Being at Peace

One day you see sunshine and rainbows, the next day you see storm clouds and hailstones. At least this is the life James and I are walking through right now. I won't go into all the details at this point, but surfice it to say, we are walking through a storm right now. A big, scary storm with a very unknown outcome...

But even in the midst of the unknown outcome, I have peace, because I know whom I serve and I know HE loves me and will take care of me. In THIS moment I have peace. Sure, in the last few hours I've shed a lot of tears. But in THIS moment I have peace. And it is only in THIS moment that I need peace. My Abba Father will meet me in the next moments and give me the peace I need just for THAT moment too.

The Bible says: Do not worry about tomorrow, each day has enough trouble of its own. I never really got this verse until today. I am a planner and I like to be in control. So worrying about tomorrow is one of my main job descriptions!!! If I don't worry about tomorrow, who will??? But God is only giving me peace for THIS moment. Not for tomorrow. Tomorrow will receive its own portion of peace from the Lord.

So when I let my mind wander through the "what ifs", I am not following the Lord's commands at all. I am sinning. The "what ifs" get me no where but down a road fraught with fear over the tomorrows, that I honestly have absolutely NO control over. The Lord never intends for us to have fear for tomorrow (I have not given you a spirit of fear!!). That's why He instructs us to NOT worry about tomorrow. He's handling it!

Interesting the preceding part of that verse - God IS taking care of ALL of it. Not just a bit or a portion or just the really big stuff. He is our Abba Father, our Daddy, and He loves me and loves you SO much that HE is taking care of the Big stuff and the Little things too - ALL of it!!!!!!

Matthew 6:25 - 34
25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life[a]?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

So I am so very thankful for the peace of THIS moment. Knowing that my Abba Father will give me the peace I need for the next moment and the moment after that. And with that peace I look expectantly for the very good gifts my Daddy is preparing for us!!!

Prayers and Provisions

Jehovah Jireh....The Lord who Provides....

This year has been a time of stepping out in obedience and faith for my family. Definitely NOT my strong suit! I very much like being in control of EVERYTHING!!! Our lives have been crazy chaotic and busy this year. Caroline has been at a private Christian school, Jack at a public charter school and me at a public Title 1 school. Three completely different school schedules, different vacation days, 1 1/2 hours in the car getting everyone where they need to go each day, 35 miles round trip between schools - 2 times a day. Absolute Craziness!!! Add on top of that the exhaustion that comes from working in an inner-city Title 1 school and the lack of patience I was beginning to experience with my own children at the end of each day and it came as no shock that a change was needed. James and I began to pray and seek the Lord and see what changes we should make. We decided that I would apply to each of the children's schools to see if I could get a teaching position at either of them. The lack of teaching positions available caused us to be unsure of what to expect. Jack's school didn't have any elementary openings this year for new teachers and Caroline's school was only going to have one. Got my application into both and had interviews with both. Amazingly, I was offered the one position that was available at Caroline's school - teaching the grade level that I wanted to teach. The only set-back was that I was going to have a $20,000 pay cut to take the job. Nothing like seeing what you want and then feeling like you're being sucker-punched by the lack of money. We prayed about it again and really felt like the Lord was working everything out for me to take it. Just didn't know how the funding was going to be there.

At this same time, our pastor had challenged our church to be faithful to tithe, make a budget and stick to the budget for 120 days. He talked with us about the Bible being clear that we are to tithe 10% of our salary, but that the Lord promises to provide for us. We took the challenge. I can't tell you how many times I didn't want to write the tithe check. How many times we would look at the balance sheet and know what bills had to be paid, but not where the money would come from. And at times we were aboslutely desperate and struggled greatly. But we continued to faithfully tithe.

Fast forward about a month from taking the new teaching job. James is told that he is being considered for a new position at the hospital that will include a big pay increase for him, doing financial analyst work that he loves to do. Seemed far too good to be true. We'd been down this road before and weren't sure it was going to really pan out. But he was told last week that he was going to be offered the job. And although the pay increase was good it is not as much as we had hoped. We had gotten it in our minds that the pay increase would totally make up my pay difference from my leaving my public school job. But that isn't how it worked out...exactly....

Jehovah Jireh...The Lord provides.... This term is used in the Old Testament when Abraham is given the ram to sacrifice instead of Isaac. The Lord provided for Abraham when Abraham was faithful. I think the faithful, obedient part is the kicker....

