Hearts of Christian HomeKeepers™

I wrote these two poems several years ago during a Bible study on prayer. One is modeled after the 23rd Psalm and the other is an exhorting psalm. Hope these bless you!

The Lord is my Master

I shall not lack wisdom and love.

He makes me more obedient

He leads me by His Spirit

He restores my mind.

He leads me by His Spirit to be a wife and mother

Yes, though I walk in a time when

many forsake these callings

I am not afraid, He strengthens me.

Your presence comforts me.

You prepare answers and provisions

in the presence of my enemies

You annoint my life with your wisdom,

My life overflows:

Surely wisdom and love will follow me

all the days of my life

And I will call on the name

of the Lord forever.

Brothers and Sisters, let us praise and worship God together.
Making our burdens light as a feather.

Let us rejoice and extol His name,
His goodness never changes. It is always the same.

We come together, His Word to study,
Ascribing to Him, all riches and glory.

O, Come let us adore Him,
the one who for us, became sin.

Let us seek Him in Prayer
Our souls we can bare.

Worthy is the Lamb who faithful and true
To whom all fear and reverence are due.

It is truly amazing how fast time goes anymore.  After a less-than-ideal summer weather wise, fall is here, with winter not too far behind.  As a person who absolutely thrives on spring and summer, I am not always enthusiastic about this time of year.

Genesis 8:22 (New International Version)

²² “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

It’s always so amazing to read passages in the Bible regarding the changing of seasons, and that God himself designed the world that way.
When I put it into that perspective, the passing of one season into the next doesn’t seem so daunting.

I am in the process of putting up my fall decorations.  Usually that helps me to adjust to saying goodbye to summer and hello to the winter season.  My dear husband just made a comment to me that it will soon be time to come home to the garage light being on.  He says that is such a comfort to him to come home and see the light on, knowing that we are inside waiting for him.

God has a way of always leaving the light on for us.  No matter how far we may go or how lost we become, He always leaves the light on to guide us back to Him.

Psalm 43:3 (New International Version)

³ Send forth your light and your truth,
let them guide me;
let them bring me to your holy mountain,
to the place where you dwell.

So if you are tempted to get bogged down in the changing of the seasons, remember that God’s love for you does not change.

My oldest son is studying physics because he’s preparing to go to college for aviation.  Lately we’ve been having some great discussions about gravity.  Often our discussions about science and math bring us to God because dear son had adapted my way of thinking that everything God created reveals the Creator.

Gravity…what is it?  It keeps everything on earth in its place.  It’s a force that no one can really explain.  We can’t see it, we can’t really feel it, we can’t touch it or smell it but we know without a doubt that it exists.  It takes a lot of work to resist gravity.  The rocket power needed to get astronauts into space is beyond my comprehension.   I see a lot of God in gravity.   I also see people exerting undo energy to resist God, instead of just enjoying His pull on our lives.

We don’t really know what gravity is.  We can’t understand it or harness it’s force and make it do work for us.  That’s like God.  We can’t deny gravity exists because it keeps everything in it’s place.  That’s just like God if we stop fighting Him

Gravity gets stronger the closer two objects are to each other.  If two objects are far from each other the gravitational force is relatively weak.  God never moves but we wander from Him, if we don’t pay attention.  He can’t keep us grounded if we get too far away from His presence.

There are two forces at work in the universe.  Gravitational and frictional.  If the force pulling things together is greater than the force pulling things apart those things move closer together.  God must be the biggest thing …the biggest priority we have or other things will pulls us away from Him.  The larger the mass equals greater gravity.  God can’t be just Sunday morning to have enough impact in your life to keep you from flying off into space and burning up.

Gravity keeps the entire solar system in check.  The sun’s gravitational force holds the planets in their orbits.  The planet’s gravitational force holds the moons and other satellites in their orbits.  Parents need to be grounded and drawn to the Son to be in the right place in their lives.  If we are in the right place we can keep our kids in their safe orbits and not flying off into a black hole.

How to stay grounded:

Gratitude

Gratitude helps you to connect or reconnect to the God of the universe.  Give thanks for everything that shows up in your life. It’s there to teach you something.

How do you show this? By writing down on paper or in a journal what you’re grateful for or just by saying it out loud as often as possible.

Meditation/Prayer

Meditation and or prayer keeps you grounded in a hectic, fast paced and sometimes confusing world.  It’s where you can gain inner peace and just sit in the Lord’s presence.  We don’t always have to be talking to be praying.  Praying is often just quietly listening for the presence of the Lord to hold us.

