Posted in This week in the Silver lining

Hope everyone is doing well.  I wanted to say that I've updated my entry from March 13th.  Also, I feel God is teaching me a very important lesson about not assuming and being slow to have an opinion on things. 

Please know that my intention for this blog is to simply point people back to Jesus through the things He teaches me everyday.  I am far from perfect.  But if I am excited to learn, then why shouldn't I be excited to share with others? 

Well, God bless everyone, I'll be writing more later,

Love,

Lyss

Posted in This week in the Silver lining

Hello everyone:

I looove my teaching job for a lot of reasons.  For one, I have flexibility (for the most part) to choose jobs when I can or can't teach.  I say for the most part because I am committed to a 6 week teaching period that I'm hoping won't start until the last week of October.... :) ... <>

Anyway, I have taken this priviledge and used it to travel twice now to help my friend Val move to SC.  It is a beautiful place.  There were some tense moments (who doesn't have these in a move, let-alone a state to state move) and some sad moments (Like saying goodbye :(   ...sniffle ...sniffles), But all in all it was a great trip. 

I was there a week and a few days and flew back home two weeks ago.  Only to catch up and go to an in-state trip to Melbourne for a week!  (Business trip). 

So...in the midst of coming and going and of staying sane, I am also handling home, few last closing of business details and doing some home improvement jobs, laundry, church, bills, teaching, birthday parties for family, youth and dealing with some family situations.  FULL plate! 

Anyway, Just wanted to update on why I've been gone so much.  I am trying to take jobs at the school as often as possible to make money for a vacation (with my husband this time!), and for of course...Christmas!

Please now join me in a prayer for our week/month:
Things to pray for: 
North Korea, Blessings on America, Our leaders, Youth of America, Wisdom for us in the mean time, a safe holiday season, safe trips, blessings on fellow business friend  (personal request), wisdom for priorities and for doing a great job in everything we do, my dad (personal request), my friend Veronica and Ryan (worried about them).

God bless everyone,
in Christ's Love,
L

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Posted in This week in the Silver lining

Romas 8:28

"28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,^[a] who^[b] have been called according to his purpose."

 

There is a cycle that is difficult to break in our society.  When a father (being human) makes mistakes and then due to those he turns away from God and leaves his family, he is not only harming himself, but also his children.  This scenario then has an open door for disaster.  The child grows up learning that giving up is the thing to do.  They grow up either wanting to be the opposite of their father and hating him, or falling into their same mistakes for their own family.

 

I've had to learn about this the hard way!  No, I'm not a father.  I'm not even a mother.  Just a daughter who is hurting and can't sleep at 1:58 AM.  The daughter of a father-less father who has never himself accepted the un-conditional love of his own Heavenly Father!

 

God is our heavenly Father.  But because of our freedom of choice, we sometimes don't want to accept Him.  He has unconditional love for us.  It is an un-meritted love since we are such imperfect beings. It is a love that never ends even if our life ends and it is also a love that forgives to the end and does not depend on feelings.  Love that would give up His own son for us to be closer to Him.  Love that is like 1 Corinthians 13:4-8: 

 

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

 8Love never fails.

But I digress...if all of us read our Bibles more, we would find out that inspite of what we don't understand, God is truly love.  Even when we don't feel loved by Him, and bad things happen, He is still love!  My husband came home from a bible study tonight and shared with my hurting mother, sister and myself about a verse that he felt he needed to share.  It is found in Romans 8:28 and I have started this blog entry with it because it is exactly what I need to remind myself of in times like these when I don't know how to apply God's love! 

 

It's very hard to understand love, let alone God's love when we are sad and angry at things that happen to us.  I mean, how can a Loving Father, do something to harm someone, when they are supposed to be Loving?  Say a small prayer in your heart that you may understand what God's spirit means and then re-read Romans 8:28.  How does a father do something good for us, if it doesn't feel like it is good to us? 

 

I'm not sure how many of you are fathers out there.  But what would happen if your child did something wrong?  Something that not only scared you but also something that is so bad that you want to make sure that they never make that mistake again.  For their OWN GOOD...You as their father, would probably reprimand them in some way...whatever way you feel is best, you will either scold them, punish them, or discipline them.  He was doing what is "good for" his child even if the child didn't take it as a 'good' thing.

 

However, how did you (that is now a father) feel when you were the child yourself and got disciplined by your father?  You probably felt the way every child does during those times.  The feeling is that of thinking that the discipline wasn't fair, and that the father was not being "good to" you or didn't love you.

 

So having said this example, now we come to the part where we think about all the times that our Heavenly Father (God), has allowed things to happen to us that didn't seem loving.  It may have been an accident or a death. 

 

For me, it has been things like illness, or not being able to have children, or even just seeing my father's struggle.  It is in those times that you wonder:  "what are you doing to me God?  This isn't good to me?  This stinks and hurts and I'm angry at you!  Don't you love my father?  Can't you help him?  Don't you love me"?  Do any of these thoughts sound familiar to you?  You know what though, He is able to get us out of situations, but the best option is when He chooses to let us go through things to help us learn and grow through them.  He is there with my dad though, whether I remember this or not.  I have to know that even if my dad will not aknowledge God, God loves my father even more than I could ever love him, and He IS there with him and God already has paid the price for forgiveness and now it is Dad's choice to choose God and to believe and let Him in. 

 

Going back to that verse at the begining of the entry:  What is good for me?  What is good for dad?  Well, if this situation will bring him to the end of his own strength and he chooses to love God and walk by His calling and purpose, then He will have an awesome testimony and the wait would be worth it and God will be glorified!  That would be the scenario in which things "work out for dad's good".  This is also ultimately what God wants of dad.

 

If he does not choose to love God, and thinks that he can just continue on to do things on his own and pushing away any help, then he has made a terrible choice that makes it harder for any of us to love him.  What's in it for dad then?  Well, that verse says that this promise is ONLY for those that choose to "love God and are called to His purpose".

 

Have you ever felt that you loved God?  Have you ever felt that His purpose through Jesus was so right that you felt called to follow that purpose?  Then that verse applies to you.  As long as dad chooses the opposite, that verse does not apply.  Then things will not work for Dad's good, even though life may seem 'good' to him at times.

 

It is then that I realize that just like I can't force my dad to do something how I would do it because I love him, and trust me I love my dad, God will never take away our freedom of choice.  My father has a free will.  He wants to do whatever pleases him. 

