1. The Spirit of Divine Interception by Dr. Francis Myles
2. Fearless by Max Lucado
3. Captivating by John and Staci Eldridge
4. Intercessory Prayer by Dutch Sheets
5. Defeating Fear by Carrie C. Stone (seriously, I read this one about 15 times in 2010!!)
6. Transforming Church in Rural America by Shannon O’Dell
7. Revealer of the Enemy by Jack Serra
8. Esther by Charles Swindoll
9. Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado
10. Jesus on Leadership by C. Gene Wilkes
11. Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham by Harold Myra and Marshall Shelley
12. Get Out of that Pit by Beth Moore
13. Home Educating with Confidence by Rick Boyer (A must read for home schoolers)
14. Everyones a Coach by Ken Blanchard and Don Shula
15. The G Free Diet by Elisabeth Hasselbeck (great for new Celiacs)
16. The Bondage Breaker by Neil T. Anderson
17. The Truth Behind the Secret by James K. Walker and Bob Waldrep
18. How to Reach Your Full Potential for God by Charles Stanley
19. Fasting by Jentezen Franklin
20. The Bait of Satan by John Bevere
21. Jesus by Charles Swindoll
22. The Way of the Worshiper by Buddy Owens
23. Unmasking the Jezebel Spirit by John Paul Jackson

I ended the year by reading three Richard Paul Evans books in three days while I was sick. I have never read one of his books which I would not recommend. When you want a fast read which will have a good, positive story, he is a great choice. I also concluded 2010 in the middle of reading “Intercessory Prayer” (for the second time) and “12 Extraordinary Women” by John MacArthur.
I can already see that 2011 is going to be a year of learning more about Christian leaders of the past. I am already enamored with Charles H. Spurgeon and am reading his devotional “Evening by Evening.” I will focus more on books about people who have overcome great obstacles to live out their destinies. I will also focus heavily on any books which will draw me into a closer and more intimate relationship with God.
What will you focus on this year? What will you put into your mind through the written word? Whatever you use to entertain your brain will impact your life for good or for bad. Which will you choose? I pray you will decide this year to go deeper than you have ever gone before. You have a destiny and a purpose only you can accomplish. Choose not to waste time on the trivial when you can be triumphant instead. Do it now! Your destiny is waiting!!

When I was asked to review a book by Andy Andrews, internationally known speaker and author of New York Times Bestsellers The Traveler’s Gift and The Noticer, I was really excited.  This man is certainly someone who has been leaving his mark on the world. In a time were heroes are made out of men and women who are esteemed as important because of what they do and how much money they make, this book was a breath of fresh air!  The stories were captivating, the illustrations were exceptional and my two children were drawn into the excellence of this work from the first page.

The next generation needs to inspired by the previous generations of men and women who have selflessly impacted the world with their God-given gifts and talents.  With more books like this one, we will change the world one boy and one girl at a time!

I highly recommend this book to parents, grand parents, teachers and childcare providers who want to make a difference in the life of a boy or girl destined impact the world and disciple nations!  So get out and buy this book today!  Somebody’s destiny is waiting!!

Nehemiah 8:10

Tuesdays are my favorite day of the week.  On that day at 1:30 PM PST, I meet with incredible people from all around this great land of ours and pray.  We are a group of people who are all involved somehow in entertainment or media, but we are all committed to one purpose – seeing the Lord our God glorified in all things.

Three years ago this month, the Lord led Virginia Morton of  http://www.marchingthroughculpeper.com  to begin these calls with the intention of making her riveting book Marching Through Culpeper into a movie.  My husband and I had the great fortune of becoming a part of this team after I read about Virginia in Rick Heeren’s book Marketplace Miracles about a year and a half ago.  Our lives have been blessed as we have grown deeper in our faith through this Holy Spirit led association. This morning during my private time with my Daddy, God spoke to my spirit and gave me a message on joy which I thought was for me alone.  As we prayed on the call today, it became very apparent to me that God’s messages are never singular in focus, but are intended to be universal and for the edification of the Church.  As I spoke this message over these saints of God, I knew in my heart that I was to share it with you too.  So right now, I call your spirit to attention as I share this word of encouragement from your Father with you.

“I love your intensity for Me, but in that intensity, do not forget to be joyful in all circumstances.  Let your passion for Me bring you constant joy as I unfold the truth to you.  I know the revelations of My Truth can be overwhelming with the responsibility it carries, but still there is joy in it.  As you learn more and more, see your spirit dancing around in an open field full of wild flowers; full of passion and able to grow in even the most adverse conditions.  You have always seen yourself as a rose – in need of special care and attention, but you are not that fragile.  A rose is beautiful for a time, but it is here today and gone tomorrow.  You are stable and deeply rooted.  Your beauty is appreciated by the multitudes, but it is not  your outward adornment for which they marvel.  It is Me in you that they see.  Remember that as you go out into the world.  Carry My Spirit of joy with you for that will attract the masses to you.  It is My peace which is the bait.  I will pour it out through you to draw the world in to Me.”

