Thankful Thursday

 

Good Morning:

I haven't written a Thankful Thursday post since almost 1 month ago.  But I think it's time to be intentionally thankful today.  How about you?  My friend, Rebecca Jo got me started on this many years ago as she had a link up and it got me to be fairly regular in thanking God for so many things.  She no longer has the link-up, but I know some others have continued on writing their posts and I did for a while, but have gotten lax about it.  Here's to ending the year and hopefully starting the new year thanking God in a Thankful Thursday post each week.

Some things I'm currently thankful for:

* Lunch with some of the local (girl) cousins - Monday a small group of us girl cousins went to lunch at Bob Evans.  We all have such a great time being together and I hope we'll keep on doing this.  We only had a very few that could attend this time, but we talked and laughed and had a great time (at least I know I did and they seemed to also.)  There were four of us cousins, 1 second cousin, 1 third cousin and 2 fourth cousins.  Hoping more will get to come next time.

4 Generations of Cousins - ranging in age from 1 to 80 something

*  My Mother-in-Law:  We went out to see some Christmas lights again Tuesday and I know I say this all the time, but it's true.  We just had the best time talking and being together.  She's got a birthday tomorrow and will be 88.  I can hardly believe that's true.  Her mind is super-sharp and she gets around like she's 60 or younger.  She's full of so much life experience and wisdom.  I loved it that night, Tracy couldn't find his wallet and was so afraid he had dropped it outside the restaurant.  After looking and we couldn't find it, she just prayed out loud and asked God to help us find it.  We went ahead and enjoyed the rest of our drive and Tracy came home and found it had dropped out of his pocket in our bedroom.  He called her to let her know and she was just praising God.  So you can tell, she loves the Lord and depends on Him, as we all  should.  She's an amazing pianist and also has a beautiful voice.  In fact, I want to be like her when I grow up! lol

Here she is with her great-grandson a little over a year ago.

* Creation - I'm so amazed and thankful for all that God created for our use and our pleasure.  The skies, the oceans, the whole earth and all mankind.

Sunset across from our church.

* God - I love God, but He loves me even more.  He gave His son for my salvation and there is no greater gift.

A live nativity we attended a couple years ago.

These are just a few of the things I am thankful for today.  If you would like to share what you are thankful for, I would love to hear it.

Cathy

 

Thankful Thursday

Hello Friends.  It's time for me to be intentionally thankful again.  Being thankful and remembering, acknowledging, and sharing what God has done and is doing in my life is very important for me.  I also hope that it will encourage others.  Here is a short list of things that come to mind this morning that I am thankful for:

• Exercise - Continuing in to this 2nd week of exercising 5 times a week for 30 minutes.  I think already I am feeling better at the end of 30 minutes.  I've been praying some, listening to some of my daily scriptures and even singing a little bit (very quietly) while out walking around my neighborhood.  Mostly, I take Lucy with me and we get some time together and plus it wears her out and she's pretty quiet for a while after because she's sleeping.
• Crochet Circle - Still enjoy meeting with these ladies to crochet together and have lots of good conversation.  I'm still working on the baby blanket.  It's slow but it's coming along.
• The Gospels - I'm still enjoying Reading the Gospels along with Annie F. Downs each day.
• Prayer - I've been working on a slide-show to display on the screens at the front of the church.  On the first Tuesday in July, hubby (the pastor) is starting a new Prayer Open House Program.  He will be opening the church sanctuary for 2 hours on Tuesday mornings and anyone that would like to come and pray, may come.  They can come for 2 hours, or 5 minutes and pray, that's all.  The slide shows have some scriptures and will help us get our focus in the right place.  Then in August he will be having a 31 Days of Prayer for us as a church.  He will give prompts for each day so we can pray separately but as a group focused on the things the church needs to pray for.  I'm so excited for these prayer times and to see what God will do in my life and the life of each one in our church.
• Dentist Appointment - This morning and it's over and I'm so glad.  lol
• Doctor's Appointments - I think they are all done for this go around and all is good...working on a couple numbers from the lab work, thus the walking I talked about earlier.  lol  
• New Glasses - I got my new glasses on Tuesday and I'm still adjusting some to the new stronger prescription.  But their doing better.
• Haircut - Finally went and got a good trim.

