Quenching Your Thirst

I seem to be thinking about water a lot lately. Maybe it's because it's already so hot outside all you can think of when you go outside is wanting a cool drink of water. I know that my poor plants on my porch let me know today that they were in dire need of a cool drink of water. From the way they seemed to be screaming out, they probably needed a whole lake!

I hadn't realized how thirsty they were until today when I walked outside. When I first planted them a couple of months ago, I faithfully watered them every day or at least ever other day. Then it started raining a lot at night so there wasn't really a need to water every day. So I basically got out the habit of watering them daily. Today when I watered them, some of them almost instantly looked refreshed. The jury is still out on a few them! Hopefully I didn't deprive them to long.

As I watched the life almost instantly come back to some of the plants, I thought about my spiritual life and my thirst for God and His word. Several months ago I wrote about basically a severe drought in my spiritual walk. Even though we were going through some tremendous spiritual struggles, I became closer to God than I have ever been before. My study habits greatly improved and became a daily part of my life. Since that time, my walk with God is closer than ever. We have recently placed membership at Highland Oaks and have been tremendously blessed by being there. We really feel like it's where God wants us to be. And God is already using Jeremy is awesome ways there within the youth group. Almost every time we meet someone new, they have already heard about Jeremy and tell us what a blessing he is to the group. In April he did the Saturday night devotional talk at their spring retreat. I give God all the glory and pray that He will continue to use Jeremy in awesome ways for His kingdom.

But, seeing those plants withering today, got me to thinking. If I'm not careful, I'm going to begin to wither. As I said, things are amazing…right now. And isn't it when things are amazing that we sometimes forget why they are amazing and who it is that makes them amazing? When we are going through struggles, it is sometimes easier to keep your focus on God. It should be just as easy for us to stay focused on Him when things are going great too. Actually, it should be easier since we know that all good things come from God.

But the human side of us sometimes tends to put God on the back burner when things are going well. Satan wants us to forget that God is always there whether things are bad or going great. Satan wants us to forget that all good things come from God and to just think our luck is changing. If we don't drink from God's living water daily, we like those plants, will dry up and wither away. If those plants can come back to life so quickly with a small drink of water, just think of how alive in Christ we will be if we drink from His living water every day.

God made us to hunger and thirst after him. If we deprive our spiritual thirst, we will eventually wither away. No matter how good things seem to be going, that hunger and thirst is always there. God put it there. God wants us with Him no matter what the circumstances. Sometimes we don’t realize how thirsty we were until we get back into the word and can’t put it down. So as this hot summer presses in on us, I pray that we all will be quenched by God's living water and show Satan we are in full bloom!

Streams of Water

I recently began reading again in Psalms. I love the book of Psalms. No matter where you are emotionally, Psalms has something to fit your needs. Psalms also has so many mental pictures, it's easy to become lost in them. I love it.

Psalm1:3 says, "He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all he does, he prospers.” I love the imagery of a tree planted by streams of water. I can envision the tree's roots stretching out and absorbing every ounce of water it can. As it soaks in that water, becoming stronger and stronger with every drink. I think of how beautiful that tree must be, flowing with long, strong green branches, perfect leaves and the most gorgeous fruit just dripping with sweetness. The image of that tree is so much more beautiful than thinking of a tree planted out in the middle of a desert with no water in sight that would just dry up into nothing and wither away.

How much more beautiful would our own lives be if we, like that tree, planted ourselves daily in the living water that God provides for us. How much stronger, vibrant and more alive would we be if we just sit back and soak up all that God is trying to offer us. The fruit we would produce would be incredible. We can be like that tree planted by streams of water if we just allow God to fill us each day with the living water He has to offer us. Marvin Phillips has often said, "Bloom where you're planted". How beautiful would our blooms be if we fed them with the living water of Jesus.

All of this reminds me of an even great image, the image of sitting at God's feet one day and be engulfed by those living streams of water first hand. I can't wait!

