Faded Glory

Several years ago I bought some yard figurines and have had them in my yard wherever I live and through the years they have faded until some had no original color, others had some but not very bright. Last summer I repainted some of them and they looked so pretty after I got done, at least I thought they did.  Today I worked on some more of them and also a cutout that my husband cut for me, it was the last cutout that he made before his illness, so I treasure it and I painted it today too  It's a pink flamingo, at least it's pink now.

I was thinking about how faded and ugly they were and how beautiful they look now and I was also thinking about how faded our lives can become when we become lukewarm in our Christian experience and when we come close to Christ and spend time with Him each morning we become bright and beautiful in our lives again.  When we are obedient to our Father in heaven, we glorify His name through our lives and our influence.

 Have you become faded in your Christian experience, if so paint your character with the original colors and bring back the glory of Christ into your life.  I will pray for you to have this experience, wish I knew your names but God does so work on your original colors and give God the glory that He deserves.   See you tomorrow.  Grandma Joan

Influence

Did you know that your influence is a talent that you can use to help others?  Did you know that our words, our acts, our dress, our deportment even the expression of our countenance, has an influence.  Our influence  can be for the good or for the bad, depending on what path we take.  Throw a pebble in the lake and the circle gets wider and wider until it reaches the other shore.  So it is with our influence, the circle gets wider and wider and where it stops we have no idea.

Let's pray that our influence is for the betterment of humanity because the world we live in needs all the godly influence that we can share with others.  We can be an example in godly influence with our friends and neighbors and those we come in contact with even when we don't know them, we can give them a beautiful smile.

Sometimes when I am shopping I like to smile at people to see if I can get them to smile back at me and it is a fun thing I do and most of the time I do get some great smiles back.  The other day it didn't work so well, I went out to my mail box to get my mail and this lady walked up behind me and stood there waiting, and wouldn't you know it, I dropped my keys and fumbled around, just for an instance and then got my mail and looked up at her and smiled and she didn't act like I was even there.  It kind of left me feeling a little cool and chilly and right then I could see how our influence has a telling influence on others, so I hope I never treat anyone like that, I am sure that I probably have in the past and hope that I never do anything like that again.  I know what it feels like now.

So how is your influence?  Cold and chilly or warm and glowing with God's love.  That's the kind of influence I want to be, how about you?  So until tomorrow be a good influence and warm someones heart.  I know that you can.  See you tomorrow.  Grandma Joan

Gardening

Have you thought about different kinds of gardening?  There's 'herb gardening', vegetable gardening, berry gardening, flower gardening, grape gardening known as vineyards, fruit gardening known as orchards.  You can probably think of some more.

I am thinking tonight about a different kind of gardening, the garden of my heart.  First we need to make sure the soil is tilled up good, that would be called taking all the weeds out and making sure it was clean and ready to plant, so turn the soil of your heart over and make sure all the weeds have been repented of and forsaken, then fertilize it well with love from above, then plant some seeds of love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, then water it well with the water of life from above.

What will you reap?  All the fruits that you have sown and I hope you have a bountiful harvest, I know you will.  Good night and God bless you.  Grandma Joan

Contentment. Do we need to be content?

Am I a contented person?  I wonder how contented I am.  I am always wishing for something to do with my life.  So I am not sure that I am contented with the state I am in.  Like Paul in Philippians 4:11, I would like to be contented in whatever state I am in.  So what do we do to become contented?

I believe, and I am talking to myself again, I seem to do a lot of that lately.  Anyway, I believe that the very first thing we need to do to be contented is place our trust in God and let Him place us where He wants us to be and what He wants us to do.  How do we do that?  Well, surrender our will to Him, I wrote on surrender a while back but it seems to be a big block in our way of being able to trust in God and be contented where He puts us.  I need to surrender every day to His will and be contented with what He gives me to do.  I get bored pretty easy, not being able to do anything that takes exercise or much energy.  Boredom is a real curse to me, I have always been a very active person, worked hard all my life and love the great outdoors, we use to have a mountain behind our house and a couple of my grandchildren and I would hike it every morning and then run back down, it was quite a hike to the top, they loved to hike it with me.  So now that I can't do things like I use to do, it is hard to be contented but I am so grateful that I can do what I am able to do.  God has spared my life through many things and I really do need to be contented with where I am and what I have been given to do.

 I want to put my life in His hands and trust in Him with all my heart and be contented.  How about you?  Are you contented with where you are and what you are doing?  It is important.  It brings peace of mind and joy in the process.  So until tomorrow lets try to be contented and happy where we are and with what we have.  See you then.  Grandma Joan

Boundaries, do we need them?

