When I got home from spinning this morning, I went outside to feed Hershey (he's my 100 lb lab) and to sit for a while. As I was sitting there, just kinda soaking it all in, I looked up at my light and there was a perfect spider web. You know, just like the one in Charlotte's Web. It was perfectly spun, not just a strand here or there and it was HUGE. Now, normally my first thought is huge web, huge spider so get rid of it, but I just looked. Never saw the spider but I figured he was around somewhere. As I came inside, I realized how lucky we really are. How God gave us this perfect world to live in. True enough, not all things go right, life is not fair and we don't always get what we want, but God loves us and wants nothing but the best for us if we will just do His will.

Today is going to be a good day. I am energized and have no intentions on letting anything or anyone get me down today!! Be blessed... I love you all, have a great day!!!!

As my daughter had her Honor's Day last Friday, all I could do was cry. For alot of reasons.... one, she was at the school that her grandma (my mama) taught at and as she walked across the stage getting her awards, I couldn't help but think that her grandma was smiling every single time they called her name. Second, I was crying because she was leaving middle school and in my head, she was about to have to start making some serious choices about her future. High school was coming and it was time to start thinking about what school she would go to college at, making sure her grades stayed up so she could GO to college, what kind of job she would have after college, you know.. all the normal stuff I guess parents get paranoid about. And of course she has it ALL figured out.... she's going to the University of Tennessee and play in the WNBA and be a lawyer. This had been her dream for as long as she could hold a basketball and for almost as long as she could talk, she wanted to be a lawyer, that has never changed.

So this weekend, I thought alot about my daughter and her future. But then I thought, what if something happens and she can't do any of the stuff she wants to do, where does that leave her? I thought about my sons and what they are gonna do after high school.. the military, college, marriage, kids...??I think its good, no great to have goals in life and to have some questions answered on how you will handle things and situations, but what about a more important question: where will she (or any of us) spend eternity? Do you know?

I am not trying to be morbid in any way, but one day our earthly bodies will go away and we will either live in eternal joy and peace or eternal pain and suffering. When Jesus was hanging on the cross between the two thieves, one of them knew and believed who Jesus was and repented right there. - Luke 23:42-43 "Then he said, Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus answered him, I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."The thief had a change of heart and he believed and because of that, he was forgiven and is going to spend the rest of eternity with Jesus in heaven.

Have we really changed our hearts and turned from lives of sin? Do we trust God with everything we have and believe He is who He says He is? Like I said, not trying to be morbid, but it is what it is. We will all pass aways one day. I am very proud of my children and their accomplishments in school, I really am, but in the grand scheme of things, I really don't care where my children go to school, it doesn't matter what job they have, or how much money they make. All that matters is do they believe and where will they be when Jesus comes back.

Can you tell my mind wonders alot...LOL. Anyway, I hope you all have a great day. I think its gonna rain again. I told someone yesterday I like the rain, it calms me, gives me time to think and that's what I did last night.

I love you all and Lord willing, we will talk again tomorrow!!

Time to clean!!

Every year I hear people talking about spring cleaning. You know... the weather changes and all of a sudden we get a burst of energy to tackle jobs around the house. Well... not me. I am more of a " I'll do it tomorrow", " I'll clean out the storage shed later on", " still haven't finished painting those cabinets over" Only problem is that some things sit and sit and after a while, you have no choice but to deal with them before you lose your mind. That would be me too....

Have you ever thought that's how we deal with issues, sin, in our lives? I mean the " BIG" ones we try to deal with right off, because after all we need to take care of those before anyone notices. But those "little" ones.. we don't think are a big deal. We can deal with those later on, but guess what, " those little ones can become just as great as the others.

Now first let me clarify...I DO NOT believe there is a such thing as a big sin/little sin. But don't we categorize them. Think about it and see if we don't do this sometimes.... if someone is having an affair, that is not NEARLY as bad as lying to someone, doing drugs is so much worse than telling a dirty joke...... hmmm... nope, ITS ALL THE SAME.. hate to tell ya!

But we tend to let those jokes, using the Lord's name in vain, and telling a little white lie slip by without a second thought. But I contend that those same things can become so overwhelming that they can began to control our lives. Christians are called to a higher standard and should know that these things are not something we need to be doing. We are told to be perfect in everything that we do.. that includes big AND small things. Lets all make a commitment to start paying attention to the "little" things too and let the spring cleaning of your heart, mind and spirit begin now!!!

Love you all... Lord willing............

