Two shall become One ~ Remarriage

Whoa, it's Tuesday!
Sorry, my brain is kind of mush right now, Lauren has been sick with a bad cough and fever and that means...little sleep for me!

So instead of sit here and try to write something profound about marriage I found a great link on a subject that I haven't touched on before:

REmarriage

Here is a link to some articles on remarriage. If that is your current circumstance, I hope they are a blessing to you!

Remarriage Posts

I'm praying for our marriages!
Sue

Be A Woman Inspired!

I'm so excited and completely humbled to be a part of the line-up for this conference! I look forward to connecting with lots of new (and familiar) girlfriends!

I'll be on Thursday, March 18th at 9:30 EST.

My speaking topic:
“Never Stop Dancing to the Song in Your Head” ~ Pressing on when giving up sounds easier!

Based on a book Sue’s been working on, she’ll talk about what to do when
life shakes you up. Disappointment, change and pain can sweep into our life at unsuspecting moments and our response is crucial.

This session will discuss the importance of our relationship with God in the midst of our storms and how He walks us through the darkest times. He’s our comfort, our strength, our stability and also the One who helps us forgive when revenge seems much more appropriate.

God has great plans for us ladies, it’s time to start dancing again!

Tickets available today.

A Woman Inspired – Get Revived
March 15-19 2010

This conference is all about giving you a spiritual dose of adrenaline because we all need it sometimes. Maybe you are concerned about your calling or perhaps you are afraid to begin walking toward what God has for you. Maybe your faith has taken a nose dive and you need to be pointed back in the direction of our Lord, Jesus. Or, it could be that you just need someone to tell you that it is okay that you failed but you need to get back up! It happens to all of us.

This event’s speaker line-up is phenomenal. These are some great women of God, humble enough to serve and strong enough to stand up and proclaim His word to all who are in need of hearing it. This conference is for any woman in need of revival in her spirit.

What you can expect for only $12.95:

•Live sessions, entirely online, with some of the Christian community’s most popular speakers and authors.
•Free access to download and save the MP3’s from all the sessions, as well as all the handouts, chat logs, and/or presentations.
•Participation in real-time question and answer sessions with all of your favorite speakers.
•Lots of downloadable swag as well as entries to win some great prizes!
•The opportunity to make some new life-long friends and experience some fun and fellowship.

Here's a list of speakers
Deidra Hughes, Deidra Hughes.com
Mary Snyder, MaryRSnyder.com
Belinda Bullard, Blessed Heritage
Mandy Young, MandyYoung.com with special guest Candace Cameron Bure
Lisa McKay, The Preacher’s Wife
Kelly Minter, KellyMinter.com
Dena Dyer, DenaDyer.com
Shelly Ballestero, Beauty By God
Marsha Harwood, Marsha’s Musings
Kathy Butryn, The Heart Change Place
Lori MacMath, All You Have to Give
Tiffany Stuart, Tea with Tiffany
Kristen Schiffman, Exemplify Online
Sue Cramer, Praise and Coffee
Joy Trachsel, JoyTrachsel.com
Alisa Wagner, Faith Imagined
Lisa Shaw, Lisa Shaw Ministries
Andrea Mitchell, Under Grace and Over Coffee
Leigh Gray, LeighHargisGray.com
Angela Parsley, Refresh My Soul Ministries

Here is a direct link to the SCHEDULE.

Click here to register and follow links to each ministry: A Woman Inspired

Interview ~ Hope Today Magazine

So, I'm playing with my friends on Twitter and I get this note that Hope Today Magazine would like to interview me...whatever!

I was shocked, then excited, then scared!

I get so nervous doing these interviews! I'm just sure that they will ask a question (like, "what is your name?") and instead of coming up with a logical answer (like my name), I will panic and start saying "um, um, um" over and over again and then I will throw up.

Well, I have to tell you, Diana from Hope Today Magazine is about as sweet as a person could be and I really should have sent her flowers and candy for all the kind things she said to me. She gave me a huge compliment at the end of our interview and my response was to make some crazy noise like a cow makes when it's sneezing because a piece of hay just got shoved up it's nose.

Then at the end she asks about my legacy and I basically give my last dying words..."I want my family to know that I love them..." ~sigh~

But the good news is, I didn't throw up. Thank you Dear Lord in heaven, I didn't throw up.

And, I do want to thank them for the interview, that was most kind of them!
In all my correspondence with them, they have been super professional and very encouraging!

So anyways, I told my Facebook friends about it yesterday, but here you go bloggy buddies...if the 9 of you (including my mom and mom-in-law) that read my blog would like to hear this...here's my interview:

Hope Today Magazine ~ Sue Cramer

Two shall become One ~ Marriage is a Verb

Barbara De Angelis:
"Marriage is not a noun; it's a verb. It isn't something you get. It's something you do. It's the way you love your partner every day."

