Biting the Blogging Bullet...Welcome to my Blogdom!

Back in November of 2012, I was getting ready to go on my very first mission trip.  I knew in my heart I wasn't ready, I just didn't know why.  I took one Thursday and just prayed and read my Bible.  The lesson He taught me over the next few days is one that I revisit often.  Evidently it's one I'm constantly needing to re-learn.  :) That morning I took a seat in Huddle House.  One I didn't normally sit in.  The one closest to the front door with my back to the door.  (Big no no for me.  My normal spot is near the back door, in a corner, back against the wall so I can see everyone who comes and goes.)  I figured this would be the seat of least distraction, since I really couldn't see ANYTHING!  While adding milk and sugar to my cup of coffee, I opened my Bible randomly and petitioned God to please show me what I needed to do to get myself ready for this trip!  He gave me several verses over several days, but the first one was Isaiah 40:3.   "A voice of

Let me just say, I've had an amazing Christmas. We are so very blessed! I can't even begin to say how wonderful God has been to us this year, I can't even count all of my blessings. They are too numerous to tell.  Yet, now that I have stopped, now that the festivities are over, my heart is heavy. Maybe it's because this time of year always brings a sort of melancholy along with it. Maybe it's because my family is so far away. Maybe it's because I'm missing my friend (wh o has gone on to be with the Lord) terribly today. Maybe it's because time is passing, kids are growing up, I'm getting older, life is different...there are a thousand maybes.  Whatever the reason(s), I was randomly looking through my photos from this year, and this one caught my eye. I've loved it since I took it. For some reason, it spoke to me. As it does now.  God, with his still, small voice, whispered into my soul to stop. To take it all in.  "What do you se

Last night our pastor taught on Matters of the Heart.  He preached from Nehemiah 1, and how Nehemiah had a passion for Jerusalem.  So much so that he cried when he learned of Jerusalem's devastation.  He couldn't rest until he, himself, was able to rally folks together and rebuild his beloved city. As Pastor Jerry  taught on this, he asked us three questions. 1.  What is your passion? 2.  What are you doing about it? 3.  Have you repented for not doing it? I had to sit there and ask myself, what IS my passion?  I honestly didn't know.  He broke those three questions down, and focused on question 2.  Here are my notes. 2.  What are you doing about it? *What I am passionate about: -I am willing to change. -I will work to improve. -Will bring me to a place that people will question me about it. -I will share about it. -I will pursue. Now, I have several talents that God has blessed me with.  Talents that I use to bless others, and it in turn blesses me.  Ta

Have you ever been on a long, familiar journey, knowing there is more than one way to get home? I have. My trip to SC to see my family is exactly like that. There are about a dozen ways I can go. I usually go up one way and back another, just to keep the trip interesting. However, sometimes I'm undecided as to which back road I'm going to choose until I get right there at it. I have even had times where I was undecided until the very last second, and didn't make the decision until I was almost past the literal fork in the road. Life is like that. God gives us so many choices about our lives. Sometimes His direction is very clear, and sometimes it's just a still small voice whispering deep in your heart. This past year God has been changing things in me and for me. I've felt for a while that I needed to give up photography. I almost walked away at the beginning of the year, but I just couldn't. My business picked up, and I was feeling much better abo

Natalie, my 7 year old princess, had packed a few shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child at church last week.  Sunday night, after we left church, she reminded me that she wanted to pack one for a little girl.  So, I went around the block, came back to the front door, and let her run in and grab a box.  The box landed in the floor board of the back seat, and there it remained.  We mentioned it several times, but I had no clue when it was due.  I figured we had at least a week or so…Right? Wednesday (tonight) rolls around.  As we are standing around fellowshipping after church (as good Pentecostals do), she worriedly tells me they are due TONIGHT!  AHHHHH!  Yep.  You guessed it.  I had bought nothing.  Not one thing.  I quickly prayed for a miracle and we headed to the Dollar store!  Thank you, LORD, for letting Dollar General stay open until 10pm.  It was 9:30ish when we left the church!   Now, in my mind I had all these grand plans for this little box.  I wanted everything to

I started singing at a very early age.  I probably started singing before I could talk.  My family could tell you if that were true or not.  Music is my language.  I can’t play an instrument, though I have tried.  But, I can sing.  Well, I make an attempt.  J   I can’t remember the words half the time, but I can remember the notes.  I even think in songs.  My daughter says I have a song for everything, hahaha.  It’s true.  The first time I sang in church, I was about 2 or 3.  I LOVED being onstage, belting out my song for all (maybe 20 people) to clap and tell me how good I did.  I loved the attention, but I really just loved to sing.  When I was in Elementary school, I had an amazing choir director at our church.  He saw something in me, and tried his best to foster and encourage that love of singing.  He gave me a solo in a little church program, and I sang the entire song.  I didn’t have the best voice, but I was full of emotion!  It felt great, and I really felt like I had don