Take the time to be joyful today no matter what your circumstances may be.  You are not alone.  He will never leave you nor forsake you.  He is a God who inhabits the praises of His people, so praise Him while you dance in the open field of beautiful wild flowers!  Do it today….your destiny is waiting.

I posted a comment on Facebook the day after my final visit to our beautiful home which my husband so lovingly built with his own two hands.  I was trying to be funny in my comment, maybe just to ease the pain by saying “I went to say one last goodbye to my house yesterday. It had no response!” But the outpouring of love I received brought me to tears and to this page to share my thoughts.  One special woman wrote the following message: “A real loss. Grieve it. Ask: What would my house have said back to me as I said goodbye? If you can stand it, maybe room by room. Remember this is a major loss for Rod and your children, too. Maybe have a “memorial” evening in a special place as a family. Prayers and love as you transition into the new place God is calling all of you.” For some reason, these words caused me to cry.  Even now as I read them again, I cannot help but to be broken before God and to wipe the tears from my eyes.  You see, although God provided for us in a mighty way and, we are beyond grateful for His grace towards us, we still have feelings, emotions, pain and feelings of loss and yes even failure.  Dealing with that is important.  So I will heed the wise advice of my dear friend and post the following:  “If My House Could Talk.”

If my house could talk, what would it say?  First I think it would say “thank you.”  “Thank you, Rod, for pouring your heart out for me and on me.  You did a fine job with excellent craftsmanship.  There is not one area where you did not go above and beyond what was needed or expected.  What I appreciated the most about you was that you didn’t curse even when you were tired, and you were patient with everyone who worked for you even in the midst of stress and exhaustion.  Thank you, Carrie, for insisting there be scriptures put into my very foundation and then into my walls. That made me stronger and will carry me a long way in this world where buildings grow tired and weary and finally break down.  Thanks to all of you for the love, laughter, singing and worship which flowed through my halls and up to my rafters.  I have always carried a spirit of peace because of that.  Thank you for meeting every morning in my prayer window as you discussed the world events, the Word of God and the future together.  The strength in your relationship will be felt in this dwelling for its life.  Thank you for tending to my dings and scratches and for protecting me from the destruction of children.  I always appreciated it when I heard you scold Newell and Olivia, Carrie, by saying “You may not treat our home that way.  Do you not remember how very hard your father worked to build this for us?”  I always felt safe with the two of you.  Thank you for being silly, for taking time to dance around on my hardwood floors, for anointing every window and doorway, for falling on your knees and often your face as you worked with all of your heart and prayed with all of your spirit to keep me as part of your family.  Your tears will forever be a part of me.  I heard you as you cried out to God, and I wept with you.  On those late nights, as you paced the floor searching for answers, I was up with you. And even though I know you are already aware of this, God was here every second of every day.  When you cried, He cried too. When you worshiped in spite of the circumstances, He smiled.  And the day you finally threw up your hands and surrendered, He was the one who caught you as collapsed and grieved over your loss.

“The love your family left is overwhelming.  You are all so close that it will not matter where you live, your love will be your greatest treasure.  I admit I will not miss the pink bunny, but I will miss the two little people who created his life.  Even though I cannot go with you, the memories you created here will be yours forever.  Remember what Olivia said about needing to come back to get her memories?  Well, she already had them with her. I think she discovered that when she saw my empty shell.  You packed everything that matters in this life.  Treasure that.  Treasure the worship nights in the living room, the Sorry games at the kitchen table, the family devotion times, the jokes told, the meals prepared together, the Christmas you were snowed in, the nights on the deck, the mornings of snuggles, the school days in the school room, the book written, the songs created and recorded, the celebration as Rod’s song “USA Today” was performed on live TV by Lee Greenwood, the family get-togethers, the long nights of Scrabble and the baths in the big tub. The bank cannot take those; they are yours to keep, so cherish them.

“One day, you will think of me and it will not hurt.  Instead, you will remember the good times.  Until then, know that in every crevice, in every corner, in every tiny bit of this home, your family can be found. You have made me unique.  You have made me special.  And the next family who lives here will be blessed by what you have left behind.”

Thank you for indulging me today by for allowing me to express my heart to you.  Maybe you have something or someone you need to say goodbye to.  Take the time to do that today.  It may hurt for a moment, but it will release you to live out God’s purposes for you. Do it today!  Your destiny is waiting!



