Hitting the pause button this month. Prayer. Reflection. Giving thanks. Focus. Family. The good life.
“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning;great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him;” Lamentations 3:22-25
Praises!
O Lord, I am deeply grateful for Your wonderful acts, for Your abundant promises, and for the gift of my relationship with You through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Christ.
We give thanks to You, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. Revelation 11:17
Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever, For wisdom and power belong to You. You change the times and the seasons; You raise up kings and depose them. You give wisdom to the wise And knowledge to those who have understanding. You reveal deep and hidden things; You know what is in the darkness, And light dwells with You. Daniel 2:20-22
Take a moment to express your gratitude for the many blessings that you have received from the Lord.
You are the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. You live in a high and holy place but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. Isaiah 57:15
Blessed be the Lord; day by day He bears our burdens, the God of our salvation. Our God is the God of salvation, and to God the Lord belongs escape from death. Psalm 68:19-20
Lord, I thank You for reviving the spirit of the lowly and for raising Your Son from the dead. I thank You for bearing my burdens, and I ask that I would seek to serve Christ by loving others.
God, I want Your Word to be deeply implanted in me so that I not only know the truth, but also express it in the way I live.
The Lord is my portion and my inheritance. Numbers 18:20
The steps of a man are ordered by the Lord, And He will delight in his way; Though he stumbles, he will not be cast down, For the Lord upholds him with His hand. Psalm 37:23-24
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the furthest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me; Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will cover me,” even the night will be light around me. The darkness is not dark to You, and the night shines as the day; darkness and light are alike to You. Psalm 139:7-12
God lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. Psalm 40:2-3
My love must be sincere. I will hate what is evil and cling to what is good. Romans 12:9
Take a moment to affirm the truth of these words from Scripture and ask God to make them a growing reality in your life.
Lord, I thank You that You are always with me and that You sent Your Son to give me the gift of eternal life. I thank You for putting a new song in my mouth, and I ask that I would cast off the works of darkness and cling to what is good.
God will keep me strong to the end, so that I will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom I was called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:8-9
I should let my gentleness be evident to all men; the Lord is near. Philippians 4:5
Let my love be sincere. May I hate what is evil and cling to what is good. Romans 12:9
Take a moment to share your personal needs with God, including your physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual concerns.
Prayer:
Lord, I thank You for the certainty of Your promises and for the wisdom of Your ways. I thank You for keeping me strong to the end, and I ask that I would be a gentle and loving soul.
“May I meditate on Your precepts And consider Your ways. May I delight in Your statutes, And not forget Your word. Deal bountifully with Your servant, That I may live and keep Your word. Open my eyes that I may see Wonderful things from Your law.” Psalm 119:15-18
Prayer:
Lord, I thank You for Your power and for Your patience and compassion. I thank You that I have been loved by You, and I ask that I would walk in the way of love for You and for others.
Take a moment to offer this day to the Lord and ask Him for the grace to grow in your knowledge and love for Him.
Praying over the upcoming new year and encouraging hearts along the way!
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Love this story! I pray that you are as inspired as I was by her no quit spirit!
FLORET
“Sometimes I am trying to get to sleep, and I begin to think about the war, about the explosions, about this possibility that any time my dearest persons can be killed. I say to myself, do not think about that. Think about flowers,” says Alla Olkhovska.
Alla is a gardener, an expert in finicky clematis, a photographer, a writer, and a caretaker. She lives in Kharkiv, Ukraine, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the eastern border. On the morning that the war started, she could hear the explosions and gunfire. Munitions and debris have landed just yards away from her grandmother’s home. Air alerts scream day and night and it’s common to lose electricity and gas.
Yet, every day Alla boards a public bus that drops her near her family’s garden, which her great-grandfather planted as a small apple orchard after World War II to help her struggling ancestors survive. There are still a few apple trees left, but now the garden is home to a collection of rare and stunning flowers.
And, it remains a means of survival.
While the garden is a refuge for Alla, a sanctuary she maintains despite the war, it’s also a critical lifeline for her family. She is there to collect as many seeds as she can. By selling them, Alla cares for her elderly grandmother, her mother-in-law, and her husband, who nearly lost his life to Covid-19 and has not fully regained his health.
Even as the harsh winter creeps ever closer, Alla is undeterred. With relentless optimism and a belief in the power of beauty and goodness, Alla fights for the survival of her family one seed at a time.
In addition to this short documentary film, you can read a full written interview with Alla here.
If you’d like to support Alla and her family, here’s how:
Order seeds
Alla sells seeds for clematis, peonies, phlox, and rare plants and ships worldwide. To place an order, visit her online catalogs. Please note: These are not traditional online shops.
To order seeds for clematis and other rare plants, click here.
To order seeds for peonies and phlox, click here.
Ordering instructions: To place an order, click on each item you’re interested in to add it to your cart, where you can adjust the quantity if needed. The minimum order amount is €33 EUR, (approximately $36 USD), plus shipping. You will not be able to check out until you’ve reached the order minimum.
