Picture Gallery

This was our annual Avon Luncheon. It is to honor the representatives that have sold over $10,000 each year. While this was a banquet about business, I am always seeking godly wisdom in everything I do.

This is a picture of two repesentatives Robert and Lynette. Robert sold Avon before, left and came back with the help of "Super" representative Lynette Rhymes. The spiritual principle I see in this is, we must be willing to extend a hand to others so that they too can grow and be able to come and "feast" at the banquet table. No not the Avon table, but at the banquet table that God has prepared for those that love him.

These were two newer representatives that I believe Lynette is mentoring. As she helps them to grow their business, they too will turn around and help someone else. That is what God wants us to do for the kingdom. When he gives us the tools we need to grow, then we are to turn around and help someone else grow and the process continues.

This is me with my Avon District sales manager, Barbara Sanders. She is a wonderful woman. She gives to all that are around her. She is willing to invest in others. Not just where Avon is concerned. She invested in me. That is what God wants us to do with others. Are you willing to invest in people so that they can reach their full potential?

This is me with my great and dear friend, Lynette. Lynette has kept me from leaving Avon on a few times when I was ready to let go. Sometimes we need those encouragers that will help us hold on. I have invested 26 years with Avon. Can you image that (I know you're thinking you don't even look that old!)

These women are also part of the Avon family. The woman in black, is one of the top salers in Avon for our district. She sales over $40,000 a year. Yet, she is still very sweet and encouraging. Isn't that what God wants us to be, sweet and humble? It does not matter how high we rise, he still wants us to stay approachable to those coming behind.

Words of Encouragement

When you receive understanding of something that has been eluding you, it is like a light going on overhead. God wants the light to go on for us. He wants to help us understand the mysteries of his word.

Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms." Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, - Luke 24:44-46

What are You Thinking? Opened Minds. I believe this is one of the greatest things God does for us next to the gift of salvation, he opens up to us his scriptures. What if you had to go to a city or a destination but you didn't have any directions? What would you do? You might try to ask someone that has gone before, but then how do you know they have given you correct information, you have no way of checking it?

Do you simple go out and just hope you get where you want to go? Do you know that is what so many people do with their souls? They don't have the direction but they just travel out and think they have it right. The wonderful thing is we don't have to go on our own thoughts, which we realized earlier this week can sometimes be warped and not accurate. Instead, God is waiting to open to us the road map for life.

God is waiting to open to you and I the right way to go. He wants us first to realize it is opened to us through Jesus, his son. Jesus becomes the door that you and I must enter to receive the blessings of God.

So today, I pray for us that we seek God to understand the things of God. We don't have to go simply on what somebody said (even though that is good to have people help you understand the word of God). We must come and seek him for ourselves. He will open to us the storehouse of his blessings. So this weekend when you go to worship, go seeking God to give you his thoughts and that he make your way, his way.

Words of Encouragement

Is your love wider than the expansive sky? God's is! Let us ask God to help us love people his way. He can grow our capacity to love his way. (Picture by James S. Williams)

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. - Mark 12:30

What are You Thinking? Whole Thinking. As I continue to walk this way I am sometimes confounded by individuals belief about God. How do we think we are loving God simply because of the stuff we do. Oh, you know, sometimes we can believe that we love God because we go to church, or we tithe or we serve on a position or post, so we believe that is enough. We in a sense, say look at me God, I'm doing your work.

Instead, as I read these words I think differently. I read a whole thinking. In other words, I must love God with all my heart and soul...that means all my desire turns toward him. I must love God with all my mind...that means my desire is to think godly thoughts at all times. I must love God with all my strength...that means my efforts are all to do God's will.

This requirement is far greater than me simply "doing" something for God. It means I am willing to let go of myself completely into God's capable hands so that he can live through me. He lives through me when I am willing to turn my heart towards him. He is able to live through me when my desire is to please him. He is able to live through me when my thoughts are to do and think his way. That means I pray right, I worship right I love right. And then he is able to live through me because all my efforts are for his purpose.

