Today I Am Grateful

I am not grateful everyday, but I should be.

Today I am very grateful.

Only thirty minutes away from my house in a valley, a tornado gave a party.

It danced and sang.

And it left a mess of destruction as a party favor.

Homes are gone.

The place where laughter, food, and goodnight-kisses were given,
are a heap of sadness and suffering now.

Work places are gone.

Where men and women provided for their families,
ate sandwiches with their friends, and stayed till after 5:00 when they didn't have to.

Nothing was taken from me.
My home is still here, my daddy is still working.

I thank God that we are safe. That our brown couch is still our brown couch.
The Avenger cups are still in the cabinet and my tooth paste is where it belongs.

If you were not touched by the tornado I hope that you praise God for that.
And ask Him what you can for those that were forced to host the party that it threw.

If you were touched, torn, or bruised and battered, I want you to know that I am praying for you and so are others.

I pray that God gives you strength, endurance to the end, hope, peace, and rest when you need it. 

Nine Strawberry Cookies

Friendship can't be explained on the rim of a picture frame with a few fluffy words.

Friendship isn't a couple movie nights and dress up parties.

Friendship isn't just texting and smiley faces. 

Friendship isn't picking up the tab because you can.

Friendship isn't gifts and smooth-sailing.

Friendship is baking salted caramel oat bars and seeing the being joy in the midst of it.

Friendship is saying, "Lets eat at home and watch a Redbox. I'm broke."

Friendship is holding hands during Les Miserables and putting your heads together in the sad parts.

Friendship is bits of encouragement fused together by God to give you hope in the next chapter of your life!

Friendship is touching toes and being OK with it.

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”  -- C.S. Lewis

Friendship is nine strawberry cookies.

My friends, dear sweet ladies,

I praise God that you are my friends. I praise Him for giving me true friendship in you! I pray that God gives you the strength to face whatever this year may bring! Be it a trial you did not expect or a blessing you do not understand! Just like Paul told the people of Philipi, "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you."

Love,

Your Friend.

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

    She is woman from whom grace and mercy flow out of because she has been filled to brim with them. She washes, feeds, and teaches all her children whether or not they are still at home. Her left arm is stronger than her right arm from years of holding babies and toddlers. She rarely ever paints her nails because it never stays on long in the dishwater. Seeing her read her Bible in the morning, getting her strength from her Heavenly Father, is a picture of peace. She has a laughter that starts at her toes, revs up in her soul and then bursts through her lips. She is a mother figure to all who love her. She is Deboo to some, Deborah to her friends, Momma Debbie to many, and Mommy to me. She walks me to my car as I head out for school and asks how she can pray for me that day. Just like the woman is Proverbs 31, my daddy praises my mommy. She is woman who “acts justly, loves mercy, and walks humbly with her God.” Micah 6:8 With a clean sink at 6:30 in the evening, she shows my daddy, in just a small way, how much she loves him. That is where he likes to wash his hands when he comes in from work so she has it prepared for him. My mother is a beautiful woman. She is a woman who serves people with her soul. She is woman that is mothering orphans. But because of her love and obedience to her heavenly Father, they are no longer orphans. 

I am blessed in a colossal amount to have this woman as my mommy! 

Thank you, Lord, for bringing her into the world on this day! Thank you for making her my mommy!

I love you, Mommy! I hope you have had a wonderful birthday! 

She Is My Sister

    She has hands that know the meaning of work, care and love. Her perfectly shaped and Austrian chocolate colored eyes seem to smile before her lips turn, but they have seen so much and pierced through the heart of her new family. Her plump lips aren't often in a smile. My Daddy had to teach her how to pick on him. She didn't like it at first but then it made her smile to poke him. She has waited on a forever family for four years.

    When anyone else would have lost hope, she held on.
When anyone else would have wondered if they were ever going to get to go home, she had patience.
     
         After seeing child after child and baby after baby go home with their mommies, she had faith.
After holding on, embodying patience and never loosing faith...

God has decided, in wonderful mercy, to give her to this crazy, Southern family that can't wait for her homecoming!

 Marigrace and Jim at a cookout hosted by their wonderful church!

 Grandmother and Uncle Keith this spring

 Noel and me at Christmas 2011

 Hope with her spaghetti bread at Christmas

 JubiLee teaching a friend/sister a piano song

 Jesse, Will and JubiLee blowing balloons at Easter

 Hope, Whitney-Faith and Marigrace "teaching" our friend, Jessie, to group waltz.

