I am most comfortable not talking. Oh, I can talk; I just prefer not to do it. Talking wears me out. Listening to talking wears me out. On an average day, I inwardly listen. I enjoy hymns and praise music to be in my mind's background, so I typically will listen to music. I know some of you are laughing because you only are around me when I am talking. Believe me; it is not my Aspergers preference. I interrupt a lot. I know I do. I try really hard not to share my thoughts all of the time at meetings. I try harder not to interrupt. It wears me out trying to control myself to the standards set by society and those silent propers...I typically miss them altogether. 

God placed me with the perfect mother. She taught me all I know about how to exist in the neuro world without ever knowing that she was. I'm filled with gratitude. However, there are times that I just don't fit, and I'm okay. I've adjusted. There are times that I will remove myself and just be quiet, listen, and be alone. God blesses me in these days of solitude.

I'm primarily introverted with a strong desire to serve others through the Holy Spirit alive within me. Talking is not my forte; I say the wrong things, have some pretty awkward moments, and repeatedly play the reel of my mistakes until the light burns out on my mind's projector. This is why God's Grace, amazing Grace, is so important.

I want to talk to you. I cherish you. If I don't see or notice you, it is never intentional. Mostly it is me out and about just trying to make it through another day in one piece. I have time; you are worth my time. I don't know how I've made it this far but by the grace of God and sweet people who encourage and support me even when I don't deserve it. Thank you for living out your faith in such a beautiful way!

Thank you, sweet peaches, for filling my basket!!!

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. John 7:37-39

Have you ever been so thirsty that your body craves a drink of water to refresh itself? The same thirst should occur in our spiritual lives. The Spirit has been given to us. As Christians, if we aren't craving for the rivers of living water to flow from within, we need a sit-down with Jesus meeting!

We need God's rainwater to replenish our land, too. Let's pray without ceasing.

As I looked through the photo files on my computer, I am sad that I don't have all of my class group photos from school. Instead, I have this group photo that someone shared online. I wonder if I was in the other group pictures, or maybe I missed photo day. I enjoy trying to see if I can remember who is who!!!

Our number 5 grandchild was delivered today, April 24, 2022. Our only boy of the five grands, born into our son's family.

He is pretty precious!

We may never know how what we do affects another's life. I witnessed the sweetest unfolding of an end result of how doing something unaware might create a Holy moment for another.

So, I had to snap a picture...

This young man delivered a package to this woman's business. Then, he asked if she was Ranada. Yes, and he told her how the blanket she made their daughter was her very favorite, how it was worn with love and now stored as a treasure. Ranada made the blanket for a customer during her sewing days, and she could have no idea how her ministry of sewing touched, still touches lives with love.

I needed to share that acting without hesitation in love throughout our daily lives is a ministry that God will use.

Have a blessed new week. Act it out with love. 

Every person is created and creative. God has given us the ability to use his creation to draw us into our creative ability that releases the stresses of what we face. God truly thought of everything we need. Yet, we try to do things ourselves or take the easy way out when we need to just sit and be ... creative.

Jenny Cypert held a painting class @ the Rusty Rose in Downtown Plainview. I typically don't sign up for this type of thing, but I'm so glad I did. The group was amazing. Young girls to this old one, each with a style all her own! What a sweet Saturday after a horrible windy Friday!

Feeling blessed.

There is praise in the storm, including the wind. I can't tell you what it is, but I know God is teaching me in this season. Maybe it is to simply rely on Him more. I am grateful for the order of creation and salvation. I am thankful for our family, church, friends, community, and seasons. I wake up excited to see what the Holy Spirit has to show me every day. We are blessed.

I pray for rain. I trust God has a plan better than I can imagine, and that my prayer will be answered. Until then, I hold firm to my Father's teaching ...

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.  They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.  It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green.  It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”  Jeremiah 17:7-8

Join me as we worship God in a prayer of thanksgiving. Let us come together and pray for God to fill our streams and shower our land to grow the crops and water the animals that feed and clothe the world. 

Teach us, Lord! Refine us. Prove us worthy. We ask you to provide the cleansing rain from above as only you can.

I do not own the rights to the lyrics or the music, but they are good!

A balloon pops when the material that makes up its surface tears or shreds, creating a hole. I don't think we are ever prepared for the tension tear that creates the pop sound of a damaged balloon. Life is like this. There are people whose goal, it seems, is to try and shred the human spirit. This is why our oxygen must be dedicated to the Creator so that when someone is trying to tear you up and bring you down, you can withstand the puncture, the hole, and pop, giving grace. This does not mean that we should allow bullying or abuse to continue. Instead, we should set healthy boundaries. We simply need to make sure that the air we are filled with that we inhale is exhaled with gratitude. Happy almost weekend!

James Harrison Hart, the world celebrated your life today knowing full well that God has a plan way bigger for you there. I'll look for you one day. Have everything organized and done so we can sit by the still waters. I am blessed to have known you.

Easter is my favorite Holy Season. I don't do well focusing on the days that led up to the crucifixion. I am humbled at the feet of my Savior for his sacrifice for humanity, including me. I love love, love the years foretold resurrection story delivered.

A Holy Child delivered to the world and sacrificed for my sins. How can this be? That such grace be offered me! The Holy Spirit is alive within me. I am free with an eternal resting place where we will see Jesus face-to-face. Grow me, oh, Lord, in every season.

As I celebrate Easter, I am reminded of my family, those who God entrusted my life with. I thank God for such amazing role models, strong and courageous. 

These are Easter postcards to my grandfather, Hugh, and his brother Bertram. Their postal stamp shows circa 1914-1916 from Bakersfield, California, and Sedonia and Phoenix, Arizona, their birthplace. They lost their mother when they were pre-schoolers. They had a mean step-mom. The boys were rough and tough, both overcomers of alcoholism; one in life and one at death. I am so proud to be Hugh Etter's granddaughter. He overcame his addiction early on and faced the consequences with thankfulness and enjoyed great riches for the remainder of his 80+ days.

When I think about Easter, I think about God's plan for us, his great love, and how we are free to accept it or deny him. I accepted Christ as my Savior at age six. I pray that those who haven't known true love, freedom, and the peace that comes from a relationship with Christ, will say yes today.

• John 11:25-26: "Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?'"
• 1 Peter 1:3: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
• Luke 24:6-7: "He is not here; he has risen!"
• Romans 8:34: "Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us."
• Romans 6:8-11: "The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. "

Happy Easter!!!