Almost The End of 2008

Well, amazingly enough, here we are almost at the end of another year. When I was a young girl, my granny always told me that the older you get the faster time flies. Well, at 10 years of age, you can't really comprehend such a statement, but now that I am older, I comprehend it all too well and have to agree that she was definitely right.



The year 2008 has gone by rather quickly and as we near the beginning of 2009, I find myself doing what I always do at this time of the year - reflecting on what the past year has held and making goals for the new one to come.



One of the goals I have for this new year is to become a more active and organized blogger. I know God has filled my heart with a lot of things He wants me to share and I believe blogging is one of those doors through which I can share. It has been quite the challenge to get my blog designed the way I want. I see so many cool blogs when surfing through blog land, and there are so many neat things I want to put on my blog, but I am completely HTML illiterate. Trying to learn the basics over the past few months has been grueling and I honestly just don't have the time to devote to learning how to design one, so I have tweaked it the best I can for now and plan to tweak it more in the new year as funds allow.



My goal is to blog daily and the topics will be varied. Most of what you find on here will pertain to being a wife, mom, homemaker, etc., as that is the kind of clay I am. I hope it will be a place where those who visit will be encouraged and inspired to keep pressing on in their daily walk with the Lord and for those who may not know the Lord, that they will get to know the wonderful Savior I serve and wish to become one of His kids as well.



Thank you Lord for allowing me to be your child and for the opportunity to share with others what you have so wonderfully shared with me.


Donna

Still Under Construction

Well, this summer has been busy for us and I haven't had the time to work on our new blog as much as I had hoped. I have learned some, but not enough to really make the changes I envision. But please check back often as we are planning on adding new entries whether or not the blog is customized the way we want it or not.

We have been busy with remodeling plans that are set to get underway in August and with all the rain we have been blessed with lately, the yard work is keeping us busy, as well as the garden. We are starting to get green beans, a few tomatoes, a bunch of zucchini, sweet banana peppers, and green peppers now. I need to get some parts for my canner so it will be ready to go before long. Also, my freezer is full to overflowing with beef and chicken, so I am going to have to can most everything this year. But that's okay, I am not complaining...:)

Our grandson is now 6 months old and is rolling over and just about to sit up. He is such a delight to us. The girls are all doing well. Kayla is working hard at 2 jobs this summer, saving up money to pay for her apartment until her school loan money comes in late fall/early winter. Shelby is working more days at Sonic and Lindsay is babysitting and spending time with friends. We plan to start our school year the last of this month. We decided to get a head start so we could take off more time for the holidays.

So, life is marching onward. God is good, ALL the time, despite what circumstances may try to convince us otherwise. I will sign off with a new favorite verse of mine. Lamentations 3:21-23:

But this I recall and therefore have I hope and expectation: It is because of the Lord's mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His tender compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness. (Amplified version)

Changes Coming

As you can tell, I am doing some "remodeling" of my blog. Actually, there is more to come. I am chin deep in reading and watching tutorials on how to customize blogs/design websites, etc. Truthfully, I feel like I am drowning most of the time. However, I shall continue on and if need be, will call out the top guns to help me if I can't get it figured out before too long.

Some of the changes in addition to the cosmetic outlook of my blog will be that I will be sharing my blog with my husband. He teaches one of the adult Sunday School classes at our church and is a very gifted teacher. He is also an excellent writer and he has been feeling the call to start writing recently and so I am going to be publishing his writings on what will become "our" blog. At some point in the future, we may move into an actual website, but for now this blog will be more than adequate.

I am very excited about these changes and we will have a variety of categories that we will be posting in so hopefully there will be something of interest for everyone who stops by to read.

Tuesday's Thoughts

Well, the Lord has certainly been good to me over the past few weeks. I am continuing on the path to personal revival and changes that are occurring inside my heart are starting to show up in my actions. Not that I am trying to toot my own horn there or anything, but too many times in my life I have gone through a time when I would get all excited about something, only to find that it was fleeting and didn't produce any lasting results. I just feel so different about all that the Lord is teaching me right now. I almost feel like a sponge in that everywhere I turn, there is another "something" to absorb. It is a great feeling and I know it is just preparation for what is to come.

