No one told me to

Right now my 14 yr old daughter is struggling with self-esteem issues and it breaks my heart because she's such a beautiful person. It makes me sad that she doesn't see it herself.

Last night I was talking with her and asked her, "Why don't you like yourself?". She replied "because nobody ever told me I had to." Wow!!! Totally the kind of flippant answer Melissa would give, however, what an insightful answer as well.

We spend all kinds of time telling our children how proud we are of them, how beautiful/handsome they are. How smart and talented they are and what awesome people WE think they are. We also tell our children how important it is to be nice to others, to like others, to treat others well. Some how in all of this we just assume that by doing these things it will MAKE them like themselves. If I had to guess I'd say that Jerry and I are not alone in not thinking of needing to tell our children that they should to like themselves too.

I can't help but wonder if this pain she's going through right now may have been avoided if we had told her when she was little how important it is to like yourself. How you need to love yourself before you can properly love others. It's hard to say for sure, teen years are such a difficult season of life to go through.

Make sure you tell your children how important it is to like themselves. God planned them, He knew everything about them before they were even in their mothers womb. God doesn't make mistakes, and He made no mistake in making each and everyone of us just the way He needs us to be.

Prayer Life.

Prayer seems to be the reoccurring theme this past weekend. Not only was it brought up in Pastor's sermon on Sunday, but also in my devotional this morning. At church we watched a small video, called Coffee with Jesus. What a great video, and so describes how I pray sometimes. We come to Jesus with this long list of wants and needs, yet never take time to listen, or to just praise Him or thank Him. God wants us to have conversations, with him, not just give him this grocery list of things we'd like him to do for us. We need to talk to him like we'd talk to our best friend. Something Pastor said on Sunday that just seemed so beautiful to me, "Prayer is to the soul, what breathing is to life. Your soul needs to communicate with God in order to thrive and to grow. Just like your earthly friendships would wither and die if you never talked to one another, the same is true for your relationship with Christ. Your earthy friendships would never grow and mature if you always did all the talking, and never took time to listen, neither will your relationship with Christ grow if you don't take time to listen to what He has to say to you. I often think of how blessed the disciples and the people of that time were to be able to walk and talk on earth with Jesus. What an amazing experience that must have been. I'm in no hurry to leave this earth, but I look forward to the time when I can talk to Him face to face.

All About Me

Ok normally this isn't something I would put here, but there's no other way to say it. I'm taking this class at church that is lead by our pastor and it's wonderful!!! It's all about learning what my strengths and weaknesses are and how to hone them and use them in the best possible way. I have learned so much about myself in just the last 3 weeks, it's amazing. We've done several different personality/gift type tests and they've all told me things I already know about myself, but in such an in depth way that I'm beginning to better understand myself. I can recognize now that my struggle with self dicipline (and other things) isn't imagined, it's all part of how God designed me. Doesn't mean that I can use that as an excuse not to be, but it helps me to better accept that part of me and feel a little less guilty about my inability to do it easily.

Another fabulous thing that I'm learning in doing this, is what personality traits others have as well. By being able to recognize different personality traits in others I can use what I know of these different personalities to better understand how to communicate with them. This is especially useful if I have to deal with someone that I have a hard time with. Thankfully that doesn't happen all that often.

Learning all these things will help me to be a better servant of God. It will be helpful to me as a small group leader because I will be able to make better connections with people. It'll help me to learn what ways I am better suited for His service. I can't wait!! I'm so excited about it all, I've learned so much and I can't wait to learn more and put it all to good use.

Keeping the Fire

Lately I've been feeling that my Fire for the Lord is being challenged. I'm sure it's mostly in my head, but it's enough to give me pause. I've been this excited for God for the last 2 years and I only see it getting stronger as I learn more about Him. I've been more immersed in Him and His word and His presence now since joining my church. My hunger to know Him and have a deeper personal relationship with Him has only grown. How do I keep this fire burning strong? By surrounding myself with Him and His love. I start my day with worship music and prayer, I listen to worship music or christian podcasts through out the day. I read my bible, do my bible study homework and I interact with other Christians and share and witness when ever possible. I end my day in prayer and sometimes more worship music or podcasts or a devotional. I go to church every Sunday, bible study every Wednesday, Coffee Fellowship every Thursday. I started a personal growth with God type class with my pastor and 4 others tonight, and my husband and I have started going to a home group. We also help out with the youth group and vacation bible school. Seems like a lot I'm sure, but this is what is important in my life. This is what helps me keep my fire burning. I think that if being on fire for God is something you want with all your heart, soul, and mind, it's something that you will make every effort to do. Nothing brings me more joy than worshiping my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Everything I do is better because I have made Him a priority in my life.

Don't get me wrong, as I've posted here, there are times that I don't feel His presence like I want to, but those are the times that I have to pray and worship Him the most. I don't ever want this fire to go out, it's just too awesome!

Believe

My Father in Heaven,

You are so great and so mighty,

Your love, so pure and so true.

You are the Great Creator

My King and Father too.

You have put me here to worship

and to give You all the praise,

yet I know each day I fail you

as I live my worldly ways.

I come to You for forgiveness,

and some how you always do.

You are the Great Redeemer

whose love will see me through.

You give me all the strength I need,

to battle through every storm.

If I will come to You down on bended knee.

I give all my cares to You

for You can carry the heavy load.

You give me ever lasting peace,

what you ask from me,

is to Believe.

--Lisa Gifford

My Best Friend

Long before I began this close walk with my Lord, I knew that He was watching out for me and taking precious steps to mold me and shape me. I know He had this master plan for my life that I had no clue about. I won't get into all the details of how I fell in love with my husband, but I will tell you that at that time in my life, Jerry Gifford was not part of MY plan. Now however, I cannot even begin to imagine how my life would have turned out thus far if God hadn't put us on the same path to find one another. There is not a day that goes by that I don't thank God for this amazing man. In the craziness of daily life he, with the blessing of the Lord, is my one constant. When I need encouragement he gives it freely, when I need constructive criticism he gives it gently and lovingly. In all things he does, he helps me to become the best me that I can become. Each day I love him more than the day before and wonder how that is even possible. I truly believe that God has one person in mind for everyone, and I believe that Jerry is mine, God made him just for me. Thank you God!