Strength in a Squeeze

 Breast Cancer Awareness Month series.

When you're facing a challenge with your health like breast cancer, life can begin to feel a bit squeezed, and like our beautiful flower in the graphic above, whose petals appear to be pressed up against the top and sides of her world, the pressures that surround you may be squeezing in on your life.  
But, if you take a closer look at this flower, she's actually flourishing. She's just continuing to grow and bloom, even with the sides pressing up against her.  Why, she looks as if she's out in a wide open field, letting her petals unfurl and dance in the breeze!  And it's all because of the source of life WITHIN her.
God can do that for you.  He can become that source of life, that "river of life",  that flows continually, flooding your life with newfound sources of strength, help and peace. Even in the midst of a health crisis.  We know this from firsthand experience and you can read our story in our October 1st blog. Because we understand the challenge of breast cancer,  we know that there is a greater power at work in the lives of those who know God and allow Him to come into their lives.
We want to encourage you to get to know Him, to begin to walk through life with Him, to begin to let Him live within you, right in the midst of your "squeezed world".  
When you walk with God through a tight spot, you'll begin to slip through life with thoughts like this:
God is with me, I will not fall. God will help me.  He'll be a refuge and strength in times of  trouble. (paraphrased from Psalm 46)

And then like us, you'll just press-up against verses like this when you're squeezed:
"It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!"

Praying for God's strength to be in you today,
The Velvet Lime Girls 

Today's resources:
Thermograms are a safe way to monitor your breast health and this article by Dr. Christiane Northrup discusses the benefits: Thermograms

A thermography team we've worked with: 
Mobile Thermographic Imaging

Healing Scriptures - Dodie Osteen


Previous resources:
Breast Cancer Conqueror
50 Healing Verses

The Truth About Cancer

Prayers for Healing

Strong Spirit
(A great message to build you up in your spirit)

It Is Well With My Soul - Bethel Music

Monday Mornings

Hello Monday Morning.  Sometimes Monday's just come a little faster than you expected and for those of you who we are honoring this month, in this National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Mondays can be challenging.  There may be tests ahead, decisions to make, protocol to follow, plans that have to change, the list could go on, but Monday is a day when you're often face with lots of decisions...and you can just decide to LOOK UP.  Believe us, looking up... looking up in faith to God, can make the rest of the week so much better.  We know from firsthand experience and you can read our breast cancer overcoming story in our October 1st blog.

Just like the Grace-Graphic© above says, we know that:
worry looks around, fear looks back and faith looks up.  We've learned that as rough and raw as a Monday may be, you'll have a point where you can CHOOSE to look up to God.  A point where you can choose to change the course of the day, and it begins in your heart.  You just have to LOOK UP and ask God for strength, help, wisdom, peace, encouragement or whatever you need at the moment.  He's right here with you. 

“Be strong. Take courage. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t give them a second thought because God, your God, is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you.” Deuteronomy 31:6

Just let this passage above sink into your soul.  God says He's right here with you, He won't let you down, He won't leave you.  We've been known to say this passage out loud several times a day and "take" it like we'd take medicine.  Because God's words are medicine... they're healing.

We hope you'll start your Monday off thinking about the passage above, the graphic we are sending you today and the strength (that God can give) to LOOK UP in Faith.

Praying for the strength you need today,
The Velvet Lime Girls 

Here's a little song to kick off your Monday.  
Praise Song - Hezekiah Walker

Previous resources mentioned:
Breast Cancer Conqueror

50 Healing Verses

It Is Well With My Soul - Bethel Music


Prayers for Healing


Strong Spirit


The Truth About Cancer

Strength

We're continuing our focus today on the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month by giving you a Grace-Graphic © to encourage yourself, or someone you know, who may be facing a breast cancer challenge. 

Please share.

Strength. Stamina. Tenacity. These are three essential elements you're just going to need to overcome the challenge of breast cancer.  If you do it in your own strength, you'll have a measure of success for awhile, but when you let God's strength infuse you, you'll begin to live life as an overcomer. We know this is possible from first-hand experience and if you missed our story yesterday, take time to read our October 1st post.

 We know what it's like to need strength, to need stamina, to need tenacity.

When you need these things and you just can't seem to muster them up yourself, even with all the therapies, protocol, doctors, positive-thinking, good diet, exercise and every supplement known to mankind, you finally come to the end of yourself and realize that you have one remaining option:
RISE UP and PRAY.

Yes, just rise up and pray.  And the minute you step into a prayer, God's presence and power will begin to infuse your life. A  prayer will open the door for the strength you need.  It will open the door for God to come in and begin to help you.  To wrap His arms around you with peace, comfort you with assurance, give you direction and usher in healing. 

So take a little time or a lot of time today and just pray to God.  Talk with God. LISTEN to God. He's probably been waiting to spend some time with you. 

