Hey, Darling Things! A quick, random post here. The last day of work before Christmas is always ministry-on-steroids around this place. We close to the public and work like crazy to get last minute details done. Several of us (yours truly included) will still have to put in a few days between Christmas and New Year’s but this is our last day of 2010 as a team. Characteristically at some point on the last day, all of us pitch in and help Diane and Evangeline with resources. Lots of people place last minute orders that they’re hoping will make it by Christmas Day and we try hard to accommodate. This year someone also came up with this insane idea that tagged on, oh, about 6000+ orders and in December, no less. (Perhaps you’ve noticed that we are having to freeze new SSMT spiral orders for a few days because we’ve gone into back order for printing.) But we are so happy and the Lord is so faithful!
Christ has called us to Romans 15:13 over the last week due to some long term struggles a few of us are having. We’ve been saying it back and forth to one another as a reminder of His blessing to us. Maybe you could use this reminder, too. Hopelessness is never of God. Never. Nothing is too difficult for Him. Nothing is beyond His reach. His restoration. Even His reconciliation. I’m going to try to write the verse by heart to you:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
As you trust in Him.
As you trust in Him.
AS YOU TRUST IN HIM.
If we’ve got His Word on it, let’s not stop believing Him for our situations until our lack of hope transforms into an OVERFLOW of hope. Do it, Lord. I felt the victory begin the moment I started committing the verse to memory. God is so amazing.
Anyway, here are a few random pictures from the last two days. I had so many more but they won’t upload and I’m so annoyed. This is a quick pic of our staff Christmas lunch yesterday at Grand Lux by the Galleria:
This is your very own Siesta Mama stuffing envelopes with spirals. That’s my buddy of 30 years, Johnnie, to my right (she’s the one the David revision is dedicated to. That’s my buddy of 20+ years, Diane, to my left. She is one of our LPM managers and one of the people I trust most in the world:
These are some of the last minute orders waiting for our wonderful UPS man.
Gotta go! I get to babysit tonight! I’ll be in plenty of touch around here. I love you guys!
Your verse was so timely as my Siesta spiral arrived today. It will be my first entry for 2011! Blessings to all the LPM folks!
Thank you for reminding this girl that hopelessness has zero standing in our faith. Nothing and no one can take our hope. I have to rest in that! Merry Christmas with much hope for the new year!!
are you all eating outside?!?!?!?! that’s AWESOME! here in SD, my hands feel like they are about to freeze and fall off my arms any time i step outside! lol
thanks to all the staff & volunteers for working hard on last minute orders– i know it’s sometimes tough to keep a joyful spirit when you have so much to do in so little time right before a holiday!!!
In Houston we had above 80 today! NO JOKE. It is messing with our heads!
Girl, that’s the truth! We left College Station this AM & it was 68-we just left Vernon, Tx & it’s 46!! Now that’s more wintery in my Texas head!! 🙂
We love you too Beth! Sending e-hugs to all LPM folks that work so hard. Thank you all for all you do! We appreciate your ministry!
“hopelessness is never of God.” sent it in a text to my dear, young friend who is sitting in the waiting room at her counselor’s office right now. she feels like she’s drowning in hopelessness as she battles the same eating disorder that GOD defeated in my life. Praying for my emily. Thank you for the post. Can’t wait to get my spiral!!!! and thanks to all for the extra hard work to fill those orders.
I think that is so awesome that you are reaching
out:) it’s hard to “remember” the past, because it’s
so painful, but if the memory of the pain brings
a release of it for someone else, we just remember
that it’s only a memory and did not and will not
ever define us, and it won’t harm us by sharing it.
I will pray for Emily- I’ve been
where you are in a different context.
It’s a hard road. But worth it for not just your friend,
But will set you more free in yours too:)
Just my thoughts! 🙂
Will pray for her too today–and you!
Praying for your dear friend Kendal!
God Bless!
I love the spiral notebook and am so excited. I do need to discuss with someone the mailing situation though! I didn’t realize it was shipped UPS and put my PO box in lieu of my physical address (I do not get mail at my physical address)..I believe I left a voice message for Diane. I sure hope this reaches someone before it goes out! Please contact me if possible! Thank you so very much! Happy Holidays!
I will relay your message to our Resource Department, Monica. Merry Christmas!
Thank you so very much! They can contact me via email! Merry Christmas!
If you only ordered a spiral and nothing else… you should get it at your PO box just fine, I got mine today! 🙂
I had my sent to my P.O Box to because I so not get mail at my physical address neither so hopefully they will go to my po box
Thanks for posting that I have not got an email niether about when it will shipped
So I guess we will see
Carol
I am pretty sure mine came in the mail. My husband gets the mail and it was in the stack.
