John 7:58-8:1

"They each (disciples) went to their own houses, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives."

Somehow today I couldn't get past this passage. I just had to stop and think on this one. Now, I have known in my head that Jesus said that he had no place to lay his own head...but in this passage I just could feel it. I felt loneliness for Jesus here.

Can you just imagine getting to the end of teaching at the Feast of Tabernacles and all the questioning he undergoes...then his disciples all return to their own homes to rest and relax. And Jesus? He goes to the Mount of Olives...and it says he stays there until the next day at dawn when he appeared at the temple gates.

I thought about how He went to that mountain while everyone else was talking, laughing, and enjoying time with family in their own homes...while Jesus is outside alone. No wonder the Mount of Olives was so dear to Him. We see Him spending much of His time there in prayer. It was a place He was alone with His Father...but alone nonetheless.

Today I saw a glimpse of the loneliness that Jesus might have had here on this earth. Away from all the glories of Heaven and the honor rightfully due Him. Here our Savior is...sleeping alone outside. It just became more real to me today. It made me stop and be more thankful for the difficulties He faced every moment - and ultimately on the Cross.

As we are quickly working towards Good Friday and Easter, I pray that the familiar story does not fail to become real and personal this year. I pray that you will read and celebrate afresh. Let the Scriptures wash over you anew like never before. Get to know Jesus in a REAL way this year through His Word.

I pray that I will not loose the personal power and perspective of the Good News. May it change me every minute! Some days the Word doesn't come with a loud trumpet...today it came in quiet reflection and thankfulness to my Savior.

Overflow...Prayer Continued!

Good morning friends! Well, I haven't been writing about the prayer series because God is still refining that time in my life. He convicted me to spend more time in prayer over my family, friends, and those around the world. So...I began listening and asking for Him to redeem the moments in my day to pray. Here is how it is looking so far...

I get up pretty early and it has been pushed back even more recently for daily planning (more on that topic soon...I tried to post it 4 times today and lost every one of them so I gave up!). So, after I spent time in the Word and journaling my thoughts on what I read and learned...I turned to prayer. But, since I am getting up earlier...I found that even WITH the head to toe prayers...I was falling into a netherworld of prayer and sleep:)

God is just so creative when I ask Him to give me ideas on how to pray and how to redeem my moments for His glory!! He answered right away:) I have been neglecting my time of exercise recently due to the crazy weather outside and the fact that we lowered our Lifetime membership to 2 times a month visits ($10 a month for the WHOLE family...YEAH!). So, I had let that part of my life just fall to the wayside and I could tell. Or...maybe it was the recent trip to Wal-mart for swimsuit shopping? Anyhoo...

Well, God being a VERY creative God pricked my heart to prayerwalk...literally! So, a week ago I began taking the time that I pray outside. I have done this before, but not in this kind of way. We live in an apartment complex that is in a large circle that is 1/2 mile for one lap around.

I assign each person in my family a lap...myself (to get all the yuck out of my own eye before I go praying over anyone else's life!), Jay, Anli, and Virginia. It takes me about 10 minutes to walk each lap so I focus my prayers on each of them head to toe...still using the Scriptures I had researched or whichever ones come to mind that day!

It's pretty brisk at that time of the morning, just around sunrise, so it certainly keeps me AWAKE during prayer time:) And as I was telling Jay this morning, it keeps me to my goal of at least 2 miles every day because I could NEVER jip someone in my family a lap of prayer! I mean REALLLY!! And I do switch around who gets the last lap...'cause it's not right for the same person to get the lap on the way home...or as my momma would say "as you head to the barn!"

I take my dog with me so that yet another redemption of the time is to make certain that my doggie gets his excercise each day. Y'all it is awesome! He has totally helped me to glorify Him in creative ways my combining the things He wants me to do, in a strategic way. That no matter what I do...it may glorify HIM! Pray with me that I will be comitted to this time of prayer!

Do you feel as if you don't have any time? Do you desire to add certain disciplines like prayer and Bible study and memorizing Scripture into your day...but feel defeated in looking at your full day? Ask God to creatively redeem your time! You will be surprised at how much time is wasted in a day...by you and me both:)

Seek Him FIRST and let Him dictate your schedule...BY GRACE! His mercies are new every morning! He is FAITHFUL to give you everything you need for life AND godliness...and that includes time. You may have to get up earlier...no one really likes to hear that...but it is SO worth it my friends!

And what about my friends, extended family, and others? I'll write on that tomorrow (Lord willing!)...

Let me know how God redeems your time! I can't wait to hear and get some ideas too:)

Thrive 365-
Frances

Please pray...

