Blessed by The Holy Spirit

    In December 2022, God put it on my heart to read The Bible chronologically starting in the new year. On January 1st I opened up my Bible app and found a reading plan and have been faithfully following it since. While I was in Exodus and reading about Moses. God reminded/retaught me how the people in the Old Testament did not have access to Holy Spirit the way we do today. Of course, I knew that. God the Father speaks to the people through the prophets and priests in the Old Testament and then sends Jesus to earth in the New Testament. Jesus sent Holy Spirit to help us after Jesus ascends into Heaven after His death and resurrection. I felt so blessed when God showed me this revelation. Because I get to talk to God every day all day through Holy Spirit. I do not need a priest or any other human middleman. Holy Spirit lives in me and is my direct connection to The Father. To the One who created the Heavens and the earth. Hallelujah. If that doesn't spark joy and excitement in your heart, I do not know what will.

    It then occurred to me just how exhausting Moses and the other priests and prophets would have been. Because they spent much of their time helping the people to communicate with God.

    Fast forward a couple of months. I was listening to a podcast, and one of the hosts asked the other host if they would rather have Jesus on earth or have The Holy Spirit in us. I do not recall their answer. My answer was to have Holy Spirit in me. My reasoning at this time is that Holy Spirit lives in me and thus I can talk to God any time I like. Where if Jesus was on earth like He was during his growing up years and ministry, I would have to go see him. At least, that is my understanding of theology. Yes, my goal and desire are to be in Heaven with The Father and Jesus one day and be in constant communion with them. But while I am on earth, I will gladly take Holy Spirit.

    Then one day at work I was talking to a Mennonite believer about our faith and comparing our beliefs and understanding of our faith and learning about the differences. I mentioned a conversation that Holy Spirit and I had one day. She was a little surprised and taken aback by the fact that I talk to God regularly and hear His voice.

    A week or so later I was talking to a family member about our ability to speak to and hear from Holy Spirit and what a blessing it is. Through that conversation, I realized that the gift of being able to speak to and hear from The Holy Spirit makes up about half of my relationship with God and just how alone I would feel if I did not have that gift. Then I thought of some other believers that I know who have struggled over the years to hear from Holy Spirit. This led me to feel a whole lot more sympathy and compassion for those people than I previously had, and it stirred up my desire to pray for them even more. Praying that God would show them how He speaks to them. Because He speaks to us in different ways, and sometimes we do not hear His voice because we do not recognize it because we do not know all the different ways that He can speak to us.

    So thank you, Jesus, for living in my heart and for sending Holy Spirit to be my helper in talking to The Father until it is time to head to Heaven. Amen.

God Bless

~Hannah

 

Practicing still life photography with a few of my favourite things.

Easter Thoughts

    "It's Friday, but Sunday is coming." is a common phrase we say in the Church during Easter weekend, and it's true. But we cannot forget about Friday. We had a guest speaker for our Good Friday service yesterday, and one of the many things he said was, "Thank God for Friday." (Not a direct quote, I don't remember the exact sentence. Just the point behind the sentence.) We tend to think of Good Friday as a sad day, and in some ways, it is, but it's also so good.

    Yes, Jesus went to the cross for us and died a horrible, painful death. But, He did it for us. He did it for you and me. He obeyed The Father and died in our place. That alone brings me to tears. He took my sins to the cross and washed me white as snow. God loves us so much that He gave His one and only son to die in our place.

    Maybe it's just me, but I think the Church at large needs to spend more time reflecting on what Good Friday means and not simply say, "It's okay. Sunday is coming." Again, maybe it's just me, and your church does a wonderful job of acknowledging what happened on Good Friday. I'm also not criticizing my church either.

    Because without Good Friday, we can't have Sunday.

    It reminds me that when we are in a hard season of life, we are often reminded that it's darker before dawn and that Hope comes in the morning. Which is also very true. The day that Jesus died was a hard day for His family, both on earth and in Heaven, His friends and followers.

    When I was a child and asked my dad what the weather was going to be the next day, he would always say, "Darker tonight, lighter tomorrow." It drove me nuts because it was not helpful. It was true, but not helpful.

    Anyways, Holy Spirit reminded me yesterday morning to take both Friday and Saturday and remember what Jesus did for me on Good Friday. And tomorrow, with the rest of my local church and the Church at large that He defeated death and rose to life again, and because He rose again, He is not just a man, but my Savior.

