The Prayers Of The Saints

 I'm back folks. I haven't written anything in a very long time. But, now I am compelled, inspired and joyful to be able to write again. I have been in a dark depression for over a year. The enemy of my soul was trying to take me out of this world but, he is a liar and a trouble-maker and he did not get his way. God has plans for me to prosper me and not to harm me and give me a hope and a future according to Jeremiah29:11 and I will walk in that promise of God.

For some reason I have noticed that folks with prophetic gifts tend to lean towards depression. Elijah was one of those people. One day he was on Mt. Carmel slaying the prophets of bail and calling fire down from Heaven and the next day he was depressed and wanted to die but, God didn't rebuke him, he sent an angel to minister to him with food and was instructed to get some rest.

I tend to keep things to myself concerning my mental health. I have suffered greatly over the years with panic attacks and depression. I am on meds for those things now and am going to get a counselor to help me be able to talk about the things that are bothering me. Also I am back in women's ministry and have started to cook again. I hadn't cooked anything worthy of mention in the last 5 months. But, in the last few days after I finally admitted I was having a struggle and was in a major battle, the saints of God prayed and I experienced a total breakthrough. I feel better than I have in years and years. Glory and praise belong to our great God. According to the word of God He uses his saints to pray things into this eartJames 5:16

King James Version

16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. In other words the effective, hot prayer of a person in right standing with God gets the job done and let me tell you right now these prayer warriors immediately went to battle for me and I experienced immediate deliverance. God is faithful to His word and to His saints. I just want to humbly say a BIG thank you to all that prayed for me during this time of intense warfare. God is good all the time and I am grateful.

And it isn't a fake smile to hide the depression, it is a smile of deliverance and the joy of the Lord. All glory to our great God for His faithfulness.

 

AWord42Day: The Firefly Advocate

AWord42Day: The Firefly Advocate: When I was little girl I used to love it when the fireflies would come out at night and light up the backyard sky. Oh my goodness! I can&#...

The Firefly Advocate

When I was little girl I used to love it when the fireflies would come out at night and light up the backyard sky. Oh my goodness! I can't even relay here what joy that brought to me. I thought it was the most
magnificent thing I had ever seen with my lil' girl eyes, at the time. I would just sit there on the grass and watch them blink off and on and I thought it was such a wonder. We had recently moved from the North in Illinois to the South in Alabama. Needless to say
it was quite a change for the entire family but I think it impacted me most of all because I had never really been up close and personal with animals before or nature in general really.

 My Southern male cousins loved to scare me or upset me enough to make me cry
and tonight I recall one of those times. We had gone to visit my aunt who lived way out in the countryside in Tennessee. She had a farm there and for the first time in my little girl life I saw cows and horses and chickens and pigs and ducks all up close and personal. I was absolutely amazed.


One night when darkness had just begun to fall, the fireflies or,lightning bugs, as my cousins called them appeared in the backyard near the porch. I was thrilled to pieces. My girl cousins got some mason jars from the kitchen and they began to catch the lightning bugs and say see it makes it like
a lantern for you to see by. I really didn't like putting the lighting bugs in there because I thought it was kind of mean to keep them captured in the jar.,although my girl cousins assured me that it didn't hurt them. "You can let them loose later, one of them said so I agreed to capture one in a jar and look at it
up close and personal. I remember releasing it right away because it bothered me to have it in a jar. I just knew that the lightning bug would much rather be free to shine it's light without being captured in a jar. Then some of my male cousins that had been playing on the side yards and in the front came running around

all in a loud bluster and took some of the lightning bugs that they had caught and said watch this and they smeared the lightning bugs on the posts of the porch and at first I didn't realize what had really happened. I thought that they had just released them and that they were just all lined up there on the post and then I went closer
and even though it was quite dark I could then see that the lightning bugs were dead and their light was still shining and it literally just broke my heart. I remember crying and running into the house to tell my mother. She came with me out onto the back porch and hollered at the boys and said now yall don't be killing those lightning bugs that's ugly.
and that was that and she went back in and I just stood there looking at the dead bugs and watching until the light was gone. No sign was left of their once beautiful light. That bothered me more than I can tell you because you see, I am what they call an empath. I feel things very deeply. I feel the pain of others, I mourn over the least little thing and my heart
was surely broken. I remember crying that night after I went to bed and my mother asked me what was wrong and I told her it was the lightning bugs and how they had killed them for no reason and she said well Priscilla, it was only a bug. Now they shouldn't have done that but it was only a bug.

No matter how much I tried to forget about the little bugs, I just couldn't put it out of my mind that the little lighting bugs had been killed in such a brutal way and still left their light behind. Of course over the years I have seen and felt more hurt than that of the loss of the lightning bugs but I can't think of anything now more profound than the fact that some people only want to shine
and it seems that no matter how high they fly or how much they shine to light the sky of others, in the end they just die and all that remains is a little light that will soon fade away. Some will read this story and think it completely foolish and irrelevant in this modern world of technology. But I, the firefly advocate still remember the sweet little lights, how they shined and what it meant to me.
If you feel insignificant tonight and feel like your light is no bigger than that of a tiny firefly, let me assure you, that light no matter how small is a very BIG deal to someone somewhere. Please keep on shining until the very end.

Being A Cave Dweller

Today is the first day in a very long while that I have written a blog. I don't know why, other than procrastination which seems to be my constant companion these days. Without a boss to crack the whip on a deadline of a project, I tend to just muddle along unless I really enjoy doing something or feel pressed to do it. I have been going down, down, down into a spiral of depression for quite some few weeks now and am finally coming up out of the dark hole. I don't talk about it much to folks because I don't want to depress them or feel their pity either.

I do want to blog about it now because I know that if I force myself to do so, in the process, it will help someone else who may be going through the same thing and not know how to express their feelings. I am a writer, a speaker a loud mouth of sorts but that is only a tiny fraction of the who that I really am. I am actually not that good at making friends and so therefore I have but a few. Sometimes it seems to me that, although they may not mean to, folks make things worse for those of us who tend towards depression. By this I mean that they say really foolish and even asinine things that are hurtful and completely unhelpful. The things I am referring to are things like, "How can you be a Christian and still be this depressed?" or "I thought you were a Christian." those statements and ones like them are so counterproductive to say the very least and can actually prolong the time that is spent in the "cave", as I call it from time to time.

