In the Dark

Moriah told me her Sunday School lesson this past Sunday was about God making the world. The teacher gave each of the students a piece of paper, turned out the light, and told them to draw a world on the paper, if I understood correctly. My thought pattern kept going, though.... I remember that God spoke to the darkness FIRST and said, Let there be light AND THERE WAS LIGHT. I'm not discrediting the teacher because I don't know how she taught the lesson or what her point was, so I don't want to be misunderstood and someone think I am criticizing her. But my mind got to whirling with these thoughts. He spoke light to the darkness first, not because He needed to see what He was doing, but that when God does something, He chooses to do it in the light! God is light! It takes God to make a world and He did it in 6 DAYS!!! We cannot do that, even if we had all the light in the world! There is so much more to be said about it, but that is enough for me! Just wanted to share!

Struggling with infertility?

For those of you who know me, you know how I've struggled in the past with infertility and it's effect on me. It isn't easy, but lately the Lord has really been trying to get my attention with a chapter in Psalms that I am almost convinced was written from the writer to a woman struggling with this very issue. I had a pastor tell me one time, "Jennifer, there are plenty of promises in the word of God that you can claim and you need to quote them back to the Lord and tell Him what His word says!" This pastor was not implying that God forgot His word or His promises, but that it would be an act of faith on MY part, telling Him I believe His word and that He will keep His promises...
Well, one of those promises that I stubbornly (I will explain in a moment why I used the word 'stubbornly') clung to was found in Psalm 127:3 ~ Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is His reward. We all know that scripture, right? In prayer, I would cling to that verse, my Bible open in front on me, and I would point to it, Look Lord, here is the verse! This is what Your word says! And much to my surprise, He would tell me, Look at the first two verses! So, I did.
"Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it..." NOW HOLD ON!!!! I went on the defense! I thought to myself, That's why I don't have anymore children! God doesn't want me to have any!  You talk about hurting! I started to get mad and I would NOT read that verse anymore and kept right on clinging to verse 3, stubbornly, I might add...
But FINALLY, God got through to me! That was NOT what verse 1 meant! He caused me to remember how he brought my husband into my life when I thought I was NEVER going to get married and He has put our home together and thus started building our home! He told me, I am the One who's building your home! Not you, or your husband or anyone else! I am the master builder and Me alone! You can't even get to verse 3 because you are stuck at verse 2! 
Verse 2? It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, and eat the bread of sorrows, for so He giveth His beloved sleep.
God was dealing with me... I wasn't trusting Him.. I was worrying, fretting, sorrowful (believe me, the word 'sorrowful' isn't even strong enough) and it has been a hindrance to me! God was telling me that because of my lack of trust in Him, I was hindering what He wants to do in OUR lives and that HE is the builder, not me! It isn't up to me, it isn't about me, and I needed to let go and let Him do the building! He said, I am the builder, and you need to trust that I will build it right, and you need to quit worrying and when you do that, verse 3 will come!
Then verses 4 and 5 will happen!
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth!
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate!
Verse 1 - Master Builder who is worthy of our trust
Verse 2 - If you are trusting Him like you should, you will rest in Him
Verse 3 - He brings His promise to pass
Verse 4 - The future of our children
Verse 5 - The happiness of the home!
In essence, if God has promised, He WILL keep His promises! But we must do our part, so He can do His! He lays out the plans, tells us what we should do, and He will do the rest! So you know what? I don't worry anymore! If God can make a woman, who is now the mother of three children (at least, she may have more by now), have children AFTER having a complete hysterectomy, then God can move for those who struggle with infertility! But we must rest in His promises and BELIEVE HIM!!!! Hasn't He promised? Has He ever failed to KEEP His promises? No...
Trust Him!! He is the Master Builder and He knows how to build!!!! 

Crocheted Flowers/Valentine Gift

Here they are! I only have a couple or three done right now because I have NOT had the time to really get into it, but I have done enough to put a couple of pics on here so you can at least see what I am trying to achieve. Hope you like them! This one is actually TWO flowers layered together... But they will resemble this ensemble, only I would like to have ideas on how to embellish them.. Put a little bling... LOL! I have buttons and things to use, but I would like to use feathers, too... What do you think? (I LOVE feathers... LOL!)

(Shown a little smaller than actual size.. They are about 2 to 3 inches in diameter.)

Here is one I made for one of Moriah's friends for Valentine's Day!

This pink one was a lapel pin...

The top two pics were two of the first I made... The top one was made with ivory thread embellished with gold thread, and the bottom one was done in antique white... They haven't been fixed up either.. But I wanted to show you all what my "flowers" look like anyway... 

And now... On to my Valentine gift from my hubby!!!!

I have very little counter space (and cabinet space), and I do mean LITTLE!!! And I have NO pantry, so I was needing something to corral my seemingly endless counter clutters!!! It is by no means done, but this is the pic I took after we got in the house and sorted some things that night before we went to bed... We didn't have a whole lot of time to do much with it since we got home so late, but I wanted to show you my cabinet! He got it for $50! Thrifty! And I LOVE it!!!! 

Anyway, that's all for now! Once I really get down to business and get to fixing my "flowers" up, I will post more pics!!! Let me know what you think!!!

