After the Storm

During our travels throughout our lives we will weather many storms. Some we will come through unscathed and going forward with gusto. Other storms will leave us bewildered, confused and hurt. But after every storm there is always a rainbow. God positions the rainbows for us to see his Glory and Love for each and everyone of us. Sometimes, we just can't see the rainbows. There are times when we may have to strain our eyes to be able to see the rainbow and when we do, we generally stand in awe of its splendour. God's love is like that. It is always there for us to see, hold unto and lean on. But because of the storms we go through we often ask, where is He when I need Him the most. He is always as close as your heart, you just have to let go, Believe and Trust in Him.

God will never give you a Storm you can't handle and He will never forsake you, no matter how bad you may think it is. Life is about choosing the journey that God has planned for you and Trusting in Him and Him alone. We tend to mess things up because we think, we know better. I am forever trying to HELP HIM, by sticking my hand onto the stirring spoon in the pot. I have learned in the last two weeks that if I just sit back and leave it all in His encompassing hands, things will turn out just fine.

So when you think that you are unable to handle what is happening in your world, Stop, Listen and Look for the Rainbow. God is right there, ready to show you where your Rainbow is. All you have to do is Listen.

"Blessed are those that hear the word of God and obey it"

Luke 11:28

Until we post again,

Roscoe and I.

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A Special Day

Today is a Special Day. This is the day that my Heavenly Father decided was my time to enter this world. I came here in the wee still hours of the morning. In fact I have been told that there may have been a mix up on the actual time of my arrival. There have been comments that I came into this world a day earlier, which means that maybe yesterday was my Special Day. The only people that would have been able to tell me the truth are no longer in this world. But is it really that important? In years past it was always really important to me to celebrate birthdays; whether it was my parents, sister, or kids. I always liked to TRY to make their days special for them. We would have whatever their favourite meal was for dinner, cake and ice cream. Life was fun. We didn't always have a lot of money but there was always a gift or two for the little ones etc.

Life is not like that now. As we grow older things change and life seems to become complicated. At this time in my life I expected to be relaxed, living in a loving and fulfilling home. Enjoying my grand kids and "trying" to help out my daughters with whatever they needed help in. My life is not like that. There is DRAMA in it that I do not want. Curves have been thrown at me that are right off the "Jerry Springer Show" or any of those other type shows. The things that have happened to me in this last week or so will definitely have a life altering effect on me, my girls, my grandchildren and my closest and dearest friends. We all thought that a particular person was genuine and trustworthy. He has turned out to be a bigamist, a liar, a fraud, a thief and too many other things that I can't even think of right now. He has not only hurt me and mine but he has also hurt people in what I thought was his PAST LIFE. These people are/were still a part of his "CURRENT LIFE" and he has determined or never planned on telling them that he had moved on. He has cleaned out this other lady as well as myself. I pray that God will help him to see all the bad that he has done and the hurt he has caused. When all of this was going on I had little nudges that were not what I was really wanting to pay attention to. I would pray that God would convict this man's heart so that he would decide to be at HOME where he belonged, thinking that where I was, was where home was. God answered the prayers. This man did, I think, get convicted and went home but forgot to tell me that his home was somewhere else. He also forgot to tell me, that there never was a divorce from the other person, when he married me. This poor other lady had no idea as to what all he had been doing for the last 12 years behind her back. I don't know if she will ever be able to trust him again or not. I pray to God that they will be able to get over this and she can and will forgive him. Life is to short to live with this kind of pain. It is difficult to go ahead when somebody has hurt you as bad as this and even more difficult to know whether you could trust another person in a partner-like friendship.

I know and believe that God has a plan for me but right now I have no idea which way my path is going. I am finding it very hard to see the "Lighthouse" in the fog. I am taking each day one at a time and I have a lot of Christian Friends and Family that are standing beside me through these hours of despair. If any of you are reading this, please know that I am so grateful for all of your love and support. I am trying very hard to be on God's radar system so that I am following His path and not mine.

 God Bless You All.

&

Happy 60th Birthday to Me.

Until we post again.

Roscoe and I

Unexpected Turns

In this life of trials, tribulations and joys there are always unexpected turns. Just when you think that you have things figured out and life is going to be just the way you want it to be, other then maybe some minor little changes, something gets thrown at you that makes you put the breaks on full force.

Just such an event has happened to me in this last week. It has left me devastated and unsure as to who I am and what I am suppose to be doing with my life.

I have taken some time to be with my oldest daughter and her family to try to determine if what has happened was my fault or did I walk into this situation with "Rose Coloured Glasses" on. I still have not determined the answer to this but I do know this, in the future, my heart has a great big huge solid brick and mortar wall around it. It is so high, that nobody in my age bracket, will want to take the time to climb the wall or find my heart because it will be to difficult. I know that there are some very good and respectful truck drivers out there but it will be a long time before I will  be trusting any of them. That is all that I am saying regarding this matter. I may at sometime want to blog about this event but right now it hurts to much.

Now on to other things. I am trying to keep my head out the above field by trying to keep busy with creating things for my Etsy Shops. Some new wall hangings will be appearing in the upcoming week as well as some tea cosies, new aprons, hot pads, and oven mitts. These will be on: etsy.com/shop/cranberrycottage52

On my other site there will be new sweaters for the little angels in your life. I am going to be working on some new smocked items as well for:

etsy.com/shop/weebeginnings56

Wee Beginnings will also be undergoing a change in its appearance. So please keep checking to see what is going to happen over there as well.

So until we are ready to post again please keep Roscoe and I in your prayers because we so definitely need them.

TRUST

TRUST

Random House Definition:

1) Unquestioning belief in the integrity, strength, or ability of a person or thing.

 2) Confident expectation.

