Category Archives: Spiritual Journey

June 23, 2009 · 6:00 am

It’s Easier To Bridle A Horse.

Here are a few more pics of Anna’s horse camp adventure:

Anna - Horse Camp 1

Anna - Horse Camp 2

Anna - Horse Camp 3

Anna - Horse Camp 4

Anna - Horse Camp 5

When I first saw Anna on this big horse by her little self, I was slightly fearful.  After all, how could someone so small control such a large animal?  It reminded me of how James tells us it’s easier to bridle a horse than bridle our tongue.  Hmmm. 

James 3 says, “We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth…..People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, but no one can tame the tongue.” 

But, with God’s help, we can bridle it just as we bridle a horse.  And, if we are able to do that, imagine how many more blessings we will speak.  How much more life we will impart.  Every time we open our mouths, we allow others to look into our heart.  I hope my words are makin’ my heart look good.  But, I know that sometimes, I probably make it look pur-tee yucky. 

So, today I’m praying:

Take control of what I say, O Lord, and guard my lips.  Psalm 141:3

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June 19, 2009 · 6:00 am

Guest Blog: Barbara Goss

Mom wp

Randomness Readers, it is with the greatest of honors I give you my mama today.  Love her.  Lu-huv her.  Take it away, Mom.

Do You Know Him as Father?

I would like to thank Dusty for giving me this opportunity to be a guest on her blog.  I do not take this lightly.  I consider it a huge honor just to be asked.  So, in an attempt to be half as interesting and not nearly as funny as my wonderful daughter, here it goes.

This Sunday is Father’s Day, and I would like to share a little of my life and what I have learned from my father.

To provide for our family, my father was a truck driver.  He was rarely at home, so I did not have a relationship with him.  I saw my dad one week a month (sometimes), and then when I did see him, it truly was a strain and very stressful time.  I won’t bother you with those details.  Growing up in a family without a “father figure” would become an issue with me later in life as one would probably imagine.

After giving my life to Jesus and growing in my faith, I still felt I was missing out on something.  I was longing for something more.  A part of my heart ached.  There was a part missing.  

I cried out to Jesus. 

I will never forget to this day how He spoke to me.  I can even recall where I was standing at that very moment.  He spoke these words to me:   “You know me as Jesus, and you know me as Lord.   And, My Holy Spirit you know and have experienced.  But, do you know me as your Father?   Have you opened that door”?   In Psalms 68: 5, He said He would be a Father to the fatherless.

Overwhelmed, I couldn’t hold back the tears. 

It was then and there that I realized I didn’t know what a father was.  It was once said to me the way we see our earthly father is the way we see and accept our Heavenly Father.  For me, that was so true.  I petitioned God to teach me – show me what a father is, and does!  And, it all started from there.  He began to teach me about fathers, and how a father loves his children. How a father will protect them, never leaves them, guides them, and how a father longs to give and bless his children.

The Miracle?  God restored and gave me an amazing relationship with my earthly father!  My father went to be with the Lord in 1985, but I had a wonderful relationship with my father for almost 10 years – one that I would have never imagined. God, our Father, is an awesome God and an amazing Father.  Do you know Him as your Father?

I would also like tell my dearest and best friend, who not only happens to be a wonderful father to our daughter, but great father to an incredible church (Eagles Way):  Happy Father’s Day Buren Goss.  I love you!

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June 11, 2009 · 6:00 am

Do Over.

* Originally posted June 26, 2008

Remember when you were a kid playing one of those recess games, and someone would yell, “DO OVER!”  And, usually he got his do-over?  Life’s not always so simple.  There have been many circumstances in my twenty-three thirty-three years   I wish I could do over. 

Like the time I told my parents I was going to see Driving Miss Daisy with friends, and I cruised up and down Taylor Street instead.  My mom asked me which theater the movie was playing in….smart little booger….. “the left theater, center theater or right theater?” 

“The, the, the left!” I answered.

How could I not know it was the center?  After all, the movie was filmed in my hometown.  Why wouldn’t it take center stage?  I wish I could do that one over.  It would have saved me two weeks of grounding.

I’d also like a do-over on the time I colored my hair orange, my last speeding ticket, and probably the chips and queso I ate yesterday.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I’d so eat the chips and queso again today.

