Sunday, October 21, 2012
Birthday boy
Today is my youngest sons first birthday. I am reminded of the struggles I endured to get him here and thankful that God saw fit to give him to us.
He brings joy to our everyday life. Alongside his big "Bubba " they terrorize my nerves somedays, and somedays they are so precious. I wouldn't trade a single minute with my boys for all the riches in the world. I love them. Thank you God for happy, healthy kids!
Thursday, October 18, 2012
A Note About Early Voting
Once again it is election time here in the good old USA. Today in NC the polls opened for early voting. I intend to get my vote in today! Now before you go rolling your eyes thinking I am going to get political let me assure you that I am not.
The last time we had a preidential election I was in a hospital bed after having a ruptured appendix removed. I was a miserable 5 day stint in the hosptial, and I had never given a thought to early voting until then. I believe as Americans, as Christians, it is our right and responsibilty to pray about the elections and cast a vote. It never occured to me that I might miss my chance to vote!
One thing I will say politically, we need to pray for our elected officals. If your canidate wins or not, they are still in a position of power over our great nation. My prayer is for revival in our nation, for the salvation of our President and his family, and for the protecting hand of God to continue to hold our nation close to Him.
The last time we had a preidential election I was in a hospital bed after having a ruptured appendix removed. I was a miserable 5 day stint in the hosptial, and I had never given a thought to early voting until then. I believe as Americans, as Christians, it is our right and responsibilty to pray about the elections and cast a vote. It never occured to me that I might miss my chance to vote!
One thing I will say politically, we need to pray for our elected officals. If your canidate wins or not, they are still in a position of power over our great nation. My prayer is for revival in our nation, for the salvation of our President and his family, and for the protecting hand of God to continue to hold our nation close to Him.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Contentment
In today's society it seems that if you turn on the television, or go into the grocery store you are bombarded by a million reasons why what you already have isn't good enough. The perfectly good vehicle sitting in your driveway doesn't have air conditioned seats or built in navigation. And come on those are features that we are entitled to! I mean our husbands work 40 + hours every week and we work hard around the house doing dishes and wiping runny noses.
So we begin to obsess over all the reasons that our "old" beater isn't good enough anymore. We have had it for almost a year and the new models are coming out. It has a microscopic paint blemish under the hood and our bottoms are hot on those leather seats in the summer.
But is that what God wants for us? I think not! 1 Timothy 6:6-7 But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. So my question to each of us, myself included, is where are your treasures at? Are you laying up treasures here where corruption and thieves will one day surely take hold? Or would the world and the kingdom of heaven be a better place if we devoted our time and finances to helping others, supporting the local church and making sure our children have a heart for sinners and the less fortunate. When is the last time you worried if your family would have food to eat today? It has been awhile, and maybe never for some of us. There are people in our country, in some of our very own communities that cannot feed their families!
So what can we do to make a change in our hearts, and even to the community we live in? Pray, ask God to search our hearts. Make time to donate your time helping those less fortunate than yourself, and open your wallet and let God have control of your finances. That money isn't yours anyways, God has simply allowed you to be a steward of it.You cannot out give God!
So we begin to obsess over all the reasons that our "old" beater isn't good enough anymore. We have had it for almost a year and the new models are coming out. It has a microscopic paint blemish under the hood and our bottoms are hot on those leather seats in the summer.
But is that what God wants for us? I think not! 1 Timothy 6:6-7 But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. So my question to each of us, myself included, is where are your treasures at? Are you laying up treasures here where corruption and thieves will one day surely take hold? Or would the world and the kingdom of heaven be a better place if we devoted our time and finances to helping others, supporting the local church and making sure our children have a heart for sinners and the less fortunate. When is the last time you worried if your family would have food to eat today? It has been awhile, and maybe never for some of us. There are people in our country, in some of our very own communities that cannot feed their families!
So what can we do to make a change in our hearts, and even to the community we live in? Pray, ask God to search our hearts. Make time to donate your time helping those less fortunate than yourself, and open your wallet and let God have control of your finances. That money isn't yours anyways, God has simply allowed you to be a steward of it.You cannot out give God!
Monday, October 15, 2012
Blessed Mothers
I received this at my church. The author is unknown, but is absolutely beautiful and it certainly speaks to a mothers heart and serves as a reminder to us why we do what we do!
Blessed are the Mothers who love God, for their children shall
not be ignorant of their Creator and His plans concerning them.
Blessed are the Mothers who love the word of God, for their
children shall know of the way, the truth and the life.
Blessed are the Mothers who love the house of God, for their
children shall enter there and sit with them in the presence of God.
Blessed are the Mothers who love to pray, for their children
shall feel the power of prayer and many shall find salvation.
Blessed are the Mothers who love to give to the cause of Christ,
for their children shall become supporters of the Kingdom of God.
