Today is a day to remember the way the United States of America was founded and the Presidents who are our examples to follow. Much has been in the news in the state of Virginia in the last couple of years about our leaders who were less than perfect. Aren’t we all? We all just wake up each morning and try to do the best that we can. We serve God and ask Him to show us what we should do that that day. For me, I ask Him to show me what I should write that day. I don’t have many followers and hardly anyone likes/comments on my posts daily. But, still, God has not released me from blogging, so I continue with this commitment. Today, I am struck with the quietness in my home. I have turned off the sound of the blaring television and was sitting reflecting on the fact that we have no real errands to run today. After all, the post office is closed in honor of Presidents Day. Then, I read Dr. Denison’s post and knew that I needed to honor the Presidents who gave so much to make this nation what it is today. President George Washington was a Revolutionary War hero and the first president of our nation. He is revered because of his bravery and love for this new country. President Abraham Lincoln fought to keep our nation united, not divided under the guise of fighting for or against slavery. It was a battle to unite us under the ideals that began us. And, so today, I want to honor the men who sacrificed private lives to live under a microscope of public scrutiny, even today.

https://www.denisonforum.org/columns/daily-article/surprising-facts-about-washington-and-lincoln-how-their-humility-created-and-saved-our-nation/

Truly, I believe that Washington and Lincoln were men who served our nation with honor and humility and today I honor them as the patriots that they were.

Blessings to each of you as you spend this holiday in whatever way you choose, but I hope that you will remember these great men. And if you live in the USA, be thankful for their love and humility that began this nation and continued it. Thank you, Lord, for great men who serve without thinking of self!

Having been married for almost 47 years, I have had others ask me how I have managed to stay married for so long. My answer is always the same, “I took a vow and made a commitment.” No, our married life has not always been an easy one. Mostly, that was because I was spoiled, raised in an upper middle class family and living in one hometown for my whole life until I left for college. Becoming a military wife was not just a culture shock, it was a heart attack on a stick for me. I was left alone…a lot! The first six years of our marriage, my husband was with me only about two of them. So when Harry came home, I was demanding and clinging to him, not wanting him to disappear again. That period of life ended with my being resentful every time he left. I was alone with three children, usually in a new place to which we had just moved, and he was sent away. The anger I felt was real and boiling over, so that when he did return for his infrequent visits, I was a kettle ready to explode because I had been left on the “hot eye” of single parenthood for too long. Yes, I found and developed friends at church and on the bases where we were living, but I was desperately lonely for my companion, the one God had given me. Instead of expressing how much I missed him, I would explode with rage over every little thing. Slowly, God got me under control, reigning in my anger and bitterness and letting me know that when Harry was gone, He was going to be a husband to me. God never left me and never disappointed me, so I was more content after that. I look back on those wasted years with shame, but I have prayed that God will redeem and restore those years. Since 1996, when my husband retired from the military, we have been together for most of the time and are enjoying these years together. Not all sunshine and roses for the last 46 years, but we have overcome the hard times and face a future together that is one based on trust of each other and in the Lord who created us and who has kept us together. Getting a divorce would have been easier in many ways, but so difficult for our children and also against what I believe is God’s best for me. I was told by many family members just to leave him, especially when he became physically abusive in response to my verbal attacks. Nevertheless, I persevered and I’m happy that we will go out to eat something together today and just cuddle quietly in bed later tonight. Love doesn’t mean never saying you’re sorry. It means saying you’re sorry daily as needed, just like taking vitamins. It makes you stronger and more resilient to the infections around you, the infections that say that divorce is the only option.

This is Dr. Denison’s article from today:

https://www.denisonforum.org/columns/daily-article/bachelor-contestant-makes-her-faith-public-a-valentines-day-call-to-courageous-love/

Have a blessed and happy Valentine’s Day! We love because He first loved us!

My little brother in Christ Stu tagged me for The Barnabas Award. Thank you so much, Stu! It is a humbling experience to know that you thought of me for this award because I do strive to inspire, but I’m not always sure that I hit that mark.

Here are the guidelines:

Thank the person who nominated you and share their blog.

Think of five bloggers that encourage and inspire you and nominate them.

List five things about yourself.

Answer the questions you got asked.

Finally, ask your nominees five questions. Why five? Because it is the number that signifies grace.

“You have been chosen for this recognition because of the encouragement and inspiration you bring to your readers.”