Today Lord, help us to live for you and to love you. If we say we love you then we will obey you. That is how we show our love. It is good for us to do, but let us not become comfortable simply doing busy work and not taking the time to give you access to us in our entirety. Help us to yield.

Words of Encouragement

When you look at the sky above, do you ever wonder, "there is more above than my eyes can even see". It makes me think that God you are far grander than I can even image. God's greatness searches our hearts, and he determines if our life is being lived according to his will. (Picture by James S. Williams)

"I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve." - Jeremiah 17:10

What are You Thinking? Examined Thoughts. The scripture says God examines our heart and mind. Do you wonder why he examines both? I had one of my professors write a comment on my paper last week and It is fitting to give you the meaning of that quote here. He said that the decline of the preacher starts first in the head before it gets to the heart. In other words, it is what a man thinks, that is who he is or will become.

If my thoughts are evil, do you not know that eventually my life will follow? Yet, if my thoughts are pure, then my life will begin to follow. I will no longer feel good in sin, because the thoughts I am having are being changed.

It is important to God what is in our hearts and our minds. He says he will examine them and according to what is there, he will give to us. If it is blessings, blessings we will receive, if it is punishment or chastisement, then punishment or chastisement.

Today, let us ask God, examine my thoughts. If there is anything there that should not be, please Lord we ask that you remove. If we are not walking as you would want us to, help us to align our hearts and mind to your way. So that we can become a man (or woman) that is thinking your thoughts and becoming the vessels of honor you have built us to be.

Words of Encouragement

In order for landscaping to be beautiful, someone has to dedicate time to cutting the grass when it grows too long, removing the weeds and feeding the lawn. When it is done, the right kind of landscaping is had. It is the same with our minds. We must allow someone (Holy Spirit) to remove those weeds, cut away those things with are not needed and feed so that one can grow.







You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal. - Isaiah 26:3-4

What are You Thinking? A Mind of Peace. Have you ever tried to focus on something for a long period of time? What normally happens? You begin to get distracted and that which you were focusing on is lost. That is what happens in our minds. We become discouraged by our situations and circumstances because our minds lose focus and begin to drift to the wrong things.


What we need is to be able to keep our minds steadfast, but how do we do that? It is by the disciplines that we have in our lives. Someone said in order for something to become a habit it takes at least 30 days of continually doing it, for it to take root. So, if we want to have a mind that stays focused on God, we must cultivate activities in our lives that will help us to do that. We must read our word. We must pray and listen to the Holy Spirit's direction. We must mediate and encourage ourselves as we remind ourselves whom we belong to.


So today, if you want a mind of peace you have to seek it from God. He offers it to you, but you must do something to receive it. You have to change your focus. God will do his part, by giving it to you, but then you must live in the way that you can continue to receive. I pray that we would trust in the Lord for he is our rock, eternally. He never stops being God! He promises us that he will keep us in peace if we but focus on those things that are lovely, pure, and trustworthy. We can find these things in him.

Words of Encouragement

Have you ever looked down a road and because of the visual, it seems to be getting smaller? The truth is the road is not narrowing, it is an illusion of our vision. That is the same with our spiritual vision. We may look at things and they are warped or an illusion. We need God to help us see correctly. (Picture by James S. Williams)

Wicked men are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous stands firm. A man is praised according to his wisdom, but men with warped minds are despised. Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant than pretend to be somebody and have no food. - Proverbs 12:7-9



What are you thinking? Warped thinking. Have you ever wondered to yourself, "what was I thinking?". There have been times in our lives when we have had thoughts that were not on the mark. We sometimes can have those thoughts that lead us to be despised. Oh, in our thinking we believe that we are something more than we are, but in fact, we are foolish in what we are thinking.

The writer of the proverb says it is better to be a nobody with a servant that to pretend we are somebody but do not even have food. That is what foolish thinking will do. We begin to listen to those subtle lies of the devil that makes us believe too highly of ourselves. We begin to think we are better than we are and in fact are poor. We are poor in spirit and poor in understanding of the things of God.

