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 :-)

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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