Vision of beauty

As I looked out my back window the other night this is what I saw. Beautiful colors of pink, blue and purple Then the light changed a little and the pinks just glowed

I thought as I looked how can anybody not believe..........

He told us that we would know he existed just because his creation shows us.
Psalm 19: 1,2

The Heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech, night after night they display knowledge.

Amazing Grace

This is one of my favorite versions of Amazing grace. It's a great exercise version....HA!!!!!enjoy

Clarity

I came to a couple of light bulb moments this week. I had such clarity that to some extent I feel a little guilty. Why we let people get to us I'll never know, I know my nature is a care giver, I like to do it, it comes naturally. But when we try to reel in areas is our life that maybe out of control it can be hard. This is one of those areas that I have realized maybe out of control.so I have decided to do something about it.
I am in charge of a church dinner next week after church, we decided to have it outside on our land where we are getting ready to start building our new church. I know its hot outside but years ago everyone always had "dinner on the grounds" we never thought about the heat, we just did it. ( I think we have become a little spoiled) I heard more complaints about us doing at noon, why not in the evening, what are we going to do, etc. It hit me right square between the eyes, and this is what I said the the ones complaining "don't come". They aren't helping with any of the activities, they will just show up, we are doing the cooking, setting up, cleaning up and all the before stuff. So it hit me why do I care what they think? I realized I don't care....what a freeing moment I had. I also was feeling a little guilty because I saw someone I haven't seen in a while and honestly have chosen not to seen them and I really didn't ask anything about them or their family, I just said Hi. Well my care giver mentality kicked in but my sister sat me down and said, when in the last 5 years have these people called to see how your doing and check on ya'll. Wow, another light bulb turned on, why am I worrying what they think?? So you see I have had alot of clarity this week, its kind of like this picture.

what at first you think is a bad picture because of the main characters aren't in focus, sometimes the beauty of it all is in the small stuff... My guilt is gone..

Last Nights Dinner

Last night I had a great dinner with the girls. I had told Joey the other day that I need some socializing. I work alone 5 days a week, 9-5, occasionally someone will drop by for a visit. But on the social level its pretty slow. So when someone says lets get together, I usually say "when"....
Cindy prepared a lovely "Olive Garden Style" salad, Garlic bread and the most delicious artichoke and tomato pasta.. Then for dessert we had chocolate cobbler and ice cream, I have never heard of chocolate cobbler but let me tell you it satisfies the chocolate crave like no other. She was even kind enough to send some home with Joey. Our dinner started at 6:30 and I arrived back home after midnight. I could not believe how the time flew by. Cindy, Kelley and I talked, laughed, talked and laughed some more. It is so great to have friends that you can share your disappointments, trials and triumphs with and know that they have your best interest at heart. All three of us have different lives, with different ups and downs but we can come together and know that God loves each of us where we are at......We all agreed that the older we get the less we know, we thought when we where younger we knew all about God and how he works, but as we have matured and have had some life experiences we have come to realize that the only thing that we really know is we have to depend on what the word says and not what others tell us, or what we thought we believed from when we were younger from our parents, but only God's black and white and red words. We are very helpless in this world and only he is truly in control.

Pictures 2010

This is the great Rocky Mountain, at Estes Park Colorado, Josh & Abby's first stop

I loved the colors in this picture with the green, blue and brown.. Can you tell Josh loves the cold....

They are at Snake River in Yellowstone

Josh thinks it's great be in 2 foot of snow in June ....

The Tetons are strong, bold and beautiful...

These are antlers that boy scouts pick up and they place them at the entrance to the park at Jackson Hole, WY

Yellowstone and all God's creation, in town and everywhere....

Cousin Michael and his wife Katie, they took Josh and Abby hiking to a large waterfall in Bozeman, MT, and then they went to see Ted Turners big ranch

I am still yearning to see the west again, and after seeing all of their pictures I want it more than ever.......

