Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Not a Tattered Sparrow...Or Is It?

The other day I spoke of the "Tatttered Sparrow" and how you could tell it had been roughed up by it's tattered feathers. Well I forgot to include something very important not all roughed up sparrows look tattered. Some sparrows come through being roughed up without an outward display.

I believe people are the same way as sparrows. There are some people that you can tell that they have been roughed up by life, but there are others who have been to the pits of hell and by looking at them you would never know.

Some people carry around wounds and scars from damage done by things they can not share. So they continue down the road they travel, living their lives the best that they can.

I think it would be wise of us, when dealing with others, to realize that we have no idea what they are dealing with in their lives.

The good news is it does not matter which sparrow that we are - Jesus loves us so very much! We are very valuable to Him. 

"Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will." Matthew 10:29

"Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows." Matthew 10:31 

Monday, July 30, 2012

The Importance of Praise

There has been a theme lately of what I have felt impressed with the last week and that is Praise. The Importance of Praising God! Sometimes when life gets us down we lose focus and forget to praise God for all the blessings he has blessed us with. Some trials are just so overwhelming that it is easy to feel like it is all we can do to stay afloat in life. But God wants more for us - so much more. So please join me in making it a priority to Praise God! He is worthy of our praise.

One of my favorite songs having to do with Praising God and how sometimes it is hard to do so. 
"I just want to praise You" 

Saturday, July 28, 2012

The Tattered Sparrow

This is so neat. I wrote this little piece earlier in the week in my spiral notebook. When I saw this cute photo on Facebook - I decided I wanted to include it with this post. 


The Tattered Sparrow

I saw a little sparrow in my back yard, I recognized him. His identity is given away by his tattered feathers. Last week our outside cat, Beans, got a hold of a bird and got it into our garage. This little bird did not give up, and was able to escape after being roughed up and losing some of his feathers. 

I have been noticing this little guy showing up in my back yard every now and then. As I saw him this morning it hit me. I feel kind of like that little sparrow. Life has gotten a hold of me and roughed me up, but I am not giving up. I am trying to keep my focus on Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. The adversary keeps lurking about, trying to pounce on it's prey, doing it's best to distract me. Sometimes even accomplishing that goal, but once I come to realize this, I pray and ask for help. And always when I ask for help, God is always there to provide what is needed. (Notice I said needed and not wanted) But I must be honest and admit that I don't always get the answer that I'd like but I must trust that God knows what is best. 

Surrendering my life to God allows Him to mold me into the person He wants me to be. And even if it means that I may sometimes feel like that tattered sparrow, it is the best thing for me. 
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Then when I went back to my room to get my spiral notebook to type up this post - I just happened to notice -the tattered sparrow - in my back yard. I toss out bird seed to my chickens and then of course the birds are drawn to that part of our yard. It was good to see that this sweet bird is still doing good.  And so am I. 

Sabbath Praise

Friday, July 27, 2012

Some of My Favorite Things....

I am so thrilled! Yesterday my son was going through some things in his room. Packing up stuff that he really does not need out right now. Trying to make his room more manageable for his needs at this time. One of the things he did was take some books out of the book case. I was thrilled to find a whole little shelf of books that the boys had as children. Some were when they were really young - some chapter books. I had totally forgotten about them. I had no idea that we still had these books. 
I was so happy to find these two books especially!!! 
These were two of my favorite books when I was a kid. I loved these books. They have been read over and over. And now they will be read over and over again. I think I might just put these two books up till my sweet granddaughter is a bit older. I don't want her to accidentally tear these books. She is usually very gentle but these are special books and there are a lot of cool book for us to read to keep us busy for a while. 
Do you remember any of your favorite books that you had as a young child? What were your favorites? 

Thursday, July 26, 2012

This and That

Today is going to be a this and that post. The past few weeks have been so busy. 
As my husband and I were eating supper and talking - I made the comment -"Well since this is the last of July, I am hoping that this is the last of the triple digit weather - then our electric bill will come down." 
"What?" My husband says...lol A girl can dream can't she. You all know how it is here in Texas - August in one hot month. Last year July, Aug and most of Sept were Hot months. So to be honest we have been very lucky this year. And I am so thankful to God for some cooler days. Cooler days - being the ones in the upper 90's. But believe me - there is a big difference of heat from the 90's. It may not be that great of weather but when it gets into those triple digit days- oh my those are hot - some of them even feel oppressive.
Here's a peek at our temps for the next 7 days. 


