March 15,2018

Greetings My Friend,

I have bread rising in the kitchen, so I decided I needed to rest for a bit, more than likely the rest of the night. With the snow outside I decided to make the day a pajama day. When I first retired I found myself living in my pajamas, in the last few years I like getting up and getting dressed so that at the end of the day getting into my pajama's is a treat. My camera shows me flashbacks of pictures I have taken anywhere from a year ago to three years ago. As I was looking at some flash back's I noticed that by this time in March everything was in the process of greening up. I did notice last week as we were in Tennessee about 3 hours from us I saw the first buds of green on some of the undergrowth in the woods. I am waiting expectantly for the greening process to begin in earnest but instead we have snow, a couple of snow days this week. Junior has been working a bit on cleaning up the porch which excites me. I am longing to get outside in my new hiking boots to look for kindling and wood for Junior to chop up for the wood stove, I have been looking on Pinterest in search learning how to sew a gathering apron. I found one pattern using an old pillow case. This way I can put the apron on to go in search of berries that grow wild on our property, later maybe I can bring in the chestnuts, pawpaw's even black walnuts. Junior has planted some seeds to grow in containers on the porch my mind is anxious for the chance to get outside. Brenda came by for a visit so we are having fun talking about all that is going on with her. After we talked and I walked her through my prayer with Jesus going to the cross and on the cross up to His resurrection the tone of her visit is a bit different. I am also pleasantly surprised that her son and Brenda have had some conversations about faith. They have discovered C. S. Lewis's books about the Chronicles of Narnia. Brenda for sometime has stopped watching her horror flicks, I can tell that her dreams aren't as awful. Even better, Brenda managed a visit without her beloved cola drink. Brenda's asked God if she could live long enough to see her son settled into his own place since he comes to her place when he is home for a few days off from his truck driving job. My heart is at peace, I believe her commitment to Jesus may be real this time. I pray it is. I asked her about her cancer, she has not been given a time frame but she now has cancer in her lungs which means it is spreading. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet

March 13, 2018

Greetings My Friend,

Lately my focus has been on keeping my body in shape as much as I am able. As a younger person I believed "If I took care of my body, my body would take care of me." Today I see that taking care of my health is a way to honor God and by being healthy I have better energy to do the work He has for me. I wish I could get back near my high school weight, I can't although that does not mean since I can't loose the weight I might as well be self indulgent. In the last several years I have transitioned from eating fairly healthy to eating healthy more often than not. I also attempted to do some form of exercise most of my adult life, starting with using my babies by holding them and twisting at my waist etc. Today I use my housework as a form of exercise, I do squats as I pick things up from the floor, pet fur children, I find myself twisting and turning throughout the day as I reach for things or stretch to retrieve something off of a shelf. For a couple of years now God has been teaching me to put up a year's supply of food each summer, which means I am eating food more from the source as opposed to processed foods. I have learned how to dehydrate, freeze food and I love eating it. We are also buying our meat from local meat grown in the area so I feel healthier as I eat better, exercise my body. One of the first lessons I learned with having Parkinson's is how important a balanced diet and exercise is for me. By doing these things I am able to prolong some of the symptoms giving me a better quality of life since I may be living with this disease 20 years or more. Along with my PD medications I take a variety of supplements like vitamin C, fish oil, L-Trosine, Rootology for my allergies and calcium for my bones. God has led me to many of these steps for my health so I am grateful and I feel my quality of life is giving me a chance to tell other's about God's goodness to me. Finally since asking Jesus to be my Savior I have gotten my spiritual faith with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit on track. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet

March 10, 2018

Greetings My Friend,

Several times a week my prayers find me praying through Jesus' last hours on the way to the cross, I linger at the cross for awhile before I finish praying. Of late, the walk through Jesus' life, death and resurrection hold me for a long time. I can see me throughout Jesus' ministry following Him around soaking up all that He teaches, amazed at His miracles and totally in awe. By the time Jesus is facing His accusers, I can me there as well, betraying Him, condemning Him and I cry as I see the cruelness of sin lashed out on Him. I also see the ugliness of sin as His body is battered, torn and disfigured, I want to cry thinking I may have been an accuser of Jesus, in reality I know that there have been those times as well. I even hear Jesus cry out in anguish "My God, my God why have you forsaken me!" At this moment the reality of hell hits me. In all of eternity Jesus is separated from God for a brief moment and He is pained, then I understand the horror of hell.  Strangely enough I also see the confusion, grief of the Disciples as well, running away, scared, angry.... As I am about to give up hope, I can see the empty tomb, Jesus talking to Mary and her face light up, the Disciple's joy at seeing their beloved teacher. I feel true hope well up inside of me and I know that I know my Redeemer lives! As I look at Jesus my hearts desire is to be like Him, to love like Him oh the joy of Jesus teaching us and yes I want to go forth making disciple's of every nation and tribe. At the cross though I hesitate, can I face what Jesus faced, I ask myself this often, I am unsure until I remember Jesus' not wanting to "take the cup of suffering." God sends His angels to comfort Jesus then He goes to the cross obediently, in strength and dignity He goes and endures. I realize I will never face pain on my own only with God's hand on me. I have to trust and obey, somehow I think I will and can. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet

March 8, 2018

Greetings My Friend,

Sometimes I come on strong, state my opinion then I grow tired of the boldness, back down so I can blend into the woodwork. Lately God has been challenging me to be bold and stay in the boldness. The boldness is okay for a minute then I grow weary as I run against those who can't or won't hear what I am trying to say. Recently I sense God wanting me to speak about the rights many in our country are handing over with no qualm to the government. Those who believe as I do often believe but are tired of repeating the same thing over and over so they wait and watch. Lately I sense God is wanting me to speak about things so that when a disaster strikes people will know what they did wrong, much like at the end of time people will recall the times they have been told about Jesus and disregarded the invitation to believe. Many people feel that social media is a bunch of garbage, although for me I have found some good friends, had many laughs, been able to open a door to discuss two illnesses I thought I had and I do have, Chiari Malformation and Parkinson's disease. I am meeting people with other types of chronic illnesses and I see we share some of the same journey where people form opinions of which they know nothing about, like we are lazy when in reality we are not but are fatigued extremely badly. I see God has had me speak about my chronic illness and I also see that an awareness is starting to take place. I have met a few new believers and I have been able to help them along in their faith journey. And now I am attempting to point out to a few generations of people how America looked 60 years ago as I grew up and the downward slide we are on now. Many on the left think the right has no compassion, the fact is we do, we see many of our own suffering and we believe they should come before any illegals. Many on the right think guns are the problem but have not grasped that if legal people have no access to guns then only the criminals and the military would own guns making us vulnerable. Because I love God I will do as He calls me to do even if it is uncomfortable, I know Jesus will give me courage, defend me and guide me to do the work the Father is directing me to do. If I am offensive maybe you need to check within your spirit to see if God is pricking your conscious. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet

March6, 2018

Greetings My Friend,

I am grateful for weeks where there is little need to run to doctor's appointments. Since retirement I find going to the doctor's is fairly much like having a part time job. The more that goes wrong with my body the more doctor's seem to work with all of my illnesses. Living in a rural area many of my appointments are two to three hours away which makes a run to the doctor an all day event. With both my husband and I we can be traveling back and forth to our appointments on average one or two days a week, although it is more bunched up, we go for several days for a week or two then it is quiet for a week or two. I gave up driving, I find my cognitive abilities could not handle the challenge of quick thinking, I am not familiar with driving in the mountains which makes me unsure at times so I felt for everyone's safety it was time to give up driving. On Sunday we had another potluck, which I love to attend. Junior and I get up go to Sunday school, attend services then come home take a nap to go back for Bible study. At the potluck, I was hardly able to stay awake, my friend asked me several times what was wrong, I was needing to take my nap in a huge way. I am at a point where I need to decide if I should attend the potluck. Our church always has containers for people to take leftovers home so we could go through the line, make a take out container then enjoy the food at home. I know what I need to do, I now have to do it and it hurts. One more activity one that I love needs to stop. Parkinson's is a progressive disease, these small things taken away starts to hurt. I can still do much so my thinking is focused on all that I am able to get out and do still. May God bless you and keep you. Love Janet

