Tag: faith

  • Holy Spirit Prompting

    Holy Spirit Prompting

    I often wake up in the morning with a song going through my mind. I know, many people probably have this happen, but I’m talking really off the wall songs that I haven’t heard in years!

    One morning, I sent my daughter this …

    once upon a time television GIF
    Hi Ho Hi Ho…It’s off to work we go!

    She knows that I’m weird like that, so I had to share the song as we were getting ready for work.

    Yes, I am one of those mom’s that sang songs to her kids that they hated to wake up to. Songs like, Rise and Shine or School Days Rule Days.

    OK…back on track to where I’m going with this post…

    When I wake up with a Christian song in my mind, I love it. I feel like there is something in the song God wants me to hear. So, I ponder it and take what the Holy Spirit is giving me through song.

    Well, this week, I woke up with the Doris Day song, Que Sera Sera …Whatever Will Be Will Be, running through my mind.

    When I was just a little girl I asked my mother, what will I be? Will I be pretty? Will I be rich? Here’s what she said to me…Que sera, sera…Whatever will be, will be…The future’s not ours to see…Que sera, sera ….

    Although this is not a Christian song, I did take time to ponder it. The phrase made me feel light and calm inside. Then bam, out of nowhere in my mind came came the phrase… Hakuna Matata! A phrase and song from Lion King. It means no worries for the rest of your days, It’s our problem-free philosophy.

    I would tell my children that Hakuna Matata, was actually not such a great philosophy at all. It takes away the responsibility we have for ourselves and to others. I think both of these songs leave out the responsibility we play in our future.

    It is important that we don’t go to extremes in life. Quite honestly, I think that is what is happening in our world today. We are going to extremes and the balance is somewhere in the middle.

    I see the phrase Faith over Fear a lot. It has become a motto when we are facing times of fear and difficultly in our lives. I love this phrase, but I want to make sure we don’t take it out of context. That we don’t go to an extreme.

    I don’t think the phrase means to just sit back and let things happen. I shouldn’t tell myself that things happening aren’t my problem (Hakuna Matata).

    What I believe it means, is that we have a responsibility to carry out God’s call. Then, have faith that He will take care of the rest. God’s call for each of us to live the values of service, giving, self-sacrifice, obedience and truth.

    The parable of the Good Samaritan is a great example for each of us…Luke 10 starting at verse 25…

    What do I need to do to inherit eternal life? Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself…

    Love your neighbor and serve them. Love God and serve Him. Then, trust and have faith that God is walking beside you and guiding you through it all.

    Also, don’t just brush away silly things that enter your mind. The Holy Spirit may just be prompting you.

    With love and joy,

    Laura

  • Transform Your Choices: Embrace the Greater Good

    Transform Your Choices: Embrace the Greater Good

    Lesser of Two Evils vs Greater of Two Goods.

    As I prepare for a new year, I find it interesting that people are so anxious to move on from one year to the next knowing that we are beginning next year the same as this year will end. I am not trying to be debbie downer but isn’t that our reality?

    What are we doing differently as we begin next year to make it a year we won’t be ready to leave behind? One where people are not so divided and angry; where instead of hate we love; where instead of skepticism we trust.

    At Choose Ministry we focus on empowering and equipping people to make Godly choices that will transform their everyday lives. God has blessed us with a free will to choose, and it is up to us to choose Him and trust His word. We may not be able to control what happens to us, but we can control how we respond.

    What I have discovered over the past several years is that sometimes our perspective is choosing the lesser of two evils instead of choosing the greater of two goods. The lesser of two evils begins our choices with division, hate, and skepticism. We end up feeling like we are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

    I don’t want to get into politics or any other debate, as that is not my point to writing this. What I do want is for us, is to open our minds, hearts, and prayers to the fact that the greatest good is God. If we want our choices to begin with good, we have to begin with God. He is good and perfect.

    God will direct us, love us, and give us hope in this imperfect world. He is our cord of Hope! His word is truth and will take away skepticism. He is love and will take away hate and anger. He is telling us to love our neighbor as He has loved us. So what is our Godly choice? LOVE

    In those times when the choice you face seems to be the lesser of two evils, turn to Him. Ask Him to direct your path. Ask Him to give you an open mind, humble heart, and faithful feet to walk where He leads. And then, trust His direction and love as He has loved you.