 

As for me, I can't continue to take on that hurt.  I can't continue to hurt for him making the wrong choices!  No, not wrong choices according to me.  Wrong choices according to God's word...The Bible.  

 

I remind myself that it is not my fault!  There is nothing I can do that I haven't done already.  My words have come in one ear and out the other.  His heart was so hardened that the things I was saying out of love and my urgency to help him may not have sounded loving.  

 

"Well, isn't it Ironic?  Don't you think"?  ; /  I may never really know the reasons why he is so deaf to what we say.  But I can't continue to take it inwardly.  I can't continue to think of what if's.  I can't continue to cry at night as I see pictures of when he had things together and reminise of the times when his family was the most important thing to Him.

 

This hurts me because I feel that he is become selfish and only cares about meeting his own needs.  (Very liberalistic mentality if you ask me)!  But why should I be surprised, right?  After all, that is all anyone these days wants?  It is taught and understood in this world today, that as long as you are content anything goes. 

 

I love him so much that it hurts to see him being this way and it also hurts him.  He hurts for the realization of what his choices have done.   Though he is not the only one at fault, as head of his household it is his responsibility to keep his family.  But his family is now falling apart.  There is only sadness in his voice now.  I know that my love for him will lift him up just a little.  But that is the point of this long entry. 

 

I've taken on a lot of pain from his choices and from that cycle I described earlier.  See, his father left him when he was 6 years old.  He was raised by another family though and did have a father.  Even if his real or foster fathers were or were not Godly influences, he still had plenty of opportunity from then to now (he is 59), to learn from those mistakes and pray to not fall into those same traps. 

 

In fact a few years ago when it all started, he had a dream that terrified him:  He dreamed that someone was driving a car out of control and that he was in the passenger seat scared out of his mind.  In his dream however, he himself was the person driving also, and he was afraid even of his own face and how he looked not like himself but like an out of control version of him that seemed to be taking over the wheel to destroy him.  (Makes me appreciate the song by Carrie Underwood:  Jesus take the wheel even the more)!

 

Inspite of that realization, he made his choice to throw caution to the wind and act selfishly.  Don't get me wrong; I act selfish sometimes.  Who doesn't?  Also, I do want him to be happy.  However, in life it's not what mistakes we make, but how we get back up after making those that help us to be happier. 

 

Now, without getting into too much detail; my dad has made some mistakes not only in leading his family and respecting his wife, but as we now come to find out, he has also been keeping a double life.  These mistakes are hard to forgive, especially for an imperfect person like myself who struggles to understand.  In fact, they are hard things to overcome not only for me but my mother and sister.  I love them too though, and this makes it harder to love dad, since he is hurting them also. 

 

What do I do?  How do I love a person who I'm angry at, but love so dearly.  How do I not get upset at him when I see that love that he can't see because of his state.  I miss my dad, but it has only been about a month since I last saw him, and a day since I last spoke to him.  I miss the way he was.  I miss his love for me.  I miss our family.  That feeling of family is gone now. 

 

That is when I remind myself of what the meaning of love is.  Patient, kind, does not keep record of wrong?  WOW.  I mean even if you were not to believe in the Bible you have got to believe these love verses if you've ever been in-love.  The first thing you are is patient, kind, and forgiving to your mate! 

 

But it is a choice, a hard one at that, to choose to do these things, and this further proves (as I spoke about in an earlier blog entry) that 'Love' is truly always a choice.  

 

Now I ask you:  How do you choose to love those who wronged you?  It's tough!   This is not what we are taught.  In fact, just the opposite!  However,  as you will read in:  Mattew 5:43-45

43"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor^[a] and hate your enemy.' 44But I tell you: Love your enemies^[b] and pray for those who persecute you,"

 

That commandment is telling me to CHOOSE to love my 'enemies'.  No further explanation is needed on that one! 

 

"Dear Father God ...worthy is your great name; please help me to love and take care of my father inspite of all that has happened.  Please keep him safe.  Help me to help him or to step aside and let you work.  Truth is, I will be better off leaving Dad in your very capable hands....Lord, my prayer for him is that he will realize that you re there as his father who loves him no matter what and that he will realize that it's never too late.  I pray for his repentance to you.  I pray for a restored family.  In Jesus' name I pary...Amen"

 

Well, thanks for reading on!  Have a great week everyone.

Posted in This week in the Silver lining

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the long abscence.  I've been trying to work out the details of the closing of our business.  It's a bitter-sweet thing to have to do.  See, on the one hand it is great not to have to travel so long to go to work anymore.  It's great that I don't have to work.  However, on the other hand I had to deal with feelings of failure, and unrealized dreams. 

Through it all however, God has been a constant help.  He has provided a person to take over the lease at the office so that we aren't personnally liable!  That is such a relief!  I'm just praying that the transition goes smooth.

He has provide Jesse with a wonderful job!  Not an easy job by any means, but a job that God intended Jesse do at this point in our lives.  He is a school teacher at a local Christian school (5 minutes away)!  I pray every day that God equips him and that God's grace and favor is upon him, and that God will keep him Safe and grant him wisdom to deal with the kids.  Also, this job makes it so that I don't have to work outside of the home.  It will be just enough to make it.

All in all we feel really blessed and feel that this is all a confirmation of God's will for us.  Everything has fallen into place.  From the house, to the job, to the closing of the previous chapter.  God has provided and we are so exited about what He continues to work out for us. 

I challenge you to pray for God's ultimate will in your life.  I challenge you to follow it!  It's not easy!  But knowing that God is smoothing things out before you is a comfort that you can take pride in.

Posted in This week in the Silver lining

Hello everyone!

 

Just writing to update everyone on our last few weeks.  We are seriously enjoying Homeownership.  However there is a LOT to do with a house.  I don't just mean the mowing of the lawn and the cleaning inside.  I mean the raking, planting, pressure washing, leaf blowing, tree trimming, caulking, spraying, painting, etc. etc.

 

That's beside trying to un-pack and settle in.  NEVER-THE-LESS it is AWESOME!  We feel truly blessed. 

 

Everyday we are now just breathing and taking it all step by step.  Just trying to get things done slowly and just trying to be faithful to get things accomplished without getting overwhelmed. 

