Prayer

Courtesy of Photobucket

Hi all!
I haven't written a blog post in two weeks, so I thought it was high time I wrote one! :D
I don't really have anything particular to write about, but I have a few things in mind that I'd like to share with you all.

 I have collected a lot of prayer requests for several different people.
Jackie: she is a young adult and has developed Lymphoma. She needs a lot of prayer to have the strength to get through this.

Elliot Ray: he is having surgery on Tuesday to go have some gallstones removed, and if I'm correct his gallbladder as well. So I can imagine that he needs some serious prayer!

Lauren: She is having some joint problems and such. She is in a lot of pain all the time, but she is a strong minded girl and doesn't hardly ever let her friends know that she is in pain. And she has what sounds like Bronchitis. :(

Aiden: He has Leukemia. He is four-years-old and his mom is only twenty-four. They are having a particular hard time.

Rachelle: my best friend has, well, nobody really knows what. She has been sick since this past Wednesday and she needs prayer.

Last, but not least, myself. I honestly don't know what is wrong with me. My doctors are still trying to figure it out. Basically, for all of you who don't know, I started out back in July of 2011 with my right hip swelling. It was just ever so slight, but then my leg started to swell. Then I began to have leg pains quite frequently. I had a couple of bone scans, x-rays, and CT scans. All of which revealed that nothing was wrong with my bones. I went to a few specialists, and was diagnosed with Bursitis. I was then assigned physical therapy, and an anti-inflammatory drug. This was all just a trial run to see if the Bursitis had developed on it's own or if there was an underlying problem. The medicine and physical therapy did nothing, except cause me to have bad side effects and irritate my leg. Just this past week I have been having terrible leg pains and slight seizures. I am scheduled to have an MRI on Tuesday. I'm nervous about the whole thing, as I have never had one before and I'm also nervous as to what the doctors might find. So, if you all could just pray that I would have total peace with resting in Jesus' arms and giving Him the whole situation to do with as he pleases, that would be super!! And don't forget the afore said people. :D

Happy Valentine's Day!

Before I go into my official blog post I would like to add some flavor to my ‘recipe’. So as not to bore all my readers to death! :D

My family celebrated Valentine’s Day yesterday. Due to the fact that my two older sisters have Columbus Symphony Orchestra (CSO) practice tonight, we decided to celebrate it last night so that they would be in the pictures and enjoy the delicious meal! :D

For most of our special events we like to have candlelight dinners. Whether it be a birthday, a ceremony, such as finishing a Wisdom book, or as the case is now, Valentine’s Day!

 We don’t take our candlelight dinners lightly either!

For this special day mom had prepared journals for each of us children to share with her. All of this was done right under our noses. As the first journal entry mom wrote to each of us, she made it our ‘identity statement’. So that whenever we are discouraged as to who we really are and how we fit in this world, we can always go back to that first journal entry and get a sense of acceptance. She wrote the statement, or rather paragraph interweaving our spiritual gift, that was fun figuring out each of our spiritual gifts, the meaning of our names, and a scripture verse, quote, or a song that has impacted our lives. It’s very special for a mom of ten kids to commit herself to such a time consuming effort. It is worth it all in the end. J

                                                                            Stephanie

Emily

Me

Mackenzie

Corrie

Isaac

Eric

                             Destiny. (Mom didn’t include Michael because he can’t write yet, or read)

Us three older girls being rather silly… we weren’t really looking at anyone, except our mom! Really! ;)

We tried to get mom to put hearts in her eyes as she looked at dad, but she couldn’t quit laughing. I was barely able to take the picture without it being blurry.

                                                    All of us yeawhoos, with our journals

Now to get to the real reason for me writing this blogpost…..

Love

Credit of Photobucket.

It’s a simple four letter word. Yet there is so much meaning packed into those four letters.

There are two Latin words that best interpret this word.

Agapaō: to love in a social, moral sense

Agapē: Affection or benevolence; charity, dear love.

God is love. Though, which word do we use to define His love for us?

It couldn’t really be Agapaō because that just didn’t seem like enough love for God to send His only Son to this world, or for that matter to design a universe with all the necessary details for humans to live there.

 Create the first man and woman because He was lonely and wanted perfect fellowship with someone; giving them a second chance to start a new life after they had ruined their first chance to live perfectly.

Save the righteous man, Noah and his family amidst the wickedness in the world. Guiding and leading His righteous and chosen people down through the ages.  Sacrifice His only and perfect Son so that everyone might have Eternal life, if they choose to accept. Does that sound like the kind of love you would have for a casual friend? No. God’s love is much broader than a casual friendship. His love is Agapē; affection, dear love. He wants you to love Him just as equally. That is hard for any human being to do so in our day and age. It always has. It’s because of our sinful nature.

 I am striving to love God with all my heart. It is no easy task though. I constantly have to clear out the distractions and other things that have slowly but surely crept in and stolen my devotion and pure love from God.

So as you dwell on the true meaning of this lovely holiday, search deep in your heart and find who your true love really is.

Courtesy of Photobucket.

The Long Family Singers

In early 2000, three little girls, of the ages,11, 8, and 4, were all in the kitchen doing the dishes. Normally this wouldn't be any problem except, the dishwasher was broken! There was no laughter, water splashes, or any fun happening during this little chore. Instead, bickering, scowling faces, and hateful remarks were flying back and forth between the girls. Mom was in the other room desperately trying to figure out what to do with these girls. Finally, after some thought, and after she had had enough of their arguing, she marched into the kitchen with a hymnal in her hand and a determined look on here face.