Heads Up

Just so everyone knows, I have been seriously considering making different items and possibly selling them from my blog. It may take a while, but to help bring some income to this home, I have given serious thought and am one step away from completely being talked into doing it. I've already decided to sell some things at a flea market if I can get them made in time, but I will try to sell things on here, too. As soon as I have samples of things I am making, I will post pics. Nothing real drastic or fantastic (LOL!), but hopefully it will help! :)

A Time To Dance

February promotes a lot of romance. You will see more advertisements about flowers and candy, couples dancing or getting married. There seems to be love in the air. But it isn't that way for everyone. I remember, before I got married, how dreadful Valentine's Day was and I just wanted to get through it and get past it. It seemed to really emphasize the loneliness I felt and I hated feeling lonely. Now, it has become a meaningful part in our marriage. No, we don't focus on Valentine's Day as the only day we can openly express our love for one another. Every day can be Valentine's Day! I am thankful for the man God brought into my life and I wouldn't trade him for anything. He is my best friend. He knows me better than anyone and still loves me anyway. That's saying something!
But speaking of dancing a moment ago, I thought of that scripture in Ecclesiastes that says there is a "time to dance". There are other things listed in that chapter, such as a time to mourn, a time to weep, a time for sewing and a time to rend, and so on. Look it up, the third chapter. We can identify with most, if not all, of the 'times' listed. Dancing implies relief from heavy burdens, joy that cannot be contained, excitement that can't be hid, feelings that NEED to be expressed! But for some reason, it's one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Dance. This is NOT a sad story, if I may say, but to get to the meat of the matter (dancing), I must say first that the past two to three years have been some of the hardest years of my life. I won't go into all the trouble and hurts and pain and so on, for there's too much to tell anyway. But honestly, I can't think of ONE time that I have felt like dancing in the last two years. It's sad, but I feel like I haven't had much to let loose and dance about in those two long years. I don't mean this for a hard up story, for that is NOT what it is. But we all go through times in which it's the hardest thing to do. Let go of troubles, hurts, pains, sorrows, longings, despair, put it all aside, and for our hearts' sake, just DANCE. Our human nature demands that we have a REASON to dance, but there comes a time in our spiritual journey where we need to DANCE on faith! We may not have received the promise, but DANCE anyway, knowing that God is in control and it will NOT always be this way. It didn't come to stay, it came to pass. I love that saying. I don't always understand the 'seasons' of life, why some seasons seem to take forever to end, but the good news is, THEY DO END. We wonder if we will make it until the end happens, but stop for a moment and realize, Solomon said there will be a time to dance and you can count on it. We are so quick to count on the bad, the time to weep, mourn, die, break down, time to lose, time of hate, time of war, and so on. They come, but so do the others. The time to heal, the time to be born, time to build up, time to laugh, a time of peace, a TIME TO DANCE. This all brings this scripture to my mind, ALL THINGS work TOGETHER for GOOD to them that love God, who are the CALLED according to HIS purpose. Not only will the bad happen in our lives, but the GOOD happen. So if you are doubting you will ever dance again, just know that seasons do come and go, the good AND the bad. If you are mourning now, hold on.
YOU WILL DANCE AGAIN.

~Shadows~

Happy February, everyone! I read the news this morning, and apparently the groundhog saw it's shadow! According to the "experts", whomever they may be, we will "suffer" six more weeks of winter, such as it is! Can't threaten me with 50 and 60 degree weather! I just hope we don't have snow in April! Wouldn't that be a mix up? I wish we could have one good snow, about 6 inches or so, to play in, before spring bursts upon us in it's vibrancy! I love spring! I love flowers! I love to hear the birds chirp their way into my semi-conscious state early in the morning! It's hard to stay in bed with birds chirping right outside your window! There's just something about the sun, the birds, the WARM weather, even the crickets AT NIGHT, that spells peace and tranquility to me! To be honest, I'm glad I'm not SO rich, that I can't enjoy the simple things in life, such as the spring activity going on right outside my window!

Shadows. A lot of times, shadows are used to describe something hard in our lives. We think about the groundhog seeing his shadow and assume the opinion of experts that we will see six more weeks of winter and despair sets in. But what we fail to realize is, in order to have a shadow, there has to be light somewhere. Otherwise, he wouldn't see his shadow. Shadows aren't always a bad thing.

I read one time about shadows. Depending on the position of the sun, an object can appear really big, or really small. Have you ever noticed your shadow as you walked down the street? I used to look at my shadow as I walked and always wondered what it would be like to be TEN FEET tall! LOL! But usually it was because the sun was behind me! But if the sun was overhead, I looked like I was 4 or 5 inches tall. Troubles are often compared to shadows. Shadows are there to remind us that the Light is somewhere very near by!  The psalmist even said, "He that DWELLETH in the secret place of the Most High SHALL abide under the SHADOW of the Almighty." If He is the LIGHT, to be in His shadow means you have to be VERY close to Him. So shadows are not a bad thing! It just means the light is very close to you.

So if your problems seem BIG to you, get closer to the LIGHT and they will diminish. The closer to the light you get, the smaller the problem gets. Instead of seeing the shadow as something to be feared, just look at it as a sign that the Light is near you! Focus on the light, not the shadow. When you get close enough to Him, the shadows just sort of disappear.