Until I actually started paying to have my nails done, I use to bite them everyday. Sounds gross, but that's what I did. My son does that too. When my daughter reads a book, she rubs the other page with her fingers and it makes this irritating noise. She never even knows shes doing it and the noise doesn't bother her. It's just a habit. All of us have them whether you know it or not.

Habits are things that we repeat over and over. After the first time we do something, it is normally easy to do it again, hence the habit. And this may not always be good things. Some habits are one we really need to break.

Have you ever thought about what your "Christian" habits are? Maybe habit is not a good word... how about things that become second nature to us as Christians. Reading our Bibles, praying daily, teaching our children, going to church, helping others..... I have heard so many people, including myself, say that they just don;t have time to read their Bibles or even pray. Its not that you don't, it's what you want to do. We find time to do everything else that we want to do other than what we NEED to be doing.

I have vowed that I will read a chapter a night in my Bible. Sometimes I run around so much that I am tired and find other excuses as to why I can't. But I make time to go to the gym, I work, I go to the kids school, I can cook, and even "find" time to hang out with a friend or two during the week. As much as God has given me and all of us, I think we can make time for Him.

So make it a goal... start by reading a chapter a night, read a Bible story to the kids, but spend time in God's Word everyday. The only thing this can do is grow our faith even more and get encouragement as we go through our daily lives.

I love you all bunches!! Have a great day and Lord willing......

I know y'all probably think I make some of this stuff up, but I promise you, it really happens to me or people I know and i learn from it all the time.

Case in point: I have a friend (and I know he does not mind me writing this) who is having some issues. He made so mistakes and because of those mistakes, his life is changed forever. He called me one night to talk and his exact words were " I repented so I don't know why this is still happening to me."

Hmmmm... now you know you have to be careful when you speak to people. One, you don't want to tell it wrong and two, you don't want them to resent anything you try to do to help. So I said " hold on". I grabbed my Bible off the table and started to turn the pages. I am not good with quoting scripture word for word, but I wanted to get it right. He said before I could even open my mouth again.. " I already know what you are gonna read, you don't have to". Too late.. got it and it says

"Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life." Galatians 6:7-8.

I agree that repenting of sins is the first step but that does not automatically let us off the hook. I told him that I am still reaping some of the stuff I sowed also but now I know better and he will too. But the thing I found interesting is that once we reread that part of Galatians, we are pretty much bummed out. Like there is no hope ya know. But if you keep reading (which I never paid attention to before) it says :

"Let us not become weary in doing good., for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."

I know that for a longtime I got caught saying I am tired of trying to do right and nothing happen. I sometimes think it now! It gets hard seeing everyone else "seemingly" get everything they want when they want it. Jealousy starts and then that a whole other thing, but God said Don;t give up or give in and we will reap a harvest at the proper time. And you know what else, that may not be here on this earth. Maybe, just maybe it means having a home w/ Christ for eternity and that would be the best harvest ever!

So I guess I helped my friend that night. He called back so that's a good sign.

I hope you all have a great day. I am rushing as usual.. gotta run. Love you all and Lord willing......

It was a good, but somewhat long weekend. My child had a tournament all weekend at Darton so I spent Saturday and half a day Sunday there. Although they didn't place this time, and she is a little sore, they played well and had fun.

I want to say thank you to some people who came to see Brianna's game this weekend. It was a bit of a mess, because we had set times to play, or so we were told and the game they chose to come see did NOT start on time at all so by the time they got there, the games was almost over and we were not even playing the last game we were scheduled to play. Did I mention you had to pay to get in.... it was a big ole mess and I was mad, for them and for our girls.

I hope you all have a great day. Lord willing, we will talk again tomorrow...

I think Hanna Montana is the most annoying person on the Disney Channel. I watch the show because my kids like it, including my 14 yr old (don't let her fool you). Every time I see it, I am just wondering what in the world the kids see in this show... and Billy Ray.. don't get me started!!! But I heard this song the other day and I was like WOW. Not really her singing so much, but it was what she was singing:

"The struggles I'm facing.The chances I'm taking.Sometimes might knock me down.But no, I'm not breaking.I may not know it.But these are the moments that I'm gonna remember most, yeah.Just gotta keep going.And I, I got to be strong. Just keep pushing on'Cause there's always gonna be another mountain. I'm always gonna wanna make it move.Always gonna be a uphill battle.Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose. Ain't about how fast I get there. Ain't about what's waiting on the other side. It's the climb, yeah!"

