Quiver Full

Princess for a day!

"Sharing a cup of tea is a time when we relax. Many a confidence has been shared over tea. Many a friend has been consoled. Many a triumph - minor or major, has been celebrated over a cup of tea."
12 teas of friendship.

A dear friend took me to out to lunch for my birthday.This is the first time in my life that a friend has treated me to lunch on my birthday. It was a treat. I am a girly, girl at heart and I love tea and tea parties. I got to have a tea party on my 38th birthday and I felt like a went back 30years to the little 8 year girl who love all things tea and princess! It was a pure joy!

Redemption , Forgiveness and Restoration: why is this to hard for us to live in life?

What is redemption? It is rescuing something, delivering something.We know that when we ask Christ into our life He rescues us and delivers us from our life of sin. We are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. What about those situations that happen after your a Christan, does God redeem those situations. Does he allow us to have restoration and closure? I have several situations in my life currently that I have been seeking God about.I have no doubt that God has forgiven me, I have asked for forgiveness from the parties involved(also Christians. I believe there has been forgiveness but not restoration or closure.) Do we get to have that all the time? Some of these situation have been as long as 10 years and some as short as a year. When we make a mistake in life and sin against another( as a christian),part of me wants a perfect world. I want to be able to go to that person confess my sin, get forgiveness and then relationship is restored, wiped clean. Just as Christ does for us. What I want to know is why is this so hard for us to wipe the slate clean and restore the situation- allow it to be redeemed. Why do we hang on to hurt? Why do we rehash situations and why are we disobedient to the Lord in our attitudes and actions? God has really been dealing with me on this and teaching me to always seek to walk in purity in these situations. It I want others to wipe the slate clean and be Christ to me. I need to be sowing this seed in my life. Always walking the walk of forgiveness , wiping the slate clean and restoring the situation. I need to live this with my children, my spouse, my extended family. So I have been looking through how to live this out in my life. I don't know that I always get to have full restoration and closure in every situation because I can only be responsible for my actions and response. This is the hard part but I do know that the scripture is very clear that " We do unto others as we want done to us" / I also know that we will reep what we sow. If we are sowing a critical, condenming spirit, keeping record of wrongs this is what we will sow. Okay, so the key is learning to walk in purity and removing those behaviors and actions in our life so that the harvest in our life will be pure.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving.( quote by Dale Carnegie)

1. Practice Self control always.

“If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless” (James 1:26).

2. Do not allow a critical spirit to operate in your conversation or thought life. Learn to recognize a critical spirit trying to operate out of you and quench it immediately. An unbridled tongue make our religion useless. That is to the point and specific.

“I will guard my ways, Lest I sin with my tongue; I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle, While the wicked are before me” (Psalms 39:1).

3. Remove yourself from a situation( if you have to get on your knees for hours- do it)Bridle your tongue do not allow Condemning, criticizing or complaining to come forth from it. Take it to the Lord!!! The scripture says muzzle it.

One thing I do know is that the Lord is faithful. Rest in Him and his holy Kiss of assurance in who you are and what he desires you to be.

A King for a day

Sean turned 38( 2 more years to 40) AHHHH!!!! So I asked him what he wanted for his birthday this year. He usually says, "oh nothing". He hates for me to spend any money on him or spend money period. I, on the other hand ,never mind if he spends money on me. I guess opposites do attract. So I was floored this year ,when he actually replied with a request. I guess 8 kids and 2 years from forty is about time to start asking for something for your birthday. He decided that the one thing he wanted for the whole weekend was to have no responsibility around the house and get to watch whatever he wanted on TV, eat whatever he wanted and do whatever he wanted. The girls and I thought this would be lots of fun. This was something that I could get into. It was also so fun to finally be doing something that he really wanted. We had lots of fun with it. Kylee made a bell for him out of a water bottle and rocks. He just had to shake it when he wanted something and one of his servants would come running to get him a new drink. The girls made him a crown also. It said " King for a day" .We had him make a menu, he got his favorite homemade beef and noodles and carrot cake and lots of other good stuff all weekend. I think he played more video games than he has played this last year. It was fun to see my sweetie finally taking a break from all his duties and enjoying himself( he never takes a break). Definitely worth it to see the smile on his face!!!!! He was a king for sure. He is king Father and Husband in our hearts already every other day of the year. He just doesn't know that all the time. Its nice to remind him and let him know how much we love him.

