Conversations with God

To me this is what God is like.  A beautiful flower, and one of the really wonderful things about flowers, is they are always present, you may not be able to see them all the time, but they are always there.  Just like God, He is always there.  But, is your faith always there.  I think sometimes we wander a little bit far from God and our thoughts are not always as they should be…..as soon as this occurs and we recognize this we need to tell the devil to take a hike and get back to our glorious Father, the Father who’s is constantly their, just waiting for our return.

Okay I know what some of you may be thinking, but that isn't true.  Yes  this is a weed, but who is to say that the top flower isn’t also a weed.  I am not really sure what kind of flower it is.  But think on this; do you know what Phlox are,  they are the pretty flowers that we plant that are very attractive to humming birds…they are also all along the highways, usually they are white and pale purple in color, are those weeds?

Anyway like I was saying God is everywhere so why not have constant conversations with God.  I do, and people may think me a little dotty, but I only care what my God thinks.  I must admit that my conversations are usually not out loud and they usually occur just between me and God in my head.  I am sure you know what I mean.

What do you consider prayer to be?  It is a one sided conversation with God.  It is the way that we are taught to speak to God.  Do you remember…”Now I lay me down to sleep…” That is how we were taught, and please don’t think that I think this is a bad thing I do not.  Remember we are to have milk, before we have solid food, and we are told that in the Bible.  But when we are past milk we need to stop having the one sided prayers and open the door  W I D E  and invite God to participate in these conversations.  I am sure that there are many who don’t really want to do this because they don’t want to know what God has to say.  Does this describe you?  If it does, do you have a reason for not wanting God to participate?  If you do, maybe you need to clean up your act and behave as you know that you should, you know, behave like your Heavenly Father wants you to behave. 

Do you curse?  I know that’s a tough one for a lot of people.  But it is not impossible to stop.  You just do it.  You don’t try to do it; you just affirm in your mind that you are not using bad language anymore! Period!  And don’t tell me that you can’t because you are around it at work….I have been in several situations where I have been around it at work and I do not curse.  I won’t say that I haven’t occasionally had a slip, but when that has occurred, I immediately tell the devil to be gone, because for just that split second I have let down my defenses, and ask my Father's forgiveness.  We can do anything we put our minds to.  Our Father has given us this ability, and what an awesome ability it is!  But, the key to this is doing it with the strength of Jesus Christ.

All we have to do is call on the name of Jesus, when we are in a tough situation.   Call out Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.  Just call His name.  It is... there are no words that can sufficiently describe what Jesus is capable of doing for His children if we but call out His name.  God is just so good.

Do you remember the story in the bible were the women told herself that if she could just touch the hem of Jesus’ robe she would be healed?  And what happened?  Jesus felt His healing powers go down a little bit, and turned and said to the crowd, “Who touched me?”  And the women said that she had, because she knew she would be healed if she could just touch Jesus’ robe.  And Jesus said to her, “women your faith has made you whole.”  Just believe.  And read Gods word so that you can know Him.  It doesn’t do a whole lot of good to have very private conversations with a stranger, and the one way that is available to us to get to know God is by reading His word.

I am sure there are those out there that think me to simplistic...but to me, a relationship with Jesus doesn't have to be extremely deep.  I don’t need to be a bible scholar to know that Jesus loves me.  However it is great to know that there are bible scholars out there, that I can turn to with questions.   It is wonderful that one a few of my children are very learned when it comes to the bible.  I can go to them for answers to questions that I have, or to Miss Virginia, she is a wonderful person to go to with questions, and she wouldn’t say she is a bible scholar, but I think all of us in her class would disagree; Virginia has a very discerning eye.  She sees things in the scriptures that it is really easy to miss.

And on this note it is time for my daily baptism, for those of you who don’t know what I mean, think about it, and go be a blessing!

Dedication of Levi



A day of celebration for Levi and his parents, Samuel and Mary, with Mary's Grandparents, and Levi's Great grandparents, Clarence and Mary.

 Deuteronomy 6:4-7 

6:4 Listen, Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! 5 You must love the Lord your God with your whole mind, your whole being, and all your strength. 6 These words I am commanding you today must be kept in mind, 7 and you must teach them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, as you lie down, and as you get up.

 

I have been to service's before where a baby or babies are dedicated to the Lord, but I have to say that the pastor from Samuel and Mary's church seemed to really know each of the family's quite intimately.  He knew of the children and the surrounding circumstance's of each child's presence there, it was really quite wonderful.

