Gratitude through Pain!

Trade your expectations for appreciation, and your whole world will change in an instant!

 

Choosing gratitude through pain. Wow something that for me is very hard to do especially if I can't see where God is going with His plan. There was a song that I heard not to long ago that said "God will never waist our pain, he will bring beauty out of our brokenness,, we never walk through trials in vain" what an amazing promise we are given! I am so thankful that I have a Father up in Heaven who has a wonderful plan in store for my life!

 

Even though sometimes during our walk through life it seems he has given us these circumstances and just walked away and left us to deal with the outcome. Not so, the Bible tells us he will never leave us nor forsake us! What precious promises!

 

Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he [it is] that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. ~Deuteronomy 31:6

 

I have been reading the book Choosing Gratitude by Nancy Leigh DeMoss it is such an inspiring book and she gives many accounts of people who have been very grateful in some very horrific situations. I was in awe and very humbled by the fact that a lady with leprosy that had many limbs missing would happily suggest to sing the song "Count your Many Blessings" to us in our privileged society we would ask " what does she have to be thankful for? But yet in her state of need she was thankful to God for what she did have no matter how little that might have been. Oh what we could learn from the less privileged of the world.

 

Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse (uncooperative) in his ways, though he be rich. ~Proverbs 28:6

 

In the book Nancy challenged her readers to have a notebook that every day you write down 5 blessings God has given you, and I now extend that challenge to you! God is good and has given us here in America many blessings. And no matter what you may be going through, even though you may not always see the outcome on this earth. God is working His masterpiece through your story, and He will NEVER waist your pain! A comforting thought!

 

May God Bless you as you continue to serve Him wherever you are planted! Make an effort to see the good in everything this week! Until Next time! ~Rose Mary

 

 

 

Integrity

I posted it to Facebook as well, sorry to those of my readers who also follow me on Facebook but I thought I could share it here as well because it really is a thought that struck me very deeply!!

Warning:this is a long post! And I have in no means accomplished all that is written below, but it is what came up in my thought process while doing my devotions and I was compelled to share it with you! Enjoy!

Integrity:
Having high moral character; honesty; to be complete, solid, without blemish.

[Having high moral character]
Knowing what right and wrong is, and even if your boss is not there ,you do the job as if they were watching you.

Proverbs 19:1 KJV
Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool.

[Honesty]
Proverbs 12:22 KJV
Lying lips are abomination to the Lord : but they that deal truly are his delight.

[To be complete]
To have the Lord as your personal saviour and have given your life surrendered to him fully is what makes a body complete.

John 6:40 KJV
And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

[Solid]
To be completely grounded in the solid rock (Jesus Christ)! And this is accomplished by reading his word and having a personal relationship with him!

Psalm 119:105 KJV
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

[Without Blemish]
This can only be accomplished by having Jesus blood  wash away our sins and make us white as snow.

Isaiah 1:18 KJV
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord : though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

1 John 1:7 KJV
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

June Update :)

Life is an amazing journey, it is all in the attitude and outlook on life that makes it gloomy or bright! 

We have been very busy at work lately with many new clients and 3 new workers! Which is amazing because that means business is booming! I love what I do and the people I work with! We can all be a bit crazy at times but crazy is good and makes for some really fun memorable times!

We finally got new dog kennels and got the concrete poured and the dog barn moved! I painted the inside and outside of the barn and that was a major improvement! The dogs love their new homes and I think it is the best set up so far!

Dorothy and I have been hanging out quite a bit lately especially since she is leavin for
I-go in August and will be gone till Dec. I am really gonna miss having her around.About two weeks ago we went to Hershey and acted like total tourists it was so much fun. We went to the Hershey Story museum and then got coffee and then went to Choclate World and did all the fun things there. It was so great to just hang out with her again!

Then we were together again today. I worked in the morning then around 4 she came over and we went out to eat with my family and then just hung around home and looked at photo albums and she met my dogs :) and we just chattere! It was a very good day!

