Blogger Appreciation Week

Welcome to "Blogger Appreciation Week" we are so glad that you are able to join us in this time of sharing and encouraging one another in the blogging world! Blogging opens up a whole new world of opportunity for fellowship and encouragement with people from all over the world...incredible!

Why I write:
I love to write! I have been writing since I was a teenager. Back then I wrote for myself, mostly a lot of poems. It was a way for me to escape from life. It was a way for me to express my feelings without being told that what I felt was wrong for some reason or another. Writing has always helped in the process of cleansing my heart. I believe writing is a gift that God has given me. I still write for myself because, well...that is simply how I am wired. However, my writing now has more purpose than being just for me. Now when I write I trust that as my fingers tap, tap, tap on the keys what comes out of my heart is intended to bless others. After all the blessing is intended to be for that very purpose. You see my gifts are not for me, they are for you. They are for the rest of the world. They are given to me so that God can bless others through them. This is the soul purpose of my blog, it is intended to be a blessing.

Why I read:
I love reading through your blogs! Being able to share life with others is such an incredible blessing to me. I love to see the mighty hand of God at work in your lives, it encourages me. I love sharing in the joy that you are experiencing through your journey with the Lord. I learn so much from you all! Their are times when reading through blogs I feel sad, I feel the pain that you are sharing with the rest of the world. I can sense the heaviness in your heart and the empty loneliness that you are feeling. I wish I could be there with you in that moment to remind you of God's unspeakable power and goodness. I wish I was there to give you a hug and remind you that you are loved by the One who is love. Reading blogs makes me feel as if I get to share in the loves of so many people in so many places. I may not be close enough to hug you, and if I were you may not let me, but I am hopeful that if I leave a comment and remind you of the One who is close enough, you will be encouraged through my words.

I have in some way been touched by every blog I read. Those ways are all not the same, but just the fact that I get to participate in your life is pretty awesome. there are a couple, however, that have been special to me. I hope that you will take the time to stop by and visit them.

My wonderful blessing of a friend Shanda@ A Teachable Heart. WOW! God has brought you so far! When we met last year at "She Speaks" your writing was good. I enjoyed it a year ago, but it has been incredible to watch you grow in the last 12 months. Your blog has become a living encouragement to all who visit. (also, shanda had her writing published in the Proverbs 31 magazine, YOU GO GIRL WootWoot!) Thank you so much for sharing your heart with the rest of us and thank you for the time and the commitment that you have given into turning your blog into what it has become today. I will be watching and sharing in the great things that God is going to continue to do with you, in you and through you!

My teacher friend Christy @ The secret Life of an American Wife and Mom. You are such an encouragement to me! I am so very blessed to have you as my friend. Thank you for believing in me, it means more than you know! I love to read your blog and see what God is doing in your life. I also love to listen to your Bible Study teachings. I am encouraged by the fact that you are so very real. You do not pretend to have it all together or to have all the answers. You are simply you and that alone is an awesome blessing to me. Thank you for being you! Thank you for teaching truth and helping the rest of us find out who we truly are because of Grace, because of what Jesus has done for us all! I am looking forward to what He has placed in your heart for the conference (Christy will be teaching at the Because of Jesus conference in Tulsa Oklahoma June 12-13, it will be great! If you would like to know more, ask about it when you leave a comment). I love you Christy and I look forward to watching you grow and having opportunity to share the truth with you again sometime!

My friend Cheri@ Seven Branches, I love to read your writing! For all of you that love poetry you MUST visit Cheri's blog. WOW! Reading what you write inspires me to be a better writer. Your writing is poetry in story form or more recently, beautiful, inspiring poetry in poetry form! Don't ever stop writing Cheri! You have a gift that God uses to touch the hearts of others. Such truth and encouragement flows from your keys into my heart! Thank you!

I hope that you will read through the some of my previous postings and I hope that they touch your life in some way, shape or form. You can find my testimony in those postings, it is titled Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving-To Good To Be True (2008). A lot of my other favorites are found in the blog archives to the right of this post under 2008 as well.

