Monday Madness

Good Monday Morning to each of you,

I hope you each had a great weekend, did you get everything that you need to get done, done? Did you get to rest, or are you like me, you have to come to work to rest? The weekend was actually really nice, I worked a lot in the backyard, trying to get it ready, but as most of you know, the more you do, it seems the more there is. In addition it was so hot, that my work times were limited, I ended up working from about 7pm to 10 pm all three days. Even at these times, I was still sweating...I think that this is going to be a hot summer. This is just so hard to believe, because when you watch the news, it goes from heat wave in California to 10 ft floods in Missouri and central US. CRAZY!!!!

This weekend has been a great time to reflect for me...Momma and I were home alone from Friday evening until Sunday evening, this is the first time in over a year, that it was just the two of us...we did not know how to act...the house was so quite...but at the same time...it was so nice. We told each other that we had to do it more often, even it if it is only dinner and a movie. It is hard because the kids mean so much to us, being without them almost seems empty. Yet on that same note, it is so nice to just be next to her and not worry about anything else....

In addition service on Sunday planted some seeds that got my mind wandering, we were talking about standing up for our faith, when everything and everyone around us is against us. Pastor shared with us 3 different examples, now these are examples that we all have heard of, but I guess I have have never tried to put myself in their shoes, or tried to see how those times are upon us again, the test may be a little different but the results are the same.


We talked about Daniel and the Lions den, Daniel was faithful to his God, even when he knew that he could suffer death for worshiping his God. Are any of us willing to face 'Lions' to stand up for our God. One of the key verses that struck me is, Daniel 6:10. This is after the decree was written that no man can worship anyone except Nebuchadnezzar, but Daniel knowing this still went to his upper room of his house and prayed to his God 3 times a day, it says, "he prayed to his God, just as he had done before" what makes this such a bold statement to me, is Daniel had a routine and stuck to it regardless of the consequences....and as we know how the story goes, Daniel is thrown into the Lions den and comes out completely unharmed. God protected him.

This really had me thinking what routine do I have? I have a routine, but do I include God in my daily routine. Better yet is God my routine in my life, it seems that I try and fit God into my daily routine, when God should be my routine and I should fit everything else around my time with God. Now when I say routine, please understand I mean my daily activities. The more I thought about it, the more discouraged I got in myself. I need to sit down and write down everything I do each day, what are the things that I do each day, then I need to schedule God time, I need to set aside a certain time every day that is just me and God, time that I can dwell on him, time that I can talk directly to him, and time that I can listen to him. I need a set time to be in the word, and not when I am getting ready to go to sleep, I need to be in the word when I am fully alert and can hear what the Lord to telling me. As discouraged as I am, I am even more excited, I want my relationship to grow stronger, I know that the Lord will use me, I just have to put myself second and my God first....this sounds so easy to do. But I think that the majority of us would pray / worship our God in hiding if we knew it could cost us or life. But let Daniel be the example of if we stand up for our God, he will protect us.

Love you all

Mick