Saturday, September 30, 2006

Bittersweet. That's how I would describe my day yesterday. My last Sunday at
a church where I have spent nearly every single Sunday for the last 3 years.
I walked into Trinity a stranger. Yesterday, I walked out of Trinity
feeling, loved, appreciated and important.

The tiny baby that I swaddled and rocked so many times, has recently
promoted to the preschool class. As I held her in my arms yesterday, I
thought of all the memories, wondered if she would know who I was if we were
to run into each other in 20 years, and thanked God for the blessing of
being a part of her life.

I made a tree that decorated our nursery door while I was there. I painted a
tree trunk on butcher paper and the kids' handprints were the leaves. The
caption read, These little ones, with roots firmly planted in God's Word,
will grow big and strong as the mighty oak. I cried as I took that tree off
the door yesterday. I am taking it with me for sentimental value. I thought
of all the handprint and footprint crafts we had made over the years, Mother
s day, Father's day, Christmas...and how those hands and feet had grown
since I had been there, and how they will continue to grow in the years to
come. God bless you all, my precious babies!!

God is moving me into a new chapter in my life. This Friday I will lock the
office door to Trinity for the last time, hand over my keys and say goodbye
to good friends. Michael W. Smith said it best in his song when he said "
And friends are friends forever If the Lord's the Lord of them And a friend
will not say never 'Cause the welcome will not end Though it's hard to let
you go In the Father's hands we know That a lifetime's not too long To live
as friends." I am so blessed to know the people that I have met the last 3
years at Trinity. I am so blessed to call you all my friends.

To my old friends in Amarillo: I love you so much and I hope you will keep
in touch, always!

To my new friends in Borger: Thank you for making me feel so very welcome, I
can't wait to see what God has in store for me here.

To my loved ones and family: I love you all so very much and I thank you for
the support you've all shown. Even though most of you are asking each other
Why is she going to BORGER???" And Angela, you'd better write me from Boot
little girl, and remember Romans 12:12 (Be) "Rejoicing in hope, patient in
tribulation, continuing instant in prayer." We will be praying for you, I
know you can do it!!!

God bless you all and have a wonderful week!

If I can pray for you, please let me know.

Monday, September 18, 2006

What a blessed way to start a new week! I just finished reading Nicole
Johnson's book Keeping a Princess Heart In a Not-So-Fairy-Tale World (thank
you to my sister in my Women of Faith group who mentioned it to me). This
book has lifted my spirit, made me laugh, cry and think. If you get the
chance, its a great book for women of any age. I'll carry the image of
Cinderella on her stairmaster with me for the rest of my days...hehehe. I
learned so much from this book. If you're feeling invisible, as many moms do
if your handsome prince has turned out to be not-so charming, or if you're
a young woman, just starting out and you feel like Sleeping Beauty waiting
for that day when your prince will come, wondering "Is he ever coming to
wake me up?"...check this book out.

A friend of mine has a little dog. This little dog had a bad habit of
leaving his yard, so measures were taken to stop this for his own safety. I
was sitting outside the yard the other night and he was crying and
whimpering to be loved. I didn't feel like going in a getting him, so I
opened the gate, ever so slightly, so he could come out of the yard and sit
with me while I thought about the things that were on my mind. He saw me go
to the gate and was excited but did not pay attention to what I did. When I
went back to my spot and sat back down, he went back to his spot, opposite
the fence from me and whined and cried some more. He did not even notice
that the gate was open enough for him to come out of the yard and sit with
me so that I could love on him while I thought and waited. He ran to the
gate, ran back to his spot, and repeated this several times. Finally, about
the fourth time he went to the gate...EUREKA!! He realized it was open and
came and jumped into my lap. I petted him as I meditated and prayed and held
him until it was time to go inside.

Sometimes we are like that little dog. We know we want to be closer to God.
We cry and we whine to be near to Him. But we refuse to use the gate He has
left open for us. We cry for Him to come and lift us up and hold us in His
arms, not even noticing the gate He has left open so that we can come to Him
and climb up into his lap. In God is my salvation and my glory: The rock of
my strength, and my refuge, is in God. (Ps. 62:7 KJV)

He has left the gate open for you today. Won't you come to Him and let Him
love you?

If I can pray for you, please let me know.

Kaci M. Boggs
http://knowheaven.tripod.com

~Talking to Christ about others gives us the passion to talk to others about
Christ! (Author Unknown)

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Missions

Good morning to you, I pray that this week finds you blessed!

