Friday, January 4, 2013

Happy New Year, We Begin Again !

Christmas was awesome this year.
It began with a Christmas brunch at my home with my sisters and their families.

Ms. Khloe



My Niece Amanda and my Daughter in law Katie


Katie, my sister Dona and her daughter my niece Summer.


Sister Deanna, Great Niece Ruby Lu, my oldest son Mike.


~
Then Christmas Eve with my immediate  family ...





















As she realized it was a Mickey Mouse chair :-)







Khloe with her Daddy Mike...

Son Brian and his girlfriend Brittney...




Eats!


Love the sight of their stockings....

~

Christmas Day at Mike and Kaite's house....



Uncle Brian and Khloe







Katie opens gift Khloe and I made her :-) Mistletoes !





Khloe with Gramma Cindie, testing the new chair :-)



Lots!




~


Christmas with our oldest Grand daughters,
Julia and Aubrie was a three day trip to downtown San Diego.


Our Hotel ~







Proud Grandpa





Amused by the, pull the chain flush toilet :-)










Our hot chocolate spot!















Went to see a play, Festival of Christmas.









Yep, we did a little shopping...


















Jenga in the hotel room.



Julia, Gramma and Aubrie...

Out for our "fancy" dinner :-)



I may have let her jump on the hotel bed....



Grandpa and Aubrie :-)

Family traditions...


Brownies....more tradition.



A photo favorite, Bob shot a photo of the girls and I having lunch.
So blessed I am......

So we now begin again, a New Year.

My goal is to live more fully.
Do all I do more fully.
Each day a precious one,
enough so,
we should live each as if it were our last.

My thoughts of those fighting for their lives.
My thoughts for those fighting for our lives.

Though I don't know what this New Year will bring,
our God in Heaven does.

From my favorite daily read, Jesus Calling, by Sarah Young (highly recommended)

COME TO ME with a teachable spirit, eager to be changed.  A close walk with Me is a life of continual newness.  Do not cling to old ways as you step into a new year.  Instead, seek My Face with an open mind, knowing that your journey with Me involves being transformed by the renewing of your mind.  As you focus your thoughts on Me, be aware that I am fully attentive to you.  I see you with a steady eye, because My attention span is infinite.  I know and understand you completely;
My thoughts embrace you in everlasting Love.  I also know the plans I have for you: plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give your hope and a future.  Give yourself full to this adventure of increasing attentiveness to My Presence.

My friends,
just know you are never alone.

Peace and happiness to each of you in this new year!
It's what echos from my heart today.......

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Sorry,
MIA again....longer story than this Mrs. Claus has time for today :-)

First things first.....some recent stink'in cute photos of our Grand daughters so far this Christmas season!




 Julia our oldest with the green ribbon, in the Nutcracker..

Sweet Aubrie in the peach ribbon ...

Julia far left, Aubrie second one in...





Loves her HO HO HO hat.....

Watching our Christmas Cookies bake .


She loves the snow globes!
Sweet Beans and I :-)

Mr. Claus has no comment...he's a very busy man this time of year :-)


I hope you are all well and enjoying this Christmas season surrounded by those you love.  Almost done wrapping gifts and looking forward to this time with all those I love.  Hubby will be off the week after Christmas and we will have our two oldest, Julia and Aubrie here for a few days!! So excited about having one on one time with them.....I see manicures in our future.

Wishing you and yours a blessed Christmas and a Healthy Happy New Year!

Love,

debi
Hope to be sharing more of what echos in my heart very soon!!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Before You is a Choice ~

If you were to die tonight are you assured of your eternity, 
where you will spend it?


So many of us maintain respectable morals and values, 
we are good people, we do good things for others.
Is it enough?
The Bible tells us it's not.
~
Happy doing our own thing.
Money and relationships are both in check.
Successful, got all the stuff, house, car, pool,
travel, friends, family, done deal.......
but where will you spend eternity.

or

Happiness, depends on the day.
Relationships are on and off, always worried about money.
Hoping the car has no problems, how will I feed the kids?
Barely hanging on,
relationship ends.....how will I survive?
Will I always be alone?
Why is this happening to me?
When will it ever get better?
Where will you spend eternity?

Christianity, not a religion of do's and don'ts.
Rather a relationship with someone bigger than I.

Christian's often given a bad rap due to those radical's
behaving and judging in a manner that is so NOT Christian.
Christian's, we mess up daily. 
Some are hypocrites, liars, even self righteous people.
Not perfect by any means, but we should be striving to be better,
more like Him. 
It's why we need Him, because we do fail in some way daily.



I found myself wanting that piece of the puzzle that would fill me up,
secure in this life, promised an eternal life
when I leave this world... to be worried about tomorrow no more.
A peace within that I was forever lacking.
Found in the One true God.

