Tag: fruit

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The Tail of A Lost Pup (See what I did there…)

Good morning everyone!

I hope everyone had a restful night, but if it was anything like the Lunney Household, it was anything but. (Not complaining…Let me tell you why!)

We left church around 9pm as it still rained and flooded the area. We came to a little dog in the road running around with a collar (no tag), wet and lost. My husband looked at me and of course I told him to put the little guy in the car! We brought him home and our puppy was, to say the least, having a puppy moment. Playing with her new friend or trying to establish dominance, I’m not really sure. Needless to say, we talked about what to do next. We called people who we thought could help and they told us to take him to the vet in the morning and see if he has a microchip. I posted all over facebook pages for lost pets and spouse pages wondering who could’ve lost their baby. This pupper is seriously the sweetest. We drove around the neighborhood searching for people who may have lost him, but came to another dead end. We opened the car door to bring him in and he dashed into the woods. (Yep, that really happened.) My husband and I prayed as we went to bed. He soon fell asleep and I began to pray to God, asking him to put protection over this little pupper that I found…and then lost. I prayed for God’s will to be done and for him to go home or for him to find safety. HERE’S WHERE IT GETS GOOD. My husband woke up this morning and opened the door to let our puppy and this little guy slept on our porch all night. Ughhh, my heart! I’m sure you are thinking a couple things…1.How did she lose a lost dog? 2. This poor puppy. & 3. Why is she telling me this?

Here is why…

During my quiet time Holy Spirit has revealed to me some things through this little guy. (So cool that he can use a puppy to bring revelation and a blog post to share with you all!)

We have all been this puppy. Searching for home. Searching for love, care, and protection. We all have been lost, myself included. How often do we choose being lost in the woods when God has provided us with everything we need? We settle for the woods because, well its adventurous and we don’t really know God when we first come to him. Our old life looks pretty appealing when God challenges us on our behaviors and worldly ways. (Or for this little pup, peeing on the laundry basket…) So we venture out in the woods, lost, “alone”, and searching for home. We can never be fulfilled unless it’s through our identity in Christ. We will continually search and even sometimes settle for less than what God has to offer, like the porch for instance.

Even if you were to get lost, fall off track, I know God still remains the same. The promises of his word tell me so!

“So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”-Deuteronomy 31:6

It took faith for this dog to show up on our porch this morning. He ran away from us, but something drew him back to our home. Was it the love we showed him while he was here for a brief moment? When you get a taste of what God, his pure,steadfast love…you don’t travel far into the woods before you realize what you needed was back where you just were. We didn’t need the puppy to clean up before he entered our home. God doesn’t need you to clean up before you ask him into your heart. He wants you as you are at this very moment.

I just posted a verse yesterday on Instagram and it’s really fitting for what has transpired over the past 24 hours.

“This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.”-Jeremiah 29:10-13

God doesn’t say we aren’t going to go through trails or tribulation’s. He promises us that he hears our prayers and that we will find him when we seek him wholeheartedly. He promises us plans to prosper. Plans to prosper doesn’t always line up with what we think is best. But often what we go through, is what shapes us into Christ-like character and puts us exactly where we need to be. Or for this lost pup, in a warm house out of the rain, snoozing on the floor.

Did God just use a dog to reveal all this to me? Yes, yes he did. That’s the cool thing about God. He will speak to you in ways that you will listen.

Lost-and-Found

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Identified By Our Actions

Hey everyone,

Sorry it has been such a long time since I have wrote last, but, I was getting married and moving across the United States to Louisiana with my Husband!

This is very brief, but here’s what I have been reflecting on the past couple days…

I really have been stuck in Matthew 7 lately and today this real stuck out to me:

“A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7:17-20‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I have been looking at myself and realizing how I am a walking billboard for Christ. It recently hit me, with moving to a foreign place, that when people see me, what kind of fruit am I bearing? When an unbeliever looks at me, do they see me or do they see Christ’s character?

I began to look back at all the wedding planning and How stress slowly crept in towards the end. The stress began to overwhelm me and I wasn’t reflecting Christ’s character. However, when Brad and I had our ceremony, many people came up to us afterwards and told us how anointed it was. (It was such a beautiful thing to hear on our wedding day. The biggest blessing is to know that Abbas presence was apparent even to those who don’t know him.)

So how much fruit are you bearing? When unbelievers look at you do they see Christ’s character or you?

“But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

‭‭GALATIANS‬ ‭5:22-23‬ ‭AMP‬‬

For me, I need to be constant even through trials. What kind of fruit are you bearing in stressful, uncomfortable, and emotionally strenuous situations you may encounter?

It is a big responsibility to be a follower of Christ. No one said it was easy. However, I know that as long as my roots are founded in him and I ask, he will give me all the wisdom and strength and tools I need to reflect his character.