Little Tidbits and Updates

A few new things lately...

     Thanksgiving was a great time. I got to kick back and visit a little more than usual this time! :) I got to listen to some of Uncle Ben's great stories of when he and his brothers and sisters were younger. They were quite mischevious! :)  As always, we had an abundance of wonderful food and good, blessed times. The gathering was smaller than usual this time, but was still so much fun!

     Today I finished a baby quilt that I had been working on slowly for the past couple months. I hand stitched the little squares together into strips and then used the sewing machine for most of the rest. I finished it today. So much fun and it turned out pretty good for my first attempt at a patch quilt! :)  Chad helped me with a few things, so that was a lot of fun! -- I'll have to post pics of it soon.

     On a little more of a sad note, Chad has to leave for about 2 weeks for work. It's always rather hard on me to have him gone for any amount of time, but I will just have to keep busy with things. I think my brother Jethro will be staying with me to 'babysit' me. :)  That'll be great!

     My Aunt Rita's brother-in-law passed away on Sunday evening. It was quite sudden and unexpected. He had a massive stroke on Thanksgiving day, and the Lord took him just a few days later. Please be in prayer for his family as they mourn and make the final arrangements. --- Deaths always make me think of the Catholic belief of 'pergatory' - the hope (as I understand it)  that perhaps they can be able to pray their loved ones into heaven after they die...if they pray enough. That is kind of a sad hope to me. Isn't it wonderful that we can have a FULL assurance of salvation through faith in Christ Jesus!? What a blessed hope!

     I have been reading II Corinthians lately. There were some encouraging things in there today that got my attention. One of them was in chapter 7 verse 5:  "For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears."  The part that says, "within were fears" kinda jumped at me and I found strange comfort in that. I found it rather comforting that even Paul had fears, and to see that the Lord doesn't necessarily scorn us when we have fears, but rather God is a Father of love and He desires to relieve our fears...as it says in the very next verse. 
"Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus."  I love that God is so gentle and understanding! Where would we be if He was some tyrant??!
--- Another verse that I was encouraged by was 8:10-12. Now, maybe today I may have translated this scripture different than what it was meant to say...? I'm not sure, but I know the Spirit moves and shows different things at different times to work in the hearts of His people to comfort and encourage them. So, if this 'interpretation' seems not to be what you got out of it, please pardon me this once, for I was encouraged by this. :)   " And in this I give my advice: it is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and were desiring to do a year ago; but now also you must complete the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have. For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have."
 -- This to me kinda had a few things in it. One, I like where it says about doing something that they were desiring to do a year ago. That made me think of so many times when we get sidetracked from things we desired to do...whether for someone or start some kind of ministry, or whatever, that it is never too late. Even if you were gonna do it a year ago, you should complete it if the desire is there.  -- I like also how it says that if we have a willing mind, that seems to be the key. As long as we have that, it doesn't matter what we don't have -- the Lord is provider of all things that we need anyway. I know sometimes I can get hung up on the mind set of, "Oh if I only had that, then I really could do this!" HA! Ya right! Who are we fooling!? In the end, God knows our hearts, and if we only have a willing mind and faith in Him, "All things are possible"!

     Well, I hope those thoughts don't seem too jumbled. Sometimes my fingers can't keep up with my little thinker. :)

I hope you all have a blessed day!

Giving of Thanks

Sometimes I think we can become pretty unthankful/ungrateful for the things we have. I'm thinking today of what a 'crime' that is, really. God has blessed us in so many unspeakable ways...even what we may see as 'curses' or bad things are really blessings in disguise, if in fact we are His children. (And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.  - And even if you are not of His, He still blesses you in ways -- it says in Hebrews that He makes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
Romans 8:28)

Sometimes it is hard to see the blessings in the trials and tribulations and hard times, but nevertheless, the blessings are there and are abundant! I have seen this many many times in my life...especially since being married. God is so good to us! What a Father we have! Let us be thankful and give praise to our God for His unspeakable gifts!!

Today I am baking breads and getting things ready for Friday (the day my family gets together for Thanksgiving). I am excited to see all of our loved ones! I hope lots of people come! :)

I am getting more pregnant looking day by day. I went from 'flat to fat' in about 3 - 4 weeks! Crazy! :) Little baby is moving all over the place now. It is so much fun to just sit and watch him. I think Chad is having fun with it too. We continue to pray for wisdom in the days ahead as we prepare for baby's coming. We have a few decisions to make and things to get done. Hopefully we can get a room ready in time. Chad will be traveling for work soon again and will be gone about 4 weeks out of the next 2 months. We are also planning on going to Florida for 1 week in January, so hopefully in all this we can find time to be prepared and such. :)

I hope you all have a very wonderful Thanksgiving day. I pray the Lord will teach us to be more thankful from day to day and to realize who and what God is for us!

Till next time ~ Blessings

The Importance of Prayer

Good morning! It's a cold, but lovely morning here. We woke up to snow on the ground. Is winter starting to set in? I'm always amazed when I think of the miracle of how no two snowflakes are alike...isn't that amazing!? It just goes to show how infinitely wise our heavenly Father is.

This morning, before Chad went to work, we had a little Bible time together. We were reading in Luke chapter 11. The disciples had asked Jesus to teach them to pray and Jesus told them to pray what is known today as 'the Lord's prayer' -- although I'm not sure why people call it the Lord's prayer cause actually it is meant to be OUR prayer. I think if you want to find the Lord's prayer, you should look in John 17. -- Anyway, after He finishes telling them what to pray, he uses an illustration. Here are the verses:

"And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.
I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity (or persistence) he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.

(Luke 11:5-10)

I guess when I read this before, I read it in the King James Version and never really knew what that word 'importunity' meant. But when Chad read it today from the New King James, he used the word 'persistence' and it was clear to me what the passage was actually saying. The Lord actually is asking us to be persistent in prayer. Like the man in the illustration, perhaps the Lord is saying, 'not now'...or something to that effect. But it says to be persistent and He will give. This ties right in to the matter of faith, 'ask believing'. If we were just to give up hope and say, "I've prayed for this time and again, the Lord just isn't going to answer". I dont think that is the attitude that He would want us to have. Persistence by faith, I think this is key.

Anyway, I just thought this was encouraging cause sometimes I can get discouraged in prayer, feeling like I just pray the same thing time and again, but that is what we ought to be doing! That's nice to know. :) -- for me anyway.  So, lets, as Romans 12:12 says "...continuing instant in prayer." (The word instant here means to be earnest towards, to persevere, to be constantly diligent.) Lets persevere in prayer and be constantly diligent in it! :)

Grace and peace to you ~