Too Close to Call

Well, tonight was American Idol. Most of you know that I am a fanatic when it comes to American Idol. Almost as big a fanatic as I am about 24! But that's another story for another time. We became even bigger fanatics after Ashley and I were able to go to a live taping last season. For those who don't know, last May we got to fly to L.A. at the spur of the moment to watch the live taping of the final 5. Ashley even had some professors who let her reschedule a couple of finals so that she could go! It was fast and furious and the most exciting thing we've ever done!! After a very long day of waiting outside for 6 hours just to see IF we would even get in, and thinking up until the last moment that we didn't, we ended up on the front row right by the aisle where Simon, Paula and Randy walk in. We got to shake all of there hands and Ashley even got a kiss from Simon! It was an awesome day!! In case you missed all the hoopla last year, I'm attaching a link here where Ashley has the pictures we took. American Idol Pictures Link )

Back to tonight's AI. This year's talent seems to me to be overall much better than in the past. Last year Carrie and Bo were real standouts. This year it is anyone's game. And tonight was Elvis night! In my book Elvis is still the King. I thought they all did well over all. I wasn't fond of Elliott's first song, but the second song was great. I thought poor Katharine got a raw deal on her comments. I thought she did quite well on both songs. Chris was great! But I think Taylor stole the show. He has always reminded me of Elvis and tonight he was awesome! Taylor and Chris sang two of my favorite Elvis songs, "In the Ghetto and "A Little Less Conversation".

I'm not sure whose going home tomorrow night, (probably tonight by the time I get this done. I'm using a laptop and it stinks! The retarded cursor keeps jumping all over the page!!) but I think Chris and Taylor are going to the finals!

In the words of my daughter, they rock my sox off! I can't wait for the finale!

Have a great one! And as for me.... Go Taylor!!

Can You Sleep When the Wind Blows?

I received this in an email from a dear friend. I felt like it was worth sharing .

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Years ago a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast. He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic . They dreaded the awful storms that raged across the Atlantic, wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops. As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received a steady stream of refusals.

Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached the farmer. "Are you a good farmhand?" the farmer asked him. "Well, I can sleep when the wind blows," answered the little man. Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help, hired him. The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man's work.

Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore. Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand's sleeping quarters. He shook the little man and yelled, "Get up! A storm ! is coming! Tie things down before they blow away!" The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, "No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows."

Enraged by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm. To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the doors were barred. The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down. Nothing could blow away.

The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, so he returned to his bed to also sleep while the wind blew.

MORAL: When you're prepared, spiritually, mentally, and physically, you have nothing to fear. Can you sleep when the wind blows through your life? The hired hand in the story was able to sleep because he had secured the farm against the storm. We, as believers in Christ, secure ourselves against the storms of life by grounding ourselves in the Word of God. We don't need to understand, we just need to hold His hand to have peace in the midst of the storms. I hope you sleep well! God cares about you...

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May we all be so grounded in God’s Word, that we too “Can Sleep When the Wind Blows”.

Is Someone Knocking??

I woke up this morning to this constant knocking from outside. I was sitting at the computer as I continued to hear it and wondered what in the world was going on. I soon realized that the neighbors who live behind us were putting on a new roof. Question answered.

As I have continued on my day throughout the house, I have continually been made aware of the knocking sound I heard this morning. It stops for a while and then I realize it's back again. I say realize because it's gotten to the point I can just block it out for the most part.

It started me to thinking about what we do when we hear God knocking. Do we answer His calling or do we just hear it, but then ignore it for a while. How many times do we feel God calling us to do something, but we answer, I'll get to that later. How many times do we walk past our bible, actually noticing it, as if God is calling us to pick it up and discover His wonderful promises, and then just brush it off until later. I'm not talking about just calling us to do good works, I'm talking about God calling you into that intimate relationship that you can only have with Him.

When we put things off until later, sometimes later never comes. We get busy in our day and before we know it, we are exhausted and it's time for bed. We tell ourselves, we'll answer those calls from God tomorrow. But if we aren't careful, we will soon be able to block them out completely just like we can block out the sound of a new roof being put on. And one day, God may stop knocking. We can only turn our backs on Him for so long. How horrible will it be if one day He says to us, I knocked at the door for you constantly, but you never let me in.

