Pray a word a day

 Pray a word a day

Day 1 Goodness

Day 2 Change

Day 3 Together

Day 4 Enlarge

Day 5 Creativity

Day 6 Persistence

The Candy Cane

 

Look at the Candy Cane

What do you see?

Stripes that are red

Like the blood shed for me

White is for my Savior,

Who's sinless and pure!

"J" is for Jesus My Lord, that's for sure!

Turn it around,

And a staff you will see.

Jesus my shepherd

Was born for Me!

Many years ago, a candy maker wanted to make a candy at Christmas time,

that would serve as a witness to his Christian faith.

He wanted to incorporate several symbols for the birth, ministry,

and death of Jesus. He began with a stick of pure white hard candy;

white to symbolize the Virgin Birth and the sinless nature of Jesus;

hard to symbolize the solid rock, the foundation of the Church;

firmness to represent the promise of God.

The candymaker made the candy in the form of a "J"

to represent the name of Jesus, who came to earth as our Savior.

He thought it could also represent the staff of the Good Shepherd,

with which he reached down into the ditches of the world to lift out

the fallen lambs who, like all sheep, have gone astray.

Thinking that the candy was somewhat plain, the candymaker,

stained it with red stripes. He used three small stripes,

to show the stripes of the scourging Jesus received,

by which we are healed. The large red stripe was for the

blood shed by Christ on the cross so that we could have the

promise of eternal life. Unfortunately, the candy became known,

as a candy cane - a meaningless decoration seen at Christmas time.

But the true meaning is still there for those who have,

eyes to see and ears to hear.

 

Thanksgiving eve

 HAPPY THANKSGIVING

if you will be traveling please drive safely, if you get sleepy, stop and walk around your family would like you there not going to your funeral.     Please do not drink and drive, your life is at risk along with that innocent person you hit and killed.

I used to make pies with mom on this day, that has sure been hard.  If you have your grandparents, parents tell them you love them and its not good bye, it's "I'll see you later, never be too busy to talk to them, go and visit, or take to lunch.  When they are gone it will never be the same,

Enjoy the memories being made and cherish them always

To the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

—Romans 16:27

Tuesday 4 Thankful

 

Thankful

 Hello friends and welcome to Tonis Tuesday 4

Thanksgiving Day is about here. Let's talk about the holiday and thankfulness.

1. Whether you are from the USA or not, thankfulness is beneficial to a nation and people.  Is it a natural thing for you to think of being thankful or is it something you must be reminded about?  Its a natural thing, we always have something to be thankful for

2.  Plymouth Plantation is the site of the original settlement and everything is authentic to the 1600's including how they speak.    Have you been to Plymouth Rock?   How about the Plymouth Plantation (yes that is the proper spelling). Would you like to go visit these places? What places are you thankful for having seen?   I haven't been to either place, but on my bucket list.  I have seen the Alamo, and the 7 missions around San Antonio,  St. Augustine FL, St Louis Archway, Petrified Forest, Superstitious Mountain, Grand Ole Opry,  Builtmore house,  Myrtle Beach, Gulf Coast, Pacific Ocean, Smokey Mountains, (the list could go on forever)

3. Do you tune into the Macy's Parade ?  YES its a tradition!   This year my cousin will be marching in the parade, from Texas Tech University (Great job going band, and ABI)

4. What will you be eating on Thanksgiving Day this year?  traditional meal,               Turkey, ham, stuffing green bean casserole, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes with giblet              gravy, rolls, cranberry, pies. After lunch we play games, with the kids, then              exchange names for Christmas.

Linking up with Tuesday 4

Automobiles

 Hey there... welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.

We rely on cars to get just about everywhere today, so maybe we should talk about them a bit. Okay?

