Random Things that Make Me Happy

Random Things that Make Me Happy

1. My husband’s sense of humor.
2. My back porch swing
3. Chic Chats and coffee with my little girl.
4. The beach
5. Scrapbooking
6. My little boy’s prayers
7. Blogging
8. The fact that my husband loves to watch chic flicks with me.
9. Mommy and Daughter dates
10.My can opener
11. My mother-in-law’s cooking
12. My Keurig coffee pot
13. The season of Fall
14. Watching my little girl pretend to play school every day when she gets home from school.
15. Krispy Kreme doughnuts
16. My mother-in-laws house during Christmas and any other time of the year because it is always warm and cozy.
17. Flavored coffees.
18. Spending time with the ladies that I work with.
19. Dates with my husband.
20. Lifeway
21. Books-A-Million
22. Libraries
23. most bookstores
24. New Pajamas
25. My heart friends
26. Taking pictures
27. Christian music – Steven Curtis Chapman, Jeremy Camp, David Crowder, Tenth Avenue North, Casting Crowns, Chris Tomlin, Matthew West
28. Running
29. Hot tea with my hubby
30. Late night chats with Granny Gold
31. When Granny Gold comes to stay a week at our house.
32. Midnight shopping adventures with Granny Gold.
33. Hanging out with my sister, even during the tough situations we have been through lately. I always enjoy her company
34. Being with my family
35. Office supplies
36. My ipod
37. My husband’s hysterical laughter at “America’s Funniest Home Videos”.
38. Family night dart tag
39. Diet Cokes and Mt. Dews
40. A Clean House
41. Playing basketball and watching it
42. Vanderbilit and UK basketball games
43. church or community cookbooks
44. Bible studies
45. My church family
46. My Bible
47. Jack’s little funny sayings
48. Christian music concerts
49. Sunday afternoon coffee with my mentor
50. Phone conversations with my dad

The Most Important Issues In the 2008 Election

Just wanted to share a video with you today from John Piper concerning the 2008 election. God is in control!

Pumpkin Patch with my little Jack-O-Lantern

I love taking pictures of sunflowers.

Braxton and Jack

Jack, Christian, and Braxton


They loved the corn maze as well as the hayride.

This is Wilbur the Pig, my favorite.


This is Jack's first grade class.


Me and My boy!

It took him forever to pick out this pumpkin. They all looked the same to me.

Today, I went with my little first grader, Jack, to the pumpkin patch. I don't know about you, but I have been to many pumpkin patches over the past few years with my kids. Some good...some not so good. So I was not very excited about it at first. However, once we got there, everything changed. The weather was absolutely beautiful. The animals were delightful. Did I say delightful? Jack and I had a great time together. I started realizing that some day I would look back on this time and wish that I had it back. At one point, I reached over and held his hand, wondering if he would be embarrassed. But no...he leaned over and hugged me and held my hand through the hayride. Tears rushed to my eyes. Thank you God for this precious gift that you have given me.

Psalm 127:3

Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.

Lord, plant Your Word firmly in Jack's little heart and increase his faith daily. Enable him to abide in Your love and derive strength from the joy of the Lord this day and forever.

My Girl

My Girl

This is my precious little girl, Haylee. Only she is not a little girl anymore. She is growing up so fast and since her birth I have continually asked God to slow time down. I pray that God will spare her of my painful mistakes that I made while growing up.

We constantly have “Chic Chats” on our back porch swing over coffee. And yes, I let her drink coffee with me. She loves it, just like her mom. It is probably more cream and sugar than anything. She is a lot like me in many ways. I tell her to pick up on my good habits, but leave the bad. I pray that she will have a hunger and thirst for God like no other. It will be impossible for me to pass down a heritage of faith to her unless I am consistently in God’s Word and walking closely with Him myself.

It scares me to think of the battles we have ahead to counteract the negative influences of today’s culture. A culture who believes there is no absolute truth (that will be another post for another day). What am I talking about? Today, our daughters face so many negative influences through television, movies, internet, magazines, and books (even children’s books). It is amazing to me what is out there. And yes, there are going to be times that I have to take a stand and make different decisions for her even when others don’t agree with me. I have to do what I think God has called me to do.

For an example, I had to say no about watching certain tv shows and movies. I think I finally got through to her one day. Our conversation went like this:

Haylee: “Mom, why can’t I watch this show? It is not that bad. Even, some of my church friends get to watch it. It just has a few bad things in it. Most of the show is good and it's funny.”

