What Makes My Heart Melt

This saturday Bill and I had the opprotunity to go from no children to two teenage boys for the weekend... !!! Chris and Phillip Alred got to our house about 1230 on saturday and we got them settled into their room and took them off to lunch...we took them to Monglian BBQ!!! We met Amy there too...The boys thought it was cool...
It mad me so happy to share something with them they had never done before...
They want to go there again when they get home from camp...
It was saturday night and Phil started calling me Mom...I know I can never replace his MOM and I don't want to...but it was so sweet!!!! It just made my heart melt...He said I am his mom for this week....and so all day sunday and monday til they left for camp he called me mom...!!!!
Now it is wednesday and I find myself missing them so so so much...I keep watching the clock trying to imagine what they might be doing right now at camp and missing Phillip saying, MOM....MOM....
every time I go to the store I see oatmeal cream pies and that makes me think of Phillip then I see chocolate donuts and fruit snacks and think of Chris...
These boys are so awesome..they just talk talk talk talk talk...I love it...
I don't know what I am going to do when they go back to Mexico!!!! Right now I get to look forward to seeing them again on saturday....
And I can't leave out my girls.... Val and Robin they are my kids that I have here all the time and Jerin anf Micah...they are my fulltim pretend kids...I just love it when they call me Mom....I just melt every time...except when Robin and Jerin are pretend fighting for too long...!!! LOL...

I said all that to say this:
Yesterday as I sat at the Lake looking through my Bible and my old notes sitting in the quiet...I wanted so much to know everything that was happening at camp...this was the first time in 6 years that I have not been able to go to camp and my heart achs to be there....I was thinking of how much I miss Phillip running around here saying MOM...MOM....and God said to me how much He misses me when He doesen't hear from me and I don't spend time with Him every day...He achs for me...He wants me to call Him Father...it will make his heart melt...just to hear me call Him Father....
I can't imagine how much these Boys' parents must be missing them...I thank God my Father to have had them long enough to experience what it may be like to have children and to miss them so much....
I love my Kids!

Hold on to your Spoon!

Well, so much has been happening in my life recently... My last entry was about the Grace of God and how He has promised me spiritual fruit.
I have just recently returned to work after recovering from a complete abdominal Hysterectomy at the age of 34. It was some what of a difficult decision for me to make to follow through with this procedure. I have been asking for one about 10 years now. After my first miscarriage at 6 weeks I wanted it that day...I never wanted to experience that again...that was in 2002. In 2004 the Lord granted us the courage to get pregnant for a second time. That also ended at 12 weeks. Some how the second one was so different...it was very painful emotionally but I still wanted to have a child....but the more time went by the more I wanted spiritual fruit.
Over the last 4 years...WOW... I can't believe it has been 4 years...in August actually...
Anyway in the last 4 years The Lord has helped me understand and accept that I will not bear children of my own. He has in His way turned my focus to His will not mine..I often think of Jesus in the garden before He was taken to be crucified. Jesus prayed to God the Father and asked if there be any other way...BUT...not my will but thine be done...
I AM SO CONTENT!!!!!
I had asked my doctor what would be best for me. I said I want to be as healthy as I can for as long as I can. That was when she said it was time to take it all out...!!!!
I was so amazed at my emotion to that response...I knew it was what I had wanted for YEARS....and I knew it was best for my overall health....why was I sad...
I spoke with several women that had children and had the same reaction...so I guess that's normal...
OK I said all of that to say this.....
On Sunday the preacher was talking about dinner at Grandma's house...and how she always said "HOLD ON TO YOUR SPOON" because desert was coming...the best part of the meal.....
The Lord is telling me to "HOLD ON TO MY SPOON" because the best of my life is yet to come.....
PRAISE THE LORD...HE IS FAITHFUL.

God's Grace

Today I got this quote in an e-mail from a friend and I never want to forget it!

'When God takes something from your grasp, He's not punishing you, but
merely opening your hands to receive something better.'

Concentrate on this sentence.....

'The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not
protect you'
It makes me think of my self in the way that I will not bear any children, BUT, God gave me these verses in Isaiah 54:1-3 a few years agao:
Sing O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the married wife , saith the Lord.
Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations:spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes:
For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

Now I am married and am not a widow, but have had two misscarriages and have so many other reproductive issues that I will not be bearing any children and as I have dealt with this in my life over many years God has reminded me that he saved me to reproduce spiritual children. I will live if I don't bear children.
In these verses I find promise that He can use the love in my heart to minister to all those around me, and I will have so many children some day that my house will not be able to contain them all!
I am so blessed!

Preparing for rain

The movie Facing the Giants has caused me to look deeper into this "PREPARING FOR RAIN" quote.
The Word of God in the book of James talks about a man named Elijah who believed God would do something if he asked it according to His will. Elijah was a man of great faith:

Jas 5:17 Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.