 

Not just that, but we are also trying to lean on God for wisdom when it comes to financials.  We know that God has provided a home for us and that He will provide.  But when things are tight it is difficult to know how things are going to pan out.  :)

 

But as we depend on The Lord more we realize that it doesn't matter how it will happen.  That we don't really have to know or care.  He will take care of it.  So my new prayer in the morning is Lord I pray I may not worry.

 

I hope that you are having a wonderful week.  Please post to let me know what is going on in your home and if there is anything I can do to help or pray with you.

 

God bless,

L

Posted in This week in the Silver lining

(Thank you for visiting my blog.  This one ended up being a little long!   Feel free to re-read later when you have time if you can’t finish it).

 

Hello all.... 

 

I am by way of this blog officially denying myself of ear holes…for now!  (until my ears totally heal and maybe I'll try again in a year or two).  I had gotten my ears pierced in November of last year when I went to Washington State with my sister.

 

However, after all this time my ears where too high maintenance for me.  Don't get me wrong...I do clean my ears after every shower and I'm very particular about them.  But the added inconvenience of having to use Hydrogen Peroxide every night past the usual "6-8 week healing period". 

 

You may ask me:  "What would happen if you didn't keep babying them"?  To which I answer:  "one of two things would happen if I neglected my ears; one you don't REALLY want me to share, the other is that the earring hole would bleed".  : D  It's almost like my ears have refused to heal on the inside!  The strange thing is that on the outside it seemed to be quick to heal; when I left out my earrings for only 1 night (to let them rest), the back of the earring hole would close up and I couldn't find where to close the earring. 

Ok-So now you are probably scratching your head wondering why on earth I chose to tell you all this.  In fact this is probably the thought that crossed your minds:  "Why are you writing this on your blog?  Big deal!  So, you had a problem adjusting to earrings?"

 

Part of this blog is expressing my mind about life events, and how they teach me lessons about God's word.  Well…

 

Even though most women have their ears pierced at infancy; I didn't.  My mother believed that it was against God's laws to wear earrings/ or any jewelry -for that matter.  To an extent; I also had a conviction about it that may have stemmed from my up-bringing.  However, I decided as an adult (last year) that I would do an inward examination of my reasons for wanting ear rings. 

 

So after coming out of a strong Fundamentalist Pentecostal church; I decided to really do a Bible study and experience for myself this "dogma" to see what God really wanted me to know about this.  It wasn’t until now that I understood.

 

Was I not getting earrings because of my own conviction?  Was I wanting to get earrings because I wanted to be “normal for once” or to “keep up with the Joan’ses”?   Was I wanting earrings to help me “feel better” about myself, or to look pretty?  Was it an excuse to lift up my self esteem?  Should I worry about other’s opinions of me, or what God thinks of me?  I learned a lot from a familiar verse that I didn’t realize before applied to so much in my life.

 

Many times in my life I had read over the (often mis-quoted) verse from 1 Timothy 2:9 that says:   

            9"In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;

I looked up some commentary on this verse in biblegateway.com and found out what some theologians think about it.  (These people have done longer studies and read other parts of the Bible that support their understanding, better than mine).  Here is part of what they had to say about it: 

 

 ..."Women who profess the Christian religion, must be modest in apparel, not affecting gaudiness, gaiety, or costliness. Good works are the best ornament; these are, in the sight of God, of great price. Modesty and neatness are more to be consulted in garments than elegance and fashion. And it would be well if the professors of serious godliness were wholly free from vanity in dress. They should spend more time and money in relieving the sick and distressed, than in decorating themselves and their children. To do this in a manner unsuitable to their rank in life, and their profession of godliness, is sinful"...

 

Here is what God spoke to me through this short study:  God wants me to be modest and a good steward of His time and His money, and if I have dedicated my life to serving him then my life is a reflection of Him and I should represent Him well.  (I say "His" because I don't control how much time I have on this earth -though I am a steward over time, and it is always God's provision for me to have the ability to hold a job or have an income).

 

So, God is not really telling me:  "Told you!  No earrings for you!  That's for disobeying me!" ; ) LOL-I crack myself up sometimes.  He is allowing this teaching in His Word to let me know to be careful of my intentions; to have the right mindset, and to know what is important in life, to not get caught up in the meaningless things, to be careful what things I do with my money and my time and the impression I give in this world to others. 

 

This also brought other questions to my mind:  Does this mean that if someone that is rich/or well-to-do gets an expensive car or something:  Is that a bad thing?  Not necessarily.  What was their heart behind getting it?  Could they afford it?  Did they think of what matters first?

 

If someone who is poor/or has a tight budget buys an expensive car that they want in place of a sufficiently efficient car that they need; is this a bad thing?  According to God's word it would be; (because I am not the judge...and God's word is:  it doesn't matter what I believe).    But God would want them to think of what matters first!  They would want to be good stewards of the money they are provided.

 

I'm happy for people that get new cars/or anything that is better/bigger for their family and that are efficient for them.  In fact, my sister and her husband just bought an SUV/minivan type car.  But when I asked them about it, they assured me that they could comfortably make those payments.  So, then my concern for my sister's well-being was appeased! 

God's laws and "suggestions" aren't to keep us from doing things.  We should NEVER feel imprisoned by the things that God would have us do...but rather do things FOR God; TO HONOR HIM, TO REPRESENT HIS NAME WELL (AS CHRISTIANS) BECAUSE we are thankful to Him FOR HIS TRUTHS.  What truths are these?  The Bible, His Word is truth. 

 

B.I.B.L.E. --"Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth"! **

 

**Benefits of these suggestions of God's word: 

 

-How much better will we live in this world with others if we care enough about our neighbors to be good examples? 

 

-How much easier would life be if we let the creator give us True wisdom on what is good for us in the end?  In everything:  big decisions, spending money, small decisions, etc. etc.  (After all He knows the future)!

 

-How much better would this world be if All Christians really represented Christ for all that The Bible says about Him?  (Instead of "Christians" who constantly don't care/realize that they cut off people on the road, or use swear words that offend, etc. etc.  Also, how would Jesus feel about that if He heard them saying it?  Do they not know that This God is everywhere?  The forces of this world want us to slander, and fall all the time, because he wants to bring down the Good Name of Jesus.  He wants us to mess up God's name so that people will point their fingers at us saying:  "If that's a Christian..I don't want anything to do with that?". 

