Wednesday Treasures

Happy October!

This was the "sunrise" yesterday morning, October 1st.  It was a rather foggy start to the day and month, but soon the fog rolled away and it was a beautiful day.

I didn't do my regular calendar roll call yesterday, so will present it here for you this morning...

Let's take a walk down Memory Lane, shall we?  Isn't it beautiful here?

This picture is from my John Sloane Country Seasons calendar. I also receive posts on Facebook from John Sloane Art, and here is what he said yesterday about this very picture shown above:

"Happy Flip Day!

John Sloane says “Happy October! In my new painting ‘Memory Lane’, it’s a beautiful fall day, so let’s take a pleasant walk. In my scene, a couple stroll alongside a quiet path, no doubt familiar to them, seeing what has changed over the years and what has stayed the same.

Each of us is like a great tree, with roots deep in the past and many branches reaching ever-upward into the future. Each of our memories is like a rich colorful leaf on that beautiful tree. Things may change over time, but those rich memories last forever.

This month (and always), create your own memory lane. Every day, write down one memory. It doesn’t have to be big or fancy. Just start somewhere and follow your path of memories. The more you write down, day by day, the more you will remember … it’s true! Have a beautiful month!”

Question: What is your favorite walk down memory lane?

**** Enjoy a stroll through a country year with all new paintings in John Sloane’s Country Seasons® 2025 Deluxe Wall Calendar, available now in stores and online. There’s nostalgic beauty on every page!

https://johnsloaneart.com/collections/calendars"

I love that, don't you? Great idea regarding our own "walk down Memory Lane."

Okay, switching gears...here is the cute Susan Branch calendar for October, which goes along with the fun times of October and Halloween...

I like the little black crow above that is saying "Boo!"

Well, that calls for a cup of tea...which I am having right now as I write, as it is only 5:39 a.m. right now, and we have a trip to make this morning over to Gainesville for a medical procedure for my hubby, so this may be cut short and finished later today.

What a pretty teapot!  You can read more about it below:

(oops! Sorry, I didn't take a picture of the whole description, but you get the idea!)

Well, that "perfect Alpine lunch" described above might be somewhere on the banks of this lovely mountain river/lake setting.  Although seeing this picture makes me think of all the folks who are suffering right now in our own country's Smoky and Appalachian mountains since Hurricane Helene blew through and destroyed so many of their homes and businesses and way of life. We need to continue to keep them in our thoughts and prayers.

I posted this Thomas Kincade calendar picture in my post yesterday, but it is beautiful enough to share again, along with the verses that came along with it:

One of my favorite verses...have you ever noticed the Acrostic for prayer in this verse: 

A:  ASK, and it shall be given you;

S:  SEEK, and ye shall find;

K: KNOCK, and it shall be opened unto you.

The first letter of each phrase spell the word ASK!  I love how God spells things out so plainly for us!

So that's the calendars for October!  And mine are already getting filled up with appointments, activities, and even a trip!  So stay tuned for further details as the month unrolls!

Speaking of trips, our grandson Noah and his mother Nicole have been on an amazing trip this past week.  Noah will be 25 this month, and something he really wanted to do for his birthday was take a trip through some of our nation's amazing scenic National Parks. So, he and his mother took off from work and flew out to the north west and saw some wonderful sights and took a LOT of major hikes! Thankfully they posted pictures on Nicole's Facebook page so we could go along for the ride, so to speak!  Here's just a few of the pictures. I've been so thankful to feel a part of this journey with them, as we don't get to be together very much anymore since our son Matthew passed away in 2014 (they live in Maine), so this was a treat to me to see so many pictures of their adventure together.

These pictures will be backwards most likely from the order in which they traveled, but that doesn't matter...let's just sit back and enjoy the view:  (I am posting them here for my own reference and album, but you can enjoy them too!)

The first batch is from the Grand Canyon and Sedona:

This batch is in Bryce Canyon

They did a bike and jeep tour/ride through Zion...

This series was in Tufas at Mono Lake, the east side of the Sierrra Nevada, through Death Valley, and then to Hoover Dam...

And this was in the Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks:

They logged over 1500 miles and 6 national parks in 8 days!  Nicole said they were looking forward to "temps under 100 and a bit of humidity" as they headed back home to Maine last night!

What a trip! You can tell they are a lot younger than we are! LOL.

I enjoyed this so much, as I am sure I will never be able to see and do all of that in my lifetime. What a wonderful adventure!

Happy Early 25th Birthday, Noah!

May God bless you and guide you on all of your life's journeys.

And with that, I will say bye for now. I have to get ready to go for our little trip to Gainesville this morning.

Have a blessed and glorious day!

