Thursday, July 31, 2008
Calm Thursday
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Yesterday Was Fun
Monday, July 28, 2008
The Joy of The Lord Is My Strength
Saturday, July 26, 2008
New DOO 2
Questions.
I just read an email from a friend. It was a nice story & at the end it said this.
Happy moments, praise God.
Difficult moments, seek God.
Quiet moments, worship God.
Painful moments, trust God.
Every moment, thank God.
I printed it & am posting it in my work area. It is easy to learn a lesson & quickly forget it. It is also easy to forget things we should not. This will be my reminder.
We have a series of channels through our cable that are all religious. We have very few Catholics around here, even fewer Jewish people. But there is a Catholic channel. There is a show on the catholic channel that is so fascinating to me that every time I come across it I have to watch it. It is simply all of the nuns gathered together in their chapel area and they are doing what I am assuming is the rosary. Did I spell that right? It is fascinating to me. The head nun reads a passage & they will repeat the same thing over & over. Sometimes it is switched up to different passages & then a different response is repeated over & over. My husband was raised Lutheran/Catholic & he is offended by my watching this. He says I am ridiculing them, making fun at them. I am not. I just don't understand it. I want to understand what they are doing. I don't get how someone can think saying something over & over will result in having their sins forgiven. It doesn't make sense to me & it's not in the bible anywhere so where do they get that from. Every time hubby catches me watching it he gets upset with me. I don't understand why & last night was no different. Maybe because he was raised in it, I know he was confirmed & stuff. My baby saw it for the first time last night & he was very scared by it. He ran screaming to his daddy. Daddy brought him over to the TV again & he got scared so I changed the channel. I found that extremely intriguing. I don't understand a lot of things about the catholic religion. I don't understand why most people will just blindly believe what they know from their youth & never seek out full truth for themselves. This goes for everyone. I know some deep south southern baptists who have always been taught that as wives they must make dinner, make a plate for the hubby, bring it to him, wait for him to eat & when he is done eating then the women may eat. WHAT??????? They say it's in the Bible. I have only found one place in the bible that comes close to mentioning something like this process but it wasn't even about food. They do not wear pants either. Mom & I are harlots because we don't do this & we wear make up. Gasp. I am not directing my inquiries at the catholics only.... hubby says I am being judgemental. I don't see it that way.... I am trying to understand why people do what they do. What makes them believe what they do. I am an analyzer, I am a questioner..... I would have made a great lawyer. People get mad at me a lot about this stuff..... they don't want to answer my questions. I used to have a young girl that was Wicken work for me. She knew I had a strong relationship with the Lord, she used to be a Baptist & during a study learned about the wicken & changed religions. She used to try to shock me, make me a little frightened that she could do something to me. I would laugh & tell her that I gave her religion no power over me, I am under the authority of Jesus, my Lord. I tried to steer her back.... she knew I was going to fire her..... she quit first..... I wonder what happened to her. I was glad she was gone but I wished that I could've helped her. Personally I think she just liked the excitement of feeling empowered by that religion. We have witches that come to our church. They say they are cursing our church & us. Whatever. Now we have people walking the grounds during all service times praying & they all have those ear thingies like the secret service so they can communicate with each other. We have had the KKK show up, they don't like it that there a black people at our church. One time we had a dance conference at the church several years ago...... we had some black churches come...... the KKK about fell over, they came but so did the cops & that was that. We've had security ever since..... I don't understand people.... I don't understand many religions & the many denominations within Christianity. Surely we are not ALL right? Who is? Is any one denomination correct? I am still fascinated by the nuns. I am also fascinated by two types of music. Catholic choir music sounds evil & scary to me & it is supposed to rooted in Christianity but Indian as in India music sounds very spiritual & beautiful to me, it is calming & makes me feel compelled to think of God & pray but it is rooted in the muslim faith. Strange. My ex husband is going to marry a catholic lady. I feel sorry for her, but maybe if we become friends she can tell me about all this stuff.... I have never ever found a catholic who would answer any of my questions... especially the hubby. I had an assistant once who was catholic..... he would not even discuss it with me. Maybe it's me... I ask hard questions but they can feel free to ask me hard questions too. I don't know why everyone has to get all mad at me.
Friday, July 25, 2008
A New Doo
Thursday, July 24, 2008
A funny story
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Look At This If You Need To Laugh!!!!!!
Shreiking with horror!!!!
What is IT????
I think it's my hair!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I couldn't stand it any longer. I had to take some pics. I figure I do enough whining on this blog I could atleast give a little humor for a change. If this doesn't make you laugh with atleast one snort, there is something wrong with you. Read the previous post to see how this happened to me.
