Lets Give Them Something to Talk About

Today is Halloween, it is a day that some of my friends don’t celebrate.   It is a day that, when I was younger, we used to turn off our lights and hide in the back of our house because we didn’t celebrate it when we lived in California.   (Not necessarily for religious reasons)   When we moved from California to Pennsylvania we started doing the whole trick or treating thing and it was fun.   All our friends were doing it, our schools had parades.   All I knew about the holiday itself is that it had something to do with carving out a pumpkin, dressing up in some outfit (we never did scary) and going out, house to house saying trick or treat.   What is this day all about- how did it get its roots?   I currently have one facebook friend that is really truly against Halloween and that is what really got me thinking about it.   So I looked at a lot of different sites on-line as to the history of Halloween.   I wanted to know.   I wanted an unbiased approach to it.   I had seen the “Chri

I am a dreamer.   I am always thinking of the next big way to make money or make a difference in this world.   I have made stuff out of duct tape, sold Mary Kay, currently sell Avon, but let me tell you, that isn’t even the half of it.   I have thought through not-for-profit scenarios in my head, started ministries, have imagined owning a craft boutique, a wedding planning/event planning business, a pumpkin patch/orchard, a flower shop and about 700 other things.   It has gotten to the point now where my husband just smiles and nods because he know that I am a dreamer and if I am still talking about a month later, then we address it.   I have gone as far as to check on rent in buildings, make business plans, but I don’t have follow through.   Right now I have a finished novel sitting here waiting to be submitted to someone somehow, but it is pretty confusing, so I haven’t done it yet.   Dreaming for me is a blast.   Planning all the little details of something is fun for me.   Unfortun

I decided to put on fake nails yesterday.   I have gotten back into my bad habit of biting them.   yuck!   So I got out my fake nail kit and the super glue and glued them on, cut them, painted them.   You would think that super glue would do the trick.   Super glue is supposed to be one of the strongest glues in the world.   BUT….   I keep finding one of my fingers nail less.   If my nails weren’t painted pink with that black crackle polish over it (or as avon calls it “mosaic”), it might not be as noticeable when they fell off.   They aren’t the great kind that you use acrylic with and just glue the tip on – it is the whole nail.   What in your life is noticeable?   For me, due to this blog and the role that I had been playing in my church with volunteering a lot, my walk with God was very visible.   If I fall off the path, people start asking questions and making sure I am alright.   This is something that is amazing and wonderful to me.   A lot of times in the mornings I think if I

“The sky is falling, the sky is falling!”   Chicken Little ran about telling everyone that the sky was falling because he had been hit on the head with an acorn.   It isn’t like the “Chicken Little” movie, but the book that we grew up with.   Chicken Little was freaking out because he knew that he was going to perish and that is ALL he ever did and all he ever talked about.   There is a man that I am going to start referring to as Chicken Little.   Harold Camping is an old man.   This is the third time now he has predicted “judgment day” and nothing has happened.   This is the second time this year!   No one paid attention to him after the second failed attempt earlier this year.   It is embarrassing to say that he is a Christian.   He might be the greatest guy and have a great walk with the Lord, but him predicting the end of the world is just making Christians look silly.   Amos 5:18-20, “Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord!   Why do you long for the day for the Lord?   That

Romans 8: 9-15 “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.   And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.   But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness…. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” Praise God that we can turn to the Spirit.   Praise God we have been given the Spirit of sonship.   But as sons and daughters of anyone, every so often is it easy to rebel.   To say, I don’t care, I everyone else is doing it .   When we asked Christ into our hearts, and the Holy Spirit entered our bodies, it took up residence in us.   It began a good work in us.   Just like our earthly parents raised us to be good, moral individuals, it is still easy to stray from what they have taught us and what we know is true and righteous.

For the past month or so I have been dealing with a shooting pain in my lower back.   I just knew it was my kidneys.   I had had kidney stones before, I had been through it all before, I just knew that is what it was.   When the pain first started, I figured that the doctor was going to tell me to drink water and let them pass.   So I upped my water intake and started letting them try to pass.   I didn’t go into the doctor since I knew what it was and how to fix it.   Finally after a month of pain and many sleepless nights I gave in and called the doctor.   Earlier that day, I had gone on line and looked up my symptoms and it was showing that I could be having kidney failure, or cancer.   So I went to the doctor, very apprehensive.   When I was at the doctor, with my two kids, they did the urine test and after the LPN came in, she started asking me all kinds of questions that had nothing to do with my kidneys.   Didn’t she know that it was my kidneys that were bothering me?   She had

