Ready To Fly

(Make sure you check out Maria's updated profile, including her gorgeous picture! -Julie)

Please forgive my absence once again. Due to my busy schedule, I have closed the door to my part of the gate, and I am happy to be back inside…

God has truly been working in me lately.
I have had a prophecy spoken over me that relates my life to that of a butterfly.
It is time for me to get uncomfortable in the cocoon that I’ve been living in, and get ready to fly.

It’s a supernatural metamorphosis.
I have been learning many things about my passions of writing and worshipping.

The cocoon is getting uncomfortable and warm.
The temperature has gone sauna-like at times, but I must focus on the wings that He is developing for me---but not too much.

I have been anticipating the size and color my wings will be so much that at times I have lost focus of Him, and what He wants.
I know I must be in this place for a certain amount of time—His time---in order for my wings to be exactly the way He wants them.

He just wants to teach me and mold me; even if the colors aren’t as bright as I imagined, and even if my time in this cocoon is longer than I want it to be.

And in the meantime, He just wants me to be free to worship Him, exactly the way He made me to worship.

So I will.

Whether it is here spilling out His words at my computer--or
Singing at my keyboard or in my car,
Or on a church altar.

I will worship Him.

What does your cocoon feel like today?

Is it comfortable and cozy?

Or has the heat been getting to you?

I am ready to fly.

Are you?

Maria and her family reside in NE Ohio. She and her husband are the parents of two. Their daughter is a person with hemipelegic cerebral palsy.

Because of her experiences, Maria provides parent-to-parent support for families involved in her local early intervention program. Her gift for writing has come directly from the Lord since her daughter’s diagnosis.

She writes a monthly column entitled, “Special Parents, Special Kids” for the Mahoning Valley Parent magazine in Ohio; and has expanded into Parent magazines in parts of Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

She is also a contributing author at www.mommiesmagazine.com. Maria's first published work is in Jan Ross and Jeanice McDade's Women of Passion's anthology, "Ordinary Women Serving an Extraordinary God". The book is available for purchase by clicking on the book image on the right side of this blog.

Maria is very passionate about getting the word out to special parents that they are not alone in their journey of raising their special child; and that they were chosen by God to parent their children. Maria welcomes comments and communication as well as invitations for her to speak to your group.

Those Broken Places

In my last post, http://thenarrowgateinvites.blogspot.com/2008/06/beautiful.html, I wrote that "my" words were what God wanted to use, and that by being obedient with them, I'd see people find His words and me beautiful, no matter what my pant size is that day. This truth is a daily struggle for me, but I felt like today I'm meant to share what my words were during my time in Upstate NY.

Scholarship presentation given to a young man who lost his dad last year: This boy didn't just finish school, he won awards and is scheduled to start college this fall. His obedience honors his dad, and when he voiced the "hope" of finishing school and doing well, God's loving boldness interjected. I encouraged him that he will do fine and we all look forward to hearing about his progress. I love, love, love when God gives me a message of hope to share.

The Father's Day prayer: At the church we used to attend before moving I was back with the kids. We shared communion and then the pastor asked if there was a woman, maybe a woman with a son who could pray over dads in the congregation. I call it the burn in my belly but when the Holy Spirit has something for me, the words are there and I can't rest until I get them out. Since my husband wasn't with us, I went forward with the kids and God encouraged the men with His love for them. The exhortation that they would seek Him first. That their wives and children would believe in their men and show them with affirmation. That men would trust God to provide for them, and that the burden would not be for the men, but for their big God. Thanking God for these leaders with so much worldly responsibility to be still and know He is God, an abundant God that wants to shower blessings on them.

The Broken Places Testimony: After the prayer the pastor asked that we remain up there to give an update. I thought I was going to say well this is our son, his age, etc...but God stopped me and switched it up. I started by saying for those of you that are new, when we left here four years ago, we were broken. I re iterated each broken place: a chronically ill baby, financial distress, job change, single parenthood for a season with a new job in another state, death of parent, grief of family, selling a home, buying a home in another state. Those that were there remember, but in those years they missed what God blessed us with our obedience. I also was aware that some families since our move went through similar stressful situations and I know from experience you reel from the emotions. Trusting God is not easy. I let them know that those things were never a cruel joke, never torture from a Father God that crosses His arms, but opens them. I am better for those things that nearly sank me. It was a refining season that gave me a ministry to encourage others today with speaking and the written word. Whatever God does for them through change and stress, it is never without purpose. I explained maybe you won't be called 300 miles away like we were, but God will ask you to obey and it's worth it. I call those seasons those broken places.