I pray that we will all (including myself) be more aware of God's knocking and His calling for us so that we will not miss out on any of the wonderful blessings that God has in store for us, if we will only let him in. I don't want to miss out on the greatest relationship in my life! Do you?

Overcoming Weeds

This past weekend was the weekend of the annual spring clean up of the yard and the landscaping. It's one of those task I just dread getting started and usually procrastinate as long as possible. This year the rain we've had almost every weekend for the past month helped us to procrastinate! But with the rain stopped and finally being in town, we had to begin the large task at hand.

During the hours it took to pull the weeds from the landscaping and to replant new flowers in places, I had a lot of time to think. The gardening and pruning we do in our landscaping is a lot like the spiritual pruning we do in our lives. As I pulled weeds (which always seems like an endless task) I thought about the weeds that pop up in our lives. You can pull the weeds in the landscaping and plant new flowers and everything looks great. In fact, that always the best part. Being able to stand back and look at everything once you’ve finished. It gives you a real sense of accomplishment. But it doesn't end there. Within a week or so, and sometimes the next day, more weeds pop up. The only way to keep them gone is to treat them with something and even then you still have to continue to pull a few of them that keep popping up. You also have to water all the flowers you’ve planted. Without water, everything will die.

Our lives are the same way. Satan keeps putting little weeds in our path. You can try and pull them, maybe by trying to live your life right, but they just keep coming back. And if we’re not careful, the weeds will overtake our life just like they can overtake our landscaping. The only way to keep them from coming back or at least keep them from popping up so often is to treat them.

The only way to treat Satan's weeds are with the word of God. God's word is powerful, but only if we use it. It’s like using the word of God to water our lives every day to keep us alive. The only way to use it against Satan's weeds is by being in it every day. Being in the word every day gives us great power over Satan and the weeds he puts in our paths. It also gives us the water we need to sow the seed of the word in our hearts daily. God’s word will overtake any weeds Satan may try to plant.

Another thing we decide to do was to put in some steel edging around our landscaping to try and keep the grass from growing in. As we put that up for protection for our landscaping, I thought of what an awesome hedge of protection we will have in our lives to keep things from creeping in if we just stay in the word.

Pruning is never an easy process, whether in the landscaping or in our spiritual lives. In fact the word pruning just sounds painful to me. The definition of pruning is " To cut off or remove dead or living parts or branches of (a plant, for example) to improve shape or growth; To remove or cut out as superfluous". Yes, sometimes pruning means cutting off things that are still alive. That is the painful part. But if we are going to prune our lives, we sometimes have to cut out things that are "living" within us.

If you're like me, you may not know what superfluous means. Superfluous means "Being beyond what is required or sufficient". Wow!!! Pruning means we are striving to be beyond what is required or sufficient. Isn't that just what God wants to do in our lives!!! He wants to give us and be in us more than we can possibly imagine. He wants us to be sufficient only through Him. God is the only one who can make us be beyond what is required or sufficient. Nothing else.

God gives us many weapons to use against Satan, but we will never no what they are if we don't give Him the opportunity to tell us. May God continue pruning us all so that we will all be "beyond what is required or sufficient!

Always Look on the Inside

I received this through email the other day and have continued to read it over and over again several times. I feel like it's one of those things worth sharing. It's a powerful reminder of how we need to see others through the eyes of Jesus.

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Always Look on the Inside

I remember reading a story once about a man who was exploring some caves by the seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled up some clay and left them out in the sun to bake. They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man so he took the bag out of the cave with him.

As he strolled along the beach, to pass the time, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could throw.

He thought little about it until he dropped one of the balls and it cracked open on a rock. Inside was a beautiful, precious stone. Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left, then it struck him.

He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have had tens of thousands, but he just threw it all away.

You know sometimes, it's like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it; we see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy.

