THE SILHOUETTE

THE SILHOUETTE
Today, I woke up with a silhouette of my future in the forefront of mind; I stood in awe at its beauty and the mysterious & many forms it took on.
I saw me on my knees in gratitude for all that God had done for me.
I saw a form of unspeakable joy and laughter all around me.
I saw my daughters sitting around me, with my husband holding my hands. They were all grown up and beautiful inside and out. They sat around me telling me of all the great things they were experiencing in life.
I saw silver and black balloons being released in the air, celebrating forty years of marriage and the fortitude we had for the promise we made.
I saw a huge table with family around it; I saw my girls again and beside them were men who loved them, I saw tiny feet running around the house-somehow I knew we did well in raising them.
I saw awards all around my wall from their achievements as well as mine. I saw pictures of people's lives that I touched and who touched mine. I saw numerous photos of places all over the world that I had traveled; what an indescribable, and overwhelming expression of my destiny.
I saw my words embedded in the hearts of the souls of man, I saw how they strengthened the weak and strong, the young and the old, from different cultures and different races.
I saw my feet dangling in the most majestic blue waters.
I saw myself on the sitting-ledge of a huge boulder under a cool waterfall on a perfect and still summer day.
I saw places that I did not recognize, but my feet did! They remembered all the places my dreams, faith, perseverance, and favor treaded.
I saw myself standing on the peak of a mountain in awe of the beauty of this world when you stand above it, and the strength I found out I had to climb it.
I saw myself holding a little child's face in my hand; I could feel the innocence and love from his or her eyes- I could have stayed in that moment forever.
I saw myself laying in the sand along the ocean shore line and hearing the sweet, tender voice of the lover of my soul whispering to me , "today I dropped a tear in the ocean for you and the day you find is the day that I stop loving you" With my eyes looking up into his ……my heart received.
I saw myself sitting in an old, but comfortable wooded chair outside of an old, but beautiful wooden cabin looking up at stars in the sky as each of them, one by one began to share in confidence their names. I responded with my heart once again, "your secret is safe with me."

I saw the faithfulness of my savior and all that he gave His life for
I saw the abundance of life…..I saw that it was even more
I saw what can be, what is, and what will be – Yes I saw sure possibility!

What do you see in your silhouette ?



Tiffany James, Encouraging Touch Enterprise
"Give a gift that creates a Legacy to Encourage, Inspire, and Bless those you love for a life time"
  www.encouragingtouch.com

What if? by Encouraging Touch. A little inspiration.

> What if I closed my eyes and seen
> the sky as a white canvass waiting for the imagination of my
> soul to freely paint the beauty of creation?
>
> I would paint the strength of the sun, the power of the
> moon, the silence of the air.  I would paint the sound
> of the humming bird, the whistle of the wind.  I would
> paint the laughter of a little child's first tickle; the
> excitement of their first Christmas, and the blush of their
> first kiss.  I would paint the melody of a jazz
> midnight breeze,  I would paint the fragrance of an
> everlasting love, I would paint the joy of the morning, I
> would paint the gentleness of a peacock's 
> feather,  I would paint the conversations of the
> clouds, I would paint the newness of  a day and the
> possibilities of tomorrow.  I would paint the cure for
> cancer, the secret of youth.  I would paint the end to
> war, the awareness of peace.  I would paint the
> determination of the spirit; I would paint the Wisdom of
> Solomon.  I would paint the twinkle of an eye, the pose
> of confidence, the heart of appreciation.
>
> I would paint the breath of the creator; the unseen hand of
> creation. I would paint the beauty of the beholder, the
> softness of his touch, the radiance of His being.
>
> Tiffany James, Encouraging Touch Enterprise
> "Give a gift that creates a Legacy to Encourage, Inspire,
> and Bless those you love for a life time" 
>   www.encouragingtouch.com 

