These verses came right after Job had just lost EVERYTHING!  He just lost all of his children in a freak accident where one of their houses fell on all of them and killed them.  He lost all of his cattle, sheep and camels and all but 4 servants within minutes of each other.  While one servant was telling him about the cattle another one showed up to tell him about the sheep and while he was finishing his story another came to tell him about the camels and while he was finishing speaking another servant came to tell him all of his children had just died!  Wow!  As a Mom I cannot imagine the devastation!  Do you think Job felt like praising God?  I doubt he was really in the mood, BUT he did!

Do you have those days where maybe you just don’t feel like worshipping or you don’t “feel” like taking a stand for something you know to be right just one more time.  Maybe you just don’t feel like working at that relationship. My daughter Danielle has been known to say, “I’m just not feelin’ it today.” and I believe we all get to that point occasionally, but what do you do when you feel like that?  The only way to have victory is to JUST DO IT!  You don’t have to feel right to do right!  Dr Bob Jones always used to tell us, “Do right until the stars fall!” Put on some praise music, read your Bible or maybe a Christian book with some humor to it and just do it.  Eventually the feeling of peace and love and worship will follow, but sometimes you have to just do it in order to get there!

I know that if I allowed my feelings to run whether or not I do right then there would be days that my female hormones would take over and we would be in trouble.  If we wait for other people to do what is right in order for us to feel like it that might never happen either.  We cannot allow what is going on around us determine our attitudes and behavior!  We must set our minds to “do right” and have a behavior that will show the power of God in our lives.  I look at Job’s story and just wonder some days how he did it!  How did he take all of that horrific news and have the immediate response to turn around and praise God?  He obviously was not self centered, he was God centered.  He knew in his heart that God is ALWAYS good and that God would somehow give him the strength to endure if he just leaned on Him.

Quote:  Decision is the spark that ignites action.  Until a decision is made nothing happens.  – Wilfred A Peterson

Spaghetti with Smoked Turkey Sausage

Ingredients

• 12 ounces uncooked spaghetti
• 1 package (14 ounces) smoked turkey sausage, cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 2 medium green peppers, julienned
• 2 medium sweet red peppers, julienned
• 1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 2 cans (14-1/2 ounces each) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 6 to 8 drops hot pepper sauce
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 cup chicken broth

Directions

• Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a Dutch oven coated with cooking spray, cook and stir sausage until lightly browned. Add peppers and onion; cook and stir 2 minutes longer. Stir in the tomatoes, garlic, pepper sauce, paprika, salt and cayenne; cook until vegetables are tender.
• Combine cornstarch and broth until smooth; add to sausage mixture. Bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Drain spaghetti; toss with sausage mixture. Yield: 6-8 servings.

 

Ingredients

• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 small green pepper, chopped
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 5 cooked Italian sausage links, cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• Hot cooked spaghetti

Directions

• In a large saucepan, saute onion and green pepper in oil until tender. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Stir in the sausage, tomatoes, tomato paste, water, sugar and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Serve with spaghetti. Yield: 5 servings.

Now for my lazy day favorite!!!!  Some days lets face it, as much as I love to cook and bake I don’t have the time and energy to “do it all”!! So, here is my favorite busy, I just don’t feel like doing much today recipe:

Yay!! It’s Prego Time!

Buy your favorite Jar of Prego and cook up 1 lb of either Ground Beef or Ground Turkey I even add in a can of mushrooms or cut up some fresh mushrooms and put it together with your fav Spaghetti Noodles, sprinkle some fresh Parmesan Cheese and maybe Romano and let your family serve themselves for a change!  Have some chocolate and call it a day!!! YES!  I think I will do this tonight!  :)

Hint:  You can even go to Prego.com and find some coupons to save yourself some extra $$$.

God Bless,

Janet Scott

Proverbs 31 is probably one of my absolute favorite chapters in the Bible.  This part of this verse has been underlined in my Bible for years.  I have always been burdened for people that are hurting or are destitute.  

I don’t usually say anything about money, I leave that to Bill.  AND I am not going to talk about our needing anything, that is not what this is about.  I just believe that we all know someone who could use a hand or maybe could just use some help and the reason God shows us that need is for us to be blessed by helping others.  

