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

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 ...

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 min...

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 th...

 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 dark...

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 ...

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 thou...