Tag: growth

Bless The Telephone

On By mygodroomIn gratitude, music, obedienceLeave a comment

Today held a few quiet challenges, the kind only a mother can experience or feel to this depth. I was grateful to wake up in my daughter’s home and be ready to go before her alarm sounded.

On the drive, she shared Labi Soffre’s work. i confess it makes my spirit growl to see “Demon Music” and it hurts my heart to learn he is an atheist. Yet, given his life, I also have some understanding. The song is beautiful and blessed my day, regardless.

Intercession is my kind of jam when it comes to prayer. And, yes, I have prayed more than once for the Holy Spirit to pierce his 80 year old mind with His Wisdom and desire to learn truth. 💜✝️💜

Back to my sweet girl. My daughter is beyond brave, brilliant and beautiful. She is a compassionate warrior—- I am excited for the day she sees herself as I do. She has no real concept of how amazing she truly is…YET. When it was time to leave to get to work —- I knew she would be okay. I also knew it would be a grand time to chit-chat with Jesus—-all the way down the interstate.

Thank God, I don’t have to hold my phone up to my ear for 45 minutes when it’s time to communicate. We are so blessed to have our own “soup cans”. If you didn’t grow up trying to talk through soup cans and strings, it’s ok. I promise, we can still be friends. It’s just the image which is called to heart in this moment. I must include the reference for reasons I don’t understand.

First tree I have ever seen like this in winter

Our customers have known for a week that I would be delayed opening the store—-so I had peace about the drive time. What hasn’t fully processed is “Part II” or the folder of old blog posts, letters and poems tossed to my hands on my way to my daughters last night.

One blaring unprocessed fact- my dad’s cancer diagnosis was written about, along with the May 8 surgery date.

Blogs about 8/8 and the impact of one weekend are all in this “forgotten wilderness”.

I shall blame menopause brain fog and simply praise God for bringing more truth to my heart.

The goal was to open by 1:00. I arrived at 1:11. As I walked in, I asked the Lord to please bless the business, despite the late start. I rarely ask for financial blessings. Today, I asked for something specific and it was delivered in the first three customers.

Of course, I am going to praise the One who holds everything together. Hallelujah!

I had barely turned off the alarm and turned on the lights when the TELEPHONE rang. Bless the telephone, indeed!!! Highly unusual for such a large sale to be phoned in and it immediately settled any unrest in my spirit.

And right at 1:21 —#ISWYDT— He sent us our first transaction of the day. Not only is it an exponentially larger sale than normal, it whispers “I really do have your back” to me.

Why? Because part of our chit-chat during the drive was all about MySpace friendships, the women who flew to TN for my 40th and the Beth Hart Lyric which connected us. It used a four letter word that most Christians would balk at.

The revelation getting here today was that many well-intentioned Christians truly damaged my spirit with their legalism and hypocrisy. I had to ask God to forgive them and to remove any trace of anything not of Him.

Anywho—-this all ties back to last Sunday’s message about Matthew 7:6 It is like He tied it all together for me on the road. I feel like I truly arrived in a different way today.

There is no other Master Servant than Jesus. The best I can do is to do EVERYTHING as unto the Lord. I am not a slave—-Jesus set me free and I cherish this freedom.

Curse no one. Bless everyone. Thats my job.

After a morning that pulled at my heart, that little numerical wink from heaven washed away any debris.

Thank you, Jesus, for getting me here safely and keeping me safe. I love you.

The Fourth Mat

On By mygodroomIn gratitude, obedienceLeave a comment

Today was my fourth time on the mats at One Nation Jiu-Jitsu. Tyler was teaching and it is Q&A day — which meant the room felt open, curious, and full of little moments where someone else’s question unlocked something in me. Six men, myself, and the instructor… but I never once felt out of place.

I was completely present.

When drilling time came, Tyler paired me with Isam and Sterling. Isam is a pinch shorter than me but far stronger and Sterling would be considered a heavyweight. Both were helpful and I felt no discomfort or awkwardness.

To me, jiu-jitsu feels like a sacred dance, where bodies become teachers and breath becomes instruction.

The drill was one I hadn’t seen before: someone lifts one of your legs and controls it. The instinct is to panic or freeze, but the technique teaches calm pressure. You take your hands and squeeze inward toward their elbows, arms, even their shoulders — not to hurt, but to create just enough space to recover your balance. That tiny moment of relief is where the “step” happens. You plant your other foot, rotate, and it’s almost like opening a door and then slamming it shut as you step back and pull free.

A simple movement… but full of metaphor.

Something else caught my eye: head placement matters. Watching the more experienced men drill, it was a good question for me to understand the basic rules of head placement.


