Forgiveness

A friend of mine recently brought up the topic of forgiveness and asked for people's points of view. It really began me thinking about the subject.

Forgiveness when someone has hurt me:

When someone hurts me I am always devastated when it happens. I tend to be so shocked that I can hardly process that it has just happened. My tongue can't even begin to speak because usually tears overwhelm me. I am learning to get better at that but usually they conquer the moment.

I always forgive the person. I hate that I still remember the situation that happened and always recall it when I see the person. I think it's because it gives me a new perspective into who the person is and how they think, and their opinion of me. I guess it makes me more cautious when I am around them. Please understand though, I always forgive them regardless if I remember the issues we shared or not.

When I remember the past, I find I have to not dwell too much on what took place. If you give too much thought on the past it becomes more of your take on the situation and less on the facts. The fires can be negatively fueled entirely too easy if I dwell too long.

Dwelling on the past keeps you in the past. Focusing on today and the future moves you forward.

Forgiveness is to forgive the offense and restart a new at looking forward to the future and keeping your eyes on God's desire for unity.

When I ask for forgiveness:

I hope and pray that when I am the one to make the mistake that others are quick to forgive me. I want them to see past the offense and begin a new to know me as a better person from learning from my mistakes. I often forget that just because I know my heart and the way I view things doesn't mean that others see me in the same way nor do they think the same way I do.

I have to learn to forgive myself as well. I will far more beat up on myself emotionally than even others would. I also have to move on and not stew in my mistakes either. It can cause me to lose my focus on God's plans. I am here to serve Him not wallow in self.

I pray people forgive me and look at me through God's forgiving eyes. I pray I do this as well towards others.

Pet peeve:

I don't know why it always shocks me when someone assumes the worst and throws out all the good a person does/is just because of one/more mistake(s). Whether the mistake was made against me or I made it against them, mistakes do not cancel out the heart of the person or their christian walk.

There is a radio show I listen to and it is full of old time type of stories. The man spoke of when he grew up and his uncle told him a joke. It was pretty calm and innocent, especially compared to today's jokes. He said how he felt so honored his uncle told him/trusted him with the joke. He said, " To know I could hear him tell that and to know that it didn't mean he wasn't a Christian."

It is odd how I've observed that the more mistakes people make, others expect it, and they forgive them quicker. When someone seems to make fewer mistakes people are less forgiving and question their entire christian life. I was actually dumbfounded when I saw that often people look for fault in people and revel over the fact when they find it.

I believe that God is about unity and being as one. In my life I want nothing to stand in between God and I. Forgiving is a way of life, not a choice for me.

Modesty

I enjoyed today’s sermon. Patrick spoke about modesty. There were a few things that stayed in my mind over others. To be frank, I can not retell what he said to do him justice. Here are some general ideas.
1Timothy 2:8-10 It tells of lifting holy hands in prayer.
Thought: Do not go anywhere where you have to leave Jesus outside and cannot lift holy hands in prayer.
Put on Jesus, and do not worry about your attire. What ever you chose to wear, make sure it doesn’t blind others that you belong to God.
1Peter 3:1-7
Your value is not on what you wear, put on Jesus. This also extends further than clothing. When you are with your family in private and others in public, how do they view you? Are you treating others with care, kindness, love, forgiveness, etc...? Are you showing by your actions and words that Jesus lives with in you?
1Samuel 16:7
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Proverbs 11:22 and Romans 12:12
Thoughts: Do not let the world tell you what to wear. Make yourself recognizable to the Lord when He comes.

Tin Man is all done!

I am happy to say my Tin Man is complete! It was fun and exhausting too. I will now figure out the caption to place on the portrait. This is for my son's school.

a little more tin man

Added a few more lines, details, and shading. A work in progress.

Tin Man

I have been working on a project for my son's school. As you can see I am trying to give my best effort at drawing the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz. It's not perfect, but it's been fun. I've used 10 different shades of color to get what I have completed thus far. He has been a new challenge for me since I have to make him look metallic and I have not used any metallic pencils. I hope to get him done by Friday. I'll post how he turns out when I'm done.

Lucy or Ethel

Have you ever wondered if you were an Lucy or an Ethel? In my world, questions like this do actually pop up in my mind. I would say that I am definetly an Ethel. I am a good side kick friend, not the star of the show, and a few pounds heavier that my friends. I do well as Ethel Mertz. I think that's why I named my car Ethel. I just would rather not be the lime light star. I don't think I'd do well. I am far better the supportive friend, laughing , and enjoying life.

