THE SECRET PLACE PSALM 91

There is one special place on our property for which I have great appreciation. It has served me well in both trouble and triumph. That special place is my meeting place with God. I call it my prayer garden. Yes, I do talk to God everywhere I go, even in my sewing room. I know God is always with me, but there is just something about this place! It carried me through all the hard times of my grandson being in the Marines boot camp in 2005, and his being deployed 3 times in Iraq. My talks with God got very bold and serious then, and I cried many tears of which I know that He has promised He has collected in a bottle.

My prayer garden carried me through the heart ache while praying for my granddaughter losing her unborn child, and many more hard times as well as the glorious times. God proved Himself faithful in all!

I watched myself grow in more ways than one during those quiet times with God in my prayer garden. That is what it is all about! God even created man in the garden which is a place of growth. We must grow, be watered, be fed, be pruned, then grow some new branches in our life. We must be like “the trees planted by the rivers of water.” Psalm 1:3

Little did my Mother and Dad know in 1990 when they built this beautiful building that once served as my Dad’s bar-b-cue room, and the place they played games, that it would one day be something so dear to my heart.

When we inherited our property in Dec. 2004, I longed so much for a special secret place to continue my close commune with God. For years and years, my special secret place of prayer was on the small patio of our apartment surrounded by plants and huge tall plants that looked like tiny trees. I had a tiny tabletop waterfall out there and a comfortable chair to sit in. As soon as I got my hubby off to work at 7:00 a.m., I would sit there for a couple of hours, do my Bible study, sing to the Lord, and pray for my loved ones, friends, and Pastors everywhere, and yes even my enemies.

Our apartment was facing the road and in front of our apartment was a huge tree where the branches hung over my patio and I watched the birds everyday. Such beautiful creatures!! That tree and birds brought so much joy to me! I loved every minute of my prayer place, and always hated to leave for the day to do the chores. One day the apartment manager had that tree cut down, and I cried so much because I lost my beautiful birds that seem to sing for me every morning.

One of my special prayers then was “Lord enlarge my territory”. Little did I know that He was about to give me not just one tree to enjoy, but 25, and not just 6 or 7 birds to enjoy but hundreds of them.

After we retired to our new inherited home. I walked the property praying for a special place of prayer. When the Lord put on my heart to use the screened in building for my prayer place, I was so thrilled. Then began the transformation little by little. Now I have a large waterfall instead of a table top one, many chairs, plants, and I am surrounded by trees everywhere and many birds all year round. We had to even put up 8 feeders to accomodate all the birds, and put up 4 hummingbird feeders! God has been so good to me. When Hurricane Ike took our home in 2008 and we had to be gone for 11 months, I was so grateful that my prayer garden was spared from any major damage, but I missed it so much.

My prayer garden is my place of safety, my place of refuge, my “hiding place”. It is here that I can tell God everything and be myself and know that I will not be critized. I can sing songs to Him without worrying if I can carry a tune or not or if I am singing too loud. He loves hearing our songs of praise to Him. For He told us to sing a new song to Him. I have sung songs that the Lord put in my heart that have never been published. They are my love songs to Him. For none has given me greater love than He.

I can leave there each morning feeling refreshed, restored, renewed, and ready to face more storms and battles. Here I find comfort, assurance, and promises from God’s Word.

This is my meeting place with God.

I am so thankful that my husband this week spent a whole day taking everything out of my prayer garden and washing it down to get all the yellow pollen out. He even hand washed and cleaned everything that was inside it, so I could get back in there again. He does this for me every Spring. The pollen causes problems, but it also is the sign of the beginning of new things for the year and new things in my life.

So now early every morning after waking, I can hardly wait to get out there with my cup of tea and spend my 2 or 3 hours with God.

I look out my prayer garden window today and I see you God. You are everywhere. I see you in my husband’s love and care for me, You are in the beautiful trees that sway in the wind, and the bluebirds, red cardinals, and so many more birds that seem to look at me and smile. I even watched the mischievous squirrels, and laugh! I feel your kisses upon my cheek once again. So I cry and my heart rejoices for I hear once again you say to me “with long life will I satisfy her, and shew her my salvation”. Psalm 91:16

WE MUST NEVER FORGET!

This morning I woke up to see my beautiful tea set sitting on a tea table that I just purchased in an antique store.

My heart was stirred with so many emotions, especially joy, to be able to display my tea set again. It is about the only thing materially that I have to remind me of my sweet brother who purchased it for me when he was in the Navy during Vietnam War. He was killed in a motorcycle wreck when he was only 41 years old. Today I thought of him when I saw the tea set, knowing that when he was 18 years old, that he thought enough of me to buy me this set and mail it to me when he was in the Phillipines. It is the only tea set I have and I cherish it. I keep it in my bedroom since I love pink roses and my bedroom is decorated in pink roses.