When we went to Ecuador we were amazed once again at the conditions people around the world live in.  We are so blessed here in the U.S.A!  I love this country and I love that we are blessed!  I do believe though that we are blessed to be a blessing!  We have a little girl in Africa that we have sponsored through Compassion Int’l and would you believe that where she lives you can build a cement block home for $150?  Now, it isn’t a home you would see anyone in the U.S live in but it is more than they would ever expect!  What is $150 when you know it means that her mom can probably sleep better at night knowing the snakes can’t get in and bite her children while they are sleeping?

Every time we get home from a trip I look around and realize that the people we visit in these other countries wouldn’t even know that a dishwasher, microwave, toaster or laundry facilities exist.  I am not saying we shouldn’t have the things we have, I am very thankful for them!  I am saying the average family or individual out there has at least a little that can be used to help someone in need.  

We choose Compassion International to sponsor children through because we have seen first hand the level of accountability they go through to make sure that at least approx. 90 cents per dollar given goes to care for the child. We have seen also first hand how much they work with the parents to teach them skills to care for their children and to be able to work and provide for their families.  We have talked with adults that have gone all the way through the program and have earned college degrees and have heard how God has changed their lives because someone cared enough to show them the love of Christ “just because”.

That is all I am asking, do something for someone – “just because”!  The “just because” is just because Jesus wants them to see that He loves them through you!  It doesn’t matter who it is or how large or small the gift is, just pray and ask God to impress on your heart someone you can bless just to show the love of Christ to them today!

Quote:“We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence then is not an act but a habit.”  Aristotle

Are you for real or are you just putting on a show?  God doesn’t want or need some outward display of what we think He wants, He wants a heart change!  I am not real sure why we would think that “faking it” is going to do us any good.  It isn’t what other people think that matters, it is what God sees in our hearts.  God’s blessing, forgiveness and favor doesn’t come because your neighbor thinks you are wonderful and godly.  God looks at your heart and cares more about what is going on in there than anything you could possibly do to make others think you have it all together.

It was tradition for people back in Bible times to tear their clothes and put ashes on their heads when they were mourning or repenting and obviously God had seen enough of the outward show and wanted them to get serious about Him.  Who you really are comes out when there’s no one around to impress, so what are you like at home?  Are you better at showing the love of Christ and a godly attitudes when you are with friends or colleagues than you are with your family?  God is looking at your heart!  If you were to get a report on behaviors and attitudes at work and at home would they even come close to being the same?  What if you add in God’s report because He sees your heart attitudes and knows your thoughts, words and behaviors, is it even close to what “people” think about you?

Take a moment today to evaluate your “heart condition”; how pleasing is it to God?  Is He pleased or is He frustrated because it is obvious that you don’t care what He thinks, you are too busy trying to “act” like you are something you aren’t so others will look at you and praise you for who they think you are?  God wants to bless you and He wants to give you His favor on your life, but it is time to stop for a minute and evaluate your heart condition to see why you really do what you do and who is it really that you are choosing to impress?  My challenge to you today is to “Get Real” if you aren’t!  No more faking it, find someone you can be real with and tell them the areas you are struggling with, let go of the pride that is holding you back worrying about what someone might think if you level with them – trust me, they aren’t perfect either and if you pray for godly direction to find the right person to walk with you through this you may find they have struggled in the same ways and God has brought them through to the other side so they can help you too!  Do not delay, faking it will hold you back from all the goodness of God!  Those people who are “impressed” with you can do nothing to bring God’s favor and blessing to your life.  If you are wanting to be used by God then now is the time to get real with Him and confess your struggles and attitudes and ask Him to guide you into all godliness today!  He wants to give you victory in every area of your life but He can do nothing until you are Real with yourself, others and Him!

Quote:  “Reputation is what others think about you; character is what God knows about you.”  Adrian Rogers

 I will show the salvation of God.”

Over and over God talks about praising Him and being grateful to Him by thanking Him for His goodness.  Notice here He mentions praising Him first and then having the right behaviors.  That could be because it is much more difficult to have a bad attitude when you are praising God.

