Prayer Request!

I need to ask you guys a big favor. Would you please be in prayer for me? Remember when I shared with you that I felt God was leading me to resign from teaching Sunday School? Well, I feel like He's leading me in a new direction but I want to make absolutely sure that this is His will for me. I think this would be an awesome ministry to be involved in but there's one slight problem, my work hours.

I need to be available on Monday nights for practice and I currently have to work. But I also know that if God is calling me, He will make a way. I just would ask that you pray that if it is His will for me to do this, that He will work out the details for me and make smooth the path. You have to be careful sometimes what you ask for because last time I prayed like that, I lost the job. If that happens, He will provide but sometimes it can be a little bit scary and exciting at the same time.

On another note, I want to let you know that I have had an awesome week or so. I had a wonderful birthday. I don't care how old I get, I love birthdays. I love celebrating another year of life. I don't look at celebrating myself, per se, but just celebrating the fact that God has given me another year, and looking forward to how He's going to work in my remaining ones. You know, there's no retirement in the Bible. I will continue to serve Him until the day I go home to meet Him and beyond!

My sweet daughter, Amanda, threw me a birthday party this weekend at Lake Allatoona and it was a very special time. Not because of me. I get kind of embarrassed by the attention, believe it or not.(Amanda would say "whatever") But because so many of my friends and family came, I was able to look at my children & my grandchildren and people who are precious to me and realize just how blessed I am and consider the legacy that I'm leaving behind. When my life is over I want people to be able to say that I touched their lives in some way. I pray daily for wisdom to be the woman that God intends for me to be.

Hugging, laughing and sharing stories with my loved ones is one of the very best things there are in the world. Basking in the joy and love is a feeling beyond compare. I think maybe it's because I didn't really have any family left until I met Charles. It's a very lonely feeling. Now since I've found my siblings and I have grandchildren & church family, I have family in abundance. If only I could get everybody together at one time! That would be awesome!

There's a few of my siblings that I have never met. I'm not even sure if some of them are still alive. I pray that I get a chance to meet them someday. I have a great deal to look forward to. Praise God!

Love you guys, and I will keep you posted on how God answers our prayers!

Lord, I need You so much today!

Ok, that's it! I can't stand it anymore! I just have to vent, you guys, or explode!
It doesn't matter how old your children get, or even how big they are, they will always be your baby. And when your child calls you crying because they think that they don't deserve to be loved because their significant other is a psycho who does everything she can to make your child's life miserable, screams and yell at them, belittles them and treat them like crap, it just rips your heart out. I want to just grab ahold of that person and slap all kinds of sense into them. Oh, and by the way, this person claims to be a Christian, yet they will use profanity that you wouldn't believe and say things to their spouse that I wouldn't say to my worst enemy, in front of their child. And recently she has become physical abusive as well! It's incredible. Honestly, the only thing that stops me from going over there and showing that person what they deserve is that my child asks me not to because whenever someone else tries to step in & help it makes it worse. Also, I really don't want to get arrested. But that person's day is going to come. I've been praying about this for a long time and God will take care of it. I just don't know how much more I can take. I've already started thinking things like, "jail might not be that bad" I'm afraid that I would probably do something very bad if she hurt him.

Lord, please intervene in this situation. Show him that You love him and that You will take care of him and that he doesn't need to worry for You are in control. Nothing can happen to him that isn't filtered through fingers of love. I trust You, Father, to look after my child when I cannot & to protect him from the evil that is permeating his life & the lives of his children. I know I can trust You, Lord, to do this because You have demonstrated Your faithfulness to me over & over without fail for You always keep Your Word. My strength indeed is small, but Yours is sufficient for today & I stand upon that promise in my time of need. In Jesus name, Amen!

When you have a child, even if you haven't given birth to that child, but you are responsible for the daily care of them. When you focus on trying to raise them to be healthy, strong, productive members of society, good providers, responsible partners in marriage and pour yourself into them, it is so difficult to see them have to suffer at all. We often can see where it is necessary in order for them to mature and become the people that God intended them to be but all too often we don't know what possible good can come out of the situation but as Romans 8:28 & 29 says, He will work it all out for me when I trust Him and live my life accordingly. Tough to do, but so necessary. The alternatives are just not acceptable. I strive toward the prize which is becoming more like Him everyday. But if He is for us who can be against us?? I cling to that hope!

Thank you for the message his morning, Phil! It was just what my heart needed to hear today.

Those of you who are mothers I'm sure can identify with what I'm saying. Please pray for my child! I love you guys a lot!

AWESOME & AMAZING

Hello, everyone! I'm back. Yeah, I know, just like a bad penny. Ha!

There are a few reasons that I love deer hunting & sitting in a tree stand for hours & hours. One reason, of course, is getting to enjoy God's beautiful and majestic splendor (but sometimes the weather's not that great) but also, I really do get in some good naps. The trees sway in the wind and rock me to sleep and I have a very comfortable tree stand. But the main reason that I love to do it is because I can think. How often do we really have time, with no distractions, to just think? I like to use it as an exercise for my memory and see how far back I can go. I try to use any little opportunity that I can to just sit and think.

