Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth

Last week I joined a group dedicated to memorizing scripture. Each Monday Beth we are assigned a new verse to learn during the week. Last week we learned

Psalm 119:15 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
This one was easy for me because it was already hidden. I just had to find it. I learned this verse along time ago probably when I was in G.A.'s (Girls in Action missions group for middle/jr. high and high school girls)
Once I started working on it last week it was easy to remember it.

But I find my problem is being able to think of a particular verse when I need it. I am thinking of maybe trying to categorize each verse with one word. Like heart for this one.

I was wondering does anyone else have a way they memorize scripture. I thought
it would be fun and useful to share with everyone. I'll add Mr Linky (once I figure out how) and ask you all to join and share how you learn and memorize scripture.



Disclaimer...I am also labeling this post Dummies at blogging. Because I can't figure out Mr. Linky. It is here though I had to by pass the regular instructions. The disclaimer is because I used it from a previous post I wrote for More Than A Friend so if you find your link already there I am sorry. If anyone can explain to the dummy how to do a new Mr. Linky please email or do a tutorial.


Here's the verse we're working on this week.

I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides Me there is no God: I will gird you, though you have not known Me.....Isaiah 45:5 (NASB)

Tomorrow I'll share how I memorize but remember please come back and link up because I know there are other methods and ideas and I would love to learn yours.

Have a Blessed Day.

Then Sings My Soul

Join Amy for Then Sings My Soul...she is over at
signsmiraclesandwonders.blogspot.com I am sorry this isn't a link I am on the borrowed computer again.

Dear friends please pray for my computer.
Have a Blessed Day

Fearless Friday Praying for each other

Amanda at Free Spirit Haven hosts a wonderful meme today....here's what she says about FEARLESS FRIDAY (sorry I am not on my computer again and I can't link. here's where she is freespirithaven.blogspot.com

About Fearless Fridays

Come to Fearless Fridays, a day where bloggers commit to share their prayer requests and pray for one another. To participate in Fearless Fridays, copy the image code below, add it to your Fearless Friday post, and then come back to Free Spirit Haven and add your site to Mr. Linky. I hope you will join Fearless Fridays and see the power of prayer in your lives and others.

Today I ask you to join me in pray.

In May our ministry is hosting a baby fair at the church I grew up in. It is now a completely hispanic neighborhood. At our fair we will provide info. and free resources. We are collecting baby items and diapers and our food pantry will provide a box of food to each family. The church Springdale Baptist will follow up and visit each home. Please pray for this event as we plan. Please pray God will provide all resources we needs.

Today I am going to a big baby fair at our convention center. Please pray I will be able to make some contacts and get some vendors to come to our fair.

I am going with my daugther and she will stay and work the fair. I will leave at 2:30 and drive the baby back to my house. Please if you think about it pray for me between 2:30 and 3:00. I haven't driven with the baby alone!

Right now I am working with the staff at the halfway house making some new decisions about the types of activities we are doing there. We are re-evaluating our programs. Please pray with me that God will lead us and show us how to plan and how he wants us to carry out our work there.

And last please pray for Cowboy. He finished his classroom portion of driver ed. he now has 160 hours left of observation,student teaching and homework.

Oh and one more last thing. Our daughter and her family are moving Sunday. Please pray it goes smoothly. Yesterday she was calling utilities and running into problems with elec. The (they wanted a $300.00 deposit who has that kind of money now days) The stupid thing is she has had utilities in her name for over 5 years. But it is the only company in the small town and so they have the market cornered I guess.

Thanks so much for your prayers.

And, don't forget it is Show and Tell over at Kellishouse.blogspot.com go by and see her and tell her I sent you.

Have a Happy Day,
Sherry

Welcome to Thankful Thursday today I am sharing a short list of things that I am very Thankful For. . .

I am Thankful that God isn't finished with me yet and that he is patient with me
when I:
worry,fret,agonize,whine,cry,gripe and many other things.

