Fall Is Almost Here......

I'm so excited Fall is almost here. The weather this week has been absolutely perfect. We have the windows open at night and it's just wonderful sleeping weather. This evening when I went out to feed all the animals, I actually got cold.

Football games, making apple butter and apple cider are just a few fun things to do and take part in, here in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley. Churches are having Harvest Festivals. The church up the road from our house has been making apple butter this week, they auction it off to help raise money for the different things. Each town has their own festivals. I think the biggest (correct me if I'm wrong) is in Dayton. That was started when I was little and it is huge now. But too crowded. They try to stuff too many people and businesses on a few streets and it's just not fun. I actually quit going a few years ago because I feel you can't enjoy what they have to offer when you're too busy crawling through a little space in the crowd. Dayton....I ask, can you please expand to other streets?

Broadway's is very nice. Some good things about this one is, they get more kids and schools involved. Plus you can actually walk around without running into people. Yet, it's very well attended. Enjoy the Fall weather. I feel it's God's break to us for our hot summer. Check out our local newspapers to see what is going on and where.

Do You Really Pray?

You see a friend you haven't seen in years. Ya'll get to talking and your friend shares with you, different health problems they've had. Towards the end of the conversation, you say "I'll be praying for you." As many times I've heard people say that to me and others, I just wonder how many of those people actually take the time to pray for that person?

In a way, not only is that person putting their faith in God. But they're putting their faith in you,that you'll pray for them. "I'll be praying for you" has become such a cliche, that I don't think alot of people are actually putting their promises into action. I don't think prayer is as meaningful to them as it is to some people. Prayer is very important to me. To me as a Christian, it shows that I'm putting all my faith in God. It's my way of expressing needs, concerns, praises to Him. It may be a small prayer request to you, but it could mean the world to someone else. Most likely when people ask for prayers, they're not telling you the whole story or they have alot more problems than they want to mention. So spend a little extra time praying for them.

God hears our prayers, God is faithful and prayers are very powerful! Pray for everyone!

Demolition Derbies

We made our way to the annual Rockingham County Fair Demolition Derby. My family has been involved in Demolition Derbies as long as I can remember, most of my life I guess you could say. My Dad has a huge collection of trophies, mostly 1st place. My brother is following in my Dad's foot steps and has a great collection of trophies, a lot of 1st place. And now starting this year my son was in his first derby in Winchester, Virginia in the north end of the Shenandoah Valley. He placed 4th in his first derby.

Like I said before this has been something in our family which seems like forever. And as I've grown, it seems the demolition derby popularity has grown too. A long time ago, I would only see country people, rednecks (as my son puts it) and the families of the drivers. Now just over the past few years, there is a huge variety of people there. All walks of life. I find that very exciting. We have so much fun at the derbies because it's a family event. And we've also gotten to know other drivers families. I've watched some of the drivers kids grow and that's just fun in itself.

There's some derbies that are horrible. There's cheatin' going on, the officials do not call out anything. And if you have alot of hours on your hands, go to one of these derbies. They are very poorly ran. And they dont seem to care of they have a big audience sitting there waiting, waiting and waiting for things to roll along. I'm not gonna name which ones they are, but I'm sure if there's any drivers and/or their families reading this....they'll know which ones I'm talking about.

My two absolute favorite derbies are ran by Mangled Metal Productions and Nation-Wide Derby. Their whole crew is just awesome and the announcers....well, they make you feel like you're right down there in the drivers seat. Cheating is not allowed, safety comes first and they always make sure everyone knows we're here just to have fun! Great job everyone.

My point being; next time there's a demolition derby around your area...go to it. It's a cheap family event that is guaranteed to put a smile on your face, an extra thump in your heart and make your hair on the back of your neck stand up. Hows that for fun?


**please note, I do not and have never worked for any of the above businesses.I'm just a derby Mom, derby Sister and derby daughter**

How to Have a Good Friendship

1. Pray before I speak

2. Slip up, pray after I speak

3. Plan ahead to avoid calamity

4. Choose the words that fill my mind

5. Choose the words that come from my mouth

God, creation and....

In the Daily News Record, here in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley there has been many Letters To The Editor about God, creation, belief in God, etc. You can go online and post your comments. And quite frankly there's just been too much of the letters and comments.

As a Christian, I don't have to and will not agree with everyone. I am going to take the "Road less traveled". I read online all the time how you can't force someone to believe in the same thing as someone else does. You're absolutely correct. I can't force you to believe God is our Creator, I can't force you to believe you're only way to Heaven is being saved through the blood of Jesus Christ our Savior. I can't force you to go to a great Bible believing church and participate in different church activities. I really can't force you to do anything.

A few months ago my Pastor had a sermon about "Empty Christianity". My Pastor is very to the point, no tip toeing around the point. He doesn't make everything sound all nice and gooey. He speaks the truth as it does in the Bible. But here's some points to his sermon (from my notes). In I Corinthians 15:14-21, it describes an "empty Christianity". You basically have no hope, no message, no salvation, every ministry offered is empty, every belief we have is empty, we are false witness, we are fools and our faith is wasted. If Jesus wouldn't have died on the cross for us and rose again...we would have an empty Christianity. BUT He did do all that. So we don't have to play the "what if" game. By the way my daughter loves that game. :)

Jesus did do all that. So instead of no hope...we have hope. In I Corinthians 15:58, we are given hope. We can put our faith into accurate scripture, we can proclaim the Gospel and we can have hope in Christianity.

No, I can't force you to do anything, I can't force you to change your views about God.
But I can and will plant that seed. I will witness to you, I will pray for you and pray God softens your heart. I will pray for your salvation.

Romans 10:13 For whosever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.