Daniel 11 verse 6 on...

Yesterday I said that there would be a wedding coming up...well verse 6 speaks of some years going by and that the king of the north had gotten quite powerful and that a daughter of the king of the south went to the king of the north and they had an arrangement of sort between the families....I have to do some reading in the commentaries.....the number of years that went by was 130 years.  In our time frame, that is quite a few years.  But I do feel better, I was thinking a brother and a sister getting married, but that was NOT the case.  

Okay so there  has been this marriage to bring the north and the south together, but this didn't last.  Once the father of the bride passed away, his name was Ptolemy II,  things fell apart!  The king of the north, named Antiochus, decide he would rather be with his first wife named Laodice, and he put his wife #2, Bernice, away.  Now he may have been happy for a short period of time but Laodice didn't trust her husband....that's not good.  Really not good, this lady was vicious, she had her husband poisoned. And then she went to work on Bernice and her entourage, and Bernice's infant son.  They were all murdered.  
"She shall be given up, with those that brought her, and with him who begot her, and with him who strengthened her in those times." This is from the Bible, Daniel 11: 6b.
Bernice's brother, Ptolemy III, did avenge his sister's death and the bible says ,"But from a branch of her (Bernice's) roots one shall arise (Bernice's brother), in his place, who shall come with an army, enter the fortress of the king (Seclecus II) of the north, and deal with them and prevail.". Well there was quiet in the kingdoms for a time, until Ptolemy III died, and he lived for four more years then did Seclecus II. 

This must have been a terribly sad time to be alive.  There was so much killing.  And to think that this was all prophecy, given to Daniel by God.  Now granted Daniel did need a little help in understanding this, and isn't it awesome that God sent someone to help Daniel with his understanding of all this information. 

Tomorrow I am going to finish up Daniel 11, even though we have only gotten thru verse 11. We will finish 11 tomorrow.  So today you really need to bless someone, even, if it is just sitting quietly at your desk, for a few moments and praying for a co-worker.  They do not need to know you are praying for them.  But God will hear you, and listen to your concerns for them.  That's what really counts anyway!

Daniel 11 verse four thru....

God is really good...and sometimes if I just sit quietly I can just bask in His wonderful glory, and feel Him sitting there with me.  Have you ever noticed that when you are with someone you love it is not always necessary to be speaking.  You can just be together and feel the love that the two of you have for each other, Psalm 46: 10. Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in all the earth. I want to exalt God in everything that I do, if you are reading this then you probably do as well!

On to Daniel 11: verse 4 on...well it looks like there will be wedding in the coming verses...we shall see.  In verse 4 Daniels prophecy speaks of the mighty king who is ruling and that when he stands up, he will fall. The he is Alexander the Great...who went to a party when he was about 32 years old...he drank a wee bit to much; went home and developed a fever and died.  He probably thought of himself as invisible and he was probably having, what he thought was, the time of his life...wonder how much history would have changed if Alexander had walked with God...not likely, but anything is possible.

Anyway I have reiterated a bit and the kingdom was divided up amongst four heirs, and their guides, since some were quite young...the heirs were murdered and the generals took over. I suppose that the generals were then thought of and referred to as kings.  Well (remember the kingdom had been divided up, as it were, to the four winds, north, south, east, and west.) the king of the north and the king of the south we're warring, why is it that so many can not be simply happy with what they have. Why do so many think that more is better, it isn't always better.  Okay so the king of the south was Ptolemy I and he became quite strong and controlled power over the Holy Lands.  Ptolemy must have had a son, because he is referred to as a prince, named Seleucus and at this point I am getting confused because the Bible is not totally clear to me about how Seleucus is the king of the north and now Ptolemy is the king of the south.  Reading....reading.....reading....Okay I just had a light bulb moment.  The Prince Seleucus most have gotten pretty powerful and he took the power away from the previous ruler of the north, and that is how he came to be in power over the northern area.  But just to be on the safe side I will check this all out with my son, who is a brilliant person and he is able to read Greek...so I think since he did quite well in his Greek course at LBC, he's probably qualified to verify that what I have written here is accurate.  So for the moment this not written in stone.  And it will be confirmed or told that it is a wrong understanding.

So for the time being....go and find someone who really needs a blessing!

Daniel Chapter 11 (or at least the first few verses.)

The fasting is over for the moment, however I am so enjoying the food that I have been partaking that I will be continuing on with the same foods...however Timmy wants his other favorites...not me though!  I am really enjoying the fact that I am losing a bit of weight and since I am enjoying the food, I may as well stay with it.

Let us proceed to Daniel Chapter 11.

There are those that think the prophecies written in this chapter were written after the fact because they are so correct.  But God doesn't like lies so how could that be the case?  It couldn't be.

As we begin our reading for today the Bible speaks of four kings arising out of Persia and the fourth king to arise will be more wealthy and have superior strength and he will encourage and stir up the nation against "the realm of Greece.". And this particular king was King Xerxes.  Now just to clarify, when I said that four kings would arise I didn't mean at once....this occurred over time.  The reason for this importance is because this king of Persia, tried to wipe out the Jews as did the king or emperor of Greece who did go to war with the Persians. 

Let's get back to King Xerxes.  Well things went along for a bit for King Xerxes until Alexander the Great came along (this is from verse three) and defeated him.  And his kingdom would be quite large, but at his demise, his kingdom would be divided up towards the four winds and no one was able to get it all together again.  Alexander had a few heirs, however none where as great as he.  Alexander had a half brother, but he was somewhat mentally deficient, he did have a son that was born ater he had passed and he had an illegitimate son named Hercules.  Well each of the heirs was to rule together with each one having a guardian, if you would.  But they all the heirs ended up being killed.  Then four generals goverend, but none to Alexander the Great's "dominion." and I think this implies to the borders that Alexander had originally conquered too.

Well we have made it thru to verse 4.  And we shall pick this back up tonight or tomorrow morning.  So it is time to go and to be a blessing.

Last Day of 21 day Fast & Daniel Chapter 10 First 1/2

This was the last day of the fast and what am I reading Daniel 10, Daniel is speaking of taking no pleasant food for 21 days. Although he says three full weeks.  I had the same thing for breakfast this morning as I have had for the past week.  It's good and clean and (I think it's tasty)it's nutritious.

I wonder if Daniel had anything like this...no he might have had quinoa instead of oats. 
Okay Daniel was fasting because he was given some news if you would, and the news was disturbing. Or perhaps it was because the people in exile had not all gone with Ezra...there are several reason that Daniel could have been mourning or fasting...But Daniel did feel the need to fast to receive understanding of the news in the dream,  and it was troubling to him.

