Name:Liz Country:United States State:South Carolina Metro:Greenville
Interests:"And all of life comes down to just one thing, to know you, oh Jesus, and to make you known" My interest's are: My God and King, who gave His life for me. Learning how to get over myself. Learning how to love life and be content. Seeking beauty in the world around me. Belting out songs at the top of my lungs even though i cant carry a tune. finding crazy poetry to memorize. A good cup of coffe to get my day, and my afternoon, and night going right. Praising my creator for all that He is. Spending time in the Word and learning what it means to be a real follower of Christ, and what that means in my life. Taking hikes in the mountains and inevitably getting lost. I love visiting far away countries and eating any kind of weird and exotic food. Meeting new people. Having a great conversation where the heart is reached. Spending time with the wonderful friends that God has brought in my life.... Expertise:at spilling coffee all over myself. at driving the wrong way up one way streets. And at making a complete fool of myself :-p Occupation:college student Industry:Marketing/Art
Despite all my ramblings of late, I have a lot to be thankful for( and always have, I just neglect to SEE it). While God's goodness is an ever present standard, I noticed it today more than most.
1. I found out that I got a 100! on the hardest test I have taken so far this semester-a test I thought I surely had failed after hours of studying...but no, I aced it!
2. My teacher, who never dishes out compliments, but is rather blunt and confrontational, told me that I am going to succeed in this field and that I am going to be a great esthetician. I was shocked and I definitely do not take that compliment lightly.
3. My teacher put off a product order, after specifically saying it would be placed today with no exceptions, because I forgot to get the check from mom this morning and would be late for work if I had gone to pick it up after class. I was yet again amazed because this does not normally happen.
4. I watched a car accident happen today and praised God that it was not me, and remembered that its been almost 3!! years since I've been in an accident. He protected me the whole time I haven't had health insurance and not only was I not in any accidents, but I haven't needed to go to the doctor ONCE in two years!!! Which, has been the complete opposite of my entire life-when I basically LIVED at the doctors office.
5. I have the most amazing job, with the best family, who are wonderfully kind and understanding and treat me as part of the family...and I've been blessed with that same relationship with all the families I babysit/nanny for. I love my job, which is a wonderful thing after the mess of the one I used to have.
6. I have two of the most amazingly adorable puppies anyone has ever seen, so cute I cannot go anywhere with them without being stopped! and they are behaving so well and I am amazed at how fast they are learning and how smart they are for only 10 weeks old!
7. I have parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and friends who are there for me no matter what and will be there. Parents who help me take the puppies to potty in the freezing, pouring rain and help me clean up the messes that they make. Neighbors who love my puppies as much as we do and come over to help us out with them when we're gone. Family who come and take walks with us and are patient with the puppies learning to be leash trained. ....ahh, there are a million things!
8. Studying for a job that I am pretty sure I already really love.
9. Spurgeon's writings because they make me want to fall more in love with Jesus and The Word and on the other hand make me see the total extent of my depravity. They're helped me gain a much, much better understanding of the Word and life in general and how God works in our lives. A-maz-ing
10. I have heat in my car--and it is the most wonderful things in the world.
11. The puppies are finally sleeping through the night!!!! HALLELUJAH!
So I know I have a multitude of other things to be thankful for, but its after midnight and I'm exhausted so I've already forgotten most of the things I was thankful for...um, OOPS! I guess I still need to be working on having a thankful heart, eh?
God has poured out blessings this weekend! He is so good, why do i ever doubt him and what he's doing?
I have a brand new puppy-a 7 week old cocker spaniel, whom I named Riley in honor of Dugan (Dugan's middle name was o'Riley).
Mom fell so much in love with my puppy that she decided she wanted to get the other one...so now we have TWO little tiny baby dogs in our house and they are such a joy! It is impossible to be unhappy while watching them or holding them. I think they are bringing joy back to all of us, which was just what we needed. They are certainly a blessing from God, because they basically dropped in our laps. I've been looking on Craig's list for cocker spaniel puppies ever since Dugan passed away, since it was the only way I could get my mind off how much I missed him and how much it hurt, but I couldn't find cocker puppies anywhere in SC, NC or GA! I finally found a cocker/basset mix that looked SO much like dugan, but it had white feet and when I emailed the lady about her puppy, I told her about dugan and she wrote me back that her friend was selling pure bred cocker puppies. So, Sunday morning I called the lady and she only had two left, boys, and she was at the jockey lot selling them. She told me she would hold them for me and let me choose...so that evening we all loaded up in Leo's truck and drove out to the boonies to meet her and get our new puppy.