If I’m holding someone’s right leg, my head should align under their right armpit. That positioning protects both partners and gives structure to the movement. I noticed the larger partner had drifted his head off to the side, so I asked Tyler about it — and he confirmed the importance of alignment.

Form matters. Intention matters. Structure matters.

I learn best by watching first. If I anchor the instructor’s form in my mind before I try it, my body follows more naturally. That was especially true today.

I drilled with Isam and Sterling and it was wonderful.

There is such kindness in the way God keeps showing me His heart on these mats. Strength that doesn’t overpower. Instruction that disciplines without shaming. Brothers who partner respectfully without hesitation. A space where I get to learn, grow, and be sharpened — and also show up fully as the woman He is forming.

I want to keep marking these days, because each one teaches me something that will find its way back into this book that isn’t done yet — this book God is still writing in real time on the mats, in my heart, and in the lives He keeps intersecting with mine.

One step, one sweep, one turn —
and doors keep opening and closing under His hand.

And one more thing…

When I left the gym and headed home, I called my husband. I needed to get ready for an appointment before going into the shop, and I just wanted to check in with him.

The first thing he said was, “You always sound so happy when you leave that place.” Then he repeated the same sentiment in different words.

His confirmation matters to me.
He is my spouse — my covenant partner, my witness, my encourager. And hearing his voice recognize the joy in mine… it touched something deep.

The Lord keeps affirming this path through so many voices — even the ones closest to home.

As an added bonus, I really dig the rapper, NF, as Tyler shared a video that had over 650k views since last night. The song is called FEAR and it moved me. I think the last rap song that moved me is more than 20 years old from Eminem. 🤣

I just looked and now there are over a million views in less than 24 hours.

God is so good Thank you, Jesus, for a glorious day!

Leviticus

On By mygodroomIn blessings, gratitude, marriageLeave a comment

Rarely feels like a warm embrace to me. This morning, it felt like a lingering embrace worthy of writing about.

I woke hours before dawn and enjoyed my solitude with Him. When I returned to bed, I could not sleep. In recent months, this has not been a big issue. In fact, He meets me by “our stream” and I sleep like a baby.

Not today. Today, the unmistakable nudge came with a resounding message to “put it in order.” While I emptied out cabinets yesterday, there were two which were prepped in trays for easy removal.

Here’s the deal. The folks who bought our cabinets were scheduled to pick them up today. We both expected they would attempt to come before noon. If they came early, my husband would have been pressed to make a place for the trays.

The nudge was to demonstrate sacrificial love for my husband. When He says “Go”, I go. It’s really that simple.

So I drove to the shop—my second home the past seven years- and began to see it differently.  What felt like chaos yesterday started to feel like a kind of sacred re-arranging.

Maybe I saw myself in the cabinets. Poured in. Poured out. Ready to be filled again.

Funny enough, my son texted quickly after I left the house and Mark called me at the shop when I failed to hear my phone. It was rather sweet on both counts.

I returned home and took my coffee upstairs. Mark flipped my Bible open to Leviticus 26 and 27.  It was confirmation upon confirmation.

Those chapters speak about what happens when life falls out of rhythm and how the Lord patiently draws His people back into alignment.  The disorder we feel right now isn’t failure; it’s invitation.  He is giving us the chance to bring our work, our possessions, and our hearts back under His covering.

It’s important to recognize what’s ending (26:27–45) — no fear with the closure; it’s covenant renewal. It is about redeeming what’s worth carrying forward (27:9–25) — set apart what’s still holy. Release what belongs to Him (27:26–34) — and to let go with open hands and willing hearts.

Everything we have belongs to God. Praise God, my husband and I both know this truth to the depths of our souls.

Our employee is leaving, and soon it will just be the two of us again—leaner, quieter, maybe simpler.  But as Leviticus ends, it isn’t about loss; it’s about dedication.  God calls His people to take stock, to redeem what is still holy, and to return everything to Him in order.  That’s what these days feel like: not dismantling, but consecrating.

It was easy to choose to obey that gentle command: put it in order.

To bless what has been, to release what’s complete, and to prepare the ground for what’s next.

After sharing this Godversation with Mark, I offered him breakfast, as we haven’t gotten fully back to our intermittent fasting. His eyes told me yes before his mouth spoke a word.

I went downstairs and made grilled breakfast sandwiches and fried potatoes for my husband and son. When Mark left to open the store, I was quite joyful baking dog biscuits, prepping Mexican street corn for our Bible Study dinner and preserving a plethora of tomatoes in a bruschetta mixture.

