I made a quick decision last week to go visit my mom this Monday and Tuesday. What I had done was look at my calendar for two days together that didn't have appointments or hindrances so I could go to my mom's. The only days happened to be Monday and Tuesday. I should have put some kind of note here for you, but, in the rush of getting ready to go, I totally forgot my good intention. I'm sorry.

I'm still working on the Bible study on prayer as taught by Jesus. I finished gathering information in the gospels and now I have to put it all together and compare notes.

I've been asking God to show me what He means by "fervent" as in, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." (James 5:6) I hear people praying different ways, using different methods. Certain scriptures are quoted such as, "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." (Matt 21:22) Other times people thank God for the answered prayer before they are sure it will be answered.

As I have spent time praying I have found that, unless God had had laid the issue or the person on my heart in the first place, my prayers felt empty. I didn't feel any power while praying off of a list of prayer requests. Thoughts ran through my head as I prayed for a healing for someone like, Paul and Moses weren't healed of their infirmities. What if God doesn't want to heal this person I'm lifting to Him?

It just seems like I need to find out God's will first before I pray about something in order to be able to pray using the right words and to pray in the most effective way. If I know I am praying in God's will then I feel the fervency in my prayers. Yet, if I am not sure of God's will in a situation, does that mean I should wait until I know it, or I should pray anyway in the way I feel God wants me to pray????

There are so many questions that I have. I know that God isn't keeping how we should pray a secret from us. One thing I do know is that He has given us a lot of information and examples on how we should pray.

So, since God is willing that we be praying fervently then He is willing to teach us how to pray. I'm going to keep asking and keep looking until I get some answers. Stay tuned.

Next week is spring break from school. We might be going away for a few days, so this might not get updated then.

So far, we aren't sure if we will be able to get away. I'm hoping we will.

It is important that we keep open minds and look at everything through spiritual eyes. I have to keep reminding myself that not everything is as it seems. Things that seem impossible are possible with God. Things that seem immoveable are moveable with God.

I don't keep close tabs on political situations in the world. As a matter of fact, I generally don't read much of the newspaper. I do know the general overview of what is taking place in Israel. Can God help Israel overcome their difficulties regardless of what other countries are thinking and doing? Look at how He handled their battles in the Old Testament. One time the battle was over before they ever arrived because God caused such confusion that their enemy fought among their own selves. What man can't... God CAN!

Like I said, it is important that you keep your mind open to the spiritual things. Don't pay any attention to the "laws of nature" or the "laws of physics." Make no assumptions on anything based on what you have learned. God is not limited in what He can do. He is the same God as the God in the Bible who stopped time, stopped a river from flowing, made iron float, parted a sea of water, caused a person to walk on water, and made a universe out of nothing. Be careful that you don't say anything along the lines of, "God can't" or "God won't." If you hear those words coming out of your mouth, stop and examine them.

If you are feeling despair or hopelessness then remind yourself that God has answers and with God there is ALWAYS hope! Keep an open mind. Let's stop placing limitations on God. Let's let Him take over our minds so that we can take part in the miraculous things He might be wanting to do. Let's practice listening to His voice so we can be ready when He speaks. Let's keep an open mind as we never know when He might tell us to speak to the wind, "Peace, be still!" We never know when He might tell us to speak to a mountain and tell it to move. Keep reading your Bible with the fact firmly planted in the forefront of your mind, "God has not changed. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. What He has done in the past, He can do again."

My husband is buying me Microsoft Front Page for my birthday. I am really looking forward to getting it now. I almost had this welcome message done and the program said it had an error. I clicked "OK" and POOF all I had written was gone.

Yep, my birthday is coming fast! Tomorrow I'll be frmty... I'll be shfffty... I'll be frewlty... Gee, why won't that come out? I'm just kidding! It isn't bothering me. I'll be fifty.

