Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.

Proverbs 13:24

I love you so much, and I won’t always be around. I desire for you to be thriving and joyful in the future, so I must discipline you Now.

My heart hurts so bad when I have to tell you no, when I have to take your phone, when I have to make you stay home.

I know you want to be an adult, you want what you want, when you want, but I don’t. I don’t give in because I won’t give up, leading and guiding you until you are all grown.

I’ve always told you, I will hold you accountable for the decisions you make. I won’t blame your friends and the side of your teachers I will take. Now if push comes to shove and you truly are wronged, I will stand by your side and under my wing you belong.

But I do not helicopter, I do not fight your battles. I will always encourage open conversations even when they are awkward. (Mostly awkward because of me, but at least you have learned A TON 🤪)

I do ALL this because I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. I want you to succeed, I want you to be who God created YOU to Be. (Not Me.)

If I guard you to much you will never fall down, you will never see hurt, until I’m not around. I would rather be there when the hard times come, so you have someone to talk to, someone to lean on.

If I discipline you now (even when you don’t understand) I’m letting you learn, how to not give up but to overcome you can.

It hurts me to discipline, to hold you back from what you want, but if you don’t learn consequences now, I’m hurting you worse for years to come.

I love you, my children, and I will stand by this because I want you to live fully into the life God had given you to live.

The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble. My son, pay attention to what I say; turn your ear to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body. Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.
Proverbs 4:18-27

Just not doing the wrong thing doesn’t mean you are doing the right thing.

Not watching those shows, not listening to THAT music, not speaking cuss words, not doing drugs, not doing all the wrong things with your friends that are doing them, doesn’t mean you are doing the right thing.

To walk in the path of the righteous, to grow in the life that you’ve been given, you must guard your heart because it is where all of life flows from. If your heart stops beating, the blood stops flowing through your body. And your heart can’t beat well if you’re straining it. For your heart to be well you can’t just stop the bad stuff from going in, you must also be putting good into it, you must be exercising it, you must be guarding it.

To be healthy, to be living fully in the life you’ve been given, you must begin to fill your heart, the wellspring of life, with good. As you put more good into your life it pushes out the bad. It’s like the light, as it comes into your life, it pushes out the darkness.

But where is this good? What is this good that guard’s your heart that brings you life and puts you on the straight path? What is true? What is Good? God’s Word is Good. God’s Word is Truth. And the more you put a good word into your heart the more clearly you can see the right way to go.

Stopping the bad from coming in doesn’t clear out the evil that’s already there, but pouring in God‘s word pushes out Words not from God. It gives truth to your soul and health to your bones. The word of God is sweeter than honey and sharper than a two edge sword. It pierces the darkness and brings in light. It fills you with Love, Hope, Peace, and Joy.

To Guard your Heart you must put God’s Word into your Heart. You must look to it daily: reading, listening, writing it as you go. The more you have His Word flowing in, the more you feast on the healthiness of His Truth, the more you come to Know Him, Trust in Him and Hear from Him daily. This treasury of God’s Word stored in your heart will reach into the darkest areas of your soul and fill it with truth and love. God‘s word will speak into you what you need in every moment, it will push back the World’s voice as it tries to intervene. It will turn the broken record in your brain into a worship song in your heart.

God’s Word stored in your Heart will Guard your heart from evil, but you must continually fill it, never giving up.

Just like any diet, if you stop putting the good in, the bad begins to fill you again and darkness will overcome your heart. Then the heart will try to work overtime until it’s broken down, weary, and heading on the wrong path.

So guard your heart by filling it with Good, filling it with God’s Good Word. It will overcome any darkness, it will bring health to your soul, leading you on the right path, shining brighter until the full light of day.

My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity. Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:1-6

My Sweet Children,

You are growing into your own. You are wading in the waters of the world, but the LORD has called you to SOAR. Do not be fearful, difficulty will meet you, BUT God, He will be there. Darkness will try to entice you, but only LIGHT will bring you life.