But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person. There is a treasure hidden in every one of us. We are wonderfully made. Not just our physical bodies, our spiritual selves, which are sometimes hidden from others by the *earthen vessel*

But if you take the time to get to know that person, and if you ask the Spirit to show you that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth.

The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him with his friendship.

-- Author Unknown

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You know, we are clay vessels as well. Scripture tells us, that Jesus is the Potter and we are the clay. He is continually molding us and re-shaping us each day to look more and more like him. He is not only molding and re-shaping us as Christians, He is molding and re-shaping all those around us. Even those who we might choose to overlook. How different would our contact with others be if we always looked at others through the eyes of Jesus and remembered that His hands are all over every person, molding and re-shaping them every day. There are hidden treasures in these human clay vessels as well. I pray that we stop and take the time to enjoy the beauty of Jesus in everyone.

A Mother's Prayer

Well, life has changed a bit for us again... Jeremy now has his drivers license! So please say a few extra prayers for him & us!! Seriously, he is a good driver, but a few extra prayers never hurt!

This new phase in his life has caused me to reflect on the different stages of my prayer life as a mom. I have always prayed for my children, even before they were born, and have continued to pray for them daily ever since. As I'm sure many of you do as well. But in looking back over the years, I can see how those prayers change through the different phases of their lives.

You begin praying that they will grow and develop and everything physical will be normal. Then as they grow you begin praying for the new things they are learning. And sometimes praying more for yourself as they are learning all these new things!! You pray them through those early years and you feel like things are going pretty well. Then all of sudden there are boyfriends or girlfriends in the picture and you realize there are even more things to pray about!

I have always prayed for my children's spouses and the children they will some day have since they were very young. I learned that from a very Godly preacher's wife I know! And what a blessing that has been in my life! Especially as I have watched how the prayers for her own children all through these years have impacted their lives and helped to shape the Godly Christians they have become. It gives you great hope in what God has planned for your children when you are watching someone else’s prayers for their children unfold. "Jeremiah 29:11."

Then the driving phase hits and your prayers change again. Not only for safety, but for yourself as you realize it's time to slowly start letting go. Not completely letting go, but realizing that your time left with them is growing shorter. God has a way of helping us through that letting go process little by little. I believe that driving is really the first big step in that. It lets you know your children are growing up and that if you have diligently been praying for them, it's time to at least 'begin' to let God take control of your worries over them.

Because the next step is off to college! And boy, do you ever have to start letting go at that point! You have to trust in God that through all the mistakes you've made through the years with your children, and believe me, there are plenty of them, that you have given them a strong enough foundation to help them make Godly decisions in their own lives.

As a mom, that letting go is a hard thing to do. But I know that as I begin to slowly let go with Jeremy, and have been letting go even further with Ashley, that God is right there to pick them up and carry them for me. I know that he will never let them fall without being right there to pick them up. And for a mom letting go... that is the greatest comfort imaginable.

"30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:30,31 ESV "

I will never stop praying for my children, their future spouses and even the children they will some day have in the future. But I know that even though I have to begin letting go as their earthy parent, there Heavenly Father is holding on tighter than ever! What a blessing!

I pray that my children soar with God! And that is my prayer for your children as well.

A Small Glimpse of God's Brilliance

I was driving in my car yesterday as the sun was beginning to go down. I looked over into the horizon and the sky was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. The top of sky was bright blue with clouds below it and the pinkish, purplish colors of the sun going down were underneath the clouds. What was so incredible was the way the light was shining from behind the clouds. I have seen light shining from behind clouds before, but never quite like this. It seemed to just radiate incredible, brilliant beams of light all around it and you could see the brilliance and brightest of the sun peaking through little holes in the clouds.

I felt like Moses on the mountain getting just a glimpse of God. You could tell the light was so powerful and bright you could never look directly at it, but the brilliance the light had even when it was totally covered by the clouds was the most marvelous thing I have ever seen.

How much more marvelous and beautiful is it going to be when we, like Moses, actually get to see God face to face!! You know, I think we often wonder how we could be satisfied to just gaze upon God for eternity. I can tell you after yesterday, I can’t wait!! I know what I saw was only a very tiny glimpse of God’s brilliance. I can’t wait to be completely surrounded by the complete brilliance of God!

