Matthew 14-15 NIV is where Jesus himself, as He is teaching His followers, says “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
To fully walk with Christ you must forgive those that you’re angry at and/or that have hurt you. No easy task for us humans but when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, Gods strength gives us the ability and power to over come the world and ourselves.
Who do you need to forgive?
Through prayer and petition with thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6) talk it out with God and He will help you. God knows your heart and He is listening for you to talk to him about what is bottled up inside.
We are all naturally born sinners which makes each one of us perfectly imperfect. It’s easier to live in sin than to walk with Christ yet forgiving others is a must in order to be free to roam His kingdom.
It’s a daily talk with God for me. I have to ask him repeatedly to give me His strength to let go…
While my Daddy is not a perfect man, who is, I have come to know him and love him beyond measure. He is perfectly imperfect!
My Daddy was not around much as I was growing up and even when he was around he didn’t pay much attention to us kids. Once he and my Mom got a divorce, it was like he had just disappeared from the planet. I never understood why he would not reach out to his children. For a long time, I thought it was my fault because I was the baby. I have an older sister and an older brother that I grew up with. But me being the youngest I felt like I had ruined his life, and his marriage to my Mother, and that’s why he had left us all.
I, now, know that it was not my fault.
NO CHILD SHOULD BLAME THEMSELVES FOR THEIR PARENTS DIVORCE!
In trying to locate him as teenager my Mother helped me by taking me to the local police department and giving them his information, which was a dead end, because they wouldn’t help. I even reached out to my “Granny”, his Mom, for help but she too was a dead end. I found out later that she did in fact know where he was and even knew how to get in touch with him but he had instructed her not to share any of his information with any of us. The only information she eventually told me was that my Daddy had remarried and moved to another state. I felt like he chose a new family over his own. I was so heart broken!
A few years passed by and, at this time in my life, I was now 16 years old. I got a phone call that my Pepaw (my Daddy’s Dad) was nearing the end of his life and if I wanted to see him alive, I needed to get there asap. So my Uncle Gary, whom was living with us at the time, took me to the hospital where my Pepaw was at but by the time we arrived, he had already passed away.
While there, I seen my Daddy and his wife, whom was a “friend” of my Mom’s years back, for the first time in I don’t even know how many years at this point. I am not sure that I can even explain all of the emotions that poured over me at that very moment as I stared them in their eyes. Honestly, I don’t even remember if or what I said to him in that moment. I’m sure we spoke but it had to have been brief. I was so overwhelmed with emotion that I had missed getting to tell my Pepaw bye plus seeing my Daddy during that moment for the first time, that I have no memory of us even speaking. My only memory is that I seen them at the hospital.
Strange in deed but my Daddy did eventually come back into our lives once he divorced, yet again.
Anyway, jumping ahead many years, my Daddy is now one of my best friends in the whole wide world! He is an over the road truck driver of many years and lives with my husband and I when he takes his monthly days off.
I couldn’t imagine life without him now. The relationship that God has allowed me to have with him in my adult life has, by far, made up for the loss of him not being in my life as a child.
I am so thankfully grateful to God that I have my Daddy by my side now. AS believers, God is so good in how He works things out in our lives. Sometimes it’s years out before we reap the benefits from our trials but eventually we see why we had to go through the pain and sufferings in order to get to where we are in our walk with the Lord. I give Him all of the glory.
This is a new video that just came out a few days ago. Even if you don’t follow these two artist, I’d bet you’ve heard about their awesome relationship some how.
I absolutely love these two together!
Pic from (google search) E! News online
Imma country girl myself so I don’t follow Gwen’s style of music but, after watching her on The Voice, I’ve come to enjoy her personality. I’m beginning to listen to her music more and learning that I can relate to it too. Gwen’s personality comes through in her songs and I love her bouncy, realistic, and relatable personality. I also enjoy her style of clothing and ability to do her own thang no matter who says what about it.
Anywho, check out more of their music. Follow them on social media. And enjoy the love for one another that they exude from within.
Another rough day of pain. Ugh!! So over this flare up.
My BFF sent me this picture and it is so true! She truly gets me and there are no words to explain how much I appreciate and love her.
