"The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I
 will make a helper suitable for him...For this reason a man
 will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and
 they will become one flesh."  Genesis 2:18,24

"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if
 anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the
 sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he
 says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell
 you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have
 received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying,
 if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your
 Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."  Mark 11:22-25

"Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, "Is it
 lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every
 reason?" "Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning
 the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this
 reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to
 his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no
 longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together,
 let man not separate." "Why then," they asked, "did Moses
 command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and
 send her away?" Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce
 your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this
 way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his
 wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another
 woman commits adultery."  Matthew 19:3-9

"Another thing you do: You flood the LORD'S altar with tears.
 You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your
 offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You
 ask, 'Why?' It is because the LORD is acting as the witness
 between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken
 faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your
 marriage covenant. Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh
 and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking
 godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not
 break faith with the wife of your youth. 'I hate divorce,' says
 the LORD God of Israel, 'and I hate a man's covering himself
 with violence as well as with his garment,' says the LORD
 Almighty. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break
 faith."  Malachi 2:13-16
"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and
 gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the
 washing with water through the word, and to present her to
 himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any
 other blemish, but holy and blameless...For this reason a man
 will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and
 the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery—but I
 am talking about Christ and the church."
 Ephesians 5:25-27,31-32

"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.
 Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go
 after the lost sheep until he finds it?  And when he finds it,
 he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he
 calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice
 with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in thee
 same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner
 who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not
 need to repent."  Luke 15:4-7

"Trials and suffering will harden some just like breakable clay, baking in bitterness and resentment. The same circumstances can melt others, teaching them patience and endurance...

The trials have no value or intrinsic meaning in themselves. It's the way we respond to those trials that makes all the difference." (J. E. Tada)

SENATE Bill, No. 2028

 It's called "The Massachusetts Pandemic Response Bill" (S2028).  The fear here is that this will pass the MA house and then become precedent for other states to initiate their own versions.
http://www.mass.gov/legis/bills/senate/186/st02/st02028.htm

Mass. Alert: Bad "Pandemic Bill"

http://www.healthfreedom.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=888&Itemid=1

  Love never gives up.
   Love cares more for others than for self.
   Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
   Love doesn’t strut,
   Doesn’t have a swelled head,
   Doesn’t force itself on others,
   Isn’t always “me first,”
   Doesn’t fly off the handle,
   Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
   Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
   Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
   Puts up with anything,
   Trusts God always,
   Always looks for the best,
   Never looks back,
   But keeps going to the end.

1 Corinithians 13: 4-7

We are starting school on Tuesday. Following the schedule that Charlotte United Christian Academy has. This school is a lovely new merging of Resurrection Christian School and Garr Christian Academy.  We have an exciting and busy new year planned. I just attended open house earlier this evening. It was wonderful meeting all the teachers and some other parents and students. I am excited or the new year.

We have been so busy through the summer that my blogging  has suffered. I started blogging to keep an account of happenings and memories pictures,etc. I am going to find time again to keep an account of thoughts and happenings and such. I have 2 memory cards loaded with a summer full of pictures.
I have spent my summer playing with my children and running A LOT. I am really trying to declutter my home with a vengeance more than ever. I want to keep bare minimum necessities here. God has inspired me with ideas that I have loaded into my spiral bound notebook. Some I have implemented others I am still pondering.
Things have been challenging lately. Living in an older home, things eventually start needing to be replaced. I just wish they would spread themselves out about. Maybe something in my home missed my MEMO!!!
I've  see glimpse of God's love. Knowing that we are strapped for cash and time Two gentlemen brothers in the Lord have volunteered their spare time away from their families to come do repairs for us. The church's Agape fund is helping with parts. Their presence and knowing that they are not charging or asking for anything in return has really had me contemplating AGAPE LOVE  a LOT lately. How God loves me so no because I have merited his love. He just does.
Agape:
divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing, active, volitional, and thoughtful love.

Agape is love which is of and from God, whose very nature is love itself. The Apostle John affirms this in 1 John 4:8: “God is love.” God does not merely love; He is love itself. Everything God does flows from His love. But it is important to remember that God’s love is not a sappy, sentimental love such as we often hear portrayed. God loves because that is His nature and the expression of His being. He loves the unlovable and the unlovely (us!), not because we deserve to be loved, but because it is His nature to do so, and He must be true to His nature and character. God’s love is displayed most clearly at the Cross, where Christ died for the unworthy creatures who were “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1), not because we did anything to deserve it, “but God commends His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). The object of agape love never does anything to merit His love. We are the undeserving recipients upon whom He lavishes that love. His love was demonstrated when He sent His Son into the world to “seek and save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10), and to provide eternal life to those He sought and saved. He paid the ultimate sacrifice for those He loves.

In the same way, we are to love others sacrificially. Jesus gave the parable of the Good Samaritan as an example of sacrifice for the sake of others, even for those who may care nothing at all for us, or even hate us, as the Jews did the Samaritans. Sacrificial love is not based on a feeling, but a determined act of the will, a joyful resolve to put the welfare of others above our own. But this type of love does not come naturally to humans. Because of our fallen nature, we are incapable of producing such a love. If we are to love as God loves, that love—that agape—can only come from its true Source. This is the love which “has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us” when we became His children (Romans 5:5). Because that love is now in our hearts, we can obey Jesus who said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. As I have loved you, you should also love one another” (John 13:34). This new commandment involves loving one another as He loved us sacrificially, even to the point of death. But again, it is clear that only God can generate within us the kind of self-sacrificing love which is the proof that we are His children. “By this we have known the love of God, because He laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers” (1 John 3:16). Because of God’s love toward us, we are now able to love one another.

God reminds me to love my family sacrificially. I have had days where I got tired and wanted to run a way for a little while( Just for a day) because of my job being thankless and feeling of  everyone constantly draining  me even when I am empty. I have had to make a point of arising always before everyone including my husband so I can have a quiet time with God so he can fill me. I am reminded to seek God's love and peace and see and hear only him despite chaos and busyness of this world. I used to crave a Titus 2 Woman for help to learn to be a godly woman. I did not grow up as a Christian and really want a biblical encourager. I have found that God will raise me up one day to be that person whom I've  so desperately needed.

Gal. 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Gal. 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

I am going to be more deliberate and focused in my prayers for my husband. I  must find a strength to pull my family towards God and this is my job and focus.
As for me and my house we WILL serve the Lord!!

I Pray today that Ronnie might become a purposeful man, driven with well thought through and prayed through goals in life.

Php. 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

But my hyper 1 year old won't allow me to sit that long. And when he retires so do I. Maybe I will skip a morning workout whilst he sleeps and catchup?
Blessings,
Angie

Another busy day of preparations for Noah's birthday tomorrow. He wants pizza so I got a few. I picked up his cake. I have been saving his gifts for months now. I hope he likes them. The girl's worked at DT dance camp again today. I did House Blessings.  We are having a hard time convincing Noah that he will be three tomorrow. He is so upset that everyone is insisting that he will have a birthday tomorrow.