Today is a milestone I suppose.... I love you more than you know Poppie

Today 36 years ago two scared 19 year olds started down a long road together.  I came to this day with the only hangover I ever had in my life.  My friend and her dad's idea of a wedding shower was that her and I should drink an entire bottle of black velvet, the one with the handle, still have no idea how much that is but I do know that I have never before or since drank whiskey and it makes your head really really hurt but I digress.  We had very few people at are wedding all of my siblings, at the time, the preacher and his wife, my great aunt and uncle, my friend of the whiskey escapade, her boy friend, one other of my friends and mom's friends the funeral home director and his family.  They all set as my dad walked me down the little funeral parlor chapels isle.  My brother made faces at Poppie and the little girls giggled.  It was quick and over in a few minutes, Poppie forgot his one line "yes" and had to be prompted. We went home to mom and dad's house for cake and a toast to the bride and groom. I had on the ugliest collar less polyester dress with roses on it that mom had picked out.  I did like the roses but nothing else about is poop brown over all color was special.  I had it for years but now have no idea what happened to it.   Shortly after the reception my brother Red drove us to the rented little house 47 miles away in the town we now call home and dropped us off.  We had started our life's together.  Poppie couldn't carry me over the threshold, number one he couldn't lift me, while I was not as heavy as I am now he was not either, and he had had a car wreck two days before and was barely able to walk to begin with.  So started out marriage, with that start things had to get better, and they did and have.  I am not saying there were not a lot of valleys and some mountains but the for the most part we figured out this thing called marriage and rather excelled at it.  I know there is nothing I would change and nothing I would do differently thought sometimes I might thinks so but if I did I wouldn't be in this place in time with the most loving man I know.  Nothing is worth changing the love and relationship I have day.  So here is to another 36 years with the man God made just for me.  I love you so much Poppie... tomorrow.     

Both side of the same coin..... or besetting sins...

I had an interesting week. Two people I care about have had surgeries and I tried to help with what little I could to be of service in their lives. One has to have more surgery but the Lord moved in a massive way and healed a broken relationship and that is a miracle in it's self. The Lord be praised. I love when the Lord moves mountains.

I had been to goodwill, with all the back and forth I have been doing to Zootown of late, and have picked up three of C. S. Lewis books, Mere Christianity 1st, then The four Loves 2nd and then lastly The Screwtape letters. I really like all but didn't have anymore to read, though I plan on reading the Chronicles of Narina but that is another day, any way I was back at goodwill and found a book by
Randy Alcorn and since I had liked Heaven by him I picked it up without looking at the name or hype on the book cover.  I couldn't believe it when I sat down to read it the next day after finishing the Screwtape letters that it is called Foulgrins Letters and it is for all practically purposes a continuance of the Screwtape letter.  It is at worst a tribute to C. S. Lewis's Srcrewtape Letters and a best a better version.  Only God can move books in such a manner, I do not and never believe in coincidences.  I just love when God keeps you in his life plan for you.

This week at Church the young minister that gives a sermon, or lesson,on Sunday nights had a good message with a lot of thought provoking ideas from the word of God.  I do have some thoughts on his message.  His message was on sitting on the fence and a he spent a lot of time in his study to give the sermon it was all well thought out and had pure love behind his words.  I think that he gave a good sermon on besetting sins.  He chose as his last point to say that we as Christians should get off the fence on watching cable tv. because even if we don't watch the bad shows and only watch the good shows, or protect our children from the bad that we can, we are still guilty of all the bad that others see on the cable TV.  I for one am a sinner and TV has always been  apart of my life I grew up in the TV generation.  I have over the years stopped watching network TV because I believe it is a horrible place for my kids to be.  I am not sure the young man watches any TV so he might not know that for the most part network TV is worse than cable in my opinion. I have locks on my TV so there is no channels that I wouldn't allow my children to watch though to to his point that the commericals are still bad and their are pictures of girls in bikini's, that is true.  I know that I can't really keep that from my girls but I do the best I can so I am "on the fence" per his sermon.

 I understand how my watching TV and allowing my children to watch the supervised TV does, as he says, contribute and pays for the continuance in his estimation of the evils of TV being brought to others and helps support the evils of TV in general. I think that he probably has the right of it in the strictest sense.  I would asked to that same thought why my TV watching, in my governed way, is any different than he and any other Christians use of the internet.  Isn't paying of the internet for our innocent usage paying for the terrorist ability to indoctrinate young peoples of this world to terrorism?  Isn't our innocent use of the internet not also pay for the sex traffickers use of the same internet?  Isn't our innocent use allowing the sexually predators of this world a platform to use because we pay to use ours? The reality is, yes. My paying for TV and internet give the abusers a platform for their evil uses. I would also say that voting for and having an elected governments allows that we might elect a criminals to office that might do illegal things while there, and they have and do.  Allowing visa's to the US allows for peoples like our forefathers an escape from persecution but can, and does, allow for a terrorist to come in among them.  Driving a car allows us to move forward in this country to become a better nation for having the car, or the plane for that matter, but it only takes one drunk driver to make it bad, or one plane flown into a building to make us know that evil can come of the good things that we pay to use on, any, and all levels.  I understand the good of the sermon and I understand that TV can and is an evil tool in the hands of the wrong person but then the pharisees saw fit to bring an adulteress to the Lord and asked her to be condemned for misuse of her body.....  What did Jesus say in John 8:7 so when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, he that is without sin among you, let him cast a stone at her......  We all have a besetting sin and mine just might be TV, or gluttony (not just the kind that means eating but the one that mean I consume to much of this world, or worry about my self more that others) but then we all do and the best we can do it to repent of our sins, but when we point out others sins with our finger we must remember that our other three fingers are pointing out our sins to them just as loudly.

I pray that you are walking in the Lord, and Jesus is the master of your life. There is nothing more important in this life than the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ's way of salvation and grace... tomorrow.

Just a simple busy kinda day.....

  I woke up and read my Bible early this morning knowing that at 6:30 ish I would get the first of the 4 grands this morning.  Dimple arrived, followed shortly there after by Bubbles who was not happy she had been left so was happy that Booboo had gone over and got her. Cubbie and Boy came when their dad left for work.  I made them all oatmeal and my day began.  I took the wet flour dough I made yesterday out to warm to room temp.  It was made out of wheat Poppie had ground for me.  I had made my first wet flour bread, that was not sourdough bread, a couple weeks ago and was really impressed with it.  I was at the Amish store last week and picked up some dough conditioner to try.  I bought a pound because I didn't look like all that much and I hadn't read the recipe to see how much it takes.  I takes 1 teaspoon for every four loaves, so I have enough for 456 loaves give or take.  I digress.  I got it out of the frig to warm to room temp and then made them into 4 loaves. I put all of the veggie scraps, that Yogie had been bagging and putting into my little freezer for the last month, and three packages of turkey neck in as well into my double decker pressure canner called Sarah and put it on the boil.  I got Poppie to peel apples with the apple peeler he is much better at it than I am and I intend for it to stay that way.  I made sandwiches for him and the kids and popped the bread in the oven.  They ate while I put the apples on the boil.  I got a call from Mokie telling me sure enough the produce manager at the local market had a case of tomatoes for me, she over ordered.  I went to pick them up and drop off soap at the hospital for a fundraiser they are doing for local kids in the local schools. Yogie needed dropped off at the Assisted living to visit with one of the elderly ladies of our Church. I got the tomatoes just in time to come home and Poppie had taken my bread out of the oven.   The apples were done and ready for thicken.  I thickened them jarred them and 7 of the 14 are in the waterbath as we speak.  The pressure canner is rattling away telling me in 8 minutes that the stock will be done and ready to jar.  It has been a busy Presidents day, and to think the ladies and I had thought about sneaking away today with Lady for a road trip.... the best laid plans of mice and men somehow never come to fruition at this house.  I pray for you and I pray for your salvation, there really is nothing more important in this life. You really need to get your salvation settled no plans are set in stone and tomorrow is not a promise or something we can set the details for with certainty so today is the day of salvation... tomorrow. 

Me being fat is not a surprise to God, after all he made me with love knowing what I would be....

     I have spent a life time in the never ending diet traps. Yes, a life time because long before it should have been my issue I was introduced, however innocently to "food issues". One of my early memories was realizing my mom thought she was fat, was she I didn't think so to me she was perfect. She had given birth to 5 children by the time I was 3 and half, I am the oldest child, and she was after all a great big size 8, maybe.

