Every great story needs a great ending. Here's one of the best end-of-movie songs from one of the greatest movies ever made: Storybook Love from The Princess Bride. (You know it's true!) The lyrics have nothing to do with my story or my blog, I just really, really love this song and movie. (And I just watched it last night, so it's fresh in my mind.) :)
And now it's time to say goodbye!
Seriously, let's not stretch it out. It only makes it harder. Let's just get it over with. So ...
Merry Christmas, Everyone! May God bless you today and this next year. May He show Himself to you in new ways, to encourage you, to help you along the hard paths, to restore your faith in Him (or draw you to Him for the first time), to lift you up when your heart is broken.
Such a great sermon, one we can all learn a lot from and be encouraged by:
"Encountering God's Process" by Tony Evans
I am sending this "Through the Refining Fire" workbook to my relative who's in jail because she shares the Bible things I send her with other people on her floor. I figure it's one way I can try to help turn this whole bad situation (her arrest) around for good, at least for someone. She might not want what I send her, but maybe a fellow prisoner will get something out of it. Who knows? But it helps me to know that I'm not just wallowing in despair, but that maybe I can help some eternal good come out of this bad situation for someone, even if it's not her.
A favorite song of mine from Newsboys: We Believe
"He's coming back again!"
This song also plays at the end of my all-time favorite Christian movie, "Do You Believe?" Watch it, with tissues nearby.
To make it easier to find, I compiled the links to all the posts in the "Things My Calvinist Pastor Said: We Left Our Church Because of Calvinism" series. (That's right ... I'm not letting him or Calvinism off easy, not with the damage they do to God's Truth!)
Okay, so we all know that Grandma got run over by a reindeer ... but guess what happened next?
Grandpa's gonna sue the pants off of Santa
Who knew!?! I sure didn't, not till just a few years ago.
(I'm warning you now: This one will get stuck in your head.)
This song pops into my mind a lot (which drives my son nuts because then I'm always singing it out loud). But how could I not? In fact, I've found that singing, even when - especially when - I don't want to, uplifts my spirit and my mood like nothing else can.
So go ahead ... Sing a Song! Sing it out loud and sing it out strong.
Not for anyone else, but just for you. Just because it's fun!
(And what a cute video to go with it. Totally made me smile!)
Just putting this out there for you all to read and consider and make your own mind up about: Have The Globalists Overplayed Their Hand?
[Update from February 15, 2021: I am adding this note here because I don't know where else to put it. I just wanted to share this story which I believe confirms my idea that our online devices are indeed listening to us all the time, even when we don't know it. Our online service is used for our few tablets, phones, and laptops, but we don't have smart TV's or one of those always-on units that listens and responds when you ask it questions. Well, yesterday we had some friends over, and we got to talking about the movie "Return to Oz" from 1985, about how creepy it was. We talked about it for just a couple minutes, maybe 2-3. Well, a couple hours after they left, I turned on a tablet, looked at the home "news page" (through the search engine that starts with "goo" and ends with "gle") and - lo an behold! - there was an article about why Return to Oz wasn't a bad movie. I think there's NO WAY on earth that could be a coincidence, not when that's such an old, obscure movie. I think "they" are listening. Always listening. Even when we don't know it and didn't set it up that way. Creepy and disturbing!]
Update August 2021: I am also going to add these links here (and maybe more as I find them). I want them easily accessible for me if I want to refer to them in the future. You can think what you want about them, but there are interesting to say the least:
Here's hoping 2021 is better!
[Update: And now here's the new one for 2021. That didn't take long. But I'm glad to see we're trying to laugh about it.]
Get Back Up Again (God allows U-Turns! There's always hope, always forgiveness, always a new day.)
Hold On (The pain won't last forever. And His mercies are new every morning.)
Break Open The Sky (Amen, Come, Lord Jesus!)
I was talking with a friend recently about ideas of things we can do to relax during these crazy days or during times of depression/anxiety. Obviously, there's reading and baking and taking walks and gardening. And drawing or painting have become quite popular. (And I know lots of people were painting because all of Walmart's little bottles of acrylic paint were sold out for weeks during the lockdown in March.)