Speaks for itself
After day 4 (today) of this particular flare up and struggling to even get something accomplished (read My Office post), I’m so exhausted! My body is so tired and not like a normal “oh I’m tired”, it’s like an “I’m so tired I can’t see straight nor walk right kinda tired”. I feel like every bone and muscle I have is aching and burning and my skin tingles when someone just touches me. My head feels I can feel every single strand of hair and they hurt. I hate so many things about myself, especially my body, these days. But God right!?! If I didn’t have God to lean on and carry me on the days I can’t carry my own weight around, I honestly don’t know what I’d do with myself. Also, I am so thankful for my husband y’all! He does everything he can to help me. He tries so hard to ease my pain but nothing truly helps. It just has to run its course.
It’s so hard to explain so that others can have some kind of understanding of my misery. No one sees my “behind closed doors” struggles, I make sure of that. The two people I can’t hide from are God and my husband, they see it all, and they help me more than any others could. I rely on them for everything. Thank you Lord for your strength and mercy. Thank you David for loving me through it all.
As I type this, I realize that I really am very blessed! Way to blessed to stress over all of this pain. It’s nothing compared to what Jesus went through. Thank you Lord God for giving us Your Son on that cross to take our sins and fill us with The Holy Spirit once we give our life over to You. Thank you for helping me live in this pain every single day. I look so forward to my life in Heaven with You Lord.
Good night y’all. May God bless each and every one of you as He has me.
How to know you are truly saved. I enjoy Dr Jeffress’s teachings and his direct messages of the true meaning of salvation. He don’t beat around any bush to say what he believes to be truth in the Gospel.
Through belief and trust in our Lord Jesus Christ, along with heartfelt repentance, is the only way to spend eternity in Heaven.
The fact is that we will all die one day. Where will you live out your eternity?
There’s nothing like jamming out to some 80’s music, of all genres, to get me into a cleaning mood. My body don’t keep up with my mind anymore so it takes me longer now to do things I used to could do in no time at all or so it seemed. But I still enjoy the ability to do what I can to be able to sit in a clean room and gaze at my accomplishments for a brief moment.
Today, my favorite music is Christian music. I play it all the time but, for me, it does not help me to want to clean. It’s more calming and soothing to my soul as it engages me with other believers as I feel closer to God through listening to them share their hearts. I’m not a heavy metal or hard core rock n roll listener at all. Growing up, I listened to country music the most with some pop and easy rock thrown in the mix as well. So when I want to clean, I go to my amazon music and set it to an eighties genre or the eighties channel on the satellite tv. I love how they both will play a mix of the entire decade, as I dance around and clean on the move all while having flash backs from my child hood and my young mother hood days.
When both of my children were little, we didn’t have Amazon then so I would put the satellite tv on the eighties music channel or I would play my cassettes from my generation because I still have a stereo that has a cassette and record player. I would teach both of them how to two step, dance the cotton eyed joe, and other dances that I remembered from back in my younger days. The three of us had the best of times all while working together to have a clean house before their Daddy would come home from work.
With my husband gone for the weekend, last night around five-ish, I decided to force myself to clean my office back up again. My office is where I keep most of my souvenir items that I pick up when I travel. It’s where I have my desk for my laptop and printer. It’s where I have all of my Young Living items for use and for sale. It’s also where I have my memorabilia of my two boys and their Air Force beginnings. So, needless to say, it’s a small room full of a few of my favorite life events and I keep the door shut most of the time to keep the cat out of there. It’s so easy to just toss things in that room and shut the door on it and not have to look at it. So it has piled up over these past few months.
I haven’t been able to clean it all up, due to pain and/or surgery, in several months now. It’s not a room that I will allow anyone else to clean up for me either. So last night I decided that I wanted to get it done and back into using operation again no matter how bad I felt. I began by cranking up my music to the eighties mix genre on Amazon Music and away I went. I didn’t wind up finishing up until 2:30 this morning. With lots of stopping and restarting having to take place, it took me longer than expected, but it is done and I can sit in there and gaze at my work for a brief moment of pleasure.
For me, my chronic pain feels like this gorgeous picture appears to me in my mind. I can see the beautiful mountain as it is so disguised by the tons of cold snow that lay at rest on it. But we know the snow will come and go with the seasons as does the enhancement of my pain.
I can disguise my body raging with pain just as the snow is disguising the mountain in the photo. I can almost feel my pain level rising just from the mass of cold air I imagine is blowing as I look at this picture. Such cold air, while the view may be beautiful, only enhances my chronic pain yet I will disguise it to others as they look upon me and my life just as this photo has disguised the dirt that lies beneath the snow.
The nerves and joints in my body are covered with mounds of pain, such as the snow in the picture. As the pain slowly goes down the insides of my body, just as the snow falls down the mountain side, it hits every angle of sharpness on its way down. It feels like I can literally feel every sharp and dull pain it encounters as it is falling.
