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

Conversation and Gossip

When it comes to conversation, most people’s favorite subject is themselves. Have you ever been around someone who talks only about themselves and everything about their life? Some people never give you a chance to talk about things that are going on in your life, and when you do, they somehow find a way to turn it into a conversation about their life. I guess this is a normal thing since the subject we all know the most about is ourselves. But I’ve noticed that when I am around people like that, after a while I just stop telling them anything at all about things going on in my life because I feel like they really don’t care. If they ask me something about myself or my family, I’ll answer, but I get discouraged when they only want to talk about their own life and never seem to care about things that are important to me. Because of this, I have tried to become aware of my conversations with other people by not only talking about myself, but asking them about things that are important to them. I know that I fail sometimes because I love talking about my kids. But I really want to start working harder on not monopolizing conversations with talk about me and my family, but by asking questions about others’ lives to show that I really am interested.

Another thing that really bothers me is when I’m in a situation where I can’t walk away and the other person starts telling me something about another person – like gossip. It makes me very uncomfortable and usually when this happens it is a situation where I have to be around the person and I don’t have the option of walking away. And I’m sure that I do this also. Gossip is a very hard thing to “not do”. So, that’s the other thing I need to work on with my conversations – trying not to talk about other people in a way that puts them down.

·Colossians 4:6 NIV
Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
·Proverbs 20:19 NIV
A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid a man who talks too much.

Bible Prophecy Will Be Fulfilled

Today, we as Americans, as well as people all over the world, were able to witness history being made. There was so much exposure, so much media coverage that you couldn't help getting involved whether this was the man you voted for or not. There was all the build up over the past few days, then the live coverage today with the invocation by Rick Warren, the song by Aretha Franklin, and most importantly the swearing in of our new president. But my favorite part of the day was something I heard on the Christian radio station. There is a five-minute program called Prophecy Today by Jimmy DeYoung, where he looks at current events in light of Biblical prophecy. I just want to mention a couple of points that he made on the program today. Jimmy DeYoung said that world leaders look forward to working with the new president as they confront the problems of today. He also reminded us that God is in control and there is no power that be except that ordained by God (Romans 13:1). He said that God instituted human government and has used it down through the centuries to set this world in place for His plan to be played out. Revelation 17:17 says that God puts it in the hearts of world leaders to accomplish His will. One other thing he said is that God will use President Obama to set the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled. To hear the full program, click here. It is always interesting to hear Jimmy DeYoung's prophetic perspective on the daily news.

Beside Still Waters - the CD

I recently mailed some of you a copy of my CD. Thanks for your interest and for letting me know you received it! Now, after all that, I have found a way to put some of my music on the Web. If you would like to hear some samples from my CD, "Beside Still Waters", please visit my New Page and listen. You can click on whatever song you would like to hear. Below, I will give a little background about those six songs....

1. Reflections -- Reflections is one of my few compositions that was written with practically no effort. I was playing around with different sounds on my synthesizer and I just started playing this. I thought it sounded really pretty, so I decided to write it out. It is one of my favorites.

2. Sunset Over the Bay -- In Sunset Over the Bay, I was trying out a method of writing this style of music that I read about on the internet. At the time, a friend was planning her wedding and I had the intention of giving her this music to be played during the wedding prelude. I asked my friend to tell me where one of her favorite places was and she said she loved the pier at Fairhope, Alabama overlooking the Mobile Bay. So, I titled this, Sunset Over the Bay.

3. Twilight Winds -- I love the sound of a saxophone, so again I was playing around with the sounds on my synthesizer and came up with Twilight Winds (because the saxophone is a “wind” instrument) to use the great sax sound.

4. An Evening on the Bodensee -- An Evening on the Bodensee is a result of my trip to Germany in 2005. It represents a boat ride we took one night on this beautiful lake which is a natural border between Germany and Switzerland.

5. Dreams Come True -- Dreams Come True was the first one I wrote in 2005 when I became interested in composing music for relaxation. It actually started out as a simple piece of music to try out a computer program where I could put different instrumental sounds together. It turned out sounding really nice with the flute and violin sounds, so I named it Dreams Come True because I had a dream of creating a CD using different instrumental sounds. And the day I wrote this one just happened to be a holiday from work – the holiday was Martin Luther King’s birthday.