 

Their pastor charged each one of the family's with the responsibility of teaching their particular child all the attributes of our Heavenly Father, and this responsibility while it lies primarily with the parents it also includes the grandparents and the great grandparents and the aunts and uncles as well.

 

Proverbs 17:6 

17:6 Grandchildren are like a crown to the elderly, and the glory of children is their parents.

 

What a blessing our children are to us as parents, while they do not all follow the same route, they are still blessings to us in their individual ways.  When I look at this particular little family I receive amazing blessings.

Mary is from a wonderful family in Rhode Island. her parents are both very Godly people, they care a great deal for those that the Lord puts in their paths.  And Samuel well, you are learning about his history everyday by reading this blog...However did you ever notice that when certain people are together they either bring out the very best in each other or they bring out the worst in each other...I have experience with both of these circumstances and I can tell you unequivocally that Samuel and Mary bring out the very best in each other.  I don't know that I have met many other couples that love their Heavenly Father as much as these two do...I am not saying that they know it all about God, but with the love that they have and the desires that they have for the Lord they will not stagnate.  They will continue to grow and love the Lord always.  And they will teach their children as well.

 

I am extremely blessed to know these two fine young people, who have chosen a certain path for themselves as well as for their family.  And I believe this child of theirs will receive the instruction he should receive.  Samuel and Mary wont take their promise lightly.  They will do as they promised, it may not always be the simplest path, but I as one of the parents know that they will do their absolute best.

 

And now it is time for me to go and get ready for my day but first I must admonish all who are reading this to go and be a blessing to someone today, and to do this with all humility.

 

 

Do You Love Your Children?



The Smiths in about 2008  (I think Michael is about two in this picture)

Boy oh Boy do I need to update this picture!  We are missing two wives and four babies, three boys and a girl, wow what a lot has occurred in four to five years!

Every year around Thanksgiving and around Christmas we all get together.  We don’t usually get together on the assigned days, because my husband Tim and I don’t want to share.  We want the children and grandchildren all to ourselves and in doing our celebration in this manner that is what we have and it is wonderful.

I must say that I have a wonderful family, great sons and great daughters, and great grandchildren.  And yes in this house we do love our children and we love them unconditionally, but mind you there are times when our patience is tried.  This doesn’t mean we love the naughty one any less; it might just put us in a thoughtful mood.

Do you ever think about how much God loves us?  This thought is like comprehending the highest number! Can we comprehend this? I am not sure that I can, however we here in this wonderful country of the United States of America are being tested in our abilities to understand high numbers, I know that our country’s debt is in the trillions…Let’s see that’s 1,000,000,000,000.  Ya know that is a lot of zeros’. But anyway that aside, God loves us more than even this. 



This painting is titled the Sheperd and His Sheep.  And believe me the original is much nicer than this photograph.



Now I want you to read this next paragraph, and then I would ask that you sit quietly and clothes your eyes and just consider what you have read.

God’s possible thoughts:

       “Oh these last few years have been terrible, I know that I created these people, and all was well until that miserable snake tempted Eve.  Why did I give them free will?  Oh, I remember, I want them to choose to love me, and I want them to choose to love me unconditionally.  Even if they have a really, really bad day, I want them to love me anyway, they need to understand that I am not the author of bad things.  I know that they are offering sacrifices to me from their store houses and from their flocks, but it doesn’t seem to be enough anymore.  I have already destroyed the earth’s population once and I can’t do it again, I have promised to not do this.”

Some years passed, but remember for God, this is as a blink of the eye!

       “I will have a Son, I have Mary and Joseph who are betrothed they will make exceptional parents.”

Another 30 years passed and Jesus, Gods own Son, grew into a wonderful young man.

       “Jesus is the perfect Son, and oh how I don’t want to do this, but I must, and when all is said and done He will be here with Me in Heaven.  My people must know how much I love them.  They should be able to realize my love, when I am sacrificing my one and only Son for them to have forgiveness.  I know all will not turn to Me, but I am confident that there will be those who love me, and that will accept Christ Jesus as their Savior and as the sacrifice for their sins…..This is what must be done.

Now let me ask you again, do you realize how much God loves you?  And do you really love your children.

I really hope that as I sit here and write this blog that there are some out there who know that this is a mission effort for me.  I want people to be the best people they can be.  I want you to love your children and your spouses the way that God wants us to.  I want us to treat our children and our spouses with love and affection and kindness, I try to do this, and I hope that you do as well.

