Delicious Dinner!

I had time to do some experimenting in the kitchen this afternoon.  Dinner was delicious!  We had an Apple Bacon Meatloaf, Green Beans, and Mashed Cauliflower.  Everyone loved the new meatloaf recipe AND the mashed cauliflower.  At first, there was a little hesitation with the cauliflower, but the taste won everyone over. 

Apple Bacon Meatloaf

1 1/2 to 2 pounds lean ground beef
1/2 to 1 pound Italian Sausage
2 Eggs
1 c. bread crumbs or crushed herb stuffing crumbs
1 medium Sweet Onion, chopped
1 Gala or Fuji Apple, chopped
6 pieces Cooked Bacon, chopped
6 pieces Uncooked Bacon
1 c. Apple Butter (separated 1/2 c. for meatloaf and 1/2 c. for glaze)
1/2 c. Cinnamon Apple Sauce
6 Tbs. Hickory Barbecue Sauce (3 for meatloaf and 3 for glaze)
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease 2 loaf pans.  Line the bottom of each loaf pan with bread slices.  (This will soak up any grease from the cooking meatloaf.)  Set aside.  Combine meats, eggs, bread crumbs, onion, apple, chopped bacon, apple butter, apple sauce, and barbecue sauce using your hands to mix thoroughly.  Salt and pepper to your liking.  Mix thoroughly.  Separate and put into loaf pans.  Mix the rest of the apple butter and barbecue sauce to make glaze.  Spread over top of meatloaf mixture.  Place 3 slices of uncooked bacon on each loaf.  Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour until cooked through.  Switch oven to broil setting.  Broil for 10 minutes or until bacon on top is crisp.  Let meatloaf rest before moving to serving plate.  (Remember, the bread is not for eating.  It is soaked with grease.  Just discard.)

Mashed Cauliflower

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
4 c. chicken stock or broth
1/2 container Philly Garlic Cooking Cream
1/2 stick butter
Salt and Pepper
Chives for garnish

Place cauliflower florets in a large pot.  Cover with chicken stock.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Then, leave covered and simmer on medium heat for 10 minutes.  Uncover and bring heat back up to medium high.  Cook for about 10 more minutes.  Drain.  Add cooking cream, butter, salt and pepper.  Mix with a hand mixer until desired consistency for your taste.  Move to a serving bowl.  Garnish with a pat of butter and chives.

Enjoy!
Cindy

Answered Prayers...Do We Really Want God to Answer?

My pool time is often prayer, worship, and thinking time.  Floating around in the cool water listening usually to K-Love Radio.  This is a very personal time for me when I'm all alone in the pool.  Today while enjoying this beautiful day, a conversation I had last night with a very strong, wise Christian woman came back to my mind.  Basically, we talked briefly about our prayers (specifically for our children in this conversation) and whether we 1. really trust God to answer and 2. really want the answer we're praying for. 

Think about it.  We all know there are prayers we definitely want answered the way we are praying.  When we pray for a sick child (or anyone), we want healing.  Of course we want our child well...healthy...full of life.  As parents, when we pray for the salvation of our children, we truly want that.  After all, it is frightening to think of eternity with us in God's presence in Heaven and our children in Hell being tormented for eternity.  That is definitely a prayer I prayed for years.  Praise God!  He answered that prayer with all four of our children being drawn to Christ and being saved by genuine faith in Christ--His death, burial, and resurrection.

However, there are other prayers that we pray...and I believe we pray earnestly...that when God answers we start to question His answer.  I have prayed nearly daily since my children were young for God to call them to His work, whether this be in ministry or as a lay-minister in his/her field.  We all know our mission field is wherever God places us.  Over the last year, my prayers have become more fervent.  I've prayed specifically for God to call our children and use them for a called-out ministry.  I've seen glimpses of answers over the last several months in Cody.  I was (still am) excited to see what God was/is doing in his life.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago--youth camp.  This is an exciting week for the youth.  It is plain fun!  They get to fellowship with like-minded youth.  They build relationships with each other.  They are immersed in the Bible.  Oh what a wonderful experience youth camp is!  However, this time for me this was a week of sincere specific (well I thought they were specific) prayers for our boys.  Everyday they were at camp, I prayed something like "Lord, clearly call our boys to your work.  Make your calling on their lives so clear that they can't miss it.  Send people their way and speak messages just to them so they know without a doubt what you are calling them to."  I meant every word of those prayers!  I really did...didn't I?

