The Repeat

Wake Up Sleeper – Ephesians 5:14

God, we give you thanks – 1 Chronicles 29:13

A friend from Worcester reached out to me on Easter.  She couldn’t believe my blog post on Facebook.  It was the one where Evan, our teenage son flipped the truck off the mountain, rolling several times before luckily being stopped  by a cluster of trees.  She knew Evan when he was a preschooler learning to ride a bicycle. 

She also knew me when my 3 O’Clock alarm first started going off.  Fifteen years ago we were both raising young kids with husbands who worked way too many hours.  I remember sitting on her living room floor completely overwhelmed as a young mom, exhausted, and complaining non-stop. 

That’s when God started waking me up.  Every day when my 3pm alarm sounded, I might be in a different location with the kids but the same negative, toxic thoughts were rolling around in my mind.  A simple act of gratitude changed my world from the inside out.

What about you?  Do you ever feel trapped in negative thought patterns?  Today today giving thanks to God for the blessings in your life.

The Power of Giving God Thanks Will Ignite Your Faith and Change Your World!

Thank You for Being A Part of the 3 O’Clock Wake Up Movement

No Time For That

Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father.  – James 1:17 (MSG)

Yesterday, I spent a beautiful morning hiking with a dear friend.  It was her birthday but, but she was the one giving me the gift of time together. Joy and laughter flowed as we talked and laughed along the trail, but I found myself questioning, “Why had it been so long since we’ve spent time together?”  I blamed my work at the church, her packed schedule, our kids… anything I could think of that had kept me away from my hiking companion.  

Later, as I drove home and quietness settled around me.  I realized that I was the one to blame.  I’d let so many other priorities get in the way of enjoying the gift of our friendship. I thought about all the hikes we could have shared, all the encouragement we’d missed out on, and all the love not poured out because of “busyness.”   

God has given you people in your life to treasure: people you enjoy and friends who make you stronger, wiser, and braver.  These people are gifts we can either cherish and “do life with” or fall asleep and let months and years go by without enjoying each other’s fellowship.

Think of one or two beloved friends you can reach out to this week and reconnect with or remember the love God has placed between you.  Now thank God for your friend and schedule time together.

The Power of Giving God Thanks Will Ignite Your Faith and Change Your World!

Thank You for Being A Part of the 3 O’Clock Wake Up Movement

Google it...

“For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and the whole world.”   

Taken from The Chaplet of Our Lady of Mercy, Saint Faustina

Isn’t the internet amazing?  You can type whatever you want into a search engine and receive enough information to write a book.  Just for the fun of it, a few years ago, I typed “3 o’clock wake up” into Google.  What popped up amazed me!

Did you know that there are 3pm prayers all around the world?  When I looked deeper into it,  I discovered the life of Sister Faustina.  Her diary shares how God called her as a teenager while growing up in Poland to enter into full-time sisterhood.  She left home against her parents’ will to follow the voice of God.  While serving in a convent, Faustina saw a vision of Jesus’ mercy for the whole world.  Out of Jesus’ heart flowed white and red beams of light representing His blood and water shed on the cross for the whole world. 

With laser focus, Faustina worked with a painter to capture her vision on canvas. She died at the age of thirty-three in 1938, but her painting, The Divine Mercy, hangs in almost every Catholic church and school around the world today. 

Now a Saint, Faustina died with her dream unfulfilled.  She had imagined a world where people everywhere would stop whatever they were doing at 3pm, look up to God and give Him thanks for His divine mercy; a mercy we don’t deserve but He so freely gives. 

My hope is the same.  Every day at 3pm we can stop and simply give God thanks for the gifts He has given.  Thank God today for His divine mercy given to you!

 The Power of Giving God Thanks Will Ignite Your Faith and Change Your World!

Thank you for joining the 3 O’Clock Wake Up Movement

Easter Bunny: Innocence Lost

For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  – Hebrews 12:2

This was the first year I’ve ever gone Easter shopping with my daughters, ages sixteen and twelve.  Until last year, the twelve year-old still believed in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.  This innocence was lost in a Target check-out line when the man in front of us announced to the clerk, “My boys are going to think Santa is the BEST this year because they’ve been wanting these Batman toys for so long!”  As our youngest slowly began to understand what had just been said, tears welled up in her eyes and she whispered, “No Santa, no Tooth Fairy, and no Easter Bunny?”  I cried a little too, because now no one in our family believed in these childhood magical visits.

I’m so thankful the Easter story is not a magical, made up story we disregard once we reach a certain age.  Unfortunately, in our country, the majority of kids who grow up in the church will leave their Christian faith in college and young adult years.  I was one of them.

But God used a simple alarm to wake me back up to His presence and love when I was a young mom.  Today, fifteen years later, my 3pm alarm is still sounding, and I’m walking in close relationship with Jesus again.

Today let’s thank God that we believe in His son Jesus, our risen Savior.  If we do, His story will change our life story for the better - forever.

The Power of Giving God Thanks Will Ignite Your Faith and Change Your World!

Thank You for Being a Part of the 3 O’Clock Wake Up Movement

The Easter Miracle

“Peace be with you.”  - Luke 24:36

He is alive!  Thank God today for Jesus’ victory over the grave and how

He is mighty to save. Happy Easter 2016! 

When our teenage son tumbled a half-ton truck off a cliff near our home in Colorado, I stood with a State Trooper who, while shaking his head back and forth, said “I should be filling out a fatality report.”  With my toes on the edge of the cliff looking down at the truck, twisted and tangled in trees, I put my arm around my son, standing next to me without a single scratch, and thanked God for the miracle.

On the first Easter, I can imagine that the disciples felt a similar sense of miracle when, as they were hiding behind locked doors, Jesus appeared and said, “Peace be with you.”  Their minds couldn’t comprehend what was happening.  On Friday, Jesus had spoken His final words from the cross, “It is finished,” and breathed His last breath at 3pm.  Now only days later, there He stood breathing, talking, and showing them His scarred hands and feet.  Logically, they thought He was a ghost.

I don’t blame them at all.  When God does the impossible, it’s normal to try to put the pieces together with our limited understanding.  When miracles happen in our lives, we attempt to rationalize the likelihood of the circumstances and look for explanations other than God. 

This Easter, let’s be thankful God still does miracles today!

The Power of Giving God Thanks Will Ignite Your Faith and Change Your World!

Thank you for joining the 3 O’Clock Wake Up Movement