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!

To be successful in life, healing must take place, in order for restoration to take place, whether it is in business, friendships, family relationships or misunderstandings. Even the unknown imagination that something is there that we see as truth may be a lie!   In our family we have started a new process that I hope will bring healing and a renewed joy into the lives of a generation who suffered greatly from bad decisions of the past.

Alcohol, drugs, violence, sexual abuse, unfaithfulness, divorce and heartbreak, has sewn it’s threads into the lives of almost every home in America and I’m sure throughout the world.  Lying to ourselves and denial of the ravage that seeps into even the best of homes, has threatened the very essence, of what a family is to be!

We asked God for direction in our lives in regards to Mike’s layoff last September.  We knew we didn’t need to take off in just any direction, without consulting God’s guidance.  We loved being in our comfort zone, but God brought us back up to the cold country! We arrived in the hills of Nebraska for a season in our lives.  We knew, when we came, that Mike had a sister and a brother whom he had never met.  Due to alcoholism in the family roots, the family had left siblings along the way and this brother and sister, share the mother of Mike and his sister, Sherri.  Mike and Sherri also had another half-sister who was the oldest sister and her name was Carole Ann.

Years ago, when Mike and I were first married, we knew Carole Ann and her husband well.   We did not live in the same town, but often they came to visit Mike’s Grandmother and Dad so we kept in touch.  She was a beautiful and caring person.  I had forgotten that she lived close to Mike’s other half-brother, Bobby, and his sister Cheryl.  She had practically raised them.  Sherri, Mike’s sister, had met Bobby and Cheryl as she had moved near Carole Ann and she had told us about them, but for some reason, we never met personally.  It was in 1992 and we were moving from Houston, back to our home town near Amarillo with a new job.  I had stayed in Houston to pack the house and arranged a flight for my brother to fly down and help me pack the truck and drive to our new location.  Mike had just begun his job and couldn’t come back.  We got a horrible call!  Carole Ann had been killed in a car wreck!  The timing for us was bad.  Carole Ann now had remarried and moved out of state and we couldn’t make her funeral.  I keep a beautiful picture of her on my mantel and think of her often.  We knew, through Mike’s sister, that Bobby lived in or near Omaha, Nebraska.  We hoped that when we came here on the job assignment, we could find him and get to know him.  He is now 47 and Mike is 59.  Mike’s only brother and they had never met!  It was this past weekend, which we planned a trip to Omaha, only an hour away.  We called his sister Sherri and requested any contact information she could find for us, so we could give Bobby a call.  Sherri hadn’t talked to him in over 2 years, and all she had was a cell phone.  Mike made the call and Bobby and at first he didn’t answer.  We waited and he did call back.  He was skeptical and a little afraid that someone might be doing a scam or something, but as he and Mike talked, he realized it really was his brother!  He wanted to meet us, so we arranged a late evening meeting to eat out and get acquainted.  He asked if his daughter could join us and we met with her too.  This I believe, from all I’ve learned, is the beginning of a healing, which will now grow into a loving family relationship.  Imagine, hugging a brother or a sister, your own flesh and blood, putting all the bad memories of the past behind and building on a strong hope of future relationship!  We know this is just the beginning and we had to take the first step!  We had to take a chance that maybe Bobby wouldn’t won’t to meet us, after all!   We took that chance and he says it was so timely and something he needed in his life so intensely right now!  We are already to build a future and a life of future memories and try to bring restoration to lots of people who have been affected by bad decisions of the past!  Bobby has 5 children and 6 grandchildren!

We need God to forgive us, but we too, cannot heal, unless we are willing to forgive. We might need to put our self-esteem out on the line, and risk rejection or hurt to find healing in our situation, but it will be worth it because of the peace in knowing that at least we tried!  It’s not about us!  It’s about a loving savior who placed us on this earth for his pleasure in seeing us make good choices and build long lasting relationships.

Every good building has a strong foundation under it.  When our relationships are bad with those we love, there are cracks that seep into that foundation of our lives and it begins to crumble.  God wants us to get the relationships repaired and as we do that, he fixes the foundational cracks!  How awesome is that!  He will “Orchestrate” our lives and put the harmony back into our song if we will ask him to show us what to do and follow his lead, even though we might not get the results we expect.  You do your part and he will do his.  He said to be thankful in “all things!” Turn whatever happens, into a prayer of thanksgiving and just see how it turns out.  Get peace and victory back into your life.  Only look back to learn from the past and take the lessons you learn and build a future full of peace, contentment and successes, knowing you have done your part!  You were meant to have the Power to Achieve through all things!