    Thank you, God, for Good Friday. Thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross for me. Your one and only son.

Happy Easter, Friends.

~Hannah

"Its always darkest before the dawn." Thomas Fuller, 1650.

The Priming Booth

    I have worked for Select Finishing for almost a year and a half. The majority of that time I have spent in the sanding booth and have become a proficient sander and have been blessed with my supervisor's respect, trust, and listening ear. She has assigned me a handful of people to train, and if she brings me a part to sand that is not worth my time and energy, she respects my answer and moves on. Life is pretty good in the sanding booth.

    Over the last month or so, I have been helping out in the primer booth and priming parts. The first step in the painting process for the body parts of the Spyder Bike we make.

    Up until recently, all I knew about priming was how to spray the paint on the part. I knew nothing about cleaning my primer gun at the end of my shift or any other steps in the clean-up process. Let alone the setup process. It wasn't bothering anyone, and I did not spend a lot of time there, so I gave it very little thought. Of course, the day came when it mattered, and boy, what a bad day that was. To make matters worse, my anxiety was also acting up, so not only was my stress acting up and I was compensating to the best of my ability, but my primer gun hadn't been properly set up, which caused a whole host of problems of its own which gave me even more anxiety. You can imagine how happy I was to get out of there at the end of the day and did not want to go near the booth for a day or two afterward. Thankfully the gun problems were resolved, and I have since learned what the problem was and how to set it up properly. It then occurred to my sanding supervisor that I did not have a clue about the technical side of priming and that it was time to fix that. Especially now that I spent a chunk of time in the priming booth. One minute I'm a full-time sander, and the next minute I am spending half my day in primer (the main primer is on light duties currently and can only prime for half the day). At first, I was unimpressed and thought, "God, I was happy in "my" sanding booth. Please put me back there." But God in infinite wisdom knew I had some growing to do, and the priming booth was where I was going to learn the lesson He had for me. You see, I like to be in control and do not like relying on others for anything. In the sanding booth, I am "in control." I know what to do, and if a problem arises, I know how to solve it or where to find the people who will solve it for me. In the priming booth, I'm not "in control" because until two weeks ago, I only knew how to spray the primer on the part and had no clue how to troubleshoot anything. Which stressed me out. Of course, this is the part where God started working on me. First, I mastered the clean-up process at the end of the day. Then I started learning how to troubleshoot problems and where to find the right people who would fix my problems and that not only do I have to rely on others in this department, but by the grace of God, I can rely on them.

    And finally, I am learning about the setup process and how to set myself up for success.

    It's funny, at first I was "kicking and screaming" to be left alone in the sanding booth, and now I enjoy the priming booth. Because I got on board when God said it was time to grow out of my comfort zone and deal with my control problems at work. The "funnies" part about all this is that I did not think I had control problems at work. I thought that they only came to life in my personal life. But as usual, God knows better and that is why He is God, and I am not. Please don't hear that as bragging. I have simply learned that when God says it's time to grow and learn something new, the sooner you get on board, the easier it gets. Believe me, God has dragged me kicking and screaming a few times and has metaphorically smacked up upside the head a time or two before I got on board. Now I get on board a whole lot sooner because I know He will win either way, so why bother fighting Him.

    Anyways, one of the pleasant side effects of priming so much is that I'm in the booth all alone with my music, podcasts, and God. Which was also part of God's plan for me. To get me quieter with Him and work on other things that needed attending to, like my at-work control problem I didn't know I had.

    God works in mysterious ways friends, and I would never imagine that He would teach me to "give up" and navigate my control issues through a priming booth.

    It has been a few more weeks of hanging out in the priming booth. I have spent almost all my time priming in the last two weeks. I haven't listened to much music or podcasts in the last two weeks, I now spend that time in prayer. The priming booth has become my "prayer closet" and whenever I am told that I am needed in priming, I now ask, "Okay God, what are we working on/walking about today." 

    This past Monday I said to God, "Please take me out of the primer booth and back into the sanding booth (my comfort zone). God responded with, "You don't grow in your comfort zone." I then responded with my arms crossed, huffed and said, "Fine." Right before this conversation with the Holy Spirit, I was trying to figure out why I still did not "love" the priming booth and why I would rather be sanding. Despite actually enjoying priming. Then this conversation took place, and I realized that the booth represents change, and I don't like change. I love the side effects of positive change, but who wants to go through the mess of change? Not me. Even when it is for my good and His glory.