6. Solitude -- Solitude is another one that came to me easily as I sat down at the piano and just started playing.

No Subject

Do you ever get emails from people and they didn't put anything in the subject line? Sometimes in that case it will say "no subject". I titled this post No Subject because I can't think of anything to write about at the moment, but I wanted to post something. I just remembered, though, that some people have asked me whatever became of the situation with the dogs at the house next door. I probably need to go back in history and see what I wrote the last time about that, but that just seems like too much trouble to have to search through all those old posts. Hmmm....a good reason for putting labels at the bottom! But anyway, I will just tell you what is going on right now.

The pit bulls are gone and have been since shortly after the last time I wrote about this situation. But the poodle is still there -- this is the dog they had tied up in the bushes and someone in the neighborhood noticed and called the humane officers. They came out several times, and after that, the dog was put in the backyard. That was good. However, now, this sweet little poodle spends half of the time outside of the yard and roaming loose, mostly at my house. This doesn't threaten me because it is a nice dog. But it is starved of attention. When I pet him, he just craves more. I feel so sorry for it. As for the people who live there, well, that is another story which I can't go into detail about here. I will say, however, that my daughter and my son are both concerned about their parents living next door to this situation. My daughter is very fearful about it. Please pray for God's protection over us -- I trust that He will protect us.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.....You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day. Psalm 91:1, 5

A Plea for Purging

It's been a while since I've done an update on A Plea for Purging. My son, Aaron, is still in the band and playing drums. The band took some time off the last few months of 2008 for several reasons. One reason was because they lost a band member and they had to get someone new in there. The main reason they took off was to have some time off the road to write music for their next CD, and then to go into the recording studio to make the new CD. That is all finished now and the new CD will be out in March of this year. They are about to head out on the road again, but first they have plans to make their first music video. I believe they will be shooting that within the next week or so. I will let you know when or if the video is going to air on TV!

My CD is Ready

Christmas holidays are coming to a close. I haven't been off work for the full two weeks, but my employer was very generous in giving us two and a half days (paid) off the week of Christmas and two days (paid) off this week of New Years. I am very thankful to have a job with such wonderful benefits as this. The week of Christmas was the best! We had both of our kids home and our son's girlfriend also. We enjoyed our time with them as well as time we spent with our extended families.

While Aaron was at home, he was able to do the finishing touches on my CD that I recorded early in 2008. I had mentioned it in a couple of posts back in April. Here is a part of the first post describing the type music on the CD:
I am having a great time arranging all the music because I'm playing all of it on my synthesizer. It has all kinds of sounds so sometimes I am using nature sounds in the background of the music. This music is all slow, soothing, relaxing music which would be great to play when you are trying to go to sleep. All I need is a title. Here are some of the titles of the songs on the CD -- Dreams Come True; Magical Sleep; Reflections; Lullaby; Solitude. There's more, but what I need is your help in coming up with a title. I would like for the title to give some idea of the purpose of the CD which is relaxation.

I ended up deciding on the title Beside Still Waters. I would love to give a copy to anyone who wants it. Have a happy new year, 2009!

Pictures from Christmas 2008

Would you like to see some pictures I took on Christmas? Please go to my MySpace page, and look in my Christmas 2008 picture folder to see. You'll see pictures of my family including husband, my kids, my parents, my sisters and nieces and nephews. Aaron and Leah are my kids, and Meghan is Aaron's girlfriend.

Gifts and Gift Bags

I have been blessed this Christmas season with many unexpected gifts. I mean, I have gotten some nice things from some very nice people. I always try so hard to make my list of everyone I need to buy presents for, but then some people who I never would have thought to buy a gift for bring gifts to me. It is truly a special blessing. At first, I am tempted to think, oh no, they got me something and I don’t have anything for them. But then I realize that is not the reason they gave me a gift. They gave me a gift not because they felt obligated, but simply because they wanted to thank me for something or because they just wanted to give me a gift. I know these people are not going to read this blog, but I would like to say how much these thoughts have blessed my life this Christmas season, and I pray that God will bless each of them richly.

And every time I get one of these gifts, I get so excited about the gift bags! I recycle gift bags by using them for gifts that I give, and every time I get a present in a gift bag, I am thinking, oh goody, now I have another gift bag! Why am I this way? Is it because I was short on gift bags this year? I mean I could have gone to Wal Mart or Target and bought some gift bags, but no! I just re-use old gift bags. And then, if that is not weird enough, after all this I get super conservative about using them. I have them but I won’t use them because I think I might need it at some time in the future. I do this with other things also and I do not know why I always try to conserve things and not use them. What would really be the difference in using it now, or using it in the future?

