Seeking Him is not just for Christmas time!

Kindness, Love, mercy

Answers

glad and thankful

Sheep of His hand

Because He loves!!!

Favor and work

100th post! :)

Mighty to save

Invincible army

The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery,

and my invincible army;

He makes my feet like hinds' feet and will make me to walk

[not to stand still in terror, but to walk]

and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places

[of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]!

Habakkuk 3:18-19    

Blessed

You have a strong arm;

Your hand is mighty, Your right hand is exalted.

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne;

Lovingkindness and truth go before You.

How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound!

O Lord, they walk in the light of Your countenance.

In Your name they rejoice all the day,

and by Your righteousness they are exalted.

For You are the glory of their strength,

and by Your favor our horn is exalted.

For our shield belongs to the Lord,

And our king to the Holy One of Israel.

Psalm 89:13-18    

Sowing, Reaping, and Seeking

Sow for yourselves according to righteousness 

(uprightness and right standing with God); 

reap according to mercy and loving-kindness.

 Break up your uncultivated ground,

for it is time to seek the Lord,

to inquire for and of Him,

and to require His favor,

til He comes and teaches you righteousness

and rains His righteous gift of salvation upon you.

Hosea 10:12    

God as King and Provider

For he will deliver the needy when he cries for help,

the afflicted also, and him who has no helper.

He will have compassion on the poor and needy,

and the lives of the needy he will save.

He will rescue their life from oppression and violence,

and their blood will be precious in his sight;

Psalm 72: 12-14   

Teachable

Teach me Your way, O Lord;

I will walk in Your truth;

Unite my heart to fear Your name.

I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God,

with all my heart,

and will glorify Your name forever.

For Your lovingkindness toward me is great,

and You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.   

Ps. 86:11-13 

Make a way

Truth springs from the earth, 

and righteousness looks down from heaven.

Indeed, the Lord will give what is good,

and our land will yield its produce.

Righteousness will go before Him

and will make His footsteps into a way.

Psalm 85:10-13  

Better is one day...

For a day in Your courts 

is better than a thousand outside.

I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God,

than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

For the Lord God is a sun and shield;

The Lord gives grace and glory; 

No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

O Lord of hosts,

How blessed is the man who trusts in You!

Ps 84: 10-12    

Thanksgiving as a sacrifice

He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving

honors Me;

and to him who orders his way aright

I shall show the salvation of God.

Psalm 50:23 

Comfort

Who comforts us in every trouble, 

so that we may also be able to comfort

those who are in any kind of trouble or distress, 

with the comfort with which we ourselves 

are comforted by God.

2 Corinthians 1:4 

Listen expectantly

I will listen [with expectancy] to what God the Lord will say,

for He will speak peace to His people,

to His saints (those who are in right standing with Him) -

but let them not turn again to [self-confident] folly.

Psalm 85:8  

Bubbling over!

May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace

in believing [through the experience of your faith]

that by the power of the Holy Spirit

you may abound and be overflowing

(bubbling over) with hope.

Romans 15:13

Hope AND Wait

This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope.

The Lord's lovingkindnessess indeed never cease,

for His compassions never fail. 

They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.

"The Lord is my portion," says my soul,

"Therefore I have hope in Him."

The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, 

to the person who seeks Him.

It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord.

Lamentations 3:21-26

Guidance

My son, observe the commandment of your father

and do not forsake the teaching of your mother;

Bind them continually on your heart;

Tie them around your neck.

When you walk about, they will guide you;

When you sleep, they will watch over you;

And when you awake, they will talk to you.

For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is a light;

And reproofs for discipline are the way of life.

Proverbs 6:20-23 

Shine!

Arise, shine; for your light has come,

and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

Then you will see and be radiant,

And your heart will thrill and rejoice;

Because the abundance of the sea will be turned to you,

the wealth of the nations will come to you.

Isaiah 60:1,5 

He is working...just wait.

For the vision is yet for the appointed time;

It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail.