So as James and I sat down to do a projected budget for the next school year, something truly amazing happened..the Lord has worked it all out. I found out that I am being given two pay checks this August - one from each school. One of which will pay off most of the kid's discounted tuition for this upcoming school year. James' pay increase is in no way, shape or form going to make up my $20,000 pay cut... BUT, the Lord has provided an extra $400 A MONTH to our take-home pay. I don't know how it is possible, but HE has increased our money....He is Jehovah Jireh...The Lord who Provides!!!!

Are you Embracing Change or just Facing it????

Change is in the air....It seems like so many friends are experiencing life-changing events. Some good, some not so good. But change is happening.

With the changes come many different reactions to the change. Our attitudes determine so much of how the change will effect us. I wonder as we experience change are we planting our feet, setting our body and facing the change as one would as they hold on tight in the midst of a wind storm or are we opening our arms up and embracing the change. We choose the attitude that we will have towards the change and that makes all the difference.

Facing the change is fighting against it. Fear, negativity and frustration set in. The "whys" rear their ugly head. Why can't things stay the way they were? Why do I have to change jobs? Why do we have to move? Why do I have to go through this? We're bracing ourselves for a mighty storm and we aren't the least bit happy about it. And as we fight against the change, we get hurt!


Embracing the change is completely different. With the embracing comes excitement. Life is an adventure and we don't know what is around the next bend, but we do know God is in the change. We're on the roller coaster of life, sitting up front as the car makes its assent with our arms raised high, squealing all the way. Sure our stomach flips for a moment and our breath occasionally leaves us, but we are excited to see what is around the next bend.

As we face change, be it good, bad or indifferent, we will face many emotions and that's fine. Being sad, frustrated or even a little scared in the moment the change is occurring is normal. But maintaining an attitude that is sad, frustrated and fearful acts like a layer of icy water that freezes us to the core causing us irreparable damage that keeps us from being able to move forward at all.

Change WILL happen in our lives. As Heraclitus said, "The only thing constant in life is change." How we handle the change and the attitude we adopt in the midst of it all determines where we go from there.

Purposing to Embrace change and not just face it!!!!!

Life is Change, Growth is optional....Choose wisely....Karen Clark

Making Snow Cone Syrup!!!

I love summer and all the fun that it contains. Relaxing in the sun, swimming at the pool and enjoying some yummy snow cones. What doesn't scream summer like shaved ice with sweetened fruit-flavored syrup. Here is a super-easy and yummy way to make your own snow-cone syrup.

Snow Cone Syrup
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup water
1 pkg. of unsweetened fruit drink mix such as: Kool-Aid

Heat the water and sugar to a boil or mix together and microwave for about 3 1/2 minutes. Stir in package of Kool-aid, stir and pour into serving containers. Refrigerate until ready to use. I normally make my syrups a day ahead of time so they can be really cold when we make the snow cones.

I put the syrup in squeeze bottles I got from a local party store ($1.00 a piece). From left to right we are serving: Blueberry Lemonade, Watermelon Kiwi, Strawberry and Lemon-Lime.

We're renting a large-sized snow cone maker this week for Jack's end-of-the-season baseball party and my class's end-of-the-year party. Check around for a good deal. We're getting the snow cone maker for 3 days for $50. Caroline's even talking about setting up a Snow Cone Stand in between the two events to make a little money. As much as my kids enjoy making (and EATING) these, I think we might have to invest in our own snow-cone maker soon! Too much fun to not make on a regular basis! Have fun!!!

Adventures of a Coupon Newbie

Wanting and needing to save money, I decided to join the coupon bandwagon and really work hard at saving money at the grocery store. Using several websites like southernsavers.com and acoupondiva.com, I printed coupons, clipped coupons and plotted and planned my trip. Hitting up two local grocery stores I went in and came out pleased and motivated to keep going. It was definitely worth the time and effort. I spent about an hour this morning preparing for the trip and about an hour at the two stores (luckily they are across the street from each other, so little travel time was involved. All told I bought over $185 worth of groceries, but only spent $85. So I figured I saved about $50 an hour for my efforts!!!!

Shopping trip at Publix - $45 worth of groceries for only $15!!!!

Some of my best individual buys:
3 boxes of name-brand cereal for $2.10 total (that is 70 cents a box)
2 boxes of Go-Gurts (a special treat in my house because I will rarely spend the money on them) - 90 cents total
2 boxes of hair color - Normally $9 a box. I got each for $1.

Throw in a free 1/2 gallon of orange juice, 2 jars of Paul Newman spaghetti sauce for $1 each and $27 worth of meat for only $12 and it was a pretty good trip!