Here are a few ways Laura has let God infuse His strength into her on her healing journey. We hope you'll tap into some of these resources today:
IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL _ BETHEL MUSIC
(Just skip the ad and enjoy the words of the song)

Prayers for Healing
(Encouraging prayers and words of healing)

Strong Spirit
(A great message to build you up in your spirit)


The Truth About Cancer
This last resource is an informative site filled with practical tips on how to build up your immune system, overcome cancer and live life fully. (Get your notebook out :-)

Heartfelt prayers for YOU today,
The Velvet Lime Girls


Previous resources:
Breast Cancer Conqueror
50 Healing Verses

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

It's the pink month.  Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  We'd like to honor and encourage the women (and men) who are facing the challenge of breast cancer this month.  Our endeavor is not something we've approached with a casual, lighthearted attitude, because, for those facing this challenge, the days can be rough, raw and insurmountable.
We know.
We understand.
We really understand, because one of us is currently overcoming breast cancer.
Yes, you read it right.  One of us is currently OVERCOMING breast cancer. Although all three of us feel as if we have been fighting, standing, believing, and praying over this challenge, it is Laura who is on the healing journey. Together though, we've reached that place of rest and trust, where you just know that God has heard your prayers and is moving on your behalf.

Marybeth created a graphic affirmation for Laura 
every-single-morning during the first part of her healing journey and we learned how powerful God's Word can be in lifting away discouragement. This month we'd like to pass along a few of these graphic encouragements to you, to lift you up or share with someone you know who is facing a breast cancer diagnosis.  We'll also be including a few resources and links that Laura has found helpful in her healing journey.

Today's grace-graphic confronts one of the biggest challenges you'll need to overcome when facing a breast cancer diagnosis. FEAR.  Even if you don't think you'll ever be able to overcome fear, you need to know, it can be overcome.  And when you overcome fear you'll be able to live life with ease... free from "dis-ease".

Praying for you today,
The Velvet Lime Girls

Today's resource links are for everyone!  Whether you're a breast cancer survivor, or in the early stages of breast cancer and looking for a more natural way to heal your body, or simply want to educate yourself on ways to prevent breast cancer, take a look at Dr. Véronique DeSaulniers' Facebook page. It is a continual source of practical tips and medically-based studies that will help you in your healing journey.  Laura is currently working with "Dr. V's" coaching team and highly recommends the program:
Breast Cancer Conqueror

Dr. V also has a great book: Heal Breast Cancer Naturally

The last resource is one Laura has found most helpful.
It's a daily diet of healing scriptures. There's not a therapy, vitamin or nutraceutical that can take fear out of your life, but God can. And if you let yourself just listen to His Words about healing, a transformation will begin to take place in your body. (Just skip the ad that pops up and soak in the healing words.)
Healing Scriptures

"Don't panic. I'm with you. There's no need to fear for I'm your God. I'll give you strength. I'll help you.  I'll hold you steady, keep an firm grip on you."  Isaiah 41:10

SWOONING

We're swooning today.

SWOONING: To be emotionally affected by someone or something that one admires, to be ecstatic.

Yep, that's us...swooning.  Ecstatic.  We  find ourselves humming that lively line from an old song:

"Look what the Lord has done! Look what the Lord has done!" 

And we just can't help thinking about this beautiful promise:

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined the things that God has prepared for those who love him.”  1 Corinthians 2:9

(Yes, all you Bible scholars out there, we know this verse is specifically talking about the wonderful gift of salvation and eternal life with our God in Heaven, that our Savior, Jesus Christ, made possible to all who will receive Him... and our grateful hearts receive this with great reverence.)  

When, however, we experience a little glimpse of God's goodness in our daily lives, a little evidence of Him preparing something beyond what our mind has imagined ... could it be that the ripples of joy reverberating in our hearts are a glimpse of the eternal joy God has prepared for us who love Him?

The source of all this joy today is a little spotlight article on us, the Velvet Lime Girls, and some of the amazing opportunities that have opened up for us. Hey, we're just three women who had a little dream.  A dream to let the love and grace of God that changed our lives, SHINE OUT through us and encourage others.  And now, look what the Lord has done!

May our story encourage you and draw you closer to God, so He can give you a dream, a vision, a joy in life, as you simply walk with Him, listen to Him, and Let His Light Shine Through Your Life.

 Thank-you to the team at Painted Planet Licensing for this lovely spotlight. Here's the full article:

Velvet Lime Girls

REVIVE

The walking lilies in our studio garden are sending out shoots from the mother plant and sprouting up new life all over our flowerbeds.  The mother plant, the genesis of all this new life, is absolutely beautiful, so full of vibrant color, energy and life!  When it births one of its many slender shoots, they stretch-out, sink into the soil, and a whole new life is birthed in the garden. A whole new life that reflects the beauty and grace of the genesis plant....the creator.

It's a constant reminder to us of the new life that God gives us, when we give our lives to Him... when we let His Spirit dwell inside of us. It's an energizing, revitalizing, new life that will actually change our physical bodies, because HIS SPIRIT has taken-up residence inside of us.  

We're revived. 
We're refreshed. 
We're renewed.

"And if the same Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives (dwells) in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you."  
Romans 8:11

Living revived, refreshed, renewed,
The Velvet Lime Girls

Overflowing Hope

August arrived yesterday with bouquets of bright, beaming sunflowers.  These sunshine spears always mark the beginning of what we call the sunflower season. 

The hot, steamy temperatures of August just seem to invigorate these solar-flare-flowers

that streak into the sky with a 

Jack-in-the-Beanstalk style speed.

 What an inspiration! They make us want to dance-around and paint everything bright yellow!

  

So, here's a little splash of happy color and inspiration just for you. 

Three joy-filled sunflowers from our garden that seem to say: 

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.  Romans 15:13 

Sending you sunshine smiles full of hope,
The Velvet Lime Girls