During a lifetime of living, if we are fortunate to live a long life, there are many breaths that we take to maintain our life!  Daily we live and without the air we breathe into our lungs, we would soon be out of this life and then to where?

My blog is to hopefully teach you to live your life with purpose!  Find out who you are, what you were created to be, and leave this life proud of the choices you make on a daily basis.  If you don’t believe in God, then I hope to get you to at least consider the possibilities.  You see, if I am right and there is a God who created you and also created this universe, then it might be important to seriously give thought to the places you go, the choices you make in the things you do, and also in the people you hang around with and allow them to influence your life.  All I can say to a person who does not believe in life after death is, what if I’m right and you are wrong?  If you think you just die and go back to the earth  and nothing exist of you after that, then it would be a rude awakening to find yourself in eternity before God and having to admit to him that you didn’t have faith in him, because you couldn’t see him.  Even worse, if you kind of sort of admitted he might exist, but you refused to accept him as your Lord and Savior.  Today, I feel I am supposed to write to someone out there, that eternity may just be a breath or so away, and you yet have rebelled against God.  Maybe someone hurt you, or someone said they knew God, but they were the biggest hypocrite you have ever know!  And maybe, no one ever told you about God or that God loves you and he died on the cross for your sins and if you will ask him, he will be faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.  It’s not about the people who have hurt you!  It’s not about a church, or a bad church experience you had!  It’s about him, a loving Father, who wanted so much for you to have a life of peace and tranquility, a life full of hope, and a guidance counselor who would live within you!  He will give you the best ideas ever, in making good choices in your life!

Belief in God is something you do by faith.   Faith is evidence of something you hope for and it is substance of something you cannot see!  To you it is a choice to believe and a choice to act on that belief.  God gave us his word, which is the Bible, and through the knowledge and acceptance of that word, the faith you will choose to pick up will start to grow!  As you believe and as you begin to talk to God (that’s Prayer), God will begin to reveal himself to you!  At the age of 6, I wanted to accept and believe in Jesus.  I had been taught about him and about who he was, how he came and gave his life for me and how he wanted me to serve him!  Through that choice to ask him to forgive me and come into my heart, he came, and he has been there for me ever since.  Even when I’ve made bad choices, he has gently guided me back onto the road of peace and happiness.

The Bible says, we will stand before God some day and at that time, we will have to be accountable for how we have lived while the breath was still in us.  We are made of a body, soul, and spirit, and when we die, we will be with God!  To be absent from the body, is to be present with Christ.  You think you will just be present with the dust and that’s it?  Well, if that happens  and you are right and I am wrong, what would I have to lose?  But if I’m right and you are wrong, you would lose everything and as the Bible says you would be cast into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!   I don’t like talking about Hell because it is a horrible place from all I have been told.  I don’t plan on going there anyway!  But if you don’t have your provisions to get to Heaven, then you had better not let that last breath here on earth happen before you have invited God into your life and your heart!

My friend and savior Jesus, knows what I have need of, even before I ask.  I find when I whine about something and he gently speaks to me and reminds me of the important things and I repent and ask him to help me grow, he does things in my life that are unexplainable!  I can’t tell you every detail of this week’s talk  had with him, but just let me tell you he came through and answered everything I put before him!   He does that daily in my life and he will also do it in yours.  Take the first step and don’t gamble with your eternity!  You have The Power to Achieve eternal life that will make your entire life here on earth look like a single breath!  Eternity is forever and we will eternally be with the Lord!  We will not have pain, or sorrow in Heaven.  While on earth, I can think of those I love and of the lives I impact, including those of my love ones that are so close to my heart.  But if they don’t make it to heaven, I don’t think I will remember them when I get there.  Why, because if they are in Hell, the anguish of them being there would not be something I could not bear!  So please consider your ways, choose to turn your heart to God and he will forgive your sins and direct your paths!  God Bless you!  This is not my normal blog, but probably one of the most important ones, I will ever do!  I John 1:9 says that   “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness!”  If you make a decision and do that today, let me know.  I will pray with you for a new beginning in Christ!  beverlystimetotravel@gmail.com

Today, I would like to share with you about making God’s word personal to you and see if it will help you understand how important you are to him! I opened up the word this morning and at first I just read.  Then I thought about how it would sound to put my name in it.  This reading is from Jude, the next to the last chapter in the Bible.  When you read it, instead of my name, put yours in and see if it comes alive for you!