Being in the cave can be productive if spent reading, writing, learning something new or just catching up on projects or even starting new ones but if a stent in the cave has been like this one of mine, it is not productive and seems to be an endless and bottomless pit of despair, depression, and a sense of hopelessness, hence the reason folks made the aforementioned remarks. People seem to think that if you are a follower of Christ that you should never be depressed,or feel hopeless or hapless as some might say. I completely disagree and will try to explain it as best I can in this blog.

Being a follower of Christ means just that, that you do your fair-level best to follow after His teachings, His will and His ways. This does not however mean that once you have become a follower that your emotions, feelings and hurts are stripped from you and left at the door of entrance into this vast kingdom of God. Quite the contrary as a matter of fact, in some ways, I feel that because I am a Christ follower, a child of God, that it makes me even more emotional at times and more likely to get my feelings hurt or feel altogether hopeless at times because I realize how great God is and how powerful He is and when things don't work out as I have been praying for them to and I fully realize that He could have made them to work out, it then leaves me momentarily with that feeling of why? why God why? and then the depression, anxiety, human emotions take over and they just run away with me to the cave.

I absolutely don't expect many people to understand what I write here and that is ok. Everyone has to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling and this is mine and I am daily working it out with my God. I am on the mend and I am coming up out of this cave, out of this dark time and the joy of the Lord that is my strength is returning. To those of you that have or do suffer in this way fully understand of what I speak and those that don't will be scratching your heads trying to figure out what I am talking about.

That's ok too cause every person is different and deals with things in their own way. I tend to go internal and steer clear of folks until I can work it out with the Lord. I call this the Elijah cave-dwelling moment. You know where you have a miniature pity party and ask God a thousand questions and just feel sorry for yourself for a bit and then move on well...that's me and that is how I do it and I have heard over the years many different ways that people deal with depression.

 Some folks deny it altogether and just push on, others sleep a whole lot, others surround themselves with even more people in hopes that the depression is fearful of crowds and will leave, I suppose. However you deal with it, hoorah for you and in the doing, I pray that you receive the strength from the Lord to move onwards and upwards towards the high calling which is in Christ Jesus. I am still learning daily to cast my cares upon Him because He truly cares for me and wants what is best in my life.

Tending To My Heart

As a young girl I was taught so so much about how to dress, how to act, how to behave around grown folks, how to speak when I was supposed to speak and how to remain silent when I was supposed to be quiet and with all of the learning how to do this or how to do that, I didn't learn one thing about how to take care of ME. You know the real person, the inside person, the person that cries to sleep at night and doesn't even know why. The person that is depressed and needs an outlet to speak about what has happened and try to understand why. The person that is broken and in dire need of repair. The person that is showing you outwardly with shyness, backwardness and clumsiness what is truly going on on the inside.

I look back on those days and realize just how off the rails my emotions were but I didn't have an outlet to express them. I had suffered from childhood depression and was considered in early grade school to be "mentally retarded", by my very aggressive teacher, because I didn't speak much and if I did speak it was in a muffled mutter. I was painfully shy and didn't want anyone speaking to me directly and I surely wasn't going to speak to anyone I didn't know or care for. I was easily frightened and usually just wanted to be alone. ALONE, ALONE, ALONE but yet did I really want to be alone? or did I want to be cared for and left alone? there is a difference here. There was always so much activity at our house. So many people milling in and out that I kind of got lost in the process and fell through the cracks of depression somewhere along the way. No one fully realizing what had happened to me or how to make it any better. The motto of the house was, "Get over it!"

I learned how to make folks laugh and how to serve people and how to be so so pretty but I never ever learned how to guard my heart and mind because at that time I had not been taught any of those important things. All my Aunts ever seemed to think was important was to catch a man, catch a man, catch a man and I thought well how hard can that be? Which to me wasn't very hard because apparently I wasn't fishing in a really good spot and caught the first fish that nibbled and boy was that a horrible tragedy! I learned all about jealousy and anger and fits of rage and just CRAZINESS in general but I still hadn't learned how to guard my heart and my mind. I learned really well how to walk on eggshells.....and to say just the right thing at the right time but I didn't learn how to take care of myself. So..I continued allowing everyone to just run rough shod over me and do as I was told and my heart became more bruised and torn and the depression got deeper and deeper.

You see I had not yet learned what the word of God says about guarding your heart and your mind with all diligence because out of it flow the issues of life. I had not learned that. Oh I am sure at some point I had heard a sermon on it. Lord knows by that time I had heard thousands of sermons on just about any subject you could pull from the Mad Hatter's hat and still didn't understand or know how to take care of me. Not take care of everything and everyone else, but to take care of me. Not the outward appearance but the inside. My broken heart, my crushed spirit needed help and needed it desperately. Many more years of trying to catch that fish (man) different fish, same fishing hole. Until I finally gave up on all of it and just checked out of it all. I literally had a mental breakdown! It was so bad, in fact, that the doctor didn't expect me to ever recover from it. But, slowly I did recover. No, I was never the same and that is ok cause look what I was working with. I learned to stand up for myself, I learned to say NO!!!! and most importantly I learned to turn to the God that made me and say hey, you are the manufacturer if you don't fix me, I won't be fixed! I had to learn that I was important. I was worth loving, I was worth saving and that God loved me with an everlasting love and it really didn't matter what anyone else thought or said about me.

This has been a life-long process people. This did not happen overnight. I have only a few paragraphs here to sum up a lifetime of pain, sorrow, regret, mistreatment, discouragement, then help, joy, love and the oil of the Holy Spirit that heals, protects, guards, mends. I am still a work in progress but I am progressing. I don't know who will actually take the time to read all of these early morning ramblings but I needed to write it out for me. If any hurting broken woman will take the time to read it, it will help her too. So win/win. Don't allow the enemy of your soul to keep you so wrapped up in doing that you forget that you are a human being. God loves you, He created you in His likeness and in His image and you are very important to Him. YOU, just you, not how you look, how talented you are, how many clubs you belong to, how many Pinterest projects you get done today, YOU just you and YOU are enough! Tend to your precious heart. Learn to meditate on the word of God. Learn to allow the Holy Spirit to minister to those deep and wounded places and be healed in Jesus name.