Remodeling....

Well, we began the remodeling process on one of our bathrooms about 3 weeks ago now. We've gotten most of the floor ripped up and the wall paper off the walls. And now it's been sitting like that for about 3 weeks while we try and find time to finish it. It was one of those projects you get started on and then realize you're going to need to do a little more than what you thought you would when you first started. Then life got in the way, and we haven't had a free weekend since then to finish it. And with everything on the calendar for this month, it looks like it's going to be the first of March before another "somewhat free" weekend shows up.

As I look at the bare, scrapped walls of my bathroom, it makes me think about what we do when we begin to "remodel" our lives. We jump in whole heartedly to start scraping off all of the ugliness and outdatedness, then once we are left with bare walls, it causes us to realize there is a lot more to it, that just scrapping away all of the old "stuff".

If we are going to remodel our lives, we have to scrape away all the old stuff; we have to get down to the bare walls, the cracks that need to fixed, and anything else that is covering up what we need to change in our lives. In order for God to remodel us, we need to really examine what's left when we get down to the bare walls. Just like we have to examine those bare walls in the bathroom, before we can decide what it's going to take to make it look right again.

Once you do that, you can begin the process of making things look new again. You can redo the walls, the floor, the shower cutains, etc. And when you are finished everything will look fresh and bright and renewed.

Will my bathroom ever get completely finished? Yes, at least until we decide it's time to remodel again. Are our lives ever completely remodeled? Not really. Our lives are one place in which remodeling is never really finished. I believe we should always be at the stage of continual remodeling in our lives. We need to be continuing to remodel our lives to reflect the life of Jesus and be worthy to be one who is called a child of God. We should constantly be changing and mirroring the image of Jesus in every aspect of our lives.

Only when we meet Jesus will our remodeling be completely finished. When we meet Christ and He makes us completely New!! Jesus is the potter and we are the clay. He is continaully reshaping us and remodeling us to look more and more like Him. We just have to give Him the freedom to remodel us and not resist His reshaping of our lives.

Once my bathroom is finished, it won't always stay looking as clean and new as things do when they are first finished. But if we allow Jesus to continually reshape and remodel us, our lives will begin to look like Christ, the perfect template for all of us to remodeling our lives after.

Praise God for the perfect son and template he gave us to use as we daily remodel our lives.

The Key to Your Heart

I want to thank all of you for your love and encouragement after my first entry. It really means a lot to me! I also want to say that anything you ever read that is good or possibly insightful, comes directly from God! I have never been a writer, except for the occasional letter to my Grandmother when I was much younger when she lived out of town. So I give God all the Glory & Praise!

Having said that, it's really funny the avenues in which God uses to speak to us. I was driving down the highway this afternoon on my way to Sam's (to take back some 4 day old fruit gone really bad!!) when I passed a truck with a strange load in the back. It was piled up to just over the truck bed with what looked like some type of coat racks. As I studied it, something at one end the coat racks, (or whatever they were), jumped out at me. It looked like some type of key hole.

I know it sounds odd that a key hole would jump out at me. But it was like one of those deja vu moments that you sometimes have. It reminded me of something I dreamt last night. When I got up this morning, I didn't even remember dreaming, but what I saw in the back of that truck reminded me of just one split second of my apparent dream. I remembered walking in a big hurry on my way "to something", and bumping into someone. I don't remember a face, I just remember seeing them holding a very large key. Large, like about 2 foot large!! I bumped into them, looked at them awkwardly and puzzled, and walked on. That is all I remember.

But as I remembered that, my head was suddenly filled with the thought, God is trying to unlock something in my heart. As I thought about that for a moment, I realized that sometime over the last 6 months to a year, I started to slowly lock God out of places in my heart. I began to slowly lose pieces of my heart and myself as I sat back and watched some things happen within different aspects of my spiritual journey. I think that's why things of late have hit me so hard. God has been trying to get me to give those parts of my heart back to him, but I continued to keep those parts locked up away from Him. I had become comfortable with only giving God a part of my heart. And by doing that, I let myself be blinded to things I would normally not have just accepted as being ok.