How blessed am I ? Immeasurably more than any person deserves.

Thank you, Jesus.

Father and Son

On By mygodroomIn blessings, obedience, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Yesterday will stay with me for the rest of my life.

An older gentleman came into the shop—familiar, but I couldn’t place him at first. Later he reminded me we had talked once before, “for about an hour.”

I smile-giggled and told him that sounded about right.

But this time he wasn’t the same. Grief hung on him like heavy air. After helping another customer, I walked over to check on him, and he told me what no parent should have to say: his son, Brady, had died the night before.

Brady served in the Air Force. The family doesn’t yet know how or why. Another son, Cody, was with him in the store. The dad is Mister Brett.

I don’t remember deciding to move; I just found myself walking around the counter and wrapping him in my arms. The moment he leaned into the hug, I felt him collapse—not from weakness, but from release. And in that instant, I felt Jesus hold him through me.

At this precise moment, my husband arrived at the shop. Out of sheer respect, he walked straight to the back room to offer these gentlemen some privacy. He told me it’s a man thing and it made sense to me.

When I hugged Cody, the same thing happened—a transfer I can’t explain, grief exchanged for the smallest measure of peace. Cody reminded us both of my nephews sweet spirit. He even has Kyle’s curls.

Before they left, both came back for another hug. Two men, two embraces, one holy exchange.

I stood there afterward realizing that if the store had already been closed—as it will be next week—none of this could have happened. God kept the doors open for them.

It’s humbling beyond words to stand in that sacred space with such fresh grief and to feel the Holy Spirit move. It felt like my arms were Jesus’ arms in that moment.

Not to fix. Not to preach. Just to hold.

Because my job every day isn’t to ring up customers. My job is to love every person God places on my path.

Thank you, Jesus, for giving me the strength to love them well. 💜✝️💜

10-10 Shalom Shalom

On By mygodroomIn blessings, gratitude, Isaiah, marriage, obedienceLeave a comment

Last night felt like one of those evenings that God writes Himself. It would be impossible to convey the depth. It brings up my own daughter’s habit years ago of how she would “recommend” things with four word sentence structures.

#ISWYDT Much words. Many feelings. 💜✝️💜

10 / 10. Father God, forgive me that “perfect tens” bring me back to old memories of Nadia at the Olympics. The only perfection on earth comes from you. Still, I see the parallels between balancing, vaulting and dancing for YOU versus the world.

John 10 : 10 and Revelation 10 : 10 work together beautifully. Those are the 10/10’s you used to stick a perfect landing in my heart. It may never look perfect to the world and that is the point. 💜✝️💜

Two verses—both ten ten—speaking the same rhythm: life received, word consumed, peace realized.

Like any married couple, we have a routine each evening. The last thirty minutes of our evening , we are typically snuggled up in bed watching something on TV. I curl up on my left side and rest in the nook of his right arm. I have always called it The Nook. 😇

Perhaps because I had been in the WORD all day, I was extra sensitive. I don’t claim to know HOW God moves. I only know He moved me to turn my eyes away from the TV last night and let it fade to background noise.

I placed my right hand over his heart and it felt like I melted into my husband.

I began to pray instead of watch.

I pictured the Name of Yahweh written in the palm of my hand—just as Scripture says His name is written on ours—and I whispered His breath-name with each inhale and exhale.

Yah (in) … Weh (out).

Gratitude poured out of me—thankfulness for this man, our marriage, for all the ways God has used him to protect us and our business. The kind of utterly raw gratitude born from being so in love with Jesus that I am feasting on His Word. Feeling so full of Him and thanking Him for all the truths He is revealing to me.

Thank you, Jesus, for all the treasures you have planted in my heart!

Breathe in. Breathe out. Then came deeper breathing and silently singing, “ Sanctify us by your truth. Your word is truth.” I have been hearing that scripture as a new song in my heart. It was a prime evening and the song was inspired directly by the doubly primed John 17:17.

God uses numbers, music and people in my life in extraordinary ways. It’s important to clarify I do NOT ascribe any power to verses based on man’s numbering of verses. God alone gets all the glory for how He powerfully connects scripture to grow me.

I love, love LOVE how He connected John and Revelation 10:10’s for me. It helps my brain when He gives me “bookends”. He really is a Good, Good Father. He knows exactly how he wired my brain.

Last night was so much more than a wife silently singing, praising God and praying over her husband. For the past few months, the sanctity of our marital bed has been a dominant theme. It felt like our entire marital covenant was renewed without a single word being spoken between us.

I realized it was more than peace; it was perfect peace — shalom shalom. Certainly the closest to perfect peace I have experienced in nearly 58 years.