Jude 1:2 Mercy unto you, Beverly, and peace and love be multiplied!  Beverly, when I gave all diligence to write to you about the common salvation, it was needful for me to write to you, Beverly, and exhort you that you should earnesly strive for the faith that was once delivered to the Saints!  Beverly, there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.  Because of this, Beverly, I will put you in rememberance.  Beverly you know how I saved the people out of Egypt, after I destroyed those that did not believe.  You also know, Beverly, there were angels which kept not their first estate, (these angels chose not to follow God and joined Satan) they left their own habitation (dwelling place with Christ) and they are now in chains under darkness, Beverly, until the judgement of the great day!    This passage reminds us of the state our world is now in and continues to talk about sin that is rampant in our world even today.  Moving on down to verse 17 it says:  But Beverly, remember the word that was spoken before by the apostles. The word of the Lord Jesus Christ was what they taught!  Beverly, they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their ungodly lusts.  Beverly, these are the ones who separate themselves, being more sensual, and they do not move by the Spirit of God!  But, Beverly, beloved, build your life up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, and keep yourselves in the love of God, Beverly, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.  And Beverly, with some, have compassion, make a difference in their lives!  And Beverly, there may be some who must be saved with fear and you may have to pull them out of the fire.  Hate even their garments That are spotted by fleshly acts of evil!  This is serious stuff!  Now Beverly, to him (speaking of Jesus) that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, and to the only wise God our Saviour, Beverly, be glory and majesty, and dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen

You are made to make a difference in this world and yet you have the freedom to choose! God personally has a love for you that you cannot measure.  Be blessed today and personalize his word in your life and you will learn that withGod, all things are possible and you have the Power To Achieve!

We live in a world that seems so large, and yet throughout my life, I have experienced many times, what I call, God’s Little World, events! I’m sure you remember times in your life, when you thought about an incident and said, “oh my, what are the chances of this happening?”  I have had many and will try to reflect back on some, even though as I am typing, I am having to look back.  One I recall, was being at a business convention in Los Vegas, NV.  I live in Texas and I met a man at the convention from TX.  When we talked, I found out that his Grandfather was from the town I was living in,  and the school 2 blocks from my house, was named after his Grandfather.  The school was just shut down this year when they put a new Jr High up.  Another time was recent, when we were just playing around on the computer and discovered we could actually google drive by our house.  As I was driving down my street, I noticed my brother’s van in my drive way and a friends car in front of my house.  That car was one that my husband worked on for this friend for over a year, so the time frame was there.   Dec. 28th or 29 of 2007.  My brother and his wife came and spent the night.  The Christmas lights were up on our sidewalk.  The night of the 28th was a night my Mom had long waited for.

Just 3 months prior to that, on Oct. 7, 2007, I stepped out with my husband to go have breakfest at a nearby restaurant, leaving Dad in the nursing home and telling him we wouldn’t be long and I would see him shortly. We left and my phone stayed in the car while my husband and I ate.  It was flashing when I got back in the car, so I checked and it was news that Daddy had died.  We went back to the home to say our good byes and then on to the house to be with Mom, as she lost her companion and loving husband after 61 years of marriage.  The next 3 months were quiet exhausting as we buried Dad back in his home town area, about a 12 hour drive from where we lived.  After the funeral, my husband told Mom he was OK with her moving in with us and we made plans to make that happen.  We set her room up at our house, moving all of her bedding there so she would feel at home.  She did great, considering her loss, but she felt secure, knowing she was with us and she was not alone.  We had a great 3 months, until she started having heart trouble in Dec. which lead to her getting progressively weaker as Christmas approached.  We were able to get her into a chair for only a short time to open her gifts, and then I called the family in.  My brother, who’s van was in our drive way, lived only 3 hours away, and got there to spend the night, the night before she died.  As night approached the night of her death, we just knew it would happen.  I crawled in the bed beside her hospital bed and slept in my clothes.  My sister in law and brother slept in the other room.  It was the middle of the night when I woke up to look at her.  The fan was blowing and I thought she was still breathing, but I think she was gone at that time.  My sister in law said she was awaken with what she thought was the sound of angel wings in the other room.  Mom had waited so long to be with “her sweet Jesus”  and now she was home and never would suffer sickness and pain again!  How could I be sad?  We all walked in and sang a song about meeting her in heaven and then that is when they came and carried her out the door.  That is the time frame when the picture of our house was taken for satellite viewing via the internet.  I told my husband, It was a wonder, they didn’t get them carrying her out the front door!  Instead, it was a picture that to me told me that God remembered that day and he wanted me to know that he did.  To me, it was him saying, “ I was with you on that day, and I even had a picture taken so you would see it later and know that I was with you! ”

