Uplifting moment for the day....

We could all use a pick me up sometimes, and today I was feeling like trying to find something that would give us a laugh and encourage us at the same time....

God is the author of joy... and sometimes to keep from feeling defeated.. we need to remember God gave us humor..... :-)

Hope you enjoy this.... His name is Ken Davis...... and he is a gifted comedian... He has been around since I was a kid.... Just a few short skits.... hopefully to bring a smile to your face today as they did me...

Feeling defeated......

Today I was sitting in church..... and I was thinking about my own struggle with sin... and how this world can make us feel defeated sometimes...... and my pastor was talking about how if we want to be on God's Team... the WINNING team... then we need to get serious about him. He asked the question to us... Are we more like Christ today than we were last week??... if not we need to get serious!!!

He talked about how he went shopping for potato chips.... and he thinks he's getting a full bag of chips but when he opens it up... he looks in to see mostly air... and very little of what looked so appealing on the outside.... he said sometimes we are "Potato Chip Christians"..... we make it look real good on the outside..... but if you open us up... it's a lot of air... and not much of a real relationship with Jesus Christ....

Then after leaving church I heard some very disheartening news.... I began to feel defeated..... I looked around and thought "this world... is SO far from God's law..... myself included sometimes..." but then something else the pastor said came to my mind...... we ARE on the WINNING team!!!! Yes we will struggle.... yes the world will obey their own law instead of God's..... and try to get others to believe that God's will is contradicting his word (which NEVER happens)....... yes we will fail sometimes..... yes others we trust and believe in will fail us....... but GOD NEVER WILL! and this is the best part..... we may lose the battles but GOD has already won the WAR!!! God has won!!!!!... HE is still on the throne......!!!! GOD is in control!!!

So I got on my knees.... and said "thank you God.... thank you that I can rest in knowing you have already won! " I prayed for those being deceived..... and I prayed that I keep my eyes open to the truth so that I wont' be deceived..... and I left my room feeling peace..... Please know that I know I'm not perfect!!!!.... and I hope I never pretend to be...... sometimes I am a potato chip christian.....and sometimes I need someone to look at me and say "it's time to get serious"..... today was that day... and I'm so thankful that God laid it on my pastor's heart to preach that sermon today.... not just tickle our ears and tell us what's easy.... but to really confront us... make us think.... and make us look up to our heavenly father..... and get serious about him!

They grow up sooo fast....

I remember when I had my first child Joseph..... and when I would tell someone that he was up all night crying...... or how happy I was he was crawling or walking.... people would tell me... "don't rush it away"..... "before you know it he'll be in school"...... and as I see my children growing I can see how right they are.... in the blink of an eye..... they change.... they grow..... what made me think of this is my 3rd son Jonathan turns 1 today.... Last year ..... April 12, 2009... Easter Morning.... I went into labor.... 5:30am we decided we need to go to the hospital.... and by that afternoon... I had a baby boy in my arms...... now as I look into his sweet little face..... he's already changed sooo much.... he's walking now.... talking some.... feeding himself some foods......














I look at my sammy..... he is almost 4 .. and sometimes he just acts so grown up..... and joseph.... he will be 6 this summer and will head off to kindergarten..... WOW....

















and michael!!! He's almost 13!!! AAAAHHHHH!!!!








I am going to try and heed all that advice I got a while back..... "cherish this time!"..... and I also got another great bit of advice from a great friend.... She told me... "when i'm up in the middle of the night... I don't get upset... I just realize.... this is what's happening right now... I accept it.... get through it... and realize that soon this will pass"...... and you know what.... pretty soon.... jonathan won't be up during the middle of the night.... (hopefully) ...... and another new phase of life will start..... the biggest thing I am learning is to be excited about "right now" and not try and rush them to the next thing..... children are amazing... they will learn..... they will grow.... we need not rush them.... or one day we will look back.... and wish we had slowed down a bit.....






So to all the people out there who have told me... "slow down"..... "this will pass".... "enjoy them.. it goes by to quickly"..... I am going to try and listen more to you.... :-)

In the living years.....

We traveled back to missouri for the Easter weekend and on the way home as I was searching the radio for something to listen too.... a familiar song came on.... and I just had to stop and listen. It's called "In The Living Years".... thoughts flooded my mind and I realized this was something I needed to blog about....

You see each day we get wrapped up in so much stuff...... and sometimes we forget to enjoy the things that are most important to us...

I lost my father when I was 9 years old..... had he known he only had 9 years with me I wondered what he would have done different... if anything.... if I had known I only had a short time with him... what would I have done different..... then I look around me... I see people lose people suddenly all the time....




The songs lyrics talk about how he had disagreements and instead of just admitting they didn't see eye to eye... they let bitterness get between them.... I see those around me doing that as well... and sometimes myself...... until one day.. they lose that person......



I think it's a daily struggle for us to stop.... take a breath... and really cherish the things most dear and precious to us..... to let things go that have hurt us.... or to realize not everyone is going to see it our way.... and to not let that get the best of us...