To SOAR on the Path, the Straight Path, to God’s AMAZING life for you, remember these things:

• TRUST in the Lord always, even when you don’t understand. His ways are Greater than our ways, and will lead us into a BETTER future than we could ever even try to imagine.
• REST in His Commands, His Words of Truth, tucking them into your Heart daily. They will never lead you astray, only closer to Him, guiding you into His fullness and expanding your years on earth.
• UNTIE the knot of confusion the world has wrapped around your foot and Bind the jewels of Love and Faithfulness around your neck. The knot of the world will tie you down, but the Beauty of Love and Faithfulness will lift your head High.
• LEAN into the Light when darkness is all around, even a single ray will point you in His way, to His fullness, and open your eyes to His Truth.
• YIELD to the thoughts of God. The words of this world speak loud, but even His Whisper is louder. Let the words of the world pass you by. Then you will live fully, opening your arms, unclasping your hands, and fully fly.

In these way, you will SOAR, you will TRULY Live.

• TRUST in the Lord
• REST in His Word
• UNTIE confusion and Bind Love
• LEAN into the Light
• YIELD to the Thoughts of God

I LOVE you, my Children, BUT God, He Loves you more!

Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.

Psalm 143:8

Prayer of an Anxious Heart —

Every morning Lord, please bring me word of your unfailing love. Please help me to trust in you, to lay down my cares, my control, my anxiousness, my stress. Please free me of these burdens and fill me with your love.

You, Lord, are so good to me. You love me when I fail you, when I try to do things in my own strength. You see me and fully know my heart. You cleanse me and heal me and guide me by your hand. You show me the way to go, every morning, and I walk in it.

I am thankful I have you to go to. I am thankful you love me so. Let me never forget you, let me never leave you. Let me come every morning seeking you and find you.

Show me the way to go Lord, lead me by your Will. Speak your truth into me Every morning and let me Trust in your unfailing love for every step I take throughout the day.

In Jesus Name I Pray.

Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

Psalm 143:10

Damage not dealt with can Cause Years of Destruction.

But Jonadab, son of Shemeah, David’s brother, said, “My lord should not think that they killed all the princes; only Amnon is dead. This has been Absalom’s express intention ever since the day Amnon raped his sister Tamar.”

2 Samuel 13:32

Every time I read this passage I cringe a little bit. Within me there is a familiar, realized hurt for Tamar, a heart break for the family, an understanding for the protective brother, and a hatred for the sin that caused all the damage.

Poor Tamar, she was used and abused, then told to ignore the whole thing. Her brother Absalom, however, held onto his hatred for Amnon. King David went on his way, thinking everything was worked out and his family was fine. But they weren’t fine.

It’s never fine when we don’t deal with the Big Problem.

“And Absalom never said a word to Amnon, either good or bad; he hated Amnon because he had disgraced his sister Tamar.” 2 Samuel 13:22

Tamar’s disgrace never allowed her to experience marriage, children, or a family of her own. She probably dealt with shame and depression the rest of her life. Amnon wasn’t punished, he wasn’t forced to rectify the situation. He just moved on with his life. Absalom lived in anger, which festered, until one day he took his anger into his hands. He killed his brother, Amnon, ran in fear of his father, and the family suffered even more.

I get it! I hid my hurts for years from the world. This caused me to allow the hurts to make harmful choices that hurt me even more. There was division, there was strain, but thankfully there was Still GOD.

After my last hurt, I went on my worst spiral, and I happened to be in my first year of college. In a jeep with slippery tires on a rainy night, I drove down the road crying out to God to let my tires slide and let me fly to high to Heaven to be with Him.

But you know God, He had already called my Heart to Him, and I woke up the next morning ready to seek His call. Since that time, God has done an internal healing which drastically healed and changed my external circumstances, propelling fully into my calling.

God continues to show me all He’s been working out since the beginning, since the hurt, and truly I don’t feel that hatred in my heart anymore and the flashbacks and spirals have ended. — But there is still hurt. Hurt in the family, problems still not healed that I wish were. Yet, through my own healing, I know and trust healing can still come through Jesus alone.

Don’t let the hurts of your past keep your heart broken. Talk about them. Talk to Jesus if you don’t have someone or somewhere you can go. Healing comes when you release the hurt to God with communication, so He can fill you with His Love and Peace. One day, you will wake up and realize all those past hurts and heartache are gone.