And I was telling my friend that I always wished I could draw. Goodness, if I could draw like this guy, in his time-lapsed drawing of Gandalf, that would be freakin' incredible! (If I could have any piece of art out there, it would be this one. I love it!)
I've always loved this song by Switchfoot, makes me happy and sorta bittersweet at the same time:
And another great one I just heard for the first time (and this is a great movie, watch it: Unbroken: Path To Redemption.):
[Along with the Scripture-based prayers I sent to my relative in jail, I also mailed this post that I wrote awhile ago. (I didn't tell her I wrote it, but that I found it somewhere.) I thought she might be able to relate and to find some encouragement in it.]
Genuine Faith is Messy
You know, if there’s one thing I’ve learned over these past depressing years, it’s that faith is messy sometimes. Faith hurts sometimes. It’s not as easy and predictable and “magic-wandy” as I used to think it was.
And I think a critical part of strengthening and purifying your faith – of learning humility - is going through the trials and learning to praise Him in the pain, regardless of what’s going on in our lives. Because it’s in the trials and the hurt and the messiness that I have learned to see God for who He really is and myself for who I really am. It’s where I learned more about His love, grace, faithfulness, forgiveness, all-sufficiency, etc. It’s where my faith grew (after much confusion and pain) and where my trust in Him was purified.
Okay, so I bought a ton of cooked, canned chicken during the lockdown in March, and now I need to find ways to start using it.
First I did a simple BBQ Chicken Pizza. [Either make your own pizza crust dough or buy a premade one, top it with BBQ sauce and some chopped onions and garlic, sprinkle on some cooked chicken (drained and pressed, if it's full of water from the can), and add a thick layer of shredded mozzarella on top. Bake till done. I make my own thick crust, so I cook mine for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. If it starts to brown too much near the end, cover loosely with foil.]
(Reposted from a few years ago.)
(Published on my other blog in 2015. And it's only gotten so much worse since then.)
Some fun wildlife pictures in here:
The Finalists of the 2020 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards
(I love the last one. It's like having "one of those days." Can you relate?)
As some of you may know, a close relative of mine is in jail right now awaiting trial for ... well ... for something serious. She is maintaining her innocence, while the rest of us think there's more to the story than what she's saying. There will be a trial coming up sometime in 2021, and I will have to testify against her. I'm really not looking forward to that.
Anyway, I know I can't fix her situation for her. I can't make it all better. All I can do is offer whatever support I can, even though I have to testify against her eventually. And even if I think she's not being totally honest with the authorities right now, I know that, deep down, she is a Christian. A Christian who, I believe, is running from the Holy Spirit's conviction right now.
One of the ways I decided to support and encourage her is to keep sending her Scripture-based things. Quotes. Bible verses. Bible studies. Articles. Etc. I do this partly because I hope and pray that maybe something will get through to her, maybe something will give her the conviction and the strength to be honest, regardless of what will happen as a result.
And I do this partly because I know she shares what I send with the women on her floor. They copy it and pass it around.
My husband found this cute video clip recently and has been loving it:
So sweet!
One of my favorite bands as a teen was DC Talk. And I am talking way back from their first album with "Heavenbound" and "Spinnin' Round" and their second album with "Nu Thang" and "I Love Rap Music."
(Wow, that really dates me! And wow, was it nostalgic to go back and watch these videos again!)
I even had (have) their video tape "Rap, Rock, & Soul." I tell ya, I was a fan! Always will be. (My friend and I even did a choreographed "dance" to "Spinnin' Round" in front of our Christian camp one year in matching blue button-down shirts and men's ties. Thank God there were no cell phone cameras back then.)
Here's one of their great later ones, one many people can probably relate to:
(And I've always loved these three also: "What If I Stumble?" and "Colored People" and who could forget "Jesus Freak." I don't get the videos, but I love the songs!)
I am just giving everyone a heads up: I will be taking a break from writing soon. I still have some posts loaded up in the schedule to be posted till Christmas, but after that, I will probably take a break from these blogs. A long break.