Wow!  I can’t believe we’ve been back from the beach for almost 2 weeks and I haven’t blogged once!  For those of you who care what I have to say - please forgive me!  Goodness knows, I have plenty of tidbits to share!

There has just been so much going on.  My oldest son is turning 16 this month and has begun to drive.  I am living one of “Mom’s Worst Fears”!  [Said in an echoing, haunting voice!]  Following at a close second is the college discussion.  You want them to pursue their dreams and to be successful, but he has even considered colleges on the West Coast!  I guess that cross-country trip we’ve dreamed of may include dorm room supplies!

To my dismay, it is also time to register my youngest in Kindergarten.  What is up with Moms that look forward to this?  You never get this kind of time back!  You may stay close to your children, but as they grow older, the types of moments you share change!  There will never be another time in your life when you are the center of their world!

On the church front:  our little church has become a distributor for the ‘Angel Food Ministries’ and our first go around went pretty well.  People that wouldn’t normally have much food to eat are eating well and lives have been touched!  Praise God!

The trip?  Glad you asked.  The whole family enjoyed the trip very much.  Although I don’t think ‘Troubles’ the cat will ever recover from the attention of a 4-year old!  We spent some serious quality time with my brother and his super-duper girlfriend.  They took us sightseeing and we got in some beach time.  It was only in the 50’s, but Jordan managed to tolerate it anyway!  What a treat it was for us all and we really needed the break!

Speaking of age, I want to share something with you today.  Evidently this fella by the name of ‘Gordie Miller’ is vigorously celebrating his 100th birthday.  In the report, they mentioned that he and his wife had been married 63 years.  Do you realized that would have made him 37 when he found the ‘love of his life’?  I was just thinking the other day that best-case scenario; I would only live to see a successful marriage of 40-some years!  Never a 50.  Never a 60.  Now I know there is hope – it can happen!

Well, all things and all topics aside, I have been learning and changing quite a bit.  My priorities have been reorganized and I feel so much better about myself, my circumstances and my life overall!

For now I’ll leave you with this:

14 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?

15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,

16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?

17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

18 But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.

20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?

22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;

23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS,” and he was called the friend of God.

24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

25 In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
[James 2:14-26]