Just Laugh!

My pastor's wife Kathy leads the women's ministry, called Joy Ladies, at my church. We get together once a month to eat, worship, pray, hear the Word, and just encourage one another. I look so forward to it each month. I love the fact that we have women from age 18 all the way to 80 that come.

The theme this month was Spring. Kathy always goes all out every month. We met last Friday and she had beautiful flower arrangements all over the place, potted plants, seed packets, and Spring "stuff" everywhere you looked. It was beautiful!

Kathy shared with us that when God laid it on her heart to do this women's ministry he told her to "just laugh with the women!" That is exactly what we did. We ate, potted begonias to take home with us, worshipped, heard an awesome message, and then we divided into groups and had a Spring fashion show. Each group had different items to dress their model with like toilet paper, tissue paper, plastic bags, streamers, etc.. Let's just say that my group's model was very curvy! ( I wish I had taken pictures) As each model revealed her signature look on the runway we all laughed and laughed.

I got home that night and I felt so refreshed spiritually, physically, and mentally. Everyone said the same thing. The saying that laughter is good medicine is really true. I heard once that in the Bible days the Kings would have someone in their courts that they hired to basically entertain them and make them laugh. They had very stressful jobs and they knew the importance of laughter.

If you are around kids at all you notice how much they laugh and giggle. I think as adults we need more of that. So...I thought I would post a few jokes for you to read and I hope they make you laugh today! Do you have any good ones to share?

1. There was a couple that decided to get out of debt and budget their money better. So, the wife agreed not to buy any new clothes for a while.

One day she came home with a new dress and her husband said, " I thought we agreed that you wouldn't buy any more clothes!"

She said, " I know, but I saw the dress and Satan tempted me to try it on."

He replied, "Why didn't you tell Satan to get behind you?"

She said, "I did and he told me it looked better from behind than it did from the front!"

2. At Sunday school they were teaching how God created everything, including human beings.

Little Johnny, a child in the kindergarten class, seemed especially intent when they told him how Eve was created out of Adam's ribs.

Later in the week, his mother noticed him lying as if he were ill and said, "Johnny, what is the matter?"

Little Johnny responded, "I have a pain in my side. I think I am going to have a wife!"

3. A school teacher injured his back and had to wear a plaster cast around the upper part of his body. It fit under his shirt and was not noticeable at all. On the first day of school, still with the cast under his shirt, he found himself assigned to the toughest students in school.

Walking confidently into the rowdy classroom, he opened the window as wide as possible and then busied himself with desk work. When a strong breeze made his tie flap, he took the desk stapler and stapled the tie to his chest. He had no trouble with discipline that year.

Late Bloomers

There are these two trees in my front yard that when we moved to this house we thought were dead. It was Spring time and they showed no signs of life. We waited and waited until mid Spring and still nothing. We finally decided we should get them cut down. It is not a good idea to have huge, dead trees in your front yard in Southeast Texas... especially with all the hurricanes! A neighbor heard that we were going to cut them down and told us that they were were late bloomers and they would bloom. It was hard to believe, but we decided to wait and see.

Here is a picture of the two trees right now.

Sure enough, the trees did begin to bloom and they were beautiful! Even though I know they are going to bloom it still amazes me every year.

I love how God uses everything to speak to His children. He uses nature a lot to teach me things. One day, I was looking at these trees and thinking about how close they had come to being cut down all because of what we could see on the outside. We couldn't see the life that was on the inside. It made me think how it is that way in our lives many times. It may not look like much is happening in our lives, but God is doing a work on the inside of us. In His perfect timing our lives will begin to "bloom."

If you look closely at the picture above you can see that these two trees are the only trees on our street that are not blooming. God showed me that when our lives look "dead" we can be tempted to look around and compare ourselves with others. We can't do this because God has created each one of us to be unique. He has a special and unique plan for each one of our lives. If we stay rooted in Him and trust Him we will "bloom" at just the right time. God's timing is perfect!

Spring Garden

It is officially Spring and for teachers everywhere that means one thing...Spring Break!! Mine started last Friday and I am so excited to have this time off to relax and get things done that I have needed to do. One thing on my list was planting my first vegetable garden.

I have wanted to plant one for a while now, but never really got serious about it. There was an empty space in my backyard, where a rose garden use to be, that would be perfect for a vegetable garden. I went to Lowe's on Saturday and got the soil, plants, and other things I needed. It turned out to be the perfect day for planting. The weather was so beautiful!

Here it is Before

My dad helped me by tilling the soil-I tried, but it is harder than it looks! He also took out the old wood that was rotting and replaced it with new wood.

I planted cucumbers, tomatoes, yellow squash, sweet peppers, one strawberry plant, and sweet basil. I think it turned out beautiful. Now comes the watering, waiting, and praying that the harvest will come!

Here it is after planting

Abandoned

I chose the title of my blog to be "Abandoned to Him" because that is my heart's desire. The dictionary defines abandoned as given up; forsaken, deserted. To me it means fully surrendered, giving up my wants, desires, dreams, and letting God have His way in my life. There is a song that we sing in church that I love. It goes like this:

"Abandoned to Him, completely devoted. He is my all. Sold out, surrendered, my life tells the story, Abandoned to Him, Devoted to my King!

I'm throwing aside everything that's not of You. Running the race, keep my eyes on the prize. Religion and sin, fear of man, these are weights that I don't need. Living to die, dying to live, this marvelous mystery!"

That sums it up. It is an everyday struggle with my emotions, my wants, my desires, but I am determined to live an abandoned life to Christ.

Hello!

Okay... so, I have really enjoyed reading and following friends blogs for a while now and I finally decided to start my own. I have always loved to write and I think that blogging is such a great way to stay connected and share what's going on in your life with family and friends. That is my goal through this blog. Hope you enjoy!