NEW LIGHT

OK already!
I'm really behind on this blogging thing! Where do you find the time?
I must be more organized!!!!!!!!

Well here goes! I must share about my Bible study. I've joined this new Bible Study with a few women in my church. It is a Beth Moore study. I've never done one of her studies before. WOW! is all I can say. Through this study the Holy Spirit has spoken to me so vividly! I really wasn't so keen at first on the topic of choice. It seemed that everywhere I turned that God wanted me to be "fruitful". Every time I spoke of having a Bible study with friends, the Fruit of the Spirit kept comming up. So being the ever obedient (not) child that I am, I finally conceded that God was directing me to be fruitful.

The first week was a little background on Paul, so as to set the stage for the fruit of the spirit. The second week was about the Holy Spirit. I thought I knew so much about the Holy Spirit already, that this would certainly be a "review" for me. God, of course, taught me a few things!

I like to journal my thoughts, as I do my Bible Study during my lunch hour at work. So here is an excerpt from my journal during that week of "review": God is so good!!!!!

Sept 23, 2008
WOW! What a revelation I just received from God's word. Studying about the Trinity; A concept I struggle with but have always accepted. But I'm learning how to apply this to my daily life and it makes so much sense now.
God the Father has a will for my life; God the Son, Jesus shows me this through the written work(Bible); and God the Holy spirit empowers me to obey.

We must study the Work to know what God's will and plan is for our life. As we do, the HOly Spirit will give us all we need to know, understand and be obedient to His will.

WOW! Why haven't I gotten this so simple principle before? God I am so sorry for making this complicated.

My prayer lately has been that KEn and I would be sensitive and obedient to what God's will is through this transition. For those who don't know, Ken, my husband, was laid off his job 2 weeks ago now)
I am not sure how I thought we could be obedient to a will that we have been unwilling to find out what is.
We must seek HIs will and the only way to do that is to receive that from the Word, Jesus, The Bible.
Once we know what direction God wants us to go, the Holy Spirit will empower us to go there. He will not send anything our way without empowering us to get through it. But only whe we seek His will can He empower us to do it.
God, You are so good! ^Thank you for a plan and the ability to know that plan and especially thank you for the power to fulfill it as you wish!

See waht I mean... even when we think we know something, God can still give us a new light to see it with!
I hope I canm be more diligent about blogging. Sorry this post was so long.

Bye Bye for now

JoAnn

New Beginnings Part 1

I've decided that life IS about new beginnings all the time! The last few weeks have definitely been for me and my family! August 21, after much prayer and celebration my husband and I began a trek toward Orlando Florida with our 19 year old daughter Heather. After a disastrous first year of college at The University of South Carolina - Lancaster, we came to realize that( as much as we wanted her to go to college) she was not cut out for it. It was almost like a death... to us... but to her it was freedom!

Without our knowledge she had applied to Walt Disney World's Career Start program. (You know the old saying; "It's easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission") She told us about 2 weeks after she had applied. She also wanted to audition as a dancer for them. Seeing the excitement that we had not seen in her eyes through awhole year of college, how could we deny her this opportunity!

To make a long story short, she was accepted into the program and received 3 call backs from her auditions. We needles to say beamed with pride for what she had just accomplished. A little history on Heather, she has ADD, which has prevented her in excelling in anything that required sitting in a classroom. She has danced for 15 years and that is where her heart has always been!

So we took her on that Saturday morning... Spent Sunday at her Dad's favorite place in this word... Checked her into the Disney Career Start program on Monday.Those were the fastest 3 days of my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leaving her there was one of the hardest things I had ever done. She looked at me and said "Mommy (yes, she still calls me Mommy), please don't cry! I won't be able to do this if you cry" So like a good Mommy, I held my tears back and waited till she was out of sight before I let them roll. I kissed and hugged her and told her how proud I was of her. I watched her kiss and hug her Dad(whom she is super close to) and really fought the tears knowing that we were about to leave our first born 10 hours away from us.

Emptying the Nest!

This is Ken and I at Disney when we left our first "baby" there to make her dreams come true!

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Hey