Lord, Come into my Heart!

Okay, I have to start in with a 'Funny Pregnant Moment' first. Who doesn't like a little comedy to start their day off! 

As most of you know I'm expecting our sweet Baby Girl this late Spring. Well, several of you have heard of my silly moments and how my words get twisted. For those who have been pregnant, are pregnant or even been around pregnant women, you know first hand that Pregnancy Brain IS REAL!!! HAHA! luckily I find humor in myself when I say these things. 

So, I go to drop Camp off at Pre-K this morning and it's the daily routine to sign him in, get his coat off, he flips his name card (the kids way of checking in) and then we head to wash his hands before he goes to play with the other kids! I KNOW THIS B/C I DO IT EVERY MORNING WITH HIM! 

Only today as soon as we walk in, I say, 

"Okay Camp, Come here, Take your shirt off." REALLY!!! "Sorry son, I mean take off your jacket..."

Yes at this point I'm thinking to myself: "Really Candace, Take your shirt off...." My son just looked at me like, Goodness Mom STILL CAN'T TALK! We then wash his hands and my usual thing is to give him hugs, kisses and tell him to be a good boy and I'll see you this afternoon. Only this time I do my normal things and then say, 

"By Camp, I'll have you later." 

Yeah! My poor kid just walked away to play. I know good and well he probably doesn't care, but I'm beginning to think I need to write a book with all of my crazy sayings. I may be open to taking some of the things yall have said to! haha!~ 

Okay! On to this morning's post! 

First, If you read yesterday, You know I have a Word of Affirmation, that I am supposed to tell myself daily, that we are doing in our women's class at church. Today's word is: 

"I commit myself to time alone with God."
A little side note under this is that, Our Worth will be far more valuable than rubies to our spouse, children, friends or co-workers as we invest time alone with the Lord each day. 

Today I want to hit a touchy Yet Very Sweet subject! 

Ill start with this. Are you Saved? Yes I jumped right into it. Let's open up with the most common answer. YES!

However, Are we really Saved? This morning, I was reading in Psalms again and got to Chapter 32. I think it is a great passage to read over when you have time. In fact by the end of this, Ill probably have it listed so that you can read it now. I do think, in your spare time, that pulling out your own bible, or bible app on your phone, It is wise to read it again. 

One thing, that I ALWAYS think of when sitting in church on Sunday mornings, or even Wednesday nights, Is that, "If only when the message is over and someone feels led to give their heart to the Lord, instead of feeling like EVERYONE is all eyes on them, I really wish they knew just how EXCITED we all are for them. Seriously excited!! When one gives their lives to Christ, My heart is overjoyed. I seriously cry every-time. It blesses me to see Christ change ones heart. Not just change it for Sunday, Yet change it for their life! 

So many times before, someone, somewhere has decided, "Okay, today I want to get saved." and yes that is wonderful, But once a week or so wears off, Then they begin to fall back into their old ways. Not that we don't as Christians, b/c every one of us struggle Day to Day with our flesh. It is because of the Love of Christ that we can come to him and repent of our Sins and if we mean it with all of our heart He will forgive us and we can continue to try and do better from there on out. 

My main thing I pray when I know I have sinned, is "Lord, please forgive me, and please show me what it is I have done and the consequences so that I can learn from my mistake and better myself so that I will not do this again. Help me to become more like you. " 

Now, What I want you to know, as myself as well, is that When you live day to day doing what it is you normally do. Same routine every day, Whatever it may be, yet you feel often, Lost, Confused, Worried, Scared, Doubtful and so on, That there is a Way out. 

If you read in Romans 10:9 You will see This. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 

Now, I'm not sure how you feel about that, But It is pure sweetness to my soul! That all we have to do is Repent, Confess Christ is Lord and believe that God raised him from the Dead. Easy as 1-2-3. Now even though it's that easy. It's a WONDERFUL feeling when done to know that God has cleansed you from your sin and you have a NEW START at your NEWLY SAVED LIFE. Oh the joys you will begin to feel and notice in your daily walk. 

