Wow! Look At Me!

Christmas was amazing! Family time was the best ever! Grandkids are so fun! Celebrating the birth of my Savior was wonderful!

Wow! Look at me! It's only December 29th and I've already taken the Christmas background off of my blog and put away all the signs of Christmas around my house! I am not sorry to close out 2010! It was a difficult and painful year - a year of change! At one point about half way thru this year, the thought went through my mind "Someday you will look back on this year and say 'That was a good year!'" Well, I'm certainly not THERE yet but, I survived and am now ready to THRIVE in the new year ahead. The one thing I CAN say is "God is faithful"! Even when people and situations are disappointing, He is faithful!

Wow! Look at me! I'm 40 pounds lighter than I was this time last year! Finally, one new years resolution accomplished! That certainly feels good! I learned alot through the process. I learned that I was believing a lie. I actually believed there was no hope and that I could never loose the weight. Now I will never be deceived in that way again. I can do all things through Christ!

Soon I will say "Wow! Look at me! All my stuff in order! My word for the new year is "order". My aim for the new year is to "get my house in order". I intend to clean closets, clean drawers, reorganize file cabinets and pantries, create new photo albums (with all the pictures stacked in photo boxes) and basically put in order every nook and cranny of my life.... at home and office! One project at a time...one cluttered pile at a time. I'm not in a rush, not in a big hurry - but determined. I think I'll start with the smallest projects first and move on to the bigger ones....

I have one more "Wow! Look at me!" but I am saving it for another post! I'll be back soon! I promise!

Happy New Year to all!!

My Treasure

The only thing that is decorated for Christmas is this blog! Behind again! Always behind when it comes to Christmas. I love this season though! Love the shopping. Love trying to figure out the perfect gifts for everyone! But most of all I love the "reason" for the season! Thank you, Sweet Jesus, for all the gifts you give to me...everyday....You are my treasure!

Us With The Granddaughters

Me and My Sweet Mama

My Mom

It's almost Mother's Day. I don't often put into words the love and affection I have for my Mom. When I was growing up - it was just me, my sister and my Mom. She raised us single handed. She was fragile and strong at the same time. Often, while I was drifting off to sleep at night, I would hear her in her own room, crying. That sound broke my heart. I knew she was lonely and at times scared but when morning came, she was again that strong Mom who sheltered and protected us the best she could from everything that life threw at us. We were close. We only had each other. Even though those were hard years - we were together and I am thankful for them. We laughed alot and spent many hours singing together gathered around the organ or traveling down the road while on some sort of road trip! Good times!

My Mom's not perfect. I know she's made plenty of mistakes but she has not wallowed in them. She has just found her way back to the right path and kept moving forward.

Sometimes she says the wrong things at the wrong times. Sometimes she may quietly disapprove of my decisions or my actions. But I know she's proud of me. That's a really good feeling. I've never accomplished any earth shaking feats but Mom thinks I have! I know she brags on me to her friends when I'm not around! I know she is interested in everything I do as if I was single-handedly changing the world!

The older I get, the more I appreciate the sacrifices my Mom made for me and the more I cherish her prayers because I know she prays for me daily. Sometimes I wonder, "when she is gone, who will pray for me?" What a heritage she has given me of faith and courage, of godliness and perserverance! She is my hero and I rise up and call her "blessed"!

Thanks, Mom!

My Heart's In My Throat

My hearts in my throat
Lord, what should I say?
One moment in time
Then he'll walk away
Don't let me miss it
Opportunity lost
My silence - expensive
Too great the cost…….

A poor soul so lost
Stumbling and dazed
Finding his way….
In humanity's maze
I have directions
I could show him the way
If only the words come
Lord, what should I say?

The broken of heart
Lost in their grief
A life full of promise
Cut so brief
Lamenting…weeping
Dreams crushed today
A loved one just died
Lord, what should I say?

Suddenly it comes…
Confident! Bold!
It comes like a fire
Shut up in my bones
It's His words, not mine
I know what to say!
"I have the answer!
I know the way!"

