Makin' The Pieces Fit!!!!

“Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.”
Lamentations 3:40


I have always been a pretty independent person; I was always someone who thought he had all the answers. No matter what I always managed to find away out of the situation. No matter how shattered things were in my life I always took pride that I always seem to find a way to make the pieces fit.
Then one day came the scariest realization than much to my surprise, I was never in control at all. Even when I didn’t put my faith in God, god was guiding my path and ordering my steps.
I have come to truly trust the Lord, but the flesh comes through more times than not. Even though I know what I should do, I have moments when I still have trouble not knowing what my next move is. I still have trouble depending on anyone even though I know god has blessed me and surrounded me with angels.
God blesses my family with a financial blessing, but not through me, but instead through my wife. The money still is a blessing but it wasn’t me that got us out of our situation. While I know it was a blessing from God, the human side- the Macho Manly side, gets slightly depressed, feeling a little like a failure, because in another situation it appears my wife bailed us out. Once again I’m in a situation where I am depending on someone else instead of being able to make it happen for my family
I was always able to make the pieces fit so I thought. But the more I put my faith in the Lord the more the pieces don’t fit. I have come to find out this is a test to see what I will do. Will I continue to believe or will I go back to my old ways and try to make the pieces fit myself. Then I beat myself up for not being thankful for the blessing, but depressed I can’t get us out of what trouble has come our way.
Another thing that gets me in trouble is a lack or patience. God have given my vision and dreams and I go all out trying hard to make them come into fruition. I try to get ahead of God and run with it myself. Then God gets my attention and tells me to slow down. “I have only given you a glimpse of the vision to keep you going.” But I don’t wait for Him to make a way to provide the provision that accompanies that vision.

“The vision is for an appointed time.
Though it tarry, wait earnestly for it, for it will surely come.”
Habakkuk 2:3

I know writing is one talent/ gift He has blessed me with to inspire, encourage and uplift others. To affect others in a positive way, with the gift or paint pictures with words. But even with this blog I don’t write daily, I get the subject matter to write about and don’t do it because I am worrying about how bills are going to get paid. Which results in trying to me, once again take matters into my own hands and getting in my own way. More importantly, getting in Gods way! Its not that I don’t have faith, it’s not that I don’t believe but I won’t let go and let God.
If I didn’t know better that would be one thing, but I do know better and I don’t do it which is worst.

Somewhere in the New Testament, Paul talks about what he knows he should do he doesn’t and what he shouldn’t do he does. So instead of beating myself up I am praying for God to forgive me and thanking Him for all He has done.

Lord in this quiet moment
I again surrender my will to you
Thank You for the dreams and desires You’ve placed in my heart. I choose to trust in You and wait for Your plan to bring them to pass. I know you are faithful, and I thank You for guiding and directing my every step. And please forgive me for the moments of weakness when I still resort to my old ways and get in my own way and block my blessing. Thank You for not giving up on me, my Heavenly Father and being there even when I am not worthy.
In the name of your son Jesus Christ, Lord and Master also known as The Savior
I pray and praise Your name
Amen
Amen
Amen

This concludes today’s rant!!!!

BREAKFAST

AGAIN THIS WAS SOMETHING I RECEIVED IN AN EMAIL

AND HAD TO SHARE
THIS WAS KINDA DEEP
ENJOY
-AJW


It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80's, arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He said he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am. I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would to able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound. On exam, it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound.While taking care of his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry. The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife. I inquired as to her health. He told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer's Disease. As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late. He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now.I was surprised, and asked him, "And you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?"He smiled as he patted my hand and said, "She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is."True love is neither physical, nor romantic. True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not be. Peace is seeing a sunset and knowing who to thank. The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have.

A LETTER TO GOD!

