Thought food for the Soul

Best Book Ever: Crazy Love by Francis Chan
http://crazylovebook.com/

Great illustrations from this book:

What if the disciples had took the fishes and loaves from Jesus after he bless them, said "Thank you so much for these great blessings" then sat down and ate them all, never passing any out? Terrible right, but that's pretty much exactly what American Christians do. God put enough food on this planet for everyone but we have to see that it gets to who needs it. It's our job as the ones with all the wealth.
Having gone to Mexico on a mission trip I can say we live like kings and most of our "Necessities" aren't anywhere near being necessary for life. Give some up to care for another soul.

When Jesus said if you fed the poor you fed me, if you clothed the naked, you clothed me. It means, we should treat everyone we meet like Jesus. Take the Bible literally - no really take it word for word especially the words Jesus said.

Love your enemies- if you don't and you say your a Christian you are a liar. Love terrorist, pray for them, send aid to their children, tell them about God even if you die in the process. Love criminals, grouches, lazy folks, liars, fakers, etc... Give without expecting back in return. God will do great miracles though acts like these, eternal miracles.

If you don't believe me, or the bible check out this movie for confirmation:
http://endofthespear.com/

Love, Hope and Faith- abide in these

Pine wood derby

This weekend my first born had his scout banquet and competed in the pine wood derby with a car he and his dad built. Dad is his den leader. He learned an important lesson- being a cool snake with racing flames does not guarantee a win. This is one race where being the heaviest is really good- (gravity based race). He came in dead last but much to my great pride, took it very well and had a great time. Score one for amateur parenting!

Sigh

Why do we want others to hurt along with us? Fear of being alone? I did it this morning. Made a snide comment about my husband's weight loss because I know I am going down in a blaze of glorious failure on my weight loss struggle. I cannot express how vile I feel about it. I am an absolute waste of air when Jesus is not at the wheel. Lord, please make me strong enough to take my pain only to you.
Fortunately there is hope in Christ, power in Christ and sincere repentance. I can honestly say I hate what I did, deeply desire never to do it again and will truthfully apologize.

Okay, spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. The rose gardener in me loves this ring and the whole blossom line is so beautiful.

Elegant simplicity

http://search.jamesavery.com/?q=blossom&search_originated=1

This Weekend

• My husband and son went on a boyscout camping trip. They always have so much fun and adventure on these. My daughter and I had a "girls night" as she calls it. This entails us watching a marathon of the 1st season of 5 Mile Creek - a great Disney series from back in the day- and eating tons of junk food (chocolate cookies, potato chips and ice cream). We also painted our nails, had tea parties and watched When in Rome with my Mom. The weather was lovely so we all spent time outside.

My daughter in dreamland on "Daddy's Pillow"

The softest most sinful Chocolate sugar cookies - My daughter's pick

My sister and children investigating a fallen tree on my father's property.

• My grandmother celebrated her 91st Birthday this weekend and we were happy to be there to celebrate with her. I got her signature dessert Strawberry Punch bowl cake - now made by my aunts. It is super easy to make but I cannot keep it in my house. You take the lid of a cake saver and layer crumble yellow cake, smashed sugared strawberries, vanilla pudding, and cool whip then repeat until the container is full. When you scoop down through the layer- well suffice it to say, you get one of my sweetest childhood memories.

Grandma opening her birthday cards- she had quite a few considering her 11 children, and hundreds or so grand kids and greatgrands.
the CAKE-


My sweet son with his sunburned cheeks from a weekend outside and Dad's sunscreen handicap.

It's Personal

A dear woman whom I grew up with passed away this week. Over the past ten years she had pretty much been homebound due to dementia from several strokes. The last time I visited her she had very little ability to recognize me. She called me "little girl", which was probably the way her brain remembered me. I also will more clearly remember her from when I was younger . She was AMAZING. Plain and simple. She mentored us kids for no other reason than it needed to be done. She taught youth Sunday school when her kids were grown and gone. She stepped into the gap for us many times when youth leaders left- which happened four times in my teen year. She had us over to her house just because she thought we might enjoy it. She found odd jobs for us when she saw we might need spending money or youth funds. She taught my then boyfriend (now husband of 15 years) and I the Mizpah prayer: Genesis 31:49 It was also called Mizpah, because he said, May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other. So we could always say it when we parted. Like I said she was amazing. From her I learned what hospitality looked like and part of how the church was supposed to work.

A friend of mine said this weekend "God takes it personally when you do good for His church and he takes it personally when you do ill to His church." (http://www.joemckeever.com/mt/archives/001590.html check out his blog because he is pretty amazing too).
This is the first time in my life I know deep in my bones that someone got a very Personal welcome into Heaven this week. I actually felt a wave of joy come over me as I thought about it. Say hi to Jesus for me, Mrs. L, I love you both.

The tale of Black Beauty

My husband upon seeing me giddy with joy, grinning like a maniac at the wheel of my newly acquired 2007 Ford Edge said we should name her "black beauty". My two previous cars (a 17 year old Cutlas and a 16 year old Explorer) were "Nelle Belle", which is the classic Southern Farmer's name for his faithful Mule. It just fit, but now there can be no better name for my new car than Black Beauty. She is decked out- Leather, great sound system, heated seats, DVD player in back, automatic lights, etc... Not low mileage but who's to let a thing like that take away from her loveliness. Keep in mind my Explorer had 1/2 of the panel light up at night, a iffy blinker, poorly working wipers, a siliconed shut sun roof, broken cup holders and a broken motor on the spray for the windshield. Her engine was a thing of beauty but the odometer broke a year ago a 193,000.

I am one BLESSED girl!

Welcome March!

Welcome March- I like you. Green and Spring and nice temperatures- what's not to love?
I tip my mitt to you.

What's more "welcome spring" that shopping for a new car? Okay plenty of things but I am sooooo excited to be doing this. My first car was my Dad's old work car, an Olds Cutlas Ciera in shark blue. I got that at 17 and I drove it until I was say 31. At 17 years old the engine simply packed up and moved to Florida- I hear it has a lovely condo. I then settled into a 1995 Blue Ford Explorer that my mother so graciously sold to me in our moment of need for $500.00 dollars. I have been driving it ever since. Now I have the possibility of driving a car less than 5 years old dangling before me and I am almost nervous to get excited. I keep thinking something is going to happen and this will not work out.

Dear Lord,
Please let me be able to get a newer car that is not a lemon.
I love you and thanks.
Amen

Off for a day of car looking.