My Tongue

I would just like to say thank you my Jesus for loving me.  God has blessed me and my family this summer.  When summer started out we had so many obstacles thrown at us it was crazy.  I had made the comment to several that this was the worst summer I have ever had.  I was so depressed because we weren’t able to take our kids on vacation or do anything special for their summer break from school.  Now that the summer break has ended, I now see how this was truly a great summer.  Even though we didn’t go on any trips or do anything special I was shown how much God loves me and my family.  I saw our church family come together to pray, love, and encourage us in our time of need.  I can’t tell you how good it feels to know that there are people out there who love you and pray for you, it is soo comforting.  We were blessed by David and his cousin Jeff who fixed Gary’s car.  We were blessed by Chris and Karen who let us use one of there vehicles so we could have extra transportation.  And I got a job that I love and has stopped us from going under completely financially.  We had the church that not only prayed for us but were kind enough to help us financially to get our car fixed.  Not only do I thank the Lord for our blessings but the ones that we have going on with our church members also.  I thank God for giving Heather and Amber the strength to fight and not give up.  And now Amber is home.  OOOHHH that is just so awesome.  And about Miranda’s new job.  And how our associate pastor was able to move closer to our church instead of a hour away. Also the couple who just recently got saved.  I now there is a lot of turmoil in the world and in our own lives but when you take the time to think about the blessings God has showered us with it is impossible to hold back the thankful tears.  If you were read my last blog then you will understand when I say “this is my rainbow.”  Jesus Christ never left me when it was getting dark and grim.  He was right there to pave the way for recovery and we are well on our way.  I pray that who ever might read this would ask themselves do I have hope in my life, do I have a rainbow.  If not Jesus Christ will be your hope and your rainbow of light in the darkness of a trial, struggle, or storm.  All you have to do is Ask for forgiveness and for Jesus to come into your heart.  He is willing and ready and will stay forever as long as YOU allow him.  If you are saved I hope you take a moment to count you blessings.  Think about the storm you might of just got done going thru.  Can you see the rainbow that he left you..  Thank you God and I LOVE YOU…..

SARAH

First I want to say thank you Jesus for saving my soul and giving me hope in all things.  Me and my husband are going thru a storm now and its been rough.  This is the first major storm that we have been thru since we’ve been saved.  It came out of the blue, but don’t they all.  My husbands timing belt came off destroying his engine and all of “our” plans.  We had planned for a beach trip and we were struggling with the money for that.  We had said for a couple of weeks that we just didn’t feel like this was Gods plan for us.  Did we listen?  No, we were to stubborn and selfish.  So, when the car trouble happened it took away our beach trip.  We were disappointed, but honestly we felt good about the decision.  Now we have to come up with the money to get the car fixed and I start a new job in about a week.  It seemed like every door that we saw opened to us was slammed in our face.  We got very discouraged and depressed not knowing how to fix the situation.  Gary had made the statement about how there are people out there who don’t live for God and seem to have no problems.  I was having a pity party and crying to my dad about how our life is not going to be any better than what it already is.  Oh there is more, like why me?  I am very shameful for the way I acted.  When I woke up Sunday morning for church Satan was on the attack.  I was upset because I just realized that I wouldn’t beable to take part of VBS.  I have been looking forward to this ever since last years VBS.  So I was going into church with baggage instead of truly leaving my problems outside the door.  During the whole service I was fighting with staying focused and just giving into the spirit.  But at the very end Jesus Christ won just like he always does and will.  He opened my ears and focused my mind at the very end when the preacher was talking about doubting God.  And it hit me that is exactly what I was doing.  When we left I felt a little bit better but didn’t feel fulfilled.  I listened to God and came back for Sunday night service and I was so blessed.  I believe the sermon was titled Bow in the Clouds.  If you get time listen to this sermon you will be richly blessed.  The preacher opened his mouth and God was talking directly to me.  He addressed every self pity thought and statement me and my husband had made over the past week and rightly put me in my place.  God knows what is going on in our lives.  We are not alone thru this storm.  Jesus is right beside us.  He WILL NOT LEAVE US NOR FORSAKE US.  Satan may want us to think that those who do not follow God don’t have any problems.  And you know what that is never true because unless they give their lives to Jesus Christ they will always have a bigger problem than we will ever ever have to face.  Please pray for the lost because they don’t know and understand that they may not have any problems now, but after this life they have a problem worst than any of us who are saved can fathom.  If I would have took the time to look over the past years of my life I would of seen how God has blessed us and improved our lives.  And the question of why me.  Why not me?  I don’t know why this is happening to us but I can’t wait to find out.  It could be just to test our faith or he saved us from something horrible down at the beach.  All I know is that this has made my relationship with God stronger.  I now allow myself to feel him holding me and whispering it will be ok.  I am very sorry for not trusting in him and have asked for his forgiveness.  I now look into the clouds of this storm and see his rainbow, his promise.  He will not leave me, and he will be my strength to get thru this.  I don’t know how we are going to get the money to fix the car, but I do know that God knows.  It may not even be money.  I just know that I owe it to him to trust him and be faithful.  I would also like to take a moment and thank my church family.  Your faithfulness and strength is just what we need.  Your concern and prayers mean more to us than words could express.  I know that there are people going thru worse struggles than we are but the thought that you care about our petty problems mean a lot.  So if you are going thru a storm look into those clouds and see Gods rainbow.  Because he promised to love you and be by yourside as he gets you thru the storms.  And remember your reward of being faithful to God.  I know that where I am going there are NO storms.  Just the wonderful light of God.  JESUS CHRIST IS OUR HOPE, WITH OUT HIM THERE IS NO HOPE.  THANK YOU GOD FOR ALL THE HOPE YOU UNSELFISHLY GAVE TO ME AND MY FAMILY.