Dear God,
Usually this is the time I ask you to help me do whatever it is I want to do. This is usually the time I ask you for a financial blessing to get me out of whatever self-inflicted hole I dug for myself. This is usually the time where I think about what I’m going through and try everything in my power to get myself out of it. This is usually the time I call all my friends and family and tell them what I’m going through looking for encouragement or maybe even a cosigner to tell me to keep up the fight and/ or feed my ego.
But this time, I come to you. Since I call myself a writer, I sit here at my keyboard and write my felling down for you. I come to you with what’s bothering me. I tell others to pray, I tell others to put you first, I tell others to trust in you, I tell others to talk to you and pray for guidance in what it is you have for them to do. Today I take my own advice and come to you.
I don’t come to you with prays for financial blessings, a quick fix (although I do need one now more than ever). I am not coming to you with request for material things. I ask you God what is your plan for me. Order my steps and guide my path Lord and point me in the right direction. Help me help myself. I don’t want all these things for myself, but so I can give my wife the security and stability she deserves. So I can be the father my daughter deserves, to be able to be more of a blessing for my family members when they go through their trials and tribulation.
All my life I wanted fortune and fame, I wanted to be star, as an artists and as a writer. I wanted to be the brightest star in the sky. Now while I do still want financial stability and nice things I don’t want them for myself but for my family and to help provide jobs for my friends and the youth. I now you have a plan for me because you have always taking care of me when I was too stupid to take care of myself.
I am on the brink, my health isn’t the greatest, I weight more than I have in my life, my blood pressure and cholesterol levels are too high and that’s just to name a few things going on. But the blessing in it all is all of it is reversible, if I start to make changes now. I know all things are possible through you and while others can’t see it, your will, will always be done.
So today instead of a pity party I come to you and thank you for all I have a reasonable portion of my right health and mind. Thank you for a beautiful helpmate, thank you for a roof over our head another day, thank you for letting me see today, a beautiful day I have never seen before. And while I am no where near where I want to be, I give thanks that thanks to you I am no where near where I used to be. I will no longer give the enemy the power or continue to blame everything that goes wrong on him, I know some things you allow me to go through to strengthen me, to go where you need me to go, to prepare me.
I know, no one can steal my joy, I can only surrender it.
I give thanks that as the songwriter wrote you still hear a sinners pray. I give thanks that even though I have consistently fell short on holding up my end of the deal you have never given up on me.
So today instead of complaining I give thanks, instead of calling all my friends to share my semi depression, I communicate to you. Father God, I just want to say thank you and ask you to get me the strength to do what it is you have for me to do. This is my testimony, gotta run I have much work to do!

Thank You by Oprah Winfrey

This too came to me in an email and I thought it was too good not to share
-AJW

Thank You
By Oprah Winfrey

I live in the space of thankfulness and have been rewarded a million times over for it. I started out giving thanks for small things, and the more thankful I became, the more my bounty increased.That's because what you focus on expands, and when you focus on the goodness in your life, you create more of it. Opportunities, relationships, even money flowed my way when I learned to be grateful no matter what happened in my life.
"Say thank you!" Those words from my friend and mentor Maya Angelou turned my life around. One day about ten years ago, I was sitting in my bathroom with the door closed and the toilet lid down, booing and ahooing on the phone so uncontrollably I was incoherent.
"Stop it! Stop it right now and say thank you!" Maya chided. "But ? You don't understand," I sobbed.
To this day, I can't remember what it was that had me so far gone, which only proves the point Maya was trying to make. "I do understand," she told me. "I want to hear you say it now. Out loud." "Thank you." Tentatively, I repeated it: "Thank you - but what am I saying thank you for?" "You're saying thank you," Maya said, "because your faith is so strong that you don't doubt that whatever the problem, you'll get through it. You're saying thank you because you know that even in the eye of the storm, God has put a rainbow in the clouds.You're saying thank you because you know there's no problem created that can compare to the Creator of all things. Say thank you! "
So I did - and still do. Only now I do it every day. I kept a gratitude journal, as Sarah Ban Breathnach suggests in Simple Abundance, listing at least five things that I'm grateful for. My list includes small pleasures: the feel of Kentucky bluegrass under my feet (like damp silk); a walk in the woods with all nine of my dogs and my cocker spaniel Sophie trying to keep up; cooking fried green tomatoes with Stedman and eating them while they're hot; reading a good book and knowing another awaits.
My thank-you list also includes things too important to take for granted: an "okay" mammogram, friends who love me, 25 years at the same job (and loving it more than the first day I started), a chance to share my vision for a better life, staying centered, having financial security.I won't kid you, having money for all the things I want is a blessing. But as I look back over my journals, which I've kept since I was 15 years old, 99% of what brought me real joy had nothing to do with money (It had a lot to do with food, however.)
It's not easy being grateful all the time. But it's when you feel least thankful that you are most in need of what gratitude can give you.
PERSPECTIVE
Just knowing you have that daily list to complete allows you to look at your day differently, with an awareness of every sweet gesture and kind thought passed your way. When you learn to say thank you, you see the world anew. And as Meister Eckhart so eloquently stated:"If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is 'Thank you God,' that would suffice."
"Today is Your Day"

CALM DOWN!!!!!

Greetings all,
this was sent to me in an email and
I thought I would share it with all of you!
Enjoy
-AJW

CALM DOWN !
God has your life under control;
He knows how to handle even the seemingly complex situation with ease.

SHUT UP !
Stop having pity parties and talking about your business all the time;
don't you know that thepower of death and life is in the tongue! Stop speaking negative things into existence in your life and in others.

