Signing Off!

I decided that I need to officially sign off from blogging since I never seem to have the time anymore. I truly enjoyed it for a season, but for now, I have too many other things going on in my life to keep this blog going. I met some wonderful people here who were faithful readers and whose blogs I kept up with. Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement and thank you for your wonderful blogs that were so inspiring to me. I hope to continue to drop in to read yours when I am able. And who knows, maybe things will calm down for me one day and then I can write again.

But before I go, let me assure you that everything is well with me and my family. My husband is doing fine and hopes to retire from teaching in about a year from now. My children are both still doing the same things they were the last time I wrote about them. I still work at the same job, though my workload has increased greatly and I've been given some opportunities that I never dreamed would happen. I remember an older Christian lady there telling me that she never tried to promote herself, but her promotions came from the Lord. I understand now what she meant. I didn't ask for the new opportunities at work, but they were given to me. I also still play the piano at a church other than my own, and this extra income has helped us with our kids' college expenses. I seem to have more work to do with that job also, as there is new leadership in the church. If my name or my blog ever crosses your mind, please say a prayer for me. Sometimes life can seem overwhelming, but I know that I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!

One Year of Walking!

A year ago today I posted about Losing Weight. I made this statement within the post - "I really believe if I can start walking 10,000 steps a day, I should lose a few pounds without changing my eating. I guess this will be an experiment to see if it works." Well, here I am one year later and 10 pounds lighter. It worked! I was able to lose the 10 pounds without having to give up food, but only by increasing my exercise. I have continued my walking even though it was hard to do through the winter because it was already dark when I got home from work. But now the days are longer, plus we have daylight savings time so I can walk my two miles when I get home from work. I plan to keep walking and I hope to keep the 10 pounds off.

Beautiful Women

It seems like everywhere you look you see images, pictures, TV shows, movies, etc., with beautiful women. It seems like Hollywood has set a standard for the way an American woman is “supposed” to look, and at times, I believe we all get caught up in that image. But only for a while. Then there comes the point when we realize that this Hollywood standard is not even the least bit realistic. And that is the point where we realize that we don’t all have to wear a size 2 and have long legs, and we don’t all have to have flawless skin, and we don’t have to have plastic surgery just because our aging skin is sagging or becoming a little bit wrinkled. It is like a new freedom when you reach the point where you can accept the way God made you and realize that He had a purpose for creating you the way He did.

Now, I said all that to say this: If I lived in a time long ago when we didn’t have the constant exposure to all the gorgeous women, I honestly believe that I would think I was the most beautiful woman in the world. The reason? Because that is how my husband makes me feel. My husband is so good about giving me compliments and making me know that to him I am beautiful, that it makes me want to always try to look my best. If any men are reading this, I hope you are doing this for your wife. It is a wonderful blessing to have a husband who makes me feel so special.

Excitement Downtown

So, guess what I'm doing right now? I'm sitting in my office at work looking out the window at the Extreme Home Makeover bus just down the street. That's right - they are in my city this week to make over a house and apparently right now they're doing some things downtown. In fact, I think I just saw the crew get out of the bus. I suppose they are taking some pictures or shots around town for the show. They had police escorts and everything. Oh well, excitement is over now -- I gotta get back to work!

(A couple of hours later)...I went out to my car to get my umbrella, and there was Ty Pennington and a photographer. I said hi to him and he said hi to me. Fun day!

Love

Love is patient, love is kind.

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.

Talking Too Much

I recently learned something about myself. Or maybe I knew it all along. What I learned is that I don’t like to be around people who talk too much. I don’t mind being around people who talk a moderate amount, or even people who talk a lot, but it’s talking too much that I don’t enjoy. I realized it places a burden on me – the burden to have to listen to all that talking. I have always tried to be a good listener, and I think I’m pretty good at it, but there’s a limit to how much and how long I can sit and listen. I hope this doesn’t sound mean, but I just needed to say it.

Truth Mixed with Error

Have you heard the Christian radio program called Revive Our Hearts? Nancy Leigh DeMoss is the teacher and today’s program was so good that I would like to encourage you to please take the time to go to http://www.reviveourhearts.com/ and read the transcript or listen to the program. Please do it. But if you are like me, you probably won’t take the time to do it, so let me copy and paste a couple of things she said here. The subject was Deceiving God’s People and it is packed full of things we as Bible-believing Christians need to know about teachings today that have some truth and some error and the deception is much more subtle than say, New Age teachings. Click here for the full text. Below are excerpts from the program:

...Today I want to talk about something that’s a little more subtle, and that is we have many widely-respected, best-selling authors, pastors, and teachers in the Christian world who are deceiving God’s people. Again, I don’t know their hearts so I can’t say whether they have an intent to deceive…..Some of these teachers and teachings are very, very popular today and particularly popular with young people or with new believers. These are teachings and books that are being promoted in church youth groups, in Christian high schools, and in Christian colleges. They are rampant. They are widespread and they are not as completely erroneous as the teachings we talked about in the last session. These are more truth mixed with error. Some truth and some error, which makes it even more subtle……So I’m not picking on particular books or authors. I just want you to get the concept of how error works itself in….
…Then, ultimately, you can’t depend on me or anyone else to tell you what is truth and error, what is right and wrong. You need to develop a spiritual centeredness on the Word of God, a groundedness in God’s Word, and spiritual antennae that go up so that you know what is truth and error. You can discern yourself…
…First of all, there’s this whole area of what I call shallow, feel-good Christianity. A lot of this involves self-help or self-esteem teaching that is packaged in biblical terminology but in many cases it is really devoid of the gospel. This is a psychological message with a thin covering of theology. It starts with ourselves rather than God. God is a positive God. So you have little or no concept of His holiness, His wrath, His justice, and again virtually no mention of the cross, the blood of Christ, atonement for sin, the resurrection of Christ…..
…These don’t just define who we are, they are who we are. You take these out and you have nothing left. You have no substance. You have no life. You have no hope. But in this kind of teaching, none of that is considered really necessary. They miss the gospel entirely….
Now let me give you one more illustration. This is a book that at the time of when we’re recording right now is very, very hot in the Christian world. I walked into my local Christian bookstore the other day. It was front and center. As of today, I think it’s the number eight bestseller on Amazon.com on their ratings, which is huge, huge, huge. This is a Christian book. This is not a New Age book. This is not a book written by some New Age guru. This is a book that purports to be a Christian book….But the problem is that mixed in with a smattering of helpful insights in this book is a perspective on the nature of God, on the trinity, on salvation, and on other core doctrinal issues that is incompatible with Scripture…..The test of validity of a book or a teaching or a radio program is not: Does it work? Does it help somebody? Does it make somebody feel closer to God? The test is: Does it accord with the Scripture? That’s where I go back to the Scripture. by Nancy Leigh DeMoss - Revive Our Hearts