Going to vote!!!!

Okay everyone, I am going to vote for McCain here in the next hour. I wanted to put another link that someone sent me this afternoon! It is one that I haven't seen, however there are pieces of it I have seen. Anyway, PLEASE watch it before you go vote. This election should be based on morals!!!!!!!!

Jeremiah 9

I talked to a wonderful friend of mine last night that I had not talked to in several months. She had been reading my blog and gave me a scripture to read and think about. (Thank you, Ginger!) As I read it this morning, I am amazed at how it fits the times that we are in. We live in a world of lies and people refuse to stand up for the truth. I wonder how much worse today is compared to the time of Sodom and Gomorrah. I imagine that the things we do today are truly breaking God's heart! I wonder if the things we are going through with our economy and everything else are because we have chosen to abandon the Word of the Lord. We chase after our own desires and have put the One who truly loves us and created us on the back burner. I will admit I am not wise spiritually, but I prayed this morning that God would speak to me from His Word! Jeremiah 9 was interesting to read this morning! I feel that we do need to weep for our country and get on our knees and be vigilant in praying for our country during this election! However, I do know that God already knows what is to come and we also need to praise Him for all that we are going through now and what is ahead of us!

Jeremiah 9 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society



Jeremiah 9
1 Oh, that my head were a spring of water
and my eyes a fountain of tears!
I would weep day and night
for the slain of my people.

2 Oh, that I had in the desert
a lodging place for travelers,
so that I might leave my people
and go away from them;
for they are all adulterers,
a crowd of unfaithful people.

3 "They make ready their tongue
like a bow, to shoot lies;
it is not by truth
that they triumph [a] in the land.
They go from one sin to another;
they do not acknowledge me,"
declares the LORD.

4 "Beware of your friends;
do not trust your brothers.
For every brother is a deceiver, [b]
and every friend a slanderer.

5 Friend deceives friend,
and no one speaks the truth.
They have taught their tongues to lie;
they weary themselves with sinning.

6 You [c] live in the midst of deception;
in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,"
declares the LORD.

7 Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says:
"See, I will refine and test them,
for what else can I do
because of the sin of my people?

8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
it speaks with deceit.
With his mouth each speaks cordially to his neighbor,
but in his heart he sets a trap for him.

9 Should I not punish them for this?"
declares the LORD.
"Should I not avenge myself
on such a nation as this?"

10 I will weep and wail for the mountains
and take up a lament concerning the desert pastures.
They are desolate and untraveled,
and the lowing of cattle is not heard.
The birds of the air have fled
and the animals are gone.

11 "I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
a haunt of jackals;
and I will lay waste the towns of Judah
so no one can live there."

12 What man is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the LORD and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross?

13 The LORD said, "It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law. 14 Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their fathers taught them." 15 Therefore, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "See, I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water. 16 I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have destroyed them."

17 This is what the LORD Almighty says:
"Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come;
send for the most skillful of them.

18 Let them come quickly
and wail over us
till our eyes overflow with tears
and water streams from our eyelids.

19 The sound of wailing is heard from Zion:
'How ruined we are!
How great is our shame!
We must leave our land
because our houses are in ruins.' "

20 Now, O women, hear the word of the LORD;
open your ears to the words of his mouth.
Teach your daughters how to wail;
teach one another a lament.

21 Death has climbed in through our windows
and has entered our fortresses;
it has cut off the children from the streets
and the young men from the public squares.

22 Say, "This is what the LORD declares:
" 'The dead bodies of men will lie
like refuse on the open field,
like cut grain behind the reaper,
with no one to gather them.' "

23 This is what the LORD says:
"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches,

24 but let him who boasts boast about this:
that he understands and knows me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,"
declares the LORD.

25 "The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh- 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the desert in distant places. [d] For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart."

Elizabeth Rohn-Nelson is RIGHT ON, TOO!!!!!

Someone sent me this email, too!




ELIZABETH ROHN-NELSON: Prayer can move mountains

Being dismayed recently when a family member of mine said
to me with great resignation that Obama will take the presidency.
These words came from someone who in the past has been a great
prayer warrior.
Why is happening was my question??? Why are we Christians
settling and not issuing a battle cry and falling to our knees and
taking our country back?
Why aren't we praying? Our God is a mighty God who is waiting patiently
for us to raise our voices to heaven to stop the tide of the anti-Christ
actions in our world today. Now we find we have a
charismatic candidate
for president who does not respect our flag and refuses to wear one on
his lapel except when it becomes politically expedient and whose own
wife and pastor that he loves profess to have strong anti-white
feelings, and we sit back and say "it is a given, we can do nothing."

