A good Monday morning to you all! My heart is bursting with gratitude over some “yes” answers to prayers, and I can’t help but grin from ear to ear!
1. Anna Beth’s surgery went well, and in the midst of the surgery, more heart problems were discovered and repaired! I don’t know the appropriate medical terms, but they found that her heart was pumping blood back into the wrong artery, and doing this at 1 1/2 times the normal blood flow rate. They also found that a portion of her heart that should have been a {in layman’s terms} straight tube, was narrow and curved. However, God used this curved abnormality to actually protect her and slow down that blood that was pumped into the wrong place. So… everything is repaired now, and they did it all through a tiny tube inserted in her thigh! PTL! That makes me smile!
We are so thankful for your prayers. When I put my head on the pillow Friday night, I was very much aware that we had escaped, by God’s timing and grace and plan, what “could have happened.” As Anna Beth’s heart is now healthy, ours are heavy with gratitude!
This is the little girl for whom you prayed. (I’ve shown this video before, but it is SO Anna Beth that I grin every time I watch it… Maybe you will too…
(If you can’t see the video on this post, click here: http://youtu.be/7EeYWBiOavk)
2. Speaking of videos, this one also makes me smile! It’s our little friend/play grandchild singing “I’m in The Lord’s Army” – So precious!
(Click here if you can’t see the video: http://youtu.be/Lba8gZSAb70)
3. It seems that we are finally getting a rhythm down in taping Smelling Coffee Today. We didn’t have any crazy outtakes this time! 😉 The link will be posted sometime today on the church’s website and I’ll share it here as soon as I can. I actually imagined that I was talking to YOU when taping this past week, and I felt much more relaxed. You, my SC friends, always make me smile! I’m so grateful for you and letting me be a part of your life!!!
This is the link to Sunday’s Smelling Coffee Today TV program. Our second one ~ so if you watch it… grace, please. 😉 Smelling Coffee TV April 28, 2013 (You will need to click on “Smelling Coffee Today” – the link at the top of the page.)
4. Your support and encouragement as I serve where God calls me always makes me smile! Thanks to those of you who prayed for me this weekend as I spoke on Saturday. It was a chocolate fondue brunch, and the message was “Life Dipped in Jesus” – one of my favorites to share… my story and life events made sweeter by being immersed in the presence of Jesus.
The yummy treats we usually put out in a fondue buffet are good in themselves… but ordinary. However, when that plain cake or marshmallow or pretzel or sour apple is submerged in chocolate, it becomes a rare delicacy. The same is true for our lives. When ordinary or difficult events occur, if we will run to Jesus and let Him pour Himself over us and fill us, and if we will stay under Him for covering, He will take whatever it is that we face, and will make something sweet from it. Everything. That’s what He promises is Romans 8:28.
We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan. Romans 8:28, VOICE translation.
5. Along the lines of the “Grateful Heart” theme, these words always make me smile~
Isn’t that beautiful? Titles of Hymns that feed our souls. And the good news is that you can download this beautiful printable right here!
One more: This ALWAYS makes me smile!!!!!!!
A blessed Monday and new week to each one of you~ God’s Grace IS Sufficient! For whatever it is that we are facing, or wonder if we will face in this coming week.
But this beautiful treasure is contained in us—cracked pots made of earth and clay—so that the transcendent character of this power will be clearly seen as coming from God and not from us.
We are cracked and chipped from our afflictions on all sides, but we are not crushed by them. We are bewildered at times, but we do not give in to despair.
We are persecuted, but we have not been abandoned. We have been knocked down, but we are not destroyed.
We always carry around in our bodies the reality of the brutal death and suffering of Jesus. As a result, His resurrection life rises and reveals its wondrous power in our bodies as well.
2 Cor. 4:7-10 (from a new translation called The Voice (VOICE)
PS: Before I shut down the computer for the morning, a friend posted this on her wall… and it was TOO GOOD not to share! I’m still smiling!
