God Answers Prayer

At the age of 13 I was called to be a nurse. I was a patient in Denver Children's Hospital, scared out of my mind, with acute appendicitis. (which I know now is very common diagnosis) I had the greatest nurse in the world, and I remember telling the Lord if he allowed me to live, (that is how scared I was) I would serve him as a nurse however he needed me, 100%!!
So after receiving my BSN from Point Loma Nazarene University I started my dream job at Denver Children's Hospital. I worked primarily with Neuro-Rehab patients and transitioned quickly to the the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). I LOVED my job!! I do however remember vividly the five patients that died while in my care, I remember just as vividly the many lives that were changed for the GLORY of GOD!! There really are SO many that I cannot even begin to write the number of miracle stories I have. (I will save those for my close friends :)) But I will share with you today the few that I found as I was cleaning out my basement this morning.

This was sweet JL who climbed her mountain of rehab over 3 months with many critical days. She pulled through and GLORY to GOD she will be able to watch Harry Potter again and read Stuart Little. Thanks God!! I know you have BIG plans for her!

These are the famous Stark conjoined twins, joined at the hip and lower back. It took a team of 60 doctors and nurses to carefully separate them. This was HUGE people!!! One of the key doctors was my own personal favorite doctor, pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Handler (see below). You will not meet someone with greater intellect and smoother bedside manner.

And here they are! The surgery was successful! They did great! Thanks God!

I took care of this 15 year old in the PICU. She had come home from school with lice and her neighbor rinsed her hair with gasoline in an effort to kill the lice. Then the girl walked past the gas stove and she ignited. She had spent 3-4 months with us in the burn unit inside the PICU. Praise the Lord her life was spared.

BJ was a 16 yo driving unbuckled and fell asleep at the wheel. He was thrown from the vehicle and the car rolled on top of him. He is now a quadraplegic and represents the 'no excuses, buckle up' group that talks to young adults!! Thanks GOD for sparing his life!

So here are the two boys in my life! I thank you God that you have BIG PLans for their LIVES! And thank YOU GOD for answering PARKER's prayers for the endangered species!!! (he has prayed for them every night for over a year!!!)What does this mean you ask??
"When God gives you a gift, he wraps it up in a CHILD-
COME TO YOUR CHILDREN...YOU WILL FIND HIM THERE!!
GOD is in the innocent upward TRUSTING glance of a child!"
(Michael Card lyric)

My Hour of Power

I am currently on a journey.

My journey is to become a more healthy person.

Each morning I am waking up and walking/running.

(and do I ever LOVE those country roads)

I have loved the walks and talks with God each morning

during my 'hour of power'.

I have seen the beauty of the earth and heard the birds singing,

seen the sun rise and felt the rain fall.

However, with becoming a more healthy person means going to bed earlier,

(last night was 10 pm) and then I am WIDE awake with the rooster at 5:30 AM!

So the walks with the Lord start early these days!

Part of my struggle has been a much needed break from caffeine.

Caffeine has been my 'drug of choice' if you will.

I am now 'caffeine free' for about 3 weeks now, and I feel great!

I sure can't stay up as late, but I feel great!

I love these boys!

And I had to put this picture in because I can't wait til Mother's Day!

As I went on my walk this morning I thought

of Parker telling me about how he earns his

"Common Sense Chips" at school..

You know, things we all need to know...

I typed in 'common sense' on flickr.com and this is the picture that came up

(pretty good example I must say)

But for today,

the common sense chip the Lord gave me on my walk today

was "the early bird really does get the worm"

(seriously, the worms were everywhere...and they were fat ones!)

And the Lord Blessed the Latter part of Job's life more than the first.

Job 42:12

All I NEED.

All I need to do is worship.

All I need to do is say His name out loud. All I need to do is lift my hands and surrender and bow down.

All I need to do is find Him

All I need to do is let His presence fall.

All I need to do is worship, worship the Lord.

About six years ago I was introduced to Rita Springer and Bob Sorge

through the International Worship Institute and they both have changed my life dramatically. Rita is my personal worship pastor and Bob is my teacher.

(Rita = through cd's of course and Bob= books and dvd's of course)

I love their testimonies and closeness to Him, and I crave that for my own life.

The words above are from

a song by Rita entitled

"All I Need"

....the rest of the song is to follow....