Point is, we all have something in life we’d like to get a do-over on.  For most of us, they are not things as trivial as mentioned above.  We’d like a do-over on a friendship, a marriage, a job – you know what I’m talkin’ about.  And, while we can’t get do-over’s on those things, we do get a do-over every day with God. 

Many people think we serve a God who stands over us with a giant rock, ready to crush it on our little heads.  A God whose wrath is fierce.  A God who positions Himself to punish His children at a moment’s notice. 

That’s not Him. 

At the second we ask Him to create a clean heart in us, He does.  He is a God who loves.  A God who forgives.  We don’t have to earn it.  We don’t have to work for it.  The price has already been paid.  He freely gives, we freely receive.

I get a do-over every morning.  I’m glad I do.  I need it.

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  Lamentations 3:22-23

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June 8, 2009 · 6:00 am

I Need To Find Myself.

I really dislike this statement.  “Find Myself.”  Actually, the Word of God tells us to LOSE ourselves.  “Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.” 

I can understand the heart behind how these words are referenced at times.  But, truthfully, it is far from what we should be doing. 

Because, when we lose our life and pursue Christ, we know we are.  We can read the Word of God and know we are.  God is clear in His word that we are:

– seated with Christ.

– bought with a price.

– called His friend.

– children of God.

– justified in Christ.

– complete in Him.

– forgiven.

I could go on.  And on.  And on.  My point is that we don’t need to find ourselves.  God has already told us who we are. 

My friend, Ron Walters, recently told me a better term for “finding” oneself.  He explained how he felt God had told him to “define” himself.  To define his boundaries.  To define what he’s looking for in a career.  To define what he was willing to accept from others, from himself, and for himself.  To define how to put legs to what God has called him to do.

Maybe you are in a place where you just need to define yourself.  To define yourself and how you are going relate to your current circumstances.  But, define yourself knowing WHO you are in Christ. 

I know what it’s like to be sitting in a very different place in life where circumstances have changed drastically.  I’ve been married then suddenly sitting in a house with newborn baby.  A single mom.  A very different life.  But, I never had to go find myself.  I already knew who I was.  Because, God had already told me in His Word.  I had to define how to apply what was already inside of me to my current conditions. 

I know.  A little too deep for a Monday.   But, I do feel better now.  Thankyousokindly.

Are you in a defining place?

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June 4, 2009 · 6:00 am

Praying This One.

Both of my kids love the Mathew West song, “The Motions.”  I’m pretty sure they can sing every word.  The chorus says:

“I don’t wanna go through the motions
I don’t wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me.
I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking,
“What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?”

I cannot tell you how much I pray this very thing over my children.  How much I don’t just want them to go through the motions of life.  But to go through them intentionally. 

Intentionally.

With purpose.

With resolve to do life in a way that makes a difference.

Where they live beyond themselves.

And, quite possibly, change the world.

My Dad begins a new series this Sunday called “Intentional.”  Intentional in our pursuit after Christ.  Intentional in our marriage.  Intentional in how we parent our children.  Intentional with one another.

I’m pretty excited about it.  As a matter of fact, I’m building my life on it.

Are you doing life intentionally?

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April 27, 2009 · 6:00 am

Sometimes, I Just Need To Count My Stones.


Pastor Craig Groeschel of Lifechurch.tv made this statement yesterday:

“God is often doing the most when we understand the least.”

I’m in a trusting place with God right now.  Well, are we not always in a trusting place with God?  But, especially trusting Him more than usual.  Does that sound wrong?  I dunno.  Anyway.  When we don’t see Him moving or we don’t understand, we often question if He is doing anything at all.

He is.

So, what am I doing in the meantime?

I am remembering what He has already done.  I am remembering my stones.  Because, He has proven Himself more than enough times.

Remember what God has already done.  And, rest in knowing that He is doing something.

Mkay?

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April 23, 2009 · 6:00 am

Finding God’s Will


“However, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’ – but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit” 1 Corinthians 2:9-10

I am constantly seeking God’s will for my life.  Of course, aren’t most of us?  I read this verse again recently and the “revealed to us by His Spirit” part brought me a whole lot of comfort. 

God has already planned our steps.  He knows what our first step looks like and our last.  He has already mapped out our journey.  The really cool part is that the Spirit walks out our journey with us.  We never go at it alone.  We don’t have to play a guessing game with God’s will.  

