Author Archives: Sheila Dougal

Hey, I'm Sheila, glad you're here. A little about me: I'm a 40-something woman, wife, mom, RN, soap maker and wannabe suburban homesteader. I think better when I write. I've kept a journal since I was 9 and started blogging over 10 years ago. I'm introverted, but I love people. I'm curious but shy. I'm contemplative and easily distracted. I feel deeply and know numbness. I want to make things right and I'm learning to let go. I wax poetic sometimes and often don't know what to say. It's complicated. It boggles me that I am Christ's and he is mine. I gaze into the heavens and the Heaven-Maker's words, remember the hard things, fight depression, and long for home and King.

Father’s Day

I get worried. And I shouldn’t. Rather, I should pray and trust my Father in heaven for the things that burden my heart concerning my husband as the father of our children and concerning the man God gave me for a father, this Father’s day.
“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” ~ Philippians 4:4-7

Oh Lord! I don’t know how to pray, but I thank you and rejoice in how you’ve used my husband and father to conform me more to the image of your Son! I want them to know you intimately! I pray that you would reveal yourself to them and rescue them out of the things that bind them and give them ears to hear you! Quicken their hearts Father! Unless YOU draw them, unless YOU draw any man, they won’t come to you! Tenderize my earthly father’s heart and remove the dullness that deafens his spiritual ears. When he prays, answer His father…Please! Let him hear you! Don’t let go numbly on! Revive the joy of his salvation! Preserve and keep the smoldering fire and the bruised reed!

And for my kid’s daddy…Oh Jesus! You know my tears and my heart! You know my fears and my worries! I’m so lacking in faith Lord. Don’t I know that You desire more than I do, that You know what I don’t! Use my kids’ dad to conform them to the image of your Son. Guard and keep their hearts God. Don’t let the sins of their mother or father be a gateway for the enemy to hold them in bondage too! Deliver Lord! Deliver! Shine your light Lord Jesus, say, “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.” (Ephesians 5:14)

Please reveal yourself as the perfect Father to my husband and my dad. Let them taste and know who You are as a dad!

I entrust my heart to you Father! And I bring you these that I love!

Amen!
Go to Timothy Moms to see a great reminder this Father’s day of the love of our Father.

Why I blog

  1. 1. To open my life up to others that they might be encouraged by the grace and mercy of God. He has been faithful and has rescued my heart from all kinds of fears and the poisons of various sins. He has given me confidence in His love and I just want to share it!

  2. 2. I want to store up treasures in heaven! All my earthly riches are dust, but what I invest in souls will last forever! The currency of heaven is not gold or dollar bills, big houses or fancy clothes…in fact gold is pavement in heaven, that’s how “valuable” it is there. The currency of heaven is souls! One of the main reasons I blog is to pour out into you (whoever you are) some of the healing oil of heaven God’s poured into me. His love is like balm to my soul and a sweet perfume in my life. I can’t keep it to myself…I must share it with you. Blogging is one way I can do that.

  3. 3. To keep me honest. Whatever I say here I’m accountable before God for. “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.” (Matt.12:36) That makes me tremble, but I can’t use it as an excuse to not speak, because God expects me to invest what He’s given me in others. SOOOOO, prayerfully, I blog to vulnerably open my life up to others with a heart to be like Paul and say, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” (1 Cor.11:1) Not “Follow me because I follow Christ so well.” No! Not at all! Rather, as I follow Christ I’m going to fail and stumble, stray and slip, and by opening my life up to others I allow them to see that following Christ is a daily dying to self for a long-eduring journey. I pray that through blogging, anyone who reads what I write will be able to see the treasure of Christ through my broken vessel. “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” (2 Cor.4:7)

  4. 4. I can’t hold it in! I have to tell someone about the goodness and mercy of God and share what I’m learning as I study His word!

  5. 5. I find writing to be a worshipful and prayerful time for me. It seems I hear from God best when I’m writing. It even seems I pray better with my hands than my mouth. I don’t share it all here. In fact I keep a handwritten journal and have been since I was 8. Much of my time seeking God’s face and praying is spent with my Bible, an open journal and pen. But it also happens here at the computer. Most of it is between me and the Lord- private meeting times together. But some of it is not meant to be kept but rather to be shared and that’s what I do when I blog- share my prayerful, worshipful, meditative times and my life.

  6. 6. I enjoy the fellowship of the other bloggers who comment and who’s blogs I read. At this stage in my life I’m mostly not hanging out and visiting with people. I do get to at times but because of the calling on my life to be a witness of Christ to my own husband I seek to spend as much time as I can with him. Blogging and reading blogs allows me to fellowship with like-minded women without taking me away from my family for too long. Though, I still have to guard against that. I could easily get sucked into hours of blogging and reading blogs when I need to be snuggling up with my husband on the couch or playing with my kids on the carpet.

My chocolate chip cookies

3/4 cup butter
1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tablespoons milk
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 egg
2 cups all purpose flour (2 1/2 if you like a bit thicker and chewier- I do 🙂
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 of an 11.5 oz bag of semi sweet
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine butter, brown sugar, milk, and vanilla in bowl- beat until creamy. Beat in egg. Combine flour, salt, and baking soda in a seperate bowl. Mix dry ingredients into the creamy mixture until just blended. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop rounded tablespoons onto cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes on middle rack in oven. Let cookies cool on cookie sheet until set up, about 5 minutes. If you like you’re cookies crispy, bake for 9-10 minutes. I like mine chewy, gooey and warm…with cold milk- YUM!!!
~Enjoy~
Sheila