I Don't Want to Waste a Miracle!

Ed has been preaching on "Miracles in Motion" the last few weeks at our church. Last week he was talking about how God does miracles for us so that He can use our miracle in other people's lives. If we hang on to our miracle then it is wasted. That gave me the push I needed to share my testimony of all the miracles that God has done for me in my 50th year of life. I have been blessed with 2 new grandbabies and a grand niece that have brought me so much joy. They are amazing little miracles along side Will our 3 yr. old grandson. Seven years ago we kind of started over when our kids moved out and we sold our home and started leasing a Garden home. It was nice and I loved it but it was really crowded with all of the family events. Then we had a leak under the slab that caused us to basically have to pack up the whole house for a remodel. During this time, Ed took me to St. Martin for a birthday trip. It was so wonderful and I forgot all the stress at home. Our house was supposed to be fixed when we got home it wasn't. We had not been looking for a house at all but Ed had picked up a home facts sheet at his hair salon of a house that we both loved. When we found out that there was not a timetable for our home to be fixed we started to pursue the house. When I prayed about it God told me that he was going to give Ed wisdom and for me not to worry about it. That was hard! We could not come to a total agreement with the owners and Ed left it like that. Things were getting worse where we were living. We both we staying sick because of all the construction going on. Finally after about 5 days of no talking about the house I decided to look at it online and it was no longer available. I nearly freaked. I called Ed and he told me to drive by and see if the sign was still in the yard. It was gone! I was so disappointed! The day before I was praying about it and God spoke to me and said "you are not even ready to move yet, you are not totally packed" so I went home that day and packed our office the main room that was not ready to go. So now I was all packed and going to have to unpack in the same house. I threw a bit of a fit to Ed and he said "you don't have it that bad, there are people in Haiti who are living in tents that are getting ready to be blown away". He was right. The hurricane was headed there within a few hours. That really put my life in perspective. God has given Ed a lot of wisdom! Ed called our realtor who just told him that they decided to go a different way. What does that mean??? I couldn't beleive that someone else was going to get my dream house. Ed got ahold of the owner, we met with him that afternoon and worked out a deal and started moving the next morning. What a miracle!!! God had it all in motion but I couldn't see it. Oh yeah, that's what faith is! What is really special about all of this is all of the unique things that only I could appreciate about this house. It had just been totally redecorated and upgraded to my taste and desires. One of my gifts is hospitality and it has tons of entertaining room! There are things like an excercise pool. Swimming is my favorite exercise. I only saw this house one time in person and nearly everyday there is something that I thank God for because it is something special for me. That is what makes this miracle so wonderful is how it reminds me how personal God is to all of us. This is not a life and death miracle, it is a love miracle. When I felt hopeless and stuck, God showed me His love for me once again through His wonderful provision for me! Last year Ed gave me this scripture and told me that it was going to be our verse for the year. We both memorized it and quoted it alot to each other during the year. I can say with all that is within me that it is true in my life.
Ps 40:5
O Lord my God, you have performed many wonders for us.
Your plans for us are too numerous to list.
You have no equal.
If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds,
I would never come to the end of them.
God's goodness to us really is too numerous to list. I could go on and on. I don't want my miracle to be wasted on me, I want you to know that God has no favorites! He wants to do the same for you, He wants you to know that you are loved and He is thinking great thoughts about you also!

Hurricane Katrina Changed My Life!