Life words from heaven
Out of me flow
Strumming the heart strings
Touching the soul
Life words from heaven
Not mine, just His…….
I am His mouthpiece
For a time such as this………………

~Dawn Benson
June 20, 2008

Esther 4:14 "And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"

Jury Duty Is Finally Over

Well, it's over. After 5 days in court it is finally finished! This morning we found the lady guilty of theft ($151,000) against a mentally handicaped man, age 58. This afternoon we finished the sentencing part of the trial where we sent her to jail on two different counts for 5 years each and also fined her $10,000. That was a very difficult and emotional thing for me. I was heartbroken for both the victim and the defendant. Call me an old softy but I couldn't help it. Haven't slept much for the last couple of nights... just keep running everything over in my head. I can only pray for her now but I was so sad when they took her away to jail. (Can't get that picture out of my head.)

It is a fearful thing to hold someone's future in your hands...........

I Won!! (Ahhh ...I guess......)

You've gotta be kidding! I never win anything!! But this time I did! I couldn't believe it when they called my name. There were 60 others sitting there with me but it was my name that I heard! I had been sitting there ALL day long. We had answered questions, listened intently, fought to stay awake at times and squirmed in our seats. Finally, it was time for the verdict! They would call 12 names...mine was the first! "Mrs B---, would you please take your seat in the jury box." So I did and that is where I have sat for the past 2 days. It's a criminal case and I will be in that seat for some time to come. Possibly for a couple of weeks. I'm not allowed to talk about the case at all...to anyone... but I will say that it is interesting. I am a bit stressed because I am putting everything else on hold. Next week is our big annual ladies event. There is still much to do and I am being forced to delegate, delegate! That could actually be a good thing.... but it's really tough on me. Well, I'm off to bed cause I am exhausted after a long day in court! :-0

God Ain't Dead

Romans 12:12 –
“Let your hope keep you joyful,
be patient in your troubles,
and pray at all time.”

“Let your hope keep you joyful….”
Is there hope inside of me?
I feel like just a burnt out shell
A pile of charred debris

“Be patient in your troubles….”
You must be kidding me!
Trouble’s been my life, Lord
And trouble’s all I see!

Have you even noticed, God,
The kids are sick again?
The rent is due, the car is broken -
My patience wearing thin.

Is there gold in all my garbage
I’m draggin along behind?
Is there treasure in this trash?
A nugget yet to find?

And of course you have to add
“And pray at all time….”
I’ve tried that, God, and all I’ve got
Is silence for my time.

I know I’m ranting on and on
Drowning in the rain
Can you somehow show me
A purpose in this pain?

I’m knee deep in my troubles
My heart just feels like lead
Then a voice inside me whispers
“Hush child! God ain’t dead!”

He’s always been on time
Tho at times He may seem slow
The righteous aren’t forsaken
Nor the faithful man left low.

So I’ll stop my whining now
I’ll dry my tears instead
And trust that voice inside that says
“Hush Child! God ain’t dead!”

~Dawn

It's Worth It To Give!

I believe in missions!! It is the heartbeat of God! I was moved to tears with the tales of those who, in proclaiming the gospel, give up their very lives to stand for the cause of Christ! We have been in the middle of a Missions Convention. Today was the last service. It was simply awesome! The speaker told of the very first AG missionary to be raised up in Pakistan. Can you imagine, a missionary in Pakistan!! He was willing to put his life on the line to preach Jesus! Well, just this past month he was assassinated for his faith! Out of 1000 people who were at his funeral, 100 men and women came forward to say that they woud take his place! Amazing! Satan thought he could shut the message of this one missionary up but his plan backfired and instead there are now 100 voices to replace this one voice that was silenced!!

This years convention really inspired me to want to do more for missions! Out of every dollar we give, there are, on average, 3 people who will hears the gospel mesage!! It is worth every dollar!

Will we go to hell if we don't give to missions? No, but others will!

