Eeps! Is it August already??? Wait, you're saying that August is almost over and it's nearly September?!?!? Just give me a few more minutes, August!!! It would seem that this month is one of those months where I have no idea what to write! To be honest, I've started more than one blog this month...but, for one reason or the other, they fell flat. :-/ Hmmm.....I do have one prevailing thought these days, God is so good!!!
 Yes, life stinks. Yes, people are still people. Yes, I'm still having a hard time keeping up with my Bible and Prayers. But God is good! He loves me anyway! He proves to me day after day that He is right by my side! In what ways does He prove this? 
   Well one morning, for whatever reason, I didn't go to work (housecleaning for an elderly neighbor). What came in the mail that day? A check from a survey company I do surveys for!
   I was feeling kind of down one day...messing around on the internet...and found myself! On my good friend's blog she had posted a verse I had shared with her (and more). What a pick me up to know that I had been important to that person that day! (all to the glory of God of course :-) )  A friendship come back to bless me! (and it has!!! Many, many, many times!)
   Was grocery shopping the other day (always a fun thing...NOT!) when the Lord led me to a 20 lb box of fresh corn...for $3!!! Then, the sweet guy at the counter gave me a $1 back!!! (the Lord uses him regularly in this area)
   Was missing my mom GREATLY earlier this month (when she was with her mother who was going through a mastectomy) when a sweet lady at church took me under her wing and gave me a little "mommy" babying after a CRAZY weekend. 
   While my mom was staying with her mom, we were a little nervous about situations and relationships there. Recieved a call from my mom and was told all about the blooming relationship the Lord has been creating between my mom and her sister!
   Was in my Bible this morning and came across a wonderful verse!
"Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men." (I Corinthians 1:25) Amen and praise the Lord! So I sent that around to a whole bunch of my girl friends. Received back a few responses of "Thank you" and "Good stuff". Got to feeling good about being used like that and then came across a verse a little farther along... "So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." (I Corinthians 3:7) and was reminded that none of it is of me. I'm just the vessel to be used by God's mighty hand!!! "But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon." (I Corinthians 3:10b) 
   And that's not all either! The month isn't over yet! Nor the year! What amazing things will God do around the next dozen corners??? I can't wait to see. :-)
   I don't know that any of that really made any sense...I guess I didn't have a "topic" today, just wanted to praise the Lord. How about you? :-)

With Prayers,
  Sarah
 
 

   "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word." 
                                                                                     Luke 1:38
   This is a verse that really jumped out at me this month at one point during my daily Bible reading. It has since become the prayer of my heart. Or atleast I'm striving for it to be. I'm sure that I've read it before, it was just the right time this time. I am the handmaid of the Lord, right? I'm saved by His blood and a child of His. But am I willing to say "be it unto me according to thy word"?  For me it was a sort of personal twist on the prayer that we all struggle with, "Not mine, but Thy will be done."  Can I honestly say, with all of me, as a handmaid of the Lord, do what you want Lord. Tell me what to do and I'll do it. 
   It has also become the prayer of my heart for other girls. For them to come to the place where they can say this and it will show on the outside. Maybe, though, you feel you already feel that way, that you already pray this prayer or something like it. But I have some questioins for you. 
   If you say, "according to thy word", does that mean if He says to change something in your life that you'll do it?   What if he says to change your hair?   What if He says change your clothes?   Change or quit your job?   Don't hang out with that person anymore?   Throw your favorite movies out?   Don't read those books anymore?   Don't listen to that music anymore?
   Some of these might seem trivial but these are all things that the Lord speaks of, addresses in His Word. All things that truly are important to Him whether or not we agree. All things that few people really want to think about and when faced with it, they tell themselves, "I'm fine. The Lord is ok with my dress/hair/music/friends/etc". But is He really?
   This verse brought up alot inside of me but two big points. All of the ways that I'm not submissive to His Word (WHATEVER that might be) and, the ways that so many girls aren't submissive to His Word (WHATEVER that might be), though we all claim to be doing it "His" way, don't we?
   We are having revival this week at our church and I have been challenged so much and in so many ways recently as God is working on my heart, working to make it truly His, showing me places where I haven't chosen His will yet. I find that as I am challenged, my prayers become more fierce for those around me too. For them to totally have His will in their life. This is where my challenge to you comes from. Because as I was, for the hundredth time, meditating on this verse, I realized how much it applies to those around me and girls out there that I don't even know, (some of you), and my heart grew heavy at the way so many are living their lives while claiming to be doing it "according to his word".  
   So I challenge you now. To look up this passage and then in prayer see what the Lord has for your life today. What little part of you heart and life He wants you to give to Him.
   "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word." Psalms 119:9
   "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." II Timothy3:16-17
   "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." John 17:17

With Prayers, 
   Sarah