So many times, we find ourselves at a crossroad.  Life has taken a new direction and we have a new pathway which we must embark upon!  It’s when we are out of our comfort zone, that we need our faith to be strong and our attitude to be full of hope and empty of doubt!  That is when we must see the glass half full instead of half empty.  Our mind is a blank canvass and it is up to us to develop a drawing in our mind that will show us in a better situation than we were in before.  With God, all things are possible, and he loves taking us to that unseen place and showing us that he is the great and majestic artist.  He created us with a plan and purpose for our life.  He knows what the plans are that he has for us.  He has planned to give us a future and a hope.  He has not planned for us a life of failure and despair, but he has a plan for a future of blessings and prosperity.  Maybe for a long time now, you have been doing things your way.  God has been faithfully waiting for you to let him be the master guide and director of your life.   Finally, you find yourself at the top of the mountain, all alone, and it’s just you and God.  It’s at that spot, that he has your undivided attention.  You can look out over all that you have left behind, and you can know, that he and only him, stands there on that mountain top with you.  It’s then, that you can have an intimate conversation with God and he can strengthen you and give you a new perspective on things and point you into a new direction.   Then when you go back down into the valley, leaving the mountain top, and follow his directions, it is there, that you will have your soul restored!

Sometimes, life gets so full of situations, that we lose our ability to think and see things clearly.  We have so much that takes our time away from us in our world today.  Entertainment is constantly in front of our eyes.  We have something going on almost every minute of our day.  Even when we are alone, we have constant companionship with our electronic connections, TV’s, IPod’s, etc. and unless we choose to give space to allowing good things to shape our lives, we can be totally overtaken by all the things that do not build us up, but instead drain us of our ability to see and speak positive things, into our lives.

In life, it seems it is the negative things that get noticed.  Our news we watch is fed by the bad things that happen and rarely cover the good things that are going on.  Imagine a news station that covered 90 percent positive things, going on in our world.  We are simply human and we must hear and speak positive in our minds, in order to act and expect a positive solution to our problems!  Because of this, if we don’t take the initiative to set ourselves apart from our world of negativity and speak positive to ourselves, then we will be faced with an inability to cope when disaster hits us.  God is not the author of confusion, but he is the master of perfection and if we will speak to ourselves what he is speaking to us about ourselves, then we will see the thoughts of despair start to fade away and then will we be uplifted and encouraged!

So, take hope!  This is not the end but the beginning of new and exciting adventures, that will amaze you when you look back and realize how God has brought wonderful things you never thought possible into your life.  By choosing to trust him, you have developed hope in him, and you will not faint, when things are getting ruff.   You will be blessed beyond measure.  You will be a walking and living testimony to those around you who will need you to cheer them on and lift them up!  Not only will you have the Power to Achieve, But, you will show others that they have the Power to Achieve also!

Who doesn’t want to get their life back on track and see all their dreams come to pass?  Why doesn’t that happen and how can we help make it happen?  Well that is what I would like to talk about today!  We strive and we struggle for perfection.  Life lays before us a multitude of choices and as we stand at that crossroad point, it is so much easier to choose a road where we think we know all the bumps in the roads, the detours, and all the land markers along the way.  Somehow, we forget where the destination of that road took us to before.  We forget that we met friends along that road, that let us down.  We made choices on that road that lead us into trouble.  And at the end of that road, we were frustrated when we didn’t find our “pot of gold,”  or that “peace that we had been longing for.”  We found friends that we thought had our best interest in mind, but in the end, we realized, “It was all about them!”  We longed for these things not to happen again and we find our selves determined to travel that same road again, because we see the failure and lack of success as being our fault and we think we can travel the same road again and things will be different!

Maybe we didn’t realize, that we weren’t even suppose to be on that road.  That was not a pathway that was meant to enhance our life and selecting that road for travel again, will not get us a different result!  Many times, God is standing at the beginning of that crossroad and maybe he is pointing to a different pathway he has chosen for you.  This may happen through someone he has placed in your life, that really does care about you and wants truly what is best for you.  God uses his people here on this earth, to help you find direction for your life.  If you are truly serious, you need to stop at that crossroad.  Be still and listen.  Don’t be in a hurry to take off.  Look around and see who God has put there before you to send you in the right direction.  Ask him to show you.  Then just listen.  Grab a hold of his hand and listen to what he is saying through his word, the Bible, his Holy Spirit, (that voice of wisdom inside of you that will speak to you with your best interest in his heart) and his true followers.  The Bible says in Matthew 7:15,  “beware, many will come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly, they are ravening wolves.”  These are not the people you want to be around.  Avoid them like a plague!  Don’t get on a road again, that will lead you to them!   Instead, go back to a quiet place and  listen.  The Bible also says in John 10:27, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

Whatever you are going through at this time, please stop and listen.  The Bible says in Psalms 46:10, Be still and know that I am God.  As you listen, you will get ideas.  Follow through on them, don’t be lazy and expect God to do it all,  but let God lead you through the doors, that will lead to your victory.  Don’ just sit around and think that God is gonna do it all.  He says in Matthew 7:7, Ask, and it will be given unto you.  Seek and you will find.  Knock and it will be opened to you.  When you ask God for directions and he begins to inspire you with the pathways you could take, began to seek his guidance and he will show you.  He has many pathways he can lead you down, but only one, has he chosen for you.  That’s because he knows what is at the end!  Follow that pathway, and you will find that he has chosen for you a pathway that will lead to his perfection in you and therefore, will he put in you, the Power to Achieve!  Be blessed as you follow that pathway today!

