Not Today, Satan!

1. DOCUMENTED FAITH - Hackers got into Stephanie's Instagram Account and deleted it. She said she arm wrestled with the webmaster to see if he could possibly restore it and when he could or would not, she had to start over! She said the verse under our promise this week (Revelation 21:4) was really pertinent for her situation and she told the evil one "Not today, Satan!" as she read: "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (v. 5) "HE who was seated on the THRONE said," I am making everything NEW!" Then he said, "WRITE THIS DOWN, for these words are trustworthy and true." So she did and sent us an email!   I'm thankful she's still alive and well!

My Documented Faith collection here.

2. VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL - I'm grateful that God sent us 30 children one night for our church's VBS!

3.  The evil one is the father of confusion (mental fog) and lies and I'm struggling with knowing what kind of boundaries are Godly ones that he has put into place. My  shirt-tail cousin, Brenda, shared this verse sometime ago to help me to be able to discern some of the kind of boundaries I should have in place - Proverbs 4:23 "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life."  The book I'm reading at the moment also quotes this verse. 

I've written down quotes from books before that were pertinent to my life, but this time, inspired by Stephanie Ackerman, I'm taking it one step further and also writing down in a spiral notebook questions to ask myself concerning the subject as they occur to me, definitions when words or concepts aren't clear to me, Bible verses that the author is using in her book, and at the end quotes from the book. Thank you, Stephanie, for your inspiration. 

4. I'm SO THANKFUL for those prayer warriors, my support team, out there that are praying for me RIGHT NOW! Everybody sometime has to face up to their own mortality. I'm in that spot right now and I'm scared. Remember when you were little and scared from a bad dream and you ran to snuggle up to mom or dad for comfort? I want somebody with skin on to hug me, to fight for me,  to make it all better and make the bad stuff go away. I'm not done living here. I still have stuff  I want to do.  Oh how pertinent are the comfort verses God sends to me each week. 

5. I'm thankful for Karen as I was having a hard day concerning my newest diagnoses after an echocardiogram (more on that later) and she came to visit me. She brought me some tea pretties and a new book to read called Gratitude: Affirming One Another Through Stories. by Len Froyen. I shall report on it later when I get done reading my current books. She told me to go create, so I did and here's what I made for my scripture art journal:

She has been drinking a brand of hot tea called Prince of Peace which intrigued me, so I went to look at the website and learned it was a Christian based company which I had suspected. So cool! The heart, brand, and tea cups came from a couple of their store flyers which I fussy cut out. I glued them to a background of inked masking tape, wrote and cut out the strips of the Bible verse and then "painted" on a coat of Modge-Podge to protect it. The dye ink lifted a little to make the whole page look grungy. I like it!  

A Sigh of Relief and Jumping for Joy!

1. THANKFUL BOYS IN CAVE RESCUED! = I imagine those Thai boys were thankful to see the sunlight once more as Jonah was when he was released from the belly of that great fish that swallowed him! 

2. THANKFUL FOR BEE'S HONEY AND HERBS! - To me, Greek thyme honey tastes a little like hoar hound candy. Now I know why. I've enjoyed this candy, but thought I wouldn't be able to eat it again because of the sugar content. Just learned that both hoar hound and thyme are in the mint family (Lamiaceae) and all have medicinal, antiseptic qualities like honey! Which means I should eat more, right? Here is a recipe for a thyme tea infusion (a tisane). I only had dried thyme and I let it steep the full 10 minutes, then I added a splash of Kool-Aid lemonade to it and it was so Yummy! However, real lemon juice can be added instead with 2 tablespoons lemon juice + 2 tablespoons stevia/honey to 3/4 cup of the hot liquid and stirring to mix. 

3. SCRIPTURE ART JOURNALING = My inspiration: a  Tea-riffic Card! 

4. THANKFUL WE MADE IT TO FAMILY REUNION IN ONE PIECE! = No semi's hit us this year, however, we were saddened to learn of the sudden, unexpected death of a family member's father-in-law the day before our reunion. 

