ANSWERED PRAYERS



 OZARKS IN NOVEMBER,by P.A.T.C

 I would like to say a big thank you , to those who prayed for me at home and on their Twitter account,  Arts&Disability especially . If you remember my "WOE IS ME' post earlier elaborating on the changes occurring in my life, and the  anxiety that produces you can see how God has worked in our lives in such a short time . So here is the ongoing answers to prayer.
My husbands back pain is improving , so much so that he canceled his appointment to the pain clinic Monday and started his new job instead working as a trucking dispatcher at his Aunt and Cousin's Trucking business. So now his back can continue to mend since he no longer has to sit bouncing constantly on the roads. I now am a stay at home wife, although it may take me most of the day to do my chores, I am blessed to be able to do so. I also am blessed to be available to care for my grandsons when they are sick from school so that my daughter doesn't have to miss work to care for them. I will be here for them, which is one of the things I missed while on the road, not being there for my family when they needed me really wore on me. With all the added work around the home , the added movement that is involved in doing the simple things, it is my hope to improve my health. Although I over done it my first day trying to clean house, I will work on learning my limitations and then trying to slowing improve my mobility issues. God has done many things in my life, and so quickly after the ball got rolling that I am amazed at it all. It is a new life for my husband and I, he had been a trucker for over 17 years and I have been on the road with him for over 13 years, so learning new habits and being able to do something other than sitting in the passenger seat is a welcomed change in my life. I have a new life to explore and I am thankful to have the opportunity to do so!!!!
God is truly good
growing in Christ
blessings to ya

BECOMING THE PERSON GOD WANTS

BECOMING THE PERSON GOD WANTS
by Neil Anderson

November 9
2 Corinthians 3:18
But we all . . . are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit


When you begin to align your goals with God's goals and your desires with God's desires, you will rid your life of a lot of anger, anxiety and depression. The homemaker who wants a happy, harmonious family is expressing a godly desire, but she cannot guarantee that it will happen. So she'd better not base her identity and sense of worth on it or she will be a basket case of anger or resentment toward her sometimes less-than-harmonious family.

Instead she could decide, "I'm going to be the wife and mother God wants me to be." That's a great goal! Is it impossible or uncertain? No, because it's also God's goal for her and nothing is impossible with God. Who can block her goal? She's the only one who can. As long as she cooperates with God's goal for her, her success is assured.

"But what if my husband has a mid-life crisis or my kids rebel?" she may object. Problems like that aren't blocking her goal of being the wife and mother God wants her to be, but they will put her goal to a serious test. If her husband ever needs a godly wife, and if her children ever need a godly mother, it's in times of trouble. Family difficulties are merely new opportunities for her to fulfill her goal of being the woman God wants her to be.

The pastor whose worth is based on his goal to win his community for Christ, have the best youth ministry in town, or increase giving to missions by 50 percent is headed for a fall. These are worthwhile desires, but they are poor goals by which to determine his worth because they can be blocked by people or circumstances. Rather he could say, "I'm going to be the pastor God wants me to be." That's a great goal because nothing can block him from achieving it.

God's basic goal for your life is character development: becoming the person God wants you to be. Because it's a godly goal, no one can block it except you.

Prayer: Lord, I want to be the person You called me to be today. Thank You that by Your grace I can be that person.






This devotional really struck a chord with me this morning. How often we base our goals on people , things, our jobs, our kids, our loves, our relationship with others,our abilities and how often they do not measure up to our expectations and our goals for them and our selves. I don't know about you but I am so guilty of this,no wonder I feel defeated, and make so many excuses for never measuring up. As a Homemaker it is very easy basing my identity and self-worth on what I do for my family and my husband and when I feel like they don't help me feel like who I want to be or when I don't seem to measure up to their or other people's standards of excellence, what a blow to one's ego. Being hit hard with Arthritis and being disabled I can no longer meet my own standards as to what or how much I should do as a Homemaker, tending the home and all that ,that requires is no longer within my abilities , what use to be a simple task, it takes a whole lot more work,time and pain to get the things done that use to be easy to do. Now it is hard as hell to do and takes every bit of my energy to do just the simple tasks I use to do, to even measure up to my ideal of perfection. That has been taken from me, by arthritis and pain, and along with that my so called 'identity' is no longer within reach. It is hard to remember the truth of the matter, we will never measure up to anyone's standards and especially to God's standard, and that is why we can thank God and our Lord Jesus Christ because only Jesus measures up to God's standard and it is only through and by and for Him that we are able to as well. Who I am in Christ is a done deal. There is not even a 'becoming' in the equation, I was made perfect already in Him , it happened when I became aware of the Grace of God in Christ and for that I am truly blessed and thankful. Now if I can only remember that.

Growing in Christ

blessings to ya

wordless Wednesday

Woe ,Despair, agony on me.

I haven't posted for awhile, my arthritis pain and disability has been given me fits more so than not.  The pain seems worse in the Spring and the Fall, when the different seasons butt heads together. My hubby has been having a time with his back all year as well, he had injured the T5 and T6 vertebrae at work but they weasled out of workman comp and  he has a bulged disc that when it swells pinches on a cluster of nerves sending pain either to his chest or stomach. The specialist doesn't have much that they can do for him so we are waiting on a Pain Clinic appointment for next week for him.So he has been flat on his back about 10 days, we took the rest of his vacation so that we wouldn't have an interruption in his paycheck but that is it for us on any money coming in if we can't get back on the road soon. We were fixing to leave out on the road this morning ,already had a load of milk set up, although hubby is in no shape, nor I to go back on the road yet, but bills have to be paid, we have no other choices. But last night we get a call from his brother, it seems his mother who is in a Nursing Home suffering from Alzheimer's, has took a turn for the worse , they had to put her in a wheel chair because she kept falling and leaning to much,they thought maybe she had a stroke, then while in the wheel chair she fell forwards and landed head first on the floor and got a bump on her head so they sent her to the hospital, they did a CT scan and all come back ok. Hubby called  his dispatcher to cancel his load, they sent her back to the Nursing Home later on in the night, and we went to see her today. My  my she has really gone down hill since the last time we had seen her, which I am ashamed to say has been about a month and a half ago, with our pain and when we were driving we were only getting 34 hours off at home which just isn't enough time to get the work done around the house and heal up a bit from the road. His mother is totally lost to us and the world and this disease has been so fast in taking her from us. Her oldest sister suffers from this and it has been a long drawn out process with her, she lies in a bed and is totally lost to the world but she has had this for over 10 years. I think my mom in law from being diagnosed to now it had been only 5 years. I am glad though, I wish the Lord would take her now, I know that sounds terrible, but she is no longer my hubby's mom, it is her body, but who ever has taken over her mind it sure is no longer his mother. They call Alzheimer's the slow death and indeed it is. I know when and if she gets a second or so of sanity that she is in torture because she for a short span every now an again cries out in anguish over her losses. She no longer knows us, no longer can feed herself, or dress herself, or knows when to go to the toilet. She is total care. And to think she was driving and working as a home health aide about 5 and half years ago.
So we are going through the wringer now, so if anyone is reading this we need your prayers, for health , for money to pay bills, for new job off the road for hubby, for my disability Social Security to finally go through and for a quick and painless end for my mother n law who would be better off with the LORD.
blessings to ya