1. What is the earliest car you remember your family owning? Do you recall the color or the plate number?

2. What does your states license plate look like? Do you like it?

3. What color is your car now?

4. Did you have a car as a teenager?   If yes, what kind was it?

1.  Mom and dad had a 1963 GMC pick up they said it was nothing but a lemon (they got rid of it when I was 5 or 6 *born in 67*  I do not recall the tag#

 What does your states tag look like?

This is the newest tag it a scissor tail fly catcher *state bird*

this is a sample of my car tags as I am disabled

also have this so if I ride with anybody else in another vehicle

3.  What color is my car now?

4.  Did you have a car as a teenager? what color was it?

I did it was a 1967 baby blue Ford Mustang.  Wasn't a convertible but man did those old cars have some long hoods

.

around my yard

The asters are so pretty this year

painted ladies were loving the sweet flowers

another painted lady

even the grasshoppers were enjoying the sweetness

common buckeye, she opened her wings pretty for me

even a monarch

what do you see around your yard?

 

September Bible Journaling Gods Wisdom

 

September Bible Journaling

God’s wisdom

Week 1:  9-8-23

Proverbs 25:11

 11 Like apples of gold in settings of silver Is a word spoken in right circumstances.

God’s wisdom is very valuable in today’s time and age.

Have you known someone who speaks so beautifully that it is like a work of art, especially when they are very passionate about it?

        Apples are used often in the art scene, here Solomon, used apples as a word scene telling us to be wise in our speech and our words.

        When this verse was written there was no social media to use to get ideas, only paintings or sculptures arranged decorations.  Maybe Solomon had something directly in front of him when he wrote this verse?  (Where he makes this analogy) Golden apples, sitting in a silver bowl?

        A beautiful combination of both color and image that is how words are that are spoken at the right time.   Truly wonderful and a beautiful gift, to the people who need them.

        Our parents gave us words of wisdom from where they had been before us, those words protected us a beautiful reminder how those words of wisdom transfer over to our heavenly father and how He speaks to us through His word.  

His words are beautiful (make us want to write them down, journal and keep them in a place where we can review them from time to time.  Bible times were involved in the writings *His word* even the people of Nazareth couldn’t believe how well He spoke, Mary couldn’t get enough of His words and wanted to sit at His feet, even His enemies praised His speech.  We get to delight in His work as they have been written in the Bible.  We should use His speech as a guide to our speech.

How beautiful are your words would be for those that hear them, compare our speech to a beautiful work of art.

When we spend time in the word of Jesus and studying the life of Jesus the fruit of His spirit grows on us, we exemplify Christ as our spirit, our words will bring beauty to those around us.

 

Week 2:  9-2-23

Proverbs 7:2 2 Keep my commandments and live, And my teaching as the apple of your eye.

        “Apple of your eye” tell us we are the apple of God’s eye, but what exactly does this mean?  It is a favorite expression of the Old Testament written to indicate something or someone who is valued above all other things.  To bring up close and personal this phrase refers to a tiny little reflection of yourself that you can see inside another person’s pupil when you are standing really close to them.

         To be the apple of someone’s eye clearly means you are being focused on and that you are being closely watched upon by that person.  Your image is central in the eyes of that person.     That is how God sees us, however in the verse keep His word as the apple of your eye, what does it mean for us to see His word that way?    His word needs to be the central focus in our lives and the way that we will live and keep it close and personal to us.   This verse is an encouragement to us to understand the length which we should keep our focus on the word of God.  Requires us to have a love and desire for it and to hold it with care.   WHY?  Gods’ commandments or teachings give us life.   It is worth having Gods word as our central focus.   He gives us protection in the truth, are the instructions that He gives us in God’s word, being taught to protect ourselves disregarding His words or forgetting them being too busy to obey them.   The reason why we want to do this is so that we may rely fully on Him.   His word is life shows us how to live and gives us valuable wisdom when we need it most.   *Journaling is an excellent road map for our hearts when we focus on Gods truth*   Life for us shows us how to live every single day- keeping the teachings of God’s word as the apple of our eye.