 

-GOD has our best interest at heart! - The Bible says in Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future".

 

So you see, God does not want to keep me from wearing earrings.  Perhaps, though he wants to teach me through this experience.  I believe that He has.  I believe that he has allowed me to see the “big picture” put all the puzzle pieces together for me in my life through this “little” situation.  He has “filled the hole”-LOL- for me with regard to my conscience. 

 

Will I ever get my ears pierced again?  Maybe I will.  But at least this time I will do examine my heart for the right reasons.  I will stick to any convictions that I may have based on how God is dealing with me in my life.  This next time, I would be doing it consciously knowing that “looking great” is not the only or most important thing in life. 

 

This speaks to me in a variety of different areas of my life.  Not just about the earrings...  But one thing it helps about is my true battle with loosing weight.  I will now examine my heart for why I do things.  God looks at the heart, right?  Not at the outside! 

 

Therefore; Is my heart right with God?   Everything that goes to the heart comes in through our minds so:  Am I putting into my heart the right things?  What things do I think on?  Do I get down about being over-weight?  Do I continually feel bad about my state?  Does it over-whelm me to the point where I feel bad and discouraged?  Can I help others around me if I’m walking around discouraged and down on myself?  How can I help other if I can’t help myself? How can I help myself loose weight, if I am down?

 

Why is it that I haven’t lost weight?  Perhaps it is due to not having the right reasons or because I haven’t focused my energy on what really matters.  I should loose weight naturally by just being conscious of what I put into my body.  By wanting to eat healthy!  It should be a by-product; not the driving force of “wanting to look good”.

 

God’s opinion of me is the first thing I want to care about!  That’s who I want to like me most.  He wants me to be healthy and to have good thoughts in this life.  He wants me to appreciate His Word.  He wants me to be thankful and think on the eternal things.  He wants me to have a good outlook and a healthy esteem.  He wants me to help others also. 

 

His Word says in:  Philippians 4:8 

8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

He also says in His word in Matthew 6:25:

 

25 “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?”

 

So if this helps you to examine yourself for things that might help you; then I pray God will give you wisdom to know what “little” things in your life reflect a lesson from Him for you.

 

God Bless,

 

 

 

Posted in This week in the Silver lining

I had a wonderful week this past: *personal-holiday* week.  : P Thank you to everyone who sent me a card and warm wishes.

 

We should be closing on our house mid week so please keep that in prayer. 

 

Thank you also for praying for my mom.  God is continuing to work with all of us about eating better and getting healthier. 

 

I hope all of you have a great week! 

Posted in This week in the Silver lining

****EDITED 1/07/07*****Hi friends.  There was something in this blog entry that I feel God has shown me to be wrong.  Sometimes, we may type something quickly that we may not have completely thought through.  After revising this entry I have changed the lines that should not have been there.  Please know I believe that nobody is perfect and everyone needs God...By this article I aim only to make a point that relativism and indifference about God is not correct and that it is the tool used by the enemy to bring down God's army of people not ashamed to bring forth the ultimate truth of God's word  I apologize if anyone has been hurt by the comment I deleted with regards to the parents' faults.  I understand that though parents have the responsibility to teach children in God's ways, it is always up to the free will of the child to make the choice to listen to their parents.  Furthermore, I realize we all went through these stages as young people to different extents.*************

I was blessed this weekend by being able to attend a youth event with our church’s youth.  It was such an eye opening experience that I want and feel the need to share.  One thing I saw is how over the past 5 years things had gotten so much worse than I ever cared to notice.  I also saw an ARMY.  I saw a strong un-yielding voice that was rising to say don’t mess with our God!  I saw young people that were tired of the persecution against them from those that not only choose to not believe in Jesus, but have the audocity to fight anyone else that wants to have that right.  Young people that had awesome intentions to find truth and were there to get it.  Many were totally blessed, as so was I.

 

However, some left unchanged, because the whole time they were there, all they could do was be rude and sit there playing games, and text messaging with cell phones, or standing outside smoking and ignoring the fact that someone cared enough to put together this event for their own good.  Those are the youth that are careless and self-centered.  Most likely they believe that truth is relevant, so why listen if they can create their own reality from pieces of what makes sense to them or how they feel.

 

Slowly but surely, people are trying to change what is truth by twisting it and before we knew it things went from bad to worse.  Making everyone believe that truth is dependent on who you are talking to, and rising up to fight and bring down those that care about God and the REAL TRUTH.  This unfortunately is the reason why our Youth today have it so hard!  

 

You know, there are many things that people can believe as truth.  However, if those things don’t line up with God’s word, then it is not true.  Even my own opinions, I will gladly change if my Bible tells me otherwise is truth.  I don’t care whose opinion it is.  God’s truth is the ultimate truth.

 

That is why in this event we were intent on teaching God’s word and what it says about standing strong in this TRUTH.  Like an Army ready to defend our country; we are an Army ready to defend the Truth.  God’s word is the Truth, and it is because it is true, that I believe in Jesus.  What sense would it make to believe some things in the Bible but not others???? 

Now the real question is; Who or what is our enemy? 

 

The bible also says that our fight is “against principalities” and forces in this world.  The devil is real.  Whether people believe it or not.  There is a God and there is a devil.  Evil is out there and everyday it makes this world feel that being comfortable and caring about one’s self is more important than the love that we should feel for those around us.  The comfort to be safe and not say what you believe because it “offends” people, when in reality it is only a true friend that tells it like it is!  We have to face the fact that although we can try our best to do things in love, we will still "offend".  Why?  Because Jesus is light and when light hits darkness it exposes it.  When truth the truth comes out lies are found out.  It offends those that want to live in the darkness of their own thinking.  It is their choice to get offended.  Even when you didn’t say or mean it to offend.   Also: (HELLO PEOPLE OF THE WORLD)....NOBODY IS PERFECT!!!...Just know that if you tell me I hurt you I will do my best to make it right with you.  It is then up to you to forgive me if you choose to. 

 

I believe that we should be bold and stand outside of our comfort zone.  Not to offend, but to show the truth in love.  I’ve been far too comfortable far too long.  I don’t want someone to not know the greatness of Jesus because I was too afraid of how I’d seem or whether they like me or not.  Not out to purposely hurt someone.  But to give them the loving truth from the Bible.  If they choose it, great! If they don't then at least I did all I could do!  