I am thankful that our daughter and son in law are moving into a new house this weekend. They are doing great.

I am thankful for friends that I have met through blogging that come to my rescue and pray when I ask for specific prayers for specific things. You guys know who you are.

I am thankful that God answers our prayers.

I am thankful for The Word. I am thankful that Jesus gave his life for me and that he is alive and lives in me.

Lastly I am thankful for two things my new Bible Memory Software and the group I joined to memorize scripture.

Our verse this week is Psalm 119:15 Your Word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against you. And here is a welcome to you to join our group. This little garden gate illustrates our verse this week.


It reminds me of one verse that I memorized when I was a child.
Behold I stand and the door and knock if anyone hears my knock and opens the door I will come in and sup with him and he with me. Revelation 3:20
Today I invite you if Jesus Christ is not Lord of you life you can turn to him today. Open the gate/door to your heart and ask him to enter. There are many praying for you right now.

On a Journey of Thankfulness,
Sherry

Word Filled Wednesday

Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against you. Psalm 119:11

Join Amy for more illustrations of God's word through photo's.

Hiding His Word

I have been on a Journey to grow closer to God and that is part of my reason for this blog. I pray that God will use something I write to draw someone else nearer to him.
God has shown me over the last few months I have been so negligent in many things one of which is knowing His Word.

I was reminded of that a few days ago and wrote about it here. The verse in James is one that I hard worked on a few months ago and I thought that I had it memorized but I realized as I was talking to this beautiful young lady that I didn't remember it and I wasn't sure where it was. Much later in the day I remembered most of it and where it was but that didn't do a lot of good then because the moment to share it with her was gone.

I found a wonderful tool over at Amanda's it is called Memorize His Word Bible Memory Software. You can find it here. You can go by there and check it out and even get a 30 day free trial.

When I received the software this week the business card was included in the package and on the back side was this:
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds, tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheards. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses, and on your gates. Deu. 11:18-20 Have you seen this verse before maybe....someplace really close like on this blog? Yes again it is one that I thought was memorized but not completely.

And so I am joining Beth and Denise and a few others and I am hoping that these sweet sisters will hold me up and pray for me as I work on Hiding His Word in my heart.
Beth hosts this wonderful challenge called Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth every Monday at her blog. Her really cute button is at the top of this post. I am putting it on my sidebar too so you can click on it and go right over there.

I know I am a little late and it is o.k. to join up anytime so if God has been speaking to you about growing closer to him by Hiding His Word then join us and come back on Monday and share with us what you have learned.

Join Me on the Journey
Sherry

Springtime in Texas

Good morning sunshine. That is what I used to say every morning to my daughter when I woke her up. I thought of that this morning as I opened my eyes to see the sun shining. I love the sunshine!
I thought I would share this pretty photo of bluebonnets in Texas. Sorry for the #'s and link it

does kind of mess up the photo!
We are looking forward to finding a pretty field and taking photo's of the baby!

I have a busy day actually a busy week. I usually try to link with Sandra and post Homemaker Monday. Please go by and see her and the other posts at
If I don't get back today I wanted to say Hello Sunshine to all my friends and share theses verses from Psalms 148 with you today.
Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights above. Praise him all his angels praise him, all his heavenly hosts. Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shinning stars. Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies. Let them praise the name of the Lord. Let the name of the Lord be exhalted his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.

So today if your are having a 'not so good day'. Or if you are tired or sad or just restless. Rest in the Lord and enjoy the sunshine. (I hope you have some) Rest in God

Fearless Friday praying together

"Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14 NLT

Angela is hosting this wonderful opportunity and encouraging others to join her in praying together. You can visit her and join us in praying for each other.

Tomorrow is our major spring fundraiser a garage sale for our ministry. My husband and I work fulltime in ministry to troubled teens. Please pray that we have good weather and that we have lots of shoppers. Please pray for God's provision.

I have spent this week spending more time with God. I am feeling a real need to seek him. Please pray for me as I seek him.