So take a listen.... then go and hug the people closest to you and let them know how much you love them... or maybe the dreaded words "i'm sorry" or "i forgive you"...... so that we won't have to say ... " I wish I could have told them... in the Living Years.....

The little boy who went fishing....

I wanted to share briefly a story I heard the other day ... that really affected me... I was listening to the christian radio station... a speaker came on for a minute.... he told a story of a man in Pennsylvania.... who was driving and as he was passing on one particuluar road..... he saw a little boy fishing in a little pond... the man pulled over... rolled his window down.. and said "are they bitin?" and the little boy said "no.. but the worms sure are.." the man chuckled and drove on... as he came to a gas station, he got out and went inside and asked the men "good fishing areas around here?" and the men said "ya you passed it.. just back there in a little pond off the road".. the man said "yes I saw a young boy there"... and then he shared the story with the men.... the men also chuckled... then one man all the sudden got a pale white fearful expression on his face... dropped what he was holding and jumped in his car speeding in the direction of the little boy... when he got there... he found the boy dead.... you see the man realized when it hit him that the boy said "the worms sure are".... that he wasn't playing with worms... he had been playing with baby rattlesnakes....

The mans point was... sometimes we can play around with "small" sins in our lives... thinking we wont' get bit.... but eventually.... we will..... and while it might not destroy just our own lives..... it might destroy those around us...

I know this has been true in my own life......

Well it was such a powerful story... I just wanted to share it with you all....

Movie Monday : Why not now?

I was driving yesterday to take my stepson to meet his mom after he had a weekend visit with us.... and on the way back.... I wanted to take advantage of the alone time and spend some time with God praying and worshipping him...... and so each new city/state I went into I would scroll and find the christian radio station in that area.... I began to think about my relationship with God.... and how this year I started off really strong, and how already it was begginning to fade a bit..... I would forget to do a quiet time one day.... not pray as much the next.... and before I knew it... I saw how life was bogging me down.... and it was happening so quickly.... I kept having those moments where I would say... "tomorrow I'll make sure to read my bible"..... but then tomorrow happens... and one thing after another and before I know it... I'm laying my head to go to sleep at night... and thinking.... today is already gone..... I'll do it tomorrow...

Well I LOVE toby mac.... and it just so happened (God ordained!) that Toby Mac's song City on our Knees came on.... and it was like God was telling me "kassie... quit planning and just DO IT!" Here are some of the lyrics I heard..

IF YOU GOTTA START SOMEWHERE WHY NOT HERE
IF YOU GOTTA START SOMETIME WHY NOT NOW
IF WE GOTTA START SOMEWHERE I SAY HERE
IF WE GOTTA START SOMETIME I SAY NOW

The rest of the song speaks to the rest of what we should be focused on... reaching out to others and helping them stay focused as well.... and I'm sure it will speak other things to different people....

Here's a video for the song... the rest of the song is incredible, Please take a moment.... and watch and listen.... Why not now?

comment and let me know if and how it speaks to you...

I'm back..... and in Indiana!!!

Well to all of you who might have been wondering why I have had no new blogs in the past 2 weeks.... my husband received a job transfer with Chrysler. We got notice 3 weeks ago that we were transferring to Kokomo, Indiana. It was a 3 weeks filled with excitement, nervousness, sadness... pretty much every emotion that you can feel, we have felt these past three weeks. God was so good though and he provided every step of the way. I have learned to lean on him in a way I haven't had to do much in my life. Being here though it's hard.... when you know noone..... it's easy to get caught up with the lonliness.... and being overwhelmed.... that you forget to do the one thing you know you should....... talk to God! Even as I sit here.... I am realizing that this move can be an area of great growth in my life.... or I can allow all the feelings I am having to overwhelm me and I can distance myself from God. Right here and now I am going to committ...... to making it an area of growth!!

When i was little I always imagined what it would be like to live in a different state.... how exciting it would be... and it is... however I also knew deep in my heart how incredibly hard it would be to leave all my family and friends. I have NEVER lived more than a couple of hours away from my family and that was for a sememster in college and I was so homesick I couldn't stand it... i think i went home almost every weekend I could! This is a huge challenge for me and my husband... we had a safety net in Missouri... friends we knew would always be there for us... a church that was supportive and encouraging....... and we had all of our family there......

I think about when Jesus called the disciples to leave everything and follow him... they had friends... families.... jobs..... and yet they left to go with him and follow him. On a much smaller scale that is what Mike and I have done..... we trusted him with our future.... we told him we were willing to go where he would send us... even though in our hearts he knew that if possible we wanted to stay..... but we were willing to go....willing to put our future in his very capable hands... and he chose to send us..... Now we have to keep trusting him.... trusting he will provide friends.... a church.... and anything else we need.... He is our heavenly father..... and I know I can trust him... just like I know my kids trust me and their daddy to take care of them.....

Here are a few pictures from our first week in our new home in indiana.....