A Must Read for Mom's of Teen Girls

I must admit I was a little nervous when I requested to review What Are You Waiting For ? By Dannah Gresh. Once I received the book and dove in I discovered a treasure. It is a wonderful, straightforward, cover the hard topics book. Dannah addresses things we MUST discuss with out teenage daughters. After completing the book I gave it to my 17 year old daughter to read. She not only read it she took notes! Read it first Moms then read it with your girls.

Under the Overpass by Mike Yankowski

Under the Overpass is a must read. After hearing a convicting sermon one Sunday morning in church Mike Yankowski decided to live out his faith. Be the Christian you say you are…this thought rang in his mind so much so that he had to do something about it. After much prayer and counsel of friends, Mike decided to hit the road and live among the homeless. He knew he shouldn’t go it alone so God brought Sam into the picture.

It all started with each man living in a homeless shelter among other homeless men in a rehab program. They lived in separate shelters in Denver. Once they had “learned the ropes” they met up and headed to D.C. From there they went to Portland, San Francisco, Phoenix, San Diego and then finally home. They spent about a month in each city, meeting very interesting people along the way.

The church could learn a hard lesson from this book. Sometimes we are judgmental even in our outreach. Granted we should not hand every person that we encounter money but we still can help. We can meet a need with a meal or a cup of cold water. We can tell them that God loves them, but what we really need to do is show them. Don’t condemn them for their circumstances ask the Holy Spirit for guidance and be the Christian you say you are.

You won’t be able to put the book down and when you finish it you will want more. Be ready to be convicted and at the same time develop a desire to minister to the homeless.

New Year Challenge

I know I am a little behind in my posting and in a few days I will (hopefully) do an update post. But for now thanks to Beth I issued a challenge to myself and my daughters. We are joining Beth and thousands of Siestas in memorizing scripture. You can still jump in if you would like. We are going to memorize 2 scriptures per month. We will be choosing a scripture on the 1st and 15th of each month. Everybody will memorize whatever scripture they are let to memorize. Here is the one I chose for the 1st (actually the 2nd) of January.

Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed says the LORD who has compassion on you. Isaiah 54:10 NIV

By the end of the year I should have memorized 24 scriptures. Then I can honestly say to God: Your word I have hidden in my heart that I may not sin against you. Psalm 119:11

PHAREWELL PHIL

I would like to take a moment and bid a fond farewell to Phil Fulmer. Thanks for going out on a win. UT 28 Kentucky 10.
Pharewell Phil ........it's been a wild ride !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving !!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving ! Be sure to count your blessings today and give God thanks.

Blessings,

Cecelia

We are Finally Home !

Praise the LORD we are finally home. George was finally released from the hospital on Wednesday. The Dr. told us that he wanted us to stop every hour so George could get out and walk around. This would help his circulation in his legs so there would be a worry of blood clots.
We picked up our girls from Joy and Tybee and got on the road about 4 PM Eastern. We had traveled about 30 minutes and George got sick. Lets just say he had eaten Strawberry Yogurt before we left the hospital and it was not pretty. I don't know what it is about Strawberries and Surgery Patients but......well this is my 2nd experience and it is not good. If you have surgery AVOID STRAWBERRIES at least for a week or 2. LOL You have to laugh or you would cry..trust me.
I was afraid George would be sick all the way home so I called in some prayer warriors and asked that they pray for him. So....he slept. Oh don't worry I had the clock police (our girls) reminding me when 1 hour had passed no matter if there was an interstate exit or not. I had a hard time convincing them that it could be a little longer than an hour and it would be fine. So we stopped 3 or 4 times so George could get out and stretch his legs and walk around a little. Long story short we got home around 9 PM. I brought him and 2 of our girls home. Abigail went back out to get his pain meds filled and pick up some yogurt and Gatorade for George. And NO we did not get strawberry yogurt !!! It was 11 by the time we got to bed but Oh did we sleep good.
Since we've been home we have been abundantly blessed by our church family with food. Our leaves and yard were taken care of by some of our deacons. I know !
In this season of Thanksgiving our family certainly has a lot to be thankful for.

Blessings,

God is Good All the Time and All the Time God is Good !

First of all let me tell you that George is doing well. He is well on his way to full recovery ! He has been up and walked several times around the little “block” on our floor. He has made the transition from Ice Chips to Clear Liquids to a Full Liquid Diet. Me on the other hand well the food in the cafeteria is Wonderful ! I mean it. Oh and the icing on the cake ……..Starbucks !! Woo-Hoo ! Yesterday afternoon I was starting to drag and I was cold so I went to get me some Hot Chocolate. I looked on the Starbucks menu and there was a Mocha Café Latte. In plain English that is a Hot Chocolate with 2 shots of espresso added. It was goooooooooooooooooddddddddddddddd.
On another note please continue to pray for George’s recovery as I know you will. He has developed some skin breakdown on his upper legs because of having to be in the bed so long. He is not complaining, he is a trooper ! Also the Doc said we would probably get to head home tomorrow, so keep that in your prayers as well. He said to stop every hour on the way and let George get out and walk. I’m trying to get him to let me do a Harley Secret Shop in Cookeville but he just looks at me and rolls his eyes ! LOL Don’t worry folks he will be the top priority on the trip home.

OK its time to post the miracle:
On Sunday after George’s surgery, Joy, Derrick, Tybee, Jeff H., the girls and I went down to the cafeteria for lunch. We had a great lunch of Pot Roast and Mashed Potatoes. Two of the girls had Bacon Cheeseburgers and Lydia had a BLT. We enjoyed our lunch and headed back upstairs.
About 4 to 5 hours later after everyone had left I decided I would go down and get supper. I was afraid the cafeteria might close early because it was Sunday. So I started looking for my purse and it was nowhere to be found ! YIKES ! I was freaking out, on the inside anyway. I went down to the cafeteria and looked at the table where we had been sitting and it was not there. I asked a cashier if anyone had turned in a backpack purse and she said not to her. She left her cash register with me to check with some of the other employees. No one had seen it. She asked me if I knew where security was and I said no. She said I will walk you part of the way; well she walked me all the way there. We go to security and no purse. I did not know what I was going to do. My wallet, George’s wallet and our checkbook were all in my purse. I had already called the girls to see if they had accidentally picked it up when they left with Joy and Derrick. They said no they did not have it.
I looked at the young lady who was walking with me and I said ….I am just going to pray that God either puts it back in our room or somewhere that I can find it. I explained to her that we lived 4 hours away and that it was not a good situation to be in. We walked back to the cafeteria. As soon as we got there another employee walked up to my helper and said, “ You know you can’t do that, you can’t just walk away from your register like that.” Call it the Holy Spirit or Mama Bear…..at this point it was both…. I looked at that man, held my hand up and said “ You just back up off her, she is being my angel right now !” She went on back to her register and I said I am going to check at the table one more time.
Guess What …..It was under the table ! Praise the LORD ! I grabbed my purse and went over to my sweet angel at the cash register and showed her that I had found it. I gave her a huge hug, yes I did ! I said girl that’s just Jesus right there ! He is taking care of me.
I’m telling you I had to walk around in the cafeteria for a few minutes just giving God the glory. Another employee saw me and said “You found it ! “ I told her where I found it and said, “Sister, it was like God just put His hand over it and kept it there for me.”
My purse, sitting in a busy cafeteria, in a downtown hospital, under a table. It did not get taken. Say what you want but I’m saying that has God written all over it ! Praise the LORD ! Thank you Jesus !
I could go on and on about how God has worked everything out down here for our good. Hmmmmm…….that reminds me of a verse in God’s Word: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 (NIV)

Blessings,