God's goodness and sufficiency

"I love thee, O LORD, my strength."

The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,

My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, And I am saved from my enemies. 

~Psalm 18:1-3~

If We're Honest

So this post isn't going to be the deep post you are thinking when you saw the title.  HA!

It's actually about this awesome new music from Francesca Battistelli that I have discovered.  Now it might not be a new album, but I just discovered it last week and have been soaking in the words to her songs.  Oh boy, if you are a wife or mother, these songs are powerful!  Now one of my favs on the album that you have probably heard on the radio is "He Knows My Name", but she has two records on the album that really stood out for me.

One is called "When the Crazy Kicks In" and that really spoke to me as a mom.  And the other one is called "If We're Honest", which really spoke to me as a follower of Christ.  I wanted ya'll to hear both of these songs, so I have posted the videos in this post.  Please hear every word to these songs!  Enjoy!

Video to "When the Crazy Kicks In"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRKkGhkcmBk

Video to "If We're Honest"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySa3Vu4FUW8

Hope you have a blessed day!

In HIM,
Tabitha

My Journey to 60 miles in 3 days

On October 16th, a group of friends and myself took a trip to Atlanta to do the Susan G. Koman 3-day Walk. We would be walking 60 miles over three days. Yes, you heard me correct...60 miles. :)

For me, this was something that I wanted to achieve personally, but more importantly I wanted to raise the money for the fight against breast cancer. Breast cancer took my Aunt Vickie from our family and has taken many loved ones from friends in my life. I was also walking in honor of my daughter Madalyn. Breast cancer is an awful disease, but one that we are making huge strides against! And Susan G. Koman has played a huge part in helping with that. They raise money all over the country doing these 3-day walks. In Atlanta alone, we raised around 3.5 million!!! Isn't that awesome!!

In order to participate in the 3-day walk each participant had to raise at least $2300. And my first reaction was, "well if God wants me to do the walk, then He will provide". And that is pretty much how I looked at things the entire 6 months leading up to the walk. I knew that fundraising wasn't my strong-suit, so I would definitely have to depend on God to provide. And although I knew 60 miles was a lot to walk, I knew that with the support of my friends, I could do it.

Here is how God provided a way for me to go to Atlanta:

On Monday, September 22nd, a friend at work asked me how much I had raised for the walk. I told her I had only raised $511 so far, but I knew if it was meant for me to go on this walk, God would provide the rest. And although I believed that, I have to admit that I started to worry. I really wanted to go do this walk. It was important to me! I had trained for 6 months and was really excited about accomplishing such a huge task. And as you can see I started to turn my thoughts on ME. I wanted to do it for ME. It was no longer for God or to share God with others. It was starting to turn into an experience about ME. Monday night I prayed that God would show me what His decision was for me and this walk. I asked Him to help me turn my thoughts back to focusing on Him. And ya'll, boy did He ever!!

The next night, Tuesday, September 23rd, my friend Monica added me to a group called, Tabitha's 3 Day Auction on Facebook. I immediately looked at my husband and started crying. I was so overwhelmed by what God was about to do. (i'm tearing up again just thinking about it) I knew I had some pretty awesome friends, but ya'll I was completely overwhelmed by what they had planned. That they would take time out of their lives to raise this money for me. I was shocked! But God reminded me in Romans 12:10 ~ Show family affection to one another with brotherly love. Outdo one another in showing honor. My friends are my family and they are showing me love, but also showing others God while doing it. We gave all glory to God during that auction and boy did God provide. He really showed each person in the group and beyond what He can do when you rely on Him to provide. I had $511 the day the auction started. When the auction was all said and done, my 3-day account had $2360 in it. Wow, I am still emotional just talking about it. What an AWESOME God we serve!!

So back to the walk...before we left for Atlanta on October 16th I started to have these emotions that I was not worthy enough to be doing this.  The devil was already trying to discourage me and I was not going to let him.  I texted a few friends that I knew would pray for me and their encouragement got me going in the right direction.  I especially got excited once I met up with my teammates, Kelly and Becca.  These ladies mean the world to me and I am so thankful I was able to experience this with them. Here are a few pictures of our trip up to Atlanta. I will do a Day 1 post soon.

(My reason for walking: Aunt Vickie & Madalyn)

(Our team hats)

(Becca's Van)

(My carb meal to prepare for the walk)

My Reason for Blogging

My reason for blogging is because I feel God leading me to share my experiences in my marriage, raising my kids, my friendships, and my struggles in life.  I plan on using this blog as a way of ministering to other ladies and maybe a few funny posts mixed in there as well.  The title of my blog is all because of my experience below. Please read it and understand why I feel lead to share. I want this blog to focus on how God works in our lives.  I want it to focus solely on how God causes each of us to GET UP.  So I will encourage each of us ladies to, Girl, Get Up!  

I am not one to just tell people my story because I have trust issues.  For whatever reasons, I have trust issues.  But God has lead me to this time in my life where I feel I need to be completely honest with Him, myself, and others.  This is ME being real, honest, and broken.  I hope in some way it will be a blessing to others. 

Back in June, I saw a post on Facebook about Living Proof Live coming to Memphis, TN and was very excited about it.  Especially once I saw that it was the weekend of my birthday.  My immediate reaction was to contact three girlfriends to see if we could plan a girl’s trip to attend the event and celebrate my birthday.  I had done a number of Beth Moore studies and I knew that we would learn a lot from this event.  LITTLE DID I KNOW!

