Harder than it sounds....

I ran this morning and tonight. It was ridiculously hot. Mommy and I, on our way to Ruby Tuesday (YUMMMM) tonight, passed one of those signs that tells you the temperature. It lied and said it was 100 degrees out. It should have said 200. 100 DEGREES?? Really??

KLOVE was talking about the heat wave saying that it was going all across the country. Laura Story tweeted today that St. Louis was around 100 degs. too, so I'll say I believe the nationwide aspect of it. However, Oak Harbor, Washington, is the exception. My dad was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and shorts, and his feet were COLD! Would it be wrong to say I was slightly jealous, as I felt everything stick to me, and sweat bead down my face while not moving? I do wish it was cooler, but I am glad that someone is experiencing it. I'll try to live through them.

I told mommy that God should put an ice cube (probably more accurately a glacier) in His mouth and blow on us. It would feel SO GOOD!

Back to KLOVE, they were having people call in and come up with better names for the heat wave to make it a bit more fun. Someone said Antifreeze. :) That was my favorite :)

And isn't it awesome how people bond over the weather? First, let me say, isn't that how people break the ice?

"It's a hot one out there today!"

Or on days UNLIKE today...

"It's a beautiful day out there today. Do you think so?"

The weather's great. Here's the best though. My mom and I were behind a couple walking into RT. The man said to the hostess, "Hell called, they want their weather back." It was absolutely hilarious. And the best part was that the hostess barely acknowledged it. How can you do that? Anyway, I didn't hear the first part at the time. All I heard was "...they want their weather back" and my mom laughed so I did too. She told me later and I really laughed.

Switching gears....:)
Today's bible verse is below:

"And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses." (Mark 11:25)

This was hard for me to swallow this morning. I had never really thought about my forgiveness being dependent upon my forgiving others. In fact, my first thought was that maybe this version is wrong. Of course, then I listened to myself and realized that even in another version, or translation, it is going to have the same main point.

So in order for God to forgive me of my sins, I must first forgive others. In words, it is an easy task. However, everyone, and I mean everyone, whether they call it forgiveness or just saying "it's okay," has felt the difficulty and stress that the apology, or petition to forgive wells up. In that moment, the severity of whatever happened is called to mind once more. You are being shown again what that person did to you, what they made you feel, how they hurt you or betrayed you. Not only are you seeing it, but you feel it too. Your blood may boil in anger, or your cheeks might flush in embarrassment. Still the question remains.

"Can you forgive me?"

Now, are you going to give the devil his reward? Because what is that sudden onslaught of memories, if not the devil making his move. He doesn't care about you. He doesn't want you to have the peace of mind and sense of closure that forgiveness offers. He wants you to slip and go against the Word of God.

He wants you to say, "I'm sorry, I just think I need more time."
For what? How much longer do you want to put yourself through the misery of broken, complicated friendships? How much longer to you want to question the loyalty or the 'sides' of your remaining friends? How much longer do you want to torture yourself thinking of the possible things that could have happened, or running through the images of what you know did? How much more time do you think you have? Are you sure you have enough?

He wants you to say, "Let's just forget about it and move on."
I can't count on my two hands and two feet how many times that has worked for me, and it's not because I have had so many successes with this line. It's because I have too many fingers, and too many toes. These words are not enough, and Satan knows it. We are not capable of driving these feelings of hurt, embarrassment and betrayal out on our own. We do not, in our human strength have enough power. At the first possible sign of another act of betrayal, all of those feelings will come back. And they will come back double. Can you handle that?

Getting hurt, betrayed, humiliated, slighted, attacked. It's going to happen--we're going to do it to other people too. God didn't tell us that with faith, we would begin to live an easy, unobstructed life. In fact, he promised that we would have trouble. (Look at John 16:33) We are not called to easy lives--we're called to live a life that brings God glory in everything that we do. A lot of times, this means that we have to lean on His strength and faithfulness to bring us up on the higher ground out of the pit of grudges.

So when you're hit with the Mack truck of Mack trucks of memories of the painful event, take a deep breath, pray for God's strength, and say

"Yes, of course you're forgiven,"

and feel the peace that only God could give you. God is so good.

prayers and praise

• Praise that Grandma got herself up today. She is walking, and it is certainly a God a thing.
• Praise for air conditioning and the scientists who worked it out.
• Prayers that despite the heat, that we will continue to see God's creation as the wonderful, awesome thing that it is.
• Prayers for everyone working outside tomorrow as the heat wave continues to beat down. Prayers also that it might soon break.
• Prayers for those who may be suffering the hurt of a grudge, that they might see the uselessness of it and turn to God to help them find relief.
• Praise for the faithfulness and greatness of God that He gives us the strength to overcome these obstacles. Praise also for the example of how to live and deal that He gave to us in the form of Jesus Christ. Praise for His love.