An Awesome Week

I have had one of the best weeks since...I can't remember when. Maybe for several different reasons-I'm not sure.

Since coming to know Jesus, spending time with Him everyday in prayer and allowing Him to speak to me through His Word has just been a priority. It's like fostering any relationship-you have to spend time with them talking and listening. But for some reason, I had allowed that time to become less and less consistent and often. As believers, we are in spiritual warfare everyday, warring against the flesh to submit to the will of God. Because it is TRUTH, the Word of God is our armor, sharper than any double-edged sword, that we need to fight the Enemy. In an earthly sense, we would never send a soldier into battle without something to protect and defend himself with! So why do I allow myself to go about my day without renewing my mind with God's Word? I'm not sure sometimes, but today I know that the truth will set me free and it's found in the Bible. I'm so thankful for the Bible and for the many many men and women who gave their lives so that we could have God's Word so available to us. To my point about this week-God really had been pressing on my heart that I had not been putting Him as a priority all of the time by not spending time with Him, and that I had been running off into my day without even thanking Him for who He is and the work of the Cross. So I asked a sister in Christ for some strong accountability, and I think God has honored that because I've been in the word everyday this week. I can't believe what a difference it makes the more I'm in the Word!

I've also been experiencing some victory in some areas of my life that I've struggled with for quite some time, one of them for most of my life. The freedom I've felt this week has been overwhelming and only possible though Jesus. Our Lord is mighty and can deliver like no other!

I guess that's the only big thing going this week that made it so awesome, but they were enough!

Last weekend was extremely painful. My dog Katie (the most adorable Beagle-look-a-like you've ever seen) turned 17 this month. I got her as a gift from my father on my 8th birthday. She hadn't been doing so well and so I called the vet on Thursday of last week. She'd been losing weight and getting sick constantly. So I took her to the vet on Friday, and he took some blood and told me she had an enlarged liver. He said he wanted to keep her overnight until he got the blood tests back, but that he didn't think it looked good. I left her there on Friday and cried the whole way home. I've known for a while that the time would come when she would pass or I've have to have her put to sleep, but that doesn't mean it's any easier to hear someone say it. I prayed about it all weekend and tried to prepare for the worst. I wanted to do the right thing, even if it was the hardest, and just trust the Lord would heal my heart. I picked her up on Sunday, and to my pleasant surprise, he said that he was wrong about her liver. It was slightly enlarged, but her liver enzyme tests came back normal! He was however, worried about some toxins that were building up in her system that indicated her kidneys weren't functioning as well. So we started her on a new diet that he said should take care of it (and take care of emptying my wallet), and I'm happy to report that she is also doing great! At least great for being 119 in dog years! She appears to be putting a little bit of weight back on and has not gotten sick once. :) Praise God for being gracious enough to entrust her to me for a little longer. I would love to post some pictures of her and I, but I haven't quite got the picture thing figured out yet. I'll get them up as soon as I do!