😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace and presence be with you.  Friday was my regularly scheduled day off and Monday was a federal holiday, so I had four full days to work on our new home.  So, what have I been doing for the past eight weeks?  Good questions.  I’ve been spending most of my time in our garage, currently known as the poly shop.  I’ve been putting poly urethane  on corner trim, pocket doors, window trim, door trim, and baseboards.  I still have more baseboards, shoe molding, and more doors to do.  By the way, my new nickname is Pollyanna.  I need more poly and another board.  :0)

We were told yesterday by our electrician that he is planning on finishing our project this week.  The carpet is being install later this week or the beginning of next week. Hopefully by the end of next week our plumbing and boiler system will be ready to go.  We are getting very close, but some finishing touches and custom built closet doors are still in the works.  As the list of big projects get smaller, the list of smaller/punch list projects gets bigger.  The way I’ve been mentally getting through these lists, tasks, and all the boards that need to be coated with poly is by telling myself…”That’s one more board I won’t have to touch again.” and “Do it right the first time, so you don’t have to do it again.”  Yes, they may seem simple, but they keep me motivated.    

When I saw this quote a few months back, I thought…”This is very true.”

“When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person that walked in. That’s what the storm is all about.” – Haruki Murakami

Getting close to the other side of our home build project, I can definitely see that I’m not the same person I was at the beginning of the project.  Many lessons have been learned and skills acquired.  Persistence is a gift, when you are willing to see a project through to the end.  Thank You Lord for never leaving my side.

Bless others and be blessed.

Shelly  :0)

If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that you and He may also bless others.  Click subscribe to receive your message every Wednesday via email.

#AustinFrench – Good Feeling

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace and presence be with you.  Driving along the highway from the homestead to our home one night this past week, a vehicle passed me smelling as if they ran over a skunk.  This got me to thinking about how much trust we put in people every time we choose to drive.  These are people, we for the most part don’t know, never seen before, don’t talk to, and typically don’t even look at as we pass by, but yet we trust our lives to them.  Okay, you may think I’m exaggerating, but I’m really not.  Honestly, how much effort do you put into thinking about those that will be on the road with you, before you hit the road?  And I say again, yet you trust them with your life.  You trust that they will stay in their lane.  You trust that they will not stop suddenly in front of you.  You trust that you will make it to your intended destination safely. 

With all this trust being so freely and easily given, why then is it so hard for people to trust God with their life?  Think about that the next time you hit the road.

Proverbs 3: 5-8 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.”

P.S. Don’t drive faster than your guardian angel can fly.

Bless others and be blessed.

Shelly  :0)

If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that you and He may also bless others.  Click subscribe to receive your message every Wednesday via email.

#CodyCarnes – Take You at Your Word

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace and presence be with you.  Yesterday was one of those rare occasions in which all of my siblings were in town at the same time, so we were able to have dinner all together with our parents.  It was truly a blessing spending time with everyone.  I didn’t have my phone with me, otherwise I would have taken a picture for you, but walking from my car to the restaurant I saw a piece for plywood displayed on a fence row with a painting of baby Jesus in the manger and this simple message,

Jesus came…

Here’s your sign.

Bless others and be blessed.

Shelly  :0)

If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that you and He may also bless others.  Click subscribe to receive your message every Wednesday via email.

#ChrisTomlinThomasRhettFloridaGeorgiaLine – Thank You Lord

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace and presence be with you.  Snoopy has been a favorite of mine, as far back as I can remember. 

Seeing Snoops in this moment, a simple moment of embracing and engaging the unexpected; finding joy in the dance; offering gratitude for the experience, makes me realize that I’ve been holding on too tightly, trying to control more than what’s actually been given me to control.   Sometimes we just need to put our hands in the air, let go, and dance. 

Bless others and be blessed.

Shelly  :0)

If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that you and He may also bless others.  Click subscribe to receive your message every Wednesday via email.

#Peanuts

#RobSchwab – Peanuts Theme Song

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace and presence be with you.  Sitting at dinner Saturday night with Brian, my parents, and my sister and brother-in-law, a pianist was playing in the bar area next to us.  There were some familiar tunes throughout the evening, but this one really caught my ear.

