The Best!!!

I've been mulling over for a few days how to start this post. I had an awesome opportunity this past weekend to take a group of ladies from my church, our community and even as far away as Fort Worth to a Beth Moore-Living Proof Live conference in San Antonio, Texas. I have been to 2 other of her events like this and I have done several of her Bible Studies, so I was familiar with how wonderful a teacher she is and how powerful the Holy Spirit works through her and the worship team (led by Travis Cottrell). But, WOW!!! I just don't know how to describe this weekend's conference any better - just WOW!!! The funny thing is that the entire time Beth kept telling us what a wreck she was and how she really didn't have it together. That was so OK, because, God always has it together! This was by far THE BEST conference I have ever been to and it seemed more "together" than either of the others I've attended. The entire theme was the INHERITANCE that GOD gives to us when we become His child! What is so amazing is that just like the thread of salvation through the gospel is sewn throughout the Bible - Old Testament to New Testament - inheritance is there throughout, too!!! Christ did not just redeem us FROM the pit - to get us out of something - but to give us something - HIS INHERITANCE!!! He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and we are COHEIRS with Him!!!

Our Scriptural text for the entire weekend was Psalm 16 (A Psalm of Confidence!) verses 5 & 6: "The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; You hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed,I have a beautiful inheritance." There were so many points made and principles of truth that I wish I could share them all, but what I would like to share is what spoke to me most and hear it is. If our faith is in Christ, then we are His Heirs and we don't have to live our lives in insecurity and doubt!!! In fact, it is our responsibility to this lost world, to live our lives in this confidence as SALT and LIGHT-as His conscience in standing for Righteousness and as His Light of Hope to all who are despairing! "He holds my lot", the NIV says, "He has made my lot secure!" There is no doubt that my life and the life of every believer in Christ is set in ETERNITY and we have a purpose! God's CHOICE for our lives is that we LIVE for Him in CONFIDENCE, not in ourselves, but in the TRUTH of His Word. Sometimes our life circumstances may seem like CHANCE or FATE have dealt us a bad hand, but this is a lie from the pit of Hell. FATE has NO POWER over me! Because He has made our lot secure, and because we can CHOOSE to LIVE OUT what we BELIEVE (God's Word) rather than CHOOSING to listen to and act on the messages hurled at us from this culture we live in and from others from whom we so desperately seek approval and even from Satan himself, the father of lies, we can live our lives with CONFIDENCE and SECURITY that tells everyone who comes in contact with us that WE ARE HIS and HE IS OURS - REGARDLESS OF OUR CIRCUMSTANCES! Romans 8:28 tells us He works all things out for good for those who love Him and are called according to HIS PURPOSE! He has called us to BELIEVE HIM (not just in Him, but believe him - TRUST HIS WORD); He has called us to BE CHANGED (choose to dump the "junk" we've inherited in this life and choose to LIVE in the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT - Who is our guaranteed down payment of our inheritance); He has called us to be POWERFUL - to MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!! Whether it is a public ministry through our church, community, country, world or whether is is a more intimate ministry in our home to our spouse and/or children we are called/CHOSEN to CONFIDENTLY, DELIBERATELY,POWERFULLY LIVE OUT OUR INHERITANCE BEFORE THIS WORLD AND ALLOW CHRIST, THE LIFE-CHANGER, TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE THROUGH US FOR HIS GLORY AND FOR THE CAUSE OF HIS KINGDOM! God is at work all around us and we can either ignore Him and stay caught up in the entanglement of our daily lives and circumstances (which is what Satan would love us to do) or we can join Him!!!

This was the challenge I received! I have a BEUTIFUL INHERITANCE!!! Do I really live like I really believe it! My prayer is simple - Lord, Please never let me forget. Burn it on the tablet of my heart that I may be obedient to Your Holy Call on my life!! In Jesus' Name, AMEN!

Wesley's Birthday Party

On Tuesday, August 12th, we celebrated Wesley's 3rd birthday! I can hardly believe it! Time has flown these past 3 years. Wesley has come so far with his speech and is saying more everyday and speaking more clearly everyday, to the point that he will not have to go to speech therapy any more. We will still work with him at home though, on his word endings and some pronunciation. He is also potty training really good now, too. He is very independent and is usually a very happy camper. He is so full of personality and really is a very smart boy! He loves playing with cars and action figures and he, like his brother, Graham, really loves super heroes. He also loves to play outside. He really loves to sing and is singing more songs everyday. His favorite part of this summer by far was Bible School. Any time he sees something Hawaiian (our theme) he calls it Bible School. So cute! He is very much a Daddy's boy and he loves playing with big brother and best pal, Graham! I probably would never have planned for him, but I'm sure glad and grateful that God's plans supersede my own for my life! He has given me such a precious gift in my Wesley!!!
Here are the pics from Wesley's pizza party at the park. Enjoy!

Vacation 2008 - "Fun at the Beach"

On Friday, 7/25, of our vacation we took a trip down to the beach at Gulf Shores, Alabama. In our recent past we've always stayed a few days down there actually in Orange Beach at our family's condo, but they sold it this year. (We miss it but count it a blessing to have been able to have had that opportunity for so many years past!) On this trip we got to see and utilize the newly rebuilt Gulf State Park pavilion. It is really nice with indoor showers and bathrooms, plus a snack bar and covered picnic area. Very Nice! We had a great time as can be seen in the pictures of this slide show. Graham I think had the best time. He loved the water and the water was exceptionally nice! (Clear, no seaweed and not but a couple of jellyfish sightings) Wesley did not like the water and I wish I had remembered our pails, because last year that was his favorite way to enjoy the water - pouring the water from one pail to the other. He did enjoy playing with his trucks and ninja turtles in the sand, though. Justus and Richard played football and rode waves. I laid out in the sun and played with the boys. I also have a great video of this day that I will try to post later when I figure out how to do so. Overall we had a great day as a family! (I think I got my beach "fix" for a while anyway!)

