Any day of the year

I love it how Christmas doesn't need a certain date in one's heart, cause when you love it suddenly is Christmas.

Taken care of

Stop right now and look out the window and up into the sky. Remember that if I made the world and all that is therein, I can certainly take care of you, My dearest. -Jesus

Thinking of better days

Sometimes I get into thinking:
"I can't wait for this and that to happen", "If only I had just the one to share my whole life with!", "When I get better at doing this or that I'll be so happy!".
It's like putting off happiness, waiting for better days to knock and enter my doorstep.
Why don't I make the better days now?
If I remember that joy and sorrow, good and bad, pretty and ugly accompany us all the while, no matter our ages, state or season, frankly this season can be the best!
There's no reason why I can't have the best of times now. Surely things aren't perfect, circumstances have a knack for changing. And the times I wish I were exactly on the other side of the world with someone just for a few hours, makes me realize that I'd want more, and that with human nature circumstances and conditions won't ever be enough.
So am I gonna let my dreams come true and pass me by because I was reaching out to some other new longing and desire, some other new thing I didn't have?
Will I fail to enjoy my dreams that have already come true today simply because they don't include every single one I want?
If I do, that just makes me ridiculously bratty and so sadly, blind. Honestly I don't know which one's worse.
Let me tell you some about my dreams come true:
~I've got wonderful friends who genuinely care about me, love me and wish to see me succeed.
~I'm with my family: two siblings, mom and dad.
~I have Jesus, fulfiller of dreams, and I know that whatever takes time or doesn't happen here on Earth, there's eternity in Heaven where all dreams do come true.

On the same topic, I'm going to University! Not exactly in my list of dreams for long at all, but it means that my dream of playing a part to have more English literature translated to Spanish can come true, and that perhaps I'll be an useful interpreter one day -grins-!

So darling Jesus, I want to enjoy every step I take and make the better days today! I commit to doing so with your hands touching my heart and opening my eyes helping me to see things as they truly are.
Thank you for all that you are and do! Can't thank you enough.
Thank you!

"I love my wall!"

This story stroke my heart like a benign lightning -smiles-:

One Saturday after our excursion to Pizza Hut, the mall, and a movie, I drove my ten-year-old goddaughter Samantha to her family's new residence. As we turned off the highway onto a dirt road that led to her house, my heart dropped to see that she and her parents were living in an old school bus in a field.
As Samantha showed me around her family's quarters, I began to feel sad that this little girl whom I love so much was growing up in such a shoddy environment. As my eyes painfully fell upon rusted seams on the metal walls, cracked windows, and a leaking roof, I realized that her family had fallen into bare, subsistence living. I wanted to rescue her from such a barren plight.
Looking up at me with her big brown eyes, Samantha asked me, "Would you like to see my room?"
"Okay," I answered hesitantly.
The child took me by the hand and guided me up a makeshift staircase that led to a small wooden addition that had been superimposed over the roof of the bus. I shuddered to observe that her room was in the same condition as the rest of the place, just barely livable. Looking around, I noticed one fairly attractive element of her abode, a colorful tapestry hanging over the one section of the room that could be called a wall.
"How do you feel about living here?" I asked Samantha, waiting for a glum response.
Instead, to my surprise, her face lit up. "I love my wall!" she giggled.
I was stunned. Samantha was not kidding. She actually enjoyed the place because of this colorful wall. The child found a touch of heaven in the midst of hell, and this is what she chose to focus on. She was happy.
I drove home in a state of awe. This ten-year-old saw her life through the eyes of appreciation, and that made all the difference. I began to consider all the things in my life that I have complained about. I realized that in my preoccupation with what isn't there, I have been missing what is here. While focusing on rusty metal, I have overlooked some colorful tapestries. I made Samantha's statement my meditation: "I love my wall!"
Gratitude is not the result of things that happen to us; it is an attitude we cultivate by practice. The more we are thankful for, the more we will find to be thankful for. I heard of a woman named Sarah who lay in a hospital bed after an accident, deeply depressed, unable to move any part of her body except the little finger on one hand. Then Sarah decided she would make use of what she was missing. She began to bless the one finger that could move, and she developed a system of "yes" and "no" communication with the little finger. Sarah became grateful that she could communicate, and she felt happier. As she blessed the movement, her flexibility increased. Soon Sarah could move her hand, then her arm, and eventually her whole body. It all started with the critical shift from complaining to blessing.
Jesus taught, "To him that hath, more shall be given; to him that hath not, more shall be taken away." Jesus was elucidating a supremely important principle. Jesus was teaching the importance of concentrating on what we have or want, rather than on what we lack or do not want.

Dear Ryan

I admire the long way you've come.
You remind me how immensely precious people are.
I admire the life lessons you've learned and that you have the courage to share them with all of us, to show who you are with no shame. That's admirable! -smiles-
I'm so happy that the beauty of your life has touched mine, it makes me feel real thankful.
Granted we don't have enough strength to make it on our own, we need each other, and most of all, we need Jesus.
I'm thankful for all the love and beauty your life exudes; they beauty of your journey, the beauty of your discoveries, the beauty of your fights and the beauty of your love and dreams. It's opened my eyes when I needed it, encouraged me when I was weak and stumbling, and showed me another part of my life and heart I hadn't payed attention to before.
Thank you for marking my life. You really didn't meant to, you were just being you.
Stay wonderful, as you are. But I have a feeling time will only make you better! You'll only get better with time!

Happy Belated Birthday Ryan! -by the time you get to read this, it will be :-*

With eyes of love

It's true, sometimes I don't feel like loving, I feel like caring mostly about myself.
I do need glasses of love at all times, to see things right, for what they are, not for what my selfish human nature perceives them to be.
If I'm not looking at the world through eyes of love, I'm missing out on the true realities.

"Real love never fails someone else by depending only on the love stored in an earthly heart. Real love looks to Me to receive My complete love with which to love others, so that it will never run out. Anything else in the whole world can fail, except that which comes from Me." -Jesus


"When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves."—William Arthur Ward

Feliz Cumpleaños Ana!

I love you cutie! And I wish you the very best this year!
I'm so thankful to have met you, you've sweetened my life -smiles right at you-
You're a bubbly girl, bursting with ideas! Don't let anyone discourage you from fulfilling the dreams you have. Please don't stop pouring out all the sweet love you give, it means so much to us.
If you're ever in need of a friend, honey remember I'm here.

Pancakes from the sky

A chat one day:

Sandy: I know, we feel there should be something more outstanding. when, if we just cared to look around, we'd see that flower budding that baby smile, that heart felt hug
Sandy: that beautiful smile
Sandy: and simple I love you's
stephanie: (huge growing, growing smile)
Sandy: and the whole world turns into a rainbow
Sandy: if we could only stop ..
Sandy: and appreciate
Sandy: but we don't
Sandy: we instead look at the mud, the puddles, our imperfections.
Sandy: you know what we need?
stephanie: or other's..
what?!
Sandy: a pancake to fall from the sky and hit us
Sandy: yeah
Sandy: hahaha
stephanie: hahhahahahaha
stephanie: hummm.. yumm!

Happy and worthwhile

Make one person happy each day and in 40 years you will have made 14,600 human beings happy for a little time at least.—Charley Willey

Reason for living

Jesus, you're behind every reason I smile.

I love having you as my reason for living, because you never run out, there's no end to you.
In fact your wonders only increase..