I was thinking today about our lives and why sometimes they seem to get way out of control and I was wondering if it is because we do not set boundaries.  Boundary by dictionary definition is something that indicates a border or limit.  Do I have boundaries that I set to keep things in order around my home.  We can set boundaries that will make life so much easier and under control in just about all aspects of life.  There are so many things that we allow that make life difficult and hard to live with.  Really, it isn't necessary to give in to letting others cross those boundaries but we have to make them known in order for them to realize that there are boundaries to many things.

Children need to have boundaries to feel secure and loved, friends need to have boundaries that cause them not to take advantage of us, relatives need boundaries, otherwise we can become overwhelmed with difficulties that occur because we didn't set some boundaries.  We need boundaries for ourselves, and stick by them.

Does God have boundaries?  I believe that He does and they are called the Ten Commandments.  So you see, boundaries are important and when we have boundaries we are a much happier person.  So my suggestion to you is, set some boundaries and stick by them and see how much happier and smoother your life will become.  Believe me it really does work, I have tried it and not tried it and the tried method makes life so much easier, try it you really might like it.   See you tomorrow.  Grandma Joan

Health concerns anyone?

Right now I am battling high blood pressure, but I am getting it down gradually, nearly to normal.  We can take our health into our own hands if we really want to.  I am using garlic and fresh vegie juice that I make and it is coming down and I am so thankful because high blood pressure is a silent killer and I don't think I want to do that yet.

God gave us the best food to keep our bodies healthy and we don't adhere to what He has given us.  Fruits, nuts and grains and after sin entered this world  He added vegetables.  So our diet should consist of plant based foods which if you take it all into consideration there are a lot of foods that we can eat and never get bored with our diet.  Our health would be so much better if we would adhere to plant based foods.  Of course there are other things beside diet that we need to include to have good health.  Adequate sleep each night and exercise of some sort each day.  I fail in the exercise, because of my fragile bones, and muscle problems it is hard for me to exercise, I do a little and rest and a little more and rest.  Now that can get boring.

Then to have real healthy bodies we need the greatest of all and that is 'Trust in Divine Power'.  That should have been the first on my list but never the less it is the most important ingredient in our health program.  I am learning to trust, it is hard sometimes when things are not going like you think they should be, but really that is when we should trust the most.  Stress is relieved when we learn to trust in God.  As I have said before, I am still learning these things and hoping to get it all down pat one of these days.  How about you?

So until tomorrow let us learn to trust in God and not lean on our own understanding and then we can add the other ingredients in our health program and live like we ought to live, a calm, trusting, peaceful and active life and those around us will want what we have.  So be blessed with good health and see you right here tomorrow.   Grandma Joan
 

Receiving graciously is a blessing.

Yesterday we talked about giving being a blessing and it is so true, that when we give we receive the greatest blessing but today I would like to mention the fact that receiving graciously can be a blessing to the one who gives in love.  I am not sure that I am a gracious receiver but I sure pray that I am.  I know that at times the gift has been so huge to me that all I could do was cry and say thank you.  Those are the times when words will not come to express our appreciation.
                                                                                                                                                                   When I was a little girl probably 12 years old, I learned to say 'thank you the hard way,  a lady at church remembered my birthday and gave me a card with a pretty hankie in it.  I was so very, very timid that the words just would not come out.  My mother was standing there and embarrassed me by reprimanding me in front of her and I just went home and cried and cried because I had been so thoughtless.  To this day I try never to forget those beautiful words, 'thank you'.

Now, how about our gratitude to the One who has given us all the blessings of life, do we forget to say thank you to Him.  We have so much compared to some of the third world countries and yet I am afraid that we are not a gracious receiver and forget to thank Him for all that He has given us.  Then on top of all the blessings of life we receive from His bountiful hand, we can receive eternal life free and clear.  Something we cannot earn, but when we receive His blessings He expects us to glorify His name in our lives, that is all He has asked us to do.  Is it that hard to be a gracious receiver and be a blessing to those around us and glorify Him in our daily habits of life?  After all, He gave His life for us, and the suffering He went through to save us should be enough for us to be His obedient child and be a gracious receiver.

I hope that we can all be a gracious receiver and give praise and thank yous continually because of the  free gifts we receive so bountifully.  So until next time be a 'gracious receiver'.  You will be blessed I am sure.
Grandma Joan.