Well, the day the boys came home from camp, I discovered my prayers had been answered.  Praise the Lord!  Right?  Of course, I celebrated with Cody as he shared that God had placed a specific call on his life to ministry.  He isn't sure where he is being called or to what specific kind of work, but he KNOWS God has called him.  Then, he says it--something like "Mom, it may be overseas."  Was that the answer I wanted God to give him?  When I prayed did I think God would send one of my babies out of the United States to minister?  Honestly, I hadn't thought of that being an option.  Silly of me, huh?  Anyway, I had the comfort that maybe that wasn't where he was being called because he had said he wasn't sure where.

Then, that same night, Blake needed to talk to me.  He had a lot on his mind.  As he talked, I found out AGAIN that my prayers had been answered as Blake described several experiences at camp that he believes confirms a call to missions.  And while he also isn't sure where, he feels pretty strongly that it could be the foreign mission field.  Praise the Lord!  Right?  Was that the answer I wanted God to give another one of my boys?  When I prayed did I think God would possibly send TWO of my babies out of the United States to minister?  Frankly, it scares me! 

You might think that since then I've prayed for God to keep them here...where it's safe...where I can see them often...where I can love on their children (I'm sure God is going to give us a BUNCH of grandkids one day...after all, I've prayed for that, too!)...where I will know what is going on with them.  Well, that was tempting.  Truthfully, that's what I wanted to pray.

Then, God spoke to me through His Word.  Romans 11:29  says"for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable."  He let me know then and there, that His calling sticks.  Then, I found my way to Philippians 4:6-7.  ⁶ "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."  I chose to pray for peace.  I chose to pray for God to absolutely use Blake and Cody wherever He calls them.  With each day, seeing my boys' passion for the Gospel of Christ, God is giving me peace.

Now, I can answer the question "Do I really want God to answer my prayers?" with a resounding YES!  I wouldn't want anything less for my children.  Each day God reminds me that He has this!  He's in control!  He is faithful!

“The LORD will accomplish what concerns me; Your lovingkindness, O LORD, is everlasting; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.” Psalm 138:8 NASB

Blessings,
Cindy

Recipes from Our Day of Cooking

One of my very favorite things to do with Brooke is cook.  We love to create new dishes together.  Most come out pretty good.  A few have been on the not-so-good side.  The great thing about it all is working with my precious baby girl, Brooke!  Here are a few recipes from today's cooking adventures.

(Salad pictured is a double batch.)

BLT Salad

1 bag of Romaine Lettuce Mix
1 carton grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
3 eggs, hard boiled, sliced
1/2 to 1 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled or chopped

Put lettuce in a large salad bowl.  Cover lettuce with the tomato halves.  Sprinkle crumbled bacon all over the tomatoes and lettuce.  Garnish with the egg slices.  This makes a really pretty and delicious salad.

Barbecue Dressing for BLT Salad (good on lots of other things, too)

about 1 cup mayonnaise
2-3 Tbs. barbecue sauce
1 heaping spoonful honey
1 bunch green onions, chopped fine (I use a manual food processor)
fresh ground pepper
juice from 1/2 lemon
lemon zest from 1/2 lemon (optional)

Whisk all ingredients together thoroughly.  Refrigerate. Serve over BLT salad, on burgers, with fries, or anything else you please!

(Again, this is a double batch.)

Butterfinger Trifle

Butterfinger Cookies (Kroger carries these.), broken into pieces
1 package Chocolate Pudding
2 c. Milk
1-2 cans Whipped Cream
1/2 c.- 1 c. Peanut Butter, melted
2 Butterfinger Candy Bars, crushed
Peanuts (optional), chopped

Layer the following:
1.  Cookies
2.  Pudding
3.  Peanut Butter
4.  Butterfinger pieces and peanuts
5. Whipped Cream

Repeat layers until all ingredients used.

Happy Cooking!
Cindy and Brooke

When

"When your children ask later..."