I have to tell a funny story on myself. I went shopping and found a nifty bag. It is fabric and folds up to about 12" by 8". When it is opened it has wheels at the bottom, is about 30" tall, and can be pulled along. I had already bought a couple of large, heavy candles and put them in the bag and was pulling them along behind me thinking what a good thing that bag was. My neck and back sometimes have problems when I have to carry something heavy. Then, BOOM, the thought hit me, "This is an old lady style bag with wheels!" Then, WHACK, another thought hit me from the other side, "Just how young do you think you are, Kay????"
(When this happened I was a YOUNG 50.)

Oh my, I just had to laugh at myself! I just don't think about my age very often. I just get up every morning and do what needs to be done. I still do a lot of the things I did ten years or twenty years ago. In my mind I am still the same person. I just don't think much any more about how other people look at me.

So, I just kept right on walking and pulling my nifty bag behind me thinking about what a great product it was. I was imagining all the other places I would be able to use it as well. Old? Nah! Mature? OK!

Isn't it wonderful how God can use us no matter how old we are??? Wait, let me rephrase that.... isn't it wonderful how God can use us no matter how young we are???? There, that's better.

We just changed to daylight savings time Sunday. This has always bugged me. When my children were young it would mess up their schedules. They didn't understand why they had to go to sleep when the sun was still up. They didn't understand why they had to change their schedules to fit the rest of the world. My dogs want me to feed them when I am still working on our dinner.

Once, a long time ago, I wrote to my congressman and complained. I got a standard response that is still the same reasoning today. By changing the clocks we gain an extra hour of sunlight in the evening. This way people can save electricity by not having to turn on their lights until an hour later.

Uh, wait a second.... hold the phone..... something is wrong here!!! Those people that won't have to turn on their lights for an extra hour in the evening.... don't they have to turn on their lights in the morning an hour earlier????

How many times are things done because, at first glance, it seems like a good idea? Too many times they don't take things to their full conclusion.

There is an area where God is being shorted of something He so richly deserves. That area is praise and worship. God is worthy of so much more praise and adoration that He is given.

Let's examine some scriptures that have to do with praise.

"But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel." Ps 22:3

"By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name." Heb 13:15

How about when the praises of Paul and Silas caused an earthquake in Acts chapter 16?

How about when praise singers were sent out in front of the army of Israel in the Old Testament and the battles were won?

Think about it. He desires your praises. Look in the book of Revelation how the angels and others in heaven are praising God. Praise is a much more important and powerful thing than we know. I can't give you any guarantees. I can't tell you specifically what difference it will make, but I know that I know that I know it will make a difference!

I am making a conscious effort to praise God when I get up in the morning and all throughout the day. He is worthy of what I am giving Him and more! I just wish I had more beautiful words to use.

I believe that praise opens up a direct channel between heaven and earth. I believe that, when we are praising Him, God can much better work in and through us. There is much more about praise that we cannot understand. All I know for sure is that when God tells me there isn't enough praise, then there isn't enough praise!

Tomorrow I am going to go spend the day at the beach with my husband in our camper. We are going to go early in the morning so we can get a parking spot overlooking the ocean.

I think we will take firewood and reserve one of their fire pits and just maybe stay all day into the night. I will go prepared to stay a long time and we will just play it by ear. Maybe we will BBQ dinner and maybe I will want to go to a restaurant. All I know is that I want to go somewhere and do something special. What makes this even more special is that it isn't too far away and it is cheap!

Well, I now have Microsoft's Front Page program for creating web pages. Good old Microsoft! If there is a way to be user unfriendly they sure know how to do it! The manual that comes with it is all of 76 pages long. It is a much condensed booklet from a book that a man wrote about how to use the program!

This booklet gives a simple overview of how to create pages but isn't clear on how to adapt an already existing web site over to Front Page. I am going to have to go buy the book!

I already knew Microsoft was way too big for its britches. I've had to contact them over the years for various things. They have a very poor and sometimes non-existent base of customer assistance. I guess they figure that once they get your money for something then they no longer care.

So sad!

We had a nice time at the beach last Wednesday. We parked the camper so we had a good view of the ocean. We were backed up to the bike trail. All day long we watched joggers, walkers, bikers, and skaters. My husband and I rode our bikes and our son skated.

