Old Song Says it All

"Ain't God good, to give us so many blessings,
undeserving, that's what we are,
we ought to praise Him,
love and thank Him,
a little more today,
and a whole lot more tomorrow..."

I remember that song from my childhood,
and I can remember at some of our old church singings,
after someone would testify of God's goodness in their life,
someone else would break out in this song,
and everyone would join in.  

Our God is very good to us, and I'm so thankful that in His inspired,
living Word, He is the one who first taught us-

"In every thing give thanks:
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." 
1 Thes. 5:18

It isn't a new idea to thank Him in all things.
It is His will for us, the blood bought,
born again, we who are in Christ.

"Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name:
the upright shall dwell in thy presence."   Psalms 140:13

We who have been born again are always in His presence,
we do not have to perform rituals to know or to try and
experience Him, we are in His presence forevermore. 
He has promised us-
"...I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." Heb. 13:5b

We simply abide in His truth, we take Him at His word,
and we do not put our faith in the words of those who
draw us away from His sound, faithful truth.

His words alone are pure-
"The words of the LORD [are] pure words:
[as] silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times."
Psalm 12:6

His words can be trusted.


He is holy, and whatever He proclaims to be holy,
that alone is holy.
Who are we to name or deem something as holy?
We look to Him to define what is holy.

"Exalt the LORD our God, and worship at his holy hill;
for the LORD our God [is] holy." Psalms 99:9

Our Lord God, who is holy in all His ways, He has not
left His children alone, to try and figure out our lives.
His word reveals all that we need to know,
He has not left us in the dark, He has brought us into-
His marvelous light,
His shepherding,
His parenting,

His truth,
His goodness,
His righteousness,
His way,
His life.

He alone is good, and my heart is overwhelmed.

53. . . 55, seriously???

No, no, I'm not trying to remember how old I am,
at least not today anyway.
I will admit there are times when I actually do forget
just how many years I've existed on this planet.

Should I have admittedly that to the world?
Maybe some things are better left unsaid.

Anyway~
back to the numbers,
can anyone guess just what these numbers might mean?

I'm ecstatic, ECSTATIC I tell ya',
I mean those numbers have my head swimming!

Here in our neck of the woods,
in this here little ole' town where we exist,
we are expecting something rather nice...

DRUMROLL please!  d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d

We are going to be blessed tomorrow with a high near
53*
and the following day,
55*!!!

Imagine cymbols crashing, people cheering, clapping,
and me jumping for joy!

And Mr. Farley, my old Mr. Farley,
wagging his tail very exuberantly,
with a huge thud sound as it pounds the ground!

Mr. Farley gets very happy when the temperatures warm up,
because that means he'll see me outside.
He loves it when I'm outside, it gives him something to do
other than sleep all day
or lay there staring.into.the.abyss.

He will come and lay close to me,
whatever part of the yard I may be working in,
and watch me, and grin, and wag his tail.
Yes, my dog grins, and sometimes he even talks to me.
He tells me things like-
"I love food!"
"Don't you think I need a snack?"
"Why do you keep asking me if I'm hungry,
I- am- ALWAYS- hungry!!!"

I love it when the weather gives us a break from the cold here
where we live.  It's just the way it is, freezing cold,
then a little warm up, and then back down, up, down...
I believe this pattern helps me make it through the winter
a little easier, than if I had to live with below
freezing temps for weeks on end.

I'm really not very much fun when I'm cold,
I'm so sorry to have to admit that.  

The past three mornings Mr. C and I have been enjoying the morning song of Mr. Cardinal as he sings from the tree next to our kitchen window.  He is out there even before the sun rises, and it sounds as if he's sitting close to the bird feeder,
just singing his little heart out.
Oh how I love hearing the birds singing their bright,
cheerful songs, those God created songs,
that no man can match, what a blessing for my ears! 

Because of the warm up, I'm making my list of things to do,
some things I'd like to accomplish outside, the next two days.

And that brings me to another confession-

 
Those Christmas decorations are still sitting on the bench,
out front, for all the world to see, along with the candy cane,
stuck in the ground (just a smidgen' of it showing in the pic).

#1 top priority on my to do list for tomorrow
(this will make Mr. C so very happy)-
to clean and put up the last two Christmas decorations,
before our neighbors start calling us rednecks.
For shame!
I should have put them up long ago, but... but...
I honestly have no excuse at all, except for the fact that
I did not want to deal with them
while it was
cold
or rainy
or windy
outside,
where these items have been since Dec. 15th,
SHAME!