Hello everyone,

                           I am not sure how to go about writing this and expressing my feelings in words.  Ok here it goes.  I am a wife to my husband Gary and I have 3 great children Bethany, Hailey, and Trey.  I never really got into “big” trouble when I was a child or really growing up thru the teen years.  I lived a very sheltered life and really didn’t know how sheltered until I met my husband.  When I was a child I can remember my parents taking me and my sister to church a few times.  It was a huge church and all i can remember is hating it.  And I can remember my parents not liking it either.  Off and on thru out my childhood my parents would send me and my sister to church with our neighbor.  That was the first time I remeber feeling the Holy Spirit.  I can sit here as I write and still remember the feeling of wanting to be saved but not really understanding what it meant, but boy I wanted it.  I would raise my hand everytime the preacher would ask if there was anyone who wanted to be saved, but just wasn’t ready to take the step and he would pray for them.  Now that I reflect on that, I wonder why he or anybody else wouldn’t of tried explaning  what being saved meant in kid terms.  I was 12, but anyways. 

            When I met my husband I knew that I met the one I couldn’t live without. He was very over protective and he had a temper and we both wore our feelings on our sleeves.  When we found out I was pregnant with twins he had a hard time accepting it.  I don’t really know why, unless he just was scared to death of the commitment.  We were living together not married and I was ok with that.  People were telling us that we needed to get married because it was the right thing to do, but nobody had a problem that I got pregnant unmarried.  I was ok with getting married though because I knew we would have eventually.  We got married at the justice of the peace and we celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary this past Febuary.

                   I have always prayed and talked with God but I wasn’t saved.  Me and my husband had talked about going to church and trying to do the “right” thing since we had a family now and how we should raise them.  I worked as a cna at a nursing home on Saturday and Sundays 12hr shifts.  Two years went by and we did nothing about it and our son was born.  I went back to work and we really never discussed it again.  My husband left the sherriffs office and went to work for a trucking company.  He was out on the road all the time and our marriage started falling apart.  We were growing apart.  We basically had seperate lives and he would come for visits.  Then he got a partner and was home a little bit more.  His partner was talking to him about Christ and with Tony inviting him to church he was under conviction.  So the conversations of being saved and going to church became increased.  I wanted to so so bad, but I was very scared.  Gary finally got a local position and eventually went to church with Tony.  Just from the first visit he was a different person, on fire.  He couldn’t stop talking about the church, the members, and the preacher.  He went about 2 more weeks and then he got saved!!!  What great news, but I didn’t think so at the time.  I knew that it was great and I wanted it too, but I was scared.  I eventually caved in and told him I would go.  His sister and husband also agreed to go that Sunday.  I remember like it was yesterday how the holy spirit was tugging at me to get out of the pew and take the step of eternal life.  I didn’t go.  The preacher said something that scared the daylights out of me.  He said nobody knows what is going to happen when you walk out of these doors.  There is no gaurantee that we would make it back that night.  I could walk out that door and take my last breath (he was talking to everyone but I knew it was for me).  I could not quit crying on the way home and prayed to God that I could make it back that night.  If I would have known that I could of got saved in the car on the way home I would have.  I still didn’t know how it all worked I just knew I couldn’t live another day with out asking Jesus into my heart and life.  That Sunday night me and my sis n law made it back to church and were SAVED!!!  THANK YOU JESUS.

                  It was the best decision I ever had made.  Not just for me but my children also.  The dramatic change in me and my family is just totally unbelievable.  In later blogs I will share with you the different ways God has touched our lives.  I just wanted everyone to get to know me.  I didn’t mention all the times that we struggled between the time God gave us our girls and the time we got saved.  I think about how many times things would have been different if I would of relied on God then.  Thank you God that I don’t have to wonder about that with any future struggles and storms I will go thru.  And I promise my future blogs will be shorter.

Sarah hasn’t begun to blog yet. Stay tuned….