Create Some Waves!

“These are the men who served along with their sons:” 1 Chronicles 6:33

This morning’s sermon at church was on ripples. The pastor explained that when we’re willing to simply reach out and touch one life, just one, the ripples will continue because of that one outreach to that one person. Then he gave an example of how one guy was honest with his fishing buddy and told him that his life was really a mess and then invited him to church. The friend agreed and went and was saved. Then he invited one of his friends, who came and got saved. And then he invited one of his friends, who came and got saved. When the story was all told there was a row of thirteen (if I remember correctly) men who had been saved, all because ONE friend invited his friend to church.

One.

All too often Satan tries, and succeeds albeit briefly, to convince me that my writing isn’t effective. He tries to convince me that our ministry has had no lasting impact on the world at large. But today, Jesus reminded me that I AM effective, that our ministry HAS had a lasting impact on the world at large. And wouldn’t you know it, His example was, of all things, SHMILY Sunday. 😀 It all started with a busy morning’s hurried Bible study and a prayer asking God to show me His love for ME in a new and wonderous way. I never expected the result, an apple with pink swirls and a heart at its core.

I was so impacted by that ONE generous act of His love for ME that I just had to show everyone present the heart at the center of the apple in pink swirls. But then it didn’t end there, suddenly I was seeing smiling faces in the bubbles of soaking dishes that would pop before I could photograph them.

Hearts in trash on the floor as I was sweeping. It was all so random and yet so precisely for ME.

Often I would be the only one to see them before they would disappear completely, occasionally I would be able to get a picture of them to keep as a memento.

Then the day came when I posted this to the blog and told my friends all about my hearts and smiles. Suddenly THEY too were seeing hearts and smiles all over the place. One friend in particular would get at least one heart a day. She would often text them to me and our friends. It’s gotten to the point when someone else will see a heart they will text the picture to her and tell her they found a heart for her; not realizing that the heart was for THEM. L That’s about how far out I can see the ripples of my SHMILY story going, but I know that it’s gone much farther than that! And that’s just the SHMILY’s!

Satan is a LIAR friends. We’ve got to wrap our brains around that. We’ve got to come to grips with the fact that he is a LIAR and the Father of Liars! He will tell us ANYTHING to make us get down on ourselves and to keep us from our full potential. BUT Jesus is the TRUTH. He is the Father of the Truth! And He will tell us that Truth over and over and over again until we FINALLY trust Him enough to believe the Truth over the Lies we’ve always believed about ourselves. Thank YOU Jesus!

This week I’m not going to stick to just the hearts and the smiles, I want to share everything that I photographed this week that made me feel like Jesus loves ME. 😀

We in Sheridan are SO BLESSED to have such an AMAZING tennis program led by an amazing Christian. He brings out the best in these kids and I am so glad to have him speaking into our children’s lives. Plus it’s GREAT to have a reason to sit in the park for an hour or so every afternoon during the best weather imaginable! My very first little bloom on my peas from my very first garden! A smile in the ribs that Sean brought home from the BEST BBQ place around!!!! Big Hoffas BBQ! 😀

a heart in the ribs that my good friend Tammy brought us this week. Yup, we had ribs TWICE in one week!

Out for a walk on the Monon trail while Gabe is at tennis practice, I’m pretty sure that this is about the point when I got the text from Sean that practice was canceling due to the rain that was falling on the courts and hadn’t hit the ground on the trail yet because of all the tree cover. Hee hee. J A smiling spoon. In lunch with Sean. On the way home from lunch with Sean. My first fruits in my garden!!!!! Harvest time is soon!!! 😀 A flower from a friend. A dime, a nickel and an Allen wrench. SHMILY! An oily heart next to my car when I went to pick it up with TWO FRESH TIRES ON IT!!! 😀 Praise Jesus! I think this moment may be my favorite one of all, to actually SEE something I made on those precious tiny perfect little baby toes! I can’t even begin to describe how that felt! Fitting those little gospel sandals onto those feet was PRICELESS! Even if she was just the foot model for the in-utero baby that the sandals are really for, it was an awesome moment!