Tree Change Dolls I The Feed

Memories

I was doing some much needed Christmas decorating and getting ready for our Thanksgiving with the Olinger family.  The next day my house would be alive with clattering dishes, children, and the noise of family chatter.  I was excited and a little nervous nothing really new for me.  One phone call life changed,  with no more then a blink of an eye life changed that day.  Through this now valley time that I found myself in memories started folding my heart and mind.   I began thinking of memories of a time past, a time when my own teens were yet babies.  One such memory was when my father was having open heart surgery and Dwight and Linda took and cared for my then infant and toddler as their own.  I could not have asked for more caring people to watch and care for them.  I remember the time when we all lived on the same street my mother-in-love and sister-in-love on one end of the street and them on the other end.  The times me and my children and my cousins children I was babysitting for would take walks and chance to say hi how are ya doing.  I remember how Dwight would take Jacob on walks around the house and to the gardens.  He was always patient, kind and loving uncle, brother-in-love and friend.  I remember my niece recently talking about her memories of her mother.  Our memories are the most precious things that can be handed down to us.  It is within our memories that our loved ones live on.  They live within the laughter and yes sometimes our tears.  As long as we remember them and remember their love for us and ours for them they are never really gone.  As I now can see Dwight in heaven the verse  comes to mind Hebrews12:1 "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,"  He is now one of those witnesses that are waiting for our race down here to be done.A final thought, I remember not to long ago my husband was in the card isle with our kids looking for a birthday card for another family member.  I walk down the isle only to find my husband laughing so hard at a card he was literal crying, and our children watching laughing at him.  As long as I live I shall never forget his laughing nor the card he was laughing at.  It is a memory that I shall cherish as long as I live.  I guess I write all this to say cherish each day and each good memories.  The bad ones aren't worth our time and effort remembering. 

  

Christmas Eve Down Home

Christmas Memories 

There is a special place in my heart that I will always remember around Christmas time.  A time when evil seems very very far away and family, hearth, and home fill my heart. 

 

Day 4 thru 6 of 12 Giving of Thanks Post

Day 4 of my thankfulness is for my mom, daddy and sister.  I am thankful that they are saved and will be joining me in our heavenly home.  I am thankful for the joy and the tears that and formed me into the woman I am today (no cracks from the peanut gallery). 

Day 5 I am thankful for good friends and church family that love me and accept me for who I am.  I am thankful for a Pastor who shows true love and compassion for me and my family

Day 6 I am thankful for the jobs the Lord has provided.

Day 3 of the 12 Giving Thanks Post

"...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" Joshua 24:15

I am thankful for beautiful home and land the Lord gave us.  I am thankful for all the Lord has provided since we have lived here. 

Day 2 of the 12 Giving of Thanks Post

I am very thankful for the husband the Lord gave me.  He makes me laugh, is my support, and the love of my life.  This Mr. Steady, merciful man has taught me a lot of things throughout our 18 years of marriage.  I am also thankful for the two young loves. Enjoying this journey of life.

12 Giving of Thanks Post

"O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever." Psalm 136:1

This year I thought I would give thanks to the Lord in the 12 days leading up to Thanksgiving, but to be perfectly honest I could write forever and a day and still not say thank you enough to my Lord.  I am first of all most thankful for the salvation the Lord has supplied.  What a wonderful day, the day I accepted the Lord as my Lord and Savior.  The day I realized I could never be good enough, smart enough, or do anything to gain salvation from my sins.  Christ did it all, the only thing I had to do was accept what was being offered to me.  I was reading the fruits of the spirit in 
Galatians 5:22-23
²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
²³ Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
and realized that I didn't have any of those things within my life.  I realized I was trying to help the Lord with my salvation... trust me it doesn't work that way!  
Ephesians 2:8-9
⁸ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
⁹ Not of works, lest any man should boast.
What an AWESOME GOD we serve!!!  I have never regretted decision to give my whole heart and life to Christ.  If you don't know Christ as your savior you to are offered this same free gift to find out how to receive Him as your Savior click the page link above entitled Salvations Road