Now that you have reached this part, One thing I have always made sure to let others know is that You will begin to notice such a drastic change. Not only in yourself, But others as well. Once you have asked Jesus into your heart. He begins to open your eyes and let you see what is truly around you. The good, the bad and so on. I remember feeling this and being completely shocked at my surroundings. B/c Your not seeing with your eyes any longer, yet, He is allowing you to see with his. Another thing is that He will bless you often. and at some point, you will start to notice trying times. You will think He's not there, or He doesn't hear you. Satan will try and tempt you more then ever before. This where you have to STAND STRONG! Hold on to the Faith, and Promise of God. Know that HE IS LISTENING to your prayers. He's testing you to see just how much you truly Love him and want him in your life.  Just like, We parents let our Children test the waters. Our kids will mess up, It's human, but If we raise them correctly, they will know that they can come to us anytime and we will be there for them. They have to know that, there is a wrong way and a right way and that living the right way is the BEST way!

I hope this makes sense. 

So along with Romans that I had mentioned above, I fell in Love with Psalm 32. Please take the time to read this part! :))))

Psalm 32:1-11  NLT (New Living Translation)

Oh, What Joy for those whose disobedience  is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty! When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hid my guilt. I said to myself, "I will confess my rebellion to the Lord." And you forgave me! All my gilt is gone. Therefore,let all the godly pray to you while there is still time, that they may not drown in the floodwater's of judgment. For you are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory. The Lord says, "I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you. Do not be like a senseless horse or mule that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control." Many sorrows come to the wicked, but unfailing love surrounds those who trust the Lord. So rejoice  in the Lord and be glad, all you who obey him! Shout for joy, all you whose hearts are pure! 

Isn't it sweet how He tells us that we can have Joy when we repent of our sins and live for Him, Or how that He will direct our pathway? I love it. 

There is one more that I loved. It's more like a warning that we need to Get our lives right with him while there is still time to do so. 

Matthew 3:2 Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near. 

Yes, This alone should make us want to get our lives right and live for Christ. Now, Once you have done this, as I stated above, You will instantly feel a relief from your worries and sorrows. Then, it will be up to you to follow through and begin your New walk with Him. Devote yourself in Prayer daily, Ask him to always guide your thoughts, steps, actions, and so on. My prayer over my family daily is that He would have us to think, speak, act and do as he would have us to do. In doing so, I feel like we are more accountable, b/c He will guide us in the right way, and make known to us quickly when we step out of line. :) Know 100% that he does it in LOVE because HE wants to see you succeed and one day enter his kingdom and be told

"Well done good and faithful servant." 

I hope today has been an AWESOME Day for you so far. I leave you with this, If this caught your eye or touched your heart, and You have been looking for a new Start. Rest assure, This is IT. If you are looking for a new church to call your home, a place where you can grow a great relationship with other Godly people, We would love to have you at ours. We attend Gospel Mission Church in Des Arc. You can Email me if you have any questions, to candacewskarda@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you. :)))))

I want you to know most of all, I do NOT claim to be perfect. Those that know me well, Know I'm human and struggle with my own things just as everyone does. It's up to me to make sure, I do my best to keep God 1st in my life so that He will continue to show me the right way. :) 

I hope you all have a BLESSED DAY! Much love to you all! 

All the Best & God Bless,
Candace

P.S. Here is a Scripture that I read on Wednesday this week and I just LOVE it! I've slapped it on my chalk board so that I'm reminded daily of it! :) 

" I place my full confidence in God. He has a good purpose for my life."

I recently decided in the beginning of January that I was going to do a Facebook Fast. I had always told others that If I did not do Pictures on the side I would delete my Facebook. Well I felt that given the fact I was not doing work due to my pregnancy that It was the time to do this Fast. I logged off. I was shocked at just how many of you had requested me not to, Not for just random posts, but the little bits of encouraging posts I did from time to time. Such as, spiritual, My Mom posts about my kids, or Wife posts about my husband. I was blessed to see just how many of you were praying for our pregnancy with Cove. I decided to go ahead and head away from Facebook land to grow with Jesus more. 

Here are a few things I have learned being off:

• I have had much more time to spend with my family.
• I have gotten a lot of accomplishments done around my home in this time.
• I have realized just how much time I did devote to Facebook. (pretty sad actually)
• I began to pray for some things and a Big Prayer was answered pretty quickly. I was so excited and still am. I'll post about that later when it is okay to do so.
• I have realized just how much I missed all of your prayer requests and posts about whats good in your life. 
• There were several that crossed my mind daily that I wondered about. I wanted to jump on just to check on you. but I didn't.
• I also noticed just how much more time I had to pray.                                                                                                                  

However, After being off for almost a Month, I have been praying and started my Daily Bible readings again. We recently had an AWESOME Revival at our church and one of the things that the Pastor hit on was asking the Holy Spirit what He had to say to us. We often just pray and ask God to do this or that, But we don't spend the time in silence to ask What HE wants from us. So I did this. I did my little bible study and read some, When finished I asked God. "What do you want me to hear from you Lord? Am I doing okay with raising my Children....? Ect..." I was shocked in what I heard. I'm not good at this, Just starting, But It was pretty neat what I heard him say to me when I turned everything off and got completely quiet and just listened. 