Well I hope you all have an amazing monthe of July! Have a safe 4th and hopefully by the next time you hear from me Kelsey will have had  her puppies ;)!! Until next time!
~Rose Mary

Accidents and Changes

 

 

 



Life is full of some unexpected twists and turns. May 6-13 I spent my time in Virginia. I jumped between Ruth Ann's house and Mountain View. The first weekend Fri. Sat. I was at Mountain View we had something they call Former's weekend where all of us former staff that had left Mountain View in the last year come back and do all the mulching around the home. It was a lot of fun and we got a lot of work done!! Sat. night was a farewell it seems hard to believe that by the end of the year most of the people I served with will be gone.

After the farewell I headed down to Ruth Ann's house. I got there around 12 and we sat on the couch and talked until 2. The next morning we went to church then we spent the afternoon and evening at Tyler's parent's house. I was at their house Mon,Tues, and most of Wed. We picked strawberries and then cut them up, mashed them, and made them into jam. We then canned them. We baked a cake and they got a new cat :), and we shopped.

On Wednesday afternoon I headed back to Mountain View because there was a graduation of some of the nursing students. On my way down I was about half an hour from Mountain View and I had an accident. I was coming down a pretty steep hill towards a light ,the light had just turned green and so people were just starting to move, and the lady in front of the person that I hit stop very suddenly with no apparent reason. I saw the lady stopping and I slammed on my brakes and I was pretty sure I was going to be able to stop on time but then I felt my tires lose grip from the wet roads ,so I slid right into her. I sat there in shock for a bit. I got out of the vehicle to talk to her and I saw that my vehicle was losing a lot of fluid. It lost all its transmission fluid and antifreeze fluid. So it obviously wasn't drivable anymore so I drove it to the side of the road and called Tyler. I was only about hour and a half from their house. So the cop said that he would watch the vehicle until they came to pick it up. One of the girls from Mountain View was in town so she picked me up and took me back to Mountain View. Tyler and Ruth Ann came and got the Tahoe which was so nice. It's going to take more parts than any of us thought it would but I think it will be worth fixing. The cop wrote the accident up as neither of our faults because he said it was circumstantial and there's no way I could have avoided hitting her so that was really nice.

Thurs. I spent my morning at the pinning  part of the graduation. I was going to stay for the grad but I was sore from my accident so it was hard for me to sit so I went back to Mountain View. And when I got back one of the girls and I went running/dancing in the rain :) (you should try it sometime it brings the little person out of you)!!

Friday one of the ladies that lives in Aroda was going down to Liberty University which is 20min. from Ruth Ann's house, so she took me along and I got back there at 9. We bought plants and planned where we were going to plant them. We chatted and bought coffee :). On Saturday we planted the plants in their front flowerbed :) we planted all the bulbs and seeds and put sticks where each thing was planted (by the time we were done it looked like all we had planted was a bunch of sticks). After 4 hours of planting we took lunch to Tyler and ate our lunch in the woods.

Mary Rose came down on Sat night because she came down to take me home :) (I have some amazing cousins in case you wondered). On sun we went to church then after lunch we chatted for awhile then it was time to head home again. It made me sad to leave I loved hanging out with my sister for a week.

On Monday, May 16 I started my first outside-of-the-home-not-a-mission job!! I work for Mahalo Cleaning and Services owned by Christy Madara!! I love what I do. My boss is amazing and the work is very active so I like that!! We clean 2-3 houses a day and some commercial work. I work 4-5 days a week!

Well I hope you all have a safe Memorial Day and weekend! Have a blessed day!
~Rose Mary

April Showers....bring May flowers

May!!

Come and walk with me, I shall tell you the story of my life the past few months! Last week I babysat the cutest little boy, he is four years old and has a lot of energy, loves to read Winnie the Pooh stories, pet the dogs, and help sweep the floors and sort laundry. I had so much fun with him.

Last week we also peeled all the wallpaper off my bedroom walls. It took a lot longer than we thought it would because apparently it was pretty new stuff and was glued fast very well yet! But after much sweat, yes, even blood, and prayers it finally came off (and much fabric softener :). The next day we painted it a beautiful yellow/white! I love it and thanks to my aunt and cousin for helping!

