Do Not Be Anxious

This beautiful image captures the Scripture verse from Matthew 6:34, which is a great reminder that God will take care of our day.  He will take care of our night. And He will take care of all the in-betweens! Why does God tell us to not be anxious for tomorrow, that tomorrow will be anxious for itself?  It is so that we rely on Him to guide and direct our steps throughout each moment of our lives - each moment of our day, each moment of our night, and each moment in-between! If we do that, then how can we be anxious?  How can I be anxious?

I wrestle with this question on a daily basis!  Giving my anxiety and worry to God seems somehow irreverent, like, God is way to busy with "Bigger" things than to take on my seemingly insignificant worries and anxieties. At least that is what I tell myself fairly consistently.  "This is silly," I say to myself.  "I should be able to just get over these crazy, non-consequential, inane thoughts..." But this is wrong, friends.  God does want to hear it all!  He wants us to bring it all to Him - "the good, the bad, and the ugly," as the saying goes. God can handle my worst thoughts and He can handle when I am sad, when I am angry, when I am disillusioned, when I am defeated, and when I want to give up.  He can handle your thoughts, too.  

I am a woman of strong faith.  I love the Lord and I believe that Jesus Christ is my Rock, my Shelter, my Fortress, my Shield, and my Protector.  He is "The Way, the Truth, and the Life!" I believe these things, yet in my weaknesses, I am overcome with doubts and I forget to truly trust that this is the core of my faith.  Trusting in HIM, knowing that He is the Messiah, the King, the Son of God trumps my unbelief! There is a Scripture verse that says, "God help my unbelief.." I sure do need God's help in this department! But I have to remember that  there is nothing this side of Heaven that can stand between me and my God through the love of Jesus Christ that was poured out on the cross.  Jesus died for me and He died for you! John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, will not perish, but have everlasting life." This is the greatest gift we could ever have been given.  

So when life threatens to engulf me with the "what-ifs and "what-nows" I can confidently look to my Lord and Savior and trust in Him and His love for me.  You can trust in His love for you, too!  He died on the cross for you and me, so that this world does not have the last say.  We are not held captive to the brokenness of this world and the sin that rages all around us.  No!  Jesus died so that we may live!  Hold on to that hope, my friends!  Give it ALL to Him - to your loving Savior. Anxiety and worry have no victory in the arms of Jesus!!

Jesus loves you!  Keep looking up!

Phil. 4:6-7

 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

His Calling

This past March, I had the lovely opportunity to spend some very much needed time in the beautiful Amelia Island in Florida. It was four days of being surrounded by the beauty of the Island and the beauty of friendship. Three very special girlfriends and I shared laughter, walks on the beach, hugs, stories, shared memories, and peaceful, quiet moments enjoying the awesome beauty of the Island, and each other. 


These women are strong women of Faith and being in their presence lifted me up and gave me strength to face the next few months of living in a new community (as we had moved from our home in PA of 14 years to Ohio in the late summer). I was bolstered by their friendship and love and our trip gave me the added confidence I needed to adjust to all the changes I still had to face as a new resident. It was so good to be in a place so full of beauty, love and friendship. 


The beach is one of my favorite places in the world! There is something so magical about the sounds of the waves crashing on shore, the breathtaking beauty of the expansive blue sky, the sounds of the little shore birds chasing the waves ("Peeps, as my family and I call them), the smell of the salt air. It's just the perfect place to find peace and rejuvenation.


While in Amelia Island, I came across the most lovely book. It is filled with the author's inspirational "Seaside Reflections" and gorgeous photography of the Island. It is definitely one of my favorites. I hope you will enjoy it. It is written by an Amelia Island resident by the name of Ann Marie Melson. The book is entitled, The Work of the Lord.  Amelia Island, by definition, means "The Work of the Lord." I would like to share an excerpt from the book for you. It is called, "His Calling."

     "The Lord said, 'Go out and stand on the mountain in

         the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass 

by.' Then a great and powerful wind tore the 

         mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the 

         Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind

         there was an earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the

         Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a

         gentle whisper..."

                           ~ 1 Kings 19:11-12

I have come to know the Lord to be subtle in His call. Similar 

to Elijah, I often wait for obvious signs. Shattered rocks and earthquakes

grab my attention. In fact, sometimes I am so busy waiting for a shout, that

I miss the gentle whisper. This morning I woke up with a sense of urgency.

The stillness of the dawn captured my attention. My time on the beach

inspired a rush of thoughts. Waiting for the sun to hit the horizon, I came to understand

a characteristic of the Lord: His gentleness.