Though it tarries, wait for it;

For it will certainly come, it will not delay.

 Habakuk 2:3 

Willing to learn

Be merciful and gracious to me, O Lord, 

for to You do I cry all the day.

Make me, Your servant, to rejoice,

O Lord, for to You do I left myself up.

For You, O Lord, are good, and ready to forgive;

and You are abundant in mercy and 

loving-kindness to all those who call upon You.

Teach me Your way, O Lord,

that I may walk and live in Your truth;

direct and unite my heart to fear and honor Your name.

Psalm 86:3-5, 11      

Walking

Pray that the Lord your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing that we should do.  Jeremiah 42:3

National Day of Prayer

The above pic is one I took in Jefferson City years ago...felt like it was appropriate today.

 God's loyal love couldn't have run out, his merciful love couldn't have dried up.  They're created new every morning. How great your faithfulness!  I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over). He's all I've got left.  God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks.  It's a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God.  It's a good thing when you're young to stick it out through the hard times. When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence.  Bow in prayer. Don't ask questions: Wait for hope to appear.  Don't run from trouble. Take it full-face. The "worst" is never the worst.  Why? Because the Master won't ever walk out and fail to return.  If he works severely, he also works tenderly.  His stockpiles of loyal love are immense.  He takes no pleasure in making life hard,
   in throwing roadblocks in the way:   Lamentations 3:22-33 (The Message)

Today, my prayer for you my friend, is that you would see God at work all around you...that you would know this crazy God-sized love that He has for you, and that you would not take it for granted.  That you would be so thankful to live right where you are, doing right what you are doing, letting Him shine through you.  That you would be quick to run to Him and let Him fill you with the hope that only He has a limitless supply of.  That you would NEVER give up, and that you would ALWAYS know His presence with you.  I pray that in the times of wait, because there will be many of them, that you will embrace those times for all the learning and refining He can bring through them.  That you will stick to it and watch Him redeem it all.  I pray that you will make good use of your time and be quick to include Him in each day.  And that each new morning will remind you of His faithfulness and put a spring in your step for all the possibilities!  May each of us hold ourselves accountable to the One, true God, letting Him use us in any and all ways that He sees fit.  This is my prayer for you today...on the national day of prayer.

Being cultivated and refined

Last night I was indulging myself in a Christian fiction book.  It's title is The First Gardener and its by Denise Hildreth Jones.  It was one of those books that you literally cry all the way through, but can't put down because you are rooting for the characters to successfully make it to the other side.  At the end, when things are beginning to come around, the gardener that prayed this family through some really hard things is talking with the main female character.  Here's what she says with a heart full of gratitude for both him and for God...and his reply:
     "Act humble if you will, but it's true.  You pressed us.  You pushed our buttons.  You opened our hearts.  Then you dug in like the gardener you are and tilled our very soil until a seed came to life."
     "Ain't never found hearts more worth diggin' in."

Finishing this book, my thoughts were all over the place (and it was midnight, so that's pretty normal for me).  This is exactly what God does.  He is our Master Gardener and He takes the time to prune us, encourage growth, takes the time to work with our picky selves, always knowing it was worth the time and effort He puts into it.  Never giving up on us. 