    Thank you for joining me on my journey of becoming the woman God created me to be. I pray this blesses and encourages you on your walk with Christ.

God Bless

~Hannah

A beautiful winter sunrise.

My New Found Relationship, with Myself.

    Over the last little while, I have been reading and loving Joyce Myer's "Authentically, uniquely you." It has been a wonderful journey. One of the recent things I have been learning is how important my relationship with myself is. In fact, it should be my second most important relationship. The first is my relationship with God.

    One part of this relationship with myself that God has been teaching me is about how I talk to myself. I am very unkind and critical of myself. Until reading this book, I never had much thought about my relationship with myself. But it has been a big season of growth over the last year and apparently, God felt it was time for me to develop this area.

    Anyways, it has been an amazing experience. I have been working on reducing my negative self-talk and working on respecting myself more. Until now, whenever I mess up on something, regardless of its significance I will call myself an idiot. I know that I am not, but that is what silently comes out of my mouth. So now I practice telling myself that yes, I messed up (not likely a big deal), but I'm not an idiot or a failure. Because I know that deep down I am not a failure, but now I have to tell myself what I know to be true. God has also been teaching me about the difference between having confidence in Christ (who I am in Christ), pride, and having a negative self-image and where God wants me to fall on the spectrum. That in and of itself has been a beautiful learning curve. It has been a beautiful journey friends. One that I hope you have either conquered or are well on your way towards.

    Another big thing that God and I have been working on is my respect for myself. This weekend, hubby, myself, and his siblings were supposed to go and see my mother-in-law out of town. Then on Thursday night, we realized that the weather would not only be miserable for our visit but not pleasant for driving either. So we called it off. A minute later I decided that I could join in on the shift at work and do some overtime on Saturday. So then I started planning that and told hubby. As usual, he was in agreement with whatever I felt was best. Then I went to bed and hemmed and hawed over my decision. Which is something I never do. When it comes to work and overtime it's a straightforward yes or no answer. But this time I was troubled. As I mentally tossed and turned, I stopped and asked myself, "Hannah, what do you want to do?" I answered, "File our taxes in the morning and spend the afternoon reading and journaling." I have never stopped and asked myself that before. I did not expect to answer myself too quickly either. It was a beautiful and profound experience, one that I will practice more often. My go-to move is to simply take care of my hubby and Blessing and forget about myself. An unhealthy characteristic that hubby is lovingly helping me to unlearn. Because even wives/dog mommas need to put themselves first from time to time. I went to sleep satisfied on Thursday night. Then Friday morning, after reading my Bible, I was back on track with whether or not I should work on Saturday. I was basically trying to convince myself to sign up for overtime. I started praying over it. Then Holy Spirit said, 'it's always a yes or no answer. You never struggle this much about working overtime." I responded with, 'You are right. I do not want to go to work." I finally settled on my answer. I went to work Friday and was relieved when I was finished for the week.

    Now, the plans and activities I wanted to enjoy were not all successful. Nor did the day look or feel like I had imagined. But that's okay because the important ones did get completed. So as I'm winding down and preparing to go to sleep in a few minutes, I am satisfied with my day and so grateful for what God has been teaching me. I am blessed to serve a mighty and powerful God who will never leave me, or forsake me and who is regularly transforming me into a woman after His heart.

    Thank you for sharing your time with me friends, and reading along as I process the greatness of our God.

God Bless

~Hannah

This photo makes me giddy with delight. It reminds me of my love for photography and my growth as a photographer and more importantly, my growth with God.

Love is an action, not a feeling.

    Looking for love in all the wrong places. Love is an action. It is not an emotion or a feeling. It is demonstrated in the way we treat ourselves and those around us, and the things we do to and for others.

    1st Corinthians 13:4-8a. "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects always trusts, always hopes, always persevere. Love never fails."

    Love is an action, and God is love.