Daniel found himself standing on the banks of the Tigris River.  And Daniel saw someone, who some commentators believe to be Jesus, because the description that Daniel gives is very similar to the description that is given in Revelations 1: 12-16.  However in my mind this doesn't really matter because we are looking for explanation, not who is giving it. 

Apparently there were a few others with Daniel and they fled, the bible says they were filled with fear and they hid from the vision. And as Daniel saw this man he went to the ground and his face was completely to the ground. He had no strength at all and all his colour left him, yet he could hear the voice of the one coming to him.  And this person introduced himself to Daniel and helped Daniel to stand and to speak with him and he gave Daniel some strength.  And again Daniel is told that he is deeply loved by God.  Wow, can you imagine this.  You know what, I believe I just heard God telling me that I am also.  Be still and know that I am God, Rebecca....I know God sometimes we need to just do this.  God help me to explain this 10th and 11th chapters of Daniel...Okay so this, I believe this was an angel, helped Daniel to understand what was going to be happening to the Hebrew people in many days to come, back in the beginning of this chapter, it says: In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar; and the thing was true, but the time appointed was long.  So apparently there would be a span of time, before this whole dream/vision would be fulfilled.  And the whole explanation of this picks up in the next chapter.  So I will be back with you tomorrow morning bright and early.  I had to complete this once I got to work, internet was down at home.
So God Bless You and please be a blessing to someone today.

Food isn't just for Thought...

I just wanted to tell you all how absolutely wonderful the food is that my husband and I have been enjoying, while participating in the Daniel Fast.

First off we start our days with oatmeal...now let me tell you at first the thought of oatmeal without brown sugar and nice cool whole milk was not exactly appealing.  But this is now how I prepare it.

And I set Tim's up the night before, he's a big boy so he can handle completeing the preperation.

For Tim                                                                 For Kirsten

1/2 cup of old fashioned oats                                  1/3 cup of old fashioned oats
1/2 teaspoon of apple pie spice or cinnamon            same as Tim
1 cup of water                                                               2/3 cup of water

Put all this into a deep enough bowl, so you won't have a mess in your micro wave.  I cook on high or regular power for three minutes.

Then...and here comes the really tasty stuff, I scoop about a tablespoon of coconut oil, which in our house is solid, sitting on the counter.  mix that into the hot oatmeal until it is melted.  then i take the bag of frozen blueberries out of the freezer and add about 3/4 to one cup of blueberries...mix these around and if you don't relish biting into frozen berries, let this sit for just a minute or two and enjoy.  Absoletly wunderbar!

Fasting Day 20 and Daniel 9: 20,

Yesterday we ended on the note of Daniel's prayer...did you read it...what an awesome prayer...I started to think,"Boy I wish I could pray like that..." But, and here is a very real distinction, many people, when they are praying, are praying on their own merit and God granted favor, rather than on the merits and the favors of God.  Do you understand that we can not rely on ourselves we need to rely on God/Jesus/Holy Spirit.  Daniels reliance was totally on God, that is why Gabriel referred to him as "greatly beloved."

From the 24 Verse of Daniel 9 to the end of Daniel 9, Gabriel the angel is teaching Daniel about his vision.  Gabriel tells Daniel the 70 weeks have been determined, for the people of the Holy City to put an end to their transgressions and to finish sinning.  Back to the commentary I am using (www.enduringword.com).  Apparently in ancient Hebrew "week" doesn't necessarily refer to a seven day week as we think of week.  It refers to any unit of measure of seven.  So you could essentially say....one, two, three, four, five, six, week, eight, nine, ten....do you understand.  It just sounds a little odd because we are used to hearing the word seven instead of week.

Verse 24 continues in that it refers to the Jewish people and the Holy City is Jerusalem, and the people have  seventy years to finish up and get on track with God.  (Please note that this is my simplification of what I have read...there is a lot more to all of this then my simple mussing.)

All the sinning that was done has to be atoned for to God.  Now there is a complete explanation of this at the end of the Chapter 9 commentary, by Sir Robert Anderson, I wonder if he is any relation to our family.

This whole thing ends with the crucifixion of Jesus, remember it was He who died for our sins and for the sins of the Hebrews spoken of by Daniel and the angel Gabriel.

Well I hope I was able to convey some interesting thoughts to you.  One of my goals here is to teach, I only pray that I am teaching the correct things.  If a Bible scholar is to read this, it would probably be much to simple.  But as long as my facts are correct I am happy, and as long as I am getting some of you to feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit, then I am doing another thing that I am setting out to do.  God is good and His people said, "All the time!"

Tomorrow afternoon I will start to work on chapter 10 of  Daniel, and I will have it on for you on Monday morning.  Try to get to church to worship our heavenly Father and go be a blessing!

Fasting Day 19 & onto Daniel 9

We are claiming our dominion this day over animals...I have a friend who is missing her one dog.  She slipped out when she was on her way out to walk two of her other dogs...so please if you live in the York area keep your eyes open for
Millie, which is a jack Russell terrier, now Millie is nearly deaf so she won't hear you calling her name, but she is wearing a purple collar with a little heart.  Please watch for her and do the right thing.

Okay so Darius is king and he is the king  over the Chaldeans and his lineage was of the Medes.   In this chapter we are told that Daniel has a clearer understanding of this prophecy. But and this is very important Daniel doesn't just understand the prophecy but he is also capable of applying the prophecy.
Daniels understanding came by studying the words of God found in the older books the he was able to read and study. Specifically Jeremiah 25: 10-13 and 29: 10.  Now I have just looked up and found that Jeremiah was written in approximately  586 B.C. and that Daniel was written (and completed) in approximately 536 B.C.  In these a fore  mentioned scriptures the number 70 keeps coming up for Daniel in his study of Jeremiah.  And Daniel realizes that he is living during the time that Jeremiah was speaking about in his writings.

Now as I was writing this and reading the scriptures I had an euphony (as my daughter, Jonquil would say). I wonder who is our Daniel of today, of 2013, that is looking at the scriptures that were written 2000, plus or minus, years ago and saying that they realize that they are living during the times that were written about in Revelations.  Wow! Do you ever surprise yourself with the things you are capable of thinking.  I actually think that this is Jesus who resides in my heart and He is just giving me these thoughts, so that I can express them to you.  Now what do you think about that!  Feedback please.....okay back to Daniel....you really should read Daniel 9 verses 3-19, what an awesome prayer!  And as Daniel is praying Gabriel stops by again...and basically says to Daniel, you have asked for understanding and that is what I have come to give to you, and Gabriel let's Daniel know that this is occurring because he so completely loved by God, because Daniel is so obedient to God......well we have only gotten thru to verse 20, so that is were we will pick back up tomorrow.

Time to be a blessing! So go do it!

