Love! Favorites!

These are the people and places and things in my life that bring me joy and I love. I love the man standing next to our camper. I love camping!! Love. Love. Love.

I loved going to Chicago when Abby and Jeff were there. Loved their apartments, being in the city so far from home.
Love spending the time with them doing the things I don't do everyday. Taking the train there, and even flying one time and driving twice...fun

Love Colorado....love...We have been there quite a few times and it makes me feel so close to God..all the beauty of it all!

My blackboard Everett made me many years ago. Each and every day for years he leaves me a note on it early in the morning. It is there when I come down from upstairs. His notes have so much meaning for life. Love. Love. Love.

My red wash house that sits in my back yard. It sat in the backyard of the home I grew up in...I played in it when I was little it was my playhouse and my mom washed her clothes in it when I was a child...love it in my back yard. A very kind man had bought it when they burned down my home place and hauled it off and a couple of years later brought it to my backyard!

Snow, fresh fallen snow...the building is where I have worked for almost 37 years...tears and laughter in that building but now it is a joy I have wonderful girls working for me..it used to be our  flour mill here in town now it is a wire harness shop. I love the old in there. My office has the original floors....love ...for the most part....my job ...soon it will be time to retire...how do I feel??? 

Branson....we go there sometimes 2 to 3 times a year....we have so much fun...Christmas in Branson...The Landing...just all the people..Silver Dollar City...the kiddos get us Season Ticket to SDC...love the smell there...the food...

NOW MY MOST FAVORITE TIME AND PEOPLE...

Christmas eve...my favorite day of the year...there is something sacred about that day...love Christmas eve..going to candle light service with all of my family..getting together for snacks...going to bed and waking up on Christmas morning used to be so exciting when the kiddos were all home....So many memories!! Love. Love.

Great Wolf Lodge...been doing this for a number of years now..our Christmas present to the children and grandchildren..how they love it a week-end together. Playing, swimming talking late into the night. I will cherish these times forever..as long as I have my mind...these are so special to me!!!
All are a gift from God...Thank you!!!

STRONGHOLDS

Fortress the Greek  word for stronghold taken literally means a fortress. It is used in the Bible as a metaphor to represent things that are based only on human confidence or pride as opposed to those that rely on God's input and guidance. Strongholds are walls or fortresses around beliefs and emotions to protect us from further pain. an important part of healing and transforming the deep wounds divinely pulling down the stronghold.

Strongholds can bind us tie us up and keep us from doing and living the life that God has planned for us.
I don't claim to be an expert on strongholds and may be all wrong about them. I have not done an intense study on strongholds but do know that I myself have struggled with some. The stronghold of beliefs that I have had have been powerful. We are fighting a spiritual battle daily. The world, self and the devil. Believing things that are not true can keep us from having the peace and joy and freedom that God has intended for us to have.

This is the area where my struggle has been for years. Believing things that are not true! The only way to free yourself from the stronghold of untruth is to find out the truth. Searching God's word, prayer, seeking the Holy Spirit's leading, and in my case having a husband that is so spiritually and in God's word that we can talk and seek God's word for the truth.

We can really believe something to be so true and it can be so far from truth that when the light comes on you wonder how you could have really believed that to begin with but then realize at the time I didn't know better nor did I take the time to search for the truth. When we are taught something and it is taught over and over generation after generation and you keep asking questions but no one will answer them or know the answer themselves how do you break the untruth.

Now not all can be not true...there may be just enough truth there that you don't ever question it keeping us enough naïve that we just don't think anything can be wrong.

There are a lot of strongholds.....sin.....destructive thoughts, negative thoughts, lust, impure thinking...pride, habits, learned behaviors that enslave us.

But Glory be to God...there is a way...to break down strongholds...whatever they may be....God's Spirit and God's Word.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit and the life-transforming power of God's Word, our stronghold(s) can be pulled down!

I am so thankful for a loving, all powerful God...nothing, nothing is to hard for Him...

I am so thankful for His love for me and for you that He sent His only begotten Son that we may have everlasting life.
That whosoever believeth in Him will have everlasting life...His gave His life for me and for you..and there is NOTHING I can do to help Him save me...He did it all...and on the cross said IT IS FINISHED...there is nothing left to do but believe.....I have put all my trust in Him....to do what HE said HE has done....He died for my sins and yours!

And He is coming back....soon....

Did I take enough time?

Sometimes as I look back I feel like I never took enough time.
Not enough time holding my babies.
Not enough time sitting on the porch swing.
Not enough time visiting with my Mom and Dad.
Not enough time talking to my babies.
Not enough time telling them how much I love them.
Not enough time sitting doing nothing with my hubby.
Not enough time listening just plain listening.
With not thinking about what I am going to say .

Today I want to stop....I want to take some time...
Not always reading what someone else wrote...
But listening to what my heart is telling me what to do...
And taking the time to do that...
It's pretty late but not to late...
What is my passion....???
What do I love..???

I used to think that I knew...
But somewhere between then and now...
I feel like I lost something...
To much time at work...
To much time thinking how it is all going to end....
I need to stop...breathe....relax....hold my hubbies hand...
Tell all my children and grandchildren and great grandchildren how much I love them...
How much they mean to me....

I want to be just the person God created me to be...not what I think I want to be...
Not who I think that I am...
But who am I in Christ...
I am a daughter of the King....
Blessed beyond anything I would have ever imagined...

I have just the same amount of time today as I did back then...
When I was in school living at home...
When I was newly married....
When my children were small...
When they were big...
And now...24 hours a day....

I don't want to waste anymore time on things that don't matter
I want to live as God would have me live...
Be me....Be me...as He has create only me to be....
Love...as He has loved....
Give has He has given...