When you’re ready to check out, click on the shopping bag icon to enter your name, email address, and phone number in the cart pop-up. Once your contact information has been entered, click on the black button “Оформить заказ” to submit your order. Please be patient while Alla checks your wish list/order against her seed inventory. She will send you an order confirmation and an invoice that you can pay via PayPal.
Purchase a copy of Alla’s book
If you want to learn all about clematis, Alla wrote a wonderful e-book all about them. This 124-page book includes her beautiful photography, growing advice based on her personal experience, plus her favorite varieties (organized by bloom time), and instructions on how to propagate clematis through cuttings and layering, and from seed.
The cost of the book is €24 EUR, equivalent to about $25 USD. If you would like a hard copy, you can send the book file to your local office supply store to have it printed and bound.
To purchase Alla’s e-book, Clematis, click here. After selecting the number of e-books that you would like to order, you will be prompted to enter your contact information in the box below. Once you’ve entered your contact information, click the black button to submit your order. You will receive an email from Alla with instructions to complete your order and how to pay via PayPal.
Make a donation
If you’re not interested in seeds or a book and would like another way to help, you can simply send money. The exchange rate is very much in Alla’s favor, and what might seem like a small amount will go a long way for her and her family.
Funds can be sent via PayPal to standwithkharkiv@gmail.com. All donations go directly to Alla, and if you enter HUMANITARIAN AID into the “What’s this payment for” field, fees and taxes will be waived.
Subscribe to Patreon
Alla just started a Patreon account with three monthly subscription levels: snowdrop ($5 USD/month) clematis ($10 USD/month), and peony ($25 USD/month). These subscriptions will allow Alla to continue her seed-saving efforts and will support her family during the upcoming winter months. For more information, click here.
Follow Alla on social media
Alla has a wonderful Instagram account where she shares beautiful pictures from the garden, interesting videos of her work, and updates from Ukraine. She also has a Facebook page that you can follow and a YouTube channel that you can subscribe to. Be sure to leave her a comment and some encouraging words.
Just in case you wondered why the Family Dollar drop-in visit yesterday……
Well of course all the running around was for a couple future DIY Christmas projects!! A little create and connect going on over here.
My mother-in-law Bobbie Caldwell is and has always been so creative. The work of her hands continues to bless others and our family. She has always enjoyed making her home a warm and inviting place. I so love that about her.
I also LOVE making beautiful spaces in our home for every season. Since she is living with us now, I wanted to add some fun, thoughtful and creative ways that we can engage with each other, the grandkids in order to make her Thanksgiving and Christmas super memorable this year.
So I bought a new, smaller Christmas Tree which has totally made me rethink how I normally decorate. Well- according to Monty Self our “new” forever Christmas tree has arrived so that we can get rid of the “old” big tree he struggles with and grumbles about getting up the stairs every year. 🤔🙄
For My Fall/Thanksgiving table scape I could not find any small pumpkins that I loved. So I purchased cream napkins from Target and made small pumpkins by repurposing old round nakpkin rings. Add a stick and you have a “custom” pumpkin to match the vision. Pictures to follow. Wish I’d made a video while making them. 🤦♀️
Secondly, Bobbie loves the front porch and back porch outdoor spaces at our home. {So do we} She has already spent many hours sitting and rocking the days away. So I wanted to make each space warm and thoughtful. Like home for her. So I grabbed a new rug, changed up the plants, added throw blankets for the cooler days and festive pillows. I still have one empty wall that has inspired me to add a special word of welcome and a message.
So back to the story at hand-
The Dollar Tree now owns Family Dollar and has really amped up the game for DIYer’s. So my day yesterday was centered around my doc appointment with a stop into Big Lots, Marshall’s, Walmart and Family Dollar. Gathering the needed items has been a mission of late and truly a labor of love.
I just wanted to share with you how passionate I feel we should be about following our hearts as it relates to the things that will bring meaning, fullness and joy to the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. The Lord has already started preparing my heart for the busy days ahead. Most all of the “gathering of goods” is done. Now to enjoy the process and live present in each moment that the Lord allows us.
Our homes are sacred! It is where most of life really happens. Our values, commitments to one another and the passing on of faith and faithfulness dwell there. So at peace in this season of our lives. Just had to share a glimpse of our “perfectly imperfect”world.
Thanksgiving- gratitude
Christmas- the coming of our Lord
Share the joy…..
Preparing Him room today in my soul…..
Maybe we’ll share a Facebook Live when we get down to crafting.
Hurry is the death of prayer.
Rick Warren
What does it mean to station yourself before God as in the graphic scripture?
“It means stay put. It means, “I’m not moving.” It means, “I’m going to be still. I’m going to sit here and I am not going to move until I hear from you, God.” Rick Warren
Do you live your life revved up? Yep- me too!
How do you put the brakes on and slow down?