The sixties came after the advent of the 1920-1930's revolution in food industry.  The dietary oils were changed (not for the better I might add), due to big marketing in the dietary oil industry.  Our flour was now white, due to steel mills replacing stone mills so we could have pretty white bread, so we lost the important fiber and minerals it once gave us.  We no longer had to eat fresh vegetables and fruits, we could refrigerate and can goods became the norm. So many food changes totally changed and destroyed our diets and these are only a fraction of the ones those two decades began... but I digress.  The 1940's was all about the war, the 50's about the rebirth of our world and by the 60's we were fat and it was becoming apparent something was causing the changes in our bodies as a nation.  It was the "wonder years' to some, the coming of age to others, the first generation of dieters to still others.  It was the decade when diets and all things diet became part of the national conscience. The TV was no longer just black and white, people could see people from all over the world, our world became a little smaller and we were more aware of all peoples.  The TV added 10 pounds and that was almost more important than the many other things the TV brought to our worlds.

Diets became the norm in America.  Weight Watchers was born telling us we needed them to look better. It was followed by so many Jennies, and Craig's that one looses count. Diet Aid became an over the counter "diet pill" it was harmless and it worked (Sound familiar to anyone). NO one questioned how or why it worked. I am not sure anyone did it back then for health reasons. It was all about looking good, fitting into those jeans or a little black dress. It was about making your man look at you anew.

So began the diet cycle that has gripped our nation, has never left and is now really really big business. Everyone had saccharine on their table in a clear pretty bottle, did anyone know what was really in it?  The 1970's followed and I grew up knowing mom was on a diet, always, never realizing eating was a diet, you know the one we are suppose to live and not be on.  I needless to say grew up with food issues.  I was sure I was fat, after all my mom was or why would she be dieting, and I was surely bigger than someone I knew and bigger means you are fat, doesn't it?  I grew up with lots of friends in my life, the cabbage diet, the cottage cheese diet, the grapefruit diet (that was my Grandma's favorite), and the list is endless and one followed the other. Smoking made you thin and by all mean woman should do that too, it was no longer just for men.  We, after all, were in the throws of the generation of equality.

I became an adult and was fat, I wore a 10 and I was bigger than my mom who was fat, just ask her. I was horrible and should do something about it, shouldn't I, every one and every ad on TV said so. I became a Mother and my friends joined, weight watcher (they had a new plan, even better than the last), food anonymous, Jenny Craig, more diet pills but not the ones our moms took.  Did you know they were really amphetamines? Did you know the saccharine and cigarettes cause cancer? On to the next one with unknown repercussion.  We knew better this time, we took ephedrine,  phen-phen and some of us became anorexic and other bulimic. Girls were killing themselves to be the perfect weight, no mater that age and having babies change the body by God's plan, we wanted to be perfect in the perfect bikini. Oprah yo-yoed, and still is, down a 100 and back up a 100. Never ending cycles of dieting.

Incidentally, and as and aside, I personally lost and regained a 100 pounds more than once, so don't think I am to stupid to know how to do it. I lost and yo-yoed as well and that little sentence is much more than an after thought of things past. I lost a hundred pounds in my late 20's through never ending obsession of my caloric intake and continuously exercising. This is not a simple quick process it is a long term 3 to 5 year cycle. Sound familiar? I am sure it does if you have ever successfully lost weight. Or are you on the first one and you have it all figures out, come see me in 5 years. One would also think 5 years would be a life time, not a cycle but not so. It was never a quick miraculous happenstance. It was always months and years of work, and in the end I never just stopped and became fat again over night. I lost weight by giving up all of my spare time and much of my time with my children, which was not mine to give, ever obsessing over everything I put in my mouth and how to account for it. I gave up all of my Bible reading time and most of the mommie time I owed my children, but I was thin and looked good everyone said so. My three older kids paid for my vanity but I was thin and that made me acceptable to society.  Did God love that I was being selfish and not giving to those who need me? The second time I lost 100 lbs it was again my bible time (I usually spent 2-3 hours reading in the early morning) so instead of waking up to the Lord I spent that time walking seven miles daily, that took my reading time and most of my mornings,  and my mommy time.  Yes, sometime I took them with me but they were 2-3 and the best I could get them to walk was one mile, a long ways for them, one of them quite often needed carrying all the better, that helped me loose faster.  I did teach them to love to exercise but I am so glad not my obsession and the cycle of dieting but in the end they only have one childhood and stealing it for my own self-absorbed uses was wrong both times.  Thank God they can't remember that time in their lifes, unlike my older kids, they can. Christians might call my weight loss a conquering of my gluttony and to some that is true and I am happy for them, but for me it became at what cost is my victory? I find no where in the Bible where all my waking endeavors should be about myself. No matter if the result is the conquering of ones sin, especially if the conquering of that sin brought me to commit so many others.   I have digressed to long on me....

Oh, maybe not quite, I think the thing that bugs me the most with this cycle that I would like to address, and find to be a particularly vicious part of this cycle of wonder diets,  is the event of the internet.  We have always had commercials in our faces about the newest diets.  This time around, and I am sure for all the times to come, we have social media and now the inundations comes on a much more personal lever and unrelenting so. Which I know we have measures to stop but I hate to have to come to using them. I hate to have to give up a friend, that I love, to stop the never-ending promotion of their obsession. I understand, and will regret, to have take the ultimate step of blocking someone I love. That should be the end of it but alas stopping the bombardments of social media is not the end.  Imagine, it gets worse, imaging opening your personal email, yes, you the fat lady, and you get an email that says.... "I think that you are in need of my help and could use my service and my products..." bad enough the first time you get it but when it goes on and on and on, and becomes a personal spam attach it is no longer forgivable.  I know I can call the police when people harass me personally with phone calls, can I when they do it with email?  This, I thank God did not happen to me but is, and is on going, to my sister. #1 my sister like me has and does know how to loose weight, 100 up and down, but unlike me she has health issues and her Dr has told her under no circumstances to us the products being pushed at her.  Just because you mean well, and think you are helping the poor fat people out, you know nothing about her health, her medical issues and her problems.  NO should be no, and that is the scariest part of the new cycle to me, total personal invasion that they can't or won't stop even when asked nicely... climbing down off the soap box now....

I am a glutton to some Christians and so be it, Jack Lalane says I am not exercising enough. Now we have this wrap thing, nutri-system and on and on and on every day some mother sets her little girl up for a life time of food issues. She doesn't realize the never ending obsession with food can  and does start with her in her daughters eyes. My idol, my momma does this!

I for one am standing up and saying no.  NO I will not create the next generation of dieters in my daughters. I will teach them to have a diet and not be on a diet. Nothing is off limits, all in moderation teaching them the knowledge and respect of a lifestyle of health. I will never be on a diet again. God wants me to do more import work than self absorbed never-ending worrying about my body. I am to be sharing salvation and raising daughters not more worried about how they look but how they treat others. I choose to be healthy (and yes, fat people can be and are healthy.  It does not take any more maintenance to maintain a 120 pound body or a 500 pound body, it just takes a whole lot of time to reduce to a smaller size.) not over consumed with something that takes me up and down and destroys my body, in a never ending destructive cycle, the body God entrusted to me, not you for all your good advice while judging my choices.  

So please look to God, look to Jesus for salvation stop worrying about the vanity for this world and get on with the work that leads to God and his eternal glory with you in him.... tomorrow.    

Glenda gives us a half and half.....

Yesterday we were blessed with a new baby goat here in Nannyland.  She decided to come in the afternoon, at around three, incidentally most baby goats are born around 2 in the afternoon though most goat herders will assure you they make their entrances in the middle of the night, I digress.  Poppie had gone to pick up the littles which takes him around an hour, I still have no idea why you have to got at 3 when school doesn't get out until 3:30 unless it is the social interchange with all the other parents that is the highlight of the whole trip..... okay done digressing.  He returned around 3:45; and awaiting him were the Jehovah's Witnesses that regularly come to talk with Poppie, again a social interchange that has little to do with the normal conversations that one would expect from Jehovah's Witnesses, they have been interchanging for about 20 years.  I was looking out the window as Poppie interchanged and noticed that a foot was sticking out with no apparent progress.  I was making bread so called Mokie to come help.  She came over and sure enough one of the legs were in the wrong place, one little pull and a nice healthy she goat hit the ground.  She is the cutest little thing, her head and one should dark brown like her daddy and the rest of her is pure white like momma.  She literally has a straight line on color change around her middle.  She started trying to get up immediately and in a short time was on her feet following mom about the yard.  The Ladies came home after basketball practice and immediately determined her name to be HalfnHalf,  so much for my well laid plans of naming babies after their mom's first inertial.  She should have been a Greidhl or Gurnheilda..... okay not so much.  Spring has arrived at Nannyland......

I pray that you are saved or have the had a chance to have heard the gossip and are on your way to accepting salvation for the Lord, if not, I pray that you will seek salvation, nothing on this earth is more important. Today could be your day of salvation or your first step down the path to Jesus....tomorrow.  

