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?