Just Schtuff

Not much new going on. Just the day in, day out usual stuff. We are "patiently" awaiting the response from the college my daughter wants to attend in Sept. You would think that I am the one who is applying! I keep on refreshing the email to see if there are any new letters. Of course when there are I get so excited and then all of a sudden I see that someone wants to give me $1,000,000 from some king who died or from some secret lottery I won. Bummer, because they tell me that I am not allowed to tell anyone about this special winning :) Haha -it's so sad though because as funny and stupid as I think these things are, there must be people who really fall for it. Otherwise, why would these weirdos continue to do this. I think it's so sad how the elderly are such targets to scams like this. My Grandma lived with us for a couple years before we moved to America and it was amazing the things solicitors would try to sell her. Then, she would actually buy stuff because she was convinced that if she didn't then her entry would be tossed. So sad! Ok-wow did I go off on a tangent there!! So, refresh, refresh, refresh!!

I haven't looked at anymore of my Forgiveness study. Things have been too busy and I have other stuff going on so I can't really just give it my full attention. If I do this, I want to give it my all. I don't want to do something half-hearted. Hopefully I will start it soon.

Haven't scrapped in the past couple days. Hopefully I will get some more pages done this week. I am looking forward to Gina's next sketch so that I can get some inspiration. I am hoping that this will build my confidence in learning how to put the papers and all the other stuff together.

Tomorrow I have a long day-going to go to see my friend about teaching our VBS this summer. Lots of stuff to go over. I love the drive, it's about an hour from where I live, but I don't like to drive too much at night in the winter. Fortunately the weather has been cold, but not so bad. I don't like the ice at all. In Nov, we got in a bad wreck on the bridge because of black ice. If you have ever wondered (like me) what you would be like in the moments before your death, well, I found out that night. Sometimes when I hear about a crash or other tragedies, I wonder what I would do, what would I say. Would I be mad at God, would I try to tell as many as possible about Eternal Life. That night, we hit the ice and spun around the bridge a couple times and slid about 50 meters. It was horrible. I just was speechless. Then, at one point, we started heading for the water and I just looked and quietly said to myself, "ok-this is it, this is how we are going to die." And we headed for the water and then the van smashed the guardrail and we spun again and the van stalled. Amazing! Then a huge truck was coming the opposite way (fortunately there was no traffic up til now) and my husband could start the van and we limped home in the van. It is an event that changes you. For days afterwards I just cried thinking about it but I had to drive over the bridge by myself in Dec and it was scary, but God was good!!! Wow, another rambling ---I think I have hit my limit of rambling for the night-maybe even the week LOL :)

Hope your day is blessed :)

Layouts and Learning

I found a study that I had asked for years ago. A friend of mine went through a very difficult time and through counseling was given this study. It's called "The Cost of Unforgiveness". There was a girl here that I know in the church that I thought might benefit from this study so I asked my other friend to send it to me. Isn't it just like the Lord, who knows all things before we do, to have me keep this study for myself one day. I haven't started it yet. I glanced through it and yet I know that God wants me to do this.

It's so opposite of what this world tells us. When we are wronged we are told to get revenge or to just do whatever makes us happy. If someone does something to hurt us-hurt them back. But as a Christian, we are told the opposite in God's Word. We are told to forgive. And I am realizing that God tells us this not only for the benefit of the other person, but really for our own heart and our own life. Unforgiveness is something that can destroy a life and I don't want it to destroy mine. I don't want to carry bitterness in my heart towards anyone. But, this cannot happen in my own strength. This is where I MUST put faith and obedience into action. I want to trust God with this because I know myself and I know that if I just put this in the back corner and don't deal with it, it will end up hurting more.

As I go through this study I will probably share on here the things I am learning. I believe that many of us can benefit from it. Many of us can be set free from the anger and frustration that easily sets in. And believe me, I don't think that forgiving someone means you must let someone who hurt you or your children or someone else you love, come and stay with you and babysit your kids. No, I fully believe in punishment and jail and all those things that are consequences for wrong doing. I am talking about the victim and all that goes on inside and is bottled up sometimes for years because we struggle with trying to forgive someone.

On a good note...my husband comes home today from his conference. The congregation always benefits afterwards!! He always is refreshed and of course gets some great food :) You gotta love the food thing. I know I talk about food so much but that is because I miss some foods, mainly Mexican!! YUM! My daughter is thrilled that her Dad will be back today. She is definitely a "daddy's girl".