Of course, all this has not come without a price. Satan is never happy when a lukewarm christian decides to get "hot", and will do whatever he can to intercept that. But strangely enough, I have met each derailment effort with a quiet calm and determination and an absence of fear. That has to be the best thing to come of this so far - the lack of fear. I have heard sermons by the boat load on fear, but I am finding out that for me at least, the deeper my relationship is with Christ, the less fear I encounter.

Lastly, a small update on the farm life here: We butchered a few meat chickens a couple of weeks ago, but they were a little smaller than what I wanted, so we are in the process of fattening them up some more before nabbing a few more. We have discovered though that there is a varmint of some sort under the chicken house (most probably a skunk) and it has killed one of our chickens so far. We are trying to figure out just how to fix that problem right now.

The garden is growing well. My dad brought over a large load of sawdust we are putting between the rows to help cut down on the weeds and add some nutrients into the ground. I am really getting excited about canning season...:)

We have several home projects we are going to be working on this summer. Instead of taking a small vacation we are going to put the money in the house. Though we do plan to do some camping and we will use our season passes to Silver Dollar City several times throughout the summer. One of the projects was finished today - a small one - a new shelf for my scrapbooking things. I am looking forward to getting more of my things organized and my table cleared off so I can actually have work space to craft again.

I guess that is all for now. Happy summer to all my blogging friends!

Thursday Ponderings

Over the last couple of weeks I have just been more and more challenged, broken, etc., by my loving Heavenly Father. I hope to at some point be able to break down all that God has been doing in my heart and mind and share it with others in hopes of encouraging them in their walk with the Lord. I grew up in church, and have done a lot of "right" things, but never realized just how inconsistent my walk with Him was until these past few weeks as God has stirred my heart and mind.

As all this has been going on, I came across a snippet that got my attention and caused me to look for a more complete version and I found it on You Tube. I hope as you listen to it, that it will amaze and awe you and remind you of how special you are to our Heavenly Father as it did me. Just click on the arrow to play and be blessed!

Light Overcomes Darkness

I read a statistic a while back that said 80% of Americans are Christian. Really? I would think that if that were true, then our country would be very different, don't you? In Sunday School class this past Sunday, Tom spoke about how we (Christians) are to be the salt of the earth and if the salt loses it flavor, what good is it?

Not only are we to be the salt of the earth, we are also supposed to be the light of the world. I am reading a book called Fresh Encounter by Henry T. Blackaby and Claude V. King and in their book they talk about the darkness we live in and the light we are to be. Here is what they say:

Christians should not be surprised by the spiritual darkness around us. That is all it can be. Darkness is dark. The greater problem is not with the darkness. The problem is with the light. When light shines, it dispels darkness. We face a growing spiritual darkness in our land because the light is not shining brightly.

Jesus said that His disciples are the light of the world (Matt. 5:14-16). When the light of Christ in us is dimmed by the sins and cares of the world, darkness increases. When God's people are clean vessels, the light displayed causes darkness to flee. Darkness itself cannot overcome light. Light overcomes darkness!

Did you get that??? The problem is with "the light" - the problem is us, because we are what Jesus called "the light".

How bright is my light shining? How bright is yours?

I need to do some cleaning of my vessel so my light can be seen. Do you?

I think if the above statistic is even halfway close to being right, most of us have some cleaning to do so our light can be seen.

Repentance - Do I Really Know What That Is?

As I continue on this path to personal revival, I have learned that true revival only comes about after true repentance. Now most of us think we know repentance, but as I have studied on it this past week, I discovered that there is much more to repentance than what I first thought.

I am concerned that too many of us confuse repentance with remorse. Remorse is a worldly grief, a feeling bad about our sin. Repentance is a Godly grief, and there will be outward evidence of it.

Real repentance influences behavior. Repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of behavior.

C.H. Spurgeon said: "There must be a divorce between you and your sins. Not a mere separation for a season, but a clear divorce." What a picture that is! Can I truly say that I have so effectively removed sin from my life as compared to a divorce?

I want to bring glory to God and I want to be used by Him - that's what repentance will enable me to do!