You know it…..go be a blessing to someone today.

Continued from Yesterday....

Are you going some place, as is this little tyke? This is one of my grandsons, Trenton. I think he was not quite two in this picture, and he loved being with his Pappy!  And still does!

The other week his mother and I were discussing video games.  This little guy doesn’t spend much time playing video games and I am so glad of that.

I had mentioned in yesterday’s blog that I had heard a program on the Lancaster based 94.5, WDAC, Christian radio station.  The program really struck my attention. 

They where speaking about multi tasking and that this generation that has grown up with computers everywhere, and by that I mean….a lot of people no longer have hard wired computers as I have, more people these days have lap tops, or notebooks, or even smart phones.  All these items are computers.  My daughter and I am sure most people get messages on their phones when they get an update on Facebook or when they get an email to the email account, or text messages.

I used to be proud of the fact that I could multi-task…now I am not sure that it is a good thing.  Do you know that when you multi-task your level of accuracy goes way down.  Well it only makes sense.  Instead of paying attention to the one important task at hand, you spread yourself around and spread yourself to thin and then instead of making an error on one thing you end up making multiple errors on multiple things.  And to compound matters, what if all the items that you are multi-tasking on are important?  As if when you are at work?  Do you really think that this will be looked upon kindly by your boss?

I can remember having a certain boss years ago, in fact I can tell you that I wasn’t sure that she was a great boss.  But as time went on I found out that not only was she a great boss, but she was also a great person.  She was one of those people that really told you what she thought, and I don’t know about you, but I appreciate that in people.  It’s a level of honesty that we don’t see very often.  I can remember one particular time period when my life was in a bit of turmoil and I frankly was multi-tasking in my brain…In other words my mind was not on the task at hand.  (And when you are in the accounting department, you need to pay attention to your work.) Cheryl said to me,”Kirsten you need to set aside your home problems and think only about what you are doing here!”  Well that was very much to the point and I got it.  I left home at home and dealt with work.  Now in this instance I was multitasking in my brain.  But here is an example of the way we can multitask at work.  When we have the internet open on our screens, we can have several tabs open as well.  I usually have my email and the weather, actually I have two weather tabs open, I work for a construction company, and when you are setting trusses you really don’t want to be doing this when it’s windy, and I will also have a tab for Facebook, sometimes open.

But be careful…If while you are doing your work and you are constantly checking this or checking that your level of mistakes will go up.  No ifs ands or buts!  I have watched it happen to myself.  And as a result I have started keeping my own score, if you would.  One of the things I do is payroll.  Which I also did at my previous job, but I have gone from about 125 (I only processed ½ of the employees) time cards down to about 35, big difference, but you still don’t want to make mistakes on payroll.  Too important.  It’s people money.  I am keeping track of my mistakes, mostly anymore I am not making them but occasionally I do and that lowers my score, because I keep an average going for each year.  I want to see that score be 100%.  I don’t think that my boss even knows that I do this and they don’t read my blog so they won’t know unless they do.  But I want to be able to do a good job.  So I am confining my multi tasking to a minimum.

Now when it comes to children….As you all know my children aren’t children anymore.  But this next generation has grown up multi-tasking and this program that I listened to stated that the amount of errors being made by constant multi-taskers is higher than for people who don’t.  So my statement for all of you parents out there, you might want to reconsider getting a “smart phone” for your children for Christmas, or perhaps limiting the amount of time that it is used.

Let’s try getting back to the good old days, just a little…don’t you young ones out there fret it’s not that terrible, you might find that it’s actually fun to spend time together as a family.  Heck you might even find that you love each other, more than you thought.  Next time you go away in your car as a family, turn the volume off on the cell phones and don’t use them, try looking out the windows, or playing a bill-board game, something that involves everyone, find out what is important again.  My husband and I have a great deal of fun when we are in the car.  We both have a lot to say to each other.  Try it, you might be surprised.

Okay I have been on my soap box long enough and it is time to go and find someone, someone I can secretly bless!



Home From Town



I can hear it, can you?    

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bell, Jingle all the Way....

We just love Christmas Carols in our house.  This will be the second year with no full-time piano player.  And this is a little sad for me.  Our daughter Ruth and our son Samuel both can play the piano, but, Ruth was the one who was always playing the piano.  Any time of the night or day she would play.  Since she has taken lessons since she was 5 and played for numerous different things, over the years you can imagine that she has quite a gift.  But this is not what I want to speak to you about today.