This morning, as always, I was invited to sit and enjoy refreshments with
the ladies' Morning Circle group. I was asked to run the DVD player for this
morning's presentation, a short presentation from Franklin Graham on his
project Operation Christmas Child. I learned a lot about this program last
year as I researched it for the church newsletter. But actually seeing the
video left me in tears. These children, who have so little, so overjoyed by
gifts so small that they fit inside a shoebox. The smiles and tears on their
faces as they accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. Tiny hands folded in
prayer, thanking God for the person they don't know who thought enough to
pack a single box to make their Christmas bright.

Through my tears this morning, I realized we can't all run to the nearest
warehouse and donate our time. But what can we do? Not just for this project
but for mission projects all over the world, in our home churches, in our
lives...we can do something powerful and wonderful. PRAY! Our missionaries
and volunteers in the mission fields need us. They need our daily support.
They need for us to remember them when we go to our Lord in prayer.

We can also help financially. When a missionary stands in front of the
church, or when the missions coordinator comes to you and says, "This
missionary and their group needs help." Take the time to go to the Lord in
prayer and ask Him how much he would have you to give. No matter what it is,
the Father will tell you how much He wishes of you, be obedient, give
lovingly. Remember, it might only be September, but the gift of love you
give today, might offer the hope of salvation to an otherwise lost soul come
Christmas morning...or any morning. $5, $10 or $20 given to a missionary
might just reach countless souls for our King.

Mission work really speaks to my heart, I have felt God's voice calling me
to missions since I was a young girl. After my first trip to Old Mexico, I
knew then and there that God could and would use me if I follow Him. Open
your hearts when you hear someone speaking on missions, listen for God's
voice, let Him guide you and when He tells you what He wants you to do, be
it your time, your money or your prayers, I pray you will say in the words
of Isaiah 6:8, "Then said I, Here am I; send me." Will you be ready to go
where He sends? We can't all be missionaries, but we CAN support them.

God bless you today! If I can pray for you, please let me know.

Kaci M. Boggs
http://knowheaven.tripod.com

~Talking to Christ about others gives us the passion to talk to others about
Christ! (Author Unknown)

Sunday, September 10, 2006

I pray that each of you have been as blessed this week as I have.

I have been busy with preparation for moving, cleaning, packing and the sort
not wanting to save anything for the last minute. Knowing the more
organized I can be, the easier the move will go. I spent today going through
boxes from the last couple of moves, that have been packed away and never
opened. Makes me think about all the things we hold onto in our lives that
we don't really use. There's nothing like a move to get us some much need
uncluttering.

How many of us have unopened boxes in our hearts that need to be gone
through and thrown out. The Word tells us in Psalm 51:10 "Create in me a
clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." God wants us to
come to Him in a way so that we can stand tall before Him. We we seek His
gentle guiding hand or his forever forgiving spirit, He wants us to come to
Him completely, not clinging desperately to something from our past that He
has asked us to let go of. Some of us hold abuse in our closet, abuse long
past that we cannot change, we cannot take back and we cannot do anything
about, God asks us to throw that away. Some of us hold regret, or painful
past experiences, not willing to forgive ourselves and let go...again, God
wants us to throw these away. When we lay something at God's feet, we are to
leave it there.

Tomorrow is September 11th. We all can remember where we were on that day
and will probably never forget. I was 7 and a half months pregnant with
Bethanie. I was at home getting ready for work when the first plane hit, it
was just an accident, they said. I took Austin to daycare and by the time I
got to work, the tragic news was rampant. A second plane hit, it was
terrorists, it was planned, no one really knew, all we knew was it was ugly.
The radio stayed on all day. The clinic I worked at was eerily quiet, even
though the halls were full as usual. Because of my pregnancy and the
complications I had been having, I was sent home early around noon. I spent
days sobbing, asking myself how I could bring a child into a world where
this can happen. It got to a point in the days after the attack that I had
to turn off the TV set, as I couldn't stop weeping. Then it happened. People
united, turning to God, worked together, prayed together, sought God's face
together. This, was the kind of world I wanted my baby to know. A world
where, when all seems lost, when tragedy strikes, we turn to God. We seek
His face and His guidance.

We can hold on to the terror or we can celebrate the coming together. We can
let the clutter of those horrible images fill our minds or we can praise Him
for all He has done through that and since then, and all that we have to be
thankful for. We will NEVER forgot those who lost their lives that day, but
we cannot allow their deaths to be in vain, we must seek the Father who
knows all. We must let Him get the glory and ask how He can use this. Don't
let anger and rage clutter your mind. Seek Him, ask Him "Lord, how can we
use the memory of this tragedy to best serve you?"

Clean out that closet in your mind today, get rid of all the junk that is
cluttering your mind, keeping you from that perfect fellowship with the
Father. Go to the Lord today and ask Him, "Create in me a clean heart, O God
and renew a right spirit within me."