This morning I am reflecting on Hurricane Katrina and how it affected my life in a most amazing way! I was listening to some conversation about New Orleans and the comment was made that the people there probably still have their hand out. When I heard this comment it hurt my heart. You see I have personally gotten to know and love some of these people and they have changed my life forever. My story with New Orleans began over 20 years ago when I went to Mardi Gras on an outreach with Scott Hinkle. That's when my life with God really took off! Getting out of the church and on the street with people that He wants to love has made me love Him all the more. I have since been to Mardi Gras many times. Back to Hurricane Katrina. When it hit, our city was privileged to have several thousand refugees come here for shelter. The night they came my Sister Carrie and daughter-in-law Lacey and I headed out to a Midnight training with the Red Cross. I could not believe that after all the seeds I had sown into New Orleans that the people were coming to me! I was so excited. In the next few months we worked hard at the shelter but we also got to know some of these precious people. One lady that I will never forget was Charlene. Charlene had quite a story to tell. She was a single mother of a huge family all who were grown except for a teenage son. Her house made it through the Hurricane so all her family came to her house. There were over 20 of them. Then the levy broke. They escaped out of the house with children floating on mattresses. They made it to the bridge where sniper shootings were taking place and then on to the Superdome where they heard rapes going on during the night and then they were bussed to Lubbock. Charlene stood out because she was still grateful even after all that they had been through. She was trusting God. Charlene and her family were moved into some government housing apartments and many of them began to get jobs. Carrie and I would go and pick up anyone who would go to church with us. During that time 17 of Charlene's family members got saved. Five of them were teenagers. Her daughter and son-in-law got saved and their marriage was put back together. Charlene was seeing so many answers to prayer in her life. It was so fun to go and visit with her. This experience gave so much more to me than I could ever have given to them! One day I was in Wal-Mart with Carrie and saw a fellow Christian who began to complain about these people coming to our city and eating up our resources. Carrie handled her graciously, and got us out of the conversation. I think that she could see that I was about to beat up this old religious lady and it wouldn't be pretty! Later I realized that you can't have love and compassion on people if you are not willing to be involved with them. Charlene went with me on a ladies retreat to New Mexico, she was like a kid! Now, you must know that before this Hurricane Charlene had never been out of New Orleans and she was 50 years old! She was anxious about going to the mountains but I reassured her that it would be ok. On the ladies retreat God really ministered to her. She got up in front of about 600 women to share her testimony of how good God had been to her and she also thanked me, her new best friend, Miss Connie. I cried as I watched this strong woman who had been removed from everything she knew, show her gratitude to God. (I told her later that if we were going to be best friends she couldn't call me Miss Connie anymore!) A few weeks later Charlene and her entire family were moved to Houston because the people in the apartments were threatening them. You see they didn't like these people coming and getting resources that they thought they should be getting. I was so sad! Charlene and her family were only part of my life for about 4 months but they have made a lasting impact on me. I cannot wait to reconnect with them in heaven!!! So the Bible is true when it says God will repay you if you help the poor.

Prov 19:17
If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord—
and he will repay you!
All of the pictures are of Charlene's family who gave their lives to the Lord.





If you notice there are no qualifiers on this scripture. They don't have to be deserving or jump through our hoops. It doesn't even matter if they have their hands out! We are doing if for the Lord if we do it for them. My Momma has always told me that no one can take from you what you give to them. According to this scripture you are not even giving to them, you are giving to the Lord and He is deserving of us giving our all!

32 Years and Counting

It's been a long time coming and so much has happened in the last 7 months! Ed and I just celebrated our 32nd Anniversary so I thought I would start with that. I love this man more every year. The week of our Anniversary he told me that he wanted me to go with him to visit 2 ladies we know. One is a sweet widow in our church and the other is a friend who is fighting cancer. The morning of the visit he got up and went and bought flowers and a card to take to each of them. I met him and we went off to our deliveries. Both ladies were so touched, it had probably been a while since a man brought them flowers. I was reminded once again why I love this man so much...he loves and cares for people! He is my favorite ministry partner and I am so blessed to live life with him! Today he left early for a breakfast meeting before I got out of bed. He came home a little while later with our grandson Will in tow.
He had gone by and surprised Will and picked him up for donuts and hitting golf balls.
I am so grateful for his passion for God, our family and others!
I have also had the blessing of 3 wonderful babies in my life in the last 5 months! My great neice, Karsyn, my grandson Reed and my granddaughter, Allie. There are allready so many wonderful memories being made with these sweeties!


Ed got to dedicate my great nephew, Brayden and Allie to the Lord. I love seeing my generations serve and love God!
One more big event....I celebrated my 50th birthday. How can it be??? Time goes by too fast. I can look back and say that God's love has never failed me through the good times and the bad, He has never disappointed me and my hopes are high in him! My bithday pictures...

I titled this blog 32 years and counting because I can truly say that I am trying to live a life that counts!

