For all you that feel invisible sometimes!

A friend of mine sent me this video yesterday. I watched it and really felt lead to share this with others! It's Nicole Johnson speaking at a Women of Faith conference. What she says really touches my heart. We as woman get so busy sometimes and do feel invisible and unimportant-but we must remember we are working for Him and His glory! Hope you all have a blessed day and feel loved like a princess from the King Almighty.

in His mighty grip-
Rachael

What my faith is....

Today's devotional was so perfect and it really made me think. So, below is the devotional and then after that are my thoughts-ENJOY!

Faith Is Active
by Rick Warren

"When will you ever learn that “believing” is useless without doing what God wants you to? Faith that does not result in good deeds is not real faith." James 2:20 (LB)

Is faith simply a frame of mind? Some see it that way … a passive attribute of a Christian waiting to see what God has in store for you: a promotion, cancer, depression, betrayal, blessing, wealth, or injustice. They might say, “I’ll just wait to see what God is going to do for me and go with the flow.” That’s crazy talk.

Faith is active. It’s not passive. It’s a commitment. Look at your lifestyle and see what kinds of actions follow as a result of it. If you’ve got the real stuff, faith can be demonstrated.

When you were baptized you made a statement to God and the people around you. You said, “I’m in!” But it doesn’t stop at baptism – not by a long shot! What else do you do? You start following the pattern of Jesus. Faith is proven by how we live. Don’t misinterpret this. What you do – your walking around, everyday life – doesn’t get you into heaven. It doesn’t make you saved. It doesn’t mean you’re a Christian; it shows you are a Christian.

The next steps:

· Celebrate the lavish gift of grace. You were saved because Jesus is crazy about you and wants you to be with him in heaven. Revel in it!

· Show your faith. Wedding rings don’t make you married, but they say yes in a visible way. In the same way, baptism isn’t the thing that will get you into heaven but it’s an act of obedience. (Jesus commanded us to baptize and be baptized.)

· Share your faith with the people around you. If you are excited about what God has done in your life, then why not share it? There are lots of ways to do that. Get plugged into serving God. There are literally millions of possibilities. Point people to Jesus and love them like Jesus did. It’ll be something you will relish for eternity.

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My question for you is this-when you look at your life do you see the common thread of Jesus? I know when I look over the years of my life, I couldn't have made it without Jesus. I think of my faith journey as "never let go". Because that's what He did for me. Even when I didn't want to call on Him-I didn't have to because He was standing beside me. My decisions, actions, mindset all depends on the Lord. I know that I didn't personally walk with Jesus but I do know what it means to have a personal relationship with him. I know He is with me at all times and i honestly don't understand how people do life without Him. I love the Lord with all my heart, with all my mind, and with all my strength. And I will impress that upon my children (someday) Thanks for reading today-hope you have a wonderful day!

LOVE-
RW

Letters to Abba blog?

So, i'm thinking about starting a new blog where I write letters to my Father in Heaven. I was wondering if that would be something you would read? Let me know. I'm trying to decide if it should be private or public :) I appreciate your input!

Love-RW

Are you discouraged?

How to Overcome Discouragement
by Rick Warren


Then the people of Judah said, “The work crews are worn out, and there is too much rubble. We can’t continue to rebuild the wall.” Nehemiah 4:10 (GWT)

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Discouragement is curable. Whenever I get discouraged, I head straight to Nehemiah. This great leader of ancient Israel understood there were four reasons for discouragement.

First, you get fatigued. You simply get tired as the laborers did in Nehemiah 4:10. We’re human beings and we wear out. You cannot burn the candle at both ends. So if you’re discouraged, it may be you don’t have to change anything. You just need a vacation! Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is go to bed.

Second, you get frustrated. Nehemiah says there was rubble all around, so much that it was getting in the way of rebuilding the wall. Do you have rubble in your life? Have you noticed that anytime you start doing something new, the trash starts piling up?

If you don’t clean it out periodically, it’s going to stop your progress. You can’t avoid it, so you need to learn to recognize it and dispose of it quickly so you don’t lose focus on your original intention.

What is the rubble in your life? I think rubble is the trivial things that waste your time and energy and prevent you from accomplishing what God has called you to do.

Third, you think you’ve failed. Nehemiah’s people were unable to finish their task as quickly as originally planned and, as a result, their confidence collapsed. They were thinking, “We were stupid to think we could ever rebuild this wall.”

But you know what I do when I don’t reach a goal on time? I just set a new goal. I don’t give up. Everybody fails. Everybody does dumb things. So the issue is not that you failed – it’s how you respond to your failure.

Do you give in to self-pity? Do you start blaming other people? Do you start complaining that it’s impossible? Or, do you refocus on God’s intentions and start moving again?

Finally, when you give in to fear, you get discouraged. Nehemiah 4 suggests the people most affected by fear are those who hang around negative people. If you’re going to control the negative thoughts in your life, you’ve got to get away from negative people as much as you can.

Maybe you’re discouraged because of fear. You’re dealing with fears like, “I can’t handle this. It’s too much responsibility.” Maybe it’s the fear that you don’t deserve it. It’s the fear of criticism. Fear will destroy your life if you let it. But you can choose to resist the discouragement. Say, “God help me get my eyes off the problem – off the circumstance – and keep my eyes on you.”


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If you are discouraged let me know-i'd love to pray for you!
Love-RW

A year ago...

(I know the date is wrong on the actual photo)

I was thinking this morning that a year ago this month-Deana and I walked 60 miles in the 3-day walk for breast cancer. It's hard to believe it's been a year since then. Seriously, I cannot believe how fast time goes by. So much has changed since then. Just to list a few things:
* Gregory is almost halfway done with his Master's
* All my bridesmaids are married or engaged(this year-Deana, Kristen, and Lauren have been married and Megan is engaged)
* I am doing a completely different job at work
* We are ready to start a family soon
* I've memorized 35 verses so far
* We are a year older and smarter :)

I could keep on and keep on. But I will leave it there. When you look back over your last year, what do you think is your best accomplishment?

Change...

I needed some change in my life-not sure if this was the right move. I miss my hair! But the good news is, I'm sending it to Pantene Beautiful Lengths and they will use it to make a wig for someone with cancer.

That's 9 inches of my hair!

The side view, looks like i'm about to kiss Gregory's knee :)

The other side view and no i'm not kissing his feet~ haha

So whats the verdict??

Praying for you!

I have had my blog readers on my heart lately. I feel the need to write to tell you I am praying for each of you. I wanted to ask...

What can I specifically pray for you or praise God about?

I'm so thankful for you reading my life story.

Love-RW