Everyday.
How are you loving your spouse today?

March Praise and Coffee Giveaway ~ Casting Crowns!

This month's praise is:

I'm loving this CD! Picked myself up one from CBD (see link on right) when I bought yours!!

AND....you'll also get some very yummy
"Praise and Coffee" label coffee!!

TO ENTER DRAWING:

~> Post a comment to THIS post.

~> Please make sure that I have a way to contact you-PLEASE!

~> If you have any "Praise and Coffee" buttons on your blog, let me know and you will be entered twice!

Here is a link to all my buttons: Blog Buttons

That's all! And feel free to blog about the giveaway or tell all your Twitter and Facebook friends by clicking on the "share" buttons below! :)

AND, in keeping with the "giveaway" mode...if you're looking for some free inspiration and encouragement, head over to the Internet Cafe' where I am talking about how God opens doors for us that we're not even knocking on!

I'm sharing a little more of my airplane story over there.

When the Message Gets Muddy with My Wounds

I hate it when His message gets muddied in my wounds.

Ever been there?

The raw pain in your heart comes pouring out like a muddy swamp and shows how very little you really do trust His love.

And that's ok. God can take it.

God isn't disappointed or mad, He loves us. He wants us to drag those hurts to Him and unload them. Then fall, once again, into the arms that are always waiting to embrace us.

I was looking at one of my scars the other day. It reminds me of the circumstances and injury that caused the ugly slash on my arm. It doesn't hurt anymore, but I remember the pain that it once was.

It kind of works like that when we let God heal our hurts. The scars are
there, and if reminded we can tell the story of how they were inflicted. But
once healing takes place...even though we remember how bad it hurt, the sting of pain is gone.

For that reason, I love my scars.
They don't hurt anymore, but they remind me of a time when I did hurt. A time when the hurt was so real I was bleeding all over everything in sight. I've learned a few things since then.

1. I will avoid putting my fist through plate-glass windows.
2. I will avoid putting my faith in man instead of God.

Plate glass windows are unforgiving and man is...well...faulty to say the least (myself included).

When we grasp how much He loves us, we heal. Healing has a way of wiping the mud off the message.
Thank You Lord.

What Blessings Have I Missed?

A Guest Post with my girlfriend Denise!

Dee is my partner when it comes to writer's conferences (including late night runs for nachos and guacamole dip- and don't forget about the time we got lost looking for the street that we were ON!), the Praise and Coffee newsletter "Connections" and of course playdates including several cups of coffee and lots of great conversation (pausing only when we hear a loud thump from the playroom to wait for a scream or a giggle).

Click on her logo to visit her wonderful blog about country living with 4 lively boys!

Matthew 4:18-20 Jesus said to them “Come with me”....They didn't ask questions, but simply...followed.” (The Message Bible)

Recently my husband had to go out and plow a lot one snowy Saturday. All four boys were lounging in the living room watching cartoons and being lazy when he asked “Hey, who wants to go for a drive with me?”

Our five year old jumped up. “I will! I will go!” He rushed to pull on his coat (It had helped he had slept in his clothes so he didn't even need to get dressed.), slip on his crocs (which I made him change, really, crocs in the middle of winter?), shoved his blue glasses back onto his face with his palm and grinned up at his Daddy. “I'm all ready to go!” he declared.

Not a single one of the other boys wanted to leave the nice warm house. We were both a little surprised at that, and even more surprised at how fast our five year old had jumped up and gotten ready so quickly. Usually we are trying to hustle him to get him out the door to anywhere.

As he stood in the kitchen, ready to have his Daddy carry him out to the truck, he asked “Where are we going?”

It struck me then, this simple following of his. He fully trusted his Daddy to have only good things planned for him. He had absolutely positively no idea what he was leaving to do or go to but he wanted to be with his Daddy and so he flew to get ready. He dropped it all just to follow Daddy.

Wow.

How often does God ask us to follow Him? Follow Him in Bible study, to reach out to someone...and I don't listen. I would rather stay all comfy in my nice warm rut of life. What have I missed out on because he just gave up asking me since I never wanted to move?

What blessings have I missed?

I got thinking of the disciples. They just dropped it all to follow Christ. And they didn't even know Him! I KNOW my Heavenly Father, and I know He only has good for me, and yet I don't want to follow, stupidly thinking my plans are better than His.

Our little guy trusted his Daddy completely and was ready to follow him wherever he went just to be the one to spend some extra time with him. What I could learn from our little five year old!