September 20, 2012

HE Speaks: Esther's story

September 20, 2012/ sarah

Esther is a precious friend that I have gotten to know in the last several months!

I am so so thankful she shared her heart with me so I could share it with you.

I LOVED reading it myself and know you will too.

I pray that her heart will be encouraging to you today, and will be a reminder that God loves to be in conversation with you, and He loves to bring you into a place of peace with Him.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Hello! I'm so happy
to be here to give Sarah some time to enjoy her family.

I love Sarah. Her
heart is beautiful. She's beautiful. Her daughters are beautiful. Seriously.

My name is Esther and
I blog over at Lovingly
Thrown Together.

When Sarah asked me and
some other friends to guest post, I, of course, said an enthusiastic
"yes!"

She asked if we could
share about this question:

How does God speak to
me?

I've been sitting on
this for days and I really wish I had a concrete answer by now

but, nonetheless, here is what I came up with after some reflection.

source | via

In my every day life,
I think my heart hears God before my brain does.

Sometimes my brain
never even processes God's words... but my heart does.

My life, in the
world's eyes, might be pretty mundane.

I wake up, I drink
coffee, I make breakfast lunch and dinner,

I change diapers, I
go grocery shopping, I clean, etc. etc.

Nothing extraordinary
here.

But I'm a wife and a
mother

and I think those are
two of the most meaningful things one can be

and I know my God
thinks so too.

Those roles can take
over sometimes... okay all the time...

and as much as I wish
I could sit down and contemplate before Him waiting to hear audible words,

I can't and it's hard
to hear Him when a toddler is pleading (whining) for your attention

and your brain is
making a mental note of the pantry items you ran out of

while simultaneously
adding to the day's to-do list.

I am a believer
that God loves you in whatever phase of life you are in.

Often I have to
remind myself that He put me here in this life, in this very instance.

Today is no mistake.

But I can’t take that
love for granted.

A relationship with God, like a relationship with a person,
is a two-way street

and I have to give Him something in return for what He
gives me… which is everything.

I try to get up
before my son in the morning to greet the Lord in prayer time,

even if it's only for
ten minutes,

that short period of
time starts a establishes a conversation that expands throughout the day.

In that conversation
I praise Him, give Him thanks, and then I start to ask for graces.

I ask Him for graces
for the day because I know He will supply them.

He always always
always tells my heart when it's time to start my day.

He speaks to my heart.

He tells me,
"Thanks for these ten minutes, daughter. I will be with you today and
always"

and off I go with a
sense of peace that I know only comes from Him.

Our God is so
understanding. Isn’t he?

During the day when I
cry out to him in frustration, sadness, exhaustion, hunger, happiness, and joy

He's there. Speaking
to my heart. Telling me what needs to be heard.

Supplying me the graces
I need.

Giving me peace.

It's not like I actually
hear a thing but my conversations with God are based on a sixth sense of sorts.

When my heart is
peaceful, I know God and I are in sync.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Thanks friend. I am so thankful for your beautiful heart!

Esther blogs here, tweets here, and facebooks here

September 19, 2012

HE Speaks: Joy's story

September 19, 2012/ sarah

As you may have noticed, I am taking a little hiatus for a few days this week to get a million things done around the house, and just set aside the computer for a bit.

I am thankful for the awesome girls that have offered to step in in the next week or two and share their hearts about hearing God!

so...

Today, meet Joy.

Absolutely love her heart and how she shares about God truly showing up and speaking

about very personal and impactful things in her life.

He does that you know. He is so good.

Thanks Joy for sharing!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I can tell you exactly where I was sitting when I heard Him. His voice. And while it probably wasn't the first time, it was the time that I knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was Him.

Three years ago we were sorting through debt and clearing our path to financial peace when our son Riley's right eye hemorrhaged. Months of searching for the right answer and praying for healing brought me to the second row pew in which I sat that day. In a matter of months our savings had been wiped out and the progress we had made in paying down debt had been replaced ten fold in medical bills. We still had no answers and clearly a long, expensive road ahead. Riley could not see through the massive amount of debris in his right eye.

Sitting in the pew that day I clearly heard God say in a firm, strong voice "Quit your job." I could feel the weight of His hand on my chest and I knew that this was His calling. I knew it would require more faith than I had ever known and that He would be faithful.

Riley was later diagnosed with an eye disease (in both eyes) called Pars Planitis that leads to blindness. He endured four surgeries on his right eye in the last three years: all of which God has been faithful to provide for.

Two years ago God began to whisper to me about one of the greatest desires of my heart: adoption. Through a series of weeks in Spring 2010 God awakened me in the night to pray for a baby a did not know. In Summer 2010 he spoke to my husband's heart and from there we were led into foster care. In November 2010 our girl was born and just a few days later she was delivered to our doorstep.

