Time

How can time be so out of control? Is it only me or is it flying by at warp speed. I turn around and days have gone by. I can't believe it is not only December but it is almost half way over. That is frightening to me because I
I have a birthday coming up next week.

How can I possibly be another year older? Did anyone see Tangled? The evil mother has a line that comes to mind to me at this time. "It can't be your birthday, I distinctly remember you had one last year." It is too bad that doesn't count.  At sixty-six I should just be glad I am alive and healthy.

Tomorrow we will have our Christmas Tea. Next week my grandson Cade is coming to stay a few days so we can have Christmas with him. (You remember my daughter Amie went to heaven last May so he lives with his dad) I am excited to spend time with him we have always been close. He is now seven and one half. That one half is important at his age.

As a single mother raising four children alone Christmas was a hard time for me. That birthday made it that much more difficult for me to handle. Each year you know you are that much less attractive and odds of finding someone to care about getting worse every day. Now it is not so important.

Christmas is still hard for me. My daughter and her husband are very happy together but I am still alone.
God is my Husband but there are times when that seems like not quite enough.  After my birthday I will do
much better.

How about you? Are they holidays hard on you? Do you get bogged down? Are you alone like me?

Christmas Movies

I do need to tell you that our Heaven is for real event was awesome. We will probably never know all the lives that were touched but it was wonderful.

Now I want to share some things about the movies I saw this weekend.  After this last week I was terribly run down and was hit with some kind of virus, so I spent Saturday and Sunday reclined in my chair. I did little more than watch TV. Between the Hallmark channel, Hallmark Movie channel, and GMC I watched a lot of them.
One i really like was Christmas with a Capital C.  It was about a man who returned to his hometown and decided to run for mayor so he could get rid of the town nativity.  I thank God that I live in a town that does have a nativity that sits in the town square. There was a time when they tried to take it from us but thank God we still have it. The movie was very well done.  I love it when faith in God is shown in such a positive way.

The Heart of Christmas was another movie that really touched me. A story of a family with a terminally ill child and a town that bans together to help the family and how it changes the lives of those people.  November Christmas was another film with this theme, they both touched me.

The Ultimate Gift is another one of my favorites. A Christmas Wish was excellent too.  All in all I had a great weekend. I hate being ill but I did enjoy the rest. I thank God for movies about Christmas that are not just some story about Santa.  We all need more love in our lives and I praise God that others realize that too.

What about you? What are your favorite movies?

Heaven is for Real

Well tomorrow is our big day. We have been preparing for months for this. We are a small church of an average of fifty people. Tomorrow night we are expecting around six hundred.  Todd Burpo is a New York Best Seller and has been on some of the big name shows on TV, including Today, Good Morning America, The Early Show, 700 Club, Praise the Lord, Fox news, Marlyn Hickey, and all kinds of talk shows.

His PR people say that thousand have shown up for his meetings. To deal with the crowds we will be having two services; one a 6 pm and one at 8 pm. Everyone that attends the church is involved in the meetings; greeters ushers, video workers, sound systems workers, computer programmers, ect.  We will start working at four and will be there until well after midnight.

My granddaughter and I took cookies and candy to all our neighborhood with invitations to come.  We really want people to be saved.  We live in a huge county. A poll shows that over six thousand people in our county that do not attend any church. We have claimed thousand six thousand souls.  For tomorrow we claim two hundred souls.  We have sown for that number, we have prayed for that number, and we believe for that number.  God's heart is for the lost and I know he is pleased that we are reaching out to the lost.

This year has been a year of miracles for our church.  We had been told that we couldn't update anything in the church because of the electric capacity. We needed a new heating/ac system, needed video capabilities, ect. It was going to cost us a huge amount of money to get our electricity upgraded. It was impossible.  No way!

This year the city changed their electric cables that ran right by our church.  We were offered to upgrade our electric capacity for practically nothing.  It was a miracle.  We were able to get a new air conditioner/heating system. It is up and running.  We now have large screen TV in every room at the church.  We have a new web site where you can watch our services on video and we have hits from all over the world.  We were able to have our very first Mission Conference this fall.  We have just been able to replace our women tiny little bathroom for a new three stall bathroom that is simply beautiful.  It has been a glorious year and it is not over yet.

Tomorrow night will be another chance for God's glory to fill our sanctuary.  We are expecting miracles and expectation is the breeding ground for miracles.  I am expecting great things. His story is awesome.

What is God doing in your life? Do you expect great things?  Are you putting God in a box and not able to believe He can do anything to help you?  Please God deliver us from small thinking.

A Day of Highs and Lows.

My journey to publication took on several highs and lows today. I was on Seekerville and saw where Ramona
Richards was there guest speaker. I enjoyed her post very much.  In her post she offered to receive query letters from unpublished authors.  I was thrilled. I prepared three queries on my manuscripts and sent them in. A serious high.