There is something else that I wanted to share with you all. And this is information that is important to have. Well I think it is. Do you remember when I had shared a while back that my MIL had an infection in her breast? Well it had been a staph infections. And they ended up finally getting it under control - after she lost about 1/4 of her breast. Well about a month ago or so her back started to hurt really bad. And the pain just would not go away. Well she went to the Dr and come to find out - the infection had moved to her back. She had to have a picc line put in and she is having to have a high powered iv 2 times a day. Plus she has to take some oral high powered stuff as well. 
Anyway I thought that this is something people ought to know. There are some really dangerous infections out there and they can move around your body. What is very sad is that the infection she has - when I looked it up - it basically said that a person could lose a limb or such with this kind of staph infection/bone infection. So we are praying that her body along with the meds will help clear up this infection - once and for all. Prayers would be appreciated! 

And since my MIL has the picc line - she can not do all the stuff she had been doing - so I am having to work every day at least 2+ hours doing some things that she had been doing. So that and Dr appointments, and all for my husband, and some evangelistic meetings going on at my church have made me a very busy girl. And with that I will end today's "This and That" post. 
I hope you all are doing great and staying cool. :o)

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

New, Cool Things



I found something really cool at the store last week. Duncan Hinds has a new product. "Frosting Creations" is what it is called. You buy the frosting and then pick out what ever flavor you would like to add to the plan frosting. There looked like there were a lot of cool flavors. I can't wait till it cools off and I can try it out.  

I know this photo is kind of blurry but wanted to share just in case you could get an idea of what flavors they had. I am thinking if you wanted to find out more you could go to Google and type in the info and find out more. Maybe even coupons to try it out. 
What new, cool things have your found lately? 

Friday, July 20, 2012

So Instead..

Right now- my husband and I would have been on our way to Fredricksburg, Texas for the week end to celebrate our 24th Anniversary, but that trip had to be canceled due to my husbands surgery - which not only caused us to have to stay in the area but took all the money we had saved for the trip - plus more. So instead we are trying to find some fun things to do in the area. There is a Quilt Show in a nearby town that we are going to go to today and and for Sunday we have planned a trip to the Antique Mall and a stop at Dairy Queen on the way home to use our buy one get one free coupon that they sent us for our Anniversary! May have a few other fun activities in there - don't know yet. But it goes to show - you can find fun things to do - even in your own area.
I hope you all have a wonderful week end! :O)

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Weather/Quilting/Mercy


Well here is what our temps look like for the next 7 days. It has been warm here - but what is new - it's Texas! I have to say that I am SO very thankful that we have gotten a little shower here and there lately. Those showers are so refreshing! Last year we had triple digit temps EVERY single day of July. And no rain.  It is so sad - I see the results of our drought everywhere with dead trees here and there, my own I miss the most. 

But this year it has been much more bearable. I am so thankful! 
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On a different note - I was thinking about when I first began this blog a couple of years ago. My main purpose was sharing our journey with my husband's Parkinson's. And it really surprised me because - what I had expected was - maybe meeting up with other people dealing with early onset Parkinson's and encouragement. What surprised me was that I actually got comments basically telling me to get over it. Yep. I guess my sharing my experience bothered them. What is very funny to me now is that they seem to do a lot of complaining on their blog. And I am doing my best to be accepting and show mercy. 

Anyway that is the main reason why I really like the phrase -"take what you like and leave the rest" because I realize that not everyone will like what I have to say and that is OK. It's nice to have the freedom to post those things that I feel led to share.

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I hope you all are able to stay cool and find fun things to do inside. There are a lot of options, pick one and enjoy! One of the things I do is quilt and I tonight I finished my BOM for this month and thought I would share it with you all. 
Oh and by the way it is actually square - I just had to try to take the photo with my cell phone and I think I got it at a weird angle. Anyway and the colors are a bit brighter. 

