children of God, part two

We are all His precious children and God loves to wrap us up in His arms and whisper His love for us in our ears. How many of you used to love to climb into your father or mother’s lap and sit with them? Do you remember what that felt like? I certainly remember being a little girl and wanting to just sit in the lap of my own parents. It didn’t matter if they were sitting talking to someone else, watching TV or reading a book; I just wanted to sit with them. I really loved feeling like daddy’s little princess and hearing my own father (and mother) whisper words of love to me. I feel very blessed to have a dad on earth who could display the same qualities that God, my heavenly Daddy, has and I am extremely grateful to have those memories.

Now I understand that some girls did not get this chance with their own biological fathers and I cannot even imagine the loss that they feel. They may have never gotten the chance to sit in their father’s laps or other circumstances may have not allowed this to happen. But there is good news! God, your heavenly Father longs to do the same thing that your father on earth did not (or did) do. He wants you have child-like faith, so like children you can sit in His lap, listen to His words, and feel His peace and love. Allow Him to show you your true worth! My prayer for these women is this, to sit in your Father’s lap and be the true princess you are. To feel God embrace you with the love and peace that we cannot even fathom! Yes, He loves you that much! You are a princess!

Recently I read a book called “Satisfy My Thirsty Soul: For I am Desperate For Your Presence” by Linda Dillow. In this specific chapter she was describing ways to worship God. Now there are many forms of worship but this type of worship really struck a chord with me because it showed child-like awe and wonder by being in God’s presence. Here is a quote Linda used in her book to describe crawling into our Father’s lap as a form of worship:

"Ultimate worship takes place when we, like children, find ourselves climbing into the lap of our heavenly Father with the desire just to be with Him. At that moment there is no agenda other than to sit in His presence, to love Him, to whisper in His ear our gratitude, to feel His face, to hear His heart, to rest in His embrace, to enjoy the moment, and to understand more fully the God who yearns to enjoy us.” (Satisfy My Thirsty Soul: For I am Desperate For Your Presence)

How true and beautiful is that quote?! I find that God loves it when we humble ourselves like children and climb into His lap just to be with Him. It’s His longing and desire to treat you like the princess you are!

And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:3


Children have many qualities that I personally believe Jesus was talking about when He says to become like children. Humble, sweet, faithful, trusting, innocent, and full of life are just some of the many qualities children have. They also love to be loved and look up to others with wonder, awe and fascination.

Let’s become more like children today and climb into our heavenly Father’s lap and adore Him with our child-like wonder, trust, love and faith. God is faithful! He wants to hold you close and whisper words of love to you right now!

May God bless you all!
~Gretchen

Women of God update

Hi all! I just wanted to post an update about my Women of God post back in July.

I currently did switch my major to a Liberal Arts degree so that I could focus more on some English Studies. I also realized that there is too much that I don't agree with in Women's Studies that I probably just needed to switch. Anyways, I still have a concentration in that field because of the many courses I took, but I am glad to have taken those courses. It shows me just how much we, as women of God, need to help the feminists return to true femininity and offer compassion and love to them. (Not to their teaching, but to them as individuals.) So my stance is still the same when I say that they are not the true enemies.

Thank you for all of your amazing comments on the issue at hand and I encourage you all to step out in faith and offer some truth, love and kindness to those who have been decieved by feminism.

May God bless you all!
~Gretchen

children of God, part one

He took a little child whom He placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the One who sent me."
Mark 9:36-37

People were bringing little children to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, He was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not recieve the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." And He took the children in His arms, placed His hands on them and blessed them.
Mark 10:13-16

I'm always amazed at these passages and the power they convey. I was drawn to these particular Scriptures for a reason and after thinking over them for quite some time, I knew I had to write a blog post on them.

It's clear to see that Jesus loves His children so very much; so much that He even says that "if anyone were to ever cause any of these little ones to stumble, it would better if they flung themselves into the sea with rock around your neck!" And that if your hands causes you to sin, cut it off! Mark9:42-57 (Now Jesus doesn't want anyone to drown, I believe He is just using this analogy to show how powerful His love for the children is and the importance of never causing anyone to stumble. Also contrary to people who read the "cut your hand off" verse out of context, Jesus is not saying to literally cut your hand off, but to cut off the part of your life that causes you to sin.)