I am a very compassionate person and I live my life with compassion. I easily cry when someone I know is hurting and I feel the anguish and pain in a very real sense. This is hard if you don’t know how to channel it. Whether I am hurting myself over a present situation or whether I am seeing a friend or a loved one hurting, the real secret is in what are you doing with the hurt?  Are you hurting back, or are you forgiving?  Are you falling back into patterns that only hurt yourself, a sort of punishment you do to yourself, because you failed again? Life is about either progressing or regressing. Because I am a person of compassion, it is important to pay attention to how people handle various situations and how the results have been, from the way they have chosen to deal with their pain. When you do that, you will have a vision of what works and what doesn’t work. One of the most life changing and true statements I have ever heard is ” Stupidity is doing things the same way again, and expecting different results!” Our patterns lead us to our destiny! If we want a different result or destiny, we have to do things differently. We have to react differently. We have to come up with a plan that will lead us to success and not to failure! It’s not easy, making a different choice, but you must realize, if you are right back where you started, you made the same choices to get there.

I think a good place to start is from reading the wise book of Proverbs in the Bible. We have 28 to 31 days in a month, so why not read a chapter a day?  This could be a new pattern for you, if you will take the time and do it.  It is from the wisdom of these pages, we can learn how to make wise choices and we can take off to a new and better ending. The Bible says, “I can do all things, through Christ, who strengthens me!” If you are still doing things the same way and getting the same results, then try, seeking his guidance. Listen to the inner thoughts you are having. There are always going to be two choices going through your thoughts. One may say, “If you tell the truth, you’re in big trouble!” One may say, “It’s time you start being truthful! Just be truthful and ask them to forgive you! They will understand and at least regain respect for you!” Remember this, when you are weak, God is strong. When you are hopeless, God has the solution. When you are hurting, God can restore you, when you have been hurt, God will be the one to handle it if you will let him. When you have been deserted, God will never leave you or forsake you. When you are poor, God will provide for you. When you are alone, God is the friend who will stick closer to you than a brother. When you are sad, look to God and begin to praise him. A song I’ve know for a long time went like this, “Put on the garment of praise, for the spirit of heaviness, lift up your voice and sing!” God will replace your sadness with gladness! When you are lost and don’t know which direction to go, God will be your guide. When someone you know is lost or missing, God is the Good Shepherd. Trust him to take care of them and he can guide you through each day. Satan has a counterpart for all of the things listed above and more than I have even listed. Choose wisely how you respond to the things in life that you face!

If you don’t like where you are today, ask yourself why. Put positive people in your life, that will be there for you in a good way. Some of your “best” friends, will lead you right back into the same place you are now! Do you need to evaluate who you are befriending and replace them with someone who will hold you up and not lead you right down the same path? Once you get strong and on the right path, maybe that friend will be receptive to you showing them a better way.

I just returned from my 40th High School Reunion. I grew up in a small town. Our class was very fortunate. Most of us had parents, who were true believers in God. We grew up in our various churches, but God was an important part of our lives. I think we had a great group of kids. In school, we shared our faith in God and that faith has carried us through many hard times. It is still carrying our members through hard times and it will carry you through hard times if you will let it. As we all gathered, it wasn’t about the losses in life or the physical challenges. It was about being thankful in all things! It was in knowing,  that our trials make us strong, when we let God become our source for handling them. It was about us being there for each other. We laughed and had great memories to share. Our losses, were some of the things that made us strong. I am thankful that we grew up in a time where serving God was a good thing to do. I am thankful that we started each school day with a prayer. I am thankful that even when bad choices were made, God helped us turn it around and get it right. We had so many good things to laugh about and reminisce! Life should be that way.

We were blessed with an awesome class!

You are destined for success and not failure! By making the right choices, you will find, you are fully equipped to have the Power To Achieve!

I guess for me, one of the hardest challenges in life is waiting. I have thought on it a lot this month.  The scripture, “They that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength,” has been on my my mind a lot.  We fill we have to do something, when all seems to be at a stand still!  God says, “Be still and know that I am God!” Sometimes we have to stand still and wait.  My thoughts are, if we wait upon the Lord, the next part of that is we shall renew our strength.  You get strong, when you lift something that strengthens your muscles and when you are waiting, God should be the one lifting, and we should be getting our strength renewed.  It doesn’t go along with our normal thinking.  We fill we must push and go this way and that, we must make things happen!  But in some situations, God is asking us to remain still.  We need to listen to what God is saying, and when our minds are doing all the talking and all the work, chances are slim, that we are hearing God’s directions on how we are to proceed.  It is all a part of the “Faith Process!” It is also a part of the “Trust” process!   I remember as a child, there was a song we sang many times and I guess I sang it enough, that it stuck in my mind.  It went like this:  “Have faith, hope and charity, that’s the way to live successfully…..How do I know?  The Bible tells me so!

If you are God’s child, he is always there for you. He is there to direct your paths.  He is there to supply your need.  He is there to help you through any physical problems you or someone you love is going through!  He is your strong tower and your fortress.  He is your rock and your shield.  No weapon formed against you will prosper!  You will make it and you will look back over the path you have trod and you will see his hand as it guided you!  You will know, it was him, not you, that got you through the storm.