Lord help me.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Getting Into Shape
Monday, July 21, 2008
Deja Vous
Friday, July 18, 2008
Sweet Sixteen
Here I am showing off!!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Word of God Speak
Monday, July 14, 2008
Lollipops & Visions
This is a view of the outside of my store. My 16 year old thought the Lollipop tree should be moved to the window so anyone walking by with a kid ..... well ..... um.... the kid would want the lollipop & beg their parents so of course the parents would come inside to buy one and maybe something else. We weren't done adjusting the display yet when a granny & her grandaughter spotted it and came in to buy one. Yea!!!!
So Saturday was really cool, about 30 min before closing I was praying and asking God to please help me with my sales. It was a horrible day in sales Friday & Saturday was slow too. So nothing happened. Then as I was closing up & bringing in all the oil paintings I have outside I prayed to God and I told him that I didn't understand why He wouldn't tell me if keeping the store was His will for me or not. I told him I was tired of fighting for it & why would He not just tell me what He wanted me to be doing. If He wants me in the store why isn't He helping me out financially or I will be closed soon. I told Him when I was praying the 30 min before I closed that I knew He could double my sales in the next 30 min. if He wanted to. So as I was closing up I reminded Him of that.... I told Him that I was closing but I knew even still that He could still double my sales for the day if He wanted to.... I would just leave the open sign on until I was ready to walk out the door. Well..... as I was bringing in the oil paintings a lady came in. I didn't think anything about it really. I have a lot of oil paintings outside so I was busy with that & I had the door propped open. So just as I get done bringing them in another lady walks in. I should've been closed 10 minutes ago by that point. I went in to ask the ladies if I could help them & they both said yes. I was busy helping them & chatting & enjoying their company so I really wasn't focused on how much they spent. I was very excited that they both bought something & I thanked God so much for the extra sales! Then as I was closing out the cash register I got my calculator & took my total for the day and subtracted what I knew I already had in sales before the 2 ladies came in, and it was DOUBLE! I know my eyes bugged out of my head. How awesome is that? He doubled my sales with 2 ladies in exactly 30 minutes just like I prayed. The difference was less than 10 cents and it was 10 cents over, not less. I was crazy giddy after that, no way was that anything other than God. YES!!!!
So Sunday at church was odd after that because I was still riding on my "blessing high" when one of the men of church who is also in the choir approached me. He knows practically everything, he is amazing. So he told me he was preaching Sat. night & at the end of service he had a vision concerning me. He told me in his vision the choir director laid hands on me & that was all he said. So after morning practice I asked him what the vision was & he didn't want to tell me, all he said was that it concerned depression. He didn't want to tell me anyhting else. So I was confused about that.... After service during alter call our pastor also asked for anyone who had a specific need in their life that they needed a move of God for to come down so he could pray for them. I came down & then the man who is also an alter worker turned around to smile at me. How did he even know I was behind him? He never turns around from praying for somebody, I have known him for years. So anyway, he comes over to me after a couple of minutes & tells me that he has asked our choir director to come over & lay hands on me to fulfill the vision. She came down & prayed over me & said things I don't know how she could've known unless God gave it to her. Then the man came & prayed also as she was and said I was being set free. What a beautiful day!!!!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
I Shopped Til I Dropped!!!!!!
It was sooooo wonderful. Oh the things I bought...... I am very excited over my vinyl wall art purchases. It is a new line that has been perfected. They are beautiful sayings that you apply to your wall & it looks like it was professionally painted onto the wall. They have been around for awhile but never looked quite like paint, well these look exactly like they are painted. I bought several sayings & they come packaged in great tubes with a bow on them so they are perfect for a gift even. I found some great new wall art/signs. Gorgeous large picture frames with pictures and or words on them, I always kick booty with those & the suppliers did not disappoint with they new lines out this July. Fabulous jewelry!!!!!!!!!!!! Purses galore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Matching flat wallets even!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, they even have giraffe & zebra flat wallets to match your giraffe & zebra purses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Huge around here. I bought a new line of little girl/boy shoes that squeak when they walk. Sounds annoying I know but they retail for $24.99 & look like the very expensive mall shoes & the squeaker can be removed in about 10 seconds if you want. Not too loud & it is for the really little ones so you can keep track of them, they are packaged great & are soo soooooo great looking. Wonderful children's gifts. Monogrammed travel mugs, monogrammed ribbon key chains, yes, even monogrammed children's large sip cups with the straw built into the lid that playtex makes. How hoity toity will you 4 year old be walking around with their monogrammed playtex drink cup!!!!!!!! For boys & girls!!!!!!!!!! I got some great bath wraps, so so pretty surely no one will be able to resist them. Beautiful baby gifts!!! Oh & the painted martini & wine glasses!!!!!!!!!!! Oy vey!!!!!!!!!! I can hardly contain myself. I am going back on Friday ha ha ha, I am feeling like the luckiest girl in the world. I had such a wonderful day, I laughed all day, I smiled all day, I was so happy. I had no stress, I was happy plus, I was in retail heaven. I put ship dates of November on everything so now as I can afford to bring in all my lovelies I will call the manufacturer & move up the ship date. No stress for me, it's all ordered & all I have to do is wait for the current stuff to sell & replace it with whatever category needs filling in. Oh, the joy of it all. I did not purchases any home decor in the way of accessories, sad to say. That is my favorite part of the store but of course with the economy the way it is I am purchasing more gift items than Home Decor. Home Decor used to be my number one or two category & now it is not even on my top five. Artwork, gifts, purses & accessories, candles & aroma lamps are my top 5 now. I can't wait to go back!!! Now all I need is a herd of women to come in & buy me out so I can bring it all in. I can dream can't I?