The following is what scribbled out of my hand/head after finishing the book (and listening to yesterday morning's sermon twice):
     Sometimes we get so busy seeing what we "lost"--what we've been stripped of or had ripped out of our grasp--that we totally miss what we have.
     There is not a soul on this earth that hasn't gone through some form of heartbreak.  100% of us have experienced some form of pain or an even that shook our lives.
     But it's what we choose to do with our life that is so very important.
     Am I going to choose to embrace life and whatever situation I am facing, or am I going to just endure "it" and take the chance on missing out on what God wanted to teach me?
     There are always going to be things that don't seem fair.  People will always share their opinions/assumptions and not be aware of the pain their words might cause.  Someone will always be available to rub you the wrong way.  You are guaranteed to lose a loved one sometime over the course of this life.  Life is full of losses of every shape and size.
     But God is bigger.  He has already overcome.  He has already won the battle and is victorious. He has already provided the ability to walk through any and all things we will ever face.
     And He knows what heart-wrenching pain is.  He watched His only Son be tortured and killed, ALLOWING it when He could have stepped in and stopped it.  BUT, He didn't--because He could see the bigger picture.  He knew the pain would be temporary and worth the cost.  That His going THROUGH the incredible pain of watching His Son die with the weight of all of our sin on His shoulders--would allow Him relationship with each of us.  He knows pain.
     And He feels our pain with us.  As well as our joys.  And He willingly arranges happenings that He knows will bless our very souls.
     He brings us back to life again.  He shows us what we have to live for and why the fight and the struggles are worth it.  He reminds us again and again that He loves us and is more than enough for us.  he holds our hands and walks us through it.
     And the process we go through makes us stronger.  But even more than that it gives us the gift of being able to come alongside someone else when their road is full of potholes, sinkholes, and flat-out missing parts.
     EVERYTHING we go through in life, the good and the bad and all that is in between, TRULY IS A GIFT.  It stretches us, molds us, refines us, and makes us more like Jesus.
     We just need to choose to keep focused on Him and fully trust that He still can see the bigger picture...and that He will see us through!

Cling to Him, take it to Him

Therefore, my beloved brethren whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. ... live in harmony in the Lord. ... Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, rejoice!  Let your gentle spirit be known to all men.  The Lord is near.  Phil 4:1, 2a, 4, 5

Life has so many ups and downs.  It can be overwhelming at times.  Its in those times that we need to just stop and remind ourselves of all the things that God has promised us, and take time to cling to Him and let Him speak to our weary souls.  You don't have to make an appointment to talk to God, all you have to do is cry out to Him...He is always there.  And His word is always powerful and calming.  He is every single thing that we need, at all times.  He will make Himself known to us as we cling to Him and seek Him out.  He sees us as His very own beloved children!  He never gets tired of us or frustrated and want to walk away.  There is not a thing you can do to stop His incredible love for you! 
And in those times where life just seems like it is too much...choose a heart of gratitude and thankfulness.  He will honor the choice you make to thank Him for the good in life despite the hard.  There is always something there that you can be thankful for.  Get your mind to focus on Him rather than on the things at the moment that are hard.
Looking at a crazy schedule and your brain is mush and there are things you HAVE to get done to keep up?  Take it to God, allow Him to build you up (that's me today)
Going through an adjustment stage after a big change in life?  Take it to God, lay it at His feet, give Him the control, thank Him for His constant provision and protection despite the changes
Lonely?  Go to God and let Him talk to your very soul.  You are His beloved child and He longs to spend time with you!
Absolutely anything...once laid at the feet of the cross and given to God...no longer seems so daunting and impossible.  After all, this same chapter later says that there is nothing that is impossible with God!

Abide and bear fruit

Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.  If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.  Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.  John 15: 4-9

I pray that you would find the courage to abide in the Father and in the great love that He has for you.  While abiding in Him, I pray that you would bear much fruit for His glory; that He would be able to use your life in any and every way that He sees fit to do so, using that fruit.  I pray that you would know the great power that is at your finger tips as you abide in Him.  That you would cling to Him, know His words, and live your life according to all that He has asked of you.  And that you would know the power that is found in asking of Him.  I pray that you would know the incredible, unmatchable love of God.

Deeper Relationship with God

"God never intended for us to go through life alone.  It feels like it sometimes, but every time I get that urge toward self-pity or desperation, I think of it as an invitation for a deeper relationship with God.  The point of life, in marriage or in singleness--even widowhood-- is that it should bring us to that intimate relationship with God.  And that relationship should fill us--all the way up to our secret and ashamed places--so that we are overflowing with love for Him.  Then we stop searching.  Then we are filled with joy."
--Susan May Warren in her book The Shadow of Your Smile, p. 307