Joseph & Joshua, Men after Gods Heart

I once again have been thinking and wondering. Why did God say that David was a man after his own heart? Did he have to tell us that because of all of David's poor choices, so that we would believe that anyone can find redemption. I have never really thought of David as one of my favorite people of the Bible, I know alot like him, they can see themselves in his life. I thought that Joshua or Joseph, were men of character, they tried to make the right choices in their lives. I always thought that is why God didn't have to tell us in his word that they were men after God's heart because you could see it in their day to day walk. What is funny though, I get mad that people use David as this person to look up to, when I see a man of many failures and think why not look up to Joshua or Joseph, strive to make good choices so that you don't have to learn from failure. For sure these men did not have a gravy of a life, like King David, Joseph stayed in prison for something that he didn't even do, but he still made wise choices when the time came. Joshua was always looking at the positive side of life, when him and Caleb were scouting out their enemies Joshua knew that God would provide. But neither of them wrote songs to God like David did. Even though he is not one of my favorites in the Bible I do have a tendency to go to his songs and meditate on them and make them my own in hard times. I paraphrased this for me the other week:
Psalm 31 -
In you O God, I will be safe. Be my Rock
Be my strong wall surrounding me
Lead and Guide Me
Keep me out of traps that are before me
I will trust in you
I know you love me even when I am
sick, tired, worried, and anxious
You are protecting me from Satan
I'm tired O God, I am becoming weak and weary
Friends, Neighbors, Enemies, even family are sometimes against me
But you are my God
Let your face smile on me
Protect me from Shame, keep me from pride, show me your goodness
Place me in you shelter
When I have felt captive you have shown me your love
When I feel cut off from you, lonely needing mercy
I can be strong because I know you preserve the faithful
and I can have hope in you O Lord.
Thanks...David

Home safely

Josh and Abby arrived home safely last night from their big adventure. These are more of the mountains that we saw, their experience was different mainly because we went in July when the temperatures were in the 80's & 90's. They saw 2 feet of snow in many places Abby called last night and she thought that Yellowstone was alot of flat lands and as you can see there are big mountain ranges

Large drop offs

And beautiful rivers, I had to put this one in because Joey is smiling, mainly because I had made fun of him and heights, he was glad to be close to the ground on this picture. I can't wait to see all of Josh and Abby's pictures, so we can see the difference from the seasons and time of year. God has beautiful creations everywhere, we just need to take the time to look......

My Grandma Davis-Essie Pauline

As a child I loved to go to my grandma's house. My memories of her include, helping her pin-curl her hair on Saturday nights, fruit cocktail jello, eggs fried ever so perfectly (not a crisping edge anywhere), and the best green beans ever. Also she was a sweet lady with droopy jaws. The reason I write this is because as Leigh Anne (My sister) and I were exercising yesterday I told her that I had resign myself to probably being overweight the rest of my life, since I am not losing weight and will look like my grandma Davis droopy jaws and all. I had hoped that maybe I will turn out sweet like her also.

Stress

Are you stressed????? Everyone I talk to says they are under alot of stress......I thought some of these pictures I found looked like peaceful non stressful places. Sunrise in the valley, what could be less stressful Sitting beside a stream listening to the relaxing flow

Personally this picture just says no stress to me, I just love the colors and the calm lake
Do you know what the medical definition of stress is: Forces from the outside world impinging( to collide or interfere) on the individual. Webster definition is: difficulties that causes worry or emotion tension. I spoke with one of my Insurance ladies yesterday, she called to apologize for not getting back to me on some info that I had requested about a month ago. She realized last night that it was now June and it was too late for her to get me everything I needed. She was feeling very overwhelmed so instead of sending me an e-mail she called me from her family vacation. I fussed at her and gave her the same advise I gave Audrey last night. Sometimes you have to put things down and let it go, do what you can and then stop and relax, because you can't do anymore and things won't change until morning anyway so just relax. Sometimes easier told than done....HA!!!!!