I have a friend who had much of her family in Joplin, Missouri when the big tornado hit.  Very fortunately few people were hurt or lost their lives.  My heart goes out to those who did lose loved ones and possessions, but my friend told me the biggest miracle was the hand of God and his protection through all of the devastation.  After the storm, that was what everyone saw.  How could such devastation come without more death and injuries?  It was the unseen hand of God!

As I finish up this Power to Achieve writing, I want to ask you the question…..whose voice are you listening to? When I started typing yesterday, I didn’t know how I would finish, but as I woke up this morning, I knew what I needed to write as God began ministering to me about this.  Here is the what I wrote down:  God speaks with Wisdom and Satan speaks with despair.   God Speaks with truth and Satan speaks with lies.  God speaks with encouragement, which causes hope, joy, love, peace, long suffering, faith, security, and forgiveness.  Satan speaks with accusations, causing guilt, discouragement, despondency, (No Hope), insecurity, anger, bitterness and inferiority, (thinking everyone or someone is better than you and more qualified to to do what God has called you to do!) God says, ” you are secure and safe.” Satan says, ” you should be afraid!”   He wants you to live in constant fear!  God says, “Have Faith!” Satan says, ” You’re not going to make it!”  God says, “You can do it!” Satan says, “You will fail!”  God says, “You have what it takes!” Satan says, ” You don’t have what it takes!”  God says, “Sin will destroy you!” Satan says, ” There is not God!  Live for today!  Do whatever makes “YOU” happy! God says, “Put it in my hands and trust me!” Satan says, ” It’s all up to you!”  God doesn’t have anything to do with “Your” life!”  God says, ” You can do all things if you trust me.  I will strengthen you!” Satan says, ” You will never amount to anything!  God says, ” No weapon uses against you will prosper!  I will protect you!” Satan says, “You are weak.  You cannot stand.  You cannot forgive.  You can never trust again!  You will never be able to do that again!  Don’t do that, you’ll just get hurt again!  They don’t like you!”  He will also say things about the things such as “don’t touch that, it will hurt you!  He will say things like this about the things that once brought you joy!  If he can keep you living in “Fear,”  he will win!  If something in life was good and once brought you much joy, don’t let fear keep you away from it.  It is yours!  Take it back!

Notice how Satan has to use so many more words.  He is helpless against the things of God and desperate to come against God’s people.  Remember, God says “You can do all things through Christ, who will give you strength!  He also says if we wait on the Lord, we will mount up with wings like an eagle.  We will run, and not be weary.  We will walk and not faint!   Use the words God has spoken to you and they will give you victory over you life and past circumstances and failures.   Put it in God’s hands, and he  will give you the Power to Achieve!

Who you are and what you do in this life are important! Life has taught me that we all live with a special call and a special purpose for our lives.  Never feel like your gift to this world is not important.  You are a contributor and without your special part, there would be a vacancy in God’s plan!  I  think the biggest challenge of life, is to accept who we are, and walk in that gift God has placed within us.  So many times, we focus on the things we don’t have, and disappointment  gets a hold on you and if you are not secure in who you are, it will knock you off of your feet.  We were not meant to crumble under the challenges of life, but we were meant to use those challenges as stepping stones to a greater victory!

Life is not always kind. Things don’t always go the way we think they will go.  We are challenged by so many things!  I choose to believe, that when God said he would never leave us or forsake us he really meant it!  He is always with us.  There is not a weapon formed against us that will prosper!   How could that be?  Remember, if you are walking with God and he is directing your path, he knows where he is allowing you to go and he knows what is ahead.  When I decided to start trusting him, and let him be in the driver’s seat, I found great peace in knowing he would get me to the right destination, even though I might not understand every challenge along the way.

It was several years ago.  I was sitting in my church and there was a lady there who I had never met.  I noticed as she sang, she had a beautiful voice.  Later when she did a special musical number for the congregation I knew she could have easily recorded, with her country voice.   Several months went by, and I really had never gotten to know her.  I did know her name and heard one day that she was very seriously ill with breast cancer.  God literally put her on my heart.  I had heard she was single and alone and I truly felt she needed a friend.  I asked and found out what hospital she was in, and picked up a little doll that I actually thought looked like her.  I headed to the hospital to see if I could meet her.  When I got there, she was in surgery and I didn’t get to see her.  I left the doll with the nurse and later, went back again.  That was the beginning of a two year mission, God had me on.  Almost daily, I visited and we shares so much during those two years about God and his love.  I found out how just a year before her diagnoses, her Mom had died of Breast cancer and she was still grieving over that.  I was there with her through many visits from friends and was able to share God’s love many times to many who came and went.  Today as I type, I am praying for one of those special friends was just diagnosed with cancer and now facing some of the same challenges my friend Rhonda faced.  Rhonda had great faith and we had so many times we were up and so many times we were down.  I remember  a time, toward the end of the two years.  It was evening and I knew when I left, she was not going to make it through the night.  She had another friend who helped me and I left and drove home with the weight of the world on my shoulders.    As I prayed for her, I saw in my minds eyes two really large feet and I was so small beside them.  I knew I was standing at the feet of Jesus.  I saw myself holding Rhonda and all the cares she faced and realized, they didn’t belong in my arms, but in  his.  I saw myself hand her to him and I felt the weight lift.  The next morning, I went to her house and there she was sitting up on the bed and talking on the phone!  I knew God had done a miracle!  Rhonda did reach her appointed time to die and went on to be with Jesus, but his love we shared during those two years, impacted my life.  I pray many were touched by that time and somehow felt his love in the midst of the situation.  Rhonda’s grandparents were actually 15 miles from the town I grew up in, and I felt God allowed me to be there for her.  Perhaps because of a Grandmother’s prayer or just his special way of doing things.  I noticed a newspaper clipping on her wall when I first started going over to help her and it was from Borger, TX, 12 miles from where I grew up.  Since I live approximately 12 hours away from that location, I was amazed!

