Thanksgiving!

We have started a tradition in our family.....it has been years that we have done the same thing every year....actually since I was a kid.   Thanksgiving and Christmas was always at my parents home.  Unfortunately, when my mom passed that all ended.  We tried to keep it up, but then when dad passed it was definately over.  We sibling just kept to ourselves and our own families.  Well, now that has ended.....yeah!  We had the best Thanksgiving!  My nieces and their families came over and our friends also stopped by.  We all shared in making the meal....yummy!  The guys had their fun with the guns and watching the game.   We made gingerbread houses and cookies with the kids.  This actually was our second year.  So glad to be back together with my extended family.
So what do you do on Thanksgiving?  Any traditions?

Smells of the Season

The house is full with the smell of Thanksgiving and Christmas coming.....looking forward to family and friends for this Thanksgiving.  We have had many quiet ones but this year we will be a full house.  That just warms my heart.  Now, don't get me wrong I like the quiet ones too, but now that my boys are all grown up, I miss the sounds of children at this time of year.  So happy to have nieces and their children, and making this a tradition each year.  Cooking, eating, clean up, making gingerbread houses,  dessert, more clean up and lots of love and laughter.
We have so much to be thankful for this year, as we do every year.   We missed Sandy, but, we will see what the snows of winter bring.
I love to go out this time of year and greet people with love and smiles and a hello.  It get so busy we forget to greet each other....so when you are out greet someone with love and kindness, and a huge smile like you mean it.
My favorite smells are pine candles burning, good home cooking.  My favorite sounds are the timer going off to take something delectable out of the oven, christmas music, family and friends.
So what are your favorite smells, sounds  and family traditions?

Be strong and courageous

Just as God commanded Joshua, we are to be strong and courageous.

Be careful to obey God's Word, meditate on it day and night.
  
Hide His word in your heart that you might not sin against Him.
  
                            Be strong!  
                        Be courageous!  
                        Don't be afraid!  
             God is with you wherever you go!  
                            Trust Him!  
                          Believe Him!

Stormy Weather

Recently Hurricane Sandy laid a devastation trail miles, and states long.  The rebuilding process will take months perhaps years.  Some things can be rebuilt and some cannot.  Memories will be all that is left.  Some people evacuated and some stayed.  Some were prepared and some were not.  Some lost everything.  

I think we can compare this to our own lives.  We go through storms in our lives that cause much devastation and destruction.  Some of us handle it better than others.  I guess you could say they were prepared.  How does one prepare for the storms of life?  They surely will come, whether we like it or not.  

I often think of Paul and Silas in prison, bound in chains, singing and praising God.  How did they do that?  I believe that it is because they totally trusted Jesus with their very lives.  Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did the same in the fiery furnace.  There are many examples in the Bible about total peace and trust in the midst of the fiery furnaces and storms of life.

Hiding God's Word in our hearts keeps us from sinning against Him and strengthens us.  

So are you preparing for the storms that will come in your life?  

Someone who understands

We all have those days, months, years...is there any end in sight?  How in the world am I supposed to deal with this?  Does anyone understand?
Well, I am happy to tell you,  YES, someone does understand and knows just what you are going through.
JESUS
WE have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.  For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.  There fore let us deaw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.  In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death and He was heard because of His reverance.  
Heb. 4:14-15 & 5:7

I don't know about you but I sure am glad for Jesus.  He is someone I can talk to and I know that He understands, He has been tempted just like me.  I look to Him to know how to go through it, hopefully without sin.  To think He cried with loud crying and tears!  I often do that.
Right now I am dealing with a sin issue in my life that just has it grip on me.  I am crying out to Him for freedom in this area.  I know that I will have freedom in this area because I am asking according to His Will and I will receive it.
This is the confidence we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.  I John 5:14-15

So do you need someone who understands and really cares about you?  Run to Jesus!  He loves you!

Steadfast Anchor

Therefore, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses before us, let us lay aside every encumberance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.  Let us consider Him who endured such hardship from sinful men that we will not grow weary and lose heart.

Heb. 12:1-3

Have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.  Heb. 6:11-12

It is Impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.  We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.    Heb. 6: 18b-20

Colors!

I just love this time of year.....I live where the leaves change colors at this time of year.
This year during the foliage, it has been overcast and rainy.  The colors on the trees are beautiful even with the weather being what it is.  If the sun would have come out, I believe that the colors would have been sparkling.  I have never seen the colors so beautiful even with the dampness and rain.
I believe that only God could do something like that.  I enjoy each season of the year.  I am so blessed to be able to live where there are 4 seasons.  
So what do you like about where you live?

Comfort for your soul

Where do you find comfort for your soul?  What scripture verse do you meditate on when you are at unrest in your soul?  Yesterday was just one of those days.....life was hard and I was so unsettled.
So thankful that I do not have to go on my feelings, but I can rest in the truth of God's Word.
Here is my favorite scripture verse for those times.

Ps. 62:5-8
For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope if from Him.
He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.
Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.