Judging is judging and a hat is a hat.... and both not what Christianity is really about.....

My girl is home very sick this morning so I have time to blog. I must say I have some venting to do so before warned. I must amend that I am not sure venting is the right word so much as disappointed that something should be made something when so much and so many things are so much, much more important. Here goes, and remember that truth is to be my focus for the year, or so Facebook's, algorithms think so...lol

I find in our age, as any-other age, caught up in the trivial and choosing to take a stand on, and show no diversion to the things we decide not to obey or show reverence to.  Christians have always been this way and I think until we are in the new heaven and the new earth we will stay thus, sinners.

I think hot button items move people to change, and or to give up on, their belief of what the Bible says and incorporate it in as an acceptable behavior. That is why the "hot button" sins of one age become part of the established values of the next. I think that we see this many times over, in the Bible.  Samuel, who was a lifetime worshipper of God, who by any standards lived as closely as possible for God, had sons who were totally corrupt. We, as did, the children of Israel, pay the price for disobeying the Lord.  The wilderness became the burial grounds of all of the men over the age of accountability because they, all but Joshua and Caleb, sinned over and over until God decided they would never enter into the promised land. Moses and Aaron each died with the rest because of sin, their children learned and honored God until Joshua died and then the next generation went right back to being corrupt, more so with each generation, the next building on the sins of his fathers so to speak.   I believe as God says in the Bible, each man has to come to the Lord for himself of himself. We are after all called to be sons of God not his grandsons. Salvation is a personal relationship with God, non-transferable. Each generation, as each person, must come to God on their own as best we can.

Having said this I have spoke in the past about the hot button issues, our current buttons are many and not my focus in this blog. I have said before hot button issues of a hundred years ago, that were horrible sins are now acceptable and for the most part are part of most Christians lives. A hundred years ago abortion and homosexuality were not on our radar.  They were in an up roar about mortgages, pensions and having credit. Surprised? you should not be, and for the record if they were a sin back then they are still a sin now. God does not change.  Just contemplate that thought, maybe we should have stayed the course and our country would be the better for it, but alas I digress....  We as Christians have changed, interesting is it?  We have forgotten what God wants most from us, faith, hope and charity/love. He wants us to have mercy on and care for our fellow man.  He wants us to worry more about helping our neighbor succeed than us having huge fancy houses, new cars, clothes that fill up those houses and innumerable luxuries. God not only doesn't care how much you gather and have he, in more than one place in the Bible, warns women to not wear gold, braid their hair or wear fancy clothes while in his tabernacle. He says the flowers and birds are nothing and he never forgets to make sure they are fed, have nests and so, as he loves us more than they, we should never worry that God will supply our needs.  Funny how we have gotten so far away from that thought.... Do we as Christians see to our fellowman or are we to busy getting and paying our mortgages to care what our neighbor does?

Do we help others, or are we worried about something that they are wearing, or not wearing is something we must judge. Do we judge without knowing what we judge?  Do we care that a homeless man has no clothes, or only that he stinks and is making our building stink?  Do we see something some one is wearing as they see it or through the stereotype that this age has become famous for?  Do we ask why someone is wearing something or do we judge and know we are in the right of it and God is on our side? Do we even care what the reason is that someone is wearing something or wearing nothing at all?  Is that really what God want for us? Shouldn't we help or at least ask why before we know that something is a sin and we are going to address that persons short comings?

I was asked yesterday to not represent my Church while wearing a "witch hat".  I was completely taken off guard and aback. I must say in defense of this person they know nothing about Facebook and are not on it.  He does not know that liking something in an open group or business does not make me a representative of the group. I was asked to like the group, did, and like I often do I asked others to like it so that the group gets out there never assuming I represented the group. If it had been a closed group I might have considered in a remote way that I was representing the group, or had I been one of the administrators of the group I would have been representing the group, but as a person asked will you like this? I was not a representative of the group which is the Church I go to.  I simple liked the group with my Facebook profile and that is what set up the beginning of the problem.

That being said several months ago, for work, I was asked to wear a hat.  I saw it as a hat. I don't believe witches, real witches have any real part in the stereotypical "witch hat".  I actually looked into the history of 'witch hats' and they are a relatively new creation with most of our current thoughts and ideas coming straight out of the movie Wizard of Oz. Okay, I must admit I love the Wizard of Oz but don't consider it to have any real dark arts or occult, any more than any of the fairy tales with witches, princesses or princes.  I did also find that most witches, real ones, have worn crowns, conical, pointed hats with antlers or horns.  On that note, if witch hats are evil? Ever see a crown worn in church? Would it be considered like gold or braids? Is it occult? Does any of that come to mind?  Maybe it should or maybe this should be a stereotype and dismissed as the nonsense such thoughts are.  Okay, doesn't that bring to mind the pettiness of all of it?  Yes and I meant it to be to make a point. I have digressed so going on.... During the dark ages there was a time when our stereotypical witch hat was the height of societal fashion and rich people wore them but like any other fad they went out of style and eventually the country folk got into wearing them but since that was so last year by then they were called what a modern person would call a "hick". The country woman who were herbalist and took care of  their families and friend with herbs became known as "wise woman" or witches, never the satanic kind. I can relate to this currently doing just this for my family and friends, and I am not a satanic witch any more than the woman who healed their families and like them, so maybe the hat is appropriate for me more than I had dreamed.  I think I can feel proud about wearing a hat once sported by my sister herbalist.  To make a long story sort of short.....

My friend took a photo of me, with the hat on and gifted it to me.  The expression on my face clearly says I am skeptical of wearing the hat.  As I was.  However the picture of me, not the hat, is one of the best I have ever had taken of me. I was honored that my friend gave me the photo and the Lord saw fit to have my father looking out of my face back at me, in the photo. I never thought I looked so like he.  The photo came to represent the Love of God, my father's, and my friends to me; not some one's idea of a stereotype. It is me wearing a hat and  it is just a hat.  I am not changing my Facebook profile photo, which means a lot to me now on many level, so I can like a page that I do not represent, but did have a lot of respect for and wanted to joyously share with my friends.

In an aside, and it is sort of a bazaar thing, the person who objects to the hat admittedly hates halloween.   I was truly surprise, when I accidentally found out the first year I knew him, that he bought candy and distributed it at halloween.  My sister asked me if I had taken the kids by his house I said no I thought he would have had his lights out (the universal message that you don't believe in halloween) but no he didn't to my utter shock.  I am proud to say he didn't distribute candy this year  he took his wife out and did not participate in something that was so hard on his soul. That begs the question in, my mind, how is it that me wearing a hat, he calls a witch hat, which I never did, in a photo and liking a page on face book make me a representative of my church but distributing candy to a whole years worth of trick or treater's doesn't make you a representative of your church, especially when you believe halloween is satanic? I say it is really not any of my business and don't for moment want an answer because no one should ever have to answer to me, unless you are my child and you did something I need to know about..... I say a hat is a hat, and judging, either is always wrong if you don't want your own actions to be condemned by the one who truly has the right to judge your heart and actions.

In closing I want to say we Christians get so caught up about a tree that we miss the beauty of the forest. Being a Christian is so rewarding.  I feel so loved of God that his glory keeps my soul in unspeakable joy. A joy that can't stay closed up in my little dust of the earth body, it has to seep out and tell all of the glory of Salvation in Christ Jesus. Today could be the day of your salvation, wouldn't that be something glorious to blog about, imagine you saved and know that heaven will be your home.... tomorrow.

What God can do in the blink of time...... known as 2016.

On the eve of the coming year I sit and contemplate not the day, the night, the week or the month.  I look back across the gulf that was the last year. I recall the excitement of a year ago knowing my goal was to read my Bible through in the year to come. I look and laugh at the innocent mistake of misreading a weekly reading chart as a daily chart and being a week in before I knew I could and would read my Bible through in about 7 weeks with a second reading of the New Testament thrown in for good measure and continuing on thus the rest of the year, with new versions. Yay for me, and the glory of my accomplishment, I was oozing pride and arrogance, I extolled my accomplishment to one and all, whoever would listen was my victim.  I loved having done it and I thrived on the power of it all, MY GLORY, MY GOAL, MY, MY, MY!!! Where was God in my accomplishment was God's glory in it at all?? The more I read the more I wanted to read, was it the pride, was it the glory of just doing it or maybe just maybe was there something more?