Black Friday Bonding

As is my tradition, I hit it out again this year for some fun shopping on Black Friday. This was the earliest that I can remember getting out there though! I would like to digress now to the year when both my sisters and I drug our elementary aged girls out for a Black Friday find. We got to the store at about 7:00 as I recall. It was a very cold day and the fellow shoppers were all staying in their cars to keep warm. We were so grateful! My sister Chrissy decided to get out of the car to throw away some donut trash and it caused a mass exodus from the other cars. We of course had to follow suit. We stood in the cold for some time to get in the store and recieve our cheesy free gift. The girls were not happy to say the least. They were still talking about it this year. Chrissy, in her defense has never been much of a shopper and had no idea of the mahem she could cause.
Back to 2009, my niece Staci agreed to go with me to Target where we wanted to get a coveted 32 in Flat Screen TV for a mere $246.00. We both slept a couple of hours and then met at the store at 3:00 AM with our supplies. I brought the blanket and she brought the lawn chairs. There were already about 100 people in line when we got there! Staci began to unfold one of our lawn chairs which was very confusing. I couldn't figure out how this chair worked, it looked like a mini-bed. Finally Staci realized that it wasn't a chair at all but a fold out table. About that time the line started to move so she folded up the table and ran to the car to put it up. The target guy moved us to the other side of the building where we perched for the next 2 hours. Part of the adventure is the new friends that you make in line. We were surrounded by some very excited talkative people. It was quite fun! The line began to move for real and 3 preppy little soroity girls ran past us all for the front door. The whole line started yelling at the cop "They cut in line". Yay, they were stopped at the door and they looked very mad that they had been stopped but justice had been served. When we got in Target it was a free for all! I was trying to get a basket to get my TV but people were running everywhere so I grabed it and pulled it behind me. Somehow in all the craziness I ran over my own heal with my basket, and incurred my first Black Friday injury. Staci started getting the TVs and I was trying to put them in the basket, as I was lifting the TV to my basket, it had a run away and I missed the basket totally. I was so focused that I didn't even pee in my pants! We finally secured the TVs and just pulled aside for a moment to regroup. I looked over to where a bin of $5.00 PJ's were and there was a sight that could have made me the You Tube video of the day. A lady was fully bent into the basket with her whole crack exposed! Oh how I wished I would not have seen that! Later in the day I was at Pennys getting some boots for my niece. My sister, Carrie had now joined me. There were women everywhere. I had put my boots in a chair next to me and they fell upon some ladies feet. I reached down to get them and I was face to face with a sea of hairy legged women. My husbund does not have this kind of hair on his legs! My Sister just looked at me very straight faced and said "That was unfortunate"! A few hours later I met up with my daughter Denae and son-in-law Chris. Chris was a newby to Black Friday. He said the whole thing had kind of been a disappointment to him because he thought we were going to have more time to hang out together during the shopping.
Actually, that has been my favorite part of Black Friday over the years, it's been the memories that I have accumulated with many different family members and friends, it's the bonding that takes place that is the most fun to me even though I did get some great buys also. I am so thankful for my family, they make my life so fun, I know that they are very proud of me that I kept myself under control and did not laugh too hard this year. Black Friday ended for me at 10:00 AM. I was starting to see spots and get disoriented so I decided I better hit the bed. It was also the time where people come out shopping looking good. I can tell you that I looked far from good with my hat hair and wrinkled clothes! Bring on more Black Friday Bonding!

