If I Could Turn Back Time

Have you ever listened to Cher's popular song "If I Could Turn Back Time"? The song says,"I don't know why I did the things I did. I don't know why I said the things I said." Do you ever feel that way?

Joel 2:25 says, "I will restore to you the years the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you." Could that mean that He will restore the years that we feel we have lost?

Joel Osteen says in his new book IT'S YOUR TIME that God controls time and can therefore turn back the clock and bring restoration to our relationships. I think like every parent, I have suffered from guilt about child-rearing. For many years I was a single mom with two teenage daughters to raise by myself with no child support. I worked full time as an English teacher and sponsored the annual staff, directed drama, coached the speech team, etc. Sometimes I look back and think, "If only I had spent more time with them, they wouldn't have rebelled so much as teenagers" or "if only we had had more money, I could have paid for them to go to college." All those things haunted me for years, but now I can see that my girls' rebellion made them become free-thinkers and independent women. Our lack of funds helped them to realize that hard work is required if we want reach our goals in life. Both attended college and one of them received a bachelor's degree.

Let's remember that God can restore the years we feel we have lost. I spend plenty of time with my daughters now. Now I have the time I lacked when my daughters were young to dote on my four grandchildren. And guess what? I'm no longer single. I married the most wonderful man on the planet. My life has been restored and blessed abundantly.

If I could turn back time.....I wouldn't. All the things that I did or said were the best I could do for what I knew at the time. "He restores my soul" (Psalms 23:3), and for that I am most grateful.

Light and love,
Patty

Speaking Faith-Filled Words

"Our words can bless our future or they can curse it," writes Joel Osteen. We give life to our faith when we use our words in a positive way. When we are grateful for our lives and complaint-free, we bring blessing in abundance to them.

When we look for the best in everyone and speak it, they become the best. With our children, we can speak blessing into their lives even when they are not living their best lives. If they are not behaving the way we would like them to behave, we can put a positive spin on it to our friends. When they ask about them, we can say, "She's blessed. She makes good decisions. She is kind and respectful. She just doesn't know it yet!" Joel Osteen suggests this practice in his new book, IT'S YOUR TIME.

We can also use our words to speak healing into our lives. Yesterday my back was hurting me, but I decided not to give it attention. I thanked God for my perfect health. I knew that if I didn't feel perfectly healthy at that moment, it was not a permanent thing. This morning I woke up feeling great. I took the time to thank God for healing me before I even got out of bed this morning. Once we realize the correlation between what we say and how we feel, we will make sure our words are full of faith. Let's remember to be victors, not victims. Joel 3:10 says, "Let the weak say, 'I am strong.'" We need to claim our victory even when we don't feel it.

Zechariah 10:1 says, "Ask the Lord for rain in springtime." It's the first day of spring and outside my window, I see snow, not rain! The idea of this verse, though, is to ask for what we need. We simply take things for granted sometimes, and do not even think about them. Yet, if we use the words to express our desires, we are voicing faith and releasing God's power. The snow may not disappear, but it will soak into the ground and bring forth flowers in as beautiful a way as rain would.

I'm grateful for today, and I am going to proclaim good things for my loved ones, myself, and you. God bless!

Love and light,
Patty

Favor Has Been Released in Your Future

"Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow them," wrote Louisa May Alcott.

When I think about my future, I believe that every day the right people will come into my path, the right circumstances will unfold, and the right breaks will come my way. This has been a regular occurrence in my life, building my faith and expectation in such a way that I am extremely optimistic about my life and the lives of my loved ones.

Psalms 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Joel Osteen says, "When you stay in faith, you will walk into God's blessings. Understand that He's already released into your future everything you need to fulfill your destiny. My prayer for you is that you will receive everything God has in store."

I also pray that for my grandchildren. Yesterday my oldest granddaughter turned fifteen and I pray that God will release favor into her future and give her health, wisdom, strength, and supernatural opportunity. I ask it in the name of Jesus.

God bless her, and God bless you.

Love and Light,
Patty

Choosing Faith over Fear

"Nothing before, nothing behind; the steps of faith fall on the seeming void and find the rock beneath," wrote the American poet, John Greenleaf Whittier. God is our solid Rock and the Source that gives us sure footing to meet every situation we encounter. God gives us the wisdom and power to do all things in the most successful manner. "All things work together for them that love God." (Romans 8:28) To find the security of the Rock beneath our steps gives us faith in a brighter world. Surely the greatest good will come to us and everything will work out perfectly if we have that kind of faith. Our lives will rise to meet our expectations.

Joel Osteen points out that faith tells us to believe in the positive, to believe that God will supply all our needs, and to believe that our best days are yet to come. Fear, on the other hand, causes us to think negatively about our finances, our health, and our state of being. He tells us that we can choose faith over fear and trust God with gratitude in our hearts to resolve any situation that could cause us anxiety. Even when things look a little dark and cloudy, we know that the Sun is still shining.

When one door closes, another opens. "According to your faith will it be done to you." (Matthew 9:29)

Let's stay positive so that the people around us will catch our optimism and be in a better mood and feel good about life. If we keep our spirits high, we will give everyone around us a healthy dose of hope.

Let's be careful not to watch too much bad news. Joel says, "I like to watch the news. I like to know what's going on. But I'm careful to recognize when I have the information I need and when it's just redundant doom and gloom that I don't need to hear again and again......Turn off negative talk. Fill your mind with thoughts of victory!"

Our God is all-powerful. There is no need to worry. We can choose faith over fear this very minute.

Light and Love,
Patty