God bless you today, and if I can pray for you, please let me know.
Kaci M. Boggs
http://knowheaven.tripod.com

~Talking to Christ about others gives us the passion to talk to others about
Christ! (Author Unknown)

Thursday, September 7, 2006

Every time I talk to my son on the phone, its pretty much the same thing, "I
had a good day in school, made some new friends, got on all greens, I love
you, sleep tight, talk to you soon." He's quite the conversationalist, as
you can tell. When I talk to my daughter however, it is quite different.
That little girl loves to use her imagination, as I have said before, she
usually starts the conversation with, "Okay, let's tell princess stories."

Little girls love to imagine themselves as princesses, they daydream of
far-off castles in make-believe lands, where every day is sunny and you have
cake and soda for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sometimes, as adults, we
still long for that dream. We drift off into fantasy hoping for that White
Knight to ride in on His noble steed and ride off with us into the sunset.

Being a Christian is like living that dream. Only, our White Knight HAS
ridden in; however, He rode in on a donkey, not a stallion. He came quietly
on a dark night and was born in a manger. We are all princes and princesses
when we make Jesus Christ our Lord, Savior and KING! One precious day we
will have that castle, that mansion in Heaven that He has gone ahead to
prepare for us.

Remind yourself today that you are royalty, that your Father is the King of
all Kings and share it with someone. Share the Good News with someone you
know, maybe, just maybe they wanted to be a prince or a princess once too!

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I also need to share a bit of information with you all. I must now take a
giant step of faith. I am leaving Amarillo. As Stormie Omartian says, I am
leaving Egypt (what is comfortable and safe for me) and going out into the
wilderness (the unknown). As a princess of the King, I have to do what the
King says, and even though it is out of my comfort zone, even though it is
scary, I know that His plans are better than mine and if I follow His plan,
something wonderful will be waiting for me. I am moving to Borger, TX at the
end of September.

I don't have any idea what God has planned for me in this small town, I know
it is a new job, a new house and a new church home. I have already made some
wonderful friends in Borger, people and a church who I know will be a
blessing to me as I continue to grow in my daily walk with the Lord. I do
not step into this decision for any reason, except that it is where God has
told me to go. I am stepping out blindly, in faith, knowing that as long as
I follow where He leads, I cannot go wrong. God has begun to provide me
with the things I need, my manna, two wonderful women, Kim and Shawna, who
have taken the time to talk with me, pray with me and for me and make me
feel very welcome...and He has already given me ministry opportunities, a
sweet lady who I have been able to share Christ's love with, whose heart He
is working on, who I can pray for every day.

Please pray for me in this new beginning, this journey of faith and learning
please pray that I continue to hold fast to the Father's hand and allow Him
to guide me each step of the way. Please, if there is any way I can pray for
you today, do not hesitate to let me know.

Kaci M. Boggs
http://knowheaven.tripod.com

~Talking to Christ about others gives us the passion to talk to others about
Christ! (Author Unknown)

Tuesday, September 5, 2006

Good morning! I pray today finds you blessed!

This weekend when talking with my 4 year old daughter, she asked me, "Mommy, why do you love me?" Wow! Sometimes it floors me that such a young mind can come up with such profound questions. My initial thought on her question was 'Because you are mine.' But these words did not come out of my mouth because she is NOT mine. She is simply on loan to me to love and to care for by our Father in Heaven. So I told her, "Baby, when God gave you to me, I made Him a promise. I made you a promise. That for as long as you were on this earth, as long as God blessed me with your presence, I would love you and care for you completely and unfailing. Just like I always tell you, I love you for always, in all ways."

She was silent for a few moments. And she said, "Ok, now can we tell princess stories?" I had answered her question and she was happy with the answer. But I continued to think about it long after the phone call was over My resounding question was, "What will my answer be when a non-believer says, 'Kaci, why does God love me?' "

First off, the basic answer to that question can be found in I John 4:8, it is just who He is. The scripture there states it pure and simple "God is love." But to go even deeper than that we go 2 verses down to I John 4:10, Herein is love, not that we loved God, but the He loved us, and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins." (Propitiation means "atoning sacrifice)

You see, God loved us not because we loved Him, He loved us first. He created us in love. We were created in His image and He is love. It goes back to that first thought about my daughter that I could not say, it is not true of me and my daughter, but it is true of the most high God. I love her because she is a miracle given to me by God. But He loves us simply because we are His. He has no ulterior motive, He has no reason except that He loves us.

Be joyous today, know that no matter what, the King of the universe, the Creator of Heaven and earth, loves you...for always, in all ways.

If I can pray for you today, please let me know.