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Monday, July 16, 2012

Acceptance


I guess it is because I have always dealt with not have the ideal body(the one that the media says is ideal) that makes me totally relate to this photo. And so when I saw this great photo on Facebook this week - it really spoke to me. God created all of these fruits, just the way they are. And it is funny to me that someone wrote the different comments and such that we often say about ourselves. We need to remember that God created us and made us special. We are unique - no two of us are alike - well twins maybe.  But we need to learn to embrace our differences. Learn to love ourselves and value ourselves like God does. This is something I am working on myself. Those negative comments we say about ourselves do not do us any good, most of the time they bring us down.
This is a prime example of when the Serenity Prayer is very handy. 

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

There are things about us that we can not change and we need to accept those things. But there are things about us that maybe we can change and we can ask God to help us with those things. 
But whether there are things about you and your body that you can or can not change - the first step is to accept yourself. And realize that God loves you so very much. So very much that he stretched out His arms and died on the cross for you! That...is Love! :O) 

Friday, July 13, 2012

Be Back Soon

Just wanted to let you all know that I will be taking a few days off, hopefully I'll be back to posting on Monday. Have a wonderful day! :O)

Thursday, July 12, 2012

We are Home!

So sorry for not posting sooner. But just wanted to take some time to drop in and let you all know that my husband had his surgery and we are home. He is sore and when they put the tube down his throat - it damaged it a bit and so his throat hurts and he is not doing very much talking. I would have posted earlier but I ended up getting a really bad headache and just have not felt that great. We had to be at the hospital by 6am, which meant that I had to wake up at about 4:30am so we would be able to get there in time. I am so thankful that this is behind us. Neither one of us slept very good last night. I look forward to sleeping tonight.
Well I need to get off of here and get a few things done, then I will be calming down for the day and really working towards getting to bed at a decent time.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Choosing to Believe

Sorry for being MIA. 
We found out that my husband does have a hernia that needs to be surgically taken care of. And the surgery will be Thursday. Tomorrow my husband has to go have his pre-op stuff done and along with that they will do an EKG and if he passes it then he will find out the time of the surgery. If a person does not pass - no surgery. So tomorrow afternoon we should know more. They will have to go in and do a half circle around the belly button and "dissect" down to the trouble. Yuck...I know, but that is what the Dr said. If the hernia is small they will just stitch it up. If it is a big one they will have to put mesh in. And the Dr said if they have to do that - there could be more complications because apparently the mesh things can end up getting/causing an infection. 
Life can be challenging sometimes. And sometimes life can just continue to be challenging day after day..till you get to a point of really craving some good news or some relief...some where...some how. But I am choosing to believe that God IS in Control. And although it is hard to totally trust Him when going through many trials...the best thing we can do, is exactly what Job did - He held onto his belief and faith in God. What an excellent example for us. I will leave you with this excellent song as a remind of God being in control. God bless each and every one of you. 

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Prayers for us...Prayers for you?

Tomorrow afternoon my husband has an appointment with a general surgeon. Last week we took him to Care Now and come to find out he has 2 hernias,.a ventral and umbilical hernia. So hopefully we will find out when his surgery will be. Please pray that it will be scheduled before there is any serious problems with said hernia's. He had to work a few days last week -he needs to save time off for after his surgery. But I am worried that he will over do it at work, since what he does involves a lot of things that would not be good for him to be doing.

While we are talking about prayer request - my oldest son still needs to find a good paying full time job. I am thankful that he has a job right now - but it is not something that pay enough to pay all of his bills. He will have to start pulling 1-2 14 hour days a week So a total of 56 hours a week in order to be able to cover his car payment. That still leaves us with his portion of the insurance bill - which is about $200 a month. And that makes things tough on us. So a good job would be a blessing for all concerned.

Those are my prayer request - well there are always unspoken requests as well - but I figure we all have those. Thanks so much for the prayers. If you have any prayer request - you can leave a comment or send an e-mail(it it shown on the side bar) I would be glad to pray specifically for you all. I already pray for you - and it is fine because I know that God knows what is needed in your lives and He will answer the prayers to His glory.