Please pray for me as I head out to share with the sweet ladies of Warner Robins! I'm excited about meeting them all...pray for my 5 hour round trip drive today:) Lots of good time with the Lord!!

Thoughts on John...

Well as you can see I haven't been updating on my head to toe prayer
book! It has been harder than I thought to narrow down all the amazing
verses I want to use! So I have been actively looking through my
Strong's concordance to find out what verses I want to meditate on
with each part...but there are SO many!!!

But I did want to share something I learned this morning and my
gathering time. I am in the book of John 7:16-18. Here Jesus is
teaching in the temple during the feast of Tabernacles. As He gets up
to teach the Jewish leaders are amazed at the authority with which He
speaks.

Jesus is response to their amazement has brought about much thought
and conviction to me today.

Jesus says...
"the one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the
ones who seeks the glory of him who sent me is true and in him there
is no falsehood."

My heart's prayer today in light of those verses was that I would
never speak in my own authority. But I know that I do! I speak so many
words each and every day and many times I never stopped to think about
who is getting the glory or with whose authority I'm speaking.

I just speak. I speak words to my husband, to my children, to my
friends, and to groups of ladies all around this country. Now when I
speak to women's groups, I always think about whose authority is
guiding my words. I pray very hard, I listened intently, and I seek
totally to speak to His glory.

But during my day... Not so much. So many times I know I speak my
own opinion, my own thoughts, and many times in my own authority. And
Jesus said there is so much falsehood in that. I so want to speak
words that are true and give him all the glory.

Lord today, please help me to be quick to hear and slow to speak.
May I count my words so carefully and may every word I speak or teach
to be in His authority and for His glory!

Thrive 365!
Frances

Head to Toe...Covering Your Family In Prayer!

Well, I planned to start this post earlier than tonight...but it has been a beautiful day here!!! So, I had a phone conference that I needed to have this morning, did school work, and then headed out into the most glorious weather with the girls. We walked, rode bikes, and finally played in the sand for literally over an hour. We relished the sunshine and the good workout we got...and time together.

This is my dearest ministry...and so blogs must wait:)

As promised, we are beginning a series I am WAY excited about..."Head to Toe-Covering your family in prayer." This idea is not totally mine as I have been SO inspired by Stormie Omartian's book, "The Power of a Praying Mom." Normally I tend to steer clear of books that have many spin offs...but encouragement on being a praying mom...well, I grabbed this book!

There is one small reference in the to an idea of praying over our husbands head to toe. I LOVED that idea!!! I searched online and it seems that in her book on praying for your husbands she goes over this idea more in depth. I have never read that book...so many of you might know better than I do about that.

I was THRILLED to have a concrete way to direct my prayers for myself, my husband, and my girls. I have had a scheduled way to pray over all the people I know God Himself has placed into my life. I got it from my campus minister Clete Sipes. He assigned people a day and he prayed over them once a week. Well, for YEARS I have had this type of schedule for others...but I pray for my family DAILY and didn't really have a way to pray strategically.

See, I am a writer. I process either out loud (and praying out loud as early as I get up to meet with the Lord is NOT appreciated!)or on paper. After a while I stopped writing my prayers out (for several reasons I have already mentioned in other posts) but also...my hand got VERY tired:)

Without writing or talking...y'all...I get very distracted in prayer. I try really to focus, but it's hard. Real hard.

So, when I tell you how excited I am about this strategy for praying over my family...it has literally revolutionized my prayer life for them. Now, I still pray over family and friends on their day too. But, one thing Stormie said in her book is that no one will pray for your children like you you will. And that is true. Wow! That challenged me to the core.

I had to look hard at the time I spend praying over my husband and children daily, and I have to say I wasn't happy. No one on this earth loves my kiddos the way Jay and I do. No one. Do I pray like that? Hmmmmm.

So, I took my friend Stormie's advice and ran with it in my own style! See, I am always on the look out for amazing moms who love the Lord and can encourage and exhort me in my life!

So, for a while we will be walking through my little prayer book that I am making. Each page features a picture of one of my girls parts...head to toe! Along with a photo to make it really personal and so I have something real to concentrate on while I am praying, I have scripture verses to focus my prayers. I ***LOVE*** praying God's Word over my family!!! So, as I have begun praying over them head to toe, I have also been amazed at all the scriptures that have come to my mind all the time. You will find that out too!

But, I am taking time to type them out so that I have a reference point to begin. It's always nice to have a reminder that early in the morning:)

Tomorrow we will begin with their sweet heads. There are LOTS of parts to that prayer and so it won't just be one quick prayer over the head. We will pray the armor over them, prayers of protection, and prayers of anointing. This is good stuff!!!

