by Misty Phillip | May 26, 2016 | Christian Living, Faith, Featured
Have you ever wanted to try something new, or learn a new skill, but you were afraid to get started? Or is there a desire or dream within you to do something and you just don’t feel qualified to do it?
Many people today lack the courage they need to start new projects or follow their dreams.
The other day while buying a new computer at the Apple store, the sales associate and I were talking about what I would be using my new laptop for. I told her that I was an author and blogger and that I would be using my new laptop to write my first book. She was very excited for me, and thought that what I was doing was really neat. She told me that she also had a dream of being an author, and one day hoped to write a children’s story.
She was bursting with excitement as she shared with me that she already had a great book idea, but something was holding her back from acting on that dream. This young lady is currently going to school for her teaching degree and wants to be a kindergarten teacher. I don’t know if she was just afraid to get started, or she didn’t think she was qualified enough to write a children’s story until she had a degree, but I sensed her hesitation—something was holding her back. So I encouraged her to go ahead and get started on her book now.
Too often, I see people who are held back from pursuing their dreams because they don’t feel like they have what it takes to pursue them. But the Bible tells us a different story.
According to 2 Timothy 1:7:
“God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and of love and self-control.”
In 2 Peter 1:3 we learn that:
“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.”
I would have missed out on some of God’s greatest blessings for my life—like motherhood, homeschooling, or blogging—if I would have waited to start until I felt qualified. God equips those He calls.
God has given us everything we need for an abundant life.
If God has placed a dream or desire in our hearts, then we do not need to be afraid to proceed. Through His divine power He has given us everything we need, and through Christ who strengthens us, we can do all things!
So don’t be afraid to take a leap of faith: step out of your comfort zone, knowing that you are empowered by divine power, and follow your dreams.
Leave a comment below if God has recently empowered you to do something out of your comfort zone.
by Misty Phillip | Apr 25, 2016 | Christian Living, Faith, Featured, Life
Last week, a terrible storm blew through Houston, and it left many people who live in my area of Northwest Houston devastated by flood waters. Hundreds of people had to be evacuated by boat in this historic storm. Many homes were inundated by several feet of water. This unnamed storm seemed to come out of nowhere, and the damage took everyone by surprise. The storms in life will come, and when they do, how will we respond?
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” – James 1
We are to be joyful, even in the midst of our trials. I witnessed exactly that this weekend in the aftermath of last week’s devastating storms. My son Ian and I were sent out with a prayer team from our church to pray for and with flood victims. I was amazed to see a man who a few days early had two feet of water in his home, and all of his family’s belongings destroyed to have a smile on his face. He was joyful, in spite of his circumstances, because he knew that the Lord was faithful and that He would carry them through the trials and tribulations of life.
Our church sent over a 1000 people out into the community on Saturday to love on people, pray with people, share the gospel, and help them tear out sheetrock, carpet, baseboards, and ruined furniture. Teams were sent out to all areas of town to help people in the affected neighborhoods. I am so grateful to be a part of a church that loves God and loves people—love them in their need and where they are hurting. We were being given T-shirts that said: “The Church has left the building.” What a beautiful picture of the hands and feet of Jesus!
It is the trials that we face, that test our faith, and that testing produces steadfastness, and when it has its full effect, we lack nothing. So my question for you, friend, is this: how will you respond when the storms of life take you by surprise? Will you count it all joy?
by Misty Phillip | Apr 20, 2016 | Christian Living, Faith, Life
Raucous thunder and electrifying lightning filled the sky here in the Houston area on Sunday evening. The light show it produced and the amount of noise felt like we were on the front lines of a major battle. The storms were relentless. After many hours with no electricity and by the time the rain finally subsided we were left with a city ravaged by flood waters. It made me think about Noah—I can’t imagine experiencing the wrath of God for 40 days of constant destructive storms.
God told Noah to built a boat, and in Genesis 7:5 it says, “And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.” The Lord saw that men were wicked and evil, and He was sorry that he made man. God found favor with Noah because Noah lived his life differently than everyone else in the world at that time. So God made a covenant with Noah, spared the earth from complete destruction, and promised that He would never destroy the world with flood waters again. Thank you God!
