Thoughts and musings on my recent trip to Mazatlan

How would you describe God work in/through the Church here in Mazatlan?

It has to be the Sunday morning service when they received the deed to the land for the new church building. To have something they prayed for IN FAITH for almost 20 years to finally become a reality gave me hope in issues that I have been praying about for many years also.

Also, when we were out inviting the locals in Bugambillias to the Festival of Hope the first day, we met a woman who told us she went to another church in town, but had had a vision that a church was coming to their area. She saw it clearly with mountains in the background, and assumed it would be on one side of the town, but Spirit and Truth will be on the other, which also will have mountains in the background. Sometimes we get “visions” from the Lord and then without all the details we use our human minds to fill in the details, without waiting for God to do that.

What did God teach you or reinforce to you?

Prayer is not only the work before the event, but it IS the work. At some events we went to I did not have an officially assigned job to do (which annoyed me immensely at first) so I gave myself the job of just praying the entire time. Angela Rankin gave me a little prayer card that I carried to near tatters the entire trip with various scripture to pray over the lost and that became my mission. Sometimes it may have looked like I was just walking around aimlessly or sitting like a lazy bum, but I was nearly always in prayer for the people around us.

In the devotional book, “My Utmost for His Highest” for October 17 (the first event and day I felt most uncertain about what I was supposed to be doing) reads, “There is nothing thrilling about a laboring man’s work, but it is the laboring man who makes the conceptions of the genius possible; and it is the laboring saint who makes the conceptions of his Master possible. You labor at prayer and results happen all the time from His standpoint. What an astonishment it will be find, when the veil is lifted, the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you have been in the habit of taking orders from Jesus Christ!”

What did you see God do through this week that can only be attributed to Him?

Rain, rain, go away! Nearly every time we had an event scheduled, it rained. Not little rain, but buckets beyond belief. In fact, Saturday morning we saw a scene straight out of the Weather Channel with cars driving in the road, while the water in the road was well over their tires! But, with only God, it blew over, and the Festival of Hope was able to proceed with sunshine and changed lives.

Sunday we went to Catarina, a small village tucked in a valley. Before the event was to take place, we saw dark clouds and lightening and heard thunder. But God not only kept the rain away, He gave us a rainbow the entire service to remind us He would keep it away!

Wednesday dawned with torrential rain again, winds like crazy (we later found out it was hurricane/tropical storm/whatever) and we again thought our outreach at el Rincon would be washed down the tubes for sure. It had already been rained out the day before. But sure enough, my God, who is bigger than the storms, provided for us and we ended up having a beautiful, blue sky afternoon with many kids and adults attending and receiving the life giving water they needed from Jesus.

An interesting note about the water. Johnny Paine, with whom no words can describe, reminded us specifically on Tuesday night that we should be very careful about praying for the rain to go away. They have been in a drought all summer and need the rain badly. So is it selfish of us to ask for the rain to stop so it will be easier to do what we want to do? Another spiritual lesson I see.

What habits or truths do you learn that you want to continue to apply when you go home?

Pray without ceasing for the lost. Yes, it was “easy” to see the lost on a mission field in a third world country. Is it as easy to see the lost souls at the grocery store, at my kids’ school, at our church? I want to keep that tattered card and pray when I am in the grocery, when I am eating lunch with my kids at school, and when I am at church. Better yet, I want to memorize the prayers/scripture, so it can just flow out of me.

Who do you need to tell these stories to?

My children. My Sunday School class. My church, Anyone who will listen to understand why, while there is a plethora of wealth and goodness you can get from God in church, in Bible Study, etc, until you go out and experience something like this, whether it be in a third world country, a poor Appalachian county, or wherever, I believe you cannot grasp all that the Lord has. Yes, I could have lived my life just fine with Jesus by my side had I not gone to Thailand and Mazatlan, but oh how much sweeter and richer my life is because of it! I think it should be a requirement for all members of the body, but at the same time, you must go with a willing heart. Willing to throw it all on the table and say, “Lord, here am I. Use me.”

O:)

Melissa

If you are interested in more details or pictures, e-mail me at bibliomaniac@bellsouth.net and let me know! I'll be happy to share!

The Party Girl

So tonight we celebrated the first full week of school for everyone, including Katie who has now gone a full 7 days with everyone in her class. We stayed up late watching a cute movie, so it was about 10:00 and I could tell Katie was SOOOO tired. Conversation:

Me: Boy Katie, this is really late for a kindergartener to be up!
Katie: It's only 10:00, that's not late. I've stayed up later before, like maybe 1:00 or 2:00.
Me: When?! When have you stayed up that late?
Katie: I don't know, maybe at a party or something like that (!)

