The Birthday Girl.....

Well, it's that time of the year again...

Time to celebrate another Birthday...

Tomorrow (Tues.) is the big day...

I have to admit there are a lot of shoulda, coulda, woulda

thoughts going on in my head.

My plans are to hold tight to Psalm 139:14

"I praise you because I am fearfully

and wonderfully made; your works

are wonderful, I know that full well."

Sooooo I'll be back tomorrow afternoon with a

full report on the day...

Endless energy, boundless strength...

I'm not sure why the picture

is so small...but it's kind of fitting for my mood

today. I've got some major thoughts going on

the last couple of days. It's okay though

because my God was prepared to handle them today. The song

that starts off playing is a clip of Chris Tomlin's song "Glory in

the Highest". I was given a DVD that had a bonus CD included

and this song is on it. I have had it playing for two days with

the repeat button on!! So these thoughts bouncing around

with this song added then as if the song was not enough God

loved on me a little more and gave me this scripture...

"That's why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the

Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the

Christians, I couldn't stop thanking God for you- every

time I prayed, I'd think of you and give thanks. But I

do more than thank. I ask- ask the God of our Master,

Jesus Christ, the God of glory- to make you intelligent

and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes

focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it

is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this

glorious way of life he has for Christians, oh, the

utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him-

endless energy, boundless strength!" Eph 1:15-19

I have to admit many things here...

I can say that all of you fit into this scripture as

the prayer of my heart for you. Right now- I am also

having to change the -I pray for you- to I have to pray

this one for me tonight.

First of all, how solid right now is my "solid trust" in

Him?! I've been very tempted this past week to pull

a Sarai and rush up things and get my dreams ahead

of God's timing. I've been trying all day to get my

mind and emotions at the feet of my God.

I pray this moment and ask that God help me get my

thoughts back parallel with His. That He might give

me the discernment I need to step ahead- I need the

clear and focused eyes. I need eyes focused on Him.

I long for the "endless energy, boundless strenght!".

I also have to walk in tomorrow and give an official

"two week" notice and someone is not going to

react very well. My boss will give me a hard time of

it tomorrow. I've given her more than extra from me

this summer...now it's time for me to have a break...

I just pray she will say okay and we can go about a

peaceful day.

Love you all~

Happy 4th of July

I can't believe it's already July!!

I love to celebrate the 4th of July!

It reminds us of the freedom we have and the price that was paid for it.

I love that in VBS we still say the pledge to the American flag, Christian flag

and the Bible. They are all reminders to us of the freedom we have.

My friend Linda at Gotta Grow with It is having a

4th of July Carnival. I thought I would join along and

just share with you the events of our day.

I'm on a Church softball team again this year. We

have had 3 rain outs already so we have to play on

the 4th. We have only lost one game so far!! The

best part I haven't been sore the next day...yet!!

Since we will be in town for the softball game I hope

we can see the fireworks. We normally just hang

out around the house so we don't usually get to see

them. I have a friend that I work with that is coming

over on the 4th so I think it would be a fun outing.

We will be doing the Grilling action on the 4th...

which is by far my favorite part!

Dad grill ribs, chicken and BURGERS-

he's almost gotten them as good as my Grandaddy's were.

The family BBQ sauce here is simple...

Vinger, butter and pepper.

Uh no, there is no measurements to this mixture.

I thought that I would include Mom's recipe for home made ice cream...

4 large eggs

3 cans of pet milk

3 cups of sugar

3 tablespoons flavoring

Finish filling container with milk

I hope and pray you all have a wonderful- fun-

and safe holiday!!

Remember those that are working and fighting today

to continue to give us this freedom we celebrate.

I have two friends that in the last couple months

their sons have joined the military and are at

bootcamp. Pray for these moms as they watch there

boys march into their future. And pray for these young men

that God will protect them where ever He takes them.

God Bless~

Happy Monday

Hey!!! We made it back home around 10:00 p.m.

last night. We didn't do a whole lot but we had a

good time. I enjoyed just getting some "fresh air".

