Loyal Reader Award

I am a very new blogger, just trying to learn about blogging and journal some of my thoughts and prayers, as well as share others stories by reblogging.  I have a great time reading others’ blogs with the stories, poetry, helpful information, devotions etc.  They have all been a real blessing to me!

As a new blogger I was very surprised and very honored to be given this award by Coach Muller!  His blog is Good Time Stories, http://goodtimestories.wordpress.com/.  I encourage you to check it out!  I am sure you will enjoy what you find there and want to return over and over again.

Thank you Coach Muller!

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Here are some of the people / pages that I think are great nominations for this award along with the rules of acceptance:

1. Display this award on your blog.

2. Thank the person who sent it to you.

3. Answer a rhetorical question of the authors choosing.

4. Send on the award to everyone you consider a loyal reader.

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The Question: If I am a tree, will I become a book or furniture?

My Answer:  A book so I could entertain people, teach children to read, educate people and share the word of God with others.

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My List of Award Nominees

http://thesanctuaryofmyheart.com/

http://pacificparatrooper.wordpress.com/

http://unhiddenlight.com/

http://kattermonran.com/   Alastair’s Blog

http://desirayl.wordpress.com/  The Devotion Cafe

http://justjohnboy.com/  JustJohn

When A Soldier Cries

This poem really touched my heart and brought me to tears. I have a special place in my heart for our military members for all they sacrifice for our great country, most especially our Wounded Warriors and those who gave the ultimate sacrifice of their lives.

Chris Martin Writes

My latest. This one is called When A Soldier Cries.

When a Soldier Cries
Copyright 2013 Chris Martin

A tattered picture, nearly faded to white
Faces of the ones for whom a soldier fights
In the empty silence of a world so far away
On the rocky ground, the only place to lay

A father dreams of home, family, and friends
In war, there is no guarantee he will see them again
Thunder roars with fury, lightning burns the darkened skies
The mighty angels shed a tear, when a soldier cries

She walks across the street, a young child stands alone
Memories haunt her dreams of the daughters she left at home
She tries to smile, show happiness through the tears
Although she wants to help, the child retreats in fear

At night she dreams of home, bedtime hugs and kisses
She prays to one day have again, everything she…

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Will Time Heal?

This beautiful poem is one of many poems and devotionals written by my dear friend Skye. Skye is such a blessing to me with everything she writes and more than that, she is an encouragement to me in my walk with the Lord. I value her friendship, I hope you will visit her at The Sanctuary of My Heart and at her photo blog Oh the Things We Shall See. I know you will love them both!

Messages Everywhere

 

Psalm 6: 2-4

² Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint;  heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony. ³ My soul is in deep anguish.     How long, Lord, how long? ⁴ Turn, Lord, and deliver me;   save me because of your unfailing love.

At the beginning of this Psalm, David is praying for the Lord to have mercy on him because he is suffering from a serious illness from which he believes he will not recover.  He talks about his inner self being disturbed and troubled and he prays for God to speak words of Peace to him.

As I read it, the thought crossed my mind that dealing with depression and loneliness feels exactly like that; troubled and disturbed, sad, always hoping for something to change; for someone to come along and  make those feelings all go away.  Of course, no person can “make it go away”‘ but only be an encouragement to you as you try to find peace. The Lord, however, CAN make it go away, but not without effort on our own part, of course.

As David did in the Psalms, we must go to God in prayer and seek his help.  If we are sincere in our requests to Him, He will answer those requests in His perfect timing.  He will direct us to His word , specifically to verses that speak directly to us the words he wants us to hear.   He will place what I call his “earth angels” on our path who encourage us.  I have personally experienced that in my life in several different ways.  He put many people on my path; new friends who have been and continue to be an encouragement to me in many different areas of my life.  Over and over, I will hear messages repeated, either in sermons, on the radio, or in other venues.  I read them in blogs on the internet, in books I am reading,  all of which are referring to different issues which are on my mind.

Some would say that it is just coincidence  but no, that is the Lord working on me.   As I draw ever closer to Him, I hear his words more and more frequently it seems.  In part, I believe, it is because I recognize them more quickly;  but also now that the Lord has my attention, He is making sure He keeps it.