I am super new at all of this stuff. If you have any suggestions or ideas, I'd love to hear them!!! Off to go buy my Sunday papers!!!

What are you reaching for????

I recently saw the musical Mary Poppins at the Fox Theatre here in Atlanta. It was an outstanding production that my family and I enjoyed very much. The chorus of one of the songs struck me as interesting and I have been mulling it over for a few days.

"If you reach for the stars, all you'll get are the stars.....if you reach for the heavens, you get the stars thrown in." — Mary Poppins

What an interesting thought. Back in the day, good ol' Casey Kasem would end every Top 40 program with, "Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars." In fact, I have heard for years to "reach for the stars". But here was Mary Poppins almost saying that reaching for the stars wasn't good enough.

As I began to think about that line an interesting thought took form. Reaching for the stars is synonymous with going after our dreams. The sky's the limit sort of thing. And I guess that is all well and good. But is it the best? Maybe not. The stars, I can see. I can study them, contemplate them, even sort of understand them. They are finite. My mind can 'get it'.

But going after Heaven??? I certainly don't have a great grasp on what Heaven will be like. In my limited understanding I totally can imagine it, read scripture on it, etc. But do I totally "get it"? Not really. It is infinite. It is more than my mind can conceptualize or understand.

God puts dreams and desires into each one of us, but I think His desire is to do even MORE than what we can imagine or conceptualize. More than the stars. I have always wanted to be a teacher, and I went after that dream. I reached for the stars and lo and behold, I became a teacher. But what if being a teacher is just the beginning.? What if God wants to take my teaching to a level that I can't begin to understand or dream of? Who knows?

The Bible states in 1 Corinthians 2:9 - "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him". Wow!!!! We can't even begin to imagine what God has in store for us! How exciting is that!!! So I think I will follow Mary Poppins advice and reach for the Heavens...open myself up to allowing the Lord to use me, teach me and take me places I haven't ever even thought of. Maybe the Lord will even see fit to throw in a few stars for good measure!!!

Puzzle Pieces

Have you ever felt like your life is a huge puzzle and it is only as the pieces slowly fit together that you begin to see the plan that God has for your life? When you go through those absolutely horrible times and you can't for the life of you figure out or understand the whys??

Several years ago when I was a young new teacher, I had a horrible teaching experience. Such a horrible experience that it was enough to make me leave the profession and completely cause me to go into one of the few times I have ever experienced any type of depression. I couldn't understand how God could cause me to go through that. He had so DEFINITELY called me to be a teacher. Not having gone to college or having a degree in teaching originally, He made a clear-cut way for me to become a teacher. And I loved it...but then I left it. No amount of reason could cause me to understand why things would become so difficult that I would leave that which I loved to do. Within a month of leaving teaching, I was hired to do recruiting for a local college. Another gal started on the same day as me. We worked together for only three weeks. I enjoyed the job, she did not. But a fast friendship was formed. I worked at that job for almost five years, leaving only to move and get married. Seven years after having left my teaching job for a heartbreaking reason, all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. The friend I had met and worked with for only a few short weeks, was then an HR Director for a local sales firm. She was looking for someone to hire to work part time, from home, doing marketing research. The perfect job for this new mom who didn't want to put her infant daughter in daycare. There was no way I could have understood at the time why I had to walk through something so painful as leaving a career I loved. But God knew. God knew that seven years later I would be a new mom who wanted to stay home and take care of her baby but still needed to earn some money. He knew.

In Romans 8:28 states that God works all things together for good for those who are called according to His good purpose. What an awesome promise! I remember a time about 13 years ago when my apartment was broken into a couple of times. The only things the thieves got were an old computer and printer. Being a single gal, it was terrifying to have had my home broken into and many tears of frustration and fear were shed. Insurance covered the loss and I was able to get a new computer. And this one actually had a dial-up modem! Shocking I know...Twas the way of the world 13 years ago! AOL was in its hey-day!!! Little did I know, that out of that break-in and heart break, the pieces of another puzzle would soon come together as I met my husband through that computer (and this was LONNGGG before Match.com and the like). God knew how to bring us together and He used that break-in for MY good. Even though at the time I absolutely could not see how He could.

What are you dealing with? What heartbreaks are you experiencing that you can't even begin to imagine being turned around for His glory and your benefit?? He will work for us, on our behalf. He will fight for us. He loves us. He is our Daddy!!! And even though you might not be able to see how or why or when it will work out....do know that He promises, not some things, not most things but HE works ALL things together for GOOD!!!!! What an awesome promise! Stand on it, claim it, and watch Him put the pieces of your puzzle together!!!!