This morning's sermon and our life group's discussion on Psalm 77 about moving from depression to
dependence rekindled my desire to pass on the stories of God's faithfulness in the life of our family.  Below is a repost of the original post about our Remembrance Stones.  The kids are even more grown up now!  As I watch each of them grow physically and more importantly spiritually, I'm reminded often of God's faithfulness! 

These stones now will be added to in order to remind each of us in our family that we CAN and SHOULD depend on our faithful Father.  "All I have need of His hand will provide.  He's always been faithful
to me."

Original Post:

As you can see in the picture, our children are growing up...FAST.  (This picture is nearly a year old...the boys have changed a lot even in the last year.)  Brooke will be going away to college in less than a month now.  Blake and Cody are driving now.  Dale will be starting high school just a couple of days before Brooke leaves for school.  It seems like yesterday they were all babies...oh how well Doug and I remember the days of a booster seat, 2 bulky car seats, and a baby carrier.  We have so many stories of their growing up days that I'm sure many of you have heard...probably more than once.
Have you heard the story of the 'car fly' or the story of the diaper incident when we thought Blake and Cody were napping or what about Brooke's rendition of the song "I Shall Not Be Moved" when she was two or maybe the story of how Dale sang the "I Know a Song that Gets on Everybody's Nerves" ALL the way to FLORIDA?  We never tire of remembering and sharing stories of our children.  If
you are a parent or a grandparent, I'm sure you are the same.

Many months ago, I started following the blog of a wonderful Christian woman who has a
weekly feature called Memorial Box Monday.  (The blog is http://aplacecalledsimplicity.blogspot.com/ . You can check out her blog and see her reasoning and thinking behind how she does her Memorial Box.) 

Anyway, it got me to thinking.  I'm so quick to tell stories about my children and family.  I tell my children stories of themselves and our family so that they have those stories to tell their
children, but do I purposefully tell them stories of God and His goodness and His love and His faithfulness so that they can experience it and then pass it on to their children in the future?  I had to answer...not nearly enough.  As a matter of fact, many times I would tell stories or recount the events in our lives and tell the details of the event and completely leave God out of it.  Did I do that on purpose?  No, but was it still wrong?  Yes. 

Throughout the Bible, we are instructed to teach our children of the faithfulness of God so
that they can and will teach their children.  In Joshua 4, the Lord instructed Joshua to use stones as a memorial for what the Lord had done for the Israelites when they had crossed the Jordan.  We should in some way be doing something so that we not only remember but pass on stories of God's faithfulness to our kids.


For example, when Cody was in the first grade he fell about 16-18 feet out of a tree when the branch he was standing on broke.  He fell into a dry creek bed.  Cody had a major compression fracture in his back, and he broke a small bone in his foot near the growth plate.  I've told that story many
times over the course of his life.  I remember using words like..."It's AMAZING that he wasn't hurt worse than that."  "It could have been so much worse."  Both of those statements are true, but the TRUE TRUTH is that God protected Cody during that fall.  God kept Cody from landing on his neck.  God gave me the strength and determination to demand that the doctors x-ray Cody's back when
they were refusing.  God saw us through those days of Cody having to be flat on his back and very still until they could custom make a brace for him.  God sent family and friends to minister and care for our family.  God saw us through the months of Cody being in a hard-shell brace and wheelchair.  Some people may say that God wasn't there or He would have kept Cody from falling.  I not only say,
but know that God was there and did protect Cody.  Now, it is a story of God's faithfulness that we will share with our children and they will share with their children.

With that being said, we all know there are so many stories of times when God has been faithful in our lives AND our human minds tend to forget.  So how do we make sure that we have those stories to pass on?   There are many ways that different families choose to do this.  Our family has discussed this for a long time and have had many ideas. 

For now, we are doing a Remembrance Stone Box.  We've just started this project.  I thought I'd
share some pictures with you.  We started with a planter box.  We collected flat, smooth rocks from a creek.  It was fun to try to find rocks with odd shapes and colors. 

Brooke painted a scripture on each side of the box.

