Thanks for sharing.....

Sometimes a friend will say something that just "hits the nail on the head" for me that particular day.  Thank you's to my friend Vickie for sharing......

"My GOD can turn a MESS into a MESSage, a TEST into a TESTimony, a TRIal into TRIumph, and a VICTim into a VICTory. Our GOD is an AWESOME GOD."

Hope today finds you living life to the fullest with a big huge smile on your face...hugs & love!

All Things New....

I can't help it, I love the four seasons that we experience here in the Midwest...but Spring and Fall are my favorites by far! What I love about them is they hold a hope, a promise of things new. The change in the weather we greet in the Springtime indicates an inevitable renewing of everything around me and it‘s one of the most joyous times of the year for me. It‘s when my garden begins to bloom with my bounty, my gifts…my fragrant rewards. My garden is a 3 season garden, so it is constantly renewing itself and it’s a joy to behold what flowers as well as what insects ultimately show themselves.

The changes I experience in the Fall bring the beautiful color change in the landscape that can be breathtakingly beautiful, but it also brings to me a familiar, yet new, routine for me and my family. Don’t get me wrong, Summertime is wonderful…I love spending each and every moment with my kids and my husband enjoy our free time and being as silly and as oblivious to the time as we’d like. But there’s a certain excitement I find in preparing for my children to start a new school year and getting the opportunity to meet their new teachers and friends.

What's also wonderful about the Fall is we tend to become more settled down into a daily routine that gives us comfort and stability. Summer seems to be a free for all which is wonderful for a short time, but right about now we start to crave the feelings we experience when we get to be renewed by the cooler days and crisper nights. When we start on the new adventures that school time often brings, it’s exciting to see what great new lessons and discoveries we’ll make about the world around us, as well as ourselves.

Also with Fall comes the television line up change. All my favorite shows come back on air (hopefully), along with brand new ones to be discovered. The big trend in television shows these days seems to be finding something old and rundown and making it new again. In one show, people search out and find old, broken down, rusty cars and proceed to rebuild them so that these junkers will run and look new again. Other shows are focused around rebuilding older houses to make them feel like they did when they were first constructed. A few years back there was a program that featured a new person each week that they preformed plastic surgery on to make them look like a new person. These types of shows focus on renewing or rebuilding things that are all based on a “material world“ view. Things like cars, houses and someone’s looks will last only a brief moment. The soul is the most important thing anyone can have made new. The condition of the soul will determine everything that matters. The condition of the soul is eternal and everlasting. Renew your soul!

Romans 6:4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

1 Peter 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Hebrews 9:15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

Cause I Gotta Have Faith...

Faith makes yesterday a stepping stone, today a new beginning and tomorrow a limitless possibility!  Sometimes people think having faith is silly, illogical or even risky.  Actually this is partially true depending on what or whom you put your faith into - who holds your faith holds your trust and giving trust in itself is a very vulnerable place to be.  That's why you must choose carefully where you place your faith...your trust!

I choose to place my faith into something that never changes, and there is only one person, place or thing that never changes….it's there I place my trust, it's there I place my faith ~ in Christ alone.

Having faith isn't scarry when you place it into the hands of the one that has never changed, the one that created you, the one that breathed life into you.  In fact, having faith in God is quite comforting - who better to place your trust and faith into but the maker of the universe. 

I love having God guiding and leading me.  He knows all, from beginning to end, from now and until then!  I have no reason to fear or to hide away because he, afterall, is the only one that truly knows me, my hopes, my inner thoughts and what is best for me.  He alone is perfect and knows what path to guide me down so that I can succeed in life, so I can fulfill those God honoring dreams and truly be happy in my own skin.  I just have to remember to get out of my own way - and have faith!

Permanent Fixture...

 

I think the insects in my garden view me as a permanent fixture. All summer I've seen some awesome stuff. Today a huge awesomely cool dragonfly landed on my arm & STAYED. I moved a little to scare it, IT STAYED! Sprayed a splash of water-IT STAYED. Started to tickle me and creeped me out-wasn't sure if it was nesting or something. Had to blow it off. Apparently my breath stinks cause it hauled booty.

Hope this note finds you doing well...happy, healthy...smiling!  Take care of you, guard your heart and the heart of those around you as well. Hope your weekend is wonderful, and if it isn't...find some piece of it that was and keep that close to you, memorize it and rejoice in it. Hugs!

 

"Just as God has a plan for your kids' lives, so does Satan."

Just wanted to share with you what a friend shared with me....it completely mirrors my perspective on this subject.  I'm not big into books, but The Power of a Praying Parent is one I'd like to buy and read...and re-read!  I only had a quick second to write to you today, but I may expand on this in a later post...but felt compelled to share this with you right away, just for some food for thought!