Dear God thank you for loving us. Thank you for showing us how to pray and for allowing us to come to you with our prayers. Thank you God that there are other wonderful woman willing to reach out to each other and encourage and support each other. Help us all to be Fearless Amen.

Singing and Rejoicing

How was everyones week? I missed stopping in to see everyone. Tonight I am back at my computer and I hope that I'll be at it from now on. I missed it!

I spent this week working on my daughters birthday quilt. It is 3/4 done and hopefully I can post photo's soon.

I spent some much needed quiet time and focused on Psalms 37:7. And I prayed the words from the song Word of God Speak. The lyrics say Word of God speak would you pour down like rain, washing my eyes to see your Majesty. I really got to thinking about these words and they spoke to me. I want God's Word to rain down on me. I want to absorb it. I hope that you too are in a place where you are seeking God.

Blessings to everyone.

Journeying to see God's Majesty
Sherry

Thankful Thursday

I am Thankful today that I am Forgiven

I am Thankful today that Jesus loves me so much that I am forgiven

Join and read more thankful posts at unequalmarriage.typepad.com and visit Iris at the original Thankful Thursday at eph2810.com, (I am sorry these are not links I am on the borrowed computer and it won't allow it)

Praying Blessings for you.

Journeying to our Lord
Sherry

The post that shouldn't have been

I didn't intend to bore everyone with this. I was playing around last night and made this.

 

My intention was to post on the baby's blog for family. I didn't realize I did this till just now. I think he is adorable but I really didn't intend to post it. I know I promised this wasn't going to be a grandma blog. Sorry everyone.

I will be writing a real post later tonight so I hope that you will come back and visit.

Many Blessings,
Sherry

Then Sings My Soul Saturday on Monday

Welcome back. I took most of last week off because I was having computer problems and I just felt lead to spend the time with God. Thanks for visiting even though I wasn't here. I spent some much needed quiet time. I spent time praying and asking God's direction. And I worked on my new Bible study Makeover of the Heart which was verying revealing.

I did intend to post on Saturday but for some reason You Tube wasn't working for me so I guess I really needed a few more hours to digest what God was revealing to me concerning it. Here is the song and post I planned. (You can see more Songs posted on Saturday at)





I chose this Rebecca St. James songs for a few reasons:

I love it

I had a conversation with a ministry acquaintance concerning the topic

We are planning a Purity unit this summer at the halfway house

(sorry I can't help but say this...notice those numbers! I promise Carla I will write a post on how to do all these fancy things!)
After talking with this young lady Friday I was prompted to write this post. You see she shared with me about Waiting for God for a mate. And she mentioned a specific Bible verse which neither one of us could remember exactly.

She shared that she is in her 30's and happened to be in 7 family weddings over the last few months. I didn't tell her this but it made me think of the movie 27 Dresses (just saw it on tv) As she talked I felt sorry for her when she shared about how people treat her. People are also saying things like "When are you getting married?" and "Well have you met Mr. Right yet." etc. It goes on and on I am sure you have heard or even said something similar to someone.

I don't know why what she said touched me so much except that maybe I remember when my daughter had a misscarriage and people said things they thought were encouraging. But they weren't.

I just felt lead to write and share with all of you how we should really be careful about the things we say. I know I have said similar things and we don't really mean anything harmful in fact in most cases we are trying to be supportive and understanding. But sometimes it isn't received that way. Like I said I was just so touched by what she said.

And as she spoke about waiting on God she mentioned this verse which neither one of us could remember. I spent the rest of the morning trying to remember it and then wouldn't you know it on the way home most of it came to me. The thing that bugged me was that it was a verse I supposedly memorized. Here it is: James 1:1-4 Consider it pure joy brothers and sisters(added) whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perserverance and perservance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete and not lacking anything.

After walking away from talking to her I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. You see I knew I knew that verse. But I didn't. Like I said I did remember most of it on the drive home but a lot of good that did. I did remember where it was and I looked it up when I got home. I plan to email it to her in a little while with a note of encouragement.

