You've always heard it said that everything looks darkest right before the dawn. This is true. A good night's sleep can refresh your mind, your body and your soul. One of my favorite gospel songs is Come Morning. It is so uplifting and peaceful. No matter what our cross is to bear, we will always face the morning knowing the Lord has brought us through the night. Here are the words: "Come Morning" God's children too long have been burdened They are longing for Heaven's green shore Where heartaches are left far behind us And the burdens are carried no more. Chorus Come morning, I'll walk by the river And I'll rest 'neath the evergreen tree. And I'll carry my cross thru the midnight. Come morning, there's glory for me. Sometimes I'm despised and rejected And I question oh Father, how long? And then I'll take one more look at Mount Calvary, Then it gives me the strength to go on. Chorus Come morning, I'll walk by the river And I'll rest 'neath the evergreen tree. And I'll carry my cross thru the midnight. Come morning, there's glory for me.

"Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek." - Mario Andretti This is one of my favorite motivational quotes. Without goals and dreams to look for in our future, we simply exist from day to day. Everyone has goals and they may not realize it. It could be a far off dream of some day retiring to sunny Florida. It may be to save enough money to purchase that new car you have your eye on. Or it may simply be a day spent with family. We all have plans and dreams of things we want to achieve, places we want to go and hopes we want to fulfill. The desire for these dreams will motivate and excite. But without a plan of action and determination, we will never achieve those dreams. Your greatest desires should be the things you work toward with determination and commitment, in hopes of fulfilling those dreams. We are not far from 2010. Ask yourself what goals and dreams you will have for the New Year. Start thinking now about the things you need to do to achieve those dreams and go after it with a determined spirit and a mind-set of YES, I CAN.

Our blessings

Yesterday I had the privilege of being the leader for Children's church. I had a mixture of boys and girls from ages 6 - 9. When we had completed the lesson, the singing, the praying, and the activities suggested for that day, we still had some time left. I decided to discuss this being the month for giving thanks and asked everyone to think a moment about the important things in their life and what they were thankful for. I found it oddly amusing the different answers between boys and girls. The boys answers ranged from my X-Box, my football, getting to play soccer, my DS, etc. Most of them were thankful for either a material item or a chance to be on a sports team. When I polled the girls, I was amazed at the depth of difference. The girls were thankful for their parents, their family, their health, their friends. But one girl blew me away. In all the years of giving thanks for everything I am blessed with and all my years hearing others give their testimonies and their blessings, I have never heard this answer. When I asked one young girl of 9 what she was most thankful for, without hesitation, she simply said Life. How true is that. When you get right down to the nitty-gritty, that one simple word covers it all. Life. The simple, beautiful act of simply being. Everything we have, everything we are and everything we do is because we have Life. What a poignant answer so filled with reverance and awe that God can give us the one thing that nothing or nobody else can. Life. Out of the mouth of babes. It is definitely food for thought.

The Day After

We had a whopping 2 trick or treaters last night, which is one more than we had last year. I guess that's the problem with living at the bottom of a long hill. We were smart though, we did buy only candy that we like. Every year, I buy those huge bags of assorted and end up with junk we don't like and it hangs around till Easter - just in case.

My grandchildren were all adorable for Halloween. Garret was a Star Wars Clone Trooper and Alexis was Cinderella. Caleb was a Transformer and Shelby was Snow White. So I guess we are raising Warriors and Princesses.

I am 52 years old and this is the first time ever I forgot to set my clock back. I blame it on them changing it to the same night as Halloween. I'm old. I can't handle two events on the same night.

I never set an alarm clock because my internal alarm goes off between 6:00 and 6:30 every morning. Once in a blue moon, I sleep until almost 7:00 and feel like I'm behind all day. I woke up this morning and it was 6:10. I thought to myself, "I don't want to get up right now" The bed felt good and warm and I knew the house would have a slight chill. I laid there a few minutes and thought I'd better go ahead and get up. So I got, laid my clothes out for church and had a bite for breakfast. Around 6:30, I decided to see what happened on Facebook last night (my version of a soap opera). I'm sitting there reading and admiring pictures and for some reason the bottom corner of my computer screen caught my eye. You guessed it, it was 5:30. I was so mad. By this time, I was too wide awake to crawl back in the bed. I guess my internal clock is going to get switched to an alarm clock. I'm not going to get up at 5:00 everyday just because my body feels like it's 6:00. Why did we ever start this switching of time anyway?

