Remedy This Heart: May 2012

Rainbow.

Everytime I see a rainbow I think of my late grandma who passed away when I was 12. She was my angel. On the day of her funeral, my family and I had just returned home when walking into the house we saw the most beautiful rainbow. Another promise from God that all is well and grandma is loving being home.

Last night it stormed here and then I looked out my back window and saw this AMAZING rainbow that went all the way from one side to the other, reminding me of the St. Louis Arch. To top that off there were two! To get even more crazy on you... my grandma loved red and blue birds. Well I saw one red bird sitting in the trees under the rainbow.

These moments are what I call kisses from Jesus. Just pouring His love on me.

Who else saw this amazing thing?!

Value Series: Pursue Growth

Next value in this series is Pursuing Growth.
Man, this could not hit anymore closer to home right now. As I've been mentioning throughout the last month in some of my posts, I feel that I'm changing. I'm slowing things down in life, appreciating the simple. With the change I really have been growing. I believe that I am a person who really does pursue growth. I'm constantly challenging myself to be better, to stretch, to take risks, to try new things. The older I get the more willing I am to step out of my comfort zone to simply grow.

When it comes to our relationship with Jesus... it is a daily desire to grow... in His direction. He has so much to teach us, to show us, to demonstrate to us. If we are not growing in His direction the other things are just meaningless. "Like Chasing the Wind" as Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes. We will grow when we plant ourselves in the Word and saturate our hearts with prayer. We will grow when we step out in faith, often times doing things we never thought or planned for ourselves. We will grow when we sacrifice for Jesus and His kingdom instead of living for our earthly, temporary comforts.

I am so ready to grow. To really go deep and grow up strong in The Lord. I'm passionate to see this growth take place in my heart. To be a woman after God's own heart. I want to make my Heavenly Father shine for all.

Daily I must recommit my heart to line up with His.
In what areas or ways do you all want to pursue growth?
How can you seek Him more?

Much love to you all!

Guest Post: Carly from Texas Lovebirds!

Hi, guys! My name is Carly and I blog over at Texas Lovebirds. My blog chronicles my life as a wife, a new momma, and a woman who tries to live be His grace daily. I write for therapy. I write to remember. I write to laugh. I write to relate. I write to connect. I write to inspire. I hope you will find one of those things when you visit my blog.

Today, Mary is so kindly letting me guest post on something that has become somewhat of a passion to me. I am so thankful that she sees my heart and is helping give me an avenue to share it. This post might be a little lengthy, but I hope you'll stick around and hear what I have to say.

A month or two ago, I felt God really tugging on my heart about prayer. I felt Him pushing me to be more than the person who prays before meals, more than the person who prays each night before bed. I felt Him pushing me to truly pray for others when I say I will. I felt Him pushing me to carry other's burdens through prayer.

As I began to make changes in my personal prayer life, I felt God to continue to tug my prayer life in a direction I never imagined...toward blogging. I didn't know what to pray so I prayed that blogging wouldn't become an idol. I prayed that I wouldn't stress too much about it. I prayed that my little corner of the blogging world might be a light for someone, somewhere. And in the midst of this prayer, this question came to mind...

I Why can't the blogging community become a praying community? I

I didn't really know what that meant or how to involve prayer in the blogging community, so I went back to praying about that question. My mind was consistently brought back to my college campus. I attended a private Christian university in Dallas and all over campus there were prayer boxes. In these boxes, anyone could leave a prayer request. You could be as specific or as vague as you want. You could be known or completely anonymous. Most importantly, leaving a request gave you the knowledge that someone was praying for you and your pains and struggles, your joys and triumphs. Those boxes got my wheels turning and I began to realize how helpful an online prayer box could be to many people.

After talking to a blogging friend, I decided to set up a Google Doc where people could leave these requests. The Google Doc form asks you three questions. In these questions you are able to share as much information as you wish.

The form recently launched on my page and can be found at the top of my blog under the tab titled "prayer." Once you've found the form, this is how things will work...

1) Fill out the form with your prayer request. The information you leave is visible only to me.

2) Click "submit."

3) Know that there is someone praying for you!

You can leave as many requests as you'd like, as often as you'd like. I just really hope that you'll head over to my blog and utilize this! I feel that it is an incredible opportunity for us to support each other. The Bible calls us to bear each other's burdens and I feel as if there is no better way to do this than through prayer.

Please, help spread the word about this movement...the blogging community becoming a praying community. Tweet it, Facebook it, and post about it on your blog. This is starting small through prayer requests submitted to me but my mind is racing with ways to make this grow. Your support and your prayer will help this movement more than you know.

So, let's get started...
Is there something weighing on your heart?
Is someone who is close to you really sick?
Have you just experienced a loss?
Is Satan filling your mind with toxic thoughts?
Are you struggling in a relationship?
Are you feeling hurt by someone?
Are you struggling to forgive someone?
Do you feel God tugging on you to make a change?
Are you celebrating a recent victory?
Are you thankful for all He has given you?

I'd love to pray for you in any way that I can.