God’s little world…..  It’s not so big to him. There are 100′s of times in my life that strange things like this have happened and I knew it was not just by accident!  It was God saying,”you think things are so big and so impossible, but through me, all things are possible!  You just relax and don’t be anxious.  I have everything under control and I know what you need and will provide it!”  That is what I believe!  He knows what I need and he takes care of me, he guides me and he is the one in charge!   I encourage you to consider letting the stress you carry around, be placed in his arms.  You were not meant to figure everything out, but with God, all things are possible!  You can achieve the dreams and desires he has placed in his hands and he wants to show you “God’s little world” events.  Be expecting them and take notice of them.  When you notice  things,  such as you saying something like, “This was beyond anything I could have done, or this didn’t just happen by accident or what are the chances of this happening; then, welcome to God’s Little World! The power to acheive is in YOUR FAITH, PUT INTO ACTION and in HIS HANDS!

Don’t let it RETIRE your dream! Just like a toddler who is learning to walk, sometimes, on the way to your dream, there will be “UPS” and sometimes there will be “DOWNS!” I love watching children and learning from them.  They do not have all the hang ups that come with age and disappointments.  They look at life through a trust that is there without question.  They say the cutest things and we realize then how simple life is to them.  My niece, who is 4, lives near the ocean.  She takes in everything about life with a passion.  She is quiet a talker and while at the ocean, she expressed to her Mom how much she loved the ocean.  Her Mom, trying to get her to tell her “why” she liked the ocean, asked her, “Why do you like the ocean so much?’  She looked at her Mom in disbelief that Mom didn’t understand!  She said, ” UHHH…..  we have the biggest swimming pool!”

There are many things that children do, that are actually meant to teach us! They cling to the one they can trust and to the one who gives them the most care.  In the same aspect, if someone scares them or hurts them, they do whatever they can to stay away from that person.  We can learn by this, to look at who in our life, has our best interest in mind?  Who is trying to take advantage of us and trying to cause us harm.  Children who have good examples in their lives will grow up to be good examples themselves.  A child who has been treated badly, may carry those things into adult life.  Everyone who lives on this earth, has their story.  They have roots that are attached to them.  We all have to examine our life and experiences.  We need to get back to the place of innocence,  just like a trusting child who trusted to be cared for.  We have a heavenly Father who will never treat us badly.  He is there to help you get rid of all the obstacles that are between you and your dream!  He is there to help you define what your dreams are!  He did put them in you and if you didn’t get a great start or if you have hurt in your life, he does have a key to help you unlock the potential you hold within yourself.

When a child is told how beautiful, special, or smart they are, they believe it! The same is true if their past was not so good and they were not encouraged to achieve. Maybe they were told they were failures or not smart or good enough, they start to believe that too!  It might just be one thing that was said, that they believe, that started a breakdown in self-confidence!  Really, you need to dig deep sometimes to get to the root of what holds you back.  When you find that harmful root, speak the truth to yourself and take ahold of that ugly root and pull it out!  Then celebrate and tell someone who believes in you that you’ve got it!  Fight for your freedom and forgive the one who hurt you, put your faith and trust in God and move on!  I dare say, that the most successful people in this world, have overcome some of the toughest obsticles, to get where they are today!

Look to your mentors as a child looks to his parents and others in his life to guide him. As an adult, if your mentors do not have your best interest in mind you can leave them.  As a child, you were not able to make those decisions, but now you are an adult you can chose to be around those who will inspire you!  Don’t retire your dream but bring it back to life.  Live life with a passion.  Take back what has held you back and find fullness of joy in your life.  Be a peacemaker and be a good mentor to those you are blessed to have in your circle.  We are only here for a short time, so make do whatever it takes to get peace and tranquility back into your life.