Nobody’s Perfect, but we can be Perfectly Cleansed by a Perfect Savior.

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

Psalm 51:4-5

David, the man after God’s own heart; he sinned. He went after the wife of another man and conceived a child with her.

Y’all, we are all sinners, right from our mothers wombs. We came into this world tarnished and bent on being selfish, but thankfully God still loves us and has mercy on us.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.

Psalm 51:1

David sinned, and Nathan the Prophet made him aware of his sin. The first step to healing is awareness. It’s acknowledging that you’ve done wrong. And David went even further to say to God, “against you alone have I sinned”. He told God what he did hurt people, but more than that it hurt God.

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holt Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Psalm 51:10-12

In more words than one, David asked God to forgive him and completely cleanse him. That’s the second step, forgiveness – a complete cleansing and healing of our sin. It’s a wiping away of the darkness we stepped into and filling us with light. David asked God for a fresh start, and God granted it.

Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.

Psalm 51:15

David promised, out of forgiveness, to praise God’s name and teach others to turn from their sins. For healing, that’s the third step, repentance. A turning from what we did and building a new future.

David had a direct connection with God, and God saw his heart and forgave him.

We have this opportunity as well, but ours comes through the lineage of David and the love of God. A combination. Fully man and fully God. It comes through Jesus, the Savior of the world, the Son of God. He was sent to the earth to die for us, putting our sins to death, being buried – wiping our sins away, and rising from death to life to give us eternal life, a fresh start.

When we sin, all we have to do is recognize our sin, ask God to forgive us, and turn from that sin. Then and only then will we feel healing from the sin because sin puts us in darkness and separates us from God. That hurts, that’s hard, but it doesn’t have to be that way. We have The Way – His Way, and He brought healing.

Don’t live in your sin and suffer with that weight on you. Release it to Jesus, release the weight of the burden of sin, let Jesus lighten the load by cleansing you and filling you with His Light.

Every morning, with every prayer, I thank God for his love for me, and I ask him to forgive me of my sins against him. This becomes a cleansing of my heart, making me new, and readying me to be in communion with him.

Ya’ll, NOBODY’s Perfect, but God can Perfectly Heal you and make you New.

“In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.”
2 Samuel 11:1

Idleness can lead you down a road you never knew you got on or ever wanted to be on.

David should have been leading his men into battle, but he decided to take a break from his God-given purpose. In his idleness, David went to the top of the palace just to take in all he’d accomplished and his eyes wandered in the wrong direction, leading him astray.

David wasn’t where he was supposed to be and his heart led him down a path he never wanted to be on. He had an affair with another mans wife, a man out serving his country and his king.

This path in idleness led to an affair that led to the death of an innocent man and a baby. Neither of these things are what David or God wanted, but David wasn’t doing what he should have been doing. And idleness….it found its way to sin.

Nobody’s Perfect.

If we keep our heart, hands, and eyes on the ways of the Lord and the work He has specifically for us to do, we have a better chance at keeping idleness at Bay.

Idleness isn’t REST —-it’s Laziness. It’s going about life without a purpose or the wrong purpose and we are led astray.

David had a purpose, he was to go out to battle with his men, but he chose to stay home. We have a purpose, each one of ours different, and if we aren’t in it we should be seeking it. To truly seek our purpose our eyes must be on God, and with eyes on God our eyes can’t be on anything else.

When people, including myself, fall into sin, it’s not normally because we are looking for it. Like David, we find sin when we stop following God’s plan. We stopped seeking Him and that’s the perfect time for the devil to get a foothold on our lives, even in the most unsuspecting areas. All the devil needs is an inch and he’s going to take 6 feet. Idleness is the devil’s favorite path because we aren’t even aware that he’s there. However, there is another path.

If we stay on the path God has for us — the purpose driven path — idleness has no place there.

The best way to recognize if you are living on purpose is by seeking God consistently daily. Not giving way to your favorite book, binging on that Netflix show, your friends, the gym, that vacation, a shopping spree, outside activities, anything that becomes an excuse for why you can’t seek God. None of these things are bad in themselves, but if they become the reason you don’t have time to pray, read the word of God, and seek His face daily, then you aren’t living on purpose.