Speaking of my daughter, I did a layout with her the other day for Gina's sketch at SBB. I love the sketch challenge because it gives you the lo! That is always so hard for me and I end up putting things the same way all the time. This is something I am going to try to do each week.
I think I will post them here as well. I'm still a bit discouraged in the whole posting thing but I have decided I will atleast post from the challenges.

I hope you have a wonderful day and
Shine on :)

here's my daughter's photo. We took a few photos to send them to the states for her yearbook. We are going to go back in May so she can graduate with her former classmates. And if you have seen the pictures below, you may be wondering.....hmmmmmmmmm,,,,well, just to satisfy and curiousity, we adopted our precious daughter. Adoption is a beautiful thing :) Perhaps I will share the story one day.

Manda Bean's Southern Comfort Kit

Here it is

Kit is Oohlala by Holly McCaig

I was able to make my LO for my Joy List. It was a lot of fun for me to do.
What is awesome about this kit is the background paper actually came like you see it except I added the beads from the kit. So Holly made it very easy to do a nice LO! Thanks Holly :) And thanks to the Eggers who give us great ideas :)

Joy List

I am going to do this Joy List that I found on the Eggers website. Pretty cool idea I think. Gets us to think of good things! Ooh-I feel like Martha Stewart a little bit with this "good thing" talk :)

well, just decided while starting to write that I am going to make a lo with this. I think I would like to have it as a reminder :)

I am on a road to forgiveness right now. Did you ever have to forgive someone of something really difficult? And I mean really forgive. This is going to be one of those times for me. Honestly, I haven't really travelled much down this road before. People do things and usually they are little enough or meaningless enough to just forget about it. But when it's big like this it's so hard. First I believe that I have to want to forgive this person. How can I go any further if I truely in my heart do not want to forgive this person? I have to ask God to even have the desire to forgive and not to hold onto the pain and anguish.

It's times like this my faith is so tested. Do I believe God's Word? Do I believe it and obey it or just read it and tell everyone else what they should do according to His Word? When I ask God to forgive me do I want to be forgiven? Of course I do!! I don't want Him to wait until He thinks I am worthy-I will never be worthy! Why is there a part of our nature that loves to hold onto unforgiveness? Does it make us feel superior over the other person? Does it make me feel like I am in control of the situation and that I hold all the cards in my hands? I just don't know. I just know that in my heart this MUST be dealt with. In Hebrews it says not to let a root of bitterness take root in our heart because it will defile many. Unforgiveness leads to bitterness and that bitterness can and will destroy many around us.

How did Jesus hang on the cross, look out at the crowd mocking Him, throwing things at Him, spitting upon Him and yet, in such amazing humility cry out-Father forgive them??


On a lighter note, my husband is in Germany right now and had the nerve to tell me he went out for a steak the other night! Ha-life is so tough for him lol :) We don't get steak here at all. Anytime we try to buy something similar it about breaks my jaw in half trying to chew the meat. 4 more months and we will be visiting in America again and I will be sure to have a steak! Last time we were back there we ate so much of it that I didn't want to look at it for so long :) Are we ever happy :)

ok-I will go work on my Joy List lo and see how much progress I make today!

Shine on! :)

So much is going on lately. Not enough time to write about it today. If ever I needed to trust the Lord (when did I not need to) I need to more than ever right now. My husband is at a pastor's conference for the week so I am sure it will be good for him. Conferences are always refreshing-especially when you get to relax and everyone else does all the work :) Love those moments !!! hee hee

I was able to scrap a couple pages today. I put one up at SBB (under Margie S. if you want to check it out) I am trying to make a nice scrapbook for the church. So many events throughout the year and I want to make it nice. One day the Lord will call us somewhere else and I don't want to procrastinate and not have it finished whenever that day arrives. Time flies so quickly and before you know it a year and more is over!

I have to get running-not actually running lol. Those days are long gone since I have bronchial asthma now. It's funny being in Europe - the smoking capitol! I am allergic to cigarette smoke and it just makes me cough uncontrollably at times. Anyway, it's been a joke with me and the Lord :)

Shine on !!

So excited!!

