Changed By Love

Changed By Love

Following the Lamb wherever he goes… Revelation 14:4

Build Your Brain By Thinking on Good Things!

Dr. Caroline Leaf, a cognitive neuroscientist who bases her research, clinical practice and teachings on biblical principles, says that the mind can change the brain. Through scientific research she has found that –

“Thoughts are real things that occupy mental real estate. You are as intelligent as you want to be! As we are thinking, we are choosing and are building thoughts inside our brain.
Learning is a process of building thoughts inside of your brain.”

Applying this to our lives and relationships, she says that:

“The truth of the matter is that you cannot control the events and circumstances of your life, but you can control your reactions to those events and circumstances.”

So we should change our way of thinking and be nice to our brains. And build better brains. When we think incorrectly, we actually do brain damage!

And we make our body sick. Stress causes disease, and thinking wrongly produces stress.

We are wired for love. We have to learn fear.

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Instead of letting your mind do these things:

-Shaking your fist at God about your situation

-Being angry at your husband

-Being frustrated at your children

-Worrying

-Being angry at someone for what they said about you or did to you

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We should:

-Forgive

-Be thankful for what God has done for us

-Think on the Word

-Dwell on God’s promises

-Take our thoughts captive

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You choose what to think about. You choose where to direct your attention.

-~- So what do you choose to think about?-~-

~ Do you think about the Word?

~ Do you dwell on negative, hurtful things that have been done to you?

~ Do you think about how bad things are in the world?

Watch this video and hear what Dr. Caroline Leaf has to say about how to rewire your brain by not thinking toxic thoughts. You can even change your genes by thinking correctly!!!

Love One Another

Abby in hat and coral dress poster

Love is the answer to every problem. Remember – God is love. He is definitely the answer to every problem.

He often uses His people to answer needs that others have.

We are His hands and feet – His agents – in this world.

If you are feeling down, useless, purposeless, then try reaching out to someone with your love. Better yet, pray and ask the Lord to fill you with His love, and then find out what they need. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you and lead you to give them what they really need.

One time when we were living in Kansas City after what felt like a major letdown (we had lost our house in Ohio and traveled to Arizona and nothing seemed to work for us), Gary was suffering from major depression. He couldn’t get a job in Kansas City. Not even blue collar jobs like grocery stores, warehouse jobs, etc. would open up for him. He felt useless, worthless and hopeless. I tried to build him up. I prayed for him, with him, over him and told him how the Lord was still with us, in spite of how things looked. But he would not be comforted.

I prayed for him in the Prayer Room at IHOP-KC. I could see in the spirit that the enemy was attacking him like a dragon. I could also see that I was using the Word and my faith to defend him from the enemy. Gary was in no condition or position to defend himself at that moment.

He was sitting at my side. At least he was reaching out to God, trying to get the help he needed.

But it was a very, very dark time for him.

The next day, we were in the Prayer Room again. A young man near me asked what they were talking about, and I told him that they were praying into a revival that was happening right then at Asbury College in Kentucky. We talked some more and really enjoyed talking to each other. We had to leave the Prayer Room, because they really don’t want people to have whole conversations in there. He told me he was from St. Louis and that his parents’ marriage was not very strong. He told me some of their issues and struggles, and that he was concerned about them. I brought Gary over and just gave him a short synopsis of what this young man had told me. Gary talked to him and then started praying for his parents. He prayed a powerful, heartfelt prayer for them. He really showed love and concern for them.

When he got done, the young man looked at him in shock and amazement. He said that he had never heard anyone pray like that before, and he didn’t think anyone had ever prayed for his parents like that before. He was beyond grateful.

And Gary started making a comeback. He came out from under that black cloud of depression. He felt so good about being able to help someone else and being able to speak love and life and hope into someone else’s life that he had a sense of purpose again.

He still struggled some after that, but I believe that was a major turning point for him.

I have seen that happen for him many times. When he is able to minister to others, it ministers to him, too, and takes his eyes off of his own situation.

When we show love to one another, even when we are not doing too great ourselves, there is a double blessing. We get blessed, and so do they!

Like “Oxygen that breathes satisfaction and happiness into our souls”. I like that comparison.

Don’t you?

For more wonderful nuggets of wisdom, might I suggest that you read Sally Clarkson’s book, “Own Your Life”. She has many words of wisdom that come from years of experience of walking with the Lord through homeschooling and raising four children and ministering to women for many years. She is well-seasoned.

