When I posted yesterday on "Hitting the Wall", it was a very heart-felt piece, very personal. I hesitate to get that personal but felt it was necessary for someone, I hope it was you. I got a note from someone it did help and with their permission I am placing it here because I think it helps, when you are going through terrible things, to see that you are not alone in your struggle. Read it and pray for the author. The way this person describes what we all go through is very valuable and will help YOU too, I feel it was inspired for you today! If you have a testimony please send it to me, be blessed, pray,give it all to God!

How many times in the last year, and especially lately have I sat alone and prayed fervently two words; Help me!!!!!!
Seeking one thing - "direction" the entire post was excellent, not just in writing and in words but a message that was like pouring water on a very dry and thirsty plant. Thanks!!!

I feel so very very close, yet there is such a great distance at the same time, it can be difficult to describe, and I think only when you've been there can you know the experience.

I have found that many of us travel the same road, yet we all can be at different places on that road. If were driving north on I-95 coming from Florida, the climate and the landscape continues to change as you travel the road north. Someone who has not made it out of FL will not be able to understand the the view, climate the general picture as you move north. When you hear someone teach speak and share of the journey, the road we're on and life itself. The person teaching is not in South FL, but has been to the Canadian border, to the interior of old Mexico, :) back and forth east and west, then their understanding of the journey is vast, beautiful, touching, moving. It can be indescribable. It can also seem foreign, to one still moving up through south GA.
The more you travel the further you go the more you can understand as you hit, sometimes literally "hit" landmarks what the teacher was seeing and describing. Knowledge and understanding began to unfold, you find yourself saying, oh.... that's what he meant, that's what he saw. I do think you have to be looking, feeling the road seeing what the Father has for you to see. Sometimes, we can drive oblivious to our surroundings, never seeing what God wants us to see. I have found myself looking at the surroundings while in a car driving or on a bike riding and even from a plane flying. I would take in all I could.
But, there are those times when we get distracted, we allow ourselves to veer off the chosen road. Then we hit the landmark, the wall, and sometimes I have hit a wall so big, I made the landmark!! or feel like it anyway!
All along, the Lord is developing our character molding us into the vessel he can use and be proud of.

I still find your dad's spirit and character as fascinating as it was to me when I was 14 and 15 years old. The wisdom, the love is so refreshing!!!  So unchanged. He is always the Prophet of the Lord!! Harry Mushegan.

I hope this has been a blessing to you, let me hear what you think !

There are times in your life when you hit the proverbial "Wall". My description of "hitting the wall" is when you feel that you have life by the tail, everything seems to be going your way then suddenly you hit a U-turn and everything in your life is tossed salad. It happend to me, everything I was doing in my ministry was stripped to make place for others, I felt naked and had no identity, I didn't know who I was to my self or others. I found myself saying "God, show me who I am in you once again, help me," and my constant prayer is those two words, "Help Me." It makes you feel discomfited when you find yourself in unfamiliar waters, but we have Biblical examples of life changes. Look at Joseph, one day a shepherd and a dreamer, then a slave, a prisoner, a house-boy to Assistant Pharaoh! This turn of events in his life enabled him to save his family from sure starvation. David, the Psalmist, was tending sheep when he was anointed King. Except for lack of space I could go on and include Jonah, Daniel and the Three Hebrew Children, but you get the idea.

Lamentations 3:19-27 I'll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed. I remember it all—oh, how well I remember—the feeling of hitting the bottom. But there's one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope: God's loyal love couldn't have run out, his merciful love couldn't have dried up. They're created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over). He's all I've got left. God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks. It's a good thing to quietly hope,quietly hope for help from God. It's a good thing when you're young to stick it out through the hard times. Sometimes you just feel like running away from all your problems and cares, but reading a scripture like this one just raises my spirits like a flag run up a flag pole! Jesus talks about (recorded in Luke 15)  a young man that thinks that getting his inheritance early and making a run for it will be the best thing to beat the boredom of his present life on the farm! His fun dwindled with his funds and he came on home, greeted heartily by his father,who immediately ordered the grain fed heifer to be roasted and a feast put out! Clean clothes were brought to him and the family signet ring placed back on his hand! So no matter what we do, how far away we wander, Jesus is showing us that God is always waiting for us with open arms. When you feel like you just can't handle your problems by yourself any longer remember  1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your care on Him because He cares for you. Instead of running away, run into the safety of His arms, So let the storms rage high the dark clouds rise, they don't worry me, for I'm sheltered safe within the arms of God, He walks with me and naught of earth can harm me, for I'm sheltered safe with-in the arms of God!

