Shine!

"To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; A time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to gain, and a time to lose; A time to keep, and a time to throw away; A time to tear, and a time to sew; A time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; A time of war, and a time of peace." -Ecclesiastes 3:1-8  I was reading these familiar words of Ecclesiastes 3 recently and they moved me in a new way. With the recent, tragic death of a young lady we knew who suddenly got cancer, and the passing of our beloved Dr. John MacArthur, I have been reminded of how temporary life on this earth is. We can become so ...

We got to St. Louis mid afternoon on Wednesday, stayed Thursday, and then headed on to Wisconsin Friday morning. I really enjoyed the drive up as we passed through a lot of Illinois. I loved the flat lands and seeing the horizon.😍 We arrived in Wisconsin late afternoon and had dinner at our friend's house, the Hoffmann's. They were the ones behind getting us to come up and we are so grateful for their hospitality! We stayed at some fancy, neat campers on Fort McCoy campground in Sparta. It was very cool to stay close to an army base! Helicopters flew over a couple times a day, and we heard machine gun drill fire at night, and the bugle every morning and night.😁 We enjoyed the walking trails as well! We had two campers - the guys stayed in one and then the parents and us girls stayed in the other.  Sarah and I shared a room upstairs! Yep...these are the stairs I fell down in my sleep.🙈😂 For those who don't know...I jumped out of bed in my sleep because of a bad dream tha...

We had several good rain showers today and I happened to look out my window this evening to a gorgeous sky! The pictures do not do it justice, as always. I thought a really neat thing was that this photo and the following two were taken within the space of 10 minutes. "Red sky at night, sailor's delight; Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning." This last one was taken about 20 minutes after the previous photo. So all four were taken in the space of 30 minutes. I love seeing the changes that happen so quickly from picture to picture! We have a marvelous Creator! "Then God said, "Let there be light", and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the ear...