In the Stillness

The stillness... that place between the rumblings of earth and the glories of heaven.  Do you know the place?  The place where we can feel the touch of the Father, and we can simply sit?  This familiar place can sometimes have unfamiliar paths that lead towards it.  Sometimes, we can't find the deer trail that the Lord is pointing us to, and sometimes we take a look at that interstate and turn around, never imagining that it was there God wanted to meet us in the stillness. 

I guess I've never called it by name.  But if fits.  In the stillness is where my breathing fades away, peace steals over me, and I can just talk with my Abba.  It is here that time stands still and I see things through different eyes.  Eyes that built the world...one word at a time. 

Today I didn't even realize I was there with my Lord when it came over me.  I found what it is I've been looking for.  In the past few years I have had the tendency to dance from idea to idea.. never staying with one for long because it didn't seem right.  Most people would call it growing up.  Up until now I've always felt that the decisions I make in this stage of my life will forever shape what I'm to do, and that once a final decision has been made, there's no changing, no going back. 

Looking at my previous logic now makes me chuckle.  God is forever molding us, shaping us, stretching us to make us more like Him.  Naturally then, how could one career or job title allow me that?  I realize that I'm just fine with not being able to see past the next 5 years.  It's scary how much that actually puts me at ease.  I don't have to have all of the answers.  I can finish my degree, and then take the steps that have been literally right in front of my face for the last 3 years. 

Would you like to know what God revealed to me in the stillness today?  Of course, it was something I already knew... but I'd never put it into the right light or perspective before. 
This is what I learned today:

I love my job.  I love dispatching wildfires.  I love small town home that I have spent over half of my life in.  I have the strength, patience, and love for my Lord to wait for my husband there.  

The Lord has not started a work in me that He will not finish.  His work isn't done for me in my little town at home which hosts no traffic lights, no department stores, and no busyness.  Safeway and Subway are the only names you would recognize if you drove through the place of my birth.

And once again... it makes sense.  Move home and live with my parents until I can find a place of my own to rent.  Someplace small, with one or two bedrooms, and maybe a backyard so I can get a dog.  There I can continue to write and learn.  I can be a wildfire dispatcher.  I can discover what it is that the Creator has hidden for me in this world. 

And maybe it will be there that I meet my Prince Charming.. and maybe it's not.  From there I may be called to missions or back here to my university-town.  I ask myself sometimes how I know it's really God's call or will for me to do something.  Others have asked me as well.  For me, it's simple.  I know it's God's call when there are no if, buts, ands, or ors about it.  There are no strings attached.  It comes from an unlikely place, and yet it's the most organic solution to the problem.  Haha... that's not a scientific answer, or even one I would recommend using to judge your own life...but it is how every call on my life has been. 

In this new decision I'm not afraid or sad[yet] to leave my friends, I'm not afraid of being trapped in a small town for the rest of my life.  I'm content to just be.  I'm content to serve in this capacity.  This too will be enough.

Is there an unanswered question or prayer in your own life that maybe just needs to be looked at in a different light?  Have you taken time to really enter the stillness and be with your Creator, or have you asked from a distance, unwilling to commit your whole being to it?  Find that place, and ask again.  You may be surprised by the answer you receive.  Thank you for reading.

-Kaitlynn Marie

To God Be The Glory

Hopefully I don't fall asleep before I finish this post!  I pitched hay covered in mud and alpaca poop for 7 hours today....lets just say that my body is one huge blister, my shoulders might just pop out of their sockets, and my head is pounding.  But all is well.  My heart is at rest, and a hard day's work is something to be proud of!

I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time in my life this year!  It all went well and without a hitch!  God continues to bless me with this apartment and every single one of our 5 couches! 

My parents and little brother drove up on Wednesday.  Dad is the cook in our family (seriously, he is a goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood cook.  not. even. over-exaggerating.)  so he brought most of the food.  I supplied cranberry sauce :)  My poor kitchen is still feeling the effects of his-er-organic?-way-of-approaching-cooking = a huge mess.  But you can't argue with facts that the food tastes delicious.