Over the next month or so, the devil tried to discourage me a number of times.  I was discouraged after hearing what people were saying about me and why I was going with another group of friends, I was discouraged by things going on with my children, and I was discouraged by what was happening to friendships around me.  But God had a plan!  He made sure I made it to this event so I could hear him!  I NEEDED to hear Him!!! 

The week leading up to the event was a horrible week.  I was having trouble with my daughter at school and was really struggling as a parent.  We had never really had any trouble with her in the past when it came to her behavior at school and so I just wasn't sure what to do.  After a conference with her teacher on Thursday morning, I was hopeful things would get better.  But the devil was in the back of my head and he was whispering “you are a horrible mother” “you have failed your child” “you failed your family by going back to work”.  And because of my childhood one of my biggest fears is failing as a mother.  Well I dropped to my knees on Thursday night, broken, abused by the words above, and needing God.  I cried out to Him.  And He heard me loud and clear.  I just didn't know it yet.

So Friday morning, my girlfriends and I head to the event.  We get to the event and find our seats.  And the devil was again trying to discourage us.  We had a lady sitting in front of us that “shushed” us 15 minutes before the event even started.  We weren't being loud, we weren't’ saying inappropriate things (we were at a Christian event for goodness sakes), so we all knew it was just the devil trying to discourage us.  And then after the lady “shushed” us, she ended up talking through the rest of the event.  It was a HUGE distraction and I can’t speak for the other ladies, but I could hardly concentrate on what Beth was saying.  However, here are some highlights from that night…

Mark 5 – Just go read this before you go any further.  Especially verses 21-43 “Talitha koum” (Little girl, I say to you, get up)

1.      Where Satan has his way, people live among tombs.

·        Let our past be our past – WOW, DID I NEED TO HEAR THIS!  God was saying my childhood does not define me. 

·        If Satan can’t get you to die from your grief, he will get you to die with your grief!

2.      Where satan has his way, people have no voice.

·        Romans 16:20

3.      Where satan has his way, people do self-harm.

4.      Where satan has his way, people are out of control and out of community.

·        I've got a God who is willing!!

So as you can see, I wasn't able to get many notes from that night.  But I did hear some of what God was speaking through Beth and that was a blessing….it was preparing me for the next day. 

So the next morning I woke up and posted this status on facebook:

4 hours of sleep is just not nearly enough for this old girl, but I had one fun night last night! God is good and I am so thankful I am here and being feed into by such an amazing woman like Beth Moore! My prayer is that when I leave this conference I am CHANGED!

Boy was I going to be CHANGED!  So we get to the event and we were able to sit in a section where we were right in front of Beth’s table with her notes (although she walks around).  Travis Cottrell starts the day off with the song “Happy” and it was awesome hearing it with the choir and a drum line, plus 9500 women singing.  J  After the worship time (which was AWESOME), Beth comes on and says that although she had something planned to speak on, God had given her more notes last night because she knew someone here needed to hear it.  God spoke to her and gave her something that someone in that stadium needed to hear.  Granted it was all of us!!!  So she tells us to open up our bibles to Acts chapter 9.  I leaned over to my friend Leslie and said that is the chapter about Tabitha.  And then Beth tells us to turn to verse 36.  I leaned over to my friend Leslie again and I said, “I’m about to lose it!” And Beth reads on…

In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas. She was always doing good works and acts of charity. In those days she became sick and died. After washing her, they placed her in a room upstairs. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples heard that Peter was there and sent two men to him who begged him, “Don’t delay in coming with us.”  So Peter got up and went with them. When he arrived, they led him to the room upstairs. And all the widows approached him, weeping and showing him the robes and clothes that Dorcas had made while she was with them. Then Peter sent them all out of the room. He knelt down, prayed, and turning toward the body said, “Tabitha, get up!” She opened her eyes, saw Peter, and sat up.  He gave her his hand and helped her stand up. Then he called the saints and widows and presented her alive. This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.

I sat there weeping tears of joy and sadness!  Here I was Thursday, on my knees crying out to God for help and guidance.  And Beth Moore was moved that morning to read a passage that God told her someone needed to hear.  It was ME!  I NEEDED TO HEAR IT!  I’m sure others did too, but in that moment I felt God speaking to ME!  When Beth Moore walked over to our section and leaned over and looked directly at our section and said “Tabitha, GET UP!”  I lost it!  HE HEARD MY CRY!  God could not have been more direct with me.  She could have talked about any other woman in the bible that day.  But God asked her to speak on Tabitha.  To say that God woke me up is an UNDERSTATEMENT!  Here are my other notes from that day…

·        God sends us out before we are ready because we will think we did it if He waited until we were ready!

·        Luke 8:26-39

1.      When Jesus demands His way, demons have to flee.  (God demanded His way in my life that day!!!)

·        Psalm 68:1

·        Numbers 10:33-36

2.      When Jesus demands His way, people find a sane place in His presence. (AMEN)!!

·        Anxiety is rooted in not trusting in God

·        Gen. 3:21

                                                    i.     Creation: uncovered and unashamed

                                                   ii.     Redemption: covered and unashamed

·        Whom Jesus restores, Jesus clothes. 

·        Isaiah 61:10

3.      When Jesus demands His way, people are robed in worth and dignity.

·        Isaiah 63:1

·        Proverbs 31:25

·        Luke 8:35

·        Ephesians 4:27

4.      When Jesus demands His way, people go and tell their stories.

And that is exactly what I am doing!  I know this is long (I promise not to be so wordy all the time), but I hope you find it to be a blessing and an encouragement.    

I AM CHANGED, NOT PERFECT, CHANGED!

In Him,

Tabitha