But I will take care of this tomorrow, if the Lord allows it.

53*...55*!!!

I will feel the sun on my face, what joy!

I pray you all have a very blessed day in the Lord today!

"While the earth remaineth, 
seedtime and harvest,  
and cold and heat, 
and summer and winter,  
and day and night shall not cease."   
Genesis 8:22

Caution

My last two posts have been very light-hearted.  I have much to be thankful for, and love sharing funny moments, and joyful memories with others.

Today I feel the need to throw out a caution.  We can never be too careful these days.  Here in America certain spiritual practices are being introduced into mainstream Christianity, and there really aren't many warning, examining, or guarding truth, the truth we know that is established in God's Word, the Bible.

I can remember early on, when I was a young mother, a woman at a church we used to attend would tell me, there's more to be had.  She would say this, and like dangling a carrot out in front of me, she would entice me, making me wonder what she was talking about.  She seemed so good, so close to God, and I thought I could trust anything she would have to say on spiritual matters.  Come to find out after a very long period of time listening to her, great confusion and finally much Bible study on my part, I learned that what she was offering was a discontentment in my walk with Christ and a path to experience things that some had deemed spiritual experiences, but were actually in direct opposition to God's will for His children.  Ever since then I have learned to examine everything in light of scripture.  If we do not, we are not prepared to stand against lies when they come our way.

For several years now, I have been researching and reading about what is going on here in the states when it comes to the New Age mysticism creeping into the Christian/Evangelical churches.  There are faithful watchmen on the wall warning, and showing plainly in scripture why these things are wrong, but too many Christians do not know their Bibles well enough to recognize or stand against the lies that are creeping in and they are believing anyone who sounds "holy", or closer to God than them.

Many well-meaning Christians have ignorantly embraced prayer practices that are not taught in God's Word.  This is only a starting point, the contemplative prayer practices.  If one is serious, and wants to know the roots of this, where it began and who promotes it, one can soon learn and know for a fact it is not what our one true God of the Bible has ordained for His children.

Once trusted speakers and authors are dabbling with New Age mysticism and their prayer practices, and are writing about their experiences, making things sound so good and so holy.  We have to do our research, we have to know where a person is coming from before we trust their teaching.

If someone sounds really good, really enticing, ask yourself what they are enticing you to?  Check out what influences them, what they read, what they have studied.  If they share quotes from different people, find out who those people are, find out what they stand for.  We are living in a day where we cannot be too careful.  How are we to guide our children and prepare them for the future if we ourselves are not aware of the false teaching that is abounding and creeping in from all angles? 

First and foremost, know your Bible, know it, it's not enough to just read it, we must know why we believe what we believe.  If we have allowed things in our own lives, practices or habits taught to us by an author of some book, have we made certain that scripture has given us the same information?  Why are we so trusting?  Have we forgotten the warning from Paul in 2 Cor.11:13-15-


"For such [are] false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.  Therefore [it is] no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works."

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, I write this because it is important that we do not flirt with anything that promises us "more", God's word is so full and so rich, He has taught us everything we need to know about having a full, wonderful, rich relationship with Him, through Jesus Christ His Son, who gave Himself sacrificially for us, He alone made the way for us to God, it is only through faith in the finished work of Christ that we have access to our Holy God.  Learn from Him, He has given you everything you need to know right in His Divinely inspired Word.  He is faithful, He is not holding anything back from you that you would have to go and learn from someone else, outside of His Holy Word.  Learn scripture in context, study whole books of the Bible, so that you know why something was said, in what context it was taught.  That is how false teachers lead the ignorant astray, they take scripture out of context, twist it and use it for their own wicked purpose.

Please use caution, whenever you decide to open yourself up to someone else's books and ideas, please use caution, be as the Berean's, and see if what this person is saying is true, let scripture be the light in which everything must pass through. 

Websites that are sounding the alarm-
http://www.cicministry.org/articles.php
http://www.crosstalkblog.com/   (find numerous articles under the religion tab)
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/index.htmlhttp://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/richardfoster.htm

Learn New Age language, find out what a person means when they are saying things like,
find your true self,
practice the presence of God,
practice solitude,
be IN the moment, at-one-ment,
be still,
centering prayer,
the silence,
breath prayers,
the inner Christ,
God is in all

There are more, find out their language so that when they are using it, you will know what they really mean.  Many words common to Christianity are being redefined by this new spirituality.  We have to know, so we can teach our children, and pass on truth that is found only in God's word. 