I became a Christian in the 5th grade.
I lived my life praying when I needed something and believing God
was always with me, and He was.
What I didn't do was truly make Him Lord of my life. I continued
to live as though nothing had changed to anyone watching.
I still found myself
empty, worried,  silently  starving for some inner peace, 
for true hope.
Thinking I could live my life under my own terms doing what I wanted.
It wasn't enough, though I tried for years to prove it otherwise.
I was running the race but it was the wrong race.

Hebrews 12:1
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,
 let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. 
And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,

I was
lost in what was "correct' according to the world.
Being a good person, having some fun, if it 
feels good do it....
 all that should be required to be happy...that's the story 
the world was telling me.
Still empty.
~
The message of Jesus to us, 
is to come to Him with
 the faith of a child, no preconceived notions,
no worry of what anyone else might think.
 He wants us to unlearn what the world has promised us
and 
relearn life as it was marked out for us to live it fully
for Him.
There is nothing you have to change before you start to live the life
God had planned for you.
It requires only that you believe and you ask Him to be Lord of you life,
and mean it.
Studying what His book says and living it !

What changed for me.
 The world wasn't there for me when I needed what no other person
on earth could give me.
That night when I learned, 
I could not rely on my own strength, because all strength was lost.
Stripped of all control as I watched a team of Doctors and Nurses attempting 
to save my Father's life.
I needed God in that very moment,
 someone much larger than myself, to remain on my feet,
 to be my strength, the strength
I was going to need in the hours and days to come.


I needed God in that single moment that I had feared
would one day come, 
that moment
when my life would be a 
a life
 without my Father in it.

I made God the Lord of my life that day,
no longer attempting to guide myself.
It's in those difficult times you realize, you, in your own strength
are not enough.

Everything changed for me that day.
Days later I said good bye to my sweet Dad...
 That was bearable only because with that last breath of his,
I had God's promise I would see my Dad again.
I will spend eternity in heaven, one day to be reunited with, now, both of  my parents.

Without giving my life to Christ, starting new again,
 I can't imagine 
how fragile my life would be....

He will become your strength in every situation if you let Him. 



I'm aware there are many who do not believe what the Bible says.
Can I tell you, many have set out to prove it as false and have failed to do so?
Those very non believers whose life mission was to prove it a lie,
in the end many became Christians themselves.
(Read "More than a Carpenter"  by Josh McDowell)

I know there are doubters of the Christian faith....
When pondering the question of  your eternity, 
consider the possibility that He is the way, He is the truth.
What do you have to loose if you accept Him as the one true God
and discover in the end it was just a story?
You are no worse off.

Versus,

believing it's false and
continuing to live how the world wants you to,
only to discover its
true.
....Only it's too late for an eternity, with Him?
The alternative is an
 eternity so horrible you can't imagine,
if the story is true....

I have complete faith that I can believe without seeing;
 He is real and so are His promises.
I  have countless examples of moments in my life that can only
be explained as the hand of God....

I have found that piece of the puzzle.
I hope for all of those I care about and those I've yet to meet
to  have the promise of eternity in Heaven.

John 3:36
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life,
 but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, 
for God’s wrath remains on them.

it's what echos from my heart today.....and always.



Friday, November 9, 2012

Leaving Lonely and Finding Hope ~


Just not feeling that thankful and cheerful......

It's nearing  that time of year we refer to as the holiday season.
At time of thankfulness and good cheer.
Not so for everyone.
This is a time of year when many are at there loneliest.
When you can't think of a thing to be thankful for, 
your missing someone so much it's erased the word cheer from your vocabulary.
Have you ever been there? 
Maybe you are now?

Your alone and nobody could possibly understand just how alone you are.
A long winters nap that would allow you to escape from this time of year?
Wake me up in January....long after the New Year's celebration...what's to celebrate?



I've been there and hope to never return to it!
It can be a very painful place to be.
More so if you are without companionship, but let it be 
stated.....one can be just as lonely while in a relationship.

It always helps if you have a group of people in your life that will encourage you.

God can use this time to train us to depend on Him first!
He is inviting us to depend on Him.
This is the best time to begin journaling if you don't already.
Soon you can read back and see that you have made progress, you 
can see what God did when maybe you were unaware.

We aren't always aware of His presence.
However the Bible tells us in 

Matthew 28:20;

"I am with you always (not sometimes),
even tell the end of time."

Focus on that fact, not what your feeling.

Philippians 4:13;

"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me"

all things not some things.

Keep your focus on God's promises, read His Word,
reach out to others rather than isolate yourself.
If you will seek Him you will be comforted and 
gain the strength and courage to see it through.

If God brings you to it, 
God will bring you through it.



I remember at one time feeling so low that nothing and no one 
could bring me out of it.....a point of no return from sad and lonely.
Of course I failed to allow God in, 
I failed to reach out to Him.
I failed to realize God had a plan for my life,
and He has one for you too!

If this is speaking to you, then God has just used me in a special way!
Praying for all who read this,
He can do what no other can.



it's what echos from my heart today.