That's it for now...it's no longer morning, but better late than never.  Link up with with Jennifer at Overflowing with Thankfulness, if you'd like to.  Thanks for visiting and I hope you have a great day.

Cathy

Bits of This and That

 

Good morning!

Happy Monday everyone.  It's been another nice weekend.  On Saturday I got up early and took another 30 minute walk with the dog and then came home and got cleaned up and headed out to lunch with my sister and her husband and my husband's mom.  It was so fun being with family and eating and laughing and talking.  Such a nice time together.  After that we went home and enjoyed a quiet evening watching a couple Hallmark Mystery Movies.  We both have been enjoying these in the last couple months.  We watched one of the Chronicle Mysteries and Mystery 101 movie series,  And I think hubby has a couple more of these recorded to watch.  We usually only watch movies on the weekend.  I know there are some new movie mysteries coming up yet this month that he has set to record. 

On Sunday we had 2 church services and in between hubby and I had Chipotle for lunch and then took a nice nap.  Below is the pre-recorded sermon from Sunday.  It is the last in the series called Big Promises for Big Problems.  This one is titled God's Answer to Despair.

So it was a really nice and relaxing weekend.  Just the way we like it.  Oh and I forgot, we finally got some good rain Sunday evening, which we desperately needed,  Thank you God.

Cathy

Thankful Thursday

 

Good morning:

Today I am thankful for our Bible Study starting up again.  I really love these ladies that all come together to learn more about God's Word.  After all these years (I really can't remember when we started, but I know we were doing them in 2008), we have all grown closer and really love each other.  We have ladies of all ages (going from young mother with a 6 week old baby and ladies in their 80's), races, denominations and different walks of life.  We have those that are retired, those that are getting close to retirement and those that are just a few years into their careers.  We've been together for a long time.  Some have passed on, like my mom and several others.  We miss them, but we know we'll be together again in God's timing.  We use video driven Bible Studies by many different speakers.  We've had Beth Moore, Priscilla Shire, Kelly Minter, Angela Thomas Pharr, Lisa Harper, and now we are doing one called Amos, by Jennifer Rothschild.  I have loved them all and I am so blessed to be part of this group.

I have so much to be thankful for, but I think this is all I will post for today.  So what are you thankful for? Link up here.

Cathy

Thankful Thursday

 Good Morning: 

I love to take time to say thanks to God for all He does for me.  This scripture is a favorite this week. The Lord is definitely good and I don't understand how people can go through hard times without Him.  I'm so glad I can talk to Him anytime and anywhere.  You can trust Him for sure always and forever.

**I am really enjoying my journaling/coloring Bible.  Here are some pages I colored from the book of Ruth.  I love the book of Ruth.  It really shows how God is working things out in our life before we even know about the problem we may be facing.

**I'm thankful to have had the time to watch a movie and have a cup of hot chocolate because of a snow day on Monday.  For the first time in many years I am enjoying snow (not necessarily being in it, but looking at it from inside.    It's so beautiful and I don't even mind shoveling it.  Since I no longer have to get out and drive in it to go to work, I can just enjoy the beauty.  And that is what I'm doing.

**Believe it or not, I'm thankful for having a good dentist.  Now, I really, really hate going to the dentist, but I'm thankful that my dentist is good and takes good care of my teeth.  Actually, I've been seeing him for years, but now I'm seeing his daughter.  Nice to keep it in the family.

Waiting Room

That's it for today.  The link-up is here.  Thanks for visiting and I hope you have a blessed day.