Back to my neice and some of the cute things a child might say.  It was afternoon and a busy day.  She told Mom she wanted to take a nap!  Mom said, “Ok, but only for an hour because we have to leave.”  My niece said, ” could you set the alarm clock?”  Mom said , “Ok and she set the clock for her.  My neice then said, ” OK, I can turn my ears off now!”

Kids are precious and have many differant personalities. The Bible says, “And a little child shall lead them.”  God loved children and he wants us to model ourselves out of their innocense.  The way they were before their trust was broken. If you’ve had past lies and disappointments that have taken shape in your life, take back what was stolen for you and get back to child like faith and you will find you have the Power To Achieve!

We all have our comfort zones. Many of us live in our comfort zone, never really realizing what it would be like to live in another person’s lifestyle.  We get really use to taking things for granted.  I am now in a place totally different than what I am use to.  It’s not a drastic change, but still it’s not what I am use to.  I made the decision last month, to go with my husband, rather than stay in place at our home, while he took a work assignment far away from our home base.  This was a major trip, not a weekender.

We left the “cold country” and moved to South Texas back in 1996. Climate was a big factor for us!  Why did I not like the winters of the Texas Panhandle?  It wasn’t the cold, because some of my favorite memories were the White Christmases, having snow ball fights during the lunch hour at school, and watching my sons growing up there.   From childhood, I remember building snowmen, snow forts, sledding and just staring out our big picture windows at the huge ice cycles and snow covered trees.  I love the beauty of the snow fall.   With the move to South Texas, I didn’t know if I would ever live to see another snow.  Why were the winter months of the Texas Panhandle something I really was glad to walk away from?  It was that big and awful word FEAR!  You see, I was never a great driver in the snow and ice.   My first experience was driving to work which was while I was in High School.  My first job was twelve miles from the town were we lived.  It was icy after the snow and I was just coming off of the hills when suddenly, my car went into a spin.  I saw the pole coming at me, but fortunately I missed it and was able to keep driving to my job.  Then there was another time when, my boys were with me in a small truck.  They were young and as we were on our way home and came to the blacktop change of the road when the county line changed.  The light colored asphalt was not slick, but as soon as we crossed to the black pavement, the truck went into an uncontrollable spin, sliding off the road and taking out the fence.  There were more weather incidents with my driving in weather conditions, but I won’t go on.  Just wanted you to realize that I wanted to just find a warm climate so I wouldn’t have to drive on ice and snow ever again!  When fear can get a lock on you it causes you to be its victim.  

Why did I focus on the “Fear” and not on the “Faith” I had at the moment each incident happened?   With all of my weather related incidents, I could have been seriously injured or killed and yet, I can tell you of 6 weather related incidents where fatality could have been a factor and yet God protected me and others.   My understanding through this lesson of life is that it wasn’t my appointed time to go.  We must put our faith in a God who knows what will happen, even before it happens. I had put restrictions on God’s plan for my life by letting “fear” be my guide.  When we needed to find work, leaving the warm climate wasn’t even a consideration.  Remember the story of Jonah in the Bible?  God needed him to go to Nineveh to preach to the people there and he headed out the other direction.  As he went aboard a ship away from Nineveh, a great storm came and the men aboard the ship cast lots to see who was causing the storm.  Jonah knew it was him so they cast him into the sea where a great fish came and swallowed him up.  As the story was told, the fish later spit Jonah out near the shore and he knew he had to obey God and complete his mission.   Now as we have realized there was a “Jonah” situation in our life, we are where I know God has called us to be for this time.  What are you letting keep you off of your chosen path.  Your success may be right around the corner if you will just let your faith go and stamp out your fears.  Expect to be happy and fully able to complete your mission.  Look for amazing discoveries as you embark on your new journey!  Tackle each obstacle with faith!  Be blessed and be one who blesses!  Don’t limit yourself but believe in yourself.  You are an achiever and fully equipped to be more than a conqueror!  My boys sang a song when they were little that went like this:  In the belly of a whale, three days and three nights…what an awful feeling!  What an awful site!  I’d much rather be….in a dark old jail….than to be like Jonah….In the belly of a whale.  See yourself gaining victory over your fears! You were born with the Power to Achieve victory over your fears!