Recently, we moved into a new home, and this is an exciting time because it was an incredible provision which the Lord had given to us in our time of need.  And yet even in the midst of teaching a new series I have written called “12 Women/12 Weeks/12 Destines” to 12 incredible women with the intention of inspiring them to their greatness and to not use excuses,obstacles or distractions to keep them from the things that God would have them to do, I found myself in that exact situation! Not only being distracted by the move itself and my emotions and needing to deal with my feelings, my hurts and my disappointments from that move, but also just dealing with the chaos of organizing a house and getting things in order.  I found myself putting aside the tasks that I knew the Lord had me to do.   These were tasks that only I can accomplish.  They were given to me.  God created me in the image of Himself before time even began to do these important works.  I found myself relating to the Jews as they came out of exile and were restoring Jerusalem.  They had been instructed by the prophet Haggai and event the prophet Zechariah of the importance of needing to rebuild the temple of God first as they restored Jerusalem, but they spent 18 years rebuilding their own homes and ignoring God’s house.  Their intentions were good.  They had the right frame of mind; the right mindset to do the things of God and for God, but they spent 18 years putting off their obedience to Him in order to make their own lives comfortable.

Can you feel the conviction? As I was studying the book of Haggai, the conviction of the Lord just fell on me.  You see, the disobedience of the Israelites brought them nothing but trouble.  They experienced crop failure, drought and all kinds of challenges and discomfort simply because they procrastinated!  Haggai knew that the people were struggling, and he knew this struggle was because the people had not promptly obeyed God.  They had put their own desire for comfort and having nice houses ahead of their desire to complete the task which God Himself had assigned them to do.

This brought such great conviction upon me today because in my own desire to do what I think would please God and that is to have my home in order and everything in just the right place (and yes, order is important to God and having order in my home is good for my family, but not if it gets in the way or keeps me from accomplishing that which I was put here to do), I failed to do what I ultimately knew He wanted me to be doing.  I am still feeding my kids in the midst of the chaos.  My home is clean even in the disorder and piles of boxes.  My children are being nourished and nurtured as is my husband.  But when I focus so much on getting the details around me perfect just so I can live out the plans that God has for me, I am putting aside all that He has for me just waiting for that perfect moment and in that I am being distracted by the cares of the world and disobedient to my Father.  The world will always have cares and things will always be changing, but we need to learn to adjust to the differences and the cares and the changes all around us, and we need to be able to do that without losing our focus on what He has us here to do.

Brothers and Sisters in the Lord, keep your eyes focused on that which you were called here to do so that you will glorify your father in Heaven, and you  will accomplish great things, not in your own power and strength, but in His.

Get your eyes back on what He put your here to accomplish and do it today.  Your destiny is waiting!

Is there a vision you have received from the Lord which has not come to pass?

Are you ready to quit and walk away from God’s perfect will for you?

Before you do, read this.  I want to encourage you to keep believing, not in the dream or vision, but in the One who planted it in you before the beginning of time!

I have a big vision, and  I am a big thinker.  In many ways this is a blessing from God, but often is serves to frustrate me when I cannot take my eyes off of the big picture long enough to find the small steps which need to be taken in order to accomplish it.  Maybe you can relate.  It is fun to imagine the end, to see yourself in all of God’s glory, living out His perfect will for you.  It is rewarding to see the lives that will be changed as a result of His mighty work in your life, and yet, He will never release us into the realization of the dream without preparing us for the responsibility.  This is where we can tend to have a bit of an attitude problem.  We remember all of the saints who have gone before us, but we forget the struggles they had to endure to live out their destinies.

We think of Abraham as the Father of Faith, and yet overlook the many years he had to wait for the fruition of God’s vision for him.  As a matter of fact, he grew so impatient as he waited for God’s promise to be fulfilled that he birthed an Ishmael before his prophesied Isaac.

We think of David who at the age of 17 was anointed and appointed by God to be the next King of Israel, and yet he did not take the throne until he was 30, and that was after he had been chased down like a dog, lived like a pauper, fought for his life and acted like a madman.

And we cannot ignore Joseph who had a dream so great his brothers sold him into slavery.  He was falsely accused of a crime he did not commit and spent years in a dungeon forgotten by the world around him.  He had no reason to believe his dream would become a reality, but even still, he lived for his Lord and not for himself, his character was developed in the dungeon and he rose from obscurity to greatness.

There are countless others in the Word and throughout history whose lives will reveal the truth of the scripture in James 1:2-4 “Consider is pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Abraham persevered as did David, Joseph, Paul, Peter, Jesus, Sarah, Samuel, Daniel, King Jehoshaphat, Queen Ester, Moses, Caleb, Joshua, Jonah and I pray your name will be added to this list.