New Bethel - A Place of New Beginnings

You’ve walked this road before
You know each rut by heart.
Looking toward the finish line,
Will you make a brand new start?

You began with lofty dreams,
Reaching for the stars.
But now you drift, bruised and broken,
Careful to hide your scars.

Mistakes were made along the way,
Not proud of all you’ve done.
Retreating in the face of war
You dropped your sword to run.

Standing now on this threshold,
Looking back at where you’ve been….
Searching for the grace you need
To just begin again.

“Weary One, lift up your head....
Restless Soul, be still.
A new day is dawning
Just give to me your will.
Behold, I’ll do a new thing
I’ll make your pathway clear.
It will spring forth. Will you not know it?
The starting line is here….”

In this House - His sanctuary,
Oh, refreshing Spirit, rain
A place for “new beginnings”
A place to heal your pain…

Gramma's The Name.....Spoiling's The Game

It was fun having the girls spend the night last week-end! Every toy in the house was scattered in the livingroom for the entire time they were here. We played wth the doll house and all its accessories. We read stories. We colored in the middle of the floor. We molded snakes and balls from Play Doh. We sang and danced and giggled while watching Dora and Hannah Montana. So much fun! And I didn't clean any of the mess up until after they left! (I was never this "chilled" with my own kids!)

First thing Saturday morning after giving them a list of available breakfast foods, I asked them what they wanted to eat. Brylea just wanted cereal (sugarcoated, of course!) but Addie didn't even hesitate to say she wanted RAMEN NOODLES! For real? You're kidding, right? But she wasn't. After trying to coax her in a different direction, I thought, "Oh well, she's at Gramma's. It's only one day. Let Mom handle her nutrition when she gets home!" Ramen Noodles it was! My little three year old monkey ate the whole package all by herself.

Surely for lunch, I can convince them both to eat some "real" food but when lunch came along. Brylea asked for pancakes and Addie again insisted that all she wanted was Ramen Noodles!!!This time I didn't even try to convince either of them differently! After all, they are suppose to LOVE coming to Gramma's! I fixed pancakes and ramen noodles! Again, Addie ate every noodle and Brylea ate about 3-4 pancakes with syrup! They were very happy!!

Before any of you start lecturing me on children's nutrition, let me just say that I know, I know! But Gramma's my name and spoiling's my game!! So fun!

And then I sent them home to Momma!!

It's Gonna Be Great - 2008

It's hard to believe we are already 20 days into the new year! I look forward to this year with great expectancy! My hubby has announced this as the "Year of the Supernatural"! The supernatural is something we don't get unless God "shows up"! Already there have been several things that have happened that are just signs of things to come. There is excitement in the air! What will the months ahead hold? We are going to give Him every opportunity to work that we can. We will believe, pray and expect! "God, give us the gift of faith to believe for the supernatural!" Yep, 2008 - It's gonna be great!


Faith in itself is a miracle!
Can I really believe the unbelievable?
Miracle faith- it's a gift that's free
Simply believing what no man can see
He gives the measure that I need
And tho it's only the size of a mustard seed
Mountains must move and demons must flee
As that tiny seed takes root in me.

~Dawn B.

The Voice of God

The most incredible voice to hear is the voice of God. He doesn't always speak as loud as other voices. Sometimes he whispers and we have to be quiet to hear what he says. At other times He speaks with tones of thunder and can be heard above all the clamor.

At any volume, I want to hear His voice! I believe the secret to hearing is listening! I will listen. In the stillnes, I will listen. In the chaos, I will listen. And because I have tuned my ear to listen, I will hear!

I am ready. Speak Lord, for you servant is listening!

Happy Holiday Chaos

Here it is December 6th and I still don't have my tree up yet! I have worked on getting the church decorated and it looks nice with alot of help from a friend! That is such a relief!