Pray for discernment in all things.

In Chist's love I share these things with you,
standing for His truth, and His Word,
Mrs. C

Mr. C

A funny post on my daughter's Facebook wall made me take a trip down memory lane.

This is what was posted- 

"Christian Pick-up line: The word says 'Give drink to those who are thirsty, and feed the hungry'; how about dinner?"

And my comment on that line-  "You need to hear mine and Mr. C's dating story, I was hungry and he fed me. What a way to woman's heart!lol

 
I'd like to share that memory with you all about my Mr. C, I tell ya', that guy he is such a sweetheart and has this huge generous heart, I really love my Mr. C.

Alright, I'll stop swooning, here's the story.

When I met Mr. C, a friend and I were sharing an apartment.  I was working full time at a job that was decent, but not great, as far as pay is concerned.  I was barely making it by, with my rent, car payment, insurance, utilities, and my daily living expenses.  When I look back at that time in my life, I really can't remember grocery shopping very much.  I'm not sure what I lived on, I do remember a lot of hamburger helper, and cereal with milk.

So, whenever Mr. C and I started dating, our weekends were filled with him taking me out to eat, and it was such a treat!  It's not that we went to fancy restaurants or anything, it's just that I wasn't eating hamburger helper on those days.  We would eat out together on Friday nights, and Saturday nights, and then on Sunday nights around supper time, he'd ask me if I was hungry.

You know they say most women do not like to eat in front of their dates.  I'm not sure what was wrong with me, that was never a problem.  I thoroughly enjoyed every single meal we shared together and always ate whatever he bought me.

So anyway, back to Sunday nights.  We had this little ritual, he'd ask me if I was hungry, and I would say..."Yes, how about you?"  He'd always say no, and then would say we could go get me something.

I loved these chicken strip dinners that were sold by a locally owned restaurant that had a drive-thru window.  Every Sunday night, we would head to this place to pick up a chicken strip dinner for me, and not once did Mr. C ever order anything.  I would try to share with him and he'd never take a bite, always claiming that he was not hungry at all. 

I can almost smell that aroma of crispy, hot chicken strips, the fries, Texas toast w/ a side of cole-slaw.  OH, and honey, I love to dip chicken strips into honey.

Years down the road, after we married and had our two girls, we took them to that same old restaurant, and I told them of our memory, our Sunday night ritual, how their Daddy would buy those delicious chicken strip dinners for me, and not once did he ever order anything.

Mr. C finally spoke up and said, "Well, let me explain why..." He proceeded to tell the girls and I why he never ordered anything.

He was still living at home with his mother.  Since she was a widow, he did what he could to help her out.  So, each week he would give her a certain amount of money to help with groceries and bills, use what he had to for his own expenses, and then have some leftover for the two of us to go out to eat on the weekends.  By the time Sunday night rolled around he only had enough money left to buy only one chicken dinner.  He would spend his last dime, the amount he budgeted for our weekends, just to buy me one of those dinners.  He told them that in order to have enough spending money for the weekend, and that chicken dinner, before hand he always purchased 5 cans of chili for his lunch during the week, to take to work with him.  He ate frugally through the week, so we could feast together on the weekend, and to be able to buy me something on for Sunday supper.   

On Sunday nights, after he had taken me back to my apartment, he would go home and eat whatever leftovers his Mom had stowed away into the frig that day.

He told our girls that he only had enough to buy me a chicken strip dinner, and nothing else.  BUT, he never let me know that at the time.  I never knew how tight things were for him, he never let on.

I couldn't believe it when he told me this.  I know it's not that huge in some people's eyes probably, but I just could not believe that he let that go on for so long and never complained once, that he always bought me one of those dinners whenever I asked for one and he never let me know why he never ordered.

That man, oh Mr. C, his heart is so generous.  He's so good to me, and to this day, one of his favorite things to do is to cook something fabulous for me, something special and even at times gourmet.  He's quite the catch and I am so thankful God blessed my life with this incredible guy.

We've been through a lot, he and I, and it's been worth it all.
I do love my Mr. C!!!

~A memory from last winter, sledding w/ Mr. C, he knows how to have fun!~

Home Alone, part 1

My family really shouldn't leave me home alone.  When they do, crazy things happen.

