Courthouse Blessing :)

The other day I went to the courthouse to pay my property taxes (that wasn’t fun!) I pulled one of the little tickets out of the ticket “thingy.” The number on my ticket was 345. I looked up at the number they were currently serving and it was number 330. I had a ways to go! I sat down on this bench near a man that looked like he’d been waiting for a while. Another man came up and took the ticket after me, number 346. He looked up at the number they were on and got agitated and mumbled something about being late for something important. He paced up and down the aisle for a few minutes and then sat down on the bench between me and the other man. He definitely had a stressed look on his face. After another few minutes had gone by they called number 331. We all looked at our numbers. Why is it that we do that, knowing we don’t have the number but looking at it as if maybe it had magically changed? LOL! The man that had been sitting there for a while, looking at his number, turned to the stressed out man in between us and said, “I have 331 but you take it.” The other man looked up at him somewhat shocked but hopeful, and said, “Really?” The man who had been sitting there for a while just said, “Yes, you take it.” They switched numbers and the other man thanked him and then ran to his window to take care of his business. He finished his business pretty quickly and then as he was leaving he thanked the other man once again, but now he had a smile on his face!

I was so touched by that whole scene I had just witnessed! It’s nice to know that in this fast paced world of ours, there are unselfish, kind and loving people looking out for one another, just like Jesus! We should ALL be like Jesus! He’s the ticket! I was inspired to be like Him, and that man and his act of kindness and my trip to the courthouse was my blessing!

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus! " Philippians 2:3-5

Blessings from Patrice!

Blessing at 30,000 feet!

I don't know about any of you but as for me, I hate turbulence!! Several years ago, my daughter and I were flying home from San Diego and we had the most turbulence I've ever felt in my life! I actually thought the plane was going down! I grabbed onto my daughter and started praying for God to forgive us for our sins! LOL! It was pretty bad. It was nerve-wracking! It was so bad it made me think twice about flying!

Well, this blessing has a double blessing. The first part happened last year as I was on a plane flying to San Diego. This time i was flying by myself. I had sent my daughter to San Diego ahead of me, a week before, to see her family. I put her on a plane all by herself for the first time! That was nerve-wracking in itself! So I was on the plane headed to San Diego to meet her. I had brought a book with me to read called "The Prayer of Jabez" (which is a whole other blessing that you'll hear about later!). It's a book about one little verse in the bible, 1 Chronicles 4:10, where this man prayed for God to bless him and God granted his request and how we can apply that to our lives and harness the same blessings through this prayer!

As we reached cruising altitude of 30,000 feet, I decided that I would take advantage of those blessings and pray! I prayed the prayer of Jabez and also said "God, You KNOW how much I hate turbulence! I trust You that You'll take care of me and I also know that You want to give me the desires of my heart. Well, today I desire that we have no turbulence!! Please make this a turbulence-free flight! In Your name I pray, Amen!" Well, I'll give you one guess as to what happened on that flight . . we had NO turbulence! NONE! Not even a bump! It was the smoothest flight I'd ever been on! When we landed, giddy with the fact that we have an AWESOME God, I realized that He had answered my prayer and I thanked Him!

The second part of the blessing happened as my daughter and I were flying home on the plane together. This time as we reached cruising altitude of 30,000 feet, I told my daughter the story of what had happened on the plane ride there. I told her about the awesome power of prayer and how we can always go to God for anything and how we should always trust Him to take care of us! So I said a prayer. I basically said the same one that I had said on the previous flight, that I don't like turbulence and I didn't want any on this flight! But something different happened this time. We had turbulence! And then something else different happened as the plane was rocking back and forth . . I wasn't afraid! I didn't have that sinking feeling like we were going to crash and I felt a peace come over me. I looked at my daughter and she had a scared look on her face. I took hold of her hand and with peace in my heart and a smile on my face I just said, "Trust Jesus, sweetie".

The turbulence finally stopped and we landed safely! I realized then, that Jesus had gone above and beyond answering my prayer. We had turbulence on the plane, but He took the turbulence out of my heart! He gave me the peace that only HE can give! It was amazing! In tears, I thanked Him for being more awesome than I ever could have imagined! Jesus was my blessing up there at 30,000 feet! On the ground or the air, He can be your blessing too!

"Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything! Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand! His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ!" Philippians 4:6-7

Blessings from Patrice!

Direct Line Blessing

This morning I was watching a video of a friend of mine witnessing about Jesus to someone. It was kind of like an interview. It was really cool. It was about 15 minutes long. As it neared the end he said something to the guy that he was interviewing and I realized that tears were streaming down my face. What he was telling the man was an answer to my prayer!! I had prayed for something yesterday and God gave me the answer in the video! It was plain as day! It was like God was speaking! It was soooo cool!