This was one of my “God’s Little World” moments and I have had many of them throughout my life. It’s one of those times,  when you have those moments and you wonder, “WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF THAT HAPPENING?”   Chances and numbers don’t mean a thing when God is in charge.  Diagnoses and situations don’t mean a thing when God is in charge!   We must live in a relationship with God, where we will allow him to carry all the load and we will trust him with the outcome!  I’ve always thought about the time we have here on this earth.  There will be a time when our earthly clock reaches the final moment and we will then be finished with our assignment.  It’s not what happens to us in this life that counts, but it’s how we react to what happens to us that counts.  I think a lot about many things that try to rob and steal our peace.  We are left with a choice!  Will we allow our peace to be taken, or will we put our anxiety in Jesus arms and let him defend us!  He will always be there and our job is just to be thankful in All things, because wherever we are or whatever we are going through, we can be thankful he has it all under his control.

My mom left so much of a legacy for us. It never fails, I will be going through some of the things she left, after she moved in with us.  Maybe something in a drawer, or a card she gave me.  Today, I found an article she had cut out about a little boy.  His mom had taken him to the Dr. as he didn’t feel well.  The Dr who was doing the exam, tried to get his mind off of the examination and said, “Let’s look in those ears, and see if Mickey Mouse is in there!”  He looked in his ears and then said, “I didn’t see him in there.”  The little boy smiled.  Then, the Dr. decided to listen to his heart.  He said, “OK…lets see if Mickey Mouse is in your heart.”  The little boy looked a bit more serious as the Dr listened.  He said, ” Nope, I don’t hear him in there either. “  Before they left, the little boy looked up at the Dr and said, ” Dr. I just thought you might want to know, Jesus lives in my heart!”

If only we could have the faith of a child, we would truly discover the Power To Achieve peace and success in our lives and leave a legacy that would touch many others, even when our last second on earth is done!

In life, it is so easy to understand, that when you plant a seed, you get what you planted when the harvest comes up!  Plant an apple seed and you get an apple tree.  Plant corn and you get corn.  Today, I would like to talk to you about “Life Seeds” and not natural seeds.

God’s principles that he applies to life are the same.”I will just start with kindness.”  We are taught, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you!”   When you plant or “sow” kindness, it will come back to you through kindness from others.  When you have relationship problems, it doesn’t come easy, to be kind in the midst of the turmoil.   It is natural for us to repay unkindness with being unkind.   We sometimes want  retaliation!  You hurt me, I will hurt you!  God taught us a new way to react.  When people hurt us, we are to respond in love.  Sometimes we have to step into the other room and have a talk with God and say,  “God, what can I do in this situation, to restore a peaceful relationship with this person who has hurt me!  Could you give me some “seeds” to plant, that will help me repair the damage that was done?   And can you help me forgive them for what they have done to me?  When you do this, God will walk with you and help you plant good seed and he will guide you in nurturing the broken relationship and restoring it.  It confuses people who are rude and unkind, to be treated with respect and love!  This is not natural!  Repaying evil for  evil is the normal pay back!  Feeling you will never trust that person again is also a normal feeling.  But, when you let God step into that situation and you follow his lead and plant a good seed back into that person, it gives God a place to start an amazing healing process!   I am convinced, the seed of  “LOVE” is the most important seed you will ever plant!  The seed of “HURT”, “ANGER,” RESENTMENT,” and” UNFORGIVENESS” are the most destructive seed you will ever plant!  Remember to plant, “HEALING SEED,” FORGIVENESS SEED,” ” ENCOURAGEMENT SEED,”  and most of all plant seeds of  “LOVE.”  Galatians 6:7 says “Whatever you sow, you will also reap!”  If you want healing in a relationship, use kind words when you have a conversation with the individual you are having a problem with.  If someone has hurt you, forgive them and work to restore that relationship.  If someone has fallen into a situation where they have lost all hope, plant seeds of hope into them, by painting a picture of a situation that can be seen in faith, and encourage them to see things, not as they are, but as they can be!

There are also seeds that we plant in our minds.  In today’s sermon at my church, there were some good points brought out in the message.  A good place of worship, is a good place to get good seeds to plant in your spiritual garden!  One of the seeds I picked up today was, “change the way you think, and it will change the way you live!” Once again, when things are not going our way, or we are put in a place where we are leaning on our faith to see us through a situation, it seems more natural to allow seeds of despair, doubt, and frustration, come into our garden.  In my little flower garden, I often have plants come up, that really look like the flower I planted.  They will take over my planting area, if I don’t pull them out.  You have to watch out for despair in every trying situation you go through.  You have to “think on the good things!”  In Philippians 4:8, it says to think on things that are true, honest, just, pure, and lovely!  Now sometimes, we have to get ourselves to realize that the lie we are looking at is not the truth.  We have to see things in faith ourselves.  Remember, if Satan can get your thoughts, he is slipping in that seed that will destroy you! Guard your seed and get the weeds out of your garden!  Listen to what God is saying about your situation and watch that seed grow. Be sure to nurture it and water it with good thoughts!

