My pastor is one of my biggest heroes (right up there with my mom, Dad and Aunt Miriam). Why? Because he cares about people, doesn't mind telling the truth, is kind and funny and doesn't make you feel stupid if you want to ask a question. He doesn't single you out when he preaches and doesn't pretend that he is perfect. He uses his mistakes as examples and that makes me feel like I'm not alone. I know that talking about failures isn't easy and means you often have to swallow your pride but he does anyway.
My pastor is one of my biggest heroes because he loves God.
So when I recommend my pastor's blog it's because I think God will use it. God will say things through him if this is God's will.
well, that's all for now,
Mandy
Our Fireworks
I took this picture at a fireworks display a few years ago.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
I Have a Recommendation
Well, I have a recommendation! (Actually, I have several that I could decide to post but for now I just have one.)
My pastor has started a blog...
Wait! Hold it! Just one second here! Can you read each other's comments? Does it work that way?
Well, if you can, you might have seen a comment he made. Anyway, I'm sort of scatterbrained today, so forgive me if I keep interrupting myself.
Where was I? Oh yes. My pastor has started a blog. I am recommending it to you all. So, if you would like to check it out here is the address. I know that you will enjoy all he has to say, for he has inspired me in many ways.
Did that just rhyme? That was not intended.
Here is the address: earthboundm.blogspot.com/
Enjoy!
My pastor has started a blog...
Wait! Hold it! Just one second here! Can you read each other's comments? Does it work that way?
Well, if you can, you might have seen a comment he made. Anyway, I'm sort of scatterbrained today, so forgive me if I keep interrupting myself.
Where was I? Oh yes. My pastor has started a blog. I am recommending it to you all. So, if you would like to check it out here is the address. I know that you will enjoy all he has to say, for he has inspired me in many ways.
Did that just rhyme? That was not intended.
Here is the address: earthboundm.blogspot.com/
Enjoy!
Sunday, August 28, 2011
True Friends
What is a true friend? A true friend is often described as one willing to lay down his life for another. But there is more to being a friend. God will not have all of us die for our friends, some of us will need to live, to care and to love.
A true friend is someone who forgives, no matter what the other did. A true friend is one who listens to everything, who shares your sorrows and joys, who, despite your background, despite your failures, despite your mistakes, will always be there. A true friend will give you a hug to cheer you up, even when all they want to do is cry themselves. A true friend will tell you when you are wrong and a true friend will except that they were wrong. A true friend doesn't mind if you wear makeup or not, or how you dress, or if you have a cell phone. A true friend sees you as the person you are inside. A true friend will make you laugh, when you just want to cry or will hug you when you are crying. A true friend will never leave you.
A true friend isn't someone who tells you that you are always right. A true friend isn't someone who turns their back if you do something wrong and pretends it didn't happen.
A true friend makes you liable for your mistakes and a true friend will also forgive.
There is no truer friend than Jesus. He has every one of the qualities of a true friend and so much more. And as Christians, every one of us should always be a true friend.
Are you a true friend?
A true friend is someone who forgives, no matter what the other did. A true friend is one who listens to everything, who shares your sorrows and joys, who, despite your background, despite your failures, despite your mistakes, will always be there. A true friend will give you a hug to cheer you up, even when all they want to do is cry themselves. A true friend will tell you when you are wrong and a true friend will except that they were wrong. A true friend doesn't mind if you wear makeup or not, or how you dress, or if you have a cell phone. A true friend sees you as the person you are inside. A true friend will make you laugh, when you just want to cry or will hug you when you are crying. A true friend will never leave you.
A true friend isn't someone who tells you that you are always right. A true friend isn't someone who turns their back if you do something wrong and pretends it didn't happen.
A true friend makes you liable for your mistakes and a true friend will also forgive.
There is no truer friend than Jesus. He has every one of the qualities of a true friend and so much more. And as Christians, every one of us should always be a true friend.
Are you a true friend?
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Our Long Trip To Trust
The last couple years has been hard for us. My dad got ill two Februarys ago and was ill for a whole year. Dad couldn’t drive truck anymore. Bills stacked up and things got really hard. Christmas was going to be a very small deal because we just didn’t have the money. So many times I heard God saying to me, “Trust.”