Blessed are the Mothers who love the family altar, for they
shall have their reward in this world and in the world to come.
Blessed are the Mothers who love to speak kind words to their
neighbor's children, for thereby they shall win
other boys and girls besides their own to Jesus Christ.
Blessed are the Mothers who love to be companions to their
children, for they shall be called understanding Mothers.
Blessed are the Mothers who love to fight life's battles
bravely with a strong and steadfast faith in God, for their
children shall know where to find strength in time of need.
Blessed are the Mothers who, when they are old and gray,
can look back upon memory's wall with no regret and can say,
"I brought my children up in the fear of the Lord."
Theirs are the mansions in glory.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Joy in a clean plate
For dinner tonight I made pork chop casserole. It's nothing fancy, nothing particularly healthy or expensive. I hand breaded my chops, and browned them before smothering them in a easy gravy mixture my mother taught me to make and popped it in the oven.
While I waited on them to cook for the next forty five minutes I made some homemade biscuits, green beans and corn my daddy put up out of the garden and some homemade mashed taters (that boxed mess doesn't cut it around our house). I washed the dishes as I went, all the while carefully watching the clock, making sure everything would be ready within minutes of each other. As I was putting dinner plates down on the table I realized my youngest son was asleep in my husbands lap. When I finished getting the table ready I scooped up the baby and told my husband, "Go eat while it's hot, I've got this."
So everyone but baby and I scurried off to the table to get their dinner while it was warm. I heard my oldest bless the food from the kitchen and it made my heart smile. "Maybe I am doing something right," I thought to myself. I rocked baby and hummed quietly to myself for a while. My husband came behind me and kissed me on the cheek. As he scooped the baby from my arms he said, "Dinner was great baby. It's always good, but tonight it was just better than good."
As I walked into the kitchen to make myself a plate I noticed four plates that had been cleaned by four hungry bellies. By just taking the time to please my family I had received the greatest gift! A true, sincere compliment from my other half and joy in those clean plates! Nothing on earth could have made me more happy.
While I waited on them to cook for the next forty five minutes I made some homemade biscuits, green beans and corn my daddy put up out of the garden and some homemade mashed taters (that boxed mess doesn't cut it around our house). I washed the dishes as I went, all the while carefully watching the clock, making sure everything would be ready within minutes of each other. As I was putting dinner plates down on the table I realized my youngest son was asleep in my husbands lap. When I finished getting the table ready I scooped up the baby and told my husband, "Go eat while it's hot, I've got this."
So everyone but baby and I scurried off to the table to get their dinner while it was warm. I heard my oldest bless the food from the kitchen and it made my heart smile. "Maybe I am doing something right," I thought to myself. I rocked baby and hummed quietly to myself for a while. My husband came behind me and kissed me on the cheek. As he scooped the baby from my arms he said, "Dinner was great baby. It's always good, but tonight it was just better than good."
As I walked into the kitchen to make myself a plate I noticed four plates that had been cleaned by four hungry bellies. By just taking the time to please my family I had received the greatest gift! A true, sincere compliment from my other half and joy in those clean plates! Nothing on earth could have made me more happy.
My Story
Growing up my family went to church on Sunday. I was always around the things of God and prayer was part of our daily life. When I was in sixth grade a local church opened a Christian School, and since I had been getting in to trouble in public school my parents decided it was time for a change. Learning Bible on a daily basis and singing hymns in the choir I found myself under conviction. This God everyone speaks of.....I don't know him! I was saved in a Wednesday morning chapel service. I was baptized shortly there after, and all went well, for a while.
I begin to hang out with other kids in the school that were "cool" and soon I was off the straight and narrow on a long, bumpy road. I rebelled against my family, basically refusing to follow their rules and deceived them into believing that Christian school was not the place for me. In ninth grade I got my way, I went to public high school for the first time.
I met a guy that I was crazy mad nuts over. I'm not sure to this day if it was him I was infatuated with or the fact that my parents strongly disliked him. We dated for about two years and somehow I manage to talk my parents into letting me marry him at sixteen.
We had a beautiful baby boy together when we were nineteen, but something was missing. We had always dabbled in the drug and alcohol world, and I began to find gaps in the stories he told me about where he was going and when he would be back. Pornography and other things I didn't approve of began turning up under my bed and hidden in the closet. He would be out late without much explanation, and then came the affair with the woman at work. One day I had had enough. I waited for him to be gone to school one day and I loaded up my car with what I could carry and my son, of course, and moved back in with my parents.
Fast forward three years-I had a good job at the local prison as a nurse, a few great friends and my son. I was lonely though and my life seemed to be missing something. I joined an online dating community. I received a message one day from a guy, it was short and sweet. Soon after that we met and from then on we were inseparable. He loved my son like he was his own! I knew I had found the one, we moved in together after only a two month romance.