God wants you to be blessed and prosperous!  He can make a financial blessing come your way, when it seems there is not a way!  As we become a blessing to others, there is no way we cannot be blessed by God. Financial seed is a blessing!  Time and time again, it has been proven by time that planting a financial blessing in someone’s life is like planting a seed of financial blessing in your garden.  God loves to prosper us in ways we have never dreamed possible.  The seed that you leave in your hand, will never have an impact on your life!  God may sometimes tell me to bless some one who is in need.  It is a blessing to be a blessing!  God’s blessing, or harvest on that seed, may come back in ways you never dreamed of.  I like to give, when God puts it on my heart to do so.  Time and time again, throughout my life, I have watched the seed come up that has  been a result of someone giving out of their heart and then receiving unexpected return on that gift.  We shouldn’t give, just to get.  We should give to be a blessing!  God knows what we have need of, even before we ask.  If you can be faithful over a little, God will cause you to be faithful over a lot. Get rid of the seed of “UNSELFISHNESS”  and plant seeds of “COMPASSION.”  Don’t just throw your seed out there.  Ask God where you are to plant it.  Everyone will want your seed!  Plant it in the right garden and watch it grow!  Giving to God’s plan, may definitely go outside of the church doors.  Giving can help, or it can hurt.  If you give in a situation where you cause someone to be lazy and not work, you are actually hurting them by doing so, and you are really doing it, to make you feel good about yourself!  So many parents do this with their children.  I have been there and when I heard this concept, it changed my life!  Never had I thought I was hurting them by giving and never had I thought that I was doing it because it made “Me” feel good!  Giving to a child or someone who worries about the payback can also put a seed of “guilt” on them, for not being able to repay the debt.  Sometimes, you need to really seek God’s advice before giving, and sometimes, you need to have a lot of faith when God ask you to give in a situation where you see it could cause you a hardship.  If God puts it on your heart and you know it is him and you give because of that, he will see that you are covered.  He says, to give and it shall be given to you.  Pressed down, shaken together and running over will God give it back to you.  He takes care of the payback!   Be a giver of financial seed when God ask you to do it.  Don’t miss out on a financial blessing of harvest by not planting that seed!  Also, you may not just be giving a seed of finances, but also a seed of just giving or yourself.  Helping a friend in need, taking care of someone in need, sending out a message of encouragement and volunteering to help others who have been hurt or had a loss in some way.  These seeds are all valuable in the Kingdom of God!

God wants to bless his people.  He is working all over the planet to see that his people are not only blessed, but to see that they are a blessing.  He wants to prosper you and he knows where your seed needs to go to see that that happens.  Let him guide you as well in your investments, financial decisions, getting out of debt and all aspects of your life.  As you do this, your seed will increase and you will have more seed to plant!  It’s fun to see the harvest and God is delighted to see you reap a harvest of blessing!  Find the Power you need to Achieve in your harvest from your seed!

It’s What’s On The Inside That Counts!

Received this from a friend a long time ago and still worth sharing:
A man was exploring 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 clay balls 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, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could.

He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay 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.

I am so blessed by the gems of friendship I have with family, old friends, and new friends.   Thank you for looking beyond my clay vessel. We are not perfect, but God sees a gem in us.  I hate messing up and I’m slower to forgive myself than he is to forgive me.  God looks on the inside and he sees our inner beauty!  See yourself as God sees you and you will have the power to achieve in everything you do!

It’s Easter morning and even though I am not a morning person, I woke up early and have not been able to go back to sleep.  I always wake up on Easter morning and remember that this is the day that the grave clothes fell off and Jesus walked out of the tomb!  He tried to let the disciples know, before he died, that in 3 days, he would rise from the grave, but in their human nature, they simply could not imagine that happening!  Not until he appeared to them.  He reminded them of what he had said about his death and then his resurrection (coming back to life) after being dead for 3 days.  With Thomas, one of his disciples, he still could not be sure that it was Jesus!  He had to be shown the nail scars in Jesus hands and feet, before he believed!  I have taught children for years and one of my favorite stories was when Jesus actually was eating with the disciples after he arose from the dead.  In Luke 24:30-31, and he actually vanished from their sight.  I always imagined that his body may have been like a spirit form and he walked through the wall!  Throughout the beginning books of the New Testament, you will find the story is told by different writers, each tells it in a different way as they remember it.  It is interesting to read all encounters and you get a bigger picture of how it actually happened!  This passage has always given me some insight as to how our new spiritual bodies will be when we transform from this life to another.  The Bible says we will be known as we are.  In other words, we will be recognized with the same face as we have here on earth!  People will know us when we get to heaven!  Our bodies will no longer be flesh and blood!  We will appear to be as we are but we will not be the same!  Back to that day, when Jesus came out of that tomb, the grave clothes were still there!  Can you imagine, seeing the grave clothes lying there in the tomb, looking like a man had been in them, but he was gone!  His mission was complete and he was now on the other side of a journey that was completed!  Praise God for that ultimate sacrifice that he made.  Jesus did it all so we could have a new beginning upon allowing him to be our faithful partner in life.  Submitting all we are to him, and letting him take over the reins of our life.  Just imagine, we get to set back and enjoy the ride because he is in charge.  I would dare say that if you are not enjoying the ride, then you may have taken the reins back into your hands.