Thank you for all your hard work to you and all your staff. It looks so deliciouly warm there 🙂 Hope you have a great night babysitting. Blessings and wishing you and your family a very Happy Christmas!
Thank you for ‘workin it!’ to get those out!
BIG Jesus Blessings to y’all!
Thank You Beth and your Staff for all your hard work. Hugs to each and everyone of you.
We are so very thankful for God’s Blessings and your ministry. God has touched hearts, changed lives and brought others closer to Him through your ministry. We cannot express enough how much this ministry means to all of us that read your books, study God’s Word and share our hearts. We love you in Christ.
God bless you all of you this wonderful Christmas!
I would like to share a poem. Revised version of Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus…I wrote this a few years ago for my son…
. Christopher, some of your friends may tell you there is no God, but they are wrong. They have been blinded by Satan and looking at what the world has to offer, so show compassion to others. They do not believe except what they see. They may think nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their own minds. In this universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with God and His wisdom.
Yes, Christopher there is a God. He exists as certain as love, generosity and devotion exist; for these are things God has given for us to enjoy life. How awful life would be without God. There would be no hope, no peace and no joy. There would be no purpose for mankind and no reason to live. We would not enjoy the very things we see, feel or hear around us everyday if God did not exist. Our hopes, our dreams and our very existence are from God. We exist, because He created us. The freedoms we have come from Him.
He is our Light. He is holy and righteous. There is none like Him. He is mighty in strength. He is all-knowing, all-powerful and ever-lasting. Not believe in God! You might as well not believe in life itself! Even if you cannot see God with your own eyes, it does not prove that there is no God. We cannot see the air we breathe or see the wind blow, yet we know these things are real. Some of the most real things in the world are those things we cannot see. There are lots of unseen things in this world. Not even the wisest man can do the things God has done and continues to do each day. No one knows all the things God knows, for he has a plan and purpose for everything.
Christopher, what you need to know is that no one loves you as much as God does. Nothing can take the place of God. He loves you so much He gave His only Son, Jesus to come and die on the cross for your sins, so you could have eternal life. he come to forgive you of the things you do wrong. One day He will take you to Heaven, to be with Him forever.
This salvation is for anyone who will believe in his heart and accept Him as Lord and Savior. Thank God, He lives and lives forever! Give Him honor and glory! Yes, there is a God and He is very much alive in the hearts of all who believe!
~joyce~
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(OMMB)
Oh My Mama Beth you all are to busy I wish I lived close by I would come and help get those spirals out,Thank you for serving us and helping to get those spirals out to us I ordered mine but have not recieved it yet but I will wait. I am thinking to what verse to put on the 1st day of Jan. 2011 one verse that keeps coming to my mind alot lately is Phil4:6 Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your requests to God. Phil 4:7 And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
That will probably be my verse I don’t know but it has surely came top my mind at a time when everyhting seems to go South but with be no job and been unemployed for a yr it gets tuff so that verse has meant alot to me.
Iloved your verse to the Romans 15:13 I need to Trust God in everything and continue to Trust in Him even though it looks bleak.
Thank you everybody at LPM for all you have been doing.
Merry Christmas to all
Carol
Thanks, Beth! God’s word is all we need to live with flair indeed. Hope! Joy! Thank you!
Oh how I LOVE Romans 15:13!
I even put it on our family Christmas card this year.
My spiral came a couple days ago… thank you girls so much for all you do!
now who was it that came up with that insane idea to add 6000+ orders profiting not the lpm ministry, but blessing thousands!?!!!? thank you beth! and thank you all you wonderful lpm workers! how i would love to hang with you all – well i guess i will in jan of 2012! very exciting. i got my spirals and surprised 4 friends with them who are up for the challenge although not yet obsessed with the blog – don’t worry: i’m working on them! 😉
Blessings and Merry Christmas girls!
love, kimberly
THANK YOU, thank you for your faithfulness! I got my spiral in the mail Sat. and it was all I could do to keep from writing my first verse in it! I participated in the last Siesta memory verse challenge and can’t wait to see what God will do this year.
God is so good. How badly I needed that verse tonight. I went to the doctor again today for this mysterious rash that no one can diagnose. I know that God knows and I felt Him tell me to trust Him today. Between what seems like a never ending list of physical ailments, blood draw after blood draw, and infertility I am so tired of not feeling well. I’m only 28 for crying out loud! I need God to make me a new creation, with a renewed heart and a renewed mind.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope from the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13.
