A Life of Gratitude

Yesterday, while listening to KLOVE, I heard the morning show hosts sharing about their "Love Around the World" ministry. Scott Smith, one of the hosts, will be  traveling around the world sharing love to children in desperate need. Listeners can support this ministry by sponsoring a child that Scott will be in contact with. We can also be a part of this ministry by sending a paper doll and a note to those same children. Did you play with paper dolls as a kid? I did! I remember it distinctly. I would probably play with them now, if I had a little girl to play with! When I heard the idea of sending a paper doll with a note to an impoverished child, I couldn't wait to get home and get started. I knew the boys enjoy it as well. Dylan really enjoyed coloring his paper doll! Dylan's paper doll Evan scribbled but it is still sweet. Putting on the stamp.... We colored the paper dolls, wrote a little note, cut out the dolls, and got them rea

Who can separate us from the love of Christ?  Can affliction  or anguish or persecution  or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  No, in all these things we are more than victorious  through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that not even death or life,  angels or rulers, things present or things to come,  hostile powers, height or depth, or any other created thing  will have the power to separate us  from the love of God  that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! Romans 8:35, 37-39 During my quiet time this morning I studied Romans 8:35,37-39. I've read these verses several times before but as I read these verses today, I feel in love with them. This has to be one of the best promises in the Bible! The passage asks, "who can separate us from the love of Christ?" and then in turn, it answers, "NOTHING!" Wow, that is so reassuring! It also says that no matter what we are facing, we are more than victorious ! Victory doesn't mean we'll always g

On Wednesday night, when Bryan put Evan to bed, they couldn't find Evan's favorite pacifier anywhere. So, since Evan won't use any other pacifiers, he went to bed without his "bappy" (as he calls it) for the first time.  I was worried that we may have a long night but he slept all night! The next day, during nap time, Evan asked for "bappy" and I told him it that it had gone bye-bye. He was totally fine with it. He has now slept through 2 naps and 2 bed times without "bappy!" We weren't planning to get rid of the pacifier until he turned 2 in October but hey, if he is ok with it, so am I! Yesterday Evan mastered climbing out of his crib even though it was lowered as low as it would go! The big problem was the way he was doing it. I watched him climb out a few times and he nearly scared me to death! I thought he was going to fall and break his neck. I actually had to catch him by the foot to keep him from getting hurt. I knew at tha

My family and I spent the last 5 days participating in Vacation Bible School at Green Street. The boys both had a great time in their classes, Bryan helped lead worship and I taught the 4 year old class. It was a busy, fun-filled week!  I truly enjoyed teaching with two other ladies, Brittany and Meaghan. We had fun singing songs, reading stories, facilitating centers, making crafts and laughing...there was lots of laughing! We had a room full of boys and only 1 girl so our room was quite noisy but overall, VBS in the 4 year old class was a success! By the end of the week, our entire class could recite our memory verse, ("God helps me. I will not be afraid." Hebrews 13:6) and tell us all about Paul! The best VBS teaching team ever Center time Flume races.... Making "storms in a bottle" Today I am thankful for VBS at Green Street. My entire family had a terrific time learning more about God! I am also thankful for the opportunity to mini

"How happy is the man who does not follow   the advice of the wicked or take   the path of sinners or join a group   of mockers! 2  Instead, his delight is in the  Lord ’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. 3  He is like a tree planted beside streams of water that bears its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers."  Psalm 1:1-3 Its amazing how God speaks to each of us in different ways. I was really able to see this today at Bible study.  Psalm 1:1-3 was among the the verses we meditated on during the week and today we shared what we felt God was teaching us through the verses. As everyone shared, I felt God tapping me on my shoulder. One person shared that her Pastor recently taught on these verses. She explained that the word "planted" can mean "transplanted." All week I have been reading this as though "planted" meant that those who delight in the Lord's in

A year ago today I lost my Grandma Davis. Seven months before that my Grandma Doris passed away. I've been thinking a lot about those ladies today. It is kind of sad to know that both of my grandmothers are no longer with us. I've finally entered the time of my life where I would truly appreciate their help and advice with my little family. Actually, these days, I would grab at the chance to hear their stories about life, listen to them pray, or even just hear them laugh. Its too bad that we don't realize how much others have to offer until the opportunity is no longer available.  In the year since Grandma Davis passed I have tried to follow in her foot steps in a couple of ways. I made her famous Moravian cookies at Christmas and I canned her homemade strawberry preserves this spring. I've also thought a lot about being a "Proverbs 31" woman. Last year, right after she passed, I wrote a blog about Grandma Davis called, "Many women have done wonder

