Laurel Wreath’s Reflections

Guess where I am going?

Yep you got it, I am heading north… cooler weather, quiet, deer, loons, and lots of fish to be caught, kissed and thrown back in.

Technically you are suppose to kiss the fish before you throw it back in, but in this picture that is the closest we got (thankyouverymuch)!

Our family drives to Minnesota from Florida. Stay one night in Tennessee and one night in Madison, WI. And don’t anybody get any ideas of my house (unless you want to buy it)…I have mentioned before we have a guard, bald biker man that lives and monitors the neighborhood in the front yard (seriously, folks). Hmmm…maybe that is why my house has not sold =)

Anyways I have already talked the smack of how I am going to outfish all the stinky boys. I don’t know what it is with my middle son, fish line up and beg to be caught on his hook. He has the “touch” I guess…but not this year buddy, oh no. They are all going to get outfished by a GIRL! Actually they did last year, Grandma beat them all (ha.)

I will be checking in from time to time, even though I will be in a water access only cabin, enjoying God’s great outdoors we still have Internet (priorities people comeon =)).

Signing off for awhile, if I don’t visit or comment you will know why.

I will be reading, reading, reading…fishing, fishing, fishing and eating, eating, eating. And spending time with God enjoying his beauty.

1. I am thankful Wednesday is over, it was a rough day.
2. I am thankful that we are leaving for vacation on Friday.
3. I am thankful for friends that make me laugh when I am stressed, and friends who let me vent to get my frustrations of life out.
4. I am thankful for my sweet bed that I can climb into each night, and know when I wake up it is a new morning and His mercies are new every morning.

Update: PS if you could my youngest son is taking a very important reading test today, if you could say a small prayers I would GREATLY appreciate. This is one worried Momma here today.

If you get a chance come visit me over at Laced With Grace, it is a short devotional this week =)

1. Laurel Wreath - She’s just so much fun to check up on every day! She has such a great
heart and am constantly encouraged by her! She has such great insight into the
Bible and I love her perspective.

I can already tell this is going to be a good day.

One little person on my left shoulder says I should not say anything, then not many will sign up, and then the possiblities of winning this awesome (I so want purse). And then I would be selfish and greedy and blow any testimony I have.

The other one wants to scream…IRIS IS GIVING AWAY AN AWESOME PURSE!!! EVERYONE RUN, DO NOT WALK over to Sting My Heart. Right now, I am serious! And you don’t have to do one stinkin thing to win it except add your name. How cool is that.

So as I was saying….. do you see my dilemma here? (time to get my tongue out of my cheek)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrGfA6y9fNI]

Enjoy be blessed….

I believe one of the biggest blessings God gives us are parents or loved ones who pray for us. I had a Grandmother who prayed for my future mate long before I could walk. When I became a teen I was what you called a little “boy crazy.” I liked to hang out with boys, in fact most of my friends were boys. That did back fire on me because they thought of me more as a friend, than a girl they wanted to date. So I was over the moon when I was asked out on dates, some boys I liked, some boys I just went out because it was something fun to do. I lived my life carefree.

There were some boys who really broke my heart, and there were some who liked me, but I did not feel the same way. I was having fun, even into my college days. One thing I did not realize at the time is that I really struggled with self image. So when I was able to turn the head of a boy I was thrilled, I did not realize it at the time but this is how I found my worth. Now mind you I had wonderful, loving parents who always told me I was beautiful, but for some reason it did not sink into this thick skull. As long as I had a boy telling me I was beautiful, life was great. If not, well you would not want to be around me.

By the grace of God I did end up marrying a man who even to this day calls me “Beautiful.” It was not until our marriage was struggling and I did not have that constant affirmation for awhile, that the Lord began to break away my wall of insecurity. He emotionally took everything away, my family lived in another state, my husband and I were struggling, and I did not have anyone to lift me up; to make me feel better.

It was at this time I realized I was not listening to God during the last 10 years of my life, I was only playing church. I called “Lord, Lord” but I did not truly give him my life. I said all the right words, went to church, and lived the Christian life, but I found I did it all in vain.

It was not until the Lord shattered me to pieces through difficulties in my marriage and through financial struggles. It was at this time I began my earnest prayer life, which began something like “HELP.” I clung to God as if I were in the middle of an ocean clinging to a boat. He became my life and salvation. And even to this day when I begin to wander the Lord just has to bring those feeling back to me and I coming running, that was a time I never want to repeat. But before these struggles I did not have the awareness of my need for Him, I did not realize how much my soul yearned for him.

This is why I think the prayers of parents, grandparents or loved ones are so important. Because while I was growing up I did not realize the deep need I had for Christ, I lived the life, but I did not live His way. Today I would rather go without food or water, then to be without the presence of the Lord. I wake up in the morning and He is my first thought, and when I lie down.

It is not until we are aware of our great need, and how we are nothing without Him, do we then begin to deeply pray and seek Him.

If your playing ‘In “Other” Words’, please leave your URL with the other participants. And if you’re not playing, you’re welcome to join. All you have to do is write a post about the quote on your blog and come back here to add your name along with the rest. You can get the CWO icon here.