 

If they are my true friends then they will like me, no matter what happens.  If they love me they will know I wouldn’t purposely want to hurt them!  And if they are my true friends they will let me know if I am stepping outside of the boundaries and not keep it bottled up to build resentment toward me.  If someone is not my friend, (by their own choice), then what are they?  Is there an in-between?  Would they then be my enemy (also by their own choice)?  If there is a devil, then the bible is true….which it is…and if so then as it says:  “he came to seek and destroy”…friendships…marriages…countries…lives.

 

Now tell me; If this is not our enemy, then who, or what is it?  Whatever you are facing in life; whether injustice, prejudice, or trial; fight for truth.  We can't fight by our physical strength, however, by our faith and by standing for God's truths.  This battle will not easily be won.  This battle will only be won by being in God's word, our code of conduct.  By learning how to avoid things that will tear down this army.  By teaching it to our children and letting them know its importance.  It is about time that we stand strong.  Together, with Christ!  If God with us, who can be against us? 

 

Even when the battle seems hopeless, or over, look up He will be there to lift you up and show you a victory that the world will never understand.  This is victory that is beyond life, beyond death, beyond trophies, beyond opinions, or even beyond countries!  Nobody in this world will ever understand God's will entirely, as many times as we may read about His truths, there are still things that in our human minds we can't seem to fathom.  That is the Victory that the Bible promises!  A friend of mine put this poem in her blog. 

I loved it and changed two of the words to better understand it's meaning in my life.  Enjoy: 

 

I am a soldier of God.

The Lord Jesus is my commanding officer.

The Holy Bible is my code of conduct.

 Faith, Prayer and the Word
are my weapons of Warfare.
I have been taught by the Holy Spirit,
trained by the {Bible},
tried by adversity,
and tested by fire.

 I am a volunteer in this Army,
and I am enlisted for eternity.
I will either retire in this Army at the rapture
or die in this Army;
but I will not get out, sell out, be talked out,
I am faithful, capable, and dependable.

 If My God needs me,
I am there.

If He needs me in Sunday school to teach children,
work with the youth, help adults, or just sit and learn.
He can use me,
because I am there!

I am a soldier.
I am not a baby.
I do not need to be pampered,
petted, primed up, pumped up,
picked up, or pepped up.

 I am a soldier. No one has to call me,
remind me,
write me, visit me,
entice me, or lure me.

 I am a soldier.
I am not a wimp.
I am in place, saluting my King,
obeying His orders, praising His name,
and building His kingdom!

I am a soldier.
No one has to send me flowers,
gifts, food,
cards, candy,
or give me handouts.

I do not need to be cuddled, cradled,
cared for, or catered to.

I am committed!

I cannot have my feelings hurt bad enough to turn me around.
I cannot be discouraged enough to turn me aside.
I cannot lose enough to cause me to quit.

When Jesus called me into this Army,
I had nothing.
If I end up with nothing,
I will still come out even.

I will win.
My God will supply all my needs.
I am more than a conqueror.
{God} will always triumph.
I can do all things through Christ.

 I am a soldier.
Devils cannot defeat me.
People cannot disillusion me.
Weather cannot weary me.
Sickness cannot stop me.
Battles cannot beat me.
Money cannot buy me.
Governments cannot silence me,
and Hell cannot handle me!

I am a soldier.
Even death cannot destroy me.
For when my commander calls me from this battlefield,
He will promote me to a captain
and then bring me back to rule this world with Him.

 I am a soldier in the Army,
and I'm marching, claiming victory.
I will not give up.
I will not turn around.

I am a soldier,
marching Heaven bound.
Here I stand!

Will you stand with me?

 

Thank you Mishelle for this wonderful poem you shared with me!

God Bless,

 

 

Posted in This week in the Silver lining

 The will of God... 

(I know it is long…take a break through this entry if you need to…But please know I am not trying to preach…after finishing it…I was wiping tears because of the overjoyed feeling of how God has ministered first to me by these realizations).

 When given choices in life, if we choose one way or another; who's will is it? 

When hardship comes and we feel like the choices we made were wrong choices, but yet they were allowed in our lives, even then.  Who's will is it? 

When we are rejoicing or in sorrow...in trial or tribulation...in sickness or in health; who's will is it?  It's the will of God!  He fore-knows what will happen.  He knew my purpose before the foundations of the earth. 

 Many people feel that since 'bad things happen to good people', there must not be a God.  They reason; “how can there be a God if there are so many bad things in this world that are happening”.  They feel like a "good" God can't let things like that happen to his children if He 'truly' loves them.  They think it is a straight contradiction.  Also, some struggle with the ‘free will’ and consequence concepts.

 I can't convince anyone of anything, let alone someone who's heart is not willing to listen.  However, what I can do is share my own experience, since nobody can argue when they didn’t live our life for us or are standing on our shoes.  Many ‘bad’ things have ‘happened’ in our so-called "good" life.  I say it that way because–(in my learning)- there is nobody who is 'basically good'.  See, we may be 'good' people.  But even at our best we are only as good as what goes INTO our hearts.  If we store bitterness in our hearts, (from having been hurt) then bitterness will surface.  If we store anger, anger will surface.  If we store inspiration, then inspiration will surface.  If we read and store God’s words, then those words will surface.  I don’t claim to read the Bible as often as one should, or store enough of it in my heart for my own sake. 

 However, I will give my ‘disclaimer’ that if at any point there are excerpts from the Bible present in any of these blogs, it is because it has ministered to my heart and like a golden nugget, has been cherished enough to be stored up within me for such a time as this, and for God’s glory.

 The Bible (a book that has been acclaimed even by non-christians and historians to be a great source of truth and inspiration); says that "ALL have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God"  -Romans 3:23-.  ALL means ALL guys!  It also says; that we will never understand all of God’s ways. 

 For example, we didn’t get one of the many houses we had hoped to get about 6 months ago.  Why? -We asked God in prayer.  Now, the reason is understood!  Sometimes, we don’t realize why God does things until He shows us later that it was better that way.  “Better”???  Better for whom?  Better over all!  See, that house is now occupied by another family.  They are also a family who feels blessed to have found it!  A family that is being blessed by meeting their next door neighbors (friends of ours).  If we had moved there…that may not have happened. 