Then, we took the stones and wrote brief descriptions of times in our family's life when God was

faithful.  When we can remember the date, we write the date.  The stones are reminders.  Obviously there is not room for the whole story.  These are reminders so that when we see them we remember the story.  We only have a few of the rocks with messages on them right now.  We're adding to them a little at a time.  As we need to, we'll add rocks. 

The box sits on our coffee table in our living room.  (My friend, Dawn, from church knew someone who used their remembrance stones in this way.  Thanks for the idea, Dawn!)  So now it serves a dual purpose.  If someone is visiting our home, we hope it becomes a conversation piece.  After all, we have a box of rocks on our table.  This will open up the door for conversations about how good our God is!

So now, when our children (or grandchildren or anyone who comes into our home) ask later what are
those rocks for, we'll answer with hearts full of love and thanksgiving as we tell of God's faithfulness!

Do you have a way that your family shares stories of God's faithfulness in your lives?  I'd love

to hear your ideas!

Blessings,

Cindy

Lose all my guilty stains!

It has been a while...3 months actually...since my last blog.  No excuses, time just gets away from me and other things take my attention.  Some things going on with me got me to thinking, praying, praising, worshiping, crying, smiling...the list could go on...so I thought I would put some of my thoughts here.

I've been reading a book titled Made to Crave recently.  It is a wonderful book so far, and I would already recommend it to others.  This book brought some things to the surface of my life that my sinful self wants so desperately to keep buried; however, God is whispering to me to cast those cares on Him because He cares for me  (1 Peter 5:7).  

~Prayer~

God has used this book to speak to me about ugly, dirty sin in my life where my physical being and also my thought processes are concerned.  It has not/is not an easy thing to listen to even when it is coming from God.  BUT...I believe God knows that and that is why He keeps bringing these thoughts to mind.  After tears of frustration over my inability to "stick to" lifestyle changes specifically eating and exercise, it's like He finally has gotten through to me that I really am made to crave...He made me that way! 

It is my sin of focusing on food and my physical cravings instead of focusing on Him that has led me to where I am today.  He made me to crave...but He made me to CRAVE HIM--not chocolate, not bread smothered in butter, not soft drinks, or anything else.  We all know that the more we have of something, the more we crave it.  The problem has been that instead of having MORE GOD (studying the Word, praying, singing, praising) when I'm stressed or even when I'm happy, I have for a long time turned to food for comfort and even just because it is there sometimes.  How many times have I passed by my Bible when it was "just there" and went to the brownies that were "just there", too?  Too many times!

>SIN<

Lisa TerKeurst, in Made to Crave, puts it this way, "If we want to truly get close to God, we'll have to distance ourselves from other things."  That really hit me!  If I want to grow closer to God, I can't continue in a sin that I know is wrong no matter how much society says it is okay.  Let's face it, gluttony is a sin!  Call it what it is.  When we overindulge in food it is a sin.  We wouldn't question if drinking too much is a sin or if doing drugs is a sin, but we excuse eating too much as a stress reliever and surely God is okay with that.  He's NOT!  He can't be...He is Holy!  He doesn't like sin!  He doesn't view this as less than the others.  Oh how crushing to admit that I have been openly satisfied with something that God detests.

*Confess...Repent*

So what could I do?  I know He wants more from me and expects more from me.  I've been presented with scripture to back up everything that has been running through my mind and heart.  The only thing to do, as a Christian, is to confess and repent.  I was broken!  I needed forgiveness for my lack of caring how I took care of or didn't take care of my body.  The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:19, "...do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?"  From that point of confession and repentance, this verse kept coming to mind.  If Christ came to visit me, I wouldn't give him a dirty, unkept place to stay.  I would make sure he had the BEST I had!  I knew that meant that I had to change my cravings so that my body can be the BEST I can have for the Holy Spirit.

Then, the question was...how?  Isn't God awesome in that He gives us EVERYTHING we need!  Since that day last weekend when I was broken, He has shown me that I am not alone.  He is with me!  Hebrews 13:5  “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”  It's a promise, and God keeps His promises! 