This morning, at church, we sang "Always" by Kristian Stanfill. The end of the song comes from Psalm 121. It says, "I lift my eyes up, my help comes from the Lord." Today as we sang those words, the music faded away and the room was filled with over 500 voices. I have to say, I love when the music fades and I can hear God's people singing His praises. I was almost brought to tears as I listened and realized that I could hear Dylan's little voice mixed in with all the others. As I listened more closely, I could hear Bryan's voice, my own voice, and Dylan's, all singing along with our church family. It was a really sweet moment. I absolutely love praising my Heavenly Father. Hearing the body of Christ worshiping is incredibly beautiful to me. Hearing my husband and my oldest son worshiping is, well, breath taking. It brings such joy to my heart to know that my family is praising God! Today I am thankful to be a part of a church that loves to worsh

When I looked at my Facebook news feed earlier today, the first post I saw said, "Counting my blessings and taking nothing for granted."  As soon as I saw those words I thought, "gosh, what if we all truly took nothing granted!? What if we really lived this way? What would that look like in daily life?" I've got to say, most of us don't really count our blessings. We may be grateful for a few of the biggest gifts God has given us but if we truly took nothing for granted, we'd be counting our blessings all day long.  The more I thought about it, I realized that the person that posted that on Facebook probably had a reason for posting that. I looked further down and I saw that the person was close to an eleven year old girl that was tragically killed in Lexington, NC yesterday. Apparently the little girl was in a pool when a live electrical wire fell into the water and she was electrocuted  After reading that news, the "counting my blessing

"In the same way, let your light shine before others,  that they may see your good deeds  and glorify  your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:16 A few days ago my friend Melissa shared Matthew 5:16 with me. As I watched Dylan deliver all of his diapers to the Pregnancy Care Center today, I felt like jumping up and down and yelling, "Let it shine, baby, let it shine!" I couldn't be more proud of Dylan than I am today. He was beaming as he carried his diapers and wipes into the Pregnancy Care Center this morning and so was I!! He was also beyond excited to meet a couple of the babies that will be benefiting from all of his hard work. The morning was just wonderful! I loved seeing my son letting his light shine! Before we left the center, Deborah, the lady in charge, gave Dylan a special pin as a way to say "thank you." The pin has children holding hands, standing in a circle. She said the pin represented all the children of the world

When Dylan achieved his $500 goal in the Diaper Doozie, Bryan and I decided to take him to Tweetsie Railroad as a way of showing him how proud of him we are. We didn't really have the money and we were concerned how we would pay for everything. The next day, our friend Jordan won free tickets to Tweetsie and gave them to us! Since Dylan crossed the $1,000 mark yesterday, we celebrated by spending this afternoon at Tweetsie. Dylan has been super excited about riding a real steam train but he was even more excited because he got to bring his friend Brycen along! So, we headed to Blowing Rock after church today. On the way it started pouring down rain and the boys were pretty bummed. Dylan asked me to pray and ask God to take the rain away so, of course, I did. By the time we pulled into Tweetsie, the rain had stopped. Brycen and Dylan both squealed with excitement because God answered our prayers. I reminded them that God not only made the rain stop, He is the One that blessed u

We had a big yard sale and lemonade stand at our house this morning. Even though it rained, I could not have asked for a better finale to Dylan's Diaper Doozie! We had a great turn out and a lot of fun. There were several people that drove from surrounding cities just to have some lemonade and give a donation. There were also a few families that brought diapers! Dylan ended up receiving $175 in donations and 3 packages of diapers! We were also shocked with another opportunity to be on WFMY News 2! After we got every thing cleaned up and counted all the donations, we took a trip to SAMS to buy a whole lot of diapers! This was definitely Dylan's favorite part! He truly enjoyed picking out the diapers, putting them on the cart, paying for them and packing them in the car. I think my favorite part was watching my five year old son willingly give away hundreds of dollars for babies he doesn't even know! He never asked, not once, to buy something for himself!

Wow, this has been an amazing day! I'm tired but so excited for Dylan! We started the day by reading the newspaper article about Dylan's Diaper Doozie on the High Point Enterprise webpage. Dylan was super happy to see his picture on the website but even more thrilled when he got to see it in the actual newspaper. Of course, we had to buy several copies of it! Around 10:00am WFMY News 2 called to ask if we would like to appear on the 5 o'clock news! When I asked Dylan he immediately yelled, "YES!" After a busy afternoon preparing to be on TV, we arrived at the WMFY New 2 station around 4:30pm. Everyone at the station knew exactly who we were. They all called Dylan by name and eagerly shared their excitement with us. By 5:08 we were in the studio with the news anchors. By 5:15 we were on the news, LIVE! By 5:35 we were on our way home. It was a very quick experience but definitely one we will never forget! The News 2 crew was fabulous! I couldn't h