Please enjoy a few photos I took at our family reunion this weekend in Lancaster, SC. The above Header is a picture of the Craig Farm. The back pavilion is where we always enjoy this annual event. Family totaled around 50.
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Copyright @ 2012 All Rights Reserved
Do you know what doors are for? Really?
The door is open so the 78 degree weather can come inside today. It is February after all. OH. February is winter.
My back door opened is a reminder of the many doors that open in our lives. Or the ones that shut.
Doors go either way. How we respond to them is the key. Often doors are signs from God. 
Use to be when a door shut I would respond with an offensive attitude asking, “why? I want to go through that door!”
Age has taught me along with years of spending time alone with God and his word those doors he shut kept me from getting into more trouble than I was already in. Now I thank him that he is God! His ways are not mine! (be really thankful for that)
When you ponder the idea of open and shut doors from God isn’t that a clever idea?
He made it so simple yet we search around for other doors only to walk into the one that ends up hitting us in the face.” Oh, I wondered where I got this bruise on my head.”
Going out on a limb here I finally wised up (no jokes please) and started praying for God to shut doors he didn’t want me to force open. Now I am small but have managed over the years to pry open doors shut so tight you couldn’t open them without a sledgehammer.
I have to ask myself now, “what was I thinking?” Pushing, pulling, beating, screaming until I squeezed through it. Once in, it wasn’t door #3 giving away a free car.
What happens when you beat your way through the wrong door? It knocks you down and lands on the broken nose you gave yourself trying to open it in the first place.
You know what happens next? (that is if you are smart) You cry out to God Almighty to remove the door.
What if God leaves you under the door for a while? It sure gets heavy. It hurts. It is painful.
I can’t blame God for this heavy, painful door smashing my face. I did force it open. He tried to stop me. BUT NO! I had to be rebellious or what is the saying? “Curiosity killed the cat?”
Finally after so many doors fell on me I decided maybe God was trying to tell me something! Ok. I heard that! You have no room to talk here!
He closes doors for my protection or stops me from getting into the wrong relationship. or the wrong project. or the wrong class. or listening to the wrong words. or hanging out in the wrong places. or running my big mouth when it should be shut. 
Mark 4:24, 25 24 “Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. 25 Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”
Closing doors from God’s perspective for us means he may be removing from our lives that which he doesn’t want there like books, movies, entertainment, or even people. Yes, people.
Anything that takes us away from God is removable by him. For our good. And believe me, once you find yourselves under so many of the wrong doors, God looks better than ever!
God isn’t behind door #1. or #2. or #3. He’s behind the door that is open.
http://freedomborn.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/hillbilly-ten-commandment
http://larrywho.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/planning-preparation-survival-part-2/
http://thewayeverlasting.com/2012/02/17/quote-standard/
Copyright @ 2012 All Rights Reserved
All my life I have been short. Now I realize this may not apply to many of you who as adults or even older teens are somewhere over 5’1 inches tall. For the most part I have never liked being short. The following are a few reasons why.
1. Group pictures. You will always find short people on the front row.
2. Reaching the 2nd row of cabinets in kitchens or some bath or laundry areas are bad enough. Forget the 3rd floor.
3. You can never see over a crowd unless you are right up front.
4. In church for instance, no matter where you sit unless it is the front row, the tallest person around will find the seat right in front of you.
5. The ridicule is endless.
6. Finding pants to fit my short legs is virtually impossible these days unless they are in the Petite department and then they cost a fortune. I have never understood how they can charge more for less material.
7. Others with long legs should stay out of my car. They move the seat so far back and fail to move it back where I need it. Don’t drive my car. It is too small for tall people.
Image via Wikipedia
8. Randy Newman‘s song “Short People” is the worst song ever recorded. It became a hit during my college days; many thought it was funny to sing it to me over and over. I did not think it was funny.
9. I never made the basketball team. In fact, no one ever asked me to play basketball.
10. Short people are asked to look under furniture to find things. It is assumed we are closer to the floor therefore we should be subjected to the vermin under the couch?
You are probably wondering why I have brought this to your attention not that you really care but I need to express my heartfelt feelings about this. This is my blog so I can do that.
God created me. Oh, you already knew that. He created me the way I am physically which was small. But growing up, the ridicule was constant. Short jokes, small jokes. In college my nick name was “little bit.” I often wondered why God made me smaller than most of my classmates. He knew they would make fun of me. He knew the perils I would suffer through out my life as a result of the rejection of not making the WNBA.
Image via Wikipedia
Recently I thought I heard that little whisper behind my ear saying, “Accept the way you are. ” I started thinking about that. I have rejected God’s creation of me. I have complained about the many times I have to get a stool to reach the casserole dish off the top shelf of my kitchen cabinets.
