August 11

Hi friends, I just want to share my good news with you! I just received an invitation from Julie Miller Gorman to share my testimony on her radio program on August 11, 2010.

His Love Extended - CWA Radio | Internet Radio | Blog Talk Radio

www.blogtalkradio.com

Keep watching this blog for more information!

You carry the burden of grief, and for a while it obscures everything around you, until slowly, the burden begins to shrink inside your heart, instead of blocking out everything else in the world and finally it folds in on itself. And while it still remains a part of you, as you knew it always would, it made room in your heart for hope.

I found this excerpt from a book I had been reading, I wrote it down, but I forgot to write down the author's name. I am currently hunting through the books so that I can give the author full credit, but until I find it, I hope you read it and it speaks to your heart as much as it did mine!

The things God taught me in the garden.

As I was out working in my garden today, my mind was spinning. We have had rain this week, and very humid temperatures. Not only has my garden grown, the weeds have nearly overtaken it. I began at one side of the garden in search of the cucumbers that were very obvious on Sunday afternoon; I could not believe that the weeds were at least a foot high. How is that possible? I have worked out in that for hours on end when I have the time, and it looked great. The rain hit, and the garden is now overrun with weeds.

I was talking to the Lord as I bent over to pull the vines and bushes from around the onions. Lord, could you just make the rainfall on the veggies and not the weeds? Then the scripture about God will make it rain on the just and the unjust came to mind. That started me thinking about weeds, and comparing them to sin.

We all know how easy it is sin. By doing something wrong, or by not doing something right. If we know something is wrong, yet we allow it to slip by, making the excuse that it isn’t all that bad, God won’t disown me if I do that or don’t do that. No, but that sin will come between God and me. It can strangle the good things growing in me and kill it so fast, just as weeds can do in the garden.

As I sit here and type, the old hymn In The Garden comes to mind, and the words to this begin to form:

In My Garden

I come to the garden alone

while the dew is still on the grass;

and the voice I hear falling on my ear

The Son of God exposes.

And I cry to Him and whine to Him

and I tell Him life is unfair.

That the weeds I pull are so quickly grown,

I cannot keep up on my own!

My back and neck are in pain

My behind hurts to bad to sit down

Is this garden too big, for my husband and me

The pain that it makes is profound.

So, He talks to me and He walks with me

But never lifts a hand to help

Then He speaks these words

And I hear them too

that weeds are like sin in a man.

My child these are so much like sin,

The bad grow faster than good.

The veggies you plant, taste so good in your mouth,

but weeds are still a part.

And He speaks to me

and I hear the words

I’m beginning to understand.

That in life we have so many weeds

We must choose to pull from their roots.

Again it speaks to my heart

That these weeds are so much like sin

That the good in us, which is Jesus Christ

Can be covered by weeds like our sin!

Lord give me the strength to go on,

to walk boldly out to my garden

Knowing that my work is cut out for me,

Let’s hoe this row of sinfulness.

I will pull up the roots of bitterness

and dig up the vines of despair

I will reap the fruits of a victory

that come from my garden out there!

So, besides getting part of my garden weeded, I allowed God to speak to my heart. I thought I would share it with you. Maybe it will speak to someone besides me...I hope! I know some of it may a little silly, but it is truthful.

Update

Writing, editing, erasing... you get the picture.

Prayers appreciated!

I need to be inspired

I have a great need to get inspired enough to write! Have not had that much over the past couple of months. I dropped the ball, and I let it roll away without even bothering to chase it! I am tired of having to answer people's questions about "how is the book coming?" with the same answer all the time. "Uh, it is not done yet".... Help God!

Guess I am just tired.

Tired of a lot of things.

Ready for something good to happen!

Anybody else having that kind of day?

Oops!

Oh My! I cannot believe it has been so long since I updated this blog! My sincere apologies to those who read this (to both of you).

My world has been so busy since May. Jordan got moved to Evansville, started his job, passed his NCLEX test, and just happens to be here for this weekend! We have been out to visit him, actually to take him his "stuff" so he would have something in his apartment. He needs to go shopping! He needs furniture.

Micah is home on vacation! We saw him very briefly a couple of weeks ago when he was in Ohio to be in a wedding. That was the first we had seen him since Christmas. We have not been to NoVA to visit him. Hopefully we will go before the end of the summer. So nice to have all three of my 'boys' home for the weekend.

Chris has moved to another apartment in Akron. Thank God he is out of the neighborhood he was in last year. One night, in the middle of the night, he heard noise outside his window. HE was still awake, so he looked out the window, and just as he did that he saw his neighbors shooting a gun at someone! He could actually see the fire from the barrel of the gun. Hmmm, made me pretty nervous to hear about that! He now has a different roommate, his best friend Marion. The house they live in is so much better, and in a lovely neighborhood. His backdoor neighbor is a cop! Yay!

Jeff and I are doing well. We have been spending time tooling around in his 77 Triumph Spitfire.

We have found that Buzz the Beagle here in this picture has decided that this is HIS car. He gets really upset if we take a ride in it without him. He really lets us know he is mad when we get home. If he could talk we would have to cover our ears.

I have been working a lot of hours the past few weeks. First I had to cover for our office manager, Leigh Ann when she had surgery in her hand. Then I covered part of her schedule while she was on vacation for two weeks. Whew! I am pooped. We have been busy putting in our garden, and keeping up with the mowing.

Needless to say, I have not had time for writing (anything) so working on the book has once again been put on hold. My schedule will be drastically different this week! Only working about eight hours total. I can use those extra hours at home for a lot of things. Mostly this week to be with my family! The guys are here till Wednesday!!!

Well, I am calling it a day. Happy Fourth of July to you all!