Some of my projects for Christmas

I really like to cross stitch, and this year I have been really busy with some of my projects. I am not going to give to many details of some of these, because they are for some special people.



I can not remember the person who helped me start cross stitching. And it has taken me several years to get confident enough to not follow a template or a certain design. I took many different ideas for this one, I did use some designs in a magazine for this one.



But the one below, I did that on my own. I really like how it turned out. I like to cross stitch

because I can just sit some where and stitch, talk to people or listen to music. I love to look at a blank piece of muslin and imagine what will take shape from it. Well, that is all I have to show today, I hope you enjoy them. Tanya

Heaven is for Real

Last Friday I went to a friends for fellowship and while I was there one of my friends recommended this book called, "Heaven is for Real" by Todd Burpo. It is not like one of those books that makes Jesus an Indian man and the Father a black women, etc etc. It is a story of a 3 and a half year old that has an appendicitis and while in surgery he visits Heaven. I know, it sounds crazy right, trust me, it is good. And I wonder why we can believe that John goes to Heaven but a three year old can not? Read the book, it is good, I had it read in two days. I have to say honestly that I did doubt this while I read it, but I walked away from the reading really excited about going to Heaven. And most of all wondering who will be there when I get there? Well worth the read. Tanya

Thought Life

Oh, this has been a really long week with my thought life. I have been running some past information in my head, dissecting it and moiling it over. It is about to drive me crazy. I have been reliving my past in terms of my thought life, but I have realized how I need to get some of those bad thoughts and old actions out of my life and hold on to the dear ones. I am not perfect, but that is why God gives up the full Armour of Him. So that we can equip ourselves with it and protect ourselves from the things around us.

I will be honest, this has been a week of baby steps also. I have a habit of jumping into things with both feet and then jumping right back out of it. Making all kinds of excuses and reasons to walk away from it. I do not want to jump into growth with God and then jump back out because I am afraid of change or lack of trust. I have realized that I need to take one step at a time. So, that is what I am doing, I am slowly giving it to God and releasing myself to Him. I pray for change and real fruit in my life. I do not want to go by the numbers or think that I am growing and in reality I am just running on a treadmill. Growth is needed and I do not want to look any where, but up. So, this is why I am covering myself with the Full Armour and going to pray without ceasing. This is the two areas in my life that I have not been diligent in. Please pray, not just for me, but for yourselves. We are to grow and produce fruit. Ask yourself if you are producing and growing. And no matter what, cover yourself with prayer, and protection. This is important: be in the word always and grow and know your savior. Starting now, the thought life is God's, because I am not strapping myself to more burdens. Tanya

Here are some scriptures to ponder on: Ephesians 6:11, James 1:6-8, Isaiah 55:2, 2 Cor. 10:5, Matt. 12:36, Eph. Chapter 4, Gal. 5:22, Heb. 4:12, 2 Cor 5:19, 1 Thess. 1:17 and John 3:16

Great Family Films

Jeff and I have Netflixs with instant play. I really enjoy it. The other night I was on You Tube looking at another Christian film when I ran across this one. I realized that I had this film in my Que on Netflixs. So, I went to watch it. It is about five people with really ruff lives and they get stranded in the middle of no where. But as God would have it, He opens a diner for them. This was such a good movie, the people have such hard questions for Him and yet he answers each one with love and grace. Well worth your time to watch, and for those who have some tough questions and are struggling with faith, excellent movie. Some of the cast consist of Jacki Velasquez, Bruce Marchiano, and Steve "Sting" Borden. If you have seen the "Matthew" movies, you will recognize Bruce Marchiano. Bruce portrays Jesus in the film. Very Good movies, except I would not try to watch "Matthew" in one day, very long film.

Our new little one

This is our little man, is he not precious. This is Jackson Abraham Comstock Gates, He weight 10lbs 6oz and 22 inches long. He is so awesome.





Here is mom, dad and Jackson.