Sometimes my family is hard to spend a lot of time with, but again I was blessed with sweet time with my parents this week.  My aunt came over for Thanksgiving, as well as her 4 children....(well 2 adults, 2 children...technically, but we consider them all children..haha..yeahh)  All in all there were 12 of us in my little 900 sq ft apartment.  But with 5 couches and 2 awesome swively chairs, plus a huge coffee table, it all worked out. 

Thursday my aunt asked us if we'd like to go black friday shopping??? My dad and I said, "Sure, why not?!"  Oh. my. goodness.  It was crazy, fun, cold, and we did find some amazing deals.  We were up too late, (went to bed at 1:30 after hitting Walmart, Target, Old Navy, and Kohls), then got up way too early (to go to BiMart, KMart, Big 5, and Joannes), but it was fun.  We're not really serious shoppers, but we did get some crazy stuff, and had a good time doing it.  We may have made it out of Target with everything on our list before everyone had even made it inside (15 minutes, people.. I don't know how we did that.), and we may have cut in front of 500 people at Kohls (except it wasn't cutting, b/c those 500 people weren't standing in line.  Word of advise...the ladies at the jewelry counter were never told they could only check out people with jewelry... hehehe.)  So yeah, it was a good week, a long week, but yeah. 

Just thought I'd post an update. 

Unfortunately my family didn't see the need to stop and really ponder the meaning of giving thanks, or to give the glory to God.  It's hard being a light to people you know so well, to people who think they're living the Christian life...but really, they're not.  Lord willing, next year will look different.  But for the here and now I won't regret what didn't happen.  I will still thank the Lord and give Him the glory.  If only for the fact that no one ran out of the house screaming at each other.  Yes, I am at peace.  And I am thankful for that.

How was your Thanksgiving?  Was there something that made this year stick out from memories past?  

Thank you for reading.
Have a blessed day,
Kaitlynn Marie

The Ugliness Inside

Sometimes, my walk with Jesus isn't pretty.  In fact, sometimes it's ugly.  I become a self-centered daughter.  I become a danger to myself and others.  For a long time I walked around with the ugliness disguised as beauty.  The darkness trying to only reflect the light, not actually being light.
2 weekends ago Mar and I had the great pleasure of being Cabin Leaders at the Fall Retreat for our College Ministry.  I guess I should back up.  Looking back at it now, it was a pleasure.  When we found out 2 days before the retreat started that we were going to be leaders, our response was much different.  Hahaha... We lead a small group (a.k.a small bible study for women) through the college ministry we attend, and so we were automatically put into the pool of people signed up to be leaders.

240 college-aged students attended Fall Retreat.  Each cabin had 10 people, with only a few having 11.  Each cabin is paired up with a cabin of the opposite gender to be a group.  They then eat dinner together and hang out and just have fun.  (I also think it's a ploy to get everyone married..hahaha.  Our leadership says that they don't run a dating service, but sometimes..sometimes I'm not sure what they're thinking.)

So yeah.  Mar and I find out that we're going to be cabin leaders and we think, "Oh crap.  What in the world does that mean and what are we supposed to do."  Mar is a middle school leader, and I've taught Sunday school classes...to little kids.  Neither of us had any experience with people our own age.  We turned it over to God and prayed, "Not for our glory, but for Yours."

:)  It's amazing how God always knows what He's doing.  You think we'd have figured it out by now...but sometimes we don't.

The Lord spoke to me Saturday night and told me that I was supposed to share my testimony.  The whole ugly truth of it that makes it His.  So I did...of course I asked every other person in our cabin if they wanted to share...multiple times, but when the lull of conversation came I knew.  And then I took the plunge.  I revealed to the 10 other girls in my cabin the darkness I had overcome.  The darkness I had only shared with one other person in my entire life.  Luckily she was sitting beside me, holding my hand. 

My chains were broken, and it was at that moment that I really was set free.  Even more amazing, was the fact that because I had said, "Okay, God this is for you." He used it to open up girls that I don't think would have.  We learned from each other that we all have deep hurts...we're all just pretty good at hiding it.  We stayed up until 1 o'clock in the morning.  We cried and prayed over almost every girl in the cabin.  It was amazing.

