Amazing ...

I have really great friends! Even long lost, haven't spoken to in years, friends! Amazing ... 

I needed some "girl help" this morning and I texted (who I thought was) a relative to come help me. 

"Hey, it's Sandy ~ can you meet me in a few to look @ a car for Tori? I don't know anything about cars and I need some "girl help" please!" 

He responded "Ok, yeah I can, but do you know who you're talking to?"

I texted back "Yes, Phillip, I do! I'm not totally crazy yet! LOL! Can you meet me?" 

Soon I hear the ding of a response "I'm going to jump in the shower and I'll be right there ~ but you know how far away I live so it will take a few minutes to get there." 

"THANK YOU!!! That's fine ~ I'll see you in a few!" was my reply. 

About 35 mins later, I was waiting on my help~ the person I thought  was meeting me.

In pulls a truck driven by a long lost (ghost of the past) friend that I had not seen in literally TWO years, or more. His daughter and my daughter used to play soccer together in the early middle school days. 

I said "Hey, what are you doing here? Small world! Are you selling this car?" 

He looked at me and laughed, "No, you texted me to meet you here bc you needed help." 

"NO I DID NOT (I said laughing) ... I texted Phillip H.to meet me here. I haven't seen you in years! How are you & the kids!" 

He grinned and showed me his phone ... and, YES, I had texted him! It was right there on the screen!

I turned about every color red imaginable and starting giggling like a school girl! I had tears streaming down my face! He was howling too! I gave him a hug, admitted my error, and said, "Well, since you're here ... I could use some help!" He said, "that's why I came ... "  

Apparently I had crossed up the phone numbers, or linked them or something ... but, OUT OF THE KINDNESS OF HIS HEART, at 9:00am on a Sunday morning, this sweet man responded to my text for "girl help" and drove from nearly Adairsville all the way to nearly Emerson to meet me and look at a car for my daughter!! 

Now, that's what FRIENDS ARE FOR! I have "friends" that I see all the time that wouldn't have been that receptive to a Sunday morning call for help!! LOL!
Nothing like a "good ole' country boy" to be a gentleman no matter what! 

"Sometimes we need to stop analyzing the past, stop planning the future, stop trying to figure out precisely how we feel, stop deciding with our mind what we want our hearts to feel, sometimes we just have to go with…..what ever happens—happens" 

Poverty ~ Discernment ~ Faith ... Me

If I had scripted my life, it would be absolutely nothing like it is today ... I don't think ...
It would be "different" but that doesn't necessarily mean that it would be "better" ~ for example these two things I would have liked to have experienced sooner in life, but, life knew I wasn't ready ...:

• I was almost 30 when I became a "MOM" but now I don't really know what I'd do without my Nellie! She is, and always will be, my greatest accomplishment! 
• I was 40 years old the first time I truly experienced unconditional, complete, sacrificial love for a man. REAL love ~ the kind that you can't control, you don't "pick" it, it picks you! The most humble love, because it equals all that you are and it forgives as easily as it accepts.

July was a month of changes for me. In essence, my "normal"" disappeared! Pretty much everything that was a constant in my day to day world, changed ~ and it changed quickly and completely and irreversibly! Like I've stated before, when the "constant" in your life is removed, you don't have anything to "fall back on" ...

I didn't really "do" anything to prompt these changes in my life, either~but, I didn't have control to stop them. 

I've done some soul searching and I don't have many answers ... lots and lots of questions, very few answers!

However, I do know that nothing is coincidental, nor happens by accident, all things have a reason ~ every action has a reaction and a consequence ~ good or bad.
I can only accept what I can not change, and change what I have the power to change ~ me! 

I've often been told that God has 'gifted' each of us with one, or more, Spiritual Gifts.
We cannot chose the gift; it's who we are.
What we do with the gift ~ how we use it for the call and purpose of our life, is up to us as the recipient.

These 'gifts' could be considered a God given talent, a blessing, an inherited trait, a natural human ability, or something that you have a passion for, a desire to be, to learn ... the key is that unless your gift is used by you, and offered to others with love, it has no worth or value.

I have heard of many different gifts ~ Faith, Help, Encouragement, Hospitality, Wisdom, Intercession,Giving, Evangelism, Celibacy, Healing, Music, Pastoring, Teaching, Writing, Leadership, Mercy ~ just to name a few.  

At the encouragement of a sweet friend, I decided to take a Spiritual Gifts Test Analysis~yes, it is a real test and you take it online! It was surprisingly enlightening and pretty accurate for my life ...

Of all the gifts listed (28 total) my top three (by a landslide) are as follows: 

1. Poverty (voluntary) ~ The special ability God gives to some to purposely live an impoverished lifestyle and renounce material comfort and luxury and adopt a personal lifestyle equivalent to those living at the poverty level (even if they have the means to live at a higher level) as an identifiable example to society that happiness and peace are not found in material possessions. 
2. Discernment / Distinguishing behavior ~ The special ability God gives to some to detect and know with assurance whether certain behavior or teaching is from God, Satan, human error, or human power. The divine enablement to distinguish between truth and error, to discern the spirits, differentiating between good and evil, right and wrong ~ pure motives from impure and are able to sense the presence of evil. 
3. Faith ~ The special conviction God gives to some to be firmly presuaded of God's power and promises to accomplish His will and purpose and to display such a confidence in Him and His word that circumstances and obstacles do not shake that conviction; the attitude of trust to go forward when others would not. 

