How are you this morning?

Are you feeling overwhelmed, stressed, ready to be done?

I come this morning to share what Team Hamblin is learning to be true.

Life is full of stuff.

Some stuff is daily stuff and you learn how to just keep dealing with it.

Some stuff springs up and is a little harder, but you get through it.

And then there is the stuff that hits from out of no where and you get tossed around a little but end up surviving!

This morning as I am sitting here with my Bible on my lap I am reading Ephesians 6.

I came across this...

Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

This right here tells us that the devil is nasty, for he has 'schemes'!

His goal is to bring us down.

Whether it be through little things, everyday things, or great big things.

He will use stuff to destroy us. Maybe little by little or maybe all at once.

But friends I find encouragement from this verse today.

In these words...

so that you CAN take your stand

We can fight this. Not in our own strength. But in His.

That's right!

I can, and you can too!

Because i'ts not if the devil is scheming something against us. He is!

I am sorry if that shocks you this morning...but I am a girlie that needs to know what she is dealing with.

The enemy of our souls is scheming to take us from the Creator of our souls.

It's the enemies only goal in life. And as long as we are living life on this earth it will be happening.

So know today that you CAN stand against it.

Praying for you and me to be strong in Him today!

Dear Momma,

There are so many things I love about you.

I love that you always put others first, for I have truly been on the receiving end of that in the 35 years I have been on this earth.

I love that you laugh and make others laugh. Yelling at who ever turned your oven up to 455 degrees when in all reality your oven was displaying the time of day....

I love that you find joy and delight in the simple things. Yummy food, purple flowers, hummingbirds, going for a walk.

I love that you nap. Because this right here gives me permission, 'my momma says its okay!'

I love that I can call you anytime. And you listen.

I love that you make others feel special and important. Whether it be a card, flowers, a gift, or taking them for lunch.

I love that you pray. For you know He listens.

I love that you desire to live from a heart of love.

I love that you have never given up. On yourself, your marriage or your daughters!

I love that you love Jesus. It's what makes you beautiful inside and out to me!

Mom I love you!

Happy Mother's Day!

On Purpose.

Good Monday Morning!

Today I am going to be pretty bold and blunt...and so if your heart and mind are not ready for it...then I'm sorry!

But my Jesus has been pretty bold and blunt with me and I sense His urgency for you to hear it too!

You see when He went to the cross for you and me it wasn't just so we could be saved and then sit on a pew in some stuffy church and stand and sing songs, and sit and listen to a sermon. Nope it wasn't! And sometimes my little girlie mind wonders if that even crossed our Jesus' mind when He walked that hill to then be nailed to the cross.

I think He was thinking of more.

I think He was thinking of how much He adored you and me. How much He loved us. How much He needed us to know that love.

For Him it didn't stop at the moment of salvation. He wasn't just trying to win our soul.

He wasn't trying to get us to go to church.

He wasn't hoping for a 15 minute one time prayer session with us.

Nope.

Rather I believe He wanted more.

He wanted us to know that He adored us. He loved us!

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. Ephesians 1:17-19

Friends He loves us!

He loves us like no other. And His love is perfect. Life changing.

His love is more than anything we can make it.

His love is not about us, but for us.

I want to urge us on to thinking there is 'more' for us today.

More than we have experienced to this point.

More than we have allowed ourselves to see, feel, and do.

He has more for us.

And I believe it starts right now. Today!

Dear Jesus will You take our hands, look us in the eyes, and remind us that You are more. And that Your love is more. More than we have made it to this point. Will You show us more today? We need it! Amen

You know sometimes your bestest friend has something stuck in her teeth and so you tell her...and she thanks you.

You know sometimes you are parking your car and see that the person getting out of the car parked in front of yours has left their lights on and so you tell them...and they thank you.

You know sometimes you find a screaming deal on cereal, socks, toilet paper and so you post it on Facebook...and many people thank you!

Well today you will cross paths with someone who needs you to tell them something.

They need you to tell them that Jesus loves them.

Go ahead and tell them.

They will thank you!

On Tuesday April 10th I was helping to coach soccer practice. I was leading the dribble drill around the field when I rolled my ankle. There was a loud popping sound in my ankle followed by some owie pain and swelling. Therefore, I sat out the rest of the practice with an ice bag on my ankle. Knowing I would be back at it very soon.

I thought I would be fine.

So I walked around on it for a week.

Okay I limped around on it, but I was getting around! I was not running which was causing me a whole lot of frustration and internal disappointment. I was thinking it was fine and it would heal. In reality I was doing more damage by walking around on it.

The next Tuesday night I was put in an Aircast and sent for x-rays. The pictures of my ankle revealed a very bad
sprain and torn ligaments. It needed to be restricted and held together to heal and I needed to rest it as much as
possible.

Rest which meant I was still not running.

I don’t like to be restricted or told to slow down.

I really don’t like not being in control.

But I was being told it needed to heal.

One would think that I had this ‘sitting it out’ thing down to a fine art by now.

One would think that I knew I needed to take the time to heal properly.

One would think that this paralleled the story I was writing in a book?!

But I was fighting the healing process.

I was fighting not being in control.

I was fighting the fact that I had to give up running.

A friend came for lunch last week and asked; ‘don’t you think you are resting for a reason?’

And even though my mind and heart fought hearing her question, I knew the answer immediately.

Yes.

Yes I was supposed to be resting.

And it went a step further.

I knew what I was supposed to have spent that time doing while I was resting.

I was supposed to be writing.

But instead I was pouting, whining, and fighting God.

I was bummed about giving up running.

To the point that I even said these words:

I can’t have the one thing that helps me with life.

My human heart revealed in that moment that running was the one thing that helped me do life.

I had some things a little out of order.

Some perspective came in the form of the sermon yesterday at church.

When Pastor preached the words ‘joy doesn’t come from physical health.’

And trust me if there was no one else in that room I would have stood up and shouted back, ‘you wanna bet?’

My God ‘should be’ the one the thing that gets me through life.

But my girlie human heart sometimes gets things out of order. And my stubborn self needs a BIG wake up call.

I want to be running.

I don’t want to take the time to rest and heal.

I don’t want to sit any longer.

And I most definitely don’t want to write a book that I can’t write.

I feel like He is asking too much.

I feel like He is taking from me.

How’s that for an honest Monday blog?