For the last 15, almost 16 years, we have lived life in the fast lane. It most assuredly has lived up to its mantra- guaranteed to blow your mind.
At MRO we joke~ the race waits on no one!
Monty and I have faced a Goliath of late. SCAD- spontaneous coronary artery dissection. In laymen’s terms, a tear in the lining of an artery in the heart.
The race waited on no one. We would miss two recent races dues to search for a more definitive answer and as well to determine the fate of our coming days.
God allows us moments of still and wait….. even though the race goes on. Right?
So how do we slow down when we live fully enthralled with excitement of the hustle and hurry?
Where is the time to calm our minds by relaxing our bodies?
Can you remember the last time that you took a deep breath relaxed your muscles and let the tension drain out?
Yep. Me either. Until the weekends of Pocono and Watkins Glen this month we were trudging alongside of every heart that we serve.
The Bible says David sat before the Lord. Some people think you have to kneel in prayer, and that is one of many appropriate ways to pray; but it’s not the most common way of praying in the Bible.
The most common form of praying in the Bible is standing with your eyes wide open looking up to heaven and talking out loud to God.
And as for Monty and I, we have learned a new posture of prayer over the last few weeks.
Jehoshaphat was a good King. He battled opposition and once he cried out to God for wisdom and help.
“Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful.”….
Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of His holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying:
“Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.”
“As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the enemies and they were defeated….. the fear of God came on all the surrounding kingdoms when they heard how the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel. And the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for His God had given him rest on every side.” 2 Chronicles 20
Rest. The wait expectant. Prayer.
You see when Jehoshaphat was surrounded on either side, he “bowed down with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the Lord.”
POur new position of prayer would become one of bowed face and heart to the ground in surrender and worship.
When ones literal bridge between life and death is the heart’s beat you get seriously receptive to surrender and gratitude in the face of the eternal.
This would be a time when the woman of many words would bow low, face to the ground in prayer for the complete of her- her beloved.
There were no flowery poetic words necessary. Not one complete sentence was prayed. Just my sincere heart groaning and everyday conversation with Abba Father for 36 more years to love and so life with this man to whom I have been blessed to call my own. The surrender comes when like any conversation, I stop talking and listen and ~wait to hear from God.
Praises stirred in this heart as God brought to remembrance the good. The good that has historically outweighed the bad and with head bowed low, I rested in God’s perfect plan for our lives.
I am reminded today that David teaches us three things to do as you wait:
* Wait quietly — “Let all that I am wait quietly before God, because my hope is in him” Psalm 62:5
* Wait patiently — “Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act” Psalm 37:7a
* Wait expectantly “I wait expectantly, trusting God to help, for he has promised” Psalm 130:5
And this is so important:
To pray believing is to expect to hear from God!
Waiting is truly the faith factor. We wait expectantly, and waiting on God is never a waste of time. In fact, it’s some of the best time you will ever invest in your lives!!
Jehoshaphat led the people of Israel and he taught them to pray and praise to win the victory.
Time would tell that no matter the outcome, God was still faithful and our faith should never be dependent on the outcome.
Life altering. Life changing circumstances does not ever change our position going into battle no matter the faith battle we face.
Prayer.
Praise.
Worship.
Victory.
“The fear of God came on all the surrounding kingdoms when they heard how the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel. And the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for His God had given him rest on every side.”
Rest. On. Every. Side.
Peace above the circumstances.
Praise Him unto victory.
Rest that God is with us. He is for us and not against us.
Jehoshaphat lived out his days and did right in the eyes of the Lord.
A worthy pursuit. God has a beautiful way about Himself in that He knows the number of our days.
Sometimes we gain the view in light of eternity. We learn to trust and praise Him in the storm and are compelled to tell of the things we learn that change the coarse of our days.
Sometimes we get a second chance for life not because we cheat death but because God uses our lives to tell HIS story through our story.
History Defined:
1. the branch of knowledge dealing with past events
2. a continuous, systematic narrative of past events as relating to a particular people, country, period, person, etc., usually written as a chronological account; chronicle
So we bow our heads to the ground and we worship God. We thank Him for more time to share our narrative of life and living.
Quietly we wait.
Patiently we trust.
Faithfully He finds us.
He lifts our face to His and we know what it is to be found by love.
With expectant hearts, we wait assured that we are not in this battle alone but surrounded held by a power and presence that is good, merciful, gracious and faithful.
Until the next waiting place……we praise.
There will always be that tomorrow that we cannot know or control. So the Lord uses these moments to teach us to number our days.
Thank You God for being true to who you are.
“Find me grateful
Find me thankful
Find me on my knees
Find me dreaming
Find me singing
Find me lost in Your grace
Fill the depths of my soul
Till all I know is I’ve been
Found by love
Find me grateful
Find me thankful
Find me on my knees
Find me dreaming
Find me singing
Find me lost in Your grace”
Jonathan and Melissa Helser
Simple Life Heartenings 
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