Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Daniel Fast: Day 9

Day 9!! I am almost half way through. I am not sure
how it is for the rest of you but waking up with a cold
is one of my most Unfavorite things ever. Today was
one of the most difficult days. Tomorrow marks one week
that I have been sick and I was hoping to be dramatically
improved by now. I can function it is just getting 
annoying. 


BUT my study is becoming increasingly intense and at
every turn the Lord is speaking to me. We know that God
speaks to His believers through His word, through other
believers and through the Holy Spirit. This has been the
case in multiple ways over the last 24 hours. Yesterday
I was knitting and I felt a strong tug to read the first 
chapter of Proverbs. Many resources I have been using
during this fast suggest Proverbs as a good daily reading
because it is 31 chapters and you can read it in a month.
I have read Proverbs and love it. It gives such in depth
wisdom and knowledge and really makes you think about
your heart and your actions. So I read chapter one.
Today I turned to one of the devotionals I have chosen
to read during my fast and what was the suggested 
reading for today? Proverbs chapter 2!!!!! And of course
everything I read from the 2 completely unrelated 
devotionals were related and what I have specifically 
started this fast to find out. 


Also my friend Jacque gave me a book by Francine Rivers
called A Lineage of Grace. It is actually 5 different books 
she has written that was put into one. They are 5 different
stories about women in the Bible who lead amazing lives
of faith for God and each was in the lineage of Christ
the last story being about Mary. Yesterday I finished
the first book and it was about Tamar. I tell you our 
teenage girls could learn a thing or two from this girl.
Women in Biblical times were treated as the weak ones.
Well they were not weak. Actually we all could learn a
thing or two from them. They were strong and lead
very hard lives and if they were not married and if they 
did not produce sons, they ended up being beggars and 
prostitutes. 


Tamar really inspired me. She was patient and she waited,
and waited and waited and Then she waited some more
for her right to be fulfilled. Until finally she saw her 
opportunity to move and doing such meant that she 
could be killed and she almost was. But she had faith in
the God of the Hebrews and He used this young teenage
girl to bring a grown man back to Him. WOW!! I highly
recommend you read her story in the Old Testament.
She inspired me that if she can wait for her rights
to be fulfilled for almost a decade, I can do this
for 21 days. Her life was beyond hard and yet she 
remained faithful. 


AND Jacque's husband Sean sent us a blog he had read
from a pastor in North Carolina. Completely related to
several areas of my life that I have been looking for 
answers. The summation of the blog: we often have to
take small steps to get to our Big goal. We cannot forget
that the small victories are just as important and give us
just as much reason to celebrate and praise God as 
meeting the Big goal. We are a society of getting what we
want immediately, Me included. But Look at Noah! Oh
my how long did he build the ark? 100 Years!!!!! God
gives us a vision to do something for Him and we get
antsy when it does not happen right away! It is so hard
for me to keep my eyes fixed on the prize. Tamar, Noah
so much of the Old Testament shows us when God calls
us to something it is probably going to be hard and take
time but He who began a good work in us, He will be
faithful to complete it!

Monday, June 27, 2011

Daniel Fast: Day 8

Yes I am still hanging in there with my Daniel Fast!
Days 4-7 left me a bit discouraged. The end of day 3 it
was clear that I was coming down with a cold. Then I
had to work the next 2 nights. It never fails I always
get sick when I am about to work. Never when I am
off for 5 days. Then day 6 I got about 2 hours of sleep
before I had to get up and go to a funeral and then
immediately to a birthday party. I will not lie I did not
follow the fast completely on Saturday because of the
birthday party and today is our anniversary but we
celebrated on saturday night. It is extremely difficult
to be sick and do this. Every fiber of my being wants a
cup of hot tea to sooth my throat and chest and NO warm
water with lemon will not cut it. Every fiber of my
being wants a bowl of chicken noodle soup. NO
vegetable soup is not going to cut it.
I have come to realize that next time I fast I will fast
from one major food group instead of 3-4. My husband
made an excellent point last night. He said just fasting from
caffeine alone would make a huge impact. I fear that I am
so focused on the food that I cannot have and the physical
woes that I am feeling that I am not getting the full effect
of the spiritual aspect. I am hanging in there for now. I
really want to see this out. I keep thinking that once I am
no longer sick I can really focus on hearing the Lord. Which
please do not get me wrong, the Lord has spoken and I have
been shown some things that I have issues with. Not things that
are really a surprise to me. Once again my wonderful husband
made an excellent observation, would these be things I would
have seen if I would have just spent the time studying more
like I have in the last 8 days. Last time I fasted it was intense
and the Lord really hit me right between the eyes with some
huge things I was not facing and not really aware were an issue.

