Who told the sun where to stand in the morning

I dont know if you all know the song to which I am referring. This is a song that our choir sings and I always love to hear. It states in part of the song "Who told the sun where to stand in the morning, who told the ocean you can only come this far, who told the moon where to hide till evening..."

You get the point. Anyway this week has been a testing in control. Basically me fighting control with God. Hummm who do you think has the best chance at winning that? 

My daughter Riley has been sick all week with Strep. We cant seem to get her fever down for more than a few hours anyway. She has missed 4 days of school. I am praying she can go tomorrow because she has a lot of makeup work to do already. 

We have had some car maintenance issues this week and last. My van which has well over 200,000 miles on it is giving out a little at a time. Hoses, connections, all seeming to wear out this week and last. It seems like when it rains it truely does pour. It has been a total of three different things that needed replacing and one more we haven't done yet all at once.

However, as I was doing my Bible reading today and considering all the I have to be thankful for in contrast to the small amount of things that have been an irritation this week it seems silly to complain. It seems silly to think that I know better how to run my life. Look at who created life to begin with. What makes me think I can do a better job at running things? Yet, every so often I try. 

I get to going good thinking I am really getting the hang of this life thing.  Then all the sudden in a week or so everything seems to go out of control. Yet, God knew all along that this week Riley would be sick and our van would have issues. He knew all along. So, I am choosing to instead of saying why me and  " why do I have to spend my savings on this van" instead of a vacation. I am looking at it as "thank the Lord we had the money to fix it".

Well I could go on and on.It has been one of those weeks. I am just saying that we are never in control we just think we are. Then, something happens that makes us look up and say okay God you are going to have to take this now, I cant handle it anymore. I think thats probably exactly what he is wanting from us just to say help me I cant do it..

Phil4:6-7 "Do not be anxious about anything. but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus"

I will praise you in the storm....

I will praise you in this storm....

The above picture is of the April 27th Tornado damage to my hometown of Ringgold Georgia. 

After the storms moving through the area yesterday, sparing Ringgold thank the Lord, I felt the need to remember all the took place almost a year ago. 

It was such a scary thing to live through yet thank the Lord we were spared. We didnt even lose a limb of a tree. However, my great grandmother who was 97 at the time was sitting in her house as the tornado came through downtown Ringgold It took the roof of the back end of her house. All the damage is now fixed her house looks brand new. Other than a few exceptions our little town is coming back full swing. So, after last night I just felt the need to say again thank you Lord for protecting Ringgold last night. Thank you also for allowing us as a town to come back better than before even. Please be with the people in the areas that were hit again last night and help them to rebuild and come through stronger for it.

The Lord is Good

The Lord never fails to amaze me at that way that he comes through and takes care of me and my family. He is an awesome God that knows exactly how to show us that he loves us in good times and in bad.  


Psalm 139:7-8  
7.where can I flee from your presence? or where can I flee from your presence? 8.If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

Time for a Change

I have struggled for sometime with discontentment. If it was b/c I thought we didnt stack up with it came to our place in society or that I didnt think our stuff was new or nice enough. I was constantly comparing and than feeling crummy for comparing. 

I was convicted by the Lord that this attitude needed to stop. That I needed to trust that he knew exactly what I needed and would give me exactly what he thought was best for me. If I was mad at the lack of things I would have to realize I was mad at God for not giving them to me. That is a wrong attitude. So wrong. I have prayed forgiveness for my sinful attitude. Thats what it is you know sinful. Its a commandment. Do not covet!!!! I was coveting all over the place. I asked the Lord to forgive that attitude and to grant me an attitude of contentment. I am not saying this to boast as its very humbling to admit my failure. However, I am just a sinner saved by grace and that is all!!! I cant earn it and will never earn it. I just fall back on the Lord's open arms and thank him for taking me and forgiving me when I fail him so miserably. How would we feel if we gave our children something than all they did was complain that it wasnt as nice as the kids down the road or said okay whats next when is the next thing coming...so wrong..and that was me...

Now do i think I have this thing licked and will never struggle again with it ..hardly...but at least I see the issue and am trying to focus more on my relationship with the Lord than anything else.