Finding Him even in Open Heart Surgery

So Fastina needed to have open heart surgery for the third time. This was a shock to us a few months ago when the doctor sat in the office and told us that this was going to have to happen. We had really been believing that God was going to heal her and make it so she didn't need to have it. So we geared up over the next 8 weeks getting ready for surgery and yesterday March 1st, 2011 our daughter off to the operating room. My husband and I sat in the waiting room for twelve hours, sick to our stomachs and waiting. The surgery ended up being 12 hours. As my husband and I waited for the doctor to come and talk with us we worked on this video of pictures. Fastina has been our daughter for the last 4and 1/2 years. She is a very amazing child. She has a heart of Gold. She has the most gentle, sweet, spirit. She is a go getter and is very determined in all that she does. She loves life, loves to laugh! She can be quite a ham when she wants too. We love her and feel that God gave us a golden nugget. Enjoy this video of her.

HEART SURGERY

Fastina getting ready to be wheeled away to surgery room. All smiles as dad was teasing her about blackmailing her on facebook

This is Fastina after surgery. She gave us a scare. Things got rough for about 8 hours after surgery. She was bleeding pretty bad and they had to slow down. The doctors and nurses worked all night on her to stablize her.

This is Fastina after getting the tube out, she is just waking up. They had her heavily sedated to keep her stable.

One of the workers here at the hospital came in the morning after a very long night of watching the doctor and nurses work. I was sitting on the couch and didn't know what to pray to God. I was sitting there and praying one sentence. " God send your angels to work on her" " Surround this room". I knew this worker at the hospital and was happy to see her and get caught up. We hadn't seen each other for years. So we caught up on all the history and then before she goes to leave she says that she wants to write something down on the window to encourage me. She writes this scripture "He will Command the angels concerning you" it was from Psalms. I about fell over when I looked up to see what she was writing. God had come down and just like in the old testament "wrote on the wall", he used this hand of the worker here at OSF but he spoke to me specifically and to the point. My one sentence prayer was God send your angels to work on her and his answer, "I will command them concerning you." I know that they came to the room because within 3 hours she had the tube out and several more drips off.
Through all of this believe it our not God sees us!!!!! As my friend and this worker at the hospital said. "I just want people to know that God sees them." She didn't realize that she was the hand of God to me, reminding me that God is present, alive, real and he knows you, sees you, and will answer you when you call out to him.
I was doing my daily reading today in scripture and this passage was part of it. A great reminder. "God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So I will not fear, even if earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge! Psalms 46:1-3. When God touches me with a scripture and I know that he is speaking to my heart I like to pray it back to him. So this is my prayer back to my sweet Heavenly Father ,today." Lord, You are my refuge, You are my strength. I will go to You and rest. I feel myself curling up inside the cleft of Your presence. Your word says that I can find my place in the cleft of the Rock and You are my rock and my fortress as the stresses and things of my life lately storm around me. It feels like earthquakes, and the my mountains are crumbling. You now that,Father ,that there have been so many things the last six weeks from my brother, my neices and nephew, my sweet Viv and Fastina that have made me distraught and lost. The earth trembling beneath my feet and the mountains crumbling describe well what I was feeling in my heart. Thank you my sweet Jesus for reminding me that I need to curl up inside of You! When I am in the cleft of the Rock I can know that I am unbreakable because You are the rock and fortress that I have found my refuge in. As the waves, storms, earthquakes try to bring fear to me they can't- Let them foam and rage and quake and tremble. I Will not Fear!!!! I will not fear. You will intervene and heal my brothers heart, You will heal Fastina through this surgery, You will restore Vivianna's Joy, Sid, Jason and Dani will be Yours, someday. In your presence, I can find Joy, protection and a fortress that is sacred and unbreakable!!! Thank you , Lord. Thank you Lord!