Cathy

Thankful Thursday

This morning I am so thankful for the grace of God.  That is what I am thinking on.  I've listened to this song a couple of times this morning too.  No there is nothing wrong (except our fridge died, but there's a miracle in that too which I'll share soon).  I am fine.  Just thinking on and thankful for the grace of God. Thought I would share it with you.  I'm sharing this video from YouTube.




Cathy

God Gives Grace

I shared this video On July 7, 2011 and it's still true today. God Gives Grace! So be encouraged my friend!

God Moments

Even in a dark, cloud sky and rather cold and dreary morning, God gives us some beauty in the bits of pink shining through.  I love that about God.

He's like that in our lives too.  When we mess up and/or terrible things are happening in our lives, we can know that He is still there and still loves us and gives us His mercy.  Lamentations 3:21-23 says it well. 

"This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Lily

Lily is not feeling well.  She was fine Saturday, but Sunday I could tell something was just not quite right.  Sunday after church hubby and I got Taco Salads for supper and brought Lily a taco.  She really wasn't interested and that is extremely unusual.  Then she decided she would try to eat and on the way to the bowl, she just fell over.  Scared me to death and I hollered for Tracy.  He came in and she fell again.

So we were trying to decide what we should do.  We called our vets office (knowing hey weren't in) and they gave numbers to 2 different 24-hour pet clinics.  We prayed and then decided we would take her.  However, when we took her outside, she seemed to be better and even trotted a little.  So we decided we would wait until morning and then call our vet first thing.  The vet said we made the right decision.  Thank you God for the wisdom you gave us.

I called and they said bring her in at 9 and they would check her out.  We did and he knew as soon as he looked at the way she was standing that she had a disc messed up in her back.  We figured out what probably happened to cause the disc issue.  On Saturday I put her outside (we don't have a fenced yard so she goes out on a lead).  There was a squirrel in the yard and she took off chasing after it and forgot to stop before he lead line ended.  She hit the end pretty hard and it jerked her a lot.  When she was a lot younger she used to do this and I've actually seen it flip her over when she hit the end.  Fortunately, she didn't do it that hard this time. 

He kept her for the day and ran some tests, and gave her several injections and we picked her up around 5:30.She's feeling better tonight, but is still sore and moving slow. He said it's just like us when he jerk our back out.  We may not hurt that bad the first day, but by the 2nd and 3rd days we hurting really bad.  Anyway, she seems some better and at least she's eating good tonight.  We're hoping she'll be a lot better in a couple of days.

Here's a picture of her laying around in our bedroom tonight.  After taking this picture and playing around with some online editing tools, I sat on the floor with her and brushed her hair.  She seemed to enjoy the extra attention for awhile.

I'm so glad God doesn't seem to think it's silly that we prayed for our dog and that we asked for wisdom to know what to do to help her.  I believe he answered our prayers and that is why she is feeling better tonight. 

Life...

...is not easy.
...is good.
...is hard.
...is busy.
...is scary.
...is what God has given us to live until He takes us home to be with Him.

The past few weeks have been pretty hard in our life. For awhile we thought we were possibly going to lose my brother. But God has richly blessed and it appears the chemo is working. He is getting stronger and has to do more chemo, but the doctor believes they can control (not cure), but control his cancer. We are praising and thanking God for that.

My sister is staying in his house right now as she is trying to recuperate from her sickness.  We are still praying God will touch her eyes and bring her sight back to where she can drive and work again.

So while, all this is not over, I know God has given them both strength to walk this road and he has done the same for the rest of the family.  Mom and Dad are doing pretty well and the rest of us "kids" are being blessed by God with strength and courage to help in any way we can.

While I do not like this road that God has us on, I do believe it is drawing us closer to each other and to God, and also making each one of us stronger in our faith.  God has richly blessed my family and I know He will continue to do so in the ways that He sees best.  I try to always remember Isaiah 55:8
 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”declares the Lord. 

