Sunday Thoughts

Happy Sunday! We are enjoying a bit of rest after church before we join the grands for a birthday celebration and dinner.

The pastor gave a great sermon on Mark 4:1-20. He took us through the whole soil and seed talk, as I'm sure many of you have studied in the past. I really loved how he summed it up by showing us the that when we are really following Christ, our actions will show through as we see listed in the fruits of the Spirit in Gal 5:22-23! If your soil is good and your are a real believer, the fruit will be there.  What a perfect time of the year to review these fruits. How are you following Christ? Is He shining through in your love for others? Are you joyful, even when it is hard? Are you at peace, knowing God is in control? How is your patience when waiting on a difficult situation? I love this one...are you kind to others, even if they don't deserve it? Are you generous with your money as well as your time? Are you a faithful believer and does it show? We live in a world that isn't too gentle...what can you do to bring gentleness into the lives of others? How are you doing with self control...so many areas here on this one!

So, cast the seed out there, share the good news, pray for those in your life and let God do the rest.

It's Valentine week...get out there and share some love! Have a great week filled with God's blessings. 

Sunday Thoughts

Good Sunday morning. I woke up early with a push to post and get back to my Sunday Thoughts today. So much has been going on in my personal world, my family world and certainly in our country. I am thankful today that Jim and I are both feeling so much better. I don't like to be sick.

My word for this New Year is RESTORATION. I am continuing to work on restoring my health, several relationship, hoping to restore parts of my home that have gotten out of whack and most of all, I realized that I needed some work on my relationship with God. I seriously didn't even think of that restoration when the word came to me! God works in funny ways, heh? I wasn't even tuning into that fact that I was drifting. My friend LaVonne said something to me about my anxiety and lack of discussion about any devotional time. WOW....it takes a great friend to bring that up to you. I am thankful as she was so right. It stopped me in my tracks and made me think about where I had landed in my personal journey. I have been so cooped up this winter with our weather and sickness. I decided I needed to do something...act on something! I am asking God with a humble heart to help me get back on track and back to Him.

I love the bible teachings of Beth Moore. Our church had to end it's little morning bible study and I am missing that greatly. So, I looked online and found a great study she did called  THE BASKET CASE. It all about anxiety and I was drawn to give it a try. So, I have gotten  back to my morning devotional time, back to my thankful journal and back to this little study on anxiety.

Happy Sunday...I am praying that God will bless you in a very special way today. I am asking that of Him for myself too. 

Sunday Thoughts

This is going to be my bible verse this coming week.....I had some more difficult news and will be seeing a kidney specialist next. It is so hard to stay strong and continue to hope, to be patient and to keep praying. Some days it just comes so naturally and other days, it just doesn't.
My daughter came home this weekend and we had some good talks. I forget that I am sick and that I need time to mend and time for the meds to work....in short, I all takes time. PATIENT IN AFFLICTION? I just want to be better so I continue to hope and pray. 

Sunday Thoughts

I don't think many of us can really express our feelings right now about our country. This has been a sad and disturbing week that seems very dark. I love this verse and it is helping me to get my thoughts together on this Sunday morning. I have reasons to rejoice and am so thankful I have the Lord in my life. This world is not my home and I know I am just passing through. But as I am on that journey, I know the Lord expects me to be a loving person, to do His work whenever I can, to trust Him and to know that even when this world seems so crazy, He is in control and there is a plan.
The other part of this verse that  I like is to pray without ceasing...pray WITHOUT CEASING! Not just in the morning or at church or at bible study, but all day. So, that is what I am going to work on this upcoming week.

Sunday Thoughts This Evening

I'm sitting here in my living room with a happy heart. I had such a lovely Sunday and I am thankful for that. It's so peaceful tonight...pleasant weather, quiet neighborhood, no barking dogs...just a few birds chirping as the day ends. The days are long now as we find ourselves moving towards the Summer Solstice. Thank you Lord as I end my day and say my evening prayers. Bless my friends and family as we all begin a new week. Grant us peace, a good night's sleep and the strength we may need that only you can give to us. 

Sunday Thoughts

I don't get into the angel thing too much, but I do love this verse....Hebrews 13:2. This week I had an experience at my dad's care center that made me give some more thought to this lovely bible verse.
You just never know....

Have a restful Sunday and think about this verse during the week ahead. 

Sunday Thoughts

Enjoy your Sunday...quiet thoughts this morning after a busy busy week. 

Sunday Thoughts

Good Sunday morning blogger friends. It is the season of Lent for those of us who are Christians. I love this scripture verse not only for it's reminder to do what is good, but for the promise it holds for us too.

This week, I am going to remember not to "tire of doing good". It's really not hard to do good, is it? It makes me feel happy. Focus on your many blessings and see how easy it is to do good with a thankful heart.

God has work for you this week...open your heart.

Sunday Thoughts

  This verse is from Isaiah 43:4 and what a precious reminder for the Valentine week ahead. We studied this the other day at bible study. It is so touching to me and encourages me to be feel good about who I am, to be humble, to be thankful and to extend love to those around me. Isn't it encouraging to be a PRECIOUS, HIGHLY VALUED and BELOVED child of God?  Enjoy your Sunday.

Sunday Thoughts

It's winter in Oregon and that means lots of rain. I love the gentleness of this verse.
This week I am going to let God's words pour over me and just let them soak in.