Tonight I sat down to read a book, "Authentically, unique you" by Joyce Myers. At the end of the second chapter, Myers mentions that in the index at the back of the book, there is a list of scripture verses to remind me of God's love for me. One of the elements that I struggle with in my relationship with God is knowing, believing, and feeling God's love for me. So when I read that Myers had written a cheat sheet for me I quickly grabbed my Bible and headed to the index in search of affirmation of my Savior's love for me. My Bible does have a similar index in it but none of the verses have spoken to me and given me the encouragement that I needed. Meaning that I was not ready for this lesson until now. The beauty of God's timing. The first few references weren't doing anything for me. So I prayed and asked God to show me a verse that would touch me and speak to me the way I needed to hear it. I kept going down the list and landed on Psalm 23. I started reading. Up to this point, I was looking for a verse that said, "Hannah, I love you." - God. (Yes, I know there isn't a verse that directly says that). But that is not how Psalm 23 starts. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures..." V. 1-2.

    This chapter is one of the many chunks of scripture that my mom had my siblings and I memorize as children so it is still familiar to me today. As I am reading I'm thinking "there are no 'I love you' statements in this chapter". Then Holy Spirit reminded me that love is an action and not an emotion. It was a beautiful aha moment. I love Holy Spirit-inspired aha moments. There are "aha moments" and then there are Spirit-led ones. This led me to another familiar passage. 1st Corinthians 13:4-8a. Which describes what love should look like and how to demonstrate it to those around me.

    In today's world, we long to hear the words "I love you" from the people we care for. It makes us feel warm and happy to hear those words. But Holy Spirit reminded me today that love is not a feeling but an action. God shows me His love for me when He provides for my needs when He showered me with unexpected blessings and much more. And of course the ultimate act of sending Jesus to die on the cross for my sins. Yes, I have known John 3:16 for most of my life, but like many other honest believers, I have taken that verse for granted many times over the years. This is probably why God created His Word to be living and active so we can relearn all the important lessons He has for us.

    As I wrote out/ read 1st Corinthians 13:4-8a it came alive to me all over again in the beautiful way that only God's Word can do. It's the beautiful difference between The Bible and every other book in the world. Yes, books can encourage you and teach you new things, but only The Bible through The Holy Spirit can transform your life.

    I was also convicted by how badly I fall short of God's standard for love and that I need to practice some of the characteristics that are listed in this passage. Thankfully God's mercies are new every morning and I can continue to grow in these areas.

    Tonight He also reminded me that not only does He love me but that He is a jealous God and desires to spend time with me. He reminded me of how I am jealous of my hubby's time and energy and that He is jealous of my time and energy in a good way. Yes, I am a human leach, something I am working on as well. Anyways, it was yet another beautiful reminder that God loves me and desires to have an intimate relationship with me. A truth I have known for years but needed a reminder of.

    "Truly believing that God loves you unconditionally is the foundation for a relationship with Him, with yourself, and with others." Myers, J. 2021 Authentically, uniquely you. Hachette Book Group. Inc.

We need to accept God's love for us before we can do anything else. Because without God's love, we have nothing and will simply sound like a gong or a clanging cymbal. 1st Corinthians 13:1.

    I'm only two chapters into this book from Joyce Myers and I'm already sold. God used it to teach me this lesson about His love for me. I am so excited to continue reading it with my journal and Bible by my side. It is currently a library book but I will likely buy it and add it to my library and read it again as the years go by and be able to lend it out to those who need to read it as well.

I pray this blesses and encourages you along your walk with God, and friends.

God Bless

~Hannah

Sunrise of Ramsey Lake. From our recent trip up north.

Confidence

    Confidence. It's a funny, touchy subject. Kind of like weighing/balancing scale. You want to have the right amount of confidence. Too much and you will be an argent and prideful person who no one wants to be around. On the other hand you want enough confidence so that you can do stuff and are not terrified to try something new or hard.

    The other day my supervisor paid me a compliment on my performance that day on a job that I am still new to. Therefore I have not yet fully developed the skills needed for it. Needless to say, I was feeling pretty good about myself, and her compliment also build up my confidence a bit more in that area. I have been in that newer area for a few days, and no one had given me constructive criticism, so I figured I was not terrible at the new role. So my supervisor's compliment gave my slowly growing confidence an ego boost. I looked at a coworker who shares a workstation with me and said, "It's funny how I can have confidence in my professional life. I know I am a good hard worker and good employee, and yet I have little to no confidence in other areas of my life." I then spent the next few days thinking about this "confidence issue."