Fear Not! only believe!

Has Your Miracle Been Timed-Out? Do you feel like everyone else is getting their miracle all the while you are praying and seeking God and you feel like the windows of Heaven are closed, the BIG office in Heaven has put your call on hold and you just can't seem to get through?  Do you feel like you are walking through an endless maze to get to your miracle? Well...in today's daily Bible reading, as I began to read Matthew 9, the Lord began to give me this writing and so here it is.........

Today as I was doing my daily Bible reading, I began to read about the woman with the issue of blood, which is found in Matthew 9, the whole chapter is full of Jesus healing people. This healing with the woman of the issue of blood is usually the go-to sermon preached from this chapter but today I want to deal with the other guy, the one that was put on hold as Jesus took notice of the woman that had touched the hem of His garment, this man's miracle was already in progress: In Matthew's gospel the man is listed as a ruler that came to Jesus and said my daughter is already dead but if you will come, you can heal her, that is good but if you really want to get a fuller description of what happened let's go into another account, another perspective from the gospel of Mark and in the fifth chapter we get a fuller and richer account of this story. As it happened the ruler's name was Jairus and his daughter was near death, he was coming to Jesus to get Jesus so He could come and heal her. His faith level was high obviously or he wouldn't have even came to get Jesus in the first place. He told Jesus what he needed and Jesus and His followers started along behind Jairus but right in the middle of the making of the miracle, if you will, the woman with the issue of blood knowing that if she could just touch the hem of His garment that she would be made whole, she had already purposed in her heart and mind to do this very thing and she had already pressed through the crowd to get there and when she did get there she did exactly as she had purposed in her heart to do, she reached out and touched the hem of His garment and when she did.....................she stopped everything because Jesus could feel the anointing, the virtue coming out of Him. Wow!! Isn't that amazing that we can touch Him in such a way that it stops everything and He focuses in on you and your need, your problem, your anxiety, your need for a MIRACLE!

But.......what about the "other guy" Jairus, what about him? right in the middle of him getting to Jesus to get Him to come and heal his daughter his miracle get's timed out by Jesus so He could speak a word of healing into this woman's life. I can only imagine how Jairus felt that day. He probably felt like this woman had just interrupted to a point where he was going to miss his miracle. But, it was not so, Jesus was and is well able and willing to heal and save and deliver anyone that comes to Him in simple child-like faith. To make matters even worse for Jairus as he was waiting for Jesus to finish with the woman and to come with him to his house to heal his daughter, one of his servants approaches him and says, "Don't bother the Master any further, your daughter is dead." Oh my! what hear-breaking, gut-wrenching news that must have been! and as the enemy was trying to take his faith and cause him to no longer believe in Jesus, Jesus turns to Jairus and says, "Fear not, only believe." and believe he did and Jesus came to his house and raised his daughter up and said she is only sleeping. Can you imagine the jubilant joy in this household? Oh my gracious! The joy of restoration, the joy of just experiencing a life-changing miracle. His daughter was raised from the dead!

I have often thought, "What if Jairus hadn't continued to believe Jesus? What if he had listened to his servant and just went on his way? He would have missed his miracle! He would have gone home to a dead child, a broken heart, an unrealized dream but no! HE BELIEVED! and received his miracle! Don't give up today! Don't stop believing that God is well able and willing to heal you, save your child, fix your finances, restore your marriage! He is well able! He is more than willing! Your miracle is on the way!

Aren't we sometimes fearful that God has abandoned us? That He isn't listening to our needs? That He isn't willing to work a miracle in our lives, that He isn't willing to restore all and to focus just on us. Listen..I have been through seasons with the Lord where I thought surely I had been put on hold and that Jesus was just too busy to deal with me, I'm sure we have all felt that way at one time or another in our lives. But, He is the Great I am, He is the Alpha and the Omega, The Beginning and the end, He knows everything and is everywhere at the same time and is well able and willing to bring restoration, healing, deliverance, salvation, mercy, grace, whatever is needed right to our house. No matter how many other people have already received their healing, no matter how many other people you have seen that have received restoration in their marriage, no matter how many people have seen their children saved, healed and delivered, FEAR NOT, ONLY BELIEVE! YOUR MIRACLE MAY BE TIMED OUT BUT IT IS ON THE WAY!!!

The Bible reading that I do everyday is Daily B.R.E.A.D.. Here is the link to the group that I am a part of. Great group, accountability to daily Bible reading, lots of commentary on what is read and just a great group of folks that love Jesus and love His word.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1810761232523159/?ref=bookmarks

I hope you all have a great day and just remember your miracle is in the making!
Priscilla Hinds
Blogger/Writer AWord42Day
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Beautiful In His Time

In Ecclesiastes 3:11 the word tells us that He has made everything beautiful in it's time. Did you get that? He has done it, not us and in it's time. Not in our time, not in our friend's time, but in the appointed time for that person, place or thing. God is not ruled by time. He works in and out of time. He walks the time line and is at the beginning and the end simultaneously. We want things to happen right now and that's all there is to it. Right now God! I want everything to just work out just like it should and yesterday please? But, we must realize that just like the autumn leaves that were once green have to slowly turn into their new season and before they release their fully spent selves to God and fall down to the ground, it is a waiting process. I have been walking today and as I walked, I could hear the rustle of the leaves around me and I began to think about leaves and how I have seen green leaves with just one little spot of gold or red and they were still pliable and mostly green and yet they were lying on the ground. I thought to myself isn't this just like us? Don't we turn loose before our time? Don't we jump the gun and say Lord I can see the vision of what you have for me? I see what you are calling me to and let me just turn loose and take that leap and then like that leaf that still was mostly green all we do is fall to the ground before He was finished with that beautiful coloring process that only time can bring. I want to stay on the tree until He is completely finished with His beautiful artwork. I want to do exactly what He wants me to do and not what I want. What I want, although it might be good, in theory, if not His perfect will, will land me on the sidewalk looking up just like that mostly green leaf.