"Just as God has a plan for your kids lives, so does Satan."(the power of a praying parent")   Striving to create leaders in my babies by leading them and surrounding our family with those who only bring out the best in us. "bad company corrupts good character" (1cor 15:33). This means not letting negativity get past my front door. Aside from my marriage, this is the second highest priority to protect.

Hope this note finds you happy, healthy and knowing how valuable you are....and how much you are loved! xoxo

Janked Up Stuff - I'm Stuffed Out!!!

Vacation, YAY!  I love fun time with my hubby & our boys! Poor Jim, he got this idea in his head to start his week by cleaning out the garage. Not my first choice, BUT it does have to get done.  Trust me, when you have to call your neighbor and say "hey, mind if we put stuff on your curb for garbage day?" you know it's bad!  But, our neighbor is not home this week so he of course responded with a laugh and said "SURE THING, MORE THE MERRIER"!  Careful Steve, you've not seen our garage ALL winter!  It's looking good now, but the curb, not so much! :-)

We do have awesome neighbors for sure!!!  Our one neighbor always worries and asks if we're moving everytime we have a big "CLEAN OUT".  I told Jim "why don't we just set up a table and sell this stuff"....then realize all the work that entails I quickly corrected my self and yelled out "NAAAAWWW"! 

We put the good out early on the curb for the garbage pickers...so then we can put more out after they pick thru! LOL Well, we had some critters get into the garage this Winter and  they ruined bunch of stuff. :-( So it's all gotta go...critters are gone but the stuff is janked up!  Good reason to buy more????  No, I'm on this new purge and let it stay gone cleaning kick.  I love to donate and toss out stuff...but this year it's even worse...in the past I'd just replace the old with new and immediately accumulate more stuff...I'M "STUFFED" out...less is more in 2011 for me...now if my big butt would just agree I'd be all set!  But I think my behind is here to stay...it's made itself comfy and has dug it's feet in and holding on for dear life!  Hugs & Love friends.....

Taking...

Jim and I were going over last week’s devotional on “giving” and it got us thinking about “taking”. I know how challenging “giving” can be, but while I was writing the “giving” devotional, I started to think about how much harder it is to “take.” You would think accepting something would be pretty simple, but there are some people that find it very difficult, almost impossible, to “take.” The bible is full of God’s promises that He wants to give to us, if only we would receive them. Some fail to take these gifts from God because they think they don’t deserve them, or maybe by taking from God they may have to lose something in return. The more you take from God, the more your priorities change; in turn, the things you are holding on to now and don’t want to lose will have little to no appeal later. Remember, a gift isn’t really a gift until you accept it!

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—

1 Corinthians 12:4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.

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.

Proverbs 1:33 but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.”

Hidden Treasure

http://uawchaplain.weebly.com/weekly-devotional.html

I wanted to share with you my husband Jim's devotional that he wrote for this week:

There was a poor man, in a small rundown home, that lived alone and was discouraged and broken. As he looked around he said, “There is nothing of value in this old house, no family, no friends, no money”. He yelled loudly and asked, “God, why am I even here, were are my treasures?” In frustration the man fell to his knees and cried out, “Why is my life this way? I have nothing and I am nothing.” “I have heard your cry”, God answered “the treasure you seek I have already put in this very house“. The man jumped to his feet half startled and half excited not knowing if he was hearing things or if he should look for his treasure. “Look for the treasure” he tells himself as he looked around the poorly lit room.

Walking over to the only thing in the room, he pulled the tattered couch forward to look behind and beneath it, and then removes the flattened cushions just to find wrappers and a few pennies. “It must have been God, it had to be“, he thought to himself. The treasure hunt continued as he ran into the bathroom and slid open the shower curtain only to be surprised that it too was empty. “I know the bedroom“, he quickly made his way to the bed. “Ok, let’s see, maybe under the bed“! Laying flat on his stomach he looked and spotted old boxes and lots of dust, but no treasure.

Heart pounding with excitement, he knew that there was only one place left to look; the closet. He made his way to the closet and slowly opened the door to see before his eyes nothing but empty hangers. Confused he said out loud, “I’ve checked the whole house God, where is the treasure?” Emotionally drained, the man collapsed on the bed and gave up. Once again God spoke to him, “the treasure is in this house”. The man hopelessly slid to the edge of the bed, rested his head in his hands and sat with his eyes closed. He whispered, “But God, where? Where is the treasure?” God whispered back, “look up and you will see it”. The man slowly raised his head and opened his eyes, there before him was the treasure. Across from him was a mirror on the wall reflecting back to him his own image.

“For you see my son, you are the treasure. You are my treasure! The things of this world are meaningless. Money, good looks, jobs and material things are all meaningless to me. The treasure in this old house and in this whole world is you.” Tears began to roll down the man’s face; tears of happiness and hope as the man finally understood what God has tried to tell him all along, that he is God’s treasure.

Deuteronomy 7:6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.