3) A person or thing that can be relied on.

4) The responsibility of a person in whom confidence or authority is placed.

5) Charge or custody

6) Something committed or entrusted to one's care.

The word "Trust" appears 147 times in the Bible; 134 times in the Old Testament and 13 times in the New Testament. The phrase "Trust in the Lord" appears 10 times in the Bible.

 Are you like so many people today that have trouble with issues of Trust. I will admit here and now that I am one of those people. If I was to tell you the number of times that I have believed and trusted that people were going to do what they say and then didn't, your head would probably spin off your shoulders. So for me, Trust is a very big issue. I can remember one time I was at the hospital waiting to have a test done. My husband was waiting with me when the Anaesthetist came in to see me and introduce himself. I was pretty worried and he thought he could make me feel better by saying "Trust me" I looked up at my husband. He knew what was going through my head. Everything turned out okay but what a flurry of thoughts that went through my head at that moment.

This time last year I was counting down the number of weeks till my wedding day and getting more and more frazzled by the moment. You see my Husband is a long distance company truck driver. His time is not his own. There have been so many times that he has told me that he will be home on such and such a day and then the company he works for, will do what they call a trailer switch. These trailer switches are not usually close to our home and it is usually heading right back across the border away from home. Some of you ladies out there may know exactly what I am talking about if you are married to a truck driver. The first time it happens, you don't think to much about it and you just kind of shake it off. But when it starts to become the norm you begin to wonder if he is requesting it to happen, so he doesn't have to come home. When you have Trust issues like I do, this is very difficult not to believe. As of this morning, when the sun starts to rise it will be 3 weeks since I have seen my husband. Prior to that, it was the whole month of March that he was gone. I was so upset this last week because of so many other things that are happening here, that I really wanted him to come home. So I called his place of employment and talked to his Safety Coordinator. I asked him to please tell Dispatch that my husband had to be home for the weekend. While talking to him I could feel myself starting to well up with tears. All I wanted was for my man to come home. I needed him. I TRUSTED that the Safety Guy would oblige my request. Guess what: He didn't or the Dispatch Office ignored him; one of the two. My husband called late on Friday night and told me he would definitely be home one way or another on Saturday. So I was happy about that and really started to look forward to seeing him for the whole weekend. Saturday morning came and went, afternoon came and went and evening came and went. Not even a phone call to let me know what had happen. Same on Sunday and at noon I couldn't take it anymore so I called his Dispatch to see what had happened. I got told that I couldn't call like this anymore. He (Dispatch) would send him (husband) a message to call Wife. I still haven't heard from him and to be completely honest about it I don't even know if the message was sent. This does not help to fix TRUST issues. 

You can look at this story from all different angles and believe me I can dream up some of the best but I have to choose not to go down those nightmarish paths. I have been turning more and more to my Bible for consolation and searching for answers. There are times when I wonder if I was even suppose to marry this man. But I keep getting directed to follow God's words and just be calm and pray. In my heart I know that my husband loves me but he likes to make sure that everyone is happy with the job that he does for them. Because of this, I know it isn't intentional, but I get put on the back burner. We are, neither one us "Spring Chickens" and this is a third marriage for both of us. We came together with a lot of baggage and are constantly trying to work through it. But because of the absenteeism and the TRUST issues sometimes it seems futile.

I pray everyday that God will keep him safe out on the highways and byways of his life. That He will bring him home to me safe and sound. That this, is where my husband wants to be. I pray that our financial issues will survive this storm and that I will understand God's direction in all of this. 

Why did I start to write about TRUST? Well when you have trouble TRUSTING and believing the touchable and real things in our lives sometimes it is very difficult to TRUST God with our troubles. Not all so very long ago a very difficult scenario was presented to me.

It goes something like this: 

"Before you TRUST and believe in the world you live in, learn to TRUST and BELIEVE in me, your heavenly FATHER"

All things are possible with GOD in Charge of the PLANNING.

Luke 18: 27 "The Lord said" The things which are impossible with men are possible with GOD"

Matthew 6: 26 " Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"

Matthew 6: 34 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

Until we blog again,

Roscoe and Linda

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The Tea Party Ladies

What a beautiful day it was today for a Tea Party.

Back a few Christmases ago my best friend gave me this wonderful book written by Debbie Macomber called "Knit Together", Discover God's Plan for your Life. Debbie writes in this book about all the things that she feels how God works through us to further His Plan. In one of her chapters she mentions about having a "Gratitude Tea Party". At this Tea Party she expresses her Gratitude to the people that are there, for helping her at different times in her life. She mentions what better way of saying Thanks then to have a Tea Party.

In this last year besides getting married, my life has gone through some very major changes and  hard times and there were some ladies and their families that helped me through them . I wanted to say Thank you to them without being overly flamboyant or demonstrative. What better way then a Tea Party. So today was the day for a Tea Party and I truly believe that God was shining on our Party today. The Sun was shining, my baking all got done on time, the ladies came and the tea was perfect.

There was no real formal agenda to this Tea Party it was only to be a Social Get together. But what transformed out of this gathering is truly a God directed Plan.

We played a couple of games that were rather different then the normal games. They were based on your knowledge of "Tussie Mussies", a Victorian item. One game was a True or False and the other was a Match Game, Flower name to the meaning of the Flower Name. From there we starting chatting about the possibility of getting together like a club. Possibly once every couple of months. As the conversation progressed we started talking about ways to help our Community through some charitable funding ideas. What a great group of ladies and brainstorming ideas from them. We closed our gathering with a Prayer requesting God's Blessing and direction in our endeavors

As our Tea Party Ladies grow and our ideas start to take formation I will Blog about them and keep you all informed.

Until we Blog again,

Linda and Roscoe

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