Have you ever felt the people of this world just break your heart? People you love? It is so hard to have people in your family that go out of their way to hurt you. How do you get around it? How do you let that slide off your back? How do you not take it personally?

The short answer is you don’t. You can not get past these things unless you are in love with the only One that will never hurt you or betray you. It is only in His glory that you can let these hurts and people go. That you can allow them to be who they are with all the failings and faults that come with them. Just as they allow you to be who you are.

Does God see our pain and sorrow at the hand of those who are supposed to love and protect us? I know this one. It is yes. He sees us. One of my favorite verses is In Exodus three. Verse seven says, “The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.” I love this verse because I put my name in place of the “people” and I put what ever I am going through in place of the “Egypt”. It is very encouraging.

What part of your broken heart do you need mended? Where do you need God to see you right now? Sometimes, it is as simple as my God saying to me, ” I have indeed seen the misery of my Peggy in a tired and grouchy mood. I have heard her husband cry out, and I care about both of them.”

See how that can bring a smile to your face, already? It also works if God needs to see my sister in a hurtful and abusive relationship or a painfully trapping addiction.

God will mend your broken heart. He will stop the storm in your life. He will continue to shine on you. He will make the world go round.

I am not a Pearl Jam fan, but Greg is so I will go to the World Wide Web and Google lyrics for them. I was searching today for something lovey to post and I came across this song. The simple lyric of , “I will not lose my faith, it’s an inside job today.”

Wow, can God be any more plain? Our faith is just that, ours. We have it, we carry it, we rely on it, we treasure it, we lose it. We throw it away or we let it slip through our fingers. How ever we go, it’s inside us that the choices take place. It’s an inside job today. Today and every day. It’s up to us to keep it.

We can say this in our prayer every morning. I will not lose my faith, it’s an inside job today. I will do what it takes in my mind, in my heart and in my soul to keep my faith. I will not give it up, I will not lose it.

With out faith it is impossible to please God.

I have always gotten the “I think it’s about forgiveness…forgiveness.” Now I am getting the “Even if, even if you don’t love me any more.” I feel like Jesus has been speaking this directly into my soul.

So many people equate our salvation with acts or works that we should be performing on our end. When we accept Christ we are forgiven. We get forgiveness, forgiveness. While we are in the midst of getting the most out of what Jesus has for us, we have forgiveness, forgiveness. We are loving Jesus and He is loving us.

Then, sometimes we fall away. We quit reading and talking. We stop meeting and going. We fail to partake and to love. And this is where the “Even if, even if you don’t love me any more” comes in. I hear my Jesus talking to me. I get forgiveness, forgiveness…Even if, even if I am not loving Him actively any more. His love is not conditional, He does not love as the world loves.

My God loves perfectly. He loves perfectly. Let’s say that again. My God loves perfectly. He knows where we are and where we are going. He gives us forgiveness, forgiveness even if, even if we don’t love Him anymore.

On so many levels, though not completely, this song speaks to me. I love the way God uses music in my life. The opening line is a big one when you look at this through a different view. “Life is bigger, bigger than you, and you are not me. The lengths that I will go to, the distance in your eyes.” How we fail to see that life is bigger than us and we are not God. Do we forget what He does for us, do we ignore the sacrifices He makes for us? Yes, daily.

“That’s me in the corner, that’s me in the spotlight of losing my religion.” I think if there is something Jesus wants us to do, it’s to lose our religion. I think He wants us to forget about traditions and propriety and move into a deeper more meaningful relationship with Him. Put yourself in the corner, put yourself in His light and lose the religion and cling to the relationship.

“Every whisper, of every waking hour, I’m choosing my confessions. Trying to keep an eye on you, like a hurt lost and blinded fool, fool.” Every thing we say, every time we talk to Him, do we poor our hearts out to the One who already knows it all, or do we try to hide ourselves even from Him? Do we try to keep Him in His place and not too close to what we really are? Who we really are? We are hurt, lost and blinded fools.

“Consider this, consider this, the hint of the century. Consider this the slip that brought me to my knees, failed.” In all of this we fail. We have failed. The hint of your life, consider it you are not God, lose the head, get the heart, He already knows you. Let Him bring you to your knees, failed. When He lifts you back up, it will not be just a dream, and you will have a reason to try and cry.

I am also loving his new show, “The Marriage Ref”. I like Tom Papa and the panel he puts together. After reading a little about it, I am rather lonely in this opinion. It is really enlightening to see these celebrities give their two cents and comedic advice. It is neat to see who is really on the spot funny and who isn’t.

It is also interesting to see what couples are arguing about. It astounds me at how many of the spats deal with one of the spouses putting something in front of the other. When a wife does puts the needs of her pet above her husband’s, there is a greater issue.

It surprises me even more still that the panel will agree with the wife that cooks her iguana a special meal whilst her husband eats a TV dinner. I can not imagine Greg standing for this. I can not imagine my wanting to make my husband feel like a second class citizen in his own home.

God wants us to respect our husbands and be submissive to them. If we followed His way, I wonder how many marriage ref cases would be solved on their own?