We must acknowledge that we are not capable of understanding wisely without God's input. We have warped thinking. Warped thinking leads us to destruction and to unrighteousness. We need to request from God his wisdom so that we can stand firm.

I pray for us today, Lord we seek your wisdom and your understanding because without it we will think wrong thoughts and we will do wrong things. Help us, change us and make us what you want us to be.

The Week in Review

James and Joselyn after CD recording. Father's are so vital to the need of their children. Let us pray that God help the fathers be in their roles.

Raising Healthy Children

(As presented at the WCG Conference in 2005)

What do we look like? Some of the problems that we experience with our children come from us. I knew when the Lord gave me this assignment that I was going to be doing some growing. I remember standing in the mirror and saying, Lord what are you going to do with me? And boy did he show me.



I was having some problems with my youngest child. She had just entered pre-school and was having a very hard time separating from me. At first I thought it was just the normal stuff, but it seemed to take on more and I became worried about it. I asked God to show me what was the problem. He was quiet at first. I had to go back and ask the question again, but in a different way. I asked him Lord is there something that I’m doing that’s causing this problem show me.



As I stood there, I had a picture flash before my eyes. It was like I was watching a movie. The first frame showed my daughter, she was having a fit, frowning, and fist held tightly together and making a noise (make noise). Then the frame moved to me, yelling at the kids, face frowning, hands held tightly and hissing the same way and saying, “I’m tired of this”. The frames went back and forth and then underneath it said, “You have taught your daughter how to have a tantrum”. I had to repent right then and there. I said Lord; I need your help I can’t do this alone. See I didn’t realize that what seemed minor wasn’t. It was making major impact on my children.



I took that three year old sat her down and told her I was sorry. I told her we were both going to do better. Now I want you to know this little fact that I didn’t put in, this is also my strong willed child. So there are times when I have wanted to just chuck her out, but God said let me tell you how to handle the situation. Before we would fight so to get her to get in the car seat. There would be threats, hitting, screaming, and that was just me but she wasn’t getting in that seat unless I forced her, and then she would get out anyway.



God said, give her a choice to do it, but put it in such a way that she’ll do what you want, but it will satisfy her to know she did it for herself. The first time God told me that, I was like, I’ll look foolish trying to bargain with a child, I should just make her do it, I am the mother for goodness sakes. God said, has that worked before? So I did it his way. My children get 3 stickers at the beginning of each day to put on their conduct board. If they don’t follow the directions or don’t do something we have set out, they lose a sticker. So when we got in the car I told her to get in her seat and she didn’t want to. So I turned to her and in a calm voice I said. “Jackie, I know you don’t want to lose your sticker do you? I know you like to keep all your stickers. Since I know that you’re going to make the right choice and put your seatbelt on.” I turned around and gave her a count of 4 to do it. I saw her face, she fought it, but she put it on. I turned back around and said, that was good Jackie, and I knew you could do it. Now I need you to take that mean face off. I know you like to keep all your stickers, so I know you’ll make the right choice. I turned back around and I saw her fighting her own self, but she stopped frowning.



We went from fighting daily, several times a day to hardly any fights or blow-ups at all. She has also come out of her shell more. People at church remarked about the fact that she will give them a hug or wave. See in my frustration to get her to obey, I was creating an angry child. She was learning that the way to handle when things don’t go your way is to be mad and angry about it. Instead by my example I had to show her how to handle things not going your way. I’ve seen angry parents, with angry kids. I’ve seen fearful parents, with fearful children. In order for us to make sure we are creating the healthiest environment for our children, we have to take personal inventory.



How do you handle anger? Do you get angry with others and become unwilling to forgive? Did you know that even if you try to hide that anger, it has to go somewhere? Most times it comes out on those closest to you. Your children feel a lot of your anger. You become frustrated with them because they are not living up to your expectations and after awhile they stop trying and begin to set up a defeated end. They believe that they can’t please you so they stop trying. Anger.