Thank you Beth.
Thank you Heavenly Father!
Great verse! That might have to be my first entry in my Siesta spiral!
Your lunch picture just reminded me…my mom, cousin, and I went to Picabu Bistro in Spokane yesterday! We had never heard of it before you told us at the conference the other day. Oh. My. Word. was it good! Seriously delicious. I’m going back the first chance I get! We told the girl that we were there b/c of you and she said you sat at our table! That made me happy, and made me feel close to my Siesta Mama. 🙂
Have fun babysitting tonight! I know you will. 🙂
I got mine in the mail today and I just had to laugh at the CD holder for the invoice! I’m sure you used whatever you could with 6000 of them to send!
Thanks so much and like a commenter above, I’m using Romans 15:13 as my first verse too. I really need it right now.
Momma Beth –
Can you even IMAGINE – really seriously – how many souls will one day stand alongside you praising Him face to face precisely BECAUSE you and Johnnie and Diane and so many LPM’ers serve in gratitude, obedience and joy? Folks – you are doing a dazzling work with every stuffed envelope! I’m so blessed by you. And I am thrilled to be looking at my spiral. Romans 15:13 was written in a card to me just after I “sold out” to Jesus years ago! How sweet a reminder and what a wonderful place to start again. Merry Christmas Beth (and crew) and all you awesome Siestas!
Okay that didn’t come out right! We’ll be in heaven only because we believe that our sin debt was paid in full on that cross — but many would not have sought Him without your wonderful ministry. I feel so silly writing this out as though you didn’t get it. Anyway, Merry Christmas! 🙂
Got my Siesta memory cardex today!! WOOHOO!!! Merry Merry Christmas!! ps… I needed that verse today!! Thank you Jesus for loving me.
mama beth-
I was going to start to write something, but then I realized it was going to turn into a blog post( they are all backing up in my brain!)
I’ll just say that its been a frustrating time of preparation. My heart isn’t as prepared as I would like it to be. Work, home, and just inside myself…its been full of drama.
And so yesterday writing out the church prayer list I just looked up every verse on peace I could find and read them all one by one…my heart needed that reminder!
AND…I was listening to ” Engaging our minds” today Part 1 (Life Today) and you spoke with this verse:
But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,(1 Peter 3:5)
Perfect verse for right now!
xoxo
ang
Oops! 1 Peter 3:15! Sorry! Think it needs to
be a memory verse.:)
Thank you so much for that verse! It was like a big drink of water for my parched spirit today. There seem to be quite a few siestas who are using it as their first memory verse…count me in that group! Lord knows, we could all use a big dose of hope! Blessings to all of you!
Ok I’m totally putting the Romans 15:13 verse in and starting the spiral early! Can’t help myself, that one was just too timely. Praise God for His word!!
Have a Merry Christmas Siestaville!!
Love the words to a well-known Christmas song, “O Holy Night”.
“He appeared and the soul felt its worth”
These words taken from this beloved Christmas song, just stood out to me this Christmas advent season. We have worth siestas. And may we know it as never before this season and into 2011
Thank you SO MUCH, Beth for posting that wonderful verse!
I SO needed it!!! I’m going to be praying that verse and committing into this baby-drain-brain of mine ’til we start the Scripture Memory in January! I’ve already started my little spiral (because conscience wouldn’t let me buy your lovely one now) with this verse.
So much I could write but this is where I will end. Thank you for your dedication, and your transparency as always!
Lots of love and Christmas blessings from Victoria, BC, Canada ;o)
I love you so!
LPM-Thank you so much for working so hard to serve us! You all are appreciated!
I love my spiral, it came yesterday!
Bless you all this Christmas!
<3
Teri
an Overflow of hope.(that)hopelessness is never from god.hmmm. makes me wonder where its from.cause i feel that way a lot. and to think of it this way: “hopelessness is never from god”- so who is it I’m letting talk to me and take me to that place within my own fear.? a fear that saps the courage out of hope. hmmm. so, thanks for posting. i was hoping there’d be one tonight. if i was there i’d give you a big bear hug but i’m not so i can’t, beth, so, talk with you later i hope.
Beth, I have to tell you… my heart skipped a little beat today when I opened the mail. There sat a box from LPM. I just want to thank you so very much for this wonderful idea. I want to thank everyone that has worked so hard to get them out so quickly. I feel very blessed so be a part of this and can’t wait to memorize some scripture with amazing women. Thank you for being you and I hope that all of the families have a very Merry Christmas.