I thought, and realized I had actually overcome one of my fears of a long held paralysis of not reading because of an addiction I have had for a long time. I was reading for hours in a book I couldn't put down.  I was reading each new version with the zeal I had once only given to "evil books" novels I no longer had be a victim to. I was embracing my first love, God, and he had given me back one of my first loves, reading.  I literally read for hours again this year reading in all my spare moments, not the moments I had once stolen from someone, who needed me, not the stolen moments I had given to the "evil books"I once read.  I don't even really mean that the books I once read were evil it was what I let them do to me, my life, and my families life that was actually evil.  No, addiction to reading with no regard to the cost of others is an addiction, so no laughing at the thought that reading is an addiction because I am here to tell you it is and it can be devastating just like any other addiction can be.... I digress. I never will go back to the addiction of the "books" but now I can embrace the renewed found passion for reading because I gave it to God, he has blessed my love of reading and has remade it into something for his Glory. I truly don't think I will ever tire of seeing God daily in the reading of his Word.  I have many to read so little time to do it well, maybe not, I might just have all of eternity to enjoy them....

I look back on the many other things this past year brought. Two jobs, I love, that give me back such fulfillment. Both I can see as God will for me. I can see them as jobs that bring me such moments of accomplishment and it matters not what others think of either of them. I am at an age that impressing people matters not to me but doing the Lords work where ever he asks me to serve is a joy untold.  I have at God's bidding made sure to do things of kindness for people, even those who do not like me, because what would be the Glory to God if I only did a kindness for my friends and family, any one does that. God loves all mankind and any one I do a kindness for is someone God loves and made in his image, so anyone deserves my kindness.  Poppy and I made sure to take on a commitment to God in the form of someone we don't know and we honor our vow to God on this matter.

I get to see my littles grow in the light of God, love my grands and get enough from our lives to see that they get a little extra from the income my jobs provide. The funny think about reading, and reading, the Bible is some of the concepts eventually start to become part of my thoughts, and actions. The more I read the more I know God doesn't want me trying to desperately try to figure this thing called life on my own, but he wants me to love him and he wants me to depend on him to take care of me. I think realizing, and really believing and doing it, are really what he wants the most from us. I read and so many, many things jump off the page each time the page has something new of great loving kindness from God to say to me.  I have really tried to really, really read what the Bible says and not what someone says it says.  I can't explain how truly diving  into my Bible has brought out threads that weave through the Bible that I think you can only see if you give God the time to show you where they go and where he wants you to go in his word.....

I have learned that loving God is first and for most, loving your neighbor is second. Hospitality and Mercy are so much more important than the sins that we commit in our failures to God. Because God's mercy is sufficient for all mankind and through him nothing is impossible for him to accomplish.... if we but ask it of him in love, for his desire is for us to love him.

I have changed so very much, inside, this year and God has only just started shaping me to his desire and all I have to do is believe, read, obey and let him show me how he cares for me, where he wants me to go and I can't wait for what is to come...... So here is to a year well spent, a year I will forever embrace and the joy of looking into eternity with awe at just what is to come next, this year, this millennium and what is to come in the beyond... tomorrow.

What a difference a year makes.....

Tonight we went to the annual grade school concert.  It was wonderful.  The teacher, who recently became a new mother, did a wonderful job with the kids.  It was interactive, the grades were mixed together to keep the parents from escaping the building as their little ones finished up.  The crowd was asked at one point to participate and join in with the singing. Kudo's to a job well done by a teacher who loves her job and the kids she serves.

I was excited recently to see that our school came in 10 in the state for district schools, I am assuming, of school of comparable sizes.  I think that it shows, in our kids, that our teachers in the grade school, especially, care for the kids.  I am also excited to see some of our best and brightest kids returning to be the next generations teachers and principal.   It is rewarding to see them coming home and giving back to the community that raised them.

Well tomorrow I work bright and early at one of my jobs and finish up the day at my other job, so a long day ahead so off I go.  I can't wait I have one more reading and I will finish my Bible for the 5th time this year.  Tomorrow I start anew, I will be getting a head start on next years readings so I might actually get to read it six times if I can weave it into my schedule.  I pray that the Lord is in your life if not just find a Bible, pray  even just a little and open it up to a the wonders of God in all his simple,  and completed glory.... tomorrow. 

Today as I make their recipes I get to remember the love that they gave me and remember their joyous lives.....

I get to make my Grandma Gladys date loaf but once a year.  It is a candy after all and no one needs it on a regular bases.  She made it for her children as they grew and all of them that I have ever spoken to about it know what it was and that it was made with her special love.  Last year I was speaking about making it and her foster daughter in law's mother asked me for the recipe so she could give it to her daughter.  She knew that having the recipe would be a special blessing and memory of our dear Grandma Gladys.  She made it and I don't know if she made it up or if it was a recipe handed down to her.  I do know I have never had anything like it and have never seen a candy that even resembles it.  My Daddy became the holder of the recipe in our branch of the family and for all I know maybe most of the whole family.  He found over the years that sometimes it would sugar faster than it should have as it aged before Christmas so he and my Momma decided to tweak the recipe.  I remember as child my Momma saying that she had added corn syrup to the recipe and that that helped it not sugar as fast.  I was away and a Momma on my own when they tweaked it more here and there.  It now has twice as much of the dates and nuts as it did when I was a kid, and when my Daddy and his sibling were kids.  I do know that it now lasts longer and the date taste is more intense but the love of my Grandma Gladys is still all over it so it is the candy my Grandma Gladys made with such love for her kids, her grands and all the other people she invited into her home and loved with all of her heart.

I am also making my Momma's fudge and the fudge that I always made for my kids, I guess they will call it their Momma's fudge.  They are different but they both share with the next generation the love of a Momma for her wee ones that all to soon become Momma's and Daddy's to their own and even their own grands..... I am making my Momma's English toffee that for the most part I rarely have ever made because it was a dish that my Momma made with one of my Sisters and she made it to share with all of us for many a year but as she can't eat it any more she rarely makes it.  I think that I make it now to remember the love I saw my Sister and my Momma share and it makes my heart happy to embrace that memory as it cooks away.  I will finish up with My Momma's divinity that now may actually be the recipe of my Other Sister's mother in law,  The feeling is the same and the memory in tact but the recipe is just a little better and change and tweaking is a family trait, don't you know.

I don't think the exact recipe is always the most import in the end, but it is the recipe of love shared that is the true secret recipe and the love shared to a new generation.  I pray you are enjoying your family traditions.  I pray that the Lord Jesus is the center of those traditions.  If not he can be and he will gladly embrace you into his family.  The season of Christ's birthday is upon us and you could worship him in love and believe.  He is always there awaiting you with open arms and he awaits with anticipation the day you will come into his arms.  Nothing more wonderful than the arms of a loving parent. We all can remember the love of those arms but the loving arms of Jesus are so much much more. Today you can embrace him and believe, and think of the memories and traditions that would begin for your generations to come .... tomorrow. 

I think it so sad when someone pretends to be someone they are not...............

I have spent a great deal of time this year trying to be the person I am to God to my fellow man. I have determined to be honest with myself, with people and try to be the person God sees all the time.  I don't think that I should be three people any more.  I know that people tend to have a person they are to themselves and God, the person they are to their family and the person they are to other people, at a minum and some people are many more.  I want to add that family is the people in your little circle that love you, not the people who share you blood, some can be both but not always.  I digress.  I know that the three, maybe more, are not easily the same.  I think that the three becoming one might just be  my life time accomplishment and the road to God all at once. Maybe that is all God really wants us to be when all is said and done, truly honest and love of our fellowman.

I think that Christian's should love their fellowman and show mercy.  I think that young people have a real struggle in this day and age but I don't think that it is any harder than any other generation they just like to think so.  I think that in each age that the times are each uniquely design by God for the people in that age.  I think saying you have had it harder than any other group that ever lived is a cop out and something of a whining baby attitude for sympathy. I think husbands have an obligation to love their wives, as do they to love their husbands. I think that now that you have heard all my "I thinks" you have enough to buy coffee, only if you have the real price in your pocket as my opinion does really matter to anyone though you are here reading my blog for God only knows what reason...... that being said I would like to vent a little on a piece of gossip, a rumor or just the reality of a young person speaking in a place he should have kept his mouth shut and tried to think of the consequences of what he was saying when you talk about things that should never have been spoken out loud if you thought something like this about you life, your love and your wife.

