Thanking Him

I ran by this devotional from Jesus Today. It was exactly what I needed to hear today!

First attempt at Chalkboard art...lots of room for improvement :)

Friday Favorites

1. My husband is awesome! He has been a huge blessing to me this week. I've had a rough week to say the least. He has been supportive, encouraging, and doing everything!! So thankful to do life with him!

2. One Thousand Gifts - I just got to 100. What a great reminder to look at our day and focus on the gifts God gives us!

3. Me, Myself and Lies - The ladies and I have been doing this study. We just finished. What an eye-opener to hearing the things that I have been telling myself. It's amazing...

4. I Desire Jesus - In love with this song! 

5. Sun Tea - I've been making sun tea everyday! Here is my favorite :) 

6. Motto rides - After my run, Claudy asked if I wanted to go on a motto ride. Love those and him :) The motto died a little ways down the road, we had to push it home :) Good memories :) 

Have a great weekend!

Be Silent

I have one of the those personalities.... The type - A... organized, planned, gets a lot done, etc...and most days, I love it.

Right now, I'm in a war with my personality. My desire is to make a plan for what happens in August when we move back to the states. I want to have everything in line, so I won't skip a beat...I want to live in that perfect bubble. Yet, I can't really plan. I'm here...in Haiti. I need to be here...I haven't been called home yet.

It's a war.

God has been teaching me throughout the last years, that I can make a plan...but more importantly I need to listen to His call. I need to live in this moment. I need to be His hands and feet right NOW!

My mom and dad with my aunt and uncle are here visiting. I was talking about my struggle. Everyone asks...what will you do when you come home? The real answer is...I have no clue, yet in my heart I want to tell them this masterful plan, only I have no plan. The real answer, Claudy and I haven't heard specific answer for what is next for us.

My Aunt encouraged me...she read to me Exodus 14: 13-14

And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

That's the real answer. BE SILENT. 

God has always been faithful to me. He has always provided, He has ALWAYS shown up. I need to BE SILENT and wait for him! He is fighting for ME!

Be an Encourager

In the last week God has been speaking to me about my attitude (along with my wonderful fiance, I love how they can point out your weaknesses). It's been easy here to get caught up in the difficulties. To focus, on the hardship, the sufferings, the trials, and the work you don't feel called to do. I've been stuck in a rut. I've been choosing to focus on the things that are hard for me, instead of the the blessings.

Yesterday I started reading through 2 Corinthians and I was so encouraged by Paul's words in chapter 1, verse 7...

 There is a reason for the suffering, for the trials and for the comfort...that way we can share with our brothers and sisters, we can extend grace and mercy and comfort them when they are going through sufferings, because we too, have been through them.

Yesterday, I was praying through what God wanted me to do with this, how to use my sharing of the suffering. I was convicted that I wasn't being a person of encouragement. He wants to use me to encourage His saints. Today as I read in chapter, I came across verse 15....we are called to be the aroma of Christ...

 My prayer today is that Christ will use me to encourage others and that everywhere I go, I will let off the aroma of Christ.

Picking up on my One Thousand Gifts...

55. Sun blisters from a relaxing day at the beach.
56. The smell of the Caribbean waters.
57. God's perfect creation of the ocean, it's simple beauty.
58. The fragrance of the rain.
59. Elaise's sweet smile of thanks everyday.
60. God sending people of encouragement at the times we need them most.
61. Book of letters from my family.

62. Mom's drawing of the farming, making me less homesick.

63. Notes from the children at the orphanage.

Days 19-21: {25 Days of Christmas} -Our Savior

I had a totally different post in mind today, but during my 7 hour layover in Miami, I was reading from the devotional that Claudy and I started this month. I am so thankful that God became man, lived a perfect life, so that we could have life. I really don't have much to add to the devotional..so here it is, 

In Jesus' genealogy is Raahab, a woman of questionable morals who helped the Hebrew spies as they entered the Promised Land. And a generation later, the Moabite Ruth appears. Then, within two generations, an adulterous king with a murderous bent shows up. What are a Canaanite prostitute, a Moabite outsider, and a law-breaking king doing in Jesus' genealogy? Pointing to the hope we have in Christ, that's what.

Think about it: Jesus - the incarnate God, the invisible Creator appearing in flesh - is a descendant of sinners. If Jesus could come from the seed of a prostitute, a foreigner, and an adulterer, He's just the One to represent sinners to God. While sinless Himself, the holy Son of God came in the form of fallen flesh, a descendant of sinful humanity in need of salvation. That kind of God-man could represent us well. In Him we can hope. 

We forget, with all of Jesus' holiness and perfection, the fallenness of the world He entered. He didn't take on Garden of Eden flesh; He took on the flesh that was forced out of the Garden to till the stubborn soil. He took on flesh that killed prophets and seduced God's people, the flesh of circumcised rebels, foreigners, and outcasts. He took on the flesh of all of us. 

God didn't just become man, He became man in the form of those who had fallen-miserably. Only that kind of Savior can give us hope. His discent to save us is greater than we thought, and our salvation is greater than we imagined.

From the One Year Worship The King Devotional

I am so thankful for the salvation of a sinless man in our fallen world. 

May Christ dwell in you,

Ashlee

The Unheeded Secret

My place of solitude each morning.

I had forgotten my small devotional, "My Utmost For His Highest," in my house in Florida. When I was home I grabbed it. I had forgotten how much wisdom was packed into each small reading. The last week as been focused on the journey of a missionary and so many things that he has written about has really encouraged me. Today's entry however, put into exact words what I have been struggling with over the last month in Haiti. It reads.

"It's entire strength lies in the fact that here you are immersed in the truths of God to soak in them before Him. You have no idea of where or how God is going to engineer your future circumstances, and no knowledge of what stress and strain is going to be placed on you either at home or abroad. And if you waste your time in over activity  instead of being immersed in the great fundamental truths of God's redemption, then you will snap when the stress and strain do come. But if this time of soaking before God is being spent in getting rooted and grounded in Him, which may appear to be impractical, then you will remain true to Him whatever happens." 
You can read the rest here... 


Before I left for Haiti, I had this pretty picture in my mind, that when I would come, I would have all the time in the world to sit and pray and soak up in God's word. While I don't have the same distractions here as I did in the United States, there are still distractions. I soon began doing, doing, doing and was trying to keep it all together, on my own strength. Then....I snapped....the stress was too much and I couldn't do it all. (I'm sure God was thinking, "Ashlee, when are you going to learn this lesson that I keep trying to teach you.") Last week I was able to have a great day alone in His word. It helped me regain my focus and to get rooted in Him. Sometimes, I become so focused on the tasks ahead, that I forget about the reason I am even here....I am here to share God's glory and his redemption.

God's Grace

Deuteronomy 4:32 - 40


" 32 “For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. 33 Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? 34 Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. 36 Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. 37 And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them3 and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, 38 driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, 39 know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. 40 Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”


It's amazing how easily, I like the Israelite's, forget what God has brought me through. How, He has proved his faithfulness time and time again, when He didn't need to. When I was in the wilderness and was chasing the wind....He continued to pursue me. He still pursues me....He still gives me grace.