Forgiveness

Five years ago, a knock at the door and lives would be changed forever. Opening the door to an FBI investigator, at that moment I had no idea just what God would expect me to forgive. Yet five years later, here I sit, able to say "You are forgiven"

Today I am GRATEFUL for the power of forgiveness!

It took a while. Bitterness. Anger. Resentment. That all got in the way.

What is forgiveness really? Although very simple, the definition I like best is "Forgiveness is releasing all desires for revenge and negative emotions attached to the person you are forgiving" 

BUT

There is more to it than that - or at least for me there is.

The day I knew that there was true forgiveness was the day that I thought about the person and there was a real feeling of compassion. Not just an absence of negative but the presence of a desire for the person to healed from the hurts that caused them to hurt others.

Because of what was done, very few people would argue a need to forgive the person. In fact many would argue a right to hold onto anger and bitterness. The vengeful thoughts encouraged by many. After all the events that lead up the FBI knocking at the door were truly horrendous. Yet there are the few, who know and understand the power of forgiveness. I am grateful for their presence in my life.

Forgiveness moved my life into a place of beauty and joy untold that would never have been experienced if I held onto the unforgiveness. Today I am grateful for FORGIVENESS and all that it has done in my life!

Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day- a day set aside in the U.S.A. to remember the men and women who have sacrificed their lives for our country. Although many take time today to thank all who have served in the Armed Forces, it is really for those who lost their lives in service.

Today I am thankful for each man and woman who, since April 1775 until today, have died pursuing and protecting the freedoms that we enjoy in the United States...

Remembering them all

Grateful for GRACE ♥

 
Oh how amazing the grace the Lord has given! So many sins, so many sinners, and yet each of us have been offered God's amazing grace!

 I look at my past and although I can believe I am forgiven of the sins, it isn't so easy to believe that God could use me with all that is my past to do any thing great for His kingdom. Then lead by the Holy Spirit, a read of the genealogy of Jesus. The women that God chose to bring us Jesus-
Tamar
Rahab
Ruth
Bathsheba

Tamar, who was a Canaanite,  disguised as a prostitute tricked Judah (who was Joseph's brother, the one who convinced the brothers to sell him into slavery) into sex and conceives the next person in the genealogy of Jesus. Their story is found in Genesis 38.

Then there is Rahab. We meet her in the Book of Joshua. She is a prostitute in Jericho who saves the Israelite spies sent to check out the city. She and her family is saved from the destruction that occurs in Jericho after the walls fall. We know she marries a descendant of Judah and Tamar, Salmon. They have a son, Boaz.

That brings us to Ruth. Now Ruth didn't have the sin of the previous women, but she was an outsider, not an Israelite, who becomes part of the lineage of Jesus.

Finally of the women mentioned in Jesus's genealogy is Bathsheba. She cheats on her husband and gets pregnant while he is at war. The man she is involved with, King David, has her husband killed. Then their child dies but the Lord gives them another and that child is Solomon.

How amazing is God's Grace that He chose to bring HIS Son to us through these women. He didn't use only the most righteous men or women to create the genealogy. He could have. Instead, God brought us Jesus through a lineage that showed that HIS Love & Grace is what gives us hope and a future not how righteous our parents were or even how righteous we would be.

Yes to today I am GRATEFUL for GOD's GRACE and that I can be used to bring Glory to His Kingdom!

Medical Care

Today I am especially grateful for medical insurance that covers specialists. For more than 4 years now, our family has been dealing with a little boy who just doesn't go to the bathroom right. He has struggled with this since he was an infant. I have held him as he cried because he either was constipated or had diarrhea, rushed him to the doctor on more than one occasion as the pain was excruciating for him. To finally have insurance and be able to find the cause and  hopefully a treatment so he can be relieved of this discomfort is AWESOME!

We have been able to get the kids all caught up on dental needs because of insurance and also basic medical care they needed. Having insurance in the world we are in today is truly a blessing from the Lord!



I am also grateful that my husband is working! His working is what has enabled us to afford the insurance and truly God has provided this for our family! Also the employment my husband has allows him to go with us to the doctors office and be by our son's side as we meet with the gastroenterologist! GRATEFUL!!!

GOD IS GOOD!!!

Musings in the Rain

Gratitude! The Lord pours out blessings and I am overwhelmed with gratitude! It's like a warm rain storm, you can go out in it, dance, feel it on your face, jump in the puddles, splash along and just get all wet and it AWESOME!

Did you know that rain falls the way it does because of it's special raindrop shape. If it didn't have that specific shape to create friction as it falls the rain could cause tons of damage hitting the earth at much faster speeds than the 3 or 4 mph that is usually falls (although it has fallen at higher velocities that's just average)

Rain is amazing! God opens up the clouds and lets the rain fall and it waters the ground and encourages the plants to grow and WOW! Just think about all that has to happen for rain to occur and then what rain does for us mere little humans who reap crops of abundance all because of some rain... totally AMAZING!

As I sit at my desk here I am watching the birds, fluttering around the yard, in search of the worms that the rain has sent to the surface... another amazing way GOD takes care of HIS creation!



BLESSED TO OVERFLOW! All by a little spring rain!