    I realized that I have confidence in my professional life. Like I said a minute ago, I know I am a good worker. It is simply a fact. I show up, I do my job well, and I get along with my coworkers. But then comes my personal life. A whole other ball game. I think it boils down to emotions, and as much as I do not want to give him credit or any room in my life, the enemy likes to attack me in the area of my emotions. Thankfully as my loving hubby reminded me today that emotions lie to us and try to deceive us. This does not mean we should just ignore our feelings and emotions.  It simply means that they are not the be-all and end-all.

    You see, there is little to no emotion in my professional life. I go to work and complete a task and then go home. Yes, some days are frustrating and annoying, and there are also days when management makes decisions that make my head spin, but those feelings do not take away from my confidence in my ability to complete my job. I do not feel prideful or arrogant about it either. It is simply a fact. If you add up all the elements that make a good employee/worker the equation equals me and many other people around the world as well.

    So why is it that I can have confidence in my professional life and yet feel like I am being prideful if I say I am confident in my personal life? I am also going to be bold and assume that I am not the only one out there with confidence in one area of your life and lack in another. I would be interested to know if someone out there has confidence in their personal life but lacks it in their professional life and why. 

    If I were to simply take away emotion in my personal life and look at my life from a black-and-white factual approach. Quite frankly, this is how I prefer to approach all of my life. I am not a fan of emotions because they are messy, and I do not like a mess. Thankfully my counselor helped me in learning how to process emotions better and process them properly. Now, remember to put those lessons into practice.

    Anyways, I am a clean and tidy person, a good housewife. The majority of the time our apartment is clean and in order. No, it is not spotless at all times because it is a home and now an exhibit in a museum.

    I am a good cook. Not an amazing one, but a strong work in progress. No one has ever gotten sick from my cooking. Okay, that's a lie. I do sometimes. That is because my IBS is a pain in the butt and sometimes get mad about what I make for dinner. It thinks it gets a vote on what hubby and I  want for dinner. 🙄 (Sarcasm intended. My IBS does get a vote in our regular menu planning. I am not a big fan of suffering through my food).

    I am a good photographer. I can look back on the pictures I have taken over the years and see the quality difference in my work.

    So, friend, I think the takeaway in all this for myself and whoever blesses me by reading my posts is to check our emotions and see if the enemy is trying to use them against us and lie to us. Like my hubby said, emotions are not bad in and of themselves. The Bible tells us that Jesus had emotions. He had moments of anger, joy, sorrow, stress, etc. The difference is that He did not let them control Him, and neither should we.

    Above all else though, the most important personal/ability/thing that we need to have confidence in is Christ Jesus. Our Lord and Savior. No, I am not saying that He is a thing or an ability. He is a person. But for the sake of argument, I am comparing Him to our ability to complete a task. My point is that we need to have more confidence in Christ than we do in our ability to complete a task, whether that be in the workplace or in our homes. I know that I struggle with listening to the world's opinion/the enemy's opinion of me instead is focusing on God's opinion of me. Another thing I need to work on.

    I pray friends that this post blesses you and encourages you as you walk with Christ. I love writing and my blog and am blessed to know others enjoy it as well.

God Bless

~Hannah

Growing my confidence in photo editing.

God's Little, Yet Big Blessings.

    God knows just what we need when we need it. Last week at work, I had a long day doing a difficult task. Which left my arms very sore the next morning. So sore that I was not sure how I was going to do my job. I figured worse case, I would be slow. Anyways, once I arrived at work a coworker offered to switch jobs for the first hour of our day when our tasks were next to each other. Allowing my arm to rest for a bit before heading to my next task. Very sweet of her. I accepted the offer and we started our day. 

    An hour later it was time to head to my main job for the day. As I arrived at my station my supervisor informed me that I would be training two new coworkers on the sanding job I do. Just what the doctor ordered. A day of rest for my arms, all while being productive. I started to explain to my new coworkers the process for sanding the part I spent much of my time on. I said a silent prayer of thanksgiving for this blessing. I thought about how God cares for me. He created the universe and all that is in it, and yet He still cares for me and all the little details of my day and my life. I am blessed. "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" Matt 6:26. Not the verse I was thinking about originally, but it works. God cares for the flowers and birds, so how much more will He care for you and me? So much more. Not only does He care for me, but He knows me by name.

    Some might call that day a coincidence or good luck. I call it a blessed life, the beautiful result of believing in and having a personal relationship with The God who created the heavens and the earth.

    So the next time you wonder if God really cares or sees you. Just know He does care, and, He is always with you.

God Bless Friends

~Hannah

Nero as a puppy. My sister's dog.