These are powerful words spoken by the Lord Himself and we would be wise to pay attention to them. But what do they mean? Here's what I've come up with after much thought and meditation on these verses...

I work with children and find myself so blessed and honored to help raise these little ones. In fact, as a woman of God, I know one of my highest callings is to nurture and raise children up for the Lord! That's a very big responsibility and an honor to know that God has trusted me with this calling. It's also very humbling. So everyday that I go to work and watch over the children, I try to remember how Jesus would have acted when the children ran to Him.

One thing that surprises me about children though, is their imaginations. I've never met one kid (so far anyways) whose mind was still fresh and swimming with ideas of "pretend" games. In fact one of the most common words used by young children is "pretend." So what does this tell us?

Well first off remember the words that Jesus spoke, "Truly I tell you, anyone who will not recieve the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." As an adult, I have long ago stoped playing games of pretend; so I realized that I needed some training from the little ones. What I found absolutely amazed me.

Children have no problem seeing things with new eyes; they are able to put on a fresh face every day. The other day I was encouraged to play "Zoo" with two little boys. They set up each room of the house as a certain area of the zoo and used their stuffed animals to act out everything. One room was the reptile room, the other was where the aardvark lived, and yet another room was the sheriff's office!

The reptile cage was made out of foam blocks, the front hall was closed off with pillows to make a cage for the lizard, and one of the rooms was made into sections with books and other things to make cages for various animals. Needless to say I was impressed! But after a while I found it harder to pretend while the boys were still in full "Zoo" game mode. They weren't concerned that they were still in their house, or that some of the game was probably silly (but oh so very cute) to most adults. But is a game of zoo actually silly? No, it's humbling.

Jesus told His disciples to humble themselves like children, He said that those who wanted to be first would be last, and those who were last would be first. Matthew 20:16

Within these past few months something dawned on me, something that the Lord placed upon my heart. Children are the most humble of all! With all of these games of "pretend" and use of their imaginations, they show themselves to be pure, humble, and therefore the greatest!

I believe that as we get older, our minds are more exposed to the sinful world we live in, and therefore our imaginations, humility and childlike joy seem to fade into the background. But this should not be so! Everyday that I head to work and watch the children play with one another, I learn something new and exciting about the words Jesus spoke. My understanding of humility, the kingdom of God, and the high calling of raising children seems to make more and more sense. My hope is this: that the world will not be afraid to step out in childlike faith and joy even when we are adults. I pray that people will let the inner child in them and the humility they once had to come to the surface so they can experience a new kind of intimacy with the Lord.

We are still to hold on to all the teachings of our adulthood, such as selflessness and love to all, but if we couple that with what we have already learned as children, I believe we will be even closer to the Lord than we ever though possible.

I will be doing another post on the children of God soon.

May God bless you all!
~Gretchen

John 14:6; The Way, The Truth, The Life

Reading the Word of God is so extremely important to knowing the truth in life. It's pages are full of God's love, guidance, protection and peace. It took me a while to truly understand this even though I understood it. Make sense?

You see I had the intellectual knowledge that God's Word showed the truth, but until I decided to seek God within the Bible (with my whole heart), did I truly understand it with my head and my heart.

It baffles me today about how many people still don't know what the Bible really says; although I'm not too sure why I'm still surprised. This is a sad reality to grasp. America is, for the most part, Bible illiterate. I am in no way judging those who are, I certainly was illiterate for quite a while. The only book I had ever tried to attempt and read were the Psalms. I understood the core message from the gospels because of Sunday school, but it wasn't until I dove into the Word of God that I understood ALL of God's Word.

I was set free from my anxiety because of His Word; I was shown the light and truth in the pages of the Bible.

A lot of people today under estimate the power of God's Word and ignore the fact that it is essential in our walk with the Lord. I know, I used to do the same thing! It is by the grace of God that when I came to the end of myself I turned to His Word and allowed His words of peace to transform my life. It is by His grace and that alone. I praise God for the enlightenment He brought into my life.

I believe that if only people would turn back to God's Word we would not have anxiety, depression, oppression, and other things that cause heartache and despair, nearly half as bad as they are now.