When there is no out except through a miracle, when there is noway up a mountain except to climb it, and everything you hoped for it seems gone,

and every dream you dreamed seems so far away, so lift your voice and say....

ALL I NEED TO DO IS WORSHIP!

All I need to do is say His name out Loud.

All I need to do is lift my hands and surrender and bow down.

All I need to do is find Him .

All I need to do is let His Presence fall.

All I need to do is lift my head back ....

and say "He is So WORTHY"

Unwrapping my Passion

I am currently reading Katie Brazelton's 'Pathway to Purpose'

with a group of women from church;

however I have missed the past couple meetings, I am still reading.

I just finished chapter nine entitled "Expect the Desires of Your Heart".

Wow, what a great chapter!
Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

These are pictures of a scrapbook I made today of all of my favorite bible verses!

Back to the bible study, Katie was so right, I am guilty of thinking "

God probably won't give me what I really want"...

Perhaps you are also wondering, Maybe this stepping stone isn't really from God. What if it's one of Satan's traps to coax me into worldly rewards?

Let me assure you the psalmist David spells out the win-win nature of this step in Psalm 37:4, and it truly is as safe as it looks.

If you will make God the chief affection of your inmost heart...
Meaning you delight yourself in the Lord, find enormous pleasure and joy in him, get to know Him well by continually sitting in His presence and obeying Him.

He will give you the desires of your heart.
Meaning you will receive boundless enthusiasm for the deep passions, cravings, longings, petitions, and aspirations that he planted in your heart. And God can't wait for you to unwrap that gift!

Our passion reflects our deepest yearnings.

It underscores the beauty we crave, such as art or music (that is me),

and reflects our need for such intangibles as freedom or adventure (that is me too).

What does the desire of your heart look like?

I woke up this morning and said, "I need some new flowers"....

Whit Hobbs quotes "Success is waking up in the morning, whoever you are, wherever you are, however old or young, and bounding out of bed because there is something out there that you love to do, that you believe in, that you're good at- something that's bigger than you are and you can hardly wait to go at it again today. It is something you'd rather be doing than anything else. You wouldn't give it up for more money, because it means more to you than money." (page 152)

So I LOVE that quote!

And I love LOWE's for having pink Geraniums, and of course, they were for a good cause.

I only needed two , but I loved them so much, I had to buy four!!!

I am not smart enough to derive the cure for breast cancer, but I know someone who can! So as I planted, I prayed. And I prayed. I and talked with the Lord about all the people I know who have been affected by cancer. And He knows how I feel. I am claiming BIG.

Don't they look great?
It just takes faith the size of a mustard seed! Have you ever seen the size of a mustard seed?

Sitting back and thinking...

There is this book that CM gave me over a decade ago call, God Calling. It was written anonymously by two woman, who were very poor. Each day they woke up and asked the Lord to speak through them and He did. Some of CM and my greatest life quotes came from this book. We often say, Claim Big. This means Claim big things on behalf of God's kingdom and his children. I still read this book many days of the year. Another book CM has given me, maybe twice, is My Utmost by Oswald Chambers. Yesterday, I was struck by this quote--"The proof that we are rightly related to God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not." I wrote it down and it is sitting on a note card in the window above my desk. CM loves quotes. She can remember a sentence from a sermon we heard 15 years ago and apply it to her life today. I like that about her. A quote God just put on her heart today is: The Sun Never Goes down, the Earth Just Keeps Spinning. Think about it in the context of God's son, Jesus, how profound, yet simple.

