Merry Christmas!

⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

 ⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

 ¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

 ¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven, 
   and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

 ¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

 ¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

- Luke 4-20

Merry Christmas to you all! I pray you find yourself surrounded by love during this holiday season.

Camera Giveaway!

Oh So Posh Photography is having an awesome giveaway right now! She is offering up a Nikon D90 camera with a 18-105 mm f/3.5-5.6G Nikkor zoom lens. How awesome is she? Head on over here to enter to win this fantastic prize! Do it quickly, though. The giveaway ends tomorrow morning at 9am CST!

Good luck!

God’s Timing

I was asked to write the front page article for my MOPS (Mothers of PreSchoolers) group’s newsletter. This is what I ended up submitting. I’ve gotten some pretty positive feedback about it and thought it needed to be shared here as well. Enjoy and be blessed

- Katie

“Faith in God includes faith in His timing.” - Neal A. Maxwell

We live in a take charge society. If you want something done you need to do it yourself, right? Not necessarily. Obviously this can apply to many things but often times if we try to do things ourselves we can be rushing into something that we aren’t supposed to have at that moment in our lives. Sometimes we need to learn to be patient and take a passenger seat in our own life.

I was recently told by a friend that God basically has three answers to our requests: 1. Yes, 2. Not Yet, or 3. I Have Something Even Better In Store For You. How encouraging is that? Wow! God obviously has our very best interest at heart since He is our Father and wants us to be happy and thrive. But our happiness doesn’t need equal constant gratification. Our happiness should come from surrendering to Him and learning what His will for our life might be.

“Timing is so important! If you are going to be successful in dance, you must be able to respond to rhythm and timing. It’s the same in the Spirit. People who don’t understand God’s timing can become spiritually spastic, trying to make the right things happen at the wrong time. They don’t get His rhythm – and everyone can tell they are out of step. They birth things prematurely, threatening the very lives of their God-given dreams.” ~ T. D. Jakes

This quote dug right into me. I can think back and nearly cringe at the number of times I tried to force something to happen. I remember dating guys that I knew were clearly not a good fit but I was so determined to be in a relationship and get married that I wasn’t being patient to what the future might hold. Letting go and seeing what God had in store brought me to the perfect guy at the perfect time.

I remember watching couple after couple getting pregnant and wondering why that wasn’t us. I got so impatient that we didn’t have kids yet but I was blessed with that perfect husband (haha!) that gently reminded me that God’s timing is perfect and when He wants it to happen, it will. Sure enough, when I finally surrendered and told God that I was going to be patient we found out we were expecting our first child.

There are so many examples of people that waited patiently (and not so patiently!) for God’s perfect timing. Think of Noah and his family who were stuck on the ark for 40 days while they rode the waves during the flood. Or Sarah who prayed for decades for a child only to conceive and give birth well past normal child bearing years! And the Israelites that were forced to wait in the desert for 40 years before being allowed to enter the Promise Land. God works in amazing ways that, more often than not, we can’t fathom beforehand. And when the waiting is over it’s easy to see God’s hand in everything.

Waiting isn’t easy, waiting isn’t always pretty, but sometimes waiting is what shows us what we are made of. When we are forced to wait do we turn to God to gain understanding and grow closer to Him or do we attempt to take things into our own hands? God knows far better what we need than we do. There could be a very good reason you are stuck in a miserable job – perhaps there is someone that needs you to be a beacon of hope or He has an amazing opportunity for you in another year. Perhaps you are experiencing struggles in an area so you can come out stronger than you ever thought possible on the other side and go on to minister to those with the same struggles.

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” - 1 John 5:14-15 (NIV)

Is there something that you desire in your life that God hasn’t given you an answer to yet? I encourage you to pray. Bring your requests to Him. Understand that you probably won’t get an answer right away. You WILL need to be patient. And just because a situation doesn’t play out exactly as you had expected or wanted doesn’t mean it’s bad! Sometimes the unexpected anser is the most perfect answer.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.” - Proverbs 3:4-5 (NIV)