What about us?  Well, we’ve learned many things along the path.  One is that God never closes a door without opening another.  And that:  “…God works all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called by His purpose” –Romans 8:28. 

 For our good!  How many times has God made it hard for me to do something…all in all to protect me from something happening to me before my time?  I may never know in this lifetime!  Even if we don’t think His will for us is ‘good’, it is always ‘good for us’.  (Like Veggies )!

 About the ‘detail/disclaimer’ –(“…of those that love him…”).  I try everyday to love God within my heart and to take every thought captive so that no unnecessary bitterness comes into it.  I try to be overjoyed with love, (the love that God commands me to have in His word).  By trying hard at this, I can show God (trying not to boast about anything to anyone) that I love Him. 

 Oh, oh another ‘detail/disclaimer’ –(“…and are called by His purpose…”).  How do I know I am “called by His purpose”?  Well, His purpose is there already, if you don’t believe me, read the Bible.  (It is replete with instances of people who didn’t even live in each other’s same era, but all knew God’s purpose was set before the beginning of the earth).  The real question is:  am I choosing to walk within this calling?  Am I choosing to take on that responsibility of taking on His purpose for my life. 

 Furthermore, any agnostic would even declare that nobody in this life is "perfect".  That in turn would specify, that in order to not be perfect, we must have done some things 'wrong' or been somehow 'bad' at one point or another.  This is also to say that we are not always right, or 'good'.  If we lie, aren't we liers and if we sin (true definition from google: 

“the primary Greek word rendered "sin" is "hamartia". This word essentially means "missing the mark; falling short; or a departure". The essential idea being conveyed by the use of this word is that of "a departure from holiness"; thus "hamartia" means to sin; to depart from God's standard of holiness; to become unrighteous; to fail to live up to what God requires of us”. -Rom 3:23; 14:23; James 4:17; 1 John 3:4),

aren't we all sinners by definition?  Indeed missing the mark is not being a perfect shot!  So to say that we are "good" people would mean that we would have to always be “good”. 

 Now while you read about me and my experiences below, please keep these next questions in the back of you mind for reflection.  Do "bad" things happen to "good" people?  Or do things happen to people?  Also, at what point do we take responsibility for our decisions, and consequences, instead of naming reasons why things just 'happen' to us?

 Right now, it seems as though my husband and my business will not easily survive the market's slow training trends.  Maybe you know that we can't have natural children, or that we've not been able to own another home in the past 2 years after we made a prayed over move from another city or any other hard detail of our life.  Something about that move is that still to this day we hear people's questioning us on it.  But yet God’s peace has confirmed this in our hearts that it had to have happened, for us to be where we are now.  He protected us!  He gave us the wisdom at the time to not be attached to a plurality in life and do what seems harder.  And if what we are going through now is for some purpose that we will only know later, then I will humbly say Lord have your will not mine!

 Now you may ask yourself, if it is "God's will", then did God lead us into these situations to leave us hanging?  To leave us stranded?  No way!  God promises also in His Word that He will never leave us or forsake us!  If I believe in some things the Bible says…  Then why should I not believe in other things?…  Why should I not believe this?  That my friends is a contradiction that we as humans put up. 

 I can say from what I'm learning in these struggles, not only are we stronger and is our faith in God stronger, but we have grown closer to each other and have learned about God's sovereignty even more.  God has provided every step of the way.  He has provided our meals, a roof over our heads, and lots of friends and family that support us no matter how imperfect we are.

 I'll tell you what.  I’d rather have the my future unknown to me but in the hands of my Creator who stands outside of time and knows what is to happen, than in my finate hands, that don’t know what is to come.  In the mean time, I will do His will, His purpose which is described in His Word; which It tells me is to believe in Him and His word, and follow what It says is His Purpose and what lines up with His will.  I will try my best at doing everything, as onto Him!

As for you my brother or my sister; Rejoice no matter what comes at you, and persistently pray for wisdom in every decision, no matter how small.  God will meet you there.

 

In Christ’s love,

Lyssie

 

Posted in This week in the Silver lining

Dedicated to my wonderful family and friends…

 

I’ve been thinking about when I say that I love someone.  What do I mean by that?  Why do I love them?  What if they don’t love me back?  What is love?   

Well...I’ll tell you what….I believe love is definitely not a feeling!  Feelings are fleeting you see.  One day we feel good.  The next we feel bad.  If love were a feeling, then love would never last. 

No….I believe that love is a choice!  A choice, you ask? Yes, a choice.  Just like obeying the law is a choice.  If you choose to break the law then you’ll suffer the consequences of it.  You choose what speed to drive your car.  Cars aren’t made with automatic mph speed controllers that slow you down if you go past the limit.  (Though that would be a very advanced technology)!   

It doesn’t mean that there is no law.  We are free to decide what speed to go, but we know that if we do right, we will save ourselves the stresses of tickets and cops and well accidents.   

See, God gives us a commandment to love each other.  Notice that in every time he says in the scriptures, he is commanding us to do it.  It is our choice to choose to obey it or not to.  Just the same; just because there are commandments doesn’t mean that we always end up doing as we are told.  I mean we are human so we make mistakes.  However, I feel that this world would be better off if everyone did as commanded.   

Furthermore, 1 Corinthians 13;4-13, speak of what the attributes of love are.  I couldn’t say this better myself!  Please read: 

⁴Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. ⁶It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

⁸Love will last forever, but prophecy and speaking in unknown languages^[c] and special knowledge will all disappear. ⁹Now we know only a little, and even the gift of prophecy reveals little! ¹⁰But when the end comes, these special gifts will all disappear.

¹¹It's like this: When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. ¹²Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.^[d] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me now.

¹³There are three things that will endure--faith, hope, and love--and the greatest of these is love.

 

If you wrong me or if I wrong you -and chances are I might sometime in my life time let you down though I try not to-, choosing to love is what makes it easier to choose to forgive.  Therefore, if I ever say I love you, not only will I mean it, but you can better believe that as hard as it might be for me to keep this commandment (and I’m surely not going to let it slide easily), I will never cease to love you.

 

Lyssie

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Posted in This week in the Silver lining

Hello everyone!

 

Sorry for being MIA for such a long time!  Is it just me or are there a lot of us 'Missing In Action' from our blogging so far in 2006?  I wanted to write a note to say we are ok...Just really busy and a bit stressed.  I've copied and pasted a few 'happenings from our side' that I sent in email to a friend today in hopes to save on time and still be able to post something about what's been up. 