    It’s really about changing our perspective from the lesser of two evils to the greater of two goods. Will you join me this next year on focusing on the greater of two goods instead of the lesser of two evils?

    With love and joy, 

    Laura

  • Embracing Thanksgiving with a Grateful Heart

    Embracing Thanksgiving with a Grateful Heart

    As the Holiday season begins, families across the United States gather around the table to share a bountiful feast, warm conversations, and cherished moments. Thanksgiving is a time honored tradition reminding us of the importance of gratitude, love, and connection.

    For those navigating grief, loss, or hardship, Thanksgiving can be a painful reminder of what’s missing.

    I want to acknowledge the complexity of emotions that come with celebrating Thanksgiving during difficult times and offer words of encouragement to help you find gratitude in the darkness.

    It’s important to recognize that sorrow and gratitude are not mutually exclusive. You can experience both at the same time. It is okay to not be okay.

    Beyond the delicious food, festive decorations, and football games, Thanksgiving is a celebration of gratitude. It’s a time to appreciate loved ones.

    Cherish the people who have and do enrich your life. The ones who support you through thick and thin, and bring joy to your heart. When those loved ones are a memory, share the stories and memories. Have gratitude for the time you did have with them and the difference they made in your life.

    Thanksgiving on my family’s farm were always times filled with laughter and joy. We played tons of games, ate and laughed till our stomachs hurt, and enjoyed time with family and extended family.

    Then, within one year of each other, we lost my dad and sister Sara. They were both individuals who filled so much space in a person’s heart and soul, because they did everything with their whole heart and soul.

    So how did I find gratitude in a time of sorrow?

    Well, I have a lot of arguing between my head and my heart. Does that ever happen to you?

    I long for their hug, their conversation, their wisdom, their love (that is my heart speaking). Then my head argues with my heart. “You know they are much happier. How selfish of you to want them back for your own needs. They are still with you in spirit.”

    So, how do I get my head and heart to agree?

    First I go to God. He knows my past, my present, and my future. He is surprised by nothing. He is with me and never leaves me, even when I feel alone. He holds me up, even when I think I’m standing on my own two feet. He is good, all the time.

    Then I praise Him through it, because gratitude and praise unlock the fullness of life.

    Gratitude without expressing it is like having a present and not opening it.

    ~ William Arthur Ward

    I intentionally change my perspective. I express gratitude for all the years I was blessed to share my life with them. I am thankful for their joy and laughter. Thankful for the twinkle in their eyes, the dance in their step, and the song in their voice. I am thankful for their wisdom and teaching.

    I miss everything about them and am thankful that they lived big, played big, worked hard and loved even harder. I am also grateful that God chose me to be their family. What an honor.

    “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

    Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)

    So, this Thanksgiving, when you are dwelling on sorrow or hurt, when your head and heart are arguing, think instead of something for which you are grateful. I promise you, it’s as simple as that.

    You have to choose gratitude today and again tomorrow. Before you know it, you will feel the joy in your heart.

    P.S. So, why do I keep arguing with myself? I think it’s because I am jealous. God has them now. I am thankful He shared them with me as long as He did, my selfishness wanted them longer.

    Happy Thanksgiving, friends! I am grateful for you all.

  • Torn Between Two Worlds – Part 5

    Torn Between Two Worlds – Part 5

    Walking with God in the in between.

    Can joy be found in the hurt and sorrow of life?

    I personally know it is possible to choose joy even when life hurts. It is a choice, and a choice that is possible when I fully surrender my life to God. Surrender and trust, without conditions.

    I found joy in Him. I chose Him.

    You see, behind each door we choose to open, there is a place, a journey, just like the long hall in Alice in Wonderland. When we choose a door to walk through, we are responsible for the outcome that is behind that door. God blessed us with the gift of free will, we make the choice.

    We can choose the journey with or without God. There are going to be times of joy and peace as well as pain and difficulty behind any door we choose, and we can walk it with His guidance or the world’s guidance.

    Each of these times in my life, I found myself in a place of in between. A place of no longer and not yet. There is so much unknown in the place of in between, and the unknown can be our biggest enemy sometimes. The thing we put most of our focus on and our energy into trying to control. The “what ifs” take over our thinking and anxiety is out of control.

