WRECKED DREAMS

Do you enjoy taking someone's dream away? Silas always wanted to be a rancher when he was growing up. He loves horses and whatever goes along with them. The girls started him a collection several years back and have gradually added to it. This is as close as he came to his dream.

He said when he met me that dream no longer matter. Wow! I remember we went to spend Christmas with his parents when our son was just 5 months old. He and his friend saddled up horses and went for a ride. (I don't know horse lingo , so you know what I mean!) They had ridden lots of times. This time his friend's horse skidded off the road and fell in the ditch. Horse was not hurt but his friend wound up with a broken leg.

I even got on the horse. Can you believe that? Of course Silas had the reins. Didn't like it then, don't like it now. He put our 5 month old son on the horse and took his picture. Rick did not like it either. So I guess he took after his Mother.

Silas' love for horses is still in his heart. I wish I would not have messed up all his plans, but the Lord just did not put in my heart to be a rancher's wife. Love won out! Not for the horse! For me! I have loved my life as his wife. We started out with almost nothing but the Lord always blessed. The many things we have gone through together has strengthened our love. Did we have differences? Yes! We are completely different. He has an out-going personality and never meets a stranger.

I am more with-drawned and quiet. In a lot of ways we are different, but we have drawn off each other's differences.

I started out with his pictures, didn't I? Just was going to tell you that I got that background hanging for Christmas. Used it as a throw. I did not know it had a place for a rod. When I found it I told him about it. I said I knew just where to put it.

So that is the background behind his collection. And a little peek into the best husband in the world.

HEAVEN

"For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Hebrew 11:10 Heaven is mention 550 times in the Bible. It is up above every sphere. The Sun will hold 6 billion earths. I can't fathom that and neither can you! I can't fathom Heaven, but I know I'm going there. A favorite Scripture that so many of us has memorized is John Chapter 14 "Let not your heart be troubled: Ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am ye may be also." Our pastor preached on Heaven Sunday morning and I got a little homesick for Heaven. I told Bro Rusty, with tears bubbling up, that I appreciated the message and I was lonesome for Home. He said "Yes, I know with your Mom gone and so many of our love ones -we get lonesome. So many have lost a loved one lately." I said, "No, I'm just thinking about Heaven." He made Heaven so real that sitting there in church several were sobbing and wanting to go Home. Can you imagine Heaven? No in our wildest imagination! We had a good worship service Sunday morning but just think what a Worship Service when we all gather around the throne of God. We will give honor and worship The Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the earth. Our song will be Worthy is the Lamb. I'm so glad He chose to come to earth and gave His Life a Ransom that we might be able to be in that Heavenly Jubilee. An old Hymn that I remember as a child!

EVERYBODY WILL BE HAPPY OVER THERE

There's a happy land of promise over in the great beyond

Where the saved of earth shall soon the glory share.

Where the souls of men shall enter and live on forever more.

Everybody will be happy over there.

There the ransomed of all ages will be singing round the round the throne,

In that land where no one ever knows a care.

And the Christians of all nations will join in the triumph song,

Everybody will be happy over there.

We will hear no-body praying and no mourning in that land,

For no burdens there will be for us to bear.

All the people will be singing "Glory, Glory to the Lamb."

Everybody will be happy over there.

There we'll meet the One who saved us and who kept us by His Grace,

And who brought us to that land so bright and fair;

We will praise His name forever as we look upon His face,

Everybody will be happy over there.

Are you burdened today? Think about Heaven! Happy Land above, Heaven land of Peace and Love! Are you weary and tired with the cares of life? Just think about Heaven and Our Savior. Everything that we go through on earth will be worth it all when we see Jesus.

Andrea Nicole

I couldn't resist! Just got these pictures from Bridget, my grandaughter. Andrea is three. She was here last Saturday and would you believe she had her Great Grandpa on the floor playing Three Little Pigs? Now when Bridget was little Paw- Paw was a lot younger. But he seem to enjoy being on the floor with Andrea as much as she did. Except now Paw has a little harder time getting up.