A very wise woman of God (and very good friend!!) once told me that God does not call us to be comfortable, He calls us to be obedient. If we are locking away parts of our heart and keeping them away from God, we can't be truly obedient.

As I traveled on to Sam's, (listening to Free Indeed), their remake of the Dennis Jernigan song "When the Night is Falling" came on. As I listened to the words, these words stood out to me...

"When the night would hide my way, I will listen until I hear you say, How I love you, Child I love you."

While I listened to those words, my emotions got the best of me. I realized that the night (Satan) had been hiding my way. And I realized that if I just listen, I will hear God say, "How I love you, Child I love you". I felt the love of God at that moment like never before and I felt a peace I had not known for quiet some time.

I'm sure there are still places in my heart that I have locked and hidden away from God. But I want to turn the key over to Him and allow Him to unlock those places so that I can once again worship Him with my whole heart, mind and body. I want to let God "Come and Sing Over Me"! My prayer is that you will let God "Come and Sing Over You" as well!

What do we call home?

Blogging is not something I ever even thought about doing. But in wanting to post on some very dear friends blogs, I realized I had to be a blogger to make that happen.

I wasn't going to post anything on my blog originally, just get it set up so I could post on others; and I may never post again. But I feel God calling me to write some of my own thoughts down today...

I have begun to realize over the past several months that I have always put to much emphasis on my "church home". I think I was expecting my church home to be the place I went to get "filled up", the place that would always be comfortable, the place where I knew things would be right. I now know, that having a church home, does not mean my home. I know that God doesn't call us to be comfortable and I think I began to rely to much on the "comfort" of home. God calls us to be set apart from the world in everything we do and to glorify Him in everything we do. I have realized that being set apart sometimes means being set apart from those we have been closest to in our walk with Christ.

I have never been more reminded of Frank Peretti's book, "This Present Darkness", than I have lately. I feel like I have actually seen Satan's demons grabbing men and women with their talons and twisting and contorting them to the point they are not recognizable as ones in Christ. I do not want to be unrecognizable to Christ or to anyone who knows I am a child of God.

Through some deep spiritual struggles, I have realized that the only home I need, and the only home I want, is the home I have with Christ. The struggles of late have been great. But I believe what Romans 8 says, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good." Because through my struggles I have been studying more and allowing God to fill me more, than I ever have before. My relationship with Christ is deeper than it's ever been. I long to be in the word daily.

I want to be set apart from the harsh realities of this world. Even when those realities are among those closest to us. I want people around me to see Christ living in and through me. I want to see everyone through the eyes of Jesus. I want to be able to look in the mirror and know that I am doing what God has called me to do. I refuse to lower my standards to the standards of man. I choose to be set apart from the world.

I pray daily for God to reveal His word to me. (Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. Psalm 81) I pray that God will not send to me a strong delusion, but that he will keep me grounded in Him. I do not want to see the darkness masquerading as The Light. I only want to see God's True Light.

I am so thankful for the people God has put in my life over the last 15 years. Two mentors who are now in Decatur who helped to show me what it means to have a relationship with Christ and to stand up for what's Godly. A young man from Arlington full of more Godly wisdom than most people twice his age who has taught my son, and in the process also taught me, a lot about the spirit of Christ. We have grown to love him and his wife as our own family. And I am thankful for my family and the continued spiritual growth I see in each one us. Most of all, I am thankful for Christ and his continued love for us. For the way He works through all of our mistakes and makes us look somewhat presentable.

God can do amazing things in us when we allow Him to work in our lives. I refuse to let Satan steal, kill or destroy the spirit of Christ in anyone in my family. We will come through the darkness that Satan has tried to cover us with. And through the scratches and holes Satan has left us with, we will shine the light of Christ brighter than ever. We will not be overcome with the darkness. We will be victorious in the light.