I know I look at things differently than most people and I see things in a different light but, He truly spoke to me today through the leaves and through all of the beautiful colorations on each and every one of them. Only a loving and awesome God could grow a tree and each leaf be completely different and yet strangely, the same. Only God can color each leaf and  make each one beautiful in it's time. Only God can take people and allow their color and brightness to come from within and reflect His perfect glory, all the while allowing for that perfect work of His to continue. I have said for years, anyone can count the seeds in an apple but only God can count the apples in a single seed. When we consider how majestic all of God's handiwork is, we will realize our significance through our insignificance. The Psalmist David said it best when he penned these words in Psalm 8: When I consider the heavens, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him? I totally understand that feeling of awe. I have many times looked at the beauty in creation and just cried like a baby and said oh God why do you love me so? I am amazed at the beauty that He has created and at times feel so insignificant and small but in my weakness, He is made strong. In my imperfections, His perfect glory is manifested. When people see Him in me, I am so happy and humbled and still shocked and amazed that He would bother with me.

He has brought me from such a very low place and I am in awe of His goodness and His mercy towards me. I never cease to be completely dumbfounded that He would just keep calling and reaching out and calling and reaching out time and time again to a stiff-necked, stubborn willed girl that wanted her own way. Today if you feel like a green leaf hanging on a tree among all the beautiful colors just waiting for your chance to fulfill your destiny, know and realize that He has truly made everything beautiful in it's own time and He has not forgotten about you. If He called you to it, He will bring you to it and then through it for His glory and honor. Just hang on little green leaf, your bright and colorful days are just ahead and as your season moves forward you will begin to see His timing and reasoning in each and every step of your journey.

Cultivating Self Control

Ah.....gentleness and self control. The last 2 fruits of the spirit mentioned in Galatians.These are fruit that we must cultivate. Why do these 2 seem to elude me? With much prayer and seeking and reading the word have I sought after you and you still run from me. Just when I think I will be able to climb up that beautiful fruit tree and finally acquire a piece of that wonderful fruit, I fall right back down to the bottom. With shear frustration I lay on the ground looking up at you and it is as if you are mocking me you fruits of the spirit of God. Why would you not want me to have you? Why would you run from me, when I desperately need you? Why?

Honestly it seems that every problem that I am trying to overcome in this season is all tied to self-control. Dieting has bombed out once again because of lack of self-control, a very sharp-tongued temper when protecting my mother has once again reared it's ugly head. All of this is rooted in lack of self-control and gentleness with people. Lord knows if a person was describing me, gentleness is not a word that would readily come to mind. In fact, most of the time when I am on a roll, gentleness runs and hides in a closet somewhere for fear that just a look from me will melt off it's sweet lil' face. I don't want to be this way. I do not want to be this way and then guess what? I tend to be this way.

I have promised myself and the Lord that I would not allow myself to go to the nursing home each day until I have immersed myself in the presence of God and His grace and mercy and goodness and His wonderful joy. Now right in the middle of this writing, the nursing home has called me to set up a care plan for my mother and I told the lady it would not be today because I was already upset with them and would rather not come until Friday. I cannot allow myself to be baited by the enemy of my soul to fall apart and act out or become angry and end up sinning! I can be angry but I can't sin. That is the word of God and if I allow folks to get me to the point of sinning, then I have stepped over the line and I will get a whipping from the Lord and that will bring much sorrow.

I genuinely don't want to feel this way. I don't want to be agitated and angry and fed up and all of the above. I have got to line myself out with the word of God and get the oil of the Holy Ghost on me and let that oil form that ducks back that we have all heard so much about. I am sure if anyone takes the time to read this, they will either say well that Priscilla needs to get a hold of herself or they will say, hey, I feel exactly the same ways sometimes. I realize that in this season, God is cultivating these 2 seemingly illusive fruits of the spirit. He is training me to keep my mouth shut. He is training me to wait, to think before I speak. To calm down, keep my eyes on Him and just let that bone sit on my nose until He says otherwise. When I saw this pic of the dog with the bone on his nose, I thought yep that's me, I am in training. That is exactly how I feel right now the pressure of the self control issue is lying right on my nose, right in front of my eyes and God is staying wait, acquire strength. Hold on, acquire grace and mercy. I shall cultivate these fruit through the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit of God.

They say that the most sweet fruit is up high and out on a limb. I truly believe that and so therefore I will climb. I will lay fear aside and go out on that limb and acquire these much needed fruit.

Priscilla Hinds
Blogger/Writer
AWord42Day

Let Joy Be Your Compass

I have heard this little phrase over and over again in the last couple of years. "Let joy be your compass." What does that  mean exactly? Well...to me it means this: 1. The word tells us that in His presence is fullness of joy. 2. The joy of the Lord is our strength so when we say let joy be our compass, we are truly saying let the joy of the Lord that you received in His presence be your guide.

Sounds good to me. Letting the joy of the Lord lead you. When you find yourself in a situation that has caused you to lose your peace of mind and your joy has flown out the window, it is then that we need to look internally and do a joy check. The Holy Spirit of God is not only our comforter but He is our guide and when we allow Him to lead us into all truth, we will avoid the things that cause us to be frustrated, agitated and down-right angry. Not to say, mind you, that we will never be frustrated or angry but what I am saying is when you are around people that keep you upset, and you find that your joy is gone, it is time to realign to the Holy Spirit. Get in the presence of the Lord and get your joy back.

In the scriptures we see King David, the man after God's own heart saying these words: Lord, restore to me the joy of my salvation." Notice he didn't say restore to me my salvation because he still possessed that glorious relationship with the king of kings but his joy was gone because he had allowed himself to become entangled with people and things that he should not have and had in the process of doing those things lost his joy. Joy is from the Lord. Joy is not the same thing as happiness. Lots of folks confuse the two or think that they are one in the same and this is not true. Happiness is based upon the happenings around you. Oh, I am happy about this or that but joy that comes from God is in place as long as you are following His plan. That joy is in full abound no matter what comes or goes because it comes from being in the presence of the Lord.

