Life in His Hand

How wonderful are the friends who remind us that God IS right here with us, even when it doesn't seem like it. And when we feel most down, they are there to pick us back up again, dust us off and help us on our way. What a priceless gift friendship is. So as we speak, my problems have not gone away, but my heart is warmed by the tender compassion shown me by a true friend. I have also been able, through this encouragement, to hand it all over to God and let Him carry it. I thank God for the amazing superpower, called love, He gives to some. For when it is shared, amazing things begin to happen.

I'm wondering if life will ever feel "normal" again. Like comfortable again without so many uncertainties. Now there's a whole bunch of new stuff to deal with, like having no say over what happens with my kids when they're out of my house. I've tried so hard to teach them to live a moral life and I've tried to set the right example for them. And it amazes me how all those years of training can be so totally disregarded. They have to be exposed to unchristian practices and it so infuriates me, but my hands are tied. Talk about feeling helpless. I had a really hard time with this last night. But God is faithful... I know He's walking right here beside me in this. I don't know what's going to happen in this life, but I hope it gets better and easier to deal with. Or that I get stronger and can cope with it in a better way. And what do I do with the hate I am feeling? The one comfort I have and the one thing that gives me hope is God.

It's really starting to feel like October! The nights have been gradually getting cooler and last night we had a fire outside in the fire-pit. Ahh...pure joy! Here, where we are in California, it usually doesn't feel like fall until about this time. I've just gotta say that I do believe fall is my favorite season. Every year, we throw a little harvest party at our church on Halloween night where we have some very homemade and simple carnival style-games for the kids that are trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. We don't celebrate Halloween and over the years I have had a harvest party for the kids at church, as an alternative. A few years ago, I decided it would be fun to set up carnival games in the fellowship hall, thinking it would be just our kids, not realizing that the kids at the door would want to come in and take part (silly me!). That first night we probably had a hundred kids come through. It was fun and it stuck. This is our third year, I think, d

There are so many unknowns in my life right now and so much I need to hear about from God. I have decided I need to fast from media, including Facebook, for a week. As well as communicating more than is necessary in order to shut out all the voices and listen for the still, small voice. I just need some time to sit quietly before the Lord, in meditation and prayer. I am at a place in my life where I just don't know what to do. So I've decided to stop, rest and wait--for His guidance. I think it'll be a long week, but I am hoping to have answers by the end of it. I decided to allow myself to blog because it's an outlet. Let him sit alone and be silent        Since He has laid  it  on him. Let him put his mouth in the dust,        Perhaps there is hope. Lamentations 3:28, 29

Yesterday, I had a pretty bad day. Without going into a lot of detail, someone said something hurtful to me and it all just snow-balled from there. I was having a lot of negative thoughts about life and just feeling blah. By the end of the day, I was worried and doubt-filled, and just flat gloomy. I even wrote about it on here but came and deleted it after awhile. Today is a new day. Every day is a new day and sometimes with that new day comes new hope and a much brighter outlook. A good night's sleep washed away that gloom for me. Even in the midst of the hardest things, we can find some reason to be grateful. Some reason to rejoice. The very fact that we're breathing is cause for celebration. Of course, yesterday I wasn't feeling this way at all. So today I want to write out 10 things that I am thankful for and encourage you to do the same. I am thankful for: my family true friends that it's fall that I am in a relationship with God working with the

Sometimes the SKY   just   opens up and  SMILES  on you... For so long I felt like I was just barely holding on. Holding onto God's hand and His promises so tight that my fingers were aching and felt as if they were slipping... Suddenly, my life has taken a different turn. I am receiving more encouragement than I ever thought possible from a wonderful friend that just appeared out of thin air. The clouds are gone--leaving only blue skies.

My Grandpa Ernie just recently passed away and we went to was his memorial service yesterday. The one thing that was repeatedly said about him was that he was always positive, always kind and very generous. And that's how I remember him, too. When we were little kids, we'd spend lots of time with him and his wife Fay at their house, having family dinners and playing red light green light in their yard. Grandpa always would pull quarters out of our ears or his and give them to us--then we'd run down to the store and buy candy. I heard the stories of how Grandpa shared his knowledge of cars and motorcycles with the boys in the family and thought how wonderful that was that he passed along those things to the boys. In his time of sickness, Grandpa turned to the Lord and I am forever grateful for that. I only wish he could have known the joy of serving the Lord here, but he will get to know Jesus in heaven. One really wonderful thing about yesterday was having so much of th