Archives for December 2011

Get ready for 2012!

31 December, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Today’s prescription verse is the first verse of the first chapter of the Gospel of John.


In the beginning was the word…


As we think about beginning a new year, we always contemplate resolutions for the upcoming year. A friend of mine shared this blog with me by Tami Heim from www.stickyjesus.com. Writing these verses on your heart (or on sticky notes as I like to do) will ensure a great beginning to 2012, so I wanted to share them with you. 


Review – Understand where you’ve been. List what you’ve learned and how it impacts where you feel called to go. Accept that God’s sovereign and that everything experienced in 2011 had a purpose that points to the future. Jeremiah 29:11~ “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”


Reflect – Think deeply about the defining moments from the past year. Wait on God to show you the before and after affect on your thinking, being, and doing. Let yourself be grateful for each of them and the way they altered the direction of your life. Psalm 37:7 ~ Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
Assess – Take a truthful inventory of your heart. Ask God to show you the pleasing and not so pleasing parts. Reconcile the misses and determine to go forward with the power of the Holy Spirit as your guide. Hebrews 12:10-11 ~ They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Evaluate – Map the key decisions you made this past year and list the outcomes realized because of them. Accept responsibility for them and own the ability to redirect them as Wisdom leads you. Ezekiel 36:25-27 ~ I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
Resolve – Take a stand for what you want to continue to do and what you want to change. Exercise the power of your word and put into practice how you will daily honor it. Proverbs 16:3 ~ Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established.
Study – Seek God’s Word, experts, or the counsel of wise leaders regarding the areas where you know you need to grow. Examine all the alternatives before putting plans into place. Investigate before you navigate. Ephesians 4:21-24 ~ if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man who grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man who was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
Plan – Create an outline for the year. Identify benchmarks and timelines for key goals or accomplishments. Then surrender all of it to God for His shaping and perfecting. Proverbs 19:21 ~ There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand.
Organize – Bring order where it’s needed. Clean up and clear out the unnecessary things in your life. Simplify where possible and eliminate the clutter that’s prone to distract you. I Corinthians 5:7 ~ Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
Collaborate – Look to those you trust to hold you accountable. Ask them to collaborate with the intentions of your heart.  Look to support as well as be supported. Hebrews 10: 24-25 ~ And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
Activate – Define what beginning looks like as specifically as you can. Lean in and position for forward motion. Set the alarm for “GO” and be ready when it rings. Trust God to get you where He wants you to be. Ecclesiastes 3:11 ~ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Let Jesus be your resolution this year. With him as your foundation, all of the other resolutions will be easy. 


I can do all things through Christ…


From my heart,


Celeste
Filed Under: Living with Purpose, Your Relationship with God Tagged With: , , ,

Baby Jesus and the manager

25 December, 2011 by 1 Comment
Jesus and the Manager
Don’t you just hate typos? Or the auto-correct on your phone? At least on the computer you can use the backspace button. But what about when you get something printed and then find the typo? I know someone who sent Christmas cards with the intention of printing “Baby Jesus and the manger,” but instead printed, “Baby Jesus and the manager.” Wonder how many people noticed? That typo got me to thinking…
How often do we notice that we actually do try to “manage” Jesus? We try to manage Jesus just like we manage our bank account. When we need money, we go to the bank and make a withdrawal. When we need Jesus, we pray and read our Bible. When we don’t need money, we don’t even think about our bank account. When we don’t think we need Jesus, we keep him neatly tucked away in a box, just like our checkbook.
God didn’t send his son to be born to save the world for us to keep him tucked away to use when we need him. God announced Jesus’s birth to the world with a brilliant star for all to see. The world watched as he grew from a baby into a man, only to be brutally crucified on a cross to bear the burden of sin for all mankind. God gave his son as a gift, not something that must be worked for, paid for, or managed.
Accept the gift that God gave and let Jesus be Jesus. We need to quit making withdrawals only when we need him and deposits when we think we might need him. I’m here to tell you we do need him. Always. Just when life is going hunky dory, your life can change in an instant. Believe me, I know first hand. So remember, it’s not Jesus and the manager, but Jesus and the manger.
This year, when it’s time for the Christmas decorations to be put away, don’t put baby Jesus back in the box with the nativity scene. Put Him in your kitchen window sill, nightstand, or wherever you will see Him and celebrate the freedom we have in the gift of Jesus every day!
From my heart,

Celeste
Filed Under: Your Relationship with God Tagged With: , ,

Are you easily intimidated?