Both of the boys are so beautiful! They look almost identical, but one is a little bit smaller than the other, and their facial markings are a smudge different. I just can't get over God's goodness is basically bringing these dogs to us. They are perfect!
"I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are just, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me." Psalm 119:75
Sometimes the ways of God do seem hard. Our fondest hopes are crushed; our fairest joys fade like summer flowers; the desires of our hearts are withheld from us.
Yet, if we are God's children, we believe that a blessing is hidden in every one of these losses or denials. Right here, we get a glimpse into the mystery of many unanswered prayers. The things we seek, would not work good for us in the end--but evil. The things we plead to have removed--are essential to our highest interests.
Health is supposed to be better than sickness--but there comes a time when God's kindness will be most wisely shown--by denying us health. He never takes pleasure in causing us to suffer; He is touched by our sorrows. Yet He loves us too well, to give us things that would harm us, or to spare us the trial that is needful for our spiritual good. It will be seen in the end, that many of the very richest blessings of all our lives--have come to us through God's denials, His withholdings, or His shattering of our hopes and joys.
We should never forget that the object of all of God's dealings with His children--is to sanctify us, and make us vessels fit for His use. To this high and glorious end, our present pleasure and gratification must ofttimes be sacrificed. This is the true key to all the mysteries of Providence. Anything that hinders entire consecration to Christ, is working us harm; and though it be our tenderest joy, it is best that it be taken away.
Prayer is not always granted, even when the heart clings with holiest affection to its most precious joy. Nothing must hinder our consecration. We should never think first of what will give us earthly joy or comfort--but of what will fit us for doing the Master's service.
Pain is often better for us--than pleasure; loss is often better for us--than gain; sorrow is often better for us--than joy; disaster is often better for us--than deliverance.
Faith should know that God's withholdings from us, when He does not give what we ask--are richer blessings than were He to open to us all His treasure-houses at whose doors we stand and knock with so great vehemence. Our unanswered prayers have just as real and as blessed answer--as those which bring what we seek.
i could scream, i have screamed and I still feel the need to do so.
this is, with out a doubt, the most awful, horrendous, terrible, horrible, painful night ever. I had to put the sweet dog I love to sleep. Does it get worse than that?
I feel like my life has now completely and totally fallen apart...ok, I know thats just how i FEEL, but it feels like I have never been more alone, or in more pain or had more awful things happen to me in my life than has occured in the past few months. I know, I know, I know, I know that this is not true, my life isn't really falling apart, it isnt as horrible as it could be. I'm not sick, I'm not dying, I'm not living in a hovel having to walk 5 miles for water, I'm blessed, I have a family who loves me, friends who'd do anything for me and a God how loves me more than all of them can even conceive of loving me. I am ok, I have a purpose for my life-to glorify God. It's just in the moment that I feel like i am lost and alone and that no one cares...but if i fight through the moment the truth and right perspective are waiting on the other side.
God is good, I know this, but this is the second of the most awful things i could imagine happending to me...and they both have happened within the last two months. God must be really needing to work in me. He must have a lot to teach me and must really want me to draw close to him...which in these times, is the ONLY way to find comfort. He may need to be working in me, in fact, I am sure of it...I am a totally and compleley sinful, selfish, hard headed, prideful girl who NEEDS someone to break her of her habits and change her. Work in me all you want, do what ever it takes...bring whatever pain you need to becasue I know you'll be with me the entire time.
I praise him too, through this tragedy and in this awful pain, because at least dugan isn't suffering anymore. Althought, I certainly did not expect this to be the end result of our late night vet visit, at least he did not have to suffer through the night without medication and at least he was able to die in peace and I got to be with him. Praise God for that, and for late night vets, and for medicine, and for giving me the strength to make another of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make in my life.
The void in my life now feel monumentally huge and I feel even more alone than I did before....and although the pain that fills me right now feels overwhelming and I can't contain it, I know that God will make himself real to me, He will draw close to me and He will fill the void and the emptiness and the lonliness inside me with Himself, because He has promised to do so and HE IS FAITHFUL!