I heard, in a place I didn't expect to hear such a shocking story, of a young man who is a good Christian, by anyone's standards publicly, shooting his mouth off about his wife.  He was telling any and all that he didn't love her, he was stuck with her and if he had it to do over he would not have taken the advice of his family and married her at all.  This is a young man that always treats his wife with respect and love for all to see.  I would say this couple is a rather loving example of what a good young Christian couple can and should be.  I am aghast that this is something he would ever say out loud if he really thinks this at all.  Why would he abuse his lovely wife in such a manner, in such a despicable way. He said it to a company of young men and more than one of them have repeated it.  It was a young man, that is also a Christian, that was so ashamed to have heard it and can't imagine how the young wife would feel if she knew that she is the but of the joke to so many people, that was speaking about it.  He didn't repeat it so much as gossip but in shear agony of the feelings of this poor girl. The husband went on to say much, much more and I am not going to repeat it other than to say that he said that if he believed in divorce he would already have gotten one but since he can't he has no options he is stuck.  I can't say how sad this is and how this is just not the way a young person, especially a young Christian, should act.  I pray that God speaks to his young man's heart and helps him to love his wife, if he never has, and to help him relove his wife, if he ever did.  I pray mostly that he shuts his mouth and thinks of the horrible devastation that will come to his lovely wife if she ever even begins to find out how abominable he is treating her, the person he pretends to love and should love with all his heart.  If he really loves his wife and this is just his "good ole boy at work persona" he is way out of line and needs help, maybe only God knows and maybe only God can help him, but this is not a joke by anyone's standards.

 Sorry to vent but this is just beyond what is normal and what is acceptable and I had to scream at someone that this is wrong and you are the only ones I could scream at and not be a gossip.  As unlike some one I might talk to, you don't know who they are and you can not ask me who they are. It is really none of our business, any of this, but it is horrible to think that this goes on in our lives, in our generation and in our midst........ I pray that God intercedes for this young girl and this young mans life and gives them the strength to know love, real love, and know that God can and will help them if only they seek him for help.  Maybe first and for most the husband needs to really seek God period and the rest will fix itself..... tomorrow. 

Off to a day at the Zoo.... dental, shopping and I am sure whining kids.

So we are off to Zootown momentarily, a day at the dentist to check the braces that are once again on Yogie's teeth.  She had a problem with her teeth moving, her lack of actually wearing her retainer and the fact that it didn't fit all that well combined to put her back in braces.  I hope this is a valuable lesson for the little miss.  Booboo whined and now she is going as well, along the Mokie's Bubbles and Dimple, so I am prepared for their to be more whining amoungst the  troops today.  We have to drop off a kitten at Riverbend on the way out of town.  Mokie has a lady thats daughter needs a companion.  The girl has some disabilities and needs company to live on her own,  She is starting with a kitten, funny enough the kitten she chose has a disability of her own. I think that it was lovely she gave the little kitten a chance that others might not.  The kitten is going to the vet to be spayed today.

Well they all are awaiting me in the car and not very patiently I might add so off I go.  I pray that your day is blessed and that the love of God and his son Jesus make your day a blessing to be sure.  I hope that the blessing your receive today is salvation.  Wouldn't that make it a glorious day.... tomorrow. 

Thanksgiving is gone by........... a Christmas Craft-show and book sale...

We had a nice Thanksgiving this year, got to see all of our kids but one and close to half of the grands.  It was nothing fancy just a simple affair and the older I get the more I appreciate the simple that is just about love and not about impressing anyone.  The day before Thanksgiving we picked up our pig from the butcher and must say that the smoked meat was superb and the pork itself is just lovely.  I can not say enough about the advantages on every level of raising your own meat.

The weekend after Thanksgiving I finished making all the soap I am going to make this year, I ran out of coconut oil so I won't be making soap until next year.  I used 12 gallons of coconut oil this year and that makes a lot of soap.  I think I have gotten my soap to a really nice quality this year and can say I am proud of each and every bar I make.  I spent 12 hours on Saturday wrapping soap, and several hours the day before so I have lots of soap on hand.  I will be selling it at the Friends of the Library's craft show and books sale on Dec 5th.  I have some lovely scented soap, some non-scented soaps for kids and some other items.  Mokie has her lovely goat milk lotions.  We are making cookies tonight and Friday for the cookie sale that the friends have planned.  You get to pick from a plethora of cookies and pay by the pound.  How much fun will it be to choose cookies made by some many lovely ladies and imagine the variety that will be.  There will be chili and books, lots and lots of books, so if you don't have anything else to do Saturday stop by and say hi.

I got to make cookies at work last week and this, well I didn't make them but I cooked them.  720 last week and 480 this week.  I got to bake plain brownies and I get to bake cheesecake brownies next week, along with the pies, and the huck sauce.  I do like my job.  A friend of mine put up a saying, which I don't actually recall to the letter but it basically said to live life as you would like on your own line of living.  I thought that was wonderful.  I am at an age where there are a lot of things I could do and a lot of things I am qualified to do.  I like most that I am at an age where I can do what I enjoy doing and don't care if anyone else thinks it's a "suitable" or "right" kind of job.  I know I could do other jobs but think of the stress and toil I would have to give to so many of those jobs.  I get to, and I truly mean get to, go to a job where I get to make things for people to enjoy.  I can't think of a job that my heart would enjoy more.  I get to be of service to people in a very basic level and I get to enjoy doing it.  I know some think it is a "beneath" me endeavor but beneath something is relative and I do feel beneath anyone doing my job.  I get to do it on my time frame and I am appreciated for my service, nothing better than that.  I also still have time to enjoy my family on my time frame too.

We I hope you enjoy what you are doing in this life if not maybe you need to rethink what you are doing and never be afraid of what someone-else thinks about what you do or how you do it.  Jesus has a simple carpenter and washed his disciples feet, never think that serving others is a waste of time it quite possible one of the most important things you can do for your fellow man.  I pray that you have Jesus in your life and that you know his love in your life.  Jesus is the most important person anyone can have in their life and without him you are lost.... tomorrow.  

Sometimes change is good for everyone......

If you have been a long time reader of my blog you know that I have spoken on sexual assault of children more than once.  I, my daughter, my nieces and a number of my siblings were victims.  I have spoken both about victims and the people who victimize children.  I make no bones about the fact that it is a crime and should always be considered a crime.  That being said I would like to revisit child sexual abuse again. I know as a child when we were victims it was not as yet an automatic thing that you reported.  Sexual assault was quite often something that was dealt with in the family, and was quite often considered a family matter and had been treated as such backwards in time unto obscurity. I am happy that it is no longer dealt with that way, for the most part; but I recently was surprised to find out that the more things change the more things remain the same.  I was probably the most surprised to find that it was a "good Christians" that seemed unable to see the need for change when it came to their family.

I won't say who the situation is about but will try to relay the end result, as a cautionary tale.  Someone I know was sexually assault as a teenager by an older family member.  The older family member drugged the teenager, and at least two other teenagers in that family at different times, to have sex with them.  The teenagers involved either did not remember the events that occurred or had vary shadowy pieces of a memory of the events,  One of the teenagers grew up and because of occurrences with their adult life's work they remembered the events of their childhood. The teenager now an adult had lived without memories of the incident for roughly 10 year, and now nearly 7 year with memories before unbearable change had to come into their life and the spouse was taken into confidence.  The memories became more and more torturous and eventually their job was to much to handle, their life began to spin out of control to a degree that they needed therapy, the love and unconditionally support of their beloved spouse.  The teenager, now an adult, decided to tell immediate family members and parents, of what had happened.  Needless to say the parents of the child, now an adult, were devastated.  This had just happened to their child in their eyes and hearts.  They were angry at the family member and felt totally betrayed.  This was a crime against their child, and unfortunately due to time since it had occurred, a crime that would not be charged or have settlement through the court system.

The mother of the child, now an adult, confronted the criminal, the sexual predator who had attacked her child.  The mother had all the anger of a mother that's cub had just been violated because to her her child had just been violated.  The perpetrator said, oh, that happened a long time ago and I have sense gotten saved and God has forgiven me.  Really??  Does God really forgive you your crimes when you have not asked your victim for forgiveness?  Saving your soul and forgiving you for sins you have not asked forgiveness for is not the same thing.  How could this criminal be so nonchalant and uncaring of the child, children he had hurt so badly?  The prep told the Mother he didn't understand why she was so mad it was all water under the bridge and had happened years and years ago.  He was totally above it all.  The mother spoke with her sisters, both wonderful Christian woman, seeking some comfort and help.  Theese wonderful Christian women basically said it happened a long time ago and she should just get past it.  WHAT???? The mother said, If this was your child you would not feel that way, You would want to help your child too.  I just found out about this, it is like it just happened to my child and you have no compassion for my child or me.  You are actually disregarding that the criminal perpetrated a crime on my child and you are treating it like it was a family matter that should just be swept under the rug! ( I was not there and only heard part of the story between the mother and her sister. I dramatized it as best as I could, as a mother of a child that was assaulted and I found out about it later.)

I was saddened by the prep's thought that his being a Christian now absolved him from any and all responsibility for his past actions. It distressed me almost worse than the two Christian Ladies that I do have respect for acted the way they did about the whole situation and came down basically on the side of the prep and not the victim.  So much like things used to be and not the way they are becoming.  I guess it is maybe their ages and that is why they thinks the way they do.  I personally don't believe in this day and age that we should be protecting criminals in families just because they are family.  I really believe this person is a serial child rapist and I can only imagine how many other children he has hurt and victimized.  I really think that he could still not doing it.  Sadly this is not an isolated incident, it is a story that happens over and over again in our country and this world every day......