 Marigrace coming home from New York!

             

            And two of the craziest people in the world: My parents! 

I thank God for the tenacity in the faith, their boldness in obedience and their love for life inside God's will.

1979

I can't say enough about these two people.

They are strong, courageous, faithful...

gentle.

They never give up.

They never don't do what God wants them to do.

They. do. it.

Hard or not.

They love GOD,

they love people.

And they are my parents.

I don't know why God gave them to me,

but I am grateful He did.

I don't know where I would be

or

what I would do if...

God hadn't put them together in March of 1979.

And brought them here.

And made them my parent's.

Two people who have never given up on me.

The Embodiment of Strength

That is what this little bundle of joy.

Strength.

She is full of hugs and kisses, ready to share, or to just give away and never, NEVER expect ANYTHING back.

She is full of hope and perserverance.

She trusted and loved strangers that she embraced as family.

She didn't give up when she didn't understand a word we were saying, "What in the world is this spaghetti stuff you are feeding me?" is what she was probably thinking.

But she ate our food, she gave her hugs annd kisses to us; her hope spread out and filled our hearts.

She has taught me how to be Christ's hands and feet. How to wash the dishes and sweep the floor with spunk.

She laughs and you can't help but laugh with her.

She is a child; she is my sister. And oh, how grateful I am God gave her to me. Why he chose her to love me, I don't know but I am thankful for her!

We have our older sister/little sister moments but thats part of being sisters. We are kind of like sandpaper for each other. We rub off the rough spots on one another. She dances wether in a ballet outfit or jeans and we dance with her (or both).

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

Isaiah 52:6-8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6jO7xhU_Pw

My Hero

I sure that many of you know, have met or at least heard me talk about my precious Grandmother. That just what she is: precious.

pre·cious 

1. of high price or great value; very valuable or costly: precious metals.

2. highly esteemed for some spiritual, nonmaterial, or moral quality: precious memories.

3. dear; beloved: a precious child.

4. affectedly or excessively delicate, refined, or nice

All of those definitions are just what Grandmother is. But not only is she precious but she is a saint in God's Kingdom. She is always encouraging other believer's by sending them cards, letters, or a phone call. A couple weeks ago this 91 year old beauty took a fall while coming in her back door after pitching out her scraps to the neighbors dog after supper. Thankfully someone was there soon after it happened. She journeyed to the E.R. and didn't get back home until 2 AM. She bruised her face and both legs. Her face and legs look much better now but its her arm that I envy your prayers for. There is a bone in her right arm just below her shoulder that is broken. Being 91 her docter doesn't want to have to do surgery, (which is a good thing) but he said he will take up to 3-6 months to heal. Along with her arm in a sling her legs ache every night.

But do you know what she is still doing? Sending sick people cards, calling people she knows can't get out. Everything she did before she is still doing; with a broken, bruised arm and acheing legs she is still:

reaching out to people,

loving them,

not giving up,

smiling, laughing,

and

being. my. hero.

She is brave and beautiful. Short and full of smiles. Loving and ready for a laugh. Honest and full of hope. content. peaceful. easy-going. a person that embodies Winston Churchill's ever famous qoute

"Never, never, never give up."

She is my Grandmother.

She loves me.

She is my hero.

Romans 13:14

The thought of starving something out, let filling a need or at times even a want, can seem harsh, brutal, irrational. In some cases that is true, but not always. I have been struggling with something spiritually for a long time. The thought of making no provision for it never crossed my mind until tonight:

"But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify it's desires."

I struggle with lust. It is really hard to admit that but its true. I didn't realize it until just here recently but I struggle with wanting to be in control and wanting to know what is going to happen in the near future. I struggle with being patient with my siblings and disrespectful to my Mommy and Daddy. That is definitely the hardest to realize. I think that one hurts me the most. It makes me so mad when I have a bad thought, when I worry about what I am going to major in in college. To me, as a Senior in highschool, soon to graduate, I should have that question answered by now but I don't! When I am short with my sibling's or disrespectful to my parent's I always feel so stupid afterward. I need to remember "to make no provision for the flesh." To do nothing that would gratify MY fleshes desires.

This week, it is my prayer that in those times to "make provision for my flesh," that I will remember what Isaiah said,

"Look to the Lord and be saved..."

I don't know why I was prompted to write this but something did. I pray that this week you will be encouraged. As I try to remember to "Look to the Lord and be saved," I pray that you will also!