+ More God +

God showed me that I needed MORE of Him.  I needed to be consistent with my Bible study and prayer time.  I needed to draw closer to Him everyday!  Guess what?  It's true...the more you have of something, the more you CRAVE it!  I crave time with God!  That doesn't mean I don't still have temptations.  I wasn't promised it would be easy, just that God is always with me.  He has also reminded me through so many things, including the Made to Crave book, that not only do I need more of Him, but that He made me for MORE!  When I realize and let completely soak in that I am a child of God, He "empowers me to believe that living in victory is sweeter than any unhealthy delicacy."  (Made to Crave)

Next step, turning to God instead of food.  Scripture to fight against this sin is imperative!  I also had to have a plan for changing what I eat/drink.  Personally, I'm using an online program for weight loss that helps me track what I eat, healthy choices in food, and exercise.  With those things to track, I had to come to grips with my lack of desire to exercise.  Ugh!  I have never liked to exercise!  This was probably more difficult than the food to start with.  Again, my AMAZING HEAVENLY FATHER showed me the way, and He used my Daddy to do it!

For those who don't know, my parents live with us.  I see Daddy everyday.  I know him!  He has never liked to "exercise" either.  He has always been a busy person...always working.  But exercise?  No way!  Over the last few weeks it was becoming obvious that Daddy was taking exercise very seriously!  He would walk, work out on a nordic-like machine, AND ride the stationary bike.  Wow!  My Daddy exercising!  If he could do it, then I knew I could, too, AND we could be encouragers for each other.  Come to find out, time on that machine or exercise bike are perfect for praying, worshiping through music, and learning MORE about God through listening to books or messages on my little mp3 player.  It is amazing!  I'm enjoying exercise!

Today, while working out I listened to Selah (my new favorites, I'm pretty sure) and oh my!  The songs just spoke to me.  One song after another...over and over...God wrapped me in His love.  Great is His faithfulness!   It IS well with my soul!  Then, "There is a Fountain" played.  Praise God for the reminder that I lost all my guilty stains when I was plunged beneath the flood of Christ's blood when He died for me!  "There may I, though vile as he (the dying thief), wash all my sins away!"



What a burden has been lifted!  I know that there will be times when I am tempted to go back to those sinful ways.  I'm praying for someone to join me so that we can hold each other accountable.  God is already answering that!  I cannot even begin to express my gratefulness to God for His promise that He is with me always!  I don't face this or anything else in life alone.  To God be ALL the glory!

Blessings,
Cindy

Cindy ♥ Doug, A Marraige Made in Heaven

I've been promising a post about marriage for sometime.  Since I've been thinking A LOT about Doug this week with him working out of town, I thought now would be a good time to go ahead with it.  First, let me say up front, I'm not an expert on marriage, but I am experienced. :)  Doug and I have been married for 22 years.  We have experienced the wonderful seasons where we were on top of the world taking in the views from the highest mountain peaks.  We have also experienced the lowest valleys we could have experienced in a marraige and still came out with the rings on our fingers and the promise in our hearts.  So while I'm not an expert and will never claim to be, I have lived a gamut of experiences in my married life.

♥ Our story ♥

I never tire of telling our love story for it truly is a story of a marriage made in heaven by our One True God.  Doug and I met at church when we were in early elementary school.  I was in first grade.  He was in second grade.  By fourth and fifth grade, we were 'going together' and holding hands under the hymnal or church Bible.  (I don't advocate that for children. :)  However, it truly was innocent.)  We were best of friends.  We talked all the time.  We liked spending time together.  Our sisters were friends.  Our parents were friends.  We went to the same church.  We went to the same school.  We lived down the road from each other.  We rode the same bus.  In other words, we were able to spend a lot of time together.  We knew each other.  If anyone asked me at the early age of 10 or 11 who I was going to marry, I could have instantly told them, "Dougie!"

In middle school, we would 'like' each other off and on.  However, being middle schoolers, we also liked other people, too.  We remained close friends, but we were becoming two very different people.  Then, one awful day in high school I learned that Dougie would be moving to Texas.  I was a freshman, and he was a sophomore at the time.  There was no warning.  They were moving, and there was nothing I could do.  That was a very sad day in my life.

I went on living, of course.  I liked other boys.  I know he liked and dated other girls.  Then, in December on my sixteenth birthday, I was at a BC basketball game with some friends.  One of my best friends came running down the bleachers toward me yelling, "Cindy...Dougie is here.  Doug is looking for you!"  I thought she was just messing with me.  After all, he had moved more than a year before.  Why would he be there? 

