God's Word ...

These two portions of Scripture have really stuck out to me lately ...

Romans 8:15-18 "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."
(I found this verse one night when I needed the reminder that God is my Father, and then I found it again about a month later in my regular time of devotion. The last verse, "For I reckon ..." was one of my daddy's favorite scriptures)

John 15:1-10 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love."
(I heard a sermon on this at church on Sunday and have been thinking about it since. Can you believe we get to ABIDE in our God??)

Blog Break

I took a short little blog break because once I get on this thing I can't stop myself!! I spend hours catching up on other people's blogs and finding random blogs and just overall wasting time on-line (not all of it is wasted time, but a lot of it is). So I took a short break and made myself spend time on other things. But I'm back now, couldn't spend too much time away.

The past week or so has been pretty crazy - lots of big and little changes, many of them I either can't talk about on-line or I'm not willing/ready to share yet. One I can talk about is WEIGHT WATCHERS. That's right - I started the good ol' WW plan a little over a week ago. I'm not really that overweight, but it's enough that I'm uncomfortable (especially since I was TINY in high school) so I had started to think about losing weight, but hadn't really gotten serious. And then my bridesmaid dress (for my mom's wedding) came in ... time to lose the back fat! So I signed up and started counting points! It hasn't been too bad - I've even done two 5am workouts (Yikes!). And guess what? I've lost 2 pounds so far! Which I think it pretty good :) The only problem I'm having is that I've had the munchies lately and I haven't figured out what I can have that's not too many points. The good news is that most fruit is no points, but really - a person can only eat so much fruit!

Hope you all are doing well! (those of you that have blogs - I'm just about to check in on how you're doing) If any of you have ever been on Weight Watchers and have some tips I would love to hear them ...

WE are the children of God

Please watch this video until the end. It's AMAZING!

VERY exciting news!!

Something wonderful happened a few weeks ago that I couldn't post about until certain people were told. Well, they've all been told now and I've been given permission to post this wonderful news ...

My mama is engaged!!

Jay asked her to marry him the Sunday after Valentine's Day! Their wedding is set for mid-June, so needless to say our household conversations (and sometimes schedules) very much revolve around the wedding. Which works for me because I LOVE weddings!! :)

God is SO good and put these two together in a wonderful way! Maybe someday I'll convince my mom to be a guest blogger and share their story. But if she doesn't, just know that God is faithful and He takes GREAT care of His children.

"And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. ... And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; and the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken, ... And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."

~Luke 21:11,25-26,28

Cold Wave in Bangladesh (January 2011)

Tropical Cyclone Vania in Vanuatu (January 2011)



Floods in Southern Africa (January 2011)

Floods and landslides in Bolivia (January 2011)

Cyclone Wilma (January 2011)

Floods in Malaysia (January 2011)

Cyclone Yasi (January 2011)

Cold Wave in Mexico (February 2011)

Cyclone Bingiza in Madagascar (February 2011)

Earthquake in New Zealand (February 2011)

Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan (March 2011)

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah."

~Psalm 46:1-3

Daddy's Birthday Card ...

Dear Daddy,

I miss you. A lot.

I miss your smile and your laugh and the way you lit up when you talked about Jesus.

I miss the way you always had your hands folded over your stomach.

I miss waking up to your voice telling me some nonsensical thing that could have definitely waited until my alarm went off.

I miss kissing you goodnight and I miss hearing your footsteps as you got ready for bed. They were such comforting footsteps.

I miss having someone to tell me I look pretty (you always knew when I tried extra hard, and you always went out of your way to let me know you noticed. Nothing like a daddy's love to boost a girl's self esteem.)

I miss hearing, "When I was younger a loaf of bread was a nickle."

I even miss watching Red Sox games.

I miss your preaching. You were so passionate about seeing the lost saved. And even though your face got bright red and even purple while you preached, you always gave it everything you had.

I miss knowing you were praying for me. Every morning.

I miss having you to go to with questions about Scripture. Do you know how many times I've wished I could ask you what you think God meant after I've read something in the Bible?

I almost miss helping you organize the over 20 pills you took everyday towards the end.

I miss conversations that ranged from politics to baseball to God to the past to money and back.

I miss your hugs.

I miss watching you worship Jesus.

I miss you teasing me about my multiplication tables.

I miss you teasing me in general (never thought I'd say that).

There's so much more that I miss, but the thing I miss the most is being the daughter of Robert Salliby. You were Bongo Bob turned Pastor Bob, but I mostly knew you as Daddy Bob.

I miss YOU daddy.

I can't give you your birthday kisses today, but I know that Jesus is loving on you more than I ever could. And as much as you loved me and mommy - you're having a much better birthday in Heaven. I know you are because you're with your Savior. And you can breath normally and you're not in any pain. How wonderful that must be!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

I love you so much!
~Christine

xoxoxo

(this picture was taken less than a month before daddy went home to be with Jesus. I'm pretty sure it's the last picture of us.)

Sobering Statistics

I was reading through a blog's archives today and I came across this post. It's a few years old, but the numbers are staggering.

Children are hurting and they need our help.

"The least of these" need people to show them the love of Christ ... what are you doing about it?

I know what I'm doing - nothing. I say I love children and yet I am doing NOTHING to help the millions of hurting children all over the world. That needs to stop. They need help.

My first step towards helping is to fast and pray for them this Wednesday. I was reading another wonderful blog (the one about the 10 kids that I wrote about earlier) and the author asked her readers to join her in praying for the orphans this Wednesday. The post can be found here. Would you join as well? Together we can use the power of prayer to touch the lives of little children that we will never meet.