I see the imagine come alive inside my mind as each tumble of snow breaks apart into more and more flakes of snow before it winds up into the icy cold waters below and is melted until all of the snow has completely been melted off of the mountain; such as each pain flows down my body until the next one is felt. Once it hits the “waters” it’s melted so that that particular feeling of pain is gone only to feel the weight from tons of more pain that was left behind.
When will the entire snow in this shot, that is frozen in time, fully melt? When the seasons change as each year passes until God returns to claim His possession that He created.
When will my pain be completely gone in this life? Only when God returns to claim His possession that He created.
Have you ever read words on paper but felt like the person that did the writing was sitting across from you as the words on each page illuminated as if they were “spoken” directly to you? ME TOO!! Happen to me just tonight, as a matter of fact.
I am reading through a book called “She Laughs” written by CA Miljavac. Initially I began to read it because I was on her launch team. I, along with hundreds of others, was asked to help share our thoughts on social media, and by writing a few reviews, about her book release happening on New Years Day of Twenty Twenty. I have enjoyed being a part of it all. I’ve even enjoyed reading the book so much so that I’ve continued reading it on my kindle app as well as a hard copy I bought. There are times that I can’t help but to literally laugh out loud as I’ve keep reading it. I love that she has the ability to write like a true friend would be speaking to her BFF, well how I do anyway; very blunt and straight forward. As I continue to read along, in each chapter Carolanne’s writing makes me feel like I’m her BFF and she’s being a hundred percent honest with me about her thoughts.
Tonight as I was reading through chapter four, everything was so relatable to me that it was like she and I were sitting across the table from one another as she was giving me advice for procrastinating from fear. As I read each page, I began highlighting sentences that I could easily and quickly reread once I finish the book. The more I read, the more I was highlighting until it felt as if I was highlighting at least one sentence on every single page. I would change the colors from time to time to show myself, when I go back and reread them, where to separate each thought. I truly don’t know how many sentences that I’ve gotten lit up on my kindle so far in just four chapters, it’s quite a few, and I’ve still got six more chapters of reading to go. Thankfully the kindle won’t run out of ink in its highlighters like I do when highlighting in a real book. I love to mark sentences as they speak to me in what ever book I’m reading. It helps me to quickly go back and proofread after I’m finished with each book to know what I got out of it.
In tonight’s reading of chapter four, the whole “not letting fear stop you” that Carolanne writes about is SOOOOO speaking to me. I won’t share to much of her writing because you really should read the book yourself.
I’ve let fear prevent me from completing a project that God has laid on my heart, a few years back now. Daily, for the past few months, it comes to my forethought even when I’m just sitting down to watch television. Tonight, as I read, I now know what my issue is for not completing the task. FEAR!
Ive let fear take over my thoughts by listening to “you’re not good enough”, “you’re a no body”, “you can’t do this”, etc. I’ve allowed the negative thoughts in my head to control my progress and I need prayer to help me succeed. I’ve yet allowed myself to follow through and complete it because I am so afraid to let God down. My fear of “not wanting to” let Him down is letting Him and myself down. I’ve allowed fear such control over me that it has stopped me from following through with completing the goal. I tell myself “it isn’t God that you don’t trust, it’s just myself that I don’t trust” but in actuality it is me not fully trusting in God to work through me one hundred percent. I say “I trust you Lord” but my actions prove otherwise. Philippians 4:13 says “I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me.” When I allow myself to fear letting Christ down, I am allowing the enemy to rob me of so many blessings that I could be receiving during, and even after, completing the task at hand.
If you struggle with fear and doubt of your own capabilities, join me in praying: “Lord forgive me for ever doubting You and Your abilities of what You can do in me through You in the process of doubting my self. I realize I’ve let myself down. Give me courage and wisdom to finish what we started together. I trust You and I want to be used as Your vessel. In Jesus name I pray, Amen”
Thank you to Carolanne for being the kind of friend I needed in telling me what I needed to hear tonight through your writing. I pray that I will be that kind of Author to others as well.
Have you ever really in truly thought about what you put into your body? Me neither! Well today I had an awakening, more than before, to pay even more attention to that very thing.
I have some health concerns that, to me, aren’t really “concerns” but rather just a daily reminder that I have issues from never having a day free from pain. I stay in pain twenty four / seven due to them, but the one I want to talk about today is the fact that I suffer from fibromyalgia.