What was neat was after the presentation and the testimony, people stopped to share how those words affected them. For each person that shared with me, God used that time just for them. One person shared how since our move God called him to Africa and I could tell, this is a changed man. He said he was afraid but did it, and was so glad he did. Another family was besieged with health issues that were very close to home for me. I remember when it was me recalling each moment with tears and torment, thankful for a mostly happy ending but scared to death to exhale from the ride.

Like I said in my last post, not one person said wow, looking chubby today. In fact, I heard the opposite. Folks shared how great we all looked and were very specific on physical aspects on me (hair). But there was one that saw past the outside and noted what a transformation he saw in my public speaking.

I've been a public speaker. But on this trip, it was more than that. They were opportunities to show off God's broken places transformed into a beautiful, cracked vase called my life in His hands and it's ok to hand those pieces off to Him.

Is there anything in these words that is God's love message for you today?

Paving The Way

(www.classroomclipart.com)


Where the Narrow Gate Girls live, it's been a diverse weather season. When my family visited over Easter they noted the potholes are like sinkholes. People are seriously driving deep into them and needing expensive repair work to their cars.

It's not like the road crews aren't out, I've seen them. My dad's last working years were at a town highway department and he often shared his wisdom on patching, paving and the like. I can't remember a lick of what he said, but I can say this...

Temporary fixes are temporary fixes.

The visual God gave me was from last fall on the road below us. It was the first day of school and that was the day the town chose to strip the road down and repave, if I'm getting my terminology right. The thing is, they took the road apart, stripped it down, and made it new.

It was a permanent fix, and this season it's the one road that is smooth driving.

When I reflect on the roads, God showed me it is much like my heart and what He is doing to it. As I blogged today over at The Surrendered Scribe, http://thesurrenderedscribe.blogspot.com/2008/04/stepping-into-clearing.html
health changes last year threw me into a refinement and transformation. I wanted it over fast and easy. I wanted a pothole patch fix.

God in His infinite wisdom, said no. He is stripping the road down to nothing so He can start over. Like the road pave on the first day of school it's incovenient, time consuming, hard and frustrating.

But the end road is a glorious one. Will my life be smooth sailing forever? No, and I don't want it to be that way, I want to need my Savior and if life gets too easy, I tend to forget Him. But this repavement process is worth it.

I feel like Spring is here in my life as much as it is outside. New opportunities, re birth. Summer is a season of activity, roads tend to be heavily used even when under construction. Fall is when things settle in and slow down, chill and finish up before a hibernation period of winter storms full of precipitation. Together all the seasons wear on the roads, so it makes sense they would wear on me too. So although I like the sound of easy fixes in my life, I get frustrated when I see a pothole patch because in short order, it's messed up again and my car falls in.

Can you relate?

What's God doing in your heart? Is He asking you for a repavement---a stripping of sorts to get to your foundation and start over? Are you fighting for a pothole fix, the temporary kind that doesn't last with changing weather and circumstances?

I know the process for me isn't done, but I definitely feel like God did a lot more than a pothole patchwork on me and I am grateful. Will you join me? Will you allow Him to Pave The Way?

Julie Arduini is a surrendered writer with her own blog, http://thesurrenderedscribe.blogspot.com/. A graduate of the Christian Writers Guild, she blogs for the Christian Writers Forum Sundays as the mommy blogger and is the Forum's book club facilitator.

She is active with FaithWriters and has several writings ready to publish in different books and anthologies in 2008-09. To get to know her better, read her interview by Lynda Schab at: http://www.faithreaders.com/featured-author-details.php?id=33%20
To contact Julie, please use the e mail provided in our profile.