The Spirit not only guides us but, He is also our companion.  And, He reveals to us His will along the way. 

That’s all I got today.  But it’s that just completely cool?

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April 21, 2009 · 6:00 am

Maybe I’ve Judged Jack Bauer.


My friend Shari left this morning on a red-eye flight back to Florida.  But, not before she made me sit through an episode of 24. 

Sorry friends.  I’ve never really made friends with Jack.  None the less, she managed to shush me the entire hour.  Then, she sneezed over and over again during commercials.

For the love.

Despite her obsession for Mr. Jack Bauer, I did enjoy her visit.  And, we did manage to share our hearts and where we felt Christ was leading us.  I also told her the most recent issue God has been dealing with me on.

Judgmentalism.

I know, right?  It seems like I would have already dealt with this by now.  I’m not sure how God deals with you, but He doesn’t seem to play around with me.  Remember this post?  At first, God whispered to me, “See people the way I see people.”

Oh, I totally got that.  For a while.

Then, without even realizing it, I’d make a judgment on someone again.  And, I know – I’m completely uncovering myself here.  But, it’s true.  I’d judge them for not making what I thought was a Godly decision or for walking in disobedience. 

Until.

Until, God started showing me how ugly it all was.  It was as if He put my judgments in my face and said, “Isn’t this ugly?”

It was.

I was convicted.

I’m becoming more and more conscious of it now.  Perhaps, it’s kind of like forming a habit.  You practice and practice not judging until you finally really see people the way He sees people.

As His children.

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April 8, 2009 · 6:00 am

I Am So Weak.


Sometimes I feel that I need to put on a happy face, quote the right scriptures, and say all of the things a follower of Christ is expected to say.  I feel I have to be tough – because, of who I am in Him.

But, I don’t have to always be tough.

You don’t either.

As a matter of fact, God wants us to be WEAK.  That’s right.

Weak.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 says, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses…For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

How stinkin’ cool is that?  Not only can we kick it back all weak like, but Christ digs it.  Because, our brokenness before Him makes His miraculous power perfect.  And, EXACTLY WHAT WE NEED WHEN WE NEED IT.

I’m not suggesting that we aren’t strong in the Lord.  But, I am suggesting that we realize our brokenness before Him.  And, once we tire of fighting a battle that’s really not ours anyway, we become weak. 

THEN, once we become weak, we will be made strong.

Love that.

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April 1, 2009 · 6:00 am

If Oprah Calls, Tell Her I’m Only Free On Fridays.


I wasn’t sure, but I thought God was trying to tell me something.  Last Saturday, I dreamed I won an Emmy for writing some fantastic television series.  Katherine Heigl was my BFF.  Oh, and I also saw John Travolta at some event, and I was like “Whatev” and all.  Then, last night I dreamed I was hanging out with Elvis Presley – the skinny, Viva Las Vegas Elvis, not the I don’t care what anyone thinks of me, because I can sing “How Great Thou Art” like it’s nobody’s business Elvis.

Since the king is no longer shakin’ it, I’m pretty sure it was the Benedryl talking and not the Almighty. 

Of course, those dreams sure are nicer than the dream that took years for me to recover from.  It’s the one where the Incredible Hulk chased me inside my dad’s church when I was a child.  It’s true.  You won’t like him when he’s angry.

I do have some real dreams.  You know, visions for my life.  The Bible says that “where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18)  Since it’s true that one in two marriages end in divorce, I better have a vision for a closer, more intimate relationship with my husband, right?  A vision for a healthier me leads to time at the gym – something I saw for the first time yesterday in a very long time.  Otherwise, without this vision, I’ll probably just succumb to daily consumptions of chips and queso. 

We don’t just accidentally end up fulfilling visions.  We do it on purpose.  One of the visions I have for my children is for them to grow up with a heart after God.  That they will be fully surrendered followers of Christ all the days of their lives.  I realize this will probably not just happen.  So, I’m cautious with what kind of music they listen to.  I disciple them in small things.  We are intentional in praying before dinner.  I do things that will hopefully, with much prayer, lead them to seek His Kingdom first.

We have to be intentional.  To fulfill our life visions, we have to get there on purpose.

Do you have a vision for your life?  What are you doing on purpose to get there?

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