I felt something so deep and was exhausted beyond exhausted.

The still small voice is more than powerful and gave me strength when I was nudged to look deeper into what shalom really means. I studied it extensively over the past year, but I was so tired my brain was struggling to retrieve the heart of the word.

“Let the last words you hear tonight help you truly rest. Shalom is MY WORD, hear it “. That was the gist of the nudge.

So I asked the question via the internet and I read aloud to my husband the fullness of that word:

Shalom means not just calmness but wholeness, completeness, the harmony of body, soul, and spirit; how its root, shalem, means to be made whole; how true shalom shalom is peace stacked upon peace—heaven’s wholeness touching earth’s heart.

10 / 10 in every way.

The date of abundant life.

The verse of the sweet scroll.

Being in My Nook and realizing deeply it is His Nook. I felt both the embrace of my husband on earth and the embrace of the Father in heaven.

The evening of shalom shalom—perfect peace, twice spoken, fully lived.

Perfection, twice over.

Wowza. Another double portion. Thank you, Jesus.

PS. As a proverbial cherry on top of the heavenly sundae …this day is the anniversary of meeting Miss Roxanne in Montepulciano! Oh, how I love her!

Blessed Life

On By mygodroomIn gratitude, music, obedience, UncategorizedLeave a comment

My favorite helper likes to wake me in the wee hours for one on one time. God has a Divine sense of humor, no doubt.

In February, my blood pressure tanked quickly and we struggled with getting back to normal” for about six weeks. For being a “Go Go Gadget” type of human, my get up and go had very much got up and went.

During that time, our Bible Study group was working through Robert Morris’ More than Words Series. My husband could not attend one night and I drove myself. Softly. Quietly. Peacefully.

As I pulled into their driveway, the “boom” of Crowder playing Graverobber blasted from my radio. As much as I wanted to attend peace-filled, I was compelled to sit in my car rocking out until the song was over! Then, I prayed again for one mouth and two ears before entering. Always want to honor God and my husband, too.

I took a brand new journal that evening which has a midnight butterfly on it. Despite my desire to keep my mouth shut, I was compelled to encourage everyone to write down God stories we can share. After we finished, I shared with two of the women about hearing that song in the driveway. Raucous laughter, dance and praise in the kitchen ensued as I played the song for them.

The next morning, I flipped to Isa 63:7. Short on time to study, I googled for an image to center my day when I arrived to work. Psalm 63:7 was returned to me with an image of a midnight butterfly. Oh, The Lord had a Word for me!

Days later, the Holy Spirit infused enough energy to write it all out. As I checked my notes from the group study, “the Word Healed” jumped off the page. Period. The word “healed” was underlined. Psalm 107:20.

Opening my Bible to study that verse deeper, I see that it concludes with being robbed…from the grave. I see what He did there…but needed to confirm Pastor Morris had never spoke the rest of the verse. Easily confirmed checking the transcript from the video.💜✝️💜

This morning, the Lord has me in the 55th chapters of Isaiah and Psalms. So much being revealed is overwhelming, yet beautiful. For whatever His reason, I am to share.

I “met” Robert Morris sometime before Miles McPherson taught at Gateway about Satanic Agreements in 2015.

Fear is the ugliest Four letter Word

On By mygodroomIn hope615, obedience, prayer, UncategorizedLeave a comment

That is the word and spirit which is on my heart at 2:10 am.  My heart aches for any group of people who embrace Fear over Love.  It’s an epidemic, really.  Our kids, our country, our world.  It’s painful.  My heart is pouring tears over my face as I type.  When we are truly loving others the way we are called to love others, there isn’t much room left to allow fear.

The past two days have run the gamut of emotions.  I have known extremely high joys and felt the depths of hurt.   Thank you, Lord, for showing me WHY you needed me to hurt over this situation.   What is pushing through my heart right now is a sort of lump in my throat at the same time.  How amazing is our God?  He put me where He wanted me, called me to act, held me close and dared me to love Him and others in  new and different ways in the middle of a storm.   When I was obedient, He let His peace wash over me.  Never have I uttered words in prayer as I have today:

“Father God, I do not understand why you may have planned this project to fail as it exists, but I do trust your plan is to use this potential failure to your glory.  Anxious expectation is the best phrase to define where you have me.   Thank you for removing my defenses and just letting me love every person involved to the best of my ability today.  My prayer is that you plant the spirit of the project in all of their hearts.  You tell us it doesn’t matter who does the planting or watering, only you can make things grow.  Grow us all ,Lord, in your way, in your time, to your purpose.  I love you.