Someone commented for me to have fun where

ever I was going....duh I forgot to mention

that part!! So...........we went to......

The big ole state of Texas!!!

Little man went swimming and his Mom

and me got to do a little shopping. I did

find some new clothes for the new job.

Yay! I'm NOT a Girlie Girl so I'm not a

big shopper.

Now, Denise....I did get to sneak over the

Texas Oklahoma line and eat some amazing

fried Catfish!! I had no idea we were going to

be so close to this Native American state! So,

Denise the next trip I take over I'll let ya know!

We did put up the tent at the hotel but

we ended up crawling in the bed. I didn't

get any pictures before we took it down

but here's a picture of us doing some

"indoor camping" at home! It's the best

camping ever...

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!

I'm trying to catch up on everyone.

A bit of Adventure

Well, I've been invited to go with my sister out of town this
weekend!! God is so good....I so needed some R & R.
My nephew has decided that he and I are going to take his
tent and sleep in the hotel. Yeap, I'm going to do it to. He
will make the trip much fun for me! Hope to get some new
clothes for work this fall.
I have to say thanks to all of you for putting up with me this
week- for loving and praying over me. I wanted to leave
you with one more of the devotions that I received this week.
It's funny now that I read back over it...it ties in with the
picture I posted a couple days ago. I so want to learn this
lesson He is teaching me this week.... to trust Him without
a view of the road ahead, without the perfectly paved row
of stepping stones or even a fancy GPS system...
Love you guys!! "See you" Sunday night or Monday....

The Adventure of Obedience
Glynnis Whitwer

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."
Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)

Devotion:
The story is told that when Dr. David Livingstone was working in Africa, a group of friends sent a letter saying, "We would like to send other men to you. Have you found a good road into your area yet?" Apparently, Dr. Livingstone sent this message in reply: "If you have men who will only come if they know there is a good road, I don't want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all."

I wonder if God thinks this about us sometimes. I wonder if He ever calls us to obedience without showing us the path we will travel, or the end result, just to see what we will do. Kind of like a test. Will we obey without a road map?

And I often wonder why following God isn't easier. There are days when I feel tired of getting called out of my comfort zone to obey God. On those days I've been known to whine in my prayers asking God if there isn't any way I can serve Him from the safety of my recliner. But that's not God's ways. God does not wish me to be limited by my desire for security and control.

Maybe there is something within us that is revealed when we are pressured from without. Maybe the call to obey shines light on the truth about our faith. I know that in order to grow, faith must be stretched, and that's often uncomfortable.

You see, I have not learned to trust God in the easy ways of faith. I have not learned to trust God by reading a book or listening to a great sermon. Nor have I learned to trust God by hearing how my friend trusts God. No, I am learning to trust God by stepping out into an adventure of obedience and discovering for myself that He is trustworthy.

This happened when my husband and I started tithing (after I resisted for years), and watched God cover all our needs and more. This happened when I obeyed His command to write a book (even though I didn't know what I would write about), and watched God open doors of opportunity. This is happened when we said yes to adoption, and are watching the blossoming of two little girls who now have a hope and a future.

Obeying when God hasn't revealed the steps along the way or the final destination is challenging. But when we choose to walk by faith and not by sight, God gets all the glory in the end because we KNOW we couldn't have done it on our own!

Peace that pass all understanding

First of all I have to say from the

bottom of my heart Thank You!!

I don't feel that I can explain to

you how much I have felt all of

your prayers today!

I can not find the words to

express to you how good God has

been to me today. I have NEVER

experienced a day of sheer peace

like I experienced today. I honestly

can't explain it.

Here's how the day started.... My boss calls and leaves a message on my cell

phone that she and another staff member would be out. So she told me to

arrange an already overloaded schedule to cover for them. I'm telling you

that when I walked in the door I felt His peace already begin to blanket over

me. One of the young guys on staff immediately commented on how upbeat

I was and when he learned of the schedule confusion he said "Wow, you really

are calm". Here's how we started off staffing this morning- I said some of you

know the scripture in Colossians I'm fixing to quote..."Whatever you do, work

at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.". And that's how

we started off our day.