It would be difficult to praise God for your health, or your job, spouse, family, home and His goodness and at the same time grumble over being asked to work overtime.  There is always something we can be grateful for remember Paul when he was in prison?  He sang songs of praise and worship glorifying God after being beaten and thrown into a cold, damp prison cell.

Our lives are quite often based on our perception of them.  I know I can be going along thinking our finances are rough or I get frustrated over the crazy schedules or a simple cold or flu and then we go on a mission trip and I see people that might make $25 a month and they live in a shack with bare necessities if they are lucky and yet they are so happy to know Christ!  It’s like the other day when I asked my grand daughter Abby if her nose was running and she said, “no, it’s just leaking.”  To me after the umpteenth times of seeing her wipe her nose, it was running and we needed to look for an antihistamine and to her it was just a little leak.

Spend some time this week looking around for things to praise God for!  Let’s all offer up our sacrifice of praise to bless Him and honor Him!

Quote:  “Gratitude conserves the vital energies of a person more than any other attitude tested.”  Hans Selye

Do you have someone in your life that seems to continuously rob you of your joy?  Sometimes we have people in our lives that just irk us enough that we can start out having a great day and they come along with just the perfect thing to say or do to destroy everything!  Now, did you realize that it is your choice as to whether or not you allow it to ruin your day or not?  You don’t have to allow those things that are said or done rob you of a good day!

Paul and Silas were beaten and put in stocks and they chose to praise God and pray!  They had a choice on how to react to what they were going through; they could have sat there grumbling and feeling sorry for themselves because they were thrown in prison for serving God or they could pray and sing!

Let me ask you this Ladies, when is the last time that allowing things going on around you to ruin your day has helped you in any way?  I know it has never helped me!  In fact it is just the opposite, once I have allowed something stupid to ruin my day everything just seems to go down hill from there.

So, I would encourage you today; when you realize that you are starting to get down because of someone else or you are noticing that someone else’s behavior is consuming your energy, to stop and choose to give them to God. We can’t change someone else, we can’t make them more positive or kind, but we can choose to look at them and consider the source and give them to God to work on.  Don’t let it ruin your day and hinder the things you could accomplish today!  Give them to God and get your focus back to what you are called to do, don’t allow Satan to have the victory over you as well.

Quote:
“Adversity causes some people to break; others to break records.” – William A Ward

You might be amazed at what your prayer life will tell about you, I know I was when I looked at my own! What you pray for reveals your heart, it tells what you think and care about the most. So, let’s stop and think for a moment; what do we as women want:

Lord, could you please tell my husband to change this, and while you’re at it could you help my children do more of that and then I was really thinking that I could maybe hold that Bible study I am feeling you want me to start if I could just get that new living room furniture I have been praying for, oh and maybe that new set of dishes to serve snacks on too, oh and I am really in need of some new Summer outfits…..

It is so easy to turn God into some sort of “in the air” shopping spree instead of building a relationship with him. Philippians 3:10 says, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” What else really matters?

I want to know Him! I want to have a relationship with Him so no matter what is going on around me I am still stable, joyful and peaceful. I want His power on my life so I can be the woman He has called me to be! So my prayer for you and me and my family today is this:

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Amen!

Quote:
“Husbands, if you treat your wife like a thoroughbred, chances are you won’t end up with a nag. Wives, if you treat your husband like a champ, chances are even better that you won’t end up with a chump.” Zig Ziglar

How do you handle the tough times in your life? We all have them and trust me it is much easier to teach how to live through it than to actually live through it I know. None of us are exempt! Even when I talk to my mentor who is now 70 she runs into struggles in life and heartache just like the rest of us, she always tells me, “Janet, we are never done experiencing struggles until we are in heaven that is how we grow.” The key is though, how do we handle it?

It seems as though when we are having a rough time with something going on in our lives that is when our friends seem distant and the enemy attacks. As women more often than not the times we feel the most alone in our lives is when we are going through the valley of life. It may not always be reality that our friends have abandoned us and no one seems to care they are more ridiculing than helpful but sometimes we think it is because we are so down and aren’t sure where the safe place is.