I encourage you today to set aside a time each and every day to worship God, get in His presence and just talk to Him. Don't beg or ask for anything. Just talk to Him. Thank Him for all that He has done and just soak up his presence. Your joy will soar and you will realign your spiritual compass and then that wandering about will stop because your true north is reset. God bless you today as you seek His face and are overwhelmed with His glorious joy, that is unspeakable and full of glory. One of my favorite songs is Over my head by Jenn Johnson out of Bethel church. The song touches my heart and spirit. When you get into the presence of God and just go all in and let Him just wash over you, you will be in over your head and it's ok.

Here is the link to the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mAvt3CxEQM

Melancholy Reflections

I am feeling a little melancholy and reflective today as I am playing Christmas music that my mother and I used to listening to when I was growing up. She always started playing it around this time of the year and by the week before Halloween we had all of the Christmas cards addressed. She loved it so much, in fact, that her Sunday school class the Willing Workers put her in charge of the annual Christmas party. She would find the restaurant or hall to have it in and get it rented and then she would proceed to get the place cards ready and I would get to help her. I remember one year she found this little place that had what mom called notions and what-nots. They had party goods and a mixture of glassware and such and this particular year she found little miniature manger scenes and she was thrilled because she wanted to use them to put with the place cards.

So...she bought them and we got home with them and she began to get all of her things together for the party and mind you, it was still October...she was a planner for sure. She had a place card for each person and I helped her write each person's name on them and then she glittered them down with silver glitter and placed one of those lil' mangers on each one. The top of our dining room table was covered in them until they had dried and we could put them in boxes for transport.I really do wish I had pics of all of the years that she was in charge of the Christmas party and all of the cute ideas she came up with for decor.

It's funny really, the things that you think of when you get older. I truly did enjoy helping my mother with all of her crafty, decorating adventures from tossing around ideas, to finalizing them, to going to stores looking for just the right things and then getting it all together to see the beautiful finished product. My mother was truly gifted and I didn't even realize it really. She was just my mother and this is what she did. She was an excellent country cook, he was an amazing seamstress and I took it all for granted because she was my mother and that is what she did. The thought never occurred to me until years later that she was the reason that I was such a good party planner, decorator and caterer. Just never entered my mind that she should get any of the credit.....oh aren't we conceited and arrogant? LOL

I remember one time she and I were talking about gifts from God and how everyone had some special kind of gift that they possessed that was different from anyone else and she looked at me and said, "I don't reckon I have a gift." I said, "Mother! are you kidding me?" I have never known anyone that could sew like you. You sewed with a pattern, without a pattern, you could modify any pattern, you made up patterns in your mind and just started sewing. Oh my yes! You have a gift for sure. She looked at me almost shocked and said well..I guess so, I never thought of it like that. I just always had to sew so my kids would have clothes to wear and never thought much about it being a gift. I said mom, if you had been born in different circumstances you could have been a fashion designer. Now just think about that! She just smiled.

Each of us have been specifically designed and created by a loving God that loves diversity and embraces the oddities in people. Lord knows I have several and now have learned to appreciate them and that has set me free from the self-conscious demon that hounded me for years. My mother had the exact same issue. She was always self-conscious about her looks, when she was quite beautiful. She was always self-conscious about her cooking when she was a very good cook, especially chicken-n-dumplings, chocolate pie and biscuits and so many other wonderful things. She projected onto me self-consciousness and low self-esteem without even meaning to. For years my mother and I had a very strained relationship, at best. We just couldn't seem to get along for more than a few days at a time.

I had a lot of anger, resentment and down right bitterness over some unresolved issues from my childhood and I just would not let it go. I would say that I couldn't but the truth is, I just wouldn't and it made both of us miserable. When I finally allowed God to begin the healing process in me, He sent me to Arkansas to help with my mother. We argued and carried on like we hated one another. This went on for a really long time. I would cry out to God and it was like He was not taking my calls. I felt like I had been put on hold at the switchboard in Heaven. But through the years of healing, restoration and much much grace, our relationship has been really good for several years. Now...at what seems to be the ending of my mother's life, I am at peace as is she. It is well with our souls. We have learned to appreciate each other. We have learned to listen to one another and through tragedy, pain, misunderstanding, trial and much error we have become like two peas in a pod.

Isn't God amazing? How He would take two broken people and bring them together to make them whole and turn their lives into something beautiful and meaningful that will last? God is so good and there are not adequate words to describe how grateful I am that I came to Arkansas. I had to pray through about that because I left family, friends and all behind and never went back. Of course for visits but that is all. This was a mission from God and I will finish it. I have ministered, preached, sang, written blogs, lead people to Christ, counseled with drug addicts, alcoholics, abused and battered women and I still consider my mother my best and first ministry. Many times I wanted to run away from her. Many times we barely could stand each other but God had a plan that would be fulfilled. He wanted to bring wholeness and restoration and that is what He has done.

When I look back now over my years with mother, I find joy, happiness, lots of smiles, lots of homemade chocolate candy from scratch, lots of blackberry cobblers, lots of beautiful veggies from mother's garden, lots of Elvis music playing on the stereo, lots of gospel singings, lots of Revivals, lots of beautiful flowers that mom carefully planted around our home,lots of beautiful dressed, custom designed by mom and lots of love that I never really saw until my later years. I can now look back and see all the good and toss the bad and say it was all for the good and can glean and glean from it all and move forward. I am writing my mothers memories and for the first time in my life, I really truly understand my mother's journey. She was and is such a loving person. She was and is full of encouragement. She was and is beautiful. She was and is a gifted woman. All of the things that made up her life, made her who she was and is today. I always took that for granted and God has allowed me a small window into her heart to see it all and to write it down. What an awesome gift and honored privilege to get to do this. To be able to tell my mother's story with dignity and grace so that all of her pain will not be wasted. God always has a plan and even though we don't see it or even know or care about it, it is still there working out for our good and for His glory.

AWord42Day: That's A Mighty BIG Bite you have there young lady...

AWord42Day: That's A Mighty BIG Bite you have there young lady...: I have always been super ambitious. I would think up all kinds of things to do and to create and places to go and I would go overboard and m...

That's A Mighty BIG Bite you have there young lady.