Now, for those of you that do not know what that is: MayoClinic.org explains it this way; Fibromyalgia is a disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain accompanied by fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues. Researchers believe thatfibromyalgia amplifies painful sensations by affecting the way your brain processes pain signals. Having said that, I take medicine daily for the many different pains I live with. Occasionally though, I will have what is known as a “flare”. A flare is when symptoms intensify without warning and can last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. One just never knows when it will come on or even how long it might last.
Having said all of that, I wanted to blog about it because I watched a YouTube video today that shed some light on the subject for me that I had never seen before. It taught me that someone with fibromyalgia that consumes foods with copper should not do so. Copper, in anything if ingested, can have lots of repercussions for someone with fibromayalgia. We can receive significant pain from it.
First of all, I had no clue that copper was even found in foods, vitamins, and even in our water. What!?! So I did what anyone that had just learned something new would do, I googled it. It gave me a list of the top ten foods to avoid that contain copper and wouldn’t you know some of those foods would be my FAVORITES to eat!?! For instance, DARK CHOCOLATE contains copper…..no way! Another one of my faves is CRAB LEGS! It also stated that pork of any kind contains copper. NOT MY BACON!!!! Anything processed or containing something from the intestinal parts of an animal, such as liver, gizzard, etc., will contain copper.
I might as well just stop eating all together and just live on protein drinks, chips, and Dr. Pepper!! I mean just about everything I eat isn’t good for me now a days any way right, especially now that I know about this new found copper knowledge.
Anywho, now that I have learned to pay closer attention to things I consume for an ingredient known as copper, I will be checking all the labels as I go. But the one thing I refuse to give up is my Dr. Pepper a day. I will consume that until the day I die or I can not lift the can myself anymore. But wait, that’s when a straw will come in handy…LOL!
Can I just let ya’ll know that as an empty-nester, I don’t get to do the things that I once did with my kids to have fun. I had more fun with my kids as they grew up than I’ve had in a life time of fun not having kids.
Well, this weekend, my brother and his family came down to spend the weekend with us. They brought two of their three children along with them, both girls, and we had a blast of a weekend. Fun that David and I didn’t even realize that we needed! They got in late Friday, so not much to do but catch up on the happenings in our lives, which I thoroughly enjoy doing with family on any visit, before it was time to go to bed from being tired from the days work.
Saturday, we all got up with no plans in mind for the day. My husband cooked breakfast for everyone and as we waited to eat, we all just visited with one another. I asked the girls, ages 10 and 13, what they wanted to do for the day and they both said “I don’t know”. Let me explain that my brother is not one to just “sit around” and do nothing. I knew I needed to think of something we could all do together before he and my husband decided to venture outside and find things to do that “us girls” didn’t wanna do; I had to act fast! I began naming things in the “metro mess”, as it is called in small towns with little to nothing to do, that we could all do together and everyone would enjoy it. After a few minutes of discussion, a few clicks of the mouse on my laptap, we had tickets printed to a place that we (us girls) had decided to go to in Grapevine. It is called “Ripley’s Believe It or Not”. It’s a museum of artifacts as well as a museum of wax people and other attractions of fun for anyone of all ages to enjoy. So we all clean up and get dressed after breakfast and off we go for a two hour drive to have fun together as a family.
My husband and I had been there before with our two kids, now adults, but it has been many years back. So once we got there, we were all happily amazed as we encountered 5 attractions of fun times together, in no particular order. In the Palace of Wax, the main event for us, most of the wax people figures were so life like that we all took pictures with the ones we liked as if they were the real person themselves. HaHa! They had all of the presidents, many celebrities, and even scenes made of wax from the bible. We did the Ripley’s moving theater where we all sat side by side in a separate chair with 7D glasses on for a wild ride in two separate inter active short films. Then came LaseRace, which none of us were crazy about, but it was still fun. We went through the Believe It or Not museum where they had this one particular man that is known for the worlds tallest man. I won’t go into the details in case you’ve never been, but we all laughed together and of course we had to take pics with him. They have a little gift shop that you can walk around and get some nice souvenirs, which we did, before stopping to have a snack and a drink at the snack bar. The girls got one of their hands made of wax for a keep sake while we sat and ate and enjoyed the few minutes of rest from all of the walking we had done thus far. But for me, the most fun was when we went through the fifth attraction……the Mirror Maze. We all laughed so hard together! And when we got split up, a couple of times, we would laugh even harder as we could hear one another and even see one another through the mirrors but we could not find one another. Each reach out to touch was only a touch of a mirror. Eventually we all found our way out, at separate times, still laughing at the enjoyment from it all. So much fun!
