Cucumbers

Here are the cucumbers waiting to be planted.



Here are the rest of the veggies other then the cucumbers.



Here is a picture of the jalepena peppers!



Here are the banana peppers!



Here is a picture of a couple of the plums on the tree!

Wow!

Wow where has the week gone? sigh.

We went to Lowes and Walmart and bought plants tonight. Everything is planted except for the cucumbers and banana peppers. We bought the cucumber plants but it got dark before we could plant those. Lester will stop at a nursery near his shop to pick up the banana peppers tomorrow. He has to work for a little while tomorrow and while we were at Lowes and discussing what we wanted, the delivery guy was there and told us the only place that ordered banana peppers is the nursery by the shop. He (the delivery guy LOL) delivers all the plants in the area so we were blessed that he was there. Kept us from driving all over town looking for those.

I will take pictures if I remember tomorrow of the garden. Oh and the jalepeno plant we bought has peppers on it already!

Final Identity Theft Post

I will post my notes and then some scriptures that they handed out yesterday about identity truths. Most of my notes are about how success affects your identity.

Success can compromise who you are in your relationships with God, your spouse, even your boss.

Success can rob you of true identity. The closer you get to the top, the more you realize there is no "top". Someone will always be up ahead of you. What I mean by success robbing you, is the desire to be successful can sometimes make you into someone you are not really.

People (men and women both) are driven sometimes to appear more successful then they are to impress family, friends, even church family.

You don't have to be the best, just the best you can be at whatever you are doing. That is true success.

Are you striving for success out of love? Find people who love you for who you really are. Then they will appreciate your true success and you will have time to spend with them.

Success cannot be performance driven, it must be passion driven.

Husbands want you to respect them for who they really are, not for how much money they make.

3 steps to reclaiming your true identity.

1. Align your priorities with God's.
Ps 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

2. Use the right gauge to measure success. Your income is not a good gauge of success. Living within your means is the true gauge of success.

3. Know and understand what true success is.

Mt 11:28-30
11:28
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

11:29
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

11:30
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Here is the list they gave us yesterday.

Chosen John 5:16
Set apart John 17:17
Children of God John 1:12
God's wokmanship Eph 2:10
Seated with Christ Eph 2:6
Justified by Christ's blood Rm 5:1
Dearly loved Eph 3:16-19
Reunited with God 1 Cor 6:17
Secure in Him and His love Rm 8:35
Sealed by His Holy Spirit Eph 1:13
Given direct access to God Heb 10:22
Belonging to the Lord 1 Cor 6:20
We have been forgiven Eph 1:7
Full payment has been made Col 1:13-15
There is No condemnation Rom 8:1
Cleansing has been accomplished Heb 10:22
We have been given eternal life Rm 6:23
We have been made complete Col 2:10
By His wounds we are healed Is 53:5
He will complete the work He begins Phil 1:6
We have been made perfect Heb 10:14
We are newly born of an imperishable seed 1 Pt 1:23
Though once dead in sin, we are now alive in Christ Jesus Eph 2:4-5

I pray this helps you and I to realize exactly who we are in Christ Jesus and to not let anyone steal our identity in Christ.

What a blessing!

My oldest grandson Stephen knows I love snowmen. This week at school he won a pencil that said he won a prize. For his prize he picked a stuffed snowman like I have and presented it to me after school. What a blessing he is to think of me when I am sure there were things that a 9 year old boy would have really liked for himself.

Sadly today I packed all of the snowmen up till next winter.

Counting the cost

Lk 14:28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doth not first sit down and count the cost, whether he have [wherewith] to complete it?

Ever start a project and realize at some point along the way, you don't have the help you need, the materials you need, the time you need to complete it? Did you count the cost before you started? Probably not.

What about in your service to God? Do you think about how much time your devotion will take and set aside that much time to do it? Or do you just go with the flow and hope that you have enough time? Why does God usually get the leftovers of our time instead of the best part of our time? Time that we have purposefully put aside just to spend with Him? I know I always have good intentions about spending time with Him, but life/other things sometimes get in the way. Will you join me in trying harder to set aside good time to spend with the Lord, and not our leftover time?