Not a response I expected from my 5 y/o! Maybe a 15 y/o, after which we would have words, but I'm not really sure what kinds of "parties" Katie has been to where she stays up that late! Ha!

Good laugh for a good night!

O:)
Melissa

One thing I will miss....

Yesterday I told Katie that after the girls got on the bus we would go on a walk/bike ride, then go to Kroger to go grocery shopping. You would have thought I told her we were going to Disney because she got so excited! Indeed, Super Target and Kroger are her two favorite places to go, so it was really no surprise to me that she would be so thrilled. Even last night when she was getting ready for bed she said she could not wait to hurry up and get up....this is one thing I will miss. It may be the last grocery run during the day that we have together for a while....

O:(
Melissa

Staycation #27

I've given up trying to keep these numbered in the right order because I keep forgetting one, or adding one after the fact, so I shall now assign random numbers to what is left of our few staycations for the summer. (Did you see in the paper that "staycation" is now an official word in Webster?!)

On a hot summer day this July we headed up to Carnton Plantation in Franklin, TN. This was the site of the Battle of Franklin practically right on their front yard. Their "claim to fame" is two-fold about the Civil War. First of all, the house served as the largest field hospital in the area for the confederate army. Second of all, the family donated two acres of their land to serve as a Confederate Cemetery. There are over 1500 soldiers buried there in an orderly formation. Cool and interesting stuff! But I'm not writing about that, I'm writing about our trip!

We arrived in plenty of time of time to tour the grounds before our house tour. There was the typical smoke house, slaves quarters, spring house, etc. The spring house was where we had an interesting situation. As you may or may not know, spring houses served as the owners refrigerators and were located by a river/creek so the cool water could run through the bottom of the house. This then kept the food cooler in the heat of the summer. Well, at this spring house it was on the river, but it was hard to tell because there was beautiful green algae all over the top of it. Unfortunately Katie found where the land ended and the river started when she took one step too close and fell right in! Bless her heart, she was standing there, knee deep in the water and it surprised so much she just stood there crying her head off. Finally we got her out and headed back up to the visitors center restroom to see what we could do. She was totally drenched from her knees down. Unfortunately since my children are older now I don't keep "that box" with extra clothes in the car anymore, but I sure could have used it that day! There was nothing to dry her pants off with and nothing I could do to even try and remove the water from them enough to make them wearable without being horribly uncomfortable. Since they were jeans I knew they would take forever to dry, even in the heat, so I made the executive decision to just chop them off. Now, I know there are those out there reading this who might tsk tsk at that, but I made that decision based on, a) the jeans were not going to fit much longer anyhow b) I was more concerned about her than the jeans and c) I was not going to have our fun day ruined by her complaining all day long. Each mom would probably have made her own decision in that moment, but that was mine and the girls thought it was absolutely hysterical. I did, however, remind them that should they ever get any bright ideas of their own about chopping their clothes off they better come and ask me first!

After we got that taken care of, we had a wonderful day. They were great in the tour, even if it did get a little long on history. They were totally grossed out and cool with the blood stains still seen today on the floors. We walked through the cemetery and paid our respects, then headed to Pinkerton Park for a picnic and playground fun. That ended up in more mess with wet sand and yucky shoes. Alas, what is summer for?

We have just a few fun things left before school starts, but my oh my what an awesome summer this has been! I was thinking today (as I was writhing in pain with a migraine!) that of all my 40+ summers, this has definitely been the best one I can ever think of!

O:)
Melissa

Another Staycation somewhere in between the others!

Ok, I knew there was another thing we did in between the others but couldn't find the pictures so I figured we didn't. Well, that's because the pictures were hiding somewhere else! Anyhow! Now we have a picture!

On some day in July we headed over to Opry Mills for a FREE MOVIE at Regal Cinemas. On Tues and Thurs in the summer at select theatres they have a free G and PG movie at 10:00. On this day we saw "Flicka" which was a sweet horse/growing up movie.

After the movie we ate at the mall, shopped a little, then decided we need to get a treat at the Apple Barn of donuts and apple fritters. I think I've just decided to toss the diet thing out until the girls back in school! It was a full day and a road trip of sorts, but it was a fun time again!