It was about a week before Christmas when we had our candlelight service that we were ‘adopted’. The hospital adopts one family a year and gives them gifts. One family who’s Christmas wasn’t going to be very good.
I stood there in our overcrowded little log cabin church building as they brought gifts upon gifts out from the nursery. Gifts I’d watched them bring in earlier that evening and hoped one was for me. They were all wrapped beautifully and they were all for us so we’d have a good Christmas. And my mom and dad had said we were having a very small Christmas with a few gifts, we watched as God said "No, you're going to have the best Christmas ever."
I wanted to walk closer, I wanted to say thank you, I wanted to touch them but all I could do was stand there. Looking back I guess I was in shock. The Lord had said, “trust” so many times and we had trusted and this was what He gave us in return. Once the shock wore off all I could do was cry. You hear about those stories at Christmas, you watch it happen and never think you’d actually have it happen to you. And now, God gave us a Christmas story all our own.
“Trust Me with everything.” When your bills are over due, when you don’t know where your next meal is coming from, when everything just keeps going wrong, are you still saying, “Lord, you know best. This path has an end and I know you see it. Even if all I seem to have is trial after trial, blessings are always mixed in.”
The rest of the two years things just got harder and harder. Things went wrong, bills needed paid. Our church gave us food and money gifts. We started a Handyman service (Honey Do Services) and did whatever we could. And you know what? God never once let us down.
I know trust is hard to give but maybe these trials weren’t only for my parents. Through these trials I grew a lot in my faith. It got steadier. I learned patience. I saw God in more ways during that time than any other. I could watch God work. Every single day, I witnessed as miracles happened.
Why is trusting God so hard?
God has done nothing to deny Himself trust. When has He ever failed? Never. When has He ever hurt us? Never. When has life ever been so hard that you no longer want to live? Never. When has He ever turned his back on you? Never. When were you tested so far that you couldn’t take it anymore? Never. Are you still alive? Do you still stand? Are you clothed and feed?
Sometimes the hardest thing for a Christian to learn once saved is to trust. God watches after His sheep, but we often forget, don’t we? We say, “God, when is it going to stop? Haven’t I been tested enough? Why do these trials keep coming? What is it I’m missing? Are you trying to teach me something? I don’t understand!” Maybe God is saying it’s time to learn to trust.
We learned to trust in this last one and a half years but trust isn’t something you learn and then move on. Trust is constant. We seem to need to learn over and over.
God isn’t leaving,
He understands,
He sees our problems,
And He has a plan.
He loves us always,
He sees our fears,
He knows are worries,
He feels our tears.
Are you trusting?
It was about a week before Christmas when we had our candlelight service that we were ‘adopted’. The hospital adopts one family a year and gives them gifts. One family who’s Christmas wasn’t going to be very good.
I stood there in our overcrowded little log cabin church building as they brought gifts upon gifts out from the nursery. Gifts I’d watched them bring in earlier that evening and hoped one was for me. They were all wrapped beautifully and they were all for us so we’d have a good Christmas. And my mom and dad had said we were having a very small Christmas with a few gifts, we watched as God said "No, you're going to have the best Christmas ever."
I wanted to walk closer, I wanted to say thank you, I wanted to touch them but all I could do was stand there. Looking back I guess I was in shock. The Lord had said, “trust” so many times and we had trusted and this was what He gave us in return. Once the shock wore off all I could do was cry. You hear about those stories at Christmas, you watch it happen and never think you’d actually have it happen to you. And now, God gave us a Christmas story all our own.
“Trust Me with everything.” When your bills are over due, when you don’t know where your next meal is coming from, when everything just keeps going wrong, are you still saying, “Lord, you know best. This path has an end and I know you see it. Even if all I seem to have is trial after trial, blessings are always mixed in.”
The rest of the two years things just got harder and harder. Things went wrong, bills needed paid. Our church gave us food and money gifts. We started a Handyman service (Honey Do Services) and did whatever we could. And you know what? God never once let us down.
