GOTTA LOVE THIS GUY!

They give Sheriff Joe a hard time, but he sticks with his principles. I'm proud that he's our sheriff. He still provides pink underwear for the inmates. A few years ago they were selling the pink shorts signed by Sheriff Joe at Christmas time at the mall. I gave a pair to hubby. No, he doesn't wear them. I think he is quite proud to own them, however.

This has nothing to do with Sheriff Joe, but thought I'd voice my disappointment with the people who attend the Silver Sneakers exercise group at 24 Hour Fitness. The last two times there were only two of us there besides the teacher. And - it was a different one and me each time. Maybe they're still celebrating Thanksgiving. Or maybe they have started celebrating Christmas early.

THE DAY AFTER

Thanksgiving is over. I hope you all had a great day. Wonderful day for me, but like many others did, I ate too much. Now, it's on to decorating for Christmas. Our son helped hubby set the tree up yesterday (major job). Now the fun begins. Decorate, decorate, decorate.

Since it's time to decorate I thought I'd start here by decorating my blog for Christmas. It is much colder here in the desert this morning. Makes it seem more like Christmas. Now if it would just snow a little. Not much chance of that. We've seen a little snow on two different occasions here in the last 21 years we have lived here. Oh well, we'll get along fine without the snow.

JONAH

This video was e-mailed to me by an old friend. I thought it was so cute and quite amazing that this little girl could tell the story so well that I wanted to share it with you today. It definitely should put a smile on your face, as it did mine. (You may need to turn up your sound to hear it well.)

The story of Jonah from Corinth Baptist Church on Vimeo.

The Corinth Baptist Church is in Albertville, AL.

Click HERE to go to the Spiritual Sundays blog for links to more spiritual/inspirational posts.

A TRIBUTE TO ADAM

Today for my Spiritual Sundays post, I want to pay tribute to a wonderful family from my past, and who have become friends again on facebook after more than 40 years.

The lady in the picture is Valorie. She was a young girl when I knew her and her family when my husband was the minister of the South Hills Church of Christ in West Covina, CA. The handsome young man with her is her son, Adam. Valorie just changed her profile picture on facebook to this one.

I'm fighting back the tears as I write this post. Yesterday was the memorial service for Adam who was killed in a motorcycle accident a few days before. He was only 27 years old, and left behind a wife, young daughter and another baby who will be born next month. I can't even imagine the pain Valorie and her husband Kevin as well as the rest of the family, are going through right now. And, I'm asking you to join me in praying for this family in this trying time. What a reminder this is of the brevity of life.

I was wondering what God would want me to share today for Spiritual Sundays. In fact, I asked him about it before I got out of bed this morning. When I came to the computer and saw this video that Valorie had posted there in tribute to her son, I knew immediately this was what I should share.  I think this video will be a comfort to many people who have recently lost a loved one. It is a good reminder too that no matter how old or how young we are, we need to be ready to answer the call when it is our turn to meet the Creator.



I hope you will visit our Spiritual Sundays blog for links to many different posts by different people who share there each week. If you are a blogger, you may want to join us by posting something on your own blog and linking it to Spiritual Sundays. Click HERE to go to that blog.

GOD MOVES IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS

After a lengthy bout with despair, severe depression and suicide attempts, writer and poet William Cowper (1731-1800) discovered comfort in God's providence, which led him to write "Shining Out of Darkness".

God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.


Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs,
And works his sovereign will.


Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He  hides a smiling face.


The following video is a different tune than the one I am familiar with, but I think it is beautiful, and the video is beautiful.




I know in my own life events that seemed catastrophic at the time turned out to be a wonderful blessing. I'm sure this is true in everyone's life. Think back and remember when God worked in a mysterious way in your life.

Be sure to visit Spiritual Sundays for many links to inspirational posts.

