1. My number one goal is to serve the Lord God Almighty with all my heart and all my soul and all my mind. This is still my number one goal.
Matthew 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
2. I have lived an amazing life beyond my wildest dreams. God has lead me down paths that I couldn't even dream of. 2 Corinthians 2:14
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
3. I have been married to the man of my dreams for 40 years. Now 44 years. That can't be true, I'm not that old!Genesis 2:24
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
4. We are blessed with one very tenderhearted son who loves God. In 2012 he left the world and turned to serve God. 2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
5. I worked as a wood cutter in a factory when I was first married.
Colossians 3:23
(ESV)
23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
6. I was a barber, yes a barber for seven years and I loved it until I had too many women customers. I was great with little boys who were having their first hair cut. I gave my son his first hair cut and he never had anyone else cut his hair until he was in his 20's.
1 Corinthians 11:6
(NASB)
6 For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover [e]her head.
7. My Bucket List is getting longer and my Bucket is coming quickly. (I am running out of time to do everything on my bucket list.) In 2010 we went to The Tetons and Yellowstone for two weeks. In 2012 we went to New York City to see the sights. In 2013 we went to Hawaii and cruised four of the Islands. Check those off of my bucket list. June of 2013 we went to Rockford Illinois and took my mother in law to see her daughter, granddaughter, great-granddaughters and great- grandson.
8. God prepared me all my life for my true work talent. I was always told I was good with children. Children have always been attracted to me. After I went down several other paths, God finally sent me to College to get my teaching degree. I wanted to teach K, 1st, or 2nd. He had other plans for me. He put me in Early Childhood where I have been for 19 years. I still love it and I learn more from them than I teach them. I was a Pre-School Teacher for 20 years. After I retired I worked for a one and a half years with Day Cares as a mentor to the teachers.
Matthew 19:14
but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
8. I have lived in the same house for almost 20 years. 23 years
Matthew 6:25-34
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? ...
10. I have two wonderful nieces who are like daughters to me. One of them is my very best friend next to my husband, he is number one.
Proverbs 18:24
(ESV)
24 A man of many companions may come to ruin but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
11. I love the mountains and snow skiing. That was until a snowboarder ran into me and almost broke both of my legs.
And He *said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.
12. I have been highly blessed to travel to Zambia, Africa on two mission trips and if the Lord is willing we will return this summer for my third time and Tommy's fourth time.
Matthew 28:18-20
(NASB)
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you [b]always, even to the end of the age.”
I did return to Zambia in 2009 and again in 2012.
My husband's fifth time and my fourth time. We had the privilege of meeting the children who had been named after us. Little Tommy and Little Shelia. What an honor. The women in the villages we visited sang to us and danced for us thanking us for giving them water. The three villages we visited our church had drilled water wells.
John 4:12-14
(NASB)
12 You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
13. The first time Tommy went to Zambia without me, I stayed home and took care of 100 plus goats. If you know me at all, you know that threw me completely out of my comfort zone. My comfort zone is in the house and none of the goats come in the house.
14. Going to Africa of all places, is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. It takes two to three days on planes and in airports to get there. I am a bit of a clean freak and there is nothing clean there. Nothing is easy and I like things to run smoothly. However, it was by far the best thing that I have ever done. It's the most fun I have ever had. God is good, God is great all of the time, as the Zambian's say.
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
15. My life changed courses when I went to Africa. The Lord Planted my Feet on Higher Ground.
2 Peter 1:2-4
(ESV)
2 May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Confirm Your Calling and Election
3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
16. I have driven a school bus, bulldozer and a John Deere tractor. I have ridden in a NASCAR at 140 mph at Texas Motor Speedway.17. I got my dream sewing machine for Christmas 2008. It is a Babylock Ellegente 2 Embroidrey Machine. In 2010 I got a six needle Babylock. Which in the scheme of things does not matter.
18. I want to float down the river in the Grand Canyon.
19. We took a 45 minute boat trip up the Zambezi River to a village, Kavalamanga, to worship our Lord. We saw crocodile, hippos and Kudzu and elephants on the banks. The Zambezi River is about one mile wide and it empties over Victoria Falls.
20. I have been to Victoria Falls. AWESOME- right there with the Grand Canyon and Niegra Falls.
Genesis 1:9
And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
21. We have had a Zambian Chief in our home for a meal two different times. Then we visited him and his family in his village of Mumena, Zambia. We have also met another Chief in Zambia and visited his palace.
22. I saw the Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theater in London in 2005. This was 21 hours after the tubes and the buses had been bombed there in 2005. I also saw The Phantom of the Opera in New York City in 2012.
23. I want to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.
24. I experienced death for the first time at the age of five when my two year old cousin died. Then again when I was twenty-five when my twenty-two year old brother died. I was with him when he died. Then in 1982 I was with my grandmother when she died. In 1984 Tommy and I were with his Dad when he died. In 1992 I was with my Dad when he died. In 2007 I was with my beloved Mom when she left this world.
1 Corinthians 15:54-56
(NASB)
54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;
25. My number one goal is to serve the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY with all my heart, my mind, my body and my soul. It still is but I struggle in this area.
And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, andwith all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
Romans 8:28 is my favorite verse in the Bible. We must live to obey Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus said "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit."
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