I read through my blog list yesterday, and happened upon  THIS very inspiring post,

and the next thing you know I'm doing crazy things like this-

Because last year when I painted my cabinets I didn't put a lot of thought into what I really like and did something really awful like this-

It's really not that bad, but it just isn't what I wanted.  I honestly do not know who that lady was who picked out that color, but she's not the same lady who was left home alone yesterday with a can of white paint (that she just happened to find in the laundry/utility room that was purchased for some other project).

In fact, that lady who went crazy yesterday, didn't even care whether or not this is the right type of paint to start with, she just saw a can of white paint, and remembered reading on some blog yesterday that some other crazy lady used that type of paint, and repainted her cabinets, and they looked spectacular, if I do say so myself.

So, here I am, I've started it, and now I've got to finish it.  I'll probably do this in stages, so as not to completely disrupt my kitchen and home.  But the crazy lady is loving all the white she is seeing on all of these other blogs, and she has decided she will now have a white kitchen and that's that.

No arguments, zip it, pshht!

Do not question the crazy lady.  If you do, she'll change her mind and start painting them black, which is her second choice, white first, black second. Or maybe it's white second and black third, since olive green actually made it to cabinets first, last year, when some other lady besides the crazy lady picked out paint samples.  I actually laid in bed last night, "...is white right?  Would black look better?"  Crazy!

Here's another thing you need to know, to add to this mayhem, I am "Torn between two colors...feeling like a fool, loving both of you, is breaking all the rules...torn between two colors..."  You get the point.  I love the white, but whenever I see a picture of black cabinets my heart skips a beat too.  I LOVE them both, both would look nice, but for me, this year, white is the winner, since there is a lot of flour flying around my kitchen, white will just be better.  

Wait a minute, that lady, the one who picked out the green last year, she's the crazy one, not me!

Can you all see what this green has done to me?  I'm in complete denial that I_ever_ even_ liked it. 

I don't want to own it, I want my kids to say, "We love that color that's why you chose it dear Ma-ma!". 

I want Mr. C to say, "Ever since I was a little boy, I dreamed of living in a house with olive green cabinets.  I LOVE olive green cabinets."

Truth be known they never say things like that, they're all in unity on this one,
"Hmmm, well, yeah, they're ok, I mean uh, nice..." 
And Mr. C said one day, "Now tell me again why you picked that color?" 
Tears a rollin' down my cheeks !  I failed my man!

I can hear him singing, "We can't go on together...with suspicious minds, with suspicious minds, and we can't build our dreams... with suspicious minds!" (courtesy of Elvis)  Oh dear, he always trusts me with these things, what have I done???  I have failed.

I've got to regain my reputation, so that the next time I walk into Lowes to pick out paint samples,
he knows, he knows he can trust me. 

White paint to the rescue, I must redeem my kitchen and save it from the ugly green cabinets. 
And save my marriage. 
And my gals from years of conflict-
"Why oh why did our mother do this, what was she thinking?  Oh the shame!" 
I can see it now, they'll be on Dr. Phil, telling of the scars left behind because of the kitchen
that brought this shame upon our family. 

I must do this for the family.

To be continued...

P.S.- if you all could have only heard the sound in my daughter's voice when she returned home yesterday...
"Are you?  Are you going to paint the cabinets WHITE?  Oh MOM!  OH, they're going to be so pretty!!!"

Do you see the joy I have deprived this child from???

Woe is me!



P.S.S.-I'm pretty certain that due to this post, I've just lost all of my faithful readers. 
I'm so sorry to have revealed the true me, here in this post. 
I am a sad, strange, little woman.

Little Town On The Delta

A couple of weeks ago, Pa, I mean Mr. C, went with his boss to pick up supplies, actually, the meat, Mr. W had processed from his own farm raised hogs, at a meat processing store which is located way up in the hill country.

While they were in that part of the hills, they ventured over to the Country Market, and had lunch. 

And since they were there, at the Country Market, where you can buy bulk foods and such,
Mr. C picked up this for me-

 Because I own one of these-

So we can make a whole bunch of this-

This past weekend, Mr. C's boss and his wife, invited Mr. C and I to go back to the hill country with them, so we could all visit the Country Market together.  We had a double date and we had such a wonderful time!

Even though it was bitterly cold that day, the sun was shining so beautifully, and the sky was perfectly blue.  The Country Market is located in one of the most beautiful areas in the northeast section of our state.  Rolling hills, with acres and acres of pasture land in between wooded acreage.  It really was incredible, to be out driving and seeing all the beautiful countryside.  Too bad I forgot my camera.  So sorry!

