491 - This Little Light of Mine

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Lord Jesus, It is an early Saturday morning. We have some fun things planned for today and I wanted to get a jump on it. Yesterday was quite busy. To start the day off we showed the house to a couple that is coming back for a second look TODAY at 2pm. That is encouraging! Thank you for that! We are going to see a realtor anyway on Tuesday this week, so this would be great to get it done before we had to do all that - that is believing thinking!!

Then last night we had another birthday party. It was a ton of fun! All of my kids just ran crazy all over this church - along with the other kids too. It was the perfect place for a party! AND Courtney gave me some homemade, world famous fudge for my birthday. This will be my secret stash!!! So today my girls are going to a cheerleading camp in Carmi where they will perform at the end of the week in front of everybody at a ball game. Tucker does the same kind of thing with playing basketball on Tuesday. He is pumped about that! And then tonight my husband planned a neat birthday kind of drive by kind of party for me. He has just called some people to just stop by and say hello, eat fingerfoods, and say happy birthday. He did that all on his own, but did not try to keep it a secret. He and his mom went to Evansville yesterday to get all the supplies and food and came back and cooked, etc. It has already just tickled me to death! Sweetie! And then I am so blessed to be able to speak at 2 churches in town on Sunday on my birthday. I can not think of a better way to start my birthday - speaking the Word!!! Wow, how awesome!

So I have been thinking about something and then the Lord gave me a verse that I received in a birthday card from Becky Clayton!! I love when the Lord does that - confirms a thought with scripture!! Thank you Lord!! Proverbs 13:9 "The light of the righteous shines brightly, but the lamp of the wicked is snuffed out." I am not a put your Christmas tree up and never turn the lights on except night time kind of girl. When I put up my tree the lights stay on all the time. I even most nights leave the lights on throughout the night. It is most beautiful when it is all lit up and so I leave them. And yes, I leave them on even as I go out the door. I would hate for someone to drive by and not be blessed by its beauty just because I am not there or just simply asleep! Now how selfish would that be of me!! I can hear someone now saying, "but what if your house burns down.............." Then it was meant to, I guess!!

But that is what I have been thinking about the last few weeks. In the messages I am preparing about Reflecting His Light or Image - about abolishing the idols in our lives - I have been thinking about how we are never to turn our light off. The verse above can be translated as "The life of one that is honest with others and obeys the law of God shines brightly, but the lamp of those that are morally bad, wicked, wrong - those that are living in sin and plan to continue doing so - will be snuffed out." Wow, I love that!! This Little Light of Mine is to shine all the time - not hidden, not under a bushel tree, no! I gonna let it shine!! And certainly don't let satan sssshhhhoooooo it out - NO! I gonna let it shine!! All the time!!

Lord Jesus - I don't want to be one that shines when it looks pretty - just to stand out in the dark, but have no real purpose otherwise. I don't want to be one that chooses when I will shine or not - I want to always shine for you. I don't want to be one that can turn on and off my light for you!! Lord, I don't want to be selfish about when I shine either. If it is inconvenient to shine in the middle of the night on the phone with someone in crisis - please help me to rise above and still shine! Lord, I don't want to be snuffed out!!! Oh Lord, help me to shine so brightly!! As bright as the 35 candles on my cake!!! yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Carmi house is coming along really well!!! Yeah!!!!!!!! The third floor is having the floors redone on Monday and then that floor will be done except putting in light fixtures, doors, and light switches - kind of stuff. Oh and the bathroom!! So I guess it does have a bit more to do in there - but we could possibly move something in there on Friday week!!! WOW!!!! My friend Patricia surprised me with an early birthday gift. We had gone to a Christmas tree farm - can you believe there is a Christmas tree farm in the middle of farm land. I was amazed too - and I made a comment about loving a particular wreath. They were all fresh and just gorgeous!! Well, we walked outside of aerobics and lo and behold she pulled out that very wreath and said in her not get too excited, stay calm cool and collected way - Happy Birthday!!! Wow - that was a huge shock!!! Oh how i wish I could remember to do things like that for others. So I hung that on my Carmi door so our house would not be the only one without lights or any kind of Christmas attire! I will post a picture of that and more house pictures later. I have no idea if Patricia reads this, but thank you!!! And yes Dad, I will send her a thank you card too!

Last bit - I think there are about 2 weeks left until Christmas. Last i heard the kids say it was like 19 days left and that was a few days ago. Anyway - from now until Christmas all purses are free shipping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is like anywhere from $8-$12 off!!! Come take advantage!! I will post more pictures soon!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!