GNO...

..And off we go to Ohio Wesleyan University to watch a concert of...The Vienna Boys Choir!~

What an awesome opportunity. Just 6 of us neighbor gals went out to enjoy an evening of relaxed amazement. Had alittle catastrophe before we left, that Steve had to come to our rescue.... One lady's shoe tripped her as she was walking down the stairs. Her heel came loose and Steve got out his hammer and played cobblesmith to help her get on her way. For once it wasn't me who had the accident. After getting to the university and standing in line to get our RESERVED tickets for what seemed like 45 mins...yes it was 45 mins to be exact. We found our seats in the balcony where we had a better than a birds eye view of the stage. No pictures were allowed of the choir but my mind will never forget the minor cords, pure notes and staccato breaths of these young boys. They sang music from all periods of time.... the oldest being around 1697. They sang in 3 different languages. One song has such high notes that my ears were ringing like someone had a tuning fork against the back of my ear.

Audience participation was encouraged at one point and left us all laughing at how hard it was to have one section of audience clapping on the beat and our side clapping on the off beat. The 38 young boys showed us who was capable of doing that while singing just to throw us a curve.

Some of these little boys were not bigger than my oldest grand. Their voices were so natural and pure...no vibrato...just developed vocals. One song they sang had 5 boys dancing and I wondered if the Von Trappe Family would come out around the corner singing. Most of these boys were from Austria with a few from as far away as Korea and Hungary. The choir master was raised in Lima, Peru.

Great nite out with very nice ladies. Hope we can do this again sometime.

The journey continues...

...and I am loving it! Could not sleep last night so I did my Thursday quite time at around 2am.
First question in study....What did you hide from as a child? (Fear) Where did you hide? (in my mind) How can a hiding place become a prison rather than protect you? (my mind made me feel safe from all the outside attacks and self esteem issues. It made a safe place for me to enter in and feel protected BUT after some time, it trapped me and instead of facing the stronghold, I automatically went to this spot of presumed safety. A place where no one knew and where I found myself to be very alone.)

The verses in 2 Cor 10:3-5 talk about these strongholds as "waging war." In a raging battle the enemy will always attack the weak first. In a spiritual war that weak spot is always our minds. Only when we strengthen our minds in Christ do we aim at the enemy and finally fight back. I am finally fighting back! I have to remember that these spiritual wars of negative strongholds were already won at THE CROSS. I realized that I have to first choose to face and acknowledge the fear within w/the truth of Christ.

The next question , How eager am I to head into battle without any weapons? (never, very silly right, of course I would never enter battle w/o protection) But many times over the years since childhood I did just that. Ephesians 6:14-18 talks about 2 powerful weapons we must take with us...the Bible and prayer. The only way I can destroy strongholds is thru God and prayer. This is not a new thought to my Christian life but it is being brought to me anew!

The over riding principal is this: to keep my focus on God and His power will prevail. Sounds so simple but that stronghold will continue to dig into the trenches and try to overpower me. I will prevail thru God.

So I am keeping my mind on Christ to the best of my human ability...standing firm in His salvation and grace. Living Free!

The Christmas Elf.....

is hard at work... By golly it is November, just 2.5 wks away from Thanksgiving, my husbands favorite holiday. The kids and grands are all coming to our home this year (imagine a giant smile on my face) so I had better start up my sewing machine.

So today I started into a sewing frenzy. First some twirlier things for the grands to enjoy. Then I started on mattresses for 4 sets of bnk beds for 4 little girls American Girl dolls. Next on the list is blankets and pillows. Then onto sleepbags for their dolls. Lots to do and not enough time to do MORE.

Lemons or Lemonade.....

..that is the question. Before October many times (not all times) I would choose lemons. Do you pick and choose? Why do we do that? Well to be honest, I rather liked the thought that in the action of "eating those lemons"I could compare/or understand my life w/others, I could be heard and/or noticed. I mean think about it: "Look at her, she just ate a whole bag of lemons, never made a weird face and now she has seeds growing in her belly." (sounds weird doesn't it?)

But I have done that very thing....when a hardship comes my way, I focus on it. I try to fix the problem so I can move on. I focus on it and a little pride starts to grow inside my belly. All around others say "Wow, she is so strong." Or how about this ..."No plse don't pray for me because there are so many others who need it worse than I." (sometimes humbleness is not attractive) It's not humble pie but humble pride that eats away at us.

2 Corinthians 1:10-11 talks about God raising us from the dead, how He delivered us. And because He delivered us we are joining together as believers to pray for each other. (v11) "you are joining in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many."

Since October I am actively choosing lemonade. Why? because I am learning that it is easy to drift from the focus of Christ through a stronghold. It either pulls me to focus on the problem more OR focus on satan. I cannot allow satan to hold my focus on the stronghold whereby strengthening himself. And then he creates another stronghold.

I choose lemonade for another reason. Some strongholds break quickly but my mental transition to adjust takes longer. Ever notice how it's a constant battle w/some strongholds? It breaks, it comes back..over and over again.

So I choose lemonade because of Rom 12:2
"Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."
I choose lemonade because of Phil 4:8
"Whatever is true...noble...right...pure...lovely...admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things."

And I can end on this note by Beth Moore: GOD IS FAR MORE INTERESTED in my relationship w/the Deliverer that w/the delivered.