Fall 08

Keith and I took a tour through the mountains of Tennessee and into North Carolina the other weekend. The colors were beautiful! Hope you enjoy the pictures.

The Wedding!

Here is a link to Levi and Britt's wedding web site! You can look at all the photo's! Andy Lee, a dear friend of the family, did all this for them as a gift!!! Wow! Hope you enjoy...as you can see they are very happy~!! http://www.becomingmrandmrssmith.com/index.html
Levi came up with the name ;~)

This is the day the Lord has made...

"This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it!" I have heard, read, sang, and prayed these words often in my 43 years. But today, Tuesday October 14, 2008, these words levitated off the page I was reading and really sank in to my mind and heart. I am reading "Everyday Deserves a Chance" by Max Lucado and he breaks this verse down by every word. "THIS is the day" today, not yesterday or tomorrow or next year or ten years down the road...TODAY...is the day...THE day. Today is not inconsequential, not just a stepping stone to another day. Today is the THE day. And the LORD made today to be THE day. My responsibility? To be GLAD and REJOICE in it! Not to wish away even one minute thinking of the past. Not to wish away even one minute contemplating my plight in the future.

"God still...occupies the universe's only throne. Each day emerges from God's drawing room. Including the hard one's."

I am to be GLAD and REJOICE in the gift of TODAY! Let me begin this new habit by listing what I am glad of:

1. Salvation and living relationship with God my Father!


2. Love of my husband and children (4 now!)


3. Home


4. Provisions


5. Ability to help others


6. Ability to boldly enter the throne of God with thanksgiving and praise

My only dream in life was to be a Mommy...as children grow we transition to Mothers...that's mature-Mommy's. And that role is quite different from Mommy. Both are equally rewarding. I have spent alot of time worrying (a.k.a. not trusting God with my future) about what the next 20 years will be like. He told me today to quit worrying about the next twenty years and start being glad for today and rejoice IN it! I can't be IN today if I am worrying, or pondering, or planning, or fretting over, or considering, my tomorrows.

This train of thought brings to mind Casting Crowns song "Slow Fade". I didn't realize that I was missing out on my today's because the change was gradual...a slow fade...to the point where reading this verse was a wake up call. I want to write this quote from the book...

A brand-spanking-new, unsoiled, untouched, uncharted, and unused day! A gifft
of twenty-four unlived, unexplored hours. And if you can stack one good day
on another and another, you will link together a good life. But here's what you
need to keep in mind.

You no longer have yesterday...The monthly calendar reads left to right, not
right to left. you no longer have yesterday.

You do not yet have tomorrow...You can't spend tomorrow's money, celebrate
tomorrow's achievements, or reslove tomorrow's riddles. You have only today.
THIS is the day the Lord has made.

Live in it. You must be present to win. Don't heavy today with yesterday's regrets or acidize it with tomorrow's troubles.

Guilt presses on one side. Dread drags the other. No wonder we weary so. We sabotage our day, wiring it for disaster, lugging along yesterday's troubles, downloading tomorrow's struggles. Remorse over the past, anxiety over the future. We aren't giving the day a chance.

Jesus' design for a good day makes such sense. His grace erases guilt. His oversight removes fear. His direction removes confusion.