While there at the Country Market, we were treated to the aroma of fresh baked bread, (it looked like about 10 loaves, fresh out of the oven), while we scoured the shelves for items to take back with us, to our home, located in our little town on the delta. 

Once our baskets were filled, it was about lunch time, so we headed to the back of the store, and ordered sandwiches, which were made with the bread, fresh from the oven.  Ohhhhhhhhhhhh what goodness!!!

Delightful to say the least!!! 

They have a couple of tables set up, so you can sit there and eat your lunch, at the back of the store.  This little store is located out in the middle of nowhere, but it was bustling with business the whole time we were there.  We were told by the shopkeeper, he really likes it when people come from a certain town, and bring a lot of money with them, with a big grin on his face. 

He is Mennonite-Amish, we guessed just Mennonite, but he corrected us and explained.

While we were there we purchased all of this-

    
Barley, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, farina(cream of wheat), white popcorn, REAL salt that is not white at all, but looks like it has sand in it.  The shopkeeper told us it has all the minerals in it, straight from the salt mine, so that explains the odd color.  And fresh peanut butter, which we made while there at the store.  We picked out the size of container of peanuts we wanted, dumped them into the machine, turned it on, and voila, out came fresh ground peanut butter.  Simple as that.  As you can see, we've eaten quite a bit, the container is looking pretty close to empty, and ummm, we just brought it home two days ago.  We REALLY like peanut butter & honey A LOT around here.  Looks like we probably should have bought more. 

Well it's a good thing we're all stocked up, because we had no idea we'd be waking up to this-

 ...today.  We think it's around 2 inches deep.


Mr. Farley was quite surprised, and has decided he wants to stay warm and dry all snuggled up in his hay this wintry morning. 

It doesn't look like we'll be having any backyard, campfires anytime soon, more snow is in the forecast for this evening and our temperatures are not supposed to rise above freezing all week long.

So it's a good thing Pa and Ma, have the cupboards all stocked up here in our little house on the delta, the cold winds are blowing and were all safe and snug inside, away from the bone-chilling winds.  Someday soon we'll be taking Mary and Laura, actually Ms. C and Ms. W, with us to the Country Market, (mainly to buy a large supply of fresh ground peanut butter...) so they can have the same experience we did, being enraptured by a simpler way of life for a day. 

Stay warm friends!

Friends

This precious Mom of 7, took it upon herself to plan a Mom's Night Out last night.

What a treat for me!  And I am so very sad that I did not take a camera and take pictures of all the beautiful faces sitting around the table at Olive Garden last night.

It's very obvious, women need each other.  We are quite a bit more chatty than our male counterparts, and we just need time to share whatever is on our hearts.

I've felt so distant from friends this year, due to the fact we are finished with homeschooling and all of my closest friends are still in the midst of schooling their own children.  I've really felt lonely, not having much face to face contact with friends.

So, last night was really refreshing for me.  I don't know why, but having a time away from home, just for an evening, time to listen, time to share, and to laugh, it's just good, really good medicine.

I'm so thankful for the wonderful women God has placed in my life.  Women who just want to be real, women who can take the masks off and just be themselves, that's really rare.

A fun fact we learned about one another, most of us sitting there REALLY enjoy reading Pioneer Woman's blog, and yes, we admitted it, we've read her love story ~Black Heels to Tractor Wheels~ about how she and Marlboro Man met.  Who knows, if it becomes a movie in the future, maybe we'll plan another night and all go see it together?  Maybe...?

One thing is certain, we do want to plan to get together on a regular basis, if our schedules allow for it.

We all realized how much we need that time, a time for nurturing and encouragement. 

Thank you Kathi!

Can't wait till next time...  

Not Guilty Anymore - Aaron Keyes

During communion service this past Sunday, this precious song was played.

What a gift, to have songs that speak the truth to us so directly and plainly.

Thank God for what He has done for you through His Son Jesus Christ, every single day.




It doesn’t matter what You’ve done; It doesn't matter where you're coming from
Doesn’t matter where you’ve been, Hear me tell you I forgive


You’re not guilty anymore, You're not filthy anymore,
I love you, mercy is yours
You're not broken anymore, You're not captive anymore
I love you, mercy is yours

Can you believe that this is true, Grace abundant I am giving you
Cleansing deeper than you know, All was paid for long ago


There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Jesus

You are spotless
You are holy
You are faultless
You are whole
You are righteous
You are blameless
You are pardoned
You are mine