O:)
Melissa

VBS at Crocodile Dock

My little Yellow Alligator Group

We had a wild and crazy last week at Crocodile Dock! Roger and I were crew leaders for Preschool Night VBS and had another amazing week of watching the little ones come unto Him. Roger worked with 4 year olds while I had a group of 5 year olds that included Katie. We went to Gator Games, Crawfish Crafts, Bible Bayou, Chadder Theatre, and Worship Rally. Every year at this time I always say I'm not doing it again, but I just love Bible School from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet so I'm sure I'll be doing something!

O:)
Melissa

Free Chocolate!!!

Just for the record, I am a lover of chocolate and continue to find it way too addicting. In the past I have leaned to it for help on bad days, good days, any kind of days, but thankfully the LORD is in the process of freeing me from that and I'm finally getting, after 40+ years, that HE is the only one who can help in times of trouble. Alas, chocolate is still yummy and free chocolate is even better.

If you go here you can sign up to get a coupon for a free chocolate goody from Mars, but only on Friday's starting at 9:00 am Eastern. Every Friday through October they are giving away 250,000 coupons for a free candy bar in order to fulfill what they call the Mars Real Chocolate Relief Act. Says the website, "Times are tough and we at Mars want to help. How, you ask? Every Friday through October, Mars will give away free* real chocolate to 250,000 people. That means you can enjoy your favorite Mars' candy brands—M&M'S®, SNICKERS®, TWIX®, 3 MUSKETEERS®, MILKY WAY® and DOVE®— for free*"

So, go. Get a coupon, and enjoy free chocolate! Just make sure you aren't using to fill a need that only Jesus can!

O:)
Melissa

Staycation Event #5

Man we have been busy bees this summer! This event was lots of fun because we all 5 got to go. This is a real rarity around here because poor old SH has to work all summer while we get to play and our weekends are usually busy. But he wanted to go on one of our fun things too, so we saved this one for a Saturday. On Saturday, July 11 (our anniversary, actually!) we all went to Mammoth Cave up in Bowling Green. We arrived around 11:30, had a picnic lunch, then the kids worked on activity books about the cave while we waited for our Historic Tour to start at 2:00. The tour was 2 hours long and took us to all sorts of interesting places. We had just read a book called "Journey to the Bottomless Pit" about a slave who explored and found many of the sites we saw that day. There were huge caverns and small places to fit through. In fact, at one point Katie was the only one who didn't have to bend down, she was the perfect size to fit! We all had lots of fun and the girls want to go back and do it again so we can do all the tours.

On a funny note.....in our younger and more wild years Roger and I did the Wild Cave Tour, where you have a helmet, headlight, knee pads, elbow pads, etc and go in the little squeezy places to see more remote parts of the cave. We told the girls about this and explained when we saw a little crack, we would go investigate it and follow way off the beaten path. So on this day they had a kids version of that called a Trog Tour where the kids have all the gear on too. Their group passed us at one point with their headlamps on then went down some small little ditch to explore some small trail elsewhere. Anyhow, Katie got to calling them the "light people" and whenever we saw a little crack or hole, she would say, "Oh, that is definately a place for the light people." Over and over again for an hour and a half! It was so hysterical!

Next up, Carnton Plantation!

O:)
Melissa

Vacation Events #1 and #2

Our Vacation Event #1 was a visit to the "Campbell Cabin" in North Carolina. It wasn't really called that, but since it was a Cabin and we were going with 13 other Campbells (Roger's family), we just got to calling it the Campbell Cabin. It was for just that week anyhow!

We had lots of fun with cousins, aunts, uncles, in-laws, etc. We went to Chimney Rock (picture above), Carowinds, tubing, shopping in quaint Burnsville, NC, making smores, watching movies, swimming, and playing Xbox. Ahh, the memories made for my girls are priceless!

Vacation Event #2 was a visit to Louisville, where my parents live. We were there for several days over the 4th and got again play with more cousins and uncles and grandmas and granddaddies. My niece Brooke stayed a few extra days too with us and the girls had all sorts of fun at the Zoo, Art Sparks, California Pizza Kitchen, and just playing Barbies.

After a 3 week whirlwind it was nice to stay home and chill out! If you are interested in seeing more pictures, e-mail me and I will send you the Snapfish link. If you don't have my e-mail, leave me a comment with yours and I'll send them on.

O:)
Melissa

Staycation Event #4

This fun activity was the I Spy Downtown Franklin tour for kids! Our family, along with L, J, J, & Lil' Miss headed to downtown Franklin on yet another hot and drippy day to see the city through a child's eye. Each child had their own worksheet packet to try and answer. There was a guide who gave clues on some of the harder ones. We got to do a crayon rubbing and design our own Christian doors. You will have to do it yourself to see how many owls there are around the square!