20 December, 2011 by 2 Comments

Have you ever felt intimidated—inferior somehow to those around you?
I spent my teen and young adult years as the youngest in every crowd. My birthday is in August, so I was the youngest in my class. I dated and married someone 4&1/2 years older than me, so I was the youngest among our friends. (When we dated his friends used to tease him about going up to ride tricycles with Celeste.) I graduated high school a year early and when to pharmacy school early, so I graduated and was a licensed pharmacist before I turned twenty-one years old. (My pharmacy school buddies thought it was funny that I could legally order narcotics before I was old enough to order alcohol.)
I was always the youngest, feeling like people looked down on me.
Once I began working as a pharmacist, got married, and started a family, my feelings of inferiority began to dissipate. I was in a profession where people constantly looked to me for guidance. My “little girl” status disappeared when I became a wife and mother. My age no longer mattered. I had “value.”
Then, feeling independent, respected, and appreciated, my world came crashing around me. In an instant, my position changed. With the first seizure, I lost the ability to drive or even take a bath alone and my independence was gone. Medication and subsequent addiction crushed any respect I had for myself let alone from anyone else. The resulting depression left me unavailable to do anything for anyone to appreciate.
But I was so accomplished! How could this happen?
So many of us, especially those of us raised in the Bible belt, received Christ as a child and we’ve been on autopilot ever since. We’ve worked hard, reaped the earthly rewards, and our significance has been determined. This is where we’ve messed up. There is nothing wrong with working hard, but our accomplishments should never be the deciding factor of our value.
…I’ll call nobodies and make them somebodies; I’ll call the unloved and make them beloved. In the place where they yelled out, “You’re nobody!” they’re calling you “God’s living children.” Romans 9:25-26 (Msg)
God’s living children. He wants us all to accept him as our Heavenly father and Savior. It is a gift. All we have to do is accept His gift. It is in the acceptance of this gift that we find our value, our importance, and our self-worth.
How changed would our world be if we could all see ourselves through the eyes of God? Intimidation is nothing but a trick of the devil (the “DEBIL” as Waterboy would say).
Read the “celestial prescription” for the day and take a dose of God’s love at least every four hours, whether you need it or not!
From my heart,
Celeste

Filed Under: Fighting Your Fears, Freedom in Christ, Your Relationship with God Tagged With: , , ,

What if the Bible didn’t exist?

7 December, 2011 by 1 Comment



Mary and Joseph had some hard times to endure when she was pregnant. Here she was, probably 15 years old, betrothed to be married, and found out she was pregnant. She had to convince Joseph that an angel had come to her to tell her the Holy Spirit impregnated her!
Joseph, as you can well imagine, was having second thoughts about marrying Mary. An angel spoke to Joseph in a dream, and confirmed that Mary was indeed still a virgin. But do you think anyone else believed him? I’m sure he received quite a bit of ridicule for believing something that just could not be possible!
In thinking about the faith God expected of Mary and Joseph, I wondered how in the world they did it. They lived before the Bible was written. They didn’t have the well-known verse, With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God (Matthew 10:27). And then there’s Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Mary and Joseph had the wisdom of prophets and other witnesses for Christ, but no collective “backup” to refer to and rely on.
Even if we don’t read our Bible on a daily basis, we do rely on it. How different would our lives be if the Bible did not exist? The government can try to take God out of schools all they want to, but truthfully, our nation was built around the one, true God. Our pledge of allegiance says, “One nation, under God.”
I used to think the Bible was full of a bunch of old stories, and it is. But they are real stories, full of rises and falls of great and not-so-great men. Miracles. Plagues. Wars. Not so different from today. I’m trying to read the Bible with this thought at the forefront of my mind. What if King David were our president? What if Mary was your teenage daughter? Or Joseph your son? Would your tell your son to stay with and support his pregnant teenage girlfriend who claims she’s a virgin? Or would you think she’s crazy? I read these old, familiar stories and try to think how it would play out today. And they didn’t have the Bible as a foundation! Can you imagine the faith that Mary and Joseph had to have? 
How often are we presented with situations that require just as much faith? And aren’t we grateful for that book full of old stories that we can depend on? 
I have a new friend who is beginning a ministry called “Read the Book Ministries”, and I’m trying to take her advice and READ THE BOOK!
…With an open mind and heart. 