I know trust is hard to give but maybe these trials weren’t only for my parents. Through these trials I grew a lot in my faith. It got steadier. I learned patience. I saw God in more ways during that time than any other. I could watch God work. Every single day, I witnessed as miracles happened.
Why is trusting God so hard?
God has done nothing to deny Himself trust. When has He ever failed? Never. When has He ever hurt us? Never. When has life ever been so hard that you no longer want to live? Never. When has He ever turned his back on you? Never. When were you tested so far that you couldn’t take it anymore? Never. Are you still alive? Do you still stand? Are you clothed and feed?
Sometimes the hardest thing for a Christian to learn once saved is to trust. God watches after His sheep, but we often forget, don’t we? We say, “God, when is it going to stop? Haven’t I been tested enough? Why do these trials keep coming? What is it I’m missing? Are you trying to teach me something? I don’t understand!” Maybe God is saying it’s time to learn to trust.
We learned to trust in this last one and a half years but trust isn’t something you learn and then move on. Trust is constant. We seem to need to learn over and over.
God isn’t leaving,
He understands,
He sees our problems,
And He has a plan.
He loves us always,
He sees our fears,
He knows are worries,
He feels our tears.
Are you trusting?
Monday, August 22, 2011
Cliff Painting!
Today I went cliff painting, painting on a cliff! (That's why it's called cliff painting) Confused? Well, we are painting this house with a shale wall behind it (as it one foot behind it) so there is no level ground (at all) to set a ladder on. What did we do? We leaned the ladder against the cliff and the house and hoped not to fall (it took faith especially with Missy singing about 'if I fall' and 'hard to keep my feet on the ground' and stuff. Very helpful).
After cliff painting, I went rail painting, painting off a rail! (That’s why it's called rail painting). Confused again? Well, I stood on a porch rail, clung to a post, hung myself out and painted the roof. Once again Missy was singing about falling and other unhelpful things.
Besides that, my day was a day full of paint and paint and...well, paint.
After cliff painting, I went rail painting, painting off a rail! (That’s why it's called rail painting). Confused again? Well, I stood on a porch rail, clung to a post, hung myself out and painted the roof. Once again Missy was singing about falling and other unhelpful things.
Besides that, my day was a day full of paint and paint and...well, paint.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Comments
I want to thank those who have commented on our blog. Most of you have yet to realize just how much I mean it when I say, "I like comments!" I really do. Sometimes it feels like no one is reading my blog because I go weeks without a single comment! It's horrible, don't you know! So, seriously, if you want to say something, please leave a comment! But I also ask that you keep those comments apropriate.
Thanks SO much for reading!
God bless,
Mandy
Thanks SO much for reading!
God bless,
Mandy
Friday, August 12, 2011
My new pet
I got a new pet a few days ago. He is a great flier! No, he doesn’t fly. A cat can’t fly, don’t you know. No, sir, he doesn’t fly, he is just a flier. What? You demand in confusion. Let me explain.
We got this cat at the Humane Society. He is just a baby and is just plain adorable. He is grey and his name is Pineapple. No, I’m not kidding. I named my cat Pineapple. Don’t worry, the vet thought it strange, too, so you aren’t alone. Along side our bunny, Marshmallow, we have a strangely named pair.
Now back to the flier thing. Reason one for getting him: he was cute. Reason two: my dad fell in love when he saw him catching flies and eating them. After that, it was settled. We got Pineapple.
The poor kitty was called so many things that we both got confused. His official name was always Pineapple but my mom couldn’t bring herself to call him Pineapple so the other kids started coming up with names that they could call. It started with Duke, then Shadow, then Orion, then Oliver and who knows what else! Thankfully, for the most part, they’ve calmed down, adjusted to the name Pineapple and started calling him that.
He is the friendliest cat you could ask for but when he wakes you up in the middle of the night wanting petted it gets a touch on people’s nerves. He purrs every time anyone picks him up. Megan once said, “The purr would have sounded more apologetic if he hadn’t been still liking butter from his lips.” This was just after he’d eaten her toast when she wasn’t looking.