Thank you for all you do. I’m so excited about my spiral and I’m placing this verse in my heart now 🙂
Bless all of you lovely ladies – enjoy the time off with your families.
Got my spiral today! So excited and it is so cool! I Just love love love it! You have all worked so hard to get these out. Thank you for your hard work. What a great response to your great idea Beth and the others that jumped on board with you.
As soon as I read the Romans 15:13 I stopped reading, grabbed paper and pen, wrote it down and it is now stuck on my computer. I really needed that right now. Thank you , again. I m having a real struggle right now and keep telling myself that God has a plan. Just trust him. So this was perfect for me! Love you all at LMP. Merry Christmas to everybody :0)
i have romans 15:13 recently committed to memory too and it is written on the dry-erase board on my fridge! it has been a beautiful lifeline lately!
Thank you for bringing Romans15:13 before us. I will share with a friend whose son was just diagnosed with leukemia. Cancer took her husband just 2 years ago. They are now in the Texas Medical Center to start treatment immediately.
Eagerly await the arrival of my spiral to begin SSM, take 2.
Wishing all of you a joyously blessed Christmas.
Oh Kay. That just floors me. I pray that God will work miracle after miracle in their lives.
Kay,
Tell your dear friend to stand strong in the power of the Word! I curse cancer in the precious name of Jesus and loose the power of the Holy Spirit to do His work! Tell your friend to say satan i’m not having it! i know you came to steal kill and destroy, but Jesus came that my son might have abundant life and i claim that life for him today in Jesus most precious name! blessings my dear siesta! love, kimberly
God bless you! Merry Christmas! I got my spiral. YeeHaw! (that also was real – i’m still from Tennessee!)
I got my spiral in the mail today, too. It looks so great! I am super excited to use it and I love the size. It is so perfect for carrying everywhere and not getting lost in my giant purse!
I’m a long time lurker around here, but so excited about scripture memory in 2011. I am in a super hard season, and I have been amazed at the scripture the Lord has brought to mind to sustain me-some from as far back as my good ol’ Bible Drill days!! I know having the word hidden in my heart is my best weapon when those slings and arrows come. And the verse today, well, I won’t be waiting. It’s going to be my “pre-scripture memory” memory verse.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas, Beth, Love, Allison
Merry Christmas to you, Allison.
I GOT MY SPIRAL TODAY!!!! I can’t even tell you the excitement and the thrill that went through me! And knowing that one of you sweet women touched that spiral just made me so happy!
And can I just say, that I may just be using Romans 15:13 as my first verse of 2011!
A blessed and most wonderful Christmas to some of my favorite people on this planet…LPM ministry ladies, Beth and your family and my Siestaa!
Melana 🙂
Oh my…I feel like I read this post over and over a gazillion times. Thank you so much for the verse… It didn’t just minister to me …it a loud shout out… hey I am talking to you! I just got done taking the dogs for a long walk and I was doing all that self doubt talk as to how could I really ever think the restoration of my marriage has any hope. Everyone around me wants to point out 1Corinthians 7:15 to me since he is an unbeliever and has left. I can’t even wrap my head around that. There has been no talk of divorce yet…I have been clinging to the promise, belief, faith that God is bigger than this. I want my marriage to work, to be restored. God is all powerful and I do believe that if this is in His will He will do it. I do believe but Oh Jesus help my unbelief.
Thank you again.
In His love,
michelle in VT
Thank you everyone for working so hard so that I may receive my SIESTA SPRIAL.. I must say, it is FABULOUS!!
Merry Christmas to all the Siestaville elves!
Shannon Costanzo
Kissimmee, Florida
Merry Christmas! Thanks for all that you do-God Bless!
Thank you so much for sharing Romans 15:13 today. I continue in a long season of waiting for answers to a few very key decade-long prayers. My chin started quivering today as I thought of the new year approaching, and how you had prayed back in January that this would be a year where those prayers were answered. I’m still waiting. God is so good, but He is also inclined to let me wait and ache and seek Him in a long drought. Like the young woman in the movie Facing the Giants when she learned she still wasn’t pregnant (no, that’s not one of my prayers! yikes!), I looked up at the sky today and said, “Lord, I will still love you… even if these things never change.” And as I listened to Christmas carols today, the words peace and joy kept being sung over and over, almost as if taunting me – but I’m fighting the temptation to despair, praying, asking for these to be mine in Jesus. …So to come from a day (a year, five years…) of waiting, hoping, praying, persevering — the words of Romans 15:13 were water and encouragement to a very thirsty soul: peace and joy!. Thank you AGAIN for being used by God to meet a deep heart need for encouragement (just as Jonathan did for David in that wilderness).