Listen for the quiet call of the Lord. Sometimes His greatest

lessons and most poignant guidance come in the form of a whisper.

He has a calling for your life. Have you listened intently to discover it?

What noise distracts you from hearing His call?

To what are you listening? Do not limit

yourself to the powerful wind or the fierce fire.

Some grace-given assignments echo 

in the softness of a whisper.

Between the fading stars and dawning in the new day's light

A time of simple stillness calls me out of the lingering night.

Before the buzz of life, I'm rising, stirring from my bed,

Now wide awake and to the shore, the place my heart is led.

Quietly, I listen for the whisper that will teach.

Barefoot, I will open my heart, in silence stroll the beach.

While feet brush into shells, my soul is touched by His own hand --

A morning ordinary? No, but rather something grand.

The shoreline sweeps beyond the bend, traced by a single bird.

The scene before my eyes: an ocean speaks the Living Word.

Humbled by His beauty and the sea breeze gentle kiss,

My heart pours forth its joyful song and fills with graceful bliss.

Today stands here before me; I won't let this moment fall.

Tomorrow is uncertain; faith today must heed the call.

Lord, make me your song's instrument and show me where to play,

And like this morning, cover me with warmth of guiding ray.

I yearn for overwhelming sound, for evidence to show;

Your gentle whisper echoes all I'll ever need to know

Of promises and faithfulness. Your perfect record cries

That we can trust the gentle voice that takes us by surprise.

~ Ann Marie Melson

Have a day full of Looking UP! Open your heart to hear the Lord's  gentle whisper.

The 10/40 Window

The 10/40 Window

Sunday's sermon at church got me thinking really long and hard about my Christianity, my faith, and my beliefs. This one thought keeps going through my mind, “I want to do more……!” I want to contribute in some tangible way to people who live their lives in daily struggle, hunger, fear, and hopelessness. The sermon introduced the term The  10/40 Window, a term I was not familiar with. The 10/40 Window is where the majority of people who are oppressed, hungry, impoverished, in pain, and living with fear live. Wikepia gives this definition:  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 10/40 Window is a term coined by Christian missionary strategist Luis Bush in 1990^[1][2] to refer those regions of the eastern hemisphere located between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator, a general area that in 1990 was purported to have the highest level of socioeconomic challenges^[3][4] and least access to the Christian message and Christian resources^[5][6][7] on the planet.

The 10/40 Window concept highlights these three elements: an area of the world with great poverty and low quality of life, combined with lack of access to Christian resources.

The Window forms a band encompassing Saharan and Northern Africa, as well as almost all of Asia (West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, East Asia and much of Southeast Asia). Roughly two-thirds of the world population lives in the 10/40 Window. The 10/40 Window is populated by people who are predominantly Muslim, Hindu,Buddhist, Animist, Jewish or Atheist. Many governments in the 10/40 Window are formally or informally opposed to Christian work of any kind within their borders.

Here is a picture:

John W. Zumwalt, in a blog posting from Heart of God Ministries, entitled,  After God's Own Heart: A Study in Intimacy, discussed The 10/40, saying,

“When you think of the starving children with bloated stomachs, malnutrition and disease, this is where they are. When you think of the oppressive governments in the world, you think of Tien An Men Square. You think of the human rights violations in Miramar (Burma) or the killing fields of Cambodia. You think of Iraq and its gassing and torture of the Kurds to the north and the Shiites to the south. They are here in this Window. Corruption abounds, and totalitarian governments seem to have permission to do whatever they will with their people.

When you think of natural disasters, this is the area in which they take the worst toll. You remember when Hurricane Andrew smashed into Florida...That very same week a cyclone, which is the same thing as a hurricane, smashed into Bangladesh and 300,000 people in Bangladesh died in that storm. We cannot comprehend that number.”

The 10/40 is a region of despair. It is the region of the world where the poorest of the poor live. I read that the average income is barely $200 per month per family in some regions. They must be not only poor in worldly terms of monies, but poor in spirit, as well. Hopelessness brings despair, despair brings hopelessness...I would think that living in that environment would invite hopelessness to grow and fester like an open wound.

An important point my pastor made in his sermon was that this Window or region of people were considered “unreached” and have never been given the opportunity to hear the gospel. This is greatly important to me, but I want to concentrate on another aspect of the impact of knowing about The 10/40 Window - that is the desire I have to do something. I realize that I am not equipped or necessarily ready to do something grand or great, but even little things done in love can have lasting and profound ends. With this in mind I began to think about ways I could help.

Here is a list of things I could do:

·        PRAY – there is definite power in prayer, so if I commit to remembering all the people who live in The 10/40 Window and offer daily prayer for their comfort, safety, and care, I could help. Prayer changes things! I will pray.