He and Miss Misty May Morning, our other cat, are arch-enemies. They may have been friends by now but when one wants to make up, the other is angry and hisses. When the one who was angry wants to make up, the other was offended by the first’s actions and hisses. So, they go in a circle, never being happy with one another.
Cinnamon, our dog, just ignores them both, having gone through countless new pets and not really caring anymore.
All in all we’ve all fallen in love with Pineapple and we’ll probably have many more stories to tell about him.
Yours truly,
Mandy
We got this cat at the Humane Society. He is just a baby and is just plain adorable. He is grey and his name is Pineapple. No, I’m not kidding. I named my cat Pineapple. Don’t worry, the vet thought it strange, too, so you aren’t alone. Along side our bunny, Marshmallow, we have a strangely named pair.
Now back to the flier thing. Reason one for getting him: he was cute. Reason two: my dad fell in love when he saw him catching flies and eating them. After that, it was settled. We got Pineapple.
The poor kitty was called so many things that we both got confused. His official name was always Pineapple but my mom couldn’t bring herself to call him Pineapple so the other kids started coming up with names that they could call. It started with Duke, then Shadow, then Orion, then Oliver and who knows what else! Thankfully, for the most part, they’ve calmed down, adjusted to the name Pineapple and started calling him that.
He is the friendliest cat you could ask for but when he wakes you up in the middle of the night wanting petted it gets a touch on people’s nerves. He purrs every time anyone picks him up. Megan once said, “The purr would have sounded more apologetic if he hadn’t been still liking butter from his lips.” This was just after he’d eaten her toast when she wasn’t looking.
He and Miss Misty May Morning, our other cat, are arch-enemies. They may have been friends by now but when one wants to make up, the other is angry and hisses. When the one who was angry wants to make up, the other was offended by the first’s actions and hisses. So, they go in a circle, never being happy with one another.
Cinnamon, our dog, just ignores them both, having gone through countless new pets and not really caring anymore.
All in all we’ve all fallen in love with Pineapple and we’ll probably have many more stories to tell about him.
Yours truly,
Mandy
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Our Sign
So, the dogs are tearing up our door. What do we do? Electrocute it! But since I will trip over it we made a sign. This is what it says:
Caution!
There is an electric fence wire running across the door! Watch your step! Do not trip over it! Do not electrocute yourself! PLEASE! Mandy, this means YOU! It is most likely live! It will hurt if you touch it! It will hurt if you trip over it! It WILL hurt! ….getting the point yet? Do NOT do it, Mandy!!!!!!!! How many times need I bang this into your heads? Do NOT!!!!
Caution!
There is an electric fence wire running across the door! Watch your step! Do not trip over it! Do not electrocute yourself! PLEASE! Mandy, this means YOU! It is most likely live! It will hurt if you touch it! It will hurt if you trip over it! It WILL hurt! ….getting the point yet? Do NOT do it, Mandy!!!!!!!! How many times need I bang this into your heads? Do NOT!!!!
Prince Charming….the Toad?
How is someone supposed to know if a girl is a tomboy? It might be a hint when they see a frog and go, “A frog, awesome!” That was me at Edgemont. Whether my brain was fried by the 110 degree temperature or if I was just glad to see a frog is yet to be determined.
Anyway, when we dug poor Prince Charming up I had to rescue him. He was the fattest frog I’d ever seen. But he was quite dry so, naturally, I put him in a container with water. I then took him to show to mother like a five year old with a trophy. Wait? Is that right? Maybe it should have been the other way around but at this point I don’t care.
Mother’s response was, “That is not a frog, it is a toad.”
“Oh,” was my response. Then I smiled hugely, “Prince Charming, the toad.”
The toad looked at me as if to say, “You should have known I was a toad. How rude.” In any case, he didn’t look happy.
“Do toads like water?”
“No,” is what Prince Charming’s look said.
“No,” replied my mother. Prince Charming tried to remove himself from the water. His container (which smelled suspiciously of a coffee and paint combination) was too large for him to escape from. This was a good thing because a wet toad running free in the camper trailer would not have been a great plan.
Prince Charming, his indigent croaks making him most un-charming, was taken back outside.