I don't know about you, but that is right in line with what God has been teaching me, especially in the last two years.  Life is NOT about whether you are married or single.  It is about the relationship that you have with God, and where you let that relationship take you.  He wants to be your everything.  He alone can fulfill your deepest desires and the longings of your heart.  He alone can love you unconditionally.  He alone has every single answer for every single thing that you go through.  He alone is enough.  But it is a two-way relationship.  He desires that closeness with you, that we sometimes seek out in a relationship with others.  He wants to talk with you on a daily basis, and He will talk to you if you give Him the chance.  There is so much there, available, if you will just tap into it. 
Make Him the priority of your life.  Leave the relationships/details up to Him.  You don't have to go seeking a mate.  When the timing is right, He will bring it all about.  This isn't just for singles either.  The greatest thing you can ever do for your mate (or your future mate) is to make God your everything!  When your relationship with God is in the right place, and you are growing in Him and He is growing in you the potential that He has already put into place in your life, you will be draw others to you, because they will want the peace, joy, contentment, etc that is evident in your life.  Not only will you be the best person you can be for God, you will also be the best person you can be for your mate (future mate).  You will have more chances to share God in the lives of others, more effective for Him to use.  Who wouldn't want that?
What can you do today to grow your relationship with God deeper?  To become that person that He knows you can be, and wants you to become.  What are you letting hold you back?
Surround yourself with people that you want to be like, who exhibit a life sold out for Christ, who share Him with every fiber of your being.  And seek after Him with reckless abandon.  He will be found by you and it will change your life forever! 

Instructions for how God wants me to live

O Lord, who may abide in Your tent?  Who may dwell on Your holy hill?  He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart.  He who does not slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord; he swears to his own hurt and does not change; he does not put out his money at interest, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.  He who does these things will never be shaken.  Psalm 15

My prayer for you today is that you would willingly walk in the path that God has for you, and in obedience to all that He asks of you.  While it won't be easy, it will be worth it and it will bring honor to God.  May your life make much of Him!

He loves you that much

My life is living proof that God loves us so much that He will orchestrate events to remind us of that great love.  Today is one more example of that.  You see, I came home from my daughter's sock hop and these beautiful flowers were waiting for me at my door.  With a card.  This is my favorite flower.  And the only writing in the card was a message written from God.  Almost word for word what He has been telling me in my quiet times.  How is that for making His love for me real.  He is more than willing to use His children to bless the lives of others, as His hands and feet.  He can, and does, work for us in ways that we can see with our physical eyes.  I know this, without a doubt, because this is not the first time that He has done something like this for me.  I know that He will do it for YOU, too! 
And for the record, it was not my best friend, who would have know the details to pull this off.  Her car broke down today and her dad had to pick her up from work.  She is just as curious as me to try to figure out who did this.  God had to have put this on someone's heart, told them what flower to get, and what words to write down.  I don't know who He used today, and I am not racking my brain trying to figure it out, because in all reality it doesn't matter. 
The point is this...and I hope it is incredibly encouraging to you... He knows what you need, what you want, who you are, what is in your heart, and all the potential that He has given you.  He is more than willing to reassure you as many times as necessary.  He loves you...more than you can ever know.  He will do whatever it takes so that you know that great love He has for you. 
If there is anything that I know...its that He loves you more than you can imagine...enough to literally remind you in a way that you can physically see (as well as communicating that same thing to you in many other ways).  You don't have to doubt anything that He asks of you, or promises you.  He will tell you in more than one way, and will even use trusted people to reiterate the message.  And He will never ask anything of you that He has not already made the way for you to do.

