Today is My Birthday!

A dear friend sent this song to me via text at 6:00 a.m.   I am glad I was already awake before I opened it and it started singing to me! LOL.  It was a great way to start my birthday...and yes, I danced!!  I know I come across as a bit of a stuffed shirt sometimes, but I do love to laugh and sing and dance for my own entertainment and exercise...it's a great way to get the heart pumping and the kinks out of this very OLD body!!  I was just reminiscing with this friend (via text) who sent me this song this morning...we were both young teenagers watching the Ed Sullivan show at that moment when he introduced the Beatles to America...and I remember wanting to scream and cry along with all the other girls in the audience, but I was at home in my living room, and my parents weren't going to let me get carried away with that or they would turn off the TV...so I sat there and screamed silently...LOL.   Were any of the rest of you watching? Some of you may be too young...it was a moment in time that changed the world of "rock n roll" for sure.  I did enjoy the Beatles for the first few years, but when they started dabbling more into the drug and hippie culture of the time I kind of tuned them out...besides by then I was getting married and singing a whole different tune.  But the Beatles will always hold a place in my young teenage heart memories.

"Today is Your Birthday", by the Beatles.

We already started celebrating yesterday after church by going out to lunch with family and some church friends.  When we arrived at the restaurant this beautiful Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly was waiting for me to take some pictures!

Looks like he's missing some of his tail, but he's still beautiful and I felt like it was a special gift from God to see him!!

Another Gift from God was this group of happy people sharing our lunch with us!

This cutie pie eating lemons is the granddaughter of one of my dear friends. I'm not sure how she could eat those lemons without puckering, but she did it!  She's a real sweetheart...

Another view of the table...

And this one shows the bear laughing at us from up on the wall...

And here's the photographer doing a selfie...our son Scott...

 After eating lunch the family came back to our house for dessert...apple pie!!  Of course there has to be the traditional picture of the big blowout:

And a toothy, happy birthday grin...

Here's the rest of the gang...sweet DIL Rose, sons Benton and Scott

and of course Lily Grace and her dog Bailey:

And hubby John

I was surprised to find this package on our front porch Sunday morning before we left for church. We didn't even know it had been delivered. Thankfully there had been no rain to soak it overnight!

It was actually from one of our special sweet blogging friends who loves to send surprises in the mail!

And it was chock full of surprises for sure!  Yes Lily Grace got in on the party...especially because this package was from her special friends in South Carolina where she originated from...

And yes, there was something in the package for Lily Grace...a sweet little fairy friend:

The package was full of so many fun and interesting surprises...this bird identifier is really cool:

And a lovely fan to keep me cool, calm and collected:

And a gorgeous fall bag:

Among many other fun and interesting little gifts.  I am always amazed when people do such special things so totally unexpected!

Tonight Benton and Rose are coming back over to finish off the day with Tacos and they are bringing me something that they have been working on that wasn't finished yesterday, and after all, today is my real birthday! LOL.  

To say I am blessed is a real understatement. I am truly blessed by God with good friends and family, and a loving Heavenly Father Who knows me so well.  I am truly grateful to Him for all He has done for me in these many years of life.  There have been happy times and sad times, wonderful days and difficult days...there have been times when I have wished we could stop time and start over again because things just weren't going the way I thought they should...but God, in His infinite wisdom and mercy and grace, has been there for me always...never allowing me to suffer beyond what grace He had to give to carry me through those difficult times.

1 Corinthians 10:12-13

12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

These verses do not say that God will not give you more than what you can bear, but what it does say that with that "temptation" or situation will give you the way "of escape, that you may be able to bear it."   Testing and trials will come in our life. God does not protect us from having these difficulties or sorrows...but He gives us the grace and the way to move on...He carries us through the tough times and tenderly sets us back down on solid ground once we are able to walk on our own once again. But He never leaves us nor forsakes us...He's right there ready to catch us again if we begin to falter.  "God is faithful"...even when we aren't.  If I could share any kind of testimony of my 73 years of life it would be summed up in this verse...that God is faithful...and He has always helped me able to bear the deep sorrows of life and has given me what I needed in the times of trial to survive and keep going.  And He will do that for you as well, dear friends...when you put your faith and trust in Him, 

Proverbs 3:5-6

5 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He shall direct your paths."

That is the key to living a joy-filled and peaceful life, even in the midst of life's storms.  Don't trust your own instincts and so-called learned wisdom, but put your complete trust in the Lord...and He will always direct your path in the right direction and give you peace and comfort.

I will try to follow up later with the rest of today's story, but this week is going to get pretty hectic. We will be preparing for our family reunion trip this weekend and then on to the north Georgia mountains for a couple more days with our kids.  When we get back home hubby will be finally having a long awaited medical procedure and that will keep us both somewhat out of commission for doing much reading/writing for a while longer.  So if you don't hear much from me in the next few weeks, don't be alarmed.   We are doing what all of us have to do...living life and thanking God for His grace and love and great mercy.   I hope to touch base with you as I can...you are each and every one very special friends.  May God bless you all with His love and grace and peace. Amen.

Happy 8 year old me! LOL.

Monday Monday - Life Goes On

 Do you ever wake up with a song in your head?  For me it's normally something more from the spiritual/Christian hymn genre, but today this old Beatles song was bouncing around in my head:

Ob-la-di-Ob-la-da bra Life Goes On...