I am not surprised at these answers ~ All my life I've lived without the need, nor desire, for "the finer things" ~ clothes, fancy car, big house ~ material things just aren't important to me. 

Having those types of things does not make a person "better" than someone without; nor does it make them worse. 

It's all in what is most important in your heart ... to me, that is simple ~ HONESTY is what I value. And, I don't mind being honest with you even if you chose not to be honest with me. 

I can tell when a person isn't sincere and genuine ~ that is why I have no tolerance for "fake" people or those with selfish motives. 

Now, Faith ... that one is my equivalent to HOPE ... and, anyone that knows me, knows that HOPE is how I live ~ it's who I am ~ it's what I do and how I cope with life. 

So, I learned a little about why I am the way I am ... and, possibly, even why I enjoy Jane Austen so much! This IS one of my favorite quotes by her ~ could be why I've been single for almost 12 years! 

"Single Women have a dreadful propensity for being poor—which

is one very strong argument in favor of Matrimony." 

Ready ... Set ... it doesn't matter because you have to GO!

The thing about almost everything in your life changing at one time ... you have no other option but to keep going because you have nothing to "fall back" on! Ready or not ... time doesn't stop ... 


Two of my favorite quotes by Tom Krause ~ 


“Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose.”

“If you don't want it bad enough to risk losing it- you don't want it bad enough.”

Repost from 10-25-2009 ~

Video by Tricia Riley, my "BCSS"

 ~ Breast Cancer Survivor Sister ~ 

"...you can't always "follow" your heart ~ sometimes, you have to lead it..."

I love that line from the movie "Fireproof" because it is so true.

Love shouldn't be a fight or a struggle - but it should always be worth fighting for! My grand-daddy would tell me: "Sandy, if it is easy, anybody can do it...easy isn't necessarily the best. If you aren't willing to work for it, then you don't want it bad enough."
I agree with him ~ and I agree that the farmer will not by the cow if he is getting the milk for free!

I have had days when I've been on top of the world and I've had days when I have felt like the world is on top of me ~ right on my shoulders! Doors haven't just closed, they've actually SLAMMED in my face and trying to force them back open has only proven more painful than the initial shock and hurt. I guess sometimes when a door closes ~ you just need to LOCK IT! LOL!

"One door closes, another one opens" isn't that they way it goes? HHMMM... wonder how long that takes? As I was coming home from Chattanooga today, I was flipping radio channels and stopped because I heard Tim McGraw (I ALWAYS stop for Tim McGraw!) and he was singing "Live Like You Were Dying" which for me, given all that I've been through recently, touched home. Some of the lines are something like..."I loved deeper, I spoke sweeter, and I gave forgiveness that I'd been denying... I became a friend a friend would like to have...Live like tomorrow was a gift and you've got eternity to think about what you did with it..."

I'm not dying, THANK GOD! I'm surviving! It's strange to think about, but I never really knew how to forgive until I knew how to love and I didn't know love until I let go of the "control" on my heart. I was completely bewitched, captivated, mesmerized by another individual ~ I had no control!
Doors close...Time heals…Windows open…
I’ve tried to live my life with as little regret as possible ~ when I have had reason to regret, I find that it is regret for the things I DID NOT do more so than for the things I DID do! I’ve lived 41+ years this way ~ I hope I have 40+ more! LOL!!! I’m not afraid to stand up for what I believe in; go to battle for what I know is true, right, honest; speak my mind or my heart… I’m not afraid to lose but I always, always want to try! Failure isn’t necessarily defeat…just like being couageous isn’t about not having fear!
Living life – Laughing at myself & enjoying the beautiful, loving people around me! Always Loving with an open, free heart without worrying too much about the path I’ve traveled, hurt from the past, or what tomorrow might throw my way, because, truthfully, I would walk back through all the heartache and pains that I’ve experienced over the past 40+ years to get right back to where I am today!
NO REGRETS… LIFE IS GOOD… I AM BLESSED!!!

love my friends~looking out for myaz

To all you single ladies who are in such a hurry to get married, 

here's a quick piece of Biblical advice: 

Ruth patiently waited for her mate Boaz. 

While waiting on YOUR Boaz,don't settle for ANY of his relatives: 

Brokeaz, Drunkaz, Poaz, Lyinaz, Cheatinaz, Dumbaz, Cheapaz, Lockedupaz, 

Lazyaz or Marriedaz and especially his third cousin Beatinyoaz

. 

Please, wait on your Boaz & make sure he respects Yoaz. 

Words of advise given to me by Deana Watson ...

Aries Horoscope today ... I needed it!

Daily Extended for August 12, 2011 (Today)

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Aries

3/21 – 4/19

Overview

When did you lose that famous 'can do' attitude of yours?! Today you need to try to get it back -- so ask friends for encouragement. They will love to let you rely on them right now, especially after all you've done for them. Think positively -- tell yourself 'You can do this!' as many times as it takes -- because, dear beautiful soul, you can! Your abilities have never lessened, but it looks as though your self-confidence has. The good news is, you can get it back today.

We only get one shot ...

"The greatest loss of time is delay and expectation, which depends upon the future.  
We let go the present, which we have in our power, 
and look forward to that which depends upon chance--
and so relinquish a certainty for an uncertainty."
Seneca

Sophomore Year 2011-2012

Tori Turk
8/3/2011
1st Day Sophomore Year
Cass High School