My Wish List for the Vision Forum Giveaway!

AN AWESOME GIVEAWAY!!!!!!

My wish list for the Vision Forum giveaway is:

1-Passionate Housewives Desperate For God(84332) $16
2-Women of Vision (67850) $20
3-George Washington's Sacred Fire(57738) $24
4- The Anti-Historical Revisionism Home School Kit(23507) $45
5-The League of Greatful Sons(67880) $20
6-Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary(36547) $56
7-The Original Blue Back Speller(51030) $13
8- Puritans vs. Witches(64105) $10
9-The Kathleen Set(83590) $30

If you are interested in a chance to win $250 worth of awesome christian stuff go here coolstuffgivaway and dream away! God speed and best wishes for you to win!

New(Not Better)

I have been SOOO busy, what with being a mother of 3, one of which is a 10 mos. old bebe!!! I am learning in this walk with the Lord about my need to take EVERYTHING to Him and TRUE servanthood! Which, after all, is what Jesus asks us to be, a servant to the lowly and unlovable... So, since our very lives are a means of tempering the glass if you will, my family is that flame with which He tempers me. Sometimes.

With that being said, do you ever have days when one, or both, or all your children seem to have a new(not better), attitude? And it would seem as if they collaborated in the wee hours of the morning that not one but ALL should don this new(not better), attitude? Well, I have. Today happens to be one of those days! Daughter, age 7 yrs., woke up early, with nary a peep from any other sibling, however when other sibling(i.e. 5yr old brother) appears the crabby comes out as if he had been pestering her all along! Not to mention the ugly that pokes its nose in the business, thus, setting the ball of new(not better), attitudes a rollin' in our home this morning...

And did I mention we home school!! So, when the new(not better) attitude arrives it is ALL mine to "try" and deal with it(appropriately). How, I ask, does one deal with an attitude "problem" that seems to permeate every being in the house by this time?!!! I know, I will send them to their room, to sit on their beds! And that is what I did. Today it worked, for now(since today is not yet through). But this is not the first time that this has happened, nor will it be the last I am sure. I am just not entirely sure how to curtail "bad attitudes". One thing I do know! I can ALWAYS take it to the Lord and lay it at His feet! Now, if I can only remember to do that before my emotions of irritation direct my reaction! That my friend. I am certain. Is the secret.

Knowing is sweet freedom (Part 2)

I left off with me feeling completely weird about that whole introduction! However on the following morning, again at 5AM, Jonathon hollered at me from across the gym! Again, I was thinking, who is this guy?, and WHY is he waving at me?, he is married for crying out loud!!! He seemed to have come out of nowhere--meaning I had NEVER seen him there before and I knew ALL the faces there--not to mention the fact that he continued to be focused on ME!!! WHY?!

I proceeded to do my routine about 45 min. went by and Jonathon approached me. He asked if I knew what my name meant? I told him yes, it means God's princess in Hebrew, he told me that in fact it did, but he expounded on it's definition. Then he told me that God had told him to talk to me(I later found out that he was TERRIFIED to talk to me! because he did not know me AT ALL). Next he told me that he was married to a wife that he loved very much and had two wonderful children with her!(SEE, God knew!!!) What he told me next was that God wanted him to tell me that He(meaning Jesus) knew that I was having, and I quote, "man problems"!!! At this point the Holy Spirit was dealing with and speaking to my heart, because after all it was God using Jonathon, a willing and obedient vessel, to let me know that HE knew me, HE knew where I was at 5AM everyday, HE knew ALL the trouble in my life! What happened next is kind of a blur! I was stunned, shocked, amazed, astounded, but most of all I was FREE!!!! Because I knew, that I knew, that I knew, that I had just had an encounter with the ONE AND ONLY LIVING GOD, JESUS CHRIST!!!! It was glorious! Jonathon told me over the next 45min that he was a youth pastor, that they would be having service that night and that he would really really like me to meet his wife, Raydean. After we finished talking I went into the showers closed the curtain and lifted my hands towards heaven and just began to weep and say thank you(you must remember that I had never even opened a Bible to this point, never believed an any kind of doctrine, but that there was no doctrine!).

Then I knew that I had to have more, right?!! Who wouldn't want more of that!!! So, I went to church and I started to read a Bible that I bought. My curiosity was peaked about the Holy Spirit! Who is this Holy Spirit?! I must know. I asked a friend from church if she could give me some scripture about the Holy Spirit. She gave me a HUGE list! I noticed right away that a good portion of those scriptures were in Acts. I came to the conclusion that I should probably just read the whole book of Acts and so I did. About half way through Acts I told the Lord one night, in my room on my knees, that I wanted the Holy Spirit to baptize me, or whatever it was that I said. I didn't really know christianese at that point, so all my praying was just "talk" to God in my understanding. About 1-2weeks later I went forward for prayer at youth service one night and Raydean started praying Psalm 91: "let Sarah dwell in your secret place Lord, let her abide in your shadow Father, Cover her with your feathers, under your wing she will trust..."--but THEN she started FERVENTLY praying that the Holy Spirit would come down now on me, and she proceeded to pray in that manner. It wasn't very long into it and the Holy Spirit fell on me like I had never dreamed could EVER happen to anyone! It was the most amazing experience that I had ever had outside of salvation. God's peace, love, power, might, fear, glory, and anything else that He has, touched my physical body and I almost went down, but my mind was worried that I might knock my head! So, I tried to collect myself and some people ushered me to a seat not far from where I was being prayed for. Literally, people sitting in the front row directly behind me, ALL felt the power of God as he baptized me with HIS FIRE and Holy Spirit! It was amazing... Words cannot do it justice. I was not the same after that experience, I could read my Bible and actually understand it! I had a boldness that wasn't there before, lots of things were different--it was like the scales had been lifted from my eyes!

