Category: Love

Author Unknown

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Got this email that is truly worth sharing. Take it from someone who knows this first hand!

One day a woman’s husband died, and on that clear, cold morning, in the warmth of their bedroom,

the wife was struck with the pain of learning

That sometimes there isn’t “anymore.”

No more hugs,

no more special moments to celebrate together,

no more phone calls just to chat,

no more “just one minute.”

Sometimes, what we care about the most

gets all used up and goes away,

never to return before we can say good-bye,

say “I love you.”

So while we have it,

it’s best we love it,

care for it,

fix it when it’s broken and

heal it when it’s sick.

This is true for marriage …

and old cars,

and children with bad report cards,

and dogs with bad hips,

family and aging parents and grandparents.

We keep them because they are worth it …..

because we are worth it.

Some things we keep — like a best friend who moved away or a sister-in-law after divorce….

There are just some things that make us happy,

no matter what.

Life is important.

We only have one.

We only have one mom, one dad,

one unique brother or sister or friend.

I received this from someone who thought I was a ‘keeper’! Then I sent it to the people I think of in the same way.

Now it’s your turn to send this to all those people who are “keepers” in your life, including the person who sent it,

if you feel that way.

Suppose one morning you never wake up.

Do all your friends know you love them?

I was thinking……..I could die today, tomorrow or next week, and I wondered if I had any wounds needing to be healed, friendships that needed rekindling

or three words needing to be said.

Let every one of your friends and family know you love them.. Even if you think they don’t love you back,

you would be amazed at what those three little words

and a smile can do.

And just in case GOD calls me home …. . .

I LOVE YA ! 🙂

Live today to the fullest

because tomorrow is not promised

15 Minutes

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http://www.twoheartsdesign.com/ imagesclipart/ heartsandmore

This morning started out like any other. I was getting ready for work, my husband was taking the kids to school. At 7:45 a.m., Lulu was outside, the house was all to myself and I saw an opportunity to change the bed sheets. Only I took one look at my bed and decided that I was so tired, I wanted to just go back to bed. So I did. I laid down and covered up and just had one of those random thoughts about nothing moments.

In a short amount of time and without a thought in my head, I began to sing a Spanish song, Estar Contigo. The chorus says, “to be with You is the best decision I could’ve ever made. Your blessings could stop if you remained by my side. I would be complete as long as I can be with You.” All I can explain was that it was just a random shout directly from my heart to the heart of God. Then the peace of God washed over me and I felt a connection. There were no words spoken between us. Just being together was overwhelming and right.

I got up and finished getting ready. My morning completely changed in the span of 15 minutes. That’s all it took. Prayer doesn’t always have to have words. Sometimes, being together is enough. My day went so beautifully after that. Get quiet and let your heart speak.

People Are Watching

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http://www.flickr.com/ photos/ sweet_stephanie/ 2799489135/

2 Corinthians 6:1. Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us.
2. God reminds us, I heard your call in the nick of time; The day you needed me, I was there to help.
3. Don’t put it off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we’re doing.
4. Our work as God’s servants gets validated – or not – in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly . . . in hard times, tough times, bad times;
5. when we’re beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating;
6. with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love;
7. when we’re telling the truth, and when God’s showing his power; when we’re doing our best setting things right;
8. when we’re praised, and when we’re blamed; slandered, and honored; true to our word, though distrusted;
9. ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die;
10. immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all.
11. Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life.
12. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way.
13. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!
14. Don’t become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership; that’s war. Is light best friends with dark?
15. Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands?
16. Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God’s holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives. God himself put it this way: “I’ll live in them, move into them; I’ll be their God and they’ll be my people.
17. So leave the corruption and compromise; leave it for good,” says God. “Don’t link up with those who will pollute you. I want you all for myself.
18. I’ll be a Father to you; you’ll be sons and daughters to me.”

Baby Food Giveaway A Big Success

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I was so busy during the Baby Food Giveaway that I didn’t get pictures with my camera so the pictures shown are of the volunteers posing. We had lots of volunteers and that made the giveaway go smoothly. It really was a privilege to be able to give food away to families who could really use it! I’m sure more pics are to come. We have video as well. Here’s a tiny glimpse at the crew.

Noah’s Ark

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Pastor Dave Morse is the most amazing Sunday School teacher on the planet. Last week our Kingdom Kidz began learning about Noah building the ark. This week they were they were learning about being secure in the flood.

Pastor Dave brought them a modern day Noah’s ark. A Land Yacht. They loaded up on the ark to be secure from the flood. Ana Valencia came along during the lesson and began to knock, “Please, please let me in!” “No”, was the answer as she had missed her opportunity. I believe this was a lesson our children will never forget.

The kingdom moves forward when teachers like Pastor Dave take such a love for the children and their spiritual foundation. When I spoke to the children they told stories about how Noah was safe and secure in the ark when the flood came because he listened to God! Praise God for Pastor Dave!

Special thanks to Toscano RV for the use of the Airstream Land Yacht! We appreciate you!

Baby Food Giveaway!