Fasting Day 18 and the Second Half of Daniel 8

Last evening being Wednesday evening I went to church for our Women of the Word gathering.  The Lord is so richly blessing what was a smaller group.  We ran out of chairs last evening! WOW!  That is just such a wonderful blessing and I am sure that this is touching the  blessed heart of Virginia our teacher and guide.

When I started this Daniel fast I was praying for discernment and for restoration.  Now if I was to put this into simpler terms I would say I want to be more aware and be more able to see what is going on around me and to be able to help with whatever the situation may be.  I am also asking the Lord for restoration, now this one is a little trickier.  The word restore means to give back or to put back into service.  And restoration means the act of restoring.  Now to put this into my terms....there are many things in my life that could use some restoration....my goats have really messed up the gate to their pen by constantly rubbing up against it.  In fact Tim believes he is going to have to make a new door...my father needs to be restored to the Lord.  I can't help but feel that my dad at 85, who was reared by a Godly mother and father.  They didn't necessarily go to church, but a lot of the old timers didn't go to church. But what do you say about someone who prays the Lord's prayer and repeats the 23 Psalm every night in German, this was my grandmother's first language, even though she rarely spoke German when my sister and I came to be around and in fact Nanny didn't have any accent.  But long story short my Dad does know who the Lord is....even if he doesn't acknowledge Him at this point in his life, he can be restored to the Lord.  As we discussed last evening, the key to all of this is the power of prayer!

Okay now we need to get to Daniel Chapter 8, verse 15. and Daniel is trying to understand the vision that he is in the midst of...and Daniel was kind of muttering to himself that he wanted to understand his vision... and a person"having the appearance of a man" came near to Daniel.  And Daniel head someone say "Gabriel make this man to understand this vision." Daniel was a little surprised and perhaps freaked out (today's terms), and he fell on his face...Gabriel said to Daniel..."understand oh son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end."
Well Daniel was still on the ground and in a deep sleep, however Gabriel touched him and stood him up and told him that he is witnessing the end times, not our end times but what was fulfilled before Christ.

The ram that we spoke of yesterday represents the kings of the Media and Persia and the billy goat represents the king of Greece, this was Alexander the Great.  And this can all be read in the history books, how Alex's kingdom was then divided up by four of his generals.

After these four have reached their fullness, however without the great power that Alex had...a king shall come about.  And this king turned out to have caused  the destruction of the Greeks and the Romans. This king was Antiochus, and he was known for his brutality.  This vision was very difficult for Daniel to comprehend and he lay sick for a few days and I think he was finally able to put this all into perspective and go about the kings business.

So tomorrow we shall jump into Chapter 9, and we will continue with these small bites!

So go and be a blessing!  Yay God, you are so good to me!

Fasting Day 17 & the First 1/2 of Daniel 8

So last evening we had some soup that I had made the night before...I have to say in all honesty..something was missing.  It had potatoes, black beans, chick peas, a can of chopped tomatoes with garlic and basil, a 16 ounces of vegetable stock, and then I added three handfuls of brown rice pasta...it just tastes like it is missing something.
Well I will have to work on figuring that out, maybe at lunch time.

Now onto Daniel 8...this chapter starts out with a vision that takes place during the third year of King Belshazzar, and this was when Babylon was firmly in power, and Daniel was standing by the River Ulai in Shushan, in the citadel on the kings business.  And Daniel saw a ram standing there and it had two horns and one horn was higher than the other.  And the ram was pushing north and south, and west and not allowing anything to get ahead of it, the ram did as it wanted and no other could get by it and it became stronger...now this ram represented the Medo-Persian Empire and the reason that one horn is taller than the other is because other Persians where bigger and stronger than the Medes.  Although there maybe some that doubt the the ram as representing the Persians, apparently the rams head was stamped on their coins and the ruler carried a rams head as he lead his army, and a rams head was also incorporated into the rulers headdress so this would pretty clearly point to Persians.

As we go on with our reading in Daniel verse five Daniel goes onto say that a billy goat appears and it had a single horn (in my mind I see a goat with a horn like a unicorn), and it comes with great force, coming across the earth without touching the ground, at the ram and the goat breaks off the rams horns and with no horns the ram is powerless and the goat tramples it and assumes the rams power.  And as the Goat got greater and greater his single horn broke off and four horns came in it's place and they pointed to the four winds of heaven.  We also know from history that the goat is representative of Greece.  And the Greek Empire came at the Medo-Persian Empire, somewhat out of no where, although it was from the west and Alexander the Great was the ruler.  Now when the single horn broke off, this represents the end of Alexander's rule.  And the empire was divided up between four (the four horns) leading generals of the Greek empire.  It wasn't divided up by Alexander it was divided up by the generals.

We will continue with this in verse nine, tomorrow.  So go and be a blessing...I will do this as well.

Fasting Day 16 & the Second 1/2 of Daniel 7

Wow, I just had an epiphany...if you read Daniel 7: 15, the Bible says that Daniel was anxious because he lacked understanding of his vision.  Okay now I don,t feel so bad that I don't understand...isn't it interesting that you can read something a few times, but it is not until the next time that you read it that you can receive just a little smidgen of understanding.   Back to Daniel...

           Four Beast   ---   Four kings that will arise from the earth.

BUT.....in continuing to read in verse 18, the Bible says that the saints of the Most High, shall receive the kingdom, and posses the kingdom for ever and ever...so I don't quite understand the point behind the kings...useless?....we will see....

As we continue Daniel wanted to know the truth about the fourth beast...it was very different..very nasty and different from the rest.   Do you remember how this last beast had horns, it had ten horns and then a small horn came and this horn was able to see and speak. And speak it did!  It had many unpleasant things to say and was working on the Saints and wearing them down. Until the Ancient of Days came and judgement was passed for the saints on this beast.

There is a correlation made here between Chapter 7 and Nebuchadnezzar vision in  Chapter 2.  In that there was a rise of four empires in Nebuchadnezzar's vision as well as the four beasts represent four empires.  One of the differences is that Daniel is viewing his dream from the perspective of God and Nebuchadnezzar's dream is from man's perspective.  Big difference or as my second to youngest grandson would say,"huge Ma, huge!". And he would be right!  

In looking at the beasts, God sees the beast which represent rulers of nations or nations themselves, but God sees the true demeanor of these creatures, while man looks at them as perhaps an evil ruler or a country that is filled with bad people.  God can really cut to the chase, doesn't He.  Anyway the beast with all the horns is destroyed and then the people of God, the saints, are the ones responsible for the kingdom and what is really awesome is that this kingdom has no end.  It goes on forever and has no end...isn't that awesome?  Well I think it is.  You all know that I am a primarily positive person, and I think this is going to be wonderful.

Well it is time for me to get ready for work...so let's think for just a moment, are you going to intentionally bless someone today?  I am going to.  And tomorrow we will tackle the Eighth chapter of Daniel along with the commentary that I am using for help in understanding.  God Bless you today!