Lately, I was becoming frustrated because the vision of my future is so big that I could not see what I needed to do in this moment.  The brightness of the vision was blinding me to the work which needs to be done before the birthing can begin.  I have been trying to induce labor instead of allowing nature to take it’s course. It made me think of Zechariah 4:10 which states, ” Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.” The Lord rejoices to see the work begin!!  Yes, He has planted a destiny within you, but you are to do the work to bring it to completion.  Prepare yourself for the vision.  Do the work that needs to be done now so that when the time comes for you to birth your Isaac, you will be ready.  In this world of incredible medical technology, we can induce birth and rush things along so that they fit our schedule, but the Lord is telling His people to stop living like the world.  Stop trying to make things happen which are not ready to happen.  If you help a butterfly to break free from it’s cocoon, it will die.  If you induce the labor of your destiny, you may risk aborting it.  So I urge you, as I have been urged, to “trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and HE WILL DIRECT YOUR PATH!”

I will share more about this in the coming weeks, but for today ask God  what He would like you to do now to prepare for the vision He has planted within you, and then do it.  Don’t delay, your destiny is waiting!!!

I was excited to review “Gigi’s Big Break” by Sheila Walsh.  Probably because I have a little princess living in my home who reminds me so much of the gregarious Gigi, but also because I am a bit tired of the trite entertainment available for little girls today which seems to be built around vanity and self adulation.   This DVD was refreshing, humorous and memorable.

To start, I was impressed with the page illustrations.  They were vibrant and alive.  The animation seemed awkward at first to me until I realized that it was intended to look  that way for effect to resemble figures actually moving on a page as if she was coming to life in a book.  The lessons were lessons that seemed easy to grasp for children in my daughters age group (6-10).  I particularly liked the emphasis on friendship, loyalty and the energy of a creative child.

Gigi is definitely not the cookie cutter personality that we so often see displayed in film.  She is perfectly imperfect just the way our Father creates each and every one of us.  She is a great example and role model for little girls who aspire to be more than just “normal”.  I love that she is all about being who she was created to be and is encouraging other little princesses to live out their perfect destinies too.

Most of us have experienced pain in our lives at one time or another. For some, that pain has been beyond what many of us could even imagine. We live in a fallen and sinful world which has a tendency to cause us pain. What makes it worse and even harder to accept is when the pain we experience is caused by someone we love and trust. Instead of being there to protect us, they turn into someone who hurts us. It is in those moments that we not only blame others for our pain, but we also tend to ask God that loaded question – WHERE WERE YOU???
Like you, I have had several times in my life that this question came to my mind. When my parents divorced. When I had a bad car accident. When my sister died. These were times I remember asking God where He was. One day recently, He revealed to me just where He was during those times of crisis when I thought He had deserted me. He gave me visions into the moments, and for the first time ever, I saw just where He was. He had not abandoned me as I had thought, but instead, He was there with me in the midst of the pain.
The day my mother left and I ran into her room and sat in the middle of her bed and cried, there He was rocking me. He was holding me, wiping my tears and taking my pain as His own. In my car accident, I could see Him sitting on my lap and taking the brunt of the collision so that my injuries would not be life threatening. And the most comforting of all was when I could see where He was the day my sister died. During the accident, He stood between her car and the tractor trailer. He cried as He held her and led her home, but then He took the time to find me too as I was told the horrifying news. There He was at the door with arms outstretched waiting for me to run to Him and that afternoon, I did just that.
When we question where God is, often it is our questioning of why He allowed these bad things to happen. We are blaming God, but God is not to blame. Man has a free will. In that will, he can choose God’s ways or man’s ways. Parents can choose to stay together or divorce. An old man who shouldn’t be driving can choose to be stubborn and drive anyway. A truck driver can choose to take drugs so he can get more miles on the road. The victim can choose to stay a victim by holding onto unforgiveness and bitterness or they can choose to forgive the offender and trust God.
When God created man, He made us in His image. He did not create drug dealers, rapists, abusers or adulterers. Sin did. He fearfully and wonderfully made us – perfectly. But He did not create robots. There is great responsibility in this free will we have. Some use it for good; others don’t, but in it all, God is always there. He is always with us.
He has told us that He will never leave us nor forsake us. That means all of us, everywhere. God is no respecter of persons. He loves all whom He creates.
If you are dealing with a pain which does not seem to go away, release it to God. Ask Him to show you where He was. He says that if you seek Him you will find Him if you seek Him with all of your heart. So seek Him today. Your destiny is waiting.