Month: January 2019

#Count Your Blessings

alliewayLeave a comment

#CountYourBlessings2019

This week as hate poured from so many before even knowing the facts, I found myself looking into the tears that filled Bret Bair’s eyes. He was in an automobile accident this past weekend and took the time to remind us all what is really important and that is life. After a weekend of a pro-life march that turned to hate all towards our children, Bret caused me to stop and choose love. I love my own children. I have been blessed with two daughters who are strong and independent, but I adore. I love the students I have taught in the past and know that I have seen a glimpse into our future. So I pause and count my blessings because choosing this to be viral is a better show of God’s Love than choosing hate. I remember I wrote a blog post a few years ago about the song, Count Your Blessings, so I am reposting today. Let’s all stop and Count our Blessings before we reach for hate lets choose love.

Repost – Count Your Blessings

I haven’t spent as much time in the car listening to the radio this summer and since I have been working this past week once again my drive includes listening to KLove.  I have these moments when listening to music sometimes and it goes like this, What is the name of this song?  Who sings this song?  I really love the message of this song!  I need to Shazam this song?  So today I am sharing a new song for me and the impact while driving to work as I thought about the meaning. Count Your BlessingRend Collective I was blind, now I’m seeing in color

I was dead, now I’m living forever

I had failed, but you were my redeemer

I’ve been blessed beyond all measure 

Blessed

If there is one thing I have fully determined this summer, it is that I am blessed.  God has given me the time to disconnect from the world and focus on Him and what he has given me.  “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”  James 1:17.  I have been blessed with two beautiful daughters who are hard working and independent.  I have been blessed with a loving husband who has loved me now over 30 years with all my faults and failures.  I have been blessed with a career that touches children and (I pray) I have changed some of their lives.  God is Good, but this summer He asked me to really look and appreciate the beauty he created and blessed me with.  Although, I understand the words I was blind and now I see in color as being saved, the past month showed me that color in 3D.  I really see the colors now, Lord.  I see what is important.  I am living and want to continue to live both here and forever with you.  “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,” 1 Peter 5:6. 

Treasure 

I was lost, now I’m found by the father

I’ve been changed from a ruin to treasure

I’ve been given a hope and a future

I’ve been blessed beyond all measureI am counting every blessing, counting every blessing

Letting go and trusting when I cannot see

I am counting every blessing, counting every blessing

Surely every season you are good to meOh, you are good to me

Oh, you are good to me God is showing me the treasures he has stored up for me.  “Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.” Luke 12:33.  I want to focus more on trying to live out this verse.  Sell, share, and live with less in order to experience God more.  He is allowing me to taste heaven here on earth, and I am thirsty for more.  I want to experience more of his beauty and grace.  I want to not just count my blessing but enjoy my blessings.  I want to enjoy a future that is full of both my Father in heaven and my remaining days here on earth.   Luke 12:34 states it best, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” 

Strength

You were there in the valley of shadows

You were there in the depth of my sorrows

You’re my strength, my hope for tomorrow

I’ve been blessed beyond all measureI am counting every blessing, counting every blessing

Letting go and trusting when I cannot see

I am counting every blessing, counting every blessing

Surely every season you are good to meOh, you are good to me

Oh, you are good to me I have walked through valleys and across mountain tops and I know that my life will be filled with both.  Yet, I have hope in God’s strength, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”  Philippians 4:13.  As I walk through the life God is giving me and count the many blessings, I know that I continue to need his strength to make the decisions and walk his path.  I know that the only strength I can rely on is that which the Lord provides.  Driving and listening to this song, I feel my Lord’s strength which I will need and promised to me in  1 Chronicles 16:11, “Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!” Surely your goodness pursues me

Surely your heart is still for me

I will remember your mercies all my days

Through every storm and gale Closing Verse: “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31. Challenge:  Take the time today to stop and count your blessings and lean on the Lord’s strength for your life.

Songwriters: Gareth Gilkeson / Chris Llewellyn / Bridget Herron / Ali Gilkeson / Will Herron / Steve Mitchell / Patrick ThompsonCounting Every Blessing lyrics © Capitol Christian Music Group

Believing in God Through the Water

alliewayLeave a comment

June 30, 2017

Back in June of 2017, I wrote a post about Water(link).  This post grew out of walking along the The Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas.  Since this post, I have spent so much time in on the water, but tonight as I looked out at this sunset near Cedar Key, Florida.  I was flooded with the peacefulness of water in God’s creation.  