God's heart is for His children to walk in love and unity. It is our hope that through Blogger Appreciation Week we will all be encouraged and drawn closer to the heart of God as we take time to share in the lives of others. "Father we ask in Jesus name that no person would leave this event not feeling loved and blessed by you. We pray that every heart would be softened and touched by your beautiful love and grace as we read through each others lives." If you would like to participate in this special blogger event anytime from May 25th -June 1st, put up a post titled Blogger Appreciation Week on your blog with the first and last paragraph of this post copied and pasted in. Then, add the URL from that post to Mister Linky @ Grace Talk With Daveda, invite your friends, surf the blogging world and be a blessing to others. Make sure you leave COMMENTS of ENCOURAGMENT to all whom you visit (leave them all under comments for this post, even if it is about another post to be sure that they see it)! Don't forget to check back often through out the week to visit and encourage those who join later.

NOTE: Mister Linky seems to be having a rough week. If the Mister Linky sign-up box has disappeared PLEASE stop back later to sign-up with Mr. Linky for Blogger Appreciation Week. In the meantime, leave a comment and let us know you are participating with a link to your blog, and visit the blogs of others that have left comments. You may have to look through their blog for their post entitled Blogger Appreciation week. I know this makes things a little more difficult, but we will make the best of it!

Blogger Appreciation

Grace Talk With Daveda will be hosting "Blogger Appreciation Week" May 25th -June 1st. I sincerely hope you will join us, its going to be GREAT!

This is how it works; If you are interested in participating with your own blog enter your blog address into the Mr. Linkie widget at the end of this post, at anytime from now through June 1st.

First send an invitation to all who blog! ask them to join us. You can copy this post if you would like and post it on your page, or you can send out special invites to each of your followers and friends by stopping by their blog and leaving them a comment. You can leave all the details or just invite them and send them this way to read this post.

You will title one of your posts from May 25th-June 1st "Blogger Appreciation Week" and in it you will share with the rest of us information about why you blog, why you like to write, how reading the blogs of others has touched your heart, what God has done in your life through blogging, tell us about some of the special people you have meet...etc. Somewhere in this post you may also want to include the titles to one or two of your favorite post so that those visiting your blog for the first time can read them. May 25th is the first official day but I will post mine sooner, as an example and to make sure I have time to work out any bugs as this is my first time hosting a special event!

Then, the next step is to visit the other blogs on the Mr. Linkie, and make sure you LEAVE A COMMENT of encouragement! Tell others how their blogs have touched you and what you liked about their writing, their life...etc. If you read through other postings and have a comment please leave ALL comments under the "Blogger Appreciation Post" just name the other title related to your comment, this way we can all read through, and you will be sure that blogger sees your comment next week. If you like what you read become a follower and make a new friend! We all love new friends!

When I put up my post I will have a special paragraph about "Blogger Appreciation Week" that ties us all together, for you to copy and paste somewhere in your own post for that week.

If you have any questions please leave a comment. If you have any suggestions please leave a comment. I hope I haven't forgotten anything, if so someone please tell me! I will get my post up for you all soon.

Mister Linky seems to be having a rough week LOL! He is all set up here and ready to go, but keeps disappearing on us. If you do not see Mister Linky at the end of this post, please check back for his reappearance. Thanks!

Lets Talk Grace!

Dear Diary

Dear Diary,

I am in awe of our great and glorious God again, as I know I will be many more times in my life. I cannot get enough of watching His mighty hand at work over and over again in my life. The best part is that I now realize He will always be there. He will never leave me. He will always guide me. He will continue to teach me, and correct me. Because He loves me. Not because I am good enough. Not because of rules I follow. Not because I have wisdom or discernment. Not because I read my Bible or go to church. But, because He loves me,and He gave His only Son, because He loves me. Because of the Fathers beautiful display of love for me on the cross, He will always be there...He will never leave me, He lives on the inside of me.

He guides me into the freedom that is already mine, it's already been given to me. He guides me and leads me into the depths of His love daily, He never lets me go, even if I think He has--He has not. His love, His grip on me has not changed, only my perception of how He sees me in that moment. May I always every moment of every day realize that I am still resting, seated at His right hand. May I realize the depths of how wonderful I am to Him, and the greatness that lives within me.