The weather was nice. We had a fire after it got dark. After that we went to dinner at a nice restaurant at the foot of the pier. There was only one unpleasant thing that happened.

My husband had taken off on a long bike ride and my son was asleep. I was sitting at the table in the camper and noticed a young woman (late teens/early 20's) walking by herself off in a direction that led to pretty much nowhere. A young man stopped right outside the open door of our camper and began yelling at the woman. His language was obscene!

This guy is yelling at the woman to come back. She had stopped to listen to him and began walking back toward him. Then she turned and walked away again. He took off after her and stopped her by yanking on her hair. I heard my 18 year-old son's feet hit the floor behind me as he jumped off the bed. I told him to wait to see how the drama outside would play out.

The guy then got the woman in a headlock. She wasn't really putting up much of a struggle and the guy wasn't actually hurting her, other than the yank on the hair. Then, as they got closer to our camper, my son went outside. The guy was still yelling obscenities at the woman. As they got close, my son said, "Hey, chill out, man."

The guy then let go of the woman and began spewing his obscenities at my son. My son just stood his ground and stared at the guy without saying anything else. I was standing outside on the bumper of the camper looking down on the two of them. In my mind I was asking the Lord what I should do and what I should say, if anything. I knew that there was a good possibility that, had the guy begun to beat up my son that I would do the maternal thing and become involved. So, there was the possibility that my husband could come back to find two messed up family members. Oh, that sure doesn't paint a pretty picture, does it?

Anyway, the guy kept his mouth moving. At one point he was mentioning his Los Angeles gang buddies and how my son would be sorry for not minding his own business. The whole time the guy was acting like he was going to beat up my son and my son just silently stood his ground.

The guy then nodded toward a beach patrol car and told my son he was lucky the cops were there to prevent him from beating up on my son. My son gave a wry smile and kind of snorted. Then the guy, afraid to fight, spit in my son's face. "UH OH," I thought. My son still just stood there as the guy walked away dragging his girlfriend by the arm.

My son and I went to the beach patrol and told him about the guy and he went to talk to him and to the woman. The sad thing was the woman chose to keep following the guy.

My son says that it was because I was standing there that he didn't get into a fist fight with the guy. I know that it was more than that. My son had strength that was superhuman. There is no way that, in himself, he could have held himself back when he got spat upon. I don't think that I could keep from grabbing someone who would spit on me.

The whole time that that guy was cursing at my son I noticed the guy was keeping his body back, almost in a posture that would have made it easy for him to run. He was afraid of something. There was something in my son's face and eyes that was making that guy very uneasy. He wasn't just holding back because the beach patrol was visible. He felt or saw something more in my son.

Afterwards I had to laugh. This guy had his "gang" behind him. My son has Almighty God, Himself, as well as the entire host of heaven behind him! No contest!!!

The more I praise God the more the enemy tries to stop me! I have been having all sorts of things happening around here. Every day I find new problems and hindrances. Most are small and fairly insignificant, yet bordering on overwhelming when teamed up with all the other things that are happening!

Sometimes I have to just close out the world and force myself to praise God. If I allowed the things that are happening to take my attention, I wouldn't have any time left for praising God. So, you see, it is a plan on the enemy's part to stop the praising. He must have standing orders to his demonic helpers to stop praise at all costs.

That tells me that there is more to praise than meets the eye! Like I was saying last week, praise is a powerful weapon! I have no idea just how powerful it is, but when I am under attack I know I am on the trail of something BIG!

God is worthy of much more than we give Him. It's time to begin giving God some of what He deserves!

My house is a mess. Last week was spring break from school. When my guys are home I don't have a chance to keep the house clean. Two minutes after I vacuum they have tracked something in from outside. One minute after I wash dishes they are dirtying more dishes.

Yesterday I intended to vacuum the house, but ended up spending the day cleaning out my closet. I had intended to do it a long time ago, so had gotten careless in putting things away. I was thinking that I would be rearranging everything anyway. Well, after a year of careless putting away and never cleaning up.... it was a sad situation.