It's called The Climb and I was like alright, this little 16 year old hit the nail on the head. And I liked the fact that when it came on all the kids started belting out the lyrics.. haha. I don't know that they understand the words and I don't know if she was thinking about God when she wrote it, but I was. Isn't this like a theme song of our lives?

There are always going to be situation in our lives that we want to handle. It's not always gonna be easy or fun, and guess what, it may not come out like we want it too, but as long as we keep the faith and pushing forward, we will learn from it. I really like that song....

Well it's Friday people, YAY! It has been a LONGG week but it's time to kinda unwind and have a little fun. I hope you all have a great weekend (it's suppose to rain). Love you all and Lord willing, we will talk again on Monday!!

Her life is over, or so she thinks!!

My daughter got her cell phone for Christmas and I don't I have really "seen" her sense. LOL.. She doesn't talk on it alot, but thank GOD for unlimited texting because my bill would be sky high if I didn't have it. She sleeps w/ the phone, eats w/ it, takes a shower w/ it, takes it to basketball practice.. she even asked me one Sunday morning to go back home b/c she left it and she "needed" it... we will not talk about how that conversation ended!! Anyway, about 2 months ago, that would be THREE months after she got it, she was playing w/ it and dropped it, cracking it in just the right place that she couldn't get any reception for calls. But she could still text. I told her then, I am not paying for another one, you raise the money and get it yourself. So she did but not before she got in trouble and got the phone taken away so she decides to spend the money on lets just say not so smart stuff.

Fast forward to last night. I am on the phone w/ a friend and she comes in my room crying like she had lost her best friend and throws the phone on the bed. I pick it up and start laughing... its really not funny, but it is. The phone is just going on and off by itself... its about to kick the bucket. My friend on the phone is like" is she REALLY crying?".. ahhhhh yep.... so I tell her again, you had the money, you chose to do something else so now you have figure out how YOU are gonna pay to have it replaced. Not to mention, I had asked her to do something and she as so consumed with the phone, she had not even done it. Now she had PLENTY of time to get it done.Now she is REALLY crying.. I mean you would think she was dying.... in the end, she came up w/ this plan that included her daddy and for now... she seems alright... we'll see if she gets the phone.

I tell that story to say this, God is like that with us. Now I am not saying God made it so that the cell phone didn't work, but I had asked her to do something and she was in her own world, much like we are sometimes with God. He is asking us to do what HE wants us to do, and out response is " okay, I'll do it, just let me finish this first", but one way or the other HE will get our attention and it may not be in a way we like. Let try starting today, listening for what God wants us to do and try doing it on the first go round. He going to be happy and it will make your life much smoother!!

I love you all. I hope you have a great Thursday and Lord willing we will talk again tomorrow!!


PS - spinning class three..... check!!!

I have 168 numbers in my cell phone. Sounds like alot huh, but I am sure alot of you have way more than that. Last night I was going thru the phone and realized that alot of these people are people I have met in passing, I never talk to them and I really just don't know them. I guess its just nice to see 168 numbers in the phone but all of these people are not really friends, know what I mean? Then I decided to go through the phone and see just how many people I knew I could call on if I really needed them, no matter what time of day or night.... made my eyes get a little wide.. it wasn't 168.

Proverbs 18:24 - "A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."

I think we need meaningful relationships with people, God wants that, but I think that those relationships are give and take and not just all one sided. I told you once that Madea was one of my favorite characters and she said in one of her plays (which she took this from a Bible verse) but everything has a season, everyone has a season, and not everyone is meant to be in your life forever." I began to realize that this past year more than ever. I have always had alot of friends. I just have that kind of personality I guess.. haha.. but I have realized as I have gotten older and a little wiser, not everyone has your best interest at heart no matter what they say.

This is what I think friendship should be (and this kind of relationship is give and take, NOT just one sided): But friends should listen, you should share interest, protect each other, they tell the truth, they overlook faults, bare burdens of the other, they bring out the best, they are loyal to the end, they build us up and most importantly, they build us up spiritually. Do you realize how hard it is to find people like that... think about it.

What I have learned this year is that God are all of those things. He listens every time I open my mouth, I can tell Him anything and know that He is not going to judge me, He is going to be there with me until the end and He always builds me up. This year has been a year of change so far for me, for the better I might add, and it is because of the friendship I decided I needed from someone who only had my best interest at heart.... and He's not even in my cell phone!! I thank God every day for not giving up on me even when I do stupid crap or even when I give up on myself.

