2013

Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Bro. Step Martin, a mighty man of God, was our guest at church this morning. He challenged us to read the Bible through in 2013. No, that is not some new challenge. We hear this every year, along with many other challenges, dieting, doing good, etc....... But Bro. Step shared the above scripture along with his challenge. God should be our focus everyday. I know I pray for Him to help me live that way. And oh, do we ever live in times that are so entangling us in sin. Easily entangling. But that doesn't have to be our story. Failure at our day. Failure at another botched resolution. Our story is written by the most creative Storyteller ever. Our Creator. And it is His story. And we know the end!

Let us dare to live the middle part, the unknown part, the part He is so anxious for us to give to Him, with pure abandonment. Let us who know how it ends, live with the knowledge of the joy set before us. I know of no better way to do this than to remind ourselves daily through pouring ourselves into His word. It is a magnificent story. With new things revealed to us. Even if you have already read it - Read it again.

There are so many wonderful apps for customizing a plan that best suits your daily needs. I have the YouVersion Bible app on my Ipad and Iphone. Many other daily devotions are offered on it as well. So I am taking the challenge, won't you join me?

Blessings,
Michelle

Quiet

It has been chaotic at my house for the last week.  Good chaos. The kind that makes you thankful for the blessing of a large family. But today has been a blessing of another kind for me. The blessing of solitude. Baby girl is at work and sweet man is running around town with one of our boys. I have been alone with my coffee, a new novel I got for Christmas and no noise!!! I don't get moments like this often. But when I do I enjoy it so much and then I get to wishing for some action! My sweet Caroline is coming to spend the night with her GiGi and PawPaw for the first of what will be many fun nights. Her Momma and Daddy are having a belated Anniversary celebration. They surely need some quiet time.

Holidays are so hectic and many times we let the chance for solitude and reflection pass us by. I have been thinking much about the past year and the coming new year. What I want to do more of, less of, etc. I do know I want to enjoy the simple times more. To appreciate just being still. I am off to a good start today! What about you?

Blessings,
Michelle

Christmas 2012

 

 

Well, another Christmas has come and gone. It was a WHIRLWIND at my house last night. I loved every minute of it but I was worn out. PawPaw and GiGi both fell right into bed and slept like rocks! We are ready to go at it again today. What a blessed couple of days we have had with our family. Another barrage of pics!

Christmas Eve in Athens:

 

Christmas Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a wonderful time celebrating. Hope you all enjoyed lots of family fun and fellowship rejoicing in the birth of our Savior.

 

Blessings,

Michelle

The Weekend in Pics

 

We had a great Thanksgiving with our family. We ate a lot, laughed a lot and were thankful a lot. Then we spent the remainder of the weekend in the country visiting more family. Here is a long post of pics. Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Now I am sitting in the midst of a million boxes of Christmas decorations! Time to deck my Halls!

 

Blessings,

Michelle

 

Thanks Giving

Happy Thanksgiving!!! I have already put my turkey on and prepared all my sides yesterday. House is clean, table almost set , desserts survived the night with no one sneaking any! Yes, everything will come together easily for our Thanksgiving feast today. We will be well-prepared for our thanks giving.
I LOVE Thanksgiving. Love the whole week off to spend with my people. Love the eating, lazing, and visiting. Love the talking of preparing for Christmas. But I especially love the whole idea of giving thanks for our blessings. I love the meditating on all there is to be thankful for in my life. I find it interesting that this time of year makes it so easy to reflect and be thankful because, well... that's what you do on Thanksgiving. I try so hard to not just be thankful for the easy stuff. You know....husband, health, family, job, friends.........etc. Those things are the easy things to be thankful for. Well, most days. :).

I then started to think about how I live the rest of the year. Some days an outsider might not think I was so filled with gratitude. I looked up several passages on thanks yesterday and one stood out because it warned about unthankfulness.

Romans 1:21
"For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened."

Ouch! This speaks to the believer. It speaks to me. What about all the rest of time when the spirit of Thanksgiving is not wafting throughout the air, facebook, the twitterverse? What about then? What about when my days are lousy, when the unexpected throws my plans all awry? How then do I glorify God and thank Him. Oh so many times I struggle with being thankful for the blessing, instead of focusing on the Blessor. And He is so worthy of all our praise and thanks. 

My precious father-in-love has been in the hospital for two months and five days. He came to see our sweet Caroline the day she was born, became ill at the hospital and has not gone home yet. Nor has he seen his sweet great-granddaughter yet. He is very ill. Yet, his spirits are always good. He is the toughest person I know. He keeps the doctors baffled daily on how he is still breathing after every hurdle he has been through. But he is. And he has not stopped thanking God or giving Him glory one time. Or sharing Him with those he comes in contact with. My sweet mother-in-love travels back and forth several times a day to see him (he has been in ICU a great deal of the time). It has been so hard on her, yet she doesn't complain. Nor does she fail to give thanks to God and says repeatedly it is all in His hands and we trust that even though we don't understand it now. What a beautiful blessing they are to all of us. Their strength, their devotion to each other, to our family is one of the most beautiful things I have ever experienced. At a time when it would be easy to be frustrated or their thinking become futile, they choose to thank God. They thank the Blessor for Who He is not what it seems He is doing. What a legacy.

