The Lion Aslan in the Sky!!

Oh Divine Majesty! I see your brilliance Lord!

On my drive home this evening I experienced the radiance of God in the heavenly clouds! I had my camera with me and had to pull over and take this picture! The picture I saw in the clouds was so enormous, it was so amazing! I could see in the clouds the face of the Lion Aslan, from the movie by C.S. Lewis, "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe!"

What I love even more about this is that I was on the phone with my friend Ginny and was telling her about this beautiful vision in the sky and that I had to pull over to take this picture. She was "witnessing" this event over the phone with me as I took several pictures of this. I am getting to more here... Ginny (and two other Chritian Coaches) and I have just produced a CD on Biblical Meditations. Guess what Ginny's is... Her topic centers around Aslan!!! God in His amazingness gave me this radiant picture of Himself in the clouds while I was on the phone with her! She giggled with me as I was taking this photo on the phone! So, Ginny, what are your thoughts about our Lord, our Aslan in the sky showing Himself to us?! Amazing!

I had to wonder if all those driving beside me saw it too? How could they miss His majesty? I imagine that they must have been taking gasps of breath as they viewed the glory in the sky. As each person drove along in our individual cars, with our heads in the clouds! I am sure that everyone around me HAD to be experiencing this phenomenal occurrence with me. My breath was taken away, my eyes beholden to His glory!

I see His majesty here, a picture of the Lion of Judah! The profile of the Lion is clear, even with the hair on His mane blowing in the wind as He glides effortlessly through the majestic skies above. Mmm, oh what a vision!

Prayers of the People we prayed in church today

I pray that you truly experience the prayers below in their fullest. We prayed them in church today and I was moved with the depth of who each of us is, what we are to be, and how our Lord moves through us for His glory...

PRAYER
God of all that is good, in this season of Pentecost You fill us with Your Holy Spirit. In scripture You give us Your vision for the world. In love You give us Your grace. In wisdom You give us each other. We are Your presence, Your power and Your body in the world. For this we give You thanks and, as one body, offer ourselves and each other we pray.

Holy Spirit of community...
RESPONSE
Bless Your holy people

PRAYER
We praise You for the possibilities that come from Your imagination, and for the gifts that we offer to fulfill the vision of ministry and mission You set before us. We pray for all who minister in the church.

Holy Spirit of servanthood...
RESPONSE
Bless our mission

PRAYER
We pray that we may see the sacred in our everyday lives, believing with our brothers and sisters in faith that we can make a difference through You.

Holy Spirit of life...
RESPONSE
We remember the promises made at our baptism.

PRAYER
We prayer for the world around us. For other nations and people far away. For their hopes and fears, and for those who weep and those who dance in every part of the world.

Holy Spirit of diversity...
RESPONSE
Open our hearts to both strangers and friends.

PRAYER
We also pray for our own nation, that we may learn Your vision of freedom, and that our privilege be blessed in how we use it to benefit those around us.

Holy Spirit who works in everything...
RESPONSE
Open our eyes to Your compassion.

PRAYER
We pray for the courage to learn the names of those around us, to honor the beauty of their gifts, as well as the urgency of their needs, and that we may boldly speak the truth in love to our neighbors.

Holy Spirit who makes power of powerlessness...
RESPONSE
Make us channels of justice and peace.

PRAYER
We pray for those who suffer and for the gift of being companions with them. Bless those in our midst who are tired or hurting, and those who trust us to pray for them.

Holy Spirit who comforts us...
RESPONSE
Open our hearts to know the healing power of Your love.

PRAYER
We pray for those who have died, that we may know the presence of the cloud of witnesses around us. Bless those who mourn and those who, in their grief, know the sure and certain promise of eternal life in You.

Holy Spirit of forever and from before time...
RESPONSE
We praise You for the wonder of eternal life!

