Pure Love

You are so beautiful. There is promise within you. God has a plan and a purpose for your life and though heart aches come and life can crush the spirit You also have an incredible strength that enables you to rise with wings of faith . Nothing can rob you of a heart filled with praise for God has promised, " For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38, 39 There is One who will never leave you or forsake you "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." Psalm 147:2 The holidays are difficult for many even though we all experience different levels of grief and loss. Even those who seem the most optimistic can often feel the crushing weight of emotion and perhaps even guilt for not being as exuberant about the festivities of the Season. The God that I love, the God that I trust however does not judge me in the same manner as well meaning people sometimes do because He looks through to the heart of me. He sees the hurts and understand the wounds that cause them for "He was despised and rejected by mankind,a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem . Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions,he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed." Isaiah 53:3,5 One of the gifts of God not only during the Christmas holiday but always is understanding and compassion. Though there are times you may feel forgotten by those close to you the One who formed you is never far away. If you will search with your whole heart you will find Him . He has not left although "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:6 You are not forgotten. "The Lord has appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you." Jeremiah 31:3 He has not abandoned you even when others seem afar off or are miserable comforters. “Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you." Isaiah 49:15 The Comforter is come! "And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21

This is a blog that I just needed to go with the flow of the thoughts that came and those thoughts brought me to scriptures which when I remembered part of I looked up to get the reference and complete verse. I am so thankful for God's precious gift of salvation. I'm so thankful that though I fail and have my struggles that my Heavenly Father sees beyond the rough draft and He will complete the work. I am glad I can pour my heart out before Him in the quiet place and I am safe. He already knows and He has forgiven my past failures and covers me with grace and forgiveness for today and has the future in His hands. I shall not fear. You and I are loved! His gift is pure love 1 Corinthians 13 New International Version 1984 1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. God's gift is pure love. Be blessed!

Puppies Puppies

Puppies , puppies everywhere, puppies in my dreams . One little guy kept squeeling this morning & trying to get out . I picked him up , wrapped him in a little blanket and held him on my lap as he happily went to sleep. I wish I had time to hold them all this way but there are so many! I guess the squeeky wheel gets the grease lol!

Let your light shine, bless someone as Christ shines through you today! Have a great day! Thank you for your friendship. I'm so pleased to say it is a sunny beautiful day here.

Wings or Weights

Yesterday was incredibly busy but it started out on a good note. I got up had my coffee and breakfast and relaxed for a little bit before an early trip to the gym. When possible an early start is better because my energy seems to go further. When it got time to wind down and cool off I tuned my radio to 88.7 here which is Christian broadcasting. Charles Stanley was on. I wish I could remember more fully what the message was but he had something to say about the subject of wings and weights. We are surrounded by a great circle of influence around us and though it's not always possible to spend a lot of time in places filled with positive people we can at least fuel up as soon as possible feeding on positive promises and praying blessings on those who we come in contact with. When I worked a year ago in a bakery dept of a grocery store there was a vast array of personalities I came into contact with. There was one lady who seemed to shine the brightest. While the negative talk went on as it does in many work stations she never joined into the gossip. So sad whoever wasn't there seemed to git hit! She was possitively uplifting. When you walk into the room she greeted with a smile and a big hello that made you feel important, valued. Sure she did have her bad days but one time when I was having a really horrible day she was very kind and gave me sound wisdom, to the best of my memory something like , " I shouldn't let these things effect me to the point that I am emotionally drained . Come in do whatever looks like it is the most important and just do what you can and be at peace and go home and enjoy the evening. " There was another lady , (always one of those kind of people somewhere) who when she entered the room there actually seemed to be a heavy presence in the air. It was depressing. She never had an encouraging word to say but she did seem to notice every little mistake. I would get the feeling that no matter how hard I worked it was never , ever enough. One day on my day off I drove to the store because I could not get it off my chest. Somethings can be left at work but somethings need to be dealt with to be able to move on to a positive light. I asked to speak with her for awhile and told her what was so heavy on me , that I was doing my best and I knew I was a good worker yet I always felt looked down on. It got better for awhile at least. If I spent time preparing my heart in prayer and praying blessings for her and asking God to help me to love this person it helped. It's hard not to take insults personally but I tried. Now back to the subject of Charles Stanley and Wings or Weights. He asked in his talk if the people in your life were wings or weights. There are as I mentioned above situations that cannot be avoided but I am praying that God will lead me by His grace to those who will be wings in my life, people who will lift me up when I am discouraged and YES I get discouraged despite the fact that I do believe I am mostly optimist. There's just got to be some kind of balance! Sometimes I have a hard time sharing things because I don't want to bring people down. I want to be the strong one, the encourager. I have found however on here with being honest that I have found treasures in friendships ! Thank you to the wings in my life! Proverbs 15:30 cheerful look brings joy to the heart,and good news gives health to the bones. Have a smile? Share a smile! Have a great weekend everyone!

Simply Pondering

I have the start of a poem in my mind but I am awaiting the completion of it. I think it may take a little more inspiration or maybe it is just a short poem :) This week I was thinking about the different personalities in life. You probably noticed that in my last blog . We all have different ways of expressing what is in our hearts.

"The artist paints a picture, the composer writes a song Hands of compassion touch with tenderness the ones who are not strong" Cheryl :)

Those are only about 3 things out of hundreds , thousands, maybe millions of types of expression and even though a blind person may not see in the same way as we do by sight there is more than one kind of vision. A lady named Fanny Crosby way back in time the 1800's I think wrote some of the most beautiful hymns. One of them is Blessed Assurance and there is a line with the words in it "Perfect submission, perfect delight, visions of rapture now burst on my sight; angels descending bring from above echoes of mercy, whispers of love." Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his most endearing works after he lost most of his hearing. I find that amazing. The beauty we can't always see with the eyes is felt in the compassion and love of others.

Things have been really busy around here between the kids, grandkids, dogs new puppies and helping friends move. Today I took things slowly and I got a little done I desperately need to in the house but there is more to do. This above is a short blog I posted on Multiply recently. I hadn't been going there but I decided to peek in and it's still less complicated to me than the blogger and googleplus. I enjoy the ease of changing my backgrounds as well. I noticed people on here have different backgrounds that I haven't seen on the pages that I go to over blogger but then I have not had a lot of time lately. Part of me just feels so tired right now. I am not even sure if it's physical or emotional. Every single weekend is so busy anymore that I am praying a quiet one comes up where there is nothing that needs to be done nor grandchildren who need to be watched (PLEASE DON"T GET ME WRONG! I LOVE MY FAMILY!) I am just so tired! I had to clean out the puppy box again today and Nanook just watched without getting too nervous about me holding all her puppies. There is a lot of clean up to do. She has the job of caring for all 8 of them and feeding them but it takes a lot of time since I do have the dogs out in the family room for now. Nanook is always hungry and I can see why ! Tomorrow I want to try and get some more photos. They are growing fast. I can't wait till they open their eyes! If you haven't noticed on my googleplus page I posted an update on my friend Barbie. Bittersweet news is that she is home with Jesus cancer free now, pain is gone. Pray for her husband Mark. Thank you folks! Love and blessings, Cheryl