Through this whole process I have seen changes in how I feel about myself and about my life, both past and present. I see my priorities beginning to change, my energy level returning.  One event that really showed me those changes happened a few weeks ago when the Lord led me to be able to write and give a eulogy at the funeral of my former husband; something that a few months ago I could not have done and would not have done.

It is an ongoing journey, a lifelong one, this walk with the Lord and I am so thankful I am able to take the journey and walk the path with Him.

Stop Your Quacking!!

A beautiful story of the love between a mother and her children, and the actions of people who understand that special love that is like no other.

My Good Time Stories

I was reading through a few stories on truthbook.com and found a story that has been one of my favorites for quite some time. I decided to pass this story along. It is a beautiful little story that shows us the value of life and the depth of a mother’s love for her children.

It was a typical hectic wet spring Saturday and I was driving to a local department store in search of a baby shower gift for my daughter, she was having my first Grandchild. I told my husband I would only be gone a short while cause I kind of knew what I wanted to buy. As most rainy spring Saturday’s would have it, the traffic was heavy and everyone seemed to be in a mad hurry.

As I was leaving BABIES ARE US, and scampered across the parking lot to my car, I noticed a large…

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Amazing Grace

Sung by an amazing 7 year old Gospel singer!

The Joy and Benefits in Losing Weight

Just about 13 months ago, I embarked on a mission to lose a large amount of weight and get healthier.   I have been trying to do this for decades, trying many different fad diets, etc,  I would lose 10 lbs or so and very quickly gain it back, getting more and more discouraged over the years.

Last year, right after I turned 66 years old and was semi-retired, I made up my mind that once and for all I was going to lose this weight if it killed me–not literally, lol.     Over the past year I am proud to say that I have lost a total of 57 lbs so far.   I started out with a couple of different goals.  The first was to lose 50 lbs by my 67th birthday–I made that goal 2 weeks before my birthday which was on May 10th.  Secondly I chose two weight goals; one realistic one that I should be able to reach and then one 15 lbs lighter that is what I apparently should weigh according to the charts.  I am happy to say that I am only 1 lb away from reaching the realistic goal and 16 lbs from the the lighter weight!

How did I do it after decades of trying unsuccessfully?   First I prayed and gave it to God, just as I did when I quit smoking.  I asked Him to provide me the encouragement to keep at it.  Second, I started watching portion sizes, cut back on my carb intake and also substituted unhealthy carbs with healthy carbs.   A lot of vegetables of all varieties  and of course my proper amount of proteins from many different sources and I took a multivitamin every day. Basically I was loosely following the diabetic diet.   In addition I have been making sure I get enough water intake the last few months at the suggestion of a friend.  Yes, it is true that eight 8-oz. glasses of water is what we all need daily and I have found it is not as hard to do that as I thought.

The outcome of all of this has been beyond what I expected!   God gave me the encouragement by way of placing many people on my path who were cheering me on, motivating me and making suggestions on exercise, another friend who took the time to go over all of my medications and their side effects, etc. and make suggestions. On his advice I took all my medications first to my pharmacist to review for possible negative interactions, etc.  The pharmacist was pretty much in agreement with my friend.  I then took all the information to my doctor and she spent a great deal of time going over all the suggestions and also was in agreement with the suggestions.

A couple of years ago I was diagnosed with type II diabetes–my blood sugars are now within the normal range so a medication for that was cut back to just a preventive dose.  One of my heart medications had been increased to help with another issue besides the heart disease, 6 months ago that dose was cut in half because  the other issue resolved itself with the weight loss and exercise, and just this week it was cut in half again to a lower dose than I have taken in over 20 years!  And for the past 6 months my cholesterol values are well within normal range, enough so that my medication for that was first cut in half and now has been eliminated altogether.   Hallellulia!!

One of the suggestions made by my friend and approved by my doctor was to have a Vitamin D test done.  That was done and as he suspected, I do I have a deficiency so I have added a Vitamin D tablet to my regimen.  With the addition of the Vitamin D there should soon be some other noticeable changes as well.