YIPPEE!!! Ok-did we win a lotto or something-oh no, even better....we are actually going to watch a live, yes, I repeat LIVE football game in about 3 minutes!! Live from Hungary, and not European football I tell you. Good ole American Football. And to boot, it is the Denver and Steelers game. This is amazing! I know, it sounds totally weird but you have to look at it from our point-living in Hungary for 5 years and just got a tv 1 and 1/2 yrs ago -most channels are not in English but on Sport 1 tonight oh yeah---American Football. We haven't been able to see this in 5 years. The announcer will be doing everything in Hungarian but who cares. I will not have to wake up tomorrow and look at my Fox News internet site to see who won the game!

Life's little pleasures. So, we are off to the couch-sad thing is it is 9pm here and the minute I sit on the couch and watch a show I am falling asleep. Ha ha.

Go Steelers :)

Still feeling blah but getting through it with God's help.

That being said, it is good to know that in our lives one thing never changes and that is the Lord. Through all the ups and downs in our lives, the emotions that vary day to day, the day to day grind -He is the same yesterday, today and forever. His Word never changes and His love never changes.

I am going through a hard homesick period right now. I was reading Laura's blog the other day and they were sad about not being able to be home when one of their family members was having their new baby and it just ended up flooding my emotions. So many family events we have missed over the last 5 years. Weddings, graduations, Christmas celebrations, and other things. Also, funerals. This past week marked the one year anniversary of our really good friend dying. It was a total shock and and only my husband could fly back for the funeral. A few months later another close friend's young son died in a freak accident. The year before my husband's Nana died and again, only he could go back to the funeral. It seems strange maybe, but not to grieve with those you love really can affect you. And if you are reading this you may think -well, you guys chose this life and this is the reality of it. Yes, that is true. But it still doesn't mean that it's easy. There are costs involved in all of our lives and decisions we make.

The other week I was writing about betrayal. I am really trying to let God see me through this event. He showed me on Sunday just a teeny glimpse of what it must have been like for Him at the Last Supper. Sitting there with Judas, knowing what he was about to do and yet Jesus didn't let Judas's actions dissuade Him from His tasks. Isn't that how He wants us to be?! Yes, there are going to be people in our lives that seek to distract us with their pettiness, their attitudes. But, it is a part of life. We are not responsible for what they do. Yet, we are responsible for our reactions. I am responsible for the way I respond to this person. It's easy to become so caught up in other people's actions that we forget about what we are doing. The Holy Spirit gently nudges and says-hey what about you-where are you at right now? Hmmm, good question. We can be like David and just ask the Lord to search our hearts-to show us what is unclean and He will. But He doesn't just leave it at that. It's not like God is someone that has this huge stick and just pokes people with it and is all mean and says hey-shape up .

Why do people portray God like that? Why don't people understand we serve a loving, kind and forgiving God? Yes, He is Just and yes, the wicked will be destroyed and sin will be punished-but sometimes do you think it's like the teenager whose parents say-No you cannot hang with that crowd because it will lead to trouble. Next thing you know, the teen thinks his parents are the worst and so unfair. The Bible gives us the outline for our lives. And people read it (or think they know what's in it) and make the decision that God is unfair and oh so mean. Well, not the God I serve!

On another note....

Haven't decided yet about whether or not to keep this blog and also the whole posting layout thing. Why I get discouraged I don't know. But, I don't feel like going there right now :)

I will leave you with this (if anyone is reading this)

I will lift up my eyes to the hills-

From whence comes my help?
My help comes from the Lord

Who made heaven and earth.

He will not allow your foot to be moved;

He who keeps you will not slumber (isn't that amazing!!!!)

Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper;

The Lord is your shade at your right hand

The sun shall not strike you by day,

Nor the moon by night.

The Lord shall preserve you from all evil;

He shall preserve your soul

The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in

From this time forth, and even forevermore.

Psalm 121

Be encouraged in Him today!

Just thinking out loud

Today has been sort of a "blah" day. Not sure what the real definition of that is but just feels like it. Nothing spectacular. Too many thoughts running through my head. Just one of those days where you just wonder 'why bother'.
I am trying to figure out in my own mind why I do some of the things I do. Not important things-just like writing here and putting pages in online galleries. I think I am better off going back to being a looker (no, not one who people look at lol) but just observing. There's something in the human that desires to be noticed and appreciated. Something that wants to hear-hey ya know what, that looks pretty good. Whether we clean the house, get a new hairdo, whatever it is. And, no matter how many times we tell ourselves it doesn't matter, I think deep inside it does matter. It's just in our nature. Not sure where my mind is on this whole thing right now so I guess I will have to think some more about it.