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween. I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable day today. I remember growing up and the excitement of preparing for Halloween. We always had homemade costumes: Gypsies, housewives, hobos. I remember taking gold rings from Mason canning jars, tying a piece of yarn through it to make a loop, then put the loops around are ears. It may awesome dangling earrings for our gypsy outfits. My fondest memory was the year me and Rachel went as housewives. We were Mom's old "house dresses". She tied scarves around our heads like we were getting ready to do housework. We got to wear rouge and lipstick. I remember Mom taking pillows and folding them up to place in the front of the dress. She would put a belt around us under the pillows as they became our "womanly chest". However, by the time you walked all over the streets of Barboursville for 3 hours going door to door, running from yard to yard, our "chest" had slid down to our waste. Now instead of a nice rounded figure, we looked like we were pregnant. It was hilarious when I think back on it. I miss those days of dressing up and being carefree. And I especially miss the free candy! Please have a safe Halloween.

Winding Down October

When did the holidays start to blend together? We are not out of October yet and I'm seeing Christmas commercials on TV. Yesterday, J.C. Penny's had stuffed Frosty's and Rudolph's on sale. Christmas decorations were already on some of their shelves.

It seems like the holidays start earlier and earlier each year. Thanksgiving tablecloths and turkey platters have been on the shelves since early October right beside the ghosts and goblins for Halloween.

I love the holidays, but I like to enjoy one before I start preparing for the next one. We have become so commercialized that it's all about the marketing and exploiting of the holidays and not the joy of spending time with our family or giving thanks for our blessings.

I challenge each of you to start November as a month of thanks. Life gets us down and things don't always go our way. It is so hard to focus on the bad things we go through and forget the good. Purchase you a new journal or small diary. Every morning when you get up and pour that first cup of coffee or fix that first glass of Pepsi, write down one thing you have to be thankful for. Not just the majors: food, roof, family, health; but the little things. We all realize the big things even though we take them for granted sometimes. But dig down deep and find one thing about each particular day that you have to be thankful for. It may be the fact that you have a full tank of gas and won't have to stop at the station that day. Maybe you are having lunch with a co-worker who is special to you. Maybe you took the time to do your nails and love the new color. Whatever makes your day get off to a good start by making you smile, should be written in your journal.

You will be surprised how focusing on the "little things" will make the stress in your life lift just a little. Keeping our spirits up in trying times is one of the ways we keep our sanity. Find the joy in your life every day in November. On Thanksgiving morning, before you start your day, read the journal and smile at all the things you have to be thankful for.

Happy Birthday to the Internet

Forty years ago today, the first connection was made between remote computers at UCLA and Stanford Research Institute in which bits of data was transferred. This connection would lead to ARPNET, the forbearer of the Internet. The plan was unprecedented: Kleinrock, a pioneering computer science professor at UCLA, and his small group of graduate students hoped to log onto the Stanford computer and try to send it some data. They would start by typing "login," and seeing if the letters appeared on the far-off monitor. "We set up a telephone connection between us and the guys at SRI...," Kleinrock ... said in an interview: "We typed the L and we asked on the phone, "Do you see the L?" "Yes, we see the L," came the response. "We typed the O, and we asked, "Do you see the O." "Yes, we see the O." "Then we typed the G, and the system crashed"... Yet a revolution had begun"... Now, today, we not only see the L, the O or the G. We see each others thoughts and feelings. We see products that astound and deals we can't pass up. We can see a baby from miles away minutes after it is born. We can watch videos of our favorite music. We can talk for hours on instant messaging without paying long distance phone bills. We can send letters to loved ones in long detailed emails and attach photos without paying the price for stamps or printed photos. We can purchase a 99 cent item on E-Bay and have it shipped from Hong Kong with no shipping charges. We could start a new saving program. Put the cost of a stamp in a jar every time you send an email letter to someone you would normally send a letter to. Deposit the cost of a greeting card in your savings when you send out your Christmas cards as e-cards. Yes, you may pay anywhere from $10 - $30 per month for your Internet, but how much are you saving on the postage, envelopes, stationary, cards and calls. It is astounding if you stop to think about. So hats off to those brilliant minds who changed the communication of the future by asking, "Do you see the L"