It's me, Charity

Well it's a New Year and I have been busy cleaning, organizing and decorating my living room! My Mom made the above Love sign. I think it's really cute! My SIL gave me the Peacock picture to match my curtains. As well as the super cool pillows! I'm currently on a pillow hunt to find two more for my big couch. I also got one of my lamps for Christmas!! I was sooo excited! Look how perfectly they match my curtains!! I'm hoping Gordman's has one more of them so I can have matching ones. Apparently these were a hot item in Iowa! This week i'm fully back into my normal teaching schedule. I'm also starting two new students this week bringing me up to 23 students total! Still have some open slots left that I'm hoping to fill. I'm so in awe of how God has provided! I can't believe I have 23 students! It's seriously the most fun I've ever had!  I was thinking today about how God has knit together this season of my life and everything about it. I ...

We're getting real down to the dirty insides today, I share this in hopes of encouraging others and hopefully opening up eyes as mine are beginning to open. I'm going to share what God is teaching me, in posts tagged with "He's still workin on me". My brother and I sang that song as children, and it's words are so true. God is still working on me, to make me the Woman he wants to be. By his Grace I will be made new. I have recently discovered I have a very big sin issue with other people's sins against me.  I had someone ask me this weekend, how I dealt with people who constantly seemed to "get away" with doing things that were wrong and hurting people. I thought I was giving an honest answer but looking back it was a pretty Susie Sunday School Pat Answer . The truth is I struggle with it. Sometimes it is easier than others. It seems to be the worst for me when the offender is someone who I have been close to or had a relationship with. I...

In the predawn hours of New Years Day 2004 I was faced with a choice. After spending New Year's Eve at a local bar with a friend, I came home and through the events that transpired, I saw clearly a vision of my future. What would happen to me if I continued on the path I had been taking. I had a choice to make and within a split second I knew what my answer was going to be. I grew up in a Christian home. I was saved at an early age. When I was 13/14 on my Birthday Sunday, Pastor Martin preached a sermon about those of us who had been saved at an early age and knowing if your salvation was real or not. I spent the rest of the day and my party tormented because I could not remember what was in my heart when I was younger. That night I gave my life to Christ and knew without a shadow of a doubt that I was his, and going to Heaven. In the years that followed I continued to be very active in church. I played the Piano and was in charge of Sunday night offertory, I was t...

I have a temper. And I just realized this last night.  After writing that I have been sitting here staring at my screen at a loss for words.  God has really been working in my heart lately to show me things that I need to change in order to grow closer to him. I feel like this has been something I've been struggling with for a long time. We all know about Twanda but yet here I am, still fighting this. My Pastor preached a sermon on 1-29-12 called "Lord, Love My enemies through Me" I highly recommend clicking on the link and listening to the sermon.  I'm going to copy some of his sermon text into this blog. Think of the impact on your obedient faith and commitment to love others that is felt when you intersect with an angry spouse, a rebellious child, a difficult neighbor, an uncaring family member or an obnoxious co-worker. You may not be beaten, bloodied or bound, but your independent preoccupation with your life and your self infatuation lead y...

So it's the end of January and I'm just now getting around to writing my recap of 2011.  Knowing me it will be May before this post gets published! When I think back on 2011 the word that stands out to me is GROWTH   2011 was not my favorite year by far, but I learned so much. I went thru many hard trials, but through it all God was with me and I learned how to stand thru those trials with him holding me up. I dealt with many health issues over the year. And I finally learned that it was OK to speak up about them. I have gotten used to my Chronic Illnesses and I don't feel like complaining about it all the time, so in my mind I just didn't talk about it.  But I found out when I was able to open up about it to my friends at church and I realized there was so much support and LOVE for me. That I wasn't bothering them by sharing my struggles, they wanted to walk thru it with me and love me and pray for me thru it all. And that has been HUGE. Knowing th...

Sanctification is the act or process of acquiring sanctity, of being made or becoming holy. To sanctify is literally "to set apart for special use or purpose," figuratively "to make holy or sacred," and etymologically from the Latin verb sanctificare which in turn is from sanctus "holy" and facere "to make." Wikipedia I have been ruminating on this post for several weeks now.  It's the culmination of some chats I've had with my friends, what I've been seeing on facebook for far too long now, and just general thoughts. It all came up for discussion when a somewhat famous Christian in the media got engaged recently. I looked at pictures of his fiance and was a bit flabbergasted at what I saw. She, as one commenter put it "had her bare bottom from here to Ohio for the world to see". Sadly, it was true. Google her name and pictures of her in lingerie and skimpy bikinis will pop up all across your computer ...

In typical fashion I am about three years behind the rest of the world and didn't realize that Blogger had a new interface. I know, I know, I struggle. So I finally switched and I have to say it does much it much easier to blog! Maybe I will blog more often now? ha ha.... I also messed with the template settings a bit and the background. I wanted to clean up the links and overall look and feel of it a bit. I think it looks pretty good! I also think I will have my fabulous friend Jordy make me a new blog background for my birthday coming up. I need to start thinking about designs!! I have enjoyed my quiet time at work with my co workers gone. I've gotten to choose my own music and sound level and actually gotten to choose whether I want music on or not! Glory!!  And I have finally jumped on the spotify bandwagon and finally feel like a cool kid. (Just ignore the fact that I listened to NSYNC's Christmas CD and Charlie Brown) It seems like half of my church uses ...

Our women's bible study has been doing "Lazarus Awakening" by Joanna Weaver. We studied her two other books, which I blogged about last year, and we just finished this book. Sadly I was sick for most of this 8 week study so I wasn't able to attend many of them. But I made it back for the last chapter and boy howdy, did it really hit me. I have read the chapter twice since the lesson last week and I'd like to share some of it now. Hopefully this will translate to you, but I also want to write this for me, I want to remember what I learned and what God is trying to show me. This semester has been really hard for me. I've went through alot of hard health issues, struggles, I've seen people I love lose people they love, there has been so much pain and suffering that I admit, I have asked God why. Why do these Godly people seemingly have horrible thing after horrible thing happen to them? Why do I have to deal with this constant health issues that I feel all al...

In all honesty this semester has been a very hard and trying one for me. The month of October was particularly rough. I was hoping November would calm down a bit but it started off with a bang of a migraine. I can usually keep a good attitude of life, even when dealing with my health, but the constant sickness since August has really beat me down. With so many things to worry about it can get overwhelming and sometimes I wonder when it will all stop and slow down. I've been really trying to lean on God through this time, as he is the only one who can get me through it. Having chronic sickness can be very isolating, especially when you're single. It kind of strips you of everything and puts your total reliance on The Lord. I've been trying to memorize some scripture and read my Bible more to get some inspiration. When I was on fb someone had this as their status and it has become one of my new favorite verses. (in all honesty I get a new favorite verse almost everyday, there...

I get a daily devotional from Girlfriends in God and I thought todays was particularly good. June 12, 2009 The Great "Inspiratio" Malinda Daniel We hope you are enjoying the Girlfriends in God daily devotions. We (Mary, Sharon, and Gwen) would like to introduce you to some of our special friends. From time-to-time, the Friday devotions will be written by one of our friends in ministry. We call them our "Friday Friends." So grab your Bible and a fresh cup of coffee and drink in the words from our "Friday Friend", Malinda Daniel. Today's Truth Jeremiah 32:27 "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?" Friend to Friend Have you ever found yourself in an overwhelming or daunting situation that seemed impossible to understand or face? Is it difficult to comprehend the plan or the purpose behind what you are going through? Do you find yourself asking, "Why Lord?" Do you sometimes plead with God, ...