Wait

Make me know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths.  Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day.  Psalm 25:4-5

God gave me this verse this week.  Because I needed it.  I needed the reminder that the wait is always worth it... that if He asks me to wait there is always a good reason for it... that every time I have rushed ahead, it has only ended in heartbreak.  I'm not very good at wait.  But it's an answer to prayer that I get often enough, that I probably should be a lot better at it.  I am a mover, a do-er.  I am not very good at sit-still-and-know-that-I-Am-God.  But there is a very big part of life right now, that God has clearly said "WAIT".  So, He gave me this verse, which my daughters helped me to memorize, (and I shared a wee bit on FB), so that when I got to overthinking things, or trying to guess what He might have planned of which I was clearly told that I was on a need-to-know basis, and that I currently didn't need to know, I could remind myself of the verse.  Many good ones go with it to reassure of the benefits to waiting on God, but this is the one He gave me to memorize.
So, yesterday, when I would start to worry, or over-think, I rehearsed the verse.  And it was helpful!
I would love to say that I remembered that today, and repeated the process, but no.  Tonight, I was again reminded that He gave me this verse for a reason, and recalling it will help me!
I am sure there are many things in all of our lives that tend to make us ponder or forget to live in today b/c of daydreaming of the future.  I am not saying that it is wrong to contemplate the future, but that in my case, I have been given a specific wait answer so trying to lay it all out how I think it might go is not the way that God wants me to be using my current allotment of time.  I think that it might be valuable to just lift open hands (not close-fists clinging tightly to what we want) to God and give Him complete freedom... to just step out of the way and let Him write the story.  After all, what story could possibly be more fun to share with friends and family (and future generations) then the one that God writes just for us, the one where we are walking the path that He has for us and reaching our God-given potential.
My prayer for you tonight is that you would release all of your plans to God, raise open hands and open heart to Him, and give Him free reign to write your "story".  His creativity can not be beat!

True strength

You therefore, my son (or daughter), be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.  2 Timothy 2:1

Strength in grace.  I don't know about you, but I have lived a good portion of my life trying to be strong.  Too strong to get emotional over rejection.  Or too strong to let myself cry.  Or too strong to need someone else.  How'd that go for me?  Not all that well.  I was trying to be strong in my own power and that doesn't work.  I need to find my strength in God and His amazing grace for me through the sacrifice of His Son.
Kind of like the snowflake.  A single snowflake, while pretty, accomplishes nothing and melts almost as soon as it touches something.  But a blizzard can shut down an entire city, or cause road damage, or bridge damage, or even cause floods.
I think one of the most important parts of being part of the church, is to be PART of the church.  To be involved and to learn and grow while helping others to learn and grow.  Using your experiences to truly be there for someone in the middle of their own.  To be strong together in God's grace.  There is power, might, and strength to be found in the body of believers...because of Who backs us.  We are children of the King.  Flawed, yes.  Human, yes.  But empowered and backed by the Creator of the universe.
That is strength.  And it is available, without limit, through a relationship with Jesus Christ Himself.
I love the song on KLove right now that says "Our God's not dead, He's surely alive.  He's living on the inside, roaring like a lion".  That's where the strength is...in our living God, who is inside us.

Psalm 5:11-12

But let all who take refuge in You be glad, let them ever sing for joy; and may You shelter them, that those who love Your name may exult in You.  For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O Lord.  You surround him with favor as with a shield.  Psalm 5:11-12

The book of Psalm can be so much to so many people.  It is a very versatile book.  I think because it is so full of true emotion.  Nothing seems to be held back.  When you are happy, you can find many psalms that encourage, uplift, are full of thanksgiving and cheer.  When you are struggling, there are many psalms that speak of struggles and God's power, and who God is for you in your time of need.  When you are angry and struggling to control the rage, there are psalms for that as well.  But I think the reason I return to this book, all 150 chapters of it, is because it is so full of who God is to me, in the middle of ALL my times.  No matter what my emotion is, there are promises of truth that I can cling to or celebrate with.  I think it is my all-time go-to-book!
There is so much comfort right here in today's two verses!  Refuge, joy, shelter, love, blessing, favor, shield.  What an amazing God we serve!!!  He truly has provided all that we need, in Himself.  There is no need to search high and low for it.  It is all available in a relationship with Him!  And there for us to read, and reread, in His Word.  He is our refuge.  All joy is found in Him, true joy!  He is our shelter and our shield.  He will never, ever stop loving us, or blessing us, or showing us His favor.  He is the One and only True God!  And never stops accepting people as His children! 

