Hi everyone and welcome to week 17 of The ABCs of Contentment. Today we’re on the letter Q and Q stands for Quick. The verse that goes with that is James 1:19 and 20, where it says, “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” Okay, now let’s be honest: we live in such a fast-paced society, how many of us want to do things quickly? I know I do. How many times when my other caregiver, Traci, is trying to help me with something, like transferring somewhere, does she have to tell me, “Rachael, think about what you tell the patients at the hospital.” It’s one of those concepts that’s easy to know in your head, but hard to apply. I know that I knew it especially when I dealt with my bone infection. Boy, then I really had to slow down and that was difficult. Not only could I not walk or be on my feet, but like I said, I had to be carried everywhere. It was difficult to need extra help. As if having cerebral palsy wasn’t already enough; I needed help with the basic things, like transferring to and from my own bed. That drove me nuts! Traci and I couldn’t volunteer at the hospital because the doctor was afraid of making my bone infection worse. Some nights, I laid in bed and I’d think, “Lord, could you just take me home to heaven now? I’m ready to come home!” Sometimes I got so angry I wanted to SCREAM!!!! AAAHHH! Now, thankfully, the bone infection is over, (thank goodness) but I still have to be careful. Though I can walk with my walker, I can’t walk like I used to. When I go to the gym with my aides, we work on walking, we work on picking my feet up and down the proper way, we work on not twisting my feet. I have to be really careful never ever to let the bone infection happen again. That’s how serious it is. On the positive side, though I have to slow down physically even though I don’t want to, it’s taught me to listen to the Lord more. It’s taught me to be quick to listen to the Lord and when I go to the hospital and talk to patients, it’s given me something to relate to them with. Like when their recoveries can’t be as quick as they’d like. It gives me something to encourage them about and tell them that going slow is okay. Now if I can just remember that on a daily basis. Well, I’m working on it! It’s like my brother-in law said one time when he did a sermon at his church, “Are we going slow enough to see what God is doing?” Good question. Now it’s another great song by my friend Jana Alarya. It’s called “Stadin’ On the Solid Rock.” Here we go.She’s got great music.

My strong Savior is teaching me to know
When to speak, when to listen, when to go slow
My strong Savior is teaching me to be
One to trust and say to Him
“Here I am”
“Here I am”
“Here I am, send me.”

I’m standin’ on the Solid Rock, Solid Rock of Jesus
I’m standin’ on the Solid Rock, Solid Rock of my Lord
I’m standin’ on the Solid Rock, Solid Rock of Jesus
I’m standin’ on the Solid Rock, Solid Rock of my Lord

My strong Savior is teaching me to know
When to speak, when to listen, when to go slow
My strong Savior is teaching me to be
One to trust and say to Him
“Here I am” (echo)
“Here I am” (echo)
“Here I am, send me.”

I’m standin’ on the Solid Rock, Solid Rock of Jesus
I’m standin’ on the Solid Rock, Solid Rock of my Lord
I’m standin’ on the Solid Rock, Solid Rock of Jesus
I’m standin’ on the Solid Rock, Solid Rock of my Lord

I’m standin’ on the Solid Rock, Solid Rock of Jesus
I’m standin’ on the Solid Rock, Solid Rock of my Lord
I’m standin’ on the Solid Rock, Solid Rock of Jesus
I’m standin’ on the Solid Rock, Solid Rock of my Lord

I’m standin’ on the Solid Rock, Solid Rock of Jesus
I’m standin’ on the Solid Rock, Solid Rock of my Lord
I’m standin’ on the Solid Rock, Solid Rock of Jesus
I’m standin’ on the Solid Rock, Solid Rock of my Lord

I’m standin’ on the Solid Rock, Solid Rock of Jesus
I’m standin’ on the Solid Rock, Solid Rock of my Lord
I’m standin’ on the Solid Rock, Solid Rock of Jesus
I’m standin’ on the Solid Rock, Solid Rock of my Lord

Amen. How about you? Are you going to be quick to listen to the Lord, or are you so distracted in our fast-paced society that you’re too busy to listen? I pray that we will all take this scripture to heart and we will all learn to be quick to listen to the Lord, slow to speak, and slow to act on our own emotions. Lord help us all with that. That’s it for the letter Q and I’ll see you next time when we talk about the letter R. And R will be for Renew. Bye everyone, God Bless.
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Hi, I realized after I filmed the video, that the Leper story I talk about is actually found in Luke 17:11-19. There’s more than one story about Leprosy in the Bible. I realized I got the one I was talking about mixed up with another story that is found in Matthew. I did not know I was going to talk about it, it just came out and was fitting, so I rolled with it. That happens. I write a script to give myself a guideline, and then once I’m on camera, I add as I go. I hope you can tell that I’m speaking from my heart and that you get the message of the video. What do you think of the series? Does anyone have any questions? I’d love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave a comment below and click on “I am not a robot.” God Bless. Rachael