BLIND MUSICIANS

Scott MacIntyre

Yesterday I wore a shirt with pictures of angels on it and the words of a Fanny Crosby song: "Angels descending, bring from above echoes of mercy, whispers of love." My husband made the comment, "You like blind singers, don't you?" Why did he make that comment? Not just because Fanny Crosby was blind and she wrote over 8000 hymns during her lifetime. That was part of it, but the other part was he was thinking about the fact that I like Scott MacIntyre, an American Idol contestant a couple of years ago. Scott is also blind. Scott and his family are members of our church. If you know anything about Scottsdale Bible Church, you know it is a huge church and we do not know Scott personally, but we knew he was a contestant. He and others in his "musical" family have sang as part of the worship service at our church. Since we never watched that show until Scott became a participant, we would never have known anything about him being a contestant if it had not been the church connection.

So, they have a contest going now for American Idol contestant of the month. 119 former contestants are being voted on. When I first discovered it, Scott was #30. He is now #7. People can vote every 20 minutes and although I haven't voted for him nearly that often, I have voted for him many times. Every time I vote again, it is "tweeted" on my facebook page. So if you are my facebook friend, you probably know about Scott. Yes, that is a picture of Scott on this post. I wish I had a picture of Fanny Crosby. I would put that here too.

Now, I have said all this as an introduction to a comment Fanny Crosby made when asked about her blindness. (I found this information in Randy Alcorn's excellent book If God is Good.)

Fanny Crosby, blinded by an incompetent doctor at the age of six weeks, penned more than eight thousand hymns. She expressed delight that Jesus' face would be the first she would ever see. If she'd thought, "Ill never be able to see," she would have been profoundly sad. Instead, she could say with Job, "After my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God... I, and not another" (Job 19:26-27).

Concerning her blindness, Fanny said, "It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation... If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it... I verily believe it was His intention that I should live my days in physical darkness, so as to be better prepared to sing His praises and incite others so to do."

When you see God at work, you don't look to blame someone; you look to credit him. Now, I don't know about you, but I have always thought that being blind would be one of the worst handicaps imaginable. To see how God is blessing so many with handicaps so that their handicaps become blessings to them and to others, it increases my faith so much.

Everyone who shares with us on Spiritual Sundays is a blessing to me. Please click on the picture at the left to go to that blog and prepare to be blessed by what others have shared. If you have never shared there before, we hope you will consider doing so. Everyone is welcome. When you get to the Spiritual Sundays blog, click on Linking Info under the header picture for more information.

If you twitter, and would like to vote for Scott, go to this link: http://tweeter.faxo.com/ and click on I ❤Idol and you can add your vote.

IT'S OUR CHOICE

I have a "tweet" program that causes the tweets of everyone I'm following to pop up on the right side of my computer screen whenever one of them tweets a new tweet. Is that the way to say that? Doesn't sound quite right, but I don't know how else to say it. So, whenever Max Lucado tweets a new tweet, I see it. This morning this tweet popped up. "We can't choose whether or not we are born with a big nose or blue eyes or a lot of hair … but we can choose where we spend eternity. Max Lucado." As soon as I saw it, I thought about Spiritual Sundays and the fact that I didn't know what I was going to share this time. Thanks, Max, for giving me this idea. I had never thought about it exactly this way. I love the way Max Lucado has a unique way of saying things.

So, after I read this quote, I thought about the fact that we can choose where we spend eternity. Then the thought occurred to me that not many people give that reality much, if any, thought. I think most people just "stumble" through this life and if asked whether they think they will go to heaven when they die, they usually say, "I hope so." It is quite amazing how we prepare for everything we do in this life but too often make no preparation for the next life at all. The thought came to my mind of all the preparation I made before I went on the cruise last week. What if I had just said I wanted to go on the cruise, but did not sign up, did not pay the price, did not make sure airline and hotel reservations were made, and did not even pack my suitcase. Could I have gone on that cruise? If someone had asked me if I was going, would I have said, "I hope so." Now that cruise was a lot of fun, but compared to where I will spend eternity? Well - you get the idea.