I pray for the victims of this tale, and all the other victims of this crime out there all over this world.  I pray that the Lord will come into the lives of the children of rape and console them and that they may know the Lord and find their salvation.  I pray for the prep's out their that they too find salvation and that they find a way to seek forgiveness from their victims.  I think that they owe that to their victims if nothing else..... I pray that you are saved and know that Grace of our Lord Jesus and that he is Lord and Master in your life and you are among the saved in Christ Jesus.... tomorrow.

  

Sauce and soap is a must this week, oh! and pies oh, my......

We had a nice potluck on Sunday.  All had fun and fellowship and that is the whole point isn't it?  I had made a pina colada cheesecake, well I had extra so cooked up a little one on the side and then a nice sweet potato one.  I made coconut, pineapple and walnut sauce on one and the sweet potato had to stand on its own, and on the little extra one I put cherry sauce.  They were all winners and for the most part we didn't not have many left overs to take home.  Monday I spent 6 hours at work, is it really work when it is something you love doing?, making pie filling and huck sauce.  I recall when I worked at my first ever job, that paid me to do it, the hospital in Plains.  I worked there my sophomore year, part of my junior year and all of my senior year, about 30 hours a week when I was going to school, 40 in the summer.  The lovely lady that taught me to cook had just retired and was only working a couple days a week, she taught me a lot and I will forever be grateful to her.  She is still alive and lives here in our town, she only recently had to go into assisted living, she is 103 now.  Still as bright has she ever was and her family is blessed to have her in their lives.  I digress...... Anyway, while I worked at the hospital kitchen, toward the end of my tenure they hired a woman in her 70's to come in and bake cookies, desserts and cheesecakes.  I always thought that was a wondrous job to have cooking and baking, and some one would enjoy eating it as you baked away.  I have found a plethora of baking for your kids and grands has its limitations, eventually all are tired of baked goods.  Alas I never thought I would be able to bake with no thought to it not being eaten but I don't have to worry about that now.  I can now be the old lady that gets to bake and enjoy the process with no thought to it might go to waste and not one will want to eat it.  Again I have digressed......

Well yesterday I make 10 gallons of huck sauce, 5 gallons of pie filling.  Today I got to roll 18 pies.  Tomorrow I get to make pies for the family for Thanksgiving.  I am making a plain cheesecake, as that is Mokie's favorite, she doesn't like, and won't eat, sweet potato or pina colada cheesecake, so she will get cheesecake, and I am making another sweet potato one in leu of pumpkin pies.  Poppie loves apple, the girls like cherry, and I am making harvest pie, aka mock mincemeat, as well.  We will just be Mokie's family and us, maybe one of Poppie's friends if he can't go to his moms.  Goofy has to work and Bug is still in ND.  Friday I have to go make 10 to 15 more gallons of huck sauce but should be home in the afternoon to enjoy my girls.  I made my last batches of soap this afternoon.  All will be good to go by Christmas.  I ran out of coconut oil so I will put all the paraphernalia for soap making away for the year and try to dig out my kitchen.  I will have to package soap in my new packaging.  I finally had to order coconut soap labels so I have to goat milk or the coconut milk ones available.  I can say I am in a good place in my life but then for the most part since I turned 40, I know a lonnnng time ago, I have been.  I am so thankful for that and all the people that God gave me in my life.

I do believe that there is no one in your life that God did not put there, yes, I know God made all people but that isn't what I am saying.  I don't believe that anyone you ever meet, talk to or interact with or maybe even see is an accident or a coincidence, as you know I don't believe that there are coincidences.    God made you life the way he planned it with the peoples he wanted in your life and you are given the people by design to make your life, your life, and not someone else's.  You have free will to do as you would but God gives you all the people special to your life to you to interact with. I pray that the people in your life have made your life the wondrous life God gave you to live and I hope the people in your life have either helped lead you to the saving knowledge of Christ Jesus or that you have had the honor of helping some one find God in their lives, how glorious is God that he can plan your life and let you find the secrets and surprises he meant just for you.  I know that my life has been so specially designed for me that it could not have happened with out a creator to have made it just for me... I pray your's is the glorious life God planned for you and you have found all the wonder God meant for you and have not gotten off track or missed the special gifts he meant for you.  The most special is the grace he sent to us as his son Jesus and the gift of salvation he is...... I hope you find him in your life soon, maybe even today, today could be the day of your salvation... tomorrow. 

Now these remain faith, hope and charity but the greatest of these is charlity (brotherly love)

