What A Joy She's Found!

God blessed me with the privilege of writing the opening note when Deborah (MaMa) agreed to begin a blog.  I am equally blessed with the privilege of writing this last note in her blog.  Deborah went home to Heaven just after midnight on July 2, 2011.  Read her blog archives and learn about her and the Savior she adored.  We will miss her...but only until our own vapor vanishes.  Then we will see her again!   - Jeff

The Attitude of Gratitude!

Most parents can relate to the disappointment that we feel when we shopped in five different stores, dodging traffic, and being bone-tired from waiting in the long lines and then two days after Christmas, finding the SUPER-DUPER-GOTTA HAVE IT-MOST WONDERFUL CONTRAPTION IN THE WORLD toy thrown over into the corner. Worse yet, when asked, they say- "I don't know where it is!"  UGH!!  I am not finding fault with wee ones today because they must be steered into the direction of thankfulness. Parents must model and teach it to them because they don't arrive on Planet Earth as very thankful little creatures, do they?  We are seeing in this generation, just as Paul told Timothy, that people in the last days would be unthankful and they are more and more about their sense of entitlements and "give me, give me" attitudes than maybe ever before. Even we, Christians in America, have been so blessed that we tend to focus more on what we don't have than being humbled and grateful for what we do have.

The Author of our Stories!

How many of you have ever read a good book or saw a movie and were disappointed with its ending? I think of one of which we all are familiar- Gone With The Wind- and we probably would not have let Bonnie Blue fall off the horse and die and depending on our personalities, some of us would have wished Rhett had stayed with the pouty Scarlett, others were happy that she got what she deserved. Yes, if we could have reviewed and edited, we would have ruined Margaret Mitchell's bestseller!

Laura Story Blessings (lyrics)

Two Truths about Trials!

One of my favorite O.T. characters is a man named Joseph, the great grand-son of the Jewish patriarch, Abraham. All who read my writings all familiar with this faith-filled man and his story so I will just take up in chapter 45 which I was reading this morning during my quiet time with the Lord. In this chapter, Joseph, now in authority in the land of Egypt, is about to reveal himself to his brothers, those same brothers who had sold him at the age of seventeen into the hands of the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver and then lied to their father about his whereabouts who had no doubt mourned every day since. That is one of the saddest parts of this story to me that as those ten boys saw their daddy sad every day that none would open up and tell him the truth, that maybe his beloved son was still alive.