I thank each one of you for your prayers and by God's grace I will be back here blogging a little more regularly.  I have really missed you all.

Prayer Request

I know I haven't been around much for the past couple of weeks and I may not be around much for awhile. Our family is having a lot of health issues at the moment.

My sister has been ill for a couple months and by the grace of God is slowly getting better. However, she is still having some issues with her eyes. She is trusting God to completely heal her, so she will be able to drive again and go back to work.

My older brother was just diagnosed with cancer last week and it's pretty bad. We are praying and trying to trust that God will bring him through.

I would like to ask, if you are a believer and are willing, please lift them both up in prayer whenever they come to your mind. We believe in the power of prayer and I know God is listening and can heal them completely.

Thank you so much!

What Took You So Long

I just saw this on FB and had to share it with everyone!

There was a man who purchased a blazer at Nordstrom. The longer he kept it, the less he liked it. After wearing it regularly for the first six months, he stuck it in his closet for about a year. Tucked away in the back of his mind was Nordstrom’s famous unconditional return policy.

After about 18 months, he thought he’d try to return the blazer even though he didn’t really think Nordstrom would exchange it since he’d worn it so many times. He walked up to the first salesperson he saw and gave a little speech he’d prepared: “I’m about to put your famous unconditional-return policy to its ultimate test. I have here a blazer. I’ve worn it lots. I’ve had it for a year and a half. I don’t like it. It’s the wrong color and attracts lint like it’s going out of style. But I want to return this blazer for another one that I like.” Then he stood there.

The salesperson replied, “For heaven’s sake, what took you so long? Let’s go find a blazer you like.” Ten minutes later the man walked out with a new blazer that was marked $75 more than what he paid for the one he returned. It was perfect and didn’t cost a penny more.

God, we could say, is like a supersized Nordstrom. God makes these incredible promises, but many times we can’t bring ourselves to believe they’re true. Finally, when we’re overcome by fear or despair, we eventually cry out to God. We claim his promise, and then the Lord comes through. But along the way I wonder if God sometimes thinks: For heaven’s sake, what took you so long?

Christmas Was Different This Year

I really haven't said much here, but our youngest daughter moved out in October. She decided she was ready to live life the way she wanted to. Of course, our oldest is mostly gone because of college and then working and internships in the summer. So basically hubby and I are empty nesters now. We've had a little difficulty adjusting, but we're doing okay.

However, that being said, Christmas was a little different this year. Good, but different. Kelli is home for a month, well she's out of college for a month, but is home some and gone some trying to catch up with friends and family.

Christmas Eve we all went to my sister's house to celebrate with my parents and all my brothers and sisters and their families. Kerri and her boyfriend came in too and it was fun just being with the whole family. The two pictures below are our oldest and our 2 nephews. They were given the assignment of being elves and they passed out the gifts in the gift exchange we did. They were so funny and we had a great time.

This picture cracks me up!  You'd never believe they are 18, 19 and 21 would you

Aren't they the most adorable elves in the world!

Then late that night, we went back to our house and had Christmas with Kerri.  Like I said, it was different but still good.  I think she loved everything she got and I know we did too.

I sure do love these girls

Then on Christmas morning, Tracy, Kelli and I got up and did our Christmas to each other and had our annual Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast.  I finished making the lasagna and then we went to Tracy's parents for lunch and Christmas with his parent's and brother and family.  Unfortunately, I had my camera on the wrong setting and the pictures didn't come out very good there.  But suffice it to say, we were all there and had a very good time together.  Here are a couple that aren't too bad.

Kerri and her boyfriend, Charlie

I just think this one is really funny.  This is the 4 cousins.  Huh, I just realized there are 2 girl and 2 boy cousins on both sides of our families.

So, while we are adjusting to the changes in our life, God has proven to always be there with us and we are doing okay.  

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas too.

If Not Now...When?

