My Heart to Yours

1. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.” (Prov. 21:1)

If your thoughts wander during your prayer time, instead of trying to force them back into your pre-set agenda, try following them. Perhaps the Lord has another agenda.

2. “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.” (Matt. 6:5-6).

Set a time for daily prayer. Consider it an unbreakable commitment. Keep your set appointment every day for one week. For one solid week, let your scheduled prayer time be the centerpiece of your day: arrange everything else to fit around it.

3. “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” (Mark 1:35)

Give God the first fruits of your day. For one week, give the very first 30 minutes of your day to prayer.

4. “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” (Luke 5:16)

Find a place in your home where you can be alone and undistracted during your prayer time. Keep your Bible, prayer journal, pen, and whatever tools you use in that place so that everything is ready. During your prayer time each day, this is a sacred place.

5. “I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.” (Isaiah. 6:1)

As you start your prayer time, before you say anything, let your mind’s eye see Him, high and exalted, and yourself in a position of worship before Him. Stay in that inner posture until His glory fills your thoughts as the train of His robe fills the temple.

6. “But Jesus said, ‘Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.’” (Luke 8:46 )

Take time to become truly alive to His presence with you. Be aware that as you touch Him through prayer, His power is released into your life.

7. “O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth.” (Ps. 78:1)

Read your Bible this morning with the awareness that you are listening to the words of His mouth. Stop at the first word, phrase, or thought that captures your attention and let the Father speak to you about it and let it shape your prayers.

8. “We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” (Isa. 64:8)

This week, practice the prayer of pliability. Instead of focusing on what you want God to do for you, focus on allowing Him to shape your desires until they match His. Accept each situation in your life as His hand shaping your thoughts, character, and longings.

9. “Not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)

This week, let these words be the only prayer you pray about situations that confront you. Focus on relinquishing every situation to Him to be a platform for His power.

10. “I will remember the deeds of the LORD.” (Ps. 77:11)

This week, try writing out your prayers. It will help you stay focused and will create a record of God’s work in your life.

11. “My tongue will speak of your righteousness and of your praises all day long.” (Ps. 35:28)

This week, practice praying out loud during your private prayer time. It will make your prayer experience more concrete and will help you keep your mind focused.

12. “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; …talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” (Deut. 11:18-20)

This week, try walking as you pray. Walk through your neighborhood or around your yard. You will be more able to keep your mind open to new thoughts the Lord might introduce. You are likely to find yourself spending more time with Him.

I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time. As a marriage therapist, I spend a lot of time talking with couples about their sex lives or lack thereof. I ran across this video tonight and will have to find a way to show this in every marriage counseling session. We all need a good laugh every now and then, right?

(I am sorry I do not know how to put the you tube screen here on my blog so I have to just give you the link to go and watch it there.)

Check this out NOW!!!!! Let me know what you think!

It has been a stressfull week for sure. But today I am feeling proud… proud of him and proud that justice prevailed. Doesn’t always happen this way but at least last night a jury of 12 did the right thing. Way to go honey!

If you haven’t seen the huge billboard yet in Tulsa then you should go here and check this out.

Ruling your spirit. Keeping tabs on your temper. Slowing down your reactions so you behave responsibly instead of selfishly. These are earmarks of self-control. And they are often difficult to master for those of us who missed out on the blessing, unless we understand an important principle.

The degree of self-control you have is in direct proportion to the degree of self-acceptance you have. Put another way, if you don’t value yourself, you won’t tend to put any “reins” on your behavior

In Biblical Greek, the word picture for the word self-control is of a horseman “pulling in the reins” on a horse. In our lives, it’s a picture of our need to “pull in the reins” on a habit.

Ask yourself today, “Are there any habits or attitudes that you need to “pull in the reins” on? Like anger? Selfishness? Envy?

If we don’t see our tremendous value in Jesus Christ, our self-worth won’t be very high. And carrying around low self-worth is an open invitation to bad habits and a loss of control.

“He how is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And He who rules his spirit than he who takes a city”
Prov. 16:32

“A TIMELY TAIL”…………..

While walking down the street one day a US senator is tragically hit by
a truck and dies. His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at
the entrance.

-”Welcome to heaven,” says St. Peter. “Before you settle in, it
seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these
parts, you see, so we’re not sure what to do with you.”
- “No problem, just let me in,” says the man.
-”Well, I’d like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we’ll
do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can
choose where to spend eternity.”

-”Really, I’ve made up my mind. I want to be in heaven,” says the
senator.
-”I’m sorry, but we have our rules.”