Maybe it's that I read about other people's lives and everything sounds so exciting and interesting. My life isn't so exciting right now. It is to me and my family-it's always exciting to us what the Lord is doing in us and through us. We go through so much and yet we are constantly amazed how faithful God is. We learn a lot each day, but it's certainly not anything anyone else cares about or might even understand. Our life is just different. We moved away from everything and everyone we knew and loved to serve God. That was my husband's calling and we don't doubt it for a minute. But, it's a hard life. Good but hard. Anyway, I don't know why I am very emotional right now to tears so I am going to stop writing.
I guess it makes me homesick to read about everyone and their families and all the festivities they enjoy together. So, tomorrow will be a better day. Knowing me I will probably come back and erase this because it will sound too stupid to me later on.

Celebrating 18 yrs

of marriage that is :) Gee I can't seem to remember when I turned 18 yrs old. Yes, 18 years ago I married my dearest friend. Still in love after these 18 years and will continue to be :) The last two years we have been apart on our anniversary. Jim had to fly back to America both times for a funeral. Needless to say I had some reservations about this January. I kept wondering if we would get a phone call. But, fortunately, all is well and we were able to be together all day.

I spent some time the past few days gallery gazing. There are so many talented women out there making gorgeous scrap pages. It's amazing! I realize that I must get a new camera this summer. Hopefully when I return to CA we can find one for a good deal. We were given our first digital when we were moving to Hungary and are very thankful for it. But, since then it is duct-taped where the batteries are held and it only has 2 megapixels and I don't think it really has an optical zoon. I have looked at the Canon S1 IS and would LOVE to have that one. It seems light enough to carry around plus it has the 10x zoom.

I mentioned about wanting to get a new printer, well, now the want has become a need. We had a power outage the other day and kaput went my converter. So I think we will go ahead and get the 3 in 1 so that I can scan our old photos. I really want to scrap my daughter's pictures from when she was little. She was the most photogenic child! I hate that they just sit in a box. Seems so useless. Hopefully they will scan nicely.

We had our women's study tonight. It was really good. We are studying the book "Experiencing God". They had the book in Hungarian already so that was a huge plus. It's so hard and time consuming to have everything translated. We went over a part where we looked at Abraham and how God asked him to take Isaac to Mt Mariah. I can't even imagine such a thing being asked of me with my child. Abraham had to trust in God so much. I wonder what Isaac was thinking as they took the journey. So many people think he was a baby and didn't know what was going on. But, he was a youth. Just amazing to think about! I want so much to trust God and be so willing to obey whatever it is He wants me to do at all cost. What can compare to Him? Nothing! When the time comes though, I am not so eager and forget how zealous I once was. Praise God He is merciful and full of grace! Oh how we need it!

Hope your day is blessed and filled with joy :)
Here's a LO I made for my husband for our anniversary.

Trying Again ...Photos

I am going to try again with the photo post. I think when I have some time I will have to do a search on how to make your blog look decent. I know there are ways to do this, but I haven't had the time or energy to figure it all out.

Today has been pretty lazy, but a good lazy. I never just sit on the couch and this afternoon I did just that. Castaway was on our Croatian channel which comes in English so I watched it for the first time. Pretty good movie. I was thinking how close one would be to the Lord in such a similar situation. I guess it could be either way though. Sometimes when bad or unfortunate situations occur people run from the Lord or blame Him for the bad things. Why is it that when good things happen these same people never thank God? People think it is their own accomplishment and give no credit whatsoever to God but blame Him for everything that goes wrong in life. I really get annoyed at the cliche "well, if He was such a loving God....blah blah blah. I can't think of anything more loving than dying on a cross for the sins of the world-I mean what more do people want? So, I went on a tangent there. From Castaway to this. My mind could go forever! Guess I just don't understand.

I finally made a calendar for my daughter but couldn't print it out. I used Dani's calendar kit. It was great! I really like it a lot. The pages are perfect. I made about 5 of them for people in our church for Christmas and they loved them. One thing I really noticed was the month of July. It was too 4th of Julyish (is that a word?). That worked out good to give to people here in Hungary since they don't celebrate it. Everyone really like them.

I had to go to the Jen Wilson sale of course and buy a few kits. I only use my credit card for emergencies and a few times in the past months, there have been some scrapbook kit emergencies LOL. We have a tight budget so I try to get a couple when I am able. Actually, I try to buy from those who have treated to freebies to say Thank You. Now it is getting harder because so many are offering them! I will just have to wait for the sales.