Thursday, July 3, 2008
God's Mercy
Wow , did God ever teach me a wonderful lesson last night at church. Actually it was 2 lessons, one from God directly & one by annointing on our Pastor.
These 2 things are very powerful that I learned last night.
The first lesson was in our Wed. evening sermon. It was on the Seasons of Prayer. Pastor said sometimes God will draw you into a season of prayer. You will feel compelled to stop what you are doing & pray. If you tell God to wait a few minutes even you can miss that season. If God is pulling strongly on you to pray stop & do it even if the Super Bowl is on & your team is playing. There is a reason God is doing it. Seasons of prayer are to equip us for an upcomming battle. It is to tune us into God so we can better hear him and equip ourselves for what is coming. He gave a great example. If a hurricane is coming the weathermen can see it coming before it gets here. They then will warn us & we go into a time of preparation so that we can survive the storm. God is like that too. God is omnipresent so he can see our future & knows what is coming. God may see a storm brewing & pull you into a season of prayer to equip you to be able to survive that storm. It could even be as simple as being at work & feeling strongly compelled to pray ( I have certainly had that happen.), what we may not know is that God can see that a drunk driver on the road with us as we are traveling home later that evening & he wants us to be tuned in to Him so that when He whispers to us to move into another lane we know it is the voice of God & do it so as to avoid an out of control drunk driver. Sometimes this season will involve fasting. Jesus fasted 40 days & nights & was in a season of prayer before he was tempted of the devil. Though his body was weak his spirit man was strong & deeply rooted in prayer. This next part is the part I liked. Jesus said if we have faith like a mustard seed, the mustard seed being the smallest seed but produces a huge plant. The mustard seed ALSO has a deep root system. We MUST be rooted in prayer & when God moves us to pray he is getting us ready for an attack. Roots are unseen but they sustain what is seen. If you do not have what is unseen (the root system) what is seen will wither & die. Sometimes when we don't see God, like the roots, He is up to something. THIS PART IS HUGE TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!! WE KNOW HOW DEEP OUR ROOT SYSTEM IS BY HOW WE REACT WHEN A STORM HITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay man, that is way deep. So as I have stated before I am somewhat of a stresser & a panicker. I was never that way until I was 23. I just truly believe that I never learned how to cope with stress & for say 15 years I was constantly thrown major curve balls one after the other with no relief so I am a freaker outer now. I can admit that. But I am trying to change & I have also been in the last few months seeking God more feverently than I ever have & praying a lot more also. It was a very good sermon.