Walls

How many times in your life have you come up against a wall, and in your worldly wisdom knew the way to get over or around that wall? But you really felt that God was telling you to go another way, a way that in the natural made no sense whatsoever. What did you do? Did you go the way God was telling you to, or did you do it "your way"? Be honest now.

I personally have done it both ways I am sad to say.

Here is what Joshua did.

Jos 6:3 "You shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days. 4 "Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. 5 "It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people will go up every man straight ahead."

15 Then on the seventh day they rose early at the dawning of the day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times; only on that day they marched around the city seven times. 16 At the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, " Shout! For the LORD has given you the city.

How do you think the people responded when he told them the plan? Do you think that none of them questioned whether or not he was crazy? I am sure there were at least a couple who thought he had lost his mind. Come on be honest. If God didn't tell them personally as He did Joshua through the angel, they had to doubt what he said. They were only human. And there were warriors among them. Probably big fighting men who just knew that by their strength they could take the city. They had done it before.

Yet they on some level trusted Joshua enough to do what he said God had told them to do and they obeyed.

How much do you trust God? Next time God tells me to go over or around or under or through that wall in my life (or mountain) I pray that I don't question how God wants me to do it, but that I just obey. Quietly as the people here did. And I pray that the next time you face a wall or mountain, and God tells you to go over or around or under or through, that you also do it His way.

Serving My Husband

Gen 2:18 And the Lord said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

Mt 20:28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life as a ransom for many.

God designed me to be my husband's helper. Am I doing that?
I should not be in competition with my husband, but encouraging and supporting him.

Phil 2:3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better then themselves.

It is my decision whether or not I will serve my husband.

Phil 2:7 But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

Mt 20:26 But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister.
:27 And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.

Am I willingly serving my husband? Am I doing it with the right attitude/heart? Do I ever resent serving him? I will be honest and admit that sometimes I just don't want to serve him. Maybe he did or said something that hurt my feelings. Maybe I am upset about something he didn't do or say that I wanted him to do or say. Whatever the reason, the word says I was created to be a helpmeet to him. It is ordained by God. I can't go by my feelings and pick and choose when I will serve him. I must be doing it in order to serve my Lord and Savior if I want to do it with the right heart. Anything is easier to do even on a bad day if we are doing it for the Lord.

I owe, I owe so off to work I go

How many of you remember that little ditty from a few years ago? Here is what the bible says about owing.

Romans 13:8 Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

I read an email this morning that made me look up this scripture cause yes, I am up on my soapbox this morning lol.

As you know if you read my bio, I am in my 50's. So I have grown children and grandchildren. Manners, saying thank you, please etc have always been important to me and thankfully my grandchildren are all being raised with manners also. Our one grandson is a handful some days, but the one thing you can count on is he will tell you please and thank you. Even as a 3 year old he consistently would and the day care providers were always amazed at that fact. The moms get comments all the time on how polite the children are. Did this come about by chance? No way. They were taught from an early age that this was how things were done. Even something as small as giving them a glass of juice will get you a thank you.

So let's talk about how most children react now a days. How many times have you given a child in your life, not only your child, but neices, nephews, children of friends, and have gotten nothing, no thank you, no card or note. What are we teaching our children by allowing them to think they deserve whatever they are given? I believe that we are teaching them that the world owes them something. This is wrong! They will be truly shocked when they find out the world doesn't owe them anything. They will also have a harder time learning to be polite to people that they really need to be polite to if they want to make a living.

While I am up on this soapbox, let me address something else that I disagree with.
Children are a part of a family. They need to be taught that as a part of a family they have certain responsibilties to others in the family. If you believe, as some do, that your children need to be happy all the time, you are doing a huge disservice to them. Are you as an adult happy all the time? If so please share your secret with us. They need to have things that they do to help out the family. Chores, etc. Everyone as an adult has things they don't want to do that they have to do, and children need to learn that that is part of life. Never requiring anything of them other then play is not teaching them the things they will need as an adult, and basically other then teaching them about Christ as their Savior that is one of our main jobs as moms.

Alright I am stepping off now. May the angry posts begin lol.

Tax Day

Our taxes have been filed and the check spent for a while now. We get our W-2 by the middle of January usually, and as I was am a degreed accountant (stay home wife and mother now) I file the return immediately.

There was a time (even as an accountant) that I really didn't want to pay my taxes. Especially our state tax that for years, no matter how much we paid in during the year, we always owed them money at tax time.

Let's look and see what God has to say about taxes this morning.

Ro 13:1. Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.

* 6. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing.

* 7. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom ; fear to whom fear ; honor to whom honor.

Keep in mind when you are paying your taxes today that the government you are paying is established by God. All governments are. Even the evil dictator ones. They are accountable to God for the way they have exercised the authority which He placed in their trust. They will be judged harshly by God for whatever evil they do while in that office. God will not be mocked.

So today, if you haven't done/paid your taxes yet, do it with joy in your heart that you are obeying the Lord your God.

Identity Theft 2

This is loosely based on some things our pastor has been sharing. I am using the scriptures and thoughts I had based on things he said.

Gen 1:26-27, 31
* 26. Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness ; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

* 27. God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

* 31. God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

God looked at His creation, that includes you and I, and said not only that it was good, but that it was very good.

Have you ever been in a place where who you know you are in your heart doesn't match who you think you are in your head?

You are not who other people say or think you are. You are who GOD created you to be.

Your thumbprint and iris are unique to only you. Only God could do that!

Until we learn to love ourselves the way God loves us, we can't accept love from others or to love others.

When you give yourself over to a bad relationship, it clouds your ability to have
good ones. You begin to believe all the negative things that person says about you whether you want to or not. Otherwise you would leave that relationship. You can't see the effect it has on you while you are involved with that person.

Bitterness, anger, resentment can affect your health.

Eph 5:28-29
* 28. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself ;

* 29. for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,

When you love someone as God wants you to, He gives you eyes to see that person with.
You see them in a way no one else can see them.

Your identity also should not be caught up in how you look. God sees you as special and unique. He has created someone to love you just as He created you.

Even at your worst God says He created you to be very good.

Here are 3 things you can do to get back your identity in Christ.

1. Know what God says about you. His promises, provisions, how He sees you

2. See how God sees.
God loves His creation including you. See His work in you. You are the handiwork of God. It is one thing to look beautiful, it is another to be beautiful. You are beautiful to God.

3. Love who God loves.
You are not who you or others see on the outside but who God spoke you to be on the inside.

Today is THE day

First of all, This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Ok, you may be wondering what the title of this post means.

It means today is the day that I try to get back on a "schedule" of sorts.

I confess, I am a SHE. (sidetracked home executive). I sometimes start out well getting things done that I want to get done, and somewhere along the way, well I get sidetracked by something else. I am also a list maker. I love lists. They help me stay on track. Well they do if I make and then use them lol. Sometimes I make them and well get sidetracked from them and don't use them as I should.

So today I will probably blog a few times. This one, then a daily study one, and later today maybe I will post a list of what (if anything lol) I have accomplished today.

Well off to start my day! I hope you have a very blessed, productive day. And remember do something fun, that you enjoy for at least a few minutes today. For me that will be quilting during breaks.

Identity Theft

In the US 9 million people have their identity compromised annually.

$4500 average amount they are taken for each
50 billion cost to businesses because of it

1 in 4 homes will be hit

30 hours spent individually resolving the issue

Identity theft is a bigger problem in US then illegal drugs

As big a problem as it is in financial area, it is as big a problem in your spiritual life.

The devil tells you through others that you are worthless. God says you are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are God's beloved.

Who have you given access to your identity? People who will buildyou up or tear you down?

Are you believing lies?

Do you build up your spouse and children or tear them down?

Ps 139:13-16
* 13. For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.

* 14. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made : marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

* 15. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

* 16. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written , which in continuance were fashioned , when as yet there was none of them.

These verses say how you were made.

The answer of who you really are can only be answered by who you are in Christ.

Relationships, mirrors, spouse, parents, success, boss, teachers, none of these are the true judge of who you are, only who they think you are.

Jn 1:12 12. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

You are a son or daughter of God !!

Why would you stay in a place where people are putting you down???

Don't let anyone steal your identity. Be all that God created you to be.