For where my heart is there my treasure is also..

Serving God with my money

I love finances, I know most people dont they hate budgeting and stuff. I love making a good budget and sticking to it. 

However, here lately I have been having trouble with our budget getting it to cover everything. Getting some room in it for savings etc. Nothing like not being able to pay bills or anything just not having it flow as nicely as I would like. I have been reading an old Larry Burkett book for those that dont know he was a awesome financial expert of his day. He has since passed away. The thing I always loved about him was how he would back up anything he taught with biblical references so he taught how the Lord would want us to handle our money. Being a good steward. Giving etc.

So, since money was on my mind, I got to thinking about the early years of our marriage when we were making due with alot less than we have now. Yet, we were happy. We had no internet no cell phone , cable or satellite, one car that worked and one that was always having trouble, a house that needed some major work yet we were happy. When Matt would get paid which was monthly then we would pray that the Lord stretch the money that we had to provide for all our needs known and unknown. So, always every single month the Lord did provide. He was always faithful. It wasnt always in the same ways but somehow we always got by even though if you looked at our budget mathematically it didnt work it just didnt, however the Lord can do anything he wants!

So, after reading some of the same principals trusting God with your money and using all your resources to serve the Lord. God has really been dealing with me. I feel I have had blinders on and didnt realize. Dont get me wrong we were never rolling but compared to what we had early in our marriage it is. Well we no longer prayed our money would stretch we no longer asked that God be faithful I guess we just assumed that we had it covered...not meaning to be prideful but thats what I was prideful that I knew how to do things and didnt need God imput. 

I would never have admitted pride but by pure observation of what I was doing I was thinking I had it covered on my own.

I have realized that I need to get back to putting my money where my mouth is so to speak. Does them mean selling all I own and moving to another country to join a mission team no, but this does mean giving over control of what goes on in this house to the Lord, he has control anyway and he knows way more than I do and I think he can do a much better job. Than I need to think about where I could give more. What more above and beyond the tithe can we do to serve the Lord...how can we be a blessing to others? How can we show our kids how blessed we are to live in this nation where pretty much compared to the rest of the world we are ALL wealthy.

1John 3:17-18 "But whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth"

Let's Go Out

This is somewhat of a repost. However, I feel the need to revisit this due to our current state of affairs here in our household.

Awhile back I posted something to the affect of how much do you and your family eat out. It was my confession of spending way too much money on eating out.
After that post I did alot better in cutting back the amount we went out.
Now, it is sneaking back up there to where its making things uncomfortable again.

Now, we can pay all our bills (thank the Lord), so this is not speaking of taking money away from bills to buy food out.

I grew up eating out dinner every night. It was just how we did things. My mom was single mom who worked all day long by the time the evening came she didnt want to cook. We went out.
I guess its a habit...
Dont get me wrong I cook way more than my mom did. Pretty much every dinner through the week I will cook. However, its the lunches with the Hubby, the weekends after soccer games, or in between errands or when I am out and about and find myself hungry and 20 min from home.




We have had some insurance increases that have lead to money coming out the check that we used to have free to use. Riley has starting dancing. This is a cost per month in the class and than everytime she performs, a costume. They have have three performances this month. Add to the end of the year parties and gifts for the teachers, and birthdays galore in my family.....well you can see the issue. Not to mention how very expensive it is to dine out with a family....



We have to cut something.I am unwilling to give up my computer lol my link to the outside world....I dont want to do away with Satellite. Football season is just a few months away (those who dont know we have to watch our college football in the fall, its a thing with us). So, that leaves just one thing. out to eat.

It has to be cut down or out or something....

Answer me this how much if you dont mind saying do you spend on out to eat say a week...this is counting drive through as well.....how much is too much???

We are getting close to 150 or more a week....this is WAY too much.

You dont think about how much you spend when its 20 bucks here and so on but it really really really adds up when you realize you have spent more on out to eat than buying groceries I think you have an issue.