In this life, we have many choices that have to be made.  There are many directions that we could go.   Today, as the Easter season has arrived, and I think of new beginnings, I realize that my husband Mike and I too will face a new beginning.  We have been in Nebraska on a temporary job for a little over 2 months.  There were so many signs, that God brought us here.  We have committed our lives to his direction and thought we might stay for a time.  We had heard rumor that that might happen and a few more months here would be offered with his job.  Daily we have waited for news and we were now the last to leave from the workers that were here.  I couldn’t possibly know what would happen, but I did know that God knew what would happen and he had our trust that he would guide us and we would follow his lead!  This is a daily lifestyle that we all need to live by.  In the past, we jumped out ahead of God, and made plans without his guidance, and we found out he had other plans in mind for us.  In Jeremiah 29:11, the Bible says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD.  They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”  I had planned to attend church here this morning, but Mike left for work with our truck, to complete his last day on the job.  I will rest and know that with God in our life and him as the captain of our ship, we have the Power to Achieve!  As he achieved  victory over the grave, we are assured of victory in every aspect of our life as long as we follow his lead!

It was a long awaited night. Jesus was in the garden, about to complete his mission.  He had tried to tell his disciples what was about to take place, but it is obvious to us; they did not listen or believe, what he had told them.  As he knelt in the garden praying and asking them to linger with him, they fell asleep and left him there alone.  In agony he prayed, knowing his time was at hand.  His agony was so great, that he sweat as if it were great drops of blood!   Morning came, and the series of events began to play out.  Jesus said, “Father, not my will, but thine be done!”

It has been a quite week for me.  Wondering what I needed to write about and if I would get inspired with just the right thing to say. I took time out and watched a movie “Abraham.”  It really stuck me as to how God took Abraham down a similar road, which he too would go down with his own son Jesus someday.  Abraham was told he would be the Father of many nations!  His seed would be as the stars and the sands of the sea!  As an old man, he didn’t have a son, so how could this be?  Finally a son was given to him by a maid servant, but not by his beloved wife, Sarah.  Abraham decided that his son given to him by the maid servant would be the one God had in mind for bringing about his promise.  He grew to love his son, but Sarah was deeply anguished that she was not able to give a son to Abraham.  She was an old woman around 90 years old and Abraham was an old man and it seemed it was now not even a possibility!  When God spoke and she overheard that she would become pregnant, she was in the tent and she laughed!  Abraham didn’t see how it could happen, but God told him he would have a son by Sarah.  He was the one God would choose to fulfill his purpose and Sarah would be his mother.  His other son would also have many blessings but his son by Sarah would be named Isaac and he would come to them even though Sarah was beyond child bearing years.  It happened, just as God had told them and the love that Abraham had for Isaac as he taught him and watched his grow was so great!  He taught both of his sons about God and during that time, for the covering of sins, he taught them how to lay the precious lamb on the alter after tying it up, and then how to slice the throat quickly so the lamb would die and then the burnt sacrifice could be offered.  I watched as he got so caught up with Isaac, training him and teaching him everything he could, because he was an old man and he feared he would not have time to prepare him to be a good leader.  He doted over Isaac so much, he neglected other important things.  His love was so entwined with Isaac, he was unbelievably stricken when God spoke to him and asked him to go to the mountain and offer up a sacrifice and that sacrifice would be his son Isaac!  God made it clear and by this time he knew God’s voice.  His heart was wretched!  He was in anguish!  As he gathered Isaac and they went to the place of the sacrifice, Isaac said to him, “Father, where is the sacrifice that we are to offer?”  Abraham could only answer, “God will provide!  It wasn’t until they were at the altar and the bundle of wood was in their hands, that Abraham asked Isaac to stretch forth his hands and he began to tie them with rope.  Isaac must have known at that time, what was about to happen.  With trembling, he was asked to lay down on the alter.  He laid there as his dad drew out the knife.  He closed his eyes tightly and Abraham raised the knife up!  It was then, God spoke and told him not to continue.  God knew he had proved his love for him and he provided an animal in the thicket for him to offer!  (You can read this story in the 1st chapter of the Bible starting at Genesis 17.)

I think as this event took place, God was rehearsing for what would take place, when he sent his Son to die on this earth for the sins of the world. He knew how anguishing it would be, but because he wanted to give us the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, he did it.  Jesus willingly went to the cross and he did die on that cross and to his disciple’s surprise, after 3 days after he died, he came forth out of the tomb and appeared to them.  After some time, he ascended to heaven and he is coming back some day to finalize everything and take his children home.

He cares about every aspect of your life. More than anything, he desires a relationship with his children!  He wants to daily, put his arm around you and tell you he loves you!  You are the reason he died!  He wants to now show you how to live.  I hope you will let him show you that he expects you to be blessed in all you do.  He has given us the Power to Achieve!  Happy Easter to everyone!  God Bless!