Fasting Day 15 and first 1/2 Part of Daniel 7

Good day all, First let me say that I am terribly sorry that I am so late, I had computer issues and had to wait till I got to work to hit the publish button.  So Thank You for bearing with me!

I pray that you all had a wonderful and blessed day yesterday.  I know that here in the Smith household we did.  We went to church in the morning, stopped at the grocery store on the way home, and then we came home and had a yummy dinner.

I made something with brown rice pasta.  And that was I heated to medium heat about 1/2 cup olive and 1/2 cup sunflower seed oils, then I put in one leek, chopped up and two zucchini, chopped up and two summer squash chopped up, oh and one big hunk of garlic in large pieces.  I just let that all sauté until it was cooked thru, mixed it up with the pasta and there was dinner.  We had cantaloupe and blueberries for desert...yummy!

Okay now lets talk a bit about the prophetic abilities of Daniel.

In Daniel 7: verse 2 Daniel speaks of the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea.  It is highly considered that the sea he is speaking of is the Mediterranean Sea.  Some feel that the winds stirring up the waters are from Heaven, or God and some feel that they are the satanic forces stirring things up, my inclination is to go with heaven since the verse says, “the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea."   Then the prophetic dream continues telling us of the four beasts.

The first is a lion representing the Babylonian Empire.  The second is a bear representing the Medo-Persian Empire that seceded the Babylonian Empire.  The next is a leopard, representing the Greek Empire.  The last beast to appear is a great beast that is extremely ferocious and nasty with ten horns, this beast is thought to represent the Roman Empire. 

Daniel continues on...saying that he watched until all the thrones were put into place.  Or perhaps it took a bit of time to have each throne accomplished.

(By this I mean that a figure head or King is established.) However Daniel does not describe who or what is seated on the thrones except to say that that Ancient of Days is seated and a goodly description is given of His throne.

Now it is clear that the Ancient of Days is God the Father, I know that is says in the commentary that I am using that there is some thought of God the Son, however in my reading of this I find that I go directly to God the Father.

In front of the Ancient of Days are several books, The Book of Remembrance, The Book of the Living, and the Book of the Life,  which is to say that these books are the books where all the names of the saints are written....is your name in the Lambs Book of Life?

Now the last beast to appear had ten horns and then another smaller horn appeared and somehow this horn had a mouth and it was speaking, the Bible says pompous words.  Now pompous is not a word that is generally a positive word, so just for clarification we are going to Merriam...

2: having or exhibiting self-importance : arrogant <a pompous politician>

Do you notice that the rest of the beasts do not speak?  Anyway this last beast is slain and thrown into the fire...and the Daniel says that one like the Son of Man appears coming down from the clouds and He is taken to the Ancient of Days and The Son of Man is given dominion over all the earth, and His reign is permanent and has NO end.

Now we are going to stop here and pick this back up tomorrow to continue in the book of Daniel chapter 7, verse 15.  Please find someone to bless today, won't you?

Fasting Day 12 & Daniel Chapter 12

Okay day 12 and all went well!  However my study of Daniel is still a bit of a struggle...
But I will prevail!  There is a website that I learned about from my friend, Virginia, and she learned about it from a another friend of hers. It is www.enduringword.com, it is an awesome sight with a lot of insight.  And I will start here.  The 12th Chapter of Daniel speaks of a coming time of trouble for Israel.  A time of such horror and sadness as Israel has never seen.  And with the additional help of this website I can see that the trouble will be even worse than what this dear country has already experienced.  The reasoning is this, Israel is the country of God's chosen people.  So with the devil being who the devil is, a fallen angel, the antithesis of the devil is the angel Michael. (Remember that the devil is not Gods opposite.) The angel Michael is the angel that God has appointed as the spiritual guardian of Israel.

So it would seem that this chapter is speaking of the tremendous hardship that is to come for Israel and that it will be worse than what hardship has already happened within this tiny, yet powerful and awesome country.  And this will be during the Tribulation.

Now I know this is really short...but I must say, I really don't have enough time in my day.  I would love to continue to write to you all, however I must get ready for my work.  And the problem is I am writing a little, reading "enduring word web site," and the Bible, and now, I am finding I need to check out other verses as well.  So this will continue tomorrow maybe not in the morning, because I have one daughter by covenant and two grandchildren spending the night tonight.....Yay, Thank you God...
I love it! So go be a blessing I am going to!

Fasting Day 11

Well I must say that day eleven was a lot better than the previous days....just because it was a nice day....no plumbing issues to deal with, no horses escaped...I just pray I can get a better handle on understanding the last books of Daniel.  I have determined in my own head that my understanding of this book will come, just maybe not on my schedule.

Last evening being Wednesday the Women of the Word meet and we talked about a number of things and prayer requests were made and we prayed and studied the 23 chapter of 1st Samuel. In case you don't know what these chapters are about, they are about Daniel and King Saul.  What a rocky relationship they had....they started out with both of them liking each other and then the women of there town sang a song about Saul killing his thousands and David his ten thousands.  This was all it took.  A seed of jealousy was planted in Saul's garden of emotions.  A sad seed, because this completely ruined the relationship between Saul and David.  Saul became a hunter and David became the hunted. And Saul's son Jonathan got caught up in the middle because he loved David.

Now what is really interesting in these books of the Bible, you can actually find correlations between what was going on with Saul and David and Jonathan and find in today, real life situations that are similar, jealousy hasn't changed from way back from before Jesus,  this is still an incredibly dangerous emotion.  And if you or a loved one has a problem with jealousy get help to deal with this.  It really can be a very dangerous emotion when it is carried to an extreme.  And for some devilish reason this can happen in an instant....(did you catch the pun?)

What seeds have you planted in your garden of emotions lately.  The best ones to plant are the seeds of loving you brothers or sisters, and I am not referring to your actual siblings I am referring to all the people that you come into contact with on a daily basis.  How about the seed of helpfulness, or kindness, or how the seed of courtesy,  it is so sad to say, but I really feel that common courtesy is fading away as a kind of old school idea.  I do still think that this is a good thing today.  And maybe we just need to practice this a little more.  It doesn't have to go away, it will only go away if we let it....think about this!

Time to get ready for work and to find someone to bless God is so good, let's share some of this goodness. 

Fasting Day 10

Can you imagine a visit from angels?

That is exactly what Daniel experienced in Daniel 10.  He was visited by the angel Gabriel and the angel Michael. It says that Daniel was in the fourth and twentieth day and that he was mourning...so after humbling himself before the Lord with his fasting, Daniel was extremely weak.  And the angels came to him to speak to him and to help Daniel to regain his strength.  In the 11th verse Daniel is told by the angel that he is beloved in heaven....can you imagine being told that you are beloved in heaven...can you just try to take that into your brain and comprehend this.  I am not sure that I am capable of doing this.