Cool Kids!

I am so excited to be entering this photo in the "Summer Fun" photo contest at http://www.5minutesformom.com/ . This summer has been very fun for my 2 boys, Graham and Wesley, now ages 5 and 3, as they have really enjoyed cooling off from the Texas heat in their pool. Of course, no matter how HOT it gets you always have to LOOK COOL!

Vacation 2008 - Pool Fun!

One of my favorite days while we were in Mobile was Thursday, 7/24, when we went swimming at the Harvey's next door neighbor's backyard pool. It really was a relaxing, fun time and the boys had a blast! We just hung out at our leisure and played until we we were all tuckered out! We really appreciate Mrs. Ward allowing us to come use her pool. Her back yard is really beautiful and is similar (minus the pool)to the Harvey's backyard - very tropical! In fact the "skin"-border around my slideshow is one I made from a pic I made of the Harvey's backyard. Enjoy the pics and when I figure out how to download a video to my blog I'll show you a video I made of this day as well. :)

Family Vacation 2008 - "The Road Trip"

This first slide show is from our road trips on our vacation July 20 - 30, both going to Mobile and returning home to Texas. We left Hamilton about 9:00 p.m. on 7/20 bound for Beaumont, TX. We had made a reservation there at a Holiday Inn so that we didn't have to drive all night. We had hoped to leave around 7:00 p.m., but my back had gone out on me and I really struggled to get everything packed and ready. We rolled into our Holiday Inn around 3:00 a.m. and believe me when I say I remember very little about that last hour on the road that night/morning. We didn't even unpack our bags. We just got out of the van hurried in and got into the bed in our riding clothes. I was very glad that even though the boys woke up, they went right back to sleep. I thank God for His very special gifts like these!
My pics start with the next morning in the hotel room as we are about to get on the road for the next 7 hours. The boys were excited! We were also all quite well rested as we did not get up early, but slept until about 11 a.m. and got on the road between 11:45 and noon. My next pics were of a really scenic bayou called the Atchafalaya Basin. You cross it by a bridge that spans for about 20 miles. It's just east of Lafayette, Louisiana. As we crossed the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge, LA, (see pics) we were caught in a traffic jam. If you know me well, you know I don't like heights and I especially don't want to be stuck in the middle of the bridge that crosses the massive Mississippi! It didn't take too long, but we got stuck in the wrong lane and ended up going the wrong direction once we crossed it. We had to take a detour to turn around and so that's how I ended up with pics of the Louisiana State Capitol building and Governor's Mansion. The grounds there really were beautiful, although I thought the capitol bldg. was quite different -not at all like most domed capitol buildings you see. Lastly we stopped to stretch our legs among other things at the Mississippi Welcome Center just as you cross over the MS and LA state line. It's in Bay St. Louis, MS and you can actually park there and take a tour bus to NASA's Stennis Space Center located just up the road. We didn't take the tour, but the space craft in my pics is on sight there at the Welcome Center. I couldn't pass up the chance to take pictures to the shagrin of my wearied men! As Graham so "patiently" put it, "WE ARE NEVER GETTING OUT OF THIS VAN, ARE WE!" He was ready to see his grandaddy and grandmama!

I tried to get better pics of the Baton Rouge bridge over the Mississippi River on our return trip because the weather was rainy and foggy on our first crossing. Then as we got away from Mobile a little later than expected and due to traffic on I-10, we decided to stop again on our return trip to Texas. We got as far as just north of Huntsville, TX on I-45 and stopped to spend the night. We arose early, as indicative of my sunrise and fog pictures, to get back home about 10:00 a.m. Overall our roadtrips were good, just tiring and now that the boys are potty trained(ing), we make more stops than ever! Because I have been a road traveler since I was Wesley's age, I have always loved riding/driving only because my grandparents taught me to always look for the beauty on God's creation wherever I go! It is always good to get HOME, though!!!

Our Family

These pics were made by a professional photographer (Photos for a Lifetime - Eric Bussing) while we were in Mobile. We purchased the CD so we can print them ourselves. Thanks Mr. Bussing and thanks to Grandaddy Harvey for giving us this special opportunity!!!

Tropical Storm - Huh???

I cannot believe it! Being from the Alabama Gulf Coast, I am quite used to being on alert during the Hurricane season with good reason. Because our family is there I still watch the weather to see if they are ever in the path of anything coming from the Gulf. Well, here I sit "smack dab" (that's a southern term) in the middle of Texas awaiting Tropical Storm Edouard to come my way! Actually, I'm quite pleased because we are PARCHED here! Our grass in the back yard is dead! (Justus, who had to cut our yard every week last summer with all the rain we got, is quite glad not to have had to cut it since June, and then it was only the front yard.) My poor flowers have really been stressing and at this point I'm not sure my sunflower crop is going to make it. I do water, but in just a 24 hour period they look all wilted again! :(

Anyhoo, I will wait with anticipation to meet this new friend, Edouard, with open arms and a few buckets to catch rainwater to quench the thirst of my waning little garden! :)