I want so much for this teaset to be passed down to my granddaughter, Kara when I pass away. She and I had spent so much time together having tea parties when she was a little girl. She doesn’t really like tea, but maybe the set will give her feelings of joy when she is old one day, like it does for me.

Hurricane Ike had distroyed my beautiful chocolate cabinet that the tea set was displayed in during the storm. A tree fell right on top of the house crushing the cabinet. I just knew everything was lost! It wasn’t until days later that I discovered the tea set was still ok, with only a tiny chip on one saucer. That was just an absolute miracle from God because most of the set was sitting on top of the cabinet instead of inside the glass doors. God in His mercy, spared it and I am so thankful! The cabinet was almost crushed flat, yet the teaset was spared! How could that be? Only God knows.

Our home was destroyed beyond what we could repair, so we purchased another one after 11 months of living with children, and now 1 1/2 years later, I am finally able to get a tea table to display my teaset on. The table is definately not as beautiful as my chocolate cabinet was, but the beauty of the tea set makes up for my loss.

When I pulled the tea set out of a cedar chest that I had it stored in until I could display it, I cried. It took me awhile to clean it up, and I shed lots of tears during that time just thinking about the past and the goodness of God in my life. God was so good to me!

I have seen lots of miracles in my family in my life, so I know the good things God can do in healing and all, but to see a fragile tea set still be like new after the powerful blow of a huge tree falling on top of it during a hurricane, just amazes me!

I am glad the tiny chip is on the saucer because I want it to be a reminder to my granddaughter of what our loving, caring Father in heaven will do for us even with the less important things in our life.

I hope she will tell this story to my great grandchildren one day as she tells the miracle of her foot being spared when she shows them the scar on her foot. Why does God leave scars and chips on things He has healed, protected, and restored? Because He wants us never to forget!

We must not forget who God is and what He has done in our life, even if they seem like small unimportant things to others!

Angels have a Message for you!

Recently I made some hankie Angels and attached cards to them. I call them Message Angels!

They are on a special mission to bring a special message to you. Each one is unique and one of a kind with different messages. I love giving them to special friends.

Christmas Pleasures!

I had the most wonderful Christmas this year. I got to have the blessing of being the hostess for our family Christmas party in our new home. I fixed the food and had 23 people attending which were mainly my children and grandchildren. I loved every minute of it. There is no greater joy than being with your own children!

One of my special gifts was a ticket to fly with my daughter in January so I could experience flying for the first time!

LESS MEANS SO MUCH MORE!

Today as I looked at myself in the mirror getting ready for a long

trip home, I thought so much of my grandmother who made so much of an impression on my life.

I am now beyond the years that she had here on the earth and it is so hard to believe the years that went by so fast.

During my grandmother’s short time on this earth, she made such an impact on my life, and I wish so much that my children could have known her. I am so glad that I carry part of her name (Isabelle). I lost her due to cancer when she was only 61 years old and I was 15 years old. I miss her so much still, and do realize that most of what I have become in life was due to her spending quality time with me and teaching me so many things about the Lord. Her dying words were even a blessing spoken over my life. She didn’t teach the Word as much as she lived it before my very eyes, and that is what my desire has been! I want my grandchildren to say that about me one day.

The sayings that I love to use on my website is “Take Time To Smell The Roses”, and “When Life Gives You Scraps, Just Make A Quilt” came really from her lifestyle. I remember as a child, seeing her stop her busy days to sit down and play with my brothers and I. My mother worked all the time or was too busy, so we spent more time with my grandmother. We looked so forward to summers to go stay at Grandma’s house.

It seems like mothers just don’t HAVE time as much as they should, but grandma’s just go ahead and TAKE the time! I am so glad she did because I still remember the things she said to me, like “Lillian remember you might be the only Bible someone will ever read, so study it well, and live it, so your life can be the book they read” or “When you are not sure what to do in life, just ask yourself WHAT WOULD JESUS DO? then you will get your answer”.

Living on the low income that we had, I did not get to go to stores to buy my clothes. I remember watching her take the beautiful floral sacks that flour came in and sewing and making me some beautiful skirts and blouses to wear to school. I thought I was a queen when I was in 4th grade with my beautiful clothes. I had no idea that was the poor mans way of life! I also saw her take my worn out dresses etc, and put them together to make a quilt or use the scraps from her sewing my clothes.

Today, I wish I had some of those quilts. They would be so valuable! I do have one she made me personally when I was 14 years old. I watched her carefully hand quilt it from a quilting frame hanging from the celing. I cherish that quilt so much.

The lessons she taught me in life help me thrive through years as a homemaker. I wanted to be able to stay home with my girls and give them some quality time and not have to work like my mom did. I made their clothes, made our bedspreads and curtains and anything else I could sew mainly out of scraps that people gave me. I also made every shower gift, or Christmas gift that I ever gave. I loved creating things so much with my hands and see the “scraps in life become something valuable”.