If I were a race car, I would be entering the Indianapolis or Daytona 500

If I were a baseball player I would be batting 500

If I were clothing I would be Levi’s 500

If I were a car I would be a Fiat 500

If I were a geek then I would know that the number 500 is called a Harshad number (meaning it is an integer that is divisible by the sum of its digits in a given number base).

But I am only a blogger….WHO HAS WRITTEN 500 POSTS.

Who would have thought I would have so much to say (Ok hush relatives out there, I see you rolling your eyes KNOWING that I at least have another 5000 more in me!).

Just wanted to share this milestone with you, thanks for being such awesome readers to this girls ramblings.

Have a great day and remeber I am hosting In “Other” Words tomorrow.

I saw over at SusiePie that you can get the rating of your blog, well what the heck….I typed in my ulr and I got…

-

WHAT I thought, why would I be PG.….guess what they said.

I am PG because of the word…are you ready for this…

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

* missionary

Because somewhere on my blog I talk about missionaries I get a PG rating. Well then I am proud of my PG rating.

Pray for those Missionaries, especially in Gaza. Our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who live in Gaza have been heavy on my mind. Pray for them.

This is an article my Dad sent me, oh my goodness all you would have to do is change the boys names AND THIS IS MY FAMILY!!!

You can find the article here.

Advice to a Mother Expecting a Third Boy
By Mona Charen
Friday, June 22, 2007Sitting in a salon chair getting a haircut last week, I struck up a conversation with a woman who told me, somewhat ruefully, that the baby she was expecting would be her third boy. She’s a lucky woman.

Oh, without question they will run her ragged when they’re very young. My brother used to say that our household needed the logistics support of the 82nd Airborne. This would have been true even if one of mine had not been hyperactive (but boy, was he). Hard to tell now that he’s a relatively sedate 15-year-old, but Jon as a youngster was like a pinball — only less well-controlled. Having lived it, I can spot a hyperactive kid at 500 paces, and can only roll my eyes at those skeptics who believe ADHD is a myth.

Jon also had a variety of developmental difficulties, some of which contributed to a terrible bike accident when he was 10. He rode his bike out of our driveway into the street (without checking for traffic) and crashed straight into a passing car. Thank God we had a strict helmet rule. His head was hit by the car’s side view mirror, and we found him unconscious in the street. Three days later, he emerged from a coma and slowly began to regain the capacity for speech and movement. A month later he was dashing up and down the stairs.

Dashing? No, flying! I once came upon Jon at the top of the stairs seated on a toboggan. He had the ropes in his hands and was ready to go — probably planning to take his little brothers on the second ride. He couldn’t understand my intransigence.

Jon’s brothers are far more inclined to verbal gymnastics. When David (13) is provoked by Ben (11), he puts on his best mock English accent and declares, “Sir, if you do not cease, I shall be forced to challenge you to a bout of fisticuffs.” They do sometimes get into physical tussles (though far less than in the past), but they now have a sense of humor about themselves. Recently, they were wrestling in the family room, and I called out for David to do something (probably practice one of his instruments). Ben called out, “I’m sorry, David is being pummeled right now. Please leave a message after the beep. BEEP!” Ben has also been known to put on a false whining tone and say, “Mom, David’s face hit my hand. Can you punish him?”

Girls are different. They seem inherently more organized, less sloppy and certainly less rambunctious. You can, I’ve heard, take a girl shopping. And I’m not certain about this, but I suspect that table manners come more naturally to them. I have repeated instructions about napkins in laps, elbows off the table and not talking while chewing so many times that I’ve sometimes mangled it. The boys were infinitely amused when I declared in stentorian tones, “No chewing with your mouth full!”

They say girls can be very picky about food, but I don’t think they have anything on David there. He’s better now, but for years he regarded any new food — strawberries, bread pudding and cherries included — as lurking poison. When he was about 9, we were out for a day trip and searching for a lunch spot. We pulled into the parking lot of a fairly promising-looking restaurant. David looked terribly dubious. We tried to reassure him, but he narrowed his eyes. “What if all they have is slushy bean casserole surprise?” His father didn’t skip a beat. “Then we’ll eat it and drive home with the windows open.”

Boys and boyishness were out of fashion for a couple of decades, but that is changing. “The Dangerous Book for Boys” — a celebration of all things mechanical, natural and adventurous — is flying off the shelves. (I reviewed it in the last issue of National Review.) And as my little balls of energy have matured into rangy adolescents with deepening voices and facial hair, who play the trumpet and the bass clarinet, who can do a knife dive into the pool, who amuse each other and their father, and who continue to surprise and delight their mother, I must say, I don’t really like to shop anyway.

Mona Charen is a syndicated columnist, political analyst and author of Do-Gooders: How Liberals Hurt Those They Claim to Help .

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The quote for Tuesday the 26th is:

“When there is little awareness of real need there is little real prayer.”

by Donald S. Whitney

Spiritual Disciplines For the Christian Life

(which is a book I am reading right now and highly recommend.)

If your playing ‘In “Other” Words’ next week, please come back Tuesday and leave your URL with the other participants. And if you’re not playing, you’re welcome to join. All you have to do is write a post about the quote on TUESDAY on your blog and come back here to add your name along with the rest. You can get the CWO icon here.

Thank God it is Friday at Internet Cafe.

I am over here today, click on the picture to head on over there.