He is the God of Hope

Hello,

It's been a while and I miss you all. I pray all is well with each of you.  This past Saturday, I was asking the Lord for a scripture to encourage members on Sunday, but I believe He gave me a scripture to encourage all of his children. Romans 15:13 (ESV) May the God of hope fill you with ALL joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.  As I read it over and over again, I began to be strengthened in my inner man with the strength and boldness of the Lord!  I was drawn to the word hope in the beginning and the end of this passage. Hope in this passage means "to anticipate, usually with pleasure." Many times the enemy tries to steal your anticipation, so he can paralyze our determination.  You must have a foretaste of the goodness of the Almighty God in the wait. You must be able to realize in advance that He is not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should repent. If God said it, you have to be determined to believe that He will do it, and know it will be good. I'm here to tell you that you have to be determined to keep believing; determined in the process of the promise. The shadow of Hope has to be the rear-guard of your life because hopelessness, doubt, and discouragement will try it's best to sneak up on you and kill the dream, purpose, or promise that you've held on to thus far. You have to be stubborn, and you may even have to stand toe to toe with hopelessness, doubt, discouragement, and whatever else that comes to steal your promise and say "I WILL CONTINUE TO HOPE AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS." You might even have to wrestle like Jacob did! Sometimes, I just have to tell the devil two simple words "SHUT UP" because he does not have permission to speak to my promise!  I remember seeing the discouragement and hopelessness in my husband's eyes after standing, hoping, and pursuing his promise over ten years to become a fireman; he received rejection letter after rejection letter. Can you imagine how many of those he received in ten years from almost every county you can think of. I remember he came to me and said, "Tiffany, if God is saying this is not what He has for me, then I will let it go; I'm tired."  I was glad he said the word "if" and that he did not say "I'm done." God can work with an 'if" when we surrender to His will in the times of uncertainty. So we prayed and asked God should we let it go- we felt like He said, "hold on." I'm not sure how long after that, but it was not too long before my husband received his letter to the Richmond Fire Academy. What would have happened if he would have gave in to the scheme of hopelessness and gave up on this dream.  The promise might be right around the corner and the enemy will tell you to turn around while he steals the promise, and not to mention the years or time you stood believing.

The scripture mentioned two Kingdom tools to abiding in Hope: All Joy and Peace.  Wow- not partial joy and peace; not even ninety-five percent. He said, "ALL!"  He is all sufficient! He is full completion! He is the Great I am; our ALL in ALL. I can stay right there for a minute because He is not only ALL, but He is El Shaddai, our more than enough! That means even though hope is your rear guard, we are also covered on every side.

Lastly, it states by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in Hope.  He is such an amazing Father. He is saying not by our power, nor our might, but by His Spirit! In our weakness, He is strong! We are never alone; never forsaken. Now, remember the beginning of the verse stated, may the God of Hope… Do you get it? His Spirit of Hope will be your rear guard, your side and front guard.  He will protect everything that He himself has promised. He will fill you with ALL His joy and peace to help you remain present in the promise; always seeing it right before you with much anticipation. You do not have to be depressed or discouraged in the wait. You get to have ALL JOY AND PEACE IN THE JOURNEY!

As I'm typing, listening to my worship, my fingers are typing a sweet worship of truth that I pray resound in the ears of your spirit and soul.

Be Ye Determined and Encouraged.  The God of Hope will not fail you.

 

 

 

Tiffany James, Encouraging Touch Enterprise
"Give a gift that creates a Legacy to Encourage, Inspire, and Bless those you love for a life time"

  http://www.encouragingtouch.com/ 

In ward focus, Forward Movement!

 

Today, I arrived to the gym excited about what I was going to accomplish today, so that I can share it with you. Well, I got there and realized I forgot my head phones and was not going to be able to listen to my worship or get my praise on. I was bummed and really did not feel like working out, but I thought about how well I slept last night, I thought about my quest for becoming more healthy, and I thought about my commitment to myself to try to work out when I can.  I made up in my mind that I was going to still work out. Again, it was hard, but I kept my inner focus. I realized that there comes a time that we must do the work in spite of! There are going to be times we do not have our music, friends, family, and whatever we feel we need to pump us up, encourage us, and/or give us wisdom that directs us.