After the tour, the others headed home and we went to eat an early lunch at Dumplins, a real girly place with awesome chicken salad. And then, of course, we had to walk through the toy store and see what interesting things they had these days. Luckily we were able to get out without actually buying anything.

That was a full day for us! Stay tuned for our real Vacation, not just a Staycation!

O:)
Melissa

Staycation Event #2

Pardon me for getting my events out of order, I forgot about this one before I posted the other one! Anyhow, our second fun Staycation event was going to the the HiWay 50 Drive In down in Lewisburg! Roger and I went to a drive in once a very long time ago and I have been to one or two as a child, but I could not wait to take my girls to one. This theatre is about 45 mins away and a very easy drive. We got to see Up and Night at the Museum 2. I really didn't expect everyone to stay awake the whole time, but they sure did! During the first movie the girls were nestled down in the van, but it got very cold outside. So during the next one we all piled in the back of the van. It was quite squished up, but we survived and got lots of snuggling in! We left about midnight and got home around 1:00 AM.

I would love to take them back again this summer if we have another weekend we can go and the movies are acceptable. It was also dirt cheap, $6 for adults and $3 for kids.

I highly recommend it!

O:)
Melissa

Hometown Swap

We will now take a short break from our Staycation information to let you know about my Hometown Swap thingie I did. Somehow I found Shannon at The Nuthouse and decided to take part in her Hometown Swap. You can read about it here. I got the pleasure of sending some thing from here to Rachael in Washington (as in the state!) but it was harder than I thought! I decided to send her a Titans tshirt and a little country goodie from the Back Door, a little antique shop here in town.

Today I received my package all the way from Natalie in Austin, TX! It was full on fun goodies like steak spices, gingerbread pancake mix, and some sweet BBQ sauce. Because I am a goofball and can't figure out how to put pictures elsewhere in one blog, you'll have to see her goodies above the Hometown Swap button. Anyhow, thanks, Natalie, for all the yummies! We can't wait to see how they taste!

O:)
Melissa

Staycation Event #3

Rebecca headed off to CrossCamp, our church camp for 3rd-6th graders

Our #3 event was swimming at our local Rec Center pool. It was a really hot day and I spent most of it hiding under towels and reading a good book. (I sunburn so easily, even with tons of sunscreen on!) I only had Leah and Katie with me since Rebecca was at camp. They really had a fun time, but did not like "break time" every hour. Below is a picture of them "on break".



I did get in the water some, but there were hundreds of kids and it made it hard to even move around. It made our little neighborhood pool look really nice, since there are usually not too many people in it.

Stay tuned for more fun!

O:)
Melissa

Staycation Event #1 -- The Nashville Zoo

My three monkeys at the zoo

Last summer, after we returned from Disney (one of the BEST vacations ever!), most of my girls summer was wasted vascillating from the TV to the computer. That was fine with me at the time, they stayed "happy" and out of my hair. They are not too big on playing outside, unless we are at the pool, which we did at least once a week. Other than that, inside homebodies.

This summer I determined was going to be different! They are older now (9, 7, and 5) so I figured we could do a lot more. Katie is transitioning out of naptime, which I have mixed feelings about, but it certainly does open up our days not taking that afternoon nap into consideration! So we have our summer calendar jam packed with fun things to do, little things, big things, around the house things, and of course the pool every chance we get!

On Wednesday, June 3, we had our first Staycation event of 2009 -- the Nashville Zoo. This was a big, big trip for us, THE FIRST TIME IN 10 YEARS WITH A STROLLER!!! It was so nice to have the freedom to just walk wherever, not worry about leaving stuff behind, etc. We did pack lunches, but they were very small and not in need of refrigeration. We had lots of fun, despite the heat. One of our favorite, absolutely hysterical things that happened was that at the "Wings of the World" bird show, one of the birds acutally flew off out of the ampitheatre! The host had just been talking about how nothing can keep them from flying off, but that they are trained to follow a certain pattern and then, WHOOSH! There that silly Diego went. They could do nothing to reign him back in, so they had to cancel the whole show. That was a bummer, because we wanted to see more birds, but she said it had something to do with the fact that once one bird "flew the coop" the others might get keen on it and fly away too. We saw lots of cool animals including funny looking zebras, anteaters, meerkats, boring, lazy tigers, elephants, giraffes, ostriches and some very noisy gibbons!! All in all, it was a good, hot day. We left the house about 9:45 and got home after 4:30. Whew!

