prayer please

Just an update: Terri's dad passed away yesterday. Please pray for peace and strength for her and her family. She's witnessing through it all, which I find amazing. Take care, friend!

new blogger

Without getting too technical on ya, I'm switching our blog to new blogger. It will be easier to track the hundreds of posts we have. Oh right, I mean, the hundreds we will have. Anyway, this will affect you because you may need to create a google account in order to sign in. They will walk you through it (or I will). When you go to blogger.com, click on New Blogger instead of Old Blogger. It should be easy, I promise!!

P.S. Where the heck is everybody?!

Clothe Yourself!!

So, I ran across this Bible verse the other day and I have to share...

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience." Colossians 3:12 (NIV)

Okay, how many of us struggle with these character traits? I bet all of us do. I know I sure do! But God still loves us. In fact, we are "dearly loved". He knows we struggle with this or he wouldn't have sent the message that we need to act this way. You don't have to tell someone to do something they are already doing, right?

If you are anything like me, I need to break these traits down to actual actions that I can do. In the heat of the moment, if I don't have in my mind what I'm going to do, I'm sunk. So here are some of my ideas for how to put this scripture into action. Remember these are just my brainstorming ideas - I haven't done most of them yet!

Compassion - send a card to someone I know that's having a rough time, giving an encouraging word to people that come in my path, be less quick to judge someone who treats me unkindly

Kindness - put the paper from the driveway to the front porch of our elderly neighbor, pay for the meal of the person behind me at the drive-thru, look for opportunities to help people in the store, at work, etc.

Humility - hold my tongue when arguing with my husband (AKA I don't always have to be right), give all praise and honor to God when I do something well, remind myself that it's okay if someone else gets the credit for something at work

Gentleness - give more hugs to my children, make sure my tone of voice is one of love when disciplining my kids

Patience - listen to my daughter's unending chatter, sit with my son while he is on the potty instead of rushing off to do something else, count to 10 when my husband says something that really frustrates me so I don't respond in anger

Well, I think you get the idea. If you have any ideas, please share them!! And if you have any successes as to how you clothed yourself, please share that too! Let's all try to do at least three things to clothe ourselves this week. Every little thing counts! Good luck!

Lord, we come before you knowing we have sinned against you; knowing we can't clothe ourselves without your help. All that we are comes from you. Help us this week to be more like you. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Hi from Chandra

Hi
My name is Chandra, I have four children
11yr old girl (who only thinks of sports) 7yr old boy(who thinks some day he will play for the Bengals ) 5yr old girl(who only wants to be a princess) and 23mo girl (who thinks if she yells loud enough i will get my way- she does) I been Married for 14 years. I run a very small child care in the day time. And a few nights a week work for a credit card co. I dont have very much free time.

Which is what lead me here . I accepted christ into my heart when I was 18 . But not until the last 6 years have i really understood what that meant .
I want to get into the bible more but didnt seem that there was any time. So I am very excited about this blog. I am very excited about growing closer to the Lord.
Thanks to him
Chandra

Introducing - Me - Heather

Hello every one! I'm Heather and I live in the mountains of North Carolina. I'm married and have two beautiful girls, one 6 and the other 16 months. One could be on the way, we'll just have to wait and see.

I know God is with my family. On Wednesday, January 17th my husband, Robert, was in terrible accident at work. He flipped the trackhoe he was in down a steep mountain. The machine flipped twice. His co-worker pulled him from the trackhoe. Robert was airlifted to Chattanooga to Erlanger's Trauma Center. He suffered a bad concussion and fractured his skull. Luckily he didn't have any bleeding on his brain or internal bleeding. He has no other cuts or bruises other then on the left part of his head. My family is so blessed!

prayer request

Prayer request for Terri's dad. He was diagnosed with cancer not long ago. He made the decision (along with his doctor's) to discontinue chemo. He has moved to hospice. He has made peace with his family. But even so, he and his family could use our prayers during this time.

Lord,
We come before you today and ask that you be with Terri and her family. Be with her dad. Continue to use this situation to show your goodness and mercy. You are in control. You have already done miraculous things through this. For those, we are thankful. The family surrenders to you, knowing you will take care of all things. Help them remain in this place of peace - the peace that passes all understanding. Thank you Jesus.
Amen.

Here we go!

Ok ladies! There are a few more people out there that haven't responded but we'll go with what we have. They can join us later if they want. How about everyone do a post to introduce themselves? And if anyone has any suggestions as to what we should do here, please let us know! I was thinking of a devotion type thing once a week, ongoing prayer requests, and maybe recipe swapping... This is our site - let's make it what we what!

I look forward to your input!

Welcome!!

Welcome Everyone!

I am so excited that we will have this place to gather and support each other. I know that some of you are, shall we say, computer challenged. If you have any questions at all, feel free to email me. I will do my best to help.

I guess we should start this off by introducing ourselves. I've mixed the group up a bit and, depending on who responds, we should have some new faces. I suggest that we just use first names, since there are so many big, bad wolves "out there" on the internet. And if for some reason that bothers someone, feel free to pick a nickname.

I'll start...My name is Andrea. (Is this an AA meeting?) I have 2 kids - a girl that's 10 (going on 16) and a boy that's 3 (and in love with Cars movie!). I work part-time at a bank and as a Pampered Chef consultant (anybody need anything?). I babysit a cute little boy on the days that I don't work. Soon I may be babysitting a newborn girl on Fridays (what was I thinking?! Just kidding!). I have been a Christian since 6th grade but like most people, I've drifted over the years. One of my New Year's intentions (resolutions sounds so final) is to get closer to God and read my Bible. This website came from a desire to be surrounded by women of God in this journey. There's plenty more I could tell you (yawn) but I'll leave some stuff for later posts. The last thing I wanted to share with you is my blog address, in case you want to check it out: www.decipherthefog.blogspot.com

I look forward to learning more about you as we grow closer to God together!