Here's the thing...

I prayed a simple prayer that began with Psalm 139:23-24.
"Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way."

I then asked that the Lord make it obvious to me what needs a'changin' because I am slow. Not only did my internet fail to work for about 2 weeks, I am now without my iPhone because it just suddenly stopped working. We also recently shut down our cable.
Being without this stuff sure has opened my eyes to how I had made such things a priority over serving the Lord. Now, I am not recommending everyone do this. No. That would be legalistic. But for me, it was necessary and the Lord made it very obvious that I had allowed these things to control me instead of controlling them.

I recently wrote the following to my church family, the women's group that meets in my home, and I posted this on my facebook:

I wanted to share with you some prayerful decisions that have been made in my life due to the trials and experiences from the past few weeks.

1. I am more excited than ever about teaching the women of Legacy. This has been a very difficult time with unrelenting trial after trial, but I have learned so much through this time. Most importantly that God is faithful. I felt beat down to the core and many areas of my life that had been left as dust in a dark corner have been brought to light. God has done an amazing work in transforming my life, but is obviously not finished. I tearfully, weepingly questioned whether or not I could possibly be qualified for the task of teaching. I am far from perfect... a work in progress by His grace alone. I LOVE teaching our women. I LOVE praying for you all and being a part of your lives. I LOVE hearing your testimonies and look forward to more. WOW! We heard some very powerful testimonies from 3 dear women last time we met and we will be encouraging at least one testimony per meeting. I will send out some encouraging criteria that may help you gauge how to articulate what God has so graciously accomplished in your life, so look for that soon.

2. I need your prayers. We all need to pray for one another often and consistently. But I especially beg you all to pray for our church leaders, elders, upcoming deacons, our pastor and their family. When you are in a teaching position proclaiming God's uncompromising truth, attacks are relentless and waring.

3. On that note, I have made the decision to limit internet time and focus on my primary ministries:

My Husband
My family
Teaching the women

4. This means I will likely not blog anymore and limit my time on facebook. ... It takes away from the priorities the Lord has been so gracious to provide. I will send out e-mail updates on what happened in the Bible study for those that miss and when I have time. Otherwise, please know that this decision was based on a longing to make my testimony and ministry authentic for HIS glory. That is hard to do when your life is stretched in too many directions.

5. There are other women in our church with the gift of teaching, so look forward to other teachers in the near future. As our pastor recently sent out an informative e-mail on gifts, each one of you has one and if you need help finding out what yours is, than our church has those booklets that our pastor mentioned.

So, there you go. If you want to contact me, my internet is obviously working again so you can e-mail me at lisa4given@gmail.com
I cannot guarantee I will e-mail you back, though I will do my best.
If I blog, it will likely be a comment here and there on others blogs, but I really do not have the time to keep this up. Wow. I have been blogging about 4 years now.
I have enjoyed SIMPLICITY and look forward to focusing on the ministries that God has so graciously entrusted me with.

Just remember to press on in His truth and His love for His glory,
Lisa