Over the weekend we went to our very close friends house. They are twins and have been family friends close to 20 years (yes, I was very tiny when we met them). We went up Saturday night and  went out for pizza and many laughs. We went back to their house and just sat down and talked until 12:00am. The next morning we woke up to the smell of bacon cooking. We ate breakfast and then went to their church. Oh it was so good to see their fellow worshippers. Everyone was so welcoming it felt like we were coming home! We went back to their house and they made us lunch of grilled chicken and pork, potato wedges, carrots, and baked beans (trust me they know how to cook). We then sat and talked until supper (some slept :) mom and I made hoagies for supper we ate and then we washed dishes and then pried ourselves away and headed home! What a good weekend!

This week is turning out to be quite a busy week. Mom and I are working at a place that dips strawberries in chocolate (Sherri's Berries) and arranges them to sell over Mother's Day. We sorted strawberries all day ( we are only working there for the week). Tomorrow though I am taking Duke and Kelsey to the vet. Then this weekend, Lord Willing, I will be heading to Virginia again!!

May the Lord Bless you this week! Until Next Time ~ Rose Mary

Leaving Mountain View

So much change. The Lord will provide all that I need in order to go through the next few days and weeks. I am thankful that he walks the path of life with me because I would feel more lost than I already do.  "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might."

The past month has been a very busy month. Getting prepared to leave emotionally and physically is very draining on a person. I went out with a lot of the girls before I left, it was so much fun to get to know some of them better and strengthen relationships with others!! I soaked in the volleyball and practicing songs for chorus, and just being around people!

On March 11 we went on a Dorm Day Off and we decided to go to Colonial Williamsburg!! Oh that was just my forte. History lots of history!! Just my style. Lots of old houses with lots of original furniture. We went through one house that 3 people lived in and they had 15 slaves WOW. They treated them fine but they had to clean 101 panes of windows a day. Kat (who helped me in housekeeping at MV) Kat and I looked at each other and said we don't have much to complain about at Mountain View we have it way easier than they did. We spent all day there and toured everything. On the way home we stopped and had a picnic first!!

                                                    (Kat, Me, Rachel, Mary Beth, Megan)

One day several of the people got a brainstorm to go to Lancaster for a day off. We all were into it because it would only be around $20 for all of us to go. There was about 15 of us. We left Tuesday evening and drove to Floyd's house and then Bethany came and picked some of us up and we stayed at her house. The next morning we ate breakfast at Floyd's house and then headed over to Sight and Sound to watch Samson. It was amazing!! We then went to Kitchen Kettle for ice cream. Then we went to a school to play volleyball for a couple of hours then we headed to Dienner's for supper. Then we headed back to Mountain View.

Planning the Last Day Off was very interesting. It took us two hours to figure it all out but we finally did and we ended up going pontooning on Smith Mountain Lake. It was so much fun!! A bit cold at first ,but the cold eventually gave way to glorious sunshine. We laughed, talked, ate ,and had fun in general. We stayed on the lake until about 4 in the afternoon then we headed to Wood Grill Buffet and 15 more people from Mountain View joined us.

I then went to Ruth Ann's house for two days and we hung out and talked. We went shopping the one day and it felt so good to hang out with her again! We also cleaned her house and baked a few things. We also took lots of pictures!!

My last week at Mountain View was great! I hung out with friends and we went shopping for the farewell we went to Kroger to buy flowers we had to go to 2 Krogers before we had enough. We had many laughs and had a good time. Setting up for the farewell went amazingly fast and everybody were so helpful. The farewell itself was a lot harder than I thought it would be and of course I cried. After the farewell we girls opened gifts and the girls gave us some amazing things I felt so blessed. Sunday we left and had to say goodbye to everyone :( it was so sad and I haven't cried that hard in a very long time. But being home has not been as hard as I thought.....

I have been keeping busy with cleaning up the dog kennel and my room. I had to go through all my stuff at the house because when we moved I never moved into my room or went through any of my stuff. After I went through all that, then I moved the stuff that I had at MV into my room. Then I went through the gifts I got and put all of that away. I then decorated my room!! I went job hunting today and found out the place I thought I was going to work decided they weren't hiring. Well God will provide a job.

May God Bless you as you go through this week!! Later, Rose Mary