Question:  how many times is the word “love” mentioned in the bible?

Answer:  508 ( 697) times in the NIV.

                   280 (442) in the KJV.

The bracketed number includes words like ‘loves’, and ‘loved’.

I thought this was interesting.  God is love.  He pursues us because he loves us.  To sit and think that the creator of the universe, the heavens and the seas, all creatures that breathe, all plants that grow, the one who Was, Is and Is to come….loves me!  That is a moment, take it in and cherish it.

If you want to see a poetic view of God’s love hop over to my girlfriends blog and read the poem that she posted.  Beautiful, real, and transparent.  She is so talented.  I adore our new friendship, she is tons of fun! 

So do you make homemade valentines or get the store made ready ones?  Do you do anything fun for V-day, like heart pancakes, red food and drink or special gifts?

As another year comes to a close I hope you take time to praise and pray to Jesus.  Praise him for answered and unanswered prayers.  Praise him for who HE is.  Praise Him with all your heart, soul and mind.  Be in deep prayer regarding the new year.  What can you do to make your walk with Christ deeper?  What can you bury to make you more like Christ?  Think about where Christ has taken you this 2009.  As you think about this I ask that you take 8 minutes out of your day and watch this powerful..and I mean powerful video.  My question to you is “WHAT WOULD YOU WRITE?”

Are tears running down your face?  Is your heart racing?  Do you know what you would write?  God is awesome!  He is in the business of redeeming lives.  How cool is that!!  We live in such an evil world and bad things do happen and we go astray,  but I know for a fact that Christ will always bring glory out of despair and hard times. We just have to allow him.  Be open and willing to where he leads.  Be obedient.  God is always there, waiting, hugging on us.  We might not feel it, but he is.  He cries when we do.  He doesn’t like to see us in a pit.  He wants to take us farther, grow us.  Will you allow him to do that in 2010? 

Have a great week.  If you can and are okay I would love to see what you would write.  You can do it anonymously!  Take a moment to Praise God.  Turn that worship music on, get out of your seat and raise those hands.  What do you think heaven will be like…come on..you know it sounds fun!!

I than went to lunch with a dear friend.  It was so nice to reconnect and chat.  It was like we hadn’t been apart.  She is such an incredible women and loves the Lord with all her being.  She is a wonderful mentor, full of  joy and life.  It is contagious when you are around her.  I thoroughly enjoyed our visit. 

Than I got to spend some time shopping…ALONE!!  Yep, you read right.  It was so nice to go to the stores I enjoy and take my time looking around.  I went to our local christian bookstore.  I browsed and browsed.   They had the movie, ” A Night with the King”  on sale.  If you have not heard of this movie it is about Esther.  I was doing the Beth Moore study on Esther and a friend told me that this movie was a  good portrayal of the book.  So I bought it.  I will let you know how it is.  I also bought the CD from newcomer Kari Jobe.  She has a remarkable voice.  It is really good.  

I love praise and worship music.  Music is my connection with God.  I get so emotional with music.  I can be driving down the road and a song come on…before you know it I am sobbing and singing as loud as I can.  I can be in my kitchen cooking and hear a song on the radio that stirs me and before you know it I am turning it up loud, singing along.  My kids have developed a love for music and Phoebe, my 4 1/2 year old loves it loud!  When we are at church and the praise/worship team sings or the congregation sings, Natalie laughs.  We say that is how she sings to the Lord.   Music brings joy to my heart.  Now, I am not musically talented at all, but I believe that  Christ looks at your heart.  Who cares if you can’t carry a tune.  He wants to hear those praises from you and he looks at the motives! 

So, who do you enjoy listening too?  I have many groups and artists that get me going but here are a few:  Third Day, Sara Groves, Erin O’donell, Mandisa, Amy Grant, Hill Song, my new fav..Kari Jobe,  Gwen Smith.  Let me know some of your favorites.  I am always looking for new music to sing praises to our King!!  

Psalm 146:2 (New International Version) 

 ² I will praise the LORD all my life;
       I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

The theme for this conference is REAL MOMS.  I adore this theme.  I have found that being real is really difficult.  We want others to think we have it all together.  We don’t want others to see our weakness.  I struggled with this early on as a mom.  I eventually learned to remove the masks and be real.  This is it.  I am who I  am, period.   Christ has made me this way for a reason and I have to find my security in Him.  We sometimes throw ourselves into different things so that others don’t see the “real”.  Like, hobbies, careers, serving, church, sports, bible studies, how we look, what we drive, where we live, etc.   In the big scheme of things none of this matters.  It is our hearts that we should be concerned about.  What are we cultivating in our hearts? 