·        I can be more informed! If I learn more about this region and the different organizations and missions that are trying to make a difference, there may be more ways that I can help. But in not knowing, I cannot begin to understand how I can help. Sharing awareness can be a help.

·        Sharing some of the really awesome sites I’ve learned about would make helping as easy as typing in the web address and going from there. Here are a few that may be relevant: (I cannot take credit for the research behind finding these sites – mostly they come from other sources which I will site as I go along. The descriptions, although loosely edited, are provided by the original sources.)

The following 6 sites I read about in an article written by Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times. Kristof points out that these are a few of the lesser known organizations that can and are making a big impact.

        1. www.ArzuStudioHope.org Arzu employs women in Afghanistan to make carpets for export. The women get decent wages, but their families must commit to sending children to school and to allowing women to attend literacy and health classes and receive medical help in childbirth.

        2. www.fonkoze.org Fonloze is a terrific poverty fighting organization for Haiti. A $20 gift will send a rural Haitian child to elementary school for a year, while $50 will purchase a family a pregnant goat.

        3. www.pih.org (Partners in Health) Another great Haiti-focused organization which provides therapeutic foods, a lot like peanut butter, to treat a severely malnourished child for one month. PIH also contributes to providing agricultural implements and training for a family to grow food for itself. (My youth group made the peanut butter supplement, called “Plumpy Nut” during a 30 Hour Famine weekend. The recipe is at the end of the post. It is quite good and the kids loved it.)

        4. www.panzifoundation.org   Panzi Hospital treats victims of sexual violence in eastern Congo, the rape capitol of the world. Contributions pay for transport to a hospital for a rape victim and for counseling and literacy and skill training for a survivor for a month.

        5. www.camfed.org (Campaign for Female Education) Camfed sends girls to school in Africa and provides a broad support system for them.

        6. www.somaly.org (Somaly Mam Foundation) fights sex slavery in Cambodia and around the world. It is run by Somaly Mam, who was sold into Cambodian brothels as a young girl before escaping years later.

        7. www.WorldVision.org  When I was a Youth Ministries Director my youth group participated in World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine. World Vision is an amazing organization dedicated to helping overcome poverty and hunger in the lives of children and their families.

The following sites I learned about through a fantastic book by Zach Hunter, entitled, Generation Change. In the book, Zach shows how we can contribute to change. It’s an awesome read! Zach focuses a lot on how to help children in our hurting world.

        8. www.soles4souls.org  Soles4Souls is a Nashville-based charity that collects shoes from the warehouses of footwear companies and the closets of people like you. The charity distributes these shoes to people in need, regardless of race, religion, class, or any other criteria. Since 2005, Soles4Souls has given away over 14 million pairs of new and gently worn shoes (currently donating one pair every 7 seconds.) The shoes have been distributed to people in over 127countries, including Kenya, Thailand, Nepal and the United States.

9. www.jedidiahusa.com   Wear your cause by purchasing one of Jedidia’s cool shirts. Jedidia sportwear is a series of shirts designed to speak out about problems facing the world today. In 2010 World-renowned surf photographer,Aaron Chang, accompanied Jedidiah’s founder, Kevin Murray, on a trip to Cambodia to meet and photograph the community. Four of his photos have been used to create a special edition line of T-shirts that will benefit World Vision’s efforts to protect innocent children from the sex trafficking trade in Cambodia. $10 from the sale of each shirt will be used to fund the construction of the international humanitarian agency's trauma recovery center that will hold more than 70 children per year in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

        10. www.love146.org  This organization used to be called Justice for Children International. They renamed themselves in honor of a young girl they saw being sold who had been given a number (146) instead of being called by her name. On their Web site you’ll find many ways to get involved in helping free children from sex trafficking.

        11. www.ijm.org IJM, or International Justice Mission, is

a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to ensure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to promote functioning public justice systems.

        12. www.compassion.com On this site you can sponsor a child and your investment can help break the cycle of poverty and give hope to a child.

        13. www.adventconspiracy.org Check this site out to see how you can spend less and give more.

        14. www.drytears.org Dry Tears raises money to provide clean water.

        15.  www.nothingbutnets.net     Your contribution can help protect a child from malaria carrying mosquitoes by providing a chemically treated mosquito net to give each person a safe place to sleep.

        16. www.tomsshoes.com  Toms Shoes is an innovative company that not only makes cool shoes but also provides shoes for poor children around the world.  With every pair of shoes you purchase from Toms, a second pair will be given to a child in need.

