new chiropractor

I was in serious need of chiropractic work. I really liked my chiropractor in Illinois, Hubert Willis, but it was too hard for me to get to Mahomet on Friday before he closed. So the last time I got adjusted was almost nine months ago. I was having pain in my neck, arm, back, and hip. Tom got tired of me complaining, so he found a clinic here and made an appointment for today at 12:00.

Unfortunately, last night Tom was hooking up a pipe from the faucet on the south side of our house to a spigot in the front (just another little surprise, although there are flower beds and a pretty large front yard--there was no faucet on the front of the house, but that is really another story) and he pulled his neck. He couldn't even turn his head. So we decided that he needed my appointment more than I did.

I drove him to the office. When we got theren the receptionist told me that the chiropractor had time to work on me, too! Yeah!! It is always strange starting out with a new chiropractor. I mean after all he is going to have his hands all over you! Ended up that the receptionist is the wife of the chiropractor and they were both very nice...even if he did say that my back was really messed up--yikes!

Tom can now turn his head a little, but were not sure that it will be enough for him to be able to fly tomorrow to Germany. My hip, back and arm feel a little better, but my neck is really hurting. That is just the way it is when I haven't had work done in a long time, I feel worse before I feel better. I figure it will take about 7 adjustments to get my whole back feeling Okay. No telling how many visits for Tom. But at least we have gotten started on our road to no pain!

Today's devotion in "Jesus Calling" was about God being the anchor of our soul. Just like a boat needs to be anchored down, our souls do also... otherwise, we are able to be destroyed in the storms of life. The scripture was Hebrews 6:19 We have this hope as an anchor to our soul, firm and secure.

One Thousand Gifts:

#17 new chiropractor

#18 new flip flops with beads, on sale!

#19 air-conditioning on these steamy days

hope

Today's devotion was about hope. Not the definition of hope that we usually associate with the word—wishful thinking, but the Biblical hope. The Greek word hope #1680 elpis (from the Greek word that means to anticipate with pleasure)means faith, hope, confidence. It is looking forward to what you know will happen. The hope that Christians have is eternal life with God, heaven.

We don't talk about heaven a lot these days. I'm not sure if it is because we in America have it too easy in our lives and we just don't have the need to think of a better place. Or maybe it is because we don't want people to think that the only reason to accept Christ is so that you can go to heaven... you know the heavenly insurance policy. Or maybe it is just that we don't talk about spiritual things at all. What ever the reason, it is very sad that we have lost our vision of heaven and maybe even some of our hope.

These are just a few of the scriptures from Revelations that talk about heaven: There are many more, but these were enough to get me seeing and hoping for heaven a little more today:

Rev 21:3 God and man will again live together

Rev 21:4 there will be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain

Rev 21:23 there is no need for other sources of light, just the glory of God

Rev 22:1 there will be the river of life flowing through it

Rev 22:3 we will worship God

Rev 22:3 no longer will anything be cursed

Rev 22:4 we will see God's face

There are many more scriptures about heaven, but these were enough to get me “seeing” and hoping for heaven a little more today!

One thousand gifts:

#10 my daughter-in-law discerning my need

#11 candles in canning jars the light of Jesus that lives in us

#12 the black and white cat sneaking through my garden

#13 the beautiful colors of God's creation:

white green

brown blue

pink red

yellow peach

purple

Hearing God

I woke up this morning with another migraine and worrying about shopping for a bridal shower gift. After taking my Excedrin Extra Strength and sleeping some more, I woke up and started my quiet time. In "Jesus Calling" I read:

"Relax and let Me lead you through this day. I have everything under control. My control."

Psalm 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will guide you with My eye upon you."

instruct means to make circumspect and hence intelligent

teach comes from a root word that means to flow as water and means to teach (with the picture of God's wisdom flowing like water from Him to us... don't you love that!)

counsel means to guide, lead, transport

God will be our guide through this life. He has His eyes on us... not as someone who is keeping account of what we do, but as a loving guide!

