I love, love, love to read magazines. It is like a present when one of my favorites puts out a new issue. I confess right here and now…I have TOO many favorites. These are the ones I read faithfully each month: Country Living, Country Home, More, Home Companion, and Oprah. Such good writing and articles. In my busy life, it is easier to read short articles when time allows. I have recently found a new magazine called Deep, about life in the deep South. Quite nice. Articles here are about our region of the U.S., and people who live here. Also another magazine that has captured my attention is La Vie Claire. It is published only 4 times a year…but it is the most beautiful magazine since Victoria. Another good read for wise shoppers is SHOP SMART. This is put out by Consumer Reports…but it is a little lighter reading. There are no advertisements in this one and they rate products for you. For example, in this issue the investigate snack foods, paints, cookware, wrinkle creams, exercise equipment and much more. Check it out. And just yesterday, I found that Joyce Meyer is putting out a new magazine. I haven’t looked at it yet, but she is one of my favorite Christian speakers and teachers…so it has to be good. Sometimes, I will buy Lucky and Domino, and they are pretty good,too. And Southern Lady is sometimes on my list. Then, I like to read Country Sampler and Country Marketplace, Create and Decorate, and occasionally a scrapbook mag. I know! It’s too many!
But what if I miss seeing something that I wouldn’t want to miss? That would be too sad.
I have begun passing them along, though. I will take them to work and give them to some of the girls there. Of course they may have a page torn out…because I do like to keep files of the things I like. Who knows? I may need that info some day. Must close for now…gotta go through my stacks of new February issues.

“Be joyful always: pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances…” 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18.

How easy this sounds…but how hard it is to do. Sometimes it seems just about impossible to find any thing to’ be joyful ‘about. That is until you REALLY start to think about it. Then the abundant blessings of our Lord will fill your mind. ‘ Pray continually’ means to me, that I will breathe a prayer for a concern every time it comes to my mind. And that is easy enough for us all. To’ give thanks in all circumstances’ is also sometimes a hurdle for me. But, I think this means that in the midst of the trial of the moment, we must still remember to be thankful for the love and support of our Lord. He will help us through. Now, we don’t have to be thankful it is happening, but be thankful WHILE it is happening. God’s promise is that He will be with us and strengthen us and lead us out to happier times. And, I have found, that sometimes, I can actually look back and be thankful for that experience…because of the growth I found in my life.

Have a blessed day today!

I have a good friend who says she is happy to be anything but “fine”. Isn’t that the truth? I mean…what a mediocre word…fine. Not good…not bad..not pretty, not ugly, not sweet, not mean…just”fine.” Well, Kath, I agree. I , too, want to be anything else. How sad to settle for the ordinary…the sameness. Be BOLD! Don’t be afraid to try new things. Have adventures. At my age, the last thing I care about is what anyone else thinks about what I do or say or how I act. I had a younger friend tell me last week…”I want to be like YOU when I grow up.” What a compliment! Now, I’m not talking about the immoral or ungodly things. Whatever I do or say MUST be pleasing to the Lord first of all. But, You know, He made me. He put fun into my soul. He is the one who gave me the boldness to be me. And, I think God wants us to be joyful, above all. Do you think God laughs? I’ve heard the joke…’if you want to make God laugh…tell Him YOUR plans…’, And yes, I think He laughs. He must just laugh out loud at some of the predicaments we mortals get ourselves into. I mean, just watching me get into my Spanx has got to be good for a big one. Come on…think about it…funny, isn’t it? I read a sign in our Hallmark store last week…”I’m smart enough to know better and old enough not to care.” Do you remember some of those things that you thought were going to absolutely change the direction of your life…and they hardly caused a ripple? Do you remember being mortified when you embarressed yourself, sure that no one would ever forget it…and no one even noticed? Do you remember when your child did the unthinkable, something no one elses child would ever do and you were sure they would never have any friends again and no mother would ever let her child date date them…and now it’s just part of family history. And they are happily married,too.
Mothers, choose your battles. You don’t have to SEE everything your child does wrong. I thought I did with my first. Boy was I wrong. With my first, I thought they had to be in cute little outfits with socks matching…neatly pressed. By the time I got to my third…I was just happy if he had on underwear when he got out of the car. And shoes when we went to church.
And #3 has grown up just fine. How my boys survived ME is amazing.

Well, I don’t know how I got off on children and such from where I started. However, that, too, is the way God wired me. I can start on one thing and end up in a totally different idea before I get to the end of a sentence. Maybe, He made me that way to assure himself of laughs everyday as my friends and family try to figure me out. Oh well…He did say, ” Let the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful.” I can only TRY to be righteous, but I can choose happiness and joy.

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Originally uploaded by Tonja Owens.

GOD
who excells at things great and mighty
is also Master
of the intricate and tiny.

Is there anything better than getting a new CD of a favorite artist and having time to just sit and listen and absorb? Ah! Music. From the simplest melody to the most magnificent symphony…there is something that appeals to every one. Is there a song that takes you away every time you hear it? Music is a springboard to all sorts of memories. My younger sister and I used to spend summers with relatives in NC and some of that was with a cousin about our age. As young girls do…we acted out all sorts of life experiences. One of our favorites was our future weddings. Just so happened that a popular song at that time was “Chapel of Love” . Remember,’going to the chapel and we’re going to get married, going to the chapel of love…there she comes in her wedding gown looking like a queen…he has been her only love since she was 16…’ We took turns,Joy, Debbie and I, being the bride. We dressed in the finest lace tablecloths,and old tattered petticoats. Do you remember the ones that had a tube to blow up around the hem to make them stand out even more? Our bouquets were of the most exotic of wild grasses and the occasional addition of a dandelion in perfect bloom. No brides have ever looked so beautiful or have been so envied. It was just not as grand to be the groom or the flower girl. The bride was the coveted part. Since I was the oldest…I got to decide whose turn was next. I saw nothing wrong with the eldest having a turn between each of the others, do you? They had much to learn and I was trying my best to educate them. Oh the memories.

I have entered into this trip down memory lane because I just bought a CD from my favorite female artist, Carly Simon. I know she’s old school, but the emotion in her voice and the life in her songs find a haven in my soul. I read in a magazine that she had a new CD out and I rushed to get it. Felt pretty old when the pierced and tatooed girl at the record store said, “Who? I never heard of her.” She looked it up on her computer and sure enough, they had just come in. With my copy in my hand, I felt it my duty to share with her the virtues of being able to actually understand all the words in a song. I’m not sure she got it. And I was too anxious to hear what Carly had been up to to continue my teaching. Out to the car…not even stopping to peruse the goods in Parisian. I’m mad at them anyway for selling out to Belk’s. BELK”S? O sadness! But that is a post for another day. After speaking quite unkindly to those*****who think it is necessary to wrap CD’s in such wrappings as to cause the finest Christian lady to have unkind thoughts, and struggling to get the outside paper off…only to discover the next strip of supertape along the top…I finally get to the prize. Into the player and out comes that familiar voice that touches my soul. This album is titled INTO WHITE, and it is almost an adult lullaby. Beautiful songs, mellow and touching, quiet and peaceful….music to listen to and let your mind find its way to the place she’s singing from. She’s even accompanied on one song by Ben and Sally Taylor, her children with James Taylor. Good genes on both sides, huh? She sings some old favorites and some new ones. I have all her albums. My favorite is HAVE YOU SEEN ME LATELY? But any of them could fill some part of me. She sings of life experiences we all have and as we have aged and as she has aged her music reflects the new trials we face.

Music..aren’t you glad God though of music as a way to touch our very souls?