While they were in the Living Room by themselves, Paw wanted to hear a littleSpanish from her. So he said whatever word he came up with and told her to say it in Spanish. She did this for awhile until she realized I was watching . She is fluent in English and Spanish. Paw would say a word in French ( which is the language his grandparents spoke) and she corrected him in Spanish. Her dad is also a Sanchez from Mexico and they speak both languages at home. They want her to keep her Spanish hertiage, but when she goes to school it will be English.

What I would give to be able to speak Spanish. Yet, here is a three yr. old

already fluent in it. Bridget told me that if I was around Spanish speaking people that I would pick it up fast. Sometimes Andrea will start in English and then go into Spanish. She catches herself and goes back to English.

I tried several cassette sets of spanish but it did not take. I might try and find a DVD with pictures and speech at the same time. Anyone want to take up the challenge of teaching me?

Andrea pronounced

(Aun-Dray-uh)

I was thinking about clouds yesterday. When I see clouds my imagination runs wild. As a child I could get lost inthe clouds. I remember watching the clouds pass by and all the images I could find in the clouds. A face, birds, castles, angels, all sort of images. I just enjoyed watching the clouds float by. Guess I still enjoy a beautiful day with lots of white fluffy clouds. But when I try to paint a cloud I can never get it right. An artist once told me that the sky was hardest thing to paint. So I guess I will just enjoy God's beautiful art! Sometimes, though, the clouds turn to gray and then black. That means a rain storm is on the way. Then we have a gully washer. In case you have never heard of a gully washer - it rains so hard and heavy until things that are way down in the ditches start floating down the ditch. Things surface that you did not know were there. We have to get "things" out of the ditch so the water can flow. I thought of how the Lord had to permit a dark cloud to come in our Christian life. So dark that we can hardly find our way. Sometimes He has to send a gully washer to let us see things surfacing. Maybe we need to make some changes in our walk with Him. What? Changes in our Christian life? Aren't we suppose to be walking with Him and doesn't He lead us day by day? So why change? Aren't all of us human? Do we not sometimes get our priorities out of order? Could there be some hidden thing that the Lord wants to bring to the surface? That's a lot of questions, is't it? Just put another one down! I'll try and stay away from questions and make a few statements. Dark times most certainly come in a Christians life! Times when we feel so alone, times when we feel sorrow and wonder if our heart will ever quit aching, times of unexpected physical conditions that we thought in a million years would never happen to us. How well I remember somes of those times. Did the sun shine again? Oh yes - for our Lord said He would never leave us nor forsake us. I'm so thankful for His promises. There have been clouds of disappointment! Clouds of discouragement and doubt! Times when friends failed and turn on us. But I'm glad to be able to report to you that our Savior was right there with us. Clouds of loneliness without a friend to understand. But what a Friend we have in Jesus! I just feel like bragging on Him for He is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother! Behind every cloud we need to remember that the sun is always shining. And the darker the night , the brighter will be the light when we walk with Him. We have a very small bathroom night light. If we turn it on in the daytime we don't notice it at all. Turn it on when to starts to get dark, we can see it on but mixed with whatever daylight may be left it barely shines any light at all. But it is still there, doing it's job. A few hours later in the darkness of night ~ it sure shines bright. Just a little light dispells the darkness. That's how our Christian life is. The night may be dark, but the darker it gets, the brighter the Light will shine, in the dark, and as we walk in the dark we will never lose our way if we walk with the Savior. Are you going through a dark place in your Christian life? Look for the Light! It is there.

A friend sent this to me last year and this year so I thought since it has the true meaning of Love that I would pass it on to you. Remember God is Love and Him is no darkness. Love that we cannot comprehend. But I thank Him for His Love to me. Have a good day in the Lord tomorrow. And remember He loves you!

