Gods Time is not our time.

I got this book as a gift for my birthday in August of 2009. I tucked it in my "God Bag" and completely forgot about it. Well, about the same time this year I was digging through my "God Bag" to see if I could find a highlighter and low and behold here is this book.

Now mind you, had a read it a year ago, it would've been a good book, but I wouldn't have been ready for it. This year however, it was EXACTLY what I needed.

It talks about how God thinks of women and how He romances a woman's soul. How He thinks of us all as beautiful and what the bible says about what He wants us to know.

If you are a woman, you need to read this book, read it till you don't need it anymore and than pass it along to another woman who may need it.

Lifest!!!

Every year in Oshkosh, Wisconsin there is a Christian Music Festival called Lifest. It is an amazing experience, speakers, comedians, lots of music, food that's really bad for you LOL and thousands of people get together to rock out and worship God together.

For the last 2 years I have been blessed to be able to go as a chaperon for our church youth group. That sounds worse than it actually is LOL. Something happens when you get the kids out of the church and into a place where they can be free to express themselves. They're awesome to be with and we get to connect with them on a different kind of level.

I have to say that this year Todd Agnew was the highlight of the festival for me. His lyrics are amazing and have helped me through some tough times. I think I had Our Great God on repeat for months, drove my family crazy LOL.

I can't say for sure if any of our teens had any big God moments, but God certainly made His presence known. On Saturday night we had a

storm, the clouds that rolled in were absolutely unbelievable!!!!

I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. It was beautiful and powerful and kinda frightening all at the same time. The rain lasted an hour or so and then cleared up and a beautiful double rainbow could be seen arching over the grandstand.

If you ever get the chance to go to Lifest I cannot recommend it enough!!

Amazing Power of Prayer

This sweet little baby boy is my newest nephew, his name is Elijah Jacob. He was born on the 15th of May. Today he began to have some problems with his oxygen level and his breathing and was transfered from the hospital he was in to a larger hospital and put in the NICU. The first concern was that something was wrong with his heart. I kid you not when I say that I have never prayed so hard for anything in my whole life. I know that many other people were praying for him as well, not just the friends and family that I told but all the friends and family that they told. Well, this sweet little angel baby isn't home yet, but there's nothing wrong with his heart and looks as though he's going to be just fine. If you check my blog, I ask you to pray for this little guy, he still needs lots of them!

stuck song

Sunday in church, my oldest daughter was sitting next to me. She was exhausted because prom was the night before, and was leaning her head on my shoulder. Well, I don't exactly how he ended the phrase, but, at one point the pastor said, "I have decided........". Of course immediately through my head comes the song "I have decided to follow Jesus", as it does every time I hear someone say that particular phrase. I know my sister Rachael is the same way. I know this because if I should use that phrase she sings to me LOL. Anyway, shortly after the pastor used that phrase, Kellie lifts her head off my shoulder and looks at me and starts singing "I have decided to follow Jesus" LOL Must be genetic or something LOL

Velcro

I have these pains and sorrows, all this guilt and shame,

I take them with me everywhere I go, each and every day.

I try to peel them off, but it always turns out the same

They're attached to me like Velcro,

I have a feeling they think it's a game.

And I'm pretty sure they've started to grow.

I call out to Jesus by His name,

Help me Lord to let these issues go!

I know that my forgiveness is why you came.

The reason you let your precious blood flow.

An innocent man, who had no blame.

You paid a debt that you did not owe.

Jesus tells me, " child, bring me your pains, sorrows, guilt and shame"

So to the feet of Jesus I will go,

Praying all the way that it won't turn out the same,

Trusting in what I already know,

That Jesus knows me by my name

He'll tear them away from the Velcro

He won't let them play the game,

All I have to do, is let them go

These feelings of pain, sorrow, guilt and shame.

But, there they are again…..stuck to me like Velcro.

Thank You God

Winters in Wisconsin are gray and drab and dark and gloomy. After days on end of the yuckiness, any glimpse of the sun is enough to make you rejoice.

This past week, God gave us a little bit of reprieve from the winter doldrums and gave us several beautiful days in a row with not only the glorious sunshine, but also some warmth from it as well.

As of today, the yuckiness came back, but I feel as though God has smiled on us here in Wisconsin, and that gives me hope for many more days of sunshine soon.

The first steps

Man this Faith "thing" can be so hard. If you're a Christian you know in your heart that God will always take care of you. Especially if you're following His plan for your life and you're not trying to make your own decisions.

Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to trust in the Lord with ALL your heart, lean not on our own understand and in ALL your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths. What an amazing couple of verses. It tells us exactly how to know the will of God for our lives. My goodness though, how hard it is to do this at ALL times. Some times our humanness sneaks in and we think that we know better and can handle things on our own. Yeah, that may work for a little while, but before long we end up looking around and thinking, "how on earth did I get myself into this mess". THEN we go to God and ask for help. Ahhhh, how much easier our lives would be if first we'd turn to Him and seek His Will for our lives.

Jerry and I have stubbornly repeated the same mistakes over and over and over again. Each time we've managed to dig ourselves out only to fall right back into the same pit. This time around, the pit is so big, and so deep that we cannot even see the light at the top on our own. Of course NOW we're doing all kinds of praying, looking for direction and telling God we're NOW willing to follow His path and do what He wants us to do. How foolish are we that we didn't do this before??? I'm willing to bet that we are not alone in this type of foolishness.

Some of the things that God has made clear that we need to do are things that have been nagging us in the back of our minds for a while now. Things we didn't WANT to do, things that scared us, or made us feel as though we were failures. However, that first step onto God's path for our lives, as scary as it first was, it made the next steps much easier. It was kinda like testing that if we really jumped in with both feet that He was for sure going to catch us and not let us fall. Once we made that first leap and felt His arms embrace us, we weren't so hesitant to jump again and again.

Now, I'm not saying that we won't be foolish at some point again in our lives, cause we're sinners and we will always fall short. However, what an amazing learning experience this has been and continues to be. One of Faith, Trust and Believing that God is who He says He is and He can and WILL do what He says He will.