March 3, 2018

Greetings My Friend,

This past week has had a few hard days which set my Parkinson's off. I had an MRI afterwards for some reason when I sat up then got on my feet to walk, it was difficult even though I was using a walker. My guess is since I have low blood pressure that was more than likely low, which was why I was dizzy and walking difficult. Afterwards we did a quick stop at Wal-Mart's, then at Lowe's I waited in the truck with Daisy. Next a friend of ours has a son who has a dog so while the son is not able to care for the dog, he is ours which maybe for a long time. He is a big German Shepherd, we have 7 other dogs ranging from a boxer, a redbone and 4 mixed breeds weighing up to 40 pounds then there is little Daisy who is a toy poodle. The German Shepherd, named Cato, has a cage to sleep in so he is in that for the most part for now until all dogs get acclimated. Our dogs have taken turns barking at Cato, the boxer, Brendy was upset the most. She egged Cato on in the cage, boy can he move that cage around even though he is inside. Later Brendy took after our alpha dog which turned into a rather nasty dog fight, Junior was outside on his way back in so it was up to me to break them up. That was a job, first I filled up a small container with water, threw it at them, seeing that did not work I tossed my cup at them, finally I grabbed the broom and started hitting them, with the bristles side on them. As you can see, I have not had to break up fights before. By the end of the day I realized with all of the craziness of having a visitor come spend the night and the dogs fighting I had not done my quiet time with God, so I sat down to do my quiet time. I journal my thoughts first, then I journal a prayer to God all before I begin my study time. While reading I write down passages that hit me, when I am finished I ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to me the lesson I need to learn. With all that writing before hand I am ready to quiet my mind, afterwards I am able to absorb what God is wanting me to take from that day's reading. I write that down then I ask myself how can I serve others, I answer that question and then my quiet time is ready to come to an end. That night after my study time I found myself settled from all of the upsets of the two days, I was entering into my routines slowly and feeling rather good. I was amazed at how I was able to let go of the upsets, then begin back with my routines. I need to stick to routine's since it helps my Parkinson's disease, keeps my tremors down and brain fog at a minimum. Later Junior showed me how to use the broom to break up the kids when they are in a heated fight. Later as they tried to get testy all I had to do was show the broom at them they quieted down right away. They rarely get in these disputes, Val egged Brenny once too many times so she will not let him correct her anymore. In any case I am grateful that I did not allow fear to rule me, God showed me how to settle down and how to let go. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet

March 1, 2018

Greetings My Friend,

As I think about using my toy poodle Daisy for reaching out to others I again learn that lesson we learned as children, "Actions speak louder than words." The same could be said in regards to my faith walk, the desire to give Jesus to others. Why would someone want to come to Jesus because we tell them "He is the way, the truth and the light of the world." Those words are wonderful even powerful but unless we are willing to live as if He is the way, truth and light" these words have no meaning. I often feel inadequate speaking to others about the need for Jesus, I do find giving gestures of my heart felt love much easier to do. As I have wrestled with witnessing I have slowly come to understand that witnessing is words for one person another may have acts of love for their way of witnessing. We all have different talents and different ways of being one body in Christ. My wonderful husband now comes to mind, Junior speaks rather roughly, bluntly. He will tell someone "You are going to hell unless you accept Jesus as your Savior." Those words are hard for many people to swallow although I have seen Junior speak those words to a rough crowd of people and they listen to him, converse with him, because they understand his demeanor since at one time he was one of those people. My heart's desire is to be soft, straightforward but soft. I do offend some people because I am rather honest. I also find many people accepting my acts of love, my fact of the manner speech so those are the ones God has directed me to minister too. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet