DAY 28: HAPPY THANKSGIVING...

         

So, this whole month, along with several others I have been sharing my thankfulness for something each day. Today is Thanksgiving Day and I awake especially thankful and reminiscent!

"I am thankful for My God, Who is my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to whom I am thankful for ALL THINGS great and small! He is the means from where ALL of my thankfulness and trust begins."

      *Hebrews 12:2  "looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

I woke up yesterday morning with this song going through my head but had to run due to a doctor’s appointment so never did get to pay a whole lot of attention to it. 

Last night I had a health scare and it started me doing even more praying than I normally do. My hubby and I were up late working on food for today so I have now had very little sleep which in all honestly, ONLY causes me to trust in Him even more. He is my ROCK! I’ve shared that I lean on Him so much that I should look like I’m walking sideways!

This morning I woke up with the same song going through my head. The health scare had been resolved (PRAISE THE LORD) and I found the song lyrics to read and share while listening to the song. So profound that tears came! I just wish all of you could know from where your thankfulness begins! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

HILLSONG UNITED - OCEANS (WHERE FEET MAY FAIL) LYRICS

You call me out upon the waters
The great unknown where feet may fail
And there I find You in the mystery
In oceans deep
My faith will stand

I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise my soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine

Your grace abounds in deepest waters
Your sovereign hand
Will be my guide
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me
You've never failed and You won't start now

So I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior

I will call upon Your Name
Keep my eyes above the waves
My soul will rest in Your embrace
I am Yours and You are mine

May God bless you through my writing. If He has especially touched you in any way, please leave a comment below. Your comments are so very encouraging to me to help me to keep writing. Also, click on the “Uptweet” button on the above right and share! I pray you will keep coming back. I fully believe that my writing is by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so if I am writing, there is someone that needs to read it! Maybe it’s you? Also, please be sure to share any questions you might have with me and if you would like to keep them personal (just between you and me) please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at juliana.pace@gmail.com. If I don’t know how to answer you, I will may every attempt to refer you to someone for more information. Thanks and may God bless all your days!

WHO AM I?

OH MY!  And I’m finding out!  Don’t ever settle!  Don’t ever be satisfied with YOU being someone that YOU’RE NOT!  You were created by God!  God, the ALMIGHTY CREATOR of the UNIVERSE!  Ask Him who He created you to be!  With each step towards finding out, I am more and more overjoyed!  If you’ve been following this blog for long then you know that I’m a ‘been there, done that’ meaning there is not much I haven’t experienced or someone close to me has.  Each time I see God’s transformation in me, NONE of that mess matters or has the slightest weight on my head/heart!  I’m an overjoyed to see what God has taught me through each experience!  Even though so many things, “LIFE” is hard so many times, in looking back I can certainly see His plan laid out and it’s producing more and more joy in my life!  I hope you can tell I’m elated!  Haven’t come down since yesterday’s message in church!

To explain, a very gifted, God-fearing young man gave the message yesterday morning instead of our Pastor.  He does this periodically and I have ALWAYS gained much from every message that he’s given.  There is no doubt these are God constructed!  (I was in a class with this young man several years’ back that his wife led (early 20’s at the time) and he was so very quiet!  God’s work in him is so very apparent).  God’s work in so many in our church is apparent but there are others who seem to be quite stagnant or leading just mundane lives as Christians.  Which is what his message was about.  About not living a life of just day to day humdrum!  Or, not living a mundane life!   Letting go and letting God run with you!

When I left work outside the home in 2001, I was clueless as to why this was happening to me and I’ve seen so many reasons that they are countless at this point….OH MY! 

I was previously working at a huge hospital in Ohio.  I was a Radiological Transcriptionist.  I trained on the job so that I could up my pay, then I could work less hours and go back to school to be a Paramedic.  I found the idea that I had also posed to God from watching the movie “Twister”.  I found a fire within me while working in the Emergency Room (check out my archives).  I became a prayer warrior there.  I never felt so alive working this job.  All the doors were opened until I got sick, then a door slammed in my face.    So, I’ve basically questioned God about this abrupt ending ever since!  I truly thought I was following Him but now I believe I’m seeing that it was just the ending of one season in my life and onward to another season. 

During the message yesterday it was almost as if this young man was talking just to me.  God spoke to me alongside.  I was having trouble being situated in my seat it was such a moving experience.  He spoke of not being satisfied with the mundane.  I can’t say I’ve ever been.  I grew up cleaning out cupboards and drawers for my mother when I was grounded.  And now, I rarely even watch TV without my hands going, working on some type of art, painting my nails, going through my magazines, etc… or I’m asleep!  Yes, I am ADHD.  Was diagnosed taking my step-son to the doctor when I was 39 years old.  But, God also showed me that this was a part of me and that I should focus on the positive aspects.