Unforgiving heart? How do you think you’ll be able to get your children to understand forgiveness when they see differently in you? Don’t you know you are the first reflection of a spiritual relationship? If you are not forgiving of mistakes or errors in judgment or action, how will they believe that a God they don’t know will be willing to forgive them their mistakes or errors in judgment and actions when the person they know isn’t forgiving?
What about fears? Fears have a way of moving from one area to another. Maybe your fear is failure. You don’t want to fail at things so either you never try so that you won’t be disappointed or you try and become a perfectionist. I’ve seen that effect in the children. You’ll have children that may be talented but they won’t try because they don’t want to fail. That’s fear that you have nurtured in them. Or either they will try to be the best at everything. They will stress about things because they are trying so hard to do it the best and never enjoying what they are doing but trying to be perfect. The enemy uses that against the child. Either a child like that won’t be willing to accept Christ because they don’t think they can do it right or they will try to live up to this incredible standards which are sure to fail, because they are self inflicted and not set by God. The problem is it’s about “self” doing and not about Christ doing. Fears also have ways of causing you to plant the wrong seeds into your child’s life. God doesn’t give us a spirit of fear and as long as fear is able to reside in you, you are not living as complete as God wants you to. You are making your decision through your fears; your fears become the deciding factor on what and how you do things. This affects your children, because they learn there is something greater than God. You teach them not by your words but by your actions that there are some things that God can’t handle. That’s so sad. Your children must see you handling the fears and the situations in your life the same way you want them to in turn handle theirs. They have to see it in you. Another way fear mask itself is in control. Because there was some area in your life that carries fear, you try to control situations or people. If you can keep the control, you believe that you can keep things from going contrary to what you want them to. We don’t have control of anything. God is the only one that has complete control. When we are this way, we plant that seed in our children. You’ll see a child that is unable or it is hard for them to just relax and be a kid, because they are trying hard to keep everything under a tight emotional control. Fears.



There are so many other areas that we have to watch ourselves in. Depression. If you are depressed and not taking steps to handle it, you set your child up to try and become pleasers. They don’t want to see you down, so they can begin to think it’s their job to make you happy. I’ve heard parents say that regarding their children. They may feel that they have to please others to be accepted and appreciated. That’s a dangerous attitude for anyone to have. You can set them up for abuse, both physically and emotionally. What I want us to do is take inventory of ourselves. What things are hidden that may be causing current and future problems for our children? If you can’t see them, ask God to open up your spiritual eye to see clearly what it is. Now I don’t want any one to go from here thinking that everything wrong with a child is the parent. It isn’t. You just want to make sure you are not allowing anything in you to hinder anything in your child.



I ask you this question. Why should you make these changes in your life? I’ll tell you why. The Lord took me to psalm 24 to show me something very important (Read Psalm 24). You should make the changes for this reason. Everything belongs to God; you, me your children, everyone. We forget God is the owner and the final authority on everything. He gives us his credentials in the first verses of this psalm. He owns the world and all that’s in it. And he can say that because he founded it and he established it. He then asks us the question who can come to him? He says those that are pure, in other words his children. And when we come, he promises that he will bless us and give us righteousness because he is the God of our salvation. He then encourages up to be lifted up when things will come to bring us down. Lift up your heads. Why, because God is strong and a mighty warrior. He is the king of host.



So know that what you have in your hands to do can get done. It might look like a failing situation. But see God has never experienced failure. He is always successful. So if we put everything in his hands, it can be a success. Raising our children can be a success. It may not look like it from time to time, but keep at it.



Today I leave you with this charge. Allow God to work in you and through you what he has given you to do. Your first ministry is that of caregiver, mother, nurturer of the precious gift of life. Allow the giver of the gift to show you how to do it with success. So that you will be able to say, “And my child or children increase in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” Why? Because “the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him or her, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD;”