The truth will set you free.  I've said this before, and people have rebuked me.  But I will not be silent.  The pain in confession is nothing compared to the love of the Redeemer.  

I am amazed that the ugliness that I felt defined me for so long is simply gone.  Of course there time that  a little part of the ugliness tries to come back.  But it is so. much. simpler. to. tell the. enemy. no. now.  Seriously.

In my housechurch a few weeks ago we talked about names.  We were asked what names the world has given us and what names has the Lord given us.  My name, it means "Pure".  That right there... it gives me hope that the Lord still has a plan for my life.  He knew that I would need that reminder.  In Jesus I am pure, whole, and loved.

What are the secrets that you are ashamed of?  That you don't want anyone to find out about?  Those are the ones that your Abba [Father] wants you to give up to Him.  That heavy burden you've been carrying on your shoulders?  It shouldn't be there.  Cast your cares upon the Lord.  Cast your cares like a rod when you fish.  If you're still holding onto the lure, then how far do you think your line will go?  There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus our Lord.  

Thanks for reading, and until next time,
Kaitlynn Marie  

Compassion

This is the sweet boy that I sponsor through Compassion International.  His name is Kenneth.  He just turned 8 and he lives in Nicaragua.
My history with Compassion is a long one.  I have been a part of sponsoring kids through Compassion since I was in 2nd grade.  My church at home sponsored a child that was a year older than me until he was 16 when he left the program. 
I then had the pleasure of researching the next two children that my church/youth group would sponsor.  A 14 year old girl from Africa, and a 5 year old boy from India.

Sponsoring a child through Compassion is $38 a month.  By providing $38 a month, you are giving a child a chance to survive and thrive.

I toured around the country singing and dancing for Jesus with a group called the Young Continentals for 12 weeks in middle school.  We were a partner with Compassion.  Every night I shared the gospel and asked people to support a child, and yet I wasn't willing to let the Lord work in my life and provide.

I look back at all of the time that I could have spent pouring into a child, supporting a child, and it makes me sad.  I always told myself "You're a middle schooler, you don't have money to do that." or "You a freshman in college, you really don't have any money." 

I can truly tell you that supporting a child through Compassion has been one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life.  Even though I was an advocate for so long, I never imagined how a relationship with a child would affect me personally. 

Kenneth has asthma.  He lives in Villa Nueva, Nicaragua where most adults earn an equivalent of $68 a month and are unemployed..
The $38 a month I proved is half as much as his mother makes. 
A sponsorship allows Compassion to:

• Provide Kenneth with Bible teaching,
• A Bible,
• Medical check-ups (especially necessary b/c of his asthma problem),
• Nutritious food,
• Hygiene education,
• Special celebrations,
• Recreational activities,
• Tutoring,
• School uniforms,
• Shoes, 
• and Academic support.
• Also the local staff will provide monthly meetings and evangelistic home visits for Kenneth's mom.  

So much for so little on my part. 
It's not just Kenneth that thrives from my support.  My heart has been greatly touched.  One of the great things that we can do with our sponsored children is write letters.  When was the last time you wrote a letter?  Not an email or a memo or even a Christmas card, but a letter.  There's something about seeing the words that your child has written in their own language.
Letters between Kenneth and I take about 3 months to process, be shipped, and then actually received.  I'd like to share with you the last letter I got from him. 

Hello dear sponsor Kaitlynn!

May God bless you.  I'm very thankful for writing to you again.  I hope that you are in good health and your family, praise God.  Now I'm in 3rd grade.  I feel very happy because I was congratulated at the project because I'm very intelligent.  I had medical check up and I did very well and we're being given foliar extract to avoid anemia.  there will be a dental C.I.V from the project.  We're going to be taken to a clinic specialized in teeth.  Have you taken foliar extract?  Are you afraid of going to the dentist?  We are taught more about God at the project and about how to protect the animals.  The teachers of the project teaches us about the clay from which we were made and that God shapes our lives like clay.  Do you know the clay?  Has God shaped your life?  I close this letter with much affection.  I ask you to always pray for me.  Here, I'll be praying for you.