There are many lessons that we can learn from the story of Noah. Noah lived counter-culturally, and because he did, God spared the entire world! The evil people perished, and God saved a remnant of Noah’s family, spared the animals’ lives, and did not completely destroy the earth all because of Noah. Noah was far from perfect, but Noah was faithful.
In our world today we are again at a point in time where there is much evil, and atrocities are occurring across the globe at breakneck speed. In the midst of this perverse generation, we need more people like Noah. People who are faithful to God, people who listen to God and are obedient to God. Not perfect people, not people that don’t mess up or have it all together, but people who are willing to listen to God and obey.
After 40 days and 40 nights of torrential rain, the flood subsides and God remembers Noah, but the flood waters were not abated for another 150 days. So Noah waited on God. He trusted God’s faithfulness, and knew that God would guide him. The storms of life will come. How will we respond?
It is my prayer that I will learn to listen and obey God more everyday. That I would care less about what the others think or what they do, and choose to live my life in obedience to God, even if that means living counter-cultural and doing things that other people think are weird. That I would follow hard after Him, and that I would be found faithful.
My friend, are you listening for that still small voice in a world screams loud? Will you be found faithful? And will you wait on God through the storms of life?
by Misty Phillip | Apr 14, 2016 | Christian Living, Faith, Featured, Life
The other day, I met a friend for lunch and as soon as she sat down and we started talking, she burst into tears. You see, my friend is a busy young mother with a new baby. She was frazzled trying to get out of the house and get everyone situated before she came to meet me. I think she was just relieved to see me knowing that we could talk and that I would understand the struggles and challenges that she is experiencing. Basically, she just needed a friend.
Hebrews 10:24-25 “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
Girlfriends are important. We need each other. We need friends to laugh with us when we are happy and cry with us when we are sad. Friends that will pray for us and encourage us to do good. Hebrews chapter 10 tells us to consider, ponder, think about how we should stir up one another to love and good works.
The Amplified Bible says it this way, “And let us consider and give attentive, continuous care to watching over one another, studying how we may stir up (stimulate and incite) to love and helpful deeds and noble activities, Not forsaking or neglecting to assemble together [as believers], as is the habit of some people, but admonishing (warning, urging, and encouraging) one another, and all the more faithfully as you see the day approaching.”
As Christian women, we should be creative in thinking about ways to meet with each other so that we can watch over one another and encourage one another to love God, love our husbands, love our children, and to love each other.
I have an amazing group of women that I meet with regularly, and I am so blessed by their friendships. Some of us have been friends for almost two decades, others have joined us along the way. We do life together. We may not see each other every day, but I know that these are the girls that have my back. We have shared both good times and bad times. We have celebrated all of the major milestones together—babies, birthdays, showers, and even funerals. These girls are a special part of my life.
I have other very close friends who are very special to me, and these ladies are the “older women” in my life who I look up to, and can call on for advice. These ladies are full of wisdom, and I consider these ladies my mentors. It is good to have women of all ages in your life!
The Lord has blessed me with a life filled with amazing women of all ages; both young and old. Some I see regularly, others I only talk to occasionally. It isn’t necessary to have a lot of friends, but what is important is having the right kind of friends. Friends that lift you up encourage you and pray for you. I hope you have a special girl or a group of girls that you can call your friends. If not, I encourage you to pray and ask God to put the right kind of girls and women in your life.
by Misty Phillip | Mar 30, 2016 | Faith, Featured, Homeschooling, Life, Motherhood
Peter, my husband, is the light of my life, and my best friend. In December of 1993, our life was forever changed, that was the day I gave birth to my eldest son. We instantly fell in love with our bundle of joy! Peter and I were young, inexperienced parents, but we were given an incredible gift, our precious son Jacob. He was a wonderful little man, and he made me want to have more children just like him.I longed for more children, but I was a busy working mom and many years passed before I would become pregnant again. Finally, I did get pregnant again in 1998. This pregnancy was not as easy as the first one. I had trouble with spotting early in my pregnancy, and I began to experience some health problems. I was diagnosed with Gestational diabetes and was put on a very strict diet, exercise regime, and was very closely monitored. On a routine visit to the hospital, I was hooked up to a monitor to make sure everything was going okay. But today, something was terribly wrong. My baby’s lungs were not moving. They didn’t know if he was breathing okay, so they ordered an emergency C-section. This was a horrifying time. Several hours later, I gave birth to our second son, Connor.
