Kids are a Blessing

No folks, I have not yet been blessed with children. However, I have and do spend A LOT of time with these beautiful treasures that will shape the future of the Earth.

That being said, if you have read more than one entry of my blog, I'm pretty sure you have figured out that I find words pretty important. I take care by God's grace to speak life giving things from my mouth, things that will encourage, uplift and edify people. I repent when I say things that do not align with God's heart and move forward into love.

I had a dear friend ask advice for their darling little girl that isn't quite 2. She is in the phase of exploration of boundaries. This little one has discovered that she has a will, as all of us do, and choices to make. Right now she is choosing to disobey sometimes and obey sometimes. I'm not going to go into child-rearing philosophy but suggest Danny Silk's Loving Our Kids on Purpose book for that. (SO GOOD - I want to read it every year)


I do however want to offering a little spoken word of advice. Let us declare over our children their destinies, who God has called them to be. The Lord wants to give you insight into each of your children. They are so unique and just like God has a beautiful plan for your life, He has a plan for theirs too.

Please pray and seek the Lord, read the Bible, find the blessings and speak them over yourselves, your spouses, your kids, listen to Abba.

Here is a short little Blessing I put together, but I encourage you to seek out more. But start somewhere. The more you get used to speaking blessings, the more natural it becomes, and things will shift in the natural. It is wonderful to pray for your children, and let us ADD blessing them too.

Thanks for reading! Have a blessed day.

Our Story: Part 7 Proposal

Don't know what is going on? Start with Part 1

This next section of courtship was full of confusion, I had lots of peace and knew that Bren was it. But then he started to have lots of doubts and in the way he normally hears from God was being told I was not the one to marry. This made for some interesting times.

 ---> Sidenote: If you are dealing with lots of confusion read Overcoming Confusion by Rick Joyner. It will help a lot.

But now I had so much peace, I just told him not to worry. At this point neither of us used the word marry because I was trying really hard not to lead. This can be difficult at times. But is was important for our relationship that he lead the steps. My job was to lean into the Lord and remain in shalom. We did stay together and he worked through the confusion and was waiting on an angelic sign before proposing... =) He didn't exactly get as bright a sign as he was hoping for, but he did come to the conclusion it was very important to God that he, Bren, chose me. Important for me to, you know love can be a feeling, a beautiful one. But mostly love is a chose. I chose love or I don't. This is a daily choice. Even now in our marriage 5 years later I'm very aware of the times I am choosing love or not. It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit that we agree with or not. Lord help us agree with love.
Anyhow, so around the time of March a Conference was happening at Morningstar. In the morning I was with Bren in an office of people and the girl made a joke and then said, "As long as you invite me to the wedding." I froze and Bren was behind me, so I couldn't see his face and uttered not a peep waiting for his commentary. Then she said, "Oh no, did I say something wrong?" Finally Bren spoke up and said, "You are fine don't worry about it."
Remember dear reader we have not spoken about marriage or engagement at this point because I'm not leading, lol.

About an hour or so later we were downstairs and Bren introduced me to a friend, as his girlfriend, from the Caribbean. And he said, "Oh she is your wife?" And I said, "I'm his girlfriend."


(I am making no comments and we are not discussing them)

Later that day we were sitting on a couch in the lobby and a guy walked by and said, " Hi Bren, Hi Bren's girl. " I said, "Amber Joy. " (A little on the sarcastic side, like I have a name=/  ) Then he stopped and looking confused said, "You're his wife?"  I said, "No, I'm his girlfriend". To which he shrugged and kept going. (A week later we saw him and he said he heard me say I'm his wife with extreme clarity...)




The next day I told my Mom that he was going to propose before we ever talked about it and how on all these shows people act so surprised even though they already knew. I wanted the element of surprise.

The next evening I was working on fundraiser things and Bren came to help after we put together a bunk bed for some friends. We were on the couch and I finally said, "So what did you think about Thursday?" (The day where people indicated we were getting married mentioned above) To which he replied, " The conference was great." (Ok, ok wise guy ) I didn't say anything else and kept punching away at the computer.
Finally he sat up and said, "You know the first time I met you I wanted to marry you. " (Heart leaping, he had never said "marry" to me ) "So, will you marry Him (meaning God) and me?" He took of his promise ring to God that he had worn 10 years and held it out to me. I said, " Yes." And I happily wore the ring on my thumb til I got a different engagement ring.  He wasn't expecting to propose that night and I wasn't expecting to be proposed to.
Very happy lady I was, but I couldn't tell anybody because he wanted to ask my Dad's permission before it was official, which he did the next day. Whoops! And Daddy said yes of course!

We got married about 4 months later. Yes, there was lots of eventful things and lessons following, but I think this is where I'm ending the Our Story series=) Thanks for reading!



Part 1

Deeper Healing from Offense

I already made a blogpost about offense... "Beware of a Fence Between you and Heaven".
This morning I looked up some sermons by Katie Souza and she took what I said a step further.

Recognizing that taking up an offense is a sin, then repenting for it and forgiving the person that hurt you, or the one you love. This acknowledges Jesus' work on the cross, becoming sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. Applying His blood over our sin, and releasing others to Shophet (Name of God meaning Just Judge) for Judgement.

Second Step (from Katie Souza) is to apply the Resurrection of Jesus Christ through the Dynamis Power of Holy Spirit to the part of your soul that was wounded from the offense.  Besides strength and power, Dynamis also means "moral power or excellence of soul". We have been given the power, now we apply it in Jesus' name to our soul.

What completion, she was talking about people that get sick over and over could consider going before the Lord and asking if there is an offense. Repenting if there is and applying the Blood of Jesus, and the Dynamis Power to our wounded soul to be healed.

I was recently hurt deeply by a friend and took up an offense, for 2 days I held onto the bitterness and I got a sore throat didn't start relinquishing until today. This morning is when I realized the connection and repented. I feel on the mend, but I want to grow and be aware to walk in love at all times by the Dynamis of Holy Spirit. Abba, help us walk in love and confess quickly.