 So, I ran down to my local hardware store to pick up a gallon of this amazing paint color I dreamed up in my head.  The inspiration was a way-too-expensive wallpaper I found on the internet.  A dark olive with brownish undertones.  It was going to be perfect on the wall behind my fireplace (which was the only remaining blue wall in my "Coastal Fog" colored living room...that had thus taken me three years to paint.  I average a wall per year.)  Anyhoo, I excitedly walked into the store and headed for the paint chips!  But, alas!  How could it be?  There was NO SUCH COLOR!  What was I going to do?  Obviously, I was going to do what I usually do in the first place...look for the oops paint. I love oops paint!  That mis-mixed mecca of paint paradise is where I normally go when I'm looking for some makeup for my walls.  Once in a great while I'll take it like it is.  Usually I have a little pigment added to make it darker, richer, or a completely different color.  I hav

Hey y'all!  I'm sorry I'm so sporadic with my posts.  Life is busy, as I'm sure you all know.  Anyway, while I've been absent, I had the amazing opportunity to catch up with my friend Dana Ellis!  She is a talented photographer, and God uses her to do some truly magnificent things.  One of the ministries she has been working on has been to share Transformation Reports about "women whose lives have been radically changed by God." (Dana Ellis)  I am so humbled and privileged that she would allow me to share part of my story with her, and thus share it with you!  When I was young, I used to pray for a testimony.  Well, God answered that prayer...and then some!  He gave it. It's my responsibility to share it!  May you all be blessed!  Oh, and shout out to Dana for those amazing photographs!  I felt so pretty!!!  :D Click the link below to redirect to her blog and read my testimony.  While you're there, stick around and check out her amazing talents a

Now, don't get me wrong.  I LOVE a dollar store.  I buy about 80% of everything I use on a regular basis (groceries included) from the dollar store.  Our little town has three of them!  It is THE place to go for most of what I want.  From laundry supplies, to batteries, food for us, the cats, the birds, and the fish, soaps to clean everything in the house (including us), toys to occupy everyone, things to make us pretty, the house pretty, the yard pretty...you get the idea.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the dollar store!  However...sometimes you need a little more. I was walking through the house one morning, thinking about pouring myself a cup of coffee.  Minding my own little business.  Mentally planning what I was going to do that day.  Out of the blue, God ripped right through my thoughts, and in a quiet little whisper said, "Quit living a dollar store life."  Now, I have to admit, I was completely taken aback!  I never really thought about living a "dollar store life&qu

I have written notes in my Bible since I was a teenager.  It started out innocently enough.  I would highlight or underline a passage that spoke to me.  Then, it became a spot to jot down sermon notes when I forgot my notebook.  Every once in a while I would doodle a little something in the corner so that page would stand out when I was flipping through.  Sometimes I would scribble a little reminder of what God had specifically spoke into my heart while reading a particular passage.  My old Bible is paper thin and falling apart, but I so love reading the notes and promises from years ago.  Many of those pastors whose messages so inspired me are long gone, but their insight into God's word lives on. Fast Forward to now!  Today!  This afternoon my niece left me a note on my fb page stating that I simply MUST check out the Journaling Bible Community on FB!  Oh, my goodness!  It makes my little notes look like chicken scratch.  These amazingly creative folks have made Bible journalin

Loneliness is not my friend. It never bothers with me when I am at home. It waits until I'm in a room full of people, sneaks up on me when I am least suspecting (and most vulnerable), and smacks me in the face...sometimes with enough force to bring tears to my eyes. In all of five seconds I go from shock, to embarrassment, to confusion, and then the realization that fight as I may, I'm only going to be capable of holding those tears back for a few more seconds. In acceptance, I race to do whatever needs to be done to hurriedly retreat into the darkness. Only there can the tears fall unseen and unknown to anyone but God. I'm not a big crier. I hate no one's tears but my own. I'm so thankful I have a God who not only sees my tears, but collects them. Those tears I loathe with a passion, God records them and cries with me. Loneliness may attack, but God comforts.   Loneliness cannot win! I love how David puts it in Psalm 56:8-11 NIV [with a little paraphrase from me.]

I'm an off the cuff kinda gal.  I'm pretty good at going with the flow.  I usually don't know, from one day to the next, what life is going to throw at me.  Being flexible is definitely a gift! However, sometimes I really do need a plan.  When I have a photography job, it's important to at least have a date and time written down so I don't forget.  If I'm going to Disney to see Emily, I need know when I'm going so she can schedule her days off.  If I'm going out of town, a definite place to stay is rather important, lol.  But, what about a LIFE plan?  How important is that? I'll be honest.  Having a long term plan for my life went out the window years ago.  I never planned to have cancer.  Nor did I plan to get divorced...or remarried...or divorced again.  I didn't plan to have my third child at the age of 36.  I didn't plan to raise her alone.  I didn't plan soooo many things about my life.  Nonetheless, I'm thankful for every one