These past few days I have been sitting back and thinking about why I am the way I am. Why I tell my husband every few months, "I have an itch in my craw, let's go on an adventure!" And we do. We have ended up in the most wild places and have done some very fun things. On my "itch in my craw list" is to head down to the famous mooning spot down street from my house. Once a year hundreds of people risk citation and at the same time moon an oncoming train. Tell me that is not hilarious? I bet I could get CM to do that one with me. So this adventurous spirit was probably written into my DNA but it was cultivated richly through living in close quarters with CM. Through her "nudging" I have camped as a 16 year old in the mountains of Wyoming, ending up at our campsite by simply closing our eyes and pointing at a map of the entire state. That day we met a female bear killer, Ethel. We befriended her and found her again the next summer while she was unloading her guns and wearing a hat that said, "Beer: it just ain't for breakfast anymore." Ethel was a Harley chick and for some reason that inspired us to go Harley chick too. One year we were packed and ready to go to Sturgis in my uncle's 76 Nova. When we met up with some people who strongly encouraged us not to attend. The rest of that summer CM made us wear Thelma and Louise bandanas around our necks. We were certainly the only girls at Point Loma Nazarene College with Harley posters on our walls. CM also nudged a group of us girls to take the doors off her jeep, pack backpacks and head out for a week long trip, which included back country hiking at Joshua tree and 2 days in what would become my heart's joy: The Grand Canyon. One year CM laid some information in front of me--we were heading to Colorado to become white water rafting guides. And we did . We lived in a tent for three months and took people down the Arkansas river. Luckily we never killed anyone, but we did get in a shoving fight in the tent once. When she felt we were not making enough money rafting she said she was going to go out and get us side jobs. She did. That afternoon she handed me a slip of paper and said, you start today, I start tomorrow. "Where CM?" "The gas station down highway in front of the prison." We worked there at the Conoco Beer/Gas station for the rest of the summer. It was these adventures brought on by CM's adventurous spirit that leads me to look at my husband and say, "I have an itch in my craw. Let's go...." And we do.

Guest Blogger: ClaimBig

More Family Bible.

Here he is! David slays Goliath! The action took place on the plain of Elah, in the hill country between the mountains of Judah and the plains of the Mediterranean, about eleven miles southwest of Jerusalem.

This one is entitled ' A sinful woman forgiven'

it is taken from the scripture reference Luke 7: 36-50. Simon had invited Jesus as an honored guest, but had failed to pay him the courtesies appropriate to the occasion. It remained for the woman, known to us as a sinner, to bathe his feet with her tears wipe them dry with her hair, kiss them with in humble affection, and anoint them with costly perfume.

"God's Love for a Lost World"
Then, of course, we have John 3 :16, which I have re-read over and over, embracing and clinging to each and every time.

I love this picture!

This is the Genealogy Record and Children's Register, the next page has the Military Service Record and additional General Information about the family to fill out such as important events in the families history. I cannot wait to fill these pages out!

Daniel in the Den of Lions. Daniel prayed to the God of Israel where he could be seen, among the lions, standing erect, dignified, and with his hands bound behind his back. The lions cringed and snarled, but let Daniel alone.

I even happen to find a list of names for God in 48 different languages!!

The back 100 pages are full of concordance/index pages with black and white pictures such as you see above!


And now...I am fast forwarding you to my bible today ...my bible that I read for my devotionals each and every day. Welcome to 2009. This Life Principles Bible is great because it has an Old Test, New Test. , Psalms and Proverbs for each day to read...and that is NOT even the best part! The best part is the 30 Life Principles that are intertwined into the Bible...I read over all 30 each morning and claim each one!! Sometimes I have to reread and reread them! (especially no. #19 and #20)

Oh yeah...I will sometimes tear out magazine clippings and use them as bookmarks for my bible if there is something that really grabs me!

And since we went to the mall today, I did receive a free sample of the women's fragrance Perry Ellis, I put that in today's devotional to make my bible smell good!!! I guess it is as close as I can come to giving the Lord my expensive perfume! Thank you Lord for forgiving me!

In the shadow of the mountain.

Yes, I am a mountain girl, through and through.

I think it is because I feel closer to God

and I am literally further North in the mountains!!

As my friend says, the bible should

be called the moral compass and point everyone north!!

Spring is just about here and I am anxiously

awaiting the chance to plant new annuals

on the back patio. I have loved walks in

the evenings and the sunsets each night.

But as I walk, I am dreaming about the mountaintops.
I am living in the shadows of the mountain, but I am feeling the sunlight close by.

I love to see the snow caps.

I feel the valleys.

And have a true respect for both.

I love the rain,

because it is the reason for the growth that we see.

And I love the stillness of the water,

because it is in those times,

I see my reflection.

Who could forget the Colorado state flower,

the Columbine.

May God bless the families of the victims,

as it has been 10 years since their tragedy.

This is Mount Princeton, just one of the famous Collegiate Peaks.

Man do I miss waking up and looking at this site!

The Arkansas River in Buena Vista!

And do I ever miss the sound of the running water, it is so relaxing!!

This is Mount Yale, another Collegiate Peak.

Thank You God for the mountains!

Please continue to give us each the faith that is required to Move the Mountains!!

He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move . Nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20-21