Sunset on the Water

Sunsets are my favorite, but whether it is sunset or sunrise over the water it always takes my breath away.  This evening in Cedar Key was no different, but tonight my thoughts drifted to God’s creation.  The beauty of the water rippling under the sunset is a perfect example of why I believe there is a God.  Romans 1:20 reminds us that God has left no doubt in why we should believe in Him, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.  So they are without excuse.”  Man is without excuse, yet today we busy ourselves with the hustle and bustle that allows our lives to slip through our fingers and then is gone.  Did we see God?  Did we find God? Did we stop and smell the flowers?  Watch Sunsets?  Listen to the Water?  In a blink it is all gone.  So stop and listen to God.  Proverbs 3:6 reassures us, ” In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

Sunset Challenge

If you are reading this my challenge to you is to stop reading now.  Pray.  And start looking beyond your day to day life and what you normally see and search for God in your surroundings.  Look deeper into the Water.  

Closing Verse:  “ O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”  Psalm 63:1

Challenge:  Find God in his creation ~ Don’t Miss Out!

Looking Forward

alliewayLeave a comment
Looking Toward The Future

God’s 2019 Plan

As I begin the new year and finish a holiday season that has been different yet exciting, I pause to ponder what God has in store for me in 2019. I know before it even begins that it will be different for me in so many ways. Looking back I see God’s work so I look forward knowing that he has control.  I guess as I begin this new year so differently than any other year, I have to stop and wonder why he has chosen to bless me.  For many looking at my future, God is not visible just my own plan for a future, but I see God.  My husband and I have prayed and researched the lifestyle we wanted to seek.  We both see new ways to serve the Lord and explore the beauty of God’s creation.  At times, we did try to push this plan and God, but each time he did not allow things to work out until now when everything just seems to be falling into place.  It can only be God.  In the words of Dabo Swinney after his big Win this past Monday night,  “If we can do it, anybody can do it”.  Dabo Swinney believed God blessed him not just on Monday night but many other nights leading up to Monday night, so why can’t I believe that God is blessing me in this new adventure in my life.  How can I serve and seek him this year in new and different ways?

Thanking God

As I begin this new year, I will be thanking God for all his blessings and provisions for my life.  I will do this first by studying His Word and seeking a closer relationship with Him.  Verse 105 from Psalm 119 comes to mind this time of year. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”  I want to find my path by shining His Light.  I just finishing watching the movie The Case for Christ based on the true story about and written by Lee Strobel.  I read this book quite a few years ago, so watching the movie was just a great reminder of the price Christ paid for my sins and how thankful I should be as I begin not just a new year, but a new chapter in my life.  Walk with me Lord, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”  Proverbs 16:9.  

Following God

So I walk into this new year with Lord providing the path.  I will find that path through Jesus because he is my way. “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6.  I can honestly share that following God’s plan is so much easier and better.  Contentment and Happiness can only be found in following Him, so I will seek the Lord’s Plan as Jeremiah states, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  Jeremiah 29:11.

Living for God

I am so excited to be able to live for Christ in 2019.  I am looking toward the future and know that God will provide me with opportunities to see and share His Glory.  I am ready for God’s Will are you?  

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” James 4:13-15

Closing Verse:  ““Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18-19

Challenge:   Stop and Listen.  What is God’s Plan? If you have not read or watched the movie, The Case for Christ, then I challenge you to choose one and dig in!

Happy New Year

alliewayLeave a comment

This blog was first posted January 1, 2017.   This is the final wrap up of past blog post,  as the holidays and my life transitions are nearly complete.  I have been sharing some of my favorite Christmas past post.  I hope you have enjoyed this walk down memory lane.  The New Year – 2019 will bring a new life and new posts of God’s Blessings.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 

The new year is upon us and a time to renew our spirits after the Christmas season and reflect on what God is calling us to this New Year!  Revelations 21:5 reads, “And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new…”  Christ is working to make all things new but our service here among man is a calling he makes to us.  How will you help your neighbors this New Year?  We must remember that we are “new creations”, 2 Corinthians 5:17 shares “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”  If we have become a new creation then we will bear fruit.  Ephesians 4:22-24 explains our new creation this way, “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

God shares in scripture how serving him is a part of his plan.  In Jeremiah 29:11 the scripture reads “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  and in Isaiah 40:31, “but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

As we prepare for the coming New Year 2017, stop and listen to the call from Christ in your life.  Stop and pray for God’s guidance in your life.  Then go and faithfully serve him.

Closing Verse:  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ…” 1Peter 1:3.

Challenge:  As you close out the Christmas season and reflect upon God’s calling and plan for you.  Focus on where God want you to serve him in 2017.

Uncategorized