Do we have patience, joy, love, kindness, gentleness, peace, respect, laughter, faithfulness or contentment?  That is what God’s word calls us to have in our hearts to be more like Christ.  Pick one or two that you struggle with and do some research on them.  Pray about them, asking God to grow you in those areas. 

I will touch base when I get home and will load some pics of our adventure.  It is about a 5 hour car ride.  It is gonna be heavenly.  Being able to hold an adult conversation in the car with no interruptions.  I will miss my family and will call home to check in, but I am looking forward to whatever crazy, zany, things our gang is gonna get into!!

My husband, Elliott, and I have been married for 10 years.  We met at our fire deptartment.  He at the time was a firefighter and I was an EMT.  We dated, got married and started a family.  Natalie is our first adorable daughter.  We had a great  life as a new little family.  Life was good…

Fast forward about a year and a half.  As the world was struggling through the terror of Sept. 11, 2001 my family was experiencing it’s own terror.  Natalie had become very ill.  She was 18 mo. old, developing very normally and with such a sweet personality.  She had started vomiting and progressively got worse. 

To make a really long story short, Natalie went into cardiac arrest from a complication with her bowels.  She was air cared to our local Children’s hospital and emergency surgery was performed.  We thought all was fine but she didn’t wake up from her anesthesia.  They performed a MRI and determined that she had suffered an Anoxic Brain Injury.  This is an injury similar to cerebral palsy. 

We spent 12 weeks at our children’s hospital and came home with a “special needs child”  Now this ROCKED OUR WORLD!  How were we gonna handle this?  Why us?  What did we do to deserve this?  What did she do to deserve this?  While we were in the hospital we had lots of time on our hands.  I began to dig deep into God’s word and I was on my knees in deep conversation with our Savior.

I found peace in tons of scripture but one of my favorites is Jeremiah 29:11,

 ^“ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

There was my hope.  I prayed for God to use this situation and our family.  Now was and is it difficult?  You bet, but I stand on God’s promises and his love.  I place all my hope, passion, desires and peace in Christ. 

 When we came home we had a “new life.”  We had to come up with “new dreams”  Life is tough and tiring.  We struggle.  We get mad, we cry, we go through really tough, rough, times but in the end God gets us through.  They say that it is in the valley you grow.  Well I  lived in a valley for some time and the growth is awesome. You learn to rely on your faith.   Natalie is a blessing.  She has taught me so much about life.  REAL LIFE.  Don’t take anything or anyone for granted.  Life is short, laugh and have fun.  Make memories.  Don’t wait till tomorrow! 

She is now 9 and we love her with all of our being.  We have another adorable, fun loving, make you laugh till it hurts daughter named Phoebe.  We named her that because it is a bible name.  It means:  strong, helper.  It suits her.  She has brought so much stinking FUN to our lives.  She keeps up on our toes and she has such a compassionate, sweet heart.  Smart, that girl is so smart.  She loves to learn.  She loves Jesus and I pray that she grows to have a strong passion for him. 

We have met so many friends through this journey, ones that have been there from the beginning, those who were there for a season and we are still meeting new ones.  They all hold special places in our hearts.  They help, encourage, support, love and hold us when we need it. They make us laugh or laugh at us.  They help us with meals, cards, childcare or just letting me vent.  To all my girlfriends that are there with me and walk this journey, thank you.  I am truly enjoying growing with you and developing a sisterhood.  I am so grateful for your advice, love and allowing me to have my melt downs.  Our extended families are great.  We have some that are really close and some that are in other states but we know that when times arise they are there for us.  Family…thank you we love you to pieces!!  To Elliott, for allowing me to be what I have always wanted to be, a stay at home mom.  For standing by me and encouraging me in every road I have wanted to travel down.  For going the distance with me…I love you. 

Well there is a little bit of history.  I remember praying on my knees in Natalie’s ICU room right after this happened that if this was God’s will for her and our lives that He use her for his Glory.  She is his.  So that is why this blog has been developed.  I want to inspire people in the hope that is in Christ.  I want to encourage them that in their trials God is with them.  I don’t want to be so blended into society and this world, I want to make a difference for Jesus and eternity.  That is my desire.