Silent Storm is Hitting...What to Do??

A silent and invisible storm is on the way and all you want t do is hide out in bed.  Stop!  I believe that at our best we live our life one moment at a time, one day at a time.  It is a 12 step principle but I also believe it is a Godly practice as well.  I believe that God wants us to be present in our lives and not be worrying about tomorrow or what it may bring.  Whenever I am stuck in the midst of a difficult time or a difficult storm I find that it’s easy to start worrying about the ‘what if’s’…I worry and worry about things yet to come.   Then I remember my Dad’s advice, “Don’t try to figure everything out and don’t just sit and give up. Get up, go to work and do the next ‘right’ thing.”  It’s this advice that has carried me through many a tough times.

I don’t believe that any of us will ever be immune from difficulty.  I am also one of those people that get a gut feeling when a big change is coming.  It’s happened to me a few times; I will be overtaken by a deep, gut feeling that a major change is coming.  I have learned to share it with my husband because it’s a heads up for him as well.  I have yet to be wrong when that feeling overcomes me.  My natural inclination would be to stick my head in the sand and pretend that I never felt it and all is well.  I now have chosen to handle the gut feeling differently because I believe my gut is the Holy Spirit giving me a heads up. So I share my feeling, pray and wait. 

If you are waiting on this invisible storm, I know it can be scary.  I know for me, that I feel a change in my spirit.  I can only liken it to being able to feel the change of pressure in the atmosphere when a storm is moving in.  You feel the pressure in your sinuses and know by the feel of the air that something is coming.  That is how my gut feels to me.  I feel it and then just wait for it to hit, not knowing the day or time it will hit.  What I have found is that in this waiting I go back to my Dad’s advice and do the next right thing.  I don’t sit and wait, I move, I pray and wait. 

We aren’t meant to live on the sidelines of life.  We aren’t meant to be observers, but instead be participants.  If you feel a storm in your life is there or on the way and all you want to do is crawl in bed and pull the covers over your head, I challenge you to take the Dad test.  Get up, pray for strength and peace to get through it and then do the next right thing.  Clean your house, do your laundry, go to work, eat out with friends – keep moving and do the next right thing.  It’s in the next right thing that I have found God’s peace and strength to face whatever storm is on the way. 

Xo Melissa

Why All The Stop Signs God??

 Sometimes life seems like a bumpy, curvy road full of stop signs.  Just when you feel like things are picking up – stop sign.  Just when you get going at a good clip – stop sign.  I admit – I’m not a big fan of stop signs.  Instead I would rather drive the long and curvy road – maybe slow down – but definitely not stop!  Yet, probably for this reason alone God has chosen to line my life at this moment with a lot of stop signs.

I’ve shared on the air and in person with friends and family that this is a difficult season.  It’s not the first difficult season, but it is one of the longest and slowest.  As a couple, we feel like we have had our legs kicked out from under us.  The security of our friends is no longer an option.  Our financial security is also missing.  I keep asking myself about what lesson God has for me and us in this time.  I know that depending solely on Him is part of it but I also feel like there is another lesson still to come.  I’ll be honest, I’m not really excited about any more lesson!. 

The lesson that I have had to repeat time and time again in my life is patience.  I use to say, ‘patience is a virtue, it’s just not one of mine!’  Yep, probably should have kept that thought to myself because I keep living this lesson.  The road to patience and peace is the road I believe I’m on right now.  The stop signs – if I had to guess they are a way of reminding me that I’m not in control.  A sage reminder but not one of my favorites considering I’m a control freak. 

Okay, so if this is why stop signs are loitering my life when will this lesson be over?  Aw, this is the quagmire I’m currently stumbling around on.  See, I have no answers.  As I say on my show, I just have a lot of questions about this but no real answers.  What I do know is that I’m being asked to stop a lot and all I want to do is speed .

Xo

Melissa