So that is what is going on around here. God is still in control and I am so thankful.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Sabbath Praise



Just in case you needed reminding of how VERY much YOU are loved! :O)

Friday, July 6, 2012

Earthquakes..... Yes, Really

In the wee hours of this morning- while we were all asleep- an earthquake rattled our house and woke us up! This is the 3rd earthquake that we have felt. All have been under 4.0 magnitude -but for us Texas folks - earthquakes are scary things. The first one - hit back in June - it was another of those way early in the am and woke my son and I up from a good sleep. My son wondered if a car had hit our house. That a highly unlikely due to the fact that there is a good sized bar ditch in front of our house. Anyway we quickly realized that it was an earthquake. Just one of them happened during the day. It is a scary occurrence during the day as well. Trust me - this is not something that we are used to dealing with. And truthfully - would rather not deal with. We have enough other problems to deal with like....tornado's and such.

It wasn't but in the last 6 months that a tornado touched down with in a couple of miles of my home. And many more hit this area. That is no fun either.

Some people say that our earthquakes are due to a lot of drilling going on - but I say that they are just another sign of the times we live in. Jesus is coming....SOON! We need to be ready!

"For nation shall riseagainst nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall befamines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places." Matthew 24:7

Identity in Christ

Just a little something floating around in Facebook land. It has some great reminders of the new identity that we can have in Christ! Enjoy! :O) 

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Meanwhile....

Just a short post to check in and say Hi! I don't have much time to post this morning. I had to mow this morning and then ended up running out of gas and so it took up more time than I thought it would and I still have to get to work. So I wanted to leave you with a funny, but true photo going around Facebook right now:  


Oh so true... and what is sad it will be like this for at least about 2 more months. But there are things to keep us busy inside and we just work around the heat by doing outside things in the mornings while it is still somewhat pleasant. It is barely getting into the upper 70's at night as our lows but that is something to be thankful for because it won't be to much longer before 80's are as low as we go. 

Anyway I hope you all are finding ways to stay cool. Just remember - this too shall pass. :O) 

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

When We Find Ourselves Stuck

At SS this week - we noticed a little frog in a container on the teachers desk(our SS class is in one of the classrooms of the school at our church.) Anyway one of the ladies brought him over to the table that we were sitting around, so we could watch him as he swam around. 
He seemed to keep swimming towards the edges of the container as if he was asking himself how he got stuck. What wrong choice had he made to get himself in this predicament?. 
As I watched him, I realized that sometimes we find ourselves in this same situation- stuck. We find ourselves in difficult situations and wonder why we are there. And sometimes it is because of a choice we have made, but sometimes it has nothing to do with what we have done. 

    "But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold."  Job 23:10

"Be sober , be vigilant ; because your adversary the devil, as a roaringlion, walketh about , seekingwhom he may devour :" 1 Peter 5:8

But we do know that no matter what situation that we find ourselves in  - God is there and able to help us! Praise God!! 

Monday, July 2, 2012

Choose You THIS Day

    "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve ; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell : but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." Joshua 24:15

Choosing who we will follow is not a singular event, years ago- when we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior. It is a choice for us to make every day. Every morning we have the choice of who we want to serve. It is our choice. Freedom of choice is something that God offers. Even when we choose the wrong things - the hurtful things - He still allows us to have the freedom of choice. This makes me love Him even more. There is no force - just freedom to choose. May we choose Him who created us, who died on the cross for our sins so He could give us the gift of salvation. Who will you choose to serve today? 

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Works Because of Faith

This is something that I found in my "Great Controversy" book that I have been reading. If you have ever wondered about the connection of works and faith - please keep reading. 


"Through long years of wearisome and comfortless striving-- years of rigorous self-denial, of reproach and humiliation-- Wesley had steadfastly adhered to his one purpose of seeking God. Now he had found Him; and he found that the grace which he had toiled to win by prayers and fasts, by almsdeeds and self-abnegation, was a gift, "without money and without price." 



Once established in the faith of Christ, his whole soul burned with the desire to spread everywhere a knowledge of the glorious gospel of God's free grace. "I look upon all the world as my parish," he said; "in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty, to declare unto all that are willing to hear, the glad tidings of salvation."-- Ibid., page 74.

He continued his strict and self-denying life, not now as the ground, but the result of faith; not the root, but the fruit of holiness. The grace of God in Christ is the foundation of the Christian's hope, and that grace will be manifested in obedience. Wesley's life was devoted to the preaching of the great truths which he had received--justification through faith in the atoning blood of Christ, and the renewing power of the Holy Spirit upon the heart, bringing forth fruit in a life conformed to the example of Christ." GC 256 

What a great explanation of the relationship of faith and works.