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 pain with you!  You have to have “Faith, Hope, and Love.”  A song I grew up with, went like this….”Have faith, hope and charity, that’s the way to live successfully.  How do I know?  The Bible tells me so!    We all have more inside of us than we see in ourselves.  God will help us activate the unseen things and we will be able to make it through our trials!   We were made to be Achievers and you have that power within you.

Today, I want to talk to you about Life and Changes that happen in everyone’s life.  We all have a destiny I believe and you were created to have passion in your life for something!  All of us have passion for security, but we will never find security in the things we own or possess in this life.  We have to allow our faith  and what we are passionate about, drive us!
Foundation is so important.  In the Bible, it talks about the foolish man who built his house upon the sand.  The winds came with great force and his house was unable to stand.  Then there was the wise man who built his house upon a rock.  The winds came and blew  with great force and his house stood.  We all want our “HOUSE“, meaning our security, our faith, our stability, our health, and our businesses to stand!  Yet in this thing called “Life,”  many winds come and blow with a great fury and seem to try us to the very limit.  We must build strong foundations to stand!
Who in this world doesn’t long for the “perfect” life?
Let’s imagine!  Our business is awesome, we have “perfect children,” our health is so good, the Dr. wants to publish us in a “Health Magazine,” we have so much money in the bank, we will never have to work again, Everyone treats us with dignity, no one has ever hurt us or ever will, we drive the most amazing cars and there are no hospitals, because no one ever gets hurt or needs them!  We have the perfect marriage!  We live in the most beautiful climate in the world!  Our energy level is so great, we don’t need sleep.  We will never loose a husband, friend, or child to death.  We are so secure in who we are.  We have all the strength we need to make decisions that are important and we never make a wrong call!
The problem is, we do not live in a perfect world. I am sure some of the above things are going good in your life and I am just as sure that some of the above mentioned things are just “not happening” in your life.  We are here in an imperfect world and yet we are meant to make it and make it with our dignity still in tact!  How can that happen?  By building your life on a “Firm Foundation.”  Jesus came that we might live life abundantly and he is a “Firm Foundation,” you can put your trust in.
So many decisions we have to make in this life are so much bigger than we are! It takes faith to make it on this journey called “Life.”  Faith is the evidence of things not seen and the substance of things hoped for.  Now let’s break that down!  Lets say you  have a big situation you are facing.  Your mind automatically starts to draw out a picture of what you will expect to get from the situation.  This is evidence and substance that you see through your eyes.  The problem is, we need to be in control of the artist pen, that is drawing the picture!   Let’s face it, we live in a negative world and we have to choose to put a positive picture in place of the negative one.  We take the pen into our own hands and ask what the positive picture is in regard to our situation and then we began to draw a new picture!  That picture is called “HOPE.”  That is what “Faith” is and with Faith, we can move mountains.
Look to a heavenly Father who loves you and knows every pathway before you.  Ask him which pathway to take, then take your pen and write it down in your heart and on paper.  Choose to believe in the best outcome!  Can worry and fretting change your situation?  No, only moving in a positive solution towards a victorious ending!