Let's look at this word for just a moment.
Beloved-dearly loved, this is what Merriam says. And in this definition the word "dearly" is an adjective, which describes loved, and dearly-highly valued.

Now I don't know about you but it seems to me that Merriam Webster is not quite capable of a good and precise definition for beloved.  I feel that to be beloved by those in heaven goes far beyond any kind of love, we as fleshly human beings, are really capable of understanding.  Isn't God amazing?

I have done a little research on the chapters in Daniel and the one thing that is clear is that the first six chapters are fairly easy to understand...then we get into the second half and these are filled with prophecy and I will be taking a bit more time as I go thru these; so just be patient with me I have already done the digging but now I have to read the information that I have dug out.

So here are my thoughts...I will go thru the rest of the chapters and then I will go back thru the last six chapter again with the help of commentaries so just please bear with me...but for right now I am really hungry, I had an apple and natural peanut butter for dinner last night, which was fine last night, but now I am famished.

So go and be a blessing, I am going to...

Fasting Day Nine, and "Plumbing issues!"

Good day to all of you out there.  Yesterday was day nine of our fast and oh what a day...

But first I have to tell you that I advise you all to read chapters 7, 8, and 9 of Daniel.  I have been reading them and even though I have asked the Lord for clarity, I don't seem to have a great deal of clarity on these three chapters...I need some help on them.  I think I will read some Bible reviews to help me with my understanding.

The past couple of weeks we have been dealing with an issue in our home, concerning plumbing...okay I will be quite honest with you I now consider this a dirty word!  Ah yesterday, thank you God that that day is over.  We have been dealing with, potties not flushing properly and water not going down in the tub, water coming up in the tub.  So I have been using as little water as possible, this isn't easy...there are dishes to be washed, laundry to be done, showers to be taken, toilets to flush...what a couple of weeks this has been,  but yesterday was the icing on the cake...and not a cake I wish to have again.

I came home for lunch yesterday and there was some water in the tub in our bathroom...okay no biggy so I went out to the kitchen and got my lunch and before I went back to work, I believe God moved me to double check the bathroom.  Thank you Jesus, the water was about three inches away from the top of the tub and the toilet was about one inch from overflowing...we have gotten a lot of rain lately and it seems to have decided to come into our house!  So I started bailing, the more water I took out the more water replaced it.  I finally got the toilet down, although it was still refilling. I got the garden hose and finally was able to get a siphon going, have any of you done this? Sucking on the end of a hose,  well let me tell you I did a lot of spitting!  But the important thing is I got it going.  Just call me Pioneer Women!  Meanwhile I called my work and said I wasn't sure if I would get back I had an emergency to deal with at home....which was okay, I also called my husband and said please do not stop any where on your way home, please come straight home!  I have been praying and asking God to correct this problem, and sometimes God gives us the tools to correct our own problems which he did.  My one boss said what septic company to call and after Tim had found and dug out the clean-out lid we did call,  and my oh so positive Timmy said I doubt they will come today, I had faith that they would and they did!  Thank you Jesus!  Isn't God great?  I think so.  And don't forget to watch for Him to show up even in the simple things such as plumbing... God I thank you and praise you for the goodness and the blessings that you constantly bestow on me!

Now go and be blessing yourself!  I am going too!

Fasting Days Seven & Eight

Well the fasting is going quite well, Tim and I are both working on constantly growing in our relationship with God, and we are both working on staying in the Word...as in any relationship...there is work...anyone who is involved in a marriage has to know that a relationship takes work.  And since we are planning on marrying God, we are the Bride of Christ, we must learn to work on relationships. Because how will we succeed at being the bride of Christ if we don't learn to have relationships with our earthly husband?

We of course had an awesome time at church, Pastor Don is such an amazing speaker, actually I should say teacher because I really feel that Pastor Don is more of a teacher than a preacher and as Pastor Don would say that's a good word. Yesterday's sermon was titled get your rewards card and Pastor Don spoke to us of all the reward cards that we all carry around with us....He then went on to tell us how, "God is a rewarder of those that seek Him, He is not a rewarder  of those that seek His stuff." We must seek Him!  And we don't even need a rewards card!

As you continue to daily seek the Lord you will find that you are getting to Him better and better.  And what a wonderful experience this is!  As time goes by you will hopefully understand that you can leave your destiny in His hands as well.  Jesus will take care of your present and your future, as long as you have asked Him to forgive your past.  What is really awesome is once you have asked for His forgiveness and asked Him to come into your heart, your past is done with, you are forgiven and that is that, it will no longer be an issue between you and Jesus.  Now when it comes to people, wouldn't it be nice if that was the same, but unfortunately it is not.  Not all people but some people like to hold onto that power that they feel they have attained by not forgiving.  Sad but true.  Remember we are to be imitators of Christ.  We are to get to know Him so well that when people look at us they see Christ in us.  Can you do this?  I'm working on doing this.  It's not easy.  I find there are stumbling blocks everywhere I step, there are stumbling blocks within my line of site, and there are stumbling blocks within my range of hearing!  And one other stumbling block, you all know that I am on a fast, this other stumbling block I have recently become aware of is my mouth and what it thinks it is hungry for...guess again mouth...right now you are going to be denied that bowl of oatmeal with milk and brown sugar...you are going to be denied that piece of cheese...you are going to be denied butter  and jelly on a piece of bread!  

You might ask why?  Why are you denying yourself all these things?  For me as for the   other people in our church who are participating in this fast, we are denying ourselves so that in doing this we will be closer to our Savior.  We must learn to deny ourselves in these little things if we are going to be able to deny ourselves in the big things. Crucify the fleshly lust of these earthly bodies. 

  "Get to your room alone and stay in that room until you are not alone," said by Pastor Don, what another great word.

Time for some breakfast and to get ready for work, I hope you all have a truly blessed day and that you will also be a blessing.

Fasting Day Six

I have mentioned to people that I am friendly with, and  that I am in contact with this week about the Daniel Fast.  And I think that if you are not really walking closely with the Lord, the response is either oh that's nice or not really much of anything. However if you mention this to someone who is walking with the Lord the result is much different.