"When life closes a door, God opens a great big picture window!" I have always loved to express myself in writing and now I have the chance, and I love to hear when you read it and especially if you have found help! Don't lose hope, there is no testimony without a test, keep on keeping on. OK, enough with the little one line statemets, do what I am doing, try to be like the apostle Paul who said in Philippians,"For I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content!"  Be blessed, pray, run into the sheltering arms of God for whatever you need!

I tried to get out of writing this, but when He brought it to me three times in three different ways, I yield to His will! We all worry about finances, look around, there are a lot of people struggling. This week I ran into Publix for a couple of items and they were having a BOGO sale on my fave Jiff Extra Crunchy P'nut Butter, Arnold's bread and Hebrews National Weiners, these are things that I always buy so I took advantage of the sale. I got home with my extra goodies and was about to put them in the pantry when my phone rang with an emergency message from the church, someone was hungry, needed food immediately! The man of the house has cancer and they are about to be kicked out of their apartment because they are in an over 55 community and the husband is not over 55! So I thanked God that I didn't need to go back to the store at 5:30 PM and gathered up all my BOGO items and went to my freezer where I had bags of Tyson chicken breast. I realized that God had let me find that sale because He knew that someone else needed it and that I would be willing to share. He always supplies our needs according to HIS riched in glory, by Christ Jesus! Phil.4:19 Look at Matthew 6:25-30(Message)If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds."Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them."If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.These words of Jesus teach us how to live in uncertain financial times with-out stress or fear. Do you realize that fear is un-natural? We are the ONLY creation of God who worries. God provides for the birds He created, and we are more valuable than they are! Worry does not help us be productive! We are acting as if God did not exist when we live in financial fear. Our heavenly Father knows our needs, and He will provide! In the KJV, verse 30 ends with "Will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith." The way God used me as a hand to help someone in need, there is an angel waiting to help you too! Don't be afraid,thank Him for supplying your needs. OK, I have done what He asked me to do so I hope that it is YOU that needed it! Will you let me know? Please? Be Blessed,pray,believe!