Thank you God, for your beautiful grace that griped my heart and saved me. Thank you God for that same grace that holds me tight, changing me, but, not because I am good enough--but because Jesus is good enough, and you love me, so you gave Him up for me. He took my sin, my shortcomings, my shame and He gave me His righteousness! Now and forever more, I AM THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST IN JESUS!

---I just felt inspired to write. To share some thoughts of my heart. ---

Lets Talk Grace! Please leave a comment and let me know you were here. Lets Talk Grace!

Works of our Hands "VS" Works of His

Our society is so work driven and performance oriented that sometimes it is hard for us to live in the rest that God has blessed us with in Christ Jesus. We place so much focus on what WE must do that we forget to focus on what God has already done for us.

For the last few years God has been showing me over and over how little I actually have to do with any of the blessings I have received in my life. He has been showing me that when I enjoy Him, when I bask in His love for me, when I believe Him and trust Him, all the blessings He has for me will just manifest themselves in His perfect timing, in His perfect way. It really has very little to do with me.

Let me give you an illustration. God promised Abraham a son, a son that would be given to him by God--this son was to be a part of the inheritance that Abraham would receive from God. When it did not happen in the time Abraham thought it would, he, by his own effort, by works of the flesh, conceived his first born son Ishmael, with his servant Hagar. However, this was not the son of promise, this was not the son that was to be inherited. Later Abraham had a son by his own wife Sarah, through God's work, through the work of the Spirit Isaac was born. Like Abraham we can live one of two ways, receiving from work in the flesh or receiving from the work of the Spirit.

Now I am not trying to be to graphic here, but I would imagine that when Abraham was "with" Hagar He was trying, rather that simply enjoying. There was a purpose behind his performance and the worry of whether or not that purpose would come to pass had to be weighing on his mind as he put his hand (or other parts LOL) to the task. However, I would also imagine that when Isaac was conceived Abraham was simply loving and enjoying his beautiful wife Sarah. There was no "performance for a purpose" involved, it was pure enjoyment!

We read in Genesis that Abraham asked God to bless both his sons. He wanted a blessing to fall on the life of Ishmael (work of the flesh), as well as Isaac (work of the spirit) and God agreed. However, God told Abraham that Isaac would be the child of promise. So both will receive blessings, but only one will receive the inheritance.

So this brings me back to my point. When we just enjoy God and allow His love, truth and grace to penetrate every part of our being, we begin to believe His promises. As we walk and talk with Him He prepares us and then we receive those promises; not through our own efforts, but by the works of His hand.

Let me just take a moment to clarify, I am in no way implying that we are to be idle or lazy as we wait. If we are truly one with the Lord and being lead by His Spirit, we will be used to bless the lives of others because that is the purpose of the promise in the first place. But, what we do to bless others will flow freely from our lives into theirs. It is an overflow from the work of the Spirit in us.

So my question for you today is do you want God to bless the works of your hand or do you want to inherit the work of His? Now I realize that the inheritance may take longer to manifest itself into our lives (as Isaac took longer than Ishmael) but I believe that the wait is worth it.

Are you with me today? Would you rather stand and wait for the inheritance as you bask in His love and become a blessing to others or would you rather receive the blessing or reward for your own hard work? Ahhhh....Rest is a beautiful concept!

REFRESHING!

Lets Talk Grace! Does this seem foreign to you? Do you believe that you have to earn or qualify for God's promises through your own behavior or work? If so, then isn't what Jesus did for us all in vain? Please leave a comment for us here at Grace Talk, we would love to talk grace with you!

Golden Heart Award

I am honored to be nominated with an award from one of my friends, and fellow blogger, Christy from "The Secret Life of an American Wife and Mom" Her blog is encouraging and reminds us that we are human and on this journey together. She has wonderful insight on the grace of God and uses her blog to show us what this looks like in her life. It will bless you to stop by and check it out. Please leave her a comment and some encouraging words!

I am thankful that I have been given this award. To be honest I have never before learned how to post an award picture to my blog, or accepted one, mostly due to a lack of time. But, I am thankful to be nominated, and glad that I am taking more time to check out what and who else is out there blogging, ministering and touching the hearts and lives of others.