It isn’t difficult to sing God’s praises when the bills are paid and the world all seems to be in order but how exactly do we find the ability to do that when nothing seems right? First, we have to stop talking about faith and start living it! When life seems to be pressing us down and we are carried beyond our threshold for pain we have to face the fact that in our own power we are unable to handle it.
The answers are found in remembering all God has done in the past, seeking Him in His word to find out even more of how He has helped others and remember His plan for your life.

In Hosea 4:6 God talks about the fact that the people were destroyed for a lack of knowledge. We need to study the word of God everyday but more than ever during our struggles. Reach out to God and allow Him to give you direction and the faith you need to continue. Never forget He has a plan for your life and He will bring it to pass.

Quote:
“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” Harriet Truman

Have you ever been in a situation where you knew you failed God? You should have taken a stand but for whatever reason; someone was there that you wanted to impress or that thing you wanted to spend money on was calling your name and you just couldn’t say “no” so you used your tithe or maybe you knew you needed to control your mouth but you got caught up in the moment, maybe there is a guy that you just know you are not supposed to be sharing your heart with because you are married but you took your problems to him instead of God, whatever the case may be the guilt afterward consumed you and you felt distant from God. How could God forgive you and how long would it take to get your relationship with Him back?

Have you read this whole story about Peter? In Mark 16:7 we read where the Angel told Mary Magdalene and Mary the Mother of Jesus, “go tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” Jesus knew Peter’s heart and God saw the tears Peter cried over his denial of knowing Jesus. Jesus loved Peter and wanted Peter to know that he was forgiven and was still going to be used mightily by God. God didn’t want Peter’s mistakes to hold him back by Peter feeling defeated. It is more difficult to live right if we believe that God is always just sitting there waiting for us to do something wrong – does He discipline us? Yes, because He loves us and wants what is best for us, just like a parent who wants what is best for their children. If you love your children you discipline when needed and you don’t just allow them to behave any way they choose because it is for their own good to learn right behaviors, attitudes and choices for life and when we have to discipline we still love them all the way through it and it usually breaks a parents heart to have to. God’s love far exceeds anything you could have ever done, if He disciplines you it is because He loves you, but His love is always ever present and He is not far away. Here is a quote from C.H. Spurgeon that I borrowed from our pastor’s facebook post:

“When I thought God was hard, I found it easy to sin; but when I found God so kind, so good, so overflowing with compassion, I smote upon my breast to think that I could ever have rebelled against One who loved me so, and sought my good. It is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance.” C. H. Spurgeon

Whether it is you that needs God’s grace today or someone you know, choose to accept that God’s grace and forgiveness far exceeds anything you could have done. There is a difference between sinning and choosing a lifestyle of sin. When there’s no repentance in one’s heart then that person cannot expect grace and forgiveness but when you pour your heart out and you are sorry for sin in your life, God’s mercy abounds. Choose today to live in the freedom that repentance, salvation and a life of following Christ will bring. Choose to live for Him today, nothing from the past matters if it is under the blood of Jesus. Let His light shine through your life so others will want Him too!

Quote:
“Failure is the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” Henry Ford

Are you facing something today that has left you feeling like you just can’t do it anymore?

When you have nothing left to give to your situation it is truly time to rest in God’s strength!  The best thing to do is to give it to Him before you get to this point, but if you are already there then give it up and give it to Him.  There are too many areas of life that are just too much for us to do alone.  God wants to be our strength and shield.  He wants to lift us up and carry us over the mountains of life that overwhelm us!

I know I have had days where I just felt as though I just couldn’t “do it” anymore – whatever it was – and yet if I took one day at a time and allowed God to give me the strength for just that day and trust that He would show me what the plan was for the next day when it was time, I could make it another day, another week, another month sometimes even another year and the things I learned through the process were life changing.

Take a moment and pray and ask God to give you the strength you need to make it through today.  If you know of someone else that is struggling today encourage them to just take today and give it to God and to take one day at a time until God brings that answer.  God has promised to never give us more than we can handle and that is because He will carry us through anything that we are willing to give to Him.

Quote:

“Faith believes in spite of the circumstances and acts in spite of the consequences.”  Adrian Rogers