Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has a good Christmas!

And a happy new year!

I can't believe it is going to be 2010. I just got used to writing 2009! Do you have any new year's resolutions? One of mine is to memorize more scripture. That is really something I should work on. Maybe I will post what verse(s) I am working on memorizing here. That just might work...

Happy Birthday Jesus!!

I just finished making my new blog Just for Fun Quizzes. I tried to make sure all of the links work right, but if something doesn't seem to work, please tell me.

Just for Fun Quizzes will have fun quizzes that you can take. The first one I have up is What kind of Cookie are you? I'll add more from time to time.

Try it out and have fun!!!

P.S. If you want to suggest and idea (or two or five or...) you are more than welcome!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I wanted to share some verses I thought were appropriate for today.

"Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song."

- Psalm 95:2

"Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name."

- Psalm 100:4

"But thanks be to God! He has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

- 1Corinthians 15:57

"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!"

- 2 Corinthians 9:15

"Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

- 1 Thessalonians 5:18

I am sure there are many, many more verses on thanksgiving, so I encourage you to comment and add any you know.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

This morning I felt overwhelmed with joy. I realized how much God cares for us, right down to the smallest things. I wondered to myself, Why do I doubt? And I wrote this as a way of praising God and to share and show my joy.

Joy, Joy!

Peace, Security.

Why, Oh why have I ever doubted?

He is Lord! So mighty, All knowing

He loves as our Father, He knows what we need.

Our deepest desire He knows,

Our biggest longing He hears.

Praise and Glory to Him!

Our Lord who knows us,

Our Father who cares.

Thank you God.

Posted in Bible Stories

I wrote this story for school. I didn't get to do as much research as I would have liked on the subject, but I still had fun. Hope you enjoy it!

I ran as fast as I could away from the market. I was on my way to the house where they said Jesus was. It was up in the hills quite a ways from the city, but I had all afternoon off from helping mother at the market.            

I kept running until I came to a fork in the road. I didn’t know which way to go. There was a paralyzed man on the side of the road, so I asked him. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at me for a moment. Finally he said,

            “Well, there have been many people down this way and many were excited to see Jesus. They all took that road.” and looked to one of the roads.

           “Thank you! Shalom!” I yelled back to him as I quickly regained my pace.

            Soon I met up with other people who seemed on their way to see Jesus too. I kept running to get ahead of them so that I could get a good seat when I got there. As I got closer, I could hear lots of voices. It sounded as if the whole city had come out to see Jesus!

When I saw the house I was amazed. People were everywhere trying to get a view of Jesus. They overflowed out of the door and even the windows. I came to the edge of the crowd and tried to push my way in, but there were too many people, most of who were trying to do the same.

I decided to see if I could help in the kitchen in order to actually get inside. I went to the back door and elbowed my way to a lady whose face was red  from working over a boiling pot.

“Excuse me!” I shouted to her, “Excuse me!” I waved my arms to get her attention. Reluctantly, she looked at me and waited for me to speak. “Do you need help to prepare the meal?” I shouted above the noise. She smiled with relief and I quickly followed her inside.

“Here, stir this.” She said as she pointed to a big pot of stew. I grabbed the spoon and tried to peek in at the people inside. I could just see Jesus! Suddenly the crowd went silent and He began to speak. From my place I couldn’t hear what He was saying, except when He turned towards the kitchen door. He spoke for a long while and the whole time everyone was quiet.

Jesus stopped for a moment to take a drink. Some people that had made it inside tried to go out to make room for people who hadn’t heard Him speak yet. I realized that most of the men inside were Pharisees and teachers of the law. Some of them I knew from the synagogue near my house, and some I knew lived as far away as Jerusalem.

All afternoon Jesus talked and the Pharisees’ frowns got bigger and bigger. I wondered why. Jesus must have been saying things that they didn’t like. I wondered what He could say.

Suddenly there was an odd sound coming from the roof. It was so quiet that most people didn’t notice it at first, but it kept getting louder and louder. Then the roof started falling in! Some people started trying to run out of the way. Then it stopped and something was being lowered down. It looked like a mat that belonged to a beggar.

It lowered right in front of Jesus. He seemed surprised at first, but as it came lower, He seemed to smile as if an amazing thing was being done, or maybe the mat was just impressive.

But it wasn’t just a mat. There was a man on it. He looked like he couldn’t move very well. In fact, he looked exactly like the paralyzed man on the road. I gasped. It was the paralyzed man! I went to the edge of the kitchen and watched closely to what Jesus would do. He said,

“Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

At that, the teachers and Pharisees narrowed their eyes, but did not speak. Jesus seemed to know what they were thinking though. He looked them in the eyes and said,

“Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Get up and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then He turned to the paralyzed man and said to him, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” And the man stood up! He rolled up his mat and ran home, praising God!

It was amazing! Everyone started talking at once. People shouted praise to God. Some were singing praises to Him. The red-faced lady was standing next to me and I heard her say,

“Surely we have seen remarkable things today!”

Jesus made His way through the crowd and was starting to leave then. I couldn’t wait to tell my parents and brothers what had happened. It truly was a miracle! Jesus must be the Messiah, no matter what the Pharisees thought.

That night I told them the whole story. At first my brother didn’t believe me, but in the end he said I was lucky. I told him it wasn’t luck; God had let me see this miracle so that we could know and believe that Jesus really was His son. My father agreed and said that we must learn more about Jesus, who must be the Messiah.