QUIT TRIPPIN' !
When you look at your situations through your eyes, you often read more into thesituation than what is there. It's not as bad as you think particularly if God is in your life; Stop over analyzing your life. Be courageous

2 Timothy 1:7 - "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of Love, and of a sound mind. Fear is not of God. Have the courage to step out onfaith and do the seemingly impossible. Start your own business; go into the ministry; apply for thatpromotion; anything that you've been afraid to do andyou know that God has called you to do -

JUST DO IT!
Have confidence
Philippians 4:13 - "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. "Remember, greater is He that's within you than he that's in the world. You have the power of the most High God working in you, and you have His Son steadily making intercession for you. You have nothing to worry about! Walk with your head up! You say you have low self-esteem; somebody told you that you'd never amount to anything; the devil is a liar! Know that you are somebody not because Jesus said it, but because you are a child of The King!

Walk in the VICTORY !
Romans 8:28 - "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. "Does anything else need to be said? The jury has been out and the verdict is in - YOU WIN! In your finances - YOU WIN! On your job - YOU WIN! In your relationships (married, single, divorced,family, friends) -YOU WIN!! In your health - YOU WIN!
God has already worked it out for you. It may not comethe way you think it should come (or when you think itshould), but remember - CALM DOWN, SHUT UP, AND QUITTRIPPIN '!

He's working it out for "YOUR" good (in His time).
Do not ask the Lord to guide your footsteps,
if you are not willing to move your feet.
Be Blessed TODAY !!

FOOTPRINTS

We have all heard or read the story about the one set of footprints in the sand, where a man questions God that when he needed Him most the man only saw one set of footprints in the sand. And God replied the reason the man only saw one set of footprints it was because God was carrying the man. Click www.footprints-inthe-sand.com/PoemPage.htm to read it in its entirety if you are unfamiliar with the story.
I’m reminding of this story when I came home from church this Sunday and found our home had been broken into. My wife and I saw a one set of footprints as well, but these footprints were the footprints of the burglar. We went to see a female member of our church perform at her high school dance recital instead of coming straight home after church and this is what we came home to.
While we were gone for the day the would-be burglar attempted to kick down the front door (leaving on real big clear footprint for the police), when he was unsuccessful he went around to the back and then kicked in the sliding glass door. My wife first noticed the footprint on the door asking me had I tried to kill a bug with my shoe before church and didn’t clean my footprint. Confused by her question and wanting to quickly get inside to drop the groceries we picked up on the way home and eat dinner I went inside. I heard a noise and realized I saw the bedroom light on and the rear sliding glass door shattered.
I dropped the case of water I was carrying and preceded to the rear of the house and realized someone had broken in and we quickly took inventory of our belongings. Upon further search we couldn’t see anything missing and called the police, who found a set of muddy footprints in every room of the house, our bedroom, both of our home offices, but nothing was missing.
I immediately had an array of emotions fear to anger to disgust in addition to trying to let none of it show and in an attempt to be strong for my wife. I was also confused because other then the muddy footprints, no computers, dvd players and other easy to carry electronic items like say a crackhead would take to sell for his next score, was missing. My first reaction was wanting to get my hands on the person who violated us but wanted to assure my wife we were okay It appeared as if the would be burglar took inventory of our belongings as well but didn’t touch a thing.
The police assured us in cases like this the person never returns but as far as I was concerned if he wanted he now knew where everything was and if he was casing our house he would know were everything is and what he needed to transport our stuff.
After the police left and we cleaned up the glass and made arrangements for the glass doors to be boarded up til it could be replaced we sat and prayed. And as much as I thought if only we had come home instead of going to the dance recital (I was tired anyway) we would have been home and this could have been prevented. But what came over me was to thank God that we weren’t home. The burglar could have been on drugs and cause bodily harm to both if us. Even though material things could be replaced nothing appeared to be missing.
Then after my wife fell asleep it really kicked in. Even after praying with my wife, thanking God everything was intact the human part of me became full of rage. I sat outside in a chair on our front deck just looking for signs of someone casing the block or almost looking for a confrontation with someone coming back to finish the job. Even after praying I still felt violated and my wife didn’t feel totally safe. I even asked to police officers of my rights of having a gun in the house, and what I am allowed to do by law in case someone broke in and I did catch him. Basically I wanted some one to pay.
Long story short, I thought of writing this all day and just couldn’t do it and then while out on the front deck again thought back to the story about the footprints story again. While I didn’t see God's footprints like the man in the story he carried us so to speak and had us not to be home to protect us. He protected our stuff and our house and even as I was not thinking clearly he carried me and keep me from hurting someone or getting hurt myself. So I thank God for the one set of footprints, for keeping us safe and make us not become too too comfortable in what we were told by everyone was a good area and, where you would expect this kind of thing to take place.
Instead of doin something stupid I eventually let the Lord handle His business and decided to finally write this and share it and get it out of my system.
Thank you all for letting me vent and share, this has been my testimony.