Things That Make Me Smile

Our sweet daughter Kellie Ann is in town visiting. Take a look at this gorgeous girl here! We are planning her wedding and it's such fun. What a blessing to know that she has such a wonderful future husband who loves her so much. Our oldest daughter also has a wonderful husband. As a parent of girls, their dad and I have always prayed each day for the girls and their future husbands. We feel so blessed with both of our daughters choices in their husbands. Kellie Ann and Chase have been dating for five years and have been engaged for two years. The big day is September 22nd!

Her dad and I are enjoying her SO much over this weekend. We went to the movie Shrek III last night and it was absolutely halarious and really cute! We all found ourselves laughing all the way through it. I love the way Kellie Ann laughs. She is such a beauty!

Kellie Ann and I are about to head out the door to get her registered (at least register for the things that don't require her fiance to be there :) We are going to shop for bridesmaid gifts, table top decorations, and other wonderful things that make her wedding day special.

Thank you God for our little girls! They are especially wonderful as little ladies. What a true blessing they are in my life. Thank you God that they love You so. It just doesn't get much better than this....

Which Path Will You Choose?

Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.
Galatians 5:25 The Message

As a Professional Life Coach I am one who is called to walk alongside my clients, with the intention of causing them to view their lives with powerful and heartfelt choice. Folks who hire a life coach are truly intentional about living passionately. The way you view life is vital, it is the key to the method, the way you understand, experience and do life. There are those who find life to be brilliantly wonderful, and amazingly breathtaking. They have joyful dispositions recognizing thier ability to choose to experience the miraculous and the adventure in every day living.

And there are those who don’t.

I know a woman who grew up with polio and had eighteen surgeries growing up. She was in a brace or a cast all the way up to her hips, limiting her movement for much of her life. She could not do the things other children and young adults could do! I never knew her as a child with this disease. I’ve only know her as an adult and knowing her now, and I know of her magnificence! She says and believes that her polio was a gift from God! When people failed her because of it, He never did. She was enabled to come to know Him through this. There are many who may have these very circumstances and taken on the opposite view. She could have ended up a very bitter woman, and we as a society would have thought she had the right to be because of her polio.

We have been given by God the freedom of thought, freedom of choice, freedom to believe, the capacity to be thinking, feeling human beings! What freedoms we have! What a beautiful thing this freedom of choice is! How powerful it is!

What are you doing with your mind? How are you choosing to live your life? What thoughts, what disposition do you long for?

In my journey I have always tried choosing to see everyone in a positive light, and be a positive light to those I encounter. It’s my choice to see and experience beauty fully. It is my choice to enjoy each and every human being I encounter, no matter how different they might be. I am able to discover and uncover the beauty within them. This is my choice to do so and I find it to serve me well. I find it to bring much beauty and joy to my life that I would never want to miss out on.

There have been times when people have surfaced in my life for one reason or another that I did not want there. There is a particular woman who seemed to be always there, I didn’t like her hardness. Her viewpoint on life was very different from mine. We were complete opposites in our thinking. Yet, both of us were deep thinkers, both of us held deep convictions within our very souls. Both of us love the Lord deeply and yet very differently! She was brought into my life to strengthen my faith at a time when my faith was faltering. She was the only one who saw that my faith was faltering because she knew exactly what it was to have faltering faith! When my dearest friends didn’t see it, she did! She knew life on a different level than I. She brought life to me on a different level. She expanded my mind, and I became one of compassion for her! It is amazing this life! When I finally made the choice to allow her into my life, I believe God used her to strengthen my faith at a time when I needed it most!

Choices are amazing, our Lord wired us to have full freedom in choice. We have to make so many every day! With every choice there is a consequence. With good choices we experience good or great consequences. With bad choices we experience bad or horrible consequences. We become attuned to these outcomes, or we don’t.

I would encourage you to begin really praying, meditating, thinking, and examining the choices you make and why you make them. They form these amazing patterns in your life!

I have always taught my daughters this and have used dating scenarios with them. I believe it was tremendously important for them to view the young men they were allowing into their young lives in total truth. (Think about viewing one in total truth, for that matter think about viewing yourself in total truth). I would remind the girls that certain behaviors, if they allowed them, or merely accepted them, that they were in the process of allowing certain types of behaviors to become acceptable. Letting them know that patterns were being formed in their young lives. Making them aware if they were living unconsciously (sleep walking through life), or consciously (awakening) in their relationships was HUGE! I never wanted them to be living their lives unconsciously!