I immediately recognized this tune from the movie Hope Floats.  Just hearing the first few notes makes me want to watch the movie again.  Music is an incredibly powerful point of connection between people and a transportation mechanism returning us to moments in our past.  Think about some of those songs that have meant the most to you.  What would the soundtrack of your life sound like? 

Even if you don’t usually listen to the songs I post with my messages, I would ask that you pause for four minutes and really listen to this song.  I know Garth Brooks is singing the song, but these are words that God is speaking directly to and for you.  Let them penetrate your heart and know that God means every word He speaks to you.

Bless others and be blessed.

Shelly  :0)

If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that you and He may also bless others.  Click subscribe to receive your message every Wednesday via email.

#GarthBrooks – To Make You Feel My Love

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace and presence be with you.  Like a triangle there are three lines of prayer.  On one side, you pray for others, which is a blessing for them as well as for you.  On the second side, you request others to pray for you.  Again, this is a blessing for both them and you.  Side note…something I’ve noticed is that it seems more people are willing to pray for someone else, than they are willing to ask others to pray for them.  Both of those first two sides flow upward and come to a single point, pointing up toward our heavenly Father.  As our prayers flow to the Father, He then filters blessing down, creating the base line in which we receive prayer.  Pray for others.  Ask for prayers.  Receive prayers.  It’s the trifecta of prayers.  Like the Holy Trinity, a prayer triangle is very sturdy and can bare a lot of weight and pressure, because it’s evenly distributed.  In praying for others, asking for prayer, and allowing ourselves to receive prayer, we create great balance in our lives and stand sturdy and strong when the weight and pressures of life are bearing down on us. 

Bless others and be blessed.

Shelly  :0)

If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that you and He may also bless others.  Click subscribe to receive your message every Wednesday via email.

#TobyMac – Help is on the Way

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace and presence be with you.  The Bible is packed with stories of paths taken, travels embarked upon, and journeys that led them through and to experiences with God Himself.  Actually, the Bible is a compilation of God’s people’s journey back to Him. 

At some point in your life, you may have heard someone say, “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”  The farther we get into and down the road of our journeys, we can run into points of darkness and fatigue, in which we can’t seem to find any light and mentally and physically we are just worn out from the journey.  Even though Satan has been picking at us the entire journey, that point, when we are worn down and in our deepest darkness, that is the point when Satan will hit you and I the hardest, thinking that we are at our weakest.  Yes, sometimes it is true, that is our weakest point. 

Those times are also our greatest turning points.  Every time you hit a wall mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, you have to turn in one direction or another.  Which way will you choose to turn?  Actually, the question is what or whom will you turn to?  If you choose a “what”, that will generally lead you back to some addictive tendencies, such as food, drinking, drugs, and other such activities.  If you choose a “whom”, I pray that your first choice is God.  But we all know that doesn’t always happen.  Typically, people don’t straight up choose Satan.  But, what we tend to do is choose to turn to people that share and emulate either the qualities of God or Satan.

God knows the plans he has for you.  Satan doesn’t.  All he cares about is diverting you from God’s plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  There is no future in a life with Satan.  It is a “dead” end road.

Christ the Lord is your source of everlasting, eternal life.  Make wise choices and have a blessed and eternal life.

Jeremiah 29:11 ‘“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Bless others and be blessed.

Shelly  :0)

If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that you and He may also bless others.  Click subscribe to receive your message every Wednesday via email.

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace and presence be with you.  I imagine many of you have heard and may have even experienced that our Lord is a God of second chances.  Those second chances can come in many different ways and for many different reasons.  I experienced one of these second chances last week. 

A few months ago, a lead/trainer position became available on my work team.  When the job posted and even before it was posted, every time I thought about applying for the position, it caused an instant rush of stress and anxiety.  We’re still working on building our home; I’m still working on an overtime project at work, that I’ve been working on for close to a year and a half; we had a hand full of specialists leave our team and I felt I needed to stay where I was at to help maintain some stability within our team.  With all this going on, I felt that if I applied and was selected, I wouldn’t be able to give 100% focus to the new position.  Even up until two hours before the application cutoff, I was still battling with myself about whether I should apply or not.  I ended up not applying, but I did have a conversation with God and told Him that the next time the position was posted, I would apply.  Honestly, I figured it would be a year or so before that position would be vacant again.