Now! I was a new creature! A new creature in CHRIST JESUS!!!!! Praise be to GOD!!! Thank you Jesus for your obedience and choosing me! Because Many are called but few are chosen! Thank you, Jesus, for the grace that is sufficient everyday and the mercy that endures forever!!!!!!! And just knowing THAT is sweet freedom!

Introductions can be awkward(Part 1)

Hello. I am going to just give a little history. I am still trying to figure this whole "blog" thing out! To say that I am technologically challenged would be too kind! I am at best only challenged!

Anyhoo. Moving on.

I am 33 yrs. young, married with 3 children and we live in Rural Oklahoma on a "hobby" farm... I call it a "hobby" farm because it is in fact just a hobby! I don't think that it will be what we as a family will be doing with the rest of our time here on this earth! Plus, I still have a hard time believing that I live on a farm! :)

It has been a wonderful experience choc full of intense learning! Jesus moved us here 3 years ago this November. And you might ask how did He do that? But, I assure you that He did it all, down to selling our house without ever putting it on the market! It is an AWESOME testimony to the faithfulness of our God, Jesus Christ, and what He will and can do if we seek His Will and not our own! Oh how I love Jesus! I will share that testimony at a later date, first I would like to share my AWESOME testimony of how Jesus Christ saved me from Hell...

So here we go, I was RADICALLY saved out of drugs and a very bad life at the age of 22 yrs, by none only than Jesus Christ! I had reached such a low in my life that merely going on and having no point in it was not going to suffice. I was brought up to believe that there was not a God. So, when I reached adolescence I was very immoral and did not understand anything about purity or keeping oneself for marriage, I started down the road of drugs and alcohol at a very young age as well. That road, that I chose, led me to the darkest pits of despair that any human being could ever endure. I started dabbling in the occult, playing with ouiji boards and looking for anything spiritual or paranormal... I had a discernment for spiritual "things" as it were, but had no knowledge of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. By the time I was 21 I had already tried to end my life physically, had suffered terribly from an eating disorder, and had a real problem with alcohol and any drug that would cause me to hallucinate. So, marrying someone that I barely knew at 22 years of age was not too far out of character for me. He ended up not being my husband, at least, not the husband that God had intended for me when He created me. But during that brief marriage I realized that I needed to quit doing drugs and drinking, so I joined AA. It was in Alcoholics Anonymous that I decided that there really IS a God(not yet ready to accept that Jesus was God), but there is A God.

God had been preparing this encounter with me for quite some time, which does not come as a shock to me now, but back then it was amazing--it still is amazing to think that the Creator of the universe cared about little ol' me! Anyway, my best friend, from 5 th grade, Tonya, had moved back to where we grew up(I had never left) and she was now a Christian! She would try to tell me about Jesus and I would tell her-"Don't talk to me about YOUR Jesus, I don't want to hear about that @#%^&*^!" and I am sure other choice things flew from my filthy mouth. Nevertheless she remained my friend. I was in college at the time and in my History class(my favorite class that semester) we had assigned seating, and wouldn't you know it, God sat me right smack in between two Christians! Not just any old Christians, either! They were not scared to profess the name of Jesus Christ! One of those Christians ended up being a very dear friend of mine throughout school! So, the scene is set, I once did not believe there was a God, and now I believe there is, God has seen to it that I am surrounded by Christians--softening that soil of my heart! One night about 1-2mos. after all this happened I told Tonya, that I would accept HER Jesus! That is all I said. She was very excited, but I didn't feel anything had really happened. Move forward about 3 weeks and I was at the gym at 5AM-now bear in mind that not many people frequent the gym at 5AM and usually it is the same group--we all knew each other. I was on the stairmaster reading some school book and somebody got on the stairmaster next to mine, I could tell that this someone was watching me. So, when I thought that Mr. Someone wasn't looking I glanced over. Upon glancing I noticed that he was wearing a wedding ring-not a good sign in my book and that I had NEVER seen him before--He never came to the gym not at 5AM anyway. I finished and went over to the water fountain, where he promptly followed, he stuck out his hand and said "Hi, my name is Jonathon!" and I grabbed his hand and said "Hi, I'm Sarah, I've never seen you here before, glad to meet you." All the while thinking in my head WHAT ON EARTH are you saying, you sound like an idiot, why would you say THAT to him! But I turned and went in the locker room, red face and all, anything to get away from the very awkward moment!

Hello.

I wasn't ever going to start a blog... Famous last words, I guess.

I love reading other people's blogs, but one of my own never really seemed realistic. For one I am not a writer, nor will I ever pretend that I am. And two, I don't know why I would have one, a blog that is. The idea of sharing silly stories about my family and myself, or sharing photos is neat in theory, but think of ALL the people weird or otherwise that might be viewing them! I guess, I will have to use caution and discretion as I share about my journey in the Potter's Hand.

Anyhoo- I am here to tell you that you should never say never!!