I find such comfort in knowing that God is a refuge, that I can trust Him at all times and I can pour out my heart to Him!

A Working Mom

I am not used to working a full day,  outside of the home.  Since April I have been working outside of our home for our business.   We have been short of employees so I fill in the gap.  I work long hard days.  I have learned alot during this time.  We are in the delivery business and I can't find my way out of a paper bag.  LOL!  I have learned to read a map...gps does not work very well in the country.
.  I come home very tired and most nights do not even eat dinner.  I have had to make meals in advance and try to keep up on the laundry.  It has given me an appreciation for working moms.  (esp. ones with small children)  My children are grown and out of the home with the exception of one.
I have to be honest and say that I am glad that I do not have to work outside of the home very often.
I have had to rely on the Lord to get me through most days,  it never ceases to amaze me how He leads me, strenghtens me and blesses me throughout my day!

Anyone want to share how you handle being a working mom?

To combat discouragement

Do you sometimes get discouraged with life and how things are going or not going?  Well, I do and I have to remember who I am.  Here is a prayer to help with that.

I am strong and God's Word is always abiding in me, in my heart and I am victorious over the wicked one.  Jesus, You were made visible so that You undid  and destroyed, loosened and dissolved the works of what the devil has done.  God, thank You for sending Your only begotten Son into the world that I might live through Him.  My faith in You, Jesus the Son of God is what gives me victory over the evil one and this world.  I have the confidence, assurance, the privilege of boldness in You, that if I ask anything, make any request according to Your will, in agreement with Your own plan, You listen to me and hear me.  I positively know that You listen to me in whatever I ask. I also know with settled and absolute knowledge and boldness that I have the petitions I have asked of You.  Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world.

I John: 1-5

Friendships

I am going to be spending the next two days with my scrapbooking friends.   We get together about 4 times a year.  We scrap together, share our lives with each other, encourage and just have lots of laughter and fun together.  I think we all need to get away from the daily routine of life and enjoy sweet fellowship with like believers.  HIStory Keepers is the name of our group and we hope to pass on to the next generation, our lives and our faith in God.
Right now I am working on a life journal.
Would love to hear what you enjoy doing!

The Lord's Day

I just love Sundays,  worshipping with family and friends.  I love singing my heart out to the Lord and give Him all the praise due Him.
A day of rest from the rest of the week.  I try not to do much on a Sunday, but just enjoy peace and rest.  
I am thankful to have a church that teaches God's truths.  I am thankful for friends that love the Lord with all their hearts.  I am thankful for friends that walk with me through this journey of life,  sharing my joys and my sorrows, as I share in theirs.   We uphold one another to the Father in prayer and fellowship.
I am thankful for God's Word, which I am free to read and meditate on everyday.  Starting the day with the Lord.....well, it is life giving.  In His presence is fullness of joy!
Hope that you are resting in the Lord on this the day that He has made.

Randomness

Is there such a word as randomness?  I just tried to look it up and could not find it, so I guess I possibly made a new word....well,  it is very thought provoking when one celebrates a siblings 70th birthday.   It makes one stop and reflect over their past life and think about the future.   I am the youngest of 4 children and I came late in life.  ( My siblings are much older than me).....I tease them about that all the time.  :)  Our oldest sibling passed away a year ago.
So I encourage you to stop and think about your life and what the future will be like.  I know for me I want to love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength till I go home to be with Him.

I was so excited that I won a prize.  I have not won many things in my life.  It is not a big thing, just something small.  Something that will be useful to me.  It was part of a scrapbooking blog that I belong to.  Do you scrapbook?  Right now I am working on a life journal.  I am hoping to pass it on to my children and grandchildren.  What excites you?

It has been a great summer!  Where I live it has been unusually warm and humid!  I have so enjoyed it because the winters are too long here.  I live where we have 4 seasons and I enjoy them all.  My favorites are spring and fall.  I do like the winters too, that is when I can cuddle up in my home and get some projects done, like knitting, scrapbooking, reading and sewing.  What do you like to do?

Well, these sure were some random things.  Be blessed this day!

its been a long time

I know I keep saying that I will do better at this whole blog thing......sorry that I have not been doing that.
A new beginning!

I love to spend time with the Lord in His word every morning!  Just Him and me!
How about you are you doing that?  What is He showing you.

I am so glad that I do spend time with Him in the morning, because I never know what my day will hold.  So glad that it is the day that He has made and I am glad and rejoice in it.   So feeding on His Word in the morning is so important for me.

I have had a full summer so far.....working alot at our business, (which I am usually just in the background) helping out where needed and then helping my nephew to raise 7 children on his own...long story, and sick in-laws.  Doing a Nehemiah study with Beth Moore and her blog world.
I am learning this summer about His steadfast love!  He is faithful!  I truly can follow Him and His leading.  I just need to ask Him for everything and I mean everything.  He cares about it all, the big and the small.

When life seems out of control, remember He is not!  He is steadfast!
Hopefully, I will be on here more sharing what God is doing in my life.
So how about you?  Would love to hear what God is doing in your life.