Praise God, we had a wonderful holiday. We were very blessed and we gave more than we got. I ended up giving away a lot of my crafts I had made. That is ok. God blessed me with a few sales and it was more than I would have had if I had not even made the effort. I love to give anyways. It was nice to be able to give something I had worked on to make really nice.
Ivory got a lot more presents for her birthday than Christmas. I do not think she was bothered though. At the age she is at, she just loved opening the presents. We even let her unwrap ours. We got her 2 more stuffed Backyardigans to add to her collection and a Strawberry Shortcake video. Shs loves the stuffed toys and we have watched the video at least 4 times already. We had a family picture made and I was able to send out some cards for Christmas, although most people did not get them till today. (better late than never....)
I am looking forward to the changes that God has for us this next year. We are still in prayer for where He wants us to go, but we know we will move on at some point. Some people will miss us but I think they will end up forgetting us after awhile cause we seem to be easily in the background. Let's just say that we don't have enough strong bonds here to fullfill our desire to be connected to other Christian families. In the end, this will make it easier to move on to wherever God wants us to be. No matter what though, we are not going anywhere without our Lord's blessings.
I pray that you had a good holiday. I understand missing loved ones at this time, but I can also rejoice in the fact that we shall be together again soon. I know my mom and father in law are in heaven for sure. I have other relatives there also. I look forward to our great reunion some day.
God Bless You all.
Happy New Year!
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Another God Stop
I wanted to record my God Stops here. It seems that my idea for the Bible study is not working out, but that is ok. I am just going to share and enjoy this site anyways.
My really cool story has to do with our car. We have had a lot of things go wrong with it recently. It is an old car and someday we will have to get a new one. Until then, we are praying this one will last us as long as possible. Our church has been very kind to help us. One man, in particular, very kindly fixed our water pump. He did not just do that though. He had the car at his home for 2 days and even cleaned and vacuumed the front of the car. Another man paid for the parts and he did the labor for free. We were very grateful.
A few weeks after the repair we had another water leak. This was really bad. We were able to get it home but that was it. It was not holding water at all. The wonderful man came back to check on what he feared was a faulty water pump. He worked on it here and found a hose that was cracked. He told us that while cleaning the car for us the previous time, he found a hose under the seat. It was the exact hose we needed and it was brand new! We did not know for sure where it came from. It is likely that is was left there by the men that fixed our radiator as a leftover part they bought but didn't need and just left for us "in case we needed it"! Praise God! I mean, God knew we would need that hose some day and He made a way for it to be there for us. It is such a great reminder of how God will meet our needs if we just seek Him and allow Him to work. I mean, even when we don't see, God knows the whole story, from beginning to end.
I pray this story blesses you. God cares for us all!
Amen
My really cool story has to do with our car. We have had a lot of things go wrong with it recently. It is an old car and someday we will have to get a new one. Until then, we are praying this one will last us as long as possible. Our church has been very kind to help us. One man, in particular, very kindly fixed our water pump. He did not just do that though. He had the car at his home for 2 days and even cleaned and vacuumed the front of the car. Another man paid for the parts and he did the labor for free. We were very grateful.
A few weeks after the repair we had another water leak. This was really bad. We were able to get it home but that was it. It was not holding water at all. The wonderful man came back to check on what he feared was a faulty water pump. He worked on it here and found a hose that was cracked. He told us that while cleaning the car for us the previous time, he found a hose under the seat. It was the exact hose we needed and it was brand new! We did not know for sure where it came from. It is likely that is was left there by the men that fixed our radiator as a leftover part they bought but didn't need and just left for us "in case we needed it"! Praise God! I mean, God knew we would need that hose some day and He made a way for it to be there for us. It is such a great reminder of how God will meet our needs if we just seek Him and allow Him to work. I mean, even when we don't see, God knows the whole story, from beginning to end.
I pray this story blesses you. God cares for us all!
Amen
Thursday, October 12, 2006
God Stops
In our Bible study "Believing God" by Beth Moore she has us do 5 lessons during the week. In our study time at home we have a part at the end called "God Stops". This is where we are to record our encounters with GOD during the day. If there is a time that you see God working in your life in a uniquely supernatural way, you are encouraged to record that encounter. The purpose is obviously to get us to start noticing how God is working in our lives.
I had a great one this week. I would like others to post theirs here if they feel so moved. I want to collect these stories. I think it builds our faith when we see God working in our lives and the lives of others around us.
So, Tuesday I open an email from a friend and I was immediately offended at the comment made by this person. I was not sure if it was a joke or they meant to be rude. I steamed about it for awhile as I read my other emails. I was ready to respond to his email with rudeness. Before I wrote that reply I read my devotional and it was talking about building bridges and not walls. It said that when we are offended we have the chance to retaliate with rudeness and show our indignation and build up walls, OR we can choose to build bridges and in my case just not say anything. I stopped. God totally stopped me from replying to what I perceived as rudeness. He has told me to be a friend to this person even though I have many times where he has hurt me. I forgive him and though I do not hold a grudge I am guarded. I don't want to allow his hurtful words to make bitterness in me.
And so I did day 5 of our study and we are told about being offended with GOD. Now I wondered what that meant. Then I realized. If God does not answer our prayers the way we want we are tempted to be hurt and not want to trust Him in the future. We may even decide NOT to pray for something because we don't want to be disapointed. That is not what God would have us do. He is God and though we don't always understand why he does things the way he does, we trust that He is God and that we are not.
So that is what I have learned this week. It has been profound on me. I could elaborate more but I need to spend some time with my dear hubby and daughter.
Please if you are reading this and want to share, post your comment now. Let us all rejoice with you.
Praise God for revealing His love to us day by day, moment by moment, breath by breath.
Amen
I had a great one this week. I would like others to post theirs here if they feel so moved. I want to collect these stories. I think it builds our faith when we see God working in our lives and the lives of others around us.
So, Tuesday I open an email from a friend and I was immediately offended at the comment made by this person. I was not sure if it was a joke or they meant to be rude. I steamed about it for awhile as I read my other emails. I was ready to respond to his email with rudeness. Before I wrote that reply I read my devotional and it was talking about building bridges and not walls. It said that when we are offended we have the chance to retaliate with rudeness and show our indignation and build up walls, OR we can choose to build bridges and in my case just not say anything. I stopped. God totally stopped me from replying to what I perceived as rudeness. He has told me to be a friend to this person even though I have many times where he has hurt me. I forgive him and though I do not hold a grudge I am guarded. I don't want to allow his hurtful words to make bitterness in me.
And so I did day 5 of our study and we are told about being offended with GOD. Now I wondered what that meant. Then I realized. If God does not answer our prayers the way we want we are tempted to be hurt and not want to trust Him in the future. We may even decide NOT to pray for something because we don't want to be disapointed. That is not what God would have us do. He is God and though we don't always understand why he does things the way he does, we trust that He is God and that we are not.
So that is what I have learned this week. It has been profound on me. I could elaborate more but I need to spend some time with my dear hubby and daughter.
Please if you are reading this and want to share, post your comment now. Let us all rejoice with you.
Praise God for revealing His love to us day by day, moment by moment, breath by breath.
Amen
