Psalm 91/God Answers Even the Smallest Prayer

Psalm 91:14-16

Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him My salvation.

On Sunday, our Pastor preached on Psalm 91. This is one of my favorite Psalms. It reminds me to be faithful so I can stay in (vs. 1) the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. What a wonderful place to be! Our Pastor talked about how this Psalm was written by Moses and the shadow probably refers to the area of the Israelite camp that the shadow of "the cloud by day". It also promises me protection and answered prayer.

God wants us to bring our requests to Him, even ones that may not seem that important. He tells us in James, "ye have not because ye ask not". So often, we try to do things on our own and then wonder why things don't turn out so good. I posted on Monday that I got my hair cut. I know that most people probably don't think too much about a haircut--it's just part of life. I was rather concerned, however that I would end up with a bad haircut--which in my world would mean, not so much that it looked ridiculous, but that I would have to spend time actually "doing" my hair. I prayed that God would give me the right beautician and hair cut that even I could make look decent. (I am missing the hair gene that allows you to know where to put the curling iron to achieve a "cute" hairstyle.) As I was waiting for my turn, both of the beauticians "on the clock" were busy and another one clocked in. Let's just say that we probably wouldn't have spoke quite the same language. I would have said "conservative" and she would have thought I only wanted three inches of my hair to stand on end instead of six inches. Thankfully, there was another lady in front of me and the next beautician that clocked in couldn't have been nicer and did a great job with what she had to work with. My hair cut is such that I can literally shake my head and it is done, or I can pull it back, or curl it if I feel brave! God answered my prayer and I am so thankful!

He has answered many prayers over the last month and even kept my family safe when we didn't know we needed to pray for safety! What a wonderful God we serve!

Garlic Bread Tip

Maybe I am a little slow, but I recently discovered this little shortcut to cleaning up the mess I typically make when making garlic bread. I lay out my aluminum foil on the counter, then cut my bread, butter it, sprinkle it with garlic powder, parmesan cheese, and parsley. The mess is on the aluminum foil instead of my counter and gets wrapped up with the bread!

For more tips and recipes, go to: http://tammysrecipes.com/

P.S. Sorry I didn't leave a topic on Tammy's recipes, apparently I need to learn how to do that, I am rather new at this!

In honor of Patty and Pam

This year one of the nurses I work with and my husband's aunt were diagnosed with cancer and had to under go chemotherapy and both lost their hair. My sister also had cancer as a child and lost her hair. Seeing these ladies lose their hair made me think about how we take simple things in our lives for granted. How often have I complained about my hair? I certainly wouldn't want to be without it, though. I have kept my hair long since college, mainly out of convenience. I decided that six months of longer than usual hair to get to the needed 10 inches and shorter hair for a bit would be a small sacrifice to make for someone to have a nice, real hair prosthesis. Locks of Love provides hair prostheses to children who have lost their hair--free of charge. A hair prosthesis can cost well over $1,000. You need to donate 10 inches in order for it to be used to make a prosthesis. They take hair that is colored or permed, but not if it is bleached. Apparently bleached hair dissolves in the process they put it through to make it into a prostesis. If you hair is shorter, they can sell the hair to offset their costs. To find out more information, you can visit their website at http://www.locksoflove.org/.

Lessons from Simeon and Anna

In Luke 2:25-38, we read the story of Simeon and Anna. They both served the Lord wholeheartedly for their whole life and we see them rewarded by God for their faithfulness in being allowed to see the Messiah before their death. I can't imagine the joy and peace this must have brought to them! They proclaimed to all who would listen of their Messiah's coming.

Simeon's Statement

Luke 2:34 And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against;35 (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

As I read this statement, my heart was broken at the thought of how God left Heaven to come to earth and die for me and you. Also, can you imagine the pain Mary must have felt as she watched her first born hanging on the cross? She was called, not only to bear the Messiah, but also to watch His death. What joy she must have felt, though when He conquered death, giving us salvation and the way to eternal life!

This passage caused me to remember that God blesses those who serve Him, that I need to be a witness, and reminded me of our Savior's sacrifice to save our hearts from sin.

Snowy Fun...

What a North Carolina dog needs to play outside in Minnesota...

(What are these humans doing to me?--then they wonder why some less tolerant dogs bite them!!!)

WOW!!! What a blast, so that's what my human was up to, she wanted me to be able to PLAY in the cold, white stuff!!!

Snow Tubing

My mom, sis, kids and I went snowtubing. It was quite an adventure. There is a rope on a pully system to pull you up the hill, which is WONDERFUL--walking up the hill more than once would have been pretty tough. The rope adds lots of adventure--you see, hanging onto the rope is nearly impossible with the gloves/mittens needed to avoid frostbite. You basically need to lay on the rope so that it is tight against the intertube and as soon as you do, off you go, which makes taking a kid with you a bit of a challenge. Unfortunately, I'm afraid I zoomed up the hill a couple times without the child! "Z" is quite tenacious and was amazingly able to hang on, even if he didn't get on the tube. One time he hung on to my boot, dragging in the snow the whole way up--he thought is was an adventure. My mom also went with us. She accidentally ended up going down the up, which was quite hilarious! I'm ashamed to admit it, but my sister and "K" had the record for the farthest stop coming down! I also learned that going down on my stomach with a child in the middle of my back lends new meaning to the phrase "snap, crackle, pop"! My stomach touched the snow through the middle of the intertube. We all had a great time and many laughs. We even managed to stay warm!

Snowy Fun

On Monday afternoon, my sister and four kids went to get a real Christmas tree. My sister lives in North Carolina, so we had been planning to go chop down our own tree for quite some time. Originally my husband was going to go with, but due to weather, we weren't able to go get it on Sunday when he could go. Not to be deterred, however, my sister and I decided that the two of us could conquer a tree--no problem. We went to the tree farm and there was one lone elderly gentleman there next to the ALREADY cut trees. I told him we wanted to cut our own. He looked at me like I was crazy. (Oh, yeah--it was about 10 below zero with a stiff wind) "Don't you just want to take one of these, it would be much easier, " he said. "No, we want to cut our own, can't we but our own?" "Well," he said, "you can, but it is awfully cold and there's no one to help you this late in the season." I asked the rest of my crew who were appalled that I would even for a second consider taking the easy way out and buying a precut tree. He also offered to let me cut one down right by the shed, but we wanted to trapes through the woods and find the "perfect" tree. I think I won him over though, and he was willing to let us go when he offered me a saw and I told him we had two in the van. He gave us directions to the main area to pick your own tree--about 1 1/2 miles away.

We left the only footprints in the 12+" of snow. My sister and the kids made snow angels. We found the "perfect" tree for us. We managed to get it home safely also!

Things I learned from our adventure:

1. Trees appear much larger in your living room than they do outdoors!--We had about 1/2 inch to spare!
2. Digital cameras are only good for about two pictures in subzero weather before they "freeze up"
3. Bare fingers are only good for about two pictures in subzero weather before they "freeze up"--in the future I am going to put thin gloves under my thick ones!
4. It is much more of a work out to find your tree in 12+inches of snow than in two inches!
5. Sled dogs have a tough job--trying to pull something through snow is tougher than it looks!
6. There is nothing like having a Christmas tree in your living room that you cut down yourself!!!