Having work to do but with the neighbor dog running around, we decided it was a good idea to put Prince Charming’s container up high.
I went back to work with Peter’s cries of ‘cool!’ and Jules’ ‘it’s so cute!’ ringing in my ears.
I’m sorry to say that is the last I saw of Prince Charming. The toad sympathizers let him go without giving me a chance to say goodbye. (I will not point fingers but it was a certain Mom of ours….)
So that is pretty much all there is to Prince Charming’s story. Huge sigh.
Yours truly,
Mandy
Anyway, when we dug poor Prince Charming up I had to rescue him. He was the fattest frog I’d ever seen. But he was quite dry so, naturally, I put him in a container with water. I then took him to show to mother like a five year old with a trophy. Wait? Is that right? Maybe it should have been the other way around but at this point I don’t care.
Mother’s response was, “That is not a frog, it is a toad.”
“Oh,” was my response. Then I smiled hugely, “Prince Charming, the toad.”
The toad looked at me as if to say, “You should have known I was a toad. How rude.” In any case, he didn’t look happy.
“Do toads like water?”
“No,” is what Prince Charming’s look said.
“No,” replied my mother. Prince Charming tried to remove himself from the water. His container (which smelled suspiciously of a coffee and paint combination) was too large for him to escape from. This was a good thing because a wet toad running free in the camper trailer would not have been a great plan.
Prince Charming, his indigent croaks making him most un-charming, was taken back outside.
Having work to do but with the neighbor dog running around, we decided it was a good idea to put Prince Charming’s container up high.
I went back to work with Peter’s cries of ‘cool!’ and Jules’ ‘it’s so cute!’ ringing in my ears.
I’m sorry to say that is the last I saw of Prince Charming. The toad sympathizers let him go without giving me a chance to say goodbye. (I will not point fingers but it was a certain Mom of ours….)
So that is pretty much all there is to Prince Charming’s story. Huge sigh.
Yours truly,
Mandy
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Camp
I had an awesome two weeks of camp but it was really hard emotionally. I spent the two weeks trying desperately to hold up two of my pen-pals as they told me about the worsening situation at home. Their dad was coming closer and closer to getting put in prison and one of them was trying to hold up the whole family on her own. All three of us love the Lord so much but I found myself seeing places where I had to step in and remind them of his hand, even when it wasn’t seen. I prayed long and hard both weeks for the right words and actions.
If not for the Lord I would never have made it. How could I hold up these two and take their problems by myself? The answer is so simple: I couldn’t.
My mom said something that caught my attention. Miracles could not happen if there wasn’t first a bad situation. I hope, and beg the Lord, each day that He might help these two dear friends and their situation. I ask for a miracle. But I also ask for strength because I can’t hold them up alone. I’ve tried and failed. I need Him more than anything or anyone else.
As much as I love camp it ended at just the right time. My emotional and physical strength was failing from these two weeks. And as much as I love these friends, I needed a bit of time to pray and ask for guidance. I will continue to talk to them through letters. In the same way I know these two weeks lifted them, it also pushed me down a bit.
I simply ask the Lord to hold them, for I can’t. And I ask him to hold me up because I don’t even have the strength to do that. I can't carry this load on my own.
Are you trying to hold yours?
If not for the Lord I would never have made it. How could I hold up these two and take their problems by myself? The answer is so simple: I couldn’t.
My mom said something that caught my attention. Miracles could not happen if there wasn’t first a bad situation. I hope, and beg the Lord, each day that He might help these two dear friends and their situation. I ask for a miracle. But I also ask for strength because I can’t hold them up alone. I’ve tried and failed. I need Him more than anything or anyone else.
As much as I love camp it ended at just the right time. My emotional and physical strength was failing from these two weeks. And as much as I love these friends, I needed a bit of time to pray and ask for guidance. I will continue to talk to them through letters. In the same way I know these two weeks lifted them, it also pushed me down a bit.
I simply ask the Lord to hold them, for I can’t. And I ask him to hold me up because I don’t even have the strength to do that. I can't carry this load on my own.
Are you trying to hold yours?
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