I have always been super ambitious. I would think up all kinds of things to do and to create and places to go and I would go overboard and my dad would say, "Sis, don't bite off more than you can chew." and of course I always did and I would end up not finishing projects, forgetting important things that I had taken responsibility for and end up making folks mad at me and disappointing them and myself as well. I would see things that needed to be done whether it was at church or at home and I would take it all on and then fall flat of my face when I became overwhelmed.

Well...here I am at age 55 still doing the same things. We call it multi-tasking these days. You know you are typing something on the computer, talking on the phone, something is in the oven and on the stove, dishes in the dishwasher, clothes in the washer and dryer and someone is knocking on the door and in our society this is considered the "norm" well....I am the world's worst for doing this type of stuff and then taking on even more and more and more just because it is something that "needs" to be done. I have come to the conclusion if I am to keep my sanity, I am going to have to be very selective, and choosy as to what I take on because I have once again overwhelmed my self. I can hear my dad's voice in my ear again, "Sis, don't bite off more than you can chew." and I have done just that. I have chewed and chewed and chewed and it doesn't seem to be getting any smaller, it actually seems to be getting bigger and bigger and I just know that it will get stuck in my throat if I try to swallow so I have decided to spit it all out for a while, pull to the side and have a little talk with my Jesus.

I have recently had to start on anxiety meds because I have overwhelmed myself and I haven't had to take any in almost 12 years. I am still learning that just because something needs to be done, doesn't mean I have to be the one to do it or in other words just because something needs to be chewed doesn't mean that it is my BIG BITE TO CHEW!  Lord have mercy why do I do these things to myself? Why do I take on and take on until I am utterly exhausted, frustrated and feel downright crazy? Is it because I am trying to prove myself? am I insecure in some area and feel the need to impress people with my multiple skill sets and abilities? Well.. whatever it is, I am stopping it today. I will maintain my sanity, do my writing, preaching, teaching as God would have it and lay everything else down. I have to do it or be completely out of the will of the Father and that I refuse to do.

Hopefully...this time I have learned my lesson, Lord knows I hope that I have. This was not my BITE and I took it anyway and I nearly chocked to death on it!

The words to an old, well-loved and familiar song comes to mind today: His eye is on the sparrow, why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come. Why should my heart be lonely and long for Heaven and home? When Jesus is my portion, my constant friend is He, His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me. Why are we discouraged and cast down? When we know that God is on our side. He is for us. He is not against us. Despite what some religious people may try to tell you. HE IS NOT MAD AT YOU! He loves you completely and wants His perfect will to come to pass in your life.

He isn't sitting up in Heaven waiting for you to do something awful, so He can cast you into outer darkness! The word tells us that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father ever making intercession for us. He wants us to make it! He wants us to succeed! He knows the end from the beginning and He realizes who and what we are. He is the one that made us, we didn't make ourselves. The Psalmist David said it like this in Psalm 100:3 Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 

He made us and so therefore He knows every single nuance of our being. He is not shocked or amazed when we err or fall off of the path. He knows all about it. Don't get into condemnation over what other people may say to you or about you. He wants you to succeed. He wants you to make it to that Heavenly city more than you want to make it. We seem to forget sometimes that we have the ability and the grand privilege of being able to call out to the God of the universe, that happens to also be our Heavenly Father and say God!! help me! I need you! rescue me from my own foolishness! Help me God!  He will, the word tells us so. The word says in Jeremiah, call on me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things that you know not. He wants to hear us, He wants to answer us and provide what is needed to help us on this rough and sometimes rugged road that we are traveling on.

The word also tells us that we can come boldly before the throne of grace to obtain mercy in time of need. I don't know about you, but I have to call out a whole lot sometimes. I have those days where I am out-- loud-- in --front --of-- people-- saying Oh God!please help me to keep my mouth shut! Oh God I need you, right now, right here, at this exact moment to help me! and guess what? He always does. He is always right on time. Now, mind you, He has never been known to be early but guess what? He is never late either. He is always right on time. He allows us to wait sometimes because in the waiting we are stretching our faith, perfecting our patience and long suffering and the one I really have a hard time with self- control. The word tells us that a man without self control is like a city with broken down walls and some days that is exactly how I feel. Just like I have no defense, I have no strength left within me to do what needs to be done. But, when I take the time to calm myself, focus on Him and talk with Him, my anxiety, fear, frustration seems to melt away. The problem may not be immediately dissipated but I feel more equipped and able to handle whatever is in my path.

Today I want to encourage you to cry out to Him. To start and end your day with Him. He is the end all, be all, fix all in our lives and He is willing and able to help us in any and every situation that we manage to find ourselves in. Even in those self-created messes that we struggle with . He will save us from our own destruction if we will just call on Him. He loves us enough, to rescue us from our own foolishness and set us back on the right path. He truly is working out all things for our good and for His glory. Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for the good of them that love the Lord and are the called according to His purpose. Let Him get all of the glory today from your story. Let Him turn your mess into a message and lean on Him for strength and help today in time of need.

AWord42Day

Priscilla Hinds

Blogger/Writer

Cultivate Before You Operate

Before we can operate in the gifts of the Spirit, first we must cultivate the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is a learning, growing, disciplinary process. Then and only then can we operate successfully in a God pleasing way with our gifts. When we jump the gun and begin to operate in gifts that we possess without having them seasoned well with the word of God, much prayer and discipline, we will fall on our face. God is not impressed with our gifts, since He is the one that gave them to us.

God is not in awe of us and all that we can do. Who are we kidding? God is pleased with obedience, and a servant mindset that serves God and His people. I have watched so many people over the years do this and in watching them I have learned what not to do. I have been accused of not using my gifts enough. Well... I would rather hold back and make sure that God is really speaking and that God is really telling me to say something, than to jump out and do something and it end up being all me and not God. I do not want to dishonor Him in that way.

Operating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit is a serious thing and should not be taken lightly and used for show, for self-promotion or for personal gain. God is always watching us and He is keeping an account of who is being a good steward. Sometimes people think that being a good steward is just about tithing, giving offerings and giving alms to the poor. No, being a good steward also applies to any and everything that God has given to us whether it be housing, cars, clothing, friends, and yes the gifts of the Spirit. God wants us to honor Him with our gifts. To wait upon His signal to use them and to steward them well.

