She Stands

      Over the last several years, the Lord has given me one word for the New Year. I keep each word tucked away as a reminder of each season I walk. This year I have waited for my word; the word from Him that will send me into the New Year with a new found hope and assurance. Up until 5 minutes ago, I had no word. As my fingers began to flow over my keyboard with the belief I had been given a scripture instead, my word, His word for me, rings in my spirit. "EXPECT" , He tells me.   Expect your hearts desires..... Expect my will to be done..... Expect the road your are walking will bring you to the place I have set aside for you.   This beautiful word now falls into place with the last two words given to me.  2015 I was to "believe His words over my life, 2016 came and I was instructed to "declare" His promises over me. 2017 I am to now "expect" all that has been told spoken to manifest in its fullness. Not only has He given m

 I can relate to this picture in several ways. Holding to the things I love in life, at times, can be a downfall for me. I clutch to the small with the belief this is the best I can do. I put restrictions on my daddy God as I live my daily life in a complacent safe zone; a area where no growth is available and a season that has come to its end. The reality is I get comfortable and convince myself I am right where I need to be. And all the while He is telling me "Trust me. I have better."   The definition of trust . .... to depend on, believe, have faith, and assurance in. And yet I continue to cling to what I think is best. The truth, my truth, is the struggle I have been battling within myself and my reasoning behind it. Though I feel my reasons are warranted, my complacency however is not. The world will have me to believe what I am holding in my hands is it, all there is for me to receive in this life. That's the worlds version However Jesus gives me a pr

I am so excited to have Lyn Livingston guest post today. Her love for God and all his children is beautiful and her words of truth reflect her heart felt love. Please join me and welcome Lyn to She Stands. !! I know she will bless you as she has blessed me!! I felt my heart break in half. A wrenching tearing pain signifying a part of me was no longer there.  I felt hot tears burning my eyes and rolling down my cheek. How did this happen?  How could I have lost a friend just like that and not understand why? Laying the phone down, I held my face in shaking hands, crying out to God between sobs.  “Oh Father, Help me.” I cried. “Help me give grace & mercy, help me understand.  If I have done something wrong show me so I can ask for forgiveness.  Father I need you.” When rejection becomes personal it develops into a relentless searing sting unlike any other.  I will be honest, my first reaction was “What! How dare she? After all I did for her and now she is doing this t

Love..... a word used to express  heart felt emotion; to express the importance of feelings towards something or someone. But what if I told you love is not just a feeling but a choice? Let that sink in for just a moment......... How is that even possible? Real love is when we choose to love those who are set against us; those who are set against Christ. It is easy to love those whose beliefs are ones of my own. It's even easier to love those who love me , treat me with respect and stand in agreement with me.  The difficulty comes in loving those who rage against me, speak words of destruction, and engage in behaviors that are meant to break me. I have even found it to be strenuous  when those close to me attempt to speak good in my life but yet pick apart my heart with their words not realizing the impact of pain they have now caused. And yet I choose to love. Years ago I asked the Lord to use me as a instrument of  His love and in more recent years I asked Him to let

 Leaving for work I  snapped this picture from my front porch. The brilliance of the sun coming up and breaking through had glimmers of gold dancing across my front yard; such beauty to behold in the few moments I had before scrambling off to begin my work day. Perfection would have been for me to be able to stay and enjoy my morning coffee sitting in the rays of sunlight, however the brief moments I had were enough for me to be thankful for witnessing another one of God's beautiful moments of His divine artistry in the morning sky. I began to think of the times when my life has been covered with "shade"; when it appeared to have no sunlight breaking through. And, on a larger scale, I began to reflect how the world has had its own shade of darkness covering its every corner ringing its cries for just a little light to shine.Creeping slowly down my driveway I realized had I kept my head down, hustled down the porch all I would have seen as I was getting into my car

  Heart......the organ that pumps blood throughout our bodies entirety; supplying oxygen and nutrients to our tissues and removing carbon dioxide and other wastes. Our physical life line; if unable to supply blood to our organs and tissues, they die..... We die.  We all know the physical purpose of our heart. We are taught what eating habits and physical activity are best to keep our hearts functioning properly. However do we ever really seek how to keep the emotional and spiritual health of our heart at its best as well?   What do we do to guard our hearts  from emotional deaths; a death that causes our once soft, fleshy heart that held compassion, empathy, grace and love to become a cracked jagged and jaded stone? A stone that buries deep within the cracks the brokenness of our self worth and harbors the anger of our hurt others have pierced with their arrow of disdain.   Questions I find myself asking more often.   It's easy to become hard in a world f

I love this picture of McKenna. I have been blessed to know this precious young lady since she was in junior high school. She is now a wife and mommy of two beautiful babies. McKenna started doing cross fit when she was pregnant with her first child( maybe before? ) and has continued her fitness goals to this day. This picture is the first time she ever made it to the top of the rope. What an accomplishment!! It did not happen over night. It was not accomplished the first or even her second try. McKenna had to "endure" the process . She had to fight through the sweat and pain, the burning muscles and the constant desire to meet her goal. And met it she has!!  I then ask myself....... How do I press through a growth process?  When the pain is too much to bear and my muscles burn with the intensity of a boiling furnace , how do I endure? My endurance comes from my daddy God;  a process of growth and strength training in the spirit.  It comes when I turn to the pages of