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Today, March 13, 2010, over 19,000 pounds of baby food will be given away by our church. Thanks to the help of donors across the United States and abroad, Moms Against Hunger and Role Models Of America, organizations that we are proud to be involved with, we have received a truckload of baby and toddler food.

With the increasing unemployment and recession that has hit California’s Central Valley so hard, we want to be a little light that comes and eases the burden of families with infants. The response has been tremendous so far and we look forward to being a blessing! This is what ministry is. I’ll post some pictures of the results tomorrow! In the meantime, pray for us that we are able to touch the lives of many.

Fruit

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http://www.flickr.com/ photos/ 39694152@N02/ 3747408430/

Gal 5:22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23. gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. NIV

Gal 5:22. But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard – things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments,23. not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. “The Message”

Gal 5:22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23. gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. NKJ

Gal 5:22. But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23. gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law. NLT

I looked up this passage in various versions to see if I had it right. In all the versions there is no reference to “fruits of the spirit”. Yet, time after time we as followers of Christ are taught to think that the Holy Spirit brings fruits (plural) and he doesn’t, he brings FRUIT-ONE FRUIT.

You see, it would be strange if God compares us to trees which bear multiple fruit since other living trees He created don’t bear a variety of things. An apple tree bears apples. To go even further with this thought process an apple tree doesn’t even bear a variety of apples. A Gala apple comes from a specific tree.

So we are to bear a fruit. When you bite into this fruit, or when a person sees our life it should have aspects of all the flavors, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. To be missing an ingredient throws the flavor off. We’ve all met and have been that follower that is just not right. It neither taste complete or looks complete. To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be well-rounded in the flavors. If I’m impatient then it throws off my gentleness and possibly my faithfulness. If my love of something is excessive then it throws off my peace and self-control and what happens to my joy?

Better yet, let’s examine ourselves to make sure we are bearing Holy Spirit fruit. If kindness is lacking then it means that in that area of my life I have not allowed the Holy Spirit to really do his job in that area of my life. It means that in that department I have released my life to God. If I can’t be faithful then it means I still think I know best. So no matter how many of the other flavors I have going on, my fruit is still not mature, ripe for the picking or tasting as it should.

I live in orange country. If an orange is ripe and ready, farmers pick it and send it to market to be bought by consumers who love the taste of a sweet citrus fruit. If an orange on that same tree mind you, is a little smallish, greener or never quite got to where it was supposed to be, it is picked and sent to a factory to be made into orange juice. Each fruit on that tree got the same shot at growth. Some matured and some didn’t. So what fruit are you bearing? Are there any ingredients that aren’t being added in the correct measure?

What Every Stepparent Needs To Know

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http://www.kydzedu.com/ catalogue/books/ charedu-bks

Click here to read a very good article about a child’s perspective on stepmothers. Here’s an excerpt:

Everyone’s heard of stepmonsters: those evil second, third (forth?) wives who cruelly shuffle stepkids off to the sidelines and compete for their dad’s attention. This isn’t about them. I’m talking about stepmoms in crisis who are really trying to make it work. They all wonder why, after knocking themselves out for their 21st century Brady Bunch, they still end up with stepkids who treat them like they are auditioning for The Little Rascals Reality Show. On top of that disrespectful drama, toss in an already frustrated stepmom overhearing the little darlings bandy about the dreaded stepmonster jab one too many times – and snap. Off goes the wedding band, pop goes the Xanax, and out come the tears.

Hope For The Future

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I have a diva room. That’s the blessing of having kids move out of your home. Suddenly you have rooms that no longer have a purpose. So I decided to make a reading room. My chaise lounge and a couple of shabby chic end tables in a pink and brown room with a leopard print carpet and curtains were the main pieces.

Notice an old typewriter that I found that reminded of when I was a kid before we had computers. Isn’t it cute all painted?

I also have my workout equipment in there, my treadmill and pilate ball and weights.

But there is one thing that I bought recently that brings me hope for my future.

Yes! It’s a hope chest. It was built in February 1950 and manufactured by Lane. It’s lined inside and the smell of cedar is nice and soothing. I so far have only put a few things in there just some plates my grandmother gave me, Time’s 2000-2009 special edition magazine, and some pillowcases my mother embroidered.

I am making a keepsake for a granddaughter that only God has met so far. I know she’s somewhere in my future and I don’t know where or when she will arrive but she has a gift waiting for her when she is a teenager and ready to receive memories of the women who formed the generations before her. I haven’t met her yet but I know her personality. I know she will be strong, wise, opinionated, and she will have a soul that is passionate and beautiful just as the women who came before her. I have hope for the future of an unborn baby, created before the foundation of the world to be born to her generation at her appointed time to enter our universe so I carefully put things away her.

I look forward to the day I will hold her in my arms and whisper my prayers for her future to her and let her know how long I have waited for her. I anticipate the day I learn the name her parents have given her. I have a vision of the time I will spend with her. Maybe there will be a day when she crawls around in the diva room! I’m not in a hurry and I can wait for as long as it takes. For now, I am content to  collect things for her, to have breakable things on the surfaces of furniture and have Lulu’s squeaky toys left on the rug.

As my husband sings, “I’m somewhere in the future and I look much better than I look right now.” One day, I will be a grandmother and it will be great.