I have read Chapter 6 of Daniel and his life just gets better and better.  But before I tell you about that I must tell you of our evening yesterday....my car's care is managed by a wonderful young man named Ron.  Yesterday Ron changed the oil, checked all the fluids, rotated the tires, and checked the brakes for me whilst he had the tires off.  He called me to let me know that the car was finished, and I said well Timmy already has his boots off, so we will get it in the morning, but if he wanted to stop over I would give him a check right away, so that's what we did.  When Ron walked in the house he said it smelled amazing in here, I said I was making some soup for dinner and he was welcome to some if he would like because we were just getting ready to eat.  First Ron said no but then after I had gotten the soup out for Tim and I, I said to Ron this is really good, are you sure you don't want some?   And he said oh okay I'll have some, so I got Ron some soup and he really seemed to enjoy it in fact he said that if this is what healthy taste like he may have to try it out a little bit more often anyway we had a very nice visit with our friend.  Ron is a good Christian young man with a lovely wife, and they are expecting their first child.

Now to Daniel Chapter 6...King Darius really liked Daniel and he made Daniel the head administrator in the kingdom, well the other administrators and lords didn't like this so a few of them came up with a plot to trap Daniel, or so they thought, to finally be rid of him.  I believe you could say they had a seed of jealousy in their spirits.  They really didn't like that Daniel had once again found so much favor with the king.
The trap was that everyone was to pray for thirty days to only the king.  First of all why would you make a decree like that for only thirty days, I really do not think that the king was thinking when he signed this edict.  And after the fact when some of these ring leaders brought to the attention of the king that Daniel wasn't following the rules,  the king realized that he had made a big mistake.  Because he had to follow his edict, which was to throw Daniel into the lions den, but when Daniel was put into the lions den, King Darius said to Daniel your God will protect you, but I think he was saying it more as a prayer then as a statement.  The next morning I believe that the king would have been singing if he felt it was acceptable as he went to get Daniel out, I do think that the king really thought that Daniel's God had protected him. Which, of course, God did protect Daniel.  And the king did in fact get rid of the ones who told the king of Daniels indiscretion, as well as their entire families.
The king then decreed to all his people as well as to the whole world that all follow Daniels God.
It really is a wonderful story and one that when you have read it and absorbed it, you can recount it to your children and/or grandchildren.  
Well it is past time for me to get on with my day...and I really hope in the Lord that you have a truly blessed day and that you are also a blessing to someone today!

Fasting Day Five

You know I have decided that I miss my pictures in my blog but I don't want to distract from the message's that I have to share with you.
Well yesterday was not only day five of our fasting experience it was also my 58th birthday and I had a pleasant day at work and at home...of course I spent time with all of you  in the morning, then spent my day at work, and then home with my wonderful husband and my daughter came by for a visit and brought a very lovely bunch of yellow roses.  So all in all my day was very nice.
So in Daniel Chapter 4 we had seen the king of the Chaldean's had been removed from his throne by God...and he was removed from his throne because he had become pompous, and just to make sure I was using the right word I just looked it up and that is the correct word.  We now read in the next chapter how King Nebuchadnezzar was replaced by King Belshazzar and frankly he was much better. He was having a party one evening and the king decide he wanted the gold and silver vessels that his predecessor had removed from the temple in Jerusalem; so they were brought and the king and the lords and ladies and concubines drank from these vessels and were praising the gods of gold and silver and other metals....when there appeared a hand and it was writing on the wall.   Well this kind of blew the kings mind in a big way...so he called for all his conjurers and magicians and astrologers and diviners and asked them to decipher what the words that were written on the wall meant.  But none of them knew what the words meant....so the queen spoke up to the king and reminded him of Daniel who was very good at explaining these kinds of things....so the king called For Daniel and when Daniel came he had to again deliver bad news to a king.  Boy oh boy, I don't know about you but what a job, always having to give bad news to kings, that's a risky job!  Anyway Daniel told the king keep your gifts and here is what the words mean....even though you knew what happened to your father you have kept your heart hardened against the Lord....and you brought in the vessels of the Lord's and you have praised the gods of gold, silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, but you have not given any praise to God who holds in his hands your very breath...so the words meant that the king was going to be slain and that his kingdom would be divided between the Medes and the Persians.  After giving the interpretation to the king Daniel was clothed in fine robes and baling and a proclamation was made that Daniel was to be third in line from the king.  A little to little to late....the king was slain that night and Darius the Mede, took over the kingdom.....hmmm I wonder what will happen next,  maybe the king should have done the Daniel fast and prayed as well for restoration to our God and King!  What do you think?
Well the time has come for me to hit the showers and get ready for work...isn't God great?  I think so....now go be a blessing to someone, anyone!

Fasting Day Four

Well Tim and I are through day four and doing very well!  And yesterday being Wednesday I went to church to meet with the ladies in the Women of the Word.  We had an amazing time together. Our bible study continued in the book of Samuel chapter 22.

If you have never really gotten into the book of Samuel I would highly suggest it!

Chapter 22 deals with Saul and his unbelievable mental problem...this started when David, who is destined to become the next king, and Saul come back from war, and the women are singing, Saul killed his thousands and David his ten thousands. And Saul heard this and took this into his gut and it started to fester...have you ever done this...something occurred and it didn't sit well with you.  It can be someone who says something or has done something to you or to one of your children or your husband, or it could be something one of your children or husband has done, and not necessarily to you, but let's face it, our families behavior, we think, reflects on us.  First of all we shouldn't feel this way...especially if our children are grown.
Back to the point, this thing occurs, whatever it may be and it starts to fester and fester, and as one woman said last evening, this thing had grown to the size of baby and she had gotten so used to carrying it around that she found it quite difficult to give up.
Well this is not a safe thing to do, because the longer you hold onto a perceived wrong, the more damage it can do.  Like in the case of Saul. He turned into a mental case.  He had 85 people murdered because of this perceived wrong that he was carrying around and had allowed to fester and infect his whole being, how sad is that?  So if you have a perceived wrong in your life ask the Lord to help you to let it go...don't let it fester in you...that will only bring sadness and darkness to your soul, and this could also be considered a strong hold for the devil, and I don't know about you but I don't want to knowingly allow the devil any footholds in my life...

Well it is time for me to get ready for work and to find someone to bless, if you haven't ever done this, try it, not only are you potentially doing something nice for someone else you will feel the blessing yourself!

Fasting Day Three

Day Three, yay God, remember I had said that I was asking the Lord for restoration and discernment....well...let me tell you that I had an amazing conversation with my son. We covered a huge area and I think we both learned some things about each other, and ourselves, also the way that we each think, or maybe I should say the way that we come at a particular issue.

What we dealt with last evening was a bunch of different subject and I think I will only cover some of them here.  One of the subjects was prayer.....

The first Scripture is 

Luke 9 (and I want to point to verses 1 and 2, for my son) speaks of praying and this is the form of communication with God, this is what Jesus was doing with God.

The second Scripture is James 2 speaks to us participating in our prayers...if we pray for the homeless and we ask the Lord to help these people stay warm and to stay feed and to provide them with a warm place to be.  If we have the capability to help and to solve some of these problems, and do nothing, aren't our prayers empty and basically meaningless? 