 

...I met this awesome lady that really reminds me of my great friend Betsy…and the more I get to know her the more I find her similarities to her!!!  She is a writer and has 2 blogs which I enjoy reading. 

Here are links to her blogs too for your enjoyment:

http://beckyjoiessurvivingwithillness.blogspot.com/

http://absolutelywrite-beckyjoiesplayground.blogspot.com/

 

But I on the other hand, have been horrible at writing in my blog.   Not because of grammar or intimidation but because of timing.  There are a lot of things to say…such as my sister coming down on Monday night with her baby  boy  until April 17^th(when she goes back to pack her things up and come back again-her husband will be training in California till April and then will come join her for a two week vacation here and then they both go back on 17^th of April and she gets to pack and when he leaves to Iraq in June/July then she’ll come live here for good).  I can't wait for Monday!!!!  I'll post a pic of my nephew here for everyone to enjoy!

Also, I don’t know exactly how it is happening but we are in the process of having a house remodeled for us!  Friends from church are into real estate investing and selling.  They are fixing this house in Leesburg that they purchased and The Lord put in their hearts to have us look at it to buy it when they are done.  I don't know how but so far every door has been opening! 

 

I guess I just have to trust Him that He is taking care of it.  We’ve been under a lot of stress financially and have had to move out of our apartment and in with another couple at church.  (Which God totally orchestrated a situation that made it so that we could get out of our lease in less than a week with no penalties –-Since we are buying the house in March and would have had to break it anyway-- and not have to come up with another month’s rent)!!! 

 

However, now that things are a bit tight, it will be hard to know how God is going to do it.  But I really hope that time just flies by and we can get out on the other side ok.  I really hope that nothing changes and we get the house….but I also just want to not be stressed about anything.  Jesse is actually trying to get another job on the side to help provide for us.

 

Since work has not been easy, the time that I have here I try to not use updating my blog or emailing too much….I’ve been trying to be responsible on sales.  Someday I'll get to be 'stay-at-home', but for now, God has placed us in this situation for His purpose and I just want to do the best I can at it.

 

Anyway, thank you to all those that have been lifting us in prayer.   And let's continue to lift up  Jeremy and Elizabeth, BeckyJoie and Doug, our country and if possible; yours truly (the Silvers)...for health and provision.  God bless everyone!

 

Love,

Lyssie

Posted in This week in the Silver lining

Hello friends:

 To my disgust, I've found that I've put on the 30 pounds that I had lost back 2-3 years ago.  I know what you're thinking;   As a response to it, and as any american traditionalist would do, I decided to give up on trying to set any New Year's resolutions to loose weight, yet again. 

 However, I heard on several radio shows now, that in order to really attain results from New Year's resolutions, one has to set specific goals rather than general broad ones.  It's because of this that I've set myself a 'specific' goal to loose 3-4 lbs. per month.  I figured it would be attainable and by the end of 11-12 months, I'd be exactly where I'd need to be. 

 Six days into the month (Happy Three Kings day/Epiphany), I've found that I no longer can no longer have a clear distinction of how to go about it.    I mean, it should be easy enough; exercise and eat less, right?  I even set a few days a week as "gym" days.  (Our Apt. complex has a gym I can use for free)! 

 However, I keep finding that (even before New Year's) for about a month or two, things have been 'too busy' to justify going to the gym.  And they have!  I mean, I'm not just putting excuses.  If my gym day is Tuesday, we'll get home in time to go to bed!  My husband finally said well, if this is going to continue to happen and you really want to do this, why not do it in the morning.  Well that's easy for him to say since he is a morning person.  I'm not!  (you can ask Elizabeth about that ;) ! 

 I am sincerely at a loss on this issue! (I really need to stop with the exclamations in this entry)!  : P  But really I’m noticing that my husband was correct in telling me that I should pray for The Lord to speak to my heart and tell me how  can to best achieve it, instead of going by my own understanding, and so God can reveal to me his grace through the entire process so I don’t get down on myself.   

  I know now (after starting on my own), that’s what I must do.  I need to pray for wisdom (to manage my time and meals better), and rely on God’s plan.  Instead of trusting myself about knowing how much is “too much”; I’ll pray for being able to recogne when I’m “full”.  (I’ve always had trouble distinguishing between “full” and “stuffed”).  When I am full, but something tastes good, I end up eating it anyway. 

It's about learning to deal with temptation.  Temptation is something that affects all aspects of life.  It is essential to learn from the Lord how to overcome it, in any sircumstance.  Also, only if I have Him guiding me, can I not get down on myself through the process, and know that I have someone cheering me on and who loves me just the way I am even if I didn’t loose any weight ever.  (Well, two with my husband).  J

Posted in This week in the Silver lining

Happy New Year!  For the most part, It's been a relaxing weekend for Jesse and I.  We spent sometime with some friends from my old high school and had a great time.  Other than that it's been pretty relaxing.

Also, Jesse and I have been able to do some bible studies which I really got a lot out of.  Other than that I was able to draw up a floorplan of Jesse and my 'dream house'.  We would really like to someday be able to build it.  We'll see.  God is in control of it all.  So far, even though my family can't understand it, we have not been able to buy a house for a year and a half now. 

If it is not one reason, it is another.  To them we just haven't "really" wanted one, or tried hard enough.  But how many times do closings have to fall through, or realtors given up before you decide that God just didn't want it at the time.  Every 3-6 months we'd pray for direction and would try again to the same scattered results.  We are not going to put ourselves in a bad situation.  And so, as I explain in my profile, we are begining 2006 in the waiting. 

It's not an easy place to be, but I will rely on Him!  He knows what is best for us!

Posted in This week in the Silver lining

Another name for this blog entry is:  Christmas weekend part II.  The day after Christmas, Jesse and I said bye to his mother and pretty much slept a good part of the morning. 

When we did wake up, we were hungry.  We noticed that there were about 10 assorted apples in a basket on our baker's rack.  So we began to think of ways that we could use up the apples, before they went bad.  I looked around for recipes that envolved apple deserts.  I found some great Apple pie recipies.  However, we didn't have all the ingredients. 

