Take time to be a vanguard kind-of-person...

 Before I write my thoughts please read the below definition of the word "vanguard"

***********************************************************************************  

 Moby Thesaurus words for "vanguard": advance guard, airhead, ancestor, announcer, antecedent, armed guard, avant-garde, bank guard, battle line, beachhead, bellwether, bridgehead, buccinator, bushwhacker, coast guard, cordon, cordon sanitaire, explorer, farthest outpost, first line, forebear, forefront, foregoer, forerunner, front, front line, front rank, front runner, front-runner, frontiersman, fugleman, garrison, goalie, goalkeeper, goaltender, ground-breaker, guard, guarder, guardsman, guide, harbinger, herald, inlying picket, innovation, innovator, jailer, latest fad, latest fashion, latest wrinkle, lead runner, leader, line, messenger, new look, newfangled device, novelty, outguard, outpost, pathfinder, picket, pioneer, point, precedent, precursor, predecessor, rail-head, rear guard, scout, security guard, spearhead, stormy petrel, the in thing, the last word, the latest thing, trailblazer, trail-breaker, train guard, van, vaunt-courier, voortrekker, warder

*************************************************************************************

Here I thought it was used exclusively in describing the latest fad or fashion 

or new look for the year!!!

When, quite frankly I can experience it with every new day!!! I have the power to say to myself something extraordinary could happen to me today.  Something that I could hear or see perhaps. Just feeling it could be the "vanguard" of  a miracle. After all part of believing in God is to believe in miracles.

IF, a little word like vanguard defines itself with so many other words.Try defining the word FAITH!!!

 REALLY!!!

Take time to try these..

http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/oatmeal-peanut-butter-bars/32986.html

Just  COPY and PASTE the link to watch the video!!!!

St Patrick Day.

St. Patrick: Why His Message Still Matters

Brother Colmán Ó Clabaigh, OSB

Author

March 17 is upon us again, and all over the world everyone is an honorary Irishman or Irishwoman for 24 hours. St. Patrick's popularity is a result of the wanderlust of the Irish, and there is no corner of the world in which his name is not honored.
Yet, if his name is known, his story is less familiar and his message often gets drowned out by the parades, the plastic shamrocks and the green-dyed beer.
The little knowledge we have of him comes from two letters he wrote in the course of his missionary work in fifth-century Ireland.
In one, he fearlessly condemns a warlord who carried off some of his converts into slavery. The other document, known as his "Con­fession," gives a moving account of his conversion and his work as a minister of the Gospel.
Patrick was born in the year 389 into a  comfortable Christian background in Roman-occupied Britain. Like others, he took his family, his faith and his good fortune for ­granted.
All this changed when a group of Irish raiders captured him and sold him and his young companions into slavery. Snatched from the comfort of his Roman villa, he found himself herding sheep and fending off wild animals on the side of an Irish mountain.
Exiled, abused and exploited, Patrick turned to Christ in his desperation, and the relationship of faith that followed transformed his own life and the lives of the Irish people.
Escaping from captivity, he returned to his family and became a priest.
He would perhaps have settled into a comfortable clerical career had it not been for a dream in which he heard the "voice of the Irish" begging him to "come and walk once more amongst us." This he took as a summons to return and proclaim the freedom of Christ in the land of his captivity. It was a courageous decision and one that demanded all his reserves of courage and forgiveness.
Personal challenges
But Patrick's story doesn't end there. From the "Confession" we learn that his mission was anything but an easy one: He was subjected to threats and extortion, his converts were enslaved and brutalized, and his own personal integrity was called into question.
For Patrick had a dark secret. Around age 15, he had committed a very serious crime. What the nature of this offense was he does not reveal, but it would have been an obstacle to his ordination had it been disclosed.
He confided this to a close friend, who subsequently betrayed his trust. In consequence, Patrick's mission was called into question and the "Confession" contains an anguished defense of his ministry in the face detractors, whom he dismissively addresses as "you men of letters, sitting on your estates."
God working within
All this is a long way from the sanitized image of the saint banishing the snakes from Ireland in his green vestments, bishop's staff and over-sized shamrock.
However, the reality of St. Patrick as revealed in the "Confession" shows us someone in whom the grace of God was powerfully active. The Lord habitually uses weak and fragile people to accomplish his will, to build up his kingdom: "My grace is enough for you, my strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians, 12:9).
Patrick himself recognized this; he was conscious of being "rustic, exiled, unlearned," of lacking the sophistication of other bishops. But more than this, he was conscious of the power of God working within him.
Anyone familiar with the stone-walled fields that partition the Irish countryside will appreciate the image that he uses to describe this: "I was like a stone lying in deep mud; and he that is mighty came and in his mercy lifted me up, and raised me aloft and put me on top of the wall. And therefore I ought to shout out aloud and return something to the Lord for the great mercy he has shown me now and for all ages."
Weak though he was, Patrick's success lay in his recognition of the Gospel's power to transform, transfigure and uplift, and this is as true for us in the 21st century as it was for him in the fifth.

Take time to read about Jamie Oliver, it will be worth it...

• Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

  Posted: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:00:00 GMT

  Jamie Oliver is on a roll.  You might know Jamie as “The Naked Chef”, television chef and cookbooks author from the UK, which is actually a gross understatement because, according to The New York Times, Jamie is “head of a multinational corporation that has produced 12 television series and associated specials seen in 130 countries, has written 10 cookbooks translated into 29 languages - besides owning restaurants, selling his own kitchenware, and publishing a magazine.”
  Continue reading...

Taking time to share my blues...

           

            It's not because it's Monday that I am writing about the blues, I am just so partial to the color blue. In the country of Portugal it is interesting to see how much they loved that color too. The Portuguese of course are experts in the history behind the blue in their designs.  

Every object you see in this collage are made in Portugal and while they are full of the color blue they don't give me the "blues" just wonderful memories of days gone by.

Keeping Touch.

By the way let me share my devos. I read today.  This is a book that Presley(Larry's young boss)gave us.  It goes as follows:

We believe in God-such as it is-we have faith-because certain things happened to us once and go on happening.  We work and goof off, we love and dream, we have wonderful times and awful times, are cruelly hurt and hurt others cruelly, get mad and bored and scared stiff and ache with desire, do all such human things as these, and if our faith is not mainly just window dressing or a rabbit's foot or fire insurance, it is because it grows out of precisely this kind of rich human compost.  The God of the biblical faith is the God who meets us at these moments in which for better or worse we are being most human, most ourselves, and if we lose touch with these moments, if we stop from time to time to notice what is happening to us and around us and inside us,  we run the THE TRAGIC RISK of losing touch with God too.

So you see I have faith enough in that even though at this time of my life I find myself alone allot,without the children,and Larry at times this is where the Lord has for me to be.  I am trying to make the best of it and so far so good.

Follow up on the blog...Taking Time to Consider What Real Joy Is...

 

Tips on how to REALLY survive cancer  

Dear Friends
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for praying for me and for Rick too.  We have felt so blessed, loved, and cared for.  I can't even begin to express all we are thankful for.  We have seen God's love through all of you.

Back on December 18, 2009 I received word that I had invasive lobular carcinoma.  After getting off the phone with the doctor it really sank in what I had.  I was in shock and alone with my 4 and 5 year old students.  I prayed and asked God to give me a verse that I could cling to during this time in my life.  He gave me Psalm 118:24 that says, "This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it."  I began a silent discussion with God that no, this verse wouldn't do, not for this situation.  I was scared.  But the only verse that would come to mind was the same one.  Then I was reminded by God of a gift I had received from a student that said, "Every day is a gift from God."  As I thought about it later in the day I began to realize that yes, I could rejoice in "this" day if I looked at "this" day as a gift from God.  Just taking one day at a time and rejoicing in it.  I honestly have to say that as I looked at my cancer in this way God began to work in my heart and life.  Every day in-spite of all the fear of the unknown I still had much to rejoice and be glad about.  Little things like what one of my four year old students said when I explained that I was very sick and that I would have to miss a lot of days at school, the student said, "Mrs. Warken, there's this purple liquid that if you take it it will make you all better.  You can buy it at the dollar store!"  How I have laughed over this!  Then the girl next to her piped up and said, "Yeah, there's this orange thing you put on your tongue and you keep it there till it all melts, that will make you all the rest of the way better!"  I love these kids! 

Then a most wonderful thing happened.  I was able to lead the grandmother of one of my past students to the Lord.  I had been praying for her for four years that I would be able to share God's love with her and in January at school sitting on the desks I showed her in the Bible how much God loved her.  After praying and asking Jesus to forgive her of her sin and to be her Savior, she went and told her Grandson, his teacher and the church secretary what she had just done.  It was so amazing.

My husband, children, parents and siblings, and extended family were all constantly there with me and for me. The cards, flowers, phone calls, books, videos, meals, emails, facebook messages, visits, care packages, verses and sooooooo many prayers from friends, literally all around the world were amazing to me and another reason to rejoice. God is so good to me and Rick. Thank you my family and friends. 

Today we received word from the medical oncologist that they believe that I am doing well and that they were able to remove all the cancer.  The results of the last test came in today indicating that I would not need to do any chemotherapy treatment!  No radiation treatment as it had already been ruled out.  The only treatment now is a hormonal pill I take daily for 5 years called Tomoxifen and a visit to the doctors office every 3 months while on this medication.  The test indicated that there is only a 7% chance of recurring cancer.  I am undergoing reconstructive surgery and so far it is going well, a bit uncomfortable and itchy but it is nothing compared to what it could have been!!

So as I close, I again thank each one of you for your part in helping me to rejoice in the Lord! and if you are facing your giant as Joshua and Caleb and the children of Israel did upon entering the Promised Land, remember "...Be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."  Joshua 1:9

What a precious promise to cling to!

I love you all.
Linda

One more thing..If you wouldn't mind would you please pray for my many friends who are still undergoing cancer treatments.  The one area that is hard to rejoice about is knowing that so many are still a lot worse off than I am.  I know God is in control of everything, and yes we have to trust Him, but it's still hard.  You are never totally sure you are healed with this disease.  Prov. 3:5 & 6.  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not to your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path."

CURRENT MOON

lunar phases