The Plan I Have For You

James 5:9-11 Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!   Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.   As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. Have you ever dropped a spot of something on the carpet and then went to clean it up?  If you don't do it correctly, you start to rub, and the more you rub, the bigger the mess becomes.  Sometimes being around people is hard.  It is inevitable when you put people of different backgrounds together you are going to have disagreements.  We get our feelings hurt, or we see things going on that just simply shouldn't be.  It is really easy to continue to rub at the spot and create a huge mess of feelings....

This wasn't the message I started more than a week ago to share with you.  I wanted to tell you about a special song God had placed in my life.  Although singing solo has always made me shake down to my toes, I bought the track for this particular song quite some time ago and was preparing to sing.  Not to long afterwards, I had my first ear surgery, and the changes in my hearing forced me to quit singing. A few weeks ago I was cleaning and found the CD, and my husband caught me singing through.  The message of the song is so powerful in my life.  Sunday night I will be sharing with my church.  While I have retrained my ears to finally be somewhat comfortable with a group, this will be my first time singing alone in more than three years. I've worked hard to overcome the lack of confidence I face trying to sing with ears that don't always catch what they should.  This week, I've fought a harder battle:  the vioce of ...