One of the the things we spoke about was when prayers aren't answered...

Second Corinthians verse 12...Paul speaks about boasting for a man who had gone up to the third heaven and that this man was unable to boast about this.  So Paul was wanting to boast for this man. But Paul thought better of the boasting, because he didn't want people to think more of him than they should, but Paul I think still had the thought in his head.  And just to play it safe God gave something to Paul to help him to not be to puffed up.  Do you all remember what it was that God gave him.   God gave him a thorn in his flesh.  And it must have been someplace on his body that he couldn't get to, because he had to ask God to take care of this thorn, and what does God say to Paul, God say "my grace is sufficient for you."  In other words God wanted Paul to be reminded regularly that God was there,  God was sort of Paul's thorn.  You know when you are considering do something and you know that you shouldn't....that is God trying to speak to you. That is God being a thorn in your flesh. And that is God saying to you my Grace is sufficient for you and I(God) am going to keep being a thorn in your side, maybe until you stop boasting or perhaps your form of boasting is misbehaving or be unkind.  So stop it!  And in other words when we pray if we don't get an answer to our prayers, maybe you just aren't hearing Gods answer, maybe He is saying no or wait...oh that is tough.  But something we must learn to do is listen.

Now it is time for me to get ready for work and this morning I will be walking down the road and across the creek and up the road to work.  Aren't I blessed, I thinks so..who of you can walk thru the woods to get to work? Now you go and be a blessing.  Oh and don't forget to stay on the Daniel diet and praise God as you do this.  Amen and Amen

Fasting Day Two

Good morning we are at day two.  And yay good!  Okay yesterday I was telling you all about Daniel Chapter Three and that is the chapter in the bible that speaks of the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and how they were thrown into the fiery furnace that had been heated seven times the normal temperature...and the King looked out and saw four people walking around in the furnace, well can you imagine.

Okay today read Chapter Four, and of course another seriously good word.  If you are  a really intelligent person and you are asked to come to the king and tell the king that the dream he had is pretty bad for him,would you want  tell him, I think not, but that is what Daniel had to do.

Okay I am still praying for restoration, and now even in a bigger way than yesterday!
We have a situation within our family were one person is behaving in a way that the rest of the family isn't necessarily happy about, and there are those in the family that feel I should be doing more than I am...I have talked to my Heavenly Father about this and I am leaving this in His hands to deal with.  I feel that once we have asked the Lord to deal with something why would we continue to pray about it, wouldn't that be like doubting God's abilities to deal with the problem.  I have been told that I need to do more...I do not know what that more is.  I am going to continue to love and be what I am...God needs to show me that I need to do something different if that is what he wants.

Now I have a favor to ask...I need to find in the bible a verse that speaks to asking the Lord for our request or concerns and then waiting on the Lord.  Any help will be much appreciated.

Now what did you eat yesterday, I had oatmeal with cinnamon and no brown sugar, hmmm the jury is still out, I can tolerate, but not my favorite, I also had a cutie,that's a seedless tangerine, I also had split pea soup, two times, for lunch and dinner's with some very good crackers, don't worry I read my labels, and juice and water..  

Well I must get ready for work, so I pray you all have a great and blessed day, and that you can all be a blessing today!

Fasting Day One

Well Tim and I have started our fast, the fast we are participating in is the Daniel Fast, and we are committed to twenty one days. Who knows maybe we will do it longer, time will tell.

So far on day one we started out reading the first two chapters of Daniel.  We went to church, had wonderful worship and then amazing teaching,as usual from Pastor Don. 

We are so blessed by the Pastors and their wives at Harvest Chapel.   And this past weekend we came way, way to close to losing two of our Pastors and two of our regional Pastors.  The four of them were on their way to hear Pastor T. D. Jakes; and they had to travel on 695 around Washington DC, and a young women hit the cement block that they put on the highways to direct traffic at on and off ramps, and she then bounced off and hit the car that our Pastors were all in and made the car completely un-drive-able.  To see the pictures of the car, it was definitely the hand of God that just covered them and protected them so completely.  Our God is so good!  Wouldn't you agree?  Oh and just to let you know they are all up and walking around,they are all a little banged around and sore, but they are good. So thank you Heavenly Father for the wondrous blessings that you have placed on these four wonderful teachers.  Thank you God for protecting them.

Now back to fasting, well this morning I packed up Tim's lunch, he has the following: one whole wheat tortilla that I heated thru and then spread with all natural and unsweetened peanut butter. He also has a container of frozen fruit, in another container he has a cut up pear, he has two clementines and a bottle of white grape juice and a can of V8 fusion fruit and vegetable juice ( not the kind that has caffeine and sugar).  I am not totally sure what I will have to eat today but it will be within the limits of the Daniel Fast. I have also just read the third chapter of Daniel, this is an interesting chapter...from verse 25 thru verse 45 Sidrach, Misach, and Abdengo spend all these verses in praise and worship of the Lord, now I am not going to tell you what else goes on in this chapter, because I would really like you to read this chapter and see what else happens and I will address it tomorrow.

In case anyone out there may want to visit our church, please feel welcomed and come.  The church is located on Route 30 between Abbots town and Cross Keys, in Pennsylvania.

Now I really pray that you will find someone today to share God's greatness with today.

He Cometh With the Clouds

Have you ever considered what the cloud will look like that is spoken of in the Bible as in Revelations 1:7 Behold, He cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see Him; and they that pierced Him; and every tribe of the world shall mourn over Him, even so, Amen

I can remember when I was a child sometimes I would just lay on the grass and look at the clouds.  At that point in my life I didn't know about being born again in Christ.  Our family was a pretty normal family as families went back in the 60's.  Our family consisted of me, my sister Olwen, pronounced all-when, with the accent on the first syllable, there was also my mother, Dorothy, and my dad, Bob, or as some people referred to him as Bobby.  We also had two afghan hounds, one was blonde and one was black. The blonde was called Phara and the black one was named Ponkey, just like donkey except with a p.  I also had a swordfish in a glass bowl in my bedroom.

Like I said our lives where pretty normal and I really liked the summer as do most children. And one of the things we, my best friend Yvonne and myself, really enjoyed doing, was to climb into the tree house, which didn't have a roof and we would stand up there and sing to the top of our lungs.  And sometimes we would lie on our backs in the tree house and just watch the clouds skim across the sky...what a wonderful memory.