    I have learned the importance of fully living in the middle of the hard, the here and known. Because if this is my life, if this is where I am at, then this is where God is at too.

    I choose to take one step at a time with Him in the in between. I choose to be brave with Him. I choose to connect with Him. I choose to walk with Him. I choose Him. It is only with Him that I find the peace in my heart needed to accept and trust the journey He has laid out before me.

    I have awakened and my worlds are no longer torn. That doesn’t mean there aren’t difficulties, heartache, and at times I start to fall down that hole. The difference is, I have learned to quickly stop and change my perspective. Seek Him and choose to not be a victim of the circumstance.

    I have learned that when I choose to do this life with God, I no longer fall to the bottom of the hole where I feel torn!

    For you have rescued me from death; you have kept my feet from slipping. So now I can walk in your presence, O God, in your life-giving light.

    Psalm 56:13 (NIV)

  • Torn Between Two Worlds, Part 4

    Torn Between Two Worlds, Part 4

    Saying yes to God’s call. Finding hope and healing through breast cancer.

    As Sara was in her last days on earth, one of the last things she said to me was, “I want people to continue believing, trusting and having faith in God, as I have tried to be His disciple. But, she said, it’s not about me, it’s about Him. That is the message I want people to hear.

    “Our message is not about ourselves. It is about Jesus Christ as the Lord. We are your servants for his sake.”

    2 Corinthians 4:5

    It was in that moment that I began to do more than just read Sara’s God inspired words and message. I began seeing and feeling God’s message through her. I saw the direct connections and wisdom that only comes from Him. I began to understand how she chose joy despite the emotional and physical pain she experienced.

    I began a journey of experiencing this intimate relationship with Jesus that I longed for. The whispers of the Holy Spirit that I heard, trusted, and discerned to be from Him, not just my own wants and desires.

    I heard a call from God on my own life. He put on my heart that just because Sara was no longer on earth physically, the God inspired message she began, didn’t have to end. He was asking me to pick up the message and follow Him.

    I began walking a journey through the publishing industry that was only possible because of Him. I stepped out in faith and He put in front of me what I needed, when I needed it.

    God was the key I needed to open the door to light and beauty!

    In 2016 my family and I celebrated the release of Sara’s spirit led teaching in the book, Choose Joy: Finding Hope and Purpose When Life Hurts.

    I began speaking and continuing to share the message that God called me to share. A message that the choices we make, make us. A message of how to choose joy when life hurts.

    I am choosing to follow Him and say yes to His call for my life.

    I had just began speaking and developing the choose joy ministry when I received a call that caught me off guard. The call was from my doctor with the message that I have breast cancer. In shock, disbelief, and with lots of questions, I had decisions to make. Decisions on treatment, surgery, and further testing.

    Once again reeling in fear of the unknown, now my own mortality. Worried about my children, husband, and family. Trying to be strong for them. I didn’t want to cause them worry and fear. I was once again trying to control an outcome I had no control over.

    God, what is the purpose of this set back? I am spreading His message, so why? Why? Why? Why?

    This time, instead of falling down the dark hole and letting the door close and lock, instead of asking why, which left me in a state of being victim, I decided to change my perspective. Instead of why, I asked what and how. What do you need Lord? How can I serve?

    It didn’t mean I wasn’t still overwhelmed and the emotion of fear didn’t creep in. What it did mean, was that I wasn’t in a locked dark hole that I longed to escape. In the midst of the hard, I still felt the peace, love, and joy of the Lord.

    In those times of being overwhelmed, I would say Psalm 46:10 over and over again:

    “Be still and know that I am God.“

    Be still and know that I AM. Be still and know. Be still. Be.

    God needed me to be still. He was working through me now, not Sara. I was hiding behind Sara’s story. It was time that I had an impact on the world with my own story. The sooner I trusted Him, the sooner the fall into the rabbit hole would stop and I began climbing out.

    Like the veil that was torn as a result of Jesus’ death on the cross, I no longer needed to be torn between two worlds. Between her and God. I am a spiritual being sent here to live out a human existence. As a spiritual being, the only one I need to trust and have faith in, is God.