Happy Friday!
I hope you all saw our post on FB about our photo fundraiser which profits will go toward our adoption expenses & 20% will go to a cancer survivor that is having a hard time & needs help paying for medical bills. If you missed it, please view it here & pass the word PLEASE ;0)
(Please pray for this cancer survivor! She has fought hard & has a lot of decisions to make!)
I read a very inspiring blog. Linny is such a giving person that wants only to please our Maker! She inspires me on the days I'm "wandering". A few days ago she wrote a blog about praising Him. Well, yes, I praise Him but I should praise Him more and stop worrying about things such as Where is this money coming from for the adoption?, Is my house ever going to get clean?, How can I get xxx or xxx or xxx finished?, etc., etc. I responded to her blog to praise Him & would like to share with you.
I could have posted for days (and I did post 3xs - Sorry Linny), but I wanted to share with you
Wow, Praising Him! As I started to respond, I got to thinking how do
you define "Praise"? I think there are many definitions to this word,
but I believe the emphasis is simply giving God the recognition He
deserves. As this should be easy to do, I am overwhelmed at where do I
even start? How do you truly give God the recognition He deserves? I
could write until my time is up on earth & never praise all He has
done for me!
I would like to first thank Him for His uttermost
sacrifice of sending His only son to die on the cross for me, for you,
for us!
I praise Him for
*Always loving & forgiving me
*Never leaving my side - faithfulness
*Sending me a Christ-like husband more wonderful than words could describe
*All of our precious children (1 living with Him, 3 here & 1 in China)
*Health
*Trials
*Direction
*Food
And the list could continue until I take my last breathe here on earth!
My
daily prayer includes that He help me put Him first in all I do, love
others & put their needs above my own, & listen for His
direction in my life.
“For the Lord is great and
greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods” (Psalm 96:4)
(post 2 & 3)
Okay, I just posted but as
I'm praying for how to ask for prayer (this is a harder one for me), I felt the
tug to give praise for something specific that has unwrapped itself this
year. I praise God for giving my husband
& me the talent of photography. I
feel strange saying it this way as I don't want to seem like I'm bragging but
He has giving us this talent! I so give Him all the praise & glory for
this! This may seem like a strange
praise - right?
Let me explain - I've had
a passion for photography for over 20 years when I took my first class. My husband didn't dislike but didn't share a
passion like I for it. Our Father has
melted & molded Phil (hubby) & I together over our almost 14 years of
marriage. We were complete opposites in
a lot of our interests
Phil – much more urban than
I, loved writing, poetry, music, constantly cleaning, much more social
Me – very country, loved
my boots, way more inclined to science & math, loved getting dirty (like in
mudding, outside activities), don’t feel comfortable I crowds
You get the point – right? Our interests were that we did enjoy our time
together & never got tired of each other.
And most importantly, we both loved our Lord.
At the start of this year,
I decided to take another photography class.
Since I don’t feel comfortable in crowds or people I don’t know, I
invited Phil to take the class with me.
He wasn’t necessarily excited about the class, but joined so we could
spend time together. Long story short,
he found the same passion after the class & is an unbelievably talented photographer!
I praise God for giving us
photography that we are both passionate about; it is wonderful to be able to
get help, opinions, etc from each other.
It’s wonderful that we have something to spend our time together
with. I believe God has given us this
talent to help others. We have been able
to give professional pictures to some that could never afford it. We have been in deep prayer about how we can
use this for our Father. We are now
shooting pictures to go toward adoption expenses. We are announcing today a Halloween
special. With it, we are also donating a
percentage to a lady that has cancer & needs help with medical bills. My husband is a teacher in MS (lowest paid in
the country for teachers) & I’m a stay at home mommy that makes a little extra
with crafting. We do not have the money
for the adoption we are working on, & did not know how we are going to pay
for it (as well as financial debt from our previous adoption). However, we began the adoption process again
on FAITH! The extra money from
photography will not fund our adoption but it is one avenue God has given us a
talent to help fund it as well as help others through our pictures!
So yes, I have to give all
the glory & praise to God for the talent of photography for many
reasons! The more we photography, the
more we are in awe of God’s glory!
30 Then Moses said to the
Israelites, “See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of
Hur, of the tribe of Judah,31 and he has filled him with
the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all
kinds of skills— 32 to make artistic designs for
work in gold, silver and bronze, 33 to cut and set
stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts. 34 And
he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan,
the ability to teach others. 35 He has filled
them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers,
embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all
of them skilled workers and designers.
36 1 So Bezalel, Oholiab and every skilled person to
whom the Lord has given skill and ability to know how to carry out
all the work of constructing the sanctuary are to do the work just as the Lord has
commanded.” 2 Then
Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom
the Lord had given ability and who was willing to come and do
the work. 3 They received from Moses all the
offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing
the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning
after morning.
(Exodus 35:30-36:3)
What do you praise our Lord for? Are you using your gift(s) for His glory?
Photography may not completely pay for our adoption but it's something we love & we can help fund it! Who knows the person/people we might meet or touch? God has ways of providing when we didn't even know it as an option! Thank you for all those that have supported us!
I think KNOW I've been too worried about doing this or doing that to raise funds & thinking how are we going to raise the money that I forgot to ask Him. God where are you wanting us to find this money? If God has lead us here, He will provide if we listen!
Thank you Linny again for reminding me of this!
Sunday also reminded me of this when our preacher preached on the feeding of over 5000 men with 5 loaves of bread & 2 fish . Do you remember what the Disciple Philip said? (Ironic that his name was the same as hubby). Philip was confused at Jesus when he questioned him about the bread & stated that it would take more than 1/2 a year in wages for only a bite of bread. (I have to smile a little here - such a familiar story with a little different situation.)
5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”
John 6:5-9
References:
Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-15
Oh and don't forget that there were 12 baskets of leftovers after the feast. ;0)
All I can hear in my head after all this is Jesus saying to me
26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.(Matthew 8:26)
I praise His name!! I'm praying, asking & listening! I don't have the answers, but I don't have to - my pilot (Lord) knows the way! God will not bring us to adoption & then not provide for us! How silly are we not to think God has control over EVERYTHING (including $$$????)
35 In
everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must
help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
Acts 20:35