Birthday Bash and learning

Well, yesterday Jeff and I took the kids to Council Bluffs to celebrate Melanie's birthday. It just blows my mind that my baby has turned 14. I just can not believe how fast time is going by. Any ways, we took her to Target, Walmart and Game Stop to shop, she had some money to spend. Then we ate at Sonic, oh their Malts are so good. Afterwards, we all walked across the parking lot to the Salvation Army Thrift Store. Just a wonderful day with my husband and kids. I love the time with them, it is going to be a short time and Luke will be off with his own life and soon his own family. It is amazing to me to see them grow up and move on, and yet a side of me is grateful that they are. It is weird sometimes being a parent. But in the years that I have been a parent, I would never change a thing about it. I have learned through my mistakes and learned something new everyday. I am still learning and soon I will have to learn how to be a parent to children that are married, I told ya, the learning never ends. I am learning right now how to let go of the control, it is time to let God take over. Every minute of the day is learning and letting go. Time marches on and we have to march with it. Tanya

Celebrating a new life

Well, this weekend the family and I took a trip to Des Moines to celebrate the coming of a new life. My Nephew Craig and his gal Alisha are expecting a baby within the next couple of weeks. How exciting to be waiting for the new arrival. It was an interesting day to say the least, it rained off and on all day and was very humid. But we made it and had a good time. There was plenty of food and cake, and after eating we watched the new parents open gifts.

Here is Craig, Alisha and Melanie walking in to the Shower.

Here is Craig and Alisha opening up presents, they are so cute and funny. I think Craig had more fun opening up gifts.

Alisha is suppose to be on bed rest, so she was pretty tired. She was a trooper and she did really good. She has such a wonderful smile and was really cheery. Craig is so funny, he always makes me laugh. He is a good guy. I can not help but think back to when Jeff and I were expecting Luke. The fear, the lack of knowledge, wondering if we were going to be good parents or not. It is really nice to be able to sit back and see new parents go through that and we are able to be there for them.






Here is Luke, Grandpa Ross, Grandma Ross, Brooke and Melanie. Boy all the kids have grown up so fast. Time goes so quickly.

The Kingdom is within me

Good after noon to all, I am floored at how fast this day has gone. And yet I feel so blessed today. It is so beautiful outside, even thought it is so hot, the sun it shinning and it is beautiful. Anyway, I was not going to post this because I have been praying on it, but for some reason I feel a deep need to blog about it, so here it goes.

I am in this Friday night group of women, who are dear to me and I am blessed to be in there group. We have been doing a study on Esther by Beth Moore. I have to be honest, at first I was not sure I wanted to do this study by Beth Moore, but I prayed about it and I am glad I stayed. This study is really touching me. Week four day four really touched me, I recommend you read the book of Esther. Where I will be is Chapter 4, this is where Mordecai just finds out about the decree that the king releases ordering the destruction of the Jews. He goes before the gate of the kingdom dressed in sack clothe and wailing out loud. Esther hears about it and send him clothes and wonders what is going on.

Through the conversation between the gate, Mordecai reminds Esther that she is a Jew and she is in a position to talk to the King. Beth then takes me through a series of scriptures to show me God's truth and how I believe it effects my life. She wants to have me tell a little about the scripture and if I see the scriptures as Figuratively, Spiritually, Literally or Not at all applying to my life. As I am going through each scripture and figuring out how I see it, I come upon one scripture that just floors me. Luke 17:20-21 "And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God come not with observation. Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." I had to read it a couple of times and then I just grabbed my Life Application Bible and I looked it up in the study below. This is what I got from it. The Kingdom of Heaven is not a location on a map, it is within us, through the spirit. I will be there when I die, but until then it is here within me along with the spirit.

This blew my mind, I knew that the spirit is within me from the moment that I excepted Jesus as my savior, but I had no idea the whole kingdom was there. WOW! So of course I marked "Literally" on my scale. But besides sharing this awesome revelation with you, I wanted to tell you one last tidbit of information. This is a quote by Beth Moore, "You have royal blood in a way that even Esther did not. The crimson bloodline of Christ flows through your veins." You have something that Esther did not even get, you have Jesus. She had God and the knowledge that she is Jewish, but we have the everlasting promise of eternal life and the instant forgiveness of sins just by confessing. That is lots to chew on.

God used Esther in mighty ways, and in my same breath I am going to encourage you all the same. God can use you in mighty ways, after all, you are holding two keys within you already, the spirit and the Kingdom of Heaven. How awesome is that? Love Tanya

Follow Jesus on Twitter - or what it would have been like :-)

I

I orginally seen this on my Face book page. I love to tweet and read others comments. But when I sit down to watch this, it really hit me how he stood his ground, even when people unfollowed him. Not that there was Twitter in his time, but how many of us would of un followed him? Interesting question.

