SALT

  "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:16 Did you know that God loves your story? He ordained every moment of your life. God knew what your book of life was going to look like. Each of us has an amazing story and every page is full. How can you be sure? Because God, Yahweh, wrote it before you were even born.  You see, God knew every struggle and every victory you were going to have. He knew every unexpected twist and turn. Every hurt, sorrow, and joy, God knew it was going to happen because He orchestrated your life. He is already ahead of you, wherever you go, and He has already been. The Lord will walk before you, guide you, and lead you. He is our Almighty Father and He wants you to trust Him more.  When you trust your story to Him, He promises the best endings. Maybe not what we had hoped for, but exactly what He intended. The best ending to any story is Jesus Christ. He is now, ...

  As I was working with one of my kindergarten students this past week, one of her assignments was to color all the pictures that start with the letter H, cut them out, then paste them onto the picture of a house; thus, the focus skill being the sound of the letter H. I noticed she was putting a lot of pressure on the crayon as she colored. As she was almost finished coloring her last picture before the next task of cutting began, her crayon broke in half. And before you know it, the tears started to flow. This little person’s world, at that moment, was shattered due to a broken crayon.    As I began to console her and this traumatic event in this young girl’s academic life for the day, I picked up part of the broken crayon and showed her that the crayon still works…it still colors the same and can do the same job as before. The only difference was it was a smaller piece, needed to be held a little differently, but it could still finish the job that was first...

Can we be real?  Can we just take off our masks and be real?  What would it be like if we, as sisters of Christ, felt the freedom to just be ourselves.  There are days when I find it hard to get out of bed.  I am 20 pounds overweight.  I often lose sleep over my grown sons.  I like to dance to Disco music.  I cry watching sad movies, when I'm mad, and when I'm really tired.   I often look at Facebook instead of working out although I want to do better.  I don't always have a quiet time...even though I want to.  I still struggle with trying to people please although I am much better than I use to be.  I sometimes hide from people in Walmart.   I don't have it all together.  I struggle.  I cry.  I get angry and say things I shouldn't. I sometimes wake up at 3 am very anxious.  I am a mess! On the other hand,  I love Jesus and what He's done for me. I long to be more like Him.  I want to dec...

A cistern is a artificial reservoir that is used for storing liquids and rainwater.  A cracked cistern would be useless.   The Lord says in Jeremiah 2:13: For my people have done two evil things:  They have abandoned me---the Fountain of living water.  And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all. Imagine abandoning a fresh fountain of living water only to pursue a cracked pot in hopes of quenching your thirst.  Ridiculous!  However, we often do that very thing when we trade our relationship with Jesus for something this world offers.   Jesus can fill us up continually with hope, love, and peace.  Things of this world can only temporarily help and most often end up hurting us.   For example, as Christians we know Jesus is our answer.  We face a trial and we immediately begin to look for solutions.  Often we don't even check with God about it.  Or maybe we are lured away fro...