  John 13:12-17 12  When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13  “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14  Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16  Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17  Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them .  Washing the feet of others may not be what society considers serving in the year 2019, however in biblical times it was an act ones servant would do when guest where invited in. Jesus preforms it as a symbolic gesture of serving one humbly and unconditionally. He was setting an example not only for his disciples but for us today. What was considered a lowly human t

   The only sound I heard were the engines of the plane humming beneath me as I starred into another world through the tiny window my face was resting against. I did not want to come down from this place of solitude, this beautiful surreal atmosphere of  peace where the sun light penetrated through what appeared to be a city of serenity and a moment in time where I could breathe.   Just breathe............   In the quietness is where I find my daddy God waiting for me; a place I long to return to from all of the noise , from my endless thoughts that run rampant through my mind. It is here I ask, " Lord who am I? "  As a single mother whose children are grown and gone I find the place I have maintained in this world no longer the same and unable to grasp. I do not know how to let go of what was to become what is to be. Once again I hear my heart whisper to Him, " Who am I Lord? "   The sun light is now dancing before me over the clouds in tiny d

I don't recall a time in my life where my faith has ever wavered, I trust God. I believe in Him and His promises.   However in the recent events I am finding it's not my lack of  trust that has me on my knees, it's my lack of understanding . The grief that has consumed my community and our nation is smothering the very essence of my heart. So much death..... So much violence..... So much brokenness..... Division at it's worse. As a nation we grieved for Dallas and the loss of the fallen officers. Today as a community we grieve for our own. The three hero's, Montrell Jackson , Matthew Gerald and Brad Garafola , who lost their lives in a purposely orchestrated attack. A senseless act which has now placed Baton Rouge on the map of sorrow with others across the US. And one question that screams at us all............ WHY? I do not have the answer nor will I pretend to.  I wish I did. I pray my words of comfort do not sound  cliche' or hollow. I pray t

       In lieu of my nations recent tragic events and those that have hit my hometown, I find myself in a place of bewilderment. A place where words do no justice to the pain and grief that seems to have swallowed cities, coummities and the nation as a whole in a place of grief that is larger than I could have ever imagined in my lifetime. I do not cry from a place of fear.  Gods words promise me he did not give me a spirit of fear but of love, peace and sound mind. ( 2 Timothy 1:7) My tears come from a place that shelters my hearts deepest emotions for those I know, those I don't and those whose pain is more than they can bare. It is my secret place where my walls fall and my weeping is earth shattering. Where I have no words, my tear stained face is deafening to my soul. My tears have purpose. Psalm 56:8-9 " You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book? When I cry out to You, Then my enemies will turn back; This I know

  Ephesians 4:26 "In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry."  (NIV) " Many times bitterness is the result of unresolved anger; anger with ourselves or with others. . Anger that is not dealt with can easily become a dangerous bitter root in our hearts......" ( Click here for more on overcoming bitterness )      My mom has told me time and time again, " Stacey you forgive so easily, that's just who you are."   Truth be told, I do forgive fairly easy; I have my moment , express my emotions, shed any needed tears, and move on. Am I perfect? Not hardly. Some situations and circumstances in my life have had me not wanting to forgive, and secretly hoping for God to smite them. Harsh? Yes I know. " Lord forgive me."   However over the years I have purposed to do my best to see others with the eyes of my daddy God in spite of my hurting heart. And  there are times, regardless of my hear

Goliath....   A Philistine giant who stood over nine feet tall, wearing full armor and came every day for forty days, mocking and challenging the Israelite's to fight.  His stature was massive with a physical strength no man could match. He put such a vast fear into the army of Israel and King Saul no one was willing to confront him, until David, a boy after God's own heart, stood to face this giant with the colossal power of God standing with him. Some may ask how does a sling and a stone become such a victorious weapon of war? My answer...... It was the trust and faith in God alone that gave David and his sling and stone such a victory. All though I may not actually face a nine foot giant in life, I do however have had my own Goliath's to encounter. And the one over the last few years has refused to fall........... Just when I think peace has finally found it's place in my life, this giant surfaces with its mocking and taunting war cry, challenging me to

    1 Samuel 1:10-11 In bitterness of soul Hannah wept and prayed to the Lord. And she made a vow, saying " O Lord Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head."       Hannah's story in the book of 1 Samuel details a woman whose desire to have son but yet through her barren years clung mighty to her faith without abandoning her dedication and prayers to the Lord. Hannah is described as a woman of courage who choose not to struggle with Peninnah who bore child after child but instead took her pleas to God. Though during her time of struggle, Hannah could not understand why things were as they were nor see God had a bigger plan which would come from the son He would give her in his timing. Her prayer was not a prayer of defeat; Hannah cried out to God for many years as t

It's time Mom...... Time to watch her go. Time to witness all the tender loving care, molding and shaping in your baby girls life take root as she walks into the next chapter of her life. Her name is Jordan, best known to her family as their JuJu. Jordan is the youngest of two girls whose smile, charm and personality is larger than life.  And now her time has come to cast off the images of the little girl she once was and embrace the strong young lady her mom has so graciously raised her to be; to be all her daddy God has created her to be. Growing up Jordan , like many in this world, was raised by a single mom. A mom that dug deep, loved with out conditions, and persevered through every obstacle life threw their way. While Jordan had and continues to have many who love and support her (sister, grandmother, aunt and uncle) and though we have never met, the common denominator she and I share......the daddy that was never there. For a little girl the absence of her daddy