I am sure the reason for that is the same reason we should all give thanks today.
1 Corinthians 15:57
"But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Because of the indescribable gift given us at Calvary, we can persevere through this tough old world with Hope, with Thanks giving because in the end, we win. So today I will be thankful for all the family, friends, etc... but I am asking God to show me how to be thankful in the hard stuff. Where is He in all of that, because you can know He is. Help me to see beauty in the ashes.

We will feast in a big way today. We will load up and take a sampling of all we have to my sweet father-in-love. And we will be thankful. Thankful for a God Who gives us each other and Who loves us.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Michelle

One Who Keeps His Promises

Does anyone other than me find it interesting that the Presidential election falls in the month that we are to celebrate and give thanks? I do. But I seem to find irony in most things. Must be the literature teacher in me……. “Students, always look for the irony.”

The responses and reactions of so many people to the election have been anything but thankful. I too, have fallen into that category. But I have been doing a lot of thinking over the last couple of days. What if the election had gone a different way? Would I be more thankful? Would I be happier? More content? More comforted? Sadly, I probably would. Why do I say sadly? (I am asking a lot of questions in this post J ) Because if that were true then I would be putting my hope, my confidence, my happiness in things of this world. As a Christian that is not how I am called to live. I am called to believe that He who knew what would take place on November 6, 2012 knew it before He laid the foundations of the world. He also knows what will happen down the road. Dare I say, it……… He allowed it. Daniel 2:21 states, “He changes time and seasons; He sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.”  

It is a different day that we live in compared to when our parents and grandparents were growing up. Morals are changing, diminishing practically.  Sometimes it seems like it just would have been better to have lived in a different time. But, now is the time ordained for me, for us who are here. I teach a Bible as literature class at my high school (public school, thank you very much. God is allowing His word to be read in public school!) and we just got through bringing the Israelites out of the wilderness into the Promised Land.  I can’t help but see the ironic parallel to our own situation.  God’s chosen people were being brought from slavery to march into The Promised Land. With a guarantee from the Man Himself it would happen victoriously. Over and Over He guaranteed it. Actually He promised it. Actually even better, He swore it. By Himself! Blows my mind. We swear on the Bible, swear to God, swear on someone’s grave, blah, blah, blah. He swears by Himself. Ought to be enough. Yet, it isn’t, just like it wasn’t for the Israelites – the chosen people. We too are the chosen ones, bought at a price, paid in Blood by His Perfect and Holy Son. We are guaranteed through that payment, victory to our Promised Land – eternity with Him. Yet, just like those who had received His covenant, witnessed unspeakable miracles, deliverance from bondage, we also “murmur in the desert”. We keep our eyes on our circumstances that seem so dire and overwhelming and unconquerable. When all He asks us to do is look to Him and trust He means what He says. We spend so much time debating the truth from our politicians and who tells the truth more, who will stand by their word more. Well, I for one want to start living as though my trust is in the One who stands by His Word because HE IS THE WORD!!!!!!! I say it and I mean it, but I want to live it. Live every day as though this world does not make or break me.

God’s Word is very clear the end times will not be pleasant. It will not be an easy time for Christians. We will suffer persecution, we will suffer trials. How are we to respond to that? James 1:2 “Count it pure joy, my brothers when you suffer trials of many kinds”

But why????? Because when we persevere under trial we “receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.” There He goes making more promises.

I think it is high time I start trusting the One who can deliver on His promises. It won’t be a politician with big promises who will save this country. God was, is and will be in control. “Yes, I am coming soon. Amen. Come Lord Jesus.”

God Bless America,

Michelle

Caroline Grace

Our baby came today!!!!!!!

She was born at 8:14, weighed 7 lbs 7 ozs, and was 19 1/2 inches long

 

The proud parents and sweet Caroline. Graham's birth story was  somewhat difficult and my kids had at first been told having another baby would not be advised with Laura's health situation. Lots of prayers later and the Lord had another plan. That Grace came today.  And was an answered prayer in so many ways.

 Isn't she beautiful? We are beside ourselves.

 Aunt Savannah and GiGi think she is the stuff!

 

 

Baby Girl is smitten with her new niece.

 

 I love this sweet girl so very much. She is so much more to me than just a daughter-in-love. She is a wonderful wife to our son, mother to our precious babies, friend, and prayer partner. Today she was our heroine.

 I can hardly stand the sweetness of this bowhead!

 

 Then PawPaw brought Big Brother in to see his baby sister!

 

 He was so excited about Baby Caroline, but he loves his mommy!

 

 Our boy and his precious family. How thankful and grateful to our God I am for them.

 

 I love this picture so much! He was so excited and kept yelling. "I have a baby sister!! Right now!" It was darling.

 PawPaw, GiGi and the baby. The brainwashing has already started!

 

 He didn't want to be far away from PawPaw when PawPaw had baby sister.

 

 It is hard to imagine that God gave us one precious daughter-in-love. But He gave us TWO!!! Christine is so sweet and helpful. I love her so much.

 Just seems like yesterday he was being born. Now he wears us all out just watching him.

 MawMaw loves her great grand-babies.

 

 Couldn't you just bite those cheeks!! She is beyond sweet.

 Uncle Josh has to share his September birthday with one more person now! I don't think he minds much.

 We couldn't believe how much dark hair she had. She is beautiful.

By the way, this is Big Brother Graham when he was born!!  Days like today remind me how thankful I am for my precious family. They are my heartbeat. Next to my Savior they are everything to me. The Lord answered prayer today in some mighty big ways. We are thankful for the blessing, but we worship the Blessor!