 

 

Week 3

 1 Corinthians 3:18 Let no man deceive himself if any man among you thinks that he is wise in his age, he must become foolish so that he may become wise.

We are at a time in history when as God’s people, more important than ever we pay attention to this verse.

Paul is saying:  following Jesus, we could find ourselves being called fools for how we choose to live.  Is also encouraging us to be truth tellers in a world being taken away from truth tellers and a world that is hostile to God’s word. 

Because we do not belong to this world as believers, we know that our king is Jesus and that we are kingdom dwellers we are just passing through and that we are going to spend eternity with Him.  God’s word teaches us how to have that eternal perspective, that perspective should be the lens that we look at our own wisdom.  We need to be careful when we put human accomplishments, celebrities, human philosophies, worldly successes on a pedestal above Gods truth.  Be careful to think that we have life figured out (the truth) We need to rely on God every single day and we do not need to have everything figured out.   Foolishness is thinking that we do.   There is a lot of relaxation in knowing that we do not need to have everything figured out.    His words are there to guide us when we pay attention to what he is saying, we can trust He will lead us in the right direction.  Not being wise in our own eyes, we are fearful not to trust our own way, accidentally disregarding Gods instructions in His word.   We all get busy and do not take the time to look into what His word says.

Having an eternal perspective means that we do not follow in the footsteps of a fool, living as someone who forgets who we are to our heavenly father.   Having faith in God is NOT a rejection of human wisdom but a recognition of our limits.   God gave us immense capacity for intelligence, creativity, ingenuity all these things are given to us so that we can face humility and awe from our creator God.

When we are humble and wise, we more easily see that everything points back to God and His love for us.    

I for one do not mind being regarded as a fool in this world because it means that I know the God who is above it all and that is wisdom.

 

 

Week 4

Psalm 90:12 So teach us to number our days, That we may present to you a heart of wisdom.

Unlike other Psalms this particular chapter was written by Moses as he was reflecting on his time in the wilderness.  

Remember, as a kid when we wished to be old enough to drive, be out of school, get a job, be 21?  Whatever we wished for, that time would go faster?  When we reached adulthood, we were like woah, wait a minute this isn’t what I signed up for, this is hard.  Now, time flies faster than ever, the older we get the faster it goes.  Life if short as time really does pass faster.

Moses was realizing just how fleeting life is, he asked God for wisdom to account for our time, time flies, life is uncertain, and eternity is forever.     This is why it is important for us to value the time and days God has given us, use them wisely to further God’s kingdom.

There is no way for us to know what the future will hold, why it is important to be intentional how we hold out each day.  Live sensibly and with a purpose but do so “ONE DAY AT A TIME”.

If we think about the background of Moses, the man who wrote this chapter, he watched entire generations of his people dying over a 40-year period while they wondered in the wilderness, thousands of men, women, children died in front of him.   While it just became part of life, Moses was a man who saw most of these people living their lives in complete rebellion against the same God who rescued them and continued to love them.

Picture Moses, sitting on a rock on the side of the mountain looking out over all of Israel, somehow feeling compelled to ask God to teach him, to teach us to number our days and gain arts of wisdom.

Consider the life of Jesus and the life He left for us.  Jesus, amazes me for so many reasons; 1 reason He accomplished so much in a very short span of time (relatively speaking) as He was crucified at the age of 33 and His earthly ministry only lasted 3 yrs.  During this time, He accomplished all that the father had for Him to do.  He was busy with people, ministry, healing, teaching, preparing to die for us and yet He still took the time to slow down and teach 1 woman at the well, took the time to stop and bless all the little children, spoke to a tax collector up in a tree.   When we look at not only the words of Moses, also, the life of Jesus. 

This is how we learn to live with intention from His example.  This is how we gain heart wisdom.

 

 

 

Jesus, I truly thank you for the ability to gain heart wisdom and that you have given us immense capacity for our brains to continue learning.