Now You're My Whole Life

  I am so very thankful for my sweet family.    I had an amazing Thanksgiving riding up to visit my family that lives in Hiawassee. It was a FUN Scream-Machine of a ride.    We visited with family and enjoyed the mountain weather on the front porch. I made the comment to Ryan how difficult it was for me at first to just chill out and relax in the stillness, but finally it caught up to me and MAN WAS IT AWESOME! Sometimes we just need to unwind, and where would a better place be than with family enjoying the fresh air.  Before we ate, we drove up to a gorgeous spot near the house and shot our family photos for 2012. We had some laughs for sure, and the memories we made were awesome. A memory like Greg trying to race me to the camera and almost beating me there until catching a slippery patch is something that certainly made us laugh.    Then, it was back to the house for family stories, tons of great food, and ...

I am absolutely loving the devotions on my phone each morning. Today's devotion is something that is very near and dear to my heart. It is a topic that a lot of my friends and family discuss often. While your experiences happen and effect you, they also have potential to bring about good. Why do so many of us let circumstances determine so much in life? Just because the most awful of all things happened to you doesn't mean you have to go around treating others or the rest of your life like a waste. Look around today... do you have things that you allow to use as a crutch, an excuse, or a reason to continue a certain behavior or feeling? Praise God for that, and ask him how you can use it to His advantage. Here's what Joel and Victoria Osteen said: "I know people who feel like they’ve wasted years of their lives because of poor choices. They spent years in a relationship that was toxic, years with an addiction, years at a job where they weren’t fulfilled. B...