Psalm 119:35 Make me walk in the path of Thy commandments; for therein I delight.

path comes from a root word that means to trample and it means a beaten path

commandments means law, ordinances, precepts

delight means to incline to, to desire, take delight

God's word is a well traveled path. It is where I need to walk... or even more--where I should desire and delight in following God.

Psalm 143:8 Let me hear Thy lovingkindness in the morning . For I trust in Thee. Teach me the way I should walk. For to Thee I lift up my soul.

hear means to hear intelligently, discern, receive

lovingkindness is not a word we hear very often, but it means just what it sounds like-- love that is expressed though kindness

trust means to hie for refuge, trust, be confident

lift up means to lift, to exalt, to marry, magnify, honor

soul means heart, soul, will, desire, myself

It is not enough to hear God. We have to understand what we have heard and act upon it... I love this picture of my trust in God is of me running to Him for refuge!... It's interesting the word lift up also meant to marry--possibly like I am lifting up my soul to join with God...How do I hear God? I know that I hear Him through scripture, through the Holy Spirit whispering in my soul, and from godly counsel; but on an earlier entry in "Jesus Calling" Sara Young wrote that we also hear God through sights, sounds, thoughts, impressions--that there is no limit to the variety of ways God can communicate with us. So as I sat this morning listening to the water from the pool fountain and the birds and cicadas --was the water reminding me that Jesus is our Living Water, were the birds singing a song of God the creator, and were the cicadas trilling that God is a God who watches after all creation? You may not be sue, but that is what I heard!

So my gifts from God that I added to my "one thousand gifts list" should be obvious:

#7 the cadence of the pool fountain

#8 the songs of the birds

#9 the trill of the cicadas

Today's Thankfulness

God chuckle for today: I am watching cartoons with my grand-daughter, Amelia. We are watching Sprout TV which is written for smaller children. Between the cartoons, there is a woman who is talking to a stuffed star. Every evening there is a different theme. Tonight's theme: thankfulness!

I am on chapter 4 of "One Thousand Gifts". Several things have spoken to me, but I am still processing them. I"ll probably do a book report when I am finished reading. In the meantime, I have begun writing down gifts in my life that I recognize are gifts from God showing me how much He loves me. I won't be sharing all of my list, but I wanted to share what I wrote today.

#4 God's Word (the Bible) that speaks to me

#5 sweet kisses from Amelia

#6 my "manna" bush that is providing beauty, one day at a time

One Thousand Gifts

God is so good and His plans are above and beyond anything that I can even imagine. I often have to just chuckle out loud at the way He makes all things come together at the right time.

I wrote yesterday about the daily reading and being thankful. Later in the day, I was reading some of my favorite blogs, Flower Patch Farmgirl wrote about hearing Ann Voskamp speak. Ann has written a book:

One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

It is about her journey to becoming thankful and having joy. She was challenged to write down 1000 gifts that God gave her.

Can you see why I chuckle? When God wants me to learn something, He surrounds me with the message. He is definitely saying “BE THANKFUL!” I immediately ordered the book on my Kindle and have started to read it. So many good things that I have read already, but I will share more tomorrow.

thanksgiving

Tom and I are trying to do a daily devotional. We are reading "Jesus Calling-- Enjoying Peace in his Presence" written by Sarah Young. Tom is much more disciplined with his reading while I have only been able to read a handful of entries. This morning I was in my office and I noticed the book and decided to sit down and read today's. This is part of what was written:

Thankfulness opens the door to My presence...

Thankfulness is built on the substructure of trust...

See how many times you can thank Me daily; this will awaken your awareness to a

multitude of blessings...

Practice my presence by practicing the discipline of thankfulness.

The recommended Bible verses were Psalm 100:4 and I Thessalonians 5:18

Psalms 100:4

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise;

give thanks to Him and praise His name.