I highly recommend all of her books. Her blog at SallyClarkson.com is also very good, and she has recently started a podcast that is just wonderful! You can find the podcast on her blog once a week.

And remember to do everything that you do out of love.

Please tell me about a time that God has used you to breathe life into someone who needed to feel God’s love for them.

Did you feel the breath come back into your own soul when you did it?

Inhale God’s love for you, and exhale His love upon someone else.

What a beautiful cycle.

Morgan’s Achievement!

Morgan's violin poster

Morgan is now a movie star!

Well, not yet.

But he could be someday.

He went through acting and modeling classes at John Casablancas Modeling and Career Center this spring and summer. He completed 30 weeks of classes. He was a star pupil from what I understand. He came home with tales of how he amazed and entertained his class and teachers every week. They all really seemed to like and admire him. It was a very good experience for him.

At the graduation, they dressed up to the theme of “A Masquerade”. We worked really hard to gather all of the pieces for his costume for the runway and for his monologue.

Here is his walk on the runway in costume:

He dressed up as a magician for his monologue.

He did so great!

Here is his monologue:

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNnPre052aeGuWHoVMMEpxVL2HeWvhntYPGgNHr6K9iQUU0tzOS1VJg8SRDDV8PAA/photo/AF1QipNUsXJp5hnEhrsfxS2R-9HiQVTzx-GfONzNs49f?key=VFNWRkd0UE9ITEhUcWN0eG14RDRMakNZSjZFZ0Nn

And here are some photos of us with him at his graduation:

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And here’s one of the pictures from the day of his photo shoot for his portfolio. I took this one before our photographer, Mike Rovak, arrived.

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Now Morgan is ready for auditions and ready to get to work. He’s very ready to make some money!

Summer of 2015

I put together a collage of our summer. The Texas heat didn’t bother us much!

Check it out here:

https://goo.gl/photos/c5kMSKKN1S54aD9T9

Guinea pigs have been a fun addition to our family. Our neighbor gave us two females. We named them Bubbles and Lily.

One day, Bubbles had a baby! We were happily surprised. We named the baby Nugget. He is a male. So when he was 3 weeks old, we had to put him in a separate cage.

The kids are having lots of fun with the guinea pigs.

If you don’t have much experience with guinea pigs or especially if you do, you might enjoy these fun video adventures of two guinea pigs named Carmy and Claire.

They are hilarious!!!

Hope your summer was fun!

You Be You, I’ll Be Me

different tea cups

I am me. You are you. She is she.

And the converse is true.

I am not you. You are not me. And she is not you or me.

What am I saying?

God has made each of us unique.

So why do we compare ourselves to each other?

I will not do things the way you do them. I don’t want to do them the way you do them.

I do not see things the way you see them.

It’s okay. I am me. And you are you.

I discovered something while teaching my kids how to drive. I noticed things that they didn’t notice as I was looking in the same direction that they were. In some cases, I saw things that I wished they had been paying attention to, like the brake lights on the car ahead of us!

But in other cases, they noticed things that I didn’t see that helped us get to where we needed to go.

At first, some of them noticed nice cars that they liked all around us. That drove me bananas! I couldn’t believe they were paying attention to such insignificant, unimportant things when they should be paying attention to the road ahead of them, the traffic, and making sure they were in the right lane to get to where we needed to go.

As they got more experience, they started to learn about what they really needed to be paying attention to. Some near misses, some exclamations from me, some honks from other drivers, missing exits that we should have taken, and getting lost helped them to realize that they needed to pay more attention to their driving than to the nice cars around them.

They learned how to drive safely. But they don’t do it exactly the way I would.

They learned the most important skills and what really deserved their attention while they were driving. They still don’t notice the same things I do as we’re driving along. But they take care of the important things now.

There are some things that we all need to pay attention to. You and me and she all have to do some of the same basic things, like take care of ourselves, our families and our houses.

But the way we do these things will vary with our priorities, our interests, our goals, and our personalities.

My way is not the right way.

Neither is yours!

OK, I’ll be me – you be you.

I’ll take ideas and inspiration from the things you do and the way you do them.

And you can see if there’s anything I’m doing that you may want to try.

But do it your way. The way that works for you and your family.

Deal???

Deal.