Reaching for the Son

This has been a dreary day. A light sleet outside, no sunshine, fire going in fireplace, and soup. We may get snow tonight and tomorrow. Guess I'm glad for the kids sake but I decided when it snowed in December that I would rather have the rain. I saw a slight sign of spring with the red bud trees budding. The birds huddling and looking for food. Snow might cover everything and make it look clean but at least with rain it drains off and we can still see green. We have a few pine trees left. I noticed how they are way up above the other trees. They stay green at the top. When the other trees are in full bloom it's as if the pine trees are stretching for the sun. As if to say to the other trees "Don't think you are going to get all the sunshine~ I'll just climb a little higher." I think it's that way in our Christian life. Something gets between us and the Son and to get a glimpse of Jesus we have to push whatever it is out of the way and keep the way clear between our souls and the Savior. To get to the Son means growth. I want to grow in The Lord, don't you? Glad our growth in the Lord doesn't depend on outward circumstances. The weather may be gloomy, the sun doen't peek through~ but we can still have the joybells ringing in our heart!

The Saints!

The news around here and all of Louisiana is the New Orlean Saints and "who dat." Crowds and crowds of people on the streets of New Orleans waiting for a glimpse of the the players that put the Saints Football on World record for the first time in 44 yrs. A big parade in honor of the Saints went on all night still into today. The parades will go on through Mardi Gras. I think the quarter back, Drew Breese, will be crown King of a Mardi Gras parade. There are so many parades. People have come from all over the U.S. just to to boost the saints and to be at Mardi Gras. Whooping and chanting "who dat, who dat won that game." I did not sleep well last night and my mind was twirling. I lived most of my life about one hour from New Orleans and have never been to Mardi Gras. Some people can't believe that. Others come from hundreds of miles away. I never had a desire to go. Sunday night the game was between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts. and was played in Miami Fl. The timing of the game made it so easy for churches to get together somewhere and watch the game and talk about "whatever." But not so at our church. The Saints were in their places enjoying the presence of the Lord. We pass about four churches on the way to ours and no one seem to be having services. What a shame that sports come before the Lord. I'm not really into football. I would probably shout for the wrong team. "Dare not do that the "who dat" team." A few minutes after we got home from church we knew who won. Several boys or men were running down the road shouting "who dat,who dat won that game." They will all get those special rings that players strive for. That makes me wonder how many are striving for the final goal? The real Saints of God are in a race to win. We know we are going to win for we have read the last chapter. We will get to cast our crowns at the feet of Jesus and then have a parade around heaven shouting "King Jesus, King Jesus" for as long as we want. And then start all over again. Won't that be a wonderful day? I might not be interested in foot ball or Mardi Gras here~but that parade in heaven~ I don't intend to miss.

I've been digging around in my brothers writings and found these lessons. Thought this was good. Lessons from a Black Lab I had been sitting on the rock levy of the Arkansas River, praying and reading my Bible and watching the tug boats move some barges, when a pickup truck pulled up to the boat ramp with two men and two Black Labs in it. The two men and one of the dogs got out of the truck and began to walk down the ramp towards the river. The one dog that was still in the truck began to whine as the others moved away from the truck. I sat there thinking to myself... how mean can you get, to let one dog get out and then you tie the other one in the truck and make it stay there while it's friend, the other dog, was having all the fun. I seemed to feel like the Lord was saying to me, "There is a lesson in this for you... Just watch." So I just sat there and watched the poor dog and wondered what lesson I could learn from all this. I wanted to go over to the truck and talk to the dog but thought better of it since I didn't know the men and they might think that I was doing something to their truck. So I just sat and watched.Only a minute or two had passed. The men had not gotten to the river yet. Then a very amazing thing happened. One of the men turned and looked back at the truck and said to the dog that I thought was tied, "Do you want to come?" The dog gave a loud bark and began to jump around in the truck. I was thinking, "Well, it's about time, you jerk!" I waited on the man to go back to the truck to untie the dog so he could have some fun, too. But the man just said real loud, "Well, come on then!" Out of the truck came the dog and made a bee-line toward the man, and when he arrived he began to run around and around the man. The man was petting and loving the dog as well.All the time I had thought bad thoughts about the man, but now I thought what a great guy he was. The dog had not been tired at all but was doing what his master told him to do.What lesson did you get from this story? Well, here's what I got: 1. Training: from the master 2. Discipline: from the dog 3. Obedience: from the dog 4. Love: from the master and the dog