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14

If we (His people) will:  humble ourselves
                                      pray
                                      seek His face
                                      turn from our wicked ways

Then He (God) will:      hear from heaven
                                      forgive our sin
                                      heal our land

That's a promise

No matter who is President, Senator, Representative, Governor, Mayor, etc our country is hurting and needs healing. We as God's people, need to heed this scripture.

Conversation with God

I saw this on FB yesterday and it's just too good not to share it.



Me: Promise you won't get mad?

GOD: I promise.

Me (frustrated): Why did you let so much stuff happen to me today?

GOD: What do you mean?

Me: Well I woke up late,

GOD: Yes

Me: My car took forever to start,

GOD: Okay....

Me (growling): At lunch, they made my sandwich wrong and I had to wait

GOD: Hmmmm..

Me: On the way home, my phone went dead, just as I picked up a call

GOD: All right

Me (loudly): And to top it all off, when I got home, I just wanted to soak my feet in my foot massager and relax, but it wouldn't work. Nothing went right today! Why did you do that?

GOD: Well let me see..... the death angel was at your bed this morning and I had to send one of the other angels to battle him for your life. I let you sleep through that.

Me (humbled): Oh...

GOD: I didn't let your car start because there was a drunk driver on your route that might have hit you if you were on the road

Me (ashamed): ............

GOD: The first person who made your sandwich today was sick and I didn't want you to catch what they have, I knew you couldn't afford to miss work

Me (embarrassed): Oh.....

GOD: Your phone went dead because the person that was calling was going to give a false witness about what you said on that call, I didn't even let you talk to them so you would be covered

Me (softly): I see God

GOD: Oh and that foot massager, it had a short that was going to throw out all of the power in your house tonight. I didn't think you wanted to be in the dark.

Me: I'm sorry God.

GOD: Don't be sorry, just learn to trust me.........in all things, the good and the bad

Me: I WILL trust you God

GOD: And don't doubt that my plan for your day is always better than your plan

Me: I won't God. And let me just tell you God, thank you for everything today.

GOD: You're welcome child. It was just another day being your God and I love looking after my children.

This is definitely something I needed to be reminded of. God is in control and is looking out for me, because He loves me. What a wonder! He loves me!!!!

And He loves you too!

His Grace

I'm listening to Pandora at work and this song just came on and just have to share it. It's so true, His Grace still amazes me!!



I hope this reminds you today just how awesome His Grace is.

I am Blessed!

It's a good day. My wonderful hubby brought me breakfast at work. I think I'm married to the sweetest man in this world!

On the way to work, I stopped to walk my mom and dad's dog this morning and my dad is feeling better. All I can say is "Thank you God! You are so awesome!"

Have a blessed day everyone!

Do You Need Encouragement?

If you are going through hard times and need some encouragement, please take a moment and listen to this song, "God Gives Grace."



Thank you God for your grace. It truly is amazing!

He Maketh No Mistake

He Maketh No Mistake

-A. M. Overton

My Father’s way may twist and turn,

My heart may throb and ache,

But in my soul I’m glad I know,

He maketh no mistake.

My cherished plan may go astray,

My hopes may fade away,

But still I’ll trust in my Lord to lead,

For He doth know the way.

Tho’ night be dark and it may seem,

That day will never break,

I’ll pin my faith, my all in Him,

He maketh no mistake.

There’s so much now I cannot see,

My eyesight far too dim,

But come what may, I’ll simply trust

And leave it all to Him.

For by and by the mist will lift,

And plain it all He’ll make.

Through all the way, tho’ dark to me,

He made not one mistake.

My husband used this poem in his sermon Sunday and I realize once again that it all comes down to "Do we trust Him or not?"  I choose to trust Him, even in the hard times because my God makes no mistake.  What about you?

God's Grace

I hope you will enjoy this video of Luci Swindoll as much as I do and I hope it encourages you in your life.