A Time of Mourning, Once Again...

Good evening friends.    We gather here again with a heavy heart and a face stained with tears.    It is becoming all to familiar.    It is heartbreaking at best.    There are no words that can explain what has happened and is happening in the hearts of people all across this nation.    It is just absolutely heartbreaking.    I just wonder what goes thru God's mind when He sees His creation, us, behaving as badly as some are now.    I try real hard to be able see both sides of the issue.    I just wonder, does God see us, His creation as different colors?    He created all of us.    He didn't make mistakes.    Does He see us as different colors or does color matter to Him?     I have to believe that all lives matter to God.   I have a hard time believing that color matters to Him.     Scripture tells me that God looks past the surface, or color, and He looks at my heart.     What is the motive of my heart?    That's what God looks at.    I believe that with every fiber of my being.    Is the motive of my heart to hurt people?     Is the motive of my heart to be peaceful and a peacemaker?  My motives will eventually come to light.    God sees them instantly, but some times it takes a little time for my true motives to show themselves.     I have never had a hard time finding trouble.    I don't know about anyone else, but I can just stumble into it quite easily.    I try to live my life based on God's calling upon my life.     As a believer in all that Christ has done for me, I have been set apart to do the will of God.     If you are a believer, you too, have been set apart for the calling that God has on your life.    God has not set the lost apart or called them to a different life style, but He has believers.    If you are reading this, you know whether you are a believer in Christ Jesus or not.    If you are a believer, then some of this will make sense to you.    If you are not a believer, then this is just another bunch of mumbo jumbo to you.    You may even see me as being judgmental or trying to be scary, I'm not, on either account.   Christ said He didn't come for the perfect people or those who see no fault in themselves or those that don't need Him or the pharisees, but He came for those who know they need His help.    I am here to tell you that I need His help on a minute by minute basis.    I need His help with every breath I take.     I pray for more and more people to admit that they need His help.    This world is not working out for me, it just isn't.    This world is not my home.    I am an alien here.    I am a sojourner.     I am a foreigner in a strange land.    What about you?    Is this world your home or are you looking past the temporal to the eternal?    It seems with each and every passing day, I am looking more intently to the eternal.    I hope and pray that you are too.    I hope and pray that in the coming days I can get on my face before God and call on Him to give me the courage to face the uncertain days that I live in and try to be a peacemaker instead of peace breaker.     Why do I do what I do?     What are the motives behind what I do?    When I leave my home and enter the market place, am I going with the intent to hurt or harm someone or am I going with God directing my path and my heart?     My motives will be made known.    At some point and time, I have to step up and claim my own actions.    What about you my brothers and sisters in Christ, are we going to claim our actions and behavior and confess as sin whatever is not in God's will for us?    Is anything in my or your motives adding to the recent hate filled and hurt filled activities taking place all over this nation?    If it is, we need to get an attitude adjustment before more lives are snuffed out for absolutely no reason other than self centered sin.    My heart breaks for all of the ones that have lost their lives through sin related behavior.    My heart breaks for all the families that now have an empty seat at the dinner table.    My heart breaks for all the children who will not have both parents to love them and discipline them.   My heart breaks for all the hurt that is taking place.    There are a lot of places that I don't have to go.    There are a lot of things that I don't have to do.    Change.     Change.     Change.   I don't like change, I really don't.    But, I/we need to have a change of heart.    Does anyone agree?  There is only one place that we can get that change, it is from God, through the shed blood of Christ on the Cross!!!!!!    The foot of the Cross is level for all of us.    It's level for the church goer and the drug addict.    It's level for the guard and the prisoner.    It's level for this nation and every other nation.   The foot of the cross is where we find mercy, love, and grace.    I do pray that we will seek mercy, love, and grace.    When we make that initial step toward the cross, mercy comes running!!!!!    

This is just another time of journaling for me to sort my heart out and I felt led to share it with y'all.    When something is heavy on my heart, this is how God helps me deal with it.   I try to share with y'all and be as real as I possibly can.    So, this was something that God urged me to share.    If it comes off that I am being critical, I am not being critical of anyone but myself.    I'm not even trying to be critical of myself.   This is how God helps me sort thru and get some sense of what is happening in our world and I hope it helps you too.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know, I pray for better days to come and for clear heads and hearts to prevail.     God is good all the time!    All the time God is good!    Amen!!!!

No matter how bad it gets, remember that God loves y'all and I do too.   Till next time, lean in just a bit closer to God and He will sustain you.    hugs and love, Patty

Farewell June and Hello July

Someone pinch me y'all!!!!   June is gone and I have absolutely NO idea of where it went!!!!   I have looked and looked and just can't seem to find it.    Hahaha     Oh well, it couldn't have been half bad, because otherwise I would have remembered where it went.    I'll stick with that anyway.    I think I do remember June being a little rainy in my neck of the woods and really hot too.     One of the reasons I'm having trouble remembering where it went is because it flew by!    Being busy does have a tendency to help make the days pass pretty quickly.    I was crafting in preparation for the Cultural Arts Day with our county FCE ( family community education) clubs and that went really well.   Several turned out for it and that is always good.    I entered several items and walked away with several 1st and 2nd place ribbons.   That was good and the club I'm in garnered a lot of 1st and 2nd place ribbons.    My club is one of the smallest in the county, but also one of the more active groups in the county.   I was also extremely busy making crafts for our Country Festival at church this past Saturday.    It was outside, so with all my allergies I could not be there, but do know that it went very well.   Just the second year we've had it, so we are still in the learning process of seeing what sells and what doesn't.    One of the things that does sell very well is baked goods.    In addition to the crafts I made, I baked six pans of cheddar jalapeno cornbread and 4 pans of chocolate butterfinger brownies.    I love baking the cheddar jalapeno cornbread because it is really hot and really goooood!!!!!   hehehehe    There was all kinds of baked goods and yummies.    My pastors wife bakes the BEST yeast rolls I have ever eaten in my life!!!!   So I got two dozen of her rolls and we have really been enjoying them.   There was cakes, pies, breads, cookies, candies and all kinds of good yummies.  