" You are doing well in raising your children. I want more of your time. Do not worry, I will bless you for devoting your time to me. Your family will be taken care of and your children will prosper, your husband will be taken care of. I have much for you and am getting ready to bless you in ways you can't imagine. Continue to spread My Word to others and make My way known. I will bless you for it. Keep coming to me with your thoughts and prayers. I love it when you spend this time with me. Your family will be taken care of."   

This blessed my soul so very much. I did feel like He was telling me to keep spreading his word. So I begin to think of ways other then just Facebook to do this. This is where these Blog posts come in play. I have prayed over this and feel like This will be a good place to share something that is on my heart or share a small devotional that I had read, scripture or maybe even what I feel him say from time to time. So this is how I will now be sharing with others. :) I'm sure I'll do a few family posts as well given this blog is about our little family and how God has blessed us. Even though It's been too long since my last post. Haha!

In today's reading, I focused on What we started last night in our Women's class at church. "Becoming A Proverbs Woman". Yes, I'm sure we ladies have all heard this at some point in time. But we have a memory verse to remember each week and I wanted to share it with you. I think this will help hold me accountable in doing this little lesson weekly. 

This Week's scripture is: 

Proverbs 31:10-11 A Wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more then rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.

We are also supposed to Speak a word of Affirmation over ourselves daily to remind us of God's word. Today's Word of Affirmation is: I place my full confidence in God. He has a good purpose for my life.

After reading this morning, I felt this small passage of Scripture really hit the spot. It's found in Psalm 25. Read the whole passage when you have time, But I really loved the scriptures within it. 

After reading these, I had another moment of silence and asked the Holy Spirit what he would have me hear from these scriptures b/c they really touched my heart! I didn't know If I would hear something or nothing. But yet again, I felt the Holy Spirit speak. 

"Tell my children I am listening, to keep searching for me and they will find me. I hear each of their prayers and have them in my heart. I am working them out in the best way for them. Keep coming to me daily. I love it when they spend time with me. I will bless them."

I just thought this was too sweet. I feel like after reading this passage of scripture that It really showed me something. There are days that we feel like NOTHING is going in the way we would like or hope or think it should go. We may be stressed, tired, worn down, discouraged, hurt, lost ect. But God tells us that we need to keep searching. He has our best interest at heart and will be there for us. In the 1st - 3rd verses. I see how we need to be. "O Lord, I give my life to you. I trust in you, my God! Do not let me be disgraced or let my enemies rejoice in my defeat. No one who trusts in you will ever be disgraced. but disgrace comes to those who try to deceive others."

The next verses I posted above are 8-15.  Telling us How the Lord is good and  does what is right. He shows the proper path to those who go astray. He leads the humble in doing right, teaching them His way. That is just part of these verses. 

I feel like we need to put our full trust in God daily and let him lead our paths as he stated. I feel like that is what his word is referring to that he wanted me to share. He hears our every prayer and is working them out the best way for each of us. We have to remember though, Not to pray "God Please Give Me." It needs to be "God, Please give me YOUR WILL for my life." Then when in doing that, He will direct our Paths and we will have a peace in knowing he has got us on the right track! 

So when your day is going what seems to be awful. Remember, Tell yourself that word of Affirmation. "I place my full confidence in God. He has a good purpose for my life." Remember these verses and passage of scripture. Remember he has said to keep searching for him, He is setting your path up already, You just have to ask Him to lead you down the right one. 

I hope you all have a Blessed day ahead of you! Keep your heads up high and remember to Praise him for each little blessing or happy time in your day. I think you will be surprised at just how many you will notice once you start thanking him for them. :) 

In other good news to you: I promise not to make each post this long. I just needed to explain why I'm back on Facebook and wanted to fit in these little devotionals as well. Thank you for taking the time to read! 

God Bless & All the Best, 

Candace