A Baloney Sandwich

"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be pare takers of the divine nature." 2 Peter 1:4a

I have been wondering lately where I need to go? What is my purpose, what do I do? I have prayed and lifted it to God "Show me your way oh Lord."

So, today I was at the center and I was going through my training manual when I stumbled upon this in the front of my notebook. It is a story written by Bob Benson called, "A Baloney Sandwich"

Bob starts talking about being invited to a church picnic where everyone brings their own food. The church provides the drinks. He would procrastinate and get home to fine one wrinkled baloney slice, two crusty pieces of bread and a little dab of mustard left.

He makes his sandwich places it in a brown paper bag and heads to the picnic, when he gets there he ends up sitting with the family who made all of this food. Fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans, homemade buns and two chocolate cream pies. As he sits there looking at his crusty baloney sandwich, he hears the women say "why don't we just put it all together?"

"No, I could not do that," He replies.

Where she returns with an instanced "nonsense" and puts all the food together before he could protest further. After grace they all started munch in down on the abundance set before them. Even the crusty old sandwich.

I know what you are thinking right at this moment, why would Tanya blog about a crusty old baloney sandwich? Here is why, after the story Bod shares an epiphany:

"One day, it dawned on me that God had been saying that sort of thing to me. "Why don't you take what you have and what you are, and I will take what I have and what I am, and we'll share it together." I began to see that when I put what I had and was and am and hope to be with what He is, I had stumbled upon the bargain of a lifetime."

I get to thinking sometimes, thinking of me sharing with God. When I think of how little I bring, and how much He brings and invites me to share, I know that I should be shouting to the house tops, but I am so filled with awe and wonder that I can hardly speak. I know I don't have enough love or faith or grace or mercy or wisdom, but He does. He has all of those things abundance and He says, "Let's just put it all together."

Thank you Bob, I started thinking about my life. Am I being stingy with what God gave me, am I not giving to God to share. I believe I am holding on to dear life and I am not giving to God. Then if this story did not just hit me between the eyes, Bob goes on further with a challenge.

When I think about it like that, it really amuses me to see somebody running along through life hanging on to their dumb bag with that stale baloney sandwich in it saying, "God's not going to get my sandwich! No, sire, that is mine!" Did you ever see somebody like that-so needy- just about half starved to death yet hanging on for dear life. It's not that God needs your sandwich, the fact is , you need His chicken. You have been invited to something better, you know. You have been invited to share in the very being of God.

Awesome Bob, God is good and He is just waiting for me to figure it out. Okay God, you get my sandwich, cause that chicken does look good. How's your sandwich, would you rather have the chicken?

Love always, Tanya

What a busy Year!!!

Well, by my last post, it has been a while. I have been so busy with planning Luke's graduation. Getting ready for family to move or visit and the end of the year. I have also experienced some health issues. But all in all, it has been a wonderful year. Like I said, Luke and my niece Tasha graduated in May. It was an awesome time for family, friends and fellowship. I have to say that I was so surprised by all the people that showed up to the graduation. I am so glad that Jeff and I decided to move to Red Oak. I love the support of this small town. I do not think that I would of even been this far in my life and walk with God if it had not been for all of this support. I am blessed.
Here is Melanie at the airport picking up the grandparents. We had had some really bad storms and this puddle in the airport parking lot was so tempting to jump in. So Melanie did. She was so wet that we had to go to Walmart and get her another pair of pants. But it was fun.

Here is Luke, Jeff, Melanie and I on the day of the graduation. Luke wanted Jeff to wear his Cookie Monster attire for the graduations. Jeff did all the presentation of the graduation dressed like this. Funny. We had a really good day and the turn out was awesome. I have to thank all the family for the help you gave us. We could not of done it without ya. And I was so glad to have my sister Charlene and her family be a part of the day. And I am glad that Tasha graduated with Luke. We love ya girl.



Here is my son Luke and my niece Tasha. They look so grown up. I have to tell ya that on the day of Luke's graduation, I was so blessed by one dear friend. You know who you are, thanks for letting me cry on your shoulder. It is so over whelming to watch your baby make such a plunge. And yes, I did wonder, did I do enough to help him in his future, will he make it, can he make it. And you are right, it is in God's hands now. He will always be my boy, always my baby, but God has to lead him in his way.