Psalm 3:3-6

But You, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the One who lifts my head.  I was crying to the Lord with my voice, and He answered me from His holy mountain.  I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustains me.  I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me round about.  Psalm 3:3-6

     What makes you quake in your boots?  Or sends a shiver down your spine at the mere thought of it?  What can you let go of, by putting it into the all-capable hands of God the Father? 
     He is your shield...your greatest weapon in every life battle you will ever face.  You don't ever have to face a single thing by yourself.  He is always right there with you.  He is your glory.  His glory shines through you, and as you focus on Him, His glory reflects on you. 
     Every single time that you cry out to Him, He hears AND He answers!!!  There is not a single thought, cry, even attitude, that misses His notice.  He sees and hears every single one.  And when we ask, He always answers.  Not always as we think He should, but as He knows is best for us (individually).
     He knows every time we lay down and sleep, every time that we lay down and attempt to sleep but our brains won't stop running long enough for us to drift off, and every second that we missed of sleep so we could keep going with whatever else was preoccupying us.  He is aware of it all.  He knows every single detail, because He wants to...He wants to be involved with us, in our lives...and because He is God.  Each morning that we wake up, and start a new day, is a gift from God.  He doesn't have to keep allowing us to have fresh starts, but He does.  Each new day is a privilege from our Father who loves us deeper than we can grasp.
     What we do with the time He gives us is completely up to us.  We can literally waste time in fear.  And I call it a waste, because there are so many moments that there was so many better things that I could have been doing with my time, rather than letting my brain wonder about "what ifs" and "how do I's" and "I can't do this, I am scared".  Instead of focusing on Him, and the immense power that lies within Him to control everything if I just let Him, I was living scared.  That's not how He wants His beloved children to live.  He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of sound mind! He doesn't want us to be slaves to fear, but to be free in Him...freed up by handing it over to Him and leaving it in His hands, and going on to do the things that He wants of us.
    So, again, I ask you...what fear is holding you back?  What can you relinquish to Him so that you are freed to move forward to your God-given potential?

Limitless

Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your possession.  Psalm 2: 8

     I have heard this verse used in many different ways, but just want to focus on the ask part and the sheer fact that God's resources and abilities are far beyond our human capacities.  I think I sometimes forget that He is not human, He is God.  He is not limited by the things that limit us.  LIMITLESS!  That is something that I know in my brain, but often forget in my heart. 
     I have been learning not to put Him in that human shell of limitations and to remember that He is God and therefore capable of sooooooo much more!  Then, after reminding myself of that once again, I have to remind myself that all I have to do is ask. 
     I am human.  And boy do I need help from my Daddy God, a lot!  I do not have it all together.  I fail others and myself.  I mess up.  I speak when I should remain silent, and sometimes even remain silent when I should speak up. 
     He is always right there with me, just waiting for me to remember to ask Him for help so that He can in turn release His angels and power to assist in whatever the issue or problem or need is.  Always! 
     He never answers back that He can't do it.  Because NOTHING is impossible with God. 
     He never tells me to come back later because He is too busy to talk to me.  He is always available to me.
    He never has technological issues that prevent Him from helping.  He is not limited by the things that we are limited by. 
     I cannot have too high of expectations for my relationship with Him, because my human brain cannot fully comprehend how much He wants our relationship and all the potential He knows our relationship has.  I often forget, and have to be reminded, that He delights in His children, and that that includes me!  That He wants to talk WITH me, and that He is more than willing to listen.  He doesn't even mind when I talk out loud merely for the sake of thinking things through.  He doesn't get frustrated when I mess up the same way I already have.  He just greets me with open arms, wraps me up in them, and helps me have the courage to try again. 
     He is getting me excited for what life can be like WITH Him at the wheel.  There is no other relationship that compares to the one we can have with our God.  No human relationship can come anywhere close to the fulfillment we find in Him.  And I am beginning to believe that the only way for me to truly reach my potential, is by Him being in charge and directing me, and writing my story.