And, I plan to dig into memorizing God's word. I send many thanks to Amanda the snow flake girl that introduced me to new software. The button is posted on my sidebar. I got to order it and I am anxiously waiting to receive it so I can really dig into memorizing.

I have to tell all my friends that I am Blessed to be back and I hope that you too are Blessed by visiting my Journey.

Much Love on the Journey,

Sherry

When Life Crashes In

Sometimes life seems to crash in and things don't go the way you planned. Today I am writing this post on a borrowed computer.

• Life Crashed in

I am in the beginning of an amazing Bible Study (check my sidebar) and I am asking God to reveal himself to me.

• Opening my Heart to the Father

So while life crashes in and I open my heart to God I am taking a break for isthe rest of this week.
I am praying and reading and worshiping our Father and I am asking him to reveal himself to me.
I miss you guys. Please come by anyway and let me know what is going on. And encourage me please to seek God first.

Loving you while I am on the journey
Sherry

Test post

Boy do I feel stupid. I have been reading all these amazing posts by you sweet sisters and wondering how you do some of the fancy stuff like changing the size of text. And like color.

• and adding bullets

Now the bold I already figured out. No actually I learned it somewhere a while back I think on Blogging 101 or one of those places.

But all the cool text stuff I learned from Angie at The Knightly News. I mentioned her fancy stuff in a comment on one of her posts and she was so nice to tell me how to do it. I thought it was some fancy smancy (Is that a word) type stuff and duh it wasn't it was here all the time.

OK here's why I was such a dummy. I was writing my posts on the edit html tab not the compose tab. One the edit html tab all that shows up is the spell check,photo, and link buttons.

And so now that I have learned all this fancy smancy stuff you'll see some really pretty posts!

Back to My Journey I hope yours is a Blessing.

Sherry

Follow the Journey

Your invited to follow my Journey to making my Home a Sanctuary by visiting me here.
Before you go though please stay here awhile and read my Then Sings My Soul (Saturday's post) and come back tomorrow for more on my Amazing Horse Story.

When you get over to My Home Sanctuary you can see my post about the really fun cool Spring Giveway Cynthia of Cynthia's Cottage Design link here

My Home Sanctuary blog is my Home away from here blog where I write about making my Home a Sanctuary and where I write about my wishes and dreams. Where you'll see the amazing homes that I visit and wish I had places like Cynthia's and Dughall's house called Sweet Cottage Dreams. You see I have always wanted a cottage. I just love visiting their beautiful homes and many others like Kelli and all her friends home that she shares on her Friday Show and Tell.

And another special place I visit is Rachel who was actually my inspiration for My Home Sanctuary. She has amazing daily challenges that encourage me to be a better Homemaker and better Proverbs 31 Woman.

With all the fun homemaking things going on over there that leaves me with space to write here what God is doing in my life and share with you wonderful illustrations of his word on Wednesday. Don't forget to come back for Wordfilled Wednesday and visit Amy

And in the next couple of weeks I will be start More Than a Friend again. I would love you all to join up. So be thinking about special friends that you want to write about. To all you guys that participated last fall I have your gifts ready to mail. I will email you and let you know about that.

Tomorrow I'll continue my story about our Amazing Horse.

Back to the Journey
Sherry

Encouragement Along The Way

God is just so amazing. Just when I needed a little encouragement I went by Amanda's and found something really exiciting. She is having a cool giveway and boy do I hope I win.
The giveway is for a cool tool to help memorize scripture. It is so cool that it will remind you to do your memory work. Boy do I need a reminder!
Here's the cool button I am putting it on my sidebar too.



Go over to Amanda's
and read all about her giveway. She is just doin' it because. No aniversary. No 100th post. Just because she encourages.