Stormie...girl...I owe you a debt of gratitude! You have helped me to become a more effective praying momma!! Tomorrow we begin...

Overflow Series!

OK...so as I have taken a break from blogging I have been reading and praying...and I am super excited about a new series that God has put on my heart to share about.

I will be doing a series on Overflow. For years I have been focusing on being satisfied and totally thriving in our personal relationship with God through the daily power of His Word. Then, about 2 years ago, God laid Isaiah 58 on my heart and my life again changed forever! Those who TRULY thrive are those who allow themselves to OVERFLOW what God is pouring into them!

Psalm 23 shows the picture perfectly when it says:

"You anoint my head with oil...my CUP OVERFLOWS!"

When God anoints our heads, blesses our lives, pour into our lives His eternal love and salvation...you WILL overflow! So, for a while I will be focusing most of my posts on the DFM blog about how that looks for us as women, wives, moms, employees, and most importantly followers of Christ everyday.

We will begin with prayer...mainly because I have been using an AMAZINGLY fun and effective prayer tool. You are going to **LOVE** it:) I am still getting all the pieces together though I have been praying this way for a while now and find it oh so helpful for those of us whose minds dart to all sorts of things during prayer time. If you are discouraged with your prayer time...PLEASE come and be encouraged by some FUN and powerful ways to pray over those you love!

I'm excited! I feel like God brought me to this break to speak fresh inspiration and fresh words into my heart. And...you know I just LOVE to share;) We will not only tackle prayer but overflowing into the lives of those around you...the homeless, the poor, the widows, the orphans, YOUR FAMILY (yes, God specifically tells us about how to care for our family in Isaiah 58...and not turn our backs on them for ministering to others!! Good stuff!!!) and so much more.

You may want to hit your local dollar store and get you one of these...

It's a plain old cheap photo brag book that you can find anywhere. The prayer series will open up with using one of these in a fun and creative way to really focus your prayer life! Can you tell I'm having a hard time waiting to share...Monday!!!!


Thrive 365~
Frances

Jesus Film

As you are focusing yourself and your families on Christ, especially during this time leading up to Easter, think about watching the Jesus Film together. They not only have the 2 hour version, but offer a 1 hour children's film. We are planning to watch this together on Thursday night. I have not seen this version and we are looking so forward to it!

You can find both films at:

http://www.jesusfilm.org/

Notice that you can watch this film in so many languages!! Also, enjoy reading all the testimonies. It's an amazing tool!

Take time each day to focus yourself and your family on the Gospel. Allow your day to be centered around the GOOD NEWS of salvation through faith in Jesus' death, burial, and Resurrection! Enjoy...

Thrive 365 -
Frances

John 6:16-21

Hi girls! I'm so glad to be starting a new week in God's work together!

Today I want you to look at John 6:16-21. This is a familiar story to
many of us, but I want you to take your time and look at these verses
with fresh eyes today.

As I was reading the first thing I came to was verse 17, where it says
that it had become dark and Jesus had not come to them yet. Have
there been times in your life when you felt as if your situation was
getting very dark and Jesus had not yet come to you?

I think there are times in all of our lives when the storms seem to be
coming on rough, the winds are blowing, and the situation is getting
dark and we feel as if Jesus isn't going to come.

The disciples had been rowing and rowing for miles before they saw
Jesus coming to them. I'm sure they felt discouraged and perhaps even
a little hopeless as they spent that time tossed about in the boat.
And then they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming to them! And
they were scared!

They didn't recognize him. They didn't know it was him. But when He
spoke...they knew His voice and they were glad to take Him into the
boat. And my most favorite part of this section is that immediately
the boat was at the place they were going.

Oh how I needed to hear this today! I wrote in my journal this morning
that I am so grateful that because Jesus is with us, we are always in
His timing. As we journey through this life, it is so easy to take our
eyes off of Jesus... to feel that he has not yet come to us in our
hard times.

But we must trust that He is there, He loves us, and that when we
gladly seek to have Him in charge of our boat's course...we will
safely land exactly where we need to be...right on time! May we be
able to see Jesus in the storm with eyes of faith today. May we rest
in him and in his plan.

Thank you Jesus for your timing that is so perfect. Thank you for
always coming to us in the storm and help us not to be tossed by the
waves, but to be focused on you alone! Lord today please keep our
focus on you during the rough winds and seas of our lives. May we see
you and invite you into the boat gladly, knowing that at just the
right time we will arrive at the destination. Help us to rest in that
today!

Thrive 365-
Frances