I know this sounds kind of boring  but I shared it with you so you can see what wonderful changes take place with the alterations in eating habits, loss of weight and more exercise!  The changes so far are amazing! It is so exciting and, in fact, it is a wonderful feeling when my kids say to me–“Mom I have never seen you this size ever!” and they are right, they never have!
I know I should have taken all these steps many years ago but it is NEVER TOO LATE!   At age 67 I am back to where I was when I started high school!

I encourage everyone who is trying to lose weight and get healthier to keep up the good work!   I am here for you 100% to encourage you and help you move forward.  I thank everyone who played a role in keeping me on the right path and who are still keeping me there.   I thank God for placing all these angels on earth on my path as I journeyed to my goals.   I couldn’t have done it otherwise!!!! I hope within a few days to lose that last pound to make it to my first goal and hopefully  fairly soon to be able to report I made my final goal as well!

Courage, Strength and Forgiveness

Some time ago I wrote a story here about my struggle with forgiveness.  I’ve also written about courage and strength as well in another story.    God has guided me through all three of these things and many more as well.

Today I want to share with you how my faith in the Lord  worked to get me through an experience I had not expected I would ever be able to do.

Recently my ex-husband became very ill and on June 27th he passed away suddenly   Before he died, the Lord  put a burden on my heart that I must tell him that I had forgiven him and with the help of my daughter I was able to let him know.  I was unable to tell him in person myself because of the distance he was from me and talking on the phone was not an option for him.

My children asked me to speak at Joe’s funeral and I agreed to do so.  I would like to share with others some of the words I spoke at his funeral, not to bring any attention on myself, but in the hope that it will help others who are in similar situations.   A lot of the eulogy I wrote is about family stories and I will not include all that, but I want to share the opening and closing paragraphs.  Many of my friends were praying for me as I flew back to CT for his funeral and I am very appreciative of all those prayers.

Many of you probably wonder how or why I am here to share a few  stories about Joe since we have been divorced for many years and quite frankly, when  my daughter asked me to do this my first reaction was “ARE YOU SERIOUS?  I am NOT a public speaker!   That is why I wrote my words out and I am reading them to you.  When I talked about it with my son  and with a couple of close friends, I was encouraged to do it.  As my daughter said, “ Mom,  you and Dad were a big chunk of each other’s lives.  Who knows him better?”  Almost half of our lives we were dating and then married—a total of 32 years!    I prayed about it and then I remembered about two verses in scripture that mean a lot to me, enough so that I recently wrote a post on my blog about courage and strength.  The first is Phil 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me which I have adopted as my life verse.  The other  is Psalm 31:24 – “Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.”   With the guidance and strength from the Lord, I will do my best to speak clearly and share with you some of the fond memories I have of him.

And now the ending:

Joe played many different roles in all of our lives. We all will remember many different things about him – he was definitely a character!   Some things were hurtful, yes.  But I have found in my walk with the Lord that forgiveness is something we all need to do and God tells us in Ephesians 4:32  And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

This is another verse that God put on my heart to get my attention.    A long time ago, I forgave Joe in my heart for the things that went wrong in our life together, but I had never told him that.  We remained friendly towards each other for years.  God put a real burden on me that I needed to let Joe know that I had forgiven him before either of us would be at total peace.  With my daughter’s help, I was recently able to give him the message that yes I had indeed forgiven him.  I am told he had a great sense of relief when she told him what I had said.   I only wish I had told him those words sooner.

I was told that Joe went home to be with the Lord with a smile on his face because he had accepted the Lord as his savior quite a while ago.  I know that smile was because the Lord held out his arms to Joe and welcomed him home.  I also suspect that right behind the Lord waiting for him was his wife Judy and our son Joey.  He is now in his new and perfect body and living in paradise.

To my children and granddaughters: He loved you with all he had in him and he will remain alive in your hearts forever because of the memories he left with you.

Rest in Peace Joe. 

* I have removed the names of my children and grandchildren in this other than my son Joey who is no longer with us and the same with Joe’s second wife Judy who has also passed on.