I contemplated this blog for literally months before I began to write.  I struggles so much that I actually wrote it on paper, and rewrote, and rewrote. I struggles for a way to give God the glory in a way that shows his love for all mankind. I wanted to be one small voice crying out to humanity to look at ourselves and remember it's about God not what we think God wants from we humans. This morning I caught the last 15 minutes of Andy Stanley's weekly program. The Lord spoke to me, yes to me, he does when we listen, and he spoke to me through Andy's words. The words I could not find through all my contemplation's and struggles. I paraphrase his thoughts but here is the jist of what spoke to me and helped me begin or end my struggles that are this blog. If your theology puts bookends or restrictions on God's mercy then you need a new theology because God has no limit to his mercy toward his creation, us, his crowning creation on earth, made in his image.  So look out at your fellow human, man, and remember each and everyone is the image of God.....
I think in our current ebb and flow of society we forget that love, brotherly love or charity is considered the greatest. I Corinthians 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope and charity these three; but the greatest of these is charity.  Imagine charity, love or more precisely brotherly love is the greatest. Greater than faith? not really but faith expressing itself through love.  1 John 2:10 He that loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.I think we get so caught up in our agendas for what we think the Lord wants of us that we forget what he actually asks of us or for that matter what his word really says or tells us. We see so many stickers in the eyes of our brothers when we could build a cabin out of the lumber we have in our own eyes. We don't see the idols we have come to worship in our pursuit of being more Christian or Godly than our fellow man.  Have you said "I never miss a Sunday at Church or a week night service but so and so they are just not as good at attending as I am" Have you ever considered that that could be and probably is idolatry? If being there and being the best at being there and getting one over on a fellow church member is your motive for going and not the genuine glorifying and loving God, you are committing idolatry. Really, yes, you, you are. Have you ever worshiped every word that falls from the preachers or someone you respects mouth? Again idolatry, We forget we are human and our flesh testifies against us. 
Today the hot button issues of our society are homosexuals, homosexual marriage, and abortions, to name just a few. I can say up front I think all are sins against God but then so is lying, having sex with your neighbors wife and remarriage if you are divorce but they are not even mentioned in our daily lives, they are the sins we don't hear about or talk about. Have you ever really read the 76 sins listed in Leviticus, no, not have you ever skimmed them to get through Leviticus because it is a dead book and it no longer applies to us.  Really, Matthew 5:18 For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled   The law of God is the law today just as God wrote it and sent it down with Moses so many years ago. I read them all again to write this blog (yes, all 76 of them here is a link (I would list them but I am not sure you wouldn't just stop reading and go to the next blog)
 http://leviticusbans.tumblr.com/post/23730370413/76-things-banned-in-leviticus
I am indeed a sinner and I deserve death but for the blood of Jesus I would be on my way to hell.  That being said homosexual sex is listed, abortion is listed (thou shall not kill or burning you children to moleck or for your idol) and marriage is still one man, one woman and one God any other is sin, but then tattoos, lying, speaking slander, cross breeding animals and many many more, you should read the list.
I recently heard someone very well read on their Bible say a homosexual can not be a Christian.  Really maybe they missed a few chapters and need to read some more.  All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  We are saved by the grace of God and only the sin of unbelief literally not believing in Jesus and the Gospel is unforgivable.
I heard someone else say that they had recently been in the company of Sodomites.  That made me really wonder a what they meant. I know what he meant, and what we as Christians as a whole think it means.  We as a whole think of it as an interchangeable word with homosexual but I am truly not sure whoever coined that ever really read what the Bible refers to as a sodomite. I am currently in the middle of my fifth time through the Bible this year and it has been and eye opening experience as to what I thought it said and what it says.  For instance how many of you think homosexual was the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah? I always did, but not any longer.  I think by the definition giving in the Bible I am a sodomite, and I assure you I have never had any homosexual thoughts or tendencys. Really, maybe you need to read up on it. Ezekiel 16:49 "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughter, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy.  I did not read anything about homosexuality. So a Sodomite more precisely would be a person who is full of pride, a glutton, idle, or doesn't help the needy.  Interesting.  I am guilty of all of these as is our society as a whole.
The Hebrew word for sodomite as translated by the King James Bible  is gadesh, it appears 6 times as sodomite and once as unclean, and never once used in connection with Sodom or Gomorrah, but always in conjunction with worship. or as libidinous worship of Venus amongest the Babylonians consecrated to Venus as a harlot or given to Astarte or Venus and prostituting himself in her honor. Det 23:18, 1Kings 14:24, 15:12, 22:47, Job 36:14. Gen 38:21-22. Hos 4:14. gadesh a sacred person IE. technically a male devoted by prostitution to licentious idolatry- sodomite , unclean.   By definition I don't think that homosexuals are sodomites.  They are men who have sex with other men a sin listed in the 76 sins of Leviticus, but not a sodomite.
Well you say Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed because of homosexuality.  The men tried to have sex with the angels and Lot offered up his daughters and they did not want them just the men.  Yes that is true but then when why when the same thing happened in Gibeah in Judges 19:16-30 was not the whole town destroyed as Sodom and Gomorrah? And why were the Angels sent to kill and destroy the town before the men attacked the Angels? Abraham plead for Sodom and Gomorrah before the Angels even went to the town. Weren't the men in both Sodom/Gomorrah and Gibeah guilty of not being hospitable to strangers and not being just?   Gibeah was destroyed by the tribes of Israel for inhospitable and injustice, which was a sin deserving of death, and they received death but God did not destroy the town and destroy the whole area like Sodom and Gomorrah. Ezekiel gives us the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah as pride, gluttony, idleness, not taking care of the needy and poor.  When Abraham and Lot needed to split up because there were to many of them for the land to support, Abraham offered Lot the choice of where he would settle.  What did he choose? Genesis 13:10 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld the all the plain of Jordan that it was well watered every where , before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the Garden of the Lord like the land of Egypt, as there comest to Zoir.  Could Lot have been greedy, full of pride and gluttony as all the people who lived there were?  Lot was considered a carnal believer, but for the grace of God Lot would have perished with the rest of his chosen town.  Do any of these fall a little to close to home? They do for me?  I am a sinner that deserves death by my own actions.  As did Lot.  Our country is Sodom, in our pride, fullness of bread (gluttony), abundance of idleness, and lack of strengthening the poor and needy.
I do know that our generation lives in a time and a land likened to Sodom and Gomorrah, or a land likened unto the world Noah lived in full of sin and evil. I think we over think what that sin is. We try to make it some one else's sin not a sin we might be guilty of or one we cling to, surely, it has to be one of those horrible sins others commit. Not me, oh, yes, it's me oh Lord stand in the need of prayer.
We see our brothers sin and condemn him as the reason our country is becoming worse and worse. We see homosexuals, abortionists, drug addicts, and the list goes on and on. Do we ever see that Sodomites (us) are guilty of pride, greed, gluttony, and abandonment of the needy and poor as our own sin, and it just might be the horrible sin?  Do we ever look out and see the same sea of people not as what we condemn to be their sin but as someone the Lord loves, his image? The Lord loves me, we say but surely not the homosexuals, the addicts, the abortionists.  I am not like them, no I am not, I am a liar, a slanderer, I am a person who doesn't always love my neighbor.  I am better than them surely? No! I am a sinner, I like the homosexual have sinned, I like the person who killed a baby to abortion have sinned, I am worthy of death like any other sinner, not better, not worse but like anyone other sinner can asked Jesus for Forgiveness and be saved through Faith. Yes, I can be saved from the punishment of my sins through Jesus, just as any other sinner can be. Yes, the homosexual, yes, the abortionists, yes, the divorcee who remarried,  and yes, even we the Sodomites that call America home, with all our pride, greed, glutton, idleness and total disregard for the poor and the needy. Any and all are welcome in Jesus arms, his grace is sufficient for all.  Jesus already paid the price of your sins and offers forgiveness and salvation to all who will respond to his grace, and accept his forgiveness and salvation.
Can you see my salvation, no, not any more than I can see yours. My new light from God, no one but God can actually see it just because you think you can doesn't make it so, How can you tell if a homosexual is saved, about as much as tell if someone who lies to his wife, you can't only God knows and sees his saved people. You can not see any ones salvation but you can see their joy and suppose, but it is just that supposition that you see the light of their salvation.  Salvation is really something only God can see in us, You have no right to say otherwise, salvation is a precious gift from God, he gives it to his chosen people and we have no say in anyone salvation but our own. I pray God sees your salvation and has given you salvation.  I hope if not you seek your salvation today.  God gives his mercy to all he gives mercy to, and our opinion and pride should not get in the way of your salvation and relationship with God, it is his mercy to give... tomorrow



    

Soap and soup, they just seem to go together so to speak at our house...

Today has been a busy morning.  I got up and cut the soap I had made yesterday. It is a lovely light lavender color and smell of wondrous lilacs.  I made another batch and this one may be just a pinch darker in color.  I have been making both goat milk soaps and coconut milk soaps.  I had gotten some from Lady so had made a batch of each to have both on hand and have the different soaps.  I had to end up getting a case of the coconut this morning. I am glad that Herbalist ordered it and didn't pick it up so there is a lot of it at our local store, I should pick up another on while they have it. I like the coconut almost as much as the goat milk and think both are super to make and share.  I am also finishing up my chicken stock.  Ever year I trade G-pa soap for 10 old chickens they are the best for making stock and he brings them to me skinned, gutted with a bag of giblets so a win win for me.  They love the soap and we get chickens.  I got half of the chickens pressure cooked into stock yesterday with tomatoes, and the second batch last night with chickens as veggies.  This morning I poured them all together and filled to the brim my 23 quart pressure canner.  I just filled up 23 quarts of stock into jars and 14 are already PC'ing.  The last 9 are waiting their turn. I made up a batch of oatmeal milk and honey soap as I vented the PC.  Can't wait until both are done.  Booboo personally tasted the stock and says it tastes like chicken soup and that is what I was going for....yay.

Poppies hedgehog was out and about in her ball as I worked.  She has only been in it a couple of time but it has made a world of difference in her personality.  She is not as shy now that she is out and about more.  I was just finished with filling my jars and I noticed the ball empty.  I asked Booboo if she took Sunshine out of the ball?  She said no she hadn't I was scared silly at where she might have gotten and that we could not find her and that that would break Poppie's heart.  Mokie and the littles came to help and Poppie walked in as we were looking.  He and Mokie tuned the couch up and there she was sound asleep from all the exercise of her ball.  I was one happy lady, I was so afraid even with pokies and spines one of the cats might have killed her but there she was happy and excited to be found.

I hope all have a great day and remember today is the day of salvation if you have never received the grace of Jesus and accepted your salvation today could be your day. ..... tomorrow.  

Our dear Vegas came and went another year of being blessed by her...

Vegas did not come this summer as she has for the past four or five years.  She didn't slight us she just didn't come home to visit her family this summer she had plans to this fall but they were changed as well from what I understand.  She did however come this week to spend time with her dearly beloved folks who have both had some health issues this last few weeks.  She surprised me at Bountiful Baskets this last Saturday and promised to come see us this week.  She came out yesterday and there was not a person among us here at Nannyland that weren't ecstatic to see her right down to the littlest of us.  We had a great visit with her she always brings sunshine in her wake.  She has one of the kindest honest hearts I know of, she is from good people to be sure.  We shared the year we had had since she had come and gone.  She loved on all the kids, checked out the soaps and I conned her into being one of my guinea pigs for my "noxzema", all to soon she was called back to her real life when her Daddy let her know that the Senior Citizen meal had been delivered.  She did a final roundabout to see, and take pictures of the many animals that abound here.  She tripped over the kids things in the yard and never noticed, or never let us know she noticed the many many things that probably have places but no one has had time or the energy to put them there or see that a child do. So ends another one of our beloved annual events, of late, the time when Vegas gives up her special family time and share some of her lovely spirit with us.  We do so love her and miss her when she goes..

I pray that you have a great day and share your days with the special peoples in your life.  I pray that the number one person in your life is Jesus, no other person is as important as you having a relationship with the Lord and Master Christ Jesus.  If you don't know him you can so many many people would love to share him with you.  If not start by seeking him in your Bible or many be one from a friend or library..... tomorrow.  

Booboo is on the mend ......

