Scatter the flowers

Tyson "Heaven is by favor; if it were by merit your dog would go in and you would stay out." ~Mark Twain   🐕 Unless the dog's name is Kujo, it's probably safe to say that a dog's faithfulness, unconditional love, and unsurpassing companionship would get it to heaven.  If that's the way heaven worked.   Thank THE LORD it's not.   🐕It doesn't matter if I am the strongest 6 on the enneagram chart, my loyalty isn't enough.  If my spirit animal is a lion, my strength isn't enough.  If my patronus is more courageous than Harry Potter's, it's not enough.   But don't we just want to rank sin or create a hierarchy of good deeds?  We're tempted to break out the comparison scale of "us vs. them" to justify our decisions in life.  The problem with that is we can always find someone who has done something worse in our ranking, didn't do as many nice things as we've done, or worse yet, find someone who we think has done it...

  Google image "The next time Satan reminds you of your past, remind him of his future." ~unknown ⚜ Ever wake up feeling so incredibly awesome, like we can conquer the world, finally clean that one room, get to that card we need to send, make time for coffee with that friend, take that walk, and still make that recipe we've been dying to try for our family?   ⚜  Then the day gets by us and our energy is starting to waver, we had too many cookies, lashed out or disagreed with someone and said things we didn't mean to say, ignored someone's text/call because we weren't invited to that thing, then just escaped by watching another episode of our TV show?  ⚜  What follows?  Guilt. Shame. Remorse. Sadness.  All schemes of the devil so that we feel defeated, discouraged, lonely, useless and hopeless.   ⚜  Our shoulders slouch, we hate our hair, we tell ourselves we're fat and out of shape, we're too tired to care or change, no one understa...

  Google image "God will meet you where you are in order to take you where He wants you to go." ~ Tony Evans Abe Lincoln lost his bid for state legislature in 1832, Speaker in 1838, Congress in 1843, a senate election in 1854 and again in 1858, as well as the nomination for vice president in 1956.   His business failed in 1833.  His sweetheart died in 1835 and he had a nervous breakdown the next year. Oh yeah,then he ended slavery. ✋David, the most famous king in the Bible, started out as a lowly shepherd boy, scoffed at by his brothers when he showed up on the battlefield where Goliath was taunting everyone, and feared for his life as he was pursued by King Saul for several years out of jealousy.   He had an adulterous relationship, had the husband killed, and was a really bad parent.   ✋ Then through his lineage the Redeemer of the human race was born - our Savior Jesus.   ✋  Remember when you used to play games in gym class and ...

  Winnie the Pooh & Piglet-A.A Milne "You're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." ~ Winnie the Pooh Facts:      22 lbs - heaviest baby born (!)        2 yrs - how long an elephant is pregnant      79 yrs - female life span (73 yrs- male)      14.65 sec - time  it took a lady to crush 3 watermelons between her thighs      16 sec - time it took for a woman to score 3 goals  in Women's World Cup game      50%- how many more women than men survived famines in different countries Along with sugar and spice and everything nice, women are BEASTS & are resilient. That means we have  the capacity to withstand or to recover from difficulties ( Oxford ) . ⚔ God made us able to experience & recover from the pains of childbirth, go for nights on end with little to no sleep, on-call for 24 hours/day, while nurturing an infant...

  Google image "What we have once enjoyed, we can never lose.  All that we love deeply becomes part of us." ~ Helen Keller 💔 Grief.  Such a huge part of our life, sometimes seeming like it cycles around unexpectedly with no warning at all.   It can feel like the wind got knocked out of us and we can't breathe.  It can feel like we're drowning and don't have the strength to reach out to grab someone's hand.  And it can some days feel like the hole in our heart is swallowing us.  Why is the world continuing to go on when such a loss occurred? 💔 No one understands grief like our Father in Heaven.  When we are saddened with no words and no will, we can just sit at the feet of our Father and mourn.  He doesn't need our description of our pain; He understands.  He lost His one and only Son.  He endured death so we could spend eternal life with Him in heaven because we believe He died for our sins.  Beauty from ashes. The Creat...