fill her up

 In Texas (where I'm from) you'll hear "fill her up" all the time, referencing filling up the gas tank in your car or truck - all coupled with a Texas twang.

As a child of the Most High, a woman of God, someone after God's own heart, don't you want to live life filled up?

I want to walk in the authority He has given me. I love to encourage those around me to thrive and not just survive. This requires that I be full -- full of the word and sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

As PWs, we have busy schedules. Some of us serve alongside our husbands, others manage women's ministry, children's ministry or praise & worship. Some maintain a personal career, others have little ones and are focused on holding down the home fort.

Whatever your schedule, do you make time to spend with the Father? How many times have we been guilty of giving and pushing ourselves to the limit? It's time to replenish. It's time to fill up. It's time to renew.

Let's take it one step at a time.

If you are tired of reading the bible version you have, get another one.

If you need to engage in a new bible study, go visit the bookstore.

If you need an accountability partner, find one. That's actually what CLUTCH is all about, to help us be there for each other.

How do you fill up? Leave a comment and let us know!

I enjoy relaxing on the couch in the early mornings, while the kids sleep. I read my bible and in pure silence simply reflect on what God is speaking through his Word. I also enjoy engaging in worship, simply praising and worshiping for the audience of One.

Together, this week, let's commit to "filling up"! It's so easy to get discouraged. It's easy to focus on the hurt and pain that congregants and others in ministry have caused. But God is calling us to a higher level!

Are you in?

© CLUTCH, 2010 unless otherwise sourced.
Use allowed by express written permission only.
Tweets, trackbacks, and link sharing encouraged.

Read more...

in praise of cockroaches

If there is one insect I really hate, it's a cockroach. I spent some time in a village in the Philippines, where there must have been a dozen different kinds.

One morning I woke up excited about my new stash of fresh apples that had been delivered from town the day before. I was horrified to find them COVERED in inch-long roaches, having a regular fiesta! I didn't want to spray bug spray on my precious apples and I was too mad to let them live. In a flash I grabbed a fork and had 6 of them impaled before they knew what hit them (pretty impressive, since cockroaches see the world in slow-motion).

So you can just imagine that when we moved into our new home here, I was not at all impressed to find fat black roaches infesting my new garden plot. I am going to get RID of these roaches! I thought. I used bug spray on a lot of them and then turned to google for answers. You can find anything online, right? What I found wasn't what I had expected. I was sure there was no good purpose for roaches, but I was wrong! I was surprised to discover that roaches are good for composting. The roaches and I would simply have to coexist, because I love gardening.

This year we had a compost pile for the first time. It was rich, smelly, fluffy, red-brown. And FULL of roaches and other insects. I must confess I can't say I LOVED getting in the middle of it with a shovel, but I knew that if my plants could talk, they would take one look at it and say, "YUMMY!"

I had plenty of time to contemplate on this in the warm sun of that early spring day. It's really neat how God's taken so many of the ugly things of this world and used them to make something beautiful. Just like 1 Corinthians 1:27 says God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise.

I only pray that He will use the little irritations in my life to work within me the kind of beauty that will come from my garden in a couple months.

© CLUTCH, 2010 unless otherwise sourced.
Use allowed by express written permission only.
Tweets, trackbacks, and link sharing encouraged.

Read more...