Reflections

Ahh! It is a new day. A Saturday. Breakfast has been served and kitchen cleaned up. Hubby gone to the office, since this is tax time and he has a taxing job. I am sitting here in my living room thinking how blessed I am. I have a wonderful Christain family, a nice home, a very devoted little dog (JoeJoe ) :) The Lord has really blessed me and will continue to. It is good sometime to take coffee in hand and just think if all the blessing we have. Tomorrow is the Lords day let us give Him the glory and honor He should get.

GOD IS GOOD!

Christmas, what a great celebration!

Luke 2:7 And she brouth forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for him in the inn.

Luke 2:11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

This the birthday of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus. This is the day we should always take time to thank God for sending His son. At Easter we will remember His death, which when He died for our sins. He could have come down at anytime, however, He chose and loved us so much that He took all our sins upon Himself. What an awsome God.

Aw, Christmas time when everyone is in a hurry trying to get what they think their loved ones will want. The stores are full of shoppers. Homemakers are busy making desserts and foods for Christmas Dinner. Somewhere there is a tree standing with all the lights and balls and pretty decorations on them. Gifts starting to fill the bottom under the tree. Gifts taken to the homeless or the shutins. Singing, of the wonderful Christmas songs. Chrisp air and laughter. Christmas is a wonderful time of year.

I truely enjoyed my Christmas. My favorite part is remember why we have Christmas ( as stated above). Then I love watching my grandsons open their gifts, with the excited glow on their faces. This Christmas, Taylor had given Shelly and Dennis ornaments he had made at school and there were somethings Shelly read that came with them. When she was reading that Taylor loved them, I almost cried. Sharing our love with each other is a part of Christmas also. However, we should do that all year long and I do believe that our family does that. I love when Logan and Taylor huge me and say they love me. Children are so great at accepting and love unconditionly.

I did it! I did it! I kept a secret for Danny. Shelly & Stephen thought I was going to tell Danny what I had gotten him even the day I bought it. I did not and it was a total surprise. He seems to really be enjoying his WII. He gave me a beautiful diamond heartshape necklace for Christmas.

I really enjoy being with all my children for Christmas. Shelly, Dennis, Logan, and Taylor... and Stephen and Nikki. The Lord has truely blessed me. I am looking forward to a wonderful and great New Year! Goodbye 2008 and Hello 2009....

Thanksgiving

oops, It has been awhile since I blogged. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

I wanted to take time to list things I am thankful for:
I am thankful for God giving me a christian family when I was two years old. I was put into the arms of John and Lula Kovac to become my new parents. I do not know where I would have ended up if not for them. It is funny how we do not appreciate people soon enough in life and then it can be too late. I am thankful that Dad and Mother were Christian and I know for sure where the are now. That gives me peace.

I am thankful that in my senior year God sent a man into my life that would later become my husband, Danny. God knew I was not going to find him myself so He put Danny right in my back yard and He had some other guys to dare Danny to ask me out. Well, to make a long story short, this year we have been married for 36 years. See sometime when you take a dare you live with for life. :) God sent me a fine christian man for a husband. He is so devoted to his Lord and his family. I love him with all my heart and soul.

I am thankful for my children, Shelly and Stephen. They are both a blessing in my life. I love them both so much. Shelly was such a precious little girl and is now a beautiful young woman. Shelly and I were too much alike in her younger years so we did have our ups and downs, we have always loved each other with all our hearts. Once when she was little, crawling, she climbed under the silver christmas tree and pulled it down on top of her. She then started pulling off the ornaments. I guess she did not like the mommy had done the tree.
Stephen was almost given to another couple at the hospital, because there was another Neal couple have a baby at the same time. They took him to the other couples room. They did not bring me a baby, so I ask and they found him in another room. The other couple had had twin girls and wondered why one of the was not a girl. I do not know where they had taken the other twin. Anyway, I am thankful that Stephen found his way back to us. I remember one time when we were watching TV, Stephen was setting in front of the TV so as we could not see it. We would ask him to move so we could see. That night he prayed for God to help all of us to see again.:)

I am thankful for my son-in- law, Dennis, he is such a fine christian husband and father. He is always there for Shelly and the boys. His love for them is so apparent. His love for the Lord is also strong. I could never had ask for a better son-in-law.

I am thankful for my precious daughter-in-law, Nikki. She is the perfect young woman for my son. She is such a hard worker and loves the Lord with all her heart. I admire her so much and am so thankful she make Stephen happy.

I am so proud to be a grandmother. God has blessed me so much with my two precious grandsons, Logan and Taylor. My heart just gets so excited when they hug me and say "I love you granny". They are so very special. They love unconditionally. I am thankful that we live close to them and can see them often. Not all grandparents are that lucky.
Logan has been baptisted and is in the 3rd grade. He is so growing up too fast. He is into sports and I love watching him play.
Taylor has a heart for Jesus also and probably in a few years will also except Jesus in his heart. I think he may also be into sports.