The word of God tells us that every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of lights up above. So, since they come from Him, we should always be mindful to use them to honor Him. Not to get caught up in the gift and remember who the Giver of the gift is. Honor Him, Respond to Him, Submit to Him and He will exalt you in due time.

Here is a good rule of thumb: 1. Check your root
2. Cultivate your fruit and finally 3. Then operate in your gift
Priscilla Hinds
Blogger/Writer
AWord42Day

Not The Carb Tree!

Not The Carb Tree!

In the book of Genesis we find the story of Adam and Eve, and how God had placed them in this beautiful garden and how He had given them every tree to eat of except for the tree in the middle of the garden, which was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He said if you eat of that tree you will surely die. What did they do? Well of course, they disobeyed God and ate of the very tree, the only one that they were not supposed to eat of.

Well.....today as I was talking with the Lord about this weight loss journey He said very clearly to me that this journey has similarities to this story. You see when I eat carbs it blows me up like a blow fish and I get HUGE. That is my tree, I am not supposed to eat of. I have all of the lovely proteins fish, chicken, turkey, beef, pork, shrimp, etc and all of the lovely vegetables zucchini, celery, bell peppers, onions, mushroom, kale, spinach, etc and all of the lovely fruits, in moderation, mind you ,apples, oranges, cantaloupe, watermelon, peaches, etc but what do I want to do? I want to fill up on the carbs! The very thing that my body does not need to touch!

Does anyone get what I am saying? We have to learn what our bodies need nutritionally. Are we lacking in minerals, vitamins and nutrients? Are we iron deficient? Are we magnesium deficient? We need to know these things and eat accordingly for a more healthy lifestyle, that will be helpful to us and pleasing to God. When He designs us to eat all of the good things and we decide to eat only sugary fake things and starchy bready things and never touching the good things that He has provided, that is like a slap in His face. He designed and created our bodies and He has given us information and wisdom to know how to take care of them.

 I am researching and seeking out health professionals to help me to be the best me that I can be and I will pass on that info to you with gladness. It is time to let the carb tree alone and eat from the fruit and vegetable and protein tree! Can I get an Amen? I know this might sound like a weird analogy but this is exactly how God gave it to me, and now I give it to you. We can do this together. We can learn to train our bodies to eat what is best for it and to shun what is not good for it. We can train our bodies to eat fat and burn fat.

 When we eat carbs our bodies blow up, retain water, cause us to have pain, swelling, cause us to be over emotional and all sorts of things come on us. But when we eat good proteins, fruits and vegetables and drink good clean water and other healthy things our bodies will burn the food that we eat for energy and it will store the nutrients in our cells to make us stronger and healthier day by day. I am so grateful that God has given me helpers and partners to come along with me on this journey. I have lain down any shame or self-consciousness about this weight loss journey to help me and to help you. I love you all and I say let's do this!!! We can do all things through Christ who gives us the strength!

Priscilla Hinds
Writer/Blogger
AWord42Day
MyStoryForHisGlory

AWord42Day: Deep Cries Unto Deep

AWord42Day: Deep Cries Unto Deep: God is speaking to me lately about the deeper things in Him. Those places that you really can't access except through pain and denia...

Deep Cries Unto Deep

God is speaking to me lately about the deeper things in Him. Those places that you really can't access except through pain and denial of flesh. That place where all you care about is hearing from God. you don't care about food or family or friends, sometimes you don't even care about gathering with other people. You just know that you have to get a hold of God. You have to somehow touch Him in a way that before was impossible for you to access. In Psalm 42 the Psalmist David describes this very thing, he says as the deer pants for the water, Oh God my soul cries out to you! He was desperate for God! This wasn't some weak double-minded prayer. This was a serious, soul baring, gut wrenching prayer that reached the throne of God. He even said my tears are my bread and drink. In other words, fasting and prayer and crying out to God was his portion in that hour.

He describes his experience with God during this rough and depressing time as being taken over by God's waterspout, a waterspout is a furious and wild and power thing that appears in water and is like a hurricane or a tornado and if you get in it's way, you would get hurt for sure. But, David says that God's waterspout is calling unto the deep places in him, in other words God is calling him deeper and it might be a treacherous place, it might be a dangerous place, you might have to lose some things, you might have to lose some people, but come deeper says the Lord, come follow me and I will make you fishers of me. Come follow me into the deep places, into places that no one has ever seen before.

Oh God!!! take me deeper! Take me to a place where you whisper secrets to me. Where you show me things that I need to know. Not just for myself alone but for my brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. For the edification of your church. I listen to a song by Jonathan Helser entitled, Endless Ocean and bottomless sea and in the song he describes how God is endless, no matter how much you see or know of Him, He is like endless ocean and bottomless sea and every time I hear that song, it touches me in such a profound way. Because that is so true! None of us could ever exhaust His goodness. We could never ever see and know and hear all of Him. We could never ever even begin to touch the surface of who He is. His greatness and His majesty.

You know sometimes God has to hurt us to help us. Sometimes when we are going into the deeper things of God we come to realize that we can't be surface people if we are trying to know more of Him. We can't be complacent and lazy about the things of God and expect Him to reveal His secrets to us. The word tells us that the Apostle Paul had more revelation from God than any other person but guess what? he also had a thorn in the flesh, that never left him, even though he prayed to God for it to be removed and God's reply was, my grace is sufficient for thee. Would to God that we would toughen up in the spirit and realize that God allows things to come into our lives to reveal the deeper things that cannot be revealed any other way than through suffering. Ooh wee that isn't a popular subject for sure but it is the truth and the word of God bears that out.

Sometimes we just need to be reminded of who He is! My God! He is the great Creator! The Author and the finisher of our faith! He is The friend that sticks closer than a brother and has promised to never leave us or forsake us. He is calling out to us, calling out and saying come deeper! Come deeper! There are things that I want to show you says the Lord. Things that others have not seen or heard. When the prophet Isaiah saw the Lord, He said I saw the Lord and He was high and lifted up and His train filled temple! Glory to God! He fell as a dead man, the scripture says! Oh glory to God! He calls us into the deeper things in Him today.

