Humility & Santa Claus

At church on Sunday, the sermon was on humility and quoted Sirach 3:17-20 which says,

"My child, conduct your affairs with humility,
and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts.

Humble yourself the more, the greater you are,
and you will find favor with God."

The deacon giving the sermon noted the first sentence...be humble, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts.  "So", he said, "be humble, and people will love you more than Santa Claus."  I thought that was HILARIOUS!  And it was such a great message too!!! 

"Conduct your affairs with humility,

and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts."

"Humble yourselves before the Lord,

and He will lift you up."

--James 4:10

Ho, ho, ho...be humble!!!  :0)

Love One Another

Last night we went to the wedding of one of Matt's dear high school friends.  The bride was beautiful, the friends there wonderful to see, and the wedding so much fun!!!  Congratulations to the Mr. & Mrs!

Here's Matt & I hanging out before the wedding. 
The location was so beautiful!!!  It felt like we were in a treehouse!

And here's a fun picture of the wedding party. 
Doesn't L look beautiful!!!  :0)

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for

love comes from God.

Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God...

because God is love."

--1 John 4:7-8

My Grannie's Granddaughter

Just as I'm absolutely my father's daughter, so too am I my Grannie's granddaughter.

As you all know, I LOVE the birds in my backyard, and I LOVE my bird feeder. It's just so calming and peaceful to watch them and such a great example of God's providence. ("Look at the birds of the air...your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"--Matthew 6:26)

Earlier this week, I noticed the big bag of birdseed in our garage had a hole in it and was slightly spilling out onto the garage floor. I cleaned it up and didn't think twice about it. Yesterday, I found that even MORE had spilled out, but I just figured the seed had shifted in the bag and spilled through the hole again, so I duct taped the bag up and cleaned up the spill. This morning before heading to church, I noticed not a lot but just a few dribbles of seeds around the bag...the bag I had completely taped up and cleaned around yesterday. Uh oh. We have no sign of any thing living in our garage, but I wasn't about to take any chances. (Especially after I mentioned it to my father-in-law and he mentioend it might be a mouse. Hey, I love Mickey Mouse probably twice as much as the next guy, but I don't want one of his cousins living in my garage!) So, we decided if the food was gone, any thing would be gone too. I decided to be EXTRA careful and move all the food into sealed containers inside the house; nothing was going to get into it.

Now I could have gone to Container Store and bought a sealed plastic container to store the birdseed in for $40. But did I do that?

No.

As I said...I am my Grannie's granddaughter. So what is all the bird seed stored in on my pantry shelves???

Tons of cleaned-out odd-ball plastic containers! Oh my Grannie would be so proud!!!

I am pretty proud of my thriftiness too!  :0)

Farmer's Daugther

I am absolutely my father's daughter. This morning I watched "A Walk in the Clouds" on a movie channel on tv. A friend of mine had recommended it as a very sweet love story, and it was. What was shocking to me was my reaction...

A girl falls upon a difficult situation and is scared to go home to her family.

Not a tear.

She meets a wonderful, kind-hearted man who helps her.

Not a whimper.

Come to find out, her wonderful hero was an orphan who never knew the love of a family.

Nothing.

They fall in love, he saves her, etc, etc, etc.

Dry as the desert.

Then, the family's vineyard catches fire...and I cry like a baby! What's going to happen to the crop??? What will her family do???

You see...DEFINITELY a farmer's daughter! :0)

1st Day of School

In just about an hour or so, my mom, sister, aunt and cousins, as well as other dear family and friends, will start their 1st day of school for the year. First days are always so exciting, but they can also be rather daunting, overwhelming, and downright scary. My prayer is that they ALL have a GREAT school year, that they learn and teach lots, make a ton of sweet friends and wonderful memories, have a safe and healthy year, and that they do well and do good in Jesus' precious and saving name. Happy New School Year!!!

"Train a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn from it."
--Proverbs 22:6

"Do Well & Do Good"

This morning while reading an online devotional I frequent, it pointed us to Psalm 37:3. I had just recently read through the book of Psalms, but the verse didn’t seem to jump out at me then like it did this morning. (Isn’t it amazing how God can point us to something at yet the right time and season?) I looked up two versions of the verse. I love the words in each:

“Trust in the LORD and do good;
Dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.”
--Psalm 37:3 (NIV)

“Trust in the LORD, and do good;
So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.”
--Psalm 37:3 (KJV)

I love those words. I especially loved the “verily” in the KJV. Verily. It’s definition is “truly, confidently, in truth, certainly, assuredly”. (Now I have the hymn “Blessed Assurance” in my head!) We will dwell in the land, and we will verily…CERTAINLY…be fed and enjoy safe pasture. We will IN TRUTH be fed and enjoy safe pasture. We will CONFIDENTLY be fed and enjoy safe pasture. Wow. What amazing assurance (I know…it still in my head) that God is in control of everything. We need but be still and “trust in the Lord”.

The word choice in this verse reminds me of Matthew 28:20, when Jesus says, “And SURELY I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Surely. Not “with some of you”. Not “if something else major isn’t going on in the world”. Not “if you are good and deserve it”. Surely. Absolutely. 100% He is with me, to the very end of the age. And not just some of the time or even most of the time, but ALWAYS. So Jesus said, “I will absolutely and completely be with you 100% of the time, to the very end of the age.” Amazing. (I just got goose bumps.) :0)

Anyways, when I read Psalm 37:3 this morning, the words made me think of something I remember President Clinton saying many years ago. I googled it just now, and he’s used the phrase multiple times, but the instance I remember is when he was giving a commencement address at Touglaoo College on May 17, 2003, just a few months after his inauguration. At the end of the speech, he said, “You must do well and do good.” Maybe it was because it was a week or so after my own college graduation, but his words have always stuck with me. I actually use them in my prayer life quite a bit…especially with my precious newborn niece and so many other friends having little ones of their own. Anywho, I have always loved that phrase, “Do well and do good.” This verse reminded me of it this morning. Trust in the Lord. Do good. Dwell in the land. Enjoy safe pasture. Be fed by God. The New ASB says “feed on His faithfulness” or “cultivate faithfulness”. I like that too. :0)

So trust in the Lord, and do well and do good in His name. He is here with us and he will feed us His faithfulness, forgiveness, compassion, strength, and love.