I had no intentions of ever marrying again. Why go through all that heartache and money spent for something that would inevitably fail? A few months later my mother began to get sick. She was falling a lot and she needed help around the house. My father told me that if John and I would get married he would leave us their home when they passed away. In exchange we would move in and help him take care of mom. So we made plans for a wedding.
A year and half later we discovered we were expecting. We were thrilled and a little nervous. My oldest was now seven and would be eight when baby came. My sister in law soon found out she was expecting too- we were due just weeks apart. So we planned and picked out names and bought baby clothes together. We attended each others showers and we were each others support system during these pregnancies. In late October our son was born and in early November my nephew was born. How wonderful! They would grow up and be like brothers!
One morning when my baby was about eight weeks old I was taking baby to a check up and I received a frantic phone call from my sister in law. Her baby had passed away in the night....What...Wait a minute? How does that happen? Our family was stricken with grief.
Days and weeks passed, and I began to search for answers. I found myself wondering why God takes some and leaves others. I began to cry out for answers, and when I hit my knees with a broken heart I began to find them. My heart was burdened with conviction to get my life in order, make right with our Almighty God, and be thankful for the blessings I had in my life.
I began to visit my parents little church with my little family. My husband went along reluctantly, he had been seeing what was going on in my own heart and life and he felt compelled to tag along for me. Low and behold, God had bigger plans. One Sunday morning after a message on Hell my husband whispered to me, "I think I need to go." I looked over at him and he was nodding toward the altar. I instantly fell to my seat, face in my hands, crying out thanks to God. He had heard my prayers, and answered them!
Life hasn't been the same since, it's not perfect by any means, but we are trying to live and raise our kids in the right way.
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. Ecclesiastes 9:10
I begin to hang out with other kids in the school that were "cool" and soon I was off the straight and narrow on a long, bumpy road. I rebelled against my family, basically refusing to follow their rules and deceived them into believing that Christian school was not the place for me. In ninth grade I got my way, I went to public high school for the first time.
I met a guy that I was crazy mad nuts over. I'm not sure to this day if it was him I was infatuated with or the fact that my parents strongly disliked him. We dated for about two years and somehow I manage to talk my parents into letting me marry him at sixteen.
We had a beautiful baby boy together when we were nineteen, but something was missing. We had always dabbled in the drug and alcohol world, and I began to find gaps in the stories he told me about where he was going and when he would be back. Pornography and other things I didn't approve of began turning up under my bed and hidden in the closet. He would be out late without much explanation, and then came the affair with the woman at work. One day I had had enough. I waited for him to be gone to school one day and I loaded up my car with what I could carry and my son, of course, and moved back in with my parents.
Fast forward three years-I had a good job at the local prison as a nurse, a few great friends and my son. I was lonely though and my life seemed to be missing something. I joined an online dating community. I received a message one day from a guy, it was short and sweet. Soon after that we met and from then on we were inseparable. He loved my son like he was his own! I knew I had found the one, we moved in together after only a two month romance.
I had no intentions of ever marrying again. Why go through all that heartache and money spent for something that would inevitably fail? A few months later my mother began to get sick. She was falling a lot and she needed help around the house. My father told me that if John and I would get married he would leave us their home when they passed away. In exchange we would move in and help him take care of mom. So we made plans for a wedding.
A year and half later we discovered we were expecting. We were thrilled and a little nervous. My oldest was now seven and would be eight when baby came. My sister in law soon found out she was expecting too- we were due just weeks apart. So we planned and picked out names and bought baby clothes together. We attended each others showers and we were each others support system during these pregnancies. In late October our son was born and in early November my nephew was born. How wonderful! They would grow up and be like brothers!
One morning when my baby was about eight weeks old I was taking baby to a check up and I received a frantic phone call from my sister in law. Her baby had passed away in the night....What...Wait a minute? How does that happen? Our family was stricken with grief.
Days and weeks passed, and I began to search for answers. I found myself wondering why God takes some and leaves others. I began to cry out for answers, and when I hit my knees with a broken heart I began to find them. My heart was burdened with conviction to get my life in order, make right with our Almighty God, and be thankful for the blessings I had in my life.
I began to visit my parents little church with my little family. My husband went along reluctantly, he had been seeing what was going on in my own heart and life and he felt compelled to tag along for me. Low and behold, God had bigger plans. One Sunday morning after a message on Hell my husband whispered to me, "I think I need to go." I looked over at him and he was nodding toward the altar. I instantly fell to my seat, face in my hands, crying out thanks to God. He had heard my prayers, and answered them!
Life hasn't been the same since, it's not perfect by any means, but we are trying to live and raise our kids in the right way.
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. Ecclesiastes 9:10
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