I hope you all have a great day. Until tomorrow, Lord willing...

BTW - Brianna's travel team came in 2nd place in the tournament and they have another tournament this weekend at Darton College... come if you can!!

"When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer." -- Corrie Ten Boom

I saw this quote on Facebook this morning and I just liked it.

I kinda felt like jumping off this weekend... I guess I did in a way. Seems that people think that once you start talking about how God is good and how you have to always trust and have faith, that you yourself can't have bad days, a few bad days...well you actually can. And it doesn't mean that you don't want to believe what you say, it just means you are not having a good day. Its kinda hard to explain, but it makes sense to me. I think yesterday was probably one of the hardest days I have to face each year. For the most part, I just want to stay in bed and not be bothered with anyone, but thanks to my boys who are not missing church for anything, I went. Not that I am not glad I did, it was just a very long, hard day.

But I like that quote alot. I will try and remember that this week.

It's Friday!!!

When I was in high school, my thing was "Love, Peace, and Happiness". Every book I had, every piece of paper I touched, every time I passed a note in class, I had those little symbols on it. Most of the people that I hung around thought I was a little odd anyway, and this only added to what they already thought. Not that they thought love, peace and happiness was a bad thing.. but who really cared ya know. Well, I didn't care.

I was in Target a few weeks ago w/ a friend and we were looking at purses and jewelry and low and behold the PEACE symbol is coming back. Now I am not sure if it's because of all the wars going on or if things just come back in full circle but I got excited. She could see it too cause she said " Ahhhh nope, no peace purse for you". I didn't get the purse, but I DID get a pair of earrings later on.. haha. My friend Peacegirl (Paige) would be proud of me!!!

No stress, not being anxious, calm... I kinda like those definition of peace. What a wonderful thing it is to have peace in your life. In 2 Corinthians 13:11 it says - Finally brothers, good-by. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.

We are not perfect, but we need to strive daily to be like Jesus, being generous and showing charity towards others. We have to all be on the same accord. If we have disagreements, settle them and forget them. I think the beauty of being different is being different and we can learn alot from each other, but what it all boils down to is not what we think but what God says!! And last, and my favorite, living in peace. Being in one accord, working together to do God's work. That's what it is all about.

For the past few months, I have sensed that peace from God and its a wonderful feeling. Not that things are always perfect in my life, because they aren't but knowing that no matter what happens, God is on my side and He is going to take care of me just like HE promised.

I hope you all have a great weekend. Say a prayer for my daughter. They are going this weekend on their first game for the travel team to Atlanta.

Love you all and Lord willing...

I can hear the birds outside my window singing. Hershey is barking, probably at them. It's already beautiful outside, I was out there already at 5:00AM. The kids jumped right up this morning and got ready for school (they were ready when I got back home). I look around the house and just get this sense of peace. How blessed I am. I forget that sometimes when I start to wallow in self pity and wonder why me. God has given me the strength and ability to do so many things in my short time here, but I still know there is so much more that can be done. The world, with its many problems and trials is still good. God is here, may not seem like it sometimes, but He really is. Just waiting on us, that's all.

I am thankful for:

The Lord allowing me to wake up this morning.
My 5:30 spin class this morning... it was so much better this time!
The kids are healthy and happy.
Brianna gets to play in her first travel basketball tourney this weekend in Atlanta.
That my dryer is fixed!!
I have a place to live, food to eat and clothes to wear.
That my car is running.
That I got to hang out w/ Melinda for a while.
That I have the best job in the world, no joke.
That my ex and I are getting along so much better now.
For the best egg and spinach omelet this morning (made it myself)


I hope you all have a great day, it's going to be a good one! Love you bunches.. Lord willing and the creek don't rise, we will talk again tomorrow!!

Brianna came home the other day and said " Mama, guess what? They have a class at school that the people with babies can go to." Hmmmm... I am like huh? Basically, for the girls, who are in middle school, who have had children, they can take special classes at the school and bring the babies if need be. Now, I do like the idea of keeping kids in school no matter what happens because education is important, it really upset me to know that there are girls, and ALOT of them, taking this class in the first place. And the sad part is alot of them think that it is so cute that at the age of 14 and 13, having a child is a good thing. I have three, and I know how my nerves are so theirs could not be good. My other question to myself is .. how in the world did this happen? Parents are taught over and over again to teach their children but it seems pretty obvious that morals are not being taught.