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father but by me." John 14:6. Jesus died that we might have life. It is a free gift. There is nothing we can do to earn it, but we must accept it. Since Jesus is the only way to the father, doesn't it follow, that Jesus is the only way to heaven? No one can get there by just "being good." There is no way we can be that good. Thankfully we have the Bible as a guide to tell us how to be sure that we will spend eternity in heaven. We need to be sure that we choose to go there and not just "hope" that it will happen.

I missed visiting everyone who linked to Spiritual Sundays last weekend because I was on the Girl's Get-A-Way cruise. I wrote about it on my other blog so if you are interested, you can go there and check it out. http://char72.wordpress.com/ 

If you are new to Spiritual Sundays, I hope you will click on Linking Info under the header picture on that blog and share a post on your blog. If you don't have a blog or do not have a post to share, just click on the different links to read many inspirational posts that others have shared.

Girl's Get-A-Way Cruise 2010

Kathy, Kathy's daughter Julie, Me, my daughter Carol

What a wonderful time we had on our cruise. I did a post on Charlotte's Weblog telling all about it with lots of pictures. If you're interested in hearing all about it, you can click HERE to go there.

GRANDEUR OF THE SEAS

This will be my "home away from home" for a few days next week. Daughter Carol is going with me. Hubby Clif is staying home. It's a cruise just for girls.

We're looking forward to being with Clif's nephew's wife and daughter on the cruise - Kathy and Julie. We have never met Julie before so are glad we can get acquainted with her, and what better place to do it.

We'll be leaving from Ft. Lauderdale, cruise to Key West and Cosumel. Of course we'll take plenty of photos and will be anxious to share them here.

My Spiritual Sundays post is on my other blog today - Charlotte's Weblog. Go check it out if you want to see some beautiful pictures from around the world. No, I didn't take them. I wish I had.

Prayers for everyone involved in the cruise would be much appreciated. Thanks. You blogging friends are the greatest.

FINDING JOY | The Finding Joy Movie

Finding Joy | The Finding Joy Movie

This is a beautiful peaceful video. I think you will enjoy watching it. Click on the blue title.

Sneakers and Bougainvillea

Went to my first Silver Sneakers exercise session this morning. I was able to go through the routine better than I thought I would since I'm so out of shape. I'm excited about going back and also about going back and using the exercise equipment and work out in the pool. I'm happy to say that Hubby will be joining me.  I joined a gym when I was a teenager and just went a few times and lost interest. I'm determined this time to carry through with it. I am a little older and a little wiser now. LOL Make that a LOT older and wiser.

Just went out in the back yard and snapped these pictures. The bougainvillea is taking over out there again. I guess if we didn't keep cutting it back it would take over the whole yard, pool and all.

You can barely see the bird bath. It's covered by the bougainvillea. I hope the birdies can find it.

PACIFIC ELECTRIC

Okay, I'm on another nostalgia trip. 

The year - 1946 and/or 47. 

Pacific Electric - sounds like a utility company. Nope, I'm talking about Pacific Electric trains. So, I got to thinking, after posting about my Girl Scout days in Artesia, CA, about how I loved to ride the PE that came by very close to our house. So, I "googled" it to see if I could find a picture. There were tons of pictures of these trains. The one in the picture looks just like I remember them. This one was headed to Long Beach. I remember my mother saying "Some day we should ride the PE all the way to Long Beach." But we never did. We did ride it to Bellflower a few times, and that was a real fun trip for a 10 year old. We rode it many times from downtown Artesia out to our neighborhood. 

I mentioned in a previous post about riding the church bus on Sundays to church. Most of the time we didn't go home on the bus. Most of the time we walked down the street a ways (the church met in the Women's Club house right in town), and catch the PE and ride that home. Many times we would stop by the drug store before going home and I would get to buy a comic book or two. Boy, don't I wish I still had those comic books.

Besides the fun of riding on these PEs, there was something else that I and other children in the neighborhood enjoyed doing. Many times we would go over to the tracks and lay pennies on them. Then after one of them went by, we would go back and find the pennies smashed flat.

Thanks for joining me on this trip down memory lane.

P.S. My Spiritual Sundays post is on my other blog this week. Charlotte's Weblog.