While at work a few weeks later, I received a mass email advertising a position for our team.  I immediately sent a message to my supervisor and asked if a new position was added to our Team.  She replied saying no, they didn’t select any of the applicants, so they had to repost the job.  Upon reading her response, I immediately laughed out loud and said, “Okay God, I’ll apply.”  He does have a sense of humor. 

From that moment, I didn’t have any stress or anxiety about applying.  Actually, I felt incredible peace and calm. 

I held true to my conversation with God.  I applied for the job and was eventually selected from the group of qualified applicants. 

Yes, our Lord is a God of second chances.  He will make clear the path, as long as we are willing to walk through the gate.  I know this is a journey that will be challenging as well as rewarding, but I also know that He has something great for me to do here, for His glory. 

Listen for the Lord as He calls to you.  For He is also clearing a path for you.

Bless others and be blessed.

Shelly  :0)

If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that you and He may also bless others.  Click subscribe to receive your message every Wednesday via email.

#TobyMac – Hello Future

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace and presence be with you. This past weekend Brian and I celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary. Sitting at Mass Sunday morning, God allowed me to connect some dots that I hadn’t before realized were there. Our anniversary falls on the same weekend as the feast of Jesus’ Transfiguration, in which we read and focus on Matthew 17: 1-9. What an awesome event that must have been to experience, then just a few moments later be told not to share what they experienced with anyone until He was “raised from the dead”. The three disciples, Peter, James, and John, that the Lord chose to experience His transfiguration, may have thought they would never get to share that experience with anyone. I mean, after all, how often is someone raised from the dead.

During Father Ed’s homily, he spoke of an experience he had while leading a retreat for high school students.  One of the students asked, what is faith?  So, Father Ed posed that question to the other students.  What is faith?  The response he received from a 17 year old young man left a lasting impression.  This young man said, faith is what I have between experiences of God. 

Take a moment and let that sink in.  Faith is what I have between experiences of God.  Faith is what carries us, sustains us, and lightens our steps in those gaps. 

Jesus was/is such an unselfish man and God.  You know He didn’t transform for Himself.  No, He changed so that He might be an example for us.  He once again made Himself an example for us to follow.  To open ourselves to the transformative powers within us, around us, and through Him.  My marriage with Brian has been a very transformative series of experiences.  It’s ever changing, as we are ever growing in the depths of our love for each other and our relationship with the Lord. 

Some moments can be so transformative, that when you make it though to the other side of that experience, you have been so changed by the Lord, that the person you once were becomes just a shadow.  As long as you face the Son, that shadow will always be behind you. 

Bless others and be blessed.

Shelly  :0)

If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that you and He may also bless others.  Click subscribe to receive your message every Wednesday via email.

#CastingCrowns – The Change in Me

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace and presence be with you.  Negativity…It does not serve me or anyone else well.  But once you fall into it, have you noticed that the deeper you get into it, the easier it becomes.  Negativity is a cancer that can spread in the blink of an eye and before you know it, it’s out of control.  Sometimes the corrective action is just a nip and tuck here or there.  If left to its own device, negativity may cause you to need some major surgery in order to cut it out of your life.  If left too long, it certainly can cause relationships to die.  I’m guilty of being the negative person from time to time, although I sincerely try to always view a positive side in all situations.  There are some people in our lives, that we just have no choice and have to interact with them.  This past week, knowing that I had a meeting with a person that causes negativity in my life caused me to think too much, lay awake in bed…you know, how you have those conversations with yourself trying to prepare for what you think that interaction with a negative person will be.  It’s just ridiculous!  Such a waste of time.  I really need to keep working toward stopping myself from going down that road sooner, giving it to God and tell Him the battle belongs to you.  In reality, it’s a spiritual battle.  Those demons try to work their destruction through me and you.  We cannot win those battles.  We must give them to God.  He has the might!  He has the power!  He has the wisdom!  He has the army to defeat all that Satan does and will try to do, to beat us down and crush our will.  Be strong in the Lord and His mighty power.

Bless others and be blessed.

Shelly  :0)

If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that you and He may also bless others.  Click subscribe to receive your message every Wednesday via email.

#PhilWickham – Battle Belongs