Now I am no idiot, I know how it happened, but the fact that our world has become so morally corrupt, that this is the norm no is sad. We see and hear it on the television all the time. We, as parents AND friends (because I do believe in each one teach one) are not doing our parts to help these young people, the girls AND boys and I cannot see how God would be pleased at all.

Throughout the Bible we are told how we should be living, God gave us rules to live by. " But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Against such things is no law." Galatians 5:22-23. In that same chapter, Paul tells us how we should NOT be living: "So I say live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want to do." He goes on to list things that will not get you into the kingdom of heaven... some of which are sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, envy, drunkenness, etc. There are some more, check em out.

So as I see it, if we are not teaching our children these things now , OR even worse, if they see us doing it and think it's okay, we are setting them up for failure from jump street. It really has to stop now. My children have seen alot of stuff in my house.. I will admit that. I have even been called on it by my daughter once. It was then I knew, things had to change. There is no way I intend for my children to suffer because of stupid choices I was making so it had to stop.. it did stop.

Brianna is 14. She gets 38 hot (that means mad for you that don't know) at me for not letting her go to the movies alone or / friends or walking around in the mall. She also has 4 sisters (one older and 3 younger) and her oldest sister had a child last year, she was 17. I realize she has to grow up sometimes, but as a parent, I have to put her in situations that I feel are safe for her and also that I feel she is mature enough to handle. She'll get there on day soon I am sure, but for now I keep on trying to let her know right and wrong. My goal is for her to know those qualities or morals that God wants her to live by. Some people might feel like these are some high standards to meet. I say, we should strive to attain ALL of these standards no matter how hard they seem and if we live knowing what our morals should be and do it, then we will also be living a godly life and that would be great!!

Hope you all have a great day, I really do! Lord willing.....

It's not about what YOU want!

I am no preacher, not even a teacher, I don't know it all and don't have alot of the answers, but I think that God allowed me go through alot of things in order to help someone else one day. I am not always right and I have to remember that when I try to help, God needs to be the one guiding me and not me trying to get all the glory for "helping someone in need".

Let me tell you something, I have prayed a many time for God to give things to me, to make things right, for me to just have a piece of mind because after all, I was being good. I truly believe that God is the giver all of things good and that He really wants what is best for us. But let me tell you something too, God is not going to give you sin. If it says plainly in His word... " Do no do ...X, Y and Z, why would you think he would change his mind and let you do it and it be okay? Does that make sense?? Take for example, in Thessalonians 4, it talks about living to please God (which should be the goal), it says " It is God's will that you should be sanctified; that you should avoid sexual immorality, that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men(and women) for such sins as we have already warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefor, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit"

I didn't make that up. It's right there in black and white. And another thing, let me tell you know, I realize there are certain topics that maybe people should not talk about, them being touchy and all, but maybe that's the problem, we are so concerned with hurting people's feelings and not concerned enough about them losing their soul. Let me also tell you, and this is me opening up a little here, I can talk about this because I have been in this exact situation. I think one of the hardest things in the world for me is the sense and feeling of being lonely. And for a really long time, I was not, under any circumstance going to be lonely, I didn't care what anyone said. I was tired of waiting and I mean I had prayed and God answers prayers right, so this HAD to be right. But it wasn't.

God is not, I repeat, He is not going to approve of something, no matter how right you think it is if He already told you not to do it. The rule don't change to fit our needs and wants. Sometimes doing the right thing is the hardest thing in the world to do and believe me, it is definitely not always fun, but I am a living witness, that if you do it just like He told you (and I am NOT perfect, I still make mistakes) I guarantee the reward will be great.

Don't let the world fool you. No, don't let Satan fool you into thinking that it's God who is blessing you while you are in the middle of your sin. I thought for a long time that God HAD to be the one that was letting all of what I thought was positive into my life until one day, I got called on everything I had been doing and I began to realize that Satan had been using me the whole time. talk about a hard pill to swallow....

God is nothing but good.. period, the end. Sin and God don't mix. And there is nothing He wants more than for us to give up the sinful stuff and follow Him. Yep, that may mean that you don't get what you want, may not ever get it here on earth.. so what? I promise you, the end reward will be much greater. So on a personal note, if I never get married again, if I live the rest of my life raising my kiddos, not having a penny in the bank, but just doing what I know is right and knowing that one day it really will pay off because I get to meet God, then that's what it is folks.

My mind is racing if you can't tell.. haha sorry.... but I jut think that we are all so consumed with it being " ABOUT ME" and guess what, it's not.