And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes
down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the
middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in
front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had workedwith him
Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to
greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had
while getting rich at the expense of the people.They play a friendly game
of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and champagne.
Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly guy who has
a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good
time that before he realizes it, it is time to go.Everyone gives him a
hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises…

The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where St
Peter is waiting for him.
-”Now it’s time to visit heaven.”

So, 24 hours pass with the senator joining a group of contented
souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have
a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and
St. Peter returns.
-”Well, then, you’ve spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now
choose your eternity.”

The senator reflects for a minute, then he answers:

-”Well, I would never have said it before, I mean heaven has been
delightful, but I think I would be better off in hell.”

So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down,
down to hell.Now the doors of the elevator open and he’s in the middle of a
barren land covered with waste and garbage. He sees all his friends,
dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags as
more trash falls from above.The devil comes over to him and puts his
arm around his shoulder.

-”I don’t understand,” stammers the senator. “Yesterday I was here
and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and
caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time. Now there’s just a
wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. What
happened?”

The devil looks at him, smiles and says,

-”Yesterday we were campaigning……Today you voted…”

*Forty percent of America’s children woke up this morning in a home where their biological father doesn’t live. 1
*One in three girls and one in six boys are sexually violated by someone they’re supposed to love or trust by age 18. 2
*Suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15-24 year-olds and the sixth leading cause of death for 5-15 year-olds (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry). 3
*For every older teen and young adult who takes his or her own life, 100-200 of their peers attempt suicide. 4
*Between 500,000 and one million young people attempt suicide each year (American Association of Suicidology).
*Over one million children per year experience the divorce of their parents. 5

*In landmark research, Johns Hopkins Medical School studied 1,337 medical students throughout 30 years to find the common denominator of hypertension, malignant tumors, suicide, mental illness, and coronary heart disease. The most significant predictor of these five ills—a “lack of closeness to parents, particularly the father.” 6
As the pain, pressure, and pace of our day pile up, these kids are getting pounded by, and confused about, everyday life. The effects are everywhere. Broken lives. Broken relationships.

Here is my concern: If young people are experiencing such relational brokenness and lack of trust in authority, how will they be able to relate to God and one another now and in the years ahead. If we don’t help them heal from their pain and teach them to how to build healthy relationships, who will?

In a four-year study of teens, the National Study of Youth and Religion found that:

80% had few or no doubts about their beliefs in the past year
71% feel close to God
65% prayed alone at least a few times a week
61% definitely believe in miracles from God
52% attend worship two or three times a month

There is a desire to know Him and make Him known among our students. But most of the teens in this study couldn’t describe clearly or deeply what they believe or what difference their belief made in their lives.

Who is leading them? Who is helping them find their way?

At first glance, joy and happiness are quite similar; they are after-all emotions we generally associate as being positive and desirable (producing such behaviors has laughter, tears, smiles and awe). However, differences do exist. With that said, it is important to note that despite these differences, joy and happiness are not in competition with one another.

Happiness is defined by Webster as good fortune or luck. ‘You’re happy and you know it’ when you get a good grade on a history paper or even witness the game winning touchdown with two seconds to spare. Joy, on the other hand, is defined as a state or well-being of pleasure or delight. Joy relates to more meaningful experiences in our life. For example: at Christmas we sing about ‘comfort and joy’ and ‘joy to the world’; friends, family or pets may ‘bring you joy’ (warm fuzzy memories too); and we also know that “the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).

Based on this, we can gather that happiness is dependant upon circumstance, whereas joy exists in spite of whatever is going on around us. This is essentially the main difference between the two. As a result, we can also say that happiness is produced externally (based on this happening around us), whereas joy is a result of what’s happening on the inside.

So how do you tell if someone is happy or joyful? Happy people tend to wear smiles, laugh more easily, and can be identified as being in a good mood. Joy can also produce these affects; however, joy (our emotional well-being) is associated with behaviors of greater intensity. Joy is not based on whether or not I an elected class president, get accepted into my first choice college, or even whether or not I have a boyfriend. Read the following versus and guess the theme (a common idea):

Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the LORD. [Psalm 27:6]

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. [Psalm 28:7]

You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy. [Psalm 30:11]

Sing joyfully to the LORD, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him. [Psalm 33:1]

Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God. [Psalm 43:4]

Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. [Psalm 47:1]

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. [Psalm 51:12]

Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. [Psalm 95:1]

Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. [Psalm 100:2]

The ransomed of the LORD will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. [Isaiah 51:11]

What do praising, worshiping, shouting, dancing and an offering have in common? They are simply the outward appearance of joy - our emotional well-being, something that cannot be taken away.

What about you? How do you identify with both happiness and joy?