So I have been brought back to my original theme that I know
the Lord placed in my heart to be my main focus and that was
Being Still. Well being sick would most definitely make me have
to rest and be still. I have not been able to do my running program.
I have not been able to do my Wii Fit. I have not been able to
do much but the everyday things to keep our family and life
going. I will give this more time. I will continue to pray for
healing and rest in this. I know this is what He wants me to do.
Time to Be Still.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Daniel Fast: Day 3

Ok Day 3!!! I won't lie! Today has been the worst yet!!
We took my dad to Cracker Barrel for his Birthday. (Our
son calls it the Chicken Bucket). And I had a bowl of 
pinto beans. Yes beans at the most wonderful mac and 
cheese, mashed potato, and biscuit place ever. THEN my
mama ordered a carmel ice cream mug sunday!!!!!!!!!!
All the way home I questioned my Lord about the 
ludicrous decision I have made. Why would anyone in 
their right mind eat only pinto beans and a glass of 
water at the Cracker Barrel??


This is what Satan wants. He wants me to question this
so I will stop. I have a wonderful book by a great lady
named Joyce Meyer called Straight Talk: Overcoming 
Emotional Battles With the Power of God's Word. Last
week as I was preparing to start this journey I was
reminded of this book and I pulled it out. Today's 
reading was about Satan. The section was entitled 
Keep the Devil on the Run. Wonderful scripture she 
referred to "Greater is he that is in you, than he that
is in the world." 1 John 4:4. Then she said "He comes
like the lion, but he is not the lion." What empowering
words!!! 


Why Fast? Why put myself through this? You don't really
have to do this for 21 days do you? If I had a little
bite of one food I am not supposed to it would be ok
if I messed up a little wouldn't it? Sheesh!! I feel 
like Eve in the garden!! 


There is absolutely no doubt that I am called to do
this. God has shown Himself to me time and time again
through this journey affirming that this is what I 
am to do. I know He is going to tell me some things
that I really need to hear. But I also know that as
long as I am being held up by this food issue, I will
not be able to be still and hear His voice. This is 
what I believe fasting is about. We have to be 
completely broken so we can finally let Him work. 


Well tomorrow is a new day and a new challenge.
Tomorrow night I work. I will be up for about 24
hours with a nap, hopefully, and I will have no
caffeine of any kind. One day at a time! Right?



Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Daniel Fast: Day 2

Today marks Day 2 of my Daniel fast. It has been strange to me
which foods I really missed. I Knew that Coffee would be the
thing that I would be dying for. But I think since I have been
weaning myself off for a few weeks now, it was not the problem
yesterday. The problem food? Sweets. There is absolutely no sugar
on this fast!!! But last night I threw some pineapple slices on the
grill and they were so good it almost felt like I was cheating.

Today I am feeling better than yesterday. However yesterday
started out well and ended with me being very irritable. Which
my endocrinologist warned me would happen when trying to
stop coffee.

Amazing that several times I have thought, "How am I going to
do this?" But once I sit down to The Word or a devotional, I am
immediately renewed. I once again feel like I can do this.

Again why am I amazed? but God brought forth 2 devotionals this
morning that really spoke to my heart. One contained one of my
favorite Psalms. "I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will
sing praise to my God while I have my being" Psalm 104:12,33.
The other spoke of believers being consecrated for a purpose.
We are to be about the Lord's work. For those of you that do not
know me, I am a singer. I sing on a praise team at our church
called The Hill. I am constantly under attack by Satan about
my singing abilities. It is such a strange line to walk to be
giving all of my talents and abilities to the Lord and at the
same time being in front of people. You have to in a sense
perform but at the same time you can't be just performing.
I was reminded today that I have been given a gift. No I am
not the best, but it is not for me to decided that because I am
not the best I will not sing. God uses what we give for His plan
and His purpose. He wants me to praise Him and He will take
care of the rest.
It is has been the case that the Lord will give me a song that
is kinda like a theme song when I fast. This fast I know that
my focus needs to be on being still and listening to His voice.
My song for this fast or at least one of them is a song called
Restless by a wonderful artist named Audrey Assad. She really
inspires me. Want to have your heart blessed beyond measure
today? Listen to this song!!