I love you all bunches and Lord willing.......

Are we giving God our best or does He get leftover?

Happy Monday!!!!

I really enjoyed the sermon yesterday at church. We are in a series talking about being connected in society. You know, we all have a MySpace, Facebook, Blog, Twitter, etc page. We seems to have all kind of ways to stay connected to each other. Anyway, during the sermon, Greg said " Are we content with giving God our leftovers?" That kind of hit home with me and I thought, WOW, do you know how often we, no I do that??

My children hate leftovers when we have them at home. Everytime I say that's whats for dinner they give me that look. There is just something about meat sitting in a frig overnight with grease sitting on it that they just don't lke. Go figure...

When I was trying to finish school, I was studying all the time. Trying to make sure that I passed these classes because after all, it would mean my family would gain more from it. I missed church a few times because of tests, studying and projects. I was really not a nice person during the last few semesters because I really wanted to finish. There was not a minute that didn't go by that I was not doing something that had to do with school and graduating. I was consumed with it.

Why can't it be like that with God?

Think about it... we work 40 hours a week, after work, we take the kids to practices, plays and whatever else they have to do. We find time to workout, go shopping, have time with out friends on the weekends and then , IF we are not to tired, we TRY to make it on time to church, give God what we haven't spent during the week and promise to do better next time. And we ALWAYS have excuses about why we can't make it to church or help someone don't we? Good one too..We claim that Jesus is #1 in our lives, but face it, we are in all honestly hypocrites.

Think about it... while we say we love the Lord and do His will, we still go on daily doing just what we always did and do, because we think we know best. Jesus is the Lord and master but we can't seem to fit a Bible lesson in for the kids during the week, make it to church to hear His word, serve in ministries, or help people in need. But we can always find time to work overtime, make it to practices, or just have some much needed " ME" time. Kinda seems unfair to the God who is the one who allowed you to have that job, that house, the children, etc.

I just thought alot last night about it... God is getting our leftovers in alot of aspects of our lives. I think maybe it's time to reevaluate and make sure that if God is truly #1, we need to start acting like it!

I hope you all have a great Monday. I hear it's suppose to rain. Stay dry and Lord willing......

Love ya!

Spinning and encouragement

It's been a long week...

Yesterday I got up at 5:00AM and dd something I have been saying I was going to do for a while. I went spinning. Yeah, spinning.. the bike, the sweat, the feeling like I would die any minute.. you know. Now didn't do the whole standing thing every time they did (I did what I could) and I sure didn't go as fast as they did (I was sweating enough without all that mess) but I did try and I kept moving my feet the whole time so that counts for something right??? AND it was Barbara's class.. now I know alot of you don't know her, but if you did, you would know how accomplished I feel :))

When I got home from work (let me just say again, it's been a longggg week) I got this really sweet message of encouragement from my spinning teacher and as much pain as I was in by the time I got home (yeah it still hurt after 9 hrs) I am going back to class Tuesday night if my schedule allows.

I also got alot of calls and messages from you to this week and I want to say how much I appreciate that. The encouragement from each of you really helped me make it through the rest of the week. Prayer is a powerful thing. I love these verses:

"As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When may I come to see God's face? My tears are my food day and night. People ask me all day long, "Where is your God?" I will remember these things as I pour out my soul: how I used to walk with the crowd and lead it in a procession to God's house. I sang songs of joy and thanksgiving while crowds of people celebrated a festival. Why are you discouraged, my soul? Why are you so restless? Put your hope in God, because I will still praise him. He is my savior and my God. My soul is discouraged. That is why I will remember you in the land of Jordan, on the peaks of Hermon, on Mount Mizar. One deep sea calls to another at the roar of your waterspouts. All the whitecaps on your waves have swept over me. The LORD commands his mercy during the day, and at night his song is with me—a prayer to the God of my life. I will ask God, my rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk around in mourning while the enemy oppresses me?" With a shattering blow to my bones, my enemies taunt me. They ask me all day long, "Where is your God?" Why are you discouraged, my soul? Why are you so restless? Put your hope in God, because I will still praise him. He is my savior and my God." - Psalm 42

I just keep reminding myself to keep putting my hope, faith and trust in Him all the time. There isn't any problem I have that He can't handle if I just stop tryng to do it myself.

I hope you all have a really great weekend. I think I might actually have a quiet one for a change!! Love you all and Lord willing we will talk again on Monday....