Jas 5:18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
Do you think that he prepared for the drought??? Did he prepare for the rain???
He didn't ask for rain until three years and six months later.....and it was for God to be glorified...(see IKings Ch 17-18)
"Things that make you go HMMMMMM..... "
OK that's a line from the 80's but it fits!!

I purpose this challenge to my brothers and sisters in Christ....please log on to the link below and watch the clip from the movie.... Ask God to show you what kind of rain is He going to bring into your life and show you how to PREPARE for it!!!! Ask believing!!
https://youtu.be/WAxwS8KyMQQ

WORSHIP

YESTERDAY I WAS READING IN NEHEMIAH AND IN CHAPTER 8:3 SAYS
AND HE READ THEREIN BEFORE THE STREET THAT WAS BEFORE THE WATER GATE FROM THE MORNING UNTIL MIDDAY, BEFORE THE MEN AND THE WOMEN AND THOSE THAT COULD UNDERSTAND; AND THE EARS OF ALL THE PEOPLE WERE ATTENTIVE UNTO THE BOOK OF THE LAW.

OK SO THEY READ FOR A LONG TIME AND THE PEOPLE WERE ATTENTIVE!! MANY OF THE TIMES WE SIT IN CHURCH LISTENING TO THE "LAW" WORD OF GOD GOING IS IT OVER YET WHAT'S FOR LUNCH, I HAVE TO GO TO THE STORE, I GOTTA GET HOME SO I CAN CLEAN MY HOUSE... OK THOSE ARE JUST SOME OF THE THOUGHTS I HAVE DURING CHURCH SOMETIMES... IF I COULD ONLY HAVE THE ATTENTIVE EARS AS THESE PEOPLE DID HERE IN THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH!!

VS 5 SAYS AT THE END OF THE VERSE, THAT WHEN EZRA OPENED THE BOOK IN THE SIGHT OF THE PEOPLE THEY ALL STOOD UP!! NOW THAT'S RESPECT... I WONDER IF THEY STOOD THE WHOLE TIME???? AT THE END OF VERSE 7 IT SAYS THAT THE PEOPLE STOOD IN THEIR PLACES....... I'M THINKIN THEY DID... WOULD I STAND FOR MANY HOURS TO HEAR THE WORD OF GOD????? OR EVEN JUST FOR CHURCH SERVICE ON SUNDAY MORNING???

THINGS THAT MAKE YA GO HMMM

VS 6
AND EZRA BLESSED THE LORD THE GREAT GOD. AND ALL THE PEOPLE ANSWERED AMEN, AMEN, WITH LIFTING UP THEIR HANDS; AND THEY BOWED THEIR HEADS, AND WORSHIPPED THE LORD WITH THEIR FACES TO THE GROUND.

V9 SAYS AT THE END OF THE VERSE
THAT ALL THE PEOPLE WEPT WHEN THEY HEARD THE WORDS OF THE LAW... "

THIS ALL JUST MAKES ME STOP AND LOOK AT MY LIFE AND ASK MY SELF AM I STANDING UP WITH MY BOWED TOWARD THE GROUND BEFORE THE LORD WORSHIPPING HIM WITH MY HANDS LIFTED HIGH WEEPING AT THE WORDS OF HIS LAW???

STAND BY YOUR MAN

Some times in our lives we have to re-learn lessons because we forget...

Most recently God brought me to a passage in the book of Nehemiah chapter 2:6
And the king said unto me,(the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? and when will thou return? So it pleased the king to send; me and set him a time.

The king was asking questions to one of his servants and sending him on a journey...

At the time I read this I was struggling with some things. I had asked the Lord to give me direction. I really thought it was random that this information about the queen was just plopped right in the middle of this passage.... There is no other mention of the queen before or after this....

God showed me that my job as the wife/ friend/ ministry partner/ servant/ leader... is to stand by my husband regardless of what he is doing... I am to be by his side supporting him and praying him through his every decision.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR JESUS

Last week I was putting up our Christmas tree and I was not feeling so well as I worked on it so I took breaks. As I continued to press on putting the decorations on the tree God subtely reminded me that it is all about Jesus' birthday! I wondered if Jesus was pleased with the presentation of the tree. I asked Bill when he got home if he liked it and he said yes! I then asked if he thought Jesus liked it too? He said of course, it is your heart attitude as you put it up that He sees. He does see the heart!
This season remember to celebrate the birth of our Saviour as you shop and put up decorations.
What will you bring the Saviour for His birthday this year? What battle do you continue to have that you will lay at His feet and let Him take care of for you?
Isn't it wonderful, we have been saved by His blood and He will take all of our worries too, IF we just lay them at His feet.
Praise the Lord for saving our souls.
IJohn 4:14