I have noticed something in the last few weeks and days and that is, when someone dies we don't remember anything but the good part of them. Now it may be different with you and don't get offended with me if it is, I'm just saying it IS something that I noticed strongly. Mama was not as sarcastic as she was funny, that little quirky thing she did with her mouth when she was considering something, or about to hit you with one of her "wise" sayings. Instead of being aggravated at Daddy for sniffing and twisting his nose when he spoke, it becomes an endearing trait, to be fondly remembered, or the way he never said hello when he answered the phone. It is not remembered that someone else needed to be the central point of all connections with all relatives and friends, Another Aunt's jokes weren't that rauncy after all, and the jokes and prankes that certain little uncle pulled on folk weren't ever cruel, just funny. My other grandfather is only remembered for the prophecies he gave that always hit the target and not for the fact that we couldn't have bacon in the house when he was here, or that he thought having a Christmas Tree was somehow irreverant, and a dog in the house? NEVER! A President is assassinated and suddenly no one remembers the botched Bay of Pigs, we only see a little boy saluting his dead father. In our house we have Gabriel who has somehow gotten intrigued with Michael Jackson, only since his death! Never had he listened to his music, or seen a video or read a magazine article about him, until he died. Now there is a poster on the wall from "before he went too far" with his many surgeries and the old VCR that belonged to his Uncle pulled out of the storage box and there it is "Moonwalker" with the date, in ink, on the label, 1988. This interest has replaced all the posters and books on Abraham Lincoln, don't ask! In thinking of these things I mean no disrespect to any of the departed ones that I have mentioned, I loved each of them dearly, I am only saying that things that got on our nerves (our is collective) when they were alive, are now an endearing quality, faults mainly forgotten. Don't you think that is the way that God loves us? When you give Him your old sinful nature, your sins are as far as the East is from the West, and we know those two never meet. The Devil tries to put guilt on us and bring memories of days gone by to bring about depression and low self esteem. Psalm 103:6-18 (Message)God makes everything come out right;he puts victims back on their feet.He showed Moses how he went about his work,opened up his plans to all Israel. God is sheer mercy and grace;not easily angered, he's rich in love. He doesn't endlessly nag and scold,nor hold grudges forever.He doesn't treat us as our sins deserve, nor pay us back in full for our wrongs. As high as heaven is over the earth, so strong is his love to those who fear him.And as far as sunrise is from sunset, he has separated us from our sins. As parents feel for their children, God feels for those who fear him. He knows us inside and out,keeps in mind that we're made of mud.Men and women don't live very long; like wildflowers they spring up and blossom,But a storm snuffs them out just as quickly, leaving nothing to show they were here.God's love, though, is ever and always,eternally present to all who fear him, Making everything right for them and their children as they follow his Covenant ways and remember to do whatever he said.

When you make a garment you cut out pieces that, just to see them laying on a table, look like they have no relation to any other piece. You take two pieces and place them together inside-out and sew. Eventually the garment is all put together and you can see where everything fit, perfectly. I once made a dress that had a diagonal cut from the right shoulder all the way to the hem, in this a ruffle was inserted. When it was on the cutting table I was scared I would never get it together properly, but it turned out so pretty and fit the model to a tee! When I was very young I sat under a quilting frame while the ladies of the church were making a quilt to sell, and from the underside, it looked like a mess, there were threads of different colors hanging, all different lengths. I couldn't imagine how it would look from the top, but when I saw it there were stars and rings in all colors and it was beautiful. When you start a cake you take all the ingredients that separately wouldn't make anything good, but put altogether they make a yummy dessert. When we are born we have to learn how to do everything starting with walking and talking to every skill needed to be self sustaining. Eventually we grow into a functioning adult. Where is this going? The words to a song we used to sing, I have used it here before, it just seems appropriate for me today,

Something Beautiful 

Something beautiful, something good All my confusion He understood All I had to offer Him was brokeness and stife But he made something beautiful of my life If there ever were dreams That were lofty and noble They were my dreams at the start And hope for life's best were the hopes That I harbor down deep in my heart But my dreams turned to ashes And my castles all crumbled, my fortune turned to loss So I wrapped it all in the rags of life And laid it at the cross.

I often say that I am a work in progress, and thinking about this today now I KNOW it! Maybe I am a beautiful garment, or a flaky Armenian Pastry, or I may be the towel used to wipe the Savior's feet, what ever it is I know that the hand of God is molding and forming me into the person I need to be. Read Isaiah 45:8-13   I, God, generate all this. But doom to you who fight your Maker— you're a pot at odds with the potter! Does clay talk back to the potter: 'What are you doing? What clumsy fingers!'Would a sperm say to a father, 'Who gave you permission to use me to make a baby?'Or a fetus to a mother, 'Why have you cooped me up in this belly?'" Thus God, The Holy of Israel, Israel's Maker, says: "Do you question who or what I'm making? Are you telling me what I can or cannot do?
I made earth, and I created man and woman to live on it.
I handcrafted the skies  and direct all the constellations in their turnings. From reading this we see that God doesn't need any advice on how to mold and form us, He is the Master potter and I trust Him with my life! Now if He could manage to mold my figure a little better?? Oops sounds like a suggestion, doesn't it?

Be blessed, pray, for maximum happiness, let God mold you into the person that you need to be!