Positive Aspects of ADHD

Positive Qualities of ADHD

I hate being sick longer than a day!  All of this (I’m sure) is also why God had to let me be knocked down with the CNS Vasculitis so I could learn (one of my many thanksgivings from this illness) to be still and know He is God!  So I would slow down enough to hear His voice more clearly.  And, I have learned (as in archives) that I operate so much better being disabled by the world, but enabled by God!

*Psalm 46:10a “Be still, and know that I am God;”

(Being disabled is something that I am working on doing some writing about in my own time.  Matter of fact, I’ve recently gotten through my head for the umpteenth time that I need to write about the whole sickness, etc… (archives again).  I’ve shared so much in the past.  When writing, even short e-mails now and then, I can write myself into figuring things out and sometimes giving things to God that just wouldn't seem to go there any other way.)

In so many ways I have been learning who God made me to be and by letting Him have this, He is making sense of my life and in doing so I’m learning that all the mess is strangely dim and how much ALL of it has been answer to my own prayers, too!

May God bless you through my writing. If He has especially touched you in any way, please leave a comment below. Your comments are so very encouraging to me to help me to keep writing. Also, click on the “Uptweet” button on the above right and share! I pray you will keep coming back. I fully believe that my writing is by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so if I am writing, there is someone that needs to read it! Maybe it’s you? Also, please be sure to share any questions you might have with me and if you would like to keep them personal (just between you and me) please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at juliana.pace@gmail.com. If I don’t know how to answer you, I will may every attempt to refer you to someone for more information. Thanks and may God bless all your days!

Comparing Yourself to Others

I woke up this morning in the midst of a dream where the Lord was teaching me about something from my past. I remembered that my step-son always tried to pull one over on me, seemingly treating me like he knew so much more than me. I remember telling him that he would never know more than me. I’m still not sure if that is true or not. Is there any way to put our knowledge in a measuring cup to compare? I don’t think so. I do think I knew this all along but for some reason I needed to know it or maybe just to share it now because I know God was telling me about it last night. 

He used a much younger lady from my church for comparison. She has three little girls, which I have never had. I started out with my step-son when he was 13. Even though I had friends with small girls that I got acquainted with, I still would never know what this younger lady had learned from the experience of being a mother to 3 of them. So, whether we had difference in our amount of knowledge or not was not in question here but the differences in what we knew and learned from life experience.

We are uniquely made. We know what we know because we need to know it. I’ve been belittled quite a bit due to the fact of me having a stroke with brain lesions so during the illness I still compare myself to “Forrest Gump”. My IQ was quite a bit lower due to active disease in my brain. This led to me feeling quite insignificant and I actually had to relearn how to brush my teeth. Even though the knowledge was still in my head, it did not translate to the outside due to certain physical deficits. My IQ now is even higher than before I got sick due to relearning many things. My step-son is now an electrician and I certainly don’t know what he does about electricity but he also doesn’t know how to work with different painting mediums, epoxy, and other things that I use for painting. And, neither of us are supposed to either.

       *1 Corinthians 12: 12-31 "For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many.

If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?  If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?  But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be?

But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”  No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.  And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty,  but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it,  that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.  And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. 28 And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?  But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.

Explanation behind my art from my Facebook Art Page:

Something by Juliana

"A Christian, mixed-media artist, writer, volunteer, mother, wife and on and on. I wear many hats! This is the place where I can update you on all of them or if you have a question, you can contact me. Most of my artwork is inspired by our Creator's Complexity in that He created each one of us so unfathomable that one has to look many times over to see every aspect of each and every one of us! I appreciate that uniqueness and appreciate those who dare to be who God created them to be! I hope you enjoy my art and appreciate that I also include a bit of whimsy as me being who I was created to be! I don't expect you to love it all but I hope you find something that you can appreciate! I've crafted as long as I can remember. My Grandpa bought my first piece when I was 10, telling me that good art should be paid for! But, I just presented myself to the world as an artist in 2004!" 

And so I got up to write this about an hour earlier than my alarm so that I would remember it and would have no distractions!

I attended a Christian Women's Conference approximately 2 weeks ago with a friend and one song stands out.  The worship team played this song and there were women dancing all over.  This was the opening night and it sure set the stage for what I was in for!  Enjoy:

May God bless you through my writing. If He has especially touched you in any way, please leave a comment below. Your comments are so very encouraging to me to help me to keep writing. Also, click on the “Uptweet” button on the above right and share! I pray you will keep coming back. I fully believe that my writing is by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so if I am writing, there is someone that needs to read it! Maybe it’s you? Also, please be sure to share any questions you might have with me and if you would like to keep them personal (just between you and me) please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at juliana.pace@gmail.com. If I don’t know how to answer you, I will may every attempt to refer you to someone for more information. Thanks and may God bless all your days!