If you want to check out the demo go here
I really enjoyed it. You can even go to Biblegate and look for a specific verse. Or just go down the included list. You can save your work. You can even have more than one family member memorize thier own verses. I think this is really cool because my family has been wanting to memorize together. And it really isn't all that expensive either. But hopefully I'll win the prize.

Good luck to you if you enter.

Back to the Journey,
Sherry

Then Sings My Soul

This amazing video is a little bit of a departure from the normal Then Sings My Soul post but when I saw it yesterday I knew that I had to share it along with why it is special to me. I hope you enjoy it. It isn't about the song it is about this . . .



In case you weren't able to tell but this amazing rider is riding this horse with no bridle or reins. The rider and horse are completely in tune. This ride was at the Congress the biggest horse competition in the U.S. The event is Free Style Reining. The rider has specific manevuers that are required. The ride is required to be coreographed to music. In a regular Free Style Riding class the horse has a bit and bridle and reins.

This rider is riding Bridleless. This is no easy task. In fact normally there is not even a bridleless class at most shows because it is so advanced. Horses are not meant to just do what you ask just because you ask. They must have a bridle on thier head with a bit in thier mouths to tell them what to do. To be able to train the horse to work this way is a very high achievement. And shows a special bond between the horse and rider.

I have seen that special bond.

When I saw this video last night I cried. I have seen many similar rides and they were special. But seeing this now struck me deeply. Hearing what the announcer said and then seeing the bond between this horse and rider touched my soul and so therefore it had to be my Then Sings My Soul Post.

This post and the following week is dedicated to a special horse and his girl.
I hope that you come back this week to hear my story of this kind of special bond.

My Soul Sings

Come back tomorrow for Then Sings My Soul and see why this makes my soul sing.

Thankful for Friends

One of my sweet new blogging friends is offering a really cool (get it snowflakes...cool..hehe)giveway to celebrate a milestone in her blogging life.
So go over and visit and sign up tomorrow.

I am Thankful for new friends like Alicia that visit me and leave really sweet comments. So take a few minutes and go by and visit her.

Thankful Thursday

Welcome to Thankful Thursday hosted this month by Lynn. Visit her at to see what the others are Thankful for.

Here's what Lynn had to say. . .
Proverbs 9:10a The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.

This Thankful Thursday I praise the Lord for wisdom.

Wisdom from the Bible to live lives that are filled with joy and purpose.
The wisdom of prayer to take our lives before the creator of the universe.
The wisdom of the Holy Spirit who nudges us to pursue a new direction or perceive something from God's perspective.
What are you thankful for this Thursday? Have a blessed day. Please take time to visit a few other posts and leave a word of encouragement. Be Blessed, Lynn
other Thankful Lists.

Today my Thankful List includes

Thanks to our Father for his patience in me when I don't get the wisdom he is trying to teach me. I am Thankful for the Holy Spirit that does gentle nudge me to pursure God. Somedays I am sad to say that it should be more of a shoove!

I am thankful that my daughter smiles.

I am thankful that we are planning a trip to Missouri with my daughter, son in love and the grandbaby to visit our son and his family. Including my new granddaughter.

I am thankful that Cowboy is in the middle of school! He is taking a drivers education class so he can teach the teenagers that we work (teens in prison) how to drive so they can get a license when they get out and get on the road legally.

I am very thankful that once he is done that he can work part time at Sears Driving School and bring in some much needed funds! I am thankful that God opened all the doors for this to happen!

And I am Thankful for Iris and her friend Lynn for hosting Thankful Thursday.

I hope everyone has a Blessed Day
Thankfully Journeying toward Jesus,
Sherry

Word Filled Wednesday

May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us;
Establish the work of our hands for us. Yes, establish the work of our hands.
Psalm 90:17

My helper in the sewing room this week.
Please visit Amy for more illustrations of God's word.

I pray that God will Bless the work of my hands.

Tuesday Bible Study

I am beginning a new Bible Study. Join by going over here
“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still and wait patiently for Him.” Psalm 37:3-7

My Journey continues as I open my heart to my Father and ask him to do a Makeover Does your heart need a makeover. Join me on the Journey every Tuesday and Thursday.

