Amazing Grace

While in prayer this morning, I was inspired to go to the book shelf to find William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation. The example of the Pilgrims as recorded in this book is very inspiring to me, and with it being our season of Thanksgiving I wanted to read again of them.

I was in wonder at how the healthy ones served those who were close to death:

...There was but six or seven sound persons who to their great commendations, be it spoken, spared no pains night nor day, but with abundance of toil and hazard of their own health, fetched them wood, made them fires, dressed them meat, made their beds, washed their loathsome clothes, clothed and unclothed them. In a word, did all the homely and necessary offices for them which dainty and queasy stomachs cannot endure to hear named; and all this willingly and cheerfully, without any gruding in the least, showing herein their true love unto their friends and brethren; a rare example and worthy to be remembered. (p. 77)

A footnote on page 132 mentions that the Pilgrims never had a regular fall Thanksgiving Day. However, a law written on November 1, 1636, allowed the Governor and Assistants "to command solemn days of humiliation by fasting, etc., and also for thanksgiving as occasion shall be offered."

One of these particularly solemn days is recorded in a section entitled "More Semi-Starvation".
It records their pains to put in a great crop of corn only to see it wither in drought:

Yet at length it began to languish sore, and some of the drier grounds were parched like withered hay, part whereof was never recovered. Upon which they set apart a solemn day of humiliation, to seek the Lord by humble and fervent prayer, in this great distress. And He was pleased to give them a gracious and speedy answer...It came without either wind or thunder or any violence, and by degrees in that abundance as that the earth was thoroughly wet and soaked...which did so apparently revive and quicken the decayed corn and other fruits, as was wonderful to see, and made the Indians astonished to behold.

And afterwards the Lord sent them such seasonable showers, with interchange of fair warm weather as, through His blessing, caused a fruitful and liberal harvest, to their no small comfort and rejoicing. For which mercy, in time convenient, they also set apart a day of thanksgiving. (pp. 131-132)


Oh God! How amazing is Your grace! That You heard the humble prayers of our forefathers and sent the rain. Without You we are nothing!

I Confess

The other day I was confessing to the Lord a list of things I was worried about including family members who have been unemployed for over a year. I received a holy tongue lashing as a result.

“Why would He do that?” you might ask. In this blog I have shared several accounts of God’s goodness to me (which is only the tip of the iceberg), but I must confess that I succumb to worry, doubt, and fear from time to time. This is, of course, NOT pleasing to the Almighty (see Romans 8:5-9).

I do not want to be like those of the children of Israel who saw miracle after miracle yet did not enter their promised land due to UNBELIEF (see Hebrews 3). Fortunately, Christ Jesus our Lord understands our weakness—“For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we [are] dust.” Psalm 103:14 KJV
While in the secret place, He exhorted me to rise above my mortal frame and doubt no more.

When I first confessed Christ as my Lord, I saw God do amazing things to provide for us. We needed an additional $200 to pay our rent one month. My husband Tom and I prayed and believed God would provide. We received a check for $200 for taxes I had supposedly over-paid the year before!?! Another time we found a bag of groceries in front of our apartment door, yet only our Heavenly Father knew our need.

QUESTION: Is there anybody else out there who feels as though they had more faith when they were first born again than they do now?

In Mark 9:23 KJV Jesus said to the father of the boy tormented with a spirit, “If thou canst believe, all things [are] possible to him that believeth.” Let us—like the father of this child—cry out, “Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief!”

This reminds me of when I was sitting in an auditorium listening to a physically-handicapped man of God teach on 2 Corinthians 9:8 KJV - And God [is] able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all [things], may abound to every good work.

The voice of the Lord came to me giving me a personal teaching within a teaching—“I am your sufficiency in your identity as well, Daughter.”

At this time in my life I doubted (ugh! there’s that word again) who I was in Christ. I had stepped out in what He had called me to do only to be bashed down by brethren. His words melted away my unbelief.

If it feels as though this post is a writing assignment via the Holy Spirit, perhaps it is. I find that I remember things if I write them down, so what better way to retain God’s promises than to highlight them here.

HE IS our sufficiency in~

PROVIDING OUR FOOD~ I have been young, and [now] am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. Psalm 37:25 KJV

PROVIDING OUR CLOTHING~ And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. Luke 12:22 and 31 KJV

PROVIDING EVERYTHING!~ But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19 KJV

Thank you Heavenly Father for being My Sufficiency no matter what the circumstances look like!



P.S. Readers, I seriously would like to hear from you about the above question:)

You Might Be a Writer IF...

You might be a writer if…someone asks you to explain what your day was like and you actually tell the person—in the long, drawn-out version instead of the condensed short story.

To the best of my recollection, this is how I began. It started with that first writing assignment in school and then progressed to the high school newsletter. My writing pen lost its shine a bit during my college years and was promptly replaced by an electric typewriter and a desk job in Washington, D.C.

In 1978 I was born again of God’s Holy Spirit and married the following year. I began to experience the reality of the spiritual realm and learn to know His voice. My husband Tom and I had three children together with out-of-the-ordinary circumstances surrounding each of my pregnancies.

As I shared these stories with family and friends, almost every one of them would say, “You should write that down,” or “You should write a book.” I liked the idea of picking up a pen once again, so I did as they suggested.


One day I pondered the possibility of having my multitude of notes compiled and published. “Lord, I will only do this if it is Your will.” I had recently written a letter to the editor of a Christian magazine, so I prayed, “Lord, if you want me to pursue publishing, let this letter be printed in the next issue.” (I was really into asking God for signs back then.)

Well, wouldn’t you know it—the letter was in the next issue of that magazine! Not that I would call it a miracle, but I believed it was my Heavenly Father’s go-ahead signal. I submitted my manuscript to only one publishing house whose representative sent me a rejection letter—a very kind one—I should mention.

I thought perhaps I had ‘missed’ God and the book was to be a manuscript I would hand down to my children. So I dismissed it.

One morning not many days later, Tom and I were just waking up and he blurted out, “The Lord gave me a dream last night. I am supposed to publish your book.” And that is how The Mommy Manual (With Notes for Daddy Too) came into existence. (See the “Published Work” section of my blog for more information.)

Life with a husband who worked at home, three children, a cat, and a turtle kept me busy, but I did squeak out a couple of articles that were published. Still I did not think of myself as a ‘writer’.


I have learned, however, that the people of God go through seasons. Women especially go through defined periods of time when they marry and have children. We choose to set aside aspirations only to pick them up again later.

Being an author was never a goal of mine, but lately more ideas for books have sprung up within my mind. Having gone through the arduous process of self-publication, I shoved them to the files in the back of my brain. “No way am I going to go through that process again, Lord,” I told Him. "Not unless You show me in a BIG way." I prayed this even though several years ago, He spoke clearly to my spirit that I should not be asking for signs for every situation; BUT:

You might be a writer if…the Lord Jesus Christ sends a stranger to confirm it to you. But that’s another story…