I really complained when I had to squeeze the stool into my closet when I couldn’t find enough floor to sit it on. The door got in the way. The maneuvering between moving the stool to fit with the door became an all out war. By that time, I forgot what I was doing in there.
God reminded me had I been taller I would not be what he created me to be. I wish he had told me that when I was 13. The only person shorter than me in the entire grade was a dwarf.
Now many years later and older I understand why God made me short. It doesn’t matter. That’s why.
I don’t have to be taller for God to love me more. I don’t have to be taller for God to use me. I don’ t have to be taller to pray or read the Bible. I don’t have to be taller. Period. I accept.
Isaiah 46:4 Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
Copyright @ 2012 All Rights Reserved
God and I were having a conversation this morning. We do this quite often. As sick as I have been this past week He reminded me how many years ago I was without hope. The details are not my goal here; the importance of God, his word and how he goes about his business are.
Many of you may find this silly or ridiculous but if you read my blog posts you will know I have found God has a great sense of humor. You see, I learned a lot about God in the bathroom.
Now I am not talking necessarily about the “throne.” Partly God’s throne, not ours. Ours just isn’t comfortable. However the seclusion, quiet and often colored walls have served as a classroom.
As I was saying before you so rudely changed my course there, many years ago I would lock myself in the bathroom to escape. My circumstances of which I got myself into became a hole so deep I had no idea if ever, I would be able to get out.
One nice thing about being in the bathroom is that when you are climbing the walls, crying out to God you have plenty of toilet paper to wipe your tear covered face. Make sure you buy soft bath tissue if you plan to try this. It is better on your skin.
God met me in that particular bathroom quite often. At the time, lacking in my present knowledge of God’s word, (only my fault) would have greatly increased my faith and lessened my fitful anxiety. But as a stubborn human I of course went about everything backwards until I found myself alone with God in the bathroom. I don’t recommend my course of action but if you have to do it, find a nice, large bathroom with a jacuzzi tub in it. You have more room to climb the walls, space to lie around on the floor and when you are all done you can fill the jacuzzi with hot bubbly water and soak yourself into oblivion.
The effort was to figure out how I was going to get out of the mess I was in. Seeing no way out I cried out to God over and over. Had I known then what I know now that God always has a plan for us even when we don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel I might have handled it all much better.
A gift God gave me is the gift of “knowing.” The Holy Spirit enlightened me that even though I did not know how, when, who, what or where I was going to get out of this misery, a deep inner thought that I would get out gave me hope. This “knowing” has in many instances given me guidance of which way to go or not to go. It has been a forerunner to doors that opened after I was given a word or a thought. Sometimes it comes as a warning.
For you skeptics, this “knowing” is so powerful I embrace it as God speaking to me profoundly. Once it occurs, you will not change my mind. The phrase,
“I know, I know, I know” stands firm in my heart to the point I have been ridiculed, laughed at and dismissed as “I just don’t want you to get your hopes up if it doesn’t happen.” Get behind me Satan.
In that bathroom, Ephesians 3:14-19 gave me the “knowing” I needed to trust God to rescue me. ” For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”
Had I listened to the skeptics instead of my heart, I might still be climbing those walls. Had I allowed unbelief in, I might have missed God. Opening up my heart to really hear God’s word, apply it and live it made all the difference in my survival until I was released.
God is faithful. God is faithful. No one will ever be able to tell me God’s words don’t work. These words are memories of freedom for me. Whenever life gets tough, or overwhelming, God pulls out his Tim Tebow black/white pen and writes these memories for me giving me assurance that if He rescued me then, He will do it now.
I am wondering. Do you think Tim Tebow would let me borrow his pen? There is something miraculous in it.
www.timtebow.com/
Copyright @2012 All Rights Reserved
♦God is so good. Reading a fellow blogger’s post last night I was enlightened by her view of how God shows up in everything. She used the case of how 
atheist/agnostics rationalize God’s creation, appearances or what one may conceive as a coincidence. Her words resonated within my soul.
Use to be for me I didn’t recognize God’s hand in my life and I was a Christian. The more time I have spent with God the more I see him in everything. What a major difference that has made with me.
There are no coincidences. Or chances. Or luck. It has become a real pet peeve for me to hear people say, “oh, it was just luck.” UMMMMM, excuse me! NO it wasn’t! Sometimes I think people are about as sharp as a marble. I wonder where they were when God gave out brains.