5. TREASURES I'M GRATEFUL FOR = I compiled a small list of items for a scavenger hunt for the children to do at our family reunion. It was being held in a park, so most things could have been found by a sharp eyed kid! One thing I asked them to find was something they might treasure. None of them brought a family member to me, but they did bring some other interesting items to win a piece of candy. One young man even found a heart-shaped rock!
That got me to thinking - what items do I treasure besides my family? I treasure conveniences such as my two canes -- they work hard for me - not only keeping me upright, but also helping to steady me as I practice going up and down steps (scary, I tell you when you have the rocking boat variety of vertigo) and giving me something to push against from a sitting position to get upright. I also treasure fly-swatters - no biting on me, thank you very much. I also realized how much I appreciate elevators when one of the hotels we stayed at put us on the second floor and I had to walk up two flights of steps and down a long hallway to get to our room. I also appreciated the air conditioning in our new-t0-us car this weekend as it was HOT, as the pick-up had the roll-down variety of air conditioning. smile! And while I have learned how to push open doors for myself with either my canes or walker in hand,  I treasure the kind people who see me coming and run to hold a door open for me. Today, a gentleman watched over me as I descended stairs outside of a church building. It makes them feel good to help someone, especially when I'm gracious enough to thank them. 
Also, while I love drinking Quik Trip's white peach flavored iced tea, Casey's convenience store does not carry it, but my husband found a new flavored drink for me this last weekend there that is sweetened with stevia. I tried several flavors and think I like the coconut one best. It is called BAI  COCOFUSION! Yum!  (CAFFEINE ALERT! This drink is best suited for daytime drinking, but not after 6pm. smile!)

Call On His Name

1. THANK YOU GOD for listening to our prayers. Thank you for sending men miraculously in the right direction to find the soccer team boys and to rescue 4 of them so far from the Thailand cave system! Please shield the mountain from the rains until all the boys and their coach are rescued. Joshua prayed for the sun to stand still and it did and so we ask that you hold the rains off until all the boys and their coach are standing in the sunlight once more. Bless the rescuers with wisdom and strength to remove the boys from the caves. Be with the family of the Thai diver who passed away during the operation. Bring them comfort.  Be with the parents of the boys -- I know how terrifying this must be for them - stand by them! 

"On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel: "Oh sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon. So the sun stood still and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel." ~ Joshua 10:12-14

2. DOCUMENTED FAITH - I doodled and stamped this scripture art journal page inspired by Monica (of Because Jesus Bible Journaling).

3. DRINK - I haven't drank Kool-Aid lemonade for years, however, I recently discovered it's a cheap alternative to bottled flavored water made with Splenda, which gives me a headache. If you substitute a cup of stevia powder for the sugar the unsweetened single powder 0.19 oz. package instructions tells you to use, you get a pretty decent drink for pennies. Thank you, Lord, for Kool-Aid!

4. SCRAPBOOK & STAMP SHOW - I'm thankful I was able to go this year and I found a few things tea related that came home with me. I also looked at a mini cash & carry, cell-phone purse with cherries on it, but could not find the price, so left it there. Then on the way home, we stopped to visit the in-laws and my mother-in-law surprised me by giving me the very same kind of purse. She said it came as a freebie in something she mail-ordered, but it was too small for her. I was tickled pink! 😁

5. I have been thinking of those boys trapped in that cave and I shiver all over for I get claustrophobic just thinking about it. I've been in caves before as Missouri has something like 6,000 known caves, however, I've only been in a few and Carlsbad Cavern in New Mexico a couple of times. In one article I read, the coach in Buddhist monk training had the boys practice meditation to keep them calm. Well, I've also been in some tight MRI tubes that I've had to pray my way through. So today I am thankful to hear the birds singing their praises to God this fine Sunday morning.