Its true, colds come straight from the devil himself.  I hate them and I can’t wait for Jesus to come back and kick the devil’s butt and send him and his virus minion to the forever fire!

Last Monday my beloved came to town with some of his furniture.  I think I mentioned we are building our home for our future together….1 month and 25 days to go.  Its been fun to watch my house transform into OUR HOME.  After getting situated it turns out he brought more then furniture, a virus came and sat down beside us!

Now, I won’t blame Breky-poo (as my daughter so lovingly calls him) for the devil virus I’m fighting because my daughter had one first, then my son, then my beloved and I’m sure I ended up with some half-breed strain that is out to destroy all living things.

I would much rather have the stomach flu for 24-48 hours than a cold.  Reason with me for a moment.  The stomach flu comes and its like a cleanse.  Sure you feel like your at deaths door for a couple days but in the end you expel everything you need to and end up a couple pounds lighter.  A cold drags on and on, sucking all the life out of you, like a slow painful torture.  Then the truck hits your face where you feel like every bone must be bruised and the ‘devil feather fairy’ jumps into your sinuses making you want to sneeze every 2 seconds.  HORRIBLE.

Ok, so with all my complaining I thought I could share with you what I do too ward off a cold.  These might help if you choose NOT to do them, since clearly they aren’t really making a dent in the misery at this point!

1.  At the first sign of a cold start repeating “I will not get sick, I will not get sick, I will not get sick”  this lasts about 1 day and only proves that you really do try to trick yourself sometimes.

2.  1 gram of Vitamin C every 15 minutes at the first little tickle in the throat…continue until your tummy feels loose(if ya know what I mean) and then continue taking at least 2 grams every hour until  your cold is gone.  Vitamin C is really a healing agent and immune booster.

3.  Zicam RapidMelts.  I think I must figure that if it tastes like death in my mouth then the virus might decide it should taste death too.

4.  Steam room.  This is the solution to every problem, physical, spiritual and mental.  STEAM.  Why won’t my husband-to-be put one in our bathroom?  because he’s afraid I might end up loving IT more then him….legit.

5.  The Pig:

Yep, that’s me 10 minutes ago with a pig on my face.  We put it in the microwave for 2 minutes and it comes out smelling like lavender and eucalyptus.  For a  brief moment it calms the ‘devil feather fairy’ that has  made a home in my nose.  I think its like Kryptonite to him.

Lastly, Colds make me miss bible study (2 weeks in a row) which drives me crazy!!! So, I pray a lot in my misery and find thankfulness for what I can and remember that this too shall pass and as my beloved said I’ll feel beautiful and amazing again soon.

Until then….

Oh I’ve been shaken before, turned upside down and tossed around. 

I found a remedy to ground me when I’m feeling a shake up coming on….Psalm 15

Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary?  Who may live on your holy hill?  He who walks blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman, who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the Lord, who keeps his oath even when it hurts, who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.  HE WHO DOES THESE THINGS WILL NEVER BE SHAKEN.

I’m not sure about you but clearly the walking blameless and doing righteous seems a little out of my league most of the time and a hard thing to attain.  Truth.  We all fall short of the Glory of God.  Jesus is the sacrifice that makes us righteous before God.  However, you do have a part and as you do your part….you will never be shaken.  It’s what God’s word says….I’m thinking I’ll believe it and put a little Psalm 15 in my life.

All of this Psalm 15 rolls right along with Oswald Chambers devotion for January 23rd.  If ya get a chance go read it go to www.myutmost.org.  I’m gonna pour over this word for while this week.  Its just THAT GOOD!  Its about beholding and he says “Never let a hurried lifestyle disturb the relationship of abiding in Him.”

Isn’t that the key of Psalm 15?  If we are concentrating on keeping our lives God then Psalm 15 is a no brainer and the shaking of life is stabilized by our BEHOLDING of Christ!

Mondays are a good day to test this out.  Behold. Do Psalm 15.  Let me know how it goes!

My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.  Isaiah 32:18

I spent many years in a state of unrest, in an unsecure home and in a place where rest was hard to find. 

This weekend I haven’t done a thing.  I was wondering this morning if I was being overcome by the spirit of sloth or laziness but God confirmed in me that was not the case.  My weekend wasn’t supposed to look like this.  I actually had some big plans with my beloved but those weren’t God’s plans.  God took him to Washington, set my daughter in her fathers care and put my teenage boy in bed with a cold.  I took this opportunity to rest.  I watched a bunch of movies, stayed in pj’s, did a wee bit of shopping (not in my pj’s), slept in, watched the snow flakes fall gently from the sky…..its been divine.

But as I said, I wondered if this was too self indulgent.  I’m usually a go, go, go kinda woman.  I have lots of plates spinning most of the time and I thrive in that kind of environment.  I don’t like having loose ends and let me tell you there are plenty of things to do around this place.

My thought today was to look into God’s word to be sure I wasn’t sinning in my laziness and what I found were gems of real truth.  Rest doesn’t come from the things I did this weekend.  True rest comes from God alone.

Exodus 33:14 The Lord replied, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest”

Psalm 62:1 MY soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him

Psalm 91:1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty

God’s presence, as I dwell in the shelter of the Most High, in God alone, is my rest.  You see, my weekend of doing nothing would not be rest without God.  He was here, I was in His shadow.  This is how I know that the first verse of this blog will be the anchor in my home for 2012.  God is here and God has made all things new and God worked it together for good. He will have us live in a peaceful dwelling place, He has provided a secure home and there ARE undisturbed places of rest.  I found one this weekend.