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Christmas has to be the most wonderful time of the year -- I know it's true because there's a song that says those very words! And I knew it was Christmastime when I got up this morning and all the bedroom doors were closed. That means my daughter and my son are both home. Our family is all together for several days. This could only happen at Christmas! My son's girlfriend was supposed to arrive today, but there were flight problems and now she won't be here until tomorrow. I hope all goes as planned and she makes it here on time so she can spend Christmas with our family.

Iron Bowl

This post won't mean much to you unless you are from Alabama. But I am an Alabama fan, that is the University of Alabama. Our team has had several bad years and our biggest rival, Auburn, has beat us for the past six years. This year is our year -- we are undefeated, ranked number one and next Saturday get to play in the SEC championship game. But the part that is better than any of those things is the fact that today, Alabama beat Auburn 36-0!! I am not a sports fanatic, but I am a die-hard Bama fan and all I can say is...................

ROLL TIDE!!!!

ROLL TIDE!!!!

ROLL TIDE!!!!

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving Day and I have so much to be thankful for! I'm sure my list would be very similar to yours if I started naming all my blessings. I have a wonderful family, and last week my husband and I celebrated 28 years of marriage. We have a daughter who is such a great person and is working hard in college. I am so happy that she is with us today for Thanksgiving. We have a son who is using his creative gifts that God has given him and he's actually living his dream. He isn't with us today and I miss him so much, but he has a sweet and beautiful Christian girlfriend and I am happy that he's getting to spend the holiday with her family in Pennsylvania. He sent me a picture of the snow yesterday and said he's never experienced a white Thanksgiving before. Another thing I'm thankful for is that we have full time jobs, and part time jobs also. At work the other day I was talking to another employee and we were saying how we wished we were off that day. There was a client sitting there in the reception area and he heard us talking. He said that he just wished he had a job. I realized right then how blessed I am just to be able to work and pay bills and have all the "stuff" I have. But all of that cannot compare to having peace in your soul. Of everything I have, my greatest blessing today is the peace that passes understanding which comes directly from God and a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Today we will go to my parent's house for the traditional feast complete with turkey, my mom's homemade dressing, macaroni and cheese, peas, green beans, squash casserole, broccoli casserole, turnip greens, four layer delight and a lot more that I can't even remember. My sisters and some of their families will be there also. After that we'll go to my mother-in-law's house to see her for a while. I love this day and I love eating all that food. I just wish I wouldn't get full so quick and could eat more!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 106:1

Life is Busy

Life is just so busy! I miss my blogger buddies and I miss blogging! I hope you are all doing well and that you have a happy Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for! I don't know what happened, but I should have never written that Lazy River post back in February, because ever since then my life has gotten busier and busier and I can't seem to slow down. I'm ready to float again for a while!

I Love Jesus

I believe that sometimes Christians have doubts about their salvation and they begin to wonder if they are really saved. In fact, I think we’ve probably all experienced this feeling at some time or another. So, how do you know for sure if you’ve truly done all the right things that make you a Christian? The first thing to remember is that Jesus did everything that needs to be done. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves; it is only because of what Jesus has done for us through his death on the cross that we can have the hope of salvation and eternal life. We have to believe this and that takes faith. Ephesians 2:8 says, For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. The Bible is the Word of God, and you can believe what it says!

What I’m about to say is just my opinion, so just take that for what it’s worth. I believe that if a person has truly been “saved” or “born again” or whatever term you want to use, it will be evidenced in the way they live their life. I don’t think you’ll be perfect all the time because we are still human and we mess up and make mistakes. But I do think that you will want to strive toward perfection and you will be disappointed in yourself when you do mess up and sin. I believe you will love the Lord so much that you will want to do the things you know will please him. Do remember when you first fell in love? When you are in love, you desire communication with that special person. You just can’t seem to get enough of them and you want to do special things for them, the things you know they like. You want to be with that person as much as possible, and you think about them all the time. That is sort of what it’s like when you love Jesus. You want to please him and do the right things just because you love him. I remember when I was a little kid and my parents took us to church every single Sunday morning and night. I thought it was so boring to have to sit through the sermon at church and I can remember thinking that when I grew up, I sure didn’t want to marry a preacher because then I would have to go to church every Sunday for the rest of my life. I guess I thought that after I got out from under my parents that I wouldn’t have to go to church anymore. But the funny thing is, I grew up and I didn’t marry a preacher, but I still go to church every Sunday, not because I have to or because anyone is making me, but because I want to! I desire to worship, praise, and to learn as much as I can about God, Jesus, and the Bible. I still have a long way to go but I plan to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Hebrews 12:1