I had been looking for something and couldn't find it. I have kind of a rule that I made for myself regarding not being able to find something. If I have to look through a pile for a third time I have to clean it up or I am not allowed to look there again. So, there I was, stuck cleaning my closet.

I had to keep at it until it was nearly done because I had made a huge mess in my bedroom. You know, I just realized something. That's why my sinuses were so bad last night. I was messing around with some things that had gotten pretty dusty. When I went to bed I was wheezing and rubbing my poor eyes. I had already maxed out on my sinus medicines so had to wait for it to go away.

I get my best work done around here when everyone is gone. It is nice to clean something and have it stay clean for a while!

Yesterday wasn't all work... I did take a break yesterday and did something that was fun. My mom had sent me some money for my birthday, so I decided to go buy some fun stuff for my front porch.

My front porch isn't really a porch, it is just a concrete sidewalk leading up to the front door. There is a corner where I had put a shelf and a few plants a long time ago. I just decided it was time to make that area a little more inviting looking to anyone that comes to my house. After all, the outside of the house might be more important than the inside since most people don't make it to the inside.

Anyway, I got some silly things and some cute things. I have a living room window that opens to the porch area and I normally leave those shades closed because I had no view and it only served to let people at the door look into that room. Now I will open it every morning with the other shades because I enjoy the view! I guess I will have to take a picture of it so you can see it, won't I? That's where a digital camera would come in handy, huh? I have to do it the slow and hard way.

I didn't save last week's message or Bible study for some reason.

I have a long list of things I need to get done this morning. I'm already partially through it. I've already sprayed the weeds, brought roses in and put them in a vase, trimmed the spent roses and suckers, trimmed my neighbor's vines that are hanging 15' into our yard, washed and hung two loads of laundry, and am thinking about what I need to buy at the grocery store. I still need to cut coupons, shop, and plant four plants.

There are a lot of things that I can't and shouldn't do when the family is home over the weekend. For example, I don't want to spray the weeds just in case they walk on the weed killer while it is still wet. I did that once. I sprayed a whole patch of weeds and walked across them while the weed killer was still wet. I walked across the grass in our front yard. A couple of days later you could see the grass dying where I walked. It is funny now that I am looking back on it. I sure learned something!

Well, while it is still morning I am going to try to get my shopping done. The roads are less traveled and the store is less crowded. I will be back and finish this in the afternoon.

We took our camper off my truck because my son drove the truck to the prom last Saturday. It feels very different. It is a much bouncier ride and I have a lot more get up and go. When I turn left I don't have to go slowly because of the way a quick turn rearranges my kitchen cupboards.

There are a few things I need to do before we put it back on. I want to wash the camper really well. There are places I can't reach when it is on the truck. I also want to buy a bed liner to protect the bed of the truck. I already have to go get the spray on protectant redone because the camper scratched it off. The place we bought the camper from was supposed to tell us to get a bedliner and didn't.

Then, when I get the camper back on I have to take it in for more warranty work. We are having a couple of plumbing problems. I've already been lied to and treated shabbily by the two closest service centers. Now they have a new one that is about an hour and half drive away that I will try.

Have you noticed that it is getting harder and harder to find people that take pride in what they do? Over and over I find where people are doing the bare minimum, hoping it will be good enough. That is symbolic of a sad condition that exists in the world today. Many people have no love for each other. They don't care how their actions might hurt someone else. They only do things that help themselves.

Over the years I have been involved in numerous booster clubs and other volunteer organizations. The great majority of the time the people that give the most are Christians. Non Christians are "too busy" to help. As a matter of fact, many of the people that I know that were involved in organizations I was involved in were also involved in other organizations. There was a shortage of help and Christians felt compassion and stepped in to do what they could.

Imagine what the world would be like if we all cared about the welfare of others as much as our own. That's what God wants us to do. The world would be a beautiful place to live!

Want to know something that God likes to hear? He likes to hear His children reading His Word. He enjoys hearing His Word coming from our mouths! He also wants us get together and study His Word!

I wrote the welcome message on Monday and was not sure what God wanted for the Bible study this week. Instead of changing the welcome message I will leave it and finish this up on Tuesday.