Before I went to sleep that night, I told God that I believed that Jesus was His son and promised that I would tell people of the miracle I had seen Him do. And I have have fulfiled that promise for as long as I have lived.

 I hope you enjoyed this. I will try to update my blog more often.

(Thanks to all those of you who continue to check back!)

           It was a warm, sunny spring day.The air was clear but not crisp or harsh. There weren't many bugs out yet, so it was wonderful in the evening. Suddenly my brothers came running into the house.

          "Where's dad?" they asked, breathless and full of excitement. They had been exploring and shooting slingshots around in the yard. I think life on a "wildlife farm" is how 11-year old boys envision heaven. When mom told them dad was gone and wouldn't be back for an hour, both of their faces fell.

           "Oh...Darn.We wanted to take the rubber raft out on the pond. We think  we saw a dead goose and we wanted to....go get it," they explained slowly, not knowing how mom might react.

          "Well," mom started with a very calm tone,"Maybe you can go with dad after dinner and Bibletime." Both boys looked surprised. Mom asked them why they looked like that.

           "Well, other moms would be like-" for this they put on high pitched voices,"EEEEWWWW!!!!! Don't go back there!!! Oh honey stay away!! A dead goose!!! When your father gets home....."

           When our father did get home the boys could hardly contain their excitement. They had already pumped up the raft and had gotten everything ready.

           After a delicious dinner and Bible time, the boys were just itching to go. I came along carring the camera and a lifejacket (just in case), while the boys and dad carried the raft. As we walked along,I took some pictures. We passed by one of the swamps and saw a duck and drake swiming around.

           We got to the woods shortly after and on the pond we immediatly saw a goose. The pond was surrounded by a swamp, which was flooded because of the melted snow. I stayed fairly dry by standing on various mounds covered with tall grasses.

            I stood on the shore and watched the boys take off their shoes and peel off their socks so as not to get them wet. The raft didn't move when they stepped in. Dad had to push them out, getting his feet wet in the process, before he got in.

            The goose we had first seen had filled the woods with his honking. It echoed back and seemed to be a warning . A deer creeped along the oppisite bank. Birds chattered anxiously.

             The boys had rowed quietly to the goose assumed to be dead, when it honked, jumped off its nest, and started swiming towards its partner.

            "Oh man! Its alive!" They yelled, half to me and half in excitement to themselves. Kyle told me later that he had looked in the nest, but that there were no visible eggs. He explained that the nest was on a tree that had fallen on its side, making a sort of island with its expossed roots. The roots were still covered with dirt on top of which was the nest. The nest itself was made of sticks and down feathers and was about the size of a basketball.

             After that, they paddled back to the swampy shore with both alarmed geese still honking to beat the band. The boys hopped out into the marshy water, sloshed around to their shoes and pulled the raft up on shore. Now was when they wanted a dock going out to the pond, so they wouln't have to have a long, wet slog through the swamp.

             The sun was setting as we walked home and recounted our fun adventure to the rest of the family and though the boys didn't get, or even see a dead goose, I think they still had fun paddling through the swamp.

This happened in the middle of April. I wrote it the very same day, but it was the editing and rewriting that made it take so long for me to post it.

Posted in Monkey

                         Only a month old, a small monkey tried to reach a clump of bananas on a short tree. At first the poor girl hopped under it but the bananas stayed out of her reach. She then paused to watch other lucky monkeys her age on the backs of their mothers. The skillful mothers would climb up the trunk of a tree, pick a banana, and pop it into her baby's open mouth. The sad monkey, who had forgotten the bananas dangling above her head, wondered suddenly where  her  mother was.

                           You think I am just a blade of grass huh? Well I'll tell you how wrong you are. I once stopped a robber when the police could not. True, I got injured doing it, but I call it a glory scar. In fact I may even tell you about that sometime. Just not right now. I have to go back to work. There are still robbers in the world.     

Before you read this please read The Picnic- Part 1 .

            I can't believe my eyes. It looks more like a carnival is going on than a picnic. Kids are running around and flapping their arms as if they're chickens. Don't these mothers have control over their own children? They're just sitting on some benches talking, completly ignoring their rowdy kids. Take those boys, eating hot dogs with mustard all over their faces.

          Can't they chew with their mouths closed? Some children are stepping on empty soda cans and creating such a horrible racket. My eardrums hurt from listening to the shouts and screams of these kids. I didn't even know they were capable of producing sounds that loud. They're louder than a train's whistle.

           These people must have burnt down a whole forest to make the air this smoky. It makes me sick to smell all those blackened hot dogs.

Whose point of veiw do you yourself feel it resembles?

This is a piece I wrote for my writing strands.

              As I pushed some children on the swings, I looked around for my own. Anna and Hailey were waiting for their turn on the slide as such good little girls should. I scanned the sea of swirling color again for Jack. Then I spotted his smiling face as he ate yet another hot dog.

             My attention turned back to the little girl I was pushing, but in a moment it soon wandered again. The sound of gigling girls and boys telling jokes was so amusing to listen to. Some women's chatter also filled the air.

             The scent of hot dogs cooking made me hungry. What I liked best was the tantilizing aroma of cookies and cakes on the dessert table. That along with the smell of soda was enough to make me say that this was the best picnic ever.

This is supposed to be from the point of veiw of a mother enjoying the picnic. What do you think?