What do you think??? Share your thoughts :)

Praise Him

How often do we as Christians pray during our hardships and challenges yet forsake even the simplest of thank yous for the everyday blessings that the Lord pours out on us daily.

I wanted to simply say Thank you Lord for being with my Grandpa today. The surgery that he underwent could have gone very different and we could've found out much worse news. However, your hand was on in and his doctors today. He has a good report and is home already.

I just wanted to acknowledge the Lord's blessing today in my life. I thank him daily for all the little things that He does to help me and my family.

Bible Study

I was thinking that since I have got so much from Wednesday night church over at our new church that I would share maybe on Thursdays what I learned. I might not do this weekly but figured I would try to do it at least a few times a month.

The lesson last night was on Hosea. If you are anything like me you have never studied Hosea before. You know next to nothing about it. That was me too and I am far from understanding the complete book however, I was very surprised at the depth and power and imagery in this book of the Bible that I had never noticed before.

Hosea is a book that is part is personal part prophetic. Meaning some of it really happened some of it is imagery, or metaphors.

This is how it is broke down. Hosea is a man that loves and forgives a Harlet woman named Gomer. In the beginning of the book he redeemed this woman of her wicked life style. Marries her and raises her children as his own.

Gomer the Harlet decides to go back to her wicked ways and we see Hosea saying if she insists on going her own way and going after idols and not caring about me I will let her chase her idols, and I will let her face whatever these things lead to. If she decides to come back to me I will be here and forgive her and welcome her back.

This is a man and a real woman. However, it is also a picture of God (Hosea) and Gomer(Israel). We can also look at Israel as us. When we run from God just at Gomer did from Hosea when we insist on going our own way God will let us he gives us free will. However, when we realize we have been wrong and come back to God he is there and willing and ready to welcome us back with open arms. Another example of this is the Prodigal son.

So, I did not realize this book was this interesting or that we could gain so much from studying it. We can see how the Lord views us by seeing how Hosea views Gomer. The love that God gives us even in letting us live our bad choices until we come back to him and realize we cant do it on our own. We need Him.

Study this book if you have a Bible like I do it has commentary and helps you understand exactly what you are reading. So far we have just done the first two chapters I hope the rest of the book is this interesting.

I love learning new things about the Bible. I feel like if I am not growing I am going backwards. I want to know more and more so that I can learn better how to serve the Lord.

A wise man always tells less than he knows

So, for anyone that knows me I am a born talker. That saying that you hear about "people that dont know me think I am shy those that do know me wish that I was" applies to me 100%. I talked early I am told by my mom. I now talk often. The quote above about the wise man always telling less than he knows. Its a hard one for me. Since I am such a talker. That goes against the grain. However, I heard this saying at church while we were being taught the powers of the tongue for evil and good. That sometimes it is best to not say anything.

Proverbs 10:19 "In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise"

Ouch!!!

That one hits hard. I feel too many times I feel the need to grace those around me with my wisdom lol. I need to work on this.

I also need to realize that sometimes the most wise thing to say is nothing. You dont have to share everything you think or feel with someone.

I know alot of times on this blog I share my thoughts and feelings on a subject. However, I have wondered sometimes if I am wrong in making broud applications about my thoughts and opinions b/c of the fact that everyone is different and called to different things. I cant say well, this friend of mine is wrong b/c she is doing this thing that she feels led to do but I dont. It might be wrong for me but not for her.

Unless it is a law of God and an absolute truth it is opinion and not fact that lead me to say the things I say.

I feel I am judgmental. Too much so. I need to work on this. I am quick to jump to a conclusion on something. I need to give the Lord time to speak to my spirit about it. I cant hear him if I am busy talking away and telling everyone what I think.

This is a goal of mine. Something I feel the Lord is spotlighting as a need to work on type thing.

Judge not lest you be judged.

To any who have read my blog and felt judged, please forgive me. I have to learn that I do not know what is the right thing for everyone. I cant know the will of God for another souls life.

I ask you as friends help hold me accountable to this. I do not want to be a judgmental person any longer. I want the spirit of the Lord to fill me and flow out of me that those around me dont see me they see Him!!!