WELCOME!!!!

Hi,
Welcome to my new blog site :). Many of you who know me personally know that I am technologically challenged...to say the least. So, a blog site your wondering...I know I am shocked myself! I have written in journals for years now and have always enjoyed it. For a long while now I have had the idea to "blog" but quickly put aside the idea time and again. However, it has persistently come up and I know it is something I needed to do. So, I asked a few friends...Babb, Lindsey, Mel to help me out. Babb helped me look into while Lindsey gave me some good tips. Then Mel....fabulous friend who set up the site for me and walked me through my first "lesson" on posting...thank you!!!!
As I mentioned earlier, I delayed starting a blog due to many excuses. If you know me, you know modesty is not typically in my vocabulary :). But, I do feel modest or vulnerable when I think of blogging...did I make that term up? I can't see the reaction of readers and putting my thoughts out there seems to make me feel vulnerable. I am also new to the blog world and all that it entails. So, needless to say, my site and blogs will probably be the most basic and simple out there and I hope not too big a joke, LOL. (probably grammatically incorrect also...Carpenter) But, God has impressed on me for a long time now to obey...to do this and to hopefully bring glory to what He is doing in our lives....so here it goes!
I thought I'd start with a blog that attempts to explain the title...Flames Are Visible. My hubby, Spencer, if you don't know him, is a fireman...one of his jobs. One day, a long while ago, we saw smoke and fire at a building we were driving by. He explainded the call that dispatch makes when the structure is on fire and in the course of that conversation the phrase "flames are visible" came up. That phrase stuck out to me and hasn't been forgotten since then. As I thought about it, in regards to a fire, they are seeing the visible flames and know they need to go and take care of it. The flames indicate something that is hot, destructive, not necessarily desired...fire.
Well, I started thinking about this phrase and how it applies to my life. I know that in my life there are definitely "flames" or "fires" and trials that have occurred or are occurring. These trials, storms, broken plans, and shattered dreams happen and are definitely visible, definitely real. They often have left me broken, confused, uncomfortable, and full of unanswered questions. These flames and fires often cannot be avoided and are often not understood...as to why they happen. However, I have learned and am still learning that our Heavenly Father has not ever been unaware of any of these flames and fires in my life. There are times where I have questioned His presence and His purposes. As I seek Him and rely on Him by faith, by trust, by hope, I have come to know that His hand is on all of it and He is in control. I read once that when we are in a fire, God knows it and He is aware of how "hot" it is; He won't let the temperature become too much and we won't be consumed. I do know that despite not always liking or understanding the fires in my life, He is there and He is enough. Through these times He desires to refine me, to lessen my ways, my will, my desires and to strengthen His character, His purposes, His reactions to bring me closer to a reflection of His image.
Now I hope that makes some sense???
There is also another aspect to the Flames Are Visible. The flames and fires do happen and can shape us, refine us, grow us. As this process occurs throughout life, I believe that they are opportunities to let "flames" be seen in our lives. These flames are flames of hope, faith, trust, surrender, and obedience to God. They are visible in all seasons of our lives...the easy ones, the heartbreaking ones, the healing ones, all of them. I have the tendency to withdraw, to get overwhelmed, to freak out and try to control things when fires and flames come up. But, I am learning that instead of all that striving, God desires for me to let go, to be still, to seek Him, and to let His purposes, His strength, His glory be the source and the focus. So, it is my prayer and my hope that in all things that happen with my life that "flames" of hope, faith, trust, and awe of His grace and love are so unbelievably visible to others...not by anything of me but of God.