5 things about Vickie that you may not know:

1. I met my husband on a Greyhound bus. He was on leave from the USN and headed to see his brother in Virginia. I was returning from a beach trip with my college friends. We were going to the same place and ended up talking for most of the trip. In April, we will celebrate our 47th wedding anniversary.

2. My father was a drug addict and dealer, so from him I learned how to forgive, over and over. He was a great car mechanic, but when I was a very young child, he was in a bad fire and ended up on a lot of opioids. I think that is when he got addicted, but I don’t know for sure. He was a good daddy to me all of my life, but after I was grown and left home, things changed quickly and he ended up in a really bad place. I’m thankful that he found his way back to God and reconciled with my siblings before he died.

3. I used to crochet and made blankets for each of my older grandchildren. My largest blanket is the one I made in my first winter in Maine. I just crocheted every day that it snowed and that blanket will fit a king-sized bed.

4. I am a cat person. I like dogs okay, but large ones frighten me, so I’m not comfortable around them at all.

5. I became a Christian on February 28, 1973, after reading the Book of John. I fell to my knees in my small bedroom apartment and asked for God to forgive me of my sins. The next day, I told my neighbor what had happened. Verna had given me the Bible to begin with, so we rejoiced together. Then, she invited me to her church, and my journey of learning about my Lord and Savior began.

Here are the questions that Stu asked me to answer:

1. Do you encourage others when you see them crying or distressed? How do you encourage them?

I do encourage those hurting, as the Lord leads. I have found that a gentle word telling someone that I’m a good listener or a hug with a shoulder to cry on is the best encouragement.

2. Who was your mentor growing up?

I had a lot of mentors when I was growing up. I think the one I recall the best is my high school Spanish teacher, Mary Smith. She recognized that I had a talent for languages and encouraged me to pursue it.

3. Who do you go to when you need encouragement?

I used to go to my best friend Heidi, but she passed away in 2018. So, I have been turning more and more to my daughter. She is a solid Christian who always prays with me and encourages me to keep on doing what is the right thing, even if it’s hard or unpopular.

4. Which teacher do you feel encouraged you to keep learning and to do your best?

Well, look back at question #2. There was also a pastor and Bible teacher named Dean Harvey, who is still preaching, who knew so much about the Bible and encouraged me to be a Berean and check things out for myself by reading and studying the Bible.

5. As a blogging community, how can we encourage one another more?

Write encouraging comments and tell other bloggers about blogs that encourage and inspire you.

Here are my fellow bloggers who encourage and inspire me:

Herry Chic Counsels

Amazing Tangled Grace

Tom Neary

YBP

Loved by the King of Kings

Here are the questions for my nominees:

1. Who is the person that has most influenced you in your faith walk? Tell us a little about him/her.

2. Other than the Holy Bible, is there another book that you read that encourages you? Can you recommend it to us?

3. If you could walk anywhere to spend some “alone” time with God, where in the world would you want to be and why?

4. Do you have a favorite praise song? What is it?

5. Do you ever send notes or cards of encouragement to someone? Why or why not?

To those whom I have tagged: Please do not feel obligated to participate. Tagging you was just a small way to say thank you for the inspiration and encouragement that you have been to me. Blessings to all for a day filled with hope, encouragement and love!

This is book one in author’s new series. It is a completely clean, Christian romantic suspense.

Since cyber criminals have targeted the U.S. Marshals’ WITSEC program, FBI special agent Sean Nichols is tasked with working with Deputy Taylor Mills. Taylor’s main consideration is keeping her witnesses safe in spite of having their program hacked into. Sean wants to catch the criminal who did the hacking, an evil entity known only as the Phantom. The Phantom not only hacks into secure programs but is also responsible for multiple murders. The chase to find the Phantom takes Taylor, Sean and the team to some very dark corners, in the city and in their own minds. The action is fast-paced, the romance is simmering under the surface, and the twist is unbelievably good! Fans of romantic suspense and mystery will enjoy this new Christian fiction by Sleeman. This is a clean read with plenty of action!
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

My rating is based on how entertained I was by the book and how clean it was since I enjoy reading clean fiction.

Available now online and at your local bookseller!