I Have Sinned

I thought that title might get you! September-October was about the craziest month I have ever experieced! We had the fair, where I worked selling corn dogs about 12 hours a day for 10 days. During that time we also had 2 weddings and 2 funerals. To top it off I found out that I am having 2 new grandbabies! Wow, I think I experienced about all the emotion you can experience in that short time period. I was in serious need of a break, just a place to be able to relax and not feel any pressure.
Our church gave us a vacation for Pastor Appreciation and the only time we could go before the holidays was the next week so we had to purchase a last minute vacation that wasn't going to cost a fortune. I found Las Vegas. We had never been there before and I thought there wouldn't be that much we would want to do so it would be a good place to relax and rest. Boy was I wrong! I loved it! The hotels were amazing. I have never seen such beautiful buildings. My FB friends gave me all kinds of suggestions of things to do. I did mot of them, we were only there for 4 days and there was still so much to do.
I chose a hotel off of the strip because I didn't know what to expect there. It was wonderful but it was a few miles away from everything. We decided to be adventurous and take the bus instead of renting a car. The bus ride included having to take a change bus at the station. We got to ride with the locals on the first bus and then joined the tourists on the second bus. All of this could take up to an hour and a half to get to our destination! The first night we were at the bus station at Midnight waiting for our bus, we were a little tired and cranky and this cute little couple from Canada came over to visit with us. I asked how they met and they began to tell us all the details of meeting a huge party weekend. He said she had another boyfriend that she had been with for 5 years and that had just gone sour. Her heart was broken. There was anther man standing a little ways away and he walked over sat with us all on the bench and said "I know how she feels". It was crazy. Ed started to talk to him and I kept talking to the young couple. They were not married and they were just traveling around the states in an RV. I told them how Ed and I had met at a high shcool party and they wanted to know all the details. I began to share with them how that we didn't have sex until we were married and now we have been married 31 years and are more in love with each other than ever before, we have 3 kids and will soon have 3 grandkids. Their faces softened and their response was "that is so sweet"! Ed went right into telling his testimony of how he got saved right after we started dating and how that changed everything about the way his life was going. They all were really listening. About that time the bus pulled up. It was so neat to see God use us even when we were dead tired and on a vacation from life. The amaazing thing was how invigorated we both felt! We had another opportunity later in the week to give a teenage boy, who was sitting behind us on the bus some money. He had been on the phone telling someone how he didn't have enough money to get to his destination and he said "Jesus Christ" in the course of conversation. Ed looked at me and said "you're going to have to give him some money". He knows what a softie I am, I already had it in hand! He moved back to sit with Dustin and gave him the money and told him that we are parents and we heard his dilema and we would want someone to help our kids. Ed expressed our belief in teenagers. We love them! He then began to go on to say, I heard you say "Jesus Christ" in your frustration and I want you to know that He heard your cry and has answered and He loves you. The kid was so taken aback! Dustin's tone changed and he began to share with Ed the frustrations of his life. The bus stopped and we had to get off. What fun we had!
Now to the "I have sinned". We were in the Planet Hollywood hotel and there was a little brewery called Sin City Brewery that had t-shirts that said "I have sinned".
I really wanted to buy one but it was pretty skimpy. The thought came to me that we should all be wearing those shirts. Not because we had a beer but because hours before I had gotten mad at Ed, acted hateful and not shown him love. That's what really breaks God's heart is when we don't love, not the outward things but the inward things. I have sinned and I have repented. I am so grateful for a forgiving God and a forgiving husband! Our lives can begin again today because of that mercy and grace! I wonder how I would be looked at if I wore a I have sinned shirt every day yet it is the truth. I am not a perfect wife, mother, friend, daughter or Pastor's wife, I am just a sinner depending on God's grace. Thank you to my great church for sending me on an amazing vacation!

Taming the fat!

Ok people, I am posting tonight because I need some accountability! I am headed to youth camp in a few weeks and there is no way I can keep up with the kids or the schedule at my present out of shape, fat self. Sooo I started back to Weight Watchers on Friday morning at 9:30 AM. I even stayed after to get a 45 minute pep talk from the teacher. I need all the motivation I can get at this point. After I stepped on the scales I wanted to kick myself! There it was in black and white and on my book. They might have well just screamed at me you are fat woman! The funny thing is that I actually have a really good self image. That seems to be part of the problem. I think that I look like I have a perfect body. I just look at someone whose body I admire and in my mind I can see my face on that body! Amazing feet I know! LOL! Please help me blog friends and give me some encouragement. If you have any tips for me they are welcomed! If you would like to come join me in my class that would be even better. It's a mommy and me class. It's going to take a lot of motivation, I mean I watched the whole season of Biggest Looser and that didn't oust me off the couch! I don't have a good before pic but I will post that ASAP!

Married and loving it!

This last week Ed and I had to go to court with someone, while we were waiting a divorce was being settled. It was so sad to see the investment of 2 lives being reduced to cars, stuff and who's going to pay what. It really made me glad that Ed and I have done the things we have done to invest in the future of our marriage. I want to encourage you to take a date night, go on an overnighter with your spouse. Turn off the TV and talk or play games. When the kids are gone you will be glad you did. I'm tired of the bad rap that marriage gets! I am loving it! The last 2 weeks Ed and I have been preaching about Marriage on Sunday morning. It's been a challenge and a lot of fun. He really is my best friend. I have so much fun with him and he always pushes me to do things that I'm not sure that I can do. Mostly he has challenged me to believe God for huge things and to do amazing exploits! I find that I have a tendency to get comfortable, just enjoy things the way they are. Not Ed! He always sees more and greater. Thank you honey for allowing me the privilege to minister right beside you! Thank you for believing in me. I love my life. It is so cool to see God love and change people's lives through us!
July 15, 1978 Can you believe that dress? I showed no skin whatsover. LOL!