Earl

There is a TV show that has to deal with a man named Earl. He goes back and finds all the people in his life he did wrongs to. I haven't really ever watched the show, but understand that the man tries to make up for his past mistakes. It's an interesting idea...

I was talking with an old high school friend through Face Book tonight. We got into a conversation of how we wish we could take back old dumb mistakes we've made in our lives. We realised that no matter what we do or say now, the mistakes have been made and yet, oh how we wish we could still take them back. We have to be ever so careful to not dwell on past mistakes. The devil likes to take our faults and remind us we messed up. If we aren't careful, we spend too much time looking back, and forgetting to learn from the mistake and look forward.

My fortune cookie read today, "If you made no mistakes, you haven't lived." I suppose that is true. I just hope that I am as forgiving to others as I'd hope they would be forgiving of me.

I am ever so grateful of God's grace and His forgiveness.

I know this seems silly, but to all who read this, if I have made a mistake in any way towards you, please forgive me... I would always pray that people I come across in my life would truly know my heart and love me despite my faults.

They say there is the version you see of yourself, the version you think people see of you, and the version people truly have of you. I pray that in all versions I'm more Christ like and less of me.

A song to my ear

The other night I was helping my son and he just stopped and said, "Mom, I love you more than anything!" My heart melted. Oh how thankful I am that God gave me my sweet son.

It's been too long...

Boy, how did this much time pass by since my last blog? So sorry. I believe once I began Facebook my blog went to the side. I found FB to be addicting for about a month or so. It is a great way to catch up with people you haven't seen or spoken to in forever.

Tonight our family watched the original Jerry Lewis "The Nutty Professor." It fits perfectly with my son's humor. Great slapstick comedy! Our family laughed pretty hard several times.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. It seems as if we just had Thanksgiving yesterday and here it is again. I always think of my mother's stuffing and noodles during this time. She has the best dressing! My mother-in-law makes an amazing turkey, (perfect every time) so we are looking forward to that! My father-in-law always makes the greatest pies, incredible crust! Yum! I plan to make a Blueberry Cinnamon Swirl breakfast dish, Creamy Rice Pudding, Banana Bread, and an old family recipe Date Cookies. The key word is plan. I bought all the ingredients today anyway.

My sister Vicki makes these wonderful Buttermilk Pancakes. I'm making those for supper tomorrow night. I figured if I bought buttermilk for one recipe, I'll use the rest up with the other.

I have been busy, nonstop, since school began. I go a million miles a minute in the classroom. I help students who need guidance in their day to be successful. You never know what interesting moment will greet you from second to second. It's exhausting but also very rewarding.

My son comes home with a lot more homework these days too. I just love this stage of life he's in. He's asking great questions all the time. He's asked about time beginning, ending, how small is the smallest small, where does the universe end? He said he couldn't think on those things too long or he'd go nuts. He said he has to trust that God has it all figured out and that will be just fine.

My dear sweet husband is greeting every new interesting situation at work with class. He has such an amazing way about him and I am thankful for all he is.

Well, off to get my darling son to bed. He has a big test tomorrow in Geography.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

There's No Place Like Home

It was so hard leaving my parents and sisters to head back up north. I thought I'd live on a farm all my life. I'm a farm girl at heart.

When it was time for dinner, mom would send me out to the garden and get things like sweet corn, onions, tomatoes, and more. I'd shuck the corn and cut the roots from the baby onions and place them in cold water for Dad to eat at dinner. Dad would come home for dinner (lunch) and supper. Mom always had the most amazing meals fixed to feed the whole crew. Dinner was always at noon. Dad and a farm hand or two would eat and have to get back to the fields. We'd always fill jugs full of water and ice so the guys had something cool to drink in the fields. On some occasions the guys had to keep working, the rain was coming, the crop needed to get in, and we'd take dinner to the field. Mom always made sure the men were fed well.

Dad always checked the prices of hogs, corn, beans, etc... He'd faithfully check the weather ban. He could tell when it was time to push through the night and when he could come home for the day. It all depended on the weather.

One thing my Dad always made sure of, he never worked on Sundays. We faithfully went to church Sunday morning, evening, and Wednesday nights. My parents were active members in the church. I do not know at what age they began teaching Sunday school, but they both still teach to this day. Every morning my Dad would be in his den with his Bible open, studying in God's word. Every Saturday Mom would be preparing her Sunday morning lesson.