My niece and I took a long 12 hour trip to see her Dad and Mom.  She has 3 children who were with us about 11:00 at night when all of a sudden, it seemed we had a tire going down.  We pulled off the highway and we did have a problem.  Immediately my niece prayed and asked God to not let anyone stop who didn’t need to be there.  I was on my cell looking for a number to call when behind us there was a car that pulled up.  It was a local policeman who got out to ask if we needed help.  I put the phone up and got out to access the situation with him.  Our 4 year old, Lexi was very afraid of “Policemen.”  The temperatures had dropped and it was freezing outside.  We attempted to get to the spare, only to realize the lock was on it and we didn’t have a key!  The nice policeman went into town to get an air pump to get us to town.  I got back in the car and by this time there were tears of fear with Lexi.   Dezarae and Matthew were also afraid.  It was then that I could teach them a lesson of life God had taught me.  I told the children,  that we had a flat, but God knew where we were and he would take care of us.  I told them he had sent the policeman to help us and then told them also, God knew that for some reason, we needed to stop.  Maybe down the road we would have had a wreck or something bad was going to happen.  God knew so he stopped us and then he sent the nice policeman to help us!  By the time the policeman got back, Lexi couldn’t stop asking him questions!  To our surprise, he aired the tire up and it went right back down.  It had had an inside blow out.  We now had to cut the lock, in order to get to the spare so he went back into town again and tried to wake his town tire repairman up.  He came back and said they didn’t answer him.  The next thing we knew, he was on his phone and here comes a tire repair truck with two men in it.  The men got out in freezing temperatures and had everything they needed to cut the lock, fix the tire and get us ready to go!  The men got out in freezing temperatures and had everything they needed to cut the lock, fix the tire and get us ready to go!  I got out to give them a cash payment.  They refused it.  We thanked them and I got back into the car.  My niece remarked that the policeman looked like a man she knew.  When we got to our destination and went to church on Sunday, we walked into the church with a man greeting us at the door.  She whispered in my ear, that the man who greeted us was the man she was talking about who looked like the policeman who helped us.  I was amazed because he did look like him.  Now the Bible says we are to beware that we may be entertaining “Angels Unaware!”  Could it be that God sent his Angels out in the middle of nowhere in the freezing Texas Panhandle to help us?  We think so!  Angels can take on human likeness when they have a mission to complete.   Yes he cares for us that much!  He will be faithful to those who are faithful and exercise their faith!  Now if these men were not “Heavenly Angels,”  they certainly were on a mission for a heavenly father and I consider they could have been “Earthly Angels.”

In conclusion, I am now away on a trip with my husband due to a work change.  Away from many of the perks like phones, good internet etc.  I am enjoying every minute of it and it is a time of sanctity for me!  I will be able to write, seek God’s guidance and make new friends.  Life is an adventure as long as you are riding in the car with the “Master Driver!”  Be an achiever today and overcome all of the intrusions in your life.  You have the power to Achieve!  My internet came through today so I could get this message out to you!  God Bless!

Look for us on Facebook by doing a search! Simply type Crosses Across America in the search bar of Facebook and let us see your pictures of  Crosses Across America!

Not many know, but I am currently working on my first book! I had to bring a little to you on some of my comments in regards to Crosses Across America and how it started!  Here is a current writing added to my book tonight.  I’m on Chapter 3!

I went to visit my Aunt and Uncles this past summer.  The train ride there was my first trip on a train, since I was a child and rode 50 miles to my Grandma’s house with her.  It is always a privilege to me to go to their home.  Their love for the Lord is so prevalent and you feel so loved there.  At their home,  they had a lighted cross on their fence for Christmas.  They began to tell me the story about how it still remained up and here is how it happened.  It seemed a neighbor told them how much it meant to them to see it each time they passed by.  They even made a little gift and brought it to them in appreciation of the cross.  With that, they decided to leave the cross up until Easter.  Well after that, it didn’t seem right to take it down, so now it stays up all the time and lights up at night.  This story really touched me as America and all of it’s technology, comforts, and busy lifestyles have lost their heritage bit by bit, without even realizing what has happened.  We have watched her downfall, from the moment Madeline O’Hare’s attempt to remove prayer from our schools to the present, when leaders in our country would rather forget our heritage and constitutional amendments and pledge that states we are “One Nation Under God!” If those of us who are in America do not take a stand, we will surely loose our blessing!  God proclaimed in the scripture, “If my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven and will Heal their land. We are blessed to be a blessing and we must believe that we can make a difference!”
What Else Can I Do?
I hope you will pray for America and take a stand for what is right.  Speak out!  Not in a rude and arrogant way, but in a way that the Heavenly Father will be seen in you and they will see his love and compassion and want to know him!  I chose to begin a Facebook Group called “Crosses Across America,”  and encourage those who are able, to build crosses and put them in their front yards and light them up at night for the world to see.  Jesus paid a huge price on the cross, by sacrificing his life, so we could be forgiven and have eternal life in heaven, after our time on this earth is spent.  Look inside yourself and see if there is something God puts on your heart to do and don’t be afraid to put his plan into action!  Just as your past doesn’t have to reflect your future, neither does America’s failures as a nation have to affect their future, if they will turn back to God!

To all of you Achievers out there you CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!  Pray for me as I write, that my words will be inspired by God and my book will someday be finished and published!  Feel free to suggest a Title for the book.  It will include stories from my life and have a lot to do with Choices we make that will cause us to Achieve or Choices that will cause us to fail.