Tempt My Tummy Tuesday

If you are a visitor to my blog you know that I love to read other blogs and get most of my thoughts and ideas from others. Today was no different I stumbled across this over at a blog called As For Me. I loved what I read and I'll be back over there visiting often. Today I was inspired there to join Lana at Blessed With Grace to do Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.
Over at As For Me I found a post about this...



Rice one of my favorite foods! And there was a tip on how to cook the perfect rice. I have to say Minute Rice is my personal favorite partly because I am not good at cooking regular rice but I do have a recipe I love and I want to share it and tempt your tummies today with my easy recipe for Spainish or Mexican Rice which btw in case you didn't know I think Mexican Food should be a food group.

Mexican Rice

1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup uncooked, long grain rice
1 small onion, minced
1 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Cumin powder
3 Tbsp. tomato sauce
2 cups water

Heat oil in heavy saucepan; add rice and brown lightly. Add onion, salt and cumin.
Stir and cook until onion is transparent. Add tomato sauce and water. Bring to a boil. Cover tightly; lower heat and simmer 15 minutes.

This recipe has turned out perfect everytime I cook it. The only draw back is there is a lot of tomato sauce left over. But I am sure you can find a use for it.

Thanks As for me and my house and blessed with grace for Temptin' me to join the fun.
Oh but before I go this post can also be found here please join me there next Tuesday and be tempted again.

On Journey with my Lord
Sherry

Home Maker Monday with Sandra

One of my favorite places to visit is Sandra she has started this Home Maker Monday. I used to do one on another blog but I liked Sandra's questions and I love visiting her so I wanted to join. (click on her name to get to her blog)

On my bedside table:
My Bible,A quilting book (I don't read at night so usually not much here. I read my Bible when the baby is napping on my bed)

On my TV:
nothing now forgot to turn it on
The Bachelor tonight come back for a post about my impressions. I have never watched it before

On the menu for tonight:
Something easy,easy,easy (why? You'll see in the craft basket)


On my To Do List:
Mop and Sweep the floors
Wash all the bed linens
Clean kitchen


New Recipe I tried last week:
Nothing new. I did cook pork chops my ol fashioned way with breading and made
gravy and rice. I love minute rice!


In the craft basket:
bet you couldn't wait...btw this is why I haven't been writing)
A quilt for my daughters birthday. Notice on my calendar I never know what day it is. Well if I am right I think I have approximately 29 days to finish it. Hopefully I'll get some photo's today or tomorrow. I am working hard everyday trying to get it done.

Looking forward to:
Seeing my daughters face when she see's the quilt.


Homemaking Tip for this week:
i was going to post this Sat. but inter-net wasn't cooperating. Not really a homemaking tip exactly.
You know you need to clean your sewing room when you drop a bobbin on the floor and kind find it! I cleaned most of the sewing room and found said bobbin. Another tip have more than one bobbin for your machine!


Favorite Blog Post of the week (mine or other):
Can't think of one except a wonderfully sweet post I read at Becky's last night she has a new puppy named Fiona. She is adorable

Favorite photo from last week:
Can you believe I wanted a new camera so bad and I have hardly used it. I tell you once that quilt is done I will be posting twice a day at least!

Lesson learned the past few days:
Smile even in the midst of chaos in your sewing room. Only because I am not really the one that made the chaos. My dear Cowboy decided to take all the boxes that were in the bedroom and stash them in my sewing room. Hence part of the mess. As I emptied them and looked for someplace to put the contents I had to remind myself not to grumble.

On my Prayer List:
My Cowboy begins drivers ed. class today. He will be teaching beginning in June.
My daughter
Plans for a trip with daughter, son in law, and baby to see my son and family in Missouri


Devotionals, Scripture Reading, Key Verses:
Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do wheter in word or deed do in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father throuh Him.

Posting here today too. Come by for a visit.