Mom: “Haylee, would you eat a brownie with just a little bit of poopoo in it, even if the rest of it is good?’

Haylee: “No Mom.”

I think she got the point.

If you haven’t read “Your Girl -Raising a Godly Daughter in an Ungodly World” by Vicki Courtney, it is a must. She addresses the times in which our daughters live, the high calling of motherhood, and the necessity to enter battle to counteract the negative influences of the culture. Also she has a website called Virtous Reality.

We must rely on God’s word when raising our daughters in an ungodly world.

Deuteronomy 6:5-9
5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

By the way, my six year old took the pictures of us. Not bad....

Need I say more.....

Voting for Righteousness

Hey friends~ Just wanted to share with you an article written by Kay Arthur.

Voting For Righteousness Part 2 by Kay Arthur

". . .I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity."-1 Timothy 2:1, 2

Beloved, we cannot be apathetic about righteousness. Apathy leads to apostasy. Apostasy means you turn away (depart) from something you once believed. This we have done as a nation. What we once considered sin and would not tolerate as acceptable behavior is now acceptable. And where does apostasy lead? To anarchy-no absolutes! The individual determines what is right and wrong.

The last five chapters of Judges summarize anarchy and the times in which we live: "every man did what was right in his own eyes." In the dark days of Judges, the people professed God but lived in anarchy. So they reaped what they sowed. When they did not honor God as God, God gave them over to idolatry (Judges 17, 18), immorality (Judges 19), homosexuality (Judges 19), and internal war (Judges 20, 21).

It's right where America is today, isn't it? Wouldn't you call it anarchy when local governors and courts flaunt the laws of our nation and marry homosexuals, granting them equal status with heterosexual marriages?

And what must you do about it if you are to be salt (a preservative) and light (a dispeller of darkness)? You must vote righteousness. You must choose daily, moment by moment, situation by situation, and opportunity by opportunity to do what is right in God's eyes. You must determine to be righteous even in the midst of unrighteousness. To be righteous is to live by what God says is right.

And you must vote-you must push aside the apathy and get up and go to the polls and vote for the candidate that is closest to the standards of the Word of God.
If you don't, Beloved, then you need to be prepared to bear the consequences of a nation that continues to rebel against the absolutes of God's Word. Get prepared for the judgments of God spelled out for us in Ezekiel 14:12-20, where God Himself says, "If a country sins against Me by committing unfaithfulness..."

Unfaithfulness is our scarlet letter, emblazoned on our foreheads. You see it not only in our relationships, our business practices, and our duties to God and His Word, but also in the chambers of our lawmakers. Our nation has been unfaithful to the God whose name is chiseled on our monuments and engraved on our currency. If you vote the economy rather than righteousness, you can rest assured the idol of greed will be crushed under the powerful hand of God; and we, like Israel, will drink the water made bitter, sprinkled with the powder of our idols (Exodus 32:20).

God gave us a wake-up call on 9/11, but time has proven we turned to Him in worldly sorrow rather than godly sorrow. We regretted our unpreparedness and accused whomever we could accuse, but we never sought our Sovereign God with a godly sorrow that would lead to repentance as described in 2 Corinthians 7. What will it take next? What will it take to get us, a nation originally founded on fear and respect for a holy Sovereign, to turn from our ungodly ways?

O Beloved, go to your knees and stay there until you’ve confessed all personal unrighteousness. Then, as Daniel did in Daniel 9, plead with God on behalf of this nation "so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity." Then get on your feet and go to the polls and cast your vote for righteousness.

We can make a difference, Beloved! The polls are our God-ordained opportunity to make a difference. And if godless leaders are voted in, in spite of our votes and prayers, then we will know we did what we could, and God will see and honor our obedience.

Benjamin Franklin, who was a deist, not a Christian, concluded his remarks with these words:

"'We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel; we shall be divided by our little, partial, local interests; our projects will be confounded; and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing government by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war, or conquest.'"i
At Precept Ministries International, we're so concerned about the state of our nation and we're committing to prayer every Thursday at noon to pray for our country, and for this upcoming election. We invite you to join us. Go to http://www.preceptsforlife.com/ and click the "America at the Crossroads" banner to download "A Call to Corporate Prayer." May the Lord bless you, Beloved, and may He continue to bless and preserve our great nation!

Bill O'Reilly On The View

Today is the first day that I actually enjoyed watching the view. Bill O'Reilly from "The O'Reilly Factor" was there. View for yourself.