We are growing if and when we stay open to new things God wants to teach us today. We are listening; our ears are tuned in to hear him. We are asking to see and we are seeing new things in his word. It’s exciting! Our lives in him are vibrant and we know it. We know more today than we did yesterday.

We are excited because the more we grow the more we need new clothing to accommodate the blessing. We are doing things we could not do before; because my dear; we are growing.

If someone has been serving God over twenty years and they have not expanded their horizons in the least; I would say they are probably not growing. Growing Christians step out and try new things; they wake up and one day they believe they can do something they had never done before.

They break out of their comfort zones and they stretch out like the branches on a tree. Soon many birds are finding refuge in their branches: and even the fruit loving varmints are trying to get to the fruit on their tree. Just as I am writing this book right now; something in them says: “There is so much” God has given to me, I have to share it!”

They have to can it, freeze it; preserve it somehow for future feedings because they know deep down what they are hungry for; someone else is likely hungry for it as well.

Fruit satisfies you; it doesn’t you feeling empty or lacking or half full.

I need to ask you another question to ponder:

Do you ever go to a church service, read a book or call someone to minister to you and walk away feeling you did not get full? If so what did you do about it? Do you complain and never go to church again because they must all be phony; or do you reach out to God for the answer? Are there areas in your life you have just shut down because you are angry nobody seemed to have the answers you needed? If so; what is stopping you from seeking God for the answers yourself? From the upcoming book:

Grace to Grow study Guide by Laura Grace, author of Grace to Grow.

http://www.facebook.com/gracetoogrow/  Books available at Tate Publishing and Amazon as well as writing me: sisterzeal@yahoo.com

I am going to post here a link from Yahoo Answers; Religion and Spirituality where I was frequently trying to “help” a few years back.

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20151230144330AAjVKBa

In this particular link You will see the type of things we are dealing with in today’s society and thinking. It’s not the same as it was 20 years ago folks.

Instead of being smarter than a 5th grader; Today’s Christian is going to need to be able to stand up to what I would call an almost “rabid” group of atheists in this society. They are shrewd. They are confident. They are without mercy and they run in mobs.

If you are not dealing with this you’ll be dealing with others who insist we can run and commit any sin imaginable (as often as we want to) and if God really loves us like he said he did; He will not say a word about it or discipline us at all. After all he does understand we were “born into sin” right?

You aren’t just dealing with some people who had a little misunderstanding with God: There are people who hate God and they are growing in numbers. Pat answers won’t work. Cliche’ sayings aren’t going to work either. What your grandma believed is not going to get you through what’s coming.

I am almost done with my book Grace to Grow Study guide now. It’s designed and written in such a way as to leave you able to grow on your own with God; yet has enough anointed tips to point you in the right direction without taking away your ability to be unique and useful to the Lord almighty. I can sleep at knowing I am fulfilling my calling and doing my best to do my part to assist and share (with the Body of Christ) what has helped me in my quest to grow.

Growing is not enduring. It’s not “just getting through it.” Growing means you really truly know more than you did last week (in Christ) and more than the week before that and the week before that.

IF you do not feel (truly) like you have grown I pray you get a hunger and thirst for Growing up in Christ. We need full grown Christians to fight the battle that’s ahead.

With love and soberness:
Laura Grace Author: #grace to the rescue #grace to grow #let there be light #ABC’s of Christianity #sons of God find on Amazon today

I do decorate a tree. I do put up some snow men I really love at Christmas time. I am a Holy ghost filled born again Christian woman and yes I do love Christmas! I do not bow to or honor any pagan gunk I simply love that many times people are nicer this time of year; more ready to smile willing to greet you and say “Merry Christmas.”

When I was younger and sometimes even when I was older I would get way too stressed out at Christmas time. I’m not sure if any men get stressed (maybe when they see the bank account diminishing) but for the most part it’s usually women that get stressed out at Christmas time if someone is going to! Why? Because it’s on us to make it happen!

If money is no object: it’s not so stressful I’m sure. but if you are broke wow …..and if you have kids with big expectations? Double wow!

I”ve had some marvelous Christmas’s I’ve had some very hard ones; I just feel led to reach out to you today and say this: GOD CAN and will restore your Christmas Spirit if you ask him! I had a friend tell me this year she was praying for me to have Christmas Spirit.

She didn’t have any for quite awhile after her husband suddenly passed away. I have prayed for her constantly over the past few years and I will say her loss caused me to treasure my own husband even more: and notice his faults ‘even less” because her traumatic loss was a reminder to me how quickly life on earth can suddenly end.

Christmas is a time of wishes and hoping they come true. Whether it’s wishing to see family; wishing for gifts or wishing for a marvelous dinner like Tiny Tim had after scrooge got his scolding from the ghostly visitors: People tend to have unmet expectations at Christmas. Usually the response to this is huge disappointments and so “WE” either wind up finding something to be thankful for or we wind up huffy!

Well I’ve gotten Huffy; disappointed: THE PRESSURE of Christmas (for mostly women) brings out the best or the worst of us it seems. I want to point out when Water is Roaring through a broken; damaged or faulty pipe system the pipe will break! Bad it broke: good you found out you need some new plumbing! So my contention is this: Are we going to let our leaky plumbing upset the whole day? Or ask God to make us all new inside? We have the choice you know. That’s what being a Christian is all about; being made new (year after year after year) and if we are going forward in our growing; I dare say we will like ourselves a whole lot more. if we like ourselves more: it’s going to show and people will want what we have. Then The spirit of Evangalism can truly happen!

PS: Let your Christmas be Merry and bright! Let God shine (upon you) his glorious light! and let’s not have a Martha Stewart Christmas; not if striving for perfection makes you feel unhappy. Better to rejoice with a crust of bread than have feasting with strife! amen?

With Love:

Laura Grace (author)

The art of encouraging others actually springs from a heart of love (and mercy). So many times we wonder why some are great at encouraging and others are not.

One of the ingredients of a great encourager; is they know what it is to suffer. Have you ever had a situation where you were really suffering and someone came along and said; “what wrong?” and then you told them and they scowled at you and said, “Oh that used to happen to me all the time, it’s no big deal!” Did you feel better? Why or why not?

Worse yet; Have you ever had the shock of having someone tell you they had a way worse problem last week; that you really have nothing to complain about at all? Now that’s harsh!

It can be a really fine line sometimes; trying to determine when we are giving too much sympathy and when we are being too harsh.

I’ve made so many mistakes in my lifetime; saying the wrong thing at the wrong time; there are times I have seemed to make things worse instead of better as I struggled to help.

Here’s the thing; We have a far better hope of offering the right type of encouragement if we ask our Heavenly Father for guidance.

We can all be great encouragers if we really set our minds to it. It takes Growing to do this; did you know this?

So you tried to encourage someone last week; last year; maybe even yesterday and it seemed to do no good! Get up and try again! Pray you can be better at this! You will get there! Practice makes perfect!

say this with me: “I am an encourager.” “I am a blessing” “the Lord teaches me new things every day and I am growing! Father I forgive myself for all my past mistakes and thank you this is a NEW DAY with no mistakes in it! and by the way:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Let your light shine!