They stumbled through the songs well enough, I have to say I really liked that cute, little Tim Urban’s styling of “Under My Thumb”. I do not understand why they give him so much grief. I just love him, he is a cutie. I liked the reggae vibe he gave it.

When I was listening to it, appreciating the fact that you could understand the lyrics, I was drawn to the line, “it’s down to me”. The song is about a guy who takes control of a girl who once had control of him. It is up to the guy to take that control. That is how God created us. He created the man to be the head of the woman. This is Biblical, ladies.

However, the man does not always take the lead. He lets the woman be the leader and this doesn’t work. Sometimes the woman takes control and holds onto it with a death grip. Ultimately, it is up to the man to take that role. It’s down to him. When he takes that role, the change will come. Truly, we are happier as women when they do step up and be the man. We need to not fill the role that was  created for another. We need to follow God’s plan for us. We need to be under his thumb.

“Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.” 1 Corinthians 11:3

They are fun to have, but require a bit of tending. The first week we had to keep their cage at about ninety five to a hundred degrees. Every week after that you can drop the temperature five degrees. The temp is important because the little featherlings they have do not keep them warm.

You also have to keep the food jar filled and be sure they have clean water. These tasks can be quite daunting because of their instinct to peck and scratch. It is so neat to watch them. You can fill the food and clean the water and then sit and watch them for about ten minutes, everything is a mess again. We finally got the water under control by setting it up a bit on small pieces of wood.

When we tell people that we bought chickens, we are always asked how many we lost. When I say that we have not lost any we get a look of surprise. I guess they are hard to raise from chicks.

Now, though, every time I walk into the garage, I am quick to see that they are all running around and alive. If they are all sleeping, I look to make sure they are breathing. I am extra concerned about losing one now. More than I was in the beginning.

I have to think about how God feels about us. If I am full of care and concern about my little chickys, how much more is our wonderful Creator concerned that He will not lose us. He puts a lot into us. He takes great care of us. Even when we mess things up, He makes sure we are running around, breathing.

Be a good chicky, Chicky.

Greg and I had to come into the office in the morning for a bit. When we left, I just looked out the window and took in the beauty of the white snow covering all the yards and fields.

As we took the route we normally take home, I was able to see the houses with yards that are not as well cared for as their neighbors. Also were the houses the the owners take great care in the landscaping.

What was interesting is the fact that on this day, you could not tell the difference between those two types of houses. The well kept and the unkempt were the same. Have you ever thought about this? Especially those of you who are in colder climates.

“Come now, let us reason together,”
says the LORD.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.”

Jesus does the same for us. When He looks at us, we are the same as the powerful preacher and the inmate in orange. We are no better or worse that any around us. He covers us all with His sacrifice so we can be seen as worthy. How’s that for a snow day?

None of the team were injured or attacked, but it got me thinking. We walk through our own “jungles” every day, never knowing what can happen to us. We never know what “lions” are lurking in the grass waiting to pounce.

I love how God uses the image of a lion to depict satan in first Peter. When you think of that lion crouched down waiting for the most opportune moment to go after the prey that has fallen behind or is suffering in some way, you can see satan doing exactly that. You can see him hiding in wait.

We have to be aware of what is around us, what we are surrounding ourselves with, what we allow in our lives. In every way satan tries to break into our heart and devour us from the inside. He takes what is good and makes it bad, he takes glory and turns it to shame. He makes us doubt and plants seeds of bitterness. He waits for us to walk by, unknowing, in the dark, alone or scared and he pounces.

Hold on to this scripture. Hold it close, be careful and in control.

“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” -1 Peter 5:8

The journey for these four people is something to be witnessed and learned from. There is a navigator, a survivalist, a journalist and a wildlife expert. They set out with no clear leader and no one with definitive authority. They all see where they come from as important and hold the others perspectives inferior.This leads quickly to dissension and fighting between themselves.

They have a navigator, but they don’t want to take the path that he gives them. They have a survivalist, but they do not want to build the shelter where he indicates is best. They have an expert on the dangers they will be facing, but they do not want to heed her advice on how to approach, or not approach, certain animals. They have a journalist, but they do not want to give him time to document the journey.

On more than one occasion, I wanted to write this group of people and ask them why they bothered to have these people on hand if they were not willing to listen to them when the situation called for their expertise. Why would you bother on this 971 mile, in the heat of the day and the cold of the night, in the hippo and croc infested water and the lion and hyena filled plains, over high mountains and down into the valleys with group of people you do not respect?

Is this sounding familiar to anyone? Do you have a navigator that sets the course for your life and you ignore it? Do you have someone in your life that can help you survive and you ignore it? Do you have a person who can bring you through the dangers that threaten to attack you and you ignore it? Do you fail to give yourself time to ponder and document the walk you are on?

Do you have a clear leader in your life? When we fail to give authority to one person, we become stagnant and scattered. We need to give that authority over to the only One who has all that we need in our lives. Take the path that is laid out for you, listen when you are being advised of danger, heed when you are being told how to survive and take the time to soak it all in and enjoy it.