God made my life complete                                                                                           
when I placed all the pieces before him.                                                      
When I got my act together,                                                                                 
he gave me a fresh start.                                                                              
Now I’m alert to God’s ways;                                      
                                               I
  don’t take God for granted.                                                                        
Every day I review the ways he works;                                                                     
   I try not to
miss a piece.                                                                                       
I feel put back together,                                                                                               
and I’m watching my step.                                                                                  
God rewrote the text of my life                                                                         
when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.


Psalm 18 Message Bible

A meal of bread and water in contented peace is better than a banquet spiced with quarrels.  
                                                                                 
                                                                   Proverbs 17:1 MSG
 Hello   Friend,

        When I read these lines from Proverbs, I immediately thought back to our thanksgiving dinners of long ago.  All my family would gather around two long banquet tables covered with a  sumptuous feast. What a splendid occasion—except for one thing.  If you were smart, you kept a low profile and hoped no one would notice you and bring up your most flagrant character flaw.  Or how they hated the new church you were attending.  Or how you really should get a new hairdo.  One aunt  actually told me over turkey and stuffing, “You know, you would be quite pretty  if it weren’t for that large nose.”    Really!!!

            How about the conversation around your dinner table?  Do you dine in contented peace?  I surely hope so.  Last week a friend asked me if she should confront her husband at dinner over a grievance that had been festering in her heart.  I wanted to scream, NO!  Anger is bad for digestion.  When a person is angry or fearful the body tenses; heart pounds; hormones heighten; adrenal gland and heart over works itself and the chemicals in the
brain change and all these put together cause stomach acids to increase which can lead to food sitting in their stomach like a rock and not digesting properly.  Whew!  Please, let’s keep the peace at dinner. Enjoy the people sitting around your table.   I would rather have bread and water in peace than a sumptuous feast with quarreling any day. 
 
                                                                                              Enjoying fine dining,
                                                                                                                   Linda

Your love, God, is my song, and I’ll sing it. . .I’ll never quit telling the story of your love.                                                                                                                                                         Psalm 89: 1-2 MSG

Hello Friend,

            Did you wake up singing?  Question is:  “What were you singing?  Some of us woke up singing, “Oh, how I hate getting up in the morning. Oh! How I'd love to remain in bed; for the hardest blow of all is to hear the bugler call:  'You've got to get up, you've got to get up, you’ve got to get up in the morning.” These lyrics were written by Irving Berlin in 1918 and give a comic perspective on the indignities of military life; however, I must admit that sometimes I sing that song. Oh, the indignities of getting up to the ringing of that darn alarm.  I always urge   Jim, “Hit the snooze, just five more minutes please.”  

            Once I manage to pull myself out of bed, my attitude changes.  I am pleased to greet the new day—a day to be filled with opportunities to sing of his grace and glory.  Yet, some of us will complain long after we emerge from our slumber.  Some of us sleep-walk through our days unaware.  And some of us sing the blues.  Still others see nothing but darkness oblivious to the fact that the sun is shining, the clouds are billowy, and beams of radiance are streaming from the heavens. And oh, the tales of woe you hear!!!  Not from me. “I will sing the wondrous story of the Christ who died for me; how He left his home in glory for the cross of Calvary. I was lost but Jesus found me; I was bruised but Jesus healed me.”  Now that’s a song we can all sing.  Let’s put a new song in our hearts—one of thanksgiving and praise.                                                                                   In my heart there rings a melody,                                                                                                                    Linda

The master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”                                                                                                                                                                                                       Matthew 25:21 NIV

Hello Friend,

          Did you ever wake up and say to yourself, “I’m just not feeling it today”? This morning I must write and I find myself feeling lazy and not too inspired.  I’m just not feeling it today!  It is at those times I know I must kick myself in the butt and get to work.  Why?  Because God calls us to be faithful to whatever task he has called us.

          Jim and I have been watching the Olympics.  Can you imagine an announcer asking a gymnast how much she practices, and she replies, “When I feel like it.”  Your employer depends on you to do your best at all times, not just when you feel like it.  Your children expect you to be kind even when you didn’t sleep well and your aching back is causing you to feel cranky.  Grumpy, not an option.  You must be faithful with a few things to share in your master’s happiness.  Be the best that you can be. Get up! Stand tall!  Put your shoulders back!  Just go out there in the world and do it—whatever God is calling you to do—and you will be amazing!  

                                                                                                                                                                             I changed this     lol    to mean:   Loving our life! 

We get to share in the master’s happiness. Say to yourself ten times today, “I love my life!”  And soon you will “feel” it!  Linda