 

Tuesday 4~ Advice: 5 Cents

 

Advice: 5¢

You are very welcome here at Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4. We look forward to your participation and seeing your answers to the questions we provide. It's enjoyable to get to know more about blogging friends.

We all take and give advice at least once in our lives.
Oxford dictionary says that advice is: guidance or recommendations offered with regard to prudent future action.

1. Is there one piece of advice you were given that you feel has been very important in your life?

This scripture verse below was shared with me prior to marriage, and it was the best advice ever given to any married couple:

Ephesians 4:26 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath,"
Obviously, every couple will have disagreements about many things, but it is important to not allow those disagreements to carry over into the night and not be settled as much as possible before you go to sleep. Sometimes you may have to "agree to disagree", but do not allow things to fester and grow bigger between you. Try, with as much as is within you, to settle the little issues before they become bigger issues. "Kiss and make up" and get a good night's sleep.  If you have to discuss things further in the morning, at least you will have had time to "sleep on it" and you may have a different perspective in the morning.

2. What advice do you think is important for building good personal relationships?

Practice forgiveness as much as possible.  Even if they don't ask for forgiveness, settle it in your own heart and mind and don't allow unforgiveness to cause you more pain. Sometimes you have to just move on and pray for God to deal with the other person in His own way.  Don't allow other people's problems to destroy you.

Matthew 18:21-22 NKJV
21 Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

Matthew 6:14-15 

14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

3. Do you give advice to friends when they have problems to solve or do you refrain unless asked?

I usually wait until asked, unless I see that someone is headed for something really bad and they need to be warned before it's too late. But that would be an unusual situation. And it also depends on the person. Some people wouldn't listen to good advice no matter what, while others might really appreciate someone's words of wisdom.  It really depends on the relationship and the level of trust between you.

4. What advice can you give us today?  The only good advice I have comes from God's Word. Here is a passage that I have found helpful and comforting throughout the years:

Psalm 37:1-8

"1 Do not fret because of evildoers,

Nor be envious of the workers of iniquity.

2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass,

And wither as the green herb.

3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;

Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.

4 Delight yourself also in the Lord,

And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the Lord,

Trust also in Him,

And He shall bring it to pass.

6 He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,

And your justice as the noonday.

7 Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;

Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,

Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.

8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;

Do not fret—it only causes harm."

The best advice I can give to anyone is to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, before it is too late. Our world is rapidly spiraling into a major conflagration, even as I sit here writing and hearing what is going on in Israel as we speak, and for those who have not accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, the results could be extremely catastrophic.  

2 Corinthians 6:2

2 For He says:

“In an acceptable time I have heard you,

And in the day of salvation I have helped you.”

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

John 14:6 NKJV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. 

No one comes to the Father except through Me."

I realize that this post is pretty heavy on the Scripture, but my heart is truly burdened right now for our country and our world and for so many who really do not know Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. While I am sitting here writing right now, Iran is bombing Israel, Israel is fighting back on many levels...we've had major weather related catastrophes here in our part of the country this past weekend, and there have been fires and earthquakes in many parts of the country and world.  There are also some major financial issues going on throughout the world that could have a serious impact on our own American dollar. If you know anything about the prophecies concerning the end times and the Rapture and the Tribulation, you will realize that Christ's return could be imminent.  I am not a fear monger...just a person who sees the signs of the times and realizes that life as we know it could be changing very rapidly.  

Today, being the first day of October, I will share this one new calendar picture for today, especially because of the verse that is attached, "Pray without ceasing".  I Thessalonians 5:17.  

And with that I will close for today.  Please pray for Israel, and for all of our world.

Amen.

  

Monday Monday!

 What a wild week last week was!  There's still so much to process for so many people who are still without power, possibly without their homes, jobs, and hope.

This morning's Sunrise gives me faith that in the midst of all the turmoil and chaos, God is still working, actively creating "beauty for ashes, and the oil of joy for mourning"...

Isaiah 61:1-3 NKJV

The Good News of Salvation

61 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,

Because the Lord has anointed Me

To preach good tidings to the poor;

He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to the captives,

And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,

And the day of vengeance of our God;

To comfort all who mourn,

3 To console those who mourn in Zion,

To give them beauty for ashes,

The oil of joy for mourning,

The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;

That they may be called trees of righteousness,

The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

I find these words comforting as I think about so many who are hurting and in need of some beauty for their ashes, and an anointing of oil of joy on their hearts and spirits to ease the mourning, and a "garment of praise" to cover them instead of that "spirit of heaviness" that may be trying to overwhelm them. This is my prayer this morning for those who are suffering because of the tragic losses they have had to endure.  May God comfort and keep them and carry them through to higher ground and peace of mind and soul. Amen.

