Merry Christmas!! Thankfulness Thursday week 52 of 2014 - Finale

Today is December 26th.

I remembered to post yesterday early in the morning and then with all the activities and things to tend to around the house I totally forgot to post.

Today I am thankful for the Lord Jesus that came to save the world.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,

 but to save the world through him. John 3:17

I am also thankful for my family. For the past ten plus years we have celebrated Christmas Day at our house. Since we have the youngest grand kids, we wanted our boys to be able to stay with their gifts on Christmas Day. It means a lot of work for me but it is so worth not having to leave the house (except to pick up my mom and bring her home again). My great grandfather on my mother's side came to America from Germany and we celebrate this heritage by having sauerbraten, red cabbage, and potato pancakes.

The hubby's mom, one of his sisters, her hubby. our youngest and my hubby.

My mom, our oldest, the hubby's other sister, her hubby and the hubby's mom again.

I most likely with not post until sometime in January. Have a Happy New Year!

Thankfulness Thursday Week 51 of 2014

Today I am thankful for my sisters.

I did not have sisters growing up. I had friends that have become lifelong friends and they are stretched from Alaska to Florida.

When I married my husband I gained two sisters. What a blessing they are to me. They are true sisters and we fight just like real siblings. We started meeting once a month for lunch when my oldest was just a baby. I need that girl time being surrounded by the hubby and two boys all the time.

One more week/post to go. Thankfulness Thursday it has stretched me and taught me there is so much to be thankful for.

Thankfulness Thursday Week 50 of 2014

Today is December 11th.

WOW!! I've posted 50 times this past year of things I am thankful for. It has been hard at times and truthfully I am usually not prepared. Does it show? I know it does. Today I am thankful for the friendships I have had over the years. There are a few women that I have known since elementary school that I still keep in contact with. We do not live near each other and do not get to see each other often but always exchange Christmas cards. Since we live in a city that is near an Air Force base there are several people that we send cards to every year like the lady who played the music for our wedding and the neighbors whose children I baby sat. Relationships are important that is why the Lord made us to have relationship with Him and others.

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Genesis 2:18

So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

But for Adam no suitable helper was found.

Genesis 2:20

This time of year is hard for many due to relationships that are broken or loss of a loved one. Hold on to your friends and family, forgive and above all else love.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Romans 12:10

Thankfulness Thursday Week 49 of 2014

Today is December 4th.

Today I am thankful for Advent.

Celebrating Advent involves spending time in spiritual preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ at Christmas. In Western Christianity, the season of Advent begins on the fourth Sunday prior to Christmas Day, or the Sunday which falls closest to November 30, and lasts through Christmas Eve, or December 24.

30 years ago I accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior during Advent. The Lord was with me throughout my young life protecting me and guiding me to Him. I was not raised in a "Christian" home. My dad decided that we should go to church and we went to Wesley United Methodist Church where I was in the children's choir and was an acolyte. We learned Bible stories and did crafts but I do not remember anyone talking to me about a personal relationship with Jesus. After a while I was the only one in my family going to church. We lived about 5 blocks away so I walked there and back each Sunday. Soon I decided that I would rather stay home and watch Shirley Temple movies. Fast forward to my senior year in high school where I attended my dad's wedding to his 3rd wife and was approached by their neighbor and also the associate pastor of College Park Baptist Church about attending church - they even offered to pick me up. After a couple of months I called the neighbor and asked to go. Just 2 or 3 weeks after that the Youth Leader came by my home during the weekly Monday Night Visitation and said "You should come forward." In Southern Baptist churches there is a time at the end of the service where everyone stands and sings a song or hymn and the pastors and leaders or deacons stand in the front to pray with people. I walked that aisle the next Sunday (or maybe I flew), prayed telling Jesus that I was a sinner, asked Him to forgive me and be my personal Lord and savior. 


If you are searching for something God may be calling you. I urge you to find a Bible and read the book of John. Here are a few verses to help you know that Christ died for you, He loves you and wants fellowship with you.


But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 
Romans 3:23-24

 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9

for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Romans 10:13

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39

Have a blessed Advent season.