Khloe Facts ~

These are the things I can say for certain.....

so far......

We start every morning in the big red chair watching Sesame Street

She loves her socks......

Loves to take them off that is :-)

They eventually end up in her mouth 

(we will have to stop that as they won't be quite as pleasant down the road)

Blanket or Burp diaper....she loves them on her face.....

...where it stays for a few seconds, then she quickly pulls it away...

Peak a boo with herself!

Her favorite show, Olivia....

I think I'm starting to look forward to the next episode ???

These are little Khloe facts that echo from my heart....most everyday :-)

How to Grow Faith ~

I have recently read in a few books the importance of growing our faith daily.

A practice of trusting Him during the good times, while the waters are smooth.

In doing so we become so familiar with trusting Him that when the waters get rough

it is then we are able to ride the waves with the faith that,

God is in control.

The Lord knows about every situation we may be in,

from every angle,
and
every thing we have experienced past present and future.

Romans 11:33-36

33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord,

or who has been his counselor?”

35 “Or who has given a gift to him

that he might be repaid?”

36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Even when it makes no sense to us,

we can have peace in the midst of "it"
that

God has everything in His control.

John 14:27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.

I do not give to you as the world gives.

Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Yes, we grow in our faith by pursuing the Lord.

Reading His Word in order to really get to know Him,

spending more time in prayer.

It is in doing so that our trust in Him will grow.

Faith can be difficult ,

sometimes non existent,

if you wait for that bad situation to practice it.

Don't wait for the fire to practice the drill !

This is what echos from my heart today  ....

Would You be Friends With Her ?

My little Khloe lay before the mirrored wardrobe doors in my office and was quite happy to meet herself!

She lay here for a good 40 minutes enjoying her time with,

herself!

 It brought this thought to mind,

....would I be friends with me, would I like that person staring back at me?

What might I want to change?

I think what I would like best is,

she is real and she is honest.

What wouldn't I like?

Hmmm...

That is tougher to answer admit to. 

Though I'm getting much better,

I often react rather than taking it in and giving it a few moments thought.
I'm trying to hold it in more often...

I'm trying, to not have an opinion on everything.
At least an out loud opinion...

This one is hard for me.

I believe and struggle with, everyone has a right to an opinion.

It's True.

It doesn't mean I have to share it!!

I try to not give an opinion unless asked.

Though I admit,
I need some gobbs of help in this area 

when it comes to my hubby...

I confess, it's hard.....

I have actually given the warning to some,

if you don't want my opinion please don't ask for it.

Cuz here's the deal, 

If you ask an honest person you will get an honest answer......

not everyone is good with hearing an opinion about themselves

let alone, the truth :-)

For me,

my best friends and those that love me
are the ones that tell me the truth.

They tell me what I need to hear 

not what I want to hear!

So my original thought has hung on for a few days now.

What would I want to change about me?

I'm going to continue to think on that.

I often pray that God will reveal those areas

where I need work .

 Beware,

if you pray it,

He will reveal it

and that 

 requires some action :-)

~

this is what echos from my heart today........

How Do You Pray?

 So, I'm talking a class one evening a week at my church entitled,

Communion with God: An Introduction to Prayer.

We have only met once and it was pretty much an introduction of what the outline of this class would cover.

On thing really stood out to me in the outline.

It was this;

We don't often talk about how we talk to others.

We talk to them.

We talk about them.

People in general often have doubtful thoughts about prayer.

Am I doing it right?

Am I using the correct words?

What can I tell Him?

Will he hear me?

Is it wrong to ask God to help me lose 5 more pounds :-) ?

I don't have a lot of prayer knowledge,

its why I'm taking the class.

However I do pray, always have, and I was one who really didn't spend much time wondering if I was doing it "right".

When I pray, I talk to God in the same manner I would talk to you. 

I don't use fancy words, it's never scripted.
For example I do not say tho, thy, shall I, or shall we

and 

I don't add ' eths ' at the end of my words.

Cometh, giveth, doeth, goeth !

I talk to God as my forever friend, my forever companion. 

He accepts me as I am, with the form of language I speak....

He's knows I don't use "Bible speak".

So, there is no need to change how I speak when I speak with Him.

Yes, He hears every word

He knows what I ask before I ask it!

So why ask?

If He's my friend, my companion, my Heavenly Father

then

why wouldn't I talk to him?

 My husband knows I love him,

he still wants to hear it.....

It tells him our relationship matters to me.

~

Looking forward to digging deeper into what is and isn't important 

when it comes to praying..what I can do to improve it.

By the way, yes, I can ask Him to help me lose those 5 more pounds !

This is what echos from my heart today...................

The Little Things, are They Really Big? ~

My sweet friend Jane posted this on her Facebook yesterday...

~

           The radio DJ said today, "Someday we will realize that the little things in life were really the big things." WOW.

Need less to say this got me thinking.

What a true statement....I do believe that my "someday" has arrived!  

Though Khloe is my 6th Grandchild, she is the only one that lives close enough ( a block away) for me to see her most any day.  Since I now watch her full time I get to see her cute little face early every morning.  If lucky, I'm  asked to watch her at some point over the weekend, even if for a short time.

Yes, this " little thing " really is the " big thing ".  

 

Baking with Julia and Aubrie...a little thing, yet a big thing to me. Seeing the eagerness to learn, the pride in the doing, the satisfaction on their little faces when they see and taste the finished product!

I wonder, what other little things are really big things in disguise???

So much time wasted on the unimportant aspects of life.

My love for my family and friends, never more important to me.

Content.......

Often we find the big things really aren't so fulfilling...

Oh, but these grand children, they truly are the big things!

I'm thinking we best take another look at those " little " things,what a shame to realize at a later time what's really important now :-) 

this is what echos from my heart today!

Fear and Ornaments ?

Fearful

 ~

So many are requesting prayers.

Prayers for sick child, for results of the next test to be good.

Fear of regret should a loved one die.

Concern over a daughter's continual bad choices..

A Grandmother who's ex- daughter in law is withholding her grandchildren from her, 

who fears for the children's safety.....

Someone fearful because of job loss.

Someone's marriage on the brink.

It's not by chance my last few days of reading in my favorite daily read "Jesus Calling" have been like this.....

I like the promise that the more we  practice putting our trust in Him, the easier it will be to 

trust Him in our worst of times...

God wants us to put him first.

Oranaments

~

In Exodus the Israelites rather than waiting on God and worshiping God, 

chose to take off their ornaments, rings and jewelry to make a golden calf to worship.

Those ornaments represent anything we are putting before God.

What is your golden calf?

Job, money, television, sports, clothes, Facebook???

God wants us to put him before all of it.

When we ask, "God why is this happening to me"?

Understand this, God doesn't make the "bad" things happen.....

but....

He will surely use those things in order to get us to remove those ornaments.

He wants us to be in his presence and those ornaments can prevent that.

Personally I have found myself grabbing my coffee and going straight to my

e-mail and or Facebook.

I was much closer to hearing His direction for my life, His comforting ways, 

when I grabbed my coffee and spent time reading His Word.

Possibly we need to re-adjust our schedules, I know I do..........

Remove our ornaments and first get face to face with God.

In His presence.

I read that the word presence in Hebrew is paniym, which

means "face".

As if God wanted us to know we can be face to face with Him,

in His presence!

Practice.

Daily spending time in His presence.

Daily trusting Him "in our quiet days" and we will

be prepaired to trust Him on those days that are tough to 

let go and trust....

Happy to be praying for those who have asked!

Remove the ornaments and pick up the Word.

this is what echos form my heart today....

Happy New Year !

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I have so missed being in contact with my
fellow bloggers.
I was in constant motion it seems during the month of December,
always trying to keep myself in check and not let the stress that often finds it's way into the season in.
I do believe I was successful!

I hope the Christmas season was wonderful for you and yours!
Looking forward to a new year of blogging along with each of you.
Today all I have are some of the photos of joyful moments I experienced while I was away :-)

These first ones are in the form of Shutterfly as I for some reason was unable to get them on here any other way.  Ah...computers.....

They are of Julia and Aubrie our oldest Grands when they spent a couple days with us.  Treasure each moment we have with them!

Click here to view these pictures larger

Sister Deanna and my Great niece Ruby Lu ....

Above is Ruby Lu, below our littlest one Khloe.....

Grandpa showing off his roses to Khloe...


 

Below ~ Khloe in her Christmas Eve tutu with her parents....

Christmas day with Uncle Brian

We enjoyed meals, we had many laughs, made some new memories
 and
 we opened some gifts......

Knowing full well that, 

He
is the gift.

~

This is what echos from my heart today........