Happy Easter

I pray that each of you will have a reflective and blessed Easter. I am including a link for a video. It is a praise song I love.
Enjoy.



Blessings,

The Winner is!!

I was so incredibly blessed by all the comments and ideas that everyone shared.

I wanted to highlight a few:
Nancy who lost her son but has somehow found a way to be an encourager. We are praying for you.

For the precious family that has had to put their grandmother in a nursing home. If you scroll down you will see a tribute to my husbands grandmother. She is in a nursing home too. You are so right about all of the precious stretcher carriers that work their.

Thank you Darci for reaching out to another that is going through the heart ache you have experienced. That is such a great testimony and that is exactly what the Father wants us to do.

For all the ladies who have took to time to share, and pray on the spot for needs others had.

The winner is:
I loved this devotion. Unfortunately, I feel like I am the one in need of being carried in the stretcher to the feet of Christ. Please pray for me.
erinborden@gmail.com
I will email you to get your address.

I hope all of you will continue to visit and let me know how God is using you.
Blessings,

Stretcher Carrier for Christ

To those of you who have popped over from the Proverbs 31 Devotion today- welcome! Feel free to leave a comment below even if you are not a blogger. To do so, click on the word "comments" below and select the anonymous button after typing your comment in the provided text box

Today I am giving away a copy of "God's Purpose for Every Women", a $10.00 Starbucks gift card and a travel mug that you can personalize with your own photo. To enter simply leave a comment below and be sure to leave your email address.



The devotion today centered around being a "stretcher carrier" for Christ. The gospels are full of many examples where friends and family brought people to Jesus to be healed.

Matthew9:1-2
"People brought him a paralyzed man".


Luke 4:40
"People throughout the village brought sick family members to him-no matter what the disease was He healed them".


Matthew 25:34-36
Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what's coming to you in this kingdom. It's been ready for you since the world's foundation. And here's why:

I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.' (Message)

I love how the Message translation gives definition to the directives in the verse.

There are many ways that we can be a "stretcher carrier"

• Carry others with prayer

As a need is brought to your attention be obedient and faithful to pray and actually do it. I know I have been guilty of saying I would pray and then getting busy and forgetting. I have a friend who told me that when she commits to praying for someone, as soon as she is away from that person she take a minute and prays immediately so she will not have the chance to forget. I like that advice.

• Carry others with encouragement

Each day I have a "to-do" list. I have started allowing blank time for God to interrupt my schedule. It could be making a call to say hello to someone, sending an email or a note to let them no I am thinking of them. Running in to someone you did not expect to see and giving them a hug. Look at my previous post on "seeing God" for some other ideas. I personally do not want to miss out on a chance to be the hands, eyes or feet for Jesus.

• Carry others physically

Do you know a someone that has a need, can you cook a meal for a family grieving, or dealing with an illness. Do you have clothes your kids have outgrown that could be a blessing to another? Do you know someone that needs a ride to the doctor? Is there someone that needs a place to stay that you can reach out to?

The devotion also referred to the child our family sponsors through Compassion International. Our family has been so blessed by this opportunity. We know the funds we send, and the letters of encouragement we mail are truly impacting the life of a precious little boy. This is a picture of David and I in Ecuador.

If you want to learn more about that please go to the Proverbs 31 website and then go to the Compassion link from that site.

Leave a comment on how you have been "stretcher carrier", and you could be the winner of today's give away. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you will visit again.

Blessings,

A quick catch up

It has been a busy time since I posted last week. I woke up last Wednesday without a voice. I did not feel bad, I just could not talk. If you are not from the Carolina's we have this thing in the springtime called "pollen". It can be hard on some people. I spent the next 3 days the brunt of many jokes because of my voice. My next door neighbor wanted to know if I was going through puberty finally with a voice change ( I am not sure I thought it was that funny).

On Friday afternoon our youngest starts screaming, crying and holding her left ear at 3pm. It came out of no where. She had not been sick, did not have a fever, but I knew what was happening. Off to urgent care we go. She gets a nice shot in the bottom because she has an ear drum about to burst!!! Fortunately by the next day she was in less pain and feeling better.

On Sunday afternoon my 12 year old comes in from mowing the lawn, he is crying and holding his jaw. We did our best to get him through the night and headed to the dentist this morning. It turns out his 12 year old molar is coming in and causing the pain and swelling. We have to do the Tylenol and Ibuprofin thing for a few days, and hope that it breaks the skin quickly!! I thought my children were done with teething pain.

