Snowing!!!

It is gorgeous out this morning. A true "winter wonderland"! I took the camera with us to the bus and snapped some photos of the boys and I enjoying this rare treat! The snowflakes are the perfect, dry, fall-singularly and accumulating-on-the-road kind. Ours is most often a very wet and mushy kind of snowfall. I am loving this morning and am mesmerized by this miracle of temperature and air pressure and moisture. The roof across the street is completely covered even!!! O, the boys should have worn boots today! [chuckle] We are always doubtful that it will last. That's kind of what I am dealing with emotionally these days, will my body last? I don't want to die. But I do want to live in the will of God. But how do I trust God's will and also ask Him to please spare me from cancer. I know that I am in His plan, and while I do not at all think that God gives cancer or disease, I do think that what the Devil intends for evil God does use for good. And so much good has come from this cancer year we have been on. We are surrounded with love and care and miracles and mercies and grace and kindnesses at every turn. So would I want to have missed out on the blessings that this year has been? Um, heck ya! Cancer sucks mega! And, no. I wouldn't change it ...but I would like to be healed now.
I think that I have confused myself in trying so hard to not make demands of God that I have actually been making demands in a "back handed" sort of way. By working so hard to not try to force my own will, I have actually been sort of passive aggressive in how I come to Him. I can't articulate it... but I think my thinking and fretting about offending God has actually caused a fog to fall over my understanding of who God really is. He is omnipotent, He is the creator of all things, He is kind and just and He is love.
Our Pastor, a man I greatly respect, left us with a thought yesterday about waiting on the Lord. Pastor Jim said this: while we are waiting on the Lord (to answer our prayers), let us focus on the character of God. And that got me thinking. First, I was astounded that I was so lost in my understanding of my God that I couldn't quickly name several characteristics. I am a word girl, where were the words? Second, I resolved to put some study time in. Third, I am choosing to work on shifting my focus back to the benevolence and kindness and wants-to-hear-my-heart's-cries of God. I don't ever want to limit God because I have made Him too delicate to handle my mess, or too fragile, or simply because I'm thinking too hard on not offending him. Just spit it out, girl! Hello, He is God!!! I like this quote: "God is only as big as my imagination.". Why would I choose to let my over thinking create limits on the limitless power and awesomeness of the God I believe and love and trust? That makes no sense, Kristin. Stop that. Okay. I will.

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Source: http://www.joycemeyer.org/articles/ea.aspx?article=gods_character
God's Character
by Joyce Meyer

It’s important to know God’s character. Why? It gives us discernment. If we don’t know the character of God, how can we ever know who is from God and who is not from God?
The Bible says don’t believe everything that comes down the pike. You have to test and try the spirits. We need to know what is God and what is not God. And we need to recognize God in our daily activity.
Let’s look at three important traits of God’s character.

1. Justice

Out of all the aspects of God’s wonderful character, the one I personally enjoy studying the most is justice. God is a God of justice. That word justice is so awesome because it means that He will always make anything that’s wrong right. For example, if somebody mistreats me, I don’t have to worry about it because God is going to bring justice. He loves justice.
Dave told me one time that God showed him during his morning prayer time that nobody can really cheat you if you keep your faith in God. If somebody takes something from you, don’t sweat it. Even if God has to work it out through a hundred people to get it all the way back around to you, you will get it back.

“ Nobody can mistreat you and get by with it if you have your faith in God. ”

One way or the other, what was unjustly taken from you will come back to you. Nobody can mistreat you and get by with it if you have your faith in God. 

2. Goodness

God is good—this fact never changes. And He’s good all the time—not just once in awhile or when things go your way. Psalm 34:8 says, Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him (NIV).
Let me tell you something: When you are having personal trouble and all hell seems to be coming against you, one of the best things you can do is speak this out loud, “God is good. God is good. I may be having trouble, but it is not God’s fault. God is good.”

3. Holiness

God is holy. What does that mean? In the Greek, to be holy is to be righteous—or to be right. You know I think it would make our lives a whole lot easier if we would realize that God is always righteous.
To be honest, realizing that whatever He does is right whether I like it or not has helped me in my walk with God.
He’s always right. Whether it feels good to me or not, it’s right. And whether or not I agree with it, He’s right.

God’s Amazing Character Is Our Example

These three traits are not the only characteristics of God, but they are three significant and powerful ones. With the help of the Holy Spirit, each of us can incorporate these traits in our own personality.
I encourage you to spend some time looking up these three traits in the Bible and studying the magnificent character of Christ.  Find a good concordance or use an online Bible search engine and discover what the Word says about justice, goodness and holiness. Then study these three traits for the next thirty days, begin to practice them in your daily life, and see what God does…You won’t be disappointed.

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This article is taken from Joyce's 10-part CD series, The Character of God.

[Above photo] My two littlests scraping together enough snow to throw at each other... these two are two years apart in age (+ 1 week) and have really begun to get rough-and-tumble and boy-ish in how they play.  Oi!  Just look away, Momma, just look away!  [huge proud smile]