Here are a couple more from our Sant E'lia trip. I resized them but probably a bit too small. Still learning :)




Have a blessed day :)

Sicily

One of the blessings we have of living in Europe is the ability to take some time out every now and then to travel to different areas. This past summer we went to Italy again. But, we went all the way to Sicily. My husband's family is Sicilian and his grandparents were both born in a fishing village there. We had heard there were some relatives there and it's a small enough place to find people so we decided to venture out and find them. It was so much fun! We went to northen Italy first and stayed there with some friends (I will have to write about that another time) and then headed to Sicily. The friends we have in N. Italy are Sicilian and his family lives there so we were going to stay with them. We were going to stop in Rome first, but decided to just drive all the way through. It's about 16 hours from Northern to Sicily. You have to cross the ferry and then you are in Sicily. It was a dream come true! I am already a HUGE fan of Italy and being in the southern part was just amazing. It reminded me so much of San Diego (where we are originally from). Our friends scared me about Palermo though so the minute we arrived there I locked our car doors. I am sure it is a nice place, but I was too nervous. So, we decided to drive to Sant E'lia and find our relatives. We found the town and someone on the street says "Hey follow me, I think I know them". So we did and went to the wrong house first, but someone there knew the house so off we went. Then, in true Italian style, we pull up and the neighbors start yelling out "Maria, you have visitors!". Sure enough, we awoke them from their siesta. But, it was the talk of the town. Americans are here to see you!! Off we went upstairs to their house. My goodness!! Their view is breathtaking. When I heard that the family was from a small fishing village, I pictured some little run down hut on the banks of the sea. Boy was I wrong. Their house is gorgeous and the view is unbelievable!! More importantly, they are such nice people! We had a great time looking at old photos, communicating with our hands (they didn't speak a word of english and my husband only knows some Italian) but we had a blast. They fed us a wonderful meal of linguini with clams, fruit, tomatoes, cheese. Bellisimo! Ah, just writing about it brings a smile to my face! It was a great time!

So, here are some photos of us in Sant E'lia. Unfortunately, we were in the car for 18 hours so the photos of us aren't the best. I was sort of bummed because the picture of Jim and I could have been so nice if I had actually put some make up on :) lol.

I think I am going to write more about our Sicilian adventure tomorrow. It is such a highlight in my life. God is so good and He knows when we need times of refreshing!

Hopefully I will put the photos on here right :)

I can't figure out how to put the credits under the photos so I will do it here:
1st is by Rachel Dixon from her Sweet Summer Breeze Kit



I tried about 5x to put the other photos on this page but they won't show up so I will have to learn some more and post another time :)

Perspective

I realize how much things can distract us and get us to focus on the negative and what we don't have rather than what we do have. In all my anguish last night, I failed to realize the sweet comments on my Blog. And, I don't really know too much about the "Eggers" but I do know that they brighten up my day!! Thank you to those that take the time out to comment :)

I will probably write more later tonight.

Ahhhhh

Some days are obviously going to be harder than others. Tonight was one of those nights. It's so hard to put on the happy face when you know someone is betraying you behind your back. Betrayal spares noone. It didn't spare Jesus Himself. And so, as we try to imitate His actions, we look at how He handled these situations. Well, I totally fail when it comes to this. The minute I come home I just get all emotional about it and let my emotions take over. Then, I ask myself why can't I just be one that takes it to the Lord and completely gives it over to Him in the very begining. Why do I rant and rave first and then say enough is enough-I can't deal with it. It's really painful. I can't stand people who are fake. I would much rather someone come to our face and say they don't like us rather than pretend they care about us and go bad mouth you. It just really irks the daylights out of me. Why can't people be real? What is their motivation behind wanting to cause pain to others? I am not perfect in any way but I just can't think that I would go and deliberately be mean to someone or say hurtful things about someone.

How could Jesus stoop down and wash Judas's feet? I mean He knew he would betray Him and yet he humbled Himself and washed Judas's feet. I can't imagine myself washing this person's feet right now. So, I must pray for God to soften my heart and give me His love for this situation.

