Count your blessings...

The song we learn as little children. Rings true today as it did yesterday, possibly more so.

Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your many blessings see what God hath done..

This year has been a year that with each blessing I say, "Thank you, Lord. You give me a blessing, I'll count it." Our blessings add up, everyday.

Friday we took the boys sled-riding. It was very late in the evening. We had the hill all to ourselves. Just my family of 6. Little Luke decided he would go down the hill by himself. He ended up sliding down part of the hill face first.

I heard him crying and immediately ran to him. His nose was bleeding, his face bleeding and getting puffy. All in all, he ended up just fine. A little bruised/scabbed but just fine and healthy. That is a blessing, because we know that this could have been worse. You give me a blessing Lord, I'll count it and Praise YOUR Holy name.

Here's the results of Luke's little accident:



Have a BLESSED day!

White as snow...

In finding love in everything this year, I found myself loving this snow we have. I'm not typically one to enjoy the snow, in fact when I see it I usually say 'GRRR, why do we stay in Ohio?'. Well this is a new year, my year of love. Let me share the love I found in the snow. The snow is beautiful.

The Lord even used snow as a metaphor in Scripture:

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Isaiah 1:18


He wanted the people to know that by coming to Him and turning from sin, that sin is cleansed from us. It seems the people were sinning against God, they were still sacrificing, but were living sinfully. They didn't do deeds for the will of God, or for the love of God. God's love is pure and clean, His desire is to love us and for us to be His. God is love. Our sin can be pardoned, and made white as snow, if we come to Him and abide in Him.

So the snow is a remembrance of how our life can be clean, our sin pardoned by our Father in heaven who loves us. His son was the ultimate sacrifice. May the snow remind all of us of that sacrifice He made on the cross, so our sins can go from scarlet (vivid red/immoral) to white as snow (clean/pardoned).

I feel so blessed!

Tonight I took the boys outside to do some sled riding. They had an incredible time as well. Seeing them happy, seeing them smile is such a blessing. Brian had a great time pushing each of his brothers down the hill. He enjoyed seeing their happiness as well. We are all so blessed. God is good, all the time..I Praise His Holy name!

Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Psalm 103:1

This is a new year! Welcome it with Love..

I welcome 2010 as a year of LOVE. Not that sappy love you get when your husband walks in the room but that love that overcomes you when someone you love is happy, when they smile and you can see their heart. You all know that feeling. For me that feeling comes when one of my boys succeeds in doing something they didn't think they could do. I also see it in my husband when he comes home all excited because he found something that he knows someone will use and wants to give it to them quickly. He has such a giving and loving heart and when he smiles I feel his excitement. I love that feeling!

So not only will this be a year of love for others, but a year of love to the Lord. Last year I dug into God's word, this year I plan to do the same. The Scriptures can really speak to your heart, if that's your desire. I fell in love with the Lord last year, in a way I hadn't loved Him before. I'm not embarrassed to admit that, I'm thrilled to admit it. I learned of His amazing and merciful love for me. I want everyone to have this love, this feeling and their place in eternity. So to share His love with others, I'll pronounce His love more.

Writing again will be an awesome way for me to exercise this love. Years ago, I wrote and wrote and wrote. At one point my writing went from sweet and nice to simply dark. Then the Lord took that ability from me. Seriously, I believe that. He gave me a gift and I didn't use it for His glory, but now I want to write again, and this desire has to come from the Lord. I want to write all over the skies, so this blog will definitely be a wonderful aid to feed that desire.

So check back often you never know what I'll have to say!!

Oh..and since this post was about love..how about sharing a photograph that I think captures a big brothers love.. and what about Scripture on brotherly love? If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from Him, that he who loveth God love his brother also. I John 4:20-21 I'm sure I'll have a post on brotherly love soon..I think I'll make a poster about brother love to hang in my boys' bedrooms..