Here's How It Happened, Part Three

I broke down in tears. I knew that I did not deserve this amazing gift from God. While tears were streaming down my face, I opened up my Our Daily Bread devotional, and this is what it said.

He knows where the hurt is the deepest,
The tears of the night and the day,
And whispering softly, “I love you,”
He brushes the teardrops away. —Anon.

The God who washed away our sins will also wipe away our tears.

Here He was again, the Lord Of All Creation, comforting me. Even though He knows me inside and out, He still loves me. He still wants to bless me beyond my wildest dreams. I am humbled by His love. A love I do not deserve, but He lavishes it on me anyway.

Once my tears were dry, I realized that I needed to accept this gift graciously. I wanted to honor the Gift Giver. I was going to embrace this gift, not as one who deserved it, but as one humbled and honored to receive it.

God has revealed Himself to me in so many ways regarding this trip, more than I could begin to mention, but one way in particular stands out the most.

At the beginning of February, my mom and I went to a Shannon Ethridge conference. (If you ever get the opportunity to hear her speak, go. She is amazing. God is doing a mighty work through her.) On the way to the conference, I told my mom that I was finally ready to embrace this gift from God. I also told her that (selfishly) I was very much looking forward to a gondola ride through Venice. For some reason, of all the amazing things I would be doing and seeing on this journey, I was especially excited about the gondolas and Venice!

During her message, Shannon Ethridge shared about how God used "physical" signs to speak to her or to give her confirmation regarding something He was doing in her life. The signs could be mistletoe in a tree or letters painted on a road, but He often would point things out to her in the "physical" where He was trying to reach her in the "spiritual."

My mom and I had to sneak out of the conference a little early due to an itching situation she was experiencing with her arm. So while my mom went to the hotel kitchen to get some ice for her arm, I waited for her in the lobby. I found a table nearby to set my papers and purse on, so I could put on my coat and gloves. After setting my things down on the table, I looked up, and could not believe what I saw.



Only an hour earlier, I was in the car with my mom, telling her how much I was looking forward to that gondola ride, and now I'm staring at a painting of it. I looked around that hotel lobby at all of the other paintings. All of the other paintings were of flowers and old men, but the table I had stopped at was a gondola going through Venice.........It was extremely overwhelming, especially after hearing Shannon Ethridge share about God using "physical" signs to show her things in the "spiritual."

When my mom came back from the kitchen with her ice, I pointed at the painting.......She looked at it, and could not believe her eyes. God is truly amazing.

We left the hotel that night, but we had to return in the morning for the second part of the conference. I took my camera with me, and had my mom take my picture with the painting, or as I like to refer to it now, my painting. I couldn't wait to show (my)Shannon and the boys.

I wished so much that Shannon had been there with me at the moment that I first saw this painting. Shannon is my best friend. The hardest part of this trip for me will be seeing so many amazing things without him. When I go out to lunch with a girlfriend I always think, Shannon would love this meal. Or when I go to a movie without him, I think how much I wished he was seeing the movie with me.

Leaving on this trip, I would be missing our seventeenth wedding anniversary, not to mention our son Daniel's thirteenth birthday.

I prayed about this one evening........I told God that as excited as I am to go on this amazing adventure, it hurts so much to think of going without Shannon..........

Signs And Thoughts Of Spring

I want to share with you some things I noticed while spending some time outside this weekend. I just recently got a new camera. So I had a lot of fun trying to figure out how to use it, while at the same time enjoying the beauty that comes with spring. I have a lot to learn about my camera, but I still hope that you enjoy the pictures and the quotes that go along with them.

April is a promise that May is bound to keep. ~Hal Borland



Between our birth and death we may touch understanding, As a moth brushes a window with its wing.
Christopher Fry



Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world. ~Virgil A. Kraft



God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars. ~Martin Luther




Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne



I always thought a yard was three feet, then I started mowing the lawn. ~C.E. Cowman



You can run with the big dogs or sit on the porch and bark.
~ Wallace Arnold



Psalms 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

PMS

This past weekend I was exhausted, and I couldn't get enough salt or chocolate in my diet. None of my pants fit, and every time Shannon opened his mouth he said something really stupid insensitive.

It wasn't until this morning that I decided to admit realized maybe I was suffering from PMS.

I found a website that had an exact list listed a few of the symptoms I have every 28 days occasionally suffer from. Here is the information that I found.


How To Know If You Have PMS

1) Everyone around you has an attitude problem.
2) You're adding chocolate chips to your cheese omelet.
3) The dryer has shrunk every last pair of your jeans.
4) Your significant other is suddenly agreeing to everything you say.
5) You're using your cellular phone to dial up every bumper sticker that says, "How's my driving? Call 1-800-###-####."
6) Everyone's head looks like an invitation to batting practice.
7) You're convinced there's a God and He's male.
8) You're counting down the days until menopause.
9) You're sure that everyone is scheming to drive you crazy.
10) The ibuprofen bottle is empty and you bought it yesterday.

This list should probably be posted on refrigerators all across the country. That way women men could recognize the signs right away, so that they could begin to walk on eggshells behave accordingly. It would really make the situation easier for everyone involved. I'm just saying is all.

Shannon thinks it would be easier for the family and all concerned if I would just wear a scarlet letter "P" on my clothes each month as a warning sign.....

Whatever.

So anyway, Shannon, I'm sorry if I was miserable a little difficult to be around this weekend. I just wish that you could experience PMS for yourself, so that you could really understand what it's like for me every single month. Maybe one day that will be possible...........



A girl can dream, can't she?

I'm just joking.
I love you, Shannon!:)