Stay tuned for more fun and exciting events!

O:)
Melissa

The last lunch together on April 24

More than likely, from now on for a very long time, I will not be eating lunch with any of my children on April 24, or the last Friday in April. Everyone will be in school. Did you get that? Everyone! For so many years now I have taken it for granted that on non-preschool days I will always have someone to eat lunch with. But not after August 2009. I will be eating a lot of lunches by myself. And that will be a problem for me. I mean, who would not want to eat lunch with this precious jewel?

Today we have been playing house, which means I clean up. She has been playing the sorting game, by dumping out neatly organized boxes of My Little Pony stuff, Littlest Pet Shop stuff, Soda Pop Pet stuff, and other numerous small toy stuff and reorganizing them in another, different way that makes sense to her. She was the teenager and was 18 and I was the mom and was 27. Go figure.

On an unrelated subject, for anyone who was been looking for me on FB, I am officially off. It was like a drug to me and I have gone cold turkey. I unfriended everyone (no offense, please!) and logged myself out. Some days I miss it, but I feel like I have been given a gift of at least another a hour every day.

O:)
Melissa

Sandals of Peace

In the midst of yesterdays ultra cool God is So Here experience at breakfast, there was also another thing happening that I didn't really get until later and I want to write about it so I don't forget about it.

A little background: I had gotten new white Sunday sandals for the girls earlier this week and Katie had hers on at breakfast yesterday.

So when I was going over the armor of God, I was talking about the sandals of peace, ready to share the gospel and Katie jumped up and said, "Just like these sandals!" I love almost 5 year olds!

Later that day on several occasions when things were a little ugly she would look at me and say, "Mommy, do we need my sandals of peace?"

I just absolutely LOVE 4 and 5 year olds and their complete innocence, yet wisdom and simplicity that we need to hang onto as adults.

Do you need your sandals of peace today? I know a sweet girl who can share hers!

O:)
Melissa

And a child shall lead them

Man oh man do I love my Jesus! Let me tell you what HE did this morning! I'm not sure where to begin, but suffice it to say that there are some issues God is really working with me on and, as with anything, there are times I feel more strengthened to fight the enemy and some days it just doesn't seem worth it. (Satan likes those days) I was having one of those days yesterday and last night and feeling down in the deepest pit. I was crying out for help this morning in my sweet QT, reading over some scripture, trying to find something that I could not find. Still not feeling like God was listening (even though I know HE was) and cried for the Spirit to groan for me (Romans 8:26). A while later things started hopping around the house and sweet little Leah came down. I was looking all over Habakkuk trying to find what I was looking for but I couldn't. Then I remembered about Haggai and that is exactly what the Lord was trying to point me to. More on that in another post, I need to muse on it a while. So, the morning progress with thankfully not too much trouble and blah blah and we are eating breakfast. The conversation moves around to homework and practicing Bible verses for Bible drill. All of a sudden Rebecca jumps out of her chair and says, "The armor of God, Ephesians 6:10-20" I just sit there stunned (the Lord is using that with me too) then say, "Well, what is it?" But she reminded me it was just a key passage and she just had to know the reference. So I proceeded with great flair to go over each part, literally putting it on all of us and showing how to apply it. Then when I got to the Belt of Truth Rebecca jumps up again and says, "Just like the Voice of Truth" (on their musical for choir they are working on at church). She is tearing the living room apart looking for the CD and finds it and we fix it to #13. Pow! Right there GOD socks it in my house and flows down THE TRUTH over me... Oh, what I would do to have the kind of faith it takes To climb out of this boat I'm in Onto the crashing waves To step out of my comfort zone Into the realm of the unknown Where Jesus is, And he's holding out his hand But the waves are calling out my name and they laugh at me Reminding me of all the times I've tried before and failed The waves they keep on telling me time and time again "Boy, you'll never win, you'll never win." But the voice of truth tells me a different story the voice of truth says "do not be afraid!" and the voice of truth says "this is for my glory" Out of all the voices calling out to me I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth Oh, what I would do to have the kind of strength it takes To stand before a giant with just a sling and a stone Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors shaking in their armor Wishing they'd have had the strength to stand But the giant's calling out my name and he laughs at me Reminding me of all the times I've tried before and failed The giant keeps on telling me time and time again "Boy you'll never win, you'll never win." But the stone was just the right size to put the giant on the ground and the waves they don't seem so high from on top of them looking down I will soar with the wings of eagles when I stop and listen to the sound of Jesus singing over me But the voice of truth tells me a different story The voice of truth says "do not be afraid" And the voice of truth says "this is for my glory" Out of all the voices calling out to me I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth (you can listen here to the whole song by Casting Crowns) It was all I could do to just sit and bawl my eyes out. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for groaning for me. Thank you, Jesus, for loving me and putting up with me, no matter how many times I fail. Thank you, Jesus, for reminding me about the voice of truth and belt of truth I need to keep around me. Thank you, Jesus, for using my precious challenge child to send me where I needed to be, even without knowing what she was doing. Can't you just imagine the angels waiting breathlessly after she jumped up and said that about the armor of God? Like when you are giving someone a really awesome present and you can't wait for them to open it? How many times do we do things or say things the Lord wants us to, without even knowing what we are doing? How many times do we not heed the Lord's nudging and someone, even a stranger, misses what may be exactly what they need for that moment? I don't know if the Lord nudged Rebecca this morning to jump up and say that, or if she just did it to show me she is one step closer to getting her verses learned. But she did, and now I won't ever be the same.