Foster care is not foreign to us as we have served in this venue before, but this particular journey in foster care has caused me to be still a listen to Him. To wait on His timing. To trust in His plan.

Our girl will celebrate her second birthday soon. She is still in foster care. There's yet a long road ahead. Daily God reminds me "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful." Hebrews 10:23. His word is living and comes to my mind throughout the day. The very word that I need at just the right time.

Hearing God's voice through whispers, through His Word and through the voice of others is what has sustained us over the past three years. It has been through the comfort of His voice and the firm guidance of His hand that we have learned so many things about leaning on Him even when it seems crazy.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Thanks Joy....so glad you shared, I was so encouraged and I know others will be too.

Maybe someone reading this is waiting, and hoping, that He will speak and act...

and by hearing the word of your testimony, hopefully they will be encouraged and reminded of His goodness!

Joy blogs here, tweets here, facebooks here, and has a cute little shop here!

and remember, you can click on this button on my sidebar to hear stories from several bloggers about how God speaks to them.

This has been such an encouraging series for myself, and I hope it will be for you too! :)

September 18, 2012

HE Speaks: Kara's story

September 18, 2012/ sarah

So glad to be sharing another beautiful heart with you in my little series about

hearing God, and about how God speaks to different people.

Today you get to hear from s good friend of mine, Kara.

She's basically amazing. :)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

..."God in community"...

hi, I'm kara. wife to marc. momma to nolan fox age 13 months. coffee lover. blogger.

follower of Jesus.

I blog over at sunrise & sunset

you can find me on twitter @kara_murano

and on instagram @karamurano

I have been a follower of Jesus since about 3rd grade. I grew up very involved in a non-denominational church here in CA. growing up in the church I heard the phrase "god speaking" a lot and to be completely honest, had no idea what it meant. another area which I always struggled to understand was the idea of God's will for my life. how could I get Him to speak to me and find out what His will was for me?! one way that God has used to speak into my life is my quiet time, prayer & through His word.

for most of my life I thought these were the only ways to hear from God.

it wasn't until a couple of years ago around the time we were leaving our former church, that I realized that God had been and was using community to speak to me & help me discern His will. previously I had seen my relationship with God as something private & personal which of course it is, but I was leaving out a huge part of life...Christ-centered relationships.

we joined our current faith community last february and one of our pastors said something that has always stuck with me:

"God not only binds us to Himself, but binds us to one another"

to me this meant that God not only calls me into relationship with Him but calls me into relationship with others.

if He can speak to me Himself then surely He could use others to speak His will & His truth into my life.

as I looked back I could see how God to spoke to me through my parents, mentors and even peers. I began to see how God had used and was using my husband to speak God into my life. God used my friends who were church planting to show me new ideas of what church actually is and what it looks like in a practical way.

God used my community group to reveal new truths about His character.

I notice that God often uses my son to show me my strengths and weaknesses.

as I began to focus on my oikos (friends & family that surround me) instead of myself,

I saw ways that I could speak God's truth into the lives of others around me.

our God wants us to learn from one another and grow together.

we were made to do life together, as a community.

today I am thankful for a God who doesn't want us to figure out life alone.

sweet Sarah, thank you for having me on this sweet blog of yours. thankful for your friendship and the ways that God uses your words to speak into to my life.

- - - - - - - - - -

Thanks Kara. I love you!!!

I totally agree with all that Kara just shared. I see clearly how He has used community to speak into my life...especially more in recent years than ever before.

Community is an ever-important thing in life, and people that know Jesus or not would agree.

I am so thankful that this blogging world has ADDED to the community in my life.

love you all...be blessed today!!

Kara blogs here, tweets here, and facebooks here

September 17, 2012

Triathlon: check!

September 17, 2012/ sarah

Yesterday I had a big personal accomplishment...

I completed my second Triathlon!

It felt incredible.

If you have ever considered doing one, I highly recommend it!

It is so thrilling and so fun to be a part of something like this!

(I did my first one about 5 years ago, so it had been a while.)

And I did not train much for this one, so I was proud to just finish!

Next time I will train better and focus on my time!

I added doing another Tri to my "desires in my heart list", and so decided now was the time to check it off that list! yay!

{finishing!}

the preparations:

packing my bag for the transitions (those are the stations where you get on bike after swim, and then get off bike for the run).

Also, my bff GU. (an electrolyte sugar filled energy snack), and a PB sandwich!

a sweet note hubbs left for me to read when i left at the crack of dawn!

Spectators were not really allowed at the swimming portion so I don't have any pics of that, but it was great! A little stressful with so many people swimming at once, but it went by fast.

This is me at the transition, drying off after the swim,

and then putting on my jersey and helmet for the ride...