sin

perfect! i am having a great day, minding my own business and then doing my middle school sunday school lesson. SIN, what is it, why do we do it, better yet, how can we get rid of it?

so simply how children learn. their lives are simple, it either is or it isn't. wish we adults could be that way. what i found was the 5 steps of sin. (ill share)

1.we will be tempted, count on it. (whatever it is for you, it will come)

2.run the other way from temptation (take some responsibility for what tempts you)

3.resist it with the scripture you have put in your heart. (Hebrews 4:12-God's word is living and active) (2 Corinthians 10:4-5-one of our weapons is the word of God)

4.refocus with praise (praise changes everything)

5.when, not if, when you sin, ask for forgiveness (just ask, that's all)

we tend to make serving the Lord so complicated with meetings and agendas. we should all approach it with childlike faith and just "serve". the season of lent is a good time to reflect on our faith and what is holding us back from "completely serving".

in our lives, at church, community, friends and family, there are so many hurting people. it can be a simple phone call or note, i have great intentions, but then realize like three days later that i did not get that card off or make that call, even though i felt God asking me to serve...it is really the only reason we are on this earth, but we let so many things, not sure even how important, get in the way. some things i commit my time too, i wonder, why am i doing this, it might be an ice thing in the community, but did i ask God, does it forward what HE wants me to be doing? oh well, that question is for someone smarter than i. Again, the sun is shining, i am preparing a meatloaf, and will go pick up my 6th grader. LIFE IS GOOD! #4, praise changes everything! God bless at this special hour of 3pm.

woo hoo

i just realized SPRING, is march 20th. so, woo hoo!

i also posted a blog, one of my fav's with a good friend cammeo, she is in peru and other places serving, helping the poor and saving souls really. please check it out, she is amazing! God is using her just as fast as he can. she has a desire to help people that caused her to save money big time, quit a very good job, and go wherever HE leads. she is with methodist church doing many things, having many young adventures, some too close, as i watched the floods in peru, but she is safe and doing what her heart loves...

oh, prayer for cammeo and her safety and success on the MISSION.

today is a wonderful sunny day here. i can handle the snow, just don't like days on end without glorious sunshine. i grew up in texas, and did not realize how much you miss a day with sun on your face, to throw in a few 70 degree days in the winter. we in the cold, have to find other ways to warm our hearts-yes?

we had a last high school basketball game last night. lost, so we are done. time to move onto the next sport, crazy that my life does not go in seasons, but rather football, basketball, baseball, golf and then football. it starts all over again, forget winter, spring etc. it is by the sport of the month. that is what you get with 4 boys. speaking of boys, and girls, let us all join today to pray for our youth. i hope all youth have a wonderful youth leader as our church does. my cousin is a youth leader in texas. when my aunt and uncle go to his very large congregation, someone always stops them and says something like "your son, i love him, my son or daughter was walking a fence, and could have fallen either way, but because of scott, they fell on the right side"...my cousin lives his faith, with his family in a glass bowl sometimes, well i suppose all the time, but when you live in obedience, then you are also protected. like speeding, i heard this analogy the other day. you drive always going the speed limit, you will not get a ticket, there is a guarantee there, but decide to take it up a notch and go over, you hit the brakes when you see a policeman, you wonder how fast is too fast, you run the risk of getting a ticket. you are living in disobedience and you are no longer protected. i love that while i think of our youth, if we can teach them to live that out every single day, then they are protected against the things of this world that try to bombard and attack them. so today, join me in praying for our youth.

i can always tell when i have had too much coffee, can you really have too much? ask any one of my sisters, and they will tell you, time to cut the old gal off! but, when you are on a roll...

i get the privilege of going to women of faith march-something. i am so looking forward to it.

my prayer group and others from our church are going. it is such a neat time to renew and refresh, kind of like a compass, oh, now i remember where i am going...cannot wait! yes, i see the red underlines, saying i have misspelled or grammer, but you will not be grading this, so again, i will ignore every time i see it, just fyi. i will report back to you after that weekend. we have a few free tickets, we are praying for three ladies who we will give them too. waiting for God to reveal those to us.

oh, friends just called for lunch...enjoy the day, blessings to all 3 of my followers! i am so excited!

monday

good morning-

i feel off, i had to miss church for boy's basketball and i love my church. i miss seeing the elderly ladies and my church family. we have a pastor that is just awesome. i know you do not go for a pastor, but it is such a blessing to have one with a family and life that "fits" so well into the church family as well.

i had to miss prayer group, huge bummer, i love my group. they are the most wonderful, prayerful, godly women i know.

my kiddos are home today, ANOTHER snow day. what a blessing! i am just kidding, they are not even excited about another snow day...the farmer's almanac says one more huge snow...crazy winter.

i do cheerleading at our high school, i have observed that it is not so easy to be a kid these days, but my girls work really hard at it. i pray for each of them to be strong young women who are confident in their lives. i wish i could share faith openly with them. hopefully, they will all someday know HIM.

i offer up this day for my boys, my oldest who is trying to make a living, my 2nd oldest who has mid-terms today, he has worked hard and sacrificed, not sure where he fits into the gene pool, but i am so proud of him. he is a leader by nature and i cannot wait to see what God has in store for his life. he has amazed me all of his life. my next boy, has a basketball game tonight, which i think he will not get in, BUT if he does or does not, Romans 8:28, and then my baby, he is energy-magnified. he has been given gifts of athletic ability that are truly a gift from above. it is my job to keep him, in an attitude of gratitude. as human's we forget the gift is from HIM, and start taking that for ourselves, i tell him to be grateful, give thanks, use if for HIM. he is getting it, slowly, but it is sinking in...

i only have 3 followers, but to each of you, a blessed day and know that you are a child of the most high GOD...all day and everyday!

friday...

yea, it is friday...just like a kid, i still love friday's, and i don't work, well i am the ceo of my house. that does count! it is not easy to run each child where they need to go, organize the meals, the basketball uniforms and then the husband to boot!

enough of me, i did this blog to lift others, although i have not figured out how to invite friends, so it will come, after some reading and more utube tutorials.

my father is dying in hospice today...i did not really grow up with my dad, divorce and all of that, but he is at the end, he was a vietnam vet and the agent orange did him in! he was the first one into the fields to check to see if it worked. i have prayed all day that he leaves this world in peace, i don't think his life was filled with much peace. his parents did not have peace and it just flowed through. he has a daughter, my sister, who is a wonderful, beautiful soul and it is amazing how God can take something that seems without hope and fill it!

when it rains it pours...my uncle who raised me, had a little heart problem today. when i got the call, it made me think about his part in my life. anyone can be a father, but it takes a real man to be a dad. i heard that somewhere and it is so true. he would take me to girl scouts, attend my cheerleading days, meet my boyfriends and drive 3 hours each way to take me to lunch when i was in college. for a girl struggling to make ends meet, he would slip 100.00 bill in my hand when he left...he will never know, maybe he knows, how he shaped me. he was and is the most caring person i have ever met. his ability to see other's in pain and to "fix" it, is his gift, along with many others. he married my aunt, who has loved me for a lifetime, they both have lifted me my entire life.

my mind is now a million miles away, so i will stop writing. all i know is that God took a little girl, who could have gone down many different paths and set it straight with the people HE provided. (i knew i was one of HIS favorites)!

well, it has been awhile, lots has happened.

went to a sister weekend in houston to an amazing speaker and fellowship. it reminds me why God calls us to have that fellowship with other believers so that we have direction, a better way, a clearer path. it was 68 there and sooo cold here, you could not pay me to go snow skiing. ha.

the speaker talked of things like, obedience, and our cultural breakdown of it. which i had not really thought of, but then gives us a breakdown in unity as well. watching tv, basically nothing is good for you or your children. just turn it off, read, play a game, or be together. statistics show that parents spend more time watching tv and shopping at a mall, than they do with their children. she spoke on marriage and and how it is today to keep that sacred and in tact, however, don't panic if it is not perfect, if God is in it, it cannot ever be a disaster.

by and large, it was awesome, to be there with my sister and to be reminded of things we know, but need to make part of our daily routines and just maybe think a bit more about...met new friends, which was a blessing in itself. i think it was God's great timing! how does he do it?

i pray this finds my family and friends with their faces pointing towards the sun, i know mine is today, and i wish that for my loved ones. i need to drive some cheerleaders out of town for a basketball game, so, Romans 8:28, ALL things work for good, for those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.

no title

i can never think of a title, or they sound corny...

i learned a valuable lesson last night, don't write at midnight when you are sleepy.

my boys laughed at my blog this morning, i could see it as their eyes met and they were laughing.

oh well, this is for me, nobody else. you see, i have always been a writer, not in the published way, but in the way that i don't trust my computer for to-do lists or calendar, i write it all down, oh, and still write letters...can any of you remember what those are?

i forgot, the first thing i was going to do this morning was apologize, for my grammer. i see red lines under sentences, but am not exactly sure how to correct some of them. luckily for me, this is not graded. i use commas, like i use chocolate, whenever i want too...

i did not really say yesterday, my first blog, that sounds so cool, that i am a mom, and mother of four boys. my husbands grandfather was one of 10 boys, that is the kind of question you ask when dating! i would not change a thing, boys are fun, different, as i was raised with 4 girls in our family. i wrote this blog because i have had several LARGE things happen this month. first, my dad, who i have not really known since age 13 is dying. my sister, half-sister, and i hate that word, how did we come up with a half? you can't be a half, like being half-pregnant...

she phoned us and we prayed about it and all four sisters went to austin texas to be with him. he is very sick and losing ground daily. it is a matter of time now. it is a wonder that from childhood, any of us really make it to adulthood. we are really the little girl or boy that lives in a household on any street usa. but we either come out or get stuck, some depends on your resolve, most depends on your faith. i let go many years ago the deep emotion. like crying in the theater, way more than was appropriate, at "father of the bride". at seeing other girls at girl scout functions with their dads, and all the things fathers do. i also saw many friends who had fathers, but they were absent in many ways to their daughters, just confirming that no situation is perfect. period. (i really love perfect)

well, i went to the hospital, moved my dad to hospice and then sat for awhile and let God heal all those emotions. i was holding my dads hand and he was asleep. i dozed, no matter how much coffee you have, and my sisters have been knows to cut me off, you doze sitting that still.

i had a vision, or dream or whatever of Jesus, he handed me a box, brown box and i looked inside and saw all the pain, suffering, disappointment and yucky stuff. then HE handed it to me and it was transformed to a beautifully wrapped gift with a wonderful bow and it became a present! HE wrapped up the garbage in my life, and gave it as a present, in a way that i could not have even dreamed up, and i have a great imagination! I never saw it coming. But HE had to have planned it for a lifetime...

i am writing the blog, because i was telling a friend my dream and she said, i hope you are writing this down, which i was not. along with this wrap up God provided, he also gave me a sister, and two nephews. (remember, i live in my mind in the town of perfect) this has thrown me a bit, i'm a little confused because i am always open to what God has in front of me, jump in head first, but this...i feel like a walking contradiction, if truth be told. i remember a few years back when everyone read "The Prayer of Jabez", walking around saying "expand my territory Lord". did any of us really mean it??? i think i am looking at it right in front of my face. forced to answer his call. i'm writing, just thinking it through, as most of my life, there has been an obvious path, a straightforward answer...

the path to holiness is a process! HE is constantly, pushing me to another level of trust. anyone who knows me, my sisters the best, i'm a type A, first born, control freak, although we recently chose "driven and focused" as the way to describe me! back to trust, we live going to church, reading scripture, feeling as though we are completely trusting, UNTIL HE makes us trust. i am praying i use this opportunity to do just that, to rely on HIM and know that he is wanting more from me, and me wanting to be that person that fell in love with HIM at age 7.

Lord, bless this day and all whose lives you put me in contact with. help me flow, not fight the process and to keep my eyes on you...