Persevere, my dear sister! Jesus loves you so. Hebrews 10:35-36.
Hi Linda,
Right there with you in a hard season of my own so I’ll be praying with you and for you.
Blessings to you,
Patti Hayes
Merry Christmas, dear Beth.
Our love to all the LPM staff…
Tell Johnnie we send our love. She was so kind to us when we were there!
Look forward to hearing from you on the blog!’
love, Sister Lynn
Isn’t she a hoot?? We were just talking about the four of you yesterday. You graced the ministry with your smiles.
THANK YOU, LPM Siestas for working so diligently to get our spirals out by the holidays! You’re an amazing group of ladies! 2011’s SSMT is going to be awesome beyond words–all about His Word!! I can’t wait to get started.
I noticed someone mentioned you were eating outside at your lunch yesterday! 🙂 It was 79 and absolutely gorgeous in Houston and the surrounding areas today, it’s kinda hard to see all the snowmen on front porches–they look a little hot!!! We’ll be driving out of this tho and head to Colorado tomorrow morning, so then we’ll see Winter.
Merry Christmas to all of you in Houston and all over ‘Siestaville’! I pray your memories are many and your blessings overflowing.
Great scripture. I’ve already picked my first one for 2011, but now I think I want it to be Rom 15:13. No. Gonna stick with my original choice…I think. I decided I would write on the back of each of my scripture cards why I chose the verse and what it means to me. I chose Psalm 27:4 as my first. It is what I WANT! “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.” I WANT THAT!! God is so good to me. Today I looked at my calendar with eleven months marked off and number twelve about to end. 2010 has been a tough one and I praise God that it was. Did I praise Him at the time? Sometimes yes, sometimes not so much! I can look back and see lessons learned, prayers answered, growth in my walk with Jesus. I’m not the same person I was at the beginning of the year…thank you Jesus. Beth, you have been a big part of my life the last year. God has truly used you to minister to me. Thank you for your willingness to answer the call. I pray you and your family have the best and most blessed Christmas EVER!
Dear Beth,
I keep remembering last Christmas when you were not yet feeling well enough to tackle all of the Christmas “stuff”, and remembering your picture of that one, perfect ornament, hanging alone on your tree. You said that it was enough.
As we enter this week before our Lord’s birth in what has been a difficult financial year for our family, I am remembering that cross. It really is enough. The perfect gift.
Thank you, Lord, for the gift of your Son, born this Christmas day.
I also, I am sharing in the excitement of the SSMT spirals. I got a notice this afternoon that mine are on their way. Thanks for helping with the packaging!
A Blessed Christmas wish for you and your family.
Margie
Margie, I’ve thought about the same thing many times as I’ve stared at this tree full of lively ornaments one year later. I pray that God pulls your family out of that financial struggle in such a way that you know it was your Savior.
I received my 2 spirals Monday and have already passed one on. I needed a word tonight and I clicked on my favorite bookmark and God IS SO Good. He knew how much I needed that verse tonight. I have already written it in my spiral as my first verse.
Got my spirals yesterday! Yea! : ) So appreciate everything you all do for us!
Romans 15:13 was one of my memory verses for the 2009 SSMT! : ) I get so excited when I see a verse someone quotes that was one of my memory verses! Can’t wait to get 24 more hidden in my heart!
Merry Christmas!
I got my spirals in the mail last night and I was literally bouncing around the house with glee! {I bought one for myself and one for my SIL.} Who would’ve ever thought that a little book of index cards could bring such excitement?! AND I got the great 25-day journal for fathers that Curtis wrote. It’s gonna be a stocking stuffer for my hubby and I just know he’ll love it. Thanks for all you do!!! Merry, blessed Christmas to everyone at LPM!
Our God is so sweet! The Romans verse is exactly what I’ve been praying for a friend of mine as she deals with a very serious health challenge and still is mom to 3 young children and wife to a busy man. I was planning for it to be my first memory verse for January! Many, many blessings as you enjoy some time with your family at Christmas. 🙂
Merry Christmas and thank you so much for sharing a cup of hope with me today. I was just about out. Tough month.
Please give a hug from me to those going through long term struggles. And I’ll share a cup of hope, too…
Psalm 71:14
“As for me, I will always have hope;
I will praise you more and more.”
This verse is exactly what I needed for a friend whose nephew is awaiting a transplant at MD Anderson. Long, hard, faith-filled walk.
Thank you! And again thank you to the LPM staff for blessing us mightily with our spirals! Can’t wait to start.
Merry Christmas!