Stepping Heavenward

Today as I was studying the word of God....I came upon a passage in Nehemiah 9 where the Jews spend a significant amount of time confessing their sins to God. In fact they spent a quarter of the day just confessing and worshipping the Lord. By my calculations that is 6 hours! Wow! That is quite impressive. This was after another 6 hours of listening to the word of God being read.

I started considerring that I haven't come near to that...especially the confessing part. Sometimes I gloss over that or I'm very general. I decided to spend time in confession. Hey. I'm human, I have sin in my life. I didn't spend 6 hours...in fact I really didn't keep track of the time so I have no idea how long...but I spent time writing out specific areas of sin and confessing them to the Lord. I asked Him to bring things to mind. He did. I just want to grow in him and I want all the garbage gone. I have garbage in my mind and heart and I listen to the lies of the enemy all to often.

Praise God that there is no more condemnation for the sins I have committed. (Romans 8:1-2) I just want to be more and more the woman God intends me to be. It's a long journey that I seem to never make progress on. It seems like I will always be the little child...trying on her Father's hat and toddling along.

"Father, Grow me up in you."

Decluttering

I spent the day decluttering one room of my house. It was really looking bad and I finally resolved to do something about it. I hauled out a box full of stuff that was laying around that no one cares about anymore (or maybe never did). It's on its way to good will. I also threw out quite a bit of stuff too. Wow! Does the room look great! You know...I've done this decluttering thing before...but it always comes back. Especially when I let my guard down. I stop paying attention or I get so I'm apathetic about it or unmotivated or too busy to bother.

This sounds very similar to my spiritual walk sometimes! I get really into the Christian walk...reading and praying and memorizing scripture. The clutter moves out of my brain and heart. I'm doing great! Practically walking on water! Ha ha! That's when I get too sure of myself. I stop paying attention. I get lazy and pretty soon it seems like such work to read my Bible and pray. Then the clutter starts moving back in. The doubts. The depression. The "what ifs." Old hurts are resurrected and...my spiritual house is a mess! Why do I follow this cycle over and over again? You'd think I'd learn after a while!

Joshua 24:15 As for me and my house,we will serve the Lord."

Yes, this needs to be my daily motto and committment!

Lord, paint me beautiful!

Well I have not blogged in forever. I'm still not sure what I'm going to say. I have just been busy that's all. Just doin' the mom thing and it seems like it's always something. I've also started a couple more projects. Business has been a bit slow...but I have a couple of pieces that maybe I can paint and sell. I've tried to stay off the computer because it can really be a time waster for me. I just get on and it just sucks me in and pretty soom I've blown a couple of hours doing nothing.
Lately I have been stripping layers and layers off of an antique chair. It is a painful process that doesn't seem to end. When I started, it was bright yellow..with the back rungs being white...and was covered with dirt and mildew. The mildew is gone, and I have discovered a variety of colors built up over the years. Yellow-white-tan-black-red-green-white again. It reminds me of the Lord...stripping down through my painful layers in order to renew me. Yes, it was painful...but well worth it.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Ps. 139:23-24

That is all. Hopefully I will regain my creativity soon with blogging. Sorry to disappoint you readers.

President's Motorcade

Hey! Here is the actual picture of the president's motorcade taken by one of the women who is in my leadership group. I'm glad she was wise enough to bring along a camera...and nice enough to share it with me...who didn't even think about my camera as I left the house that morning.

Presidential Visit

I knew I had to blog today because President Bush came and visited our town today. He visited an upscale nursing home and made a speech at our local high school. Who'da thought our town would be picked out of all the towns on the map of the USA? Anyway...our town has been quite a buzz for the last several days. Everyone was busy cleaning up the main drags around town and putting signs of welcome out. One business even went through the trouble of "planting" red, white and blue plastic flowers.

I went to my CBS leadership team meeting at the free methodist church...which is located on one of the main roads into town. When I walked in, our fearless leader Blake said, "We're switching rooms to meet in today." Why? Well to meet on the side of the church that faces the road, of course! We had our meetings, with occassional interuptions from someone who would say..."Oh! There goes a state police car!" We'd all anxiously look out the window to see if the motorcade was on it's way. We finished up our meeting and gathered around the windows and waited. Finally after about 15-20 minutes, the motorcade arrived. Several dark official looking vehicles with darkened windows. Several vans and of course security vehicles. We were all so excited!

The kids got home from school. None of them go to the high school, but got to watch the president's speech via close circuit TV in their classrooms. I said, "So, did you see the president? How was it?" Their reactions were typical for their age. "It was boring. He talked about medicare." My littlest one said, "I didn't listen." They were less than impressed I guess.

I got to thinking about all the fuss and preparations made for this great man to come to our town. A day that will be remembered by many for years to come (even if it was of being in a sunday school room at a Free Methodist Church). Every day I have opportunity to have a personal visit with someone greater than George W. And most of the time, I take it for granted and don't spend a lot of time on preparation or even in excitement. My God is an awesome God! I want to have a greater love for Him than I do. One that anticipates my encounters with Him and hangs on his every word. Like Mary, sitting at His feet and listening. Everything else stopped because He was most important to her.

I'm ready for spring now!

After reading my niece's and Martha's blogs...I had to copy them. I want spring. It was warm and sunny this morning...but just when I was ready to go out for a walk, the clouds rolled in, a wind came up and it actually started sprinkling. Audra and I took Sherman for a walk anyway. A short one. I put my hood on and pulled the strings tight. I must of looked like a goof ball. I kept laughing because A's long hair was blowing every which way. Sherman thought the whole thing was wonderful. He probably wondered why we were taking such a short walk when we returned to the house. I guess the weather didn't bother him a bit.

I have not been in much of a blogging mood lately. I guess I have the winter blahs.

My Beautiful Niece

Here is a picture of my beautiful niece, Bethany and her new husband Adam. They were married on December 3rd. In this picture Adam looks like he has grey hair...but he doesn't. It must be the lighting somehow.

Chocolate is My Friend

Well...I'm having a pitty party today because I am lonely. I have called several friends to see if anyone wanted to have coffee or lunch. No one is home. Martha is home, but she lives too far away. I went to Jamie's work place to see if he might like to go out for lunch. He wasn't opposed to the idea...but felt like he shouldn't leave the office because he was the only one available to answer the phone.

I came home and noticed my neighbor's car in her driveway. Went inside and called her, but there was no answer.

So...I came inside, made myself lunch and ate by myself in front of my virtual friends on the computer. The funny thing is, none of them seemed to be home either. And so I did the next best thing....I went into the kitchen and cut myself a very large fudgy brownie. I ate it and felt a strange fullfillment. I knew then that I must find a picture of chocolate and put it on my blogspot.

To anyone out there who can sympathize with my plight...eat a piece of chocolate.