My LA girls

I know that I already wrote today. But I am sitting here thinking of "my girls" from LA. Gosh do I miss them. It has almost been a year since we left. But as my birthday approaches I am pulled back to this time last year. My husband and my friends got me good I must say. I was supposed to be going on a surprise outing with my husband that day. But the girls showed up that morning in my kitchen to sing happy birthday to me, accompanied by my "donut cake" with the DQ man on top of course. All the while I am thinking how sweet, they have come to sing to me and then I am off for the day with my hubbie. Much to my amazement they all kept a pretty good secret and informed me that they were taking me for the day and Tony was staying home to babysit my four plus two others! They were so sneaky!!! I miss them greatly. Terribly much!!!!!!! Definitely girls that I can count on, through the thick and the thin of life. Much needed prayer partners. I love you girls so much and miss you like crazy!!!!!!

Worship

I am really excited to be able to take part in worship with the worship team of our church. For most of my life I have been in the background playing the piano. My dream my whole life has always been to sing. So now I have the opportunity to sing on the team. My first practice is this week. I am very much looking forward to it. I am hoping that God will give me direction and wisdom in this area. My main priority is to glorify God and what better way to do it then by singing!!
If I can reflect back to memories I will. I can recall a certain boy standing behind me in show choir, Crimson Connection, constantly bugging me. I am certain he was smitten by me, I think I ended up marrying the brilliant chum!:):)

Faith

A quote by C.S. Lewis that really stands out to me:



"Give me your all. I don't want so much of your money and so much of your work. I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there. I want the whole tree down. I don't want to drill the tooth, or crown it or stop it but have it out. Hand over your natural self. All the desires which you think innocent, as well as the ones you think wicked-the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you myself, my own will shall become yours."

-god



Many times we are so comfortable on our own, living our own life, not recognizing who gave us our life. We wonder why we struggle so much, and yet we still want to fight. God just wants us to let our guard down and let Him take over. Much to my chagrin, I have learned this the hard way. I have fought and fought, but for what purpose, what does it serve, who does it serve, myself? Yes, myself, not God, but myself. Until we realize that we are helpless without Him things will never fall into place. Will we still have troubles, will we still struggle, of course. But we have someone waiting for us to hand over the reigns. In order to fly we need wings. One wing is the realization of human helplessness. The other is the realization of God's power. Our faith in God's ability to handle our situation is the connecting link.

So to sum it all up, let go and let God. He is waiting, don't make Him wait. Trust me, it's not worth it.



I do have one prayer request for those of you that read this: Many of you have heard of Steven Curtis Chapman. His daughter was killed in a tragic accident last night. His son was backing out his SUV and struck her and she is dead. These things rock your faith, sit unsettling in your heart, but our hearts go out to this family. We know God's ways are not our ways, we know He has a plan, we know that He loves us.............Please pray for this family to weather this storm and keep their faith on the solid rock.

roller coaster

Life is an honest to God roller coaster. I personally hate roller coasters and you will not catch me getting on one!!! I think I have become to dependent on others and myself. God will use this to get my attention. Sometimes it is in subtle ways, other times it is in huge and uncomfortable ways. I have a hard time being dependent on God. I think He wants to open my eyes to Him, but I am so stubborn and scared to take that leap of faith. I believe in God, yes, I believe in Jesus. I have been saved, but do I have that personal one on one relationship with the Lord that I so desire? It is lacking if I must be honest and it has affected every part of my life. So my dear friends pray for me and know
that this a daily struggle for me to lay my life down and for me to realize there is a higher power out there willing to take care of me and I should stop trying to do it all by myself.

the piano

My husband says to me today, "have you been playing the piano?" I say, "yes, why?" "I want you to play more, I love listening to you play. " Is that a hint from God or what????
All of my life I have played piano, or least since I was nine. I had a piano in my house growing up, took lessons all through high school, even in college!! Well when I left home, my piano did not go with me. Unfortunately I missed playing the piano and had to adapt to a keyboard.
Time passed, I hadn't played for quite a while, until a few years later I played on the worship team in FL. I loved it, a new experience for me. I learned how to play chords, considering I had always read music and not learned chords. This actually was better for me because it takes a lot of practice for me when I am having to read music. Then we left FL and I parted with the piano for while, until we were in Louisiana last year. Again I was recruited for the worship team, I loved this!!! I was able to play at our first women's conference and the Lord actually gave me a song. He has never done that before, very moving for me I must say.
So yes you guessed it, we moved AGAIN. And the piano was put on the back burner. But just recently a friend of mine gave me some good advice, to play the piano and sing when I am feeling down. Because it has really been a rough year for us here. So I took her advice. I have been playing more. My goal is to go through all of my old practice books and tackle those classical pieces. But to focus on my worship music as well. To experience God in a new way. So pray for me and we will see where God leads me. My desire is to sing and play piano, there is just something about doing this that is freeing for me.

taffy

I am at loss for words today, imagine that!!!! I think I am finally getting back to being me. Over the past year I have felt like a piece of taffy, God has just been pulling me in all sorts of directions. Never did I think things would begin to straighten out. But it is in His timing that I am reminded. Not my own. We so often fail to see that God is in complete control of our lives and we so often want to take over and realize we are failing miserably. God will use people to open our eyes to see the downward spiral we are heading for. When we least expect it! This life is beyond ourselves............I think we just need to come to realization that nothing is too big for our God. Nothing gets by Him. Just bring it to Him and surrender all.