March 5, 2010

Verse of the Day
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name: you are mine." Isaiah 43:1

Song of the Day
You are Mine By David Haas

You know, I sat down at the computer without having a lot to say. I was up from 10:30pm until 5:30am with Artsy who was so sick. I didn't have a verse, a song, or much of anything running through my head. I thought I would keep this blog short since yesterday's was so long. All I have in front of me in my computer, my Bible and the book "Searching for and Maintaining Peace". But what just happened has left me absolutely speechless and trust my family, not many things do that. I just went to check on Artsy and I continue to walk with this stunned expression. Here is what happened.

I prayed about the blog and then said "Lord, we'll see what you have in store." I then started looking through my Bible for one of my favorite highlighted verses. But instead, I found a verse on a page with no highlights, no bookmarks, no crinkled pages that would lead me to that page. It was the verse above from Isaiah. Then I remembered the song that came forth from that verse, "You are Mine". So, I began searching for a song to link here. The first one I found was the one I will link below. So, I sat watching it.

You need to understand something about this song. We chose this song for my mom's funeral a little over 3 years ago after she died on January 19, 2007. I always loved it because it comforted me when it spoke of "the lame will now run free", "come and follow me and I will bring you home" and "embracing all your pain" and "stand up now, walk and live". My mom suffered immensely for years with the worst case of lupus doctors had ever seen. I won't go into the horrible details, but to think of her being able to finally stand up and run and being welcomed by our Lord was so comforting.

Now, back to the story. I always watch clips in their entirety to make sure there aren't any crummy ads and stuff. At the end, I had missed the writing so I slide the bar back to see what it said. There listed the two people that sang the song, along with the date they sang it - January 19, 2007, the exact day my mom died. I am sorry. If that doesn't bring chills to your arms, I don't know what will. I am still sitting her stunned. The exact month, date, and year. I will take that as an affirmation that my mom has indeed found her home in the loving arms of her savior, Jesus Christ. She clung to him desperately in her last years of life, constantly saying "Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you." And he has not let her down. He has clung to her and brought her home. It would be my honor if you would listen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vMYP4uJAqY

Food
We are trying to just get by. "Everyone for themselves" is kind of how this week is going with all the sickness. Not the healthiest week, but we are getting by. I will say the TLC Oatmeal Raisin Flax cookies are going over much better than when I first brought them out.

"Stuff" Detachment
I headed to the video/dvd cabinet, which is way too full. Grabbed a Mickey Mouse Club video and 3 weight loss videos. Before I found recovery from compulsive overeating in my 12 step program 4.5 years ago, I searched high and low for the answer. I recorded anything I saw on tv and kept it to try and motivate myself. Two of the three tapes were recorded by me, the third was actually one that I ordered from Oprah. I remember paying an obscene amount, like $25, for that video. I looked more closely at it as I walked upstairs to record my findings here and guess what the date was on that Oprah video? You guessed it January 19th, only this time it was 2004. Is this getting crazy or what?

Spiritual Growth
Well, my spirit definitely grew through this blog. And these are simple things, but God has the big things under control too. Onto the book I have working through. In the section titled "Peace Is Often at Stake in the Struggle", I quoted yesterday something we all need to remember "The devil does his utmost to banish peace from one's heart, because he knows that God abides in peace and it is in peace that He accomplishes great things." He goes on to explain that this is exactly what spiritual combat is "defending one's peace of heart against the enemy who attempts to steal it from us". When we lose our interior peace, our spiritual progress slows.

". . . quite often in the daily unfolding of our Christian life it happens that we fight the wrong battle, if one may put it that way, because we orient our efforts in the wrong direction. We fight on a terrain where the devil subtly drags us and can vanquish us, instead of fighting on the real battlefield, where, on the contrary, by the grace of God, we are always certain of victory. And this is one of the great secrets of spirtual combat - to avoid fighting the wrong battle, to know how to discern, despite the ruses of our adversary, which is the real battlefield, what we truly have to struggle against and where we must place our efforts."

Interestingly, he speaks of the goal of spiritual combat like this. "The first goal of spiritual combat, that toward which our efforts must above all else be directed, is not to always obtain a victory (over our temptations, our weaknesses, etc.), rather it is to learn to maintain peace of heart under all circumstances, even in the case of defeat." He explains that it is through maintenance of our peace that God can most efficaciously and rapidly instill the grace necessary to work on our imperfections and on being more Christ-like.

Tomorrow - "The Reasons Why We Lose Our Peace Are Always Bad Reasons"

To add to the craziness of this blog, I went to get Curly up from his nap. On the way down, Artsy called me (as she has every 10 minutes all day) and said "I feel Jesus touching me" and she put her hand on her face. What the heck do you say to that? I said "Oh, is he healing you?" Hmmmm. And, yes she is fully alert, not dehydrated.

Today's Menu
Breakfast: Stoneyfield Farms Plain Whole Milk Yogurt sweetened with a couple drops of French Vanilla Stevia, blueberries, bread, cheese

Lunch: Noodles with parmesan cheese, flour tortilla with cheese, pretzels, canteloupe

Dinner: Toasted cheese sandwich, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, bananas, vege tray

Snack: Triscuits and marble jack cheese