Your child,

Kenneth

By the time I was finished reading this letter through, my eyes were no where near dry.  You see, this child has captured my heart. This little 8 year old boy has already gotten to the heart of the issue.  Do you know the clay?  Has God shaped your life?
Yes.  Yes I know the clay!  God has indeed shaped my life!  It's a never ending process, but yes I'm living it.

If Kenneth can have such faith in his circumstances, shouldn't our faith be so much more abundant?  I believe that there are many of us who really can support a child.  I'm asking you to step up.  I'm asking you to impact the life of a child around the world in ways that we cannot even begin to imagine. 

My stopping block before was fear.  The reason this post has been sitting in my drafts for over a month was because of fear. 

It's simple.  It's strange.  It's obvious.  We. can't. live. our. lives. in. fear.  Truly.  It's something I've struggled with for a long time.  Fear of many different things.  Tonight I'm letting the love of the Father drown out all the fear.  His love is enough to reach across eternity and provide me with $38 a month.  His love is enough. 

 


{Thanks for reading.  If you'd be praying for me?  Drowning out fear in my life is going to be a multi-step process back to the Father.  Handing over the reins again is going to take time.  I'll be coming back here to share my thoughts, journey, and whatever the Lord puts on my heart. Is there anything that you need prayer for?  What is especially hard in your life right now?  Sweet dreams and until next time -Kaitlynn }

Me and School

The truth is.... I don't like school.
I love learning, I love reading, but for some reason school is so hard for me to do.
My motivation in the morning is generally at zero.  Two chapters of the New Testament (currently Luke), two frozen waffles,  a cup of coffee, and a shower later I'm still generally wanting to crawl back into bed.
What is it that scares me?  What is it that makes me feel like I don't belong?  I don't know.  I'm just stuck.

Maybe it's because I still don't really know what God wants me to do how I'm supposed to do this.  What are my dreams?  The things that have been cultivated inside of me and growing since I was a little girl?  To be a wife.  A mother.  A cattle ranching, hay making farmer.  I don't want to be in an office five days a week with a week off for Christmas and other holidays.  I love the land.  I love to work the land.  I don't know a lot there is to know about farming and ranching, but who really has all of the answers?  I'm willing to learn...and I guess that's why I'm here. 

Will you walk with me during this time of searching out answers?   

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened"

Matthew 7:7&8

 ~Kaitlynn

PTL

Praise the Lord!
It looks like Mar and I have found a roommate.  Not only is this a huge answer to prayer for the finance department, but it's also just plain exciting! 
I'm super excited to have a fellow blogger in the apartment as well as a sister in Christ! 

This summer was a big fat black hole in my walk.  Stagnant, dark waters that I'm glad to be over.  The thing is now I have to re-train myself to spend time in the Word, and in prayer.  Some of you may remember my goal last January to read the Bible in 90 days?  Well...let's just say that I'm in Mark chapter 8..and it's October 3rd.  My goal is to read 2 chapters a day.

Fact: 
When I get up before dawn, make some coffee, eat some breakfast, read and pray my day goes 100 times better than if I hadn't. 
Loading the Bible Experience (click here to listen to a snip) onto my iPod to correlate with what I'm reading that day so I can listen to it while walking around campus, even better. 

Here are some links to blogs and random things that I find encouraging! 
A Holy Experience - by Ann Voskamp.  One. Of. My. Favorites.Period
Resolved2Worship - by Alyssa  This is another great one from the heart.
(in)courage - an EXCELLENT resource for all things encouraging, uplifting, and just fantastic for women. 

So yeah.  These are some of the places that I like to hang out at and just breathe.  Breathe in the presence of my Lord and Savior. 

Because mercy and grace really are enough,
Kaitlynn

Summertime Update

 

(This post was originally wrote on the 6th. I decided to keep it and post it late, even though I somehow failed to post it when I wrote it.)

Where has the summer gone?  I guess I don't have much to complain about because I've been saying all summer that I'm ready for school to start again.  Still, September 6^th is a little scary. 