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I choose to market on the Internet! You will hear the term, “Attraction Marketing” and realize that the market online is so much larger than ALL of your friends, relatives, and all of the people in your circle!    Marketing to individuals who were business minded made so much more sense to me!  I choose to market in different areas that I know everyone will need.  I have carefully chosen my markets so that each fits a different need in our lives!

One market involves “Travel Savings!“  We all love to travel but the price of vacations is extreme!  Why not travel for Penney’s on the Dollar?  I can show you how to do that!

One market involves products and services, including many online stores, vitamins, makeup etc.  The benefit of this business is enormous income potential, plus your own store where you can shop at wholesale prices!

Then there is the market where you generate cash, computer software and e-books.

There are Investments of Gold and Silver Coins…..More Cash!

One of my businesses is wickless candles, promoting safety in the home and still getting a wonderful and fragrant result!

Also, every one I know uses electricity and gas.  I saw this as a great opportunity to develop an income stream.  (Only to my knowledge, is Texas deregulated on Electricity and Georgia on Gas ) Nothing changes when you sign up with me…just who you get your bill from.  Simply invite them to be your customer!

Then last but not least, I have a home business that will educate you on “How to Build A Successful Home Based Business!”

So get the facts from my site and explore!  One you load up with the information as to why a home based business would benefit you with tax benefits, then get a business or businesses you like and build an empire!

There are hundreds of businesses on the web, and I hope my site will narrow that down for you! My business links to these businesses are all on my blog.  You can contact me anytime for information on how you can get that raise starting today!  I learned a long time ago, from my Home Business Training, to watch for Paradigm Shifts! Going from the 9 to 5 job, to marketing on the Internet is definitely one you need to watch.  It’s happening all around you!

You will benefit, not only from those who join your business, but from those who simply become your “shoppers,”  just like in a store! All of my business choices are multilevel businesses.  Each one reach one and teach one to reach one. That plan has been around for a long time.  Volume commissions are paid as well as affiliate commissions, as you grow your Home Based Business!   Can’t Wait To Have You Aboard!

It never really occurred to me, that maybe I was meant to write. I know that I’ve always had thoughts running rapidly through my mind, especially at the end of the day, when every thing is quiet and I settle down for the night. It’s like all of a sudden, I see all the puzzle pieces and have to try and I get ideas on “How” to put them together. I know as a mother, getting through tough years with my children, I often took the pen and wrote.  I found this easier than talking, but what I found out it wasn’t always the best way to communicate. Too much said, often should have been discussed face to face and for that is why my son asked me “Not” to write him anymore letters. With that, I put my feelings about writing into a category that said I needed to maybe just put the pen down and with love, learn to trust God and be a better communicator, especially with my children.

After that, I never really gave writing much thought, until my Brother Gary published his first book. It was a special week when he was working near me, and I drove about 50 miles to meet him, and went out on a few jobs with him. We were talking about how awesome it was, that his book had finally been published. He had worked on it for years and had some disappointments along the way, as one publisher took his money and didn’t publish! My Mom, his biggest supporter couldn’t wait for the book to be published and prayed many prayers for him that it would someday happen. January of this year it did! I know she was rejoicing from Heaven with him! Anyway, we were walking along. He always calls me “Sis.” He looked at me and said, “Sis, you know you ought to write a book someday. You have a lot of things you need to say, and you could leave a legacy behind.” I thought it was just a moment of “I did it and you should do it, too!” Well, I pondered on it for a few months. Timely, it was just about the time that I was working into online marketing and one of the first assignments I had, was to establish a blog.

Well, I took off and started writing some articles. I originally thought it would just be a business related blog, but it has gone much farther than that! Within that blog, and other events in my life, I began to discover that this small town girl did have some assignments and passions from my life experiences, that I did need to share.
I grew up in “Small Town USA.” Somewhat of a “Leave It To Beaver” home. Mom was a stay at home Mom, Dad worked a steady job and supported us. We were faithful church attenders. Dad didn’t drink and gave up smoking after he married Mom. We took big family vacations and did a lot of fishing! I had a brother 5 years older than me and a brother 5 years younger than me. I was the girl in the middle!

My life was a happy life and although there were really very few struggles, I still ended up with issues I had to contend with. I am very easy going, but very strong willed! When you have that personality, you take things to heart and you are very hard on yourself! I am quiet in a crowd, but I don’t mind getting up and speaking to a crowd! That is, if I have something to say!  I think very deeply about things, but if it’s something really complicated, I’d rather not think about it at all! When I speak, I’d rather get it said and get the information out as soon as possible, but I will listen to someone who could talk all night! I love a leadership position and admire someone who is there, but I’d rather be the right arm to a leader and help them accomplish their goals! I put high expectations on myself, but I let myself off the hook way too easy!  Have you ever, put in writing, what type of personality you have. I know mine must sound confusing to you! I felt like I needed to fit into everyone’s box and I was extremely frustrated if I didn’t. I always seemed to be the last one to finish a test. I loved basketball, but never seem to have what it took to be a starter!  I played piano, but my fingers just didn’t move fast enough to play those complicated notes! These things weighed on my heart for a big portion of my life!