That last sentence I wrote brings me to this point. Those who claim to be atheists/agnostics are loud with their accusations of “there is no God” or “God had nothing to do with it.” Now I am aware many who live with the notion of “no God” are very intelligent. But listen to yourselves! Do you know how you sound to the rest of us? The veil is covering your sight.
Here is an example of how God works in my life. I don’t know about the rest of you but I have learned to pray about everything……This is a result of years of bad choices and decisions I made without consulting the Almighty. Sometimes I ask God if I am bothering him too much because I have a 24/7 conversation going on with multiple prayer requests, daily crisis or minute decisions like our carpet. I must admit my guilt here as I know God has a lot on his plate. Why would he even care about my carpet?
God cares about me and every detail of my life, that is why. I really love him for that.
Our carpet was cheap to start with. Whoever installed it did a lousy job. Had I been here things would have been different! lol!
Debating spending wads of money on new carpet struck my penny-pinching lifestyle with such grief I prayed diligently about it. Oh how I wanted new carpet, but there was a hesitation. God knew better. What is almost frightening is God even knows how miserly I am! So what did he do? He arranged for me to call the man who cleans carpet for my rental houses to give me a better deal on cleaning all the carpet that I could ever have imagined!
After cleaning it yesterday and not even thinking about this at all prior to today, I woke up this morning with the thought, “I am going to go buy a large area rug to cover the high traffic areas in the den.” Now where did that come from? Yo, brother atheist tell me?
Do you know what God did? He gave me that thought because the blue 8 X 12 square bounded carpet remnant was waiting for me at Lowe’s this morning. It was the perfect color, size and shape to fit our den. The price was very reasonable. And wouldn’t you know it was the only one like it.
I can hear you skeptics laughing and saying, “lady, you are crazy.” Fine. You go find your own carpet then.
This was no coincidence. Or luck. Or by chance. I’m sticking with God.
The end of the day. Santa is resting. Children are playing. Parents are wiped out as are the grandparents who stayed up with the parents putting together the latest Rose Petal Cottage and the new….Lego Mindstorm NXT.
Christmas sets the stage for a New Year. We have aspirations of great ideas, new inventions and a better government. (lol) The news rolls the tapes on the best movie, obituaries of famous people and presently, Occupy Wall Street. For the most part, much is negative and destructive as the earthquake that hit Japan this past year and the tornadoes that ripped through the south. I have to stop this, I am getting depressed.
Our hopes and dreams of a fresh new year come with a cost. Avoiding the mindset of the world is the only way to view the year ahead from a positive standpoint. Acquiring a thought process we can live with is through Jesus. Focusing on the evil will only result in a cluttered brain full of trash, dust and filth.
Image via Wikipedia
Lately the Lord has been expressing to me his desire for his people to be “light” including me. I have never thought about that much but it makes sense. We need only to be a “candle in the wind” or a night light to make a difference.
First things first though. We need to examine ourselves to see how we can be a light in this next year. Just as a light bulb works, if it is dirty it needs to be wiped off. If it doesn’t work, it needs to be replaced. So it is with us.
Maybe our hearts need to be replaced with the heart of God. Maybe our minds need to be refreshed with the Word of God. Maybe our view of the world needs adjustment. Who knows, maybe we need to take a good, hot shower and start over.
Personally, I have been doing some serious “cleaning out” for the last few years. The mold God made for me was crumbling from sitting on the shelf. God made the effort to shake the dust off of it so I could see just how much clay he needed to use to repair it. When he first started he had to make a quick trip to Wal-mart for some more clay because he didn’t have enough. That kind of bothered me.
The more he shaped my mold, the more it hurt at times. Losing discontentment, years of resentment and offenses was not easy. These were a few of the cracked pieces of clay I had held onto for a long time. The cracks of many more miseries may still be noticeable, but are not as deep or long. God’s gentle hands have moistened those cracks so the mold is looking more like he designed it to be from the beginning. The mold holds the light he wants me to shine.
So, for the year to come, that is my New Year’s Resolution. I rarely make those but feel the need to outline this one.
My prayer is to be at least a 60 watt bulb. I would like to grow into a 75 watt bulb but I know God will have to add more clay to hold up that light. That might hurt some more but God will equip me if he thinks I am ready.
Instead of revolting against the mainstream pettiness, misunderstandings and critical comments, I want to immediately turn on the light bulb with the switch God has attached to my pot of clay and react differently. How?
By allowing those pains to roll off of me. Shoving them out of my plastered dreams of revenge or ravaged thoughts of “why me Lord?”
Humbling myself to walk in peace when there is no peace around. I want to be different.
The great advantage to the pots of clay that God creates is he has his stamp on the bottom of each one. He even shows us how to turn on the light switch.
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