There has never been a time in 2000 years that we can do
nothing. We must not sit back and allow the evil in men's and women's hearts to take over our world. We should be very afraid because our
apathy is leading us to perdition.

It is time for all Christian Americans to raise the battle cry and take
our nation back. Maybe McCain on his own cannot defeat
Obama, but our God can and He will if we take to our knees in prayer and raise a mighty
cry to the heavens to "Save us O Lord." We have
the power to change the course of this election and to keep a man as suspect as Barak Obama from
leading our country to who knows where with his message of
"change" - a change which I fear will be away from our Christian ideals
and away from Christ and further away from one nation under God.

We are great at passing stories and pictures around the
internet, but where are our prayers and prayer warriors praying to stop
this tide of Barak Obama? God parted the red sea, Jesus raised himself from the
dead, and we can bring our country back to its Christian
roots and stop
the move to the rise of Muslims in our country. We can
stop our country
from being "under Allah," but we must begin to
pray, to pray as if our
country and our lives depended on it, because they do. We
can stop all these atrocities against God's commands that have taken
root in our country through something as simple as sincere prayer, a
call to God to deliver us, to forgive us our sins of apathy and to protect us from the evil that is upon us.

Okay prayer warriors, here is your challenge, start those
prayer chains.
Get the spiritual power working on our behalf and stop
Barak Obama the
proper way, by calling on our God to save us from the deception that
charismatic preaching is using to lead us on the wrong path. Stop those who would take God out of our country and our government. Raise
up good men to lead us and protect us.

Invite God into the fray. Ask that His power rest upon us and give us the victory. Ask him to raise up a
mighty army to defend us and to protect our country as he
did in days of old. Let us be victorious beginning NOW. The battle is His but we must
call on Him without ceasing and unite our voices and hearts
in prayer and fasting.

Please pass this around to all people of prayer that you
know and maybe,
just maybe a more eloquent person of prayer will write
something better
and more inspiring and even the rocks will shout that Jesus
is Lord and our Mighty God is with us, bringing the victory for us and
ultimately for Him. "Be joyful always, pray continually, give
thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ
Jesus." I Thes 5:16-18
....Continuous Prayer is the answer to this attack on the USA.... Please
pray the Will of God will prevail through our continuous prayers to HIM...
Remember Prayer Can... Move Mountains

Tough Week!

It has been a really busy week this week. Since Saturday, it has been non-stop. I am TIRED!!! Between, football pictures, cheerleading pictures, football and baseball games, baseball pictures, homework, church, more homework (which is sad for 1st and 2nd grade) and halloween parties, school fall festival...I am spent, to say the least. I still have very important things to take care of this week, and I need to be at my best! To top things off, my almost 4 month old, who was sleeping through the night at 8 weeks old, is no longer sleeping through the night. In fact, she has decided that either 3 am or 5 am is when she wants a bottle. She won't go back to sleep until she gets one either. Trust me...I've tried. Needless to say, I am struggling! Unfortunately, my attitude has reflected my lack of rest. The last thing I want to portray to my children is my impatience. Sometimes I see it in Lainie, and I know that it comes from me. I feel incredibly guilty when I see that in her, because that is not a good quality to pass to my children. I am so trying to fix that in myself. I am ready for Sunday. I feel so good when I can go to church and have my tank refilled. The one thing I know I need to work on is being able to refuel during the week by having my quiet time. So, today, that's what I am going to do. I am going to spend time with God this morning in His Word, and I know that the rest of this day, I will be able to handle more gracefully than I have in past several days!

Lord, I pray right now that my ears and my heart will be open and listening to what I need to hear from you today. May my children see how much I love you in the way I respond to everything around me. Thank you for loving me even when I am at my worst!

Thankful!!

I love to look back at old pictures! I try my best to take pictures as much as I can. We have an account on Photomax, and I think I have around 2400 pictures stored there, and that doesn't count the pictures I have from negatives (before I had a digital camera). I don't want to miss a thing!!! Anyway, as I look back, it brings me to tears, because I love my family so much!!! I have been blessed by having wonderful parents, grandparents, in-laws, sister's and nieces. We have wonderful friends from church, school and our neighborhood, too. My cup truly runneth over!! I am so grateful for all of these people that God has put in my life. Each one is special.

Now I have gotten in touch with friends from grade school and high school that I haven't seen in YEARS!!!! (THANKS TO FACEBOOK) It's awesome to see them and hear what's going on in their lives. I don't ever want to take these opportunities for granted.

2008 Pictures (so far)

Natalie

Teachers!!