OK….enough said! I had to have a mental breakthrough and I needed it as badly as anyone! I wasn’t overcoming sexual abuse, or seeing someone I loved murdered, or having my parents divorce and feeling like I had something to do with it, or facing the betrayal of a spouse, or raising a mentally challenged or disabled child or facing a disease I couldn’t cure! Still, the same effects can tear at your personal esteem if you don’t get everything in the right perspective!   Piece by piece, God helps me deal, day by day with each issue. First, I had to accept who he made me to be. I had to learn that he put me hear, and he thought I was special! I came with a plan attached!

Due to all the mental anguish I put myself through, I had gained a lot of weight. I blamed it on birth control pills and just getting older and having a slow metabolism. Through his healing ministry, I found a christian program that really began my journey to recovery, and as we began to share our stories with one another, one by one we discovered the reasons that weight had become a big issue with all of us! It was a big eye opener as I sat there one day in that class, and God said, ” I did call you to be a cheerleader…..just not a physical cheerleader! I called you to encourage my people and cheer them on through their hard times! You are a cheerleader!  (When I was in grade school, and wanted to try out for cheerleader, a friend had told me,”You’ll never be a cheerleader, You’re not coordinated enough!”) All those years, I had let that statement hurt me!

I’ve learned to share my hurts, as well as my victories and I am still a work in progress! My boys as they were growing up sang a little song, “He’s still working on me, to make me what I ought to be! It took him just a week to make the Moon and Stars, the Sun and the Earth and Jupiter and Mars! How lovely and patient he must be…….He’s still working on me! Yes….I’ve started my book and I have some things still left to say. Daily, as I look up, I find I don’t notice the obstacles that get in the way as much. I’m learning to trust him, my Jesus, to give me daily instructions and he is patient with me. If I can encourage you to trust him to and let him take the lead, he’ll heal the broken places and he’ll shed light on them that you never thought was possible! Be an achiever and live your life to it’s fullest! Your goals and visions are not in you by accident! Discover them, reach for them, and achieve them!

Today, I would like to talk about loss.    For those of you who have had to deal with loss of a loved one, I hope this writing will let you know, you are not alone.  Georgia  Ross was my husband’s Grandmother.  What an inspiring lady she was to me, what little time I had to know her.  She always treated me like a Granddaughter and I loved her spunk. She lived in her kitchen, constantly baking and cooking for the family she loved.  Her table always had plenty for those who ate there.  She had 9 brothers and sisters as I remembered and 2 sons.  She died at 86, but she outlived them all.  I looked at her and wondered,  how she had dealt with losing so much?   I knew it was God’s unseen hand, that had given her strength.   I lost both of my parents at the end of 2007.  I knew it was likely they would proceed me in death, so when they did, I determined to be strong!  I had great examples in my family as well, in realizing that death is as much a part of life, as living is.  Actually, it is my belief, that death is stepping into an eternal life, that never will end.

We left for our 2 month job assignment in Nebraska just 2 weeks ago.  On the way here, I had a call that there was a death of a neighbor who lived next door to my husband’s Dad and his Grandmother, Georgia Ross.  Then I had a call from our friend who was house sitting that his best friend had died.  Then, after getting to our destination, my brother called me and told me a friend whom he had ministered to for many years, who was born with Spinal Biffida and had been paralyzed from the waist down, had finally lost his battle at life and died.  Now, just this week, the lady whose basement we are renting, had a call and her nieces husband had a sudden massive heart attack and died.  Then just a few minutes ago, I called my friend who had moved her father in with her when we left and he died 2 days ago!  There are lives effected and differant stories and situations, through every death that occures.  Five known deaths in just two weeks has been a lot for me to grasp!

When I lost my Dad and Mom, just 3 months apart, in 2007, times were tough!  I was so stressed before my Father’s death, I started having panic attacks.  I was driving out to his house about 10:30 at night, and felt weird before I left the house.  You see, my Dad had crippling arthritus, and he couldn’t do his hook ups for dialysis, so I had trained to do it for him.  As I rounded the last corner to his house, I knew I had better call Mike, my husband.  I felt as though my whole body was shutting down.  My chest was tightening, my mouth was tightening and I told Mike to have the paramedics meet me in Dad’s driveway if I could make it that far.  I managed to get there, call my niece and have her get someone to do Dad’s dialysis, and decided to start coughing as hard as I could.  I had read that could help if you were having a heart attack.  I prayed Dad and Mom didn’t hear the noise in the drive, but I wasn’t thinking about the “fear” of dying, I was ready to meet Jesus, but I was thinking about the things I was leaving behind!   Before I knew it, I had paramedics all around me!  They assessed me and said I was having a “Panic Attack!”  I thought….”You are crazy!  I am having a heart attack here!”  My thoughts were that I was a rock and nothing emotional would shake me!  I was wrong!  I had to come face to face with the fact that my stress had reached it’s limit!  With lots of prayer and several months later, and a great Doctor who gave me a bottle of Xanax for my purse, I overcame the attacks.  The biggest battle I had to fight after that was the “fear” of another attack.  I followed my pastors advice and put my hand on my heart and declared, “I am a child of the living God!  No weapon will come against me!  I claimed my wellness and it finally left!”  I had to take charge of a situation that I was going through.

When you face stress, for whatever the cause, you can be an overcomer!  You have to give yourself permission to grieve when you loose someone.  You have to forgive, whether it be yourself, or someone else.  You have to not turn on the one “God”  who loves you and wants to walk through your