Monday, June 20, 2011

Daniel Fast: Day 1

I have recently been feeling a call to start a fast. I had done one a
little over a year ago. During that time I had read about a fast called
The Daniel Fast. It is a 21 day partial fast. You abstain from dairy,
meat, all sweeteners, all leavened bread, all refined and processed
foods. So you Can have fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds,
legumes, quality oils and distilled or filtered water. Oh and I did
not mention- NO COFFEE!!! A wonderful Christian woman
named Susan Gregory wrote a book about it and it is very helpful.
But when I first read about this I said "NO Way!!" There was no
way in the world I could ever take on a challenge like this. But I
believe that God uses time to bring us to where He wants us and
about 10 days ago I was brought back the The Daniel Fast and
realized it was time.
It should never amaze me, but it does, how God brings everything
into alignment to fall into place at the exact right time. I found out
about 2 weeks ago that coffee and thyroid medication do not go
well together. I take an extremely high dose of medication and we
have been exploring reasons why. So in effort to find out if coffee
is playing a problem, I have cut back drastically. Then along came
this fast where I am to drink no coffee. And I had been feeling a tug
to do a fast and I had read about this fast over a year ago. I just
do not believe in coincidence. Everything has fallen into place for
me to do this.
SO today is day One!! Susan encourages you to get up as early as you
need to, to spend time with the Lord, maybe exercise and start the
day out right. Making sacrifices that you may not usually make. So
I got up at 6:15 and went for my run/walk. I am starting week 4 this
week of a 12 week program to go from 0-30 minutes of running in
12 weeks. Then I came home filled up my water cup and sat down
for my quiet time. Again I am not sure why it amazes me, but it does.
I read the devotional that Susan provides in the Daniel Fast book.
Then I read a short devotional from a book that my friend gave me.
AND they were almost exactly the same. The one that was not in
the Daniel fast was about Nehemiah and how he fasted. Both about
not getting so caught up in life that we forget to put God first.
God has been so faithful at every step of this process!! I can't even
begin to imagine what this 21 days will bring. I know that God
has already began to speak. It is going to be awesome!!

Friday, June 3, 2011

Paper Beads Bracelets Series: Day 1

Our Etsy shop has had me a bit busy lately so I
have not been so good about the blogging.
In an attempt to make up for the lag, I am 
going to do a series on some different paper
bead bracelets. 

My Friend Kelli brought me several colors of
scrap book paper and card stock to make her
some bracelets. So I thought I would kill 2
birds with one stone and do a blog about the
bracelets I am making for her. All of these
bracelets will start with beads I have 
already made. So if you are completely lost,
you will need to go back and review the blog
where I taught you to make paper beads.

I of course made several of the bracelets in
my stretch cord and glass bead combo like shown
in my previous blogs. But lately I have been
working more with jewelry wire and crimp beads
and clasps so I thought I would try it with
my paper beads.

Materials Needed:
-Paper Beads (this bracelet I used 9)
-Seed Beads 
-Jewelry Wire
-Clasp of your choice (I used a bar and circle set)
-2 crimp bead tubes
-crimper tool
-wire cutters (not shown)

First you will cut a length of wire. I
cut about 3-4" more the than finished size I wanted. 
When you measure your wrist for bracelet size you 
will add 1/2" to that for your bracelet size. This 
whole crimping business is new to me so I hope I do 
not confuse. Please post questions if you need 
clarification. You will put the crimp bead tube and 
one part of the clasp on one end to start. You will 
then thread the end of the wire back through the 
crimp bead making a loop around your clasp. You 
will then use your crimping tool to flatten the tube.
Then you will use your tool to crimp the 2 flattened 
ends together. Please see the video for more specific
teaching.














Once you have the crimp bead tube crimped you will
cut the excess wire as close as you can making sure
not to cut both wires.
Now you can begin to string your beads. I started
with 3 clear silver lined seed beads and then a 
paper bead. I continued in this pattern until I 
reached approximately 6 1/2". Keep in mind the
clasp with add about 1/2-3/4" to the entire length.
Finally you string the other crimp tube and the 
other part of the clasp and crimp and trim once
again.

And there you have it!!