Today I'm working in across the border.  Of course the day my boss lets me go somewhere else, there's actually fire to fight at home.  Oh well.  It's good practice for the rookies.  :)

The first week of August we hosted my favorite youth group from WA again!!!!!!!!  Oh how I absolutely loved seeing them and hanging out!!!  They actually run our VBS program for us which is awesome.  My mom is our church secretary and I know that she doesn't need the added stress.  When the WA group is here, everyone has a blast.  We were sad to see them go, but email and texting is very nice.

This weekend was our county fair.  Oh my goodness am I tired!!!  I could sleep for a week.  But work calls, and so I am working today after a VERY full weekend.  My mom is the treasurer of the Market Sale Committee here in our small town, and I have had the privilege to help her for the past 3 years.  This year we went all out and gave her office a MUCH NEEDED makeover.  We started preparing for the fair about a month ago.  I can say that without a doubt all of our hard efforts and long days paid off.  We had a very good fair with very few issues!

This past Saturday I had the extreme privilege of co-opening for the CMT New Artist of the Year 2011 Awardee THE BAND PERRY!!!!  Wow.  That's pretty much all I can say.  It was awesome, nerve wracking, and almost made me throw up, but overall I'm very glad I did it.  No performance is perfect, and this one certainly wasn't, but it was something I am proud of. :)  I did it, and that's what really matters.

I also got to babysit my favorite kids this weekend.  Last night was a great night of giving Miss B shoulder rides and feeding the horses apples and helping the boys with their roping.  Gosh, I love those kids.  I had their mother as a teacher in high school, and I've been babysitting them during fair for 4 or 5 years now I think.  Which is crazy! 

Time Away

Hi :)
I've been absent for a while.  There's been a lot going on recently, and I'm scared to say that we're already half way through July.   Where has the time gone?  I feel like the more appropriate question to ask myself is, "What have I been doing lately?"  

 The past month seems like a blur in my mind.  The days all run together, and honestly, I am tired.  Sleep has been elusive at most and interrupted at best.  I don't know what it is.......  Now that I type this, I could smack myself in the head. 


When God is trying to tell me something, I generally become very good at being: elusive, interrupting, stubborn, and sometimes just plain daft.  Hahaha.  This isn't really a laughing matter, but it makes me smile to see how the Lord works.  


You see, when I wake up multiple times at night, it generally means that I need to be on my knees praying.  I've been so worried about getting enough sleep lately, that apparently I've forgotten all about that.  Living in communion with God.  


Summer (and my job in particular) has been a consistently difficult time for me, especially the past 3 years, spiritually.  I work for the government with a group of people who for the most part don't believe in any religion at all.  In an office where personalities clash, and gossip runs full speed around every corner, I find it extremely difficult to live out my faith.  9 times out of 10 I fail.  


I feel distant from the Father.
My head tells me He's here, sitting next to me, holding me in a loving embrace.  
My heart and emotions tell me that I've messed up one too many times, and that I don't deserve grace.  I don't deserve mercy and forgiveness.  

But that's what Jesus died on the cross for.  He died in my place.  He bore the weight of my sins on Calvary.....All because he loves me.  

Me: the girl who judges too quick-talks when she shouldn't-forgets to read her Bible- has never finished a Bible study all the way through - and struggles.  


The silver lining to this bleak post is that my sins have been forgiven.  I've been washed clean in the blood of the Lamb.  I'm not perfect.  But sometimes, I think I try to be.  Jesus doesn't want perfectionism from us, he just wants us.  The real-deal, no fancy makeup or nice clothes.  We don't have to speak 5 languages and have a degree from an Ivy-league college in order to worship Hosanna.  We are invited to stand before the throne, broken and raw.  That's a scary place to be.  


What are you struggling with?  What has God been trying to point out to you lately that you want to ignore?

 - Kaitlynn Marie

Cutting the apron strings

photo credit

Today is my 6 month anniversary of being Facebook free!!!  Today, my last ties to social media networking are being cut.  I was one of the first of my friends to join Facebook, back in my junior year of high school, and today I am going to be one of the first to leave.