Sunday, we spent the day with our mom by taking her to breakfast, going to church with her, then taking her to lunch before it was time for my brother and his family to head back home. We don’t get to see them but just a couple of times a year so it is always nice when they break away from their busy lives of running a business all while raising a family, plus taking care of some of his wife’s family that live close by them, to come visit us and catch their breathes with some fun and relaxation.
My husband and I always look forward to family coming to see us any time they can.
My husband, brother, sis n law, two nieces Me and my whole worldMe; having so much fun
Do you every ask yourself; “What is normal behavior?” Lot’s of people imagine “normal” as their own way of living life but God has called us all to stand out of the worlds “normal” crowd and just be whom He created you to be, no matter what crowd you’re in at the time. But is that accepted in today’s world? Are you accepted by not drinking in a crowd of “friends” that are drinking? Are you accepted by not smoking and or vaping in today’s world of “friends” that smoke and or vape? Are you accepted in what ever crowd you’re hanging out with, if you are not joining in on what ever that particular crowd of “friends” is in to these days?
My personality is not well liked by many people in today’s world. I am a very opinionated, out spoken type of person. I speak my mind, even when not prompted to, on just about anything and everything that comes up no matter whom I’m with, and often times with very little filter, if any.
I am a Christian and I stand firm on my faith and beliefs that Jesus is the Son of God and that we will all be held accountable for our actions here on earth when we die. I believe that Heaven and Hell are very real. I also believe that if you are not saved by Gods grace that you are not a christian, even if you “do good things” for others because good works do not get you to Heaven. Ephesians 2:8-10 (ESV) says “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
I am also a take charge, get er done, type person. Some people may even say that I am controlling but I don’t see it that way. I see it as a, if you aint gonna say it or do it then just move over and let me do it so we can be done with it already type of person.
I am also known as a “redneck” which is most our “normal” in the South. I am not always “politically correct” in my speaking and behaviors but I try my best to live as Christ like, as I know how to, by my actions and responses to others…..now. Before I was saved, I didn’t care how I made others feel by what I said or did, but now I do. My Texas accent, with that Southern draw, makes lots of people laugh out loud. Some times I am even asked to repeat a word, just so someone can hear me say it in my Texan slang and accent. And don’t even ask me for directions. HaHa! My directions are by “land marks”, not by north, south, east, and west. If you ask me about politics, you may think I’m clueless because I have my own way of explaining things to myself to make it make since.
All of the different characteristics that are within me, make me a unique individual created by God, as we all are. I do not care to be “liked” by everyone but I do care to be loved by them as Jesus called us to love one another. John 13:34-35 says “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
If you don’t like something about me, or someone else, that’s okay because we probably don’t like everything about you either. What matters the most is that we are able to love one another through our dislikes of one another. There is no need to point out everyone else’s characteristic flaws that you don’t like about them because we all have our own things about us that is not liked by someone. However, God created each one of us so that makes us perfect in His eyes.
The question here is: Can you look past someones characteristics that you don’t like in them in order to show true love, which is the love of Christ Jesus Himself? If not, you need to have a heart check. Just because we are different and have different ways about us does not mean that we can’t love one another.
Today was a busy day, full of un-decorating and reorganizing the now clean area where the tree once stood so pretty and tall, for my husband and I. The house is back in order after months of decorating and redecorating.
The Christmas tree, and it’s beauties, are all packed away for another year. The gorgeous wreath that we received as a gift this year, is off of the door and tucked away in its box. The outside decor is put away and the yard is back to it’s dreadful look of the brown, dry, cracked leaves that Fall has left behind.
I’ve always loved this time of year, especially where the 3 holidays come back to back, because we get to decorate and show our holiday spirit as each one comes and goes. My personal favorite area of decorating though is the outside decorations. I absolutely love to put out the goodies in the yard especially my inflatables! I have a few for each holiday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, then finally Christmas. It’s so much fun to see little kids faces as they see our yard all lit up with the lights and the changing of the “blow ups” for each month.
Anyway, it feels nice to have my house back in order and the yard free for my husband to mow the leaves and mulch them away.
I pray each of you had a blessed holiday season and a fun and safe bringing in of the New Year and decade of 2020. May we all remember the true reason for the season, Jesus’ birth, as we prayerfully and purposely seek God more and more in the new year.
Life and Love 