Time flies when you are having fun! : )

Good Morning,

I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted anything.  Wow!  I have been a busy lady in that time and thank God for that.  It is a blessing in itself to be busy.  To have the strength and energy to do things.  I guess being faced with a ? timeline in life makes you appreciate time much more and to be honest while I am living I wanna spend my time doing things with my family, with my church, and with my friends.  We have been to the State Fair since I last posted and had a great time there.  Maggie and I had tickets to see Skillet and really enjoyed that.  Yep, I was rocking more than some of the teenagers in there.  LOL. 
Yes, I posted a ?timeline in life above because none of us know how long we will be granted here on earth.  Since I last posted 2 of the people that I had requested prayer for in this blog have passed away and moved on to their reward.  To be honest their passing put me in a state of depression last weekend.  Jason Evans went to meet Jesus last Saturday night.  He was 29 years old and was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer 2 days before me.  To say his death really bothered me is an understatement.  I have prayed and prayed for him and his family.  I don't know why God chose to keep me here longer and chose to take him from his wife and 3 small children.  It is one of those things I guess I will never know.  Oh how I cried over this news.  My only consolation is that Jason went to see Jesus and I know that his family is being comforted by the Holy Spirit.  I know God has them in His hands and they will be all right.  Then after learning this news on Sunday morning, I went to church to find out that Peggy Bowers was being removed from life support that day.  Peggy died shortly after the removal.  Peggy too is in heaven now and is in no pain.  That was a lot to sink in a short period of time.  I pray that God is with both of these families.  That He will wrap those mighty arms around them and just love them and give them comfort.  What an Awesome God He Is! 

Thank goodness, that we discussed heaven a little bit in Sunday School yesterday and the question of whether we will know each other or not.  the consensus was that if the disciples knew who Moses and Elijah were when they appeared beside Jesus at the transfiguration that there will probably be some knowledge of who everyone is although it may not matter there, for some reason thinking that we will know each other while here on earth it is a consolation.  I think once we get there we will be so happy that everything will be wonderful and if for some reason we don't know each other it will be ok.  With that said I personally think we will know or have a sense of each other.  We will know Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit.  I wanna know John, David, Peter, and Paul.  They are some of the first people I wanna talk to.  I hope I get to see my grandparents again.  Oh....enough about that.  (yes, I am crying)

On another thought about heaven.....we had trunk or treat at our church Saturday night.  What fun!  The funniest thing is that our Pastor sat in his space and passed out candy.  He did not have a decorated trunk but said his was the imagination station.  That his booth was whatever we wanted it to be.  OH......How I loved that idea.  I told him I would have to think about that .... but it didn't take long.  If I have to think about it then I have to start thinking about Heaven.  To be honest, I go to sleep some nights thinking about what heaven will be like.  No, I don't usually get a visually but it does put happy thoughts in my head and yes I find myself smiling before I go to sleep.  So there you go, if you have trouble going to sleep, start imagining heaven and it will make you forget your worries here on earth and you will go to sleep Happy!  YAY!

....and yes I am rambling this morning.  but hang on!  and for those of you who have been missing my post....
I have been thinking of posting my thanks for the next 30 days starting tomorrow.  I did this last year but I started earlier than November.  It has been on my mind alot so starting tomorrow there will be a blog a day for 30 days at least.  Just warning you ahead of time. 

As for me and my health, I am doing great.  My tumor markers are in the normal range.  (yay).  Chemo will continue for now and probably the rest of my life.  I still am weaker than what I used to be but I just take my time doing things and take breaks if I need them.  Please continue to pray for me.  I will take all the prayers I can get. 

I will tell you one other thing.  I am taking a discipleship course titled "The Mind of Christ".  It is really challenging the way I have thought about some things in the past.  I truly wanna develop a mind like Christ.  This course includes a listing of Christ's virtues and how we can take those virtues such as purity and pervert it.  I had never thought of that before.  We can actually try to be so pure that we become puritanical and set ourselves above others in attitudes and actions, basically we become Pharisees our self.  HUH?  can you tell that my toes were stepped on!  Not just that virtue but others too .....or ouch.... maybe all of them.  But you know I am thankful that God still steps on my toes or as I sometimes say Bops me Upside the Head.  It means He cares and that I have not finished growing yet.  It means my heart and spirit are still set on grow and I am will to be shown my faults and work with God to correct them.  Yep, I am still striving to serve Jesus as best I can.  Still learning His ways and still trying to please Him.  I can think of no other repayment for the debt that I owe Him.  He died for me, by His stripes I am healed....He did it all for me and you too!  Oh How I love Him!  Oh How I want you to love Him Too! 

Well there is my post.  Yep, it's been awhile but you may grow tired of me in the weeks to come ..... cause I am gonna get my Praise and Thanks On!  Here comes my favorite Seasons of the Year.  Christmas and Thanksgiving.  Yep, Jesus is the Reason For the Season! 

Love you all

Keep Praying and Keep Looking Up!