Pottery Painting & Song Singing

I'm just now getting to post after such a super-busy yet super-fun weekend. Yay! Aren't weekends the BEST?!!!

Matt's 11-year old cousin was in town visiting his parents, so I took her to paint pottery on Saturday afternoon. It is something I've always wanted to do (despite my TOTAL lack of artistic ability), and we had SO MUCH FUN!!! Plus, I TOTALLY shocked myself at how non-horrible my painting ended up! Our pottery pieces will be ready in a week (it takes a week for the place to fire them), and I'll post pictures of them when I do, but for now, here's Matt's cousin with her precious frog. Didn't she do a GREAT job?!!! Thanks for hanging out with me, H! :0)


On Saturday night, we met friends for dinner to celebrate one of Matt's closest high school buddies' birthday. After some super-yummy chips & salsa and fajitas (mmm!), we went to sing karaoke. The birthday boy wanted everyone to get into the swing (or should I say, "sing") of things, so he wrote everyone's name on a piece of paper, passed them out, and someone else in the group wrote down a song for that person to sing. Matt's song was the Ghostbuster's theme song. Note the "I ain't 'fraid of no ghost" on the screen behind him. So fun!!! Here is a picture of Matt singing. (I took it with my camera phone and it was dark so it isn't the best, but I just had to share.) My sweetie...singing!



The song someone chose for me was Garth's "Friends in Low Places"...because everyone knows I LOVE Garth Brooks! I sang a few other times with the girls but later in the evening I broke out into a song by Reba McEntire all by myself on stage. I guess that goes to prove right there in south downtown that you can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl! :0)

Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all the earth.
--Psalm 96:1

Finale Friday

It's Friday...the finale of a busy, busy week. But, more importantly, today is the grand finale of my dad's 2010 harvest season! Woo hoo!!! It has been such a long season this year...a direct example of God's protection, providence, and patience. But the Lord hath provided (praise You, Father!), and now, my Daddy is through!

“May the peoples praise You, O God;
may all the peoples praise You.
Then the land will yield its HARVEST,
and God, our God, will bless us.”
--Psalm 67:5-6

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a HARVEST if we do not give up.”
--Galatians 6:9

“Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
and righteousness looks down from heaven.
The LORD will indeed give what is good,
and our land will yield its HARVEST.”
--Psalm 85:11-12

Here are some harvest pictures from a few years ago. Go, Dad, go!!!

B-day Bird Feeder from My Parents

"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"
--Matthew 6:26

I love the birds in our neighborhood. They are so peaceful to watch, and I love that they feel safe in our backyard. It amazes me that God knows every single feather on their heads...and that He knows me INFINITELY better! Thank You, Father! Seeing them is such a great reminder that God will provide. And it makes me kinda feel like Snow White to have them in my yard! :0)

B-day Gift from My Sweet Hubby!

“If God sends us on strong paths, we are provided strong shoes.”
--Corrie TenBoom

Happy August Friday!

Hey y'all! Happy Friday! TGIF...thank goodness it's Friday and thank God I'm forgiven! (I saw that on a lady's shirt in Hobby Lobby a year or so ago and thought that was such a cute twist on that abbreviation!) Anywho, happy August too! Wow...the year is just FLYING by! It will be Christmastime before we know it...YAY!!! :0)

To celebrate the new month and the end of the work week, I wanted to post a few things that really touched my heart this week. First, on 8/4/2010, Holley Gerth posted on her "Heart to Heart with Holley" blog (see link at right) the following. I LOVED it! That girl has such an amazing gift of speaking God right to my heart. :0)

The world only gets one you...

You with your gifts.

You with your smile.

You with those things you do.

So take your place,

take your chances,

take this moment to know...

You've got something to offer.

Something good and right and true.

Something God-given,

Heart-of-Heaven created.

And the rest of us need it, need you.

Oh, you think it's no big deal.

Anyone could be that way.

Anyone could do it.

Nope.

Not true.

There's just one irreplaceable you.

That made me smile. :0)


Earlier in the week on 8/2/2010, she posted a similar message in her blog series.

A little reminder for wonder(ful) you...

Life is hard sometimes--

crazy, mixed-up, messed up.

And there you are,

in the middle of it all,

just doing your thing...

being strong and brave

and beautiful

like it's no big deal.

But let me tell you, girl,

it is.

Not everyone can do what you can do.

Not everyone can handle things the way you can.

And while you wonder sometimes

if you're doing okay...

the rest of us are just

watching in wonder.

Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in the Lord. Psalm 31:24

This goes out to my mom & sisters. Mom, I love you so much. Thank you to you & Daddy for molding us into strong, brave, and beautiful daughters of God; we three are that way because YOU are that way. J, I look at you with Baby Girl, and I am in awe and wonder. No one else could be who you are to her...who you are to me. And K, you are so beautiful and so much braver than even you realize. I get so much strength and inspiration (and fashion sense!) from you. Not everyone can go through what you have this past year with such Godly strength and grace. I look at all three of you, ladies, and I stare in love, wonder, and awe. To be a Z girl and a daughter of the King...I am immeasurably blessed!!! :0)

(the four Z girls...before Baby Girl was born)