It’s not HARD to seek God, He’s always around us; it’s just hard to give up our selfish desires. However, with our selfishness we breed idleness and idleness leads us straight to sin. And my sweet friends, I don’t want any one of you to experience the consequences of sin.

“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5

Don’t get led down the wrong path, don’t give way to idleness, it’s a REALLY hard road to walk; Stay purpose-filled, stay connected to the Father and Live an Abundant Life.

David asked, ‘Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?’

2 Samuel 9:1

David was known as the greatest king, a man after gods own heart, and he was loved by all who knew him well. (Let’s just ignore the jealousy of Saul and his daughter, Michal, because they loved him at times, too.) His greatness and goodness was so well renowned, not because of his looks or stature, but because of his faithfulness. He always did what he said he would do even when those who he made the vows to were no longer around.

I can see David now, looking over the city from his bedroom window and reminiscing of his youth. All of a sudden, his heart aches and he misses his best friend, Jonathon. He didn’t have to do anything or David could have just done something simple like take Flowers to Jonathan’s grave, but no, he remembered the Vow he made to him and went searching to see if there was still anyone from his family alive.

There was one son, lame in both feet, unable to walk, and David summoned for him to come. David didn’t just invite him to dinner, he made Mephibosheth a forever place at his table. David didn’t just give him a gift, he returned to him all the land that belonged to his grandfather, Saul. David didn’t want Mephibosheth to fail because of his handicap, so he also provided him servants to take care of the land.

Did David have to do any of this? No. Would these things benefit David in any way? Not at all. But David made a vow to Jonathan and to God.

David brought LIGHT to a Dark place in Saul’s family when he fulfilled a vow to Jonathan that would never be seen by him.

The GOOD we do in the Dark brings LIGHT into the Darkest places.

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Matthew 6:1-4

When we do things that no one sees, that goes unacknowledged, that doesn’t get praise, that can’t help us at all, the only thing that can be seen in this is love. This type of love isn’t a selfish love, it’s not two-sided, it’s a reflection of God’s love that he asked us to share with the world.

“A new command I give to you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35

The love we show in the dark breaks light into the dark and pushes darkness out.

I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High.

Psalm 9:1-2

So, my husband thinks that I live in fantasyland.

I love all things happy, joyful… You name it, Bright Colors, Dancing, Singing, Disney, Flowers, Swinging. I just don’t understand when people are mean, why hurt people hurt people, when things get escalated; I just wish everyone got along. Call me a Pollyanna if you will.

I get that hard things happen…have you seen anything in my life, but I just choose not to dwell there. I choose to live my life with a smile on my face an extra skip to my step. I choose to dance down the line at a funeral procession, so that I can thank everyone for taking the time to be with my family.

Whenever negativity erupts around me I back away, I ask why, I walk out, I want to run away or I try to calm down the situation because someone else’s negativity makes me more angry if I don’t let it die off.

I’ve been talked about, felt unwelcome, my children have complained, and I’ve been misjudged all within the past 2 weeks (even on Easter), and it down right hurts….but if I don’t let it go, if I don’t turn those negative thoughts into thankful thoughts, I become a grouch. I become depressed. Not the person or the Life God gave me to live, one of Abundant Joy.

I JUST DONT GET HOW ANYONE CAN LIVE IN THAT KIND OF WAY.

So, instead, I choose to give thanks. I thank the LORD every morning for all He does for me. When my kids get into the Negative Nancy mood, I have them write out 3 things they are thankful for and then they keep going. I walked on a clean floor this morning and I thanked my husband for how nice it felt to my feet. Giving thanks makes my heart happy.

Even if all is dark, I will choose to be light, and declare the good things the Lord has done.

Ya’ll I feel the hurt others do to me, I just choose not to dwell there. I will look that hurt in the face and smile. I will joke and laugh, when someone has tried to deplete me because for me it is better to laugh than to cry. I will live in my own little fantasyland, aka Heaven on earth, because God has been so good to me.

My fantasyland is filled with light and when darkness tries to push its way in, I push back with thanks and prayer. I push back with the truth of God’s wonderful deeds, and I will be glad and rejoice for all He has done!