Thankfully my day is about over and tomorrow is a new day :)

Marvel

To Marvel
Pronunciation: 'mär-v&l
Function: nounEtymology: Middle English mervel, from Old French merveille, from Late Latin mirabilia marvels, from Latin, neuter plural of mirabilis wonderful, from mirari to wonder1 : something that causes wonder or astonishment2 : intense surprise or interest

As I am preparing to lead our women's study tonight I was struck by this: The God of the universe desires to have a personal relationship with me! Yes, and not just me, but anyone and everyone! How can this be??? Little ole me, in my tiny part of the world, unknown by many. Yet, as I look out my window and I see the sky, I see the trees, (I used to be able to see the beautiful ocean from CA) LOL I see all that He has made and this just makes me marvel to think that this same God wants to talk to me. He wants to use me, and He wants me to talk to Him! Wow! It's not complicated as so many try to make it. It's real, it's personal. It's me and Him-Him and us!

I was able to make a layout today. Only took me 2 or so hours! I will have to figure out how to put it up on the blog or link to the site. Is it against the rules to link to a scrap site where your lo is? Hmm, I think I will have to ask about that on a message board. I really am so slow with this scrapping! I gaze at so many lo's in the different galleries and think-oh I could scraplift that-well, think again!! First it takes me forever to look through the kits and then decide which one to use. By the time I do that, I am usually having to move onto something else in the day. Oh well. I enjoy it so that's what counts~right!

I have to get a scanner too. We have an old Epson one from so many years ago. I think we have to get a cable though to see if it will work properly. I have so many old photos that I want to scan so I can eventually scrap them. I am not sure the older scanner will be able to do a good job, but we can try. It might be nice to get one of the 3 in 1 machines they have out now. They are so much more expensive here in Hungary though. I see ads for them in Target and other places online and it makes me cringe to think about spending so much more over here. We'll see how that goes.

We got a great box full of goodies today from our dear friends in CA. Good ole American products! Flannel sheets, Starbucks coffee, towels, Reeses peanut butter cups! Yum. We are truely blessed :)

Ok-that's it for today. I think I might try to take a nap before study. I have had a headache all day and it's not going away!

Blessings :)

Day of Rest

Today was nice and relaxing. We went to church this morning and had our Communion Service. I love these Sundays because we also have extended worship time. Afterwards, I taught Sunday School and that went really well. We learned about David being a "Man after God's own heart". The kids were really good today which is always a blesssing.

I have to make some more calendars. But this time not as gifts. Yes, can you believe I made so many calendars for people for Christmas gifts and didn't get around to making one for myself. Also, Jim and Marla want one too. Yikes. It might be March before I see mine :) I am still looking at Dec by my desk and trying to read the really small print that shows January. Doesn't quite work the same with these aging eyes :)

I am still trying to figure out all the "stuff" that comes with blogging. I would like it to be pretty of course and different links. Thankfully there are people out there, Robin, for one, who seem like geniouses (is that how you spell it) at html code and not just that but creating amazing Digi Scrap designs.

I think I will check out different galleries today and get some good ideas. I really stink at coming up with ideas for how to do a layout. I was able to find some sketches so I might work with them next week. I have a lot of scrapping to do. Where o where does the time go???

Have a blessed day :)

Like a ton of bricks

So the other night we watched a Rod Stewart concert on TV. Yes, I know it sounds odd but we get one channel in English besides the news. He was extremely tame and not what I remember him being when I was younger. Anyway, he introduced this young girl to come and sing with him. It was her huge break because she was just discovered a few weeks before while singing in the rail station (or something like that). Well, for the last week I have had the song in my head-I think Rita Coolidge used to sing it. I only know a bit of it so I sound like a broken record when I sing it.
Then, last night, I am lying in bed, thinking of how lucky this gal was to have been given a new look on life-she can buy things, not worry about paying the rent anymore, etc. I started to daydream about my life being so fortunate. All of a sudden, the Lord just spoke to my heart and reminded me that I have this fortune! And mine isn't temporary. Mine is eternal! Wow!!!! Hit me like a ton of bricks. Here I am getting all wrapped up in the "what ifs" and I am failing to realize ALL that I have already! And, noone can take it away from me. No misfortune will keep me from my great gift!
How many times do we forget what we have?! So easy to just look around, read about what others are doing and how good they have it and wish we could have the same. But, we have far greater than any man could offer us. We have Jesus, we have the hope of our salvation. We have eternal life and the reminder that we will live for eternity with the King of Kings!

I want to be reminded of this always.

First Post

Ok-let's see how this goes :)