PRAYER

The Prayer:

Father, I ask You to bless my friends, relatives and those that I care deeply for, who are reading this right now. Show them a new revelation of Your love and power. Holy Spirit, I ask You to minister to their spirit at this very moment. Where there is pain, give them Your peace and mercy.. Where there is self-doubt, release a renewed co nfidence through Your grace. Where there is need, I ask you to fulfill their needs. Bless their homes, families, finances, their goings and their comings. Amen.

Flo's tv memories (some)

Prayer

I have to make a confession. I've had some very negative happenings in my life. Today something happened that made me start thinking negative again. I really don't want to feel this way, but sometimes it happens. I talked to my oldest daughter on the phone and she told me to pray about the situation. She must have said a prayer about it right after I talked to her because the situation took a turn for the better and come to find out I had no reason to be negative to start with. Please forgive me Lord for not seeking your guidance to start with. You have blessed me so much and sometimes I take that for granted. Help me to NEVER take blessings for granted.

Walk by faith

Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of Passage? His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN. He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own. The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man!

Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm. We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, God is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him. If you liked this story, pass it on. If not, you took off your blindfold before dawn. Moral of the story: Just because you can't see God, doesn't mean He is not there.

'For we walk by faith, not by sight.'

UPLOOK

When the outlook is poor, try the uplook; God has His hand on you.

At the end of each day, before turning down the covers, turn all your problems over to the Holy Spirit-every last one. Be grateful He stays up late to handle them. Then lay down, secure in the knowledge that broken things become blessed things if you let Christ do the mending!

Prayer requests: I should have done this sooner, my Mom had some moles taken off her back today so please remember her in your prayers. Today is also her 73rd birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! I love you more than you'll EVER know. She found out a couple of months ago that she has diabetis and she's a cancer survivor (colon). Prayer for Julie, and for Tina (she has an MRI Wed. on her knee).

Prayer requests

I would like to ask for prayer for a couple of special women. First of them is Julie. Juile is heading home to Texas after evacuating from the hurricanes. God please grant her a safe trip home & give
her strength for her medical issues. The other one is Tina. She's been having trouble with her
knee & needs a knee replacement. I pray that the Lord will lead her where she needs to go in that & that she'll find the right way to deal with it all. Love you two.

THE MOUSE STORY

NOOOOOOOOOBODY is in your life by mistake!!!!! A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. 'What food might this contain??'the mouse wondered - - -he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning : 'There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!' The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said,' Mr.Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.'

The mouse turned to the pig and told him,'There is a mousetrap in the house!
There is a mousetrap in the house!' The pig sympathized, but said, 'I am so very sorry, Mr.Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.'

The mouse turned to the cow and said 'There is a mousetrap in the house!
There is a mousetrap in the house!' The cow said, 'Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose.'
So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap . . . alone. That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife.
The farmer rushed her to the hospital , and she returned home with a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock.
To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer's wife did not get well, she died. So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them. The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness. So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you,remember ---- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life.
We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another. REMEMBER. . . . . . EACH OF US IS A VITAL THREAD IN ANOTHER PERSON'S TAPESTRY; OUR LIVES ARE WOVEN TOGETHER FOR A REASON. One of the best things to hold onto in this world is a FRIEND.
Have a great week.
Be good to yourself.

FORGIVENESS

MONDAY: Forgive yourself
TUESDAY: Forgive your spouse
WEDNESDAY: Forgive your children
THURSDAY: Forgive your parents
FRIDAY: Forgive your friends
SATURDAY: Forgive your enemies
SUNDAY: Forgive members and leaders of your church
(For best results, follow the plan 52 weeks out of the year!)

FOREVER WORTHY
Dear God
I have sinned
Against Heaven
And against You.
I am no longer worthy
To be called Your child.
Child, I know...I know
But my Son
Is forever worthy
To be called your Savior.
-Ruth Harms Calkin

MONDAY: Build a bridge, do something good for someone else.
TUESDAY: See past mistakes through the prism of humor.
WEDNESDAY: Seize every moment; make more of opportunity.
THURSDAY: Surrender the need to always be right.
FRIDAY: Reframe your circumstances; see them in a new light.
SATURDAY: Accept personal limitations, but give up self-blame.
SUNDAY: Change your priorities to avoid future omission sins.

Jesus was nailed to a cross between two thieves so you and I could stop nailing ourselves between two other thieves-regret for yesterday and
fear for tomorrow.

Trying times are no time to quit trying.

It is better to forgive and forget than to resent and remember.

Weekends

Steve made it home for the weekend again, thank you Lord. This job is soooo much different than his last one. Because we didn't have a home base they decided we didn't need to go home, even though we had kids & grandkids in Oklahoma. It was awful! The people we worked for were nice but that doesn't make up for not getting home. It always got me that if they got to see their families very nite for the most part. We were lucky if we got to see ours twice a year. The company had an excuse every time we wanted to go home. The one that really got me was, " You don't have a home so there's no need to go there". This job Steve is home 3 weekends out of the month. He enjoys going to church & misses it on his working weekends.
Laugh, Love, and Enjoy Life, and Trust the Lord for ALL THINGS.
Proverbs 3:6 Live simply. Love generously.Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God. God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.

Prayers please

Please pray for my G'ma. She's 97 yrs young & still lives at home. She has 5 children & they all take turns staying with her. Anyway, my daughter (Shasta) sent me an email she'd gotten from Aunt Shirley. G'ma has been having severe chest pains. She's been such an inspiration to us all. She says she doesn't know why the Lord has kept her
alive this long. So any prayers would be greatly appreciated.

COFFEE

You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again. A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose. Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first, she placed carrots; in the second she placed eggs; and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word. In about twenty minutes, she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, 'Tell me what you see.' 'Carrots, eggs, and coffee,' she replied. Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, 'What does it mean, mother?' Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water. 'Which are you?' she asked her daughter. 'When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean? Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity? Do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship, or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the s ame, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart? Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?
May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy.
The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.
When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling.
Live your life, so at the end, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.
You might want to send this message to those people who mean something to you (I JUST DID); to those who have touched your life in one way or another; to those who make you smile when you really need it; to those who make you see the brighter side of things when you are really down; to those whose friendship you appreciate; to those who are so meaningful in your life...
It's easier to build a child than repair an adult.
MAY WE ALL BE COFFEE!!!!!