I also sat down and taught my girls all the Bible stories and tried so very hard to live the Word of God. When we are young we just don’t have all the time or wisdom as we have as we get older. I did try so hard to be the best mother that I could be, but of course we always wish we could relive some things in life.

Yes we do fail in life, but maybe that is why God gives us grandchildren to give us a second chance. Since I was such a young grandmother in my 30’s when my first grandsons were young, I don’t know if I got to lay enough groundwork down for them to remember me in years to come as I do my grandmother. But hopefully with my 2 granddaughters and now the 2 youngest grandsons, I can leave an impression on them so when they are my age they can say too “I remember what my Mammaw Lillian taught me”! I want that to be mainly the WORD OF GOD!

I find these days that people don’t really cherish the simple things and the scraps in life like they should. I even see from my website that people don’t even really value handmade items much at all. I guess it is because we have grown so spoiled in America from all the plenty that we have even to the point of excess. That excess brings even more stuff in our life that brings more stress. Then we cry “I need a break and I need more time.” That is a shame too because it is really the “Less that mean More” in our life!! I have to remind myself of these things often. We will never HAVE enough time ever! We have to TAKE THE TIME TO SMELL THE ROSES! and get rid of the weeds that try to choke out that time in the rose garden!

AUTUMN LEAVES ARE FINALLY HERE!

I was so glad this week to see the beautiful Autumn leaves turning colors. There is not a vast amount yet, but at least they are turning more and more each day. Some are even falling on the ground already. Some of my Autumn flowers that my husband brought me a few weeks ago are still beautiful in the vase on my table. God has been good to me. I couldn't believe they have lasted this long!

I love Autumn so very much but it just doesn't last long enough here to suit me. My hubby is already outside raking and burning some leaves. He dreads the falling leaves so much that he doesn't enjoy it like I do. It is breath taking to me and brings back memories of the beautiful colors of autumn leaves we saw in Tennessee last year while living with our daughter and family. I hate that here in Texas we don't have such beauty as that, or at least not where we live.

We got some cool weather last week and got to burn our fireplace some. That was wonderful!!

I just recently made some Autumn quilts and finished a beautiful one today that took me weeks to complete. It brought so much joy to me to just look at it while I was sewing. The top quilted stitches are very decorative and so pretty.

Quilts are very special to me because they remind me how you can take discarded and fragment pieces and make them something so beautiful and so valuable. Just like God does with our lives!!!

I get sad that my husband dreads Autumn so much and wants it to pass so quickly and the leaves be all gone. He is missing some great beauty in life.

Then God reminds me that is what so many people do with things in their lives too many times. They want to rush through the moment, trial, or chore, and just get to the destination and finished product. Then they miss the beautiful journey along the road of life!!

I used to say too many people keep their eyes on the mountain top and where they are going and just don't enjoy the pleasures of getting to that mountain top!!

I speak all these things from experience because when I was young, that is how I was. Always wanting to rush to get to a certain place in life or get finished with that project. Then before I knew it, those moments were gone and I missed to smell some of the beautiful roses during that venture! That moment is gone forever, but I plan to not miss the beauty God puts before me now and in the future!!

ENJOYING THE SIMPLE THINGS IN LIFE.

I have not felt very well this week so I didn't get to do my usual things like sewing for my website, but God sent some special touches to light up my life.

I went outside and looked on the ground and finally found the first fall leaf and it was even red. I got so excited that I shouted! I am not sure where it came from because all the trees are still covered in green leaves, but maybe God had an angel drop it in my yard because he knew how good it would make me feel. I love fall and I look so forward to it. We don't get much cold weather here in Texas so even when 50 degrees comes we think it is winter!

This morning that is what happened. A cool front came in and it was 50 degrees. My husband woke me up and told me that he had lit the new chiminea that he bought for my prayer garden and to come out and drink coffee. So for over an hour we sat there enjoying the cold weather by the fire and watching for any birds or squirrels that might come by. My husband loves so many simple things in life and I do too. It doesn't take much to entertain us.

We sat there for the longest time thanking God for his goodness in our life and praying for all our family and friends.

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband who takes so much pleasure in the small things in life, like lighting a fire for me outside in my screened in building that is my prayer garden, and bringing me home flowers from Walmart like he did this week when I felt so bad. He enjoys watching the birds in the yard among the trees, and just riding around in the woods to see if we can see any deer etc.

Tonight we did just that after supper, we got in the car and rode around the area in the wooded subdivisions to see what we could see. We both shouted when we saw 3 deer in the woods.

So God kissed us several times today!

I hope our children and grandchildren will value like we do, the simple things in life as being the greatest gifts God gives. He reaches down and blesses us with just the simple things in life.

WE ARE TRULY BLESSED MOMENT BY MOMENT.