Sunday Thoughts...Prayer

A dear friend of mine gifted me with this wonderful coffee mug for Christmas. I just love it and it has caused me to think about prayer. It has been one of those seasons where my own family has needed prayer. God has been good to answer prayers for my dad. I am so thankful for all who remembered him and my family.

Praise time! Dad was cleared by the doctor on Wednesday to be able to live on his own again without the extra help from Senior Helpers. My sister and I met with the management of his retirement home on Friday. They too released my dad! He was so happy when we gave him the happy news. I have been feeling so thankful and so relieved and very blessed.

Long ago, I made a promise to myself that if I told someone I was going to pray for them, I was going to follow through. I decided with the New Year that I wanted to write down names and how I will be praying for those who need prayer.

So why do I pray? God has asked me to pray. One of my favorite verses is " Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philippians 4:6. Prayer lets me draw closer to my God, to communicate with Him~to spend time with my Lord. It gives me the opportunity to hold up my friends and their loved ones. I want to share their joy and be there to comfort them and praying for them opens the door to be able to do that. I become part of my community when I pray and that helps to be thankful for all of my many blessings.

I hope you have a good week ahead filled with blessings and opportunities to show those around you the love of Christ.

Sunday Thoughts

I was thinking of this verse this morning, remembering that Beth Moore used it during one of her visits to Portland. I have it marked in my bible and a friend made me a book mark that is still tucked in my bible.

So, what does this verse mean? I think everyone cherishes the end of the verse....we so want the desires of our heart. Does anyone know those desires more that our Lord? I know I have some desires in my heart that I have been hoping and praying for over the years. I think we all do.

But what about the first part of the verse? How do you DELIGHT yourself in the Lord? I think it means as we treasure God in our hearts and follow His commands and wishes for us, we really become closer to Him. We will WANT to follow Him and live that life that honors our Lord. That's when God becomes more real, more of a part of each and every day! That's when God will bless you and give you the desires of your heart. I know this is simply put, but do think it over. Happy Sunday.

Sunday Thoughts

Happy Sunday blogger friends. It's a very quiet autumn morning at my home today. The strong east winds have stopped blowing and shaking my house! Right now, the high clouds are just drifting by out my window as I post with a cup of coffee.

This verse is so simple, yet so powerful. We are so surrounded by sad and often "dark" news daily.It's easy to feel down or get discouraged. I love that the verse doesn't just say God is light, but reminds us that God is pure and God is pure light!

I am asking God to help me focus on His holiness and His pure light as I start a new week.

Sunday Thoughts

My very dear friend LaVonne arrived here on Thursday! She has been having some very great fun with her daughter and SIL. My daughter Gina has been has been home from Seattle for a few days for a memorial service, so it worked out very well.

I cannot wait to see LaVonne. It's been over a year since I have seen her. We are meeting this afternoon at the miniature show and I am excited.

I love this bible verse from Proverbs....A sweet friendship refreshes the soul. That is so true about our friendship. We met years ago on a Tasha Tudor yahoo group. We have traveled back east together, have met up in Montana and here in Oregon.

She will go back to her daughter's until Tuesday, but on Tuesday morning, she will be ALL MINE!

Enjoy this beautiful Fall Sunday. 

Sunday Thoughts

Good morning to you on this peaceful Sunday morning. The house is quiet and I love early mornings for my quiet time.

This has been quite a busy summer in many ways. It has also been a summer when God answered my prayer for some family healing after two years....just took it over and bam! I am a private person, so won't go into details, I am just so very thankful.

Enjoy your day of rest.

Sunday Thoughts

It's a lovely morning in Oregon today. There's a gentle breeze with lots of sunshine. As we begin a new week, I just thought this was a good verse and a good reminder. It's easy to say we LOVE, but often harder to live that LOVE out.

Enjoy your day. 

Sunday Thoughts

Sunday afternoon and I am still not feeling well! Goodness, I just hate being sick and this has lasted too long. I have absolutely no energy and have been sleeping and napping a lot! I am not a napper, so this is really kind of strange for me.
My daughter says the grandkids are ok now and back to normal. I just hope the mama doesn't come down with this.
So, I am going to try to have a JOYFUL heart the rest of today! I need some of the Lord's good medicine. I really need to get over this and get back to normal. So that is my prayer!

Sunday Thoughts

It's evening here in Troutdale....what a lovely day, a beautiful warm spring day. I hope you have had a nice day of rest.

I didn't come up with this prayer, but I am using it as my Sunday prayer. I am going to focus on these things this week. Enjoy the week. 

Sunday Thoughts

Blessings to you and yours this Sunday! I hope you are enjoying this day of rest with your loved ones.
This is our daughter and SIL's second anniversary. Happy Anniversary Angie and Chris. God has blessed you with a wonderful family. 

Sunday Thoughts

Good Sunday morning blogger friends. I trust that you had a nice Easter Sunday last week and time to reflect on it all during this past Easter week. Our family had  a very busy week  but we are all well and safe and happy. I have several friends who are dealing with health issues and difficult family issues. So many to pray for this upcoming week. I guess that why I chose this lovely photo with great verses. I especially like the last one. We get so crazy busy in the world we live in....sometime, we just NEED to BE STILL and know that God is there and He is in control.

Have a good week blogger friends. I am off to a quilt retreat soon and will be gone until Friday!  Pretty exciting with lots of projects I hope to get done! If not, what a great opportunity just to be with friends.