I looked up and THERE HE WAS...as handsome as ever...walking toward me.  I'm sure my heart stopped beating for just a moment.  I'm also sure there was a smile as big as Texas on my face.  What a wonderful birthday present!  Well, we dated for about a month and then, he just disappeared.  I tell him often that he was quite the jerk!  I was so hurt!  My heart was completely broken.  I questioned why God had brought him back into my life (which I truly believed then that he had and I still believe NOW that he had) just to rip him out of it.

Again, life went on.  I dated again.  This time with the determination that D.F. would never hurt me again.  I would give my love to someone else.  I enjoyed the rest of my junior year of high school and began my senior year.  I was working at what was then Otto Drugstore. 

One particular day in September I was working the cash register up front and got a phone call from my sister.  She was at Doug's sister's house.  She said that he wanted me to come there when I got off work.  I said, "NO!"  Later, he called.  He was persistent.  I told him that he had hurt me enough and that I would not come there to see him.  If he wanted to see me, he'd have to come to Shepherdsville.  I told him what time I was leaving work.  He was there waiting when I went to my car. :)  That was September 6, 1987.

We went on our first official date that day.  He wonders why I love Mr. Gatti's so much.  That is part of the reason, I would guess.  We sat at Mr. Gatti's for hours that day.  We talked.  He apologized profusely.  We talked some more.  It was that day, sitting in the party room of Mr. Gatti's all by ourselves, with Doug writing sweet stuff on a helium balloon, that I fell head over heals completely in love with him.  Oh, I already loved him, but that day sealed the deal. 

On March 15 of the next year, Doug proposed.  We had plans to wait 5 years to get married.  I would finish college.  He would finish trade school.  However, we knew we could not wait 5 years.  So, we set the date.  August 5, 1989.  I still laugh when I think about it.  We were just being silly thinking we would wait that long.  We had literally been waiting our whole lives for this.  In May, we went to my parents and told them we couldn't wait a year to be married.  After much discussion, it was decided the date would be changed to August 6 of the same year.  There was ONE stipulation.  I couldn't say the word wedding until high school graduation was over.  (I was graduating valedictorian.  My parents were not going to allow anything to get in the way of me finishing what I had started.  I am very thankful for that.)   I graduated in May, and we planned the wedding in less than 2 months.

As I think back over the story of our life up to that point, I smile...I laugh...I even get a bit teary eyed at times.  When I think of how God orchestrated two separate families...two separate lives...so that Doug and I would be placed together for His glory and our good, it amazes me.  You see, none of that story is my doing or Doug's doing.  We couldn't have come up with such an outlandish on again/off again thing if we tried.  I mean, honestly...Doug's family up and moved to TEXAS and then, what I failed to mention above was that while he was visiting friends in Kentucky, his family decided to move back to Kentucky without telling him.  God had to have acted upon my heart to soften it to let Doug back into my life after being hurt.  As humans, we tend to build up scar tissue that isn't easily broken through when we're hurt by someone.  God had to place me on Doug's mind for him to decide he wanted to see me after more than a year of being away.  And to think it all started when we were small children. 

Our lives changed on August 6, 1988.  We were no longer just Cindy and Doug.  We became Mr. and Mrs.!  What a wonderful change!

My insights and thoughts on Christian Marraige:

1.  God has to be first in both of your lives.  This will be evident in so many ways.  Do you go to church together?  Do you pray together?  Do you study or discuss the Word together?  Are you committed to following God's will for your lives?  Are you raising your kids His way?

2.  My husband is second in my life.  I am second in his life.  This is a lesson we want our children to understand completely.  We want them to know that we love them...completely and unconditionally.  However, we want them to know that they cannot come between us a husband and wife.  Kids can be and will be manipulative if you let them be.  Don't allow them to move into the spot where your husband should be.

3.  When you get married, the focus should change from "I" to "WE".  When a couple consistently socializes separately instead of together, trouble is soon to follow.  To get to the point of marriage, what did you do?  You went out together.  Marriage shouldn't change that.  If anything, it should make it better.  The lowest time in our marriage is when we were both going out with friends instead of together.  We invited trouble into our lives by opening a door for Satan to step right into.  Why go to dinner with a friend on a Friday night and leave your spouse at home...especially on a regular basis?  Think about how often you are spending time with other people away from your spouse. 