He is going to be faithful to me now, just as he has been through this breakup process. He is going to be faithful and be real to me when I come home now and there is no little black dog wagging his tail and looking oh so very happy to see me. He's going to draw me close to himself when I now have to go on my jogs alone. He's going to be near to me because He promised to be. I'm still going to feel this pain, but He is the mightly comforter and He's going to be with me through this, just as he has proved to be an amazing comforter these last months as well.
I don't think I can write about what happened right now...I'll fill that in in a few days, or maybe tomorrow. I'm too jumbled up to write that now, plus Its going to make me start crying like crazy again.
I just have to remember, GOD IS GOOD, HE IS GOOD, HE IS GOOD! He knows the plans he has for me, plans not to harm me but to bring me hope and a future. I have a future that the Lord of the universe is in control over and He knows my thoughts before I think them, he has the days of my life and their contents already planned out, and there is no where I can go that I would be away from him. Now thats quite a promise!
Dugan is at peace, He is pain free, He is no longer suffering, He isn't struggeling to breathe, He isn't gasping for breathe, He is at rest...and i thank God that he helped me have wisdom and enough love to love my dog enough to put him to sleep rather than to let him suffer and continue living just for my pleasure. He created Dugan, and Dugan's life was in God's hands...God brought Dugan into my life as an awesome blessing and surprise, and He's bringing him out in His timing too. He knows, He has a plan, He knows what He is doing.
Right now...i just need a heck of a lot of peace. How awesome it is that He is the Prince of Peace.
"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith."—Ephesians 3:17.
EYOND measure it is desirable that we, as believers, should have the person of Jesus constantly before us, to inflame our love towards Him, and to increase our knowledge of Him. I would to God that my readers were all entered as diligent scholars in Jesus' college, students of Corpus Christi, or the body of Christ, resolved to attain unto a good degree in the learning of the cross. But to have Jesus ever near, the heart must be full of Him, welling up with His love, even to overrunning; hence the apostle prays "that Christ may dwell in your hearts." See how near he would have Jesus to be! You cannot get a subject closer to you than to have it in the heart itself. "That He may dwell"; not that He may call upon you sometimes, as a casual visitor enters into a house and tarries for a night, but that He may dwell; that Jesus may become the Lord and Tenant of your inmost being, never more to go out. Observe the words—that He may dwell in your heart, that best room of the house of manhood; not in your thoughts alone, but in your affections; not merely in the mind's meditations, but in the heart's emotions. We should pant after love to Christ of a most abiding character, not a love that flames up and then dies out into the darkness of a few embers, but a constant flame, fed by sacred fuel, like the fire upon the altar which never went out. This cannot be accomplished except by faith. Faith must be strong, or love will not be fervent; the root of the flower must be healthy, or we cannot expect the bloom to be sweet. Faith is the lily's root, and love is the lily's bloom. Now, reader, Jesus cannot be in your heart's love except you have a firm hold of Him by your heart's faith; and, therefore, pray that you may always trust Christ in order that you may always love Him. If love be cold, be sure that faith is drooping.
EYOND measure it is desirable that we, as believers, should have the person of Jesus constantly before us, to inflame our love towards Him, and to increase our knowledge of Him. I would to God that my readers were all entered as diligent scholars in Jesus' college, students of Corpus Christi, or the body of Christ, resolved to attain unto a good degree in the learning of the cross. But to have Jesus ever near, the heart must be full of Him, welling up with His love, even to overrunning; hence the apostle prays "that Christ may dwell in your hearts." See how near he would have Jesus to be! You cannot get a subject closer to you than to have it in the heart itself. "That He may dwell"; not that He may call upon you sometimes, as a casual visitor enters into a house and tarries for a night, but that He may dwell; that Jesus may become the Lord and Tenant of your inmost being, never more to go out.
Observe the words—that He may dwell in your heart, that best room of the house of manhood; not in your thoughts alone, but in your affections; not merely in the mind's meditations, but in the heart's emotions. We should pant after love to Christ of a most abiding character, not a love that flames up and then dies out into the darkness of a few embers, but a constant flame, fed by sacred fuel, like the fire upon the altar which never went out. This cannot be accomplished except by faith. Faith must be strong, or love will not be fervent; the root of the flower must be healthy, or we cannot expect the bloom to be sweet. Faith is the lily's root, and love is the lily's bloom. Now, reader, Jesus cannot be in your heart's love except you have a firm hold of Him by your heart's faith; and, therefore, pray that you may always trust Christ in order that you may always love Him. If love be cold, be sure that faith is drooping.
