BEST. SWEETEST DAY. EVER!

If you live in Ohio like I do, then you may be know that the third Saturday of October, is Sweetest Day!  It wasn't until my 20's, after moving out of state, that I discovered this day was not universally celebrated.

Nevertheless, as long as I could remember, I had hoped for a Sweetie to celebrate with on this day. However, year after year I found myself alone. 
I'm happy to say that this Sweetest Day, my Beloved and I celebrated 6 years of wedded bliss. Thank you Lord!

When I first surrendered my heart to Jesus, I learned that I could begin praying for my husband before I even knew his name. So I did.  I was very specific in my prayers of what kind of man I was believing for and year after year I was hopeful that I would finally be introduced to the one my soul loves.  
Well, it only took 15 years of believing, trusting, and praying and at the age of 37, I met my Beloved.

We were introduced at a volunteer meeting for the outreach program at our church and within 2 weeks we had our first date!
It was on Good Friday and what a date it was!  It was a marathon date that lasted 9 hours. We could have continued talking until dawn but said our farewells.  He couldn't wait to see me again the next night!
On Saturday night, he told me to "not be freaked out, but he was falling for me."  To be honest, I had complete peace.
 We sat together for Easter services and in between the 2 services, he asked me to go out to his car because he has a surprise for me...it was TULIPS!

Before our 1st date, I asked Daddy God for a sign of His blessing and I specifically requested tulips.  

I found out later, my Beloved woke up at 4:30am Easter Morning and had to go to the store to buy me tulips! 
Driving to visit my family that day,I wept as Daddy God whispered to my heart, "it is no accident that today is the day I chose to resurrect your dreams of being a wife."
A week later we were engaged.  We began discussing when we should get married and I mentioned that I always wanted either a May or October wedding.  Well, May was a bit too soon, so we were looking towards October.  I mentioned Sweetest Day and my Beloved gave me a look that said, "ugh, not that day!"  
I quickly shook off my hopes for a Sweetest Day wedding and we choose a different weekend in October.

A month or so later, my mom mentioned that we needed to start looking for reception halls if we were intent on getting married in October.  On a whim, she called the place where she and my Dad were to celebrate their 25th Wedding Anniversary in September.  The lady told her that they were all booked up, but they already had my mom penciled in for October 18th!
She told the woman that can't be because her Anniversary was in late September.  She would have never selected the middle of October for a date.  The lady assured her that she was penciled in for September 21st AND October 18th.  Unbeknownst to my mom she had booked our reception hall the previous year! My mom hung up the phone and called my sister.  
She told her what had happened and before she gave her the date, my sister interrupted her and said, "is it October 18th?"  My mom gasped and said, "Yes."  My sister went on to explain that the day after she met my Beloved for the first time she had a dream about our wedding and it was so vivid that she came downstairs and circled the date on the calendar!
Now, you may call that a coincidence, but there are so many stories of my Daddy God's faithfulness that there left NO DOUBT to any of us that this was exactly as He had planned.
And, yes, you guessed it, October 18th just so happened to be Sweetest Day! 

I would get to celebrate my very First Sweetest Day with the one my heart loves.  Oh, how our Daddy God blesses us down to the last detail!
I want to encourage anyone who is still waiting on the one their soul loves that they should have hope in the one who promised to give us the desires of our heart.  He is faithful to bring it to pass.

I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is Mine. 

Song of Solomon 6:3

Drowning in the shallows

Have you ever taken a trip to the ocean and while you are standing in the shallows, all of a sudden...WHAM, you get knocked down by a wave that you never saw coming?
You gasp as you tumble forward only to get a mouthful of briny seawater as you cry out.  Your nose and eyes sting from the salt as you flail desperately in an attempt to stay on your feet.  You feel your fingers suck into the sand and it makes you feel as if you've been shackled to the bottom.
No sooner do you get to your feet, when another wave comes and knocks you down again.  This time you don't even notice that you were dragged into deeper water until you attempt to stand and realize you are now thigh deep.  You turn around to assess the situation and another wave smacks you full in the face and you fight to take a breath as panic sets in...
I've been there myself, literally and figuratively speaking.  It's been a rough couple of months; my Grandmother passed away in June, a beloved Aunt passed away in August and I lost my job in September due to a "reduction in workforce." 
I have felt that I have barely been able to catch my breath before another wave hit and sent me flailing, trying hard to maintain control.
The funny thing is, the harder I tried to control the situations, the deeper the "water" got until finally, I heard a voice say..."Be Still."
My first reaction was, "how can I be still, God? You know our situation?  You know what needs we have?  You really want me to "Be Still?!!"  I could literally feel fear and panic trying to grip me and drag me under.  I had a choice to either give into the fear or choose to obey.  I chose to obey.  I got quiet and became still.  As soon as I did, the Holy Spirit put me in remembrance of all the times that the LORD had brought me through and commanded the storms in my life to cease.  It encouraged me to do what the Word said to do as difficult as that sounds.  Psalm 46:10 NLT states: He says, “Be still, and know that I am God.
In another example, we see Jesus speaking to the storm in Mark 4:35-41 NLT.  However, I believe that His words were also meant for His followers:

As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind (although other boats followed). But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water.Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?”
When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey him!”

The LORD knows that panic leads to fear and fear is the absence of Faith. That is why when the waves start to come, we need to not fear, but speak PEACE to those waves and watch as they subside.  We can be like Jesus in the back of the boat...resting in the knowledge that Our Heavenly Father is going to take us through the storms of life and that we will get to the other side and fulfill all that He has called us to do.  
Years ago, Rick Renner did a teaching on these verses.  What was so interesting, was that he showed us that the storm came because it was attempting to keep Jesus and His followers from one of their greatest victories.  
On the "other side" was the Demoniac of Gedara and He was about to have a life-changing encounter with the Prince of Peace!
I want to encourage all of us that when the storms of life come to blow us off course and to get us in fear, we need to remind ourselves how Jesus responded.  
I LOVE how Jesus didn't leap up, all flustered and command the disciples to row like they never rowed before!  He also didn't command them to turn the boat around.  Many who were in that boat with Jesus were seasoned fisherman who knew a storm when they saw one and they literally shouted at Jesus, so either they were already panicked or the storm was so loud they didn't have a choice.  This shows me that this was no light summer rain.  It was a doozy!  
And yet, Jesus gives us the example to follow, He wakes up and then He speaks to the storm with His authority and tells it, "Silence! Be Still!" 
He wasn't done though, He next turns to his followers and asks why were they afraid?  He asked them "where is your faith?"   He had already told them that they were going to the other side and that is EXACTLY what He meant.  Jesus is speaking to you today...Silence! Be still!  Don't talk about the storm...talk to it and tell it to STOP!