The Train and The Boy

The Train and the Boy I would like to tell you a story about a man named John Griffith. John was the father of an 8-year-old boy during the 20’s and 30’s. John was very fortunate during those times, because he had job. John loved his son very much. He was the apple of his eye. John’s son was a normal little boy who constantly wanted to go to work with his father. John decided he would take his boy to work with him one day. John was bridge conductor across the Mississippi River. John was in charge of raising and lowering the bridge so that boats could get through and trains could pass. John’s son was so amazed at the gears and all the things that went along with his father’s job. They had brought their lunch to work with them that day and decided to eat their lunch on the bank of the river. John and his son was eating lunch and John had realized that in about 3 minutes the Memphis Belle carrying 300 passengers was getting ready to cross the bridge, but the bridge was not lowered. John didn’t want to alarm his son so he patted him on the shoulder and told him to sit right their and he would be right back. John hustled up the stairs, he grabbed the lever to lower the bridge and he had realized that somehow his son had climbed to the bridge and had fallen in between the gears of the bridge. John could hear the train coming carrying the 300 passengers. In his mind he started going over ways he could get his son from the gears and still lower the bridge, but he knew he had to make a choice. John lowered the bridge just in time for the train to pass crushing his son in between the gears. John looked at the train passing by and saw a man reading his newspaper a woman drinking her tea and another talking to his wife. John screamed at the top of his lungs “Hey, Don’t you know what I’ve just done for you” they didn’t hear him so he screamed again “Hey, Don’t you know what I’ve just done for you” But again they just went along with their lives not ever realizing what John had done for them. God is asking us the same question “Don’t you know what I’ve done for you. I sent my only Son to this earth for you. He died a terrible death so that you and I could spend eternity with Him. Easter is approaching and we need to really look and see what the Lord has done for us this year. Let's don't be like the man on the train reading the news or the lady sipping on tea ~ never realizing that someone was willing to sacrifice his son so they could live. That's exacty what God did for us. He sacrificed His Only Begotten Son that we might have life in Him. Let's thank Hm today!!

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Making a difference is what we all want to do. Sometimes we wonder what we can do. I am encouraged by our grandson, John. John was saved at an early age but because of family problems he did not go to church for a few years. He will graduate this year and has become such a blessing to us. He and Adam, his younger brother, starting riding the bus to go church where we go. They could have ridden with us but they enjoyed getting to be a helper on the church bus. They were faithful every Sunday morning but did not go on Sunday Nights or Wednesday nights. Yet God was working in their hearts. While we were in Arkansas in September at the passing of my husbands sister I called my pastor's wife to let her know that Joanna had passed away. She was so excited! Not because of a saint that had gone home but something else. We had a conference on Revelation at this time. She said John had been coming and bringing a friend every night. We know that Revelation is hard for adults to comphrehend, but here were two teenagers going every night, taking turns driving. Naturally our hearts were thrilled but I wondered if they would make it through the rest of the week. Oh, ye of little faith! When we got home John told us he really enjoyed Revelation. The story does not end there. John and Preston (his friend) kept going and here it is January and they are still faithful. Yesterday morning as we left for church ~ John, Adam, Preston, (John's friend) and another boy were waiting for the bus. Preston had brought another friend. His name was Wade! He had come the Sunday before. But yesterday after Sunday School Wade was really under conviction. The Youth Leader dealt with Wade and led him to the Lord. Story not over yet! The teen-agers come to the regular service after Sunday School. I looked across the church and saw John and Wade sitting together. Then a gentlemen can in and sat down. He had never been there before. Then I noticed that Wade got up and went and sat by this gentleman. It was his Dad! Our pastor really preached on salvation and becoming a child of God. At the end I saw Wade and his Dad make their way to the front. His Dad was all broken up. You can guess what happened! His Dad was saved. They were back last night and are going to be baptised next Sunday. What I saying is, if you want to make a difference just be faithful. John was instrumental in getting these boys to church to hear the gospel and getting saved. Then a Dad came and got saved. We don't know the family yet ~ but we are expecting others to get in because of a Teen-ager that was faithful. Yes, we can all make a difference by being faithful and letting God use us in whatever small way He choses. Thank God for His faithfulness to us.