It’s been a while

So much has happened since the last time I wrote.  Technology has improved by leaps and bounds.  Do people even use that phrase anymore?   It’s improved A lOT.   😊. This was me today.  I sent this picture to Steven after he sent me a sexy picture of the two of us together on vacation.  All related G, don’t get excited.   I am a realtor now and today I signed a new client and met with a contractor with her and helped her pick out paint color and floors for her home that is now vacant and needing to be sold.  I also made dinner.  Alfredo sauce with curly noodles and stew meats and green beans and salad.  It was good if I do say so myself.  My boys are growing up so fast.  I can hardly believe how fast time is flying by.  As I type this, I’m on Daniels bed. He is looking at his cryptocurrency online and we were supposed to snuggle, but we started talking about faith and works and then looked up some stuff then discussed a little more then both started looking at other things.  So here we sit, not talking any more. Just being.  I love him.  Steven brought him a shake.

Now Steven is trying to get all to go to bed.  We will sometime.  

They will be going to visit Duke University this weekend.  Duke offered Daniel a full ride QB football scholarship.  So much has happened.  I’ll just update you as I go.  You can fill in the details. 

Death comes unexpectedly

Death is never easy. Watching a close friend grieve today was sobering. If death happens quickly and painlessly, or if death can't come fast enough, while enduring pain on earth.  It's not easy. 

But it does make me Thankful. 

I'm reminded of the old Pollyanna movie where the mad preacher says, "Death comes unexpectedly."  http://youtu.be/XpUBKw6i538  When I think of how fleating our lives are, here on planet earth, I can't help but thank God for the blessed hope we have in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I'm happy and rejoice for a life lived -loving people, and the legacy that is built by sharing that love with others. Just like Pollyanna, I choose to rejoice when I don't feel like it. I choose to love when they are unloving. 

The crazy thing is, we didn't earn that love. It was freely given to us, we just have to receive what is freely given. And, in turn, freely share that love. That's the hard part. Sharing. 

We are human. Our hearts are deceitful and wicked above all things. Who can know it? 

Only the love of Christ can change our hearts into His own.  

Only the love of Christ can bring joy and peace through the sorrow. 

Only the great comforter can fill the greatest longing of our hearts. 

Thank you, Lord, for a loving heart that hurts when my friends hurt and for a heart that can rejoice in YOU! Thank you for your blessed hope.  We will see our loved ones again one day in heaven! Please draw our hearts to you! Give us a hunger for you and you alone.  

Daniel's 3rd year of No Soda!

Today marks Daniel's 3rd year of No Sodas. We will take a day off for what he wants to try and then he will start over for another year. His requests for tomorrow: Mountain Dew, Double chocolate chip something from Starbucks and a sprite.  I hope he doesn't get a stomach ache like last year when he requested a Root Beer float.  I guess that's what ice days are for! Tomorrow will be our 2nd ice day this year.  I'm happy to see him making great choices this year!  Way to go Daniel! I Love You! 

Ice day with my boys

Today the boys did all the things they normally don't do... They watched A LOT of prerecorded cartoons and movies.  (We don't just turn them loose to watch what ever they want... regular cable TV is mostly junk) They ate a lot of carbs...including biscuits and gravy for breakfast, left over Valentine Day candy and roasted marshmallows for lunch, Spaghetti and Alfredo sauce, home made lime cookies, home made chocolate chip cookies and left over girl scout cookies for dinner.  Oh boy!  Definitely a cheat day!

After a trip outside to play on the trampoline, Joshua, my seven year old, came in and declared his fingers had frost bite.  Daniel, my twelve year old, told him his fingers will fall off.

Josh came in to ask, "Mom, when my fingers fall off, will they grow back?"
"No," I said.
"Why not?"
"Well, that's not the way it works.  God didn't create us that way.  We aren't lizards."
Starting to cry, "Why not?"
"Hey baby, you are going to be OK!"
"But, Mom, why can't my fingers grow back? Can't God make them grown back if He wants to?"
"Well, yes, I guess He could."
"Why doesn't he make them grow back, if He CAN do it?"

That, my friends, is one of the many mystery's of life.  One of the every day conversations we have with our kids about the Lord and life.  Talk of the Lord is part of life...see what the Bible has to say about talking about the Lord...

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 ESV

 ⁶ And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

I don't want to leave you hanging... Why doesn't God allow our fingers to grow back when they fall off?  My answer..."Well, God also gave us a brain and we know our fingers will not grow back, so we have to warm them back up in order to take care of ourselves.  God also gave someone the ability to invent gloves, so we have to wear them.   We can't deliberately disregard the common sense God gave us.  God is not a genie in a bottle that will grant our every wish.  His ultimate goal is to get us to love Him with our whole heart.  We have the choice to love and the choice to put on gloves and protect ourselves."

Thank you, Lord, for brains and your word, the Bible, that teach us basics of life.  Thank you, Lord, for loving us so much you gave us the gift of choice.  I choose life.  (And fingers)

Prayer changes Me

Prayer is my constant conversation with God. He doesn't judge my words. He doesn't judge my thoughts. Don't get me wrong... He will, one day, judge all of them. But for now, He accepts me the way I am. He loves me and forgives me when I get mad at Him. He loves me when I judge. He loves me when I hate.  He has a way of gently wrapping His loving arms around me and reminding me that He gave it all for me when he sent Jesus to pay the ultimate penalty for me.   He reminds me and teaches me through His word- the Bible- to love when I don't feel like it, to forgive when I don't want to forgive and to give grace because I've been given grace.  Learning to Love others is hard because I don't want to, but, Again, (I'm so hard headed) He shows me love...He shows me Grace, so how can I not do the same? Prayer is where it all starts. A conversation with God in my head (and sometimes I have to yell real LOUD), and hearing His Voice through His Word. And that makes all the difference. He is changing me. It's a slow process.