I drove to town to find a copy of "Heaven is for Real" to give to a new acquaintance to invite her to our event at our church. (Todd Burpo is speaking Friday night) Could I find that book in town anywhere? (We no longer have a book store here) No! A serious low! I did give her an invitation though. I went to our community college to see if I could find out about any on-line creative writing classes and about any grants.
Was there anything I could take? No! Any classes on police work, forensics, or criminal justice? No! Serious low!

I had an email from Ramona when I returned. I received a rejection for my first book. it was 25,000 words to short. A serious low. It was my testimony. I received a notice that I had won a free book from Victoria Burks. A serious high, I love her books. I received another email from Ramona. She liked Little Girl Taken but she already has several books on human trafficking about to be released. Serious Low!  She did tell me to send a query next year if I hadn't found a publisher. (That good right?)  Her next email said she really liked my "Hidden Memories" but it was about 15,000 words to short. Would I consider expanding it? Serious high!  Would I send a book proposal? Serious low! I have no idea how to write a proposal!  I will write one though. I can assure you I will learn how to do that and quickly.

So my journey has been eventful today. How has your journey gone today?  I had asked God to use me and guide me. I'm not sure I did what I was suppose to. It sure didn't go the way I thought if would. My journey continues.

Black Friday

Well, Thanksgiving flew by and today is that infamous day after.  I went to bed early after pigging out and am now wide awake at 2am.  It suddenly dawned on me that people all over the nation  were up on purpose so they could grab that one much desired item that they or one of their friends or family just had to have and at a much discounted price.

Today people will show each other that we might be made in God's image but that we are still basically still animals at heart.  I hope that Christian do not go out there and run people over in malls, rip items out of the hands of fellow shoppers, and violently abuse other shoppers.  I have seen all kinds of horrors about the Black Friday crowd.  God help us, how can we become so uncivilized all over 25% off?

I plan to decorate my home today.  I won't go shopping unless there is something I have need of at that moment. When I am through with my decorating I will curl up with a good book and thank God for the safty and security of my own home.

Do you go wild on Black Friday?  Do you lose your Christianity when you are out there fighting with the crowds? 

Thanksgiving

I can't let this the best holiday of the year, to go by without comment. I won't be posting on Wednesday as it is my day of baking and preparation. So here is why this is the greatest holiday of the year.

All of the other holidays are about us. What we give, what we get, what we feel, but Thanksgiving is all about giving back to God. He does so many awesome things in our lives.  Some people give their tighes and can't understand why God is not blessing them financially. Stand back and look what God has done in your life.  Each day you wake up and get out of bed is a huge blessing. I look back in the past year or so and we have had some tremendous struggles. My thirty four year old daughter and my two month old great-granddaughter went home to be with Jesus. Yet through that God gave us grace and comfort in a way I never dreamed possible.

What we say? I am sixty-five years old, I don't take any meds, I am strong and healthy, my mind is still functioning the way it is suppose to. I am blessed. I may not have some of the toys that seem to be so important to other but my life is wonderful all I can do or say is thank you Lord for Your graciousness.

We have a home, cars, computers, and all the necessities of life.  My  children are all strong and healthy. They are prospering as are my eleven beautiful and healthy grandchildren and my four wonderful great-grandchildren.  I am so truly blessed.

Please take sometime to thank God for what he has done for you.

As I am writing this I am watching James Robertson. He has a man on his show named Dallas Weins. In 2008 he was electrocuted and had no face. He has undergone through twenty seven surgeries but now has a face transplant.  He had no eyes, no nose, and no teeth. He just had a blob that looked like a tumor with a slash for a mouth. He now has a face but he had never given up or wanted to end it.  He was there to just praise the Lord. No matter how bad things look, there is always some one who is worse off.

Let's just praise God and thank Him for what he has done in your life and the lives of your family.

A letter to my teenage self

I love to blog and I spend several hours a day on different blogs. So what is the deal about writing to your teenage self. It is every where.  I am not sure I understand the concept.  I would not go back to my teens ever again if that was possible nor would I share what is coming down the road. I would scare myself to death, literally.

I have made many grave mistakes but they have made who I am today. I would not advise myself to do anything differently. God has a plan for each of us. What road we take is a mystery to all of us but God knows exactly what we need in this life to get us to where we need to be.

I have lived through a life of mental abuse, physical abuse, divorce, depression, illness, and loss. I have raised four children alone and have remained single the last forty years. How do I warn myself to these things? Gdo has been good to me. He has been with me all these long, sometimes lonely, years. He has held my hands at times and He has lifted me up and carried me at others. God is good and His mercy endures forever. I have come to trust Him in ways other human beings have no concept of. He has been my Husband, my Comforter, my Healer, my Provider, my Lover, and my all in all.

Would you tell yourself to change things in your life? Would you share what has been going on in your life?