It's just a happy little tune...

Ob-la-di- Ob-la-da-life goes on-bra...la la how their Life goes on-

I guess being a Monday morning I think about how life goes on...

In this little happy ever after tune...it's a repetition of how life goes on...

and we may often feel like we are in the same kind of repetition...day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year...nothing really new under the sun...

3 

King Solomon talked about this in his book of Ecclesiastes, written thousands of years ago:

Ecclesiastes 1:3-5, 9-11

3 "What profit has a man from all his labor

In which he toils under the sun?

4 One generation passes away, and another generation comes;

But the earth abides forever.

5 The sun also rises, and the sun goes down,

And hastens to the place where it arose.

9 That which has been is what will be,

That which is done is what will be done,

And there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Is there anything of which it may be said,

“See, this is new”?

It has already been in ancient times before us.

11 There is no remembrance of former things,

Nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come

By those who will come after."

But alas, Solomon in all of his wisdom and grandeur just didn't grasp the wonder and beauty of how wonderful this life really is.  True, it can become mundane and wearisome as we go through the same old same old day after day, with nothing much new to look forward to...

Sadly, Solomon, with all of his wealth and power couldn't look into the future and see what God had planned...a greater One than he would arise, physically from his own lineage, but from the beginning of time He was foreordained to come and and sacrifice His own pure and sinless life so that one day, through Him, we could all look forward to eternal life, the King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ...Who gave us all hope of much better things to come:

Listen to what Jesus is saying to us in Revelation 21:5-7

5 Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

6 And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. 7 He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son."

This good news gives hope to the hopeless and peace to those who may be in turmoil. This world is not our final home.  We have a wonderful new life awaiting us in heaven one day, when we believe in what Christ did for us on the cross.  

If you are interested, here is a great message from our pastor yesterday, taken from John 6:28-60, "the True Bread of Heaven".  Also, you can sing along with our choir as we sang "Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me".

"Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee

Let the water and the blood, from Thy wounded side which flowed

Be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure.

Could my tears forever flow, could my zeal no languor know

These for sin could not atone; Thou must save, and Thou alone.

In my hand no price I bring; simply to Thy cross I cling.

While I draw this fleeting breath, when my eyes shall close in death

When I rise to worlds unknown and behold Thee on Thy throne

Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee."

On a more back to what's going right now train of thought...guess who showed up here yesterday after not coming around for a few weeks:

Yep, the Sand Hill Crane Family!  And "Colt", the "baby" is above on the right...yes, he's pretty much as big as his parents now, and the only way I can tell them apart is he still doesn't quite have his red topknot on his head.

They were hungry, so I threw them out some bird seed.   They poked around in the butterfly garden for a few minutes, and actually examined the eggs in this nest:

Yes, those are the abandoned eggs from the bluebird nest. I finally took them out of the birdhouse and laid them in the garden.  

And here are what's left of the previous nest's eggs that were abandoned...the two little ones are now bleached white from the sun, and it looks like something has pecked  a little bit at the shell on one.

It's sad that these were all left behind, but there was a reason...they apparently either were never fertilized or it was just too hot to develop.  Either way, life goes on...the bluebirds will come back again next year and start a new family. Hopefully it will be earlier in the summer and they will be able to survive.

But back to the cranes...they were also thirsty, and helped themselves to water in the birdbath in the Secret Garden:

It's not as dirty as it looks...it's rain water and some leaves and debris from the over hanging holly tree...they actually may have been eating the little berries that fell in the water.  Either way, they were refreshed and finally went on their way. 

And so, ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, bra...la di la and life goes on...

"The Long and Winding Road"

I hope The Beatles will forgive me for linking up their wonderful song with these photos of the deer on my "Long and Winding Road"

Somehow it just seemed to fit. So bear with me!

The Long and Winding Road

The long and winding road

That leads to your door

Will never disappear

I've seen that road before

It always leads me here

Lead me to your door

The wild and windy night

That the rain washed away

Has left a pool of tears

Crying for the day

Why leave me standing here

Let me know the way

Many times I've been alone

And many times I've cried

Any way you'll never know

The many ways I've tried

And still they lead me back

To the long winding road

You left me standing here

A long long time ago

Don't leave me waiting here

Lead me to your door

But still they lead me back

To the long winding road

You left me standing here

A long long time ago

Don't keep me waiting here

Lead me to your door

Songwriters: John Lennon / Paul McCartney

 Somehow, this quote by TobyMac just seems to fit my life right now...

How often do we beg God to open doors for us and to make things happen, but then we just stand in the way holding on to the "door knob" and won't let God take over!

I know I am guilty of this, so I am praying that He will see through my inability to "let go and let God" and just take control.

I know God is in control, but I'm still trying to call the shots and make things happen in 

my time, my way.

Lord, help me to seek Your way first and foremost. 

On this long and winding road of life, please always

Lead me to Your Door!

Amen!

P.S. to my blogging friends...I apologize that I haven't gotten around to visit your posts this week yet...just seems to be one of those weeks. Trying to get caught up. I haven't even written my 'sermon notes' for the week... Yikes! Hang in there with me, friends. I am kind of being pulled in different directions (mostly in my head...) Thank you! I knew you'd understand.