Everything seemed okay at first. But everything was not okay. He was born with a condition called club feet. His feet were upside down, and backward. I remember holding him in those early hours after he was born, with my eyes full of tears, and all I could say was that he was perfect. I had longed for this child, and to me he was perfect.
The years that followed were downright difficult! Connor was in and out of the hospital from the time he was born. The first doctor that cast Connor, cast him to tight and Connor’s toes were turning black and blue. He was losing circulation to his feet. We took him to the ER, and they cut his cast off. The attending ER Physician said it was a good thing that we brought him in because if we had waited much longer, he would have lost his feet. He was only days old. And things continued to get worse from there.
Connor had a myriad of health issues. He had several foot surgeries. We were constantly either in the Doctor’s office or hospital. During one of his hospital stays, he contracted the roto virus. A diarrhea virus that lasted for six weeks!! He had cast all the way up his legs and that made dealing with a diarrhea virus even more difficult. Also, he had over 15 ear infections by the time he was a year old. He was an extremely colicky baby who did not sleep. He would scream for hours on end, sometimes he would cry all night long.
We were exhausted and desperate for sleep. After trying just about everything we could think of, there were only two ways we could get him to sleep, either put him in a baby swing or have the vacuum cleaner on all night. We would put him in the swing and rock him back and forth continuously, and we would turn the vacuum on for white noise. We leaned the vacuum cleaner up against the wall so we wouldn’t burn the motor up. I am sure my neighbors thought we were crazy for vacuuming all night! But if I even tried to shut the vacuum cleaner off after two or three hours, he would wake up screaming at the top of his lungs.
At a year old Connor received one of his vaccinations, and shortly after he began having Grand Mal seizures. He had one seizure. Then another. Then another. They started out several hours apart until he was constantly seizing. We rushed to our pediatrician’s office, and he sent us to Texas Children’s hospital in the Houston Medical Center. After several hours in the ER, and with no real treatment, we were sent home. Only to find ourselves right back in the ER with Connor seizing more frequently. As a parent watching your child have seizures is an incredibly frightening thing, you feel completely helpless. It is horrific to watch your child flail uncontrollably, and there is nothing you can do about it. It took Connor being pumped full of the barbiturate Phenobarbital for him to finally stop seizing. For the next year, Connor laid around limp, pumped full of drugs. These early years were extremely tough with Connor.
Connor did not walk or talk when he was supposed to, and we didn’t know what else could be wrong. We constantly took him to doctors and specialists looking for answers. At age 3, we took Connor in for a hearing test, and the audiologist suggested something else was wrong with Connor. We took him back to his pediatrician who finally diagnosed him with PDD-NOS. Pervasive Developmental Disorder, not otherwise specified. This is an autism spectrum disorder, and for the next fourteen years, we lived with this devastating diagnosis.
Years worth of therapy, specialized schooling and countless doctor appointments made some slight improvements in Connor’s life, but his language was minimal, and his deficits were huge. We faced the fact that Connor may not be able to live on his own, although we always held out hope for a better life for him. Connor has always had a very sweet spirit, with a huge smile. He impacts people and melts hearts everywhere he goes. There is an innocence about him, and a child-like faith that makes him precious.
We continued to pray and seek God’s will for Connor, and at the end of last year, God finally answered that prayer! We took Connor to a specialist, who for the first time in Connor’s life accurately diagnosed his condition, and told us things about Connor that no one else was ever able to diagnose before. Connor was given the diagnosis of autoimmune encephalitis.
According to Autoimmune Encephalitis Alliance, “Autoimmune encephalitis is a rare and serious condition in which the immune system attacks the brain, resulting in impaired brain function.”
For many people, this would be a devastating diagnosis, but for us this finally meant hope. Because unlike Autism, there is a treatment for Autoimmune Encephalitis. I will talk about Connor’s journey and progress in future posts. But today I would like to leave you with a final thought.
Don’t give up, don’t lose hope! Continue to pray for those situations in your life that look hopeless, because in Jesus there is hope! He is faithful. 1 Corinthians 1:9 says, “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Turn your eyes to Jesus and cry out for wisdom. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” James 1:5.
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