I am thankful for life. We are not promised tomorrow and we should live each day to our fullest.
I have so much to be thankful for that there is not enough time and space for it.
Most of all I am thankful for my salvation and the grace of God.

Mission Trips

If you have not ever been on a Mission Trip, you should go on as many as you can. They are great. I receive so much on these trips. The trip is not for me, but to serve God and others. But as the saying goes it is better to give than to receive. However, when you give of youself you receive back. The first Mission Trip I went on, we did Vacation Bible School and I rememember a young boy praying at the end of the week - Thanking God for sending the Missonary Ladies to teach them the Bible. I never thaught too much about what it means until that day. God can use us in so many ways.
A few weeks ago, we went to help build a church that had been distroyed in the storms. Everyone there seems to so apprecitate our helping. It is so neat to go and see other Christians working together for the Lord. We can make a difference. In todays world we need all the assurance we can get that there is more Christians out in the world working for the Lord. I need that trip soooo much, because it is so easy to listen to the news and start thinking how bad the world is. But God has His people everywhere. Sometimes we just need to know we have others that believe as we do.
With God we can do anything. Even speak out against the wrongs in our country today.
As for us, with God we will see it through.

May God bless each of you'

Scary Things

Everyone has had something scary to blog about. Here is my thoughts to add to those. Satan is alive and well.... He is a slow creeper into our lives. It is hard to beleive he started out as an angel. He knows all he needs to know about us in order to cause major problems in our lives. He will catch us at our most weakest moment, will entice us into doing what he wants. Satan does not have control of use, he can only have power that we allow him to have in our lives. We can not always tell at first that satan is leading us into a pit. He is very sly as he goes about his goal to lead us away from our Lord. The more he can keep us busy and tire us out, he can wear us down until we think the way he wants us to. He likes to make us think we need to keep up with the Jones, therefore, we think we need things that we can more than likely do without. Newer cars, bigger and better toys, larger houses, the list goes on and on. We get tempted with so many things in our lives that may take us away from doing what God would have us to do. No time for church, visitation, prayer, Bible reading, and the list goes on. Satan may use TV, games, movies, sports, and the list grows. Commentment to do what God wants of us takes work just like marriage takes work in order for it to grow. Satan know exactly when to sneek in and cause problems in our marriages, with our children, other family members, friends, our church family and most of all our walk with God.

It is scary just how much control we all give satan. Just think what it would be like if everyone gave that much control to God.

I have a long way to go to give God total control. It is hard to let go sometimes because we think we can handle all the things in our lives ourselves. We should all let go and let God have His desires done in our lives.

When satan is busy in our lives we need to get closer to God :

Matthew 16: 23 says Jesus turned to Peter and said, "Get away from me , Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God's."




Satan is always trying to get us to leave God out of our lives. May God bound him from us.



This is scary, however, there is great news. God lives and God reigns.

Frustration with computers

I hate to get frustrated, however, this past week has been one of those weeks. I had the grandsons here last week-end and could not get on the internet. Taylor loves to play games on the computer and so does his granny. well, I have not been able to get onto my internet. I love to check my e-mail, my blog and play games on the internet. I can hardly wait until sometime in November when I will be getting another computer at home. Then I will have to keep Stephen's gremlins away from the new computer. HaHaHa :)

Beauty From Within

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother's womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous-how well I know it.
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
You saw me before I was born,
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.
How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
They cannot be numbered!

Psalm 139: 13-15
_________________________________________________________________________
God's character goes into the creation of every person. When you feel worthless or even begin to hate yourself, remenber that God's Spirit is ready and willing to work within you. We should have as much respect for ourselves as our Maker has for us.
______________________From the New Living Translation______________________

Have you ever gone through things in life that made you feel unworthy, ugly and unlovable. I have and when that happened in my life at one point, God sent a friend (angel) to help me through that tough time. She had me read this passage over & over for a whole week, every day.
She with this passage helped me to see that God created me and loves me no matter what. Also that in God's eyes I am beautiful. I still have times I have to go back to this passage and remind myself how much God loves me and that I am His creation.

It does not matter what we look like on the outside, it is what is inside that counts. I have seen people in my life that would not have seemed pretty on the outside, but once I got to know them they were really beautiful people. I want in my life to strive to show God's beauty He has given me in the inside so people can see that beauty on the outside. We all have our problems and doubts about ourselves sometime or anouther. We should read this passage and remember God is our Almighty Creator and Loves each one of us no matter how we look on the outside or what we may have done in our lives. We are all God's and we are all beautiful to Him.

God is so good. Without Him, I would hate to think were my life would be.
Have a very blessed day!

We cannot let our past dictate how we are going to live from this forward. We just need to depend on God each day to guide us on the right path. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow will never be, so that leaves each day as a new day.

Thak you Lord for blessing me. Thank you for creating me in you image. My prayer is that I will show the beauty of you in myself each and everday. Continue to guide me and help me to completely let go of the past. I need to rely on You word when I am in doubt of myself and not to rely on other people who have brought me down in the past or in the future. I am yours O Lord and I want to live life in your Glory. Thank you, thank you. amen