Isaiah 11:6 ... a little child will lead them.

O:) Melissa

Go Tell

Sometime before Christmas I got an e-mail from my friend B. who I met in Thailand. She is actually a missionary in China and has a precious heart for the Lord and passion for her people group. She routinely sends out e-mails about what all she and her family and teammates are doing. A few months ago she and her teammate C. where out walking through one area that is very mountainous (see above, that is where they were!). They walked most of the way, except for a few times they got "divine" rides with passersby. They went to visit the villages where there are very few believers and spread the Word and encourage believers who were already there.

I used to simply read about stories like this and think "Wow, I can't believe it's really like this today." But having there, I can now believe it. Going overseas on a mission trip to a third world country will change everything about you....or even going on one here on this side of the seas! But that is a simply a side commercial, not what I was planning to say here.

Shortly after I got her message and read her amazing stories, Katie and I were sitting at the table after the girls got on the bus. She was coloring, I was drinking coffee and recovering from the morning mad rush, and she started singing for the 500th time "Go, Tell it on the Mountain..." POW! I have sung that song thousands of time in my 40+ years, but that day it made sense....that is what B. and C. and all the others one out there are actually doing...even K. who is going to East KY is doing that. It was quite a visionary moment for me. Am I going "over the hills and everywhere"? Will my daughters one day? Will you?

O:)
Melissa

God and the Christmas Tree

When we moved into our current house in 2003, one of the things we loved were the 8' ceilings downstairs. My extra tall SH especially enjoyed having more head room. I never even considered it to be a problem until that December when we put our Christmas tree up. I had always thought we had a 7.5' tree, however the poor thing looked totally lost in the corner, all shrunk up and shriveled in height. I figured I might like a new tree that was taller, but since there are no 8' trees commonly found, I knew it would be a challenge. Besides, it didn't really bother SH, so I just keep putting the little guy up.

Well, after 19 years of enjoying of enjoying this tree and some mighty interesting work of God, we bought a new one after Christmas for a steal of a deal. I was very excited to get it home and set up, to see what it looked like and make sure all the lights worked. It was also a 7.5' tree. Well low and behold that new tree towered above the old one! At that very moment, five years after living in this house and having the old tree for 19 years, it occurred to me that our old tree was only a 6.5' or 7' tree!!! Did it ever dawn on me that if I had a 7.5' tree and 8' ceilings that maybe there wouldn't be such a large gap from the star to the ceiling? NO! Did it ever hit me that SH and the tree were about the same size? NO! So all this time I have been thinking I have a 7.5' tree when it was really only 6.5' or 7' !!!!

How often do we stay in one place because we think we can't do any better, only to realize when we do break out we truly can do better! And it's not always as painful as you think it may be to break out. Or maybe it is painful, but in a good way, with double the blessing: wounds healed by Jesus and the new thing!

I just love my Jesus and the way He speaks to me!

O:)
Melissa

Yes I did!

In case all you fans who read my blog are breathlessly awaiting, yes I did get a new mp3 player for Christmas! Woo-hoo! Jesus, worship and scrapbook once again! My Fuze is actually red not pink since pink was hard to find after Christmas. But man do I love it! I even learned how to download a video on it!

Got a post about God and the Christmas tree soon.

O:)
Melissa