It was a beautiful Saturday morning and I was up early to get my quiet time in before the events of the day began. The sky was blue, no wind and there was new snow on the ground which would be perfect for the sledding party later in the day. I nestled into the pillows on couch with my hot cinnamon coffee and my bible study, it was heavenly. When I had finished my quiet time I began to clean the house for the birthday party that would be taking place in a few hours. I had prayed that the day would go well and that we would have fun…

GPS is a great invention. It is designed to guide you to your destination using the most convenient path. It’s wonderful when it works properly and there are no unforeseen obstacles. When obstacles appear and everything changes, your path needs to be rerouted and the distance and time to reach your destination is recalculated. I like the movie RV with Robin Williams. He calls his GPS Lola and when he takes a wrong turn she announces that she is recalculating, when he is on an uncharted road she tells him and when he is frustrated with the announcements he says, “I know that Lola!” We often joke about “Lola” whenever…

Do you ever think at the end of a day whew…what a day! As you finally have a minute to stop and breathe and think about all the events that took place since the moment you woke up. How did your day go? What were the Highlights of the Day? Every once in awhile I will make a list of the highlights of the day and how they made me feel, how I responded and who was involved. It’s fun to read back over some of those highlights days, weeks, months and sometimes even years later. It feels like you are reliving those moments and you can remember each and…

J.M. Barrie said, “God gave us memories that we might have roses in December.” It’s not the time of year to be landscaping outside in our area, but the memories of beautiful flowers, green grass and leafy trees sure make for nice thoughts. The previous owner of the home we purchased was an amazing gardener. She spent hours and years planting all types of flowers, shrubbery and trees. All throughout the year we were continually surprised as new plants sprouted during different seasons and plants almost magically appeared in the most unique display of colors, sizes and textures. The sprinkler system was designed to make sure each and every plant…

For the last several days I have been thinking about a comment that was in one of my blogs. It was, “Our motivation for making more is giving more.” It was from a book by Mark Batterson and was in the context of praying. I know the reason it was weighing on my mind was because God wanted me pray that prayer, so I did. His answer was already in the works and came in the form of a lower monthly insurance premium. First of all a lower premium is a miracle in itself, but God was freeing up some funds in our budget with the purpose of using some…

Years ago I watched the movie My Fair Lady and have always remembered how Eliza Doolittle worked at changing her accent and tone to fit in with higher society. There have been several other movies over the years that have highlighted transitions of people such as Pretty Women, The Princess Diaries and Disney’s The Sword In the Stone, just to name a few. In these movies people go to drastic measures to become acceptable in the societies they find themselves led to either by fate or by chance. I was thinking about how much time and effort each of these characters put into making big changes in their lives and…

Today as I sat on my couch with my coffee in hand I began reviewing the past few months. There have been so many lessons given and opportunities to put them into practice. In my prayer notebook I write down prayers and praises each day. Then after a few weeks go by I review them and write “answered” in the margin for those that have been answered. Sometimes the review reminds me to continue praying for a specific person or situation and other times I can clearly see how God’s lessons were right on target at the right moment. It’s always exciting to see what God has been doing. The…

Acceptance is something that I have sought after most of my life and not always in the best places, ways or from the right people. What is it about acceptance that makes it so appealing, enough to alter what we think, do and how we act just to obtain it? I use to think when I was younger that when I grew up this need would go away and I would no longer be bothered by the pain that not receiving it can cause. As an adult I could distance myself from people that consistently reminded me I was not accepted; but that isn’t the case. There are times as…