Has any of the circumstances I'm walking in right now changed? No. As a

matter of fact they got worse today! Still the day and the satan that tried so

hard did not shake me. I feel like today is the first day in a few months that

my head has been lifted from a fog. I still have some things to do to move

past this place and get in gear.

A sweet friend sent me an email last night and was telling me about her

thoughts in her own life about making decisions. It spurred these thoughts

on my circumstances....I've been sitting in front of a calm lake taking in the

beautiful view. In my life right now that means I've become content in my

surroundings and my focus on getting things done have slipped my mind.

God has thrown a rock in the water causing me to snap out of my day

dream. He has my attention and I'm listening.

He has been speaking to me through some devotions that have come my

way. I mean they have come one right after the other. I want to share

one today and the other two tomorrow. This one is Oswald Chambers:

"In stripes, in imprisonment, in tumults, in labours"- in all these things

manifest a drawing upon the grace of God that will make you a marvel

to yourself and to others. Draw now, not presently. The one word in

the spiritual vocabulary is now. Let circumstances bring you where

they will, keep drawing on the grace of God in every conceivable

condition you may be in..... The inevitable barries are there in every

in every one of our lives. They may not be of an intense order....

but the peril is lest we lie down and whine and are of no more good.

The thing to do is to recognize that the barriers are inscrutable, that

they are there not by chance but entirely by God's permission, and

they should be faced and not ignored....The peril of the inevitable

barriers is that if I have not faced the facts sufficiently, I am apt

to blame God for them....It is no use to spend my time saying, I

wish I was not like this, I am just like it. The practical point in

Christianity is- Can Jesus Christ and His religion be of any use to

me as I am, not as I am not? Can He deal with me where I am, in

the condition I am in?"

Thank you guys again for your faithful prayers....Blessings to you!

Standing on the edge

You know, I'm not sure I should go "here"

in a post but my heart is too heavy and I'm

a bit too scared to go at it alone.

This is mainly going to be a big ramble- as

I'm trying to sort things out in my own mind

and heart.

In my last post I told you about a book I was

reading and it's content of talking of stress. I have to read you

this quote "what is stress? It is that confusion created when

one's mind overrides the body's desire to choke the living day-

lights out of some jerk who desperately needs it. Or, more

professionally, it is the non-specific response of the body to

an unpleasant event.".

I found out something a week ago that has made my heart

sink over the new job. Now I still know that God's hands

are still there and that this I feel is just this- another stepping

stone. I think I may see what He is up to but everytime I

think I see what He is giving me glimpses of I'm so wrong.

I was looking for a picture to post on stepping stones and

they all looked so "perfect" that I chose the above one. It

very much describes the way I'm feeling...all these decisions

and not sure which one/step to take.

I wish I could go into all the details of what is going on right

now. I know that some of you are going through things that

far out weigh my situation.

Here's the thing that has me afraid...This situation has one

thought pushing me to another thought pushing me to

another and now I find myself standing on the edge of the

pit that held me captive for the first 31 years of my life.

Last night was a huge battle I had almost convinced myself

that I should go ahead and climb back in because I wouldn't

have to fear failing if I was already back there in failure.

This is a very dangerous place for me and I don't want to fail

this test.

The news regarding the new job has already shown me that

in order to continue working in the area of Special Needs

(which is my hearts desire) I'll have to go back to school.

There are some complications that the university says

makes it impossible for me to do so. Now, I know that my

God is bigger than a university guideline. My prayer is

that God will put me in touch with the right people at the

university and that they will see my heart and help me

finish this dream. God is moving me from a job that I'm

content with to one that I'm not...I believe it is to spur me

on to doing what I need to do.

I received an email devotion this morning and plan to

post it in a day or two....but for now I feel I need to

ponder it alone with just Him.

Standing on the edge...but not sure of what.

Standing on the edge...of fear...of hope...

Standing on the edge...trusting Him to what's below.