I started my blog to share the Truth and Grace that God has shown me...to share with others the freedom that I have found in my life and my walk, resting and trusting in the finished work on the cross. I know that I am not the best writer out there, however, my heart and my hope is that there will now and always be an anointing on the words that I share. That what God has done in my life, will spread truth and freedom into the lives of others through the power of the Holy Spirit as they read through "Grace Talk With Daveda" Thank you all for reading and sharing!

Now I get to pass along this award to five others that have touched my life and encouraged me in some way. I get to encourage them as they have encouraged me. I hope that you will visit them and leave them a comment to let them know you were there. Say hello and make a new friend! We all love hearing what others have to say and visiting new blogs. I have chosen these four friends to bless (I am saving my fifth)

1. Rachael from "Just the Average Teenager"-She is encouragement for our tomorrow.
2. Kelly from "Warrior Woman takes on the World"-Her life is a picture of hope.
3. Shanda from "A Teachable Heart"-My friend who is truly genuine.
4. Cheri from "Seven Branches"-Her writing is like poetry in story form.

The links to all of these blogs can be found in the right hand tool bar on my blog page. I sincerely hope that you will take the time to visit and encourage them!

If you receive this award and decide to accept, it's your turn now. You get to choose 5 blogging friends that you would like to pass the "Golden Heart Award" along to. Post this in a blog and make sure you add the heart photo in it. Then, notify those you have selected that you have nominated them. Ask your readers to check out their sites, leave a comment and if they like what they read become a follower!

Scaling a 12ft Wall

There has been a lot going on in our lives lately, so, my husband and I decided we needed a weekend of "US" time. Just the family hanging out together, having fun, and enjoying one another.

Saturday we went to an exotic pet store, Corbin's Exotic Pets in Marengo, IL to be exact. It was awesome! Anyone who enjoys pet stores would love this one. Then we came home to burgers on the grill and a movie. Had a great time.

Sunday we decided to head out early and take the hour and a half drive to Utica, IL to visit Starved Rock State Park. We heard that they have 18 canyons there, some with beautiful waterfalls that flow freely in the early spring.

We started off on our journey enjoying the 70 degree weather and the beauty of the amazing sights God had created. Our favorite was French Canyon. It had two waterfalls and a cool stream. You can actually walk into the canyon and stand at the foot of the tallest waterfalls edge.

During this time our 12 year old son was hopping around and scaling the walls, having a great time and asking if he could go higher (We said no of course). Then right before my eyes he leaped out of the way of an oncoming tourist and fell 8ft down into the pool of water at the base of the small waterfall! Yep!

At first I laughed because it was, well...funny! But I soon realized that I did not know how to get him out of there. In the moment, I have to admit, I did not turn to Jesus, even though I thought about it...DUH! Very soon what was once humor turned into a stupid sort of determination. I was looking over the edge of the canyon and in a stern voice telling my son "You better find a way out of there right now!" DUH again! Like he knew how to get out!

What I did not know was that my very wise, discerning husband had already scoped out the situation and had a plan. He however, failed to share this information with me, so when he had my son start walking farther into the ditch of the canyon I was asking "What are you doing, how is he going to scale a 12ft wall???" While I was busy questioning, my husband was leading my son in the direction of a tree that had fallen and was acting as a bridge from one side of the ditch to the other.

When I should have just been trusting, I was questioning. My questioning kept me from being able to enjoy watching wisdom at work in my husband and I was not any longer enjoying myself.

Do you see what I see? We, or at least I, do this with God sometimes. When He is leading me into the "ditch" I find myself questioning..."how am I going to scale a 12ft wall?" when I should simply be trusting. He always has the situation scoped out, and He has a plan. This spoke very loudly to me this morning concerning other areas of my life that I have been overly concerned with.

I have been reminded that it is not our job or our responsibility to figure out God's plan. It is simply our job to trust and believe as we are lead by the Holy Spirit.

Lets Talk Grace! Are in a ditch today? Do you find yourself questioning God and His ability to get you out? Please leave a comment for those of us here at Grace Talk. Lets Talk Grace!