July 01, 2009

Cleanse Check-In

Wanted to share a little bit of what God is showing me through the cleanse so far. So I’m finishing day 8 today and so far I’ve had one slip up which was a few sips of my husbands soda at a mexican restaurant. But not a big deal to me, not getting legalistic about it. But something encouraging is that I feel like my mind has been so much more clear to pray. I’m not contributing this to the things I haven’t put into my body for a week but rather the constant reminder of the “no” foods has forced me to think on the Lord/be in constant communication with Him which has resulted in such clarity for prayer!

June 07, 2009

Creating a Clean Heart

In Psalm 51, David writes that from the moment we are conceived, our hearts are full of sin. My son, almost 4 1/2 now, has taught me so much about my relationship with Jesus, His love for me as well as helping me to see the ways in me that are wicked and need cleansing from Christ. When our children are infants and up until the toddler years, we spend so much time loving and nurturing but also a fair amount of time disciplining and correcting. And in these early years it seems that most discipline is directed at the behavior (don’t touch that, say please, please pick up your toys, no throwing…) However,

May 12, 2009

Psalm 18

Psalm 18:16-19
He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the LORD was my support.
He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.

April 29, 2009

Full of Life?

Today I began studying the life of David. What an amazing man…a fitting description of him, “a man after God’s own heart.” How incredible to be thought of like this God. The author of my study shares this story of her sitting by her grandfather as he takes his final breathes here on earth and she shares his last words which were praises and worship to God, praise after praise after praise…on his death bed. She says of her grandfather that “he was full of life in the face of death.”

April 01, 2009

Oops!

Hi everybody! I just realized that my contact form has been down for some time. It is now working, so if you’ve tried to contact me through it and had no response, feel free to re-sent it.

March 25, 2009

Surrendered

This past week I’ve been reflecting on my season of life and I have been consistently experiencing incredible joy and peace. Wow! In the midst of what the world would call a broken heart (trying for 3 years to have another child to only result in a miscarriage), I’ve experienced such different emotion. There is sadness over such a loss but the emotion that has come from the sadness has been so unexpected - joy and peace. As I sat with Him over this, I began to realize that I never even asked God “why” this had to happen.

March 20, 2009

Hope in the midst of loss

Well, God’s been working over here in the Stokes house! God has been putting His hand print all around our circumstances and this is what has kept us encouraged and hopeful in Him. On Tuesday we found out we’re in the middle of a miscarriage, I was 7 weeks along. It was a sad appointment and I’ve definitely had my moments of tears and heartache…but there’s more to our story. There’s hope. The day before this appointment, we got a call from our adoption attorney and a young Christian woman had chosen to pursue our family.

March 13, 2009

Psalm 84

I have loved this Psalm for a while now, I read it weeks ago and daily the Lord brings it to my mind. We serve an incredible God. In the midst of such a blessing of being pregnant, my health situation remains as a constant anchor for my eyes…to be fixed on Him. I have no choice. In my eyes it makes no sense why this blessing would come at such a time but in God’s timing, regardless of my understanding, it is the perfect time. I have a choice every day to “make springs in the valley of Baca”.

March 01, 2009

We’re Pregnant!

Well, what can we say but Praise God! After being told we’d have a better chance of winning the lottery than ever conceiving again, we found out last week, after three long years, that our second baby is due Nov. 5th. How awesome is God! You may be wondering why we’re telling you when I’m only 4 1/2 weeks along and really I had no intention of telling you for a while, in all honesty:) But as I was sitting with God this morning, praying through the many issues we are already facing with this pregnancy, God really challenged me on my rationalization for keeping it a secret.

February 24, 2009

Coconut Oil

My latest interest that I’ve been researching, coconut oil. I used it several years ago when a doctor recommended it to me but I had gotten away from it. We were visiting some friends this past weekend and the wife commented on how she was taking 2 TBLS of it every day to help with her immune system and she hadn’t had a cold or flu in months since starting to use it. When I got home, I went back and re-looked at some of my old research and wondered why I ever stopped using it in the first place. The benefits are astounding and you can take a peek at Organic Facts where they go into them at length. But here’s a few to skim over…

Cleanse Check-In

Creating a Clean Heart

Psalm 18

Full of Life?

Oops!

Surrendered

Hope in the midst of loss

Psalm 84

We’re Pregnant!

Coconut Oil

Resources

Verse of the Week

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