Hi everyone, and welcome to week 16 of The ABC’s of Contentment. Today’s letter is P and P stands for Perseverance. It’s another one of those weeks when we’re actually going to focus on two words: Perseverance and Run because it takes Perseverance to Run a race; especially the kind of race the Bible talks about. So that means we’ll have two verses again just like we did for Masterpiece and Potter. So the first verse is Hebrews 12:1 and 2, where it says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders, and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” The second verse is another favorite of mine. It’s Romans 5:3-5. It says, “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance produces character; character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.” A good example of this is in the movie Overcomer, the new one by Stephen and Alex Kendrick. The plot is a man who’s been coaching basketball for a long time at a high school finds out that he cannot coach basketball because most of his key players are moving due to a factory plant shutting down. So now what? What does he do with himself? When the principal asks him to coach cross country, his response at first is, “Cross country is not even a real sport.” Boy, does he have a lot to learn! Throughout the movie, the coach works on his attitude as he learns many lessons about Perseverance. When he sees that the one runner on his team has asthma, he learns lessons about Perseverance. When he sees her run, she doesn’t let anything stop her. It’s such a good movie! When I post the video on YouTube, in the description I’m going to leave a link that says where the movie is playing so you can plug in your zip code to find out if it’s playing in your area. If it is, I suggest that you go see it. My mom and I saw it twice. It’s that good. So anyway, I’ve seen this so many times in my own life. People have come up to me and told me how I have Perseverance. They see Perseverance in me because I have to have Perseverance. If I didn’t have Perseverance, I could get really bitter. It’s easy to get bitter when we need help with the small things; like getting dressed, combing your hair, you get the idea. I constantly have to keep my eyes focused on Jesus. Though I can’t run physically, actually, I think that helps me run the race the Bible talks about and keep my eyes focused on eternal things that matter to God. Think about it; when you look back at the Bible, and you hear stories about healing, how many of those people really went back to thank Him? Not very many. In fact, you know the story where Jesus heals so many lepers? It’s found in Luke (17:11-19). He healed 10 lepers and out of 10, only one went back to thank Him. But isn’t that typical of our culture? As soon as we get the miracle we’re hoping for, in this case I mean physical healing, we’re like, “See ya God. I don’t need you anymore.” So sometimes when He doesn’t heal you the way you would like (like in my case, the surgery I described earlier when we talked about the letter E for Embrace), I think it’s because He knows what we’re going be like if we get healed. God is all-knowing and remember the verse we looked at when we talked about the letter F (Jeremiah 1:5)? It says, “Before I formed you I knew you.” So knowing that God is all-knowing, if He doesn’t heal, it means He’s got a plan and that He wants to use us in a unique way. I cannot stress enough how many opportunities I’ve had to minister in my wheelchair that wouldn’t have happened if I weren’t in my wheelchair. For those opportunities, I have to thank the Lord. Lord thank you for the things I can’t do physically. Help me to always keep my eyes focused on you so that I may run the race, get home to heaven someday and hear you say, “Welcome home my good and faithful servant, well done.” Amen. And now for today’s song. Today’s song is by a good friend of mine, Jana Alarya. In fact, you see that my shirt says “Shine?” That’s one of her shirts. I got it one year when I went to The Joni and Friends Family Retreat and she was there. So the song is called “Fight This Fight”. Here we go. It goes perfect with the word Perseverance.

“I will fight this fight
I will run this race
I will serve You, Lord in all I do
‘Til I see Your face

I will fight this fight
I will run this race
I will serve You, Lord in all I do
‘Til I see Your face

I see the cross before me
So I’ll keep on pressin’ on
God is callin’ so I won’t look back
His word is keepin’ me on the track
To Jesus (echo)
To Jesus (echo)

I will fight this fight
I will run this race
I will serve You, Lord in all I do
‘Til I see Your face

I see the cross before me
So I keep on pressin’ on
God is callin’ so I won’t look back
His word is keepin’ me on the track
To Jesus (echo)
To Jesus (echo)

I see the cross before me
So I keep on pressin’ on
God is callin’ so I won’t look back
His word is keepin’ me on the track
To Jesus (echo)
To Jesus (echo)

I will fight this fight
I will run this race
I will serve You, Lord in all I do
‘Til I see Your face

I will fight this fight
I will run this race
I will serve You, Lord in all I do
‘Til I see Your face”
Amen. Will you run the race and get the prize? The Eternal prize? That crown of rewards the Bible talks about? I sure hope so. You know, if you don’t know Jesus, and you haven’t started a relationship with Him, go back on my YouTube channel and look at the letter H for Healing. In the description there’s a prayer that I lead you in to start a relationship with Jesus. It’s really worth it. It’s because I have Jesus in my life that I’m able to Persevere. Because of Jesus, I have hope. Without Him you would not see the energy that you just saw. Well that’s it everyone and I’ll see you next week when we talk about the letter Q and Q will be for Quick. Bye everyone, God Bless.
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