I Thes. 5:18

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Several things reached out to me:

1 For Christmas I had given everyone a small daily calendar that we were to record things that we were thankful for. I encouraged everyone to try to write something everyday. After reading today' devotional, I was reminded that I had written maybe 6 days worth in the over 7 months since we were to start. It is time to start making a list again.

2. I am to be in presence of God-- in communion with God. God is not an idea, but Someone that I am to have a relationship with.

3. I am to come into His presence with thanksgiving... not with a list of what I need or what I think every-one else needs, but with a heart that is thankful for all that I have. There is a time for asking God for help, but it is not when I first "walk in.

4. I am to come into His presence with praise... it's not enough to be thankful, I must also give God all the praise. He is the source of all good things and He deserves the glory.

5. Sometimes I wonder about God's will for my life and it seems too abstract or obscured from me, but the verse in I Thessalonians states very clearly one thing He wants me to do is be thankful in all circumstances.

6. I can be thankful in all circumstances only if I am in Jesus Christ. I have to know and believe in Jesus Christ. Through Jesus I have been forgiven and my relationship with God has been restored. Jesus has shown to me that God is good and sovereign so I have no reason to fear, but can trust God's love for me and His plan for my life.

So my plan is to dust off that calendar, open up my eyes to the blessings God has given to me, and praise Him!

painting

I posted yesterday about the most recent painting projects that I had finished... today I want to tell you that I hate painting!

Tom has always hated to paint. He will gladly do any do-it-yourself project, unless it is painting.

That doesn't mean that he hasn't done more than his fair share of painting over the years, but he hates to paint so much that we actually paid painters to paint the inside of our house before we moved in.

Me on the other hand, I had liked to paint. Sure it's messy and time consuming, but it is an economical way to change your decor without replacing everything. It also had the added

benefit of giving almost immediate gratification... I could see the difference I was making right away! As a stay at home mother that's not something that happens a lot. Sure you do the laundry, but by the time you are finished--there is more to do; you fix dinner, but by the time you clean up--everyone is ready for a snack; you clean the house, but by the time you finish--the first rooms that you cleaned are already showing wear; then there is the whole waiting at least 20 years to see how you did at the parenting thing. But I digress, my real point was that I actually enjoyed painting. That is not saying that I was very good at it. It always seemed to take me twice as long and twice as much paint to cover a wall as it did Tom. I also seem to wear a lot of the paint by the time I was finished. But the bottom line was I liked it.

That was then, this is now. I can now unequivocally state "I hate painting!" I killed my joy in painting by doing too much of it. I plan to post more on the bigger painting projects that I've done since we moved in, but for now I want to share the little paint projects that have contributed to my new attitude:

25 picture frames

9 jar lids

9 lamps

3 wire baskets

5 decorative boxes

1 letter "S"

1 bell

4 wall hangers

1 clock

8 candlesticks

and

1 kleenex holder that I painted

light blue, then silver,

and then finally settled for

a dark blue with silver highlights!

Latest Project

With all this heat...temperatures in the 90's... I have had to put my gardening aside most days. I decided that it was time to work on a few inside projects instead.

I painted the kitchen table legs, chairs, stool legs, and buffet (really just a dresser) white. I really like the crisp look of the white in my blue kitchen. Of course, Tom had to point out to me that he was pretty sure that the table legs and the stool legs started out white. Yes, when we bought the table over 20 years ago, it did have white legs. Since then the legs have been a dark green and then an apple green. I just reminded him how lucky he is that he has a artsy- craftsy wife who has save him hundreds of dollars over the years by painting the legs to match our décor instead of buying new tables.

Then we got to laughing about the fact that we have had the table for over 20 years and it has a leg that doesn't match the other three. The funniest part is that we had the table for almost 10 years before we realized the leg didn't match. (You can see the two different kinds of legs in the photo... did you notice it?) Yes, we had eaten most of our meals on that table. We had taken it apart and put it back together 3 times that we had moved. We had to be told by someone else that it didn't match. So much for us being observant... but you got to admit we are frugal!!