As for church, or any kind of relationship with Jesus, we went to church at the Methodist church a few blocks from our home.  And that went along just fine until one day....my sister and I had gone to church as usual, my mother only went on very special occasions like Easter and Christmas, which I now see as a terribly sad way to live, and daddy, well let's just say he may get into a church for his funeral, oh and weddings, he has been there for a few of these.  But the Pastor used to come and visit my mother on occasion.  On this particular day the pastor asked me what I thought of his sermon...I told him what I thought by asking a question.  I asked him if the sermon was titled, "Love," why did he not speak about what love is, rather than everything that happens without love....it was a totally negative sermon and I think that you can tell by the way that I write here that I am a very positive person and all the negativity really went against my grain!  Even back then when I was about 14 or 15....it wasn't until I was about 34 that I finally turned my life over to Jesus.

Now please don't think that I became some perfect Christian, because I didn't!  I did, develop a large target on my back, as is common for lots of new Christians.  The devil is always on the look-out for new Christians and for Christians who aren't really being totally straight with themselves and their pastor and their friends.  You can't ask for anything better to do damage to an entity than to have some misbehaving or maybe I should say behaving in a way that doesn't exactly fit with what the bible says.  I want to behave like our Lord wants me to behave, and it's not easy.  But I will continue to strive because I want to see Him coming in the clouds. If you read Revelations 1: 3 Blessed is he who readeth (the bible) and they that hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things that are written therein: for the time is at hand.

I do not think that anything could be more clear than this verse. Do you?  So it is that time…time to be a blessing!  Go find someone to bless!

Road Trip with Ruthee CANCELED for Mom

I will be posting tips and tads tomorrow as we go on our Road Trip to Lafeyette, Indiana.  Watch for them!

Well there was no road trip and I am sad about that, but what is a mother to do, Ruthee was able to get one of her friends to go with her, after she had already asked mom and mom had taken off of work...Thank Heavens I could still go to work today...so all is not lost, except for damage to an already tender relationship.

I have been a little blessing to someone today, unfortunatly it wasn't to Ruthee, and I was really looking forward to that even if I had to endure loud music.

I'll catch up to you all tomorrow, have a great rest of the day!

Fasting

I am not sure that we all understand the thoughts and desires behind fasting...and this past weekend I missed the Pastor's sermon because I was in the nursery with the twos and threes.  And Pastor Don was talking about fasting...
And I missed it!

But thank you God for Virginia and The Women of the Word, I understand!

Add caption

One of the things I would love, is to know the direction that God would like me to go, I want to know how to serve our God in the way that He wants me to serve Him.  Do you know what our God is asking of you?

Last evening as we spoke, two things came up over and over again, the need for discernment and the need for restoration.  One way to get closer to our Lord is to become more intimate with him.  Do you know what intimacy is?

Merriam says the following...
     1. Intrinsic, also innermost
     2. Marked by very close association, contact or familiarity.
     3. Marked by a warm friendship.
     4. Suggesting informal warmth or privacy.
     5. Of a very private or personal nature.

I want this kind of relationship with my God.  Remember we are preparing ourselves to be the brides of Christ so just imagine the kind of relationship that you have with your earthly spouse (hopefully it is a good one), now just imagine that relationship being 100's of times better.  That is what we are preparing for.  I want to have a very intimate relationship with my God.

My son Samuel washing his wife's feet during their
wedding, Mary also washed Samuel's feet

So...one way to get to a closer relationship with God is by fasting and the fast that I will be doing is fruits, vegetables, brown rice, which I need to pick up, I will also be including beans, which I just looked up, and they are a fruit so I will be good to go.  There will be no caffeine and no sweetener and no dairy for 21 days

I can do this!  And I will keep you apprised as the days progress, I have an aspiration of writing a children's book and I am really looking for God's guidance on this particular project and in fact is this the direction God wants me to go with my writing?  We will see...

I find that as the time for my fasting is drawing closer I am getting more and more excited about this process, I have never done this before so this will be an adventure that I am venturing into with my heavenly Father and my earthly husband.

Well I think I will get to the needs of this day...there is laundry to tend to, a sink to clean up and me to get ready for work.  So I am going to bless someone today, how about you?

The Love of a Parent/Grandparent

What would you do for your child/grandchild? Or perhaps I should ask what you wouldn't do for your child/grandchild.  

This night past was New Year’s eve and then of course New Year’s day. And I was truly blessed by my children and one of my grandchildren these past few days.  

Let me explain...on Tuesday my husband and I went to TGI Friday's for dinner and this is were our one child works, this is Miss Ruthee, when we arrived at the restaurant Ruthee kind of saw us and looked at us like, what are you doing here, you don't belong here...Ruthee knows, as do all the children that Mom and Dad don't go out to eat hardly ever...now I have to tell you a little story about this, that my husband and I were reminiscing about while we were there.  When Tim and I first started dating Ruthee was about ten years old.  One of the things she really liked to do was to play waitress. Ruthee would grab a pencil and a pad and take every bodies orders and she especially loved doing this with Tim, because Tim really played the part of the customer.  So anyway we had a wonderful dinner and really enjoyed our waitress or I think the politically correct name is now a server.

Then on our way home we called Samuel and Mary to ask them if they were home or just where they were on their journey...well they were in NJ at that point and that was about 6:30-7:00 PM and they were going to stop at Cabala’s, just near route 81 and route 61 just north of Reading.  Okay well you guys stay safe.

Tim and I got home and were enjoying a very, very quiet evening.  Around 9:00 we received another phone call from Samuel and Mary.  Well it turns out that they were home and their apartment was 48 degrees.  So they called us and asked if they could please come to our house for the night...of course...so they came and spent the night.  And they wanted to sleep in the family room. This was fine with us. We unfolded the sofa sleeper so that I could make sure that it would be already for them to use when they arrived.  I also made sure that they understood the door was always open to them and their child, our little grandson, as well as to the rest of the children and grandchildren!



Levi and MamMaw enjoy the first time in the walker!



When they arrived Samuel brought out the pack and play for little Mr. Levi who is just a tad past three months, And boy oh boy was he ready to get out of his car seat.  Driving from RI to South Central PA, is a long drive for an adult, let alone a three month old.  But he really did fairly well according to his parents.  Mary feed Levi and they all went to sleep.  When we got awake in the morning, after Levi had his breakfast and a diaper change and his clothes on, I got out the walker, that hadn't been in use for about three years.  The last ones to use this were Trenton and Madison, and they are six and four now.  It is one of those that you can adjust the height from pretty low to pretty high.  We put Levi in it and he was very happy...he loves to stand up so this was perfect...and his little piggy’s even touched the floor.

So Tim and I where able to start out our year with two wonderful blessings and I am sure that there will be many more in this coming year.  And we are looking forward to all of them...bring it on God and we will continue to bring it to you as well.  Father you fill our lives with so much joy and purpose and we love you for all of this!  Thank you Father!

Now...you know it...go be a blessing...And I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year.

<script type="text/javascript">   var _gaq = _gaq || [];  _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-33614690-1']);  _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);   (function() {    var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;    ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';    var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);  })(); </script>