Oprah Show on this Wed. and pray for us as Kerry and I both need neck fusions a week apart!

I just checked the website and it is on this Wed...for the Oprah Show I went to at the beginning of the month...
Tune In

It's taken a year for her to come forward. Mercilessly judged…she call herself the most hated mom in America. Overwhelmed moms and dads, let this be your wake-up call. (PG)

Tune in on 10/01 to watch this show

Also today I have an orthopedic appointment at Chicago and am going to have to make my decision about my neck fusion..I still cannot hardly lift my arms at all..it is so frustrating but I have peace that after 8 years of suffering maybe this will finally be what I really need to take care of my neck from falling on ice and suffering all these years..only really hard thing is my husband is having the same surgery the week before and I do not honestly know how we will make it but I have to trust God through this one...it has been so hard to even tell anyone as they are just shocked and speachless to say the least...On Oct. 15 it will be 10 years to the date that our lives changed and my husband fell and severed his spine on a roof just from a 3 foot fall ...we have seen God use us and I know we are better people because of this and have changed so many lives but at times lately it has been the most difficult times we have faced in all these years..Pray for me as this is honestly beyond anything I can imagine going through..this will be my second surgery on my spine as I had a fusion in my low back exactly two tears ago in October...hugs and prayers, Cheryl and Kerry
PS Will draw the winner today for the blog giveaway...

An ant & a contact lens...

An ant & a contact lens...

from a friend at Ruebee...worth reading...hugs, cheryl


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Brenda was almost halfway to the top of the tremendous granite cliff. She was standing on a ledge where she was taking a breather during this, her first rock climb. As she rested there, the safety rope snapped against her eye and knocked out her contact lens . 'Great', she thought. 'Here I am on a rock ledge, hundreds of feet from the bottom and hundreds of feet to the top of this cliff, and now my sight is blurry.'

She looked and looked, hoping that somehow it had landed on the ledge. But it just wasn't there.

She felt the panic rising in her, so she began praying. She prayed for calm, and she prayed that she may find her contact lens.

When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but it was not to be found. Although she was calm now that she was at the top, she was saddened because she could not clearly see across the range of mountains. She thought of the bible verse 'The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth.'

She thought, 'Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me.'

Later, when they had hiked down the trail to the bottom of the cliff they met another party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, 'Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?'

Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly across a twig on the face of the rock, carrying it!

The story doesn't end there. Brenda's father is a cartoonist. When she told him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a cartoon of an ant lugging that contact lens with the caption, 'Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me to do, I'll carry it for You.'

I think it would do all of us some good to say, 'God, I don't know why You want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it and it's awfully heavy. But, if You want me to carry it, I will.'

God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called!

Yes, I do love GOD. He is my source of existence and my Savior. He keeps me functioning each and every day Without Him, I am nothing, but with Him....I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. (Phil. 4:13)

Why are you crying?

Why are you crying?

A little boy asked his mother, 'Why are you crying?' 'Because I'm a woman,' she told him. 'I don't understand,' he said. His Mom just hugged him and said, 'And you never will.' Later the little boy a sked his father, 'Why does mother seem to cry for no reason?' 'All women cry for no reason,' was all his dad could say. The little boy grew up and became a man, still wondering why women cry. Finally he put in a call to God. When God got on the phone, he asked, 'God, why do women cry so easily?'God said: 'When I made the woman she had to be special. I made her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the world, yet gentle enough to give comfort I gave her an inner strength to endure childbirth and the rejection that many times comes from her children. I gave her a hardness that allows her to keep going when everyone else gives up, and take care of her family through sickness and fatigue with out complaining. I gave her the sensitivity to love her children under any and all circumstances, even when her child has hurt her very badly. I gave her strength to carry her husband through his faults and fashioned her from his rib to protect his heart. I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife, but sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him unfalteringly. And finally, I gave her a tear to shed. This is hers exclusively to use whenever it is needed.' 'You see my son,' said God, 'the beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart - the place where love resides.'

A Bike Ride with God

A Bike Ride with God
Author unknown

At first I saw God as my observer, my judge, keeping track of the things I did wrong, so as to know whether I merited heaven or hell when I die. He was out there, sort of like the president. I recognized His picture when I saw it, but I really didn't know him. But later on when I met Christ, it seemed as though life were rather like a bike ride, but it was a tandem bike, and I noticed that Christ was in the back helping me pedal. I don't know just when it was that He suggested that we change places, but life has not been the same since. When I had control, I knew the way. It was rather boring but predictable ... It was the shortest distance between two points. But when He took the lead, He knew delightful long cuts, up mountains, and through rocky places at breakneck speeds, and it was all I could do to hang on! Even though it looked like madness, He said, "Pedal." I worried and was anxious and asked, "Where are You taking me?" He laughed and didn't answer, and I started to learn to trust. I forgot my boring life and entered into the adventure. And when I say, "I'm scared," He'd lean back and touch my hand. He took me to people with gifts that I needed, gifts of healing, acceptance, and joy. They gave me gifts to take on my journey, my Lord's and mine. And we're off again. He said, "Give the gifts away, they're extra baggage, too much weight." So I did, to the people we met, and I found that in giving I received, and still our burden was light. I did not trust Him at first, to be in control of my life, I thought He would wreck it; But He knows bike secrets, knows how to make it bend to take sharp corners, knows how to jump to clear high rocks, knows how to fly to shorten scary passages. I'm learning to shut up and pedal in the strangest places, and I'm beginning to enjoy the view and the cool breeze on my face with my delightful constant companion, Jesus Christ. And when I'm sure I just can't do anymore, He smiles and says ... "Pedal."

Through the Years of Weeping

There were chapters & seasons in this journey of life
that were harder than I dreamed they would be,
Where the climbing and the toiling was an uphill battle
with no end in sight I could see.
But God in His beauty penetrated the darkness
that tried to overwhelm me there,
And I found that the knowledge of His truth was more important
than any heartache that didn't seem fair.
It was there in the tossing...and the uncertainty of life
that I held onto the Anchor that holds.
For the blessedness of His Sprit dwelling within me
was more priceless than mountains of gold.
It was there that God taught me & tenderly brought me
to a truth that I needed to know;
That faith must be tested in the fires of adversity
to be refined and have chance to grow.
Through the years of weeping...my Father was always keeping
my prayers and petitions in His hand.
For the times He answered "no" or said I wasn't ready
He gave the grace so that I could understand.
No matter the circumstances or whatever it involved
God strengthened me with His faithful heart.
And when the trial was over, I knew much more of God
than I ever knew of Him at the start.

©Sheila Gosney

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever.
Psalm 30:11-12 NKJV