Thankful Thursday #37

Welcome to Thankful Thursday! If you'd like to participate, just copy the T.T. button on my sidebar and paste it into your post. Next write down five things you are thankful for this week. Finally, come back here and link up with Mr. Linky. It's that easy!

Here's my list for this week:

1) I am thankful that my husband and I are teaching Vacation Bible School at our church this week. We are teaching the 5th and 6th graders. It has changed my life because I've watched them open their hearts to the Lord as the week has progressed!

2) I am thankful that we invited three neighborhood kids to join us at VBS this week. Watching them have fun and learn about the Lord is priceless.

3) I am thankful that a precious boy named Andrew in our 5th and 6th grade class gave his life to Christ this week! What a sweet blessing. To God be the glory.

4) I am thankful for air conditioning! It has been extremely HHHOOOTTT in Virginia lately and I am grateful for the moments inside of the air conditioning.

5) I am thankful for the opportunity to write. It is an amazing outlet - whether I'm just journaling for personal benefit, or writing an article to submit for publication, writing is therapeutic!

Boomerang Express Theme Song V.B.S 2009

Here's the theme song this week for our Vacation Bible School!

Boomerang Express VBS

G-Day Mate! That's how we say "hello" when we're in the Outback teaching the kids at our church Vacation Bible School.

Somehow, and neither one of us can remember how, Tim and I signed up to teach the fifth and sixth grade kids at our church this week for VBS. We've never taught like this before and we had 28 kids in our class alone tonight!

Needless to say I was a bit nervous but after several kids in our class raised their hands to learn more about giving their hearts to Jesus it became crystal clear God had placed us here for a reason.

The best part for me so far - two of the neighborhood kids we invited came and raised their hands to give their lives to Christ.

I had to step back and wonder if we hadn't moved into our house and invited them... Glad God's hand directs the righteous!

If you are considering helping out at a local VBS this summer - go for it!

Please keep praying for all of the children who attend our VBS this week. What a great opportunity for the kids to have fun and learn about Jesus.

G-day Mates!

Thankful Thursday #36

Welcome to Thankful Thursday! If you'd like to participate, just copy the T.T. button on my sidebar and paste it into your post. Next write down five things you are thankful for this week. Finally, come back here and link up with Mr. Linky. It's that easy!

Here's my list for this week:

1) I am thankful that my husband loves his family. He makes sure to spend quality time with each of his children as often as he can. He also plans elaborate "dates" with dad once per year. For example, he took our 7 year old, Ashley, to the ballet last year since she wanted to become a ballerina. Then he took our 9 year old, Stephanie, to the horse races because she has a love of horses (No betting just went to watch and have fun). He also takes our son on a father son camping trip with another Dad and son each year. They canoe down the river and camp on an island. These are memory makers.

2) I am thankful that my Dad came over to help us unpack one day this week. I had put on my facebook that I intended to finish unpacking by the end of the weekend and he replied, "tic, tic, tic" and to that I commented, "you know you could come and help" and he dutifully did! Love you Dad! It was a HUGE help, too! He tackled and completed my son's room. Phew...

3) I am thankful for the produce that my Mom willingly shares from her prolific garden. She sent over tomatoes that just melt in your mouth and these scrumptious lemon cucumbers (yes that's what they are called). She has such a giving heart to share such decedent food. Thanks Mom, I love you!

4) I am thankful that there are so many nice kids in our new neighborhood. The doorbell has not stopped ringing as the neighborhood kids are making my children feel quite popular and welcome. The adults seem nice, too - we are just too preoccupied with unpacking to go out and make friends yet.

5) I am thankful that we live in a free country and can worship God freely. I read on Greg's blog last week how he can't take a picture on his street without seeing many churches and another girlfriend was telling me that they were church shopping and to date they had visited 9 churches! We are so blessed in America.

Storms

If you've been following my blog recently then you know that my family moved to a new house a week ago. We still haven't received our custom blinds - the nights feel so black!

Friday night, we had an intense thunderstorm. It was totally unexpected because we also haven't hooked up our T.V.'s yet - no weather channel!

The storm started just as we were putting the kids to bed. NOT the best timing for us. Needless to say, all the kids wanted to sleep in our room because they were scared. I can't blame them, without curtains it was an awesome sight.

I kept thinking, if only the storm could have waited until after our curtains were installed. But you know, that's how storms come - at the worst possible times. To be honest, there really isn't a good time for a storm.

What about the storms of life? You know when "bad" things happen unexpectedly. They are never at a good time and certainly never wanted. We've all experienced them from time to time.

So how did we handle the thunderstorm? We adjusted for the night and decided the kids could have a "slumber party" and all sleep in the same bedroom. It seemed to appease everyone and we finally got some sleep. When all was said and done, no damage from the storm either.

How can we handle the unexpected storms of our lives?

1Peter 1:6-7 "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. "

Since I was exhausted when the storms came, I am quite sure that I forgot to give thanks or to greatly rejoice. Perhaps next time I'll remember and rejoice because without faith noone can please God.

One neat thing that happened during the storm - I prayed individually with two of my children at different times. Through the storm, their faith was being strengthened. That is something to rejoice about!