Our choir was supposed to sing this song yesterday morning in church, and here is the pre-recording from our rehearsal earlier in the week. I apologize for the poor quality of the video, not sure what happened. But you can still listen to it and I hope you will especially listen to the words.  I have included them below for you.

Lyrics "Bow the Knee"

"There are moments on our journey following the Lord

Where God illumines every step we take

There are times when circumstances make perfect sense to us

As we try to understand each move, He makes

When the path grows dim and our questions have no answers, turn to Him

Bow the knee

Trust the heart of your Father when the answer goes beyond what you can see

Bow the knee

Lift your eyes toward heaven and believe the One who holds eternity

And when you don't understand the purpose of His plan

In the presence of the King, bow the knee

There are days when clouds surround us, and the rain begins to fall

The cold and lonely winds won't cease to blow

And there seems to be no reason for the suffering we feel

We are tempted to believe God does not know

When the storms arise, don't forget, we live by faith and not by sight

Bow the knee

Trust the heart of your Father when the answer goes beyond what you can see

Bow the knee

Lift your eyes toward heaven and believe the One who holds eternity

And when you don't understand the purpose of His plan

In the presence of the King

Bow the knee

Trust the heart of your Father when the answer goes beyond what you can see

Bow the knee

Lift your eyes toward heaven and believe the One who holds eternity

And when you don't understand the purpose of His plan

In the presence of the King

Bow the knee

Bow the knee

Bow the knee

Bow the knee"

Songwriters: Mike Harland / Christopher Machen

What a perfect song for this past week's events.  I said above that we were "supposed" to sing this in church yesterday, but things got changed.  Thankfully our church had not been hit with any power outage from the storm, but unfortunately some folks in the same community had been without power since Thursday night.  While we were in our Adult Sunday School class before church, the power company stopped by and informed us that they would have to shut down the electricity for about a half hour or more while they reconnected the power to the rest of the street. That would coincide pretty much with our worship service times, and so we would be without power in church, which meant no lights, no microphones, no sound system, no AC.  Since this particular song had to be sung to an accompaniment CD, we would not be able to sing it during this service.  We ended up singing a hymn from the hymnbook acapella, which is what we had to do for all of the congregational hymns as well, because our "piano/organ" is all electronic.  So we had a different kind of service yesterday in the semi-darkness (thankfully it was a sunny day and there was plenty of "God's Natural Light" shining in the windows), and we also had to do without AC for a while, which wasn't too bad since the AC had been on prior to shutting down for that little bit of time, so we didn't have to pull out our fans for long.  Thankfully the power came back on about midway through the Pastor's sermon.  I sat there thinking how terribly spoiled we are...there were many people in our state and up above us in the other states are doing without power, water, and may even have been flooded out of their churches and homes.  So we didn't dare to complain about our temporary inconvenience.  

Thankfully also the power was back on in time for our 5th Sunday Potluck dinner after church.  It was also a day to celebrate not only the fact that our church, community, and people had come through the storm virtually unscathed, but also we had planned to honor our Pastor and wife for their service. October is "Pastor Appreciation Month", and although it isn't quite October yet, we figured it was close enough.

Here's the Pastor giving the blessing before the meal...and before he was told the party was for him!

Here he is sans ecclesiastical robes, and totally surprised and blessed. 

I probably caught him with his mouth full here. That's his sweet wife Carol next to him. She is also our choir/worship leader. They are a wonderful couple and we are blessed to have them serving our church.

This is "Buck", who I may have shown you in a post a few weeks ago.  Yesterday was his 94th birthday! Quite a remarkable "young man".  

This couple below is very special. She has been battling cancer for the past year +, and is now doing very very well, praise God! It was stage 4 cancer when diagnosed, but God had other plans. It's a wonderful story of God's grace and healing.

You probably recognize these people. I may have caught them with their mouths full too...LOL.

Just a look at all the happy people. We are very thankful for our church family.

This lady is  "Blessed" to be raising her 5 grandchildren...and she does it with such love and joy. What a blessing they all are to us...

And yes, there was PLENTY of food!

"Praise God from Whom ALL blessings flow!

Praise Him all creatures here below,

Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts,

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."

Amen.

So that was the story of yesterday. Today I am having my usual day after a potluck supper blues...won't go into details, but you can figure it out.  Anyway, I probably won't make it to Bible Study this afternoon because of it, but still, I am so thankful for all that God has provided and done for us.  And we look forward to tomorrow, the first day of Ocotober, one of those beloved "ber" months.

So until then I will say good day...have a blessed day wherever you are,  And remember, no matter what you may be dealing with in the days ahead:

"Bow the knee

Trust the heart of your Father when the answer goes beyond what you can see

Bow the knee

Lift your eyes toward heaven and believe the One who holds eternity

And when you don't understand the purpose of His plan

In the presence of the King

Bow the knee"