The other day someone said to me, "Hey Patrice, will you ask God something for me because He always listens to YOU!" LOL! I thought that was sooo cool too because God DOES listen to me and He always answers my prayers! It's like having a direct line to Him!

There's no real secret to getting God to listen to you. All you have to do is get to know Him! Once you get to know Him you'll find out that He was listening all along and just waiting to talk to you and give you whatever it is you need! It's cool having that direct line to Him and that direct line was my blessing today!

"If you abide in Me and My Words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you!" John 15:7

Blessings from Patrice!

Blessing while running :)

So yesterday I was outside running for exercise. I'm up to 3 miles! That's a blessing in itself! but not the blessing I'm here to tell you about. This blessing came while I was running. Whenever I'm out taking a walk, or running I usually talk to God! It's a great time to commune with Him . . . just me and God!

Well, this day I was talking to God as I was running and I had a request for Him. This friend of mine had been sick for awhile and ended up in the hospital with pneumonia! I know how awful the effects of that can be as my daughter's grandma just recently passed away from complications due to pneumonia. My friend had been in there for a few days and I had been praying for him. So while I was running I said to God, "My friend needs some healing. I know that in my personal trials that I've gone through, I've always ended up getting a HUGE blessing from whatever has afflicted me. So please Jesus, let my friend experience the same kind of HUGE blessing from this trial, after You have healed him, as I know You will. I'm claiming Your promise in the bible that says "The prayer offered up in faith will make the sick person well!" But also Jesus, I KNOW how much he doesn't want to be in there. Please, make him well so he can leave that place! And Jesus, send comfort to him and his family and . . . "

As I was still praying, my phone beeped and I had received a text. I decided to put God on hold for a minute (ha ha!) and see who it was from. It was from my friend in the hospital and it read "They're kickin' me outa here in a few minutes and that feels real good!" I was so excited for him! As I stopped running for a minute to revel in the fact that my friend was better and leaving the hospital, I realized that "Hey, I wasn't even done with my prayer and Jesus answered it!!" WOW! He always answers my prayers but THAT was really cool!! Tears, of course, started flowing from my eyes! Tears of praise and utter amazement at how awesome my Heavenly Father is!

I then resumed my prayer and said "Jesus, that was really cool. I was just getting ready to thank You in advance for answering my prayer but now I can thank You for already answering it!! You are an awesome God!"

God really does answer prayers. All you have to do is ask and believe! Today's blessing wasn't only that He answered my prayer but He answered before I even had a chance to finish the prayer! Once you get to know Him you find out how awesome He really is!

"And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up!" James 5:15

Blessings from Patrice!

Multiple Blessing!

This morning I got up early to go for a walk. The sun wasn't up yet and it was still dark out. I love the early morning dawn. It's my favorite part of the day! So I started walking. I was about half a mile from home when I turned the corner, in shock, to see the most awesome sunrise you could imagine! It was brilliant! It was like the sky was on fire! I just stood there and gazed at it for a moment in amazement! Then I made a startling discovery . . I didn't have my camera with me!! Aaaaaugh!!

If you know me, I ALWAYS have my camera with me but this morning I didn't! This was the most awesome sight and I wanted everyone else to see it too! I decided to try to go home and get my camera before the moment went away but you know how fast that moment of sunrise goes! So I ran! Now, mind you, I haven't run for awhile. I've been wanting to get back into it but haven't felt compelled to do it and haven't had enough energy to do it lately. So, I proceeded to run home. I ran the whole half mile, got my camera and ran as fast as I could back to that spot! The sunrise was still there!! Panting heavily from the run I snapped the picture! I got it! It was amazing! I couldn't believe I ran that whole way and made it back and it was still there! I took several pictures, of course, and just stood there reveling in the beauty. A few minutes later, the picture and moment was gone and the sun shone bright in the sky!

I finished my walk and thanked the Lord for that awesome moment. I realized later that I got so many blessings from that morning walk! One blessing, of course, was the magnificent sunrise that I got to witness! Another blessing was God keeping it there long enough for me to run home and get my camera and run back and get a picture of it!! Another blessing is being able to share it with you! Another blessing was, that the whole process of me having to run home and get my camera and run back got me feeling like I want to run again like I've been wanting to do! Another blessing was that it's been a long, long, time since I've been here on my blessing blog. I've been wanting to get back on it for a long time but I've had somewhat of a "writer's block"! This mornings blessings got my literary juices flowing again and got me writing, which I love to do!

This morning was a multiple blessing! There were probably countless more blessings that I don't even realize yet! If you stop for a minute you'll realize . . Life is full of God's blessings! Thank you God for my blessings today!

"From His abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another!" John 1:16

Blessings from Patrice!