"Girls," She said "I am sick and tired of hearing your bickering and arguing. It is not glorifying to the Lord in any way shape or form. I want you girls to sing hymns while you do the dishes. You are not allowed to talk to each other just sing. " She placed the hymnal on the windowsill and left the kitchen.
The girls grudgingly started singing as their mother walked through the house with a satisfied smile on her face.

Those three little girls were my sisters and I; Stephanie, Emily, and me!

From left to right:
Emily, Amanda, Mackenzie (in the highchair) Stephanie, and me! 

     
After that life altering experience in the kitchen we kept on singing as we did the dishes. It was fun! We replaced splashing each other with rinse water, racing to see if we could keep the person who was drying the dishes (usually Emily) 'stocked up', with mountain loads of dishes, with singing hymns.

The more we sang, the better we got. Stephanie learned how to sing alto, and we began to harmonize with each other.

Two years later, we felt that God was laying it on our hearts to use our voices to minister to other people. Although we had never had professional voice lessons. To this day we have never had professional lessons. That really doesn't matter though. Through the years, with lots of practice, and picking up voice tidbits and such, we have improved a lot!

From left to right:
Corrie, Isaac, Mackenzie, Emily, me, and Stephanie
Singing at a neighboring church.

           
In 2004, Stephanie was given a guitar for her birthday. With excitement and enthusiasm she taught herself how to play the guitar. That's when we started singing for nursing homes, and churches.

In 2005, a good friend began teaching Emily the violin. Later that same year she started teaching me piano.

Emily competing in our 4-H talent show. 2010

   
As the years have passed by, we have expanded our ministry, recently began adding in the younger children, and this past Christmas made our first unofficial CD. God has greatly blessed our ministry.

Us three older girls singing at Stephanie's best friend's fundraiser back in October 2008.

Us three older girls singing in the mess hall at Camp Atterbury. 

All of us singing the background music at a restaurant last November.
From left to right:
Front row: Eric Samuel, Destiny
Middle Row: Corrie, Isaac, Stephanie
Back row: Michael, me, Emily, and Mackenzie.

 
Through all the years we have learned a most valuable lesson: When you think you are the least prepared in any area of your life, that's where God will work. :D

Awards

Hello to all my faithful followers!!
I have been recently awarded by Leah, at http://optimisticworldview.blogspot.com/
Thank you so much for the awards Leah! I truly don't deserve any of them, for I have only been blogging for a week now.... :)

                                               

                                                

                                               

                                                   
   These are all the rules:

1. You post the rules... Kind of obvious right? ;)
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself.
3. Those I awarded can answer the questions I posted.
4. I am supposed to create 11 new random questions for the people I tagged.
5. And finally, notify the people I have awarded


      11 Random Facts About Me:
1.  My favorite colors are purple and green
2. I love making new friends wherever I am.
3. I love coffee!!!! :)
4. I use exclamation points a lot. (If you haven't already figured that out by now! ;) )
5. I am currently in the middle of reading 10 different books.
6. I teach piano to my younger siblings
7. I am working on my first novel
8. I have nine siblings
9. My mom has a blog of her own.... surprise! surprise! :)
10. I just finished my fourth cup of coffee... :D
11. Last but not least, I can be shy when I want to


  11 Random Questions Leah asked

1. If you could take a free trip to the moon would you? Yes, I would.
2. How many awards to you currently hold? (in blogger world) I have four
3. What is your favorite song? That's a hard one to answer. 'Make Me a Blessing'
4. If you could choose between a Mitsubishi Eclipse, Lamborghini Aventador, or a Ferrari Enzo, which would be your choice? (Keeping in mind it wouldn't cost you a thing) The Mitsubishi Eclipse! :)
5. What time of day is your favorite? Morning! ;)
6. Describe in one or two words your personality type? Encouraging, and giggly. Hopefully I'm honest and accurate. Please correct me if you think me otherwise...
7. What is your all time favorite season? Summer
8. If you had to pick between a pet spider, snake, or beetle which would you pick? The snake. (I think they're cool! )
9. Which is more common in your daily life, an upside down, or a right side up smile? A right side up smile! :)
10. If you could meet any famous person who would it be? Eric Liddell
11. Have these questions been quite random enough? Yes, definitely! :)
 Now comes the random time for me to ask those 
 random people I have awarded some very random questions! :)

1. How many cups of coffee do you drink in a day? (that is, if you drink coffee at all!)
2. How many siblings do you have?
3. Do you like to wear socks?
4. What's your favorite thing about blogging?
5. Do you play an instrument?
6. What is your eye color?
7. When did you start blogging?
8. What is your favorite book?
9. What is your favorite music?
10. If you created a bumper sticker, what would it say?
11.  Are you shy?


  Blogs I have awarded!!! :)

The Irresistibly Sweet award goes to:
Rachelle at Random Thoughts of a Seventh Born
Antoinette at Practical Simplicity {For His Glory}
The Versatile Blogger award goes to:
Reagan at Hybrid Student
The Tell Me About Yourself; Your blog is great, award goes to:
Bailey at Big House in the Little Woods
And the Liebster Blog award goes to:
Sophia at Simple Delights
Lauren at Virtuous Daughter


Thank you all for being such awesome friends!!! :)