So many of us can sleep walk through life allowing unbecoming behaviors to become a part of our lives! This therefore sets the patterns up and sets the stage of your life! So... be aware (or should I say beware) of the patterns you have in your life, what are you compromising on? What are you settling for? Why?

Raise your echelon of accepted wisdom! What kind of role model are you being for your children, for your co-workers, your employees? What leadership role are you in? Where to you want to change? What is working for you? What isn’t? How to you want to experience this life!?

The thing I love about life it that we can always choose! We can choose to break free of thoughts and behaviors that no longer serve the right purpose for us! We can allow ourselves to be transformed and awakened! We can recognize this life is a journey with many paths and can choose to stay on the road we are on or we can take the fork in the road that will lead us to places known and unknown making good and right choices along the way!

Here’s to living a fully awakened life!
Kathryn

Commandment...

What rolls through your mind when you think of the word "Commandment?" Most of us, including myself conjure up negative thoughts in regard to this word.

I would never say to my husband, or an employee, or even my children "I command you to ________ _________ (you fill in the blank(s)). Out of respect for one another we do not "Lord" over people in this way.

As I read the following Scripture passage:
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
John 13:34

When I read this this evening I began to contemplate this passage in a way that I really never have before. We are given so many lessons through out the Bible that teach us about righteousness, fairness, wisdom, and love. Obviously, back then, as well as today, each of us want to be respected, to be loved purely and to be loved deeply.

We don't really see Christ command that many things through out the Bible. But here in this passage we are given a command. We are not being told to think about behaving this way, or to consider another way to live. We are being commanded! This commandment is THE ANSWER to all man kind! Mystery solved.

So why is it that we do not talk about this COMMANDMENT? Is it because of the fact that it has the word "commandment" in it? Do we allow the word to be taken out of context, thereby becoming an offensive word? Thereby not teaching the value of this commandment? Oh gosh, if we could just live into this commandment can you imagine what a beautiful planet of love we would have! But because we find the word offensive we pretend, or think that we have other options on how to treat another? I am guilty myself, and that is the struggle. That is why we have such misunderstanding running amok in our society. If we as a human race were to accept this commandment without question, can you imagine how our world would be? How our lives would be?

Let each of us meditate on the fact that this is honestly not an option, but a commandment. Let us allow the transformative Holy Spirit cause each of us to live into this commandment and change our little corner of the world bit by bit.

I Can Not Help Speaking...

What is it that you talk about most? What are the things that get you really excited?

When I talk about things they always seem to be pointing to God.

This morning I was standing on the front porch surveying the flowers in my garden that Bruce and I had planted. I love to sit out there in the morning and drink my tea, have my breakfast and chat with Bruce. We go out there almost every morning. It feels good to be able to listen to the doves call to one another. I love the way they sound, they have a spiritual effect on me. They sound calm, peaceful, and somewhat ethereal.

This morning I was out there early while Bruce was showering, and there was a large gorgeous moth on the rock pillar. I stood staring at the beauty of this creature, Gods creation. I was able to get really close and see the delicate wings, they were black, and it was like looking a filigreed lace. He was black and yellow with a huge body! Oh He was glorious.

I ran back into the house and grabbed my camera and took a couple of really good shots of him, one of which I am sharing with you for your viewing pleasure. Just look at those delicate wings, and the gorgeous fuzzy body he sports! I was so pleased and amazed with Gods handiwork. I become so awed by His creation, His creative intelligence. I think about the eye of a cat, the many colors and shapes of the sea creatures. How can we ever deny our God. His creativity is all around us. How can we not speak of Him, for the things He has done, the things we have seen and heard? He continues to do these great things each day. Take time to enjoy His creation and fill your soul with beauty!

"For we can not help speaking about what we have seen and heard."

Acts 4:20