People don't understand why I'm walking away from connection to the world.... but that's just it.  I don't want to be plugged in.  How can I work on being not of this world if my life is so consumed with being connected to the world.  I admit that I don't have all the answers.  I don't see what choosing this path will do for me in the long run.
But I do know that for me, this path, this choosing to turn off Facebook is me choosing the narrow path.  Matthew 7:13 and 14 says this:

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.   Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."

I also really like the way that The Message words verse 14.

The way to life-to God!-is vigorous and requires total attention.

Total attention.  Every. single. ounce. of my being, of my strength.  Total attention is all encompassing.  It means that I'm giving everything to my Redeemer.  I will let nothing stand in the way of my relationship with Him and with the work that He has given me to complete.

I'm not at the point of 'total attention' yet.  But this is one more step of purposefully walking down the road that the Lord has assigned to me.  We've all been given different paths to follow, all narrow, and all leading to Jesus.  That's what we have to remember.  When we come around a bend to find downed trees in the middle of our country lane, it's not wisdom to leave the path and find a way around it.  Wisdom is camping down under the stars for a night and thinking about how Jesus made it through our downed trees.  He didn't stray from the path in order to find an easier route.    We have to stay the path we've been given.  Maybe that means we wait until God brings someone else down our country lane in order to help us pull the branches away, or maybe the Creator of Heaven and Earth will leave a chainsaw by our pillow in the middle of the night.  He will always provide a way, and provision along with it. 
Matthew 6: 25-30 (emphasis added)

 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;  and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

What can you scale down or eliminate in your life in order to let God have your total attention?
I'm working on my problem with unjust judgment and simplifying.


This is what the Lord says:
"Stand at the crossroads and look;
Ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is,
and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls."
~Jeremiah 6:16 (NIV)

-Kaitlynn Marie  

I Don't Hold the Gavel

In my house-church we've been going through the book of James.
At my college-group, we've been going through Matthew (specifically chapters 6 and 7). 

When God has something He wants to show you....He makes it pretty obvious.  I have been struggling with judging others.  I think the root of it can be found in the judgment I lay on myself for not meeting up to my own standards.  I don't know when it all started.  I can't pinpoint the moment.  It just did.

In Matthew 7 Jesus says,
“Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.  And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (NKJV)

-or-

"Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults-unless, of course, you want the same treatment.  That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging.  It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbor's face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own.  Do you have the nerve to say, 'Let me wash your face for you,' when your own face is distorted by contempt?  It's this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor. (The Message)


When we think about a judge (courtroom, fancy robes, lawyers & attorneys, security guards,etc.) there are a few attributes we hope that they possess, like impartiality and a sense of justice.  In a court of law, any bias or pre-conceived notion is intolerable.  I think it's interesting to compare that definition of a judge to my struggle with judging people.  I have a hard time giving people the benefit of the doubt, and I generally always have pre-conveived notions.  What is the difference between a court of law judge and myself?  I have not been created to be the judge of another's life.  

In trying to simplify my life and understand who I have been created to be and what I have been created to do, this problem with proclaiming judgment on others [in my heart alone, but still as offensive to the Father as out loud] has waged war on my heart.  It's plagued my waking hours and my dreams.  How do I stop the judging?

The first step: Asking for your prayer, as well as knowing that my wonderful brothers and sisters here beside me are holding me up.
The second step: Turning it over to God as soon as the creeping thought is caught.  James 3 talks about how the tongue cannot be tamed by man.  It is a definite, unchangeable fact.  There's nothing to interpret.  The tongue cannot be tamed by man.  This tongue of mine that speaks in my heart cannot be tamed by man either.     Jesus, the God-man: fully God and fully man, can control this wild tongue that has done damage to my heart and soul.  He can reseal the cracks I've caused and heal the broken pieces. 
The third step: Seeking those things that are pure and holy to fill the spaces where the brokenness is cleared out of.   Continuing to read and dig deeper into the God-breathed Word that I so often forget about or turn away from to instead fill with blogs or McLeod's Daughters, or Disney movies with friends.  


This point in my life is about changing the unhealthy habits, cleaning out the clutter, and finding the things to be thankful for in the process.


Anything that God's been pointing out to you lately that you need to change?  Whether you've been acknowledging it or not?