Tammy

Sisters from a different Mister

This post is about my sisters in Christ and to say I thank God for them.  If you don't have any then I suggest if you are female ..... get to church and find you some.  If you are male ... you may want brothers from another mother.  LOL.  Why am I thanking God for them?  Because of the support and love they show me.  I was thinking today out of all the times in my life I feel the most loved right now.  I know my family loves me without a doubt.  But I also have a group of friends that happen to have the same thing in common, We love God.  These friends are willing to pray with me, give me words of encouragement, call, email or text me to see how I am doing.  They greet me with a smile and sometimes a hug or a squeeze and almost always we leave with a love ya being said.  That is a special thing cause I know that is a Godly love.  It is not selfish, self serving, or required.  It is a love that comes from the heart and is truly meant when it is spoken.  I am not worried about these individuals hurting me because I know it would be unintentional if it happened.  I thank God for these ladies and even some who are younger girls.  They are truly my Sisters.  I never had a sister just 2 brothers.  (yes, I know they love me too).  I have great Sister in laws that I know care and love me too.  But there is something about the bond of my Sisters In Christ that is truly special.  We have the same focus.  We sometimes have the same problems.  I know if I needed them they would be right there as quick as they could if nothing but to bow their heads in prayer to pray for me.  I have had close friends that were not friends from church but the relationship is not the same.  Actually they sometimes have become disappointing and even to the point of being heart breaking.  And who knows maybe a Sister in Christ will hurt me one day but with my eyes focused on Jesus, He will help me through.  So with all that said, I really can sum it down to this:  I love my Sisters in Christ.  I hope they know that I would do anything I could for them too.  They are in my prayers and if need be they can call me, text me or whatever it takes to ask me to pray for them or their families.  I would name them here but I am afraid I would leave some one out.  Let's just say that alot of them are from my church but I also have sisters that I have worked with in the past and they mean just as much to me also.  I also have sisters from other churches and if I think about it I really don't know how many sisters I have.  (Guess I should share this with my mom, huh, but she will read this I know)  So if you happen to be reading this and you are my sister in Christ..... I LOVE YOU!  If you are my brother in Christ .  I love you too!  If you are not sure if you have this relationship with me .... first I have to ask Do you believe in Jesus, that he lived, he died, he rose, he ascended and he is coming back?  Have you asked forgiveness for your sins?  If the answer is yes.....you are my sister in Christ.  If no, please consider making this decision.  Jesus loves you and so do I.  I plan on going to heaven sooner or later and would love to meet you there.  Call me if you need  to or email me or message me on facebook.  Love you all.  That includes my family, friends, brothers and sister in Christ. 

Keep Praying and Keep Looking Up!

I didn't get chemo yesterday.  My platelet count is a little low and they left it up to me.  So, Maggie had a band concert last night that I wanted to go to and then we are headed to the State Fair on Friday to see Skillet.  So no chemo means I will feel better for all this activity and I will still get chemo next week.  The extra time gives my platelets time to climb back up.  (Pray for that).

Once again, Love you All

Tammy

I am only Me!

Hey everyone reading this, I feel a little like Stephen King when he would start his books by addressing his faithful readers.  Yes, I was a King fan in my teens and into my 20's.  I read every book of his I could get my hands on.  In fact I still have a lot of those in hard back because once I started making some money I definitely couldn't wait for a paperback to come out.  My how times have changed.  I don't know when I last read a Stephen King book.  The closest I have come to horror or even fiction in a while was a couple of years ago when I started the Twilight series.  That series came to an end though when God convicted me of reading all these other books from cover to cover but never reading His book from cover to cover.  So I stopped in the midst of all the Twilight craze to read the Bible thru.  I bought a ninety day Bible and read it in 90 days and never read another Twilight book.  Yay God!  (Don't know where all that came from but as my daughter says....I am random anyway - random thoughts at random times even though I started a post that wasn't gonna contain the above.)

So what was I gonna say.....I am only Me!  I can't answer for anyone else but me.  I live my life, make my mistakes, ask for forgiveness and in the end I am only accountable for me especially if the others that are doing wrong ....do so and they know better.  I can't make that right, I can't say I am sorry, I won't answer to God for them....they will answer for them self.  Being me and being accountable for me is tough enough.  So I will be Me and only me.  A distinctly different person with different thoughts and different reactions.  If you look at the skies in the fall you see lots of BEAUTIFUL clouds but they are all different.  That is how we all are ......different.  Thank you God for making me that way.  Thank You for Making Me ...Me.  Don't judge me by the actions of anyone else but of my own.  I am Me!

So what is this ME.....  I am a sinner saved by grace, given mercy by the Father, shown love by the Son and filled by the Spirit.  I am no better than anyone else on this planet.  I just know God loves me and He cares for my every need.  I am striving daily to know Him better and to one day be like His Son.  I have a long way to go but it's o.k because He's Still Working On Me! 

Speaking of God working ....please pray that He keeps on working in the lives of some special people. 
Charles Humphries is having his leg amputated tomorrow to remove the cancer in his knee.  He will be taking chemo after that point to rid himself of the cancer in his lungs.

Peggy Bowers- still at Chapel Hill in stable condition

...there are other special requests that God knows all about.  Please remember your pastor if you go to church somewhere.  They have needs too and need to be uplifted.  Some of these are physical needs, some spiritual and maybe some even financial.  God knows them all and He will help.  We think of our pastors as being strong and so close to God that they might not need prayer but guess what. ... they are human too.  Their struggle is tougher than ours because they hear all the hurts and pains of all their members.  Add to that the battle with Satan that they face and it can be too much to bear but Our
God is bigger, Our God is Stronger, Our God is higher than any other.  Pray for your Pastor and if you don't have one....find one, and if you would like to pray for more than one....add my pastor Billie Lawson and even add my mom's pastor Jimmy Earp to your prayer list.  They both need your prayers. 

Love you all.  Pray my platelet count goes up!  It has been dropping and we are watching it to make sure I can still take chemo each time. 

Keep Praying and Keep Looking Up

Tammy