I believe that everyone has been decieved into thinking that we cannot find the answers to life within the pages of the Bible. But I am just one person among many, who is living proof that we indeed can find the answers in there!

As a woman of God I have a duty to tell others about the freedom and love that Jesus Christ has brought into my life. I'm working on being more bold into sharing my testimony with others and sharing the good news. It only takes one time to plant a seed and allow Jesus to enlighten someone else's eyes to the fact that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. (John 14:6) I hope that you too will share your testimony and the good news to others. It's an honor to know that Jesus can somehow work through those who step out in faith to share His love.

My prayer is this, that you and I will fearlessly declare God's Word to others so that everyone can know the Way, the Truth and the Life.

May God bless you all!
~Gretchen

the illusion of control

It wasn't until recently that I discovered how freeing it is to actually let go of control rather than take control. In fact control is probably the main cause of anxiety for most human beings. Little did I know how decieved I had been for so long, thinking that I had control when in reality it's God who has all control.

About a month ago I was in bed trying to fall asleep. I sat awake thinking about the two things that needed to be done the next morning. I had to be somewhere at a certain time but I also wanted to bring a family member out for coffee around the same time. I was worrying about how I would coordinate the driving to get where I needed to be and still have time to bring my cousin out to coffee.

Maybe I will have him come with me and then we can get coffee afterwards. I'd save driving time and not have to worry about picking him up on time to grab the coffee. I thought to myself.

This worry went on for about an hour or two. It was me trying to take control and figure out my schedule the next morning so I wouldn't have to worry about it. Funny thing is, I WAS worrying about it anyways! I began to pray to God about my worry and I could sense Him telling me to just give it to Him. Why worry when things can change at the last second anyways? I knew I had to give my worry to God and after some wrestling with myself I gave it away and fell asleep.

The next morning I woke up to my cell phone ringing. It was a co-worker of mine needing me to go into work last minute because someone forgot to show up.

Ok God, I hear You. I couldn't help but smile.

I ended up not bringing my cousin out for coffee and not getting the place I had planned on going to that morning. I went to work instead.

I didn't have control, God did. I'll never have control, but God always does!

I thank the Lord for showing me this truth; I'd probably still be in complete bondage with anxiety if I didn't sit still long enough to hear the small, still whisper of God.

Control is an illusion

Trying to take control of my life is what caused so many problems and worry in life. I thought that if maybe I tried to do this differently, or used the right words in certain circumstances, or got perfect grades, then I could take control and feel less anxious. But control is decieving.

Don't be decieved

Eve was decieved in the Garden of Eden. She wanted to take control by gaining wisdom and having her eyes opened to what God was supposedly keeping from her. Eve was decieved. And so was I.

God is not keeping any good thing from His children and wants us to live a wonderful and prosperous life with Him. We see this truth played out in the life of Jesus Christ. He came to set us free! (John 8:32)

We all know what happened when Eve tried to take control after being decieved. She and Adam were cut off from God's presence and had to live in a sinful world full of hate, evil and hard times. That one action of eating fruit from the tree of good and evil caused so much harm. Wanting to be in control causes so much harm and so much hurt, that it took God sending His only Son Jesus, here on earth to set us free.

I still have to give the control back to God when I feel myself wanting to take it back. I'm getting better, but I know that God is still working with me in this area of my life.

We're decieved into thinking that we have any ounce of control to things happening in our life. We can't control whether or not the sun rises and sets, we don't control our friend/sister/mother/co-worker, and we can't worry about coordinating our future so much that it causes us to miss out on the great times that are in the present! It's all an illusion, and the sooner we accept this truth the sooner we'll enjoy life and allow God to fully work within ourselves!

I hope that when you find yourself trying to take control again, you'll stop, give it to God and allow yourself to be set free.

Then you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free. John 8:32

Give it all to God; you won't be disappointed!

May God bless you all!
Gretchen

Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord. "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Jeremiah 29:11

Thank You God for the beautiful promises You have granted Your children. You give us plans of good, plans to prosper and plans for a beautiful future with You!

I hope that God speaks to your heart with this verse as much--and even more-- as He has spoken to me.

May God bless you all!
~Gretchen