Today’s post is from my daily devotional Experiencing God. I am dedicating it to my long time friend Jay Ramer Jr. and his family. Jay posted on his Facebook page last week that his doctors have upgraded his cancer to terminal.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they will comfort me. Psalm 23:4

As a child of God you are never alone! Your Shepherd is with you at all times. You never have to call Him to your situation. You never have to wonder where He is. You never have to fear that if things become too difficult, He will abandon you. He goes before you; He walks beside you; He comes behind you. He protects you securely. Just as He sees every sparrow and knows every hair that is on your head, so His gaze is constantly upon you. (Luke 12:6-7). Even when you cannot see Him, He always keeps His eyes upon you. He comforts you with His strong presence in times of sorrow and grief. He leads you through the valley of the shadow of death. He does not necessarily lead you around the valley as you might wish. There are times when your Shepherd knows that the only way to get you where He wants to take you is to lead you down the path that passes through the dark valley. Yet, at those times He walks closely with you, reassuring you throughout the journey that He still loves you and is with you. It is during those times that you experience His love and compassion in a deeper dimension than you ever have before.

You never need to fear evil. As intimidating as evil can be, there is nothing you will ever face that intimidates your Shepherd. He has seen it all and soundly defeated every form of wickedness. Evil never catches Him by surprise. Your Shepherd is always prepared and knows exactly when and where you will experience difficulty. Place your absolute trust in your Good Shepherd that He will protect you and demonstrate His love for you through the darkest valley.

Jay and Mary, you are always in my prayers.

How many times have you said these words or heard someone else say them? I know I have said them many times over the years. As I thought about what to post today I kept coming up empty, then my friend and blog host, Peter Pollack sent out a notice that this week’s Blog Carnival word is Sacrifice.

As I pondered what I might write about “Sacrifice” I decided to check out my Face Book page to see what was happening with my friends. It didn’t take long before I realized what I would write about. I came across a video from my friends Joe Wells and Erin Wells.

I watched the video and realized I needed to help this family. I’m asking you to PLEASE watch it too. I’m also going to ask you to please sacrifice something for this family. Can you give up Starbucks for a week or your favorite indulgence? I do know times are tough for many families and there aren’t any indulgences to give up. One thing is certain though; we can all give up some of our time in prayer just for this family.

So there you have it. Instead of me telling you of sacrifices I have made I’m asking you to join with me in sacrificing something for this family.

Let me say again, God does work in mysterious ways. I believe God answered my question for today – What do you have for me to do today Lord?

You can watch the video here:

Fall Creek Falls Accident – Caleb Timothy Brown Story

This post is part of the “One Word at a Time Blog Carnival” hosted by Peter Pollock. Check out other posts that were written based on the word “sacrifice”.

With Valentine’s Day behind us I thought I would share the following from my daily devotional “Experiencing God”. This is love in its purest form.

Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.” Hosea 3:1

No human can comprehend God’s love for His children! Our limited experience of human love hinders us from understanding God’s unconditional love for us. We can see a picture of this love in the life of Hosea.

Hosea was a righteous man, but God told him to marry a sinful woman. Hosea obeyed and took Gomer as his wife. He cherished her and treated her with dignity and respect. Never before had Gomer experienced this kind of love, but she soon grew dissatisfied. She began giving her affections to other men. She became so involved in adulterous pursuits that finally she abandoned Hosea altogether. Other men used her until she had nothing left to give. They sold her into slavery. After this, God gave Hosea an amazing command: “Go and buy her back.” Despite the intense pain and hurt that Gomer had inflicted on him, God told Hosea to forgive her and to pay any price to bring her back into his home.

God’s message is clear: When we reject Him and turn our devotion elsewhere, our rejection carries the same pain as an adulterous betrayal. After all God has done for us, it is incomprehensible that we should reject Him. It is even harder to fathom that God could love us even after we have rejected, ignored, and disobeyed Him. Yet God’s love is completely different from ours. His love follows us to the depths of our sinfulness until He had reclaimed us. His love is undaunted when we run from Him, and He continues to pursue us. What incredible love He has demonstrated to us!

I’m so glad I don’t let the little things get me down. This hasn’t always been the case. In the past I was hot tempered and would get angry over the speed bumps in my life and usually pitched a fit.