I just got back from visiting with Noah and Lainie's teachers at Parent/Teacher conference time. First of all, let me just say that we have been truly blessed by the teachers Noah and Lainie have and have had. They love the Lord and they love each child in their class. It's awesome when your child's teacher is moved to tears because she truly desires for these children to see Jesus in her. She is so humble, loving, thoughtful, amazing....I could just go on and on! These two women are wonderful and God has definitely given them a gift! So, thank you for all you do Mrs. Rhodes and Mrs. Varga!!! I can tell you that my family loves you both!

Whew!

Well, we made it through one crazy weekend. If we can just make it through the next weekend, we'll be doing FANTASTIC!!! Josh had a seminar all weekend, so I was on my own getting kids to cheerleading, football, piano and baseball! Saturday went great, thanks to my awesome babysitter and wonderful brother-in-law!! I got all the kids ready this morning, and we were only 20 minutes late to Sunday school. (Not bad for being on my own.) Needless to say, when Josh is here, we are not that late. We didn't have any meltdowns and my children were cooperative AND helpful!!!!! I was so proud!

I love being at church! It's definitely a refueling time for me. I need it and am totally thankful that we have a loving church and an awesome pastor!!! I love being involved there and I love the opportunities I have to serve. Our pastor's sermon today was awesome. I am hoping that I can remember the main points, but I'm tired and my brain isn't working at 100%. However, I really felt him step on my toes and I got convicted of some things. It made me think of how as a Christian, my life should be different. I became a new person and my actions should show that! I shouldn't be afraid to tell others about Jesus. My heart wants to ask everyone I meet if they know Jesus, but my mind brings in the doubt and fear. I am afraid that I won't be able to answer all of someone's questions or skepticism. I am afraid of offending someone. I shouldn't be, because it's not of God. I may not be wise when it comes to quoting scripture and knowing all of the bible stories, but I DO KNOW what Jesus has done for me and how it has changed my life and my desires. I prayed today, that God would present an opportunity for me to invite someone to church, and that I would recognize the opportunity and not be afraid to seize it! I do want God to use me. I want people to know how much I love Him. I want them to want what I have. I want them to see Jesus in me! Not for my glory, but for HIS!!! I want them to experience this incredible JOY!!! I may mess up everyday! I know that I will sin tomorrow, because I am human and I make mistakes. However, when I do, I know that I can go to God and ask for forgiveness and know that I have been truly forgiven! I know that I must try not to make those mistakes again. I also have four little sets of eyes that see my actions everyday, and four little hearts to protect. I want my children to know that their Mommy and Daddy love Jesus with all of their heart and soul, so that they may make the same decision. What an incredible responsibility Josh and I have been given!!

This is what has been on my heart today. May God bless each one of you that reads this!!

Starting again!!

It's been quite a while since I have done anything, so I am going to try this again! I wonder how my friends find time to do this. I tried one on myspace, but I have decided to cancel my MySpace account, because I love Facebook!!! I have found many of my friends on there, it's great to reconnect, and you don't have to pay for it like you do on classmates! My next door neighbor has a really cute blog. She teaches and has girls that are super involved in soccer. So much so, that we hardly ever see them! So, if she can do this, so can I!

So, today, I know that I have a lot on my plate. However, I thought that if I wrote it all out, that it would help me get organized. I was going to go to kickboxing today, because that's pretty much the only time I have for myself, but Natalie decided to take an early nap. So, number one on my list is to get on the treadmill. I have to get these last 10 pounds of baby weight off, so I can get into my jeans by the time cooler weather sets in. Then, I have a TON of laundry and cleaning to do, because it seems that no matter what I do, I still manage to get behind. However, as I sit here and put all this on a list, I am reminded of a short video we watched in Sunday School last week. It's actually been on my mind all week, but unfortunately I have failed at doing what I know God wants of me.

We talked last Sunday about tithing our time and giving our first fruits to God. It's only taken me 4 nights of being woken up between 4:30 and 5:30 by Natalie being hungry (which is unusual because she's been sleeping through the night for 7 weeks now) to realize that I could have and should have been doing my quiet time then. It's just like giving our tithe at church. When we give our first fruits financially, God ALWAYS manages to meet our financial needs, WITHOUT FAIL! I know, because my family has experienced both sides of tithing and not tithing! Most days, I seem to run out of time. I don't stay focused on what I need to be doing and I get sidetracked easily! I don't prioritize and I put things off until the very last minute, and that gets me into trouble. Then, it seems to spiral out of control. I am juggling all of these balls up in the air, and by the end of the day, I have dropped them all. Not only have I put God on the back burner, but I have tried to take control of everything and lost focus on the One and only thing that matters. So, this I hope will keep me accountable of that, because I'd love to tell each of you what God is doing in my life! I am so excited about some things that I am involved in, so keep checking in, because I am learning a lot!!!
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