Today I want to talk about the problems that are developing in our families from multi tasking, and from being spread, or I should say from spreading ourselves to thin.  I wasn’t necessarily planning on this but… First my daughter said something about to much not being a good thing, and then I heard a program on the Lancaster Christian radio, and then something else occurred and I thought gee, this needs to be addressed.  So here goes.

First of all please understand that these are my views and not necessarily the accepted views of the greater population.

I do believe that it is a good thing to limit, if you would the number of acquaintances our children have.  I can remember when my daughter Jonquil was a young teenager, she had a lot of friends, and we didn’t have a computer, that was about 20 years ago, or so, and computers were around, but not like they are today.   And Jonquil had a lot of friends just from being a very social person.  Looking back I believe it would have been better had she had fewer good friends, than so many acquaintances.  Then we have my next two children, please remember that these are my biologic children I am speaking of, Samuel had a lot of friends, but boys don’t seem to be the social butterflies that girls are. 


Piney Winter

 Why is it that when someone meets someone else they are instant friends?  To me a friend is someone with whom we should cultivate a relationship.  It isn’t instant.  I think that the word friend is being greatly miss-used.  I am on Facebook and I have a lot of acquaintances on there, and only a few what I would call friends.  Frankly I use FB more as a tool to keep up with my children and to see new ideas.  But I really wouldn’t even need this since I have everyone’s email addresses except FB seems to be looked at more often than email.

I look at these paintings that my husband did, and I can’t help but think that the Amish and the Mennonites know something, and have something that the rest of us have lost.  But if they aren’t careful to guard themselves they will lose it too.  The Amish don’t use electric in there homes, they use a lot of propane and batteries, so that they can have a refrigerator and a stove like the rest of us have and I have no problem with this, however when you start to invite computers and computer games, and movies, via lap tops or by using the internet into your homes, you are inviting trouble into your homes.  There is a separateness about these wonderful people, and I can understand this to a degree, not totally but somewhat.  I think that perhaps there children may be happier because they are more limited in there level of “outside” activities.  And this I think may be the key.

I used to feel that it was wise to keep my children busy, but, do we keep them to busy.  Now it appears that when there is quiet time or down time, all you hear is I am bored…
Ohhh…I hate that statement!  There is so much to do, but because we have trained our brains to constantly be entertained by outside source, we, as a people no longer seem to be able to entertain ourselves.  What ever happened to putting together a puzzle, of playing with Lego’s, or simply to looking at or reading a book?

It is time to slow down and move over into the slow lane or perhaps as I would like to do, start driving only on little back roads.  My boss says to me, “It shouldn’t take you that long to get there…” and then I tell him how I go, and he says, “no wonder it takes you so long, why don’t you go that way?”
I go the way I go because I don’t really like traveling on big highways and if there is a way for me to go that isn’t on a big highway, I would rather go my way.

Everything in Moderation, what ever happened to that phrase, my guess, it’s not convenient anymore.  How sad is that?

I think I would like to atleast visit where ever this little red row boat is anchored.  I think I could handle this.  Am I getting old, do I value things that are no more.  Well if I am, so be it, i miss my old friend Ronnie, and Andrea...I have not had any fun words with them in a long time.  I have my lady friends at church, but we aren't social friends, not really, I could probably cultivate some into close friends...I will have to think upon this . 

In the meantime I will be content with going to work and enjoying whatever this world has for me today.  And of course I will be a blessing to someone today, how about you?

The Art of Timothy

Today I want to introduce you to my husband the wonderful, Timothy Allen Smith.  As most of you know my husband and I met on the Match.com, back in Sept. of 2003, and that we married in May of 2004.  However we didn’t actually live at the same address until about March of 2005, children and school was a key factor here.

It wasn’t until we were in the same house that Tim was able to recommit himself to painting.  Unfortunately he still doesn’t spend as much time on his art as I would like, but when you have an acre plus of land around your home and other  commitments it’s tough, he is spread a little thin, but winter is coming and that seems to be a good time for Tim to paint.  These plaques that you see are some of what really got the ball rolling again for Tim's painting.  I really like them.  They depict St. Nickolas.  Just look at the expression isn't it wonderful.  Well I think it is, but then Tim says I am prejudice.  well so what if I am, everyone needs a cheerleader, and who better than your wife!