 

We settled at first on making Cinnamon baked apples.  I say:  "at first", because we soon after realized that neither of us knew how to make cinnamon baked apples, and we might have do something different.  This realization sparked my curiosity.  I thought to myself, what a great opportunity to experiment!...How fun!

 

And so I began to gather up ingredients that 'sounded' good in theory for my baked apples, as Jesse began to slice up the apples.  In doing this, I realized that I had purchased two packs of cream cheese that we normally don't buy just to use.  My wheels began to turn at that point as I asked myself:  What if?

 

What if, I made a cheesecake, and topped it with the baked cinnamon apples?  Sort of a marriage between apple pie and cheesecake?  Do I have all the ingredients to make cheesecake?  How is cheesecake made?  I knew that I had recipies for cheesecake, but what I didn't have was something to make the crust! 

 

I looked around again in my refrigerator and to my surprise I saw:  fridge-hardened Oatmeal cookies!   They were so "crunchy" that neither of us had envisioned eating them any time soon.  Again, my wheels began to turn. 

 

One of the cheesecake recipiees called for using grounded up Graham crackers.  The lightbulb went on right then!  I proceeded to replace the graham crackers from the recipe to the oatmeal cookies I grinded up in my coffee grinder!  (Tip:  coffee grinder works great for making a powdery oatmeal cookie mixture.  Just make sure to break up the cookie first into small little coffee bean sized pieces). 

 

I baked the apples until all the ingredients were caramelizing and then put them atop the cheesecake in a round about design.  Well, just to let you all know, I have gotten nothing but rave reviews from that Baked Apple Cheesecake pie.  Jesse has even had it for breakfast since then! 

 

Anyway, we had little meals throughout the whole ordeal so that we'd have room that night for desert!  And to think, that he was so worried about my concoction!  He was really thinking:  "oh, Lyssie, I think you should stick to a recipe.  I don't know how this is going to turn out!" 

 

Cooking to me is fun!  But only when I have room to experiment!  If it is a scripted recipe, somehow I just don't enjoy it as much.  The great part in all of this is that we were able to use up the apples, and the cheese, and the oatmeal cookies.  That is pretty much the only thing that we did that day.  And the next day we went back into work.  Did any of you experiment with any new recipes this weekend?  (Besides, Jeremy and Elizabeth with their haggis)???

 

God bless you all,

 

Posted in This week in the Silver lining

 Ahhhhh!  I lost my blog entry!

 Ok now I’m mad!  I spent a long time writing about this weekend and when I put in some smiley faces into the text it erased it all!    I’m just sad now.  Therefore, I decided to just re-type it in a shortened way and copy and paste it into my web log! 

 

Here it is…again:

 

I hope that everyone’s Christmas went great!  I wanted to describe a little bit about our Christmas weekend,  but I don’t want it to be way to long to read either.   

 

My weekend started with me being worried!  Jesse’s mom was coming into town and we had invited a couple of families over for dinner on Christmas Eve, (the Dicken’s family, the Carbajal family, and Sandra from the office).  But although we wanted everyone to have been able to make it, we were still worried about fitting all 12 in our 600 sq. foot apartment!  We moved some furniture around and to our surprise everyone would be quite comfortable (as long as they didn’t mind staying in one spot for a few hours).  The other part I was worried about, was making the rice.

 

On the menu was a 4 layer lasagna (with 10 cheeses), yellow rice, salad, some sort of appetizer (which ended up being Sweet Swedish meatballs), and a fresh baked loaf of bread with garlic sauce.   Everything was time consuming, but not too difficult to make in concept.  I have a bread maker, a crockpot and all the ingredients for lasagna.  However, the rice was what I had to tackle.  See being of Spanish decent, you’d think I’d know how to make yellow rice.  However, it has never been my forte! 

 

Also, I knew that if the Carbajals would be planning to come that I’d need to make enough rice for Michael to have half a pot of rice just for himself…LOL…inside joke:  (Michael loves rice)!  And so, I prayed, that nobody would die from my rice and even though the massive amount of rice I put into the pot out-weighed the pot itself, and most of the rice did not fully cook, nobody died and it was not anything that didn’t get fixed by my microwave, and for that I am thankful. 

 

Anyways, after all that I had hoped my food would be ‘superb’, however, as many times as everyone said that everything was “awesome”, “great”, “delicious”, nobody could quite convince me.  After a great dinner-time with the Dickens and the three of us, we went to church for a Christmas Eve candle-light service.  It was awesome.  The children had a few songs that they sang and we had some hot apple cider. 

 

On Christmas day, we mainly spent time with Jesse’s mom.  We went to Disney’s Market place.  One of our favorite ‘cheap’ date places, (courtesy of the Kleidosty’s).  The whole time there we couldn't stop thinking of things that some of our friends would like. 

 

From there we had the idea to go to the Contemporary hotel to see the Food Network’s-famed edible  scenes at certain Disney Hotel lobbies.  From the Contemporary we went to different other Disney hotels by way of the monorail to look at each of their edible displays.  One of them was a Child sized (but taller than us) chocolate carousel, a display showing Geppetto and Pinochio in the workshop, a huge (lifesized) gingerbread and candy covered candy shop within the enormous lobby of the Grand Floridian Resort, and even had time to go by the Beach Club hotel to take a picture of the “Kitchen Sink” ice cream, that the Kleidosty family shared with us a year ago, (once we get the pictures of all of these things from Jesse’s mom we’ll send over to you). 

 

Anyway, after we came back we got a movie from BlockBuster Video and came home to eat leftover lasagna and get to bed.  So see it wasn’t all about the food….we had a great time of fellowship in the Lord, a seed was hopefully planted, and it was about the memories! 

Posted in This week in the Silver lining

Hi everyone!

 

If I do something wrong here I'm sorry.  I'm new to blogs.  However, I'm so excited to be able to do this.  I've wanted to for a while!  It's so exciting that just knowing that I am actually writing in my own blog is blanking out all the thoughts of the wonderful things that I wanted to write about.  :/

 

Anyway, it is getting close to Christmas!  I loooove this time of the year.  It has been unusually cold here in Florida for the past couple of weeks.  Although, I will not complain since I know that some of you are in even colder weather!  : P

 

Either way, I love celebrating the fact that Jesus was born.  I know that He was probably not born on the 25th of December.  However, I know that since we have to celebrate it sometime, we might as well celebrate it now! 

Merry Christmas everybody!