Thankful Thursday #35

Welcome to Thankful Thursday! If you'd like to participate, just copy the T.T. button on my sidebar and paste it into your post. Next write down five things you are thankful for this week. Finally, come back here and link up with Mr. Linky. It's that easy!

Here's my list for this week:

1) I am thankful that my husband took some time off last week to help us do the final packing before the big move. And he cleaned the house we moved out of until 4:30am on Sat. night so it would be ready for a perspective buyer to look at it!

2) I am thankful to be living in my new dream house! It's beautiful and I am appreciating every aspect of it.

3) I am thankful that someone is interested in looking at our house that is for sale. Now I'm praying that they buy it!

4) I am thankful that my internet is working - we now have broadband and it is SOOOOOO fast!

5) I am thankful that I don't have to unpack all of the boxes in a day or even a week. This is a LOT of work and I'm exhausted.

6) I am thankful that Mr. Linky finally got my blog moved over to the new server (www2). Please be sure to check my comments to see others who have linked up earlier today - Mr. Linky wasn't working until 10:15am. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Unpacking!

We're all moved in at the new house! Praise God!

I just wanted to apologize that I won't be able to put up a post until Thursday due to a house full of boxes that are taking priority right now.

God Bless you all, and we'll talk on Thursday.

Thankful Thursday #34

Welcome to Thankful Thursday! If you'd like to participate, just copy the T.T. button on my sidebar and paste it into your post. Next write down five things you are thankful for this week. Finally, come back here and link up with Mr. Linky. It's that easy!

Here's my list for this week:

1) I am thankful that I enjoy my husband's company, and he enjoys mine! We enjoy being together whether we're doing something or just hanging out.

2) I am thankful that tomorrow I am moving! Everything is boxed up and it seems hectic, but I know it will be worth it.

3) I am thankful for all of the help that I've received from friends and family over the past few days. I know you'll be there to help with the unpacking, too! You're all amazing.

4) I am thankful for movers! We decided that moving our house was such a big job we needed to hire movers. I appreciate not having to move stuff myself, packing was hard enough!

5) I am thankful that Standard Publishing (They print take-home papers for Sunday School classes) accepted one of my articles for publication! I was so excited when I got the e-mail I sat there and wrote another article! Success breeds inspiration.

Transformers

Sunday afternoon my husband and I decided to go to the movies and "preview" Transformers for our kids.

To be perfectly honest, it's a good movie but the adult content is just over the top and I'm not talking about the violence if you know what I mean. Why they feel the need to put that stuff in these movies is a mystery to me.

Anyhow, It had the usual plot. The bad guys - Deceptacons and the good guys - Megatron and the Autobots. The bad guys are planning to destroy the earth because they hate humans but the Autobots are protectors of the earth.

The head good guy, Optimus Prime is destroyed early on and then resurrected in the end by the human who is also the main character.

Ok, I'm trying not to give away too much of the movie to get to my point.

When Optimus Prime comes back he is weaker and not strong enough to destroy the head bad guy who is called, The Fallen. Several other Autobots - including a Decptacon who decided to change sides, bind together with Optimus to make him more powerful and quite a bit larger in order to defeat the enemy. I won't tell anymore so you can see the movie yourself.

On the way home I pondered my own life and all of the things I've been through over the years - both good and bad.

I feel like our past could represent the combined Optimus Prime at the end of the movie.

We all have some good and some bad (some by our choice and other's that happened out of our control) in our past's. Regardless of how it got into your life, it happened and it is a part of who you are.

Thankfully, if you are a Christian, your past sins are forgiven, but the consequences of those sins may still be present.

My point in all of this is that we cannot change the past, but we can take who we have become and decide which side we are on. We are a powerful force - which side are we fighting for?

"But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:15)

Thankful Thursday #33

Welcome to Thankful Thursday! If you'd like to participate, just copy the T.T. button on my sidebar and paste it into your post. Next write down five things you are thankful for this week. Finally, come back here and link up with Mr. Linky. It's that easy!

Here's my list for this week:

1) I am thankful that my husband protects me. When we were receiving daily phone calls that were discouraging about how we weren't closing yet again, my husband realized that it was stressing me out and asked the closing agent to call him and he would tell me when we were going to close. That lifted such a burden off of me! And I know he's super busy and I'm the more reasonable person to call - that's a true sacrifice of love.

2) That we closed on our new house yesterday morning at 8am! Now I need to pack, pack, pack as we are moving on July 10th.

3) That when life gets hectic, God is there to walk you through and answer your prayers.

4) That God is teaching me about faith and it's everywhere I turn! In my Bible study, in my Bible reading, and everywhere I seem to go on the net or in magazines. He's making sure I learn about it. It's starting with building up my root system of faith in Him. The fruit will come later. I love God's gentle ways.

5) I'm really thankful that God is encouraging me to pray about every detail of my life - specific prayers. It is keeping me more in tune with Him as this requires real relationship with my heavenly father. He wants to answer all of our prayers about all of our needs, not just the big things. The little things are real faith builders!