Larry was out shoveling once again so I decided today would be a good day to clean house. It wasn’t too bad; still I thought I would just get ahead of the game. I did all the dusting, then I cleaned our bathroom and next I began to vacuum. We have a very large bathroom and in the center of it we have a very large decorative rug. I had just finished vacuuming it and my vacuum just died. I fiddled with it, checked the outlet to see if it died rather than the vacuum. It didn’t.  I left it in the middle of our bedroom floor (I was checking hoses etc) and walked into the laundry room to put the load of laundry into the dryer, all the while pondering the fate of the vacuum.

That is when I discovered the small flood in my laundry room. I’m pretty sure there isn’t really anything wrong with my washer; I think it probably has to do with the -7 degree temps we woke up to today. I figure something was frozen where the water needed to drain. I didn’t get one bit upset, I just grabbed some old towels and mopped it all up, went back to my bedroom got the vacuum and put it away. I realized I wasn’t upset or angry and I thanked God for the changes he has created in me. I silently said “I will praise you all day long”.

Right after that the phone rang and it was my mom. Her heater quit working (her house is barely over two years old) and she didn’t have any cold water in her bathroom. I gave her the number of the guy we use for our heating and air conditioning so she called him. He was there in less than an hour and then he called me to explain the problem, which basically was a frozen drain. Something to do with a 90% unit. It would bore you to death if I tried to give you all the details, so I won’t. Basically it boils down to the below zero temps which we just aren’t used to in this area. We are not expecting anymore snow and the temps are to be rising each day all the way to the high 60’s by next week. Her pipes should be thawed in a couple of days.

We are waiting for her to call and we will head over to pick her up. She will stay with us until her heater is working again. Can you say “Scrabble Marathon”? Oh yes, that’s what we will be doing. What a great way to spend a very cold day! Ah, the little things…

I want to give a few shout-outs… first to my awesome husband. He shoveled our very long and wide driveway once again, shoveled our sidewalks, front and back. Not only did he do ours he does mom’s too. Shoveling is hard work and hard on the back. (I think he does it just to get extra back rubs from me)

The second one goes to our awesome neighbors. One of our neighbors has a backhoe with a front loader and he clears our entire road and clears driveways in our neighborhood. Our neighbor’s right across the street always call to check on us in bad weather and another neighbor drove his 4-wheel drive pickup to  pull another neighbor out of the ditch yesterday.

So THANKS – Rick, Steve and Maggie and Mike (and your spouses) for being great friends and great neighbors.

The third one goes to the guy that looked at mom’s heater today. He climbed up in her attic, figured out the problem and didn’t charge her. Now I think that is just NICE!! He had every right to at least charge her for a service call, especially in this bone chilling weather. He even called over here to explain the problem to us and then he offered to drive her over here in his 4-wheel drive pickup. I think that is above and beyond! Thanks Air Service!!

Ps 103:1 Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

Valentine’s Day is less than a week away and all of the men out there can thank me later for the reminder.

Larry and I usually go out to dinner for special occasions and depending on which occasion we are celebrating we have different favorite restaurants we visit. We don’t usually go on trips or buy each other gifts. When we want or need something we usually just get it as the need arises without much thought to special days. I used to be big on that sort of thing and at times would even go overboard. My wonderful husband is more conservative along those lines so I have gone along adapted to his way of thinking and I’m perfectly fine with it. It actually takes away a lot of pressure of having to hunt for the perfect gift idea on each special occasion.                                                      

I love going out to eat and I previously loved going to the movies. It’s a rare occasion now to ever go out for a movie or even rent one. It is too difficult to find one without the language and sex that seems to sell movies these days. We did recently see True Grit and we both enjoyed it very much. That is only the second time in over five years that we have been to the movies.

IF we were into the whole romantic Valentine Day festivity I guess for starters going out to dinner would still be at the top of my list. There is one other thing too…I want to get a small house dog. We haven’t had one for years and for the past few months I have been looking on the Internet at Shelters in our area. I want a West Highland white terrier female, spayed and preferable house trained. I absolutely love them and I think they are so adorable. I have mentioned it to Larry and so far he isn’t keen on the idea. So on this dream date at one of our favorite restaurants I would love for him to reach across the table, take my hands, stare lovingly into my eyes and all the while proclaiming his love for me say “darling, I want you to go ahead and get yourself that little Westie you’ve been wanting.”

Isn’t this Westie adorable?