We went to Zootown for Booboo's surgery yesterday, we were on time but the little boy that was just before us was late so Booboo's surgery got set back on it's time. We waited about an hour and a half in the waiting room watching the little boy's busy little two year old brother, his one year old cousin that was just practicing his walking skills and watched as his mom feed his little 7 month old sister and grandma tried to helpout.  You could tell the little family was trying to keep their minds off of their little guy in surgery. The little guy was about 5 and had a cast on his leg where one of his club feet had been fixed and they were working on his other one in surgery.  He had others issues but was a sweet little boy with a very supportive and loving family, it was good to see them all together.  We were taken into a pre-op room and Boo was covered with a toasty blanket and then got to have an iv put in. The nurse that did the iv was an expert at her craft and with the help of a medicated spray and a tiny needle with laticane in it Boo barely even felt that iv go in, a true blessing I would say since I have been on the bad side of many a incompetent iv administerer.    We waited another 3 hours before it was her time to have surgery, she got cold and was sure that they forgot about her but they didn't.  She got a heat tent to keep her warm in the cold little room before she finely got a visit from her Dr.  He came in and wrote a smiley face on her left knee, a procedure to make sure no one messed up. He also showed us a picture of his 12 day old beautiful new baby girl.  His first and she had a lovely head of the exact same red hair he sports, one proud daddy let me tell you.

Yogie and I went out to the waiting room and waited, about an hour , a little less then the Dr came out with a small cup of alcohol with a funny little bone, and a bone sliver with red meat still attached to it.  He said it was a pretty big one, and he had had to take off more so that is why there was an extra sliver. He said it had been there about a year.  We thanked him and a short time later we got to go back and pick up our little lady.  She told us she hurt, imagine that, some one had just cut off a part of her bone and she hurt.  She said she was never going to wish for surgery again or be excited about it,  her sister said she would.  Booboo said no you wouldn't if you knew how much I hurt, famous last words.  I told them both to be careful what they asked for they just might get it.  She could stand, though wobbly, before long and we were off.  We stopped a Wallyworld and got a prescription.  Booboo had cried in pain while I was in the store so Yogie had come to get me, and so when I got to the car, no Yogie, so we had to wait for her to return from finding me.  I said why did you leave her, she said she was crying.  I think letting her come was worth the day of school she missed it did her good to love on her sister some.  She was sore the rest of the night but is on the mend for sure.  We lost electricity in the night and the news said no school for us, so the Lord blessed Booboo with several nurse maids, a sister and two cousins.  I went to work this morning and when I came home she was well cared for.

I thank one and all for the prayers for our little Booboo.  I want to return the favor and  pray that you are safe in the loving arms of Jesus and that you are among his children and Know that you have salvation.  If not I pray that you will seek out the Lord and find your salvation.  The Lord wants you to draw nigh unto him and he will draw nigh unto you.  Today is, or could be, the day of your salvation..... tomorrow. 

Booboo's off to surgery.....

Today is Booboo long awaited surgery.  She went on a 20 mile bike ride in August, up the Hiawatha trial, only a short week after riding 8 to 9 miles down the mountain from our huckleberry camping spot.  Yogie and her went together on both outings.  I must say it was fun to follow them down in my car and watch the joy on their faces as they literally sailed down the mountain.  It really was a steady down hill run, and very few even small up hill climbs where they actually had to peddle.  The next week they went on an adventure with their school mates.  Booboo said that they had had a lot of fun. The chaperon later told me that Booboo biked like a mad woman always striving harder and harder, she is a little competitive one might say.  Yogie is on again off again competitive so sometimes gives her a run for her money but not with the constituency our Booboo does.  Well later that night Boo came to me with a sore leg and a lump sticking out of it.  We iced it and I told her we would take her in to the Dr the next day if it wasn't better.  It wasn't and we did.  The DR had x-rays done and sent her to therapy or about 6 weeks.  Nothing was getting any better so I took her to a specialist in Zootown.

The new Dr explained to her it was simply a bone spur on her growth plate and that the ligament was jumping across it. He refereed her to a sports specialist.  We went in and meant with the new new Dr. He was wonderful, he spoke to her, he informed her he had played ball against Superior when he played in high school and then he told her exactly what was wrong with her.  He said that growth plates have sort of little inner tubes around them and sometimes they get leaks and the bones grows in the leaks.  But our bodies are wonderfully mad and the body figures out right away that the leaks shouldn't happen and they don't again unless it is heredity, which it is not with Booboo.  They are technically tumors or spurs, almost never cancerous, but once were considered to be so if we look on the internet it will say lots of scare things so we are not to look or if we do we are to ignore them because he doesn't want Boo scared.  Long story short today is her day of surgery, he told her it was her choice and started to explain her options and she immediately said I want it gone.  I agreed because when the ligament pops across the spur it make her thigh jump about 3 to 4 inches and really does look painful and annoying.   So off on our adventure we go, it is just a few minutes before we leave, will update later.  We really would like your prayers, it is real surgery, the second Dr thought it would be office surgery and she would get her leg number and a local, but the 3rd Dr said no this is a child and she needs to be under so there is no danger that she feels it or the meds wear off during the procedure, it is to hard for kids to do it the adult way.  So please send your prayers, I know she has prayed and is "kinda" scared, I am thinking more than "kinda"..... I pray for your salvation which is much more important than Booboo surgery.... tomorrow. 

Clarification is some times needed.....

It has come to my attention that I may have not been clear about the trial or dilemma that weighed so heavily upon Poppie and me.  I want to clarify that there was no upset, anger or dissension involved in the trial that involved the local Church.  I know that I just got an eye roll from some of you but it is true.  No one was mad, angry or even at odds with one another.  I want to step back a step and update some who may not know.  Poppie was brought up very loosely in a Baptist Church, his childhood gave him no solace or love of any Church or for that matter any belief in God.  It was not the Church but his up bringing and I will not go into that right now.  I was brought up on the knee of generations of God fearing Jesus loving people. I truly can not remember an epiphany that lead me to Christ because Christ was always in my life and I came to Christ more at the "appropriate" age than through any new discovery that I needed to believe that Jesus was the son of God and he died for me.  I have always believed that from such a young age I don't know that I ever wasn't saved or if there is really a moment of belief, but for official measure I and my three other siblings were savedAugust 22, 1977.  I have loved ancestors who were missionaries, preachers and teachers.  I digress, maybe if digression can be associated with the glorious knowledge of testifying about my Master and Lord Jesus Christ.  Anyway Poppie and I made a decision 4 years ago, Poppie thought it was 5 years yesterday but no it is really only 4 years ago, to seek a new Church because the one we had gone to was gone and we needed a new option.  We agreed that local was in our hearts and we truly believe God wants all people to strengthen their local community and go to a local Church.  We knew that with our beliefs that only one or two of the local Churches would even be an options, to make a long story short we landed at Lighthouse Baptist Church.  We knew that since we were changing, not faiths but sects of faith, we would have to conform as much as our beliefs would allow and since the similarities far out way the differences in the two churches it has been for the most part no compromise or real change.  The Preacher was given that info from the start and for the most part has not found fault it our belief but maybe our idiosyncrasies. Full disclosure I was raised in an independent Church of Christ which for the most part is no longer available in most communities as the Church of Christ has gone through a large reformation since the 60's, I was raised in a pre-reformation simple independent Church.  I belief, to the disdain of the Preacher that the independent Baptist Church is basically the same church having gone to both, their really are so few differences and they are not about theology but about really splitting of ways it is done or hairs so to speak.

Poppie, the girls and I have grown in the Church in the last 4 years basically the same way we would have in either church with the loving spirit of Christ in it.  Poppie has been saved, a saving which started 8 years ago when a tree literally hit him on the head and he KNEW Jesus was real and that he died for Poppie.  My Ladies have been saved and baptized, my son and son-in-law have both been saved as well.  We all have grown in the Church.  There were basically only two or three things that we could not assimilate and change our whole belief system and wrap our hearts around, they may seem trivial but are not to us.   We believe and no one can show us chapter and verse in the Bible where we are wrong and they are right, that God and only God/Jesus adds to the Church.  I don't believe the man has the right to add you to the Church.  The others aren't important in this conversation so I won't go into them.  Preacher has tried to "offend" us into "joining" the Church for literally 4 years.  That is the great dilemma that weighed on our hearts, not a big issue, argument or dissension,  it was simple a splitting of hairs that mattered to Poppie and me.  We did go forward and asked to be members last night, a compromise maybe, an action to help someone not stumble or maybe just to make the trial go away.  The Preacher either by design or maybe, just maybe, to meet us half way did not asked the Church to yay or nay our membership......

I hope I have not been a stumbling block to any of you because of my secrecy in describing something that was very hard and personal to Poppie and I in a more dramatic way than maybe it was but it didn't seem like it to us for the last 4 years.... I hope you look for Christ, read your Bible, or seek a church to learn about him.  He is the only person in your life that will ever really matter, to quote an old high school friend.... "If you meet me and forget me you loose nothing, if you meet Jesus and forget him you loose everything"  no truer words have ever been spoken.  I pray for your salvation today..... tomorrow.