It is time to stop playing church and get real. Get real with Him. Seek Him and His greatness. Lay aside fleshly desires and say Lord I come to you, asking for more of you and less of me. I seek your face today. I seek your goodness today and your mercy and your grace. But, today God I really want to go deeper and understand more of you. It is time, it is time. Stepping out on that water, takes faith, and determination to stay focused on Him, no matter what comes or goes. Laying aside any weight that is trying to hold us back. Reaching for that high calling, which is only found in Christ Jesus.


Here is the link to the Helser song I mentioned.
 https://youtu.be/qlBugZ2xEIs

Priscilla Hinds
Writer/Blogger
AWord42Day
You can email us @ AWord42day2017@gmail.com

Improving Blog-Site

Wow! I have been super busy the last couple of days trying, with very little knowledge, to update and expand my blog-site to be more social media friendly. I tell ya right now, this has been an undertaking. But, I can do all thing through Christ who gives me the strength.

I am trying to make sure you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest
Here is the link for Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/aword42day/



Here is the link for Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Writing4Hisglory/?hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE&fref=nf

Still working on the Twitter account. For now it is just my regular Twitter account where I share the writings from this Blog site.

Despise not small beginnings says the Lord.

Priscilla Hinds
Blogger/Writer
AWord42Day2017@gmail.com 

Rainy Days And Mondays?

 When I was a teenager in the 70's a song came out, rainy days and Monday's always get me down.Sounds pretty gloomy doesn't it? We as Christians don't have to buy into the mentality of oh man it's Monday, it's going to be a rough day. Why should Monday be any different than any other day? Why should a rainy day be depressing? Life is what you make it and we are framing our worlds with the words that we speak. So, if it's raining put on your pretty rain boots and press on. Monday morning, say this is the beginning of my work week and I am going to get so much accomplished starting today. This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it. You will be amazed at how just saying that over yourself will make such a difference in the way that you view your day. God makes every day, there are blessings in store for each day and if some trouble comes, we deal with it through the power of the Holy Spirit and we move on.

Our minds must be renewed daily with the Word of God to keep us from being gloomy and having a oh poor pitiful me attitude. When I was still working as a chef at ASU. I would come in all cheerful and happy and get on with my day. No matter what came, I kept a positive attitude. When someone did or said something that was bad or wrong or if it bothered me, I would either ignore it, or calmly tell them, that i didn't care for that kind of talk. One Monday, I came in singing and doing my little happy dance and everyone around me was just staring at me. When I realized that they were all looking at me, I'm like what? This one guy said, it is Monday, what are you so happy about? I said, I am happy every day, one day is no different from the other to me. He said man, I hate Mondays. I always feel so bad and I just hate coming to work. He was a younger guy and he viewed me as a granny so I could speak freely with him without injuring his feelings. I said well it's like this, all weekend you drink, and party. Your body is dehydrated from all the alcohol consumption and so you wake up with a headache,a stomach ache and your body is just tired and feel worn out and so you dread coming to work or even getting out of the bed and for some reason you feel the need to repeat this process every single weekend. Now, you got granny here, I go to church on the weekend, fill up with the Word of God. Worship God, get to see my friends, sing, be happy, get some much needed rest and when I get here on Monday, I feel great and am full of energy and ready to go!

He looked at me and said well I am young and I like to party, I said hey I get it, I've done a little partying to in my day. But, I learned a long long time ago that was not the plan for my life and so I stopped and now I don't have to dread Mondays anymore. I can't say that he fell down on his face and repented and gave his heart to the Lord, but, he watched and listened to me the entire time I worked there. I planted a seed and I expect it to grow. Someone else will come along and water that seed and fertilize it and I fully expect it to come to full fruition one day.


We set the standard for what kind of day we are going to have. Not others, it is our own thinking, our own words that frame that day and we need to learn to speak well over ourselves. I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, because He has made me so. I am blessed and highly favored of the Lord and His favor surrounds me like a shield. I am going to have a very productive and blessed day because His Word tells me that whatever I do will prosper, Psalm 1. God has given us creative power with our words and we must use those words to build wonderful things in this earth realm. Speak life over yourself and others. Stop the negative speeches and choose wisely the words that come out of your mouth. This is something that I have struggled with for years and am just now really getting hold of the extreme importance of our words.

Be blessed today whether it is a rainy day, a snowy day, or a sunshiny bright day. This is the day that the Lord has made, lets choose to be glad in it and await what He has in store for us to do. Each day can be an adventure with Jesus if we just realize that we are working for the King in the kingdom of God and He gives us assignments to do. That will change your whole outlook on life. When you start to think, I am on a mission for the Lord, I am an ambassador for the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Let's be productive in this God given day, let's praise Him and thank Him for all that He has done and be glad in whatever comes our way. The joy of the Lord is our strength and we can have a good day no matter what comes our way in Jesus name.

Priscilla Hinds-Blogger/Writer
AWord42Day
Aword42day2017@gmail.com

He Uses The Throw Away Things

When I made this necklace it was just a whim. I really didn't know how it would turn out. I was really just fooling around with different ideas and out came this lovely piece. It was really to be a prototype and not to be for sale at all. I only wore it this one time to take a pic and I thought to myself, it sure needs tweeking. I will have to trim this and that and lengthen the necklace a little to keep it from poking into me and so forth. I posted this pic on facebook along with some other necklaces and this is the one that everyone wanted. 

I thought to myself, well isn't that odd? The one that I had the least amount of confidence in has gotten the most attention and response. Isn't that the way life is sometimes? We will scurry about worrying and fussing over a certain thing in our lives and that thing is the very thing that will help someone else. You know the messy things in your life that you really would rather not share with others. You know that thing that you wish had never happened and that is the very thing that God will use to help someone else get out of the pit that they are in.

I want to encourage someone today. Be who you are. Don't try to be anyone else but you and don't be afraid to show your weaknesses and past short comings and failures because God will use that very thing to bring you into a more intimate relationship with Him and bring Him so much glory. I have learned over the years that we have to be willing to share where we came from and what we have gone through before we came to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at this necklace, all the papers used in it are from magazine pages. Destined for the trash but I saw them and saw a necklace. You don't know what others might see in your throw away things. Save them, share them with others and let God get the glory for what is done in and through your life. God bless you today and enjoy God. He is on your side and is for you. Romans 8:28