I thought about something else today, my husband loves to work out and he is always telling me to work out and eat right, but I use to be so frustrated with him. The reason being is because I felt like he was not trying to help me. We would go to the gym and he would do his own thing and not try to motivate me, give me a workout plan, and when I finished he never said good job sweetie. Now, I know my hubby loves me and he is there with me, but I felt as if I could not do this without him doing these things. I started to think about God, He is Omni present, but there are times we feel distant from Him, times we question, "Why are you not helping me?" "Why are you not giving me a plan or direction?" "Do not just bring me into a situation and leave me." God just like my husband is there! He will never leave us or forsake us, but what my hubby was trying to say is "baby, it is time to do the work." It is time to take a hold of what you want and it is going to take more than me telling you that you can do it! You must believe you can.  If something went wrong with me in that gym my husband would be right there! He showed me a while back how to use the equipment, so now I have to do the work. God has given us the necessary tools to do the work!  It might be hard, but you can love! Each of us have a different routine when we work out? You might have to start with the treadmill of forgiveness, you might be one that has to stand tall and step up on that beast ( stair master) and ask for forgiveness; burning away that pride. You might even have to shoulder the weights of obedience!  I am not sure where you are at; it does not matter where you start, but what matters is that you start!

Faith without works is dead – Inner focus produces forward movement! # Persistence & Progress.

 

 

Tiffany James, Encouraging Touch Enterprise
"Give a gift that creates a Legacy to Encourage, Inspire, and Bless those you love for a life time"

  http://www.encouragingtouch.com/ 

Compelled by Love Week- " It is not always easy, but it will be worth it"

Today, I went to the gym, put the song "The more the seek you" by Kari Jobe, and decided to do 20 minutes on the stair master ( it is a beast). Now, let me tell you that I damaged my Achilles tendon in September and ended up in a medical boot in October for several months. So, I am just now starting back up in the gym and getting on the stair master seemed to be a not so good idea. I was listening to my worship and 5 minutes had passed, and it seemed as if I would not even last one minute longer. It was hard and my legs were hurting. I said to myself, "as soon as this beautiful song end I am going to get off this thing and I am going to do something else," but when the song stopped at around 6 1/2 minutes in I felt prompted to put on this song by Isaac Carree, " In the middle."  It is an upbeat praise song that reminds you no matter what you are going through praise God in the middle of it. Well, all of a sudden I started praising Him and made it through that song, which ended around 13 minutes in. I said, "I will just go to 15 minutes" and would be proud that I made it that far. I do not know why, but I repeated that song and felt like I could do it. Guess what? I completed my goal of 20 minutes, not only that I did not have it on manual (slow pace), I had the nerve to have it on the aerobic setting. I got off that thing feeling like I conquered the world.

 

Now, you might say what does this have to do with Love. Remember, yesterday I posted that Love is a muscle that must be exercised. Sometimes when we choose to love after we have been hurt and our heart have been damaged it is so hard to attain the goal to Love! You ask yourself, " can I really do this?" In the beginning you might say, "man I have done my part and it is enough," so you began to slow down or maybe you decide to give up all together. It seems impossible, but with God nothing is impossible. The thing I love is that when I started it was my worship and my desire to be one with Him that caused me to not even care about the pain in the first place. I was caught up in worship! My focus was on Him when I got on that darn machine, but I am not going to fake the funk, once I was going for 6 minutes the reality of what it cost once I started the process of working out feels as if it is not worth it! We have an inner strength that I can not really explain. When we do not even realize that with every step of courage we take to exercise even when we do not want to, when it hurts, and when it seems impossible is strengthening our core. You get it? With every act big or small towards your goal to love is strengthening your core. You do not always see immediate results, but you are building your muscles and burning away a lot of access fat that is weighing you down.

 

So you can do it! Ask God to help you Love like you have never been hurt before! I worked out today as if I never hurt my ankle. Yes, it might hurt in the beginning, but if you can praise your way pass the pain you can reach the goal to Love. It is not easy, but it is worth it. Find the courage and strength to Love today! You will be amazed at what else you can do! I started with the stair master today, but I did not stop there.

 

Be Encouraged.  "It is not always easy, but it will be worth it"

 

Tiffany James, Encouraging Touch Enterprise
"Give a gift that creates a Legacy to Encourage, Inspire, and Bless those you love for a life time"

  http://www.encouragingtouch.com/ 

Compelled by Love week! 6/1/2014

LOVE IS A MUSCLE THAT NEEDS TO BE EXERCISED, SO LETS GET TO WORK! IT WILL BE THE BEST WORK OUT YOU EVER HAD AND YOU WILL BECOME STRONGER THAN YOU CAN EVER IMAGINE. A INNER IMAGE WORTH HAVING! ~Tiffany James

 

Tiffany James, Encouraging Touch Enterprise
"Give a gift that creates a Legacy to Encourage, Inspire, and Bless those you love for a life time"

  http://www.encouragingtouch.com/