 From my heart, 

Celeste

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Falling into the trap of addiction

2 December, 2011 by Leave a Comment





If you follow my blog, you know I haven’t been posting as much recently. I’m getting serious about my book, which I’ve been devoting more time to, so today I’m giving you an excerpt. If there were one part of my story I could forget, the narcotic addiction would be it. It took me a long time to include this in my book, but God has called me to be transparent. I love the verse I chose for today’s prescription. I’m taking the shame of my past, which is erased in God’s eyes, and using it to share his truths.
The world we live in revolves around pills. Whether addiction occurs from taking pain medication from an injury or from sheer curiosity, the addiction potential is the same. Drugs do not care who you are, what you do, where you live, how much money you make, or whether or not you’re a Christian. Too many people are blissfully unaware how narcotics work and how dangerous they can be. It seems ridiculous to me that I let myself become addicted because I’m a pharmacist. But I wouldn’t trade anything for the understanding I have now. Addiction is truly a phenomenon you cannot understand until you’ve been there. I certainly would have never imagined it could happen to me. 
I hope you enjoy this tidbit of my story. 
My first seizure, though unnerving, did not leave me with any physical harm done to my body. I wasn’t so fortunate this second time around. In the emergency room, I was told I had a broken nose. My first glance in the mirror confirmed it. My head was killing me and my body hurt all over. When I fell this time, I was standing in the middle of the pharmacy, and I went down sideways into the “P” section of the pharmacy shelves. Apparently I wiped out the Premarin, Provera, and Prozac sections to say the least. My head hit first, and my nose caught one of the shelves at just the right angle to make it good and whop-sided. With my head as the lead Lego, knocking down the lower shelves, my body followed crashing to the hard, tile floor. I’m thankful my brain didn’t remember the scene, but my body sure did. I have to be honest here. I’m a wimp. I don’t like pain, I’ve never liked pain, and I do not tolerate it well. The emergency room doctor sent me home with prescriptions for Depakote (for seizures) and Lortab (for pain), a list of  “do’s and don’ts” for seizure patients, and a referral to an ear, nose and throat surgeon for my crooked nose. And so my recovery began.
The soreness slowly dissipated from my muscles, and the bruises on my body faded away. The bruises on my soul, however, were growing. The ear, nose, and throat specialist informed me that sinus surgery was in my near future if I wanted to ever use my nose for breathing again. Breathing through my nose. Hmmmm. Sounds rather necessary. Sinus surgery it was.
In pharmacy school, I was able to sit through four surgical procedures during my clinical rotations. One of those surgeries just so happened to be a rhinoplasty—a nose job. It wasn’t long into that surgery that I completely understood why people are so black and blue after a nose reconstruction. You’d have thought the surgeons were working with Play-doh or clay, not an actual human face. I was mortified to watch as the doctor cut inside the nostrils with a scalpel, and with his equivalent of tweezers, pulled cartilage out. Then they proceeded to mash, tug, squeeze, push, and squish this man’s nose until they had molded it into the shape they wanted. I wasn’t getting a nose job per say, but the surgery is essentially the same to fix a broken, crooked nose.
Between the emergency room and visits to my neurologist, and visits and surgeon, it took about two months for me to come to the end of this nasal nightmare. Lortab, a narcotic pain medication, had become my friend to get through those months, especially during my recovery from the surgery. It was not pleasant to have my sinuses packed with gauze attached to small tongue depressors hanging out of my nose for a week. Remember what a great pain tolerance I have? When the packing was finally pulled from my nostrils, which felt like ropes being pulled from my brain, my nasal nightmare was over. Or so I thought. For the most part, my pain was gone, so I stopped taking the Lortab. I could have never guessed what was coming next. 
Watch for my next post to get a unique perspective on drug addiction. Understand the truth about the dangers of addiction so you can prevent those you love from falling into the trap. Addiction is very hard to overcome. In some cases, prevention is the only cure. 
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Filed Under: Overcoming Addiction Tagged With: ,