In the midst of all that, I have been working on a project for several months that I want to share with y'all.    I have blacked out the prayer on it because it is of a very personal nature and I didn't want to disclose personal info in any way.   It is for a friend who may or may not see this post and if any anyone in her circle of friends sees it, I didn't want it to be obvious who it's for.   With that said, I printed it on a piece of legal sized printer paper.   I think it's 8.5"x14".    I then tore the paper leaving a boundary around the prayer.  I put it thru my xyron machine to put sticky evenly on the back.    I had taken a 6.5"x14" flap from a card board box and used that as my canvas and attached the prayer to it.   I then sealed it with a liquitex product.   After that I set in decorating the piece.

The above has the paper on to the cardboard and then I used a product around the edge to look like sand.  I will go into more detail with it at the last pic.   This feels like rock and it should, because that's what it is.

In the above pic you can't see it really well, but I used some twine to look like rope around the edge of this.   I used gloober spots to attach it then went back over it with glue to hold it in place permanently.

In the above pic I had a bunch of shells already, but not all the different kinds I wanted to use, so off to the Dollar Tree and hurried back with exactly what I needed.   I used a thin glue and brushed it on some of the shells and sprinkled a really fine glitter on them and then glued the shells down over the spots where I had glued the twine on.

In the above I used a cross and an anchor that was left over from a previous project and they worked perfectly on this.

The above shows the twine and and the anchor that I used.   Also a pretty good close up of the edging.

Ok, so in the above is the product that I used on the edge.   I have had it for several years and had only used it one time.   When I went to use it for this project, it was dried up, hard as a rock.   It was NOT usable at all.    I put the lid on it and tossed it in the trash and it landed bottom side up and the price tag was on the bottom.    I paid $8.59 for that over 5 years ago!!!    I pulled it back out of the trash and looked at it.   I said to "me" self, ggg, "what do I have to loose?"   I went to the kitchen and put a couple of tablespoons of water in it and set aside.   I set the project aside too.    I went back to the paste a couple of days later and opened it, and it looked completely different.    The water had brought it back to life!!!!!    I stirred it with my pallet knife and it was PERFECT!!!!!!!!    I then commenced to putting this stuff on the edge of my project and was soooooo thrilled to be able to salvage something I had already tossed!!!!     This is what really made the project for me.    It reminds me of sand along the beach and then gave me something to put the shells on.    It really showed me that if there is something that looks like it is dried up and seen it's better days, if you're gonna have to toss it anyway, try to revive it.   You have nothing to loose but the few minutes it takes to put water or something else in it.   Go for it, you will be thrilled you did.    I was really happy that I was able to revive this because I have searched and searched the internet and cannot find it any more.   I really hope they haven't quit making this stuff because it is awesome!!!    It is Viva, exclusively for Creative Imaginations, Ferro Special Effect Paste.

This weekend we in the USA are celebrating our 240th birthday as being the great United States of America.    I hope and pray that none of us take this for granted.    People fought and died for our independence and people are still fighting and dying to this day for this great country.   I thank God for our founding forefathers and the wisdom they had.    I ask God every day that the leaders of this great country would seek out that same wisdom that our founding fathers had.

James 1:5  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally and without criticism, and it will be given. 6  But let him ask in faith, without wavering. For he who wavers is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed with the wind. (Modern English Version)

We pray for our leaders to be filled with wisdom and that they would seek to do Father God's will in all things!!!

Back to talking about June again for minute.    June has always been a good month for me and the 16th is the best day for me.   hehehe    Yes, that's right, I turned another year older on that date.   I am not one to celebrate birthdays but I am thankful to have another year under my belt, so to speak.   God has seen fit to give me this many years and I hope and pray that He has many more years lined up for me.   The older you get, the quicker they roll around.   That's what I think anyway.   ggg  It was a great birthday though.   My hubby is always a wonderful source of encouragement!!!   And along with him and his birthday wishes, I heard from my Mom and each one of my 5 big brothers.    That made it a very special day for me and I am so thankful for each and every member of my family.    They are the best!!

What did I get for my birthday, you ask?   I got a dremel tool and tons of attachments.   I hope to be sharing projects in the future where I have used it.  But, before I can use it though, I have to get some safety goggles.   Makes sense to me.   Yes, it does.

Before I leave you today, I would ask you to be in prayer for those that you know are sick and hurting, and for those who lost loved ones, those recovering from illnesses, whatever the situation, you and I know lots of people who need the love God in their lives.   As much as I pray for physical healing, I pray even more for spiritual healing.   The physically sick know they are sick, but the spiritually sick don't know they are and don't know that they need healing.   So, I pray for spiritual eyes to be opened by God and for lives to be eternally changed.

Have a wonderful weekend y'all!!!   Celebrate the birthday of our great country!!!!   Thank God for His watch care and blessings today and every day!!!!   Remember God loves you and so do I.   Until next time, love and hugs, Patty