Beliefs

Look at your beliefs.  Sometimes in the midst of a wind storm life we forget what we believe.   God doesn’t change.  His promises remain.  Get a scripture promise book  to use as a reference manual when you need to.  I think sometimes I worry about the future because I forget that I believe in Jesus and that He is in the future as well as the present.

Remind yourself of what God has done in your life.

In the old testament God kept repeating how He led the children of Isreal out of Egypt and saved them in the desert.  Do you have a list of your own of God gifts?  Keep a journal of prayers and praises.  When things look out of control read it and you will see where God has been in your life and remember that He will not fail you now.

Giving and Receiving

Learn to give and receive to stay in balance.  One is not more important than the other.  When you give, that comes back to you in countless ways.  Accept the goodness that comes to you graciously and be thankful.  I never had a problem with giving but I had a terrible time receiving.  I had to learn to receive God’s blessing through people He placed in my life.  It was humbling and grounding.

Selfcare

Self care is a must.  Take good care of your body, mind and spirit.  Feed yourself with good thoughts; read and develop your mind.  Be careful of what you let in.  Be purposeful when choosing what to read, watch on TV or movies, even who you spend the most time with.  Make positive, God honoring choices.  For your body, exercise, sleep, nutrition, and proper diet are ways to practice good self-care.

Spiritual Cue Cards

On individual index cards, write down short spiritual quotes that you find especially calming or inspiring. Keep them in your desk, in a convenient area of your home or even in your purse or briefcase. Whenever you feel the need to ground and refresh your spirit pull out a card and read the phrase. Take a few moments to focus on what the words mean to you while taking some deep and calming breaths.

I have a wonderful journal that one of my blessing basket sisters sent me that I put favorite quotes, verses and thoughts into.  I even draw and sometimes paint in the beautiful book Lisa sent me.   When I am starting to spin out of control I sit with that book and reread my favorite and now familiar encouragement from great authors, speakers and friends.

The Power of Sound

Listen to music that is soothing to your spirit or play an audio book that you find particularly grounding and calming. Sometimes I just play my audio bible.  Just hearing God’s word read aloud to me grounds me.

Soothing Words

Try to fill your home with soothing words.  Encourage your children to be a family team and build each other up instead of tearing each other down.   There are certain words and phrases that have been outlawed in our home.  There is also certain times of day that must be peaceful in order for me to keep on going with the hectic schedule I have.  I have let the children know this from an early age and now I think they also look forward to our quiet times.

Build a network of grounded friends.

It’s so important to seek out some great girlfriends who are grounded themselves.  You know the ones.  They don’t complain about their husbands, kids or life all the time.  They are fun, laugh easily, cry with you sometimes, keep your secrets and just well, click.  Most of all they pray with you and for you.

I can’t seem to control my schedule, or the storms that life brings to me.   Sometimes this just totally flattens me and sometimes it sends me off into space.  I know that I need that gravitational force of my Lord to keep me from burning up like a comet.  I know God’s plan is not for me to be a shooting start…spectacular for a moment but not able to shed anymore light to anyone.  He has a plan for my life, an orbit and I’m going to keep close to Him so I can fulfill His will.

A hundred years ago, in my previous, pre-motherhood life, I was a working girl.  I had a very busy, fast-paced job as a Child Welfare investigator for the state of Oklahoma.   While this was a tough job, there were rewarding moments, though they were few and far between.  People used to ask  me how I could do such work.   There were several things I did, emotions aside, that kept me from going insane.  One was being organized.  I had a date book that was my lifeline.  I didn’t go anywhere without it.  It was my constant companion.  I was picky about date books.  Back then I was a “big picture” gal.  I wanted to see the whole situation as it was and not get bogged down in details.  As the saying goes, I didn’t want to miss the forest because of the trees.  My date book was one that showed a whole month at at time.  I wanted to be able to see what was coming around the bend next week and down the pike in two weeks.  I tried the ones that showed a week at at time or a day at a time but I always felt like I had blinders on .

Fast forward 7 years.  My son is now 7 and I am going on 7 years as a stay-at-home mom.  I don’t really have a need for a date book anymore but the organizational junkie in me still likes to play around with them now and then.   But my needs have changed.  I only use one during the school year when I’m trying to keep track of Cub Scouts, PTA, holidays, doctor appointments, well, you get the picture.   I don’t use one during the summer, just like I don’t wear a watch May through August.  The other day,  I was working on making a new date book (yes money is tighter now so I was using free downloads and an old binder) and I realized something.  I was using the date sheets that show one week per sheet.  And it was working fine for me.  I don’t need to know what is going on next week or in two weeks.  I now take life one week at a time.  I know that God is taking care of the future so I don’t need to be so concerned.

My goal next year?  One DAY at a time sheets.