90% MATTERS

Sheri’s Word Journey

One year ago I embarked on a bible study journey with 3 other ladies.  We wanted and prayed for a revival in our own lives, we desperately wanted to SEEK GOD in those hard places.   For around 5 weeks we met together and prayed together and inspired each other to pray boldly and dig deeper into our souls for that spark that God was reaching for in each of us.  Yes, we all bought a book, you know those bible study books that you can write in.  Yes, we all made a commitment to do the study and meet every week even if someone was missing.  And Yes we did for around 5 weeks until….

One by one each lady’s life got turned upside down! From cancer, to a death,  to hard life choices, and financial strains, and job changes.   Each experience was different from the other, some more extreme and emotionally wearing than the others.  Some little experiences in light of others…they each dramatically changed our day to day family life, but one common thread was strung throughout the group and still remains to this day………….

Because we chose to SEEK GOD our lives will never be the same.

So, does seeking God mean tragedy, heartache, deep loss and pain will occur in our lives?  ABSOLUTELY NOT!  Those things are going to happen anyway!  It’s life.  The reason none of us will be the same is because once you OPEN that chapter in your life to SEEKING GOD in intimate ways, there is NO going back.

I’m a quote person.  I LOVE, LOVE a good quote.  Today my calendar read….” Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.”  WOW I thought to myself.  My mind immediately went to these ladies and all that happened last year.  There were some pretty hard months, painful days of weeping, days of hurting so bad you aren’t even sure you want  to live another day.  BUT then I witnessed something remarkable amongst these ladies I call mentors, and accountability partners and women of GREAT FAITH…. I witnessed strength in them that only comes from SEEKING GOD, I witnessed love outpouring from them in sacrificial ways to reach the community, I witnessed peace in them when I would’ve curled up in the fetal position and begged to die, I witnessed GOD in a nutshell LIVING and BREATHING in my friends lives.  Helping them get up each day, and just brush their teeth and hair and then face another day, whatever that would bring.  I realized today, that their REACTIONS to the 10% life threw at them last year…..has inspired me to even MORE SEEK GOD. 

So why am I starting a blog?  Because  I want to invite anyone who is just a “good person”, to decide to be  MORE than good, and be an all out GOD SEEKER!  I want to invite the couch potatoes, or the hum drum livers, or the too busy moms and dads to embark with me this year on a WORD JOURNEY.    And I don’t want to do it alone, I want to celebrate with as many people as possible what our great BIG GOD can do when we SEEK Him more.  When life HITS us right in the face, like it did my good friends last year…..we our lifted back up to our feet by a GOD who wants to carry us through that fire. 

I decided to call this SHERI’s WORD JOURNEY, because I believe words are powerful, but THE WORD, THE BIBLE, GOD’s WORD is life changing if we SEEK HIM in the words he spoke to His chosen authors.  I experienced some pretty crappy months in 2013.  I allowed negative words to penetrate my heart and mind, I allowed words to hurt me, and I used words to hurt others.  God’s word says to “guard your heart above all else.”  This WORD from God is exactly how we REACT to what life hands us in a more life changing way.  Life handed one of my friends the death of a young child, but she has REACTED by giving all of his things to the community to people in need, she spent very difficult holiday seasons, loving on others, thinking of others.  And through her SEEKING GOD in everything she does, she is healing.  She is showing the world that GOD’s WORD is ALIVE in US if we choose to seek Him.  My other friend was handed a grandchild with cancer.  She not only took God’s word into her own life, but she wrote endlessly on a blog about what God was doing every single day, and she has changed people’s  REACTIONS to life’s tragedies all over the country.  She is still meeting people in other states that have said how much her WORDS have helped them this year.  

Each of us were designed to SEEK something for total fulfillment, and when we move away from our pursuit of Him to something earthly then we end up empty…..GUESS WHAT?  His WORD is still alive, still true, still changing lives and most importantly still GIVING GOD all the glory for the great things he has done.

I desperately want God’s WORD to change ME.  I want to seek God even more in 2014.  I want to invite you to join me and share with me on this journey, because we are all in this together.  LIFE.  And I believe at the end of it, our REACTIONS to our LIFE will be what saves us or KILLS us.  It’s our choice.  I truly believe if God’s WORD was not hidden deep into the hearts of my friends during this last year, they would be in very different places this year.  WORDS can make us or break us but, THE WORD can GIVE US LIFE! 

In my blog this year I plan to SEEK GOD and His word with everything I face, from the good to the bad to the ugly and share as many of my SEEKINGS with you.  My goal or resolution is to GUARD MY HEART from words that tear down and hurt myself or others, and instead allow GOD’s WORD to change MY WORDS in every single situation I face.  Hope you will join me…..HUGS to you all!  SMJ