4.  Friends of the opposite sex is a dangerous and slippery slope to walk.  I'm not talking mutual friends where you and your husband are friends with another couple.  I mean where the wife is friends with another man that her husband is not friends with or vice-versa.  We tend to think that we are super-human and can just be friends and that those friendships will never go where they shouldn't.  I'm here to tell you, friends, that you are lying to yourselves.  Once again, that opens a door for Satan to step right in.

5.  Work to make your marriage the best it can be.  What have you done for your husband today?  What have you done today that says "I love YOU" without using the words?

6.  Learn early to say, "I'm sorry for _____________.  Will you please forgive me?"

7.  Learn how to forgive even when it hurts.

8.  Play together.  Again, what did you do before you got married?  You had fun together.  Why stop?

9.  Hold hands.  :)

10.  View your marriage as a FOREVER promise.  Divorce is not an option.  God is an amazing God that can heal hurts, give peace, calm fears, and in the process SAVE marriages. 

I've often wondered why our story had so many twists and turns before we finally figured out we belonged together.  After 22 years of many highs and some very low lows, I think it's because God knew what we would experience and was preparing us for the times ahead.  He was preparing me for future heartache and for future healing.  He was preparing Dougie for how to be the wonderful godly husband he is today.  God was teaching us about forgiveness and persistence.  You see, God knew that without this we would have given up on our marriage ten years ago.  God knew what we needed, when we needed it.  I'm so thankful for God's provision and protection over our marriage.    How exciting it is to know that my marriage to Dougie is truly God-given, God-ordained, God-orchestrated...absolutely

♥ a marriage made in Heaven! ♥

Blessings,
Cindy

Had it not been...

Don't you love when God speaks to you?  Isn't it so exciting to be reading in God's word and feel like...no, KNOW that He is speaking directly to YOU?!  Don't you just get giddy when what you are reading hits home so hard that you know that God put you in that passage on this day so he could whisper sweet things to you?  Our God is so amazing!  He never ceases to amaze me.

This morning, I was continuing my study in Psalms.  (I love Psalms!  Who doesn't?)  Anyway, I'm up to the Psalms of Ascents that were said/sang as the people traveled to Jerusalem and to the temple.  Most of these Psalms are quite short.  Usually, I study 2 to 3 a day because of their length.  However, this morning, Psalm 124, which is only 8 verses, struck me so that I had to stop after reading it several times and share it with you.

It is a "Song of Ascents, of David" that is 8 verses.  It talks about Israel's past.  But...my oh my, when we take this and apply it to our lives...when I take it and apply it to MY life...WOW!  Here it is...

Psalm 124

"Had it not been the Lord who was on our side,"

Let Israel now say,

"Had it not been the Lord who was on our side

When men rose up against us,

Then they would have swallowed us alive,

When their anger was kindled against us;

Then the waters would have engulfed us,

The stream would have swept over our soul;

Then the raging waters would have swept over our soul."

Blessed be the Lord,

Who has not given us to be torn by their teeth.

Our soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the trapper;

The snare is broken and we have escaped.

Our help is in the name of the Lord,

Who made heaven and earth.

Read it again!  Truly I understand this is an account of how the Lord saved the Israelites from destruction.  However, has he not done the same for us as believers?  Does he not do the same for us day after day? 

What if the Lord was not on our side?

I can not imagine living my life without God on my side...in my life.  I can't fathom going through the daily grind without Him.  I certainly can't begin to imagine facing life's biggest challenges...a sister who fought cancer, health issues of parents, raising children and all the issues that go with that, financial problems, tragedies in life that we don't have the answers for.

As David says, "Blessed be the Lord!"  Or thanks be to God for not turning us over to our enemy or giving us over to ourselves.  Our help truly is in the name of the Lord!  Amazing...the Lord of Lords, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and End, the ONE who created EVERYTHING...

HE IS ON MY SIDE!

DO YOU HAVE HIM ON YOUR SIDE?

Blessings,

Cindy