Most days when I awaken, I am reminded that I am alive by the pains that shoot through various parts of my body. But that realization leads me to thankfulness, being grateful that I am alive to feel any pain and thankful beyond belief about how well God put me together. I read online that when I was born, I had about 300 bones in my body, but as I grew, some fused together. So as an adult, you and I have 206 bones. (theschoolrun.com). Attached to those bones are about 700 muscles that help our bodies to move. (painscience.com) Of course, the most important muscle is probably the heart, or at least that’s what keeps us alive. All of that being said, don’t you think it’s wonderful how well we are put together? By chance? By evolution? NOT AT ALL! We were planned and created by a loving God who knew just how to make us so that all of our parts fit together.

I was made to think more about God’s creation when I received an email from Answers in Genesis. Mankind is not the only thing in creation that is wonderfully made. My favorite creation of God is a butterfly. Simple, beautiful and enticing to me. But I had never thought much about how God created the butterfly until I got the email that explained how the butterfly’s wings work.

Check out this article that Answers in Genesis sent me to read this week:

https://answersingenesis.org/creepy-crawlies/butterfly-wings-more-than-just-scales/?utm_source=articlesmedia&utm_medium=email&utm_content=2-banner-cta&utm_campaign=20200208&mc_cid=c6140e0705&mc_eid=9ee11f6ad9

We cannot deny God’s design when we acknowledge how carefully He paid attention to each detail in each creature. The God who created the beautiful birds and butterflies also created the weird looking (to me) platypus and the entertaining kangaroo.

Thus, here I am again, in my favorite chair, looking out the window at God’s marvelous creation. And I wonder how awesome God is and how glorious it will be to stand in His presence in Heaven!

Blessings and prayers for each of you today as you awaken and are thankful for who you are and for what God made you. He created me and you and said that this creation was “very good.” What an awesome God we serve!

I absolutely love Allison Brennan’s Lucy Kincaid and Max Revere series, so when I got a chance to read this first book in her new series, I snapped it up!  What a wild and exhilarating ride!  The main characters are the ambitious and on so intuitive FBI special agent Matt Costas, the leader of the new Mobile Response Team, and a detective on vacation who discovers the dead body, Kara Quinn.  The interactions between the two of them was electric and their dialogue was mesmerizing.  The story begins when Kara discovers a dead body at Liberty Lake, in a rural community.  The MRT is mobilized to assist since the murder may be the work of the Triple Killer, a serial killer who comes out of hiding every three years and kills victims on March 3rd, 6th and 9th.  The story was fascinating and uniquely Brennan, with a fast pace and a complicated story that drew me into its web and wouldn’t let me go.  The suspense was ratcheted up throughout the story and the book was an action-packed thriller that did not let me down in my expectations.  My favorite characters were Catherine, the profiler, and Ryder, the techie.  Catherine has a mystery in her past dealing with her dead sister Beth and I really want to know more about that and her.  Ryder seems to be a young, highly intelligent geek who was raised to respect his superiors and is a perfect addition to the team.  Again, I look forward to learning more about him.  In short, I look forward to more, more Allison Brennan for sure and the next MRT book will be on my TBR list as soon as I hear about it.  I loved this book and cannot recommend it highly enough for fans of suspense thrillers!

Disclaimer

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning The Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

What a wonderful and heartwarming story of three elderly women, a young pregnant teen and a soldier suffering from PTSD! Ginger is pregnant and trying to get to the Pacific Ocean with her unborn child. She runs out of funds in the little Texas town of Rooster. There she is invited to stay with Kate, Betsy and Connie Carson at their homestead, the Banty House, for as long as she needs to stay. She is given chores to do and earns money doing them. Kate, Betsy and Connie are more than generous paying her, just as they are generous with their handyman and neighbor, Sloan Baker. Sloan shows up daily to help out doing whatever the sisters cannot do, like take care of the cornfield or clean the car weekly. Kate uses the corn to make her own moonshine in the basement. Betsy grows and smokes her own weed. Connie dusts everything in sight, so the house is sparkling clean. Into this home comes Ginger, a frightened and displaced pregnant teen. All of the characters have a history to share, and it is their sharing of their history that I was engaged and enthralled by the story. The eccentric Carson sisters are unbelievably unique but still believable. Sloan and Ginger are dealing with demons from their pasts and depending on the sisters and each other to come out on the other side. I really enjoyed learning about these characters and would look forward to seeing them again in another book. They were amusing and they taught a lesson about how each of us should treat others.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”