The Main title of this blog is,"is Speed Good,"  I can actually say I don't think so, I believe that the faster that we move thru life the less, good things we absorb, and the more people we invite into our lives the less we are able to devote to really true and good friends. 

Anyway speed isn't good when it comes to Tim's paintings,  they take time and love and effort on his part.  I have the easy task, I take the the pictures.  Since it's fall here are a couple of fall paintings.....

And the finished painting...Isn't this just lovely?  Just look at the detail.  Oh in case you are interested the above is the Mabry Mill.

And this is the Babcock Mill, I think this one is in Virginia, and it is one of the most photographed mills in the country.  And it's easy to see why.

Now we will go to some winter scenes, and these also make wonderful, old time type Christmas cards.  This first one is my absolute favorite of all of Tim's paintings.

This is obviously when it was in process.

It was very slow at first, I think the trees took about two weeks, maybe more....

Well I must add one more before I get ready for work,  and if any of you are interested you can go to my husband web site to see some of the rest of his work.

              http://tim-smith.artistwebsites.com/

This painting of St Nicholas was inspired by the plaques, and my husband wanted to show who and what the real St Nicholas was all about.  I think that this painting does just that, don't you?
Tomorrow I will be writing to you about some other things that have recently been brought to the for front of my mind and I will intersperse some more of my husbands work along with the writing.  So until tomorrow, go and be a blessing to someone.

Are you Polite?



A photo of the water with a boat or two for my husband. 
I like to take pictures for my husband, he will sometimes
paint them and they turn out beautifully.



Have you ever heard anyone say to you, perhaps your children, what does it matter if my elbow is on the table?  Or why should I have to say excuse me when I belch?  Or why do I have to say thank you, or why must I acknowledge a handshake? 

There are plethoras of question we as parents or grandparents, are asked on a daily basis concerning being polite or concerning etiquette, and I would like to know how do you as parents handle these questions?  It is not enough to say, because I said so!

I was asked these questions by my children as they were growing up and I always told them that whether we like it or not we are judged by others and it is advisable to behave appropriately.

Let us first have an understanding of what being polite is first of all. 

Definition of POLITE

1 a : of, relating to, or having the characteristics of advanced culture

   b : marked by refined cultural interests and pursuits especially in arts and belles lettres

2 a : showing or characterized by correct social usage

   b : marked by an appearance of consideration, tact, deference, or courtesy

   c : marked by a lack of roughness or crudities <polite literature>

Now we should look at etiquette.  

Definition of ETIQUETTE

: the conduct or procedure required by good breeding or prescribed by authority to be observed in social or official life

We used to think that if a child behaves poorly when in public, they more than likely behave poorly at home.  So doesn’t the reverse hold true as well.  I believe for the most part it does.  I don’t like to judge people or children, but let’s face it; in all honesty, poor behavior is noticed while good behavior is not.  Although when there is an opportunity to compare the two, very blatantly staring you in the face it is somewhat difficult to not see it!

I know that it says very plainly in the Bible that we are not to judge.  And this is a constant work in process for me as I am sure that it is for most of us if we are but honest.

Having “good manners,” or “being polite,” is not a bad thing; I think it is a kind thing.  So perhaps we might practice being more kind.  It is okay for us to hold a door for someone else, just as it is okay for them to say, “Thank you,” or not. I will guarantee that if you decide to practice being polite and someone doesn’t say Thank you, for holding the door for them, you will notice.  Just try it.   And in practicing to be more kind we will in affect be more polite.  And have better etiquette.

What does it hurt us to sit at the table and not put our elbows on the table.  Really?  Next time you are at the food court, look around, don’t stare mind you...just look around a bit.  What do you see? 

Okay let me ask you this, do you want to be a humble person or a flamboyant person?  Generally I think that a less inhibited, and more flamboyant person will probably be a less caring person.  Now mind you this is a generalization only.

I can see that if you are a performer it may be better to be somewhat flamboyant, but generally speaking I would rather be humble of spirit and demeanor.  And I am not on a stage performing either.  An actor is going for an affect also, not necessarily, a typical behavior. When they are off the stage they are probably not as noticeable as when they are on the stage.



The Performer



So why not leave a comment and let me know your thoughts on this. I promise it won’t hurt you a bit, just please remember to be polite…oh and while your at it, don’t forget to be a blessing to someone today. And if you are a blessing to someone today you will also be being kind.  So look at that, you can do two things at once!