Well, today I had quite a bit of time to think while I was waiting on Amanda to get her MRI. I sat in the car with Sebastian because he was asleep, and during that entire time, I tried to concentrate on the book I was reading but I was unsuccessful.(I was also eating pistachios & drinking Coke Zero!) My mind was full of all the things that I wanted to write on my blog today but I had neglected to bring paper with me so now that I'm home and ready to begin, I'm hoping the thoughts will begin to flow. I'm asking The Lord to help me with that right now. I don't want to do any without getting Him involved beforehand.

I just love it when God does His thing and shows up! I get the biggest thrill when He reveals Himself in one situation or another unexpectedly. There's nothing in the world like watching Him work! I call it my God fix. It's exhilarating. Anyway, we used to see it on a regular basis when we had our ministry, Special Youth Challenge, & with Josh's healing and so many other times, but now it's not as often so it's even more coveted.

Sometimes we pray and pray and we think that He's not listening or He doesn't care. We get bored or tired & just give up. But actually what's happening is His perfect timing. That's right, that's what I said. His perfect timing, not ours. We have no clue what it's all about. He has the whole picture and knows exactly what needs to be done, and when, for the best possible outcome, FOR HIM! Yep, HIM, not us! It's not all about us. Sorry to burst your bubble but there it is. Chew on that a minute. It is in our best interest to be on the same page as Him, that way out requests will be in alignment with His will for our lives & there won't be any problem. But still it's not always immediate.

This week has been one of those times for me. I've been teaching children's Sunday School at our church for several years now. I can't even remember how many. And for the last year or so I've been feeling that maybe it's time to pass the torch to someone else for awhile. I love the kids & I didn't want them to feel abandoned so I prayed for God's will to be done, not mine. My husband has been wanting me to go to Sunday School class with him. Sometimes my kids want me to come to church with them, or I want to keep Bash on Saturday night and I couldn't because of the commitment that made to God, my church (Hickory Heights Baptist Church, which started in our house) and to the children.

Finally, last week He laid it on my heart to let Dana (Children's Ministry Director) know about my decision. Miracle of miracles she tells me yesterday that there's actually someone else she knows that's interested in being involved in Children's ministry. Coincidence? I think not. And she's one of the mothers and they know her and I have such a peace about it. So as of September I will be free. It's a bitter sweet feeling because I loved doing it but I'm just thrilled to know God is in control, and He will give me a new path. I'm excited to see where He's leading me next.

Also, one of the things that I was reflecting on today as I was shelling those pistachios and tossing them out the window, was the discussion we had in Sunday School class this week How every single one of us was made uniquely for God's purposes. He gave each of us the qualities that He needed in order for us to fulfill the purpose He preordained for us.(Don't get all hung up on that word, it just means He knew what He wanted us to do beforehand.)

I believe that if you look at human beings you see undeniable proof that we were created by God and in His image. Because if you think about it, each and every one of us believes that what we think and feels really matters, is important. Hmmm. With the exception of a few truly selfless human beings, like Mother Theresa and Ghandi, the majority of us are only concerned about our feelings and our pitiful existence. That has to be from God.

Let me see how to put this. There have been billions and billions of people created since Adam & Eve. Not one of them is alike, not even identical twins. A friend of ours showed us a video of the universe. It showed that when you look at the vastness of space the earth is only the size of a ping pong ball, compared to the sun and the other planets. When you look at a ping pong ball and try to envision the United States, then try to envision yourself in your state on that ping pong ball. Do you get my drift? We are minute! Smaller than a speck of dust. But The God of the universe is personally involved in our lives, even down to the smallest detail. That just blows my mind. We're like God's ant farm. You know? He wants to be a part of everything we do. Only He could have instilled within each and every one of His creation this self-preservation mechanism that enables us to survive and thrive on this little, tiny planet, with these enormous egos that we have. LOL!

It's the only possible way that makes sense. If you're on the fence about Creationism or Evolution, think of it. If it hadn't been for God's intervention, we would have killed ourselves off a long time ago. We really are stupid. When I see some of the things that mankind has done and continues to do on a daily basis, I'm amazed that we're still in existence & thoroughly awestruck by the mercy of grace of our Heavenly Father. He pulls our bacon out of the pan over and over. And what thanks does He get? Don't even get me started! That's a blog for another day.

I didn't even get to all of the things that I was thinking about today (I had a whole hour) but I will save the others for the next time. If you have anything that you would like to add or share on this subject please feel free to. I love to hear from you. It lets me know I'm not just talking to myself. (Which I do all too frequently) Ha! Plus I like to know if you like reading this kind of stuff. I find it fascinating but that doesn't mean anyone else does. Love you! Muah!

I think next time I would like to discuss the difference between judging & admonishing. We seem to have a big problem with that.

I'll Be Back

I'm sorry that I haven't posted for awhile. There's just been a whole lotta family mess going on right now with my son, and I'm not at liberty to divulge it but suffice it to say that we all need & cherish your prayers. But this is an exciting time for me right now because so many awesome things are coming up. We have the GA Outdoor Blast this weekend, Hunter's Birthday, My Birthday (Amanda's throwing me a cool beach party), Sarah's Birthday Party, Buckarama & vacation to Miami. Whew! I'm so excited I'm doing the pee pee dance. I will be posting again as soon as I can. Love you guys & talk to you soon! I almost forgot to mention, my baby boy, Eric's 35th birthday. Lord, how did I get so old??

Muah!