The reality that poverty and despair exist is just mind-boggling. My heart aches for those people affected by such hopelessness and chaos. There is so much hurt in the world. I know it’s easy for me to sit here and blog about such a huge human crisis while I enjoy all the comforts of living in a wealthy country, where , personally, I don’t have to worry about hunger, utter poverty, a safe place to sleep and rest, or where my next meal is coming from, but it is vital that I show compassion and love and concern for those in need. It’s not much, but in some small way, maybe by sharing some of these important sites, and sharing about The 10/40 Window, others will find ways in which they can help, too. I will pray and I will continue to become more informed and aware. I will continue to “Look Up” and share hope. 

"Plumpy Nut Recipe"

2 C Peanut Butter

2 C Powdered Dry Milk

2 Tbsp. powdered confectioners sugar

1/2 tbsp. vegetable oil

Mix together and enjoy!

Refrigerate.

PLUMPY NUT RECIPE: 2 cups peanut butter, 2 cups powdered (dry) milk, 2 TBSP

powdered sugar, 1/2 TBSP vegetable oil. Mix well, use a hand blender if you have one.

Humor Me

Laughter. Oh the joy of a good laugh!  That feeling that starts somewhere in your belly and bubbles forth with loud guffaws, gasps for breath, that bent-over-'cause you can't breathe feeling from laughing so hard you have to hold your stomach. That feels good.  Laughter is good medicine as they say - good medicine for what ails you!  I'd love to go into the Doctor's office and request a prescription for laughter. The script would read, "Take a healthy dose, at least 4-6 times daily, or as needed." That would be great. Laughter, the cure-all of cure-alls.


What makes me laugh? I have to admit that lately it takes quite a lot, but if I really think about it, my first response would have to be my kids. They can brighten my day just by seeing their cute little smiles. My daughter comes up with some very funny quips, completely out of the blue, that just crack me up. And my son, who is busy navigating his way through "teenager-dom" has recently started to repeat everything I say until I'm laughing at him, completely having forgotten what it was I was saying to him. So much for discipline....it all goes out the window when your parenting lecture #No whatever turns into a good belly laugh! Oh well, it could be worse.


My puppy, whom we have fondly nicknamed, "No Brakes" can surely make me laugh. He gets to running so fast after his beloved Frisbee or stick that he veers out of control, almost doing doggy gymnastics to retrieve his toy. It's quite comical. He's just the cutest dog in the universe, anyway, so watching him tumbling through the grass is always good for a laugh.


So today, I'm hoping to bring on the belly laughs, the giggles, the guffaws, the chuckles, and the chortles. Bring it on! In your face stress! Take that life's challenges! Look out...I feel a good laugh coming on!


Charlie Chaplin said, A day without laughter is a day wasted. Here's to Looking Up today and finding lots of opportunities to laugh!


What makes you laugh? 

Looking Up

This year has been really tough. It just seems to be getting tougher, too. You know that list of the Top 10 Stressors? I think we have hit them all in the last few years. Job change, job loss, relocation, death of a loved one, serious illness of loved one, financial stress, etc. Those are just a few. That is one of the reasons I decided to start this blog. It seemed that I had a choice to make - I could either wallow in my despair and focus on all the things I perceived as negatives, or "Look Up" and focus on things, ideas, people, sayings, music, books, favorite activities - all those things that are positive and uplifting, and in turn, "look up." 
  Looking Up goes deeper than just finding the positive, too.  It's about falling into the arms of Jesus, "looking up" to Him for strength, comfort, guidance, and His constant reassurance of acceptance and love. It is so hard to give it all to Christ and trust that He has it all in His control. So I started getting into Scripture and the Word, daily, so that I'd find the strength I need to get through the day. Looking Up is looking up to Him, as well as looking up in a positive manner.  I have found the more I focus on Him and His love, the more I can let go of the things that are pulling me down.  It's an amazing feeling.  I still struggle, and it's not easy, but it certainly is easier when you rely on your faith and have hope in the  future. One of my all time favorite verses is Jeremiah 29:11 that says, For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." I had to decide to really practice what I preach, so-to-speak, and put all of my faith in Jesus when it has been very tempting to just question, "Why????, Lord? I don't understand.....and turn away in anger.  I know God can handle my questioning and He can handle my doubts and insecurities.  I just have to communicate those things to Him in daily, constant prayer.  I learned this year that prayer can be considered a constant awareness of God. (Max Lucado in Come Thirsty) I am certainly aware of God's goodness and His incredible and beautiful creation. I am thankful for the many blessings I have received and hope to always reflect His love in how I love and in my relationships. So, for this day, this hour, this moment, I will Look UP!