My second lesson that evening was somewhat horrifying. When church was over I was escorting my youngest son & my mom outside of the building. I have to stay for choir practice. Well, I saw a man who looked like he was in a lot of pain coming towards me on crutches. He had a broken leg & from the look of pain on his face it must have been recently. So I opened the church doors for him to get outside & he began to talk to me & my mom. It seems he hitched a ride to church & had no way to get home. He was looking for a ride to the house he was staying at. It seems he is also homeless. Nobody was concerned about the fact that he had no way to get home & everyone was telling him no. Now my husband is ALL about doing nice things for people & always lending a helping hand. So he was picking up mom & baby & I called him on the cell to see if he would take the guy home knowing all the while he would say yes of course. Imagine my suprise when he gets aggrivated with me for asking & tells me no. He says he has to go to Staples for office supplies & it is in the other direction. So I get aggrivated with him & tell him he can go afterwards OR go in the morning. This poor man is in obvious misery & needs a ride. So he says no. I was floored. My mom was horrified to tell him that her ride was not able to take him & she gave him $20. So he sits down on some stone blocks outside to see if he can get a ride. I go into the church to my choir director & some other leaders & tell them about the man. They wave their hands in the air & dismiss me. They say it's his problem how he gets where he has to go & he should have thought about that before he came. I try my hardest to find a ride for the guy but no one cars a rats booty. The husband of the pastoral couple who runs our women's drug & rehabilitation center would not give him a ride either. He said the guys uses his foot as an excuse, apparently he only has 3 toes too & has been enrolled in our men's drug & rehab center. A nine month in house program & he has fallen off the wagon. And my response to that is soooooo. The guy did what he had to do to get to church....... he had faith that he could hitch his way here & find a ride home, isn't that enough? Well, nobody cared & said he hangs out here all the time. Nice, last time I checked hanging out at church wasn't some horrible crime. SO, my leader says to start practice but I am determined that if he is still out there & nobody else does it I am going to give him a ride. I was a little scared because you never know & I was going to be all alone in the car with him. I wouldn't have been frightened with someone. So at the end of practice one of the sound guys asks for all our attention. He tells everyone about the man outside & how he is asking for a ride. They think is is weird & high so he tells us that he is at the front doors of the church & we are all going to exit from the emergency doors at the back of the church on the side so he can't see us or talk to us. By the time he would see all of us we would already be in our cars driving away. So ever the activist I pipe up & say but how is he going to get home? I was met with snorts, rolling eyes & waving hands again. They ALL said except for me & two other ladies that it was his problem & he is weird & high & not for any of us to give the guy a ride. Well, I don't know what a high person looks like but he didn't seem like he was drugged out to me. Plus, high people are not dangerous. He seemed like he was a little slow & having a very hard time to me. I think he maybe had a slight learning disability but certainly not dangerous to me. So we three ladies were trying to find a way to get him home without it being a single lady but the men were adamant we were all going to sneak out the back. I was really shocked that our pastor's wife who sings on the front line & my choir director were of the ones who were most adamant that he was to be left behind. Now let me tell you, the guy had a broken leg & I found out he had been hit by a car that day or the day before so you know he was sore & in pain. We are also on a hill so the only way for him to even leave the parking lot with a broken leg on foot would be to roll down the pavement because it is steep & crutches just wouldn't cut it. He had no cell phone. Next.... is our church is out in the country, in our parking lot at 9:30 the outside lights all shut off & when that happens it is sooooo dark that you literally cannot see your hand in front of your face if it was only an inch away. It is complete blackness, you cannot even see the moon, the trees block it out. I have been stuck outside there in that blackness once & I had to just stop & wait for someone to open a side door becasue it was like I was encased in blackness, not a speck of light could be seen. This is what they watned to leave him in. He wouldn't have ever been able to find his way out of the parking lot I am sure. So anyway the 3 of us agreed that the one of us that had 2 teen boys with her would take him because it was the safest. They all looked at us like we were lunatics because they knew what we were talking about. Sure enough, they herded us all out through the back emergency side exits & everyone ran to their cars. I waited to make sure she did in fact pull around to the front to take him home before I left. She took him & I felt relieved. I was so horrified to have been witness to something I am quite certain Jeusus would not have approved of. God desires mercy not sacrifice. God wants us to have mercy on each other. I just couldn't understand these people's reaction...... it really burdoned me. How could they just be okay with leaving him in total darkness outside the church like that, broken leg & all. How could they be so uncaring & cold? What if that was Jesus outside? What if it was an angel? What if it wasn't & it was a poor soul needing help? I told the pastor's wife & my director I was extremely close to being homeless & would they just drive by me & my four kids and say "loser" as they drove by. What happened to compassion? They could've cared less & thought I was a nut for caring. It was almost ugly they way it all went down. Then as I was still contemplating it in my home God just dropped a word into my spirit. He said you see Jennifer, everyone has their faults. Compassion & mercy & giving & helping is so easy for you & it comes naturally. It is your gift. This you do not struggle with. They don't have these things & do not come naturally to them although they seek me & love me they struggle with those. For you, you struggle with negativity, anger & bitterness and having total trust & blind faith. These things they do not struggle with & it comes naturally to them. All fall short & what you struggle with is no different from what they struggle with. Everyone struggles with something....... stop beating yourself up that you cannot conquer these things. I showed you this so you would know. Then what the rest was could not be expressed in words. It was more of God just imprinting on me that it is okay that I have this struggle. We all have things that we struggle with & He knows mine & it is okay. It is who I am & he loves me just as those people. These people are people who you would look at & say man, they have so together. They are prayer warriors & gifted & just so emersed in the spirit, if only I could be that together. But yet look at how they fell short...... It was a wonderful revelation that took place in seconds. I just smiled because God was showing me that I was okay just as I was.