am reminded that I am needed here, right where YHWH has planted me. Blessed be the name of the LORD for revealing to me that as I seek after His kingdom and set my mind on Him first and foremost, then I can find contentment and delight right where I have been privileged to be planted. 

I need to remember that a servant’s heart and a thankful spirit are essential to truly being “fulfilled” in my Father.  Please continue to pray for me as I walk down this road of life my Father has so graciously set before me.  I hope that the next few months will be full of joy and gratefulness as I choose to look to Him first and delight in who He has made me to be and what He has called me to.

With Love Always In The Savior,

Maiden Princess

Snowflake Generation

Maiden Princess

A lacy, white snowflake floats to the ground to deepen the growing mass sticking to the ground.  It is beautiful and unique, no other can match it.  I look around to see millions of others, each different in its makeup but all equally beautiful.  They cover the trees, grass, buildings, and fields in a heavy blanket. The sun reflecting off of each flake makes them sparkle like hoards of tiny diamonds and adds a finishing touch.  The scene unfolding before me takes my breath away.  It is a magnificent, lovely, and awe-inspiring testimony to our Creator.  I look once again, wishing to remember this real-life painting for all of my days.

We as believers are like the snowflakes— beautiful, and unique all alone, but when joined together with other believers we make an amazing big picture that can’t help but magnify the light from the Son to everyone around!  In the body of Christ we all need each other to bring forth our maximum efficiency and sparkle. 

Also, as in the snowflake analogy, we as believers should not only glorify our Creator on our own but all together as ONE BODY!  As children of the King we should unite with our common goal, to glorify the King, and all sparkle together making each appear better than before.  So from now on, let’s put aside our differences and come together for the purpose of furthering our Father’s kingdom.  What do you say, shall we stick together?

May God be glorified in my life and yours forevermore!