As far as my health goes, I will have to go in next month for some out patient surgery. But it will only be one day and all is going to be good. Thank you for all of your prayers and I have missed my blogging community. I hope to spend more time here. Love all of you. Love Tanya

Seven Percent Only

Craving God

For Christmas, my husband got me a Kindle. One day when I was online I found this book called, "Craving God, a twenty eight daily study" I down loaded it and I started reading it. On the first day it talked about how God gave us cravings. These cravings were intended to crave God. We were never intended to crave other things like money, food, or sex. We were destined to crave God. That is why we have the cravings to begin with. You know, this really made sense to me. I have had such struggles with cravings it is not even funny. But I realized that I need to refocus those cravings towards God. I need to go to the word when I am craving food.

Psalm 139:14

"I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well".

My soul knows what to crave, what to worship and what to praise. God made me this way, from my mother's womb. But my flesh gets in the way. I was made to worship, praise and crave God

Another comment by the author really hit home: "I have to admit, I am overweight physically. But I am underweight spiritually."

This is another example of why I need to get my flesh under control. I need to make those craving for God and not let my flesh rule me and run to what I have made a bad habit. To let the food control me. See, really, I thought for many years that food was the only control I had. But really, food is controlling me and it will eventually kill me.

I love that scripture in 1 Corinthians 9:27, where Paul talks about control,

"But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. "

I struggle, I can blog about all that I learned and all that these authors or the bible has shown me. But in the end, I will surrender to the flesh faster than God. I know it, and I see. Am I happy about it, no. I am tired, and I need God. I also need to be willing. How can I be a good witness, if I am inconsistent, and I am not secure being a Christian. I can not. I will not bring anyone to God with in consist behavior. It is time to put feet to my bible scriptures, blog entries, to my beliefs and I need to not let anyone or anything take my eyes off the prize. The Prize is Jesus Christ and my relationship.

I pray to be a better witness for him and in that I need to refocus. It is time. I am ready to be spiritually overweight. I need prayers, encouragement and possibly others who feel the same way. We are given a task and that is to fill the kingdom of God. Are we ready and our we strong in our faith? It is time.

My Belief List

Okay, here is my Belief list:

1. I belief in God.
2. I belief in His Word.
3. I belief that my body is God's Temple
4. I belief in the sanctity of life....
5. I belief in truth....
6. I belief in true love
7. I belief in the sanctity of marriage.
8. I belief in healing and health
9. I belief God's word changed my life.
10 I belief I will keep changing till I die.
11. I belief I am on the road to a new life style.

Well that is it and I will be adding more to my values and beliefs. I am realizing that they really go hand and hand. I hope that you enjoyed my list and I will blog more tomorrow. God bless you all. Love Tanya

Dying to my Flesh

I know that this is a weird subject, but this has been on my mind lately. Yesterday, Jeff and I took our kids to Council Bluffs and went to church, lunch and then took the kids to a movie.

But, it was church that really touched my heart. The minister was talking about the commandments from the New Testament, like "Love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul and body" and "love each other as you do yourself."

But, it was when Pastor Springer talked about dying to our flesh. Letting the Spirit lead us and not our Flesh, wants, lusts. That when I stand against all those worldly things, I will achieve victory. I have let food, money and other worldly things lead me so much and frankly it has almost killed me.

I am ready to let the flesh die and follow my God. He is my only grace, mercy and hope. Really good word yesterday. If you would like to hear some of Pastor Springers sermons: here is the site:
God bless you all and I am praying for you and I hope you all have a successful week. Tanya

My Values List

Hi, I have not blogged for sometime. I just posted this blog on my Sparks page. I am on a new direction this year. I am going to lose weight and be more fit this year. If you would like to join me, check out Sparks people
Okay, I have been praying over my values and beliefs and I have come up with a great list. I want to share my values with you all and then tomorrow I will share my beliefs. Here they are:

Values:

1. I value my God.
2. I value walk with God
3. I value my marriage to Jeff
4. I value my children Luke and Melanie
5. I value being an American
6. I value my friends and Sparks friends
7. I value freedom from physical pain
8. I value love from God and how he showed me how to love others.
9. I value changes in my life.
10 I value food, shelter and clothing.


So, there are some of my values. I know that I am not done, because I am learning about myself. Enjoy and thanks for letting me feel comfortable enough to share with all of you!!

Tanya