Also, I walked into our office (it is upstairs in our home), to find the modem and the router laying on the floor. They had fallen off my desk (the reason is still a mystery). I looked and the lights and things seemed fine. NOT!!! My husband noticed a few minutes later that the home/office network was not working. None of the computers could talk to each other, and only the main one could go online. That means he cannot get his work done smoothly. It is the end of the day on Monday, and we are still not working yet. We are now waiting for the repair person to come in.

That is all for now. I am ready for some quieter moments.
Blessings,

Have you seen God today?

I heard a song on the radio today that really caused me to think. There was a chorus that caught my attention.

"I Saw God Today"
by George Straight

I've been to Church
I've read the Book
I know He's here

I just don't look.

I thought about the many ways each and every day the God shows Himself to me, but I am too busy to see Him.

So I made a conscious effort to look for God today, and I found Him.

I realized I saw God this morning when my husband said he would take the kids to school so I did not have to be so rushed this morning.

I saw God when I noticed how high the lake level was again because God has sent the rain to help with the drought.

In my devotion time this morning I was reading in Matthew 7:7-12. Verse 12 reminds us "to do unto others as you would like them to do to you". Then I saw God when my oldest son walked away from an opportunity to fight with his sister, when she had instigated it.

Matthew 25:34-36 says:

34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'


The opportunities to see God are numerous. How have you seen God today? Please share your thoughts.

Next time I want to look at how we can be the giver of God to others rather than the receiver.

Blessings,

A Centennial Celebration

Happy Birthday Elizabeth Kidd!!!

Yesterday 3/5/2008 was a landmark day in the Kidd family. My husbands grandmother turned 100 years old.

Great grandmother is a remarkable lady. She is a true southern bell. She has lived in the Carolinas all of her life (mostly in Haw River, NC). Grandmother and granddaddy were married for 72 years. He was 93 when he died that was 7 years ago. Their marriage was an inspiration to Allan and I because you could tell they loved each other. The sparkle was there even after 72 years. She quickly tells you marriage is work and you need God to help you.

They had a son, Claude (my father-in-law) and a daughter, Betsy. There are 5 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren (yes I have 4 of those!!).

Today grandmother resides in Rock Hill, SC at an assisted living center. She is the matriarch there. We are blessed that she is still as sharp as a tack!! You do not get anything past her. She knows all that is happening at the center and with her family. One of her highlights each year is the family reunion for her side of the family. She is the only surviving sibling, but the extended family gets together each year on the first Sunday in October. We usually have 60+ people.

















The center through a great party for her, calling her the "Princess of Day". She was even interviewed for the local cable channel (CN2 in Rock Hill).







I wanted to pay tribute to this precious lady. She has been a positive influence in my life. I pray that we have her with us for a long time to come.

Please share your thought for grandmother and I will pass them on to her.

Blessings,

Clean Up, CLean up, everybody do there share!!

Since my precious husband is coming home tonight I felt like I should tidy up a bit, especially after the "CAMP KIDD" (See the previous post) weekend.

Then I received this email, and well I decided I would follow the advice!! Enjoy.

This is me after a Allan has been gone for a week!!!



HOW TO CLEAN THE HOUSE

1. Open a new file on your PC.
2. Name it "Housework."
3. Send it to the RECYCLE BIN.
4. Empty the RECYCLE BIN.
5. Your PC will ask you, "Are you sure you want

To delete Housework permanently?"

6. Calmly answer, "Yes," and press mouse button firmly......
7. Feel better?

Works for me!

This is me delegating the clean up duties!!


I hope you are all having a wonderful Tuesday.
Blessings,

Camp Kidd

As I told you in the last post daddy is out of town. At the suggestion of Melissa (see her blog, we both had a similar challenge with our kids. I left a comment explaining my similar experience) I decided to hold a weekend camp out. We blew up the air mattress and turned on the fire place in my room and hung out together. We giggled and talked with the only light in the room coming from the fire.

We slept in late on Saturday morning (8:30am - that is late for the kids). Saturday was spent playing in the back yard swinging, riding the dirt bikes and go cart along with a walk on the horse trail around our neighborhood.

Sarah on the swings.
Ryan and David riding.




Ryan catching air!!







We had hot chocolate that night and camped in mom's room again!! Over all it was a good lazy weekend.

Today was back to school and mom got to clean up all the mess.

Blessings,

PS the air mattress popped, too much fun I suppose!!