 Now….if anyone is still with me, I would love to know what you do for Valentine’s Day or what your dream date would be like, and I’m sure you won’t disappoint me.

Age certainly has a way of making me take trips down memory lane. Now, as a grandmother and great-grandmother I can reflect back to all of (what I thought to be) sage advice I gave to my daughters and grandkids. Some of the advice was heeded, some was taken half-heartedly, some ignored and the remainder was taken with a roll of the eyes! This same reflection makes me realize that as a child of God, I have reacted the same way to my Heavenly Father.

From the time our children are toddlers we begin teaching them. We react to what they do, either in a positive way or in a negative way. If they are to close to the fire, we grab them and try our best to make them understand it will cause them great pain. We smack their little hands when they reach for that glass vase, or the wobbly table they are trying to climb. We give them rules and expect them to follow them because as a parent we know what is best for our little ones. Our own experiences have shaped many of our decisions and we want to protect our children from unfavorable consequences. We set up the boundaries and we tell them what the penalties will be when the rules are broken. We love them and we forgive them.

It sounds very familiar doesn’t it? Mankind has been breaking the rules since the beginning of time and will continue to do so until the end of time.

Sometimes I start to struggle. I feel weak and I get edgy when I look at all of my shortcomings, when I know I have broken so many of the “Thou shall not’s”. Yet in the same book of sacred scripture which reminds me of the “Thou shall not’s” I read of Christ in me (us), the hope of glory. Col 1:27 I read of grace and mercy and a whole lot of second chances with repentance and forgiveness and once again my spirit is revived. Once again I am reminded of the hope and love and future glory away from the trials of this broken world.

I love the following devotional from Charles Spurgeon…

“Perfect in Christ Jesus.”
Col 1:28
Do you not feel in your own soul that perfection is not in you? Does not every day teach you that? Every tear which trickles from your eye, weeps “imperfection”; every harsh word which proceeds from your lip, mutters “imperfection.” You have too frequently had a view of your own heart to dream for a moment of any perfection in yourself. But amidst this sad consciousness of imperfection, here is comfort for you—you are “perfect in Christ Jesus.”In God’s sight, you are “complete in Him;” even now you are “accepted in the Beloved.” But there is a second perfection, yet to be realized, which is sure to all the seed. Is it not delightful to look forward to the time when every stain of sin shall be removed from the believer, and he shall be presented faultless before the throne, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing? The Church of Christ then will be so pure, that not even the eye of Omniscience will see a spot or blemish in her; so holy and so glorious, that Hart did not go beyond the truth when he said—”With my Saviour’s garments on, Holy as the Holy One.”

Then shall we know, and taste, and feel the happiness of this vast but short sentence, “Complete in Christ.” Not till then shall we fully comprehend the heights and depths of the salvation of Jesus. Doth not thy heart leap for joy at the thought of it? Black as thou art, thou shalt be white one day; filthy as thou art, thou shalt be clean. Oh, it is a marvellous salvation this! Christ takes a worm and transforms it into an angel; Christ takes a black and deformed thing and makes it clean and matchless in His glory, peerless in His beauty, and fit to be the companion of seraphs. O my soul, stand and admire this blessed truth of perfection in Christ.

As you can see, my blog is sporting a new look. I may play around with it some more so it may look different again next time you visit.

We are home bound due to the snow as are hundreds of thousand of people in various states. I’ve heard we have 20 to 21 inches of snow here in Northeastern Oklahoma where we live. It is certainly beautiful to look at, yet it has practically paralyzed Tulsa and all the surrounding cities and small towns. Even the snow plows are getting stuck.

We are currently receiving our newspaper online and we haven’t seen the mail carrier since the storm. That is fine with me as it is not safe for them to be on the road. One headline read Major Storm Paralyzes Tulsa. I believe this may have passed the last record snowfall which was in 1924; and “NO” I don’t remember it for those inquiring minds. Waaayyyyy before my time!

I cooked up a pot of beans, some fried rice and chicken yesterday. We are eating well and staying warm. I hope all of you are doing the same. Oh, I forgot to mention, mom and I had a Scrabble Marathon yesterday and later, Mom, Larry and I played Rummy Kub last night. I’m so thankful we don’t have to get out in this weather and I’m praying for all of you who do.

Until next time, stay warm and have a nice cup of coffee or cocoa and snuggle up with a good book.

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isa 55:10-11