Tomorrow! I WILL get it done tomorrow! I am buying all new decorations this year. I saw this really pretty tree at the Christmas store that is decorated in lime (?) green and a deep red color with gold! It was beautiful ...so guess what my new colors are gonna be?? You guessed it! I am so excited. I looked at Hobby Lobby today to try to find some things in those colors but I couldn't find anything so it looks like I am gonna have to buy the stuff at the Christmas Store. Expensive, but I do have a gift certificate that I got for my birthday that will help $100 worth! Hopefully, I can get this all done tomorrow! Yea, for days off!

This month is insanely busy. Parties, parties, parties. Children's workers party, Pastor/Board party, staff party, WM's party...... We even decided to have an all church progressive dinner this year. Whose bright idea was this anyway?? I thought maybe we would have 30-45 people attend but we already have 85 people and still growing! OMG! Finding homes for this many people and arranging groups and food and everything else is out of control. We will need at least 8 homes and go in groups of 20. Wow! I hope I can get this together! Should be loads of fun and we will all end up back at the church for desserts and gift exchange. Fun times ahead!

Oh yeah and on top of everything else we have a wedding tomorrow night. Had rehearsal this evening.

Everything is hectic and happy with a little holiday stress thrown in! I love Christmas!

Hope every one out there is having a great time planning your holiday! Be blessed and ever thankful for His gift! It's the greatest of all!

Random Thoughts

Here it is nearly 1am. Today was a wild and crazy day and I should be exhausted but instead I am wide awake. The day started by being up and at church for the first service at 8:30 and it didn't stop until just a couple of hours ago. I pulled off a pretty big accomplishment tonight by giving a good friend a surprise (well, sort of) birthday party. Had a group of about 20 people here. It was alot of fun but exhausting.

I really need to go to sleep but I went to bed and laid their for an hour before getting up to blog. Just have too much on my mind. Tomorrow is going to be a stressful day at work and I am dreading it. Alot of "hard" stuff going on that can only be dealt with head on. ugh! hate that!

I wanted to get my Christmas tree up on Friday but instead I spent the afternoon hanging out with my hubby! What a treat!! We went to lunch and then to an early movie. Went to see August Rush! It was awesome and I totally recommend it to everyone!! If you like music at all you will be in awe and it you are sentimental it will bring tears to your eyes! The whole theatre broke out in applause at the end. It's one of the few movies that I think I could watch more than once....even more than twice.

This week I will try to get my tree up and also the tree at the church. Trust me, this is not my favorite thing to do.

Everyone is posting about their favorite memories or traditions of Christmas...Well, I must tell you that you will not want to sign up for OUR yearly tradition! We call it the "Annual Christmas Tree Fight". Mike will have nothing to do with putting the tree up. He leaves it all up to me and I get frustrated and angry from the lack of help or support! It has become the family joke...

One year while having trouble with the lights...I picked up the whole wade of lights that were strung out all over the floor and took them outside and threw them in the dumpster. Then I had to go out and buy all new lights. I always stew around and grumble cause I am not getting any help and it always turns into a big fight. You can mark it down, happens every year!! Maybe this year will be the year that I will accept that it is not my hubby's "cup of tea" and get it done without grumbling! haha! But then again, do I really want to break with tradition???

ABC's of Thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving! If I can’t find something to write about at this time of the year there is something surely wrong! So many blessings! My hubby preached a Thanksgiving message and in it he included his ABC’s of Thanksgiving. I was inspired to come home and write my own ABC’s. So here they are….not as funny as his were but, oh well…. You should try it …it’s a little harder than you would think!! I am thankful for all of you and these things too:

My ABC’s of Thanksgiving:

A - Amber, Addie and air conditioning
B - Brylea, my bed, The Bible and the Blood
C - Chad, my church, the call of God, Chik-fil-a and chocolate
D - Dining out, dollars, my dreams and David and DeLana
E - Energy, education and electricity
F - forgiveness, family, friends, freedom, the future and the favor of God
G - God’s grace, generous gifts and good times
H - Home, health, hugs and Hershey’s
I - independence, income, in-laws and ice cream
J - Jesus, justice and Joetta
K - Krista, kindness and kisses
L – love letters, liberty, laughter and Lisa
M - Marriage, Mike, Mom, movies, memories, missionaries, mentors
N – new clothes and non-fat Starbuck’s drinks
O - old friends, old comfy shoes
P - peace of mind, peace with God, pictures, pizza
Q - quietness, quality of life
R - Redemption, retreats, Rosa’s
S - Shawn, sunshine, sleep, Starbucks, shopping
T - time, tenderness and tears
U – understanding, unborn grandbabies!
V - Volunteers, vacation
W - warmth, worship, willing workers, way of escape!
X - all the X-tra blessings that God gives me every day!!
Y - YOU, yesterday and all the years ahead
Z – zillions of others things I can’t think of right now

Today

Today has been great for a couple of reasons!

• The group my daughter sings with has had their CD picked up by Family Bookstores nationwide and was featured in Family’s latest circular that just came out. They are called Frontline Worship and the name of the CD is “The Combination” . I went today and picked up a couple CD’s! It was so cool. I couldn’t help but tell the cashier that the girl on the front with the red belt was my daughter!! Haha! I know she was duly impressed! The CD is awesome and it is so exciting for them. They have worked so hard! They are going to be featured with a full page ad in the January circular. We are praying, praying, praying that their sales will be good and that Family Bookstores will continue in this partnership!! So go out today and buy your copy!! You will be blessed!
  


• Today is my birthday and I have been incredibly blessed by friends and family! I am so spoiled! My hubby did something amazing and bought me the most beautiful ring! I have never like my birth stone much. It is a topaz. But this ring is simply beautiful! It is a topaz with little chocolate diamonds all around it! Simply gorgeous! The church blessed me yesterday with a gift certificate to have a one hour massage therapy every month for the next year! Wow! That is great!
  
  I am blessed, blessed, blessed!

Trip to San Antonio

We are on a short trip to San Antonio. Chad, Amber and the girls are with us. The weather is absolutely gorgeous! I am still feeling slightly miserable with this throat and head thing but I am trying to not let it keep me down. The guys went to play golf and Amber and I went to a new outdoor mall and wandered around until the girls got tired and ready for a nap. Now I am resting here in the hotel! Wonderful and relaxing!

I was right about the girls singing “Annie” songs! They already know a lot of the lyrics and they went off to their room just now begging to watch Annie while they laid down to rest! Haha! Poor Chad! Maybe someday he will have a little boy and he can pull out the old “Karate Kid” movies that he use to watch repeatedly when he was a kid! He was so taken with Karate Kid that we had to put him in karate classes. It was great until he came home and tried out his kicks on his sister! One time he actually convinced her to hold perfectly still and he would kick as close to her face as he could without touching her. He declared that he “had control” and would not touch her! Well, you can guess what happened…..just one bloody nose and that trust was completely broken! She has never forgiven him for that one!

We’ll be home on Wednesday. Right now, just looking forward to this evening and tomorrow……in this beautiful place!

Oh For A Thousand Tongues To Sing

Well, for the past couple of days I have literally had NO voice. I try to talk but nothing comes out. It is so frustrating and exhausting. Every time I say something I have to repeat it because I can't be heard and that just adds to the frustration!

We had a wedding at our church today. It was an African wedding.....(Very interesting but that is a different story.....) They had praise and worship at this wedding! I did my best to sing but it was completely hopeless! Nothing would come out except little raspy squeaks! So I just listened and thought how glad I am that I am not without voice permanently! (Although, some may find my temporary silence quite nice!) It would be so terrible to never be able to sing again! Singing........

• It is my expression of praise when I am rejoicing!
• It is my expression of gratitude when I am thankful.
• It is my testimony of His faithfulness in my triumphs.
• It is my release from the spirit of heaviness!
• It is my entrance into the Holy of Holies.
• It is my worship and love to a worthy redeemer!
  

When I sing, it is all of this and so much more! Thank you God, for a voice to sing! If I had a thousand tongues - I would use them all to sing praises to you!

Well anyway, here's hoping that my voice will come back soon! I hate to miss singing tomorrow at church!