Hebrews 6: 10-12 “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.   We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure.   We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” What else could go wrong?   This is how God repays me?   Does God HATE me?   Can I sink any lower?   It is so easy to question God’s timing sometimes.   Sometimes it feels like you have done so much for Him and then things just don’t seem to go right – there is nothing that you can do to make anything better, but life just deteriorates.   I have heard it so many times, “God isn’t fair”. Something to think about though: all that you have done and sacrificed for Him, is that anywhere close to what He sacrificed for you?   I mean really, God could just say, I sacrificed my SON for you – do you get that?   Why would

Proverbs 20:19   “A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid a man who talks too much.” I like this verse in theory, but honestly, how do you avoid yourself?   I really have had a hard time talking badly about certain people and places lately.   I do it and then think to myself, now I shouldn’t have said that or shared that.   Usually I keep what people tell me to keep in confidence in confidence, but there are times that I talk too much. So what is the solution here?   Pray every morning?- I do that already…   But do I pray about the right things?   Do I pray that everything that I do and say would be pleasing to God?   Do I really mean it?   Do I just go through the motions?   There are so many times that we ask God to do something but it is just a motion.   Think about praying before a meal time.   It is so easy to just go through the motions- dear Lord, bless this food, help it to nourish our bodies….. How would you like it if someone called you before something but wasn’t sincere

“Martha, Martha,” The Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.   Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10: 41-2 Keeping up with caring for my kids, cleaning, cooking, volunteering, part time work, friendships, volunteering again, and doing special events with my kids, I race around trying to do everything for everyone.   I usually end up failing miserably.   It is inevitable that I will upset someone some time and make someone upset with me, usually about something small.   The devil is in the details.   Have you ever got so caught up in something you forgot to enjoy it?   You get caught up in parenting JUST right, so you forget to enjoy the fun and exciting moments.   You get caught up in rules and regulations or doing good works for the church and forget to enjoy what it is really all about.   Martha had Jesus over- HUGE DEAL!   Can you imagine having Jesus in your home?   I would have been f

Proverbs 22:6 “Raise a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” This weekend we embarked on a family adventure.   My 3 year old was sick, but my 2 year old was hyper and my husband was dieing to go camping.   So we loaded up the car, loaded up the dogs, loaded up the kids and off we went.   It amazes me how much stuff you have to bring when you go camping for just ONE night.   We chose a beautiful campsite, in a beautiful location with beautiful, leave changing tree lined trails to hike.   We loaded up our kids again and went to go hiking.   My 3 year old, still not feeling well, had me carry her the entire time, daddy wasn’t going to cut it.   When we finally got back to camp, I had to just sit down.   I was beat.   My oldest climbed on my lap and asked me to sing.   The night before that, we had had a group of people over our house for a Bon-Fire-Bible study.   I asked her what she wanted and she requested songs from that night.   It was beautifu

Today – I think that the verse speaks enough of itself: 1 Corinthians 7:17, “Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him.   This is the rule I lay down to all the churches.”   I don’t think that it is just to the churches.   I think it is to everyone – everywhere…   The Message Bible says it this way “And don’t be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else.   Where you are right now is God’s place for you.   Live and obey and love and believe right there.” There isn’t much more to say about this, other than we have to accept where we are, and know that is where God wants us right now.   We may have felt called elsewhere in the past, and questioning God’s purpose for us now, but if we are following Him, we are where He wants us to be.   I just have to keep reminding myself of that.  

Holding a metal stick with hot dogs above the log being consumed by the fire we had set, I sat back and realize just how beautiful fire is.   The orange, blue, yellow, white colors that dance over, under and around the logs.   The magnificence of the heat permeating from the fire, enough to cook hot dogs and marshmallows and make me considerably warm sitting a few feet away.   I watched large, formidable logs be turned from a solid, to dust.   I watched as the fire transformed these logs.   First they transformed to a black, charcoal then from that, into the fine white dust of ash, that can be blown around.   Ash is amazing too.   Ash makes great fertilizer and creates a lush and healthy garden.   You don’t have to think too hard about how it relates to your life when you sit in front of a fire.   Lets pretend that we are the logs and the Holy Spirit is the flame.   Our lives are a tree first.   We grow and then are cut down.   We are cut down either due to infection or due to need fo

I sit here, trying to recover from a whirlwind and exhausting past few days.   Since Wed. I have been every which way – and today is Monday.   I started with a prayer meeting with my dear friend that night, then moved onto prepping for a garage sale another friend offered to let me be part of- to Take Back the Night on Thursday, then being called out for work, then school, garage sale prep and garage sale on Friday, garage sale Saturday morning, 3 hours of trying to figure out the books, home to a house that needed some TLC, and Sunday there was going to my cousin-in-law’s house to visit two newborn babies!   So I haven’t had a lot of time to blog about my devotions, but rest assured, it isn’t because I haven’t been getting time in. I was able to hear a great message yesterday.   It was all about love.   Love is a choice.   I have said it before, and I will say it again.   Love isn’t just an emotion; it is a commitment and a choice.   Back in the day, people didn’t get to meet prior t