How blessed our family was growing up on a farm and having Christian parents!

The Last Hurrah

At the end of our summer, before school started, we decided to go for one more hurrah. It’s been ages since we went to an amusement park. We decided to try out Michigan Great Adventures. The drive was pretty decent and it was easy to get to. It was kind of in the middle of a field. Cedar Point owns it.

It had an amusement park and a water park. I was shocked when my son was so brave and he rode a water ride that went strait down a huge hill in a boat. I am a Farris Wheel kind of gal.

We had the most fun in the water park area. They had 3 wave pools that acted like the ocean. I actually went down a water ride that was an enclosed dark tube, riding on an inner tube, and as I whooshed this way and that, I screamed my head off. I do not like the feeling of my stomach dropping. My son was bursting out laughing as he watched me fly out of the tube screaming. Okay, I did look funny!

The next coolest part of the trip was staying at the Hilton. We got the most amazing price savings deal through hotwire.com. I love my geek husband! The hotel was even better just knowing we saved a ton of money! On our bed the 4 pillows were down-filled, the comforter was down-filled, well … everything was wonderful!

I guess Phil and I loved watching our little swimming pro get the confidence to swim across a true depth swimming pool. All the pools he had swam in before were only 5 feet deep. Luke asked Phil to touch the bottom of the pool so he could see how deep it really was. Phil was hilarious. He was too buoyant, he couldn’t sink. Leave it up to ole lead bottom mom and I showed him the depth of the pool. We laughed at dad floating for a long, long time. We thought he was just joking at 1st, but we lost it laughing when we realized he really couldn’t sink. It was great!

I have no photos to share, forgot the camera at home. Trust me when I say, It was a great quick weekend hurrah!

Pokagon State Park

This summer we went to Pokagon State Park over our 15Th wedding anniversary. We have revisited the park each summer. It has become a family favorite destination. We always stay in the newest part of the hotel but they also offer cabins, and camping sites.

They have horse trail riding, boats, nature walks, swimming, and bike riding, just to name a few. We have a tradition of renting a paddle boat and seeing the lake as we paddle. The boys tell me I can sit back and relax as they chauffeur me around the lake. This usually means Luke and Phil get us out and Phil and I get us back in : )

We do not have cable TV at home, due to our dear sweet son has the hardest time leaving Cartoon Network! The hotel has cable, so he is never in a hurry to leave the room in the morning and is always ready for bed in the evenings!

While we were there, for our anniversary, my sweet husband gave me an afternoon at the spa. I was completely relaxed! I gave Phil the complete collection of all the seasons, movie, interviews, and etc... of the M.A.S.H. TV series. He has wanted that for years, and I mean years. I found the complete series at Target 11 months earlier. I wrapped it up, and hid it, so he couldn't find it, and I wouldn't be tempted to give it to him early! Since our trip, we found out we have a 3rd fan of M.A.S.H. in our house, Luke!

At Christmas time Grandma and Grandpa gave Luke the game "Are You Smarter Than a 5Th Grader." We went to the hotel's library and played the game one evening. Not a one of us was smarter than a 5Th grader! We are as smart as 4Th graders though. Luke, in a voice filled with laughter, said, "I haven't been a 5Th grader yet, what's your excuse?"

We always put together puzzles while we are there. It's fun to begin a puzzle and you leave it on a table in the big gathering room. The next day when come back, others have worked on your puzzle too. You just pick up where they left off.

Luke has slowly become comfortable with swimming. With his Aspergers, he has to try things at his own pace. He was a quite a young man filled with confidence this time around. He used to do one cannon ball after another, now he is willing to try swimming. If there were a category in the Olympics for floating, he would have taken gold!

While we were there, my family sent us a striking arrangement of flowers and had a Congratulations announcement put up on the daily board. They made another wonderful memory for us. We couldn't have asked for any more gorgeous weather for our anniversary trip!

We traveled back home to my parents over the weekend. It was a quick stay due to my father-in-law being in the hospital. It was just wonderful just being home, back on the farm.

Day 4

